It's a mistranslation for Soleil. Nice name Christopher chose for the son. Must be still in the French branch of the Belmondo family tree.
So the Europeans censored the soundtest the first time, but retained it, along with the cross, and corrected the name misspell the second time. One of the rare instance where Europe was treated well.
Oh interesting - so the collection version has the uncensored sound test and cross? Reminds me of the European GB Collection Vol.1's "Probotector" retaining the US/JP Bill Rizer sprites. Things must've been gradually looking up by then.
Blinge wrote:
Just had a credit of Legends before beddy-byes. Wow.. this seems, like a fangame.
Not sure how i feel about the surprise! zombie gangbang pit! better trade for hits!
It's one of those late Konami GB b/w games from KCE Nagoya that had inferior production values compared to their earlier GB games.
BIL wrote:Oh interesting - so the collection version has the uncensored sound test and cross? Reminds me of the European GB Collection Vol.1's "Probotector" retaining the US/JP Bill Rizer sprites. Things must've been gradually looking up by then.
Yes, it's exactly the same case; when KCEJ decided to bring over Europe the four collections, they started from scratch from the Japanese collections, ditching the Super Gameboy compatibility and adding GBC palettes (although they are black DMG cartrdiges, so they can be played in original b/w if desired). Probotector and Castlevania II are the most obvious examples.
The Axe in the Western edition of Castlevania II is an interesting case. It cannot be simple censorship - redrawing a sprite would have done the trick, the cross could have been more easily replaced by a knife. Although not directly related, here's a quote from Bloodlines developers, courtesy of Shmuplations:
Toshiki Yamamura: "However, if you find Vampire Killer too easy for you, be sure to check out the overseas version, Castlevania Bloodlines. It’s like the “tabasco” version of Vampire Killer, in terms of difficulty."
I think developers had always one eye on the bigger american market back then, especially in a series like Dracula that had done so well in the west. So who knows, maybe replacing the cross is another attempt at a "tabasco" rev.
I'm not sure I ever finished the game in its axe incarnation, mmh..
Blinge wrote:
Just had a credit of Legends before beddy-byes. Wow.. this seems, like a fangame.
Not sure how i feel about the surprise! zombie gangbang pit! better trade for hits!
It's one of those late Konami GB b/w games from KCE Nagoya that had inferior production values compared to their earlier GB games.
Publishers would often put out shovelware handheld counterparts to their major console releases. Like, for each new Turok FPS, there was a "version" for the Game Boy line. Legends really exists just to be the shovelware counterpart to Symphony of the Night.
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
The GBA version of its respective Turok was pretty much a Metal Slug clone with some Cabal/NAM-1975 like stages thrown in. While it wasn't a terribly good game, I appreciate that effort.
Mortificator wrote:Publishers would often put out shovelware handheld counterparts to their major console releases. Like, for each new Turok FPS, there was a "version" for the Game Boy line. Legends really exists just to be the shovelware counterpart to Symphony of the Night.
Playing Mirror of Fate HD for some godforsaken reason.
Well, entering Act III I think I'm getting used to the game's rhythm. It's hard to get started since it plays so differently to other metroidvanias and it just feels so dirty and wrong.
Sins include: the ugly movement featuring floaty jumps, slow turning around and a bafflingly unhelpful dodge roll; the assassin's creed style 3d game "assisted platforming" automatic sticking to ledges that just has no place in a 2d game; the simplified god of war style combat that just amounts to spamming a small number of enemy types and hoping they end before you do; the hideous level design made of slow as fuck platforming punctuated by "kill all the enemies" room lock ins.
Bosses are a mixed bag, with some being bullshits with health bars, and others sporting surprisingly charming designs. I also like how you play as different characters; they don't actually play that differently (they kinda dropped the ball on this one) but even so you have to unlock their abilities as you go, so it adds a nice ebb and flow to the difficulty curve. It seems like in this game Trevor has the same light/dark magic mechanics as Gabriel in Lords of Shadow; I thought that was a really cool system in that game that was kind of underutilized, so maybe they'll make it do some real work in this game.
The thing that really kills the game is that it's just not fun to explore the castle. Kind of a deal breaker in a metroidvania huh. It's purely by design, too, as, while there are upgrades and secrets tucked away in corners, they are so frequently walled of by later-game abilities that most of the time any attempt to deviate from the official path will lead to disappointment. And of course backtracking to previously cleared areas is just not on the cards in a game where just moving through the levels feels so bad. There's no reason to force this backtracking since the sort of things you want to find are health upgrades and suchlike which are worth looking for while you're there, but are in no way worth going back for.
Another terrible choice was to break up the castle into many, many small maps. They try to make the transitions cohesive, and in some cases do a very good job. But segmenting it off actually makes it harder to see how things all connect, as compared to a metroid game, say. You can't fast travel between areas once cleared, so there's no real benefit to this set up of having individual levels. The result is that you're always just looking for an exit to your current map, and hoping to find one soon as you trudge from point A to point B.
