weird that they were completely abandoned
well i guess there was rebirth, i should play that
I detest Igavanias, except for SotN, which is good, but not nearly as good as Super Metroid
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They weren’t abandoned exactly. They tried to make them 3D on the n64 and despite being what got most of the executive push they didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
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I’m hoping the supergreat 8-bit Bloodstained side story game convinces Someone of Something that gets us more trudgeyvanias
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i’ve said this before, but i loved the ds castlevaniae because they were little worlds full of cool monsters and stuff that i could carry around with me in my bag and go into any time
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it’s good
and they used the loading screen music from x68k castlevania in a stage
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this is what i always figured the appeal was. i liked aria when first trying it out immediately after symph, but came back months later and all that lustre had faded
my summary of why i like symphony in the context of rondo (despite being inferiorly designed in just about every objective sense) is that it’s as if they built a sequel entirely out of bonus stages
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sotn rules because it has a lot of personality. all these little background details that give life to what would otherwise be a series of square and rectangular rooms. like, why is there a large eyeball watching you in the marble gallery? or the bird nest and the telescope in the outer wall. the confessional in the chapel. also, taking a moment to wonder why dracula’s castle would have a chapel in it.
there’s all these weird weapons that are hidden in far off areas or are extremely rare drops from unexpected enemies. so many food items that all do the same thing, but each have their own distinct, cute sprite. then there are the secret boots. when i played this game as a tween, i thought that they must have unlocked some sort of secret. i mean, it’s in the name! but then it turns out all they do is make alucard slightly taller. why is this an item? why the fuck not. what is that slab on the ground at the entrance of the castle? turns out it’s the door of an unfinished area that you can still go to through a glitch.
maybe it loses something in the 22 years since its release, and the ease of using gamefaqs and fan wikis, but this is a game that really relies on its sense of exploration, going off the beaten path, and spending your weekend rental time finding secrets and keeping notes.
oh and the music is sick as fuck too
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Screw the secret boots what about an armor with flavor text that is required to advance in the game!
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well see, you figure it out when you find a switch by the waterfall
“something appeared near to the wooden bridge”
it’s fuckin obvious
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the english translation is impeccable
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yes to all of this
+ reminds me this is probably a good opportunity to link my favourite piece of writing on the game
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Are we talking about two different things? I’m talking about Spiked Armor which you don’t expect to actually break spikes but does.
no i meant that. though you also need the other bat ability.
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and i completely forgot another excellent feature of symphony of the night: alucard being able to sit in all the chairs
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i actually thought you meant the gold + silver rings at first although they aren’t strictly armour
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see, that felt obvious to me, though? there’s a hallway that is covered in spikes with a door at the end of it and you can’t make it through as the bat (unless you glitch), so finding spike-breaking armor, it immediately clicked.
Putting together that the flavor text actually worked and the player (me) would think to check it is on the edge (like the entire game is) of being good and terrible design.
I didn’t get it and when i checked online after circling the castle three times I was impressed.
yeah, i think there are aspects of the game, for sure, that either work or don’t and it’s subjective. i.e. i needed a hint from a friend to figure out how to get into the Inverted Castle because the hints simply weren’t adding up for me.
SotN has the best presentation. Aria, and the three DS games are probably better mechanically. Bloodstained meets them somewhere in the center.
Are we trying to make “fetch action” happen?
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