/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1161267]

What is the best side scrolling rpg ever?
I'm going to say SOTN.
all suggestions are welcome.

[Anonymous No.1161295]

>>1161267

Action side scroller with RPG elements?

[Anonymous No.1161296]

>>1161295
yea

[Anonymous No.1161310]

>>1161296

Zelda II

No question.

[Anonymous No.1161312]

>>1161310
Is this some kind of meme?

[Anonymous No.1161313]

>>1161267
EVO quest for eden and zelda 2

[Anonymous No.1161314]

>>1161312
>Is this some kind of meme?

[Anonymous No.1161316]

All 2D RPG Castlevania's (including Castlevania II) have things about them that I love and hate, so it's hard for me to decide among them.

[Anonymous No.1161320]

>>1161310
I like Zelda 2 but I got used to the idea that if anyone suggest that is either:
1. Stupid and haven't even play it past the 3rd town.
2. Haven't touch a game like it which is really sad as there are other games that did everything it did but much better.
3. Just trolling.

[Anonymous No.1161324]

>>1161320
>as there are other games that did everything it did but much better.

Name 1.

I've yet to find one that is anywhere near as intense. That gives a sense of exploration. A sense of accomplishment. A sense that the world hates you and wants you dead, but that you can overcome it. It's one of my "perfect" games.

[Anonymous No.1161326]

cave story?

[Anonymous No.1161330]

>>1161326
Depressing as hell.

Toroko and King

[Anonymous No.1161476]

You just made this thread in /v/. Please stop cloning threads, this is not healthy for the quality of this board.

[Anonymous No.1162292]

>>1161476

>the /vr/ police

[Anonymous No.1162294]

>>1162292
Technically he's right. The op asked for 'ever.' Not retro.
The op also misnamed the genre.

Quality.

[Anonymous No.1162296]

>>1161476
>You just made this thread in /v/.
Makes sense. I actually thought I accidentally clicked /v/ when I read the first few posts of this thread.

>>1161267
SotN is decent, but it's far too easy to be good. This has been discussed to death. The genre is action/RPG. One of the best games in the genre is Link's Adventure.

[Anonymous No.1163641]

>>1161267

As long as you don't call it a castlevania game sure

[Anonymous No.1163662]

>>1161324
I agree with this anon never has a game made my dick as hard as zelda 2. I hated it when I was a kid because I had no idea how to get to the first temple once I grew up a little and gave the game a fair chance I fell in love. Never has a game pushed me so hard and motivated me like zelda 2 has. A modern remake that kept handrawn sprites and the difficulty in tact would be amazing. I'm not a graphics whore but some weather effects and cool lighting in the dungeons would add a ton of atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.1163680]

>>1161324
You could just use Google but Battle of Olympus is one.

[Anonymous No.1163687]

>>1163641
but it is a castlevania game, it IS, oh the unbearable evil of meshing genres OH NOOOOOO!!!!!

not really meant as an insult, but I'm begining to think that all the fans of oldschool castlevania games are autistic. I mean I understand not liking a game, but in that case just don't play it, it's like the people on /mu/ that say stuff that is clearly in a music genre isn't in that music genre just because the don't/do like it.

[Anonymous No.1163690]

>>1162294
>The OP also misnamed the genre
well if he called it a metiodvania there would be another huge shitstorm

[Anonymous No.1163707]

>>1163641
The only real Castlevania games are 1 and 3 anyway. Every other other part had to ruin the formula with stupid shit.

[Anonymous No.1163726]

>>1163707
see
>>1163687

[Anonymous No.1163759]

Please tell me that I'm not the only one that appreciates these under-appreciated (at least in the West) classics.

Cadash (arcade)

Wonder Boy in Monster Land (arcade)

[Anonymous No.1163763]

>>1163759
I like Cadash, what I've played of it. The action could be a bit deeper though.

[Anonymous No.1163773]

>>1163680
>You could just use Google
that's not how arguments work.

>Battle of Olympus is one.
yes, there were a ton of zelda 2 knockoffs back in the day. it's similar, but not nearly as good.

