/vr/ - Retro Games

For one, it's an action game on the Snooze.

Because it's popular and this place is full of contrarians.

Fpbp.

>>8294349
This.

>>8294357
This.

>>8294329
>totally unlike every other game in the franchise
Gee I fucking wonder

It just makes auster-kun seethe that's it.

Being a relatively easy game in the series, I think that your average person will get further in it and form a stronger positive impression of it.
But for people who have played all the classic CV games, it's a pretty mediocre entry.
So you have the more casual people and the more hardcore people arguing about it.
Nostalgia also plays a role, I'm sure.

>>8294329
Basically it's too mainstream for /vr/, once enough e-celebs cover Chronicles they'll move onto pretending to like Vampire Killer or Haunted Castle or some shit. Chronicles does at least kick ass though so I'll give them that.

>>8294329
It's not that great but it was a heavily marketed bombastic next-gen sequel/remake of its time, so many people bought into that as a child (which is okay) and remained thoroughly uncritical of their nostalgia (which isn't).

This pretty much >>8294369 Though I would put it in a less nice way

>>8294383
Chronicles is a butchered port

>>8294357
fpbp. This is literally the answer %100.

>>8294357
Spbp, This is the correct answer.

Fact: if you never found out by yourself that in Rondo and Dracula X (SNES) you earn an extra life at the end of the stage if you beat it without getting hit, your opinion on Castlevania is worthless

>>8294329
I like it but you do have more power and freedom in this game (8 whip directions, air control) which makes the game the easiest in the series. Also it is riddled with slowdown, seems like everything you hit with your whip brings the game to a crawl.

>>8294367
This.
Auster wishes this game was controversial. It's easily one of the most popular

>>8294395
Thanks for the image, I basically just said "Chronicles" to bait out this image since I've been playing a ton of the PS1 version (just finished loop 4) and was wondering about the differences since I've only played upto the clock tower in the X68k version.
Some of this here though seems like nitpicking or outright wrong, it's still perfectly playable and one of the best PS1 games but I'll go back to the X68k version when I get a new controller and confirm/deny these points.
>XM6
Don't use that one, that's either the one that has no save functionality or horribly fucked up graphics, use XM6 Type-G instead.

>>8294517
I doubt you're going to find anything "outright wrong" but be my guest, the more the better; and if you do I'll correct. been meaning to redo that image since admitedly it was badly done, but I didn't want to bother with Chronicles so much, the cropped aspect ratio alone is enough to put me off

We're on /vr/ where most people would rather play an empirical fan made recreation or other forms of recreations vs the actual game no matter how terrible they are; see for instance BloodCM followed by the Blood "remaster" which are ports ten times worse than Chronicles, so just checking up on this is a good thing

>>8294369
This is probably the right answer.

Although I think the difficulty spike in the later part of the game (starting level 8) isn’t a good one, it’s more punishment for jank gameplay mechanics than poor play. The falling staircase in level B for example, how many times do you start climbing the staircase by holding up and just either fall through or fall off the first step inexplicably, assuming you’re on the first step and continue holding up you should never fall off, but sometimes you still do. I prefer getting my ass kicked by monsters in 1 & 3 than that, because that feels like my fault for sucking.

>>8294551
I will say the PS1 port did try to get around the cropping issue by making the HUD transparent but they should've just made a tate mode or squished the aspect ratio for original mode.
Also I don't think you can beat Fake Simon by just crouching in the middle of the screen, I've definitely been hit by the crouching whip before and if you have a cross that's just not happening.

>>8294578
>how many times do you start climbing the staircase by holding up and just either fall through or fall off the first step inexplicably, assuming you’re on the first step and continue holding up you should never fall off, but sometimes you still do

Not sure if it's what you're referring to, but if you bump your head on the ceiling while falling on a stair, it will make you fall through the stair. A glitch that happens due to how cramped that area can be, so it's like two objectively bad game design cues (hit detection glitch+crampedness) teaming up for the worst.

