Everything, really

>>11410239
This

>>11410267
>is that it’s easier than previous castlevania games
You're very much underselling that the game is piss easy to the point that it's utterly mindless and boring.

>>11410269
The inverted castle is hard. Sorry you didn't know about the real ending.

I've only played the original Gameboy Castlevania game, where should I go next? I'm most curious about the n64 games

>>11410279
Why would I be afraid of it?
I'm just more interested in the weird N64 game.

>>11410283
Then play the weird n64 game

>>11410271
>>11410272
>uhh actually the most common complaint? It's not real!
What a boring defense.

If this game was as challenging as Classicvanias then exploring would be insufferable

>>11410236
inexperienced but talented devs went wild and had fun

It's probably the song that accompanied the game in Japan
https://youtu.be/qDg2-6jN-78?si=e9QUoMm9Q_b7BFJp

Out of the SotN-likes I've only ever played SotN, I want to give Aria a try though, I've heard it's even easier

>>11410236
lots of fun unique shit you can do
the sorrow duology are the better games but this is the better sandbox
too bad there's no new game plus
>>11410269
beat galamoth with maria on saturn without the invinciblity code (nearly impossible to pull off anyway) and tell me how easy it is
i saved him for last and i still had to develop a pattern

>>11410236
Being bold enough to be a major franchise and still be 2D sprite game during a time when everyone wanted to be a clunky 3D mess. This allowed it to feel like a super premium 16-bit game and that was an awesome feel. I love 2D games on 32 bit consoles.
>>11410239
Yup.
>>11410269
I wouldn’t say that. It can be challenging on your first playthrough but once you know what to do and how to cheese it yes it does become a stroll in the park. Most people rate it based on their first experience with it as they should.
If you want to play the “hard” mode, you play as Richter after you beat it once, which is the intention of his inclusion after you beat the game.

SOTN still stands alone to me in content and aesthetics. The GBA/DS games are okay but they are uglier and don’t have the same pizazz as SOTN and I could really do without the anime style they leaned so heavily into after SOTN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgG00VQ3krI
The atmosphere of this game is just something else

Anyone remember Jangli Jaggas? A band making music inspired by Castlevania, especially SOTN, from Pakistan
https://youtu.be/yFe-X3yWc-k?si=fbG53frxO4cA8Iwj

>>11410236
special? inverted castle
great? everything else. It was so much better than any Metroid that 'Metroidvania' should be renamed to 'SotN-likes' .

>>11410347
I agree. Metroid wishes it was SOTN. The variety and freedom to how you want to play Alucard in SOTN is superior to the extreme linearity of Metroid.

I guess cause it felt open. Items, monsters, map all felt free form. That said, it was easily bested by future Castlevanias and overdone by every other indie game. Like GTA3, an open world isn't so exciting anymore when most of it is backtracking or padding. Which is why Order of Ecclesia was a great direction for the franchise. Sad to see it die out now that we're filled with 100 braindead Metroidvanias on Steam just repeating the same ideas.

>>11410457
>easily bested by future Castlevanias
nah they never truly topped it, and certainly not easily
>overdone by every other indie game
you got that right, even Bloodstained sucks. Blasphemous is the only one I actually enjoyed.

>>11410312
>beat galamoth with maria on saturn without the invinciblity code (
water dragon spell wrecks everything.
seriously

>>11410236
polished.
great music.
great art (i can't commend them enough for the cool transparency effect).
"amazing" voice acting (it's even iconic).

>>11410283
>I'm just more interested in the weird N64 game.
why would you want ot play the worst CV game?
if you want a 3D CV then check out the two PS2 games

>>11410457
>it was easily bested by future Castlevanias
only by the DS games
the GBA games were inferior especially that turd COTM

>>11410236
it looks and sounds nice, which is a winning formula when garnering appeal from casuals
>>11410269
it's funny when people just say "galamoth!!!" or mention the handful of other notable fights, when all they're doing is pointing out the exceptions that prove the rule.
>>11410313
>I could really do without the anime style they leaned so heavily into after SOTN
they only leaned into that style for DoS and PoR; HoD and AoS had ayami kojima work on them, while CotM and OoE had artstyles that were fine/great

>>11410295
This is a really good point that people don't make enough. If you died in 5-6 hits like in the older games you'd be incentivized to play much more cautiously, i.e. dipping back to save stations more often, spamming subweapons, or generally slowing the pace. I still think they overdid Alucard's tankiness, but given the shift in genre it made sense to buff him up compared to previous protagonists.

