/vr/ - Retro Games

ALERT. ALERT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Most CastleKino threads are DYING before bump limit. This is a sign we should go to >>>/vg/ instead for that LudoVania fix!

>>7073798
yeah fuck off already

>>7073602
Maybe you don't like it because it's too slow for you. Try Ninja Gaiden

Can you elaborate on what you disliked about it?

>>7073602
isn't the US version much harder than the intended JP version?

>>7073841
No, you are thinking about Castlevania 3

>>7073843
It's both. See how many hits it takes to kill the stacked skeleton heads.

>>7073847
I beat both loops of both versions and they were identical

>>7073841
you're thinking of Haunted Castle,

>>7073602
How are you playing? Castlevania is the exact kind of game where you just can't mindlessly slog through it like most platformers, you have to think a lot about what you're doing.

>>7073602
Based

>>7073798
Doom cucks seething.

>>7073864
so do you take a more strategic approach? I can see it being mostly about spacing (I mean the whip kinda implies that) but not being able to pick my sub weapon seems counter-intuitive to the strategic approach idea.

>>7074874

What does it matter? You're stupid enough to have made your crappy OP, so you're too stupid to take any "strategic approach" in any context that actually has any chance of success. The correct way to play, for you, is to switch to another game.

>>7073602
I know this sounds stupid, but are you actually using subweapons? I know the first time I was playing the older CV games, I tended to be overly conservative with hearts for no good reason.

If you find yourself getting frustrated at a point, just stop and drop the game for a time and come back later. It's short, but it helps to go through earlier parts so you get a better feel for things by the time you reach the later, harder parts again.

>>7073602
If you are not liking it, don't force yourself to like it.

>>7075027
ok. thanks for the help friend.

>>7075317
I have actually dropped it before and come back. The earlier parts do get easier, but I find that around stage 14 is like a brick wall. Maybe I am playing a bit conservative with the hearts, but I also have a hard time actually getting an axe to use on the knight dudes.

>>7075378
I feel like the game is lots of fun in a certain sense, but it also feels unreasonably frustrating at times. Like there are bits that just push me away from ever actually beating it and I'm not sure whether thats an expectation I have for how the game should play or its just a part of the design.

>>7075821
As far as subweapons go, holy water is your best friend in CV 1. It's practically cheating, stunlocking literally anything even so much as the bottle comes in contact with.

For dealing with axe knights without gamebreakers, though, something to keep in mind is that while they love to try and kite you and whittle you down with high/low mixups, you don't actually have to crouch to hit low axes. If you're not already doing that, start, and then it's just a matter of timing your steps/jumps with your counter attacks while you advance on them.

You're probably going to fucking hate the final hallway before the boss.

>>7075883
ahh I see. that does sound like the right way to approach things. I guess in a certain kind of way since there are so few enemies they had to make a fairly detailed strategy for each one since it makes things more challenging and gives good reasons to sell magazine strategy guides for a fairly short game. I'll have to give it a shot. No doubt the last hall is infamous right? Filled with lots of medusas or something I heard.

was it castlevania that had the statue silly gorgon face that turned into the violent snake haired medusa floating head boss?

or was that rygor or kid icarus or some other shit

CV3 was the apex of the stage-based series, and the formula wasn't good again until the Bloodtsined Curse of the Moon games.

>>7075893
Fuck'em up, anon. What might look like overly aggressive mooks outpacing you are actually enemies with set patterns and strategies meant to align to some degree with their environments.

Hunchbacks look tough, but they're pretty simple when you realize they're stuck to short hops and will almost always jump over once they're close. Skeletons use speed and level design to annoy and bait you into doing something dumb. Axe knights rely on distance and defense for what amounts to a last stand, really.

And yeah, barring the fact that you can actually just keep walking and not even contend with their sinewave pattern, medusa heads are flyby child eaters.

>>7075906
Yeah, Castlevania 1 had that.

>>7073602
>a way to play it I'm missing
kek, what a fucking retard

>>7076041
It was late. I was more thinking like an approach or mentality to strategy, rather than some kind of trick.

>>7074874
yes, it's a strategic game with a lot of logic involved, so it's not just about picking your wn sub-weapon, it's part of teh challenge to learn how to use each and make use with what you have even if it sucks

>>7074874
>but not being able to pick my sub weapon seems counter-intuitive to the strategic approach idea.
But you can pick them, just you can only carry one at a time.

>>7073602
Just play IV instead.

>>7078170
Do not, IV is a decent game but is in no way a substitute to this great one

>>7079964
Yeah IV adds cool whip control and nice audio-visual updates but the levels are too open and easy. Feels way too loose and slow paced compared to 1 and 3.