And I haven't even gotten to complaining about the combat, ugh...
Well, for now I'll just say that, for all the game's faults there is, with expectations properly adjusted, a certain satisfaction to be had in brutalizing enemies and floating around the castle's many chandeliers. There are also some surprising moments of aesthetic competence in the form of genuinely creepy or grand enemy or environment design (but usually you will just be horrified by how drab everything looks). There are also two puzzles which I found to be a blissful relief from the rest of the game. So I think I will play to the end, hoping that its final acts elevate it from "a bad game for bad people" to "a mediocre game for meager minds".
Mortificator wrote:Publishers would often put out shovelware handheld counterparts to their major console releases. Like, for each new Turok FPS, there was a "version" for the Game Boy line. Legends really exists just to be the shovelware counterpart to Symphony of the Night.
The second GB Goemon game was also like that. It was made around the same time as the first N64 Goemon game and was even localized under the same title (Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon). In fact, I think it was also made by KCE Nagoya.
Somehow Konami managed to make a good game out of Metal Gear GB, despite essentially being made under Konami of Europe's request to provide a GBC version of MGS and was marketed as such (but it's clearly meant to be its own thing).
Turrican wrote:
I think developers had always one eye on the bigger american market back then, especially in a series like Dracula that had done so well in the west.
Konami in particular was a developer that was quite focused on the U.S./Europe market, moreso than any other company. They didn't just localize their games for the overseas release, they would extensively modify them if necessary (as was the case with all the NES Castlevanias) or even make exclusive games for the foreign market (as was the case with most of their later NES releases). I don't think any other company had as much focus to the foreign market as they did outside maybe Nintendo themselves.
Jonny2x4 wrote:
Somehow Konami managed to make a good game out of Metal Gear GB, despite essentially being made under Konami of Europe's request to provide a GBC version of MGS and was marketed as such (but it's clearly meant to be its own thing).
Probably becuase KCE Nagoya didn't do it, though even some of KCE Nagoya's GBC games fared better than their late b/w GB games.
The weak second GB Goemon was my first exposure to the series. Good thing I didn't stop with that game.
Well I finished playing Mirror of Fate. Turns out the third act is just as bad as the others. A particular low point is a super meat boy-esque against the clock wall jumping section complete with instadeath circular saws and blind jumps. You couldn't find a more perfect juxtaposition for the control of two platformers; in fact its inclusion in the game almost amounts to self deprecation on the developer's part. Just wow.
Also lots of quick time events, some little fucking mine cart sections, and all sorts of other little annoyances. The story is just appalling and I hate what they've done with dracula.
Now for a rant about the combat so I can put this game to bed:
Like the 3D games you perform combos by spamming the attack buttons. But the first few hits of your combos are all extremely weak so enemies will take a long time to kill if you use normal tactics. But enemies can also be staggered by your more powerful hits so on a good day you can just stunlock to victory. This even works on bosses to an extent. But it's very inconsistent even with normal foes so you kind of have a choice of spamming blindly and hoping for the best - even on hard mode this is viable in lots of parts of the game because healing is plentiful so you can afford to take a few hits - or you can try to play carefully. And this is where the real problems begin.
There is no damage from touching enemies, but you can't walk past them. You can block (and so can enemies) but every enemy has several unblockable moves, whereas only your more powerful hits can break their guard. You also have a dodge roll which I believe gives you iframes - it's not as useful as it could be, however, since you cannot use it to pass through enemies (in fact, you cannot roll into walls, and your character treats enemies as walls, so if you try it you just block in front of them). You can use it to adjust your distance form enemies, but your normal attacks have incredible range so that's rarely an issue. The air dash covers more distance so is your best bet for repositioning yourself in combat - but you still have to do a slow floaty jump to make use of it.
Fighting any one enemy is trivial since you can spam while being alert for the bullshitier moves. But the game likes to lock you in a small room with groups of 3 or more enemies. These encounters go one of two ways: either you get in a good position and start racking up the damage with your combos to thin out the numbers; or you get trapped in the middle of the fray wrestling with clunky controls and taking a pounding from unavoidable attacks while the only enemy you have a hope of damaging blocks your attacks. So while it can be fun when it works, it's like you're fighting the game's RNG rather than the enemies.
Checkpoints abound so it's not hard to get round these encounters. And as you unlock more powerful combos and more useful subweapons and magic you can easily turn the tide of battle - but while it makes the combat less frustrating it doesn't make it fun. Boss fights don't really suffer that much in all of this since it's just about learning their patterns, and that can be fun enough in the more interesting fights.
The dodge roll being longer and letting you slip by enemies would make things a lot more fluid and fair.