The worst offenders for me in that level are with the rock platforms in the end. One, if you jump back onto the area with stairs to the right after having first jumped on a rock, if the sceen scrolled upwards only so slightly, it will be impossible to make the jump back onto the rocks, thus leaving the player in a dead man walking scenario.
Then, the ceiling spikes that insta kill the player have a much bigger hit detection than they look. This is a classic 8-16 bit flaw; hit detection for background objects is tile-based; so if your spike is only 10x12 pixels within your 16x16 tile, hitting any pixel in the entire 16x16 tile, even the empty ones, kills the player. In the case of CV4 it is bad because the spikes are so narrow towards the bottom and have so much empty space.
Then, the scrolling is so fast and the player reaches the middle-upper half of the screen so fast, that it's very likely to find yourself in a position where you can't dodge the spike as it appears, so trial&error and forknowledged is king.
Finally, if you die, the protagonist just lies there... in mid air.

Almost the entire stage is a shitshow honestly; that finds no equal in the entire series outside of the first and third game boy games. The devs were so interested in coming up with as many gimmicks as possible using the SNES hardware that they forgot the most important: making those sections fun.

Castlevania was never good

>>8294634
>Not sure if it's what you're referring to,
It's not, he already explained the specific issue. Sometimes you'll jump on the very first step of the falling stairs and you'll fall the moment you step on it very randomly.

>>8294369
All the popular castlevanias fall on the easier side (especially rondo). I think 4 is only easy at the beginning but even the first level is actually harder than the first level of other games in the series. 4's first level already has medusas and fall traps.
Speedrunners also agree, 4 is one of the hardest to speedrun.
I've played all the classicvanias too many times for me to perceive any difficulty by now though, can do games like 1 or 4 without losing any continue, and rondo I can pull no damage runs, or at least no death. StillI enjoy them, timeless classics.

>>8294671
>All the popular castlevanias fall on the easier side (especially rondo)
This, low difficulty doesn't make for the best argument for why people shit on a particular CV game, especially with the way 4 ramps things up as it goes on.

>>8294329
The game is controversial because Castlevania fans are controversial, especially RoB/SoTN fans, not that they start every fight, though. There was that Halloween thread mere days ago, and it was pretty comfy, all things considered, and it was probably because, at least from what I saw, anons barely if at all talked about those two games in particular. I don't think they talked about 4 all that much, either.

>>8294329
it's easy as shit and when it tries to be hard it just becomes frustrating instead, that and the game is way too brown

I don’t think it has the same upbeat energy of the rest of the series. It’s quiet, foreboding, dark, and uses full colors. The music isn’t bad, but I don’t think it captures the style or fun of the rest of the series with its original tracks. I honestly can’t hum any of it off the top of my head except for the intro level.

I think Bloodlines is much better.

The IP count in this thread is streangely low

>>8295138
>you can only post in a thread once
Ok reddit.

>>8295142
I mean, most of the posts are replying directly to op, so it should be all new ips. Who knows

>>8295128

The music is part of the source of the controversy. It's better than the music from the NES games, which is saying a lot because those games had uniformly awesome music, but yeah it's a very different style and is also less accessible, so many players just let it go in one ear and out the other.

If the game were as good as its soundtrack then it'd be the best Castlevania, period.

Castlevania fans are weird, Metroid fans can accept Super Metroid as an easier game in its series with other strenghts and not lose their shit when people bring it up as their fav. Granted, SCIV is not as groundbreaking as Super Metroid and I do understand why it sticks as a sore thumb compared to the other Classicvanias, but that atmosphere, the Taro Kudo music, the empowering 8 way whip, the way the difficulty and creepiness ramp up as you approach the castle, for such an early SNES title? Get outta here you fucking contrarians.

