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

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.

My favorite of the Metroidvanias. Portrait of Ruin also had multiple maps, but Ecclesia did it better. I also like that they put the warp rooms and the save rooms right beside each other.

I'm in love with Rondo of Blood. I have Ecclesia waiting once I finish. I love these games ;_;

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/cvbook/cvbook.htm

Really extensive overview of the series, get a load of the contents list, I'm always amazed how many games there are.

HG101 is always a great resource

FYI: A lot of the Castlevania stuff is currently (and thru tomorrow) on sale for cheap in the Playstation Store.

Yeah, the articles deepened my appreciation of games and I used to be on the forum all the time but since I don't play games anymore I had nothing to contribute but criticizing people's choice in films and comics. But seriously, it's the least assholish game forum I've ever seen.

It almost feels like the series might stay dead for a while too but Silent Hill has made a comeback sooner than I thought (not sure that's a good idea though). I'd probably rather another set of games replaced Castlevania.

I have barely touched games for a couple of years now, very little suits my conditions and I'd be surprised if I bought another console again, so I have mixed feelings about there being new attractive games but part of me does miss things about them.

Unsure whether to buy the cheaper Kindle version of the Castlevania book.

It quite annoys me that there is way more sale of individual old games than bundled collections. A disc with over 20 Castlevania games would probably be possible but it's maybe too cool an idea to ever happen. Sad thing is that I don't have the patience to beat most of these games anymore. They'd need to have newly made easy modes for me.

My ranking of the ones I've played enough of (I had two of the earlier games but didn't get far)

Symphony Of The Night
Aria Of Sorrow
Circle Of The Moon
Harmony Of Dissonance
Dawn Of Sorrow
Portrait Of Ruin
Order Of Ecclesia
Bloodlines
Lament Of Innocence
Lord Of Shadows

I played the majority of these games within a two year period and had a total blast. The effort and enthusiasm I was able to put into games waned so I never finished Portrait Of Ruin (but I was close), Order Of Ecclesia and Lord Of Shadows. I never would have been able to beat Bloodlines anyway but I got close to the end.
All the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS ones are very close calls.

ha - i also ended up halting on Portrait. i really should get back to it...

That brutal dungeon survival task and the final boss is what made me give up.

http://i.imgur.com/iUfLVAS.jpg

A new account going by IGAVANIA has been posting cryptic pixel art and "I will return" stuff on the Castlevania forums.

Quarterwomann
‏@Quarterwomann
Lots to report, but one thing Your Qrrespondent can't nail down is the timing—what arrives with the moon, and what comes later?

Sadly some GG idiots are starting to troll those forums =(

Always liked the idea of new Castlevania inspired games more than new entries in the actual series because they aren't obliged to follow the story and don't have to have Dracula in the game, more freedom. Same goes for other franchises.

One of the worst things about really geeky game fans is the expectation developers often pander to of more story focus developing in earth shattering directions like DC and Marvel try to do. It's really silly when you get Tekken and King Of Fighters intros still insisting on overblown drama. Resident Evil got bad for this.

Quarterwomann? Q-Man changed genders?

I disagree RAG, I absolutely loved the full out B-movie gloriousness of the recent Netherrealms story modes (Mortal Kombat 9/X, Injustice)

But yeah, more Castlevania would be sweet... just a matter of time before they return to their senses and go back to making 2D games, or if IGA or someone can pick up the slack Mighty No. 9 style...

Sounds like she is working for 8-4, a translation/PR team that did the kickstarter for MN9!

I was disappointing that Iga's ____ of Sorrow games referred to a battle in the year 1999 that finally killed Dracula for good... and then that game never got made.

"aren't obliged to follow the story and don't have to have Dracula in the game" you mean like Lords of Shadow? just kidding

Games rarely return to 2D. There hasn't been a genuinely new 2d Capcom fighting game since Capcom Fighting Evolution/Jam (2004) and that game was made of more recycled character pixels than most fighting games. SNK hasn't really made anything new in ages and even they might not have 2d in their future if they continue to make new games at all.

I haven't seen that Mortal Kombat game's story mode, maybe it's fun but surely you don't thrill to "Oh no! Ken Masters (or Jill Valentine) has been radicalized with PSYCHO POWER and has to fight our hero!" or some dumb rivalry with the angst pumped up to maximum?
Cutscenes with emotional drama rarely do anything other than face imploding cringefests.

I'd love it if someone made more 2d games like Ghosts N' Goblins/Ghouls and Splatterhouse. I love scrolling 2d horror games.

the recent MK games are a lot more tongue-in-cheek (well, i guess they always were compared to SF/KOF). MK9 has a Butterfly Effect-eque plot involving Raiden sending a message back in time to undo the events of MK1-8, only to have things go catastrophically wrong with each timeline alteration. even Injustice constantly brings up how ridiculous the whole plot is, with SUPER SRS EVIL ALTERNATE UNIVERSE SUPERMAN as the villain. but really, it's a clever way to get you to play most of the characters on the roster for single player story mode, and it's fun and goofy universe stuff

i love touches that (and, no i don't think they need to apologize at all for being completely B-movie level) show there's a degree of care or love for the universe. The King of Fighters series started off putting little pre-match animations between distinct characters to highlight friendships/rivalries and other relationships in the '90s. MKX does a fantastic job with this, every single combination of characters has unique voiced banter entering a match. Injustice did his too with the clash events

are for 2D vs. fake 3D/2D, yeah, I would prefer if we got more Guilty Gear/Arcsys/Persona-style hand-drawn games too, but today they're pretty confined as "anime niche" even inside the sadly niche genre of fighting games. The SFIV series and MK series made distinct returns to 2D gameplay this past generation, especially compared to that dire early '00s period

