Castlevania Miscellanies

[Blinge]

Oh well, moving on

Fair enough man, like I said I'll try and use more in future to see what you mean.

I'm not *trying* to be a dick here, I just don't geddit.

[Durandal]

Being stuck in the air while the boss unpredictably wobbles around in the air and rams into me sums up most bosses I died to. (And enemy projectiles being on the same height level as the platforms in arenas. Not above or beneath, but the same.)

[BIL]

Hmm. I've a one weapon/ship/character tendency, so most of my HOD time is spent with Ice Axe, because it hits hard+cheap, its i-frames are shaweet, and I looove the aesthetic of splattering foes with a brutal chunk of ice crashing down from above. But thinking about it, a big benefit is I don't generally have to jump to hit stuff, so Juicy's criminally poor air melee doesn't occur too often. Hell, disabling Spell Fusion to use the Axe alone does much the same. (crouch and hit L+R to toggle Spell Fusion on the fly; hold [up] and hit L/R to cycle books)

HOD, fusing good and bad in many different ways! :O Incredible that they were able to capture, and I'd say even improve, the sheer kinetic joy of Alucard's divekick ([down] + A, after doublejump) but completely shat the bed on 1986's workhorse whip action. What a screwy production. >_< I love it! Mostly!

[Durandal]

(crouch and hit L+R to toggle Spell Fusion on the fly; hold [up] and hit L/R to cycle books)

And here I was about to bash HoD for wasting shoulder buttons on just dashing. I wish ROMs came with manuals...

[BIL]

Haha, everyone misses the realtime switching. Including me, cos my manual is JAPANESU VER

[FRO]

Has anyone else picked up the 10" vinyl release of the original NES Castlevania soundtrack? It's a beautiful package:

http://mondotees.com/blogs/news/new-mus ... astlevania

It appears as though maybe it already sold out, as I don't see it on the website any longer. They're planning on doing vinyl releases of additional games as well, including SOTN. I hope they do a full, 2xLP soundtrack of that and include "I Am The Wind" - that would be amazing.

[Sumez]

I'm not a fan of the artwork. It's nice and all, but I don't think it fits well with the original NES game. I'll probably be on board for their CV3 soundtrack once they get around to that though. That soundtrack is far too good to pass up on.

[Blinge]

Thanks for your advice few pages back birru. I finally manned up? man upped? and cleared the arena in CoTM.

Full hearts, double grips, mirror armor and a couple of EX potions saw me through.
Arghg fuck me I'm glad that's done. Some of the rooms are just a joke. instant face fucking from several minotaurs. Real fun..

Ps Finalbaton I used the slide a few times to close distance under projectiles so cheers

[BIL]

GOOD JOB SON

Minotaur room is no-hittable (they all are) but realistically you're gonna get whapped about a little. Requires some fairly obscure luring tactics to concentrate the horde into smaller, manageable chunks. Ideally you want to running-doublejump over their heads (rather promptly, as you have about a second after entering before the first brings its axe down ), until they've bunched up and are attacking in sync. Then back off a bit and send in a Cross to rack up big overlapping damage. Superjumping repeatedly can provide an emergency escape/jump extension.

It's where I drew the line on a post-Camilla VK Arena clear, I was humping that ceiling like a man possessed.

[Blinge]

Ah haha. I didn't know you could hump the ceiling fast enough to even avoid dat shii

[FinalBaton]

Ps Finalbaton I used the slide a few times to close distance under projectiles so cheers

[FRO]

I'm not a fan of the artwork. It's nice and all, but I don't think it fits well with the original NES game. I'll probably be on board for their CV3 soundtrack once they get around to that though. That soundtrack is far too good to pass up on.

Yes, especially if they use the FDS soundtrack!

[BIL]

Akumajou Densetsu is a cartridge with onboard sound expansion. ;3 It's just the prior two Draculas that were on FDS, with the first eventually getting a re-release on cart.

[GSK]

Has anyone else picked up the 10" vinyl release of the original NES Castlevania soundtrack? It's a beautiful package:

http://mondotees.com/blogs/news/new-mus ... astlevania

It appears as though maybe it already sold out, as I don't see it on the website any longer. They're planning on doing vinyl releases of additional games as well, including SOTN. I hope they do a full, 2xLP soundtrack of that and include "I Am The Wind" - that would be amazing.

Just to be clear, they're not taking the music from the original games, they're reusing the tracks from the old Akumajou Dracula Famicom Best CD, so they haven't been remastered at all and I think they're overlaid with sound effects and other crap you may not want.

[Blinge]

So I took a trip to Akuma Joe's gothic restaurant.

On the menu was Boko Dracula Kun!
(kid dracula on FC)

Man.. that was weird. I'm guessing it was an unrelated kids game at first but Konami slapped the akumajo dracula label on it.
My response to it is utterly neutral.

[FRO]

Akumajou Densetsu is a cartridge with onboard sound expansion. ;3 It's just the prior two Draculas that were on FDS, with the first eventually getting a re-release on cart.

