/vr/ - Retro Games

>getting a game over in fucking stage 3
>didn't have a problem with RoB/BL though

Falseflag thread? IV is objectively the easiest Classicvania and doesn't arguably put up a challenge until the hex stages.

>>3685986
Not OP, but I'm betting he got falling/drowning while hesitating. It's normal if it's his first time playing.

Stage 4 is my personal favorite. Have fun, OP.

>>3685986

OP here, why falseflag? I'm being honest. First time playing this game.
And yeah, I didn't have any problem with the first 2 stages of Rondo of Blood and Bloodlines. As opposed to Castlevania 1 which 2nd stage still kicks my ass.

>>3686004

I died a couple of times during the vertical segments, falling off yeah. I got to the boss with the last live and got hit by one of the fireballs, knocked back, and fell.
I continued and got past this level though, just played stage 4 and yeah I loved it, stage 5 was really short and no boss, and Stage 6 I started having trouble again, I just got another game over, again on the boss, but I died a lot trying to get there anyway.

>>3685829
While it's not that hard, it's not super easy either. It's just that the controls are not as stiff as other Classicvanias and the whip is so god damn powerful that you might forget you had a sub weapon, therefore the game feels a bit on the easy side compared to others. Some people hated the game for this reason even though I feel Bloodlines wasn't that hard either. Personally I think it's an okay game but for me the best 16-bit CV is always Rondo.

>>3686093
>even though I feel Bloodlines wasn't that hard either.


I agree. the difference in difficulty between Bloodlines and IV is negligible. I don't understand why IV gets shit on for being "too easy", while Bloodlines gets a free pass.

>>3686093

I'm using the cross a lot so far, but yeah the whip on IV is super long and versatile compared to the other games. Still feels like Castlevania to me, though. I was expecting this game to be something completely different gameplay-wise, like SOTN.

>Personally I think it's an okay game but for me the best 16-bit CV is always Rondo.

Yeah, so far I'm loving IV, but it will be hard to top Rondo.

Just reached stage 8.
Stage 7 was alright, not too difficult for being a mid-game stage, I had a lot more trouble with 3 and 6.

SC4 is fun as an auto pilot kinda game when your mind is busy thinking about other important things. I'm guessing OP started playing video games around the 6th gen if he's having trouble with this one.

>>3686098
Does Bloodlines have 8-way whipping?
Does Bloodlines have jump-cancelling?
Does Bloodlines not take your best power-ups when you're damaged?

That's why.

I dont understand why people hate the 8 direction whip. In the other castlevanias enemies always come from the sides, which in the end becomes a memorization game. But with this mechanic, you can send enemies from all the sides. It just happens that SC4 had only a few of them.

>>3686114

Bloodlines's best power-up is probably the most broken thing in any Castlevania game, though, even if you lose it when you get it, you have to be very dumb to get hit when you got a power up that basically insta-kills anything on screen.

Rondo's bible power up comes close in terms of broken, but Bloodlines' Blue orb is just too much.

>>3686121
The blue orb super move uses a shit ton of gems though, so realistically you can't just spam it whenever there's a difficult situation.

>>3686136
This. I never actually used it, I prefer to grab a boomerang or something else.

>>3686112
>OP started playing video games around the 6th gen if he's having trouble with this one.

I actually grew up playing more difficult games from 3rd gen on a NES clone. Stuff like Megaman, Chip and Dale, and other side-scrollers. But I admittedly never played Castlevania until much later, for some reason I never played IV until now, but I have played the NES ones, Bloodlines, Rondo and SOTN.
After IV I'm gonna play Dracula X SNES and Chronicles on PS1.

I'm not having a lot of trouble, I also got a few game overs the first time I played the other Castlevanias, but I think I can beat this.

Except that I just lost all my lives on stage 8. I think I jinxed myself when I said Stage 7 wasn't too hard, because stage 8 seems to be brutal.

>>3686150
Personally, I hate the fucking Treasury. Is that Stage 8? I don't remember, but if so, then yeah, fuck that part of the game.

>>3686193
Hardest pre-hex stage is probably the dungeon. It's got some tricky spots, like the randomly appearing platforms.

>>3686253

The random platforms aren't really a problem if you're patient enough (you can still pinpoint a pattern, they have a timing, and start flickering before disappearing).
Hardest thing about the cellar are the fucking flying eye enemis that always appear in the worst situation where there's tricky platforming, and they move very fast and have an erratic pattern, so not even the almighty multi-whip can vanish them without some effort. Having the cross subweapon makes this level easier, but if you die, you're fucked because you can't find that subweapon on the level.

