/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10943085
Super Castlevania IV
Symphony of the Night ruined the series

>>10943085
Feel free to judge, I know my taste is shit.
My real favorite is Harmony of Despair

>>10943095
Based take, I like the igavanias too but classic died outside of wii rebirth and little else.
>>10943096
lament is okay, I like it for the general atmosphere and music, it's an okay game.

>>10943085
SotN

Not just the best CV game but a #10 goat game.

>>10943085
№2 SoTN, №2 Bloodlines, №3 Castlevania III.

>>10943085
only played the first one on nes and circle of the moon on gba. circle of the moon was very enjoyable but i love the original nes way more, never could beat the final boss on the nes

>>10943096

>>10943182
* #1 SotN, I mean.

>>10943085
Castlevania 64 ofc, any other answer is just wrong and gay

>>10943085
Best classicvania: CIII
Best metroidvania: Aria of Sorrow

>>10943095
SotN didn't really ruin the series, there was no market for classic 2D platformers in the 2000s. If Igavanias never existed the series would just die anyway

Reminder that if you like aria of sorrow you're a weeb and you should rope yourself

>>10943402
aria isn't the one with the anime portraits you colossal fucking retard

I'm not even joking.

>>10943426

>>10943440
>dude yeah crazy that from all the possible places in the world.... this is set in.... Japan!

>>10943432
It's a good game but a flawed execution of ideas that were before their time. Never heard anyone shitting on Simon's Quest until AVGN turned 'Castlevania II sucks' into a meme.

>>10943426
Ayami Kojima is anime as fuck though

Order of Ecclesia

The last true Castlevania game, and what a send-off. It gives you a little of both worlds, with a challenging linear first half and a free roaming castle in the second half. Good story, incredible OST, multiple memorable boss fights, lots of combinations to explore, and amazing controls.

When Iga wanted to make his off-brand Castlevania and needed to put his best foot forward, he didn’t copy CV4. He didn’t copy SotN. He copied OoE.

>>10943449
>that dialogue window
Man I've never played the GBA Castlevanias but your screenshot still makes me feel nostalgic because of those Shaman King games by Konami. I loved them so much back in the days

>>10943329
There wasn't one in the late 90s either. The number of true action platfomers in the 5th gen that aren't RPGs or collectathons in disguise is paltry.

>>10943095
>Symphony of the Night ruined the series
I honestly don't understand how anyone can say that. Everyone I know who's played the game considers it one of the greatest games ever made and absolutely played the hell out of it.

There's basically nothing wrong with the game. Just wish the PS version had all the extras the DC and JPN version did.

>>10943623
Yeah, people just didn't want to spend money on 'short and simple games' anymore sadly

>>10943639
You forget we are on /vr/ where idiots have the most contrarian takes possible for attention, such as CV64 is flawless masterpiece and SotN ruined the series.

Though seeing people saying CV4 is good is kind of recent thing. It used to be shitposted along with SotN as complete trash on /vr/ with on CV3, Rondo, and Bloodlines as the only ones acceptable to like.

>>10943639
>>10943676
As someone who hates contrarian tourists from /v/ who don't even play the games they like to shit on, I genuinely didn't like SotN. I don't post about it though. And that's weird because I like both Classicvanias and Metroid. I tried playing Aria of Sorrow as well and I just can't, these games are not for me

3

>>10943676
>Though seeing people saying CV4 is good is kind of recent thing.
I blame AVGN. He claims that CV4 is the greatest CV game ever and glances over SotN.

>>10943676
>Though seeing people saying CV4 is good is kind of recent thing. It used to be shitposted along with SotN as complete trash on /vr/ with on CV3, Rondo, and Bloodlines as the only ones acceptable to like.
I guess things got too distorted by now so I have no idea what time do you refer to and how many layers of shitposting irony might be behind the people you mention but 4 is consistently one of the most popular Castlevania games, along with 1, 3, Rondo and SOTN.
Last time I checked Castlevnaia Dungeon forums, 4 was still the highest voted game in the series.
>but too easy
Not easier than Rondo or Bloodlines, or even 1.

