/vr/ - Retro Games

>>7782738
god, your a fag

>>7782739
explain

>>7782738
sure
very noticeable on hod

>>7782740
I wont

>>7782751
thanks, friend

>>7782738
which one's supposed to be 'corrected'?

>>7782759
Bottom one, since it's how it looked on an actual GBA. Upper screenshot is correct emulation, but the devs made the graphics too bright and saturated on purpose to circumvent the GBA having no backlight and the game otherwise being too dark to see

>>7782765
CotM is an instance where the devs didn’t take the GBA’s non-backlit into consideration. It looks way too dark.

>>7782738
Yes, I'm sure the developers intended for crushed black levels, thats why they didn't just use a black background, they used green leaves as an inside joke to what the player can't see.

>>7782790
>the devs of a GBA launch title didn't take non-backlit into consideration
were they bad developers?

>>7782802
No because gameplay-wise it shits on all the other Metroidvanias.

>>7782809
Not particularly. I like it more than Portrait of Ruin but less than Aria.

>>7782812
Aria of Shite can’t touch CotM on its best day.

>>7782815
Yawn. Typical contrarian take.

>>7782738
gba color correction fags are the worst

>>7782818
>Yawn

>>7782819
you mean you hate normal people? didn't you have a regular GBA back when?

>>7782819
There’s something missing for sure, but I’m not sure what. It still looks 100x better than without color correction, though.

>>7782824
>frogposter
Be even more of a cliche, I fucking dare you.

>>7782815
>Shite

Delete your account.

>>7782842
>Yawn

>>7782818
nayrt but aria is a bland as fuck game with like five enemies total. (and a billion palette swaps)
people just defend it because it hits their collectathlon grindfag autism.

>>7782879
This. Aria is all fluff and filler. Not to mention its “hard” mode doesn’t even come close to being as difficult as CotM.

>>7782824
>This post was made by a female (male).

>>7782809
IF you can get into it, COTM's weird physics take a lot of getting used to.

>>7782738
Top is objectively better. You can't even see the greens of the background on the lower image. I think it needs to be applied on a game by game basis.

>>7782738
Nah, this one is just desaturation (color removal).

Mine is better, corrects the gamma and brightness but preserves color.

>>7782738
Logging in

>>7782989
all the green is gone though

>>7782989
I threw up in my mouth a bit.

>>7782884
CotM being hard is such a meme. I played every GBA era Castlevania in a row and it wasn’t appreciably more difficult. HoD is the easiest and then CotM is about even with Aria and the DS Vanias.

What's wrong with vibrant colors?

>>7782809
I prefer it's artstyle to the Aria. The catacombs are dark and creepy. Other areas get hit with the contrasting stuff less hard.

>>7782879
>nayrt but aria is a bland as fuck game with like five enemies total. (and a billion palette swaps)
Imagine saying this while liking CotM, the peak of having 2 enemies 2 recolors and 2 rooms in the entire game. If you took the worst parts of classic and metroid vanias you'd get CotM

>>7783074
It’s hard relative to other Metroidvanias, and you’re being dishonest if you claim Aria isn’t a good deal easier.

>>7782819
Quick question, are you the anon that always complains when someone says something about RGB?

>>7783609
The only thing that makes Circle somewhat harder is the more clunky character movement that harkens back to the classic Castlevanias rather than the smoother, faster movement in the other GBA and DS games.

>>7783758
>clunky character movement
I bet tank controls make your butthole pucker, fag.

>>7783768
Nice reading comprehension.

>>7783769
Nice butthole.

>>7783773

>>7782738
>Chaotic Evil

>>7782989
Both seem wrong since all the dark colors are getting crushed all to hell.

>>7783804
>>7783852
The issue with the OP color adjustments and the original is that the bright parts look ''artifactsy'' as in, garbage.

As in crushed lights and overcontrasted with bad Curve tonning.

Mine was aiming of doing a more natural tone >>7782989

>>7784035
>doing a more natural tone
it looks more like you're going for overexposure

>>7782812
>he unironically likes an Igavania with igashit mechanics over whipping mechanics
>>>/v/

>>7784046
Cmon man, maybe some early GBA games might look okay(ish) unfiltered, but do you honestly think games like HoD or even Aria dont benefit?

>>7784076
*barfs*

>>7783758
>the only thing that make it harder is the game's mechanics that the game was specifically designed around

>>7784076
still looks like you are going for overexposure

>>7784076

>>7784079
Okay s.0.yboy, stop pretending this is opposite day.