It's actually the perfect Castlevania game in terms of gameplay, music, and level designs, it just needed harder enemies.

>>3686193
That's where I dropped it, long ago. I beat BL a million times on the highest difficulty with both characters. Not even making a comment about difficulty one way or the other, BL is just the most fun one for me.

>first time playing
The reason why people blast cv4 for being too easy, is because difficulty adds a lasting appeal.
If you've beaten every CV games 5 times, then I'd imagine you're more likely to enjoy the ones that can still pose a challenge.

It's the same reason /vr/ like FF5 more than FF6. It's less fun if it becomes trivially easy upon replays.

That being said, I agree with >>3686398
CV4 is still my favorite. Great levels and aesthetics.

I picked this up on VC last month and had a blast. Hadn't played it since I was like ten. I cheated back in the day, so I went through the whole thing for real this time around (with save states).

Just challenging enough. Refreshing as fuck in comparison to modern games, but not "Nintendo hard." I died a lot in the latter levels. Felt accomplished as fuck when I beat Dracula. Epic fucking game.

As far as the whip thing: yeah it makes the sub-weapons moot. Almost. I still found myself in an area where I kept getting killed by one of the dragon statues and couldn't get a good shot at it, until I realized there was an axe drop. Made sense. And I never would have beaten Dracula without the triple-shot boomerang.

>>3687575
>for real this time around
>(with save states).

>>3687591
The modern era has ruined me, sorry.
Ain't got time to be playing levels over and over.

>>3687597
i did not played this game, but i heard it's the easiest castlevania. if you can make it with states you could do it without them. and it doesn't take that much time, you just have to figure out boss patterns/tough moments and then do it for real, the game is like an hour long.
but whatever, feel free to play how you like if that makes you feel accomplished. i used to be like you, but now i feel nothing after "beating" the game with states(or even continuing), no point in playing the game you can't loose.

>>3687616
I honestly didn't feel like I cheated myself by eliminating the need to play all of say, Stage 5 over, just because I got game over'd at 5-4. I didn't abuse it, at least.

Also isn't Symphony of the Night easier?

>>3687630
i see.
still, if you really, really liked this game. you should at least try beating it for real, don't need that much time, 30-60 minutes a day is enough for most console games, just make a state to save progress(if you made any) when you are done. when you know that dying means actually loosing something, you will fight for real, beating a game will feel as good as say being a number one on scoreboard in a multiplayer game.
eventually you may even find a game that you'll enjoy beating without continuing, it's not as hard as you might think, since continuing usually means loosing resources(lifes, bombs etc.) that you can use to just steamroll over the last boss, and if you loose, well the game is just an hour long, you'll do it next time.

>>3687653
>you'll do it next time
I actually intend to.

>>3687661
good to know. i find sticking to few games more satisfying than quickly being done with many. you really start to see the developer intent.

>>3687679
I typically obsess over a game for a while and then set it aside until I feel like playing it again. Turns out that's what I've always done, as I can count few childhood games I've beaten, and for some, like OoT, I put it down for a year and then came back and finished it. Castlevania IV has been the first time in a while I obsessed over a game and beat it within a week. Felt good.

>>3687694
that's a good approach, i play like that too, will beat a game on easy, then on normal next year.
but when it comes to hard games(like getting an arcade 1cc or beating a rougelike) i play for a little bit everyday, rather than binging on it, becouse binging leads to frustration when you can't achieve your goal. but of course breaks are a must either way.

Why do Americans call the cross "boomerang".

>>3687842
Because it comes back to you.

>>3686118
It renders sub-weapons pointless, since they were meant to take out enemies out of your whip's reach.

>>3687842
I think that was how it was called in the localized manual, even though the sprite is still a cross.

>>3687575
>the triple-shot boomerang.
So you got the secret stash of goodies on the invisible stairs?

>>3687887
You can get cross-shaped boomerangs, you know.

>>3685986
>IV is objectively the easiest Classicvania
As much as I love it, Rondo with Maria takes the cake for that. Just because you use the words "False Flag" and "objectively" doesn't make you right, or any less of a fucking retard it just shows us how much your head is up your ass.

>>3687915
Rondo with Maria is pretty much a stealth Easy mode. She pretty much exists to pander to waifufags, which was the PCE's main demographic.

>>3686398
It needed more challenging platforming, too. But yeah still an excellent game.

>>3687915
Rondo with Maria doesn't count.
[reddit spacing]
The canon ending is Richter dispatching Dracula.
[reddit spacing]
So, eat a dick, asshole.

