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Quote from Da Dood:

Finished Castlevania: The Adventure in about an hour.


I don't know how you can play some of these games.  I grew up with these, and even I find them unplayable.  They're terrible.
Dood Trigger™
LOL, I really don't have a good answer for that...
Dood Trigger™
Legacy of Darkness' Henry mode is done, all 6 children saved.

That was great fun, and surprisingly fast. The whole thing took a little less than 2 hours. This mode has a time limit (must find 6 children, one per area, in 7 in-game days), but it's not as high pressure as it seems. You can save progress just like the main game, and it's easy to explore an area until you find the kid, then reload the previous save and run straight to the kid's location with no time wasted. Plus most key puzzles are already done, so the area is usually free to explore. I finished with 4 days left.

Henry has an OP pistol too. It has to reload every 6 shots, but it's only a tiny pause.

I wonder how weird it must be for someone who's not familiar with vanilla CV64 to explore brand "new" areas as Henry, under a time limit. The Tunnel in particular is pretty mazey, and you don't visit that place in Cornell's story. I didn't even know that area has a new boss fight.

Now I have: Reinhardt, Carrie, Hard mode and all alternate costumes unlocked. I'll do Belmont's Revenge tomorrow, then one of the other characters in LoD. Probably won't bother with Hard for now.



By the way, that text. Strong gentle features of Henry's beaming face. Glorious.
Dood Trigger™
Finished Belmont's Revenge.

Man, this is like a 600% improvement on The Adventure. It's not nearly as sluggish to play, level design and bosses are more interesting, there are sub-weapons, alternate paths, level select. I love that bit with the candles and the darkness, that was sweet. Even rope climbing is better now!

And you don't lose whip power when you get hit, which was so dumb in the first game. They still could've made it like Rebirth where you lose the whip projectile (or Bloodlines' lightning whip), but losing the chain is too much. I do like how the bouncing balls can still take your whip, though. It's dangerous, but not overkill.

The second to last boss was really hard. Super cramped and chaotic fight. Unless I missed something obvious. Final boss was bleh. But I enjoyed the game overall.



LoD Reinhardt tomorrow!
2nd to last boss is
Soleiyu
right?
Dood Trigger™
That's the one. He's pretty aggressive, I thought. I eventually got the hang of it, though.
Dood Trigger™
Finished LoD Reinhardt.

Relatively quick playthrough, about 4 hours. They kept pretty much all of Reinhardt's story intact from vanilla CV64, with certain levels being more linear and all (and a spiffy new costume). Too bad they fixed the glitch that skips the whole garden maze... in the original you literally just jump into a door while using the sub-weapon and you clip through it, hahaha.

One thing I noticed, compared to Cornell's story, is that some of their shared levels are harder as Reinhardt. Expected, since Cornell is a mandatory first playthrough. Tower of Execution's blades and traps are visibly faster as Reinhardt, and I think there were more save points in the Duel Tower as Cornell.

Having a lot of fun with this game. I enjoy the 3D-fied pseudo Prince of Persia platforming, as clunky as it is. All this time I had no idea you can adjust the camera with the d-pad! First person view is pretty helpful too.

I'll do Castlevania Legends tomorrow. Hopefully it's more of a Revenge than an Adventure.
red chamber dream
so valkyria chronicles is supposed to be great

gonna have to pick that up for switch once i'm done zestiria. which is losing steam for me, about 3/4 through. the overworld is boring and repetitive, but combat is still fun. i can't imagine digging into this one like i normally do for tales games ... so i'm glad i didn't. i'll probably finish it though.
Dood Trigger™
Castlevania Legends is done, thank the heavens.

Man, haha. I nearly fell asleep playing this. Nothing happens in these levels, except enemies spawning above your head. The new sub-weapon system isn't too bad, but for 60% of the game you're stuck with a stopwatch and a very expensive health refill. No offensive weapons until level 4 (of 5). Also, Legends probably has the worst bat enemies in Castlevania history. And what's with those trap rooms? WTF?

I actually prefer The Adventure over this, which makes Legends my new least favorite Castlevania game! Yay \o/

Tomorrow I'll do LoD Carrie. I'm excited about this one, not only 'cause I'm having a great time with LoD, but also because I never played as Carrie in the original CV64. So this should be almost completely new for me.

There's more Castlevania games I never touched than games in the franchise I played.I can barely follow you lol
I've played much of the 2D entries.  Haven't played/finished Vampire Killer, Haunted Castle, Rebirth, Order of Shadows, Sharp/Chronicles, Simon's Quest, and Harmony of Despair.  I have played Cv1, Cv3, Bloodlines, SCv4, DXX/Vampire's Kiss, Adventure, Belmont's Revenge, Legends, Rondo, Symphony, Circle, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria, Dawn, Portrait, and Ecclesia.