>>7784089
*farts*

>>7784091
>>7784079
>>7783035
wow you are such a faggot
wow

>>7784094
*sharts*

>>7784054
Circle of the Moon is Classicvania movement but in an IGAvania environment and RPG-lite elements. It’s not THAT much different from SotN/HoD/Aria.

Circle of the moon looks great on ags 101 hardware. It looks oversaturated on IPS screens, but then again most games do.

COTM is awesome. I love how it handles, I spent like 50 hours on it just because I loved trawling around and leveling up. Its much harder than Aria, both the boss fights and to grind levels.

Aria is beautiful and gives you way more ability to customize your character and gameplay. Its also much faster to beat.

Why do you guys have to shit on one game to prop up the other? All of the Castlevania games for the GBA are among the best games for the system.

>>7784203
I only ever played it on a DS lite and it seemed fine. What’s the difference?

>>7784203
based

>>7784203
>Why do you guys have to shit on one game to prop up the other?
DoYouKnowWhereYouAre.jpg
Mostly it’s just shitposters and “hardcore” fags that will always claim OLD GOOD NEW BAD and hate on SotN style Vanias just because.

>>7784203
CotM is indeed great and pretty unique blend of both styles of CV
The card mod fixes all the main issues I have with the game and is worth a play through

>>7784213
I dunno, only ds I have is a fat one.

>>7784076
these games learned from CotM and compensated for the GBA with brighter colors and outlines of the main characters. juste also leaves a trail

>>7783693
No

>>7782989
>retroarch
Stop being a faggot and use standalone VBA

>>7785291
Why does RA trigger so many people here

>>7782738
>should
nothing should per se.
if you like it, turn it on. if not, don't.

>>7782802
It was a launch title, as in the GBA hardware was not finalized and their devkits were probably early spec units while they were making the game.

Hell, it's even possible Nintendo told them it would have a backlight, and then cheaped out at the last second.

>>7785304
Literal trannies banned from plebbit thinking they're anonymous even though their writing style shows who they really are.

>>7785304
Devs are 41% sycophants who hates competition, comes to shit this board over criticism related to how bad the cores are nowadays compared to standalone emulators or DosBOX forks like ECE and X, since retroarch cant config dos games or even dabble with a optimal config like VOGONS forks, which led to retroarch shitting VOGONS forums out of spite until they got called out on their bullshit, the Duckstation and byuu shenanigans, and recently Reshade's latest update supporting better versions of Retroarch crt shaders with better tweaking and less fucked LUT support, since crosire is a nice guy who hears feedback and Q&A unlike RA devs who shits on anyone who gives feedback and uses the victim card.

also the fact that they trully have an army of discord shills to pop up here at this board and /v/ if someone "shits" on their golden egg.
a good example is >>7785315 who is a well known shill.

they always come first to project what they are at others to shill RA and derail the thread and force the jannies to close it.

>>7785315
Let me rephrase it just for you
Why are so many people here filtered by RA

>>7785335
>a good example is >>7785315(You) who is a well known shill.
You're a bit paranoid aren't you? You're also projecting otherwise you wouldn't have posted that wall of text.
>they always come first to project what they are at others to shill RA and derail the thread and force the jannies to close it.
It's funny that you mention that when people shitting on retroarch are the ones constantly spamming the board.
>>7785337
As I said, it's mostly people who dislike retroarch for different reasons taking advantage of 80 IQ faggots who think setting it up is somehow hard.

>>7785337
>>7785348
The VPN is obvious

>>7785354
>mfw it's really a schizo tranny

>>7782765
The bottom looks like shit though.

>>7785348
Fair enough, if someone doesn’t like something they should just use something else, but there’s so many people who take it personally like >>7785335 I just can’t understand it, are you really upset because the devs won’t listen? Or is it something else
I don’t remember this ever happening to any other program, also I’ve used reshade recently and it’s still crap for CRT shaders

>>7785371
>Fair enough, if someone doesn’t like something they should just use something else, but there’s so many people who take it personally like >>7785335 I just can’t understand it
It's not a lot of people, just a very vocal minority. Anyway, welcome to the world of anti retroarch tranny shills.

it's not the developers intended, so no.

>>7785337
I prefer my interfaces to be fast, boring, and clear.

>>7785418
yes it is actually

>>7784213
>>7784559
DS lite has multiple brightness settings, all of which are better than the DS.

