In my cursory research, I found
mostly this kind of stuff.
But Castlevania 1 seems to have a few interesting hacks since it has a level editor. Here’s the coolest looking one I found: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/263/
There aren’t many.
Overflow Darkness is one of the few.
Also opportunity to relink screenshots of an abandoned Simon’s Quest hack.
Oh my god that abandoned hack has gorgeous spritework. :’(
A lot of CV hacks throw out CV1’s good use of color for dark or black colors because SPOOKY and it’s kinda dumb
I’m close to finishing SotN and I had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to put here before I forgot.
There are a few ways of doing effective worldbuilding. To take two examples that come to mind: Mario 64 vs. Banjo Kazooie. Mario 64 does not really do worldbuilding. Each painting is a small, enclosed or floating space, like a little garden with clear limits and boundaries. Banjo Kazooie is functionally the same but with a few differences. Each world implies a larger world outside of it that you can’t get to. Things like impassable hills and fences, or doors that can’t be opened, or oceans that seem to go beyond the playable area - they show that Banjo is being transported somewhere, not just the inside of a magical painting.
Aria of Sorrow is more like Mario 64. It’s an enclosed space with specific goals and challenges that don’t imply much more is going on. Symphony of the Night constantly feels like it has unplumbed depths. It does this specifically by being incredibly secretive and impenetrable.
What I’m thinking about specifically is the item drops from enemies. Many of the enemies have very, very rare item drops. Practically, most players will see maybe 5% of these drops. Most of the items are not very useful, but they are rare, and many of the weapons even have secret attacks triggered by certain button combos. I think this lends the game a deep air of mystery, where each person who plays the game has a slightly different experience. Many conversations I’ve seen about SotN focus on the “Wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” factor.
That extends to the mysterious nature of Alucard as well. He’s got totally secret, undocumented spells that you can stumble on by pressing buttons in a certain order. His stats are different depending on how you perform in the first battle. Sometimes he turns into a gargoyle instead of turning to stone when hit by a Medusa Head. He’s got all sorts of secret animations involving different contexts. He’s not impenetrable, but I certainly don’t identify with Alucard the same way I identify with Soma. He feels like another entity, not an extension of myself.
The castle itself has tons of weird secrets. There’s a face near Dracula’s throne room that looks like a face in the normal castle and when it’s upside-down. There are (apparently) rooms you can only reach by doing a super jump as a wolf (???). Famously, there’s the room where the priest gives you grape juice…unless he stabs you. And of course the Inverted Castle is the major example of a bizarre secret.
Even the menus hide secrets until you’ve discovered them! What kind of options menu has ellipses instead of words on it?
Hell, there’s even some stuff that was probably unintended. I think that the experience listings for each enemy that the Librarian gives might be wrong - the Dodo should give 777 exp but it’s closer to 2000. This makes me wonder how much other stuff he tells you is wrong, or whether the items function as described.
There’s a bunch of meta-stuff going on in the years since as well. The glitches that allow you to visit rooms you shouldn’t or break out of the castle, the changes between various releases, content hidden on the disc…
I’d believe almost anything you told me about SotN. This game isn’t just a legend in itself, it creates legends.
In the end, it’s not really an incredibly mysterious game, but it feels like one. Sure, you can look up all of this information online, but just playing the game as intended, there’s no way you’ll see every single thing the game has to offer in less than 100 hours. I can’t think of many games that make the world feel real through secrets like this.
The funny thing is that this didn’t strike me at all until my second playthrough. I had played all of the GBA games and Dawn of Sorrow before ever touching this game, so SotN didn’t seem that special the first time. But this second time through I’ve encountered so much that I didn’t see or notice in the first game. I think it’s really built around the idea of playing multiple times, or at least talking to people about the game.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been dwelling on. I’m near to finishing the game, assuming I don’t grind for more weird items. I’m happy to say that this game is probably the best of the Igavanias, and it’s definitely my favorite now.