>>10943954
4 is definitely way easier than Bloodlines, when did the meme of Bloodlines being easy even start? The final level of this game is VERY hard. I'll now try to rank the games in terms of difficulty, been a while since I played em
X68k>3>Dracula X>Adventure>1>Bloodlines>Adventure 2
Now 4, Rondo and Legends are kinda equal and 2 is the easiest

>>10943969
I didn't find Bloodlines to be a hard game, most of the platforming is pretty easy, and fighting enemies becomes a bit trivial once you get the blue orb powerup.
Final level has some creative gimmicks but wasn't hard to me.
Anyway I'm not of the idea of hard = good game, haunted castle is the hardest CV and it's nor very good at all, bloodlines, rondo and 4 are all great despite easier difficulty (for CV standards)

>>10943096
Area design with no faster movement speed options aside, Lament was pretty good because it didn't have leveling or a huge amount of straight gear upgrade options and so they could more tightly balance it.

more like cattlevania, amirite?

Why is castlevaina talk so comfy?
I just got the dawn of sorrows and really digging it. Not in far tho.
I'm in the mood to play blood lines right now, I feel like I always picked the guy with the Whip because it's the damned vampire killer!

>>10943085
JONATHAN
CHARLOTTO

>>10943954
CV4 was only ever considered bad only on /vr/ and it was by contrarian shitposters, that's all I was getting at. CV4 is definitely a good game.

And also Castlevania 64 is normally considered bad and CV Legacy of Darkness is an objective improvement, but you still get /vr/ contrarians that will say CV64 is better. It's just how /vr/ works.

Dawn of sorrow is much better than shartria and I'm tired of people pretending otherwise.
>>10943707
Aria is more like sidescroller diablo. Harmony has ridiculously shit map and kinda boring. You might like circle of the moon if you can handle double tap to run.

I've been playing through Circle of the Moon recently, I never did get around to going through all the extra modes after you beat the game. The game really could have used set gear and items, being totally reliant on random drops was a little rough.

>>10944518
The only way Dawn is worse is the artstyle. I'm still sore about that

>>10943085
Castlevania stopped existing after Gen IV

Classic:
Rondo > Bloodlines > 3 > Adventure Rebirth > Chronicles/X68K > 1 > 4

Exploration/Igavania:
SotN > Dawn > Aria > Simon's Quest > Bloodstained > Portrait >>>>> [insert dog turds here] >>>>> Ecclesia > Harmony > Circle

>>10945035
HOLY SHIT TASTE

>>10945040
Let me guess, 4fag?

>>10945047
1

>>10945060
1 is good but then I remember the medusa corridor with knights and I lose all interest in replaying it. 3 is much easier to replay for me.

>>10943483
>The last true Castlevania game
nigga, the wiiware game exists

>>10944280
>Why is castlevaina talk so comfy?
its not. these threads usually devolve into rampant flamewars
somehow megaman threads are never as bad

EVERY GBA/DS Castlevania is a cope entry trying to fill daddy SOTN's shoes.

>>10943096
The addition of rpg mechanics and equipment just don’t feel very “Castlevania”. It slowed gameplay down pretty significantly. 4 also had the best control scheme (being able to whip in any direction) so the gimped combat of SotN felt REALLY bad coming afterward.
SotN isn’t a bad game and I still play it, but 4 is just so good that it makes the rest seem bad I think.

https://shmuplations.com/castlevania
>I once said to Akamatsu that one of the hardest things about Castlevania was how easily Simon can be knocked into a pit and die from one enemy hit. He shot back, “Yeah, but look at it this way… Simon doesn’t die from one hit—Mario does!” I was like, Ah hah!

Mario sisters... how do we respond?

>>10944280
CV threads are one of the few threads that are actually better to discuss on /v/ since so much of /vr/ has such shit tastes and hates igavanias and would rather just replay CV3 for eternity

>>10943085
Classic, it's hard to say. I think I liked Bloodlines the most but I can't say any of them really got me going, still haven't played Rondo though. SotN for igavanias, in part because it's the complete package. Later games might improve on one thing but weaker on another. 3D, Curse of Darkness. Not amazing but I really like what it was going for.

>>10945225
/v/ doesn't play games that came out before like 2010

>>10943085
>Post your favourite game in the franchise
Not retro OOE

>>10945225
/v/ has a dedicated shitposter, probably a tourist from /tv/ or /co/ that trolls any mention of SoTN or Ayami Kojima.

Say, whatever happened to that Maria hack?

>>10945293
Konami games aren't retro by default? Sure feels like it should be that way..

I want to like Bloodlines the best, as the controls are possibly the best in the entire series. Super responsive, yet still demanding commitment like a CV game should. IV just has the better feel of adventure, better platforming, and better graphics though. Bloodlines has too many flat, non-platforming sections. So IV, then Bloodlines.