>>11410236
It's just really fun to play

>>11410291
A boring defense, but a correct one.

SotN
>great first impression
>first few mins are tons of fun
>boring gameplay after that

Castlevania 64
>terrible first impression
>first few mins are pretty bad
>tons of fun once you get to know the game better

I've played both to death, and for me it's 64

File: castlevania-aria-of-sorro(...).jpg (220 KB, 1200x1200)

220 KB JPG

This is what peak Castlevania looks like.

>>11410881
Because it looks like the most interesting Castlevania game.
Bad games are fascinating.

>>11411173
This mentality leads to fetishization and celebration of ugliness over beauty

>>11411178
Why would that be true?

>>11411230
Take a look at this society.

>>11411231
>Dodges the question
Ok. If you don't have an answer you can just say so.

If you can't see why playing bad and ugly video games (ironically), watching bad films (ironically), reading bad books (ironically), observing bad artworks (ironically), listening to bad music (ironically), taking yourself not seriously (ironically), and all of that starts influencing your behavior, views and aesthetics (ironically), and such thing does the same with more people, and eventually said people are a multitude, and this multitude has irony poisoned themselves so much that now they're incapable of appreciating beautiful things because they aren't "interesting" (read; no dopamine hits due to exhausted brain seeking constant novelty), and you will argue that somehow this multitude that fetishize ugly things will somehow be capable of building a beautiful society, beautiful attitudes, beautiful culture? Do you look around you and think we're in some sort of renaissance? or are we in steep decline? you decide.

>>11411245
Where did I say I was doing it (ironically)?

>>11411173
oh boy we have a poser in the making here
just don't post ''CV64 is actually Le good!!!'' threads here in the future okay?

>>11411171
it looks like a femboy fucktoy?

>>11411274
>anon discovers japanese media
lol

>>11411171
Is it okay to skip the 2 GBA vanias and jump straight to Aria after SotN?

>>11411274
>>11411292
its a girl right? right..?

>>11411171
Too short, too forgettable.

>>11410993
You can pop potions for days.

>>11411769
I don't think I used a potion even once except for the Galamoth fight when I was chugging them like there's no tomorrow. And I mean all of them, not exclusively the healing ones

>>11411774
That's nice, but the person I was quoting was talking about how making the game harder would make you have to play more cautiously, which I just proved is not true.

>>11411782
That's true, you can easily grind some money and stack up on healing items

>>11411797
Don't even need to grind.

>>11410236
Music and art direction, the game would be absolutely worthless without those.

>>11410887
CotM utterly schools SotN at being a video game.

You can barely hear it but there is an ambient track playing during the first Death encounter when he takes away Alucard's equipment, is there any way to find it on Youtube?

>>11412217
There are more to video games than being games. Otherwise every element would be reductible to its bare mechanics and nothing else. But often we find that many of what are considered the greatest games ever aren't so because of their mere mechanics and challenge, but because games are products from a whole that can be greater than the sum of their parts.

>>11412407
Just because you say so doesn't mean it is. The on-going obsession to stripe down games to its core gameplay loop with no care for secondary elements that heighten the felt experience leads to sterile scenarios like the fighting game community, in which people get upset if you try playing at every stage that isn't the drab grey training area in case they get distracted by flashy elements. Why bother having music, character designs, lore, scenarios, etc, if they don't matter at all, if the only aspect to be valued is the "game" part? Do you think playing Ocarina of Time in wireframe mode, without music and no story beats gives you the same experience as the original game? Yes, the game in that mode might play the same, but it's not the same.

>>11412407
He explained to you that a videogame is more then the mechanics and goes on to assert that it is greater then even the rest that he implies exists. That is not pilpulling.

>>11410408
>freedom
You still have a specific path you must take to progress, and have specific upgrades as well. Just like Metroid. SotN doesn't do anything special in terms of "freedom".

>>11412278
>There are more to video games than being games
Yeah, being non video games AKA devs wanking themselves (it actually kills games).