[Anonymous No.1163786]

Well, it gives more variety than the typical platformer of the time

Fighter: Standard sword fighter. Can use a shield. Fast movement. (Rastan)

Priest: Can aim the whip in 8 directions. Can heal and shit. (Castlevania)

Ninja: various projectiles. can shoot in 8 directions. fast movement (Shinobi w/out melee)

Wizard: short melee. boss killer spells (ehh.. wonder boy monster land?? *shrugs*

[Anonymous No.1163805]

>>1163786
more doesn't always equal better. once you try out all those new characters/moves, it's back to relying on the core mechanics. a game, especially side-scrollers focused solely on gameplay, sinks or swims based on their core mechanics. BoO's just aren't as satisfying as Zelda 2's--it comes closer to its standard than faxanadu and castlevania 2, however.

[Anonymous No.1163846]

Death

[Anonymous No.1163860]

>>1163805
Guess what? I don't like Zelda 2. Never did.

So whatever floats your boat.

[Anonymous No.1163875]

My only gripe with SotN is all the clones it has spawned. Practically every Castlevania game after SotN is an exactly copy of the SotN gameplay engine. Will we never see classic Castlevania platforming again?

My vote goes to Zelda II. I think turning Zelda into a side scroller was possibly an attempt to ensure the game provided a challenge to those who had conquered the original. If Nintendo had produced another overhead Zelda with all the same puzzles and elements as the first, the challenges would be too intuitive and simple. Zelda II demanded that players study enemy behavior more closely and learn how to survive in a more action-oriented environment, which naturally caught everybody off guard since they were expecting a Zelda 1 clone. Much controller breaking ensued.

[Anonymous No.1163881]

>>1161310
Second thing, Zelda 2 is a pretty amazing game with excellent progression. Idiot children jumping on the "lol zelda2 sux" bandwagon were never around for the actual NES era.

[Anonymous No.1163891]

>mfw seeing people who actually like Zelda 2

I got so used to everyone shitting on it ;_;

[Anonymous No.1163964]

Here's my problems with SOTN.

Firstly I think that the death screen hangs on far too long so if you die you have to watch it without skipping. It's long as hell too. You could argue it gives you more incentive not to die but it just irritates me they couldn't let you skip it.

Once the castle is flipped (or maybe it was a bit after?) the challenge really starts to fall off. Like the only way you could keep it challenging is if you avoided killing stuff as much as possible so you were lower leveled by the time you got to that point. I always find myself powering through the bosses, not even trying to avoid them But at least there's Galamoth right?

To 100% and get everything is a real grind and I'll admit this is a very minor gripe since you don't need everything. The argument could be made that grinding cash extends gameplay much farther than it would have been. I guess I wish some skill was involved in getting hard to reach items rather than just putting in lots of dull time doing the same stuff over and over.

I thought the final form of dracula was a real letdown not just because of the whole "powering through everything" problem, but also just because his battle and design looked very uninspired. His attacks had no gusto, it was just this big weird monstrosity kind of clawing back and forth occasionally. I just felt like they could have done something more intimidating and feel "final" for the final boss and form of dracula.

But, I do love the game and I've played it all the way through, twice. The soundtrack has got to be my favorite in the series by far. There are many things I love, like that succubus save point totally caught me off guard and is probably one of the most memorable parts really. That battle in that one arena with the (fake) hunters from Castlevania 3 was both hard and also effectively caught me off guard. I just wanted to point out some things I disliked because that's a lot easier than trying to list all the stuff I liked.

[Anonymous No.1163993]

>>1163875

Honestly, zelda 2 is one of my favorite zelda games of all time. I remember spending a whole summer trying to beat that damned game, good memories. It blew my mind later when I got a PC and decent internet to hear that everyone else hated it. The RPG system was a bit funky, but the game was great.

[Anonymous No.1163997]

>>1163875
>Will we never see classic Castlevania platforming again?
What are Dracula X Chronicles and The Adventure ReBirth?

[Anonymous No.1164002]

>>1163997
Will we ever see one that isn't a remake?

[Anonymous No.1164015]

Does Actraiser count?

[Anonymous No.1164018]

>>1163997

They're both remakes, The Adventure ReBirth more loosely so.

I do enjoy remakes, but I was directing my concerns more to original entries in the series.

[Anonymous No.1164024]

>>1164002
Have you even played Rebirth? It's an entirely new game -- and better than anything Konami's done with the series in the last decade --, like everything else in the Rebirth series.

[Anonymous No.1164047]

>>1164024

Yes. It's a remake of Castlevania: The Adventure for GB, but they've interspersed it with various bits of new content.