First Castlevania is my favorite, although I can't beat it.
I've beaten the DS handheld rpg ones, though.

>>10944323
Charlotte....

>>10945179
You ever wondered who those prisoners are? Why there's so many of them? What they did?

>>10946120
DED, someone went as far as hacking the PCE graphics table for changin colors but thats as far as it went, and the guy who did the sprite edits lost interest .VAXKD8

>>10946478
Sad to hear man. Looked really promising

>>10943085
I like Harmony of Dissonance, even though the screen colors are pure eye-rape, the castle gimmick is lazier than SotN's and the soundtrack paired with the GBA's soundchip is an acquired taste. Juste's interior decorator sidequest was good, finding furniture all over the place.
>>10943095
I enjoy both types of Castlevania games, but I agree with the quick and skillful platforming being really enjoyable on itself and the whole post-SotN item fetching and luck-based drops are unnecessary padding; I get bored enough at times to enjoy it, but it doesn't add a lot to the experience besides more gameplay hours.

>>10946409
>although I can't beat it.
Castlevania 1 isn't even hard, at least compared to other NES games

>>10943095
I'm with you with SC4 being the favorite, but SotN is the only reason the series survived. That said I think SotN itself is really overhyped, everything about it was done better in the GBA/DS games. Inverted castle will never not be retarded. Fantastic music though, I'd rather listen to the OST than replay the game.

>>10943096
I only liked the music I just did two playthroughs, one with leon beating all the bosses plus elementals, and "The Forgotten One" got all the gear. Played through with the vampire guy, and threw in the towel realizing it wasn't that much fun. I just can't do crazy mode or play as the pumpkin fella man.

I like CotM a lot

>>10946501
That was just a mockup anyways.

Also considering how abusive and censorious nu/vr/ has become......its no worth no more.

Maria, Carrie, and Charlotte are the three best CV girls.
>B-b-b-but what about Shano-
As I said. Maria, Carrie, and Charlotte are the three best CV girls.

>>10943440
>>10943449

They created the castlevania videogames, so they can choose the place where the adventure takes place.

>>10946414
portrait of ruin counts as retro?

>>10948175
According to the sticky, yes. Even then, kind of funny to get caught up on something like PoR when Halo and the likes are now welcomed. I kind of welcome it now, though. I mean it's nice not hearing the same few anons jerking off CV3 and Rondo while shitting on evevrything else CV.

>>10948394
>>10948175
No it doesn't, what the hell

>>10948394
cv3 and rondo are the best in the series without major flaws

>>10948175
>>10948394
>Nintendo DS: 2004
Not retro

>>10948471
>7th gen will be allowed in 1-2 years
Shit's crazy

>>10948489
That's what people have been saying for 5 years.

>>10946409
Hitting candles with sub-weapons count as a hit. Get something like ten hits you get a multiplier. If you don't know this the game will be harder. I don't think I could beat it until some one here told me. If you die at Death you can get a cross at re-spawn and get a 3x multiplier in the hallway before you fight him again.

>>10943440
is soma zoomer or gen alpha?

>>10949814
He's high school or college age in 2035, so he's born in the mid to late 2010s. A bit too late to be a zoomer I believe.

>>10949828
He was 18 in 2035, so born in 2017. But he's also in a blessed timeline where smartphones don't exist.

>>10948394
>According to the sticky, yes.
>Platforms launchd 2001 and earlier
>Nintendo DS launched in 2004
So where in the sticky does it say Portrait of Ruin counts as retro?

>>10949814
Soma, Mina and Yoko are gen alpha
Graham and Hammer are zoomers
Julius is a millennial

>>10946610
Well I didnt' feel like mentioning I can't beat other NES games, thought it may be irrelevant to a Castlevania thread, so I just said I can't beat Castlevania. You doof.

>>10949939
Holy fuck that's horrifying.

>>10949939
Whyd they make Hammer look so zesty there

Give it to me straight bros:
Would you guys fuck Shanoa and Rosa from CV64?

>>10950783
>Shanoa
Yes
>Rosa
Who

>>10950815
>who

>>10949939

Hammer in aria of sorrow: mostly a masculine soldier.

Hammer in dawn of sorrow: mostly a simp.