>Otherwise every element would be reductible to its bare mechanics and nothing else
There are only two things: core experience (gameplay, level design, balancing) and superficial layers (graphics, music). SotN utterly sucks at providing core contents but shines on superficial layers, CotM does the opposite.

>But often we find that many of what are considered the greatest games ever aren't so because of their mere mechanics and challenge
Many titles considered "the greatest games ever" are actually frauds and only praised by a niche audience (AKA non mainstream players) who've learned to eat up shit as long as the seasoning's the right one. First question to ask yourself is how much praise a game is getting for its superficial layers rather than actual game elements.

>games are products from a whole that can be greater than the sum of their parts
Which can only happen through gameplay, level design and balacing.

>>11410275
The N64 one is the only other Castlevania game made by KCEK. The LoD version is definitely recommended over the original release.

>>11410272
>The inverted castle is hard
No, it's tedious and annoying to navigate, big difference.

>>11411316
You can skip every single game in existence and simply watch people playing them on youtube.

>>11413235
>watch people playing them on youtube
What a waste of time. Just read a couple of reviews, and you are good to go.

>>11410269
I've been replaying CotM, Rondo, Dracula X and DCX. And since SotN is part of DCX I thought why not replay it as well? I've absolutely no idea what even is the point of this game, I know the way I'm supposed to go and remember what item the game wants me to get, so I'm just going back and forth with pointless enemies on the way (the colosseum being the closest thing to an exception). There's nothing fun nor interesting to do and every time I get a new key item my only thought is "oh great MORE backtracking on the menu". The graphics and music are the only things this game has for itself, take these away and you're left with... a walking simulator. I also noticed it had very floaty controls so I went to check for input delay on this and other games. SotN has 3 frames of input delay (4 on Saturn) while nearly every other game on the franchise only has one, what the hell?

Which castlevanias are actually metroidvanias? None of the old ones really have a metroid vibe to them. Like, nes metroid and nes castlevania dont really cross.

>>11413336
SotN and beyond

>>11410304
Wtf

>>11410457
>it was easily bested by future
No way fag

File: images (4).jpg (7 KB, 255x197)

7 KB JPG

>>11413478
>he doesnt listen to malice mizer
ngmi

>>11411164
Castlevania 64 is a good proof of concept but its too easy
and before anyone says SotN is easy; its not THAT easy.

>>11412781
You can take wildly different paths in SotN

>>11413629
Only in the inverted castle maybe, but not in the first part.

>>11413329
Finally someone gets it

I was checking out the PS4 collection CV Requiem. It could have been a nice buy but then I saw that they changed the original voices to something worse.

>>11410236
In hindsight this game should have sold 10x what it sold. Its easily top 10 PS1 games, still one of the all time best games ever made, the best metroidvania CV to this date, and you see it routinely praised to this day. I'd probably say it should be top 5 PS1 games or maybe even the very best depending on what you like.

The fact that it wasn't just overlooked but even openly mocked by the journalists of the day (blatant evidence gaming journalists were always shit btw) should tell you all everything you would need to know about "gamers" and their taste in games. SOTN would be an amazing game no matter what gen it releases in. Even today it would still be an incredible game worthy of praise. If some indie dev made this shit today and put it out for the first time ever it would absolutely get praise even if it would be derivative. But the thing is SOTN was the first of its kind and invented a genre along with Metroid. That is how GOAT SOTN is. I feel like playing this shit again now thanks to this thread.

Just got to the inverted castle for the first time and the quality has take a major nosedive. Is it worth seeing to the end or is it downhill from here? I'm playing on Saturn btw.

>>11414160
>the best metroidvania CV to this date
I get you played this when you were 10 so it's automatically the best ever but no.

>>11413627
>and before anyone says SotN is easy
Nigga did you even read ANY of the thread before making your post? It's literally in the third and fourth posts >>11410267
>>11410269

>>11414345
>Just got to the inverted castle for the first time and the quality has take a major nosedive
Why do you think no one ever bothered to make an inverted castle after that?

>>11414347
What other CV is better than it? I specifically said the ones in the same style btw not the whipping based classic era games. None of those handheld games beat SOTN.

>>11410236
>>11410239
It really is that simple. Music, gameplay, story/lore/characters, great looking spritework, doesn't overstay its welcome but has lots for completionists. The only minor downside I can think of is occasional loading time and the way to beat that Galamoth bastard being somewhat cryptic.

