/vr/ - Retro Games

The idea that difficulty spikes are bad is a modern one, which supports the idea that the player needs to be cuddled into victory.
Old game design philosophy wasn't like that. Difficulty spikes existed on purpose to teach the player to get good so he can enjoy the following levels better. Having a difficulty spike followed by an easier part was intended to make the player feel empowered and create a rythmic flow.

With that said the boss isn't that pic isn't """midgame""". It's the penultimate level. and the next level after that is the hardest level in the game (though easier than this boss rush), so I said, this is preparation and making sure the player gets good to tackle the final challenges. You probably only think the final boss is a joke precisely because this part made you get good.

your mom's bad game design

>Dracula's guard is a magician here

>in SCIV he somehow hires death and a mummy to crash in his personal living quarters

>>9987982
>somehow

In CV lore Dracula isn't just "a" vampire, he's the lord of all demons. This is why all the others, including death, work for him, and this isn't unique to IV

>>9987965
This, based, et cetera. Zooming should be a crime, tired of these garbage threads, every damn day with this shit.

>>9987965
>>9988043
No. The final boss in a game like that should obviously be the hardest one. But keep saying everyone who has a different opinion than you is a zoomie or whatever.

>>9988078
>doesn't deny being a zoomer

>>9988084
I'm not who you were originally replying to, retard.

>>9987950
It obviously is bad game design and >>9987965 is coping hard. Difficulty spikes are fine to some extent, when they force you to master game mechanics to progress, but the difficulty curve of the game should still more or less always progress upwards, with the final boss being the ultimate test of your skills.

In this case, Dracula is really easy, with 2 phases, each with only 2 different attacks, both not hard to dodge.
The Shaft boss rush on the other hand, has FIVE phases, each with 3 or more different attacks (except for the giant bat), most of which are harder to dodge than Dracula's. Shaft himself has also an element of RGN in how his orbs will move, which can mess with even experienced players. It's an exponentially harder fight that Dracula, way too much. It makes the final boss feel like a wet fart.

>>9988110
>coping

The only cope is screaming "bad design" every time you lose a life, especially when facing a challenge in LATE GAME

Castlevania takes his main gameplay inspiration from Ghost'n Goblins, which does the exact same thing: the penultimate level is always the hardest and full of bosses. Your notion that the final boss *has to be* the hardest part is completely arbritary.

>>9987965
The problem isn't that difficulty spikes are bad. The problem is final bosses should be hard af.
While a difficulty spike is whatever, by making the final boss a joke you're mocking the very concept of a final boss. A final boss is cool! And tough! It's a DISRESPECT to final bosses everywhere to make them any less than super hard. It's an insult to games. It should be a moment where you face super tough shit and maybe multiple forms.

>ghouls and-
stopped reading. Your game is shit and you're coping that it has a lame final boss. I rest my case.

>>9987950
You mean, Rondo ISN'T the perfect CV game people claim it is? Color me surprised (/s)

You dumbasses who keep just repeating "hurr durr zoomer" nonstop actively lower the level of discourse, which is of course pretty funny because you're always talkinging about how the dreaded ramenheads are ruining the board.

>>9988128
Well yeah, Dracula X is better.

>>9988120
The notion that any part of a game needs to be difficult is completely arbitrary. Fuck off.

>>9987965
I agree that difficulty spikes and what some consider to be cryptic or not fair nowadays aren't as much of a problem as beginners like to say it is. I think that beyond things out of your control, like bad programming or fights that are heavy on random elements, stuff like this is fine. However, Dracula in this game is just really easy, even comparing him to some of the earlier bosses. The Minotaur is more complex and his super attack is harder to dodge than anything Dracula's two forms have in this game, and it makes the finale feel almost anticlimactic because of that. In comparison, Shaft is a full boss rush with each boss testing various different skills you have learned before and the main fight against Shaft being faster paced and generally more difficult than Dracula.

>>9988313
I agree on the final boss being a bit of a pushover, I just don't agree on the concept of difficulty spikes being bad by default or that the final boss *has* to be the hardest part

>>9987950
>mid game
this was near the end, also new players are likely to die to Drac at least once or twice figuring it out, and there are two phases.

>>9988198
this old yarn...

>>9987965
I miss difficulty spikes in games. It makes segments far more memorable.
I'm sure OP remembers the Shaft fight more then plenty of modern "boss" fights.

Death is more annoying than either Shaft or Dracula. They are all towards the end of the game though so any of them being harder than the others isn't bad design. Dracula isn't even bad design just because he's easier because he isn't so easy that he won't take a couple lives off any new player.

does any castlevania fag actually play the pc engine or do they just circlejerk over rondo, over and over?

>>9989019
I played the Adventure Island game

I think that's about it

I do like how I can use my NES pad with that console though

>>9988123

>Final bosses should be hard
100% agree. They should require the culmination of everything you've learned so far to be beaten not some "here you go I guess".

I generally dislike bosses or challenges that are much harder than the final even if they are optional or hidden.
>FF7
>Hours of legit grinding in order to beat the weapons and get KOTR Trivializes the rest of the game.

