God of War, CastleVania LOI & Rygar...

[ST Dragon]

I noticed that God of War for the PS-2 has the same Greco-Roman theme like Rygar.
I played Rygar, two years ago, but I got bored of it about half way through & thus never completed it. Graphics & music were incredible, but gameplay felt a bit on the reparative side & the Boss fights were uninspired.

So how good of a game is God of War for the PS-2 in comparison?
Is it a long game with many secrets & twists in the story line?
And how good are the Boss fights & music?

I’m also considering getting CastleVania Lament of Innocence. Does it have similarities to Symphony of the Night?
Is it boring like Rygar?

[Thunder Force]

I would say,

1. God of War

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2. Castlevania: LOI
3. Rygar

[landshark]

I liked Rygar better than Castlevania: LOI.

God of War is the best PS1/PS2 game I've ever played.

[freddiebamboo]

Yeah, I heard god of war was quite tasty and watched the IGN vids of it and it looked pretty good

Never been a fan of the castlevania series though so I can't be sure I'll like it

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

Also include Devil May Cry to this list.
All of the above are good games, but I think even God of War gives DMC some serious comp. Boss fights are amazing to say the least.

[ST Dragon]

What about Devil May Cry 1, 2 & 3?
Which of the 3 is the best?

...And how do they compare to CastleVania, God of War & Rygar?

[beatifik]

my friend at work has been obsessed with GOW since it's release. she's played throught it on the hardest dificulty a number of times and has numerous games going at the same time. needless to say, she's pretty into it.


she even bought me a copy of the game as a going-away/thank-you present. i'll probably start it next week

[MadSteelDarkness]

What about Devil May Cry 1, 2 & 3?
Which of the 3 is the best?

...And how do they compare to CastleVania, God of War & Rygar?

DMC 1>3>2, at least in my opinion. Both 1 and 3 are quite good, whereas 2 is pretty...meh (although I still had some fun with it).

Both DMC 1 and 3 are better than CV:LoI and Rygar. But that God of War though...whew, it's a sexy beast.

I will say however, that I actually enjoyed the CV and Rygar updates, despite their flaws.

[PaCrappa]

GoW wastes all others mentioned in this thread.

Otogi wastes GoW.

I haven't played Shinobi or Bujingai or Nightshade or whatever. Nor have I played Otogi 2.

Pa

[Thunder Force]

Shinobi, Bujingai, and Nightshade are a trio of great choices too.

Devil May Cry 3 is probably the closest direct competitor to God of War, it can be argued which one is better, they both have a lot of development love put into them.

Otogi imo is a work of art... audio-visually and thematically. As for its gameplay... no comment it's still worth playing though for sure.

[Marc]

Watching the GF play through God Of War at the minute, and it's one of the only PS2 games I'm genuinely interested in playing through for myself. Also got Otogi 2 pending though, also looks fucking cool, not sure which to start first...

[PFG 9000]

I really enjoy CV: Lament of Innocence, but the entire game is rather flat, and this brings the game down after a bit. It does have some similarities to CV: SotN, but it's not nearly as similar as the three Gameboy Advance CV games. It's a gorgeous game with fantastic music and beautiful character/enemy design, and the action-based parts are great. However, there's a serious lack of platforming compared to past CVs, and overall the game really doesn't live up to the legacy held by its predecessors.

I also got bored with Rygar partway through, though I plan to go back to it eventually. Sadly, I haven't gotten around to renting God of War yet, though I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[Jon]

GoW wastes all others mentioned in this thread.

Otogi wastes GoW.

I haven't played Shinobi or Bujingai or Nightshade or whatever. Nor have I played Otogi 2.

Pa

For the love of pete Pa if you enjoyed the first Otogi you owe it to yourself to play the sequel. Better that the first in every way imo. I just finished playing though it and picked up for $25.00 new. Worth every penny.

[PaCrappa]

I do own it. It's just that that qualifies as a "story game" so I have to make a special effort to play it. Ya know? Pure action games are all wham, bam and thank you ma'am. I'm in and I'm out like John Matrix from the hit movie Commando, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But a story game... Whoah, that takes time.

And right now I'm severely cracking out on Final Fantasy Tactics. It's my first FF game and it seems to be everything it's cranked up to be.

Pa

[BulletMagnet]

I'm in and I'm out like John Matrix from the hit movie Commando, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hee hee, this sounds like something that the "talking head" Arnold would say on "Conan O'Brian."

