What the fuck is this: Castlevania SOTN is now going for like $70?!!

Um I've been playing Symphony of the Night. It's really sad that they didn't make another 2D console Castlevania after this one, it really is the peak of the form. I love the use of 3D, which is usually deployed to render doors or other box-shaped objects (flying novels! secret-entrance-concealing bookshelves!) but last night I ended up underground in some vast cavern system where the 3D started being used to render molten lava bubbling up from the earth.

This game looks fantastic, and my only criticism is that back-tracking, eventually I start going through the same areas I've been through dozens of times, which gets tiring. But this is a convention of the genre (and one that usually turns me off to Metroid & Super Metroid after I sink a half dozen hours into it) and when you DO reach a new area, it is that much more special.

Again, it's a travesty that this is was the last 2D console Castlevania. Imagine what they could've done on the N64! Imagine an HD Castlevania for PS2! I'm sure plenty have. I've just completed the first castle and intend on getting the best ending (I've gotten the inverted castle before but never stuck w it). The RPG elements in this are brilliantly seamless, and the fact that you can switch capes or equip a new weapon and the in-game sprite actually changes appearance to reflect this is wonderful! I would say this is the number one Castlevania (and objectively for western players it is, since Rondo didn't get an original release here) but the backtracking is just not my cup of tea. So personally I still think Rondo is the best, seconded by this, with Bloodlines a very very close third. But ask me tomorrow and I may think Bloodlines is the best (it has the best music and level design imo).

SNES version is just too muddy for me, both video and audio. It's like a Castlevania talking through a pillow. SOTN and Rondo both have this romantic, baroque, Rococo aesthetic to them, something that takes monster movies as a jumping off point to explore a heavily stylized compendium of historical European fantasy.

http://fantasyanime.com/valhalla/castlevaniasotn/screenshots/large/15-AbandonedMine06.png

Also, Salem Witches in the Abandoned Mines. So cool!

Kind of kicking myself because I'm playing the PSX version and apparently the Saturn one has a playable Maria and a few extra areas. On the other hand, here's an excuse to play this game all over again!

Great game! Loved/hated scouring the entire castle for weird zircons and stuff. Loved Legion, what a boss. Loved the floating clock-sword. Don't remember the final boss.

Super Castlevania IV is really great though, my second favourite in the series, best graphics of all the first-wave of SNES games and one of my favourite soundtracks. Love the intro to this cue, damn hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtEn0f5CWQo

SOTN: there's one or two weird boards in the colosseum where the difficulty is suddenly through the roof, memories of sailing through the game to come crashing to a halt, reloading reloading etc.

I can't think about this game without thinking of when it first came out and I was playing it, with a friend looking on who only played TBS games and held side-scrollers in great contempt. He was complaining for about 10 minutes at how stupid the logic of video games is, and how he couldn't understand how I could put up with it, etc. etc. I told him to shut up. After a couple of minutes in silence while I was going through one of those underground cavern areas, he said in this loud and indignant voice:

"THAT FROG HAD TWENTY DOLLARS."

Love those underground caverns, especially the sound design as you get closer to the waterfall.

adam, i love your retro revives. have you played the GBA ones, like Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow? because those are brilliant 16-bit-style sequels.

Thanks... No I have not played them! I am super looking forward to them!

they're dope man. do 'em all

they're not very good!!

i mean i played ecclesia and the portrait one and the sci fi one, one of them. something about the level design in them all was just. Did You Like That Burger? Have Another Burger. Have Two More Burgers. Here Are Some More Burgers For You.

lol. i thought aria/dawn had good level design, but are mostly great because of the 'soul' system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_Aria_of_Sorrow#Tactical_Soul

lol thomp

I like the painting one, some good boss fights in it

Aria of Sorrow was great. Haven't tried the other GBA ones, but would be willing to after playing that one.

I mean sotn is a really broken feeling game mechanically -- taking away the whip but keeping inertia and acceleration at castelvania-standard levels makes everything feel really somehow off. then there's like a fighting game move set and rpg stats and then the three transformations, none of which three play very well. but i think the really broken collection of ~ludic possibilities~ really works against the sort of cosy horror aesthetic, the sense of entrenchment the player feels in the world. and all the fragments of castle really neatly incorporate distinct, er, forms of spatial awareness.

compare and contrast super metroid: you have like 2% of alucards total moveset but everything feels more tightly constructed around it. -- everything expands the map for you.

i want to claim that the small format games try and improve on sotn without noticing it works because broken. the soul system, hm, I think I spent 25 mins killing the one enemy type to get through a particular door, so fuck that, frankly

I played a little Aria of Sorrow last night and WOW YES MOAR PLZ! Somehow I completely slept on the Gameboy Advance and now it feels like I missed out on SNES 2.0. Aria is pretty amazing, though I have no idea how to use the soul system yet.

Konami is easily my favorite game company of all time.

yup, GBA was fuckin' boss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahsiMTd82bU

Castlevania Chronicles for Playstation is pretty cool! The Belmont kinda looks like Danzig. And on the last level you get to fight panthers and knife-throwing maids on your way up Dracula's castle.

IGA (the main Castlevania oroducer since Chronicles) left Konami a month ago. Loved his portable Castlevanias. Hopefully he can make more of those types of games now, since Konami only makes Monster Hunter and Metal Gear now.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-17-castlevania-developer-koji-igarashi-leaves-konami

I thought that had already happened! PLEASE do a Mighty No. 9-style Kickstarter.