>>11414495
>None of those handheld games beat SOTN.
Delusional.

>>11411171
Great game that I love, best of the (all great ) GBA vanias, but you know it's not as good as SOTN.

>>11414354
i meant in response to my post, autist

>>11410269
People overstate how easy the game is. I highly doubt the average person on a blind playthrough actually came across the more OP stuff. And if you went out of your way to look those up than you only have yourself to blame. The game hits a nice balance between easy enough to encourage exploration but hard enough that you can easily overextend.

>>11414345
Now you gotta boss hunt and do some minimum completion percentage. After that you get the good ending when you beat Dracula.

>>11414882
Some of them have such a low drop chance most people never found them outside a walkthrough.

>>11410236
Maria

>>11411164
I just watched some symphony of the night gameplay and it looked boring

>>11414149
>they changed the original voices to something worse
The original dub is a funny meme but is objectively terrible, bare Shaft (who's actually lame in the redub).

>>11414160
>In hindsight this game should have sold 10x what it sold
This is a good summary about how delusional the fanbase of this game is.

>still one of the all time best games ever made
In hindsight this game is a fraud. SotN is nothing more than a compilation of assets and easter eggs, no one in the dev team cared about making a game, and you can easily tell there's no direction about what it wants to be. The biggest tell is the start menu that's the basic placeholder they were using during development, no one gave a shit about working on it.

>SOTN would be an amazing game no matter what gen it releases in.
SotN being released today would be dime a dozen flavor of the week indie game.

>SOTN was the first of its kind and invented a genre along with Metroid
Metroid invented it, that was 11 years before SotN.

>>11414495
Every single game release after it that's not HoD (which doubled down on all the nonsense of SotN) easily surpassed it, because every one of these titles were designed to be games and not a collection of assets.

File: 6301screenshot3.gif (39 KB, 240x160)

39 KB GIF

>>11410236
It was the best 2d action adventure game ever released (until Aria of sorrow came out)

>>11411316
Yes

>game reviewers in magazines used to rate Castlevania 64 higher than sotn because it wasnt 3D
Pretty funny to look back on now

>>11410236
The presentation is unmatched and the gameplay is easy enough to garner the casual audience

>>11415274
There was one britoid mag that complained about the game being 2D which of course means every gamemag was like that

File: 9hylyn33eks41.jpg (38 KB, 711x315)

38 KB JPG

>>11415274
>Give on example
K
And stop sperging and calling me a zoomer

>>11415306
Stop sperging stop sperging

>>11415306
I'll find them later I don't feel like it right now

>>11415309
I'm busy
Stop sperging and come back later

>>11415306
>"Give one example!"
>Gives one (1) example
>"T-that doesn't count because it just doesn't! Ok?!?
Why do you think it doesn't count anon? They called the 2D game "crap" and said there's "no comparison" between which was better.
The cope is palpable.

>>11415321
>since that was your claim
Not my claim, but sure.
>Rating
There is a rating.
He rated 3D higher than 2D. It says so in the article. Do you incorrectly believe a rating is only a rating if it is also given a numerical value?

>>11415328
That was me actually not him
I told u to stop the sperg

>>11415328
I'm not the person who said that. I'm someone else who also thinks you are wrong.
My first post ITT was here. I never claimed to be the original poster, you just assumed I was.
>>11415319

>>11415253
>look I made a patch that turned the original colors into garbage

File: castlevaniareview.jpg (2.63 MB, 4194x2536)

2.63 MB JPG

I'm not any of the anons fighting but I have this pic

>>11415090
>>11415121
It is.

>>11414160
>>11415263
>The fact that it wasn't just overlooked but even openly mocked by the journalists of the day (blatant evidence gaming journalists were always shit btw) should tell you all everything you would need to know about "gamers" and their taste in games.
Yes, they were based as fuck. They correctly saw SotN as an outdated style of game that was designed as if it was for a much weaker system, full of repetitive and dull areas that you just walk through and fight the same enemies in one at a time like it's some cheap NES game, mostly lacking platforming, challenge, and powers that are more than glorified keys or RPG fluff that just overpowers you. It's a great example of what a game trying to take after Zelda and Metroid *shouldn't* be. The PS1 has amazing 2D games that are far better examples of their genre than what SotN is.