Thanks for the clarification, I guess I had misread that somewhere, or didn't realize that C3 wasn't also a FDS game.

Has anyone else picked up the 10" vinyl release of the original NES Castlevania soundtrack? It's a beautiful package:

http://mondotees.com/blogs/news/new-mus ... astlevania

It appears as though maybe it already sold out, as I don't see it on the website any longer. They're planning on doing vinyl releases of additional games as well, including SOTN. I hope they do a full, 2xLP soundtrack of that and include "I Am The Wind" - that would be amazing.

Just to be clear, they're not taking the music from the original games, they're reusing the tracks from the old Akumajou Dracula Famicom Best CD, so they haven't been remastered at all and I think they're overlaid with sound effects and other crap you may not want.

I don't like the sound of that. I was hoping they'd be up to the quality of what Data Discs is doing, or at least somewhere in that neighborhood.

[IrishNinja]

yeah, i love that vinyl but man it's on the short side. still glad i got that bootleg one with the fake clash cover a while back!

[Durandal]

Call me a casual, but playing the original RoB after DCX has me really missing the 16:9 aspect ratio. That, and wishing you could backflip during any moment of your jump.

[Blinge]

^ which of the two would people recommend?

Just finished Bloodlines, ahh what a great game!
Easiest drac of the classicvanias?

[Skykid]

^ which of the two would people recommend?

Just finished Bloodlines, ahh what a great game!
Easiest drac of the classicvanias?

I think so, I'm revisiting this right now. Why people harp on about IV being too easy, yet give VK a pass I don't know.

[Volteccer_Jack]

IV is completely trivialized by 8-way whip and the fact that every boss can just be tanked with mindless cross spam. The last few levels get as hard as CV3's clocktower, lol.

IMO Bloodlines is harder than CV1 and much harder than Rondo. Rondo and IV are by far the easiest classicvanias, and by a twist of fate they are also the best and worst classicvania respectively.

^ which of the two would people recommend?

I recommend Rondo purely on the basis that DXC is ugly as sin.

Also, and this is more of a pet peeve, DXC makes a lot of minor changes, many for the worse, which aggravates me because it's like reading a new edition of a favorite book where they've randomly replaced words here and there with slightly less suitable ones. You won't even notice this unless you play both and even if you do you probably won't care as much as I do.

The one thing I did like about DXC was finally hearing Death's taunts in English, because Rondo of Blood's incarnation of Death is a total fucking badass.

[BIL]

Bloodlines is moderately easy in direct comparison to the harder traditionals like III and X68k. It's still a decently challenging 1CC, with long, action-packed stages low on wallmeats and 1UPs. It also benefits from the classic feedback loop of a POW mode letting you lash an already fast-paced game even harder, on the condition of going unscathed. A bit like Ninja Gaiden II in comparison to its peers, it's not especially difficult but still plenty intense. The US version's Expert difficulty is my favourite traditional to fire up for a quick credit now and then*.

IV's overpowered whip and inordinately plentiful HP restores + extends keep it a rung down from the rest of the traditionals. Even an accident-prone player has a shot at stumbling over the finish line on a credit, thanks to EZ whip solutions, persistent candlemeats and fifteen or so extends. Speaking of, the long runtime and shallow difficulty incline will inevitably rub some the wrong way. The last four stages certainly aren't overly easy but by the time you're dealing with their instakill fiesta, you'll have a million lives racked up anyway.

*US Expert is only marginally tougher than NTSCJ Expert, but every little helps. edit: Also fuck the PAL version, it's slow and bowdlerised.

[Mortificator]

It also benefits from the classic feedback loop of a POW mode letting you lash an already fast-paced game even harder, on the condition of going unscathed.

That's why I like using the password that plays one of the classic themes when you're fully powered-up. Bloody Tears starts - it's ON.

[BIL]

^^^

(1337 cheat for those who know not of what we speak)

Ah, 573. Konami: Remember The Good Times™

[Skykid]

IV is completely trivialized by 8-way whip and the fact that every boss can just be tanked with mindless cross spam. The last few levels get as hard as CV3's clocktower, lol.

I'm not sure any of Bloodline's stages are as hard as CV3's clocktower.

IMO Bloodlines is harder than CV1 and much harder than Rondo. Rondo and IV are by far the easiest classicvanias, and by a twist of fate they are also the best and worst classicvania respectively.

Not seeing it. I've 1cc'd Rondo and I'd say it's tougher than Bloodlines. Bloodlines can be barged through fairly easily, with few stages or bosses of any difficulty until 5, and even then it's not so serious. The majority of enemies can be attacked out of range and few pose any kind of threat. The final boss has a fairly easily exploitable pattern that's less threatening and requires less accuracy than IV's Dracula. None of the bosses are as tough as Rondo's penultimate boss rush triple or Death.