>>7782802
Yes. CotM is a bit of a train wreck. It's still fun, but the devs made lots of technical and design mistakes. Just look at the absurd grinding you have to do to get spells and how trivial the glitch to skip it is.

>>7782738
I don't know what colour correction is, but color correction is a good idea.

>>7785418
GBC and GBA games are made with overly bright colors to compensate for the dim, non-backlit screens. They did not intend you to see those over-saturated colors in the end product.

"Should" implies that there's a correct way to play the game. There isn't.
Just do what you think looks best and play the game instead of trying to impress anonymous shitposters.

>>7785642
>There isn't.
Yes there is, the developer's intention. See >>7785535

>>7783758
Did literally nobody in this thread make it to zombie dragon? FUCK that boss. Dracula was unironically easier

>>7785748
>zombie dragon
Great memories.

Great game.

>>7785748
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. Definitely one of the tougher bosses in any of the post-SotN games.

>>7782738
Lol, no, I've experimented a lot with GBC and GBA color correction on a good tablet screen. Kirby Amazing Mirror, Shantae, Metroid Fusion - all of them look much better (and closer to SNES ideal warm colors) with color correction turned OFF. Dunno about Castlevania, given that SOTN (original to compare with) is really colorful, I assume it is the same.

>>7782739
Why is /vr/ like this?

>>7782802
The original GBA has a contrast knob hidden in the back under a sticker. I think originally the plan was to let players use the knob to adjust the screen, but it turns out doing so would brick your system. I think the CotM devs made the game with this in mind, but for some reason or another never got the memo that players can't use it, and shipped the game too dark.

>>7786471
>The original GBA has a contrast knob hidden in the back under a sticker.
No it doesn't. Are you talking about a prototype or something?

>>7786474
No, actual retail units. It was all over magazines at the time. Though, to be honest I've never tested it out so if I was the victim of a big hoax I wouldn't know.

>>7786504
Well a google search brings up a bunch of results that back it up.
That's crazy, I disassembled mine before and I don't remember anything like that.

>>7784124
*burps*

>>7785291
he is using mgba jackass.

>>7785354
4chan bans VPNs mate

>>7786931
Not anymore, expensive ones gets free pass along with phoneposting.

>>7785883
It was the hardest boss I've ever had to deal with in a castlevania aside from some of them in order of ecclesia. Death in dawn of sorrow's julius mode was pretty rough too. Circle of the moon in general was hard since they kinda expected you to use the cards to exploit boss weaknesses (dracula was cake if you spammed thunderbird) but as far as I can remember there wasn't a way to know which enemies even had them in-game

>>7782738
Just turn down your screen brightness, bro

>>7785360
Actually the game looks like shit. Every single metroidvania except SotN looks bad

>>7782765
Top looks very close to what it looks like on a backlit SP. Bottom looks closer to an unlit GBA but the green moss is more visible but it's gray. The colors in the health bar are much too saturated for an unlit GBA. Then again I am seeing it on my monitor with my setting and lighting and someone else is seeing it on theirs. There is also a lot of variance between game boy screens.

>>7785535
There were frontlit and backlit models. Did they change the colors to accommodate the new models? Should you look at a game's release date to know which settings to use?

>>7787268
SOTN is s freaking 2d Crysis, so much detailed spritework.Look at Ancient Chozo hack (running it on actual SNES) to see, how Super Metroid may have been looking. Also non-vr metroidvanias are usually the best possible looking games.

>>7787349
That's actually a very good question and I'm not sure if that was something any devs did. Part of me thinks they wouldn't have because they'd still want the games to be playable on all existing models, but I have nothing to support that but a hunch.

>>7787349
i'm such a sperglord about accuracy that i actually do this when i emulate gb(a) games

>>7787414
it likely depends on the devs.
as one example where they likely adapted to newer models: fire emblem. the first 2 GBA FEs were very bright, but the one to be developed after the GB Player/GBA SP used a darker palette
i played a lot of my gba games on the player so i'm used to them looking pretty bright. it only really looks off when it comes to ports of snes stuff

>>7787416
based sperg

>>7787324
>but the green moss is more visible but it's gray
That's just shadows on the wall, there's no moss.

>>7782738
This game's soundtrack needs a resampling. Even the CD version is scratchy.

>>7787681
the game is just bad all around. terrible level design. what is the point of the whole metroidvania-schtick when it's all just the same copy-pasted stairs and halls splattered with enemies acting as filler for you to sprint and jump past. boring and a waste of time. how anyone can like this over tightly and wellj designed linear levels that are unique and don't overstay their welcome is beyond me

>>7787721
still, the soundtrack is great and only being held back by the extreme low quality samples they used. In later soundtrack releases for games tht suffered from a similar problem, they included a high quality sample disc, for example with PoR's soundtrack.