I know there are ways to cheese it exist but I didn't know that shit back in 1998

>>9988997
The problem with Dracula is that it's almost identical to the fight in Castlevania 1. Pretty sure it was an intentional reference (like the bats bridge), but the gameplay of the series evolved significantly all the way to Rondo, so it's just too simple.

>>9989082
Superbosses in JRPGs are an exception. 99% of players aren't autistic enough to bother with that shit, it's not testing your knowledge of the game mechanics, it's testing your patience towards hours of grinding.

>>9989141
>it's not testing your knowledge of the game mechanics, it's testing your patience towards hours of grinding.

You wouldn't say that to Ozma's face

>bad game design is when something isn't that hard

why does a final boss need to be difficult?

>>9988110
the underwhelming Dracula fight is definitely the worst part of Rondo but in fairness I've always found his phase 2 jump pretty tricky to dodge, you really have to be right up next to him preemptively

>>9989176
Honestly, having a crazy penultimate boss, then easy final boss is fine.

>midgame boss is an insane difficulty spike
>final boss is a joke

such bad design and artificial difficulty the devs really didn't know what they were doing and would put any stupid shit in their game to combat rentals really this justifies my use of savestate and rewind honestly

>>9987950
Dracula X SNES is better and I'm tired of pretending it's not

>>9987950
No, but dialing back rhythmic enemy placements and patterns in favor of fixed infinite spawn points was, and that's why >>9990513 is right.

>>9990513
How is a bunch of cut content better?

>>9990513
never got the console fanboying between super iv, dracula xx, bloodlines versus rondo, when rondo fags dont play the pce to begin with

>>9990548
Bloodlines is fucking Contra with a whip

>>9987950
If the last boss in your game isn't by far the hardest one to beat I don't know what the fuck you are doing. Easy last bosses are the worst.

>the final boss doesn't even have to be hard!
Rondo babbies coping hard ITT.

What does it matter when OP Maria just dumps giant animal sprites on them?

>>9989082
>>Final bosses should be hard
>100% agree. They should require the culmination of everything you've learned so far to be beaten not some "here you go I guess".

Not retro, but Metroid Dread was perfect for this.

>>9987950
>playing with Maria
Are you a baddie?

Final bosses should be victory laps, a nice treat of power fantasy as a reward for beating the game. Good examples are super sonic fights in Sonic, the final boss of Super Metroid where you're given the rainbow beam or any Resident Evil where you're given a rocket launcher

>>9990513
I agree, but I do feel like Rondo is a nice game in it's own right. Stuff like Maria or some of the more unique levels (such as Stage 5') is just missing from Dracula X, despite it's level and boss design being better and more thought through. It does make it a better game for replayability, as you can go for the good ending on one run and it's a shorter, more challenging experience, but I do wish it had at least some extra content like CV3's playable characters. I do really like how much it encourages mastering the base moveset and the subweapons, my favorite detail is how the serpent is weak to the axe, taking more damage from it and especially it's item crush form along with the axe cancelling one of it's attacks. Cool details like that make it more fun.

>>9987950
Obviously. A lot of /vr/tards don't grasp that wonky difficulty balance is bad game design and will just say hit gud but they're objectively wrong

At least Rondo has hard bosses. IV bosses are super lame.

>>9988125
Casual filtred. Go play Kirby.

>>9987965
>DA IDEA DAT DIFFICULTY SPIKES ARE BAD IS A *MODERN* ONE
Wow I'm against it now!!! When you put it like THAT!!

>>9990926
The point isn't "old=good, new=bad" you moron, it's just that it's such a difference in mentality with modern gaming that it needs to be explained to people who aren't used to the idea.
Like how it's inconceivable to them that people could enjoy hard games or having to figure out stuff on them own with little to no clues, so if a game has those then it's "bad design" or "made bad on purpose to sell more games because of rentals" etc

>>9990929
>The point-
I am not reading this fucking garbage you troglodyte. lol

>>9990945
Week-end tourists that are only here for trolling to "blow off steam" because they hated their week of work and their life belong on /v/, you'll have much more responses there

>>9988078
Ok zoomie

>>9990872
I wish Rondo kept having alternate paths all the way to the end. The first part has an insane, frankly excessive amount of detours, but from Shaft onwards you're forced into one path. I haven't looked up how many times you need to play to see everything, maybe like 10? And every time no matter how your playthrough is you'll still forced to fight Shaft, go through the clock tower, and fight Shaft again. It gets boring.

>>9990509
You didn't beat the game.

>>9990948
>Week-end-
You had your chance to say something intelligent at the start, stupid! You blew it. Next time don't fuck up.

>>9991142
Castlevania 2 wasn't the only vania before SoTN. CV3 and Rondo are semi-vanis

>>9992038
Ok? You can see everything in 3 with just three playthrough, it's not an issue there.

>>9992090
actually there is a multi-path within Alucard's path so it's more like 4

>>9990862
You already fully fought Tryrant though. It's even a non-playable shot.

Replaying Rondo is boring because you have to look up what to do to play the stages with cool original music instead of the awful remixes