tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 14, 2019 11:03:54 GMT -6
Figured this would (for now at least) be the appropriate place to post this, but someone has posted an "unboxing" (aka pulling of the shrink wrap and opening the game case) for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Youtube and just in case some people still want to be surprised when they get their game I'm using the spoiler tag.
UPDATE/PSA: just happened to see that the official Playstation Youtube channel has posted a 16 min gameplay video for Bloodstained on their page and the video features some gameplay from the Inferno Cave area that's been briefly shown off in some of the newer trailers. I'm posting this as an added update/PSA just in case anyone is subscribed to the channel, but wants to avoid spoilers,etc.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 13, 2019 12:49:59 GMT -6
I just realized I still have Y's Origins in my PS4 backlog (I got it physically via Limited Run Games and ended up beating the first boss before getting side tracked by other games) so I might have to hop back into that once I've finished Bloodstained
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 13, 2019 12:12:05 GMT -6
Since my post a few weeks ago I’ve beaten both Gears of War 4 & Guacamelee 2, pre-ordered Final Fantasy 7 remake, and I am still waiting on that Evil Dead 2 “Sweetheart” Kickstarter to finally kickoff (later tonight they are gonna do a stream where they are gonna give people a sneak peak of the minis for the game)
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 9, 2019 21:41:43 GMT -6
RichterB I'm kinda in the same boat as Clear in that I last played the game back in 2012/2013 so my memory of the game is kinda fuzzy, but I do remember there being an element of light exploration in the ground stages with each one having a few hidden treasure chests. I also remember that playing the game for more than 5 mins was painful (and being really pissed that the game's devs didn't include a Circle Pad Pro control option), even when using the special stand that came with the game, that it used AR cards (I believe Club Nintendo even had a special pack of AR cards you could get) for a battle arena mode (which I think I still have a few even though I got rid of the game as soon as I beat the game's story mode) , that it had a f*** ton of "Challenges" to do outside of the main story, and that it had an fairly in depth "weapons" system where there were like 9 types of weapons which could be upgraded or merged to create more powerful versions of weapons.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 8, 2019 18:57:27 GMT -6
Well it's that time of year where all the game companies come together with fans for the next 4 days (or so) to show off their new releases for the next year. So what games are you hoping will get announced, what surprises do you think will be unveiled, and is Konami actually gonna announce a new game (or a new compilation of games) on Tuesday night?
Me personally I'm looking forward to seeing more about Man of Medan, Bayonetta 3, Battletoads, Luigi's Mansion 3, & Streets of Rage 4 and I'm hoping that the oft rumored Resident Evil 3 Remake will get announced/shown off as well as the rumored Parasite Eve remake. As far as surprises go I will be absolutely shocked if Konami announces a new game that isn't PES or a compilation of older games (which is what I think will happen, probably a Castlevania Anniversary Collection 2 or a Metal Gear Anniversary Collection) and I'm definitely curious as to what both Limited Run Games & Square Enix have up their sleeves.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 5, 2019 19:55:56 GMT -6
Personally outside of cosmetic DLC and story DLC expansions for secondary characters such as Dominique, Alfred, Zengetsu, Mystery man, etc. I'd love it if they did a winter themed story expansion where Miriam and gang explore a new (albeit smaller) castle located near the original castle after hearing stories of villagers etc. disappearing in the area. The expansion would ideally require players to traverse through a snowy forest, a snowy village (ala the village at the beginning of CV: Dawn of Sorrow), across a frozen lake, and then explore this new (but smaller) castle where they try to solve the mystery behind the missing villagers.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 3, 2019 20:35:45 GMT -6
RichterB Congrats on beating Bloodlines with Eric and Castlevania Adventure 2! Glad I could clear up the confusion there, yeah total agree that John's path is (overall) better and that the room in Stage 5 with the laser eyes leading up to the roof is Eric's most memorable path, also I recorded some video from Stage 4 while playing as John on Normal Difficulty to show exactly where the 1 ups are and while I'm thinking about it there is a 1 up hidden in a candle during the rising water sequence for the Atlantis Shrine stage.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 2, 2019 22:00:08 GMT -6
uhhhhh.........yeah I need to stop looking at videos like this or else it's gonna be a very long 2 weeks
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on Jun 2, 2019 21:11:53 GMT -6