[Anonymous No.1164058]

>>1164047
>but they've interspersed it with various bits of new content.

Yeah, if by "bits of new content" you mean an entirely different game with entirely different level design and entirely different bosses and entirely different everything except for having that projectile upgrade. And those eyeball enemies, I guess. That's like saying Contra Rebirth and Gradius Rebirth are remakes of their specific games.

[Anonymous No.1164094]

>>1164058

To quote Wiki: "Based on the 1989 Game Boy title Castlevania: The Adventure, it is the third game in M2's ReBirth series, following Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth. The setting of the game takes place a century before the original Castlevania title, where the player controls an ancestor of Simon Belmont named Christopher Belmont, who must defeat the vampire Dracula."

I've also played Gradius ReBirth. I'd consider it a remake in the same vein since it more or less imports stages from classic Gradius games.

Maybe remake is a poor term. Rearrangement? Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts for GBA is a port of the original SGnG, but the developers threw in several levels from Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts and called it "Arrange Mode." Similarly, Contra: The Alien Wars EX for GBA was half levels from SNES Contra and half from Hard Corps. Same idea.

At any rate, they're hardly new games. I enjoyed them, but I'd still like to see something *totally* new inspired by classic gameplay elements. This doesn't mean retelling the story of a classic game, nor combining levels from classic games into a "new" game.

[Anonymous No.1164098]

:)

[Anonymous No.1164105]

>>1164094
But, dude, Rebirth -is- totally new and inspired by classic gameplay elements. What do you want? Absolutely no level from it is from another game. Play them both in sequence or, if you don't want to suffer through the monstrocity that was The Adventure, look up the longplays if you must, but they're entirely different in every conceivable way sans the story they tell, but in that case you may as well consider Castlevania 1, Haunted Castle, Akumajo Dracula X68000, Vampire Killer, and Castlevania IV remakes of the same game despite the fact that they are sequels telling the same story.

[Anonymous No.1164106]

>>1164098
mfw dracula x chronicles version is retranslated no WHAT IS A MAN

[Anonymous No.1164115]

>>1164105

[Anonymous No.1164121]

This argument is stupid.

I don't care what they called it. If it has different levels, it's a new game. Star Fox 64 is considered a retelling of Star Fox SNES, IIRC. Are you going to call those the same games?

[Anonymous No.1164124]

>>1164098
Is the Satrun version worth playing? I heard it was a crappy port.

[Anonymous No.1164127]

I'm running Ravenloft in my AD&D group I plan on using the What is a Man speech as Strahd kills a adventurer who is trying to over take him.

What are some good nods to castlevania or just thing's I should include in the game.

[Anonymous No.1164130]

>>1164115
Okay, so Wikipedia says it is; what's your point? You say you want an entirely new Castlevania game with classic gameplay elements and that's literally word-for-word what Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth is. It's literally a "remake" in semantics only. I'd like to think /vr/ is above trolling but I don't know whay to think here.

[Anonymous No.1164137]

>You steal men's souls, and make them your slaves!

>Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.

[Anonymous No.1164139]

>>1164121

Calm down, dude.

The levels aren't entirely different. Most blocks (that is, each room / section of a stage) are almost identical to early Castlevania stages. They did the same thing with the early Castlevanias as you mentioned, like Castlevania Chronicles versus Castlevania for NES. A lot of the blocks are similar, but there are some clear differences or entirely different blocks interspersed between them.

How many Castlevania games have you played? Maybe you just aren't familiar enough with the series to recognize the parts that are cut and paste.

[Anonymous No.1164167]

>>1164124
I'm sure whomever told you that has "Sony" tattooed on their ass. The only game that was a "crappy port" on the Saturn was Doom.

Anyway, yes, it is. New stages, enemies, items, music, you can play as Maria or Richter from the beginning, etc. Stellar game.

[Anonymous No.1164185]

>>1161267
NO! STOP IT!

I can understand the arguments that it was the first castlevania game to try a lot of the things it did. To do it on such a massive scale. That so many of the monster designs from later Metroidvanias are derived from this game, and the fact that it's the only Console 2D Metroidvanias gives it a big advantage in Graphics and Music.

But as a side scrolling RPG, there is absolutely no excuse for thinking it's the best.
The way consumables are used is a joke. The Menu for equipment is completely incapable of handling the amount of crap you end up with.