>If some indie dev made this shit today and put it out for the first time ever
There are fuck tons of indie Metroid-likes that far surpass the game in basically every way. Something like Rabi-Ribi just wins by default by having higher quality bosses on a much greater variety of difficulty levels that you can spend far longer trying to master.

>>11415341
>action additcs need not apply
Accurate.

>>11415236
>no one in the dev team cared about making a game
Of course not. They were convinced that CV64 was going to be Castlevania's future and so they made SotN as a giant shitpost thinking nobody would care about it. And at the time, they were right.

>>11415391
SotN wasn't made by devs, it was made by artists, nobody cared about making a game, they all just made their own stuff in their corner then they threw it all together, so behind all the fancy glitter it has no real substance.

>>11415391
>love and care
More like jerking off to their own egos.

>>11415402
Just look at Alucard himself. In CV3, he was an ugly bastard with a face like a catcher's mitt and moved like a decrepit old man. SotN turns him into an anime pretty-boy just to show off Ayami Kojima's artwork.

>>11410269
Are you that same guy who seethed endlessly earlier that people like SoTN?

>>11415402
Oh, it IS you.

>>11415424
To be honest I'm less offended by Alucard's design change than what they did with Maria.

>>11415349
It's better than all those older games tho
It's like a Super Nintendo game on steroids

>>11415535
And everybody in 1997 was demanding more than that.

>>11415535
>It's better than all those older games tho
The very first Castlevania game schools SotN at game design.

>>11415535
I don't even actually agree with that. Like, legitimately, as controversial as will sound, I do rate Simon's Quest over SotN. It honestly achieved the kind of RPG inspired exploration focused take on Castlvania earlier, and did it *better*, because even if it does contain so many repetitive corridors of monsters, they're at least enough of a threat to matter and it's partly excused by the system's limitations, unlike SotN which is actually as bad about this while just not attempting to even use them to add real difficulty. It's at least fucking interesting that the game actually implemented a day/night cycle, but people seem to act like the series was a set of linear arcade style games up til SotN.

>>11415349
Anon, I don't disagree with you and your post made me more interested in Rabi-Ribi, but going into a thread mostly full of people stubborn about their beliefs while being incredibly stubborn about your beliefs (seemingly to the point of being in SoTN threads frequently) won't achieve anything. There are games made by people who didn't view them for gameplay first, something like Kirby's Dreamland 3 is more competent than SoTN in it's gameplay but goes further with it's focus on atmosphere enough that the average /vr/ anon probably dislikes it. The people who disagree on what matters in a game just hold different views, and going into threads about SoTN and being aggressive about it won't lead to much, there are better ways to spend time even if you want to find someone who agrees or tell what you think about those games.

File: v69hkmfzr5b71.gif (681 KB, 800x363)

681 KB GIF

>>11410236
alucard sprite

>>11415558
>everybody
Talk for yourself

>>11411164
I'd replace C64 by LoD but yeah, the 64 game is much more fun despite its flaws.

>>11410236
>What makes it so special?
The fact that its an overhyped turd. Like most Konami titles.

What do you prefer?

>>11410269
Why can't you just enjoy games. Why does it have to be harder?

>>11417947
Games are only fun because of the challenge they present. And obviously there is a spectrum of difficulty in games. And that is fine but just admit what it is. A game for casuals, and hardcore gamers obviously aren't going to have as much fun with that type of game. Unless they just play it to relax and enjoy the music art etc. That's how a lot of people feel about OOT for example.

>>11411274
>latin american Mega Man X fans discover Igavanias

File: nomura FUNNY.gif (2.39 MB, 414x396)

2.39 MB GIF

>>11410304
Nomura fucking won

>>11415341
>Johnny Bazookatone got a fucking 6
Fuck these hagglers

>>11418257
>Games are only fun because of the challenge they present.
Opinions on Super Smash Bros. Melee?

>>11410267

Polished is about the last thing SotN is.

>>11410236
The pixel art and music. Alot of soul went into it at a time when devs tried pushing 3D cause they somehow thought itd look better.

>>11415335
Cope, it's objectively better because the game had to be designed with bright washed out colors to be playable on the original non-backlit GBA.

>>11419449
>it's objectively better
It's objectively disgusting.