I played some more "Aria of Sorrow". DAMN it is sweet! I think I like it even more than "Symphony of the Night" at the moment. Controls and animation is smoooooth. Music is great. The song in the Study really reminds me of "Conan the Barbarian" OST. This game is a little on the easy side but that is fine if you don't mind not losing the 15+ minutes of game time and exploration you did since you last saved. The monsters are really wonderfully drawn and varied. I feel like every 2 screens it's a new set of bad guys!

Yeah, "Aria of Sorrow" rules.

it totally does. have you gotten any of the shape-changing souls? those stick out in my memory.

I am playing Rondo of Blood for the first time and I'm dying and dying and dying and dying

yeah, Rondo is OG Castlevania difficulty

Rondo is the best one!

My top 5

1. Rondo of Blood
2. Bloodlines
3. Aria of Sorrow
4. Castlevania 3
5. Symphony of the Night

rondo is really satisfying, tough but fair. also had a sweet ost. (but I guess most of em do)

Yeah, some of the best in gaming! Sometimes it really sounds like Goblin.

It's the first Castlevania I've played that's level designed for secondary weapon use. I... love it so far. I can't beat the minotaur but I beat the sea snake

Sea snake is super tough! Make sure you find all the secrets, if you think the level design is good now just wait.

Yeah, some of the best in gaming! Sometimes it really sounds like Goblin.
--▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau)

hah, yes! sometimes it's like a tough but sentimental scene in a hk action movie too iirc

I must play Bloodlines some time. And get past the initial stages of Dracula's Curse -- I always went for the clock tower path and got stuck.

since Konami only makes Monster Hunter and Metal Gear now.

Monster Hunter is Capcom of course. Can't believe I messed that up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsvpXTqJuvk

I am playing "Order of Ecclesias" on an emulator, projected. This is my favorite Castlevania game, and is objectively the best one yet. Sadly it is also the last 2D one. The best thing about this game is that it takes place outside the castle, unlike the previous god knows how many games. It's an awesome thing to be fighting monsters in a graveyard, I can't believe it's not something that has been really done before in the series! The graphics are AMAZING and this is one of the very few games where you play as a female hero! Overall it is a breath of fresh air! Lots of new sprites and enemies. AMAZING soundtrack. The bass and drums sound like crisp 70's studio rock like Steely Dan or something, and the songs are all 4 tracks or less.

This is may be better than Rondo of Blood! I loved the alternate character in that game, Maria. She played differently than Richter and the more open-ended and freer play style is in "Order of Ecclesias", only tenfold. Like "Megaman", you can defeat enemies and gain their powers, so there are literally hundreds ofways to play this game. It is very open world! Yet the maps are usually compact and simple. The graveyard is just 3 or 4 screens horizontally spaced. The overall aesthetic of the game is 70's Prog Jazz Rock Occult-Themed Dungeons 'n' Dragons Concept EP. You will leap from tree to tree, a raven haired witch with RPG memory loss and a very particular set of skills, slashing flying skulls with batwings with a pickaxe, the graveyard around you blue in the moonlight.

d'oh i meant Order of Ecclesia

01 Order of Ecclesia
02 Rondo of Blood
03 Bloodliines
04 Castlevania
05 Aria of Sorrow
06 Symphony of the Night
07 Castlevania 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGm5csoWVQ

^Listen to that music and tell me it's NOT awesome

Like for the most part Castlevania has been this minimalist Hammer monster movie tribute yet Rondo of Blood and some of the stranger stages have had a baroque, medieval flavor to them, and it occasionally edges towards Fantasy rather than Horror. This game has both in good balance. You may hear a cat meowing and find one standing still in the depths of a sort of ancient library or science laboratory, but you will be fighting flying horse heads and shrieking Lina Blair/Exorcist-style banshees.

uh sorry for the poor grammar/spelling i'm having a bit of rum

great level design in that music clip there

I was going through the snow-covered mountains, across rope bridges and into spider-infested caves, and I had been through the are several times before, and out of nowhere when the screen was scrolling down I caught sight of a yeti on a bridge! He recognized me and made some alert noise and jumped off into the distance. This game really catches you by surprise!

The sound design in "Ecclesia" is amazing. The music is sort of a higher def sequel to "Super Castlevania IV". Some trip hop drum n bass inspired Ghost Jazz in here.

Some of the sound effects, like the banshee screams, and some of the other monster wailings, are genuinely chilling. And is there another game out there where you are under the sea fighting giant poisonous starfish by shooting lightning from your hands at them?

It controls like BUTTER. Better jumping than Super Mario Bros. Easier multi-weapons than Mega Man 3. You can choose between English and Japanese voice overs. The character sprites are all large and it feels less maze-like and telescopic than previous post-SOTN entries. More arcade-like.

I found it underwhelming at the time but don't really remember why. possibly just metroidvania'ed out? you're making me want to give it another go in any case.

Better jumping than Super Mario Bros. Easier multi-weapons than Mega Man 3.

You're just trolling now.

haha

Yeah those aren't true that's a bit of hyperbole. I mean to say jumping and the swiss army knife weapon system are really fun.

The Metroid aspects are really toned down, you never have to really walk through an area to get to another, they are all laid out as different spots on a map. And a warp trip back to the hub village is really inexpensive. What I hated about the Metroidvania style in the past has been having to go all the way across a map and having one map be the entire game, so you are always having to go through the same areas over and over. That's more or less gone from this one.