shmups.system11.org

@ BIL's last post :

“That is a monster borne from the curse of man.” is kvlt af, indeed

Can confirm. I got frostbite just from reading it.

I get the mental image of plucky young sonnayuumi HW cheesing Dracula mkII, only to be scared straight by grizzled vampire hunter Akamatsu - "That thing is a monster born of the curse of man" - and squeaking out a "N... naruhodo" as a chill wind ruffles the drapes.



I remember seeing the secret elevator in a Gamepro right after the game came out. First thing I tried when I got the PS1 I needed to play it with.

It's no big deal anyway, though... the elevator is random as hell, but it's more a means of getting a fat ATK boost early on (at the cost of reach... but who would turn down the chance to jumpkick and punch motherfuckers out? Wieners, that's who!). The room itself is easily accessed later on with Mist. The grate even has that helpful "MIST COULD PASS" blurb when you touch it.

I see the user Recap did not last long and reading that thread it's easy to see why.

One of the classic dramatis personae of our little community.

Little Annoyed Hell GAIDEN: always bugged me that Violent Ken's Greatest Motherfuckers Of All Time never caught on, it's a cracking bit of wordage. AFAIK the thread he busted it out in got deleted, can't find any trace.

Somewhat puzzled now. I genuinely thought I'd made it to the reverse castle before, but now I'm here nothing about it is ringing a bell. Particularly how everything is quite literally 'upside-down', the game I'm thinking of sort of adjusts the graphics a bit so that everything at least looks to be somewhat correctly placed. Do any of the GBA/DS games do this?

Also, inverted castle is kicking my arse, which is nice. Possibly because I'm so lazy in my approach due to being OP for the last half of the original castle. I'm rocking the star mace thing, and it takes out most things in one hit, although I don't seem to have found any of the truly game-breaking stuff that I've seen mentioned here in the past.

If you are unfamiliar with the inverted castle, then yeah, it can kick your ass pretty hard if you don't know what to expect. Even when you're OP, stuff in this part of the game tends to do a ton of damage so you still have to be somewhat careful.

Harmony of Dissonance has two parallel castles with exact same room layout but different looks and internal structure (to a varying degree). Portrait of Ruin has two sets of portait worlds, second being heavily inspired on the first but with noticeably different layouts. These are the closest cases to something like that. (And funny enough, they're my favourite games in the series.)

Good god, really? That's the first time I've heard that.

I can share my thoughts on IGAvanias if you're interested, but the short explanation is that while all of them are great, only those two don't have flaws big enough to turn me away from playing them repeatedly. I've done 200% of HoD once again these days, actually.

Fair enough to like what you like but it's the only one I couldn't bear to finish; I got so far into the game and then realised I was never going to get any cool gear and only be able to use a handful of spells.

Wha? That's a dope line! whom was he describing with it?

Bunch of scoundrels who were giving him a hard time, if memory serves. It was meant to be insulting but had quite the opposite effect.

Sort of like a genuine version of another old favourite - "Why is this forum so full of Elitist Pricks™?"

Was just about to say : sounds to me like the greatest of compliments

Understandable, not everyone can stomach the same old whip for a whole game. But I do find the selection of spells to be just right, with enough options for any situation no matter what subweapon you have. Though what I was looking forward to the most when playing it for the first time was probably seeing how the old locations look on "the other side". I kinda like revisits like that.

Harmony is really good. It's hard for me to rank the GBA/DS titles but honestly I could replay any of them right now.

Feel like giving Ecclesia another try (my first one didn't even reach the castle). Wish me luck.

It's a great game! Good luck.

Without wanting to spoil things - after a perfectly enjoyable countryside treasure hunt, I assumed the game was winding down for a glorified Castle Keep Stairs Sequence™ and Dracula popping in to collect his paycheck before the staff roll. And then the game blew my goddamn face off with a lengthy, heaving slab of precisely the "Hard SOTN"/Lethal Explorers action I'd once dreamed of, and more besides. OOE Castle Dracula is a rad joint! With the player arriving at near-endgame power & mobility, it's free to discard the preamble and cut loose with meaty action and perilous "You're gonna die down there" butcher odysseys. Meanwhile tricks you acquire in the castle tend to be useful outside of it so the carnage continues unimpeded.

It's great, I just wish it'd been on a big screen + big speakers to do Shanoa's deceptively visceral, violent action justice. Unleashing DOMINUS AGONY to smash a later boss's skull in with pistoning dual rapiers, my damage output skyrocketing as my lifebar incinerated is one of my most treasured Violent Action Gaming memories. When BIG D (voiced by RUGAL BERNSTEIN and suspiciously wielding both his sensible Richard Branson-esque haircut and spine-crushing GOD PRESS) finally does appear, it feels truly well-earned.

"Surely you've realised my company comes at a price..."

I powered through the last bit of Bloodstained over the weekend after having put it off for quite a while. Although I enjoyed the overall package quite a bit, especially the viability of various builds and weapons, I've had all the time in the world to digest the experience at this point and I'm left with two things:

1. This game would have been better without crafting. I'd rather grind one enemy for an item I want vs. have to grind 5 different enemies to craft it and make it viable, and returning to home base all the fucking time is just not that fun in the final analysis. SOTN doesn't have a home base, which makes it better by default.
2. Curse of the Moon is far and away the better of the two games, and acts as a dialogue with its CV counterpart in way that Ritual can't hope to do. I think this game will continue to be poked and explored and speedrun while Ritual fades into a distant memory...