>>7787737
who cares, literally almost the whole soundtrack consists of remixes. listen to the originals instead. Pretty much the only good original song (Awake) got a great remix in smash brothers recently

>>7787768
Nothing wrong with remixes if they’re good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjimRFQlJB0

>>7787662
lol what?
It absolutely is Moss, it’s grown over the bricks

>>7787721
>hat is the point of the whole metroidvania-schtick when it's all just the same copy-pasted stairs and halls splattered with enemies acting as filler for you to sprint and jump past. boring and a waste of time. how anyone can like this over tightly and wellj designed linear levels that are unique and don't overstay their welcome is beyond me

I DILBERTLY ENTERED A THREAD ABOUT SOMETHING I DISLIKE

>>7789265
I'm OP actually, I'm halfway through the game by now.

I've gone through all the old pre-SotN games in the past few months and this is the first post-SotN metroidvania I have ever played. It's really disappointing so far (except for the music, but those are all old songs)

>>7789289
People play them for exploration.

It's kind of a dead genre now since exploration is handled better in 3D.

>>7789392
>it’s kind of a dead genre
>every second indie game is a metroidvania

>>7789423
When the indies are covering it's dead.

It means the genre peaked and all that's left are a slew of horrible games and every once in awhile something at least ok.

>>7786172
6th gen brought in most of /v/

>>7789423
>every second indie game is a metroidvania
Seems to be the easiest genre to make among indie. I guess that is the closest they can do to a "open world 3d game". If making 3d game was easy, I'm pretty sure indie devs would go for open world as much as they go for metroidvania.

>>7787662
There is moss.

>>7782739
my a fag what

>>7782802
as >>7785312 said they were using devkits, i would assume that for a 2001 release a backlight (or at least a frontlight) was considered a bygone conclusion, considering Game Boy competitors that were a decade old at that point had them

>>7783804
is this as development intended?

>>7783758
I'd say it's more to do with the bosses than Nathan's movement. The movement allows for a sort of tug of war between you and enemies that other metroidvanias don't really have for the most part, since they give you a bunch of ways to cancel attacks. have patience and time your attacks accordingly without aggroing too many enemies to yourself, and mooks are pretty easy to deal with. With the bosses, a lot of them are big and like to fling themselves either in movement patterns or straight up attacks, and all of them have some sort of projectile that they have no qualms with firing from offscreen. Ironically enough, Death is the one boss who technically has some of these traits but prefers staying onscreen with predictable movements, making him easier than nearly everyone else. Everyone else is basically a cheaper version of Death to an extent.

>>7785748
Really? I found Dracula harder than just about everyone else, what's so bad about the zombie dragons to you? Do you fight them atop the platforms, I always stick to the ground to dodge. The falling rocks suck dick, though, without Jupiter, they can get through Nathan's whirling whip defense and it eventually kills me because of how long the fight goes.

You darker is better retards are the absolute worst.

>>7787187
>they kinda expected you to use the cards to exploit boss weaknesses
This is something that I often thought about in regards to CoTM and it's something that bugs me about its design. I've beaten the game no-hitting every boss while using only the whip and shitty luck equipment, so I can tell you that it's certainly possible to get through the game without DSS, subweapons, or even decent equipment, but the bosses have such huge health pools and regular enemies are so tanky that I have to wonder if that was intended by the devs? The cards are really hard to come by even if you go out of your way to grind for them, but was it supposed to be like that?

>>7792179
In terms of balance

*The best cards are either so well hidden or so hard to get that they clearly were not intended for most people to find
*Players that dont know the route will backtrack and get lost making them discover more cards
*The cross is busted. With enough hearts it melts all the bosses except Hugh and Dracula who simply have ungodly hp
*Starting at the underground warehouse you start running into enemies where its actually more effective to avoid them then fight them. By the time you get to the last level thats the case with the majority of enemies. However it managed to get past quality control this is just crap design.
*There equipment curve is weird. The second best accessory in the game is the cursed ring which can be gotten super early. Double grips are the best and their drop rate is so rare players without a guide will probably not even know they exist. Bronze armor is the best chest piece for a huge chunk of the game and only drops off one enemy.
*How the hell are players supposed to know what to grind on? Some enemies have equipment that are relevant for huge portions of the game (strength, luck, and def ring, bronze armor, cards) while others just have shit drops

>>7782765
>Bottom one, since it's how it looked on an actual GBA.
It doesn't matter what it looked like on the real thing. You have to be a complete retard to want to emulate this experience. You might as well use a shader to add finger prints and scratches, too.