Well those MK scenes are far wittier than anything in the tedious KOF13 faceoffs. But in Snk Vs Capcom Chaos there was this gem from Akuma: "Beating you was easier than smacking a baby. Not that I would ever do that."
I would generally prefer arcadey games avoided story and dialogue or kept it to a bare minimum unless they knew it was something they could do especially well.

I'm talking about stuff like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qG4AlK1qk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTPWAavALg

Even Guilty Gear is going 3d, but it has impressively maintained the 2d look more any 2.5d game I've seen but I'm not really into it anymore. But yeah, I'm really not into the style Blazblue, Arcana Heart, Under Night In-Birth, Persona 4 Arena, Aquapazza amd Chaos Code has. After all these games you really appreciate how well animated games like Streetfighter 3rd Strike, Darkstalkers 3, KOF13 were.

The SFIV series and MK series made distinct returns to 2D gameplay this past generation, especially compared to that dire early '00s period

Actually I'd say that was one of the best times for fighting games. Capcom vs Snk 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, King Of Fighters 2003, Project Justice, Street Fighter Ex3 (I liked it, but the previous game was probably better), Guilty Gear X2, Soul Calibur 2, Tekken 4 and Samurai Shodown 6. Those were some of the best instalments of each series.

heh, that DMC clip is really the "miserable pile of secrets" for its generation

sorry, realizing that I got way off track here since this is the Castlevania thread. to sum up quickly i agree and disgaree with your various opinions here; but basically to me there's everything up until about '98 and the Dreamcast era, upon which there were the endless sprite rehashes that you mentioned with a few bright spots here and there (like Project Justice! loved that game) while the mainstream releases were "dominated" by things like generic 3D SFEX/MK/Tekken sequels. i want to put time into modern 2D fighters like Xrd, BlazBlue, P4A and Skullgirls and see if they're worth it but, you know, time and age means i'm going to sway towards the ones with bigger player bases

back to the subject at hand tho, IGA forever

General fighting games thread

Just cut and pasted our fighting game conversation in a new thread to continue.

It was predictable that people who grew to hate Iga would miss his Castlevania after Konami tried to make it appeal to a wider audience. Not many important games got to continue that long in full 2d and I think people started to take it for granted that it would stay that way. Once a company loses a team with old school creative skills it's seemingly really difficult to get people who can do that again.

One major complaint about Iga was that the rpg elements were just getting tiresome and relying on "artificial" length with all the added fetch quests. He seemed to acknowledge this and he said that the remakes and reissues he was involved with was partly to test the waters and see if people wanted to go back to more linear levels, which indeed many long term fans were yearning for (and I guess a less complex map wouldn't be so exhausting for the team).
I used to think all these fans were full of shit but by the time of Portrait Of Ruin I did indeed get pretty tired of the complex maps and collectable quests.

What I respected about Iga is that he always said he was committed to value for money but the ways of extending the hours were sometimes a bit too grindy and laborious.

I wonder if his new game will be linear or complex?

http://swordorwhip.com/

Intriguing.

It's interesting hearing what Konami is going through. They seem to have got rid of Kojima and the new eagerly awaited Silent Hill was killed off. They want to make more Metal Gear games but aside from an apparently healthy pachinko income, there's nothing promising on the horizon to keep them afloat as a videogame company like Capcom has done despite their losses.

"What do you do when you find yourself without a castle? You build another."

Iga plays SOTN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqheYYeA4k4

www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/koji_igarashis_castlevania_successor_teased_by_comcept_set_for_11th_may_reveal

"In any case all should become clearer at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern / 7pm UK / 8pm CET."

The runes on the chair have been decoded as "What a wonderful night to have a KS"

The suspense is killing me!

Also wading through Neogaf threads for rumors/new info (It might be the whiniest place I've ever seen on the internet/entitled nadir of consumerism). Rumors from anonymous inside source:

"There may be plans for "social" elements and "freemium" content. Hopefully tomorrow shows otherwise."

"- 2.5D
- Story takes place during Industrial Revolution, church worried that demons will invade if science prevails
- NotShanoa, NotJonathan and NotAlucard are the characters I saw."

"Yamane is in. So is the main programmer from the GBA/DS games. I believe he directed Harmony of Despair."

"Miriam's hair is dark brown. Shoulder length. Don't recognize the artist, but reminded me of OoE. Miriam is the protagonist."

"From what I've seen, it looks like OoE in 2.5D."

"From what I was told, drops are used for crafting skills and items. Seemed like Aria/Dawn with a middleman step."

"Okay, I'm done for the night. Last bit of info is that Fangamer is doing the merch."

it's up
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night

hooray!
i'll wait a little bit before they sucker me out of $28