Okay, reached Somnus Reef, which is about as far as I got on my first time. Had way too much trouble in Skeleton Caves for some reason back then, doing perfectly okay now. Though now the villagers start giving me the grindy quests so that may be why I stopped. After playing the other two DS games, I was thoroughly done with grinding, I recall.

Oh yeah, had a weird double KO on Brachyura, of all things.

I don't recall the quests being mandatory, but they are certainly helpful if you take the time to do them. There are some pretty fun and creative ones too (like having to snap a photo of the Sasquatch, haha).

Managed to 100% Ecclesia (with maps and savestates because I'm lazy). Not a bad game overall. It has some moments I'd call bullshit on, but it also has some very good moments worth playing for. It's definitely not topping my previous favourites but it's still worth to keep around and give a try once in a while.

If there's one specific criticism I'd like to give about it, it's that I feel like some locations are too small. I don't mean the likes of Argila Swamp or Misty Forest Road, those are supposed to be just linear stretches and they work fine. I mean Giant's Dwelling and Mystery Manor. Monastery kinda gave an impression that such locations will be bigger, but those feel kinda short and simple. They could use at least double the length to become actually memorable places. Also, Somnus Reef feels somewhat lackluster after Kalidus Channel. But I dunno, this could be just me.

Anyway, wonder how interesting Albus mode will be.

Update: Albus is OP and I love it.

Feeling like sharing some more detailed thoughts on the game so here's my opinion on bosses.

- Arthroverta. Spelling its name is harder than fighting it.
- Giant Skeleton. Kinda nasty difficulty spike for an underequipped and unexperienced player. Good demonstration of how tough some bosses will feel but stands out too much compared to the overall difficulty of the next few hours.
- Brachyura. Boring. I mean, I did die to it but I thought it was trickier than that and was moving around too much.
- Maneater. ...That was a boss? Looks like they forgot to improve it since it was a normal enemy. Pretty weird to fight it outside of the water though.
- Rusalka. Passive damage sponge with slow telegraphed attacks. She'd be somewhat fun if she was more aggressive.
- Goliath. Finally a boss you have to memorize the behavior of. Kinda catches off-guard after so many obvious ones.
- Gravedorcus. Surprisingly fun, compared to all other oversized seafood one had to deal with before.
- Albus. Best fight in the game. Could practice him for hours.
- Barlowe. Second best fight in the game. Ditto.
- Wallman. Gotta say his ability is pretty creative and has been used pretty well.
- Blackmore. Atrocious. A boss that forces you to the edge of the screen and has fast huge attacks that can even combo you in the second phase. Probably learnable to an extent but still very unpredictable and needs very fast reaction times. Could use some telegraphing, which is ironic considering how much of it other bosses have.
- Eligor. Neat concept but avoiding damage on his back is too wonky. I guess that's the point but if you fall off all the time it can drag out the battle too much. He'd do well to have less HP, at least.
- Death. Nice fight but kinda easy for being this late in the game. I expected a second phase or something.
- Jiang Shi. Not too bad (if you can beat the rest of the Cavern, anyway). What's with the homing balls, though? Touhou 13 stage 4 boss has them too, and they're connected thematically, so is there some significance behind them?
- Dracula. Definitely an interesting variation on the usual final boss, but it's neither my favourite Dracula fight (that goes to PoR) nor the most enjoyable boss in the game (which is Albus with Barlowe close second). He's quite predictable but punishes mistakes heavily (bat torrent, anyone). But while you need to know his attacks beforehand, you do have enough time to prepare for them. Just don't get caught near a wall. Still a pretty tough boss but that's acceptable for the game's end, I guess.

So...I got the Simon amiboo. Couldn't help it. Now I'm thinking of adding Lichter. And partaking in a humble Lord Dark Helmet tribute. Boxed of course!

Into the 4th loop with the turbo-bats and dash-zombies of Chronicles, I decided that this is it as much as I am concerned. Mah favorite Vania. If that makes me a grunt for never having played the esteemed and elusive original, so be it. Even with loading times, the audiovisuales are strong, stages refined, the sound fx crisp, and sometimes it's hard for me to believe people actually maintain other favorites than this entry. Simon says. The Arrange Mode is a disservice and subtracts from the experience and nobody should feel gratified for playing it. But maybe that's how Sharp players feel about CC. The flopping bat laughs in high pitches.

Chronicles is good, yeah.

To me Chronicles is ok but should be condsidered its own game. Original mode is not a replacement for the real deal computer.

<<transmission 4 >>

I've been sick as a dog lately. Self isolation hack cough.
that bitch sucked enough of my blood the other day. I'm not long for this world.
Fired up that old Castlevania one to meet death on his own terms

Holy water and triple shot and i actually.. lost to death
WHO DOES THAT!?

Respawned managed to get double cross and win. then got dunked by the bats like a million times.

few days later I fired up CV3 for a grand old time streaming to a buddy.
Jesus that Doppelganger in a casual playthrough when you're not up to 1cc standard. Fuck that thing!!
It can really ruin a man's day, you know?