Looks like I've played 16 and not played 7.
Dood Trigger™
Yeah, there are so many CV games! I think I've played most of them, though. IIRC the only ones I haven't played now are Haunted Castle, Curse of Darkness and Mirror of Fate.

LoD Carrie is done.

This was my first time playing as Carrie in either version. She's great. Orb timing can be a little annoying when you lose the lock-on, but range-wise it is obviously an excellent attack, and spamming the ring melee is so satisfying.

Another thing I noticed compared to OG CV64 is that the jumps are more responsive now. In the original it was far too easy to do 'baby jumps' by accident, but in LoD the jump mechanic is more polished. This along with less slowdown and the reworked camera makes LoD a very welcome technical improvement for me, regardless of new characters and area re-designs (which I also feel are positive additions).

All official CV games that I wanted to play this month are done. I wanted to do Haunted Castle as well, but my CPU's having trouble handling MAME lately. Next I'll be doing Chorus of Mysteries, which is said to be one of the better NES hacks out there.
> spamming the ring melee

ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, banana phone
Dood Trigger™
Finished Chorus of Mysteries.

This is a hack of the first NES Castlevania. It's pretty damn impressive and almost feels like playing a lost sequel. It has all-new graphics and music, new enemies and even new bosses. The level design is probably the most familiar aspect, as you can often tell what part of CV1's areas you're in, even though the platform layouts are different.

They also added the Laurel from CV2 as a sub-weapon, which is pretty cool. It's basically a portable version of the jar item that makes you invulnerable for a few seconds. It is quite helpful, especially if you farm a ton of hearts. You can cheese entire levels with this. Love it.

I think the bosses are the low point of this hack. Most of them are aggressive and they like to flood the screen with projectiles. Good luck fighting them without a x3 weapon or a surplus of Laurels. There are some bugs too, like your whip passing through candles without hitting them, and falling off moving platforms when you're clearly safe from the edge.

But yeah, this is a sweet hack! I'd recommend it. Definitely prefer the original CV1, but I mean, it would be almost impossible to top that game with a fan hack.

Edit history:
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-10-16 05:12:24 pm
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-10-16 05:12:01 pm
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-10-16 05:11:31 pm
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-10-16 05:11:18 pm
I think I got stuck at the last boss on that hack.  It also felt generally more difficult than Cv1 IIRC.

Also it still delights me that Olrox appears in it.  They even took his entire area theme and 8-bit-ified it.
Dood Trigger™
Olrox was really cool, indeed! Yeah, I think it's harder than CV1 because of the bosses, but at least you can cheese them with the Laurel.

Castlevania spin-off time! Finished Kid Dracula (GB) for the first time.

I'm a big fan of the NES version, and this one's pretty rad as well. Interesting how you start with the bat transformation, since it was sort of the ultimate mobility unlock on the NES. And it's nice being able to... read text... >_> According to the story, this is a proper sequel to the original.

Sometimes the NES content gets noticeably recycled, but they still add new touches like the "ghost" boss (cough) having a final form that dies of old age, and the arrow lifts being a lot more challenging. The level design overall has great variety, not unlike the original, although I felt that the powers on the GB aren't as improv-friendly. Maybe because the screen is tiny, so there aren't as many opportunities to fly above things or position yourself more strategically for a shot.

Love the cape animation when you beat a section. Also, Kid Dracula is Alucard, right? Dracula is his dad, and he turns into a bat. Make it canon, Konami! You guys aren't busy with much, anyway...



Master of Darkness (SMS) up next.
I think there's a fan-translation of Kid Dracula NES.

> Master of Darkness (SMS)
???
man mega man 11 is so damn hard w/o the gears. mm9 pales in comparison
Edit history:
Da Dood: 2018-10-20 05:54:11 am
Dood Trigger™
I'll play MM11 in a couple weeks. Can't wait!

Castlevania rip-off time! Master of Darkness (SMS), first time played and beaten.

If you saw a screenshot of this game with no knowledge of it, you'd be 100% sure it's Castlevania. It has a more controllable jump and multiple main weapons instead of just the whip, but the design style is the exact same, down to painful stairs and "candles" with power-ups.

It's a decent game. Level design is kinda amateur-ish, with platforms and rooms that feel sloppily put together, but it's never obnoxious or anything. There's breakable walls, 1-ups in hard to reach places, and the occasional side path. Visual presentation is nice too. This game has two big problems for me, though...