RichterB - Totally agree about the next to last stage in CV III - Yeah Eric is suppose to be the game's easy mode/beginners mode due to the spear (especially the fully upgraded flaming blue spear) has a longer reach than even a fully upgraded whip plus you can twirl it around to get enemies coming in at you awhile John is suppose to be the normal mode -Congrats on getting that far without surrendering a continue - to my knowledge there's only 1 area (2 rooms) in stage 3 that has bats (right before the rotating platforms that lead up to the stage's final boss) and they continuously respawn if you end up hanging around longer than necessary -Yeah there are a few like that (just like there are some areas you can't go with one character that you can go with the other) and stage 4 (which if I remember correctly is the Munitions Factory in Germany) actually has 2 hidden 1ups, 1 for each character (for Eric's see 22:26 mark in the video , John's is in the next room and instead of going across the top of the conveyor betls you have to whip swing across the bottom of them to get to reach the wall you need to destroy to get it) - Another thing that may surprise you about Bloodlines is that the classic Castlevania song "Bloody Tears" is in the game, go to options set BGM to 05 and SE to 073, exit, start the game, upon fully upgrading your weapon the song will start playing and will keep playing as long as you don't get hit.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 30, 2019 11:56:56 GMT -6
I've pretty much finished the Castlevania Anniversary Collection (all that's left is 1 trophy, which is beat Castlevania Bloodlines with John Morris), finished Dracula X for the first time the other day (I've even started a second playthrough which I'm almost done with), I replayed/beat Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (I recently got my physical PS4 copy of the Classic Edition from LRG) once though I may hop back into it to get the "true" ending as well as do a Zengetzu only run, played some MLB the Show 19, and recently started playing Guacmelee 2 on Steam/PC.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 20:02:33 GMT -6
hyugakojiro Thanks, but I don't feel too hot about it since I only ended up getting that ending cause I cheesed the 3DS's save state feature for VC games because of how frustrated I was getting with certain aspects/parts of the game. Still I am currently in the middle of a second playthrough (I'm on Stage 6), though this time I'm doing it without cheesing the save state feature (I'm only using it when I am gonna take a break from playing/turn off my 3DS, which has so far only been once) and wasn't able to save Maria & Annette (a Medusa Head knocked me off the pillars while I was trying to position myself to take on the Bone Pillar enemies) this time, but I am seeing parts of the game I didn't see last time (and I kinda prefer that path over the one I ended up taking) so there's that. My strategy for the Dracula fight during my first playthrough was fuck chasing after him and risk accidentally jumping into/getting knocked back into the pits, wait for him to come to me, do my damnedest to memorize his pattern so I can dodge his attacks without taking a hit, if it looked like I was about to get hit then if possible quickly use the cross's item crash to avoid the attack since you are essentially invincible when using it, and if possible try to save the roast for when I had the health for his second form down to at least half.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 19:02:20 GMT -6
RichterB thanks I'm currently going through it a second time (to see some of the stuff I missed my first time through), but this time I'm severely limiting my save state usage to only when I am about to shut the game off/turn off the system. At the moment I'm currently on track for the bad ending as I missed rescuing both Maria & Annette (I almost made it through the pillar section in stage 3 then I got hit by a Medusa Head while trying to correctly position myself for the Bone Pillar enemies, but I did get to see that Necromancer boss you were talking about, he kind of looks like he was suppose to be the Dark Priest Shaft) and am currently back at the beginning of Stage 6 (I got to the evil/possessed Annette boss fight that replaces the boss fight with Death only to lose my last life and use a continue) - Yeah I definitely enjoyed both Super Castlevania IV & Bloodlines more than I did Dracula X, but it's not a horrible game overall it just has it's own unique form of BS......that really pisses me off at times ( ) due to it's cheapness (one thing I forgot to mention in my post was also how pissed I was to see that the Bone Pillars in this game had arcing fireball attacks, which led to a few cheap hits) and I feel that a big reason why I enjoy them more has to do with when I first played them as well as the fact that I played the original game (Rondo of Blood) before playing this game. - Yeah I found out the hard way that they had changed the way stopwatch worked, I managed to pick it up after hitting a candle before beginning to traverse a series of platforms over open pits when saw some flying enemies coming at me so I hit the button to use the stopwatch (only I hit the Item Crash button by mistake) right before I started my jump. Well about halfway through my jump animation I realized that