I've never beaten Death in the original Castlevania without that cheap triple shot holy water stunlock
Been playing Aria of Sorrow, my first Castlevania game, since before the re-release. I don't have any other Castlevanias to compare it to but I like it a lot.
You just kind of explore, whack things with weapons, and find weirder enemies. A lot of the enemies are surprises in terms of movement mechanics and damage. I think my favorite is the "Giant Ghost" (a huge flaming skull) and some kind of laser chicken.
It's very exciting to get a new ability and access new places. I joke that what defines a metroidvania is going past a platform that you can't get until you find the doublejump ability, but here it's absolutely true.
Someone upthread mentioned how save rooms are spread out weird, and yeah that's been a weird friction point for me, not a dealbreaker, but more than once I died before finding one and lost a ton of exploration progress. More than once I've run to the game's weapon seller, at the very start of the game, with a sack full of cash trying to improve my attack stats a little bit.
Currently stuck on the Death boss, who is a huge asshole and I don't know if I can get around him.
Circle of the Moon was the first Castlevania I ever played. Somehow a cartridge fell into my lap second-hand. It was one of probably three GBA games I had at the time. I engorged myself on it in the back seat of the family van during a road trip to see relatives several states away. One of those situations where you have nothing to do and nothing to look at. I threw myself into the meatgrinder against the Dracula final boss fight and its several stages, prevailing only through attrition.
I wrapped up Circle of the Moon on the Castlevania Advance Collection, and I think when I look back on it, I will most remember it as a hateful game. It almost seems as though the developers thought that all of the things that were infamous about early Castlevania games were what people enjoyed about Castlevania, so they just made a game that was an absolutely relentless amount of nefariously, antagonistically placed enemies and ridiculous knockback. I never got a sense of the clever or satisfyingly surmountable from it, just a sense of “hey, f*** you for being here.” Never in a million years would I be interested in subjecting myself to this without liberal use of rewind.
That said, it's...still Castlevania. And moreover, one of the Iga-vania formula, so there's lots to enjoy. It's that sex-pizza thing. I like the music, the DSS system, and the overall feeling and aesthetic of classical Castlevania. While I prefer the weird anime-vanias, it was cool to have this exploratory style paired with just a beefy ol Belmont boy whipping about a normal gothic castle. I feel like if I lived in a void, I would've guessed that it was a Super NES predecessor to Symphony of the Night rather than a follow-up, which is interesting. The final boss is completely inexcusable, though. Like shockingly bad from a developer of this pedigree, in many ways.
So now I'm about two hours into Harmony of Dissonance, and overall having a much better time. I think you could make a fair argument that Circle of the Moon has "better" pixel art, but I just vastly prefer looking at Harmony of Dissonance (an aside: GBA looks so lovely in HD, and on the Switch screen). It's garish for sure, but so full of variety and surprise that I'm motivated to see the next wild set piece, or prog-rock-album-cover-lookin creature. @"GigaSlime"#264 really nailed it and colored my perception here; there's a real Argento or psychedelic Technicolor 1970s Hammer horror film vibe, and as strange as it is, that is in its way extremely Castlevania. While Nathan had tighter movement, I also enjoy being Juste more, simply because his whip works in the fun and satisfying way you would expect from a Castlevania made in the last 20ish years, easily melting groups of bats when you line it up just right rather than feeling like a miracle when you barely manage to land a hit while jumping. The music is a shame, but I can convince myself it's a Game Boy Color bop when I'm playing in handheld (another aside: this is one of the few collections for which I would recommend not using headphones, if you are bothered by that GBA hiss). Some of the compositions do get real grating, though, when I play on my TV's surround sound setup.
And this is really tiny, total wouldn't-it-be-nice territory, but I wish M2 had the time and budget to go full M2 on this collection, like Sega Ages M2. It's weird that the dot matrix filter from the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is missing, and I can't help but wish for small things like map labels and button shortcuts (why am I going to a pause screen to switch between magic and subweapons when I got these 10 other buttons here doin nothin? boy, it sure would feel good to dash with the triggers instead of the shoulder buttons, ay?).