All in all the game is kind of badly conceived. The mechanics are not necessarily horrible by themselves, but nothing about the levels is built around the game's strengths; whether that's the uncomfortable platforming, the spammy combat or the choresome exploring. Come to think of it, it says a lot about the game and how it's put together that there is no instance of both platforming and combat. Every Castlevania has you do both at once at some point, but here they are entirely separated from each other. And thank god, because that would be terrible, because it already is.
And here today I was thinking to myself, "I should really spend time with Mirror of Fate, it's one of the last Castlevania games I have yet to finish."
Piece of advice for a weary slayer? On Castlevania IV, Stage IV, there's a section early on where you need to jump across a pit with rotating green platforms. When you jump onto the platform, it rotates, and if you're still standing on it, you fall straight through.
It's obvious enough what to do - hop, hop, hop. But I seem to have some performance anxiety at this point and keep ditching all my lives down the pit by never being able to time the second hop right. Belmont seems to land heavy and bend down and the jump doesn't respond, and then he just gets spun off to doomsville.
Moderately quick tapping of the jump button sees me through every time, without fail. Don't bother going for a specific timing - there's no need. Just feather [jump] from well before landing on the spinner, until you've safely leaped off.
Yeah, on revisiting it a few months back I though I was missing a trick, but I had more luck just tapping than with any kind of timing. Still cost me a life every now and again though, even tapping doesn't feel 100% consistent.
Marc wrote:Yeah, on revisiting it a few months back I though I was missing a trick, but I had more luck just tapping than with any kind of timing. Still cost me a life every now and again though, even tapping doesn't feel 100% consistent.
Yeah I tried that too, and tapping seems to have me end up in the pit on most attempts.
BIL wrote:Moderately quick tapping of the jump button sees me through every time, without fail. Don't bother going for a specific timing - there's no need. Just feather [jump] from well before landing on the spinner, until you've safely leaped off.
More clarification BIRU, "moderately" as in KOF combo speed, or slightly faster? I'm assuming you're saying don't tap at super speed?
Seriously, I never remembered this section ever being problematic in the past, no idea why I keep fucking it up now. It makes me nervous on approach.
Nah, not brutally fast Darius Gaiden max firing rate tapping. Just keep feathering the button as you approach touchdown, through landing, until you're safely off the spinner - no exceptions. Waiting until you're actually on the spinner, or stopping early, risks getting you dumped. Jump height is fixed, so feathered input will work fine.
I guess you could really hammer the button... but I honestly never found it necessary, just needlessly jarring. I remember this bit very clearly, since it leapt out to me as a potential early 1LC wrecker (as opposed to the tons of late 1LC wreckers in the final four blocks). Spent a bit of time on it making sure I could do it consistently.
Last edited by BIL on Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
BIL wrote:Nah, not brutally fast Darius Gaiden max firing rate tapping. Just keep feathering the button as you approach touchdown, until you're safely off the spinner - no exceptions. Waiting until you're actually on the spinner, or stopping early, risks getting you dumped. Jump height is fixed, so any input will work fine.
I remember this bit very clearly, since it leapt out to me as a potential early 1LC wrecker (as opposed to the tons of late 1LC wreckers in the final four blocks). Spent a bit of time on it making sure I could do it consistently.
Ok thanks, will get back to it. If you can successfully navigate it for a 1LC attempt then I got to be able to make it.
CV4 is a game I'd never attempt a 1LC on. That stupid bridge before The Monster would just ruin my mood.
Never had problems with that spinny platform though.
Just a case of mis-timing the jumps. Jump the moment it looks like your feet touch the platforms and you should be fine. Watch a video for a general visual reference.
Squire Grooktook wrote:I'm probably repeating myself, but I played the demo of Mirror of Fate back at Comic Con pre-release, and I would describe it as "the worst of 2d sidescrollers mixed with the worst of 3d character action".
So in other words, you get the dull i-frame dodging and qte's of 3d character action, with the limited space of 2d not being used for anything. Shit sucks.
Blinge wrote:Not looking forward to the day my completionism compels me to play it.
I consider Lord of Shadows to be as canonical to Castlevania as this is to Mario. So you should really absolve yourself of that one tbh.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................
Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
BIL wrote:Nah, not brutally fast Darius Gaiden max firing rate tapping. Just keep feathering the button as you approach touchdown, through landing, until you're safely off the spinner - no exceptions. Waiting until you're actually on the spinner, or stopping early, risks getting you dumped. Jump height is fixed, so feathered input will work fine.
What's the deal with the Lords of Shadow games? I understand the first game was well-received, but the sequel took the story to a ridiculous direction and basically killed off the sub-series.
The first game isn't horrible. It's not much of a Castlevania either, but it's a playable game at least. Mirror of Fate however is an offense to video games.
Just keep feathering the button as you approach touchdown, through landing, until you're safely off the spinner - no exceptions. Waiting until you're actually on the spinner, or stopping early, risks getting you dumped. Jump height is fixed, so feathered input will work fine.