the enemies hadn't stopped in place like they were suppose to and that there was a large circle of what looked like mirrors forming/circling and then slowly closing in on Richter, before they could reach me an enemy hit me and knocked me into the damn pit. - I actually do enjoy Chronicles/X68000 as it has a soft spot in my heart since it was the first post SotN Castlevania game I played (I actually got lucky and snagged the only copy my local EB Games....this was before they got bought out by Gamestop and turned the store into a Gamestop.....had and I still have that copy), hell I'll occasionally pop it into my PS2/PS3 from time to time when I'm in the mood. Though I will say playing Arranged mode feels kinda weird when you first boot it up because of Simon's pink hair. As for Dracula X the jury is still out, it might be able to grow on me, but I have no idea if it will once I finish it for the second time though I it will probably go into the rotation of 3DS "filler" games (i.e. games I play in small intervals to help kill some time/ fill time between waiting periods, personal example include games such as Tetris, Castlevania, Streets of Rage 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Revenge of the Gator, Shantae Risky's Revenge, Angry Birds)
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 29, 2019 8:24:21 GMT -6
RichterB thanks, now having beaten the game with the good ending (thank god for save states and to quote the AVGN " see I can cheat too you rotten bastard" ....but seriously I want to murder the asshole who thought it was a good idea to have the final boss fight over open pits) I feel that Dracula X is more of a remake of Rondo than just a straight port and the reason I feel that way is because 1. it uses Richter's sprite from Rondo, 2. it has a few of the bosses and enemies from Rondo but they are in different locations and some require a slightly different strategy, 3. it has some alternate stages though not as many as in Rondo, 4. it requires you to find a key to rescue people and depending on who/how many you save you get different endings, 5. they share some music, but there are also a few different songs between the two, 5. the opening intro "cinematic" is different between the 2 (I also find the artwork in Dracula X's intro cinematic to be kinda garish, but that may have to do with the fact that I was watching it/playing the game on a small screen so it may look better on a bigger screen).
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 16:56:12 GMT -6
RichterB thanks for the tips and yeah the one I'm referring to is by the same company (Mondo) that's been doing vinyl releases for a bunch of the Castlevania games No prob. I haven't gotten into vinyl, personally--the size of the record compared to a CD trips me up--but I can see its appeal, and I think it's neat that it's being done. (Then again, these days, most people just go for MP3-only...)
...I thought I’d post this here, given the recent conversations. A while back, I did a really rough video experiment to compare Dracula X and Rondo of Blood for roughly 1 ½ levels. I never posted it before, because I never finished it and the video capture didn’t go smoothly overall, but oh well. (The posting compression on the video made it a bit worse, too.) It’s not intended to be comprehensive, though I wish I’d done a bit more, like at least item crashes and such. But regardless, I was basically trying to determine the difference in gameplay flow, screen scene to screen scene, in terms of level design and how the character moves. Like, what is the difference in the Belmont strut, jumping, back flips, etc., because those things are often brought up in the fandom. One thing I found was that Dracula X’s Richter takes more steps in his strut than Rondo Richter, yet both cover the same amount of ground therein. Also, it seems like the level design of Dracula X has more platforming, while Rondo has more of a hallway structure. In addition, the back flip is indeed slower in Dracula X, but still useful and capable of the same functionality as in Rondo (as I show with the back flip/whip combo in both games early on.) Oh, and the daggers appear for longer and with seemingly more detail on screen in Dracula X...
Here are maps for comparison:
By the way, a warning about Dracula X...the Dracula fight is one of the most strategic and challenging in the series...
P.S. I'm realizing some of CVIII: Dracula's Curse's levels are as hard or harder than The Adventure's on Game Boy. But a lot of it is just getting in the right mindset, I've found. For example, that super-long level with the falling blocks, you just need to stay in one roughly three-block area and match the pattern; you don't need to be moving and jumping all over the place to dodge the falling blocks. By the way...is it officially Castlevania: The Adventure OR The Castlevania Adventure? I think it was supposed to be the latter, but over time, with the WiiWare remake, it's morphed into the former.
Anyway, just a heads up, I've got a lot of stuff I really need to be doing, so I don't know if I'll be posting as long or as often, overall. So if I don't reply right away to stuff, it just means I'm busy. This collection has struck me quite significantly, and it's kind of been overly distracting...