Yeah the mode 7 whoring kinda sucks, it's not as good as 1 or 3, and Bloodlines is great as well, but there's nothing wrong with 4 choosing to be long, mellow and atmospheric. There's very few action platformers I can chill to with a hot drink or backseat play with my normie friends, Castlevania 4 is awesome for what it is.

>>8294329
Because there's a Castlevania on two other consoles from that generation, and some people are deeply in love with those two consoles

>>8295138
19 (now 20) is fine

>>8295201
I think it's less love for the other companies and more about hate for nintendo. At least the one infamous anti-castlevania 4 shitposter on this board isof a confessed nintendo hater.

>>8294329
>Controversial
idk about that but it just feels like the most bland Castlevania game. Beyond dude Mode 7 it feels like it has nothing to it.

>>8295190
>the empowering 8 way whip
That's not a positive, dipshit. The whip breaks the game because you can snipe everything from any position with it. It really feels like a last minute change on behalf of our friends at Treasure.

>>8295257
Yeah, poopyhead, it's a positive because it's overpowered, awesome and the game isn't meant to be ballbustingly difficult. Sometimes it just feels good to smash everything in your path. Besides you're overselling it, like sure there's some spots in which you can defeat an enemy that can't get to you in the platform above (bone pillars and axe armors mostly), but giving you another tool to deal with skeletons on the upper ledge, harpies, spiders, or those things that bounce all over the screen is hardly breaking the game. I'd say it feels just right with the second loop.

>>8294329
Nothing really controversial about it, there's one autist who seethes eternally, otherwise it's regarded as a good Classicvania, if somewhat easier than its brethren.

Loud Nintendo fanboys overrated it to hell while ignoring/downplaying the other Castlevanias because they weren't on Nintendo and they didn't play them when they kids in 1992.
SCIV is a good game, though. It was a major graphical leap from NES. Comparing it to Rondo and Bloodlines is kind of stupid because it is quite a bit older than both of them. Calling it better than Rondo and Bloodlines is where a lot of the fighting starts as they're both more advanced in terms of detail and gameplay.

Fun fact, most of the people who complain about CV4 being "too easy" actually suck at it. How many of you actually beat the first loop? Let alone the second? How many of you beat Dracula without being told about the hidden staircase in the last level?

>>8295356
>most of the people who complain about [game] being "too easy" actually suck at it

This is true for a lot of games actually. Any time someone says a popular game is "too easy" if you probe them enough, it always ends up being that they played on the lowest difficulty, or used save states, or followed a walkthrough, etc.

>>8295356
>he actually needs the staircase
Retarded tranny

>>8295363
So? I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not really that good at videogames.

>>8295367
You are, though. You've beaten Umihara Kawase (long route) in under 20 minutes. You could probably beat Dracula with just the whip if you really wanted to. You're just lazy and will take the easy way if the game gives you one. You're not bad at games, you're just undisciplined. Stop making excuses.

It's good, although "muh directional whipping" gets maybe too much credit and blinds a lot of people to the fact it's not the best Castlevania game

>>8295412
The directional whip is just neat. It's not the peak of the franchise, it doesn't feel as good as gitting gud at CV1-3, it's just a neat vehicle for the game to be smoother. No, 4 is not the best Castlevania, nor should all of them have that whip, people who look down on Rondo/Bloodlines/Dracula X for not having it are dumb. Hell, those people ignore Eric is a perfectly good compromise between Bloodlines and 4.

That being said, you'd think the opposite from these threads, some people think it ruins or breaks the game when it doesn't. It's just a thing in the game and I'm glad it stayed in CV4. It makes it unique, and further Classicvanias were good the way it are.

>>8295482
It does to a degree break the balance. There were situations in the earlier games that were designed to be handled with specific weapons like the axe, but when you can just whip up, you end up relying on those a lot less. Depends if you think that's a fair trade-off for a movement system that is a lot of fun to play around with.

I am glad a game like Super Castlevania 4 exists, I just don't think it's the best in the series as it sort of abandons some of the more important tenants of the franchise.