>>3687908
Of course. Can't go up there without it.
That's the one secret I always knew about since I was a kid. Now the other secret room, however...

>>3686037
Because /vr/ decided that CV IV is easy so some goons feel the need to denounce any opposition to that thought as wrong without explaining why they feel that way

>>3685829
I beat Castlevania III for the first time in years recently (great experience other than it being fucking unforgiving in places towards the end) and I'm now doing CV4 again before I do the second quest and more branches.

Fuck me, I must have played this with oven mitts the first time around, I got through half the game in like two hours. I didn't get a game over until stage 4 or 5, and it would've taken longer if I hadn't been dicking around at the beginning and run out of time.

That said, some of it is just the ability to exploit things if you know how, like holding the whip out, falling right through tough vertical sections, keeping and using the boomerang and axe (especially with double and triple modifiers), being really gung-ho with bosses in a way that most games would never allow to beat them before they do too much damage... probably a few more. The presence of those exploits does hint at design flaws though.

What's hitting me more now is that the level design seems sort of... absent. It's almost like the levels weren't actually designed, just sort of thrown together. Other than some vertical elements (this area is slightly higher for no discernible reason, there's a pit here just because) I can't my finger on why, it just... doesn't feel as good CV1 and CV3, hell some sections of dungeons in CV2 were better.
Does anyone have a good theory as to why?

>>3688162
>What's hitting me more now is that the level design seems sort of... absent. It's almost like the levels weren't actually designed, just sort of thrown together. Other than some vertical elements (this area is slightly higher for no discernible reason, there's a pit here just because) I can't my finger on why, it just... doesn't feel as good CV1 and CV3, hell some sections of dungeons in CV2 were better.
>Does anyone have a good theory as to why?
It was made by a separate development team than the people who made the original NES trilogy for one thing. I also think they were more concerned about making a Super NES tech demo than a proper game.

>>3685829
It's one of the weaker games in the series but it's still ok.

>>3685829
>all the hate this game gets

It's generally well liked. The only real serious complaint people have about it is that it's easy compared to other Classicvanias.

>>3688052
With ghost dog man?

>>3688487
Yep, that's the one.
Can't wait to find it on my own.

>>3688162
>What's hitting me more now is that the level design seems sort of... absent. It's almost like the levels weren't actually designed, just sort of thrown together.
>Look guys this room rotates for no reason! It's CURAHZEYYYY MODE SEVEN BITCHES
Yeah some of the levels are stupid.

>>3688609
I don't mind that aside from the slowdown, and I think the levels have a better sense of place than most parts of the original four games, it's just the arrangement of things that bothers me. It's the arrangement of floors, walls, platforms, enemies, candlesticks, and hidden items. It seems haphazard.

>>3688301
>The only real serious complaint people have about it is that it's easy compared to other Classicvanias.

But Rondo and Bloodlines are equally easy.
Rondo especially.

Yes, with Ritcher, not even taking Maria into account.

Rondo is my favorite, but it is easy.

Easy=/=bad

>>3688052

What about the secret room on the Treasury?

I didn't find out about that one until much later, thanks to a guide.

I found the secret room with the ghost man and dog by chance myself.

>>3689451
Bullshit, Rondo takes the most practice to get good at.

>>3689472

Rondo is probably the only Castlevania title that I know I can get through without using a single continue without sweating a single drop.

What about it takes practice? It might take some time to find all the secrets if you don't use a walkthrough (which you shouldn't), but actually playing the game is pretty easy (and enjoyable!)

>>3686118
>memorization
You can hit enemies coming at you from all sides and elevations. Jump and whip.

replay guy here, I'm finding the music is weird too, like they were trying too hard to make it orchestral and grand-sounding and didn't make it easy to follow or easy to remember or distinctive or even consistent, it jumps from one feel to another
also some pieces don't even loop, they end and then start again

>>3689542
I remember having some trouble with RoB my first playthrough. My girlfriend still struggles with it. A lot of enemies have some challenging patterns that take some practice before you start fucking them up routinely.
I'm sure I could pick it up and blast through it nowadays though.

Super is still much easier. The difficulty isn't even on par with the originals until maybe the last few stages, and even then I'm not sure if I'd say they were harder.

>>3689542
RoB has some of the hardest bosses of the retro games, most mooks have more than one pattern to them, and doing the backflip properly takes finesse. Only thing that sucks about it is the disappointing Dracula, which luckily the remake for PSP improves upon. The controls, while not 1:1 to the NES games, are still better than IV's, and so requires you to be more careful when platforming. Rondo is probably the best successor to Castlevania 3.