And right now I'm severely cracking out on Final Fantasy Tactics. It's my first FF game and it seems to be everything it's cranked up to be.

Not sure how far into it you are, but if you haven't yet, wait till you find out how utterly unbalanced the classes and characters are, heh. Still worth playing though.

[ST Dragon]

CastleVania LOI, is being sold at a shop near me, for 69 Euros with a CastleVania Music CD included in the package.
From what CastleVania games are the music tacks in that CD by the way?
Is it all the audio tracks from SOTN?
Any good?

I'm not sure that it's worth that price....
The print on the Music CD is quite nice though.

[Tychom]

IMO Castlevania LOI is a big pile of poop.

First off the combat system is just incredibly clunky and unrewarding where as with Rygar or DMC (particularly with DMC) it's smooth and instantly accessible - pick up the controller in DMC3 and you'll immediately be fighting off the hoards *and* looking good whilst still being incredibly flexible. LOI on the other hand you'll still be wondering why they made dodging so awkward. Rygar delivers more in the way of early thrills (Disc Armour being, like, great fun) and becomes frustrating as soon as you come across a boss -_-;

Now a big part of any CV game is the exploration but what LOI gives you is a castle that is layed out like a bleedin' office building, it's all built on a grid, rooms are nearly all rectangular whilst hallways fill in the gaps. It's like an old NES top-down dungeon crawler, every room looks like the last with the same stock objects, just rearranged. It's quite horrific.

Put Rygar next to it and you'll see stunning stage design by comparison. Sure, being an early PS2 game it's beginning to look ass texturally and alias-ily but the architectural detail in there and the depiction of a ruined civilisation is done so much better than the primitive square-room on square-room depiction of LOIs castle.
The DMC games too (well, skip 2) have massively more interesting level designs than anything LOI can muster. There's masses of detail in almost every room you'll venture into - and they're never repeated and certainly not a grid - the gothic architecture can be amazing at times as can the size and variety of the areas you walk through.

Anyway the whole CV thing frustrates me no end, a solid combat system and a vast castle with stunning architecture and totally rabbit-warren like could be very great but as it is it just seems half-assed.


havent played GoW yet though I hear it's certainly pretty decent, as is I'd put it like this:

Really Goodness
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DMC3
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Rygar
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LOI
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Falling asleep

[PFG 9000]

IMO Castlevania LOI is a big pile of poop.

First off the combat system is just incredibly clunky and unrewarding where as with Rygar or DMC (particularly with DMC) it's smooth and instantly accessible - pick up the controller in DMC3 and you'll immediately be fighting off the hoards *and* looking good whilst still being incredibly flexible. LOI on the other hand you'll still be wondering why they made dodging so awkward. Rygar delivers more in the way of early thrills (Disc Armour being, like, great fun) and becomes frustrating as soon as you come across a boss -_-;

I found dodging much more awkward with DMC, as you have to hold down the R2 button while tapping left or right on the analog stick, IIRC. I have always had probems getting the move down, as the analog stick is hardly as accurate as the D-pads I've grown up with on numerous systems. I found LoI's dodge move (Hold R2, tap X) far easier and logical to use. But that's just me, and I'm a CV fanboy.

Now a big part of any CV game is the exploration but what LOI gives you is a castle that is layed out like a bleedin' office building, it's all built on a grid, rooms are nearly all rectangular whilst hallways fill in the gaps. It's like an old NES top-down dungeon crawler, every room looks like the last with the same stock objects, just rearranged. It's quite horrific.

There are quite a few details that make each room unique, but you're right, the level design is horribly repetitive. And flat. But the layout of how each room connects is fairly varied, and the rooms are certainly not "nearly all rectangular." This makes me wonder how far you played into the game. The only rooms that are usually rectangular are the connecting hallways, with the exception of the Palace of Dark Waterfalls area, which has many more rectangular rooms than most areas of the game. I found the design of the individual rooms fairly good; it's just that they use the same damn rooms over and over.

I do agree that DMC has far better level design than LoI, especially DMC1.

*Edited for spelling*

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

There's much dislike with "CV Lament", but I actually enjoy it. I played it through two times in fact.
I like all the Vania's except for Simons Quest2 and Symphony...YES, I dislike Symphony of the Night!

Maybe one day, I'll reserve some time to try and appreciate Simons Quest.

Still, if you're itching for some 3D action, you certainly won't go wrong with Devil May Cry and God Of War!!!