And the Difficulty curve... the fucking difficulty curve. Making an RPG grind-filled is one thing, but this game throws experience at you like fucking candy. Half of the levels in the game end up being tediously easy if you play even ONE LEVEL out of sequence (which is super likely because the prompting is so bad that sequence breaking to the clock tower after the library makes more sense to players).

[Anonymous No.1164197]

>>1163964

I know its a complete bullshit excuse, but I just attributed it to the fact that for one game Dracula wanted very much to be anywhere else or even still dead as opposed to fighting his own son and digging up painful memories. His heart just wasn't in it that time.

Like I said, complete bullshit in reality, but it felt right.

Still, SOTN is a game I can still come back to every year or to and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time. Very few games are like that for me; Mario 64 is one of them.

[Anonymous No.1164478]

>>1163881
>Idiot children jumping on the "lol zelda2 sux" bandwagon were never around for the actual NES era.


Calling everyone that disagrees with you a child makes you look more childish than you're trying to claim they are.

I didn't like it when it was released, I still don't like it.

[Anonymous No.1164482]

>>1164478

Careful, he's going to bring out the AVGN card!

I don't even know if he ever reviewed Zelda 2. I don't watch his videos, so I don't know what he's reviewed.

[Anonymous No.1164484]

>>1163680
>>1163773
Not that guy but I always preferred Battle of Olympus over Zelda II.

[Anonymous No.1164490]

>>1164185
I'm not OP, and I'd definitely put SotN in my top 3 of the genre. Some people just like a game that's fun and interesting to play through, plain and simple. If you have more exacting criteria, fine, but don't sit there and yell at the rest of us to stop saying things you disagree with. It's one thing to say you have a different opinion; it's another to tell other people to stop sharing theirs.

[Anonymous No.1164497]

I enjoyed Rouge Legacy

[Anonymous No.1164504]

if SOTN is an rpg then so is super metroid.

Pic related is the only true RPG, all my grid paper niggers know where i'm at

[Anonymous No.1164512]

>>1161330

Yeah anon, for such a cutesy Japanesy game, DM is fucking depressing. Of course, the Japanese are really sad under their veneer of respectability and colorful video games and pretty anime characters.

[Anonymous No.1164518]

>>1164504
super metroid doesn't have experience and levels

[Anonymous No.1164525]

I agree with OP. Symphony of the Night by far.

[Anonymous No.1164528]

>>1164518
it does have dungeon exploration and loot from boss battles

[Anonymous No.1164543]

>>1164504
>if SOTN is an rpg then so is super metroid.
Neither are actually RPGs. "RPG elements" is a misnomer referring to the stat-based system with EXP/Level mechanics.

Super Metroid is an action/adventure, while Zelda 2 is an action/rpg.

[Anonymous No.1164553]

>>1161267
It's called a platformer, anything sidescrolling is platformer nowadays.

[Anonymous No.1164561]

>>1164553
Everything sidescrolling is a "flash game", etymology being quite obvious. I work with kids, I'm in the know; no, really, 2D games are referred to as "flash games" these days.

[Anonymous No.1164568]

>>1164561

p-please tell me you're joking...

They must be pleb kids or something. I'm sure not all of them think that.

[Anonymous No.1164575]

>>1164561

[Anonymous No.1164576]

>>1164568
>p-please tell me you're joking...
No.

[Anonymous No.1164578]

>>1164576

[Anonymous No.1164582]

>>1164576

[Anonymous No.1164583]

golden axe
West Adventure

[Anonymous No.1164585]

>>1164578
The first time I heard the term "flash game" in that context was when the kid was referring to Metal Slug 3, actually.

I was playing it on the laptop, and the kid saw the screen and said "oh, is it flash game?" I said that no, it's a relatively old game running on an emulator, neverminds - but the kid said, "I mean, uh, you know, you go left-right and all", and slowly it became clear that he was referring to 2D gameplay.

Later I found out it was the way kids born in the last 15 years referred to all side-scrolling games in general.