Get a gamepad. It's almost a rhythm game, can't just jump around and whip without thinking. Once you get the hang of it, it's fun.
>>7079989
Your mom is too open, easy and loose. CVIV is a great game.

>>7073602
The entire series is shit. People pretend to like Castlevania because it gives them "gamer cred".

>>7080016
So you're saying it's on the same level as 1 and 3? Why isn't it worse or better when the pace is so different? And why did they change it back again for X68000 and Rondo?

>>7080112
Sounds like you know nothing about them. In what way are the post-SOTN games associated with gamer cred?

>>7080162
Probably the only real issue with IV is that instead of the first level being a tutorial of sorts, the whole first half feels like a tutorial. Doesn't stop the rest of the game from being enjoyable, though.

As for why Konami went back to straightforward whipping, probably because some people wrote letters complaining of the difficulty. Which is dumb as hell, because frankly you could always just, you know, not fucking use 8-way whipping and the like. IV is borderline a different game played like that.

>>7073602
It's okay to not like a game. I could never get into the older ones either, they're too stiff and full of insta kill pits and such.

>>7081684
>>7080162

I'm a dummy, meant to post link to an interview with x68000's development team.

x68000

>>7081684
>>7080162
Dammit, it's been a long day.
https://shmuplations.com/akumajox68000/

>>7081686
>stiff
What the fuck does this buzzword mean? The old games control the same, just with actual gravity. Are people so braindead they associate game physics with the moon?

>>7081696
>First, we all thought that the original Castlevania for the Famicom was the best one. So while were aware that this would, in terms of its system, be a rather old-fashioned game, throughout the development we kept in our sights the goal of taking the best elements of the Famicom Castlevania. Another design concept was to fully utilize the abilities of the x68000 hardware, for graphics and so forth.
Absolutely based. The first stood out to me as well.

>>7081696
>The feedback we’ve gotten from the mail-in comment postcards has been very good too. However, when we made Akumajou Dracula x68000, our idea of the average x68000 user was a hardcore game player, someone who’s really good at games. So there have been some complaints from users who have found it too hard and can’t get past the second stage. But the majority of the responses have said they were able to clear the game after so many hours of practice, and had a lot of fun.
PC master-race.

>>7081696
>And now, about the difficulty. How was it? Is it too hard? Once you get used to it you should be able to clear the first loop without a continue,
>credit-feed
And then you have the retards on this board denying that continues are the home version of credits, or that feeding can ruin even home games.

>>7080162
I think X68000 had the right idea, in that game you can still whip (diagonally) down while jumping like in IV but not up.
IV had some weird enemy placement where you could just destroy enemies above you without any risk or heart cost.

>>7073602
Your the one who's shit.

>>7083621
It's too bad IV's enemy design was stuck in the NES era. Simon taking the leap was nice, but fuck if it didn't leave him overpowered.

X68000 was step in the right direction, but it it would pretty much end there.

>>7083383
Are you the dumbass who keeps pushing this creditfeed meme regarding metroidvania and classicvania level design?

Metroidvania level design taking more effort to make it work doesn't mean it's automatically better than linear level design, that's fallacious. That would just mean it would take more effort. It's not even necessarily true that's it more work or more fun, and SoTN itself, if that's your example, is the worst one you could use for this franchise, because unless you know the best way to go through the castle, from prior experience at that, it's very easy for the whole thing to become a slog due to the game taking you in different directions and cutting you off in so many places just because you just couldn't be bothered to go up the chapel first and get the damn double jump before anything else.

>continues are the home version of credits

I can't think of any games where you can buy continues, anon, not even with ingame currency. Furthermore, metroidvanias have save points you can come back to whenever no matter how many times you game over, which raises the question of why they tend to be nigh-mindlessly easy compared to their forebearers.

>>7083742
>Are you the dumbass who keeps pushing this creditfeed meme regarding metroidvania and classicvania level design?
Either I'm not, or I am but your post still makes no sense to me. How about some context?

>>7083621
If you read that developer interview earlier, it's no wonder everything about the difficulty and balance is awesome in this game. They loved the first game for these qualities, and considered the X68000 PC market to be an elite consumerbase, familiar with arcade principles.

But the glaring omission to me is that it doesn't bother with the adventurous additions contributed by CV3. Although I prefer 1's pacing too, 3 is pretty close and adventure content was clearly the future of CV. 4 also seemed to attempt a grander aesthetic whereas X68000 went for a nostalgic one, both good but one is again concerned with evolving the series. Probably why Rondo did so well, that it includes such things while not being too far off the retro feel of X68000.

>>7078170
Pleb

>>7078170
Why are Trashure fans so biased?

>>7073602
>I've played it for like five or six hours now
And still haven't beaten it? Oof...

>>7086260
>I creditfeed through Castlevania games
Oof...

