Castlevania Appreciation Thread

[Ziggy]

Yeah, trying to use a sub weapon on stairs is a pain in the ass. You just have to know that you can't turn around and use your sub weapon, you can only do it going up.

What companion are you using?

[MrPopo]

I'm rocking Sypha. Her lightning got me through that bone tower stairway without much effort and I look forward to having fun with freeze.

[MrPopo]

Finally beat Doppleganger once I realized I'd be better off playing it safe and getting Lightning on Sypha, then getting the Doppleganger underneath one of the two platforms. Sypha Doppleganger can't figure out how to get to me and I spam lightning for win.

The respawn in the last stage is a bit annoying, as continuing is from the start and losing to Drac requires me to go through some enemies, but they aren't too tough. What I've been able to do is burn a life to get to the second half of the stage, then I get two attempts at Drac with the second giving me enough points for a level up (I can consistently get to form 3), so I end up with three attempts at Drac. I've gotten him down to one hit remaining multiple times but I end up either jumping into a pit or not dodging his lasers properly. But I think I can get him next time.

[Ziggy]

Finally beat Doppleganger once I realized I'd be better off playing it safe and getting Lightning on Sypha, then getting the Doppleganger underneath one of the two platforms. Sypha Doppleganger can't figure out how to get to me and I spam lightning for win.

Ah, you didn't use the "cheat". If you press select to morph into the other character, after you change the Doppleganger will morph but you have a split second to attack them while it's morphing. So you can stand right next to it and morph, attack, morph, attack, morph, etc until it's dead. It wont be able to get a single hit off. That's how I always do it.

The respawn in the last stage is a bit annoying, as continuing is from the start and losing to Drac requires me to go through some enemies, but they aren't too tough. What I've been able to do is burn a life to get to the second half of the stage, then I get two attempts at Drac with the second giving me enough points for a level up (I can consistently get to form 3), so I end up with three attempts at Drac. I've gotten him down to one hit remaining multiple times but I end up either jumping into a pit or not dodging his lasers properly. But I think I can get him next time.

And that's why I hate the NES version. I wish some one would create a hack that changed the respawn point to where it's SHOULD be, I would hard patch my cart with it.

I starting using Alucard so I could "cheat" on the last level. You know the part that scrolls down vertically with the Medusa heads? Then the part after that, the where the floor will fall out from under you? That part, after I get down the stairs I just change into a bat and fly to the door. I don't mind taking a hit or two to get there, but I'd rather skip that part to safely reach the next check point rather than die trying and having to start at the beginning.

[MrPopo]

Finally beat Doppleganger once I realized I'd be better off playing it safe and getting Lightning on Sypha, then getting the Doppleganger underneath one of the two platforms. Sypha Doppleganger can't figure out how to get to me and I spam lightning for win.

Ah, you didn't use the "cheat". If you press select to morph into the other character, after you change the Doppleganger will morph but you have a split second to attack them while it's morphing. So you can stand right next to it and morph, attack, morph, attack, morph, etc until it's dead. It wont be able to get a single hit off. That's how I always do it.

I was aware of that but I was having trouble getting in the hit and switching before the enemy attacked; just a timing issue. I found it was much easier to go in with Sypha having Lightning (can get from the waterfall section), jump on the far right platform and you can force the Doppleganger to fall below it by morphing when it jumps at you. Then it'll be trapped there and you can Lightning it to death.

The respawn in the last stage is a bit annoying, as continuing is from the start and losing to Drac requires me to go through some enemies, but they aren't too tough. What I've been able to do is burn a life to get to the second half of the stage, then I get two attempts at Drac with the second giving me enough points for a level up (I can consistently get to form 3), so I end up with three attempts at Drac. I've gotten him down to one hit remaining multiple times but I end up either jumping into a pit or not dodging his lasers properly. But I think I can get him next time.

And that's why I hate the NES version. I wish some one would create a hack that changed the respawn point to where it's SHOULD be, I would hard patch my cart with it.

I starting using Alucard so I could "cheat" on the last level. You know the part that scrolls down vertically with the Medusa heads? Then the part after that, the where the floor will fall out from under you? That part, after I get down the stairs I just change into a bat and fly to the door. I don't mind taking a hit or two to get there, but I'd rather skip that part to safely reach the next check point rather than die trying and having to start at the beginning.

The way I handled that was I'd get the Stopwatch in the auto scrolling part. Then I'd kill the first bone pillar (trivial to do) and start running forward. When the second bone pillar spawned I'd activate the stopwatch and just jump over it, taking the hit since there's a meat at the start of the next checkpoint.

[Ziggy]

It's been years since I've played through SotN. So long, I can't even remember when the last time I played it was. Probably about two years ago I got the itch to play it, but never did. Mostly because I wanted to play the Saturn version, since I've only played that version twice. But I also kinda wanted to replay the PSP version, since I've only played it once. But I ALSO haven't ever played fan re-translation on PS1. AND I ALSO just felt like since it's been such a while I would want to play the original PS1 version. So I ended up not playing any version for a while.

I decided, I'll just have to play every version. I played through the original PS1 version last week. Then I beat the game as Richter (I just took the shortest route to the center of the inverted castle). I'm almost done with the fan re-translation now. After that, I'm not sure which I'll play next, but I'm definitely gonna replay both the PSP and Saturn versions. I forgot how amazing this game actually is.

The original (American) PS1 version will probably always be my favorite. The bad voice acting and questionable script plays on my nostalgia strings, as I'm sure it does for many people.

The fan re-translation isn't bad, but I'm not a fan. It fixes all the "T'would be best for this world" and "Tis my fault" nonsense, but the script didn't strike me as being any better written. And I wish they dumped the Japanese voice acting (or silenced it), I find it annoying to read text while someone is speaking. Some of the items have properly translated names, but I miss the original names. The Luck Potion becomes Lucky Drug, which I admit is a better name since the sprite for the item is clearly a pill and not a potion. But some of the other pill sprites are still called potions. Most of the areas have been renamed, Like The Marble Gallery becomes The Marble Corridor (which is a much better name for that area since it isn't a gallery) but other changes don't seem good to me. I think the best part of the translation is the new fonts which look a lot better. Very crisp.

[MrPopo]

Does it bother anyone else that in Bloodlines that stairs to Dracula's room are on the wrong side?

[Gunstar Green]

Never really thought about it. Dracula's castle is an ever-changing chaotic magic structure so whatevs.

[MrPopo]

But except for Bloodlines the stairs are always to the right of the room; you walk to the left and climb the stairs and there's Dracula.

[Gunstar Green]

He tries something new just once and you get all critical! No wonder Dracula wants to kill all humans.