>>8295490
Sure, this particularly with upper ledges, but it doesn't utterly ruin the game or anything, just makes your base movement more powerful, I think this long ass game can be forgiven for that. Also it's not like it's the end-all that makes all subweapons worthless, I think that's a little oversold. Jumping and whipping is not always the best solution (riskier), axes and crosses are still nice to have.

>>8295190
metroid fans don't care because the fun of those games is beating them fast, not doing 1cc or hitless runs

>>8295591
The exploration is fun though.

>>8295595
of course, i meant the fun of replaying them

My only complaint is that it is too long. If they trimmed up the filler sections it would a perfect game.

>>8295591
Nah I don't buy that, there's lots of kinds of funs to be had with either, Metroid.

>>8295591
Nah I don't buy that, there's lots of kinds of funs to be had with either, especially Metroid.

>>8295601
Some of those levels just go on and on, and aren't that fun. A lot of the time I just quit the game out of boredom, around level 3.

>>8294329
Casual fans love it because muh multidirectional whip and it's generally easier than the NES Castlevanias. Anons hate it because it's well-liked and therefore bad. IV is a fine game. The real overrated turd of the series is Rondo.

>>8294578
There are definitely some bullshit deaths in this game, but I'm not sure I agree with you about the difficulty spike. If there's one thing I felt the game did well it was accelerating the difficulty quite gracefully. I never felt like the game had taken a sharp right turn in difficulty. There are some games in this series that feel like they're trying to choke you out. This game felt like it was always preparing me to accept the next challenge.

>>8295647
>Anons hate it
It's just 1 major shitposter and maybe 1 or 2 other contrarians samefagging, but majority of castlevania fans love it.
>easy
People who played the classicvanias extensively know that IV is actually not as easy as it might initially seem. I personally think Castlevania 1, Rondo and bloodlines are easier to replay, knowing them all by memory. IV has more tricky stuff that require more skill in terms of performance, whereas CV1 is a really easy romp once you know the game by heart. Rondo is very very easy (probably the easiest of the classics). And they're all still great.
Speedrunners say IV is the hardest one to speedrun due to the whole perfect execution it requires compared to the others. I don't speedrun but yeah, I do consider it harder than the ones I mentioned, though not harder than III, X68K or DX.

>>8295190
Metroid fans are a special kind of autist. They almost had me too. Took me forever to admit I wasn't really enjoying the "metroidvania" formula. They'll swear up and down that Super Metroid is the greatest game ever made. I'll take any of the "classicvanias" over weird fetchquest shenanigans.

>>8294329
I want to add (for humor) that I didn't even realize I could use the hanging whip as a shield until I got to the final Dracula fight in this game. It probably makes bats, books, and projectiles way easier to deal with. I'm sure it's something I knew as a kid, but I only ever played the first few levels as a kid. Only beat this game recently as an adult.

>>8294329
You also have to realize that many people went straight from CIII to IV! You can see why people would be disappointed in that context. Imagine a sinking feeling that you won't ever see another sequel to your fave games.

>>8295851
Sounds stupid, but think about it from a gameplay instead of numbered sequel point of view.

>>8295356
I knew about the hidden staircase, but I refused to use it even when I thought my old man reflexes were outmatched by Dracula's fire face magic.

>>8294329
Speaking for myself, it’s a good game with good controls and good music but it just feels kinda off. Simon’s big ass sprite rubs me the wrong way for one, but the whole game feels weirdly empty and soulless almost. I’ve no idea why, but it feels hollow compared to nearly everything else. Game is still fun to play though. Probably in my top ten castlevania games, maybe. Maybe not. It’s better than Dracula X at least

>>8294329
False. Is just plain good and thats it. Is the weakest 16 bit castlevania but still good.

The same reason VR shits on all good, popular games: because they’re popular

>>8295887
>Is the weakest 16 bit castlevania but still good
I agree.