I don't know, perhaps it's because I'm so comfortable with arcade dynamics that I find it fairly simple in the challenge dept., whereas CIV is a game I've yet to get around to addressing as a 1cc but I never felt it was a total cakewalk like you're making out.

[BIL]

IV (first loop) is a trivial 1CC simply on account of the extend rate, with further help from copious candlemeats (and even a Draculameat). You'll notice you're reaching Block 8 with twelve lives in stock before running afoul of the instakill hazards abundant in the final four stages, but even there I can't imagine any competent player not pulling through.

It's an annoying 1LC on account of its herculean length and the endgame's abundance of sudden deaths, but a 1CC's no thing.

I think Rondo's Richter game is at least as tough as Bloodlines Expert, meaning: not especially, but certainly substantial. Though I look at these games more from a no-miss perspective. Richter's a deceptively fragile character to keep alive at the nastiest points (boss rush, pretty much).

I've no-missed both loops of CV1 and tbh I wouldn't put it terribly past doing the same in the aforementioned, if not for the absolutely nightmarish and frankly bullshit loop 2 catacombs, which you will need to analyse like a mad professor creating the ideal playlist for shagging his lady wife to if you're to survive without resorting to stopwatch spam (and thus risking a Creature fight sans cross/holy water).

Taking nonlinearity into account where necessary, and ignoring loops, I'd say the traditional console series' difficulty ranking is pretty much:

1. CVIII (Akumajou Densetsu is significantly easier) / X68000 (PS1 Original Mode only; Arrange is far easier)
2. CV1 / XX
3. Rondo / Bloodlines (Expert; Vampire Killer is marginally easier at equivalent difficulty levels)
4. CV4

If loops are involved, CV1 and CV4 move up a bracket each, CVIII and X68k go off the scale. CV1's loop has some tricky medusa swarms and the aforementioned bullshit catacomb. CV4's fills out much of its dead space with bonus zako, livening up noticeably and almost playing like a Castlevania. CVIII and X68k loops surpass all else. The former's crushing damage scale and turbo Medusas will send noobs running (Akumajou Densetsu's loop is far less extreme, and lacks said enemy). The latter has several loops and their damage scale gets nuts early on.

[Austin]

Bloodlines on its default difficulty is downright easy. Not as much of a cakewalk as IV, but it can't even begin to compare to 1, 3, or even parts of Rondo. It has so much more flexibility than those thanks to the special attacks and air whipping, so if someone is really having a harder time with it than the others, they are doing something wrong.

[Obscura]

Even on Expert, I'd put Bloodlines on its own tier between 1/XX and 4. I'd possibly put Rondo on that tier as well; it's definitely easier than XX and 1, but it's tougher than Bloodlines Expert, and I don't know that it quite deserves to be demoted a whole tier in difficulty (quality is another story... honestly, I might even rather play 4 than Rondo).

3's second loop is nastier than X86K's, IMO. Those fucking skulls that replace the Medusa Heads, holy goddamn shit. I've never tried going beyond loop 2 in X86K.

Castlevania IV 1st loop 1cc is a joke, Skykid. Try it some time. One time, as a test, I tried playing the game with a self-imposed "no 8-way whip unless absolutely necessary to hit a hook" restriction (that is, only left/right whipping allowed), and despite having not played it in years, still 1cc'd easily. Ultra-easy game.

[BIL]

Good idea. It's ultimately a spectrum of relatively easy games, but CV1 has a harshness that Rondo and Bloodlines tempered (and XX approximates, at its better points).

I like to think the CVIII loop skulls actually are Medusas, they've just been... disciplined. And have lost their minds (and rhythm!) somewhat as a result. Prepare the patient's scalp to peel away...

Poor buggers. Loop zombies get a snazzy burlap cloak of +1 DEF. Loop knights get a free gym subscription and basic polearms training. Loop Medusas get subjected to mind-obliterating torture. OH WELLZ

[Squire Grooktook]

Difficulty is always going to be a bit subjective due to the differences in skillsets (one person might have better execution, another might have more consistent reflexes, another might have better multitasking, etc), but I would put Bloodlines (any difficulty setting) below CV1, and above Rondo.

The only thing stopping CV1 from being much harder is the late-game boss cheese...which doesn't apply to Dracula's first form. The final stage alone is also way more of a credit hazard than anything in Bloodlines expert IMO.

However, Rondo is much easier than Bloodlines to me. Stage design is much more forgiving, and I only personally find some of the late-game bosses (particularly the boss rush) to be hard. Bloodlines took a handful of attempts to 1cc IIRC. Rondo I got on the second try after one game over on the boss rush IIRC.


Both Rondo and Bloodlines are more about "authoritative" (as the above poster would put it) play than pure survival. I don't have much trouble 1cc'ing or even 1lc'ing either games on revisits, but I thoroughly enjoy returning to both every now and then to attempt increasingly snazzy and flawless speedkills and no-damage runs. Bloodlines particularly shines in this regard, as learning to put maximum offensive pressure on the games beasties with your full moveset is a blast.