[Anonymous No.1164589]

>>1164585
did you slap his shit

[Anonymous No.1164609]

>>1162296
I don't subscribe to the notion a game has to be hard to be good. However, I do agree that SotN is too easy. Is that a mark against it, not in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.1164650]

>>1164185
This, the stat system was an interesting idea but ultimately failed in execution. The game is laughably easy for the most part, but there are a couple very specific areas where it really behooves you to grind (in the upside-down castle). Then there are the myriad pieces of equipment you can stumble upon which break the game utterly. Symphony of the Night is very poorly designed regarding its RPG and action mechanics and subsequent Metroid-like Castlevanias improved on it considerably.

[Anonymous No.1164750]

Popful Mail motherfuckers.

[Anonymous No.1164757]

>>1164124
It's not crappy, but it's an inferior port. And the extras are not really worth it. The new stages are really uninspired and the extra characters are just slapped in there and in the end they just break the game.
I'm just saying, if you get the chance to play the PSX version instead, play that one, besides it's even in english, otherwise you can go for the Saturn one, it's not that bad that makes it unplayable as most people make it out to be.

[Anonymous No.1164758]

Not the best, but a very enjoyable one.
It's very simplistic and easy, so if hardcore challenge is your thing don't bother. The final boss is a bitch though. But however it's a very fun game to play without taking itself too serious.

[Anonymous No.1164760]

I've always thought that RPG and 2D action/platformer games are opposites of each other. It doesn't make sense to combine a skill-based game with a time investment game to me. That's why I never felt right playing any of them.

[Anonymous No.1164778]

>>1161267
Zelda 2 is fantastic, if you consider it an action RPG.

[Anonymous No.1164779]

Faxanadu anyone?
Ys 3 anyone?

[Anonymous No.1164854]

>>1164758
I always thought it was a pretty inferior follow-up to Wonder Boy III on the SMS. That game was pure Metroidvania perfection.

[Anonymous No.1164870]

>>1164779
I still need to play both of those games.

How exactly does Ys 3 work if it's not shoulder charging?

[Anonymous No.1166356]

Started playing again, from the beginning.
Hilarious shit, blood cloak, electric subweapon, two chakrams and aries ring. It's basically pre-inverted chrissaegram with distance though it basically shits on your D by using the ring, but you do twice as much damage and basically ream everything hard.

[Anonymous No.1166391]

>>1164854
THANK YOU. Everybody sucks up to the Genesis ones because they look pretty, but this one was g enius.

[Anonymous No.1166402]

>>1164854
>>1166391
Plus, the opening level in Symphony totally ripped off that game.

[Anonymous No.1166419]

>>1166356
Hilarious, got to olrox. He didn't even get a single attack off. I had to watch some youtube videos to see how he fights.

[Anonymous No.1166767]

>>1164870
>How exactly does Ys 3 work if it's not shoulder charging?

think zelda 2 without invincibility time, your shield doesnt deflect and enemies dont get hit stunned. its basically hell.

[Anonymous No.1167096]

>>1161310
I'd have to agree with Zelda II, but I think Battle of Olympus had some improvements. Bigger story, more variety, etc. It's still debatable, but BOO is pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.1167118]

>>1166419
This is why I play with full Alucart gear, and even then SOTN is easy modo.

[Anonymous No.1167193]

>>1167118
Last time I played through without wearing anything whatsoever and I'm pretty sure it was harder than alucart mode... but it was still a total joke.

[Anonymous No.1167245]

>>1164015
Actraiser is less RPG element and more Simulation element. Regardless, it's a fucking awesome game that I tell everyone who's looking for lesser known SNES games to play.

[Anonymous No.1167437]

>>1167118
Or... we could go a different way with that. Chakrams sure helped out. What about a chrissaegrim? EZ-Mode. What about TWO chrissaegrims? Ultra-EZ-Mode. Now, how bout stacked with Aries/Gauntlet for even more attack power. Why not have fun with the broken overpowered as fuck game. Though that's what's good about the game, you can play it however you want. Though you need to cheat to get level 1 stats at 99 for a no level run.

[Anonymous No.1167449]

>>1164561
Yup, 2D is viewed as outdated and an instant flaw of the game. I stopped recommending games to my friends when mentioning that it's 2D made them go "Oh..." in a way that says they'll never play the game in their life.

[Anonymous No.1167469]

>>1167437
>Though that's what's good about the game, you can play it however you want.
Except if you want substance and challenge. Then it's a no-go.

[Anonymous No.1167472]

>>1167437
>Though you need to cheat to get level 1 stats at 99 for a no level run.