>>7784203
Do you own two Arias?

>>7792509
forgot pic

>>7792509
how can one miss the point this much

>>7792509
>>7792514
I use shaders to make SD games look better, not authentic

>>7792509
>>7792514
I use shaders to make SD games look better, not authentic >>7783804

>>7792514
Could you take a pic of the screen better illuminated?

>>7793357
Nice canvas texture.

>>7793385
thanks, I assume you're looking at it on a lower res than me if you're zoomed in that much though

>>7792509
>You might as well use a shader to add finger prints and scratches, too.
ngl, that would be kino

>>7787349
>Should you look at a game's release date to know which settings to use?
Yes

>>7793397
If you consider 1440p lower res.

>>7793432
I don't but I also don't have my face that close to my monitor

>>7782738
Largely depends on the game, as you had devs who didn't give a fuck, especially as the GBA got older. Best option is to turn it on to compare. Generally you want it on, though.

>>7792514
Yo, what shaders are you using here?

>>7792513
No I was just using my flashcart to run it. For the more expensive GBA games I usually play on there first before I decide whether to buy.

>>7782879
>>7782884
You call Aria grindfag autism and you actually like Cotm? Cotm is the grindiest of them all ffs. The time it takes to get a single card in Cotm(Black dog) is equal to getting half the fucking souls in aria.
I like Cotm, DSS is a nice system, but its worse than aria in almost every way - the special modes is just getting random stat changes or all cards on start which is just filler garbage, unlike Aria which has the absolute kino arcade-like Julius mode and new game+ and boss rush - those just shit on Cotm special modes effortlessly, Cotm doesnt even have fucking sound mode unlike almost every other castlevania released in that time and later. Not to mention weird running and physics
Look how many enemies from Sotn, Aria and Dawn get copied into the newer games, that is because they are simply well designed enemies that fit many artstyles - iirc not a single enemy from CotM appears after that game, Cotm is the odd one, it has its charm but its not nearly as solid of a game as Aria, its almost as if they outsourced it to completely different company to make it(no belmonts, no vampire killer[well I actually liked that they diverted from old formula in this way], Death has no dialogue but some random chump necromancer does and fills death's role, Carmilla that is completely different than Carmilla from older games)

>>7793724
>The time it takes to get a single card in Cotm(Black dog) is equal to getting half the fucking souls in aria.
You're not suppose to grind the cards you dipshit.

>>7782802
>Game is entirely drop dependent
Yes

>>7793929
Same with souls you donut, Im not the one calling aria a grindfest.
Even so, there are so many souls you could easily go by without one or more(opposite of grindfest), while there's a really limited collection of cards in Cotm and getting most of them is more important(which makes cotm grindy), so that only exposes Cotm's retarded design philosophy more if they lock the two of most useful cards behind a ridiculous drop rate.
It would be understandable if they hid it somewhere or made a quest to gain it, but making it drop rarely from an enemy you see only once is straight up fucking stupid and artificial difficulty - you have to be retarded to defend this approach

>>7793994
His point was that people only like Aira BECAUSE the grind is interesting.

CotM is the proper game as its the most difficult and hardest to cheese. Aria is the better grind game.

>>7782809
It's literally a prototype for HoD.

>>7793994
If you want all the DSS cards, play Magician Mode. In a normal playthrough you’re meant to work with what you find along the way.
>Same with souls
Nah, because in Aria you can’t get the Chaos Ring without getting all the souls. There’s no incentive to getting all the DSS cards besides bragging rights.
>getting most of them is more important
If you’re a scrub who can’t stick and move.

>>7795028
>you’re meant to work with what you find along the way
again, same could be said about souls, chaos ring is a gamebreaking item, by the time you get it most people have almost 100% of the game, there's no way developers intended every player to get it
Not saying you have to get all DSS cards, but they definitely feel less optional than all the souls - Magician mode having every card further proves it by showing you it is normal to have them all(no aria of sorrow mode awards you all souls on start, that would feel ridiculous, unlike all cards in cotm - the charm of the cards doesnt come from collecting them but skillful combination of those abilities)

>>7795028
>If you want all the DSS cards, play Magician Mode
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4725/