_But_, with all that game-forumy stuff out of my system, as someone who played and finished just about every Castlevania up through the N64 but stopped short of its handheld renaissance era, this is a $20 treasure trove (and a treasure trauma reminding me that I owned a Dracula X cartridge as a kid). It's a genuine pleasure to have in October, and I have that candy-bowl, comfort-food compulsion to just keep dipping back in.
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@“tokucowboy”#p44690 @GigaSlime really nailed it and colored my perception here; there’s a real Argento or psychedelic Technicolor 1970s Hammer horror film vibe, and as strange as it is, that is in its way extremely Castlevania.
Shit, I hadn't thought about it being Argento but it totally is! All the really harsh red and blue color palettes are pure Suspiria
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@“tokucowboy”#p44690 and a treasure trauma reminding me that I owned a Dracula X cartridge as a kid
It's okay, you're among friends that understand here... : (
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/elShoeS.jpeg]
Dracula X was the first CV I ever beat! Or should I say, Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss, which is what they named it down here.
Tangential point here, but does Dracula X aka Castlevania: Rondo of Blood have the best box art of all time?
That‘s such HOT box art. That exquisite composition. The drama and the power of Richter’s stance and his HUGE muscle. How dark it is yet how it all still pops. And the cherry on top, that evil borderless razor sharp cutout of Dracula's eye. It rules so goddamn hard.
Click [here](https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/original/9/93770/2365515-tg16_castlevaniarondofblood_jp.jpg) for a nice high res scan of the PC Engine _Rondo of Blood_ cover.
I prefer the Dracula XX art, honestly, but the Rondo art does better communicate the shift in tone from the previous games.
@“gsk”#p44929 To be fair this also rules
@“Gaagaagiins”#p44932 Was just going to post that! It's some of my favourite Castlevania art, period.
I was also stopping by to mention how even though SOTN isn't quite my favourite game in the series, I think its bonus version of Richter is probably my favourite playable Belmont! His moveset is extremely fun and well done, and it's a shame that he's playable in a game that isn't really built around his methods of navigation.
I have been playing through the three GBA games the past few weeks and while the consensus is Aria of Sorrow is the best I find the one I like most is Harmony of Dissonance. There are a few reasons.
1) No grinding required. Souls and Cards aren't here. You can grind for equipment or levels of you'd like but you don't really have to.
2) The soundtrack. I have heard a lot of people dislike the sound of this one but I really dig it. I'm not sure why. Some parts sound off key, especially long held notes but I really dig it.
3) I really like the map. I've also seen a lot of complaints on this one for having a lot of dead ends and never feeling like you're going the right way, but I'm one where when I play a game I'm actually more worried if I go the right way because I want to hit every dead end first.
I really like the environmental puzzles where you have to trick those big armored guys into absolutely eating shit so hard they smash through walls so you can access new areas
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@“Paul-Stalter-Pace”#p44965 Some parts sound off key, especially long held notes but I really dig it.
So........ would you say what you're hearing is.................. a _Harmony of Dissonance??_
@“Gaagaagiins”#p44647 Nice! I played up to where I was on the PC Engine mini and now I‘m up to stage 5. I’m going to keep plugging away at it…the save states sure help!
@“Unbeknownst2U”#p44918 Dracula X is fucking mean. I was so glad to find out it was an inferior knockoff to Rondo of Blood, because that's what I was originally looking for and man, I was not enjoying myself at all. I save scummed the hell out of it on an emulator.
@“KingNothing”#p45004 unfortunately I think you might find Rondo of Blood has much the same gameplay problems. You really have to memorize stages, enemy layouts and patterns to make any progress. The reason it's superior to Dracula X is mainly because it has amazing presentation, music, cutscenes, branching paths, and set pieces. But moment to moment gameplay, the difficulty and level design are similar in brutality.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p44971 Was reading Paul-Stalter-Pace's comment feeling this joke welling up within me, only to scroll down and find my plans foiled by Gaagaagiins!!!
@“captain”#p45012 https://youtu.be/XaHEHlVMNyg