>>3689561
>>3689564

I guess we have different kind of skills then.

I never had trouble with Rondo, especially with OP sub-weapons such as the bible, and the item crash.
>it spends hearts
I never run out of hearts. Bible is OP as fuck and uses very little hearts, I think only 1 per use. And it's a giant shield that kills almost everything around the screen.

>don't use the Bible then

Well... but it's a legit item the game gives you, why shouldn't I?

Without sub-weapons, Rondo can pose some more challenge, but not that much.

>Rondo is probably the best successor to Castlevania 3.

Absolutely agree, but I still find it to be the easiest classicvania.

Again, a game being easy doesn't mean it's bad. I don't know why /vr/ is obsessed with this.

>>3689589
Let me elaborate. I don't find Rondo hard anymore, however it did take me more time to master it than getting a clear in IV. In terms of (blind) challenge:

3 > 68k > XX > 1 > Rondo > Bloodlines > 4

>>3689616

I distinctly remember getting a lot of game over screens on IV the first time I played it, while I only remember getting maybe 1 on Rondo, if that.

Bloodlines is hard to tell because I played the US version which has limited continues (I think 3?), but it definitely took me more than Rondo.

>>3689589
I think my first playthrough of Rondo I had no idea item crashes were even a thing.

>>3689454
Yep, that's the other room I was talking about. I have no idea where it is, and I like that I don't know. One more mystery for me to find.

>>3689559
Honestly the music is one of my biggest takeaways from it. Fuckin' loved the whole score and listened to Simon's theme on repeat for some time after playing it.
>When it kicks in after you get Drag down to half health

>>3689661

Actually I find item crashes mostly useless, the only good thing they do is that they give you invincibility frames, but the normal Bible sub-weapon is OP enough.

>>3689793
>Yep, that's the other room I was talking about. I have no idea where it is, and I like that I don't know. One more mystery for me to find.
It's on level 4, hit the 3rd skull in the wall

>>3690489
Well, now I know. :(

>>3690797

He's bullshitting though, the Treasury is level 9, there is no secret room on stage 4.

>>3690807
Now I don't know who to trust.
That's good.

I trust you guys didn't play the inferior western version of 4, which censors coffins and some other things.

>>3689559
>also some pieces don't even loop, they end and then start again
I'm sure that was an artistic choice. It works well in this piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQex8CB9eA

>>3690810
I was lying. I wasn't sure how to do a spoiler so I made a "test" post so if the spoiler didn't work it didn't matter.

Anyway you can tell what level it's on from the tileset in use in the pic.

>>3691053

The other anon knows about the secret room on stage 6 (ghost man and dog room), he doesn't know about the treasury (stage 9) one.

I just beat CV4 for the first time in ages and, yeah, it's pretty easy. I'd say the more lenient damage scaling is the biggest factor in that, with a close second being piss-easy bosses. They just stand there! There are aren't any really hard-to-counter attacks or movements. I got stuck on the one boss that looks like it's borrowed from Metroid, and the key was to *just fucking duck*.

>>3693332
>They just stand there!

The golden/gem bat fucked me over a lot of times.

>I got stuck on the one boss that looks like it's borrowed from Metroid

Which one?

>>3693338
Slogra I think it's called, but like I said I got past it by ducking its attacks, at least for the first phase

Where can I subscribe to this blog?

>>3685829

I love this game! Currently up to stage 7. Playing the japanese version on an emulator (with a joypad). I can't stand the localization and its pesky censorings.

To me, it's harder than rondo and even bloodlines but easier then famicom/nes ones.

>>3694000

>Currently up to stage 7.

Stage 8 that is.

>>3694000
>To me, it's harder than rondo and even bloodlines but easier then famicom/nes ones.

Same here.

Also, unfortunately all or most Castlevania games got censored for their western releases, although the one that got it the worst was the european version of Bloodlines.

>>3686261
there is are two crosses in the stage senpai

>>3694201

Really? Fuck, I always remember dying on stage 8 and raging because I lost the cross, not being able to get it again, maybe I just missed it every time, where are they?

>>3694215
Collapsing bridge and in the little alcove on the last screen near the beginning of it

>>3693338
Don't you just keep hitting the bat? Most of the time its attacks will forum right into your whip from what I remember.

>>3695527

Yeah, after a while I learned that you need to be exactly under him and hit him with the whip up, but I used to hit him diagonally while jumping, and everytime you hit it, he throws gems at you on the sides, that fucked me up.
Also when it transforms into 3 little bats, the patterns is more erratic and sometimes it's hard to jump over them without getting hit.