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The problem here is that the experience you get in the game, like Harmony of Dissonance, is relative to your level. All of the other exploratory Castlevania games have consistent yielding of EXP. This means that SotN’s/HoD’s bestiaries aren’t really helpful in that regard, and that it’s also practically impossible to get past a certain level.
Anyway, I agree with a lot of what you’ve written. A lot of people say that Aria of Sorrow (or, occasionally, Dawn of Sorrow (counterpoint: no)) is “technically” the most well-made game of its kind in the series, but lately that seems like a weird line of critical thought to me when a lot of SotN’s appeal has always derived from its excess, the inverted castle included. It might be a more enjoyable game if you could hack it and edit some of the statistical stuff to be relatively balanced and futz around with the enemy placement, but I don’t think it’d be that much better.
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ideal igavania mod: re-randomize locked equipment loadout according to timer
I forgot to summarize what I was saying which is basically:
SotN does do worldbuilding, but it’s all inside the castle. The castle feels like an infinite well that always has more water (or wine (or blood???)). Instead of building an outside world, it just iterates on the castle itself being a creature of chaos moreso than any other Igavania.
Ahhh, that would explain it.
Yeah that’s what I was shooting for, except succinct.
This just in: fuck Galamoth.
Lightning resistance is your friend. I think there’s an item that makes you immune or close to it in the inverted entryway, but I forget if its a drop or hidden in a wall.
I didn’t have too many harsh memories of SOTN bosses, even in the inverted castle, though that’s probably in good part thanks to my first time through being lucky enough to get Crissaegrim in the inverted library.
Now try doing it as Richter.
as I was falling a sleep I thought to myself “room where all the owl knights are is cool and nice” is this true, it has been forever
I do not recall circumstances under which corner dude appears
Kind of looks like those monks with the green shawls and straw hats that kung fu you in the bottom floor of the Colosseum? I think they’re called Grave Keepers?
I’ve never seen that sprite. It might be unused or one that appears in the Saturn version for a weapon’s special attack or spell.
wait wait
wait
wait
wait wiat wait wait wait wait wait wait
WAIT
does Maria’s Byakko attack in Maria fight in Saturn OR PSP versiosn not do “cat damage”??
greatest bullshit if true
screw the beryl circlet i’m doing this like a real vampire
absolute brute force
I didn’t even think of testing this when I fought her. Now it’s too late.
Black Panther does NOT do cat damage which I also think is bullshit
SOTN describe: “liquid creature. takes black panther shape”
+
cybernetic
T-1000 (weak: fire)
robutt damage
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There’s Castlevania Redacted, meant to make Castlevania 2 NES less cryptic.
Beat Galamoth. Had enough defense so that everything except the Football Kick and the Lightning Orbs were doing 1 damage. Thanks Alucard armor + two Necklaces of J! I used the Shotel because I could throw it. It still took a solid 15 minutes and I nearly died.
Randomly: The fact that the Demon familiar is the only one who can press that one button suggests that the demon is actually a being of a much higher order than it appears to be. Consider what it would be like to be on a 2 dimensional plane - you could only see the height, distance and color of what was in front of you, and even distance is a stretch. A normal 2D entity could not see the button, let alone press it.
Let’s assume Alucard is special and can see the button thanks to his x-ray vampire vision or something. Even he cannot throw an axe so that it hits the button, which suggests that the button is on another plane together.
So not only can the demon see the button, he can move outside of the normal parameters of the game to press the button. Therefore the demon is a most likely a 2D projection of a 3 dimensional or higher being. Probably more powerful than Dracula tbh, although he created the button so who knows.
Anyway I have all of Dracula’s bits so it’s off to fight Shaft (played by Samuel L Jackson in the remake)
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Everybody loves the chapel (for good reason) but the catacombs were the first time I realized I was truly impressed by atmosphere in a videogame. I felt I was dwelving deeper and deeper underground, to some terrible and endless places.
Remember how the light from the lava casted gigantic shadows on Alucard and the enemies?
Granfaloon was just a classic.
Castlevania did lose its mysterious appeal after Symphony of the Night but Ecclesia was so mechanically perfect I have to prefer it.
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