>>7074657
Why? Because their ugly game is less popular?

>>7085396
Eh, turns out I'm a dumbass and creditfeeding isn't a stupid meme that was suddenly being pushed to shit on older CV games and I can't find the original context where someone was arguing for SoTN's level design being better than what came before it, so forget about that part.

Still, I'd appreciate it if you actually explained the context of your own post, because without it, it sounds like you're just saying it's difficult so it sucks, and that's practically a nonargument.

How the fuck can you CREDITfeed through classic CV?

>>7073602
I've been playing a lot recently and I can finally make it to Dracula, probably on one continue the next time I try. I made it to the last level on one continue today, but died early on there before realizing how it works. It's kinda interesting how it feels like you, or at least I since I might be a pleb, need to completely rush through it to stay alive compared to the other levels, instead of taking it somewhat slow.

But yeah I can't fucking beat Dracula. Like I must have tried somewhere around 10-15 times at least and can't even make it through the first half of the fight. The randomness of the teleporation is really a bitch. At this point the game does feel annoying to play because I know I can do everything except the very last part, but since I want to do it sort of legit I'm not gonna just savestate at the Dracula fight indefinitely until I get it right, so I'll probably end up playing through the whole game a few more times at least. I do use continues to practice, which I did with that fight recently, but if I haven't played for like a day I start from the beginning the way I would if it were on an actual game system and not a stupid emulator.

yeah I realize the original Japanese release had savestates, but I'm not playing that, so

/stupid fucking blog

>>7088339
OP here, I've been giving it a few goes over the past few days. haven't really progressed much but I do feel like I'm getting better. I won't give up even if its frustrating but I feel like the other games in the franchise probably do stuff better. This one is interesting in its own way though and imo is more worth playing through than ghosts and goblins example.

>>7075921
update: beat the game. i did cheese draculas second half with the holy water but fuck it I'm bad at these games and I'm not really playing this game to test my honor or anything like that. thanks for your advice dude, I can finally mark this one off.

stage 17 is a fucking nightmare. why is it like that. its just chaos. they just put as many birds on screen as they possibly could and dropped jumping bastards everywhere. why?


>>7088339
I'm not as strict as you are with continues/save states so I wish you success. I think I got lucky with the dracula phase. I think his teleporting tracks to your approximate location, so when he teleports near you thats when I went to attack his head because for some reason when he's close he seems more likely to aim his fireball attack up and away from you.

>>7087389
>And then you have the retards on this board denying that continues are the home version of credits, or that feeding can ruin even home games
How do either of these claims require context?

>>7088221
Because continues are the home equivalent of credits, "creditfeeding" is just the existing term. You even have a dev interview applying the term to continues.

READ THE FUCKING THREAD FIRST and your dumb questions would be answered.

Dracula ProTip: Stand at whips length away from him when he ports in and wait for the moment he opens his cape to smack him in the face.

Lol.
This is why the NES is predicted to become the next Atari 2600.
The hype will slowly fade.
Except for a few genre-defining games, first games of still cherished and active series, and just plain excellent titles - NES is fading out.

Everything is relative and someone young who hasn't grown up playing NES or somehow connected with it will not find it interesting nor fun to play games with the limitations and quality games had back then.

>>7089187
To be fair I was mainly complaining to fish for responses. Best way to get people to talk to you on this site is to be senselessly inflammatory in your OP.

to your point though I think the 2600 has a much greater proportion of crap on it than the NES. they both have a mountain of shitware but I think the NES has more and better b tier games (not stone cold classics but still cool games like Kid Icarus, excitebike, hell dr. mario arguably) to sustain it as an interesting platform for younger players like me. sure a lot of it is dated but finding something enjoyable that appeals to current tastes on the NES is way way easier than finding something on the 2600 imo. especially off the beaten path stuff (unlike castlevania)

>>7089042
That's downright stupid. CV still require skill to get through the level, continues don't revive you where you died like credits. Looks like another shit like NOOO U MUST 1CC TO GET GAYMEHR CREDHIBHILITO

>>7089464
The arcades already clarified this problem decades ago. What you did is creditfeeding. Rather than master the whole game, which takes consistency and stamina, you mastered individual levels, replaying them over and over until a combination of luck or skill pulled you through.

Obviously not every game is ideal for playing without continues, especially if they are lengthy. But that is generally the ideal of pure arcade or action games, especially of the earlier eras we cover, even if they are home releases.

>>7088339
welp just got past the first phase of the Dracula fight for the first time. I think I finally got the right rhythm to it.

Prior to that, I died to Death a bunch while playing through the game again, which makes me think I got extremely lucky the last time I won fairly easily.

>>7090296
You have no real idea of what you're talking about, do you?