At any rate, that boss sure doesn't "stand there".

>>3695847
He's a cunt, and a fitting end to a shitty level. Love the rest of the game though.

>>3695862

But I love the Treasury! One of the coolest stages in the game, and the golden bat isn't that bad once you learn how to fight it (his last 3-bat form still fuck me up sometimes, but I can survive it)

>>3695870
You ain't no daisy.

fuck me, the difficulty on this game skyrockets in the second quest
unfortunately half of that is from surprise bats, one of the cheapest things I've ever seen in a game

>>3696709
>unfortunately half of that is from surprise bats

But anon, the diagonal whip is OP as fuck, make use of it :^)

Seriously though, the second loop isn't THAT hard, but yeah it adds challenge, especially because they add a shit ton of enemies, not just bats, on the first level you already get the zombie dogs (that only appear in stage 6 in the original difficulty), and all enemies take more hits to kill.

It's good enough for people who want more challenge, but not to the level of being bullshit.

>>3696715
well I just beat it, so I guess it wasn't that hard, but some parts are really really frustrating, there's no way you can be ready for the bats it throws at you unless you go super slowly or you memorize where they appear
now I get to explore the other paths in CV3 and do its second quest

>>3695870
I agree. Definitely one of the more memorable and interesting stages.

so now that I've replayed the pre-RPG Castlevania's, I want to move forward to the ones that passed me by. It looks like the next one is Rondo of Blood, AKA Dracula X, but there only seems to be one person selling it on Amazon and they want a fortune. Is this a rare game? Is it worth getting? Where can I get it? Should I play some of the ports and adaptations from before that first?

>>3698604
Get the PSP game instead.

>>3698604

If you mean Dracula X for SNES, that not is not Rondo of Blood. And it's expensive because most castlevania games, especially the 16-bit ones, are expensive.

For the actual Rondo of Blood (released on PC Engine CD only in Japan) you have the option to play it on Wii virtual console, which is pretty much the exact same as playing it on PCE, the only real difference being the german narrator during the opening cutscene.
Or the PSP port on the Dracula X Chronicles pack, which is recommended because it includes the remake and an improved version of SOTN. The original Rondo on PSP has a slightly wider resolution than the PCE original, but it's nothing really serious, barely noticeable.
There is also a fan-made "PC version" of Rondo of Blood, it's an emulator and the Rondo iso ready to work without having to mount the iso yourself, since it seems PCE CD emulation can be a bit confusing.

As for the SNES Dracula X, it's a different game using the same setting and characters from Rondo of Blood, but with new bosses, all new levels, it's not really a sequel, more like a re-imagination. At any rate play it after you play the original Rondo, it's harder so it'll be better if you're already used to controlling Richter. (backflip and so on).
I'm not sure if Dracula X is available on virtual console, so you might have to emulate that one if you don't want to pay the high prices for the cart.

>>3698604
Yeah like the above poster said, Dracula X and Rondo of Blood are two separate completely different games.

>>3698624
I don't have a PSP.
>>3698641
>expensive
That's unfortunate.
>not the same
That's also unfortunate.
>those options
well
fuck

Is it important canon-wise? Does it have any really stand-out bosses, locations, or music?

>>3698661
>Is it important canon-wise?

It's not, basically it tells the same story as Rondo of Blood.
It's still worth playing because it's actually completely different than Rondo in terms of design, and yes it has unique bosses like Kerberos or Necromancer, and a completely different Dracula (infamous for being bullshit in terms of difficulty, opposed to the almost non-challenging Drac from the original Rondo).

Anyway, SNES games in general are expensive, if you don't want to spend a lot but also don't want to emulate, your best bet is an everdrive.
Anyway you should check if DX is on Wii, I'm not sure but it probably is. And Rondo on Wii is perfect.

>>3698661
>>3698604
to clarify, by expensive, I mean $400

>>3698671
I mean either or both of them, I thought it was the same exact story.

>>3698661
>I don't have a PSP.
Download PPSSPP and the DXC iso and have a blast, bro.

>>3698671
>>3698641
If I buy a sufami copy is it actually easy to get it working on a SNES (just cut two plastic things)?
also, link to this "PC version" of Rondo of Blood?

I'd like to play Simon's Quest. Any rom hacks that I should apply?

>>3698934
There's a retranslated version out there done by some Finnish guy (because of course it was). That makes the clues, some of which you need to progress, actually possible to decipher.

>>3698641
Rondo emulates pretty well and there's a windows version apparently.