With that in mind, as promised, I'll say this about Bloodlines to get it out of the way: It's a remarkable game that easily fits into the top tier of Castlevania games. It's a must play, and you really can't understand the whole series' trajectory (or potential trajectory) without it. My previous, brief experiences with it, while telling me it was good, failed to convey just how good. It is a game that can actually rival my years of positive experiences with Dracula X SNES in my personal top three. While before I tied Bloodlines together with SCV4, I think it actually is better understood as a response to Rondo of Blood. It incorporated some of the more excessive, anime-esque abilities and visual eccentricities of Rondo into a more balanced action-platforming experience that would be a compromise between SCV4 and Rondo. (Knowing this, in a sense, you could say that Dracula X, coming afterward, was a further compromise, now between Bloodlines and Rondo.)
I love Bloodlines' eccentric and exotic take on the franchise. It's so cool how you get to travel to iconic and/or mythological sites across Europe, and the clever Mode-7-esque effects are delightful. It's notable that this game has so many diverse castle-type stages built into it. That you get to start at the ruins of Dracula's castle is a nice reversal and wrinkle in and of itself. The game has a really good action flow, and it's amazing how you can connect to basically any ceiling with John's whip. (It may not have been used extensively, but it's used just enough, and it offers the possibility for players to integrate it as much or little as they like.) I haven't played too much with Eric yet, but his extra move set and alternate paths are intriguing. It almost seems to give it more of the SCV4 directional controls. I must say, John's downward whip wasn't very useful, and I think it should have been a diagonal down whip, like in Chronicles/X68000. The jumping diagonal-up whip attack is a nice compromise for those who thought that SCV4's 8 directions were too much.
As an aside, with the E.Bartley fight, I didn't know her floating orbs wouldn't hurt you, so I tried to avoid them at first, making the fight a lot tougher than it actually is. Still, her fight, and the buildup to Dracula, even if there is some reusing of assets in the background, is very cool. I especially like how the music switches the Simon's Theme from SCV4. The Death fight is unique and fun. The switch in subweapons is fascinating, but the boomerang really trumps everything overall, I've found. The use of mini item crashes or the super whip power-up adds extra wrinkles of strategy that I think are brilliant; it's a good compromise between the excess power of Rondo/Dracula X that can break certain parts of those games. The music is great, and the sound effects, while a little cheesy at times, are all in all charming to me. It is worth noting that the game has a structure reminiscent of later Contra titles by Konami in how it's one set piece after another, with mini-bosses sprinkled in, sometimes one on top of the other. That is enjoyable, but it does make some of the levels feel a little more chopped up and the action a little more segmented, which depending on one's mood and/or tastes, could dock it a few points. But I think it's just balanced enough in straight action-platforming vs. boss encounters that it walks that line effectively overall. I think it's clever how some of the enemies are distributed, though, like Frankenstein's monster in a munitions factory, and some of the boss ideas are really unique--again, the Gear Golem...or the Pillar Defense System thing. Finding the "weak spots" for bosses is something Castlevaia games need to revisit.
I already mentioned the special effects, but some of them are super creative, like the mirror room in the last level. I don't fully get the medusa blast section in the beginning of that last level, though, and the rotating platforms near the end of Stage 5 almost don't work, gameplay-wise. I believe this is the first time the stone Golem had that red-orb heart, something IGA would latch onto in his later games. I'm jumping all over here, but there's a lot to say about this game. It has an effective and attractive atmosphere, though I don't think it's as iconic as what SCV4 brings to the table. I beat SCV4 recently, and the way it builds and builds, especially near the journey's end, is downright epic and haunting. (By the way, that falling stairs section is harder than I recalled, though it functioned just like it did on the SNES.) As an aside, I know there's a dislike for the alternate title The New Generation, but I don't think that was inappropriate to call it that, too. So yeah, two thumbs up for Bloodlines. I'll be returning to it a lot. Right now the painterly intrigue of some of the visuals, the consequential way of finding the right path/requirements to the best ending, and the more traditional flow of some of the level design still give Dracula X SNES a slight edge on it for me, but they're neck and neck, and I wouldn't have any issue with someone saying it's their favorite game in the franchise. Again, it makes me wish there wasn't so much concern about the Castlevania timeline versus just getting on with creative, engaging adventures. CV64's Reinhardt Schneider and CotM's Nathan Graves and are some of my favorite Belmont-types, and like John Morris or Eric Lecarde, they're not exactly mainline.