[dave4shmups]

I've never played God of War, but Rygar is absolutely incredible! Best transition from 2D to 3D, IMO. Beat it, and the ending is incredible-even though it's one of those games where you know where everything is after you beat it once, it still oozes with replay value because it's just SO fun!

Plus, the soundtrack was done by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and the ending song was done by a female classical music vocalist. Tecmo certainly went all out for this game, and you can find it new for dirt cheap!

Thing is, there doesn't seem to be an import edition of Rygar that has an English language option-unlike Castlevania LOI.

Onto LOI-more repetitive then Rygar, but still very fun gameplay, and gorgeous environments. Great music, too!


Both of these games are so cheap, I would personally just get both.

[dave4shmups]

There's much dislike with "CV Lament", but I actually enjoy it. I played it through two times in fact.
I like all the Vania's except for Simons Quest2 and Symphony...YES, I dislike Symphony of the Night!

Maybe one day, I'll reserve some time to try and appreciate Simons Quest.

Still, if you're itching for some 3D action, you certainly won't go wrong with Devil May Cry and God Of War!!!

I'm with 'ya Twitch-other then LOI, Castlevania as an RPG just never worked for me. (Then again, I've still yet to play ANY of the GBA Vania's.)

[howmuchkeefe]

I like all the Vania's except for Simons Quest2 and Symphony...YES, I dislike Symphony of the Night!

That's like... not liking puppies. Or goodness and laughter and warmth and light!

[it290]

I actually feel the same way... well, I like SOTN okay, but I much prefer the linear games. Rondo and CV3 are the best of the series IMO.

[BIG]

GoW>Rygar>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>LoI.

B-

[Turrican]

There's much dislike with "CV Lament", but I actually enjoy it. I played it through two times in fact.
I like all the Vania's except for Simons Quest2 and Symphony...YES, I dislike Symphony of the Night!

No, wait... this means you dislike some more vanias... I find hard to think you dislike SotN but like CotM, HoD, AoS or DoS

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

There's much dislike with "CV Lament", but I actually enjoy it. I played it through two times in fact.
I like all the Vania's except for Simons Quest2 and Symphony...YES, I dislike Symphony of the Night!

No, wait... this means you dislike some more vanias... I find hard to think you dislike SotN but like CotM, HoD, AoS or DoS

I don't really know anything about the "portable " ones,so, if thats what you mean...
I pretty much prefer the "arcade" style Vania's, more than the "RPG" style ones.

[ST Dragon]

The GBA CastleVanias are very similar to SOTN in the level design/layout department, but not as long.

Also the music wasn't that good on the GBA which is sad considering that SOTN is widely known for its epic/medieval soundtrack.

[BrianC]

The GBA CastleVanias are very similar to SOTN in the level design/layout department, but not as long.

Also the music wasn't that good on the GBA which is sad considering that SOTN is widely known for its epic/medieval soundtrack.

Circle of the Moon has great music and the music isn't bad in Aria of Sorrow, though definatly not near SotN or Circle of the Moon. The music quality wasn't too bad in AoS IMO, but the music isn't as memorable as in CotM or SotN. SotN didn't rip the music from other Castlevanias like CotM, though. However, CotM did rip the best tunes from the games like Vampire Killer. For me, the music in CotM was far from disappointing and the music in AoS did not make me want to turn the GBA volume down.

BTW, the music quality was purposely toned down in HoD and AoS to tone up the graphics. CotM has superior music, but inferior graphics to the other GBA castlevanias. Harmony of Dissonance has the worst music of the GBA games. AoS has decent music that's not up to par with the music in CotM. The music quality was toned down so the graphics could be toned up. AoS has the better balance compared to HoD, so I think the toned down music to tone up the graphics was a good trade off.

Circle of the Moon has a card based ability system where you get special abilities by combining two types of cards. They can be conbined for ability enhancers, weapons, wierd effects, etc. The card effects require a certain amout of magic points.

Aria of Sorrow has an ability system based on souls. Souls are aquired by defeating certain enemies. Souls act as weapons and use MP. Some of the souls are based on classic Castlevania weapons and are activated the same way as the sub weapons in other Castlevania games. The amount of magic used up by the soul depends on which soul is used.

I haven't played God of War or LoI, but I like Nightshade and Devil May Cry quite a bit.

[Ord]

I'm starting to really get into God Of War, and so far I think it's one of the finest PS2 games ever. A truly remarkable game.

[The n00b]

First mention of Ninja Gaiden and how it rules all in a GoW/DMC thread.