>READ THE FUCKING THREAD FIRST

Seems like your bitchass didn't bother to do yourself, because if you did, you'd realize that everyone else here was in fact giving OP advice on things like thinking forward instead of just trying to react to everything, strategy with your whip and subs, and even some pointers on enemy design and hell, knowing when to take a damn break. And yeah, some ballbusting because why not.

>>7089464 is right, CV 1 and classicvania games in general aren't just ones where you credit feed to win, especially since yeah, continuing plops you back at the start of the level, which if anything, is another opportunity to learn more of the game and how it works. You probably haven't even played the damn games if you seriously think it's just memorizing levels, and don't even bother posting to say otherwise. Who the hell cares if you learn the levels, anyway? Why the hell wouldn't you learn the levels, regardless of what game you're playing? What a dumb nonanswer.

>How do either of these claims require context?

And fuck your poor attitude anyway, I was honestly looking forward to hearing what your expanded opinion on the matter and turns out it's nonsense.

>>7073798
or maybe it's time for the Castlevania fans to just consolidate all their threads into a single general like the DOOM/90s FPS people do.

>>7086116
why does that company in your head rent free?
is because it's better than your euro garbage?

>>7074657
you are the worst fanbase in /vr/, castleniggers.

>>7091236
*live in your

>>7089031
Hell yeah, OP, I figured you'd pull it off eventually.
And yeah, CV of any stripe can be difficult if it's your first one. Don't strain yourself if classicvania isn't your thing, but also don't write off what you did.

>>7088339

To expand on what >>7089154 said, try moving left and right while you wait for Drac to show up, I don't know it keeps you alert or something, and when does, get at least whip's length away from him and jump over his fireball spread. You could maybe hit both his head and the spread on the way down, but it's been awhile.

>>7091236
it's because trashure ruined so many classic konami IPs with their taint.

gradius? fuck 5.
castlevania? fuck 4.
contra? fuck alien wars.

>>7091263
you are mentally ill

>>7091263
embarassing taste australia, stick to euro shit please.

>>7091263
Thank G*d they never got their shitty hands on based Goemon.

>>7091282
>Goemon
they were in nintendo consoles, you should hate them auster.

>>7091292
the best one came out on ps1.

>>7091250
I did manage to beat SOTN without much trouble but that game is actually quite easy. I have a weird relationship with these games; they frustrate the hell out of me but I also like them enough to keep trying. Something about the atmosphere and sound design I guess makes them pretty addicting despite them kicking my ass consistently. I might try and play Castlevania IV next, though I don't hear many people talk about Castlevania 3 and it might be good to try as well.

>>7091217
Death is a bitch with the scythes. I have no idea how I killed him I just smashed my head against the wall until he died. to be honest stage 13-15 were actually the hardest stretch of the game for me (besides Dracula, he sucked). I kinda gave up trying to understand stage 17 and that somehow made me able to get through it better.

>>7091393
Depending on how you ultimately feel about 1, you might like 3. The latter greatly expanded on the former, with letting you choose from different routes to enter the castle proper and having one playable partner character that each have their own ways of handling stages and bosses. Even the ironically humble Alucard has his uses but no seriously don't pick him on your first playthrough, you'll likely come to regret it so fucking hard like damn, take Grant, fucker can climb walls and over into the top of screen, even.

There's probably also something to be said about playing the Japanese/Famicom version, something about how the English version censors some things, strips and nerfs some character functionality, and the music being kind of goofier in comparison. Though if you do play the English version, you're not necessarily playing an incomplete version or anything, just way harder than it arguably needs to be.

t. dumbass who played it on wii virtual console

>tfw played and beat CV1 for the first time in one day the other day
>tfw replayed last night and beat it in an hour
This thread is making me feel a little better about my vidya skills.

>>7092020
I'm generally not terrible I don't think, but I know for a fact for some reason I just can't wrap my head around castlevania, esp castlevania 1. Something about the way the game is set up just does not compute. I guess its the heightened spatial reasoning you've gotta apply to combat. I've always been really bad at that type of thing.

>>7092110
I'm not that great at games, I couldn't even get past level 2 of Ninja Gaiden the last time I played. If I can beat CV I'm sure anyone can. Just keep trying.

>>7092150
i did earlier actually!!
>>7089031

>>7088339
Okay, just fucking finished the Dracula fight. Not on one continue, which I'll try for later, but I did it.

The second phase felt a lot easier than the first, even though before this I'd only been able to reach it like 4/5 times and died on the first phase like 30-40.

>>7094253
That's the classicvania way, the beginning is you getting good enough to tackle it. Once you can get that deep in consistently it all starts to be gravy. It's why it's so good.

>>7073602
You dont have to like every game that other people like just because it's good. Forcing yourself to like it wont make the game any better.

That being said this game kicks ass