P.P.S. I've only read pieces of the bonus ebook so far, as I've mostly been playing the games, but I was really struck by how many good ideas were left on the table, especially with Super Castlevania IV. It looks like some of these concepts were absorbed into Rondo of Blood (burning city, canoe ride) and some were put into Bloodlines (rotating tower you climb), but there's still more left, like the levee bridges. And some of these ideas, like the canoe ride, seemed more involved than what Rondo did with it. Plus, interesting that you originally could wrap the whip around some enemies and toss them aside! The creativity and passion oozing from these documents is amazing. It wasn't about just making "another" Castlevania; it seems each time it was about pushing the limits of innovation and appropriateness for whatever hardware a given game was to come out on. Curiously, though, the Super Castlevania IV document ideas do seem to resonate with Super Ghouls N Ghosts' concepts with the tower and water levels. Also, we learned that the spinning room is actually a mechanized chamber created by Dracula, and not some illusion.
A few years ago I got into vinyl mostly for the retro video game soundtracks (one of my first record purchases was the soundtrack for Battletoads) and then strayed into horror movie soundtracks (my collection is currently at about 60 records) and at first it tripped me up, but I've now gotten used to it (I posted a brief video of the Dracula X soundtrack being played under the "what are you listening to now" thread, but the quality kinda sucks).
I always though it was Castlevania Adventure for the GB games and Castlevania: The Adventure for the WiiWare game.
I knew going in the CV III was gonna be hard (it's why I went for the Trevor only run right off the bat), but I was surprised at how effective Alucard's powered up attack and Sypha's fire spell were against bosses ( the last couple of times I'd beaten the game I went with Trevor & Grant and hadn't mess with either Sypha or Alucard) especially against Dracula.
In regards to the video comparison one thing I noticed/just realized while watching it is that the part of the town at the beginning of Rondo is almost a dead ringer for the one of the towns found in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
I've always had a soft spot for Bloodlines (it was the first Castlevania game I played & beat) even after playing through both SC IV and Rondo of Blood and a big reason for that was the art style (I first saw some of the art for the game in issue 17 of Sega Visions magazine and used to pour over the article on the game all the time...until I lost the magazine that is), music, and the (Imo) memorable opening sequence in stage one that culminates with the undead wolf/warg mid stage boss fight (when I first played through the opening sequence of SotN it instantly reminded me of that sequence in Bloodlines)
In regards to the artbook/ebook I've also just browsed it, but I do intend to give it a full read down the road.
P.S. I finally got past the Bat boss (but I unfortunately had to "cheese" the save state feature in order to do it cause I was getting super pissed about that long hallway with the spear guys, I was finally able to make it through that hallway with out losing any health), I then made it through the stage 3 area with all the columns without falling (I recall hearing that in this game falling down in that area was one of the ways to get the bad ending) and found a key right before the boss. I managed to hold onto it far enough into stage 4 (thanks to "cheesing" the save states:P) to save Maria, I then used the key to exit to Stage 5 which is where I'm currently at in the game.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 16:14:17 GMT -6
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 15:59:36 GMT -6
I've been playing the Castlevania Anniversary Collection as well as Dracula X and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (I got LRG's PS4 Classic Edition which is why I'm playing it again ) lately, but I don't think that's gonna keep me busy until launch. So once I'm done with Bloodlines (all that's left is to beat the game with John Morris), CotM & Dracula X I'll probably move on to Guacamelee 2 on PC, also there's E3 coming up in a few weeks which will keep me entertained for a few days and there's an "Sweetheart" Kickstarter for the Evil Dead 2 board game coming out in the next couple of days that if successful will give long suffering backers (like me) their long awaited games (If you're curious as to what the hell I'm talking about just see the paragraph below which should serve as a "quick" primer on the situation) so I'll be keeping my eyes on that, plus throw in work and that should definitely help keep my mind off of BS