For what reason though?
I may be the 1% here, but I don't see the reason in playing like that.
Won't high level enemies require a bazillion hits to die if you play like that?

Sounds more tedious than challenging to me.

[Anonymous No.1167479]

>>1167472
What else can we do? Apart from not playing the stupid game at all, I mean? The controls and the atmosphere are so good, but the difficulty curve starts off easy and then plain insultingly goes the fuck down

[Anonymous No.1167494]

>>1167479

Yeah but it still doesn't make it close to Castlevania games like 1 and 3.
Even there only super bats and axe knights require many hits to die, but not as much as a Lion or a Fire Warg in SOTN with level 1 everything.

There's also the fact that in SOTN there's not the main problem of classic castlevania, IE bottomless pits that kill you and level design that fully tries to do so.

[Anonymous No.1167503]

>>1167472
You can avoid enemies. There's also 1 beat challenge. Where you only kill one enemy in the entire game.

[Anonymous No.1167505]

>>1167503

I guess there are people liking that kind of gameplay too, I just couldn't imagine it.
Everyone has his tastes I guess.

[Anonymous No.1168303]

>>1163997
Adventure Rebirth was such a fucking mess, god damn.

[Anonymous No.1168305]

>>1163964
>Firstly I think that the death screen hangs on far too long so if you die you have to watch it without skipping. It's long as hell too. You could argue it gives you more incentive not to die but it just irritates me they couldn't let you skip it.
At least you can just reset the game.

[Anonymous No.1168386]

>>1167494
>there's not the main problem of classic castlevania, IE bottomless pits that kill you and level design that fully tries to do so.
That's the opposite of a problem. If anything platforming in sotn is boring because it's not punishing at all and most of teh corridors are incredibly plain.

[Anonymous No.1168605]

>>1166402
>sequel to a sidescroller with minor exploration elements that repeats the last boss and is a full-on action RPG

The similarities between Rondo>SOTN and Monster Lair>Dragon's Trap are quite interesting.

[Anonymous No.1168616]

>>1168605
Same with Castlevania-to-Simon's Quest, or even Castlevania to MSX Akumajo Dracula. It's not that uncommon.

[Anonymous No.1168624]

>>1168616
I meant that the transitions between the two games of both series have similarities. Sequels that mix genres are pretty common, but it seems like Konami was directly influenced by Wonder Boy, or it had to be a hell of a coincidence.

[Anonymous No.1168705]

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara, perhaps?
Granted, it's more of a beat'em up with RPG elements...

[Anonymous No.1168719]

>>1164750
Spent hours upon hours with this game. Best fuckin game on the platform.

[Anonymous No.1168726]

>>1163964
Some of the reasons are why I prefer Order of Ecclesia by far. SOTN was very novel back in the day, but OoE just does everything better. Better enemy balance, more challenge, less abusable items, much more memorable and challenging bosses, more entertaining and varied soundtrack, etc.

[Anonymous No.1168728]

>>1168726
Oh also, just to justify my offtopic post, play Rogue Legacy. It's not really retro, but definitely something you'd like.

[Anonymous No.1168737]

>>1163707
what about super castlevania IV?

[Anonymous No.1168747]

>>1168737
Or Rondo, or Drac X, or Bloodlines. Dracula X is closer to the original than 2 and 3 are.

[Anonymous No.1168790]

>>1168726
>Better enemy balance, more challenge, less abusable items, much more memorable and challenging bosses

All of this is painfully wrong. OoE is every bit as trivial as SoTN except you can't tank hits because enemies do a lot more damage now, and they have shit tons of HP which means you can't ignore their patterns either. That's about all there is to it, and it's completely meaningless thanks to the level design being boring as fuck.

[Anonymous No.1168794]

>>1168747
X is a great game. It annoys me to no end that even on this board it's often viewed as a "butchered port". Do people just skip it out of prejudice or something? It's a legit sequel to the NES Castlevanias.

[Anonymous No.1168824]

>>1168790
You've only replied regarding the enemies. I'll give you the boring level design point, since the environments are bland as fuck.
How is that not more challenging, though? In addition to them having more HP and doing more damage, they also encourage you to play around with the glyphs. Only near the end once you get Nitesco does the game become mindless in that regard. The bosses also feel much more elaborate and have less ways in which you can exploit them. In addition they have more HP and deal more damage, forcing you to move around more.