First, even though there's something like 8 weapons, uh... they almost all suck. The only legit weapon is the hand axe, which is powerful and comes out fast, but even that one has like no range. Everything else is either an obvious downgrade or just mediocre. I'm counting the sub-weapons too, because they're so underwhelming. There's a slow bomb, a slow boomerang, a slow pistol and a stake which is the only sort of okay one (also slow).

But then even if you find the axe, it still falls victim to the game's other big problem in my eyes: the hitboxes are weird. You have to hit enemies with the last part of the attack animation, and they just have all the priority otherwise. MoD isn't a tough game at all, but it gets pretty irritating with this stuff.

Almost any Castlevania would be a better pick, but still, I guess I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. If you play MoD, grab the hand axe and don't let go of it...

Speaking of Castlevania clones, will you br playing Rusty?  or Bloodstained CotM?  or (gasp) Unholy Sanctuary?
Dood Trigger™
Definitely interested in CotM, but I probably won't play it right now.

And now it is Simon Belmont's turn to visit Super Mario Crossover.

Mushroom is the chain whip, flower is the long chain, so... yeah, this is basically CV: The Adventure, haha. Get hit and your whip is gone. Breaking blocks with the whip is fun (still feels better as Ryu Hayabusa, though). You get to pick two sub-weapons for mushroom and flower, and they consume hearts found in blocks. I picked Axe and Cross.

They also gave Simon a double jump, because his regular 8-bit physics aren't exactly mobile. He still gets tossed back when he takes damage, which at least you can use to your advantage by purposely getting hit by Death (Bowser) and landing behind him.

I played with the Castlevania skin. Looks nice. I like how SMC chooses the music for each stage archetype. Heart of Fire is surprisingly fitting for underground levels.



So technically I finished the whole marathon list, but I have a couple things planned for the rest of the month. The main thing, which still fits the Blindvania theme, is: Aria of Sorrow Randomizer. Very curious to try this one. Impressions whenever I finish a seed.
Dood Trigger™
Finished my first Aria of Sorrow Randomizer seed.

Souls, enemy drops and item locations are all shuffled. You never know what you'll find in the next room, or who drops what. Essential souls like double jump, underwater walk, ending souls, etc. are always found in those big fancy candles, so farming is never required. The 3 good ending souls are different every time, and they're hinted at via Ancient Book items. Hammer's shop is randomized too. He was selling a Claimh Solais for 100K. (Yes, I bought it... >_>)

Got a pretty lucky seed. It had double jump and Lightning Doll in the entrance area, and I scored an Olrox's Suit drop from an Axe Armor. So I was mobile and practically invincible from the start. I missed a soul candle in the Floating Garden, though, ended up combing the whole map to find it (it was the slide, which... led to Hippogryph in the Clock Tower, of course). I was at 90% map exploration when I got those. You gotta be thorough in your search because important things can be literally anywhere.

One thing that's kind of a bummer is when you get a really cool power that's pretty much locked at your current level... like, sure, technically you can get a Red Minotaur or a Lightning Doll from the very first zombie, but you won't have MP to use it for a while. Getting an OP sword early on feels awesome, though.

Taking a break for a few days and then I think for Halloween I'll do Bloodlines as Eric Lecarde. Never played as Lecarde, so it'll still be Blindvania!
Edit history:
Opium: 2018-10-27 06:56:45 pm
Quote from ryu:
man mega man 11 is so damn hard w/o the gears. mm9 pales in comparison


I beat Block Man and Acid Man.  Then I get too pissed off in the next area, the one that was was like a construction zone (can't remember which man it was).  There was a part where you have to ascend in an area with moving platforms and I just kept dying over and over.  There was a part like that in block man's stage too that almost made me rage quit.  But other than those kinds of parts, I think it's fun so I plan to go back eventually.

Why are you playing without the gears?  Is that one of the acheivments?
Da Dood:

> they're hinted at via Ancient Book items
Do they have like 120 different messages for each of the souls?

Also is Hammer's shop accessible from the start of the game?
[quote="Opium"]
Quote from ryu:
why are you playing without the gears?  Is that one of the acheivments?

Because that's how I'm used to playing Mega Man. I stopped and started using them eventually though, because for some parts I couldn't find a viable strategy and because the power gear helps to quickly get throug areas.

Yeah there's some super tough parts in the game. Torch Man's stage took me forever and Wily 2 wasn't a walk in the park either. Still really enjoyed the game. I'd rank it amongst the better Mega Man games.