until it arrives . A few years ago there was a Kickstarter for an Evil Dead 2 boardgame, which I was a backer (all told I put in about $117 which compared to what other backers put in was light/tame by comparison as some people had put in well over $500), the KS was successfully funded, raising $723,000 from over 6,000 backers easily crushing it's $70,000 goal. Well during the first year or so they were telling backers everything was moving along smothly and the they'd be getting their game soon, then they started telling backers that they were hitting a few snags in production which were normal and that if things go good we'd get our game early the next year. Well flash forward to early last year, around April/May, the shit hit the fan as it became known to backers that the people responsible for the KS campaign, namely the CEO/Owner of the company behind the KS had essentially taken the KS money for this KS as well as 2 other KS's the company had done (Terminator the board game and The Evil Dead comic book Omnibus/Artbook), all told just north of $1 million, to pay for things other than the promised board games/books, which they already had the licensing rights to. During this whole time it turns out they were regularly lying to backers saying that everything was fine and that the delays were due to production complications caused by Chinese New Year. Then they essentially tried to blackmail backers into putting up additional money in a wefunder campaign by essentially holding the game hostage telling backers that if you want your game(s)/book donate to this campaign. Of course that didn't go well with backers and the wefunder utterly failed so the company (essentially) went bankrupt. Now here's where things get "real good", the owner of said company then started trying to sell off backer exclusive items (figurines, dice, etc.) that he had gotten a hold of (we later found out he had also stiffed the very people who had made the items and was even trying to stiff the warehouse owner where this stuff was being stored) to any and every company/person he could, for example backer exclusive figurines ended up in a Loot Crate competitor's box, exclusive wooden dice (which were "made from the original wood from the cabin in the movie" and sold for about $200 ea) were being sold on Amazon for not even half the price, and just recently (as in earlier this week) the damn Omnibus/Art book, which had it's own full blown KS popped up for pre-order on Amazon with a Sept release date even though not a single backer for that KS had gotten nor will apparently get their copies of the book. While all of this was going on backers flooded Kickstarter, BBB, their credit card companies and the Attorney General of the company's "home state" with complaints and charge back claims. Kickstarter did jack shit even though the company repeatedly violated the KS terms of service agreement (which backers & creators must agree to before using the platform), hell they even refused to make the "creator" company produce a full blown list of what the money was spent on and then basically told angry backers to f*** off. The Attorney General apparently looked into it briefly but decided to not to push it any further than that despite backers having an obvious case and Credit Card companies declined about 90% of the charge back claims since it had been well over a year since the cards were charged. So fast forward to earlier this year and this guy named Tommy who works for/co-owns (I think) a board game company called Lynnvander (who had also apparently been screwed over by this company after helping them out on designing a board game) basically starts working behind the scenes to see about resurrecting the project, he pops up on the FB group dedicated to this fucking debacle to let us know that there might be a small chance that we might be getting our game after all and that he'd let us know for sure once things were more concrete. Well last month Tommy let us know that his company Lynnvander was teaming up with Jasco to make/Kickstart a new Evil Dead 2 board game soon (they've since said the KS will launch by the end of the month) and that for each game essentially pledged/sold a backer from the previous ED 2 board game KS would get a free copy of the new game as well. If the campaign is successful in reaching it's goal then pretty much every backer from the previous ED 2 BG KS would be guaranteed to get a free copy of the new game.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 14:37:12 GMT -6
I just received the vinyl soundtrack (by Waxwork Records) for the first Friday the 13th movie in the mail today so that is what I'm currently listening to and once I'm done with that I'm thinking of popping on Mondo's Castlevania Rondo of Blood/Dracula X soundtrack.