>the game had to be designed with bright washed out colors
AoS original colors are absolutely fine, some GBA games look absolutely terrible with original colors (pretty much all Mario ports) but AoS isn't one of them.

>Video games should only be reduced to its bare mechanics and they should all feature wireframe graphics and no audiovisuals of any other type as to not hide gameplay quality
What an idiotic take. Not surprised it comes from the N64 brigade.

File: 282440_screenshots_201609(...).jpg (204 KB, 1920x1080)

204 KB JPG

>>11419597
I mean, have you seen how the pro Quake 3 fags play?

File: dsfs.jpg (131 KB, 1280x720)

131 KB JPG

>>11419621
I guess thats how competitive gamers like it

>>11410236
>What makes it so special?
A video on youtube from 2007.

>>11420147
Damn, this game reached 'Greatest Hits/Platinum' status in the 90s thanks to a youtube video that came out a decade later? Is this the same power as spoony making FFVIII unpopular retroactively?

>>11413120
You're autistic

>>11419597
Stripping a game down to its barest fundamentals will reveal its true worth. If taking away graphics and music is enough to reduce a game interest to near nothingness, then that's all the game was worth as an actual game.

>>11422103
What a fucking retarded take

>>11422103
Many failed indies think like this and then wonder why their games fail

>>11422216
Indies that failed did so because they're shit at a fundamental level.

>>11422103
>If taking away graphics and music is enough to reduce a game interest to near nothingness
Good thing it doesn't apply to SotN then.

>>11424025
What IS good about that game then? Like, legitimately I don't get what people seem to like about it so much, especially compared to other Metroid-like games. Like, it's not a big or long or hard or interesting to navigate game, so I'm perplexed as to why people put this in top 10 lists over so many other 2D action/adventure games.

>>11424041
>Like, it's not a big or long or hard or interesting to navigate
Neither is Super Metroid, and it's considered the gold standard of the genre

>>11424041
>What IS good about that game then?
Core gameplay loop - exploration, fights, leveling.
>it's not a big or long or hard or interesting to navigate game
Better than most metroidvanias, both retro and recent ones.

>>11424083
Super Metroid, while not quite the absolute best in the whole genre, is an extremely special game in that it gives you highly physical powers that can be used in combination with each other in creative and open ended ways, and the entire game map is impressively designed around this, to both let you exploit the abilities you have to navigate the game in ways you likely won't immediately think of, and yet also remain highly structured and non trivial even if you are taking advantage of all these things. Regardless of your opinions of it, it's rightly a highly regarded game for providing an exemplary model of what can be done with Metroid-like games, that nothing else has actually equaled, because no other title is designed around using physics and allowing the discovery of alternate routes using such techniques to the same degree, and so explicitly made to be speedrun. That is why it is a 'gold standard'. It's also a more atmospheric game than SotN

>>11424104
>Core gameplay loop - exploration, fights, leveling.
It's basically bad at all of those things. The actual areas you explore are repetitive and seldom make much interesting use of your powers and abilities. Like, there are maybe a few points where you can take advantage of the wolf's dash, but the stage design is dull and isn't that interactive for the most part, the game just blatantly repeats shit in obnoxiously lazy ways. The game does things like seemingly randomly having sections where it sometimes rains and gives enemies odds weapons with low drop rates, but you quickly run out of places to explore where there's much more to do than run back and forth and hit things, and since enemies are so easy and so poorly used, you basically run out of interesting shit after a few hours despite there being a good amount of variety between them.

The game shouldn't even have had leveling.

>Better than most metroidvanias
Literally EVERY other one I've played is better.

>>11424184
You're one biased subjective motherfucker.

>>11410267
Im playing it for the first time right now, the regular castle is pretty easy but the inverted castle is considerably harder...kinda? I dont know if its harder or just has more annoying enemies to be fair. I think the game does a good job in rewarding exploration and making you strong
Im at the Galamoth fight and thats a really hard fight. Ive heard there are broken items that make it super easy but i dont have those clearly

As for the game in general i really like the music, it controls really great and the atmosphere in general is awesome

>>11424267
>it controls really great
This is a very underrated aspect of the game, it feels very tactile and satisfactory to control Alucard.