What would be an example of a non-trivial game difficulty wise? It's not one of the hardest games ever, or nearly as hard as Castlevania 1 or 3, but it's by far the most challenging out of the Metroidvania games.

[Anonymous No.1168827]

>>1168794
Yeah it seems people find out that it's a port of Rondo and ignore it, which is a shame. Although I haven't played Rondo of Blood yet, Dracula X is an awesome game, which feels like a graphically enhanced version of the first game. Also the music really flexes that SNES sound chip.

[Anonymous No.1168829]

>>1168827
I personally don't enjoy Rondo as much. I think it's because there are long stretches in that game that simply aren't a challenge and bore you. Dracula X is genius in the same way NES Castlevania is - every single room is a challenge you have to think about, even if you're replayed the game time and time again. There's no rest.

[Anonymous No.1168835]

>>1168827
>Yeah it seems people find out that it's a port of Rondo
The propagation of this myth is the problem right here. It is not a port.

[Anonymous No.1168838]

>>1168835
Yeah sorry, it's a new game that uses some of the same assets as Rondo does. Back off anon I'm not your enemy.

[Anonymous No.1168841]

>>1168824
>How is that not more challenging, though?

Because all the enemies are still slow moving with incredibly simple patterns to them.

>it's by far the most challenging out of the Metroidvania games.

Nope. Try Chelsea and the 7 Devils.

[Anonymous No.1168848]

>>1168841
Well, that's not exactly the case with some enemies (large cavern enemies in particular), but even if it was it's still a much more difficult game than SOTN. Did you seriously not have more difficulty with OoE?

I wasn't referring to the genre, but the Castlevania "sub-series". Thanks for the recommendations, by the way.

[Anonymous No.1168856]

>>1168848

I got bored of it halfway through, quit, and sold it back to where I bought it from. As far as the sub-series for Castlevania goes, CoTM is the only one I truly enjoyed. It's easy to break yeah, but it's the only game where enemies are actually aggressive enough to pose a significant threat if you do choose to limit yourself.

[Anonymous No.1168864]

>>1168856
I agree, Circle of the Moon is definitely the best of those games. My only real gripe with it is how overpowered the crucifix is compared to the other subweapons, but I guess it was like that in some of the classic games too.

Sage for non-retro.

[Anonymous No.1168872]

>>1168856
Oh yeah, Circle of the Moon is my second favourite. A shame you didn't like OoE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr7PLWIhpKQ

Too bad they're slacking on the level design, or else the entire game could have resembled this.

[Anonymous No.1168897]

>>1168864
Don't announce sage, it's bannable now. And you think that's OP? Go through the game without picking up a subweapon. For 100 hearts you can do an item crash that's just ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.1168921]

>>1168897
Yeah I love that little item crash. The Pluto card is pretty overpowered in general though. The item crash is just a cool little easter egg for being a badass playing all the way up to that point without a subweapon. I guess it's kind of funny I even mention the Crucifix considering I almost always try to play without subweapon for the option of using that anyway.

Polite sage for non-retro.

[Anonymous No.1169369]

>>1164779
Yes my vote goes for those 2 and Zelda II. Man I loved Ys 3 and Zelda II when I was real young. I love games like these. Shame not too many of these games were made. Even nowadays its hard to find a good ARPG except for maybe the Witcher and hopefully FFXV.

Later Castlevanias are great too but they definitely have a different feel to them because of the Metroid influence.

[Anonymous No.1169391]

I love SOTN but I think Valkyrie Profile is the best sidescrolling rpg.

[Anonymous No.1169589]

>>1169391

Does that.. really count though? When I think of a side scrolling RPG. I don't think of dedicated battle screens.

[Anonymous No.1169629]

>>1168921
>Polite sage for non-retro.
What did he just say?

[Anonymous No.1169678]

>>1168897
I have a hard time not picking up sub's even when I'm trying not too because I finding myself all to often jumping and hitting candlesticks fluidly that I'll land on whatever the hell it was I just broke without putting distance between me so I can jump over it. It's landed subs down pits that I wanted to keep far too often.

[Anonymous No.1171620]

>>1169391
Okay, but SoTN isn't a side-scrolling RPG. It's an action platformer with RPG elements.

Personally I don't think I could consider any RPG that takes 45 minutes for the fucking thing to start, good. That shit was basically MGS4 the Norsening.