>>10950783
Haven't played either game but Shanoa

>>10943676
CV4 is the ugliest game on the SNES

>>10951228
Ah but it is the best CV game on the SNES. in fairness there's a lot of game packed into a relatively small ROM, and the tech demo-y criticisms are overblown. Capcha: dwat

>>10943095
I just got a Super Famicom and a flashcart. Never had one as a kid. Never played a Castlevania game aside from one on the PS2 for a bit. First game I got is this, aside from a Volleyball game and Chrono Trigger. I guess there's also Dracula X on the SNES? Nobody seems to be talking about it though.

>>10951339
Dracula X is balls to the wall hard, especially if you want to get the best ending but it's still a good game

>>10951228
Not going to work

>>10951431
Ayo hol up, these bitches have different endings???

>>10951473
>The game has three endings: the first, if Richter doesn't find any of the girls during his adventure; the second, if he only manages to save Maria; and the third, if he manages to save both. The three endings are very subtle between each other, though; the same ending sequence is played after defeating the game's final boss, Count Dracula, with the only difference being the background image shown during the credits roll.

>>10951516
I get to have TWO girls? Let's go.

If you had the choice, would you guys fuck Sypha? Or Elizabeth from Bloodlines?

>>10943483
are we allowed to talk about the DS games now?

yea order is pretty fun
for one its actually difficult, unlike every other IGAvania. really nice animations too
i like the broken-up map idea for the first half. it feels like a more well executed version of what simons quest wanted to do

>>10945162
symphony is way way wayyyyyyyy too fucking easy. outside of richter mode, and maybe thief/luck mode if youre autistic, theres almost no replayability to it
id replay any of the DS games over sotn, any day

>>10951912
i just dreamt of a woman poisoning me so logically i'm gonna have to say elizabeth. they should've made her the antagonist of dos instead of that jobber who gets killed before you can even fight her. plus you could have a kino scene in julius mode with her and alucard both being dracula's spawn.

>>10943184
Make a thread and post every one of these you made

any curse of darkness fans?

He clearly says "like you", why do people pretend that he says "thank you"?

>>10952118
are the ps2/xbox castlevania games any good? I downloaded them a few days ago to my collection to play but im not sure how good they are or not? I looked at some screenshots and realized they were in 3d not 2d so thats why im asking. I dont mind 3d just curious if it lost that castlevania vibe it has

>>10952136
they're okay. the 3d games often got labeled as devil may cry clones.

>>10952157
ahh I didnt know that. I kinda missed out hard on alot of the xbox/ps2 era cuz I was young and trying to make ends meet living on my own and didnt have a ton of time to devote to games. Only going back now and playing thru all the stuff I missed out on. I'll try out curse of darkness later tonight for ps2.

>>10952162
if youre looking for stuff from that era you mightve missed, try the DSvanias imo
especially if you were a fan of sotn
dawn, portrait and order are all fun. all have their specific weirdness-es to them, but thats IGAvanias, innit?

>>10951912
Maria and Carrie.

>>10952180
I just setup a ds emulator last night actually. I will go grab the castlevania games for it and give them a play. (loved and beat sotn including the inverted castle and want more of that).

>>10952390
rad
theyre a lot of fun. outside of character art in dawn/portrait, the actual in-game gfx are great looking imo theres also hacks that replace dawns character art if it bothers you that much. see below
id recc release order, so dawn -> portrait -> order

be aware that dawn was a very very early DS release, and as such, has its mandatory gay touchscreen gimmick. i never had too big an issue with it, but its likely insufferable on a M&K if youre emulating.
theres a hack that fixes that and the character art and some other stuff though
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5610/
i like the buffs to luck as well. makes getting and using joyeuse actually useful, and now you can actually power up some of the souls without farming for a gorillion years

replayed harmony of dissonance and aria of sorrow lately. forgot how fucking hard some of the harmony of dissonance backgrounds go. crazy fucking art direction, dropping unexplained shit. loving it.