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 28, 2019 4:44:29 GMT -6
RichterB thanks for the tips and yeah the one I'm referring to is by the same company (Mondo) that's been doing vinyl releases for a bunch of the Castlevania games
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 27, 2019 12:52:15 GMT -6
RichterB Thanks and congrats on beating Castlevania The Adventure!, in regards to beating Bloodlines with Lecarde on Normal difficulty it technically wasn't hard at all especially once I (re)learned boss patterns and how his path differs from John's (prior to this I had only beaten the game, twice, with John on Normal difficulty with the last playthough being about 5 years ago on a Retron 5) as I was essentially able to beat the game in about an hour (if you cut out the times where I had to pause the game to go do something real quick or when I did some gem/weapon upgrade farming ala the classic Castlevania games that is ), but going in since I hadn't really played/beaten the game with Lecarde before this I wanted to push/challenge myself so I didn't use the collection's save state feature nor did I use the in game password system (which gives you a password after every completed stage) so when I used up all my continues (about half my deaths came from me falling in a pit cause I didn't place/time my jumps properly or having a brain fart and forgetting that I was on a moving platform) I'd start the game all over from the very beginning and I also set an optional goal of trying to beat the game without using a single continue, which I actually came pretty damn close to meeting getting as far as phase 2 of the Bartley fight before getting wrecked (cause I had forgotten her phase 2 attack pattern) and needing to use a continue. Now in keeping with the spirit of challenge I have tried playing Expert mode as John without save states & passwords as well and boy it's definitely hard as there are bats & ghosts flying about (ala the Medusa Heads) in stages where they weren't before (a few of my deaths came from one of those fuckers hitting me at the top of stairs in the Atlantis stage which knocked me off to my death) also when you get hit you take more damaged (about 4 -5 bars per hit) from regular enemies than you would in Normal mode (about 2 bars per hit), but so far I have managed to make it to the Stage 3 (Leaning Tower of Pisa) boss fight before dying/using all my continues. True either one works as the virtual console selection on both systems are imo fantastic (though I do find it head scratching that GBA & DS VC games are only available on the Wii U and not the 3DS)
UPDATE/EDIT: I ended up taking the plunge and purchased Dracula X for the 3DS. So far I've only gotten to the stage 2 boss, where I've died and died and died and died and died....again one thing I've noticed so far is that Richter's jump feels off to me for some reason I don't know if it's because of all the time spent with Bloodlines or what but it was kinda throwing me off. I also see what you mean by stages taking cues from stages in Rondo of Blood, also speaking about Dracula X & Rondo of Blood I meant to ask you earlier if knew about the Mondo 2 x LP vinyl release for Rondo of Blood & Dracula X?
|
|
tav7623
Loyal Familiar
[TI1]
Posts: 223
inherit
56
0
Apr 18, 2022 7:14:09 GMT -6
164
tav7623
[TI1]
223
Jun 10, 2015 17:15:22 GMT -6
June 2015
tav7623
|
Post by tav7623 on May 26, 2019 21:23:26 GMT -6
tav7623 , that's a pretty comprehensive video on the 16-bit era. I skimmed most of it for now, but I took some issue with the idea that Dracula X SNES is bland. Its logic may be fuzzy at times, but its art direction is pretty captivating. Visually, it has the best flaming village, Atlantis-style level, and clock tower in the series, in my opinion. It gives a lot of variety to the styles within Dracula's normal halls, and it has an interesting architectural concept where the caverns and pillared substructure of the castle come together. I find it as visually interesting as anything in Castlevania, really. Also, I think it perhaps has the best feel and sound for whip strikes, and his assessment of the alternate stages was shortsighted. That pillar section where you fall on the alternate path--you're not supposed to do that if you want the best ending. (Those kind of accidental, random things happen in Rondo all the time, but here it has an added cost.) The real challenge is finding the true, correct path, something Rondo doesn't have, and the way it forks with keys afterward is rather ingenious, even if frustrating and perhaps dastardly. I remember first playing the game, with its cool map screen, and wondering why I never saw the Atlantis area on the map in-game. That was an awesome discovery, when I finally did it right.
Anyway, see images below for some of the iconic and/or fascinating sights of Dracula X, and decide for yourself if it's bland. It's obviously different than Rondo...so much so that calling it a port isn't even accurate. I don't know how to define its art style. It's like a blending of comic book pop art and water colors. It stands out, though. I'd really be interested to hear how this game came about, and what the approach was for it. Because they could have tried to port aspects of Rondo more straight-up in spots, visually and design-wise. Rather than a port, they almost made a completely new game, aesthetically and design-wise. The opening stage, curiously, is reported to be a structural recreation of Castlevania III's opening stage. But now for those pics. I quickly put together this rough collage...
It is pretty comprehensive, ok, I personally have not played Dracula X (though I have played Rondo of Blood via both the Wii virtual console & CV Requiem Collection) and I have been tempted to pick it up for my 3DS (I have the "New 3DS XL" system which unlike the regular 3DS & 3DS XL can play SNES virtual console games), but most of what I know about the game (it's kinda part port & part remake and is supposedly hard as hell) come from videos like this, the Gametrailers Castlevania Retrospective, & the 4 part AVGN Castlevania videos.
|
|