Don't talk to people who think they can gauge entertainment objectively

>>11424184
>The actual areas you explore are repetitive and seldom make much interesting use of your powers and abilities
That's not true though. Even if you strip away the graphics, all areas are distinct enough to not get boring. And as you collect abilities, you can use them in different areas. That's the basis of metroidvania games, and SotN sticks to it.

The more abilities and levels you get, the easier it is to traverse the castle. That's the whole point, so you can quickly go from place to place, and explore it to see if there are places you couldn't get to earlier.

I like Super Metroid more, but I still consider SotN to be a good game gameplay-wise.

>>11424585
He's just mad that traversing via wing smash requires skill (more so in the original) and you have to take care of MP so it isn't hold right to win like the lightspeed dash in SM

>>11410236
i like the arpg style castlevania games and have played them all

but i don't like this one, it's probably the worst of them all

File: 1718909391039805.mp4 (1.72 MB, 854x480)

1.72 MB MP4

>>11422103
are you stupid? even some vns have fun gameplay mechanics, but obviously the story, characters, and world are the main appeal. play a sport if you want an actual game, those are more fun than vidya anyway so long as you have people to play them with.
t. sorrowfag (because of the lore and the gameplay)
>>11424590
shinesparking is way more fun than wing smashing, not as much in super as in the later games (especially dread, picrel) but it's still cool.

bump

>>11410236
The music. That's all.
The game itself falls apart after a few hours coz director Toru Hagihara left the team. Level design and art direction take a massive nose dive the further you get in the game.
>>11410267
>so complete
lol
>>11410307
None of the castlevania games after SOTN are worth playing.
And yes aria is pathetically easy, to the point where it's mind numbingly dull to play - the crap graphics and music don't help at all.

>>11410236
Great game.

The inverted castle was shit though.

>>11418962
Weird and completely out of nowhere question but it's an alright game I guess.

>>11415294
>MUH CRAPHICS
Symphony has aged so, so, soo much better than Castlevania 64.
>>11415319
Your magazine says "3D game is better than 2D game because 3D is betterer" while completely ignoring any attribute of gameplay or sound or actual graphics (and i mean graphics as in environment, atmosphere, etc).
On graphics, SoTN is a work of art while Castlevania 64 is a muddy slimefest.

>>11415341
>BRII 'ISH
Article opinion discarded on account of being british

The music and art are enough alone to make it special. There aren't that many save spots and you have to do some planning if you aren't op. Everyone else has probably yakked about the gameplay already.

>>11410236
It being released on the "cool" console, meaning all the PS tribalists that grew with it have already decided it's the best since then, disregarding that there are a bunch of similar entries in the same series alone throughout different consoles.
They're not Castlevania or Metroidvania fans, they're PS fans.

>>11427816
>They're not Castlevania or Metroidvania fans, they're PS fans.
So, explain how these same people aren't hyping up Hooters Road Trip or Mary-Kate and Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall?
Because SotN is an enjoyable experience.

>>11427816
>tfw a Castlevania fan
>a Metroid fan
>a PS fan
How do I even deduce the reason why I like the game

>>11427816
holy sour grapes

>>11410236
it's not

>>11424025
People would shrug the same way they shrugged at Simon's Quest if not for the graphics and visuals.

>>11424104
>Core gameplay loop - exploration, fights, leveling.
The "exploration" is nothing but unending backtracking for key items, this is the same nonsense as Simon's Quest and Harmony of Dissonance, the only thing the games ask you is to figure where to go.

The fights are painfully uninteresting because nearly every single enemy wasn't designed to provide any resistance, they're just there to make you waste time. Special mention to bosses being reduced to giant sitting ducks waiting to be put out of their misery.

The leveling is by far the worst offender, there's some stupid scaling on it where enemies will eventually give you less and less XP (the idiots kept it going for HoD), but it's also pointless to begin with, Alucard already becomes too powerful just from finding the equipment lying everywhere in the castle, and the leveling only ensures that nothing you face will ever stand a chance.

>Better than most metroidvanias, both retro and recent ones
SotN is empty bloat, the regular castle is just an endless back and forth with fodder in the way, then the inverted castle is the dumbest, laziest pretend at a clever idea that quickly reveals how awful it really is (see how many games tried to do it after SotN? that's right, nobody did because it's terrible and unfun).

Wtf walls of text to convince someone to stop liking a popular game

>You know, I'll win over the "there's more to games than mechanics" faction if I keep arguing from a mechanical aspect!