>>10952415
Thanks anon. Im using melonDS as my emulator of choice for DS. havent tested it just have some games for it in my stash (been playing a game gear rpg thats translated). I'll grab the castlevania's on ds and consider this hack. Man looking at some screenshots of the games tho it def looks sotn style. getting excited to start playing thru them so might put my game gear rpg on hold for the moment to start playing those. love me some sotn styled games

>>10952473
>forgot how fucking hard some of the harmony of dissonance backgrounds go
yea they get flack nowadays for being garish and epilepsy inducing, but on GBA screen they looked pretty awesome imo

>>10952484
>love me some sotn styled games
then at the very least youll get some mileage out of dawn and portrait. they build on the sotn design philosophy, but imo, even better than aria did it

speaking of, i didnt catch if you said you played the GBA ones. its worth noting that dawn of sorrow is a direct sequel to aria of sorrow for GBA. youre not missing too much outside of story, but aria is worth a play in its own right. one of my favorite GBA carts i ever had harmony and circle too for that matter. dont listen to the autists that ravenously defend only one particular game

order of ecclessia is the black sheep, but as i said earlier ITT, it feels like its what simons quest was trying to do. the first half is you traveling around doing some adventuring/questing, while the back half gets into the castle proper. its also much MUCH harder than any other IGAvania
whatever tho. i liked it. lots of good bosses

>>10952494
I have the castlevania gba games and have dabbled in them (playing as that axe armor suit was fun). but never beat them. That's not true im fairly sure I beat the first gba castlavania game that had those cards you could get. I might have to load those up and play them again. atm im on this mental of I want rpgs for old systems but I could def see me putting some time into the castlevania games. lol sucks when you're in the mood for certain things and 3d dungeonc crawling rpgs are hitting the spot for me (hence playing the game gear rpg I have loaded atm). Thanks for all these game names I didnt realize so many had come out. My gaming kinda stopped around the xbox 360 in regards to keeping up. I mean I heard about stuff and play new stuff (starfield was not my jam) but I just rather sit in old pixel dungeons or race in games from 20-30yrs ago or whatever genre fits my fancy. a month back I was playing alot of wrestling games (smackdown 1 is actually decent for a season mode playthru and pretty hard if you play as a weaker jobber). now its rpgs and leveling in new rpgs ive never played. blah blah thanks i'll play the castlevanias tonight and appreciate your help dropping names and stuff

>>10952514
>That's not true im fairly sure I beat the first gba castlavania game that had those cards you could get
thats circle of the moon
definitely the hardest of the GBA games. the drac fight alone is fucking insane.
if you beat that one you could prolly blitz through aria and harmony no prob. theyre definitely the more sotn-styled games when compared to circle, and as such, are comparatively much more forgiving

but yea you been missing out.
maybe its a controversial take, but imo, the sotn "formula" was perfected in the DS trilogy
DS as a whole really was a kind of last stand/holdout for a lot of /vr/-type genres of games. some really good 2D action games

>>10952514
oh yea speaking of RPG/dungeon crawlers, look up mazes of fate for GBA the DS remake is borked, so make sure its GBA.
to my knowledge its the only 3D dungeon crawler for the platform. made by some literally who argentinian shovelware studio. clearly heavily inspired by shining in the darkness for genesis, but its got much more involved roleplaying elements to it. its got a lil bit of ESL weirdness to its script, but esp -> eng isnt nearly so bad as jp -> eng, so if you play old jarpigs youre prolly already numb to it

>>10952118
Damn it came out on the Xbox? I thought it was a PS2 exclusive

>>10952548
shining in the darkness and the saturn version of it were great (got them in my stash). I will def look that game up and add it to the collection anon. Its similar to how the rpg im playing on the game gear is not only exclusive to that system (Im pretty sure it is) it also is the only game on there im aware of that has 3d dungeons in it. Tho if there' a wizardry on game gear than its not the only 1.
>>10952542
yeah I looked it up and it was circle of the moon. I had a bunch of the cards and grinded out a ton of stuff in the game. And good to know i'll have no problems with the later castlevania games.

>>10952124
People say that? Oh my car.

>>10943085
for classicvanias my favorite is a tie between rondo of blood and 3 (jp) for symphony of the night clones its gotta be oreder of eclessia and aria of sorrow.

but in reality a love all of the games except 4, that one bores the shit out of me, it has a great couple of songs though

>>10943096
what are you talking about that one is great

>>10943096
in the japanese dub leon is voiced by the same guy that voiced guts in the 97 anime
he also voices japanese knuckles

>>10949939
holy shit i never thought of that, graham is a zoomer

>>10952118
i fucking love that game, i've been wanting to play it again for years but i dont own a ps2 anymore and my pc is too shit to emulate it

>>10952124
there are people that think he says thank you?

>>10952157
nah they were just 3d beat em up kinda games, nothing even close to dmc in the way they play, if anything lament of innocence reminds me of lucifer ring on the psx but better

>>10943483
fuck yes. when I got to the castle part of the game I was hype af. never felt that way in a castlevania before