I feel like both can’t really be seen as serious legit action games among their peers because they give you weapons that are just too unreasonably powerful, but that makes them very endearing
Also: powerful moods yes
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I’m with LaurelSoup on this, I find it way, way more charming than bloodlines which doesn’t do that much for me anyway, but Rondo yeah
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in the last couple of years ive really come round to thinking bloodlines is the best, love a 30 min long treasure tier boss rush
though maybe i just overdid rondo since 2003
cv4 has nice tunes and the atmosphere of those opening stages rules but yeah by far the weakest next to bloodlines/rondo/x68k imo
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i like them all equally 
just depends on the vibe
my vibe
my castlevibeya
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my main problem with bloodlines is that, while I don’t hate it, and I concede that disliking bloodlines sounds like a boring opinion, it feels a lot like every other surprisingly great 1994 megadrive action game, and it’s probably my least favourite of those even
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that PSP remake of Dracula X was pretty funky.
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Super Castlevania IV has all sorts of “fleshed out tech demo” issues but just messing around with its whip is tremendous and that covers for a lot of sins.
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i think the reason a lot of people generally dislike or are indifferent to SC4 over like say, Rondo or games like that is because like, in addition to being really tight, specifically designed games those older castlevanias really focus all of their constituent elements into this heightened sort of theatrically campy vibe that makes successfully executing on the enemy layouts feel really wacky and energizing, like bro u are destroying the evil castle where vampires live and i can see yr ass in that leotard bro. (i feel like i’ve literally never seen more gay shitpost art of any game protagonist more than simon or trevor belmont)
they kind of have a manga by way of hammer horror thing going on in their aesthetic model that i think is really fascinating to people including me. as a video game super democratic people’s republic of castle 4 is perfectly well put together and pretty silly in a good way to play through despite being a liiiitle more fiddly cause of higher reliance on physics and that sort of thing, like in all ways it is a passable thing. i really don’t feel like it holistically communicates the same sense of flamboyance and drama as the games before and after though… i think that ends up alienating a lot of people from it
like by comparison it’s a lot more like a dingy movie game where yr Epic Conan Guy and you have to go instagib a bunch of animatronic skeletons on the way to your greatest nemesis: claymation dracula. super cascular vascular * cdi zelda voice* For? is not like repulsive or anything but it feels really dry and ununified aesthetically and i think that makes it kind of a murkier harder to grasp experience for people who really like the rest of the games, it’s a lot more straightforwardly/literally a game of A Guy Killing A Bunch Of Vampires but without the sauce. like it has some good moments but there’s no part in it where a werewolf jumps off a church steeple to elbow drop you from the stratosphere that shit made me drop the controller
in conclusion
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yeah honestly this goes a very long way with my continued attachment to it. I quite like the visual direction it goes for too, though it’s much less consistent there, and it’s a shame because I think it has some of the most atmospheric moments of the entire series, but then it compromises them with all the dumb mode 7 stuff.
but there are moments where it all just coalesces so beautifully, and I love it for that. idk if I’d be capable of being so forgiving if nostalgia wasn’t a factor though.
in terms of design and mechanics I agree with the prevailing sentiment that it’s just kind of an unfocused mess that’s more concerned with being a technical showcase. but the milder difficulty is a nice palate cleanser after the rigid difficulty of dracula’s curse.
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(I also… really like some of the mode 7 stuff. the chandelier sequence is so good. the whole ghost dancer motif is fun too, with the little poltergeist waiter carts and whatnot. this is the kind of stuff castlevania is made of imo)
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bloodlines is cool but it’s such a gaiden thing that I feel like it’s an apples and oranges comparison. the mechanical deviations don’t establish this for me as much as the aesthetic and production value deviations do. and while it’s better put together than SCIV I still think it’s mechanically kind of messy and unfocused in the end. but I love what it’s going for much in the same way I love SCIV. it just feels so outside of the series, even alongside weirder entries like portrait of ruin.
I wonder if I’d feel this way if it used hearts instead of jewels though 
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(Going on an random tangent) I think it’s slightly unfair that Symphony gets to have Rondo as a classicvania companion piece, but so few of the other games have the same privilege (CV1/2, and I guess Bloodlines/Portrait (lol)). Like, if it were my decision, each of the igavanias would form a duology with a bespoke classicvania game (something something brand synergy) — I mean, where’s my classic-style HoD sequel where I can tear through the game as Lydie? The thought occurred to me a few weeks back and I just really wish they did that.
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yeah I’m a big fan of the classicvania ‘hammer horror by way of plagiarized ravenloft cover art’ aesthetic and SC4 throws that out for a lot of… nothing.
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It’s a really aggressive spec sheet and, timed to a brand-new console instead of a midlife console, PSVR2 should really be a top-end experience rather than a barely-acceptable experience like the first one was.
I’m really hoping for backwards compatibility because I could probably justify this next to some of the Sony exclusives if it would get me access to the PS4 VR exclusives.
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Yeah I’ve been on the fence about joining the current gen but if PSVR2 turns out as cool as it’s sounding that might be enough to draw me back.
It would be a huge miss if they couldn’t do backwards compatibility though. RE7 was great but it really needed to just be slightly higher resolution.
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Yeah, PSVR2 sounds like great hardware but, although I have no idea how difficult it is to implement backwards compatibility after this kind of change in the design of the hardware, resetting the software library to zero would be shooting itself in the foot. I also thought it was really funny that they announced a new headset capable of so many new things the old headset can’t do but the the only new game they showed looked like a generic roller coaster experience.
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What’s the likelihood of this being PC compatible? I heard there were some hacks and hoops to jump through to make the first PSVR work on some applications but wasn’t a true option as a real VR set up.
I’m this close to getting an occulus quest 2 and making a dummy facebook because wireless and built in speakers are just to nice.
the speakers on quest 2 kinda suck, absolutely no bass because of the way the speaker is designed (no ear pads, just blasting sound out into the world) so it’s really tinny