Anybody who asks this of anything will never get it.

>>11424932
>even some vns have fun gameplay mechanics
VN are the death of gaming. VN are anti gaming. The name itself tells you the whole story, "visual novel".

>but obviously the story, characters, and world are the main appeal
Superficial layers that do not require the video game medium to be.

>play a sport if you want an actual game
Sports are not video games.

File: 1725413950211375.png (394 KB, 610x346)

394 KB PNG

>>11429862
>VN are the death of gaming. VN are anti gaming. The name itself tells you the whole story, "visual novel".
and they can't still have gameplay mechanics because... you said so? maybe play some instead of dictating what all games have to be like.

>Superficial layers that do not require the video game medium to be.
that's like saying special effects and good animation are irrelevant for a movie because the only thing that matters is the writing.

>Sports are not video games.
man you're dumb, sports are literally games. yes they're not vidya i didn't say they were but they've still got more involved gameplay than most vidya unless you're only playing competitive fpses or fighting games.

>>11429854
>People would shrug the same way they shrugged at Simon's Quest
Not true. There are less obscure objectives in SotN.

>The "exploration" is nothing but unending backtracking for key items
Not sure what the complaint is. You don't just backtrack. You go through new areas, find new abilities, backtrack, visit more new areas. Repeat until victory. This is the same gameplay loop of ANY metroidvania...
>nearly every single enemy wasn't designed to provide any resistance
Compared to what? Do you expect enemies to constantly spam you with attacks, so you would need to cheese them? They are regular enemies with regular patterns. "Regular" for 2D action platformers, at least.

I can agree with the poor balance of leveling. But it doesn't make the game unplayable or boring.

>>11427816
What is it about this game that is suddenly bringing out the hyper sour grape niggers right now? Recently I've been seeing a faggot or two absolutely fuming that people like SoTN, and they make up a bunch of autistic conjecture for why they're wrong to like it or how it's somehow fake.

>>11427816
Similar doesn't mean equal. All those GBA/DS games are just cheap trash in comparison.

I like the game but I like it a bit less every time I replay it .

The randomizer ruined it for me becaused no matter in what order you get key items the progression is still largely the same. Also it's the slowest randomizer there is.

>>11431703
aria and dawn of sorrow both mog symphony. and NES castlevania is leagues better. SOTN is so fucking overrated its insane, even more than super iv

>>11431720
Castlevania on NES is pointless garbage, the real game is Vampire Killer on MSX2. While NES surely have a lot of masterpieces, particularly Cactlevania or Metal Gear on NES are obviously inferior crappy versions praised only by duckling effect of dumb kids don't know better.

>>11431698
Console warriors, the kind that say FF7 is bad but FF6 good. Imagine.

>>11431752
C3 is the peak of the franchise and its not even close. could not give a fuck less about some obscure PC version of the original.

>>11431698
because people who love real castlevania on the NES hate SOTN for ruining the franchise and turning it into casual turbo normie shit. if I wanted to play metroid Id play metroid, it does the exploration and upgrades thing a lot better.

>>11431767
>turbo normie shit
Meanwhile, in real life, the metroidvania formula made the series more niche than they were before.

>>11431767
That's a retarded conjecture. You're saying SotN is bad because of home game design instead of arcade game design of first Castlevania. But by the time of PlayStation arcade games was all long dead anyway, no reason pointing fingers on single game. Blame the industry, the whole world turned to shit by your retarded logic.

>>11431775
>the whole world turned to shit

correct

>>11431776
Of course incorrect. Different game design is a different genre. Different genres cannot be better or worse, they're just different.

>>11431767
You are damaged.

>>11431703
They aren't that different, it all comes to minor differences in graphics or soundtrack that are up to subjective preference.

>>11410236
>What makes it so special?
Almost every time you jump you bump your gay twink head into those low placed ceilings.

File: __tina_branford_celes_che(...).jpg (552 KB, 2048x1330)

552 KB JPG

>>11431760
FF6 definitely is better than FF7 but the difference isn't significant.

>>11410236
I dusted off my old xbox 360 to get this game since there is no official PC port only to find out the online shop for the xbox360 has been disabled since July 29, 2024
sick timing considering that console has been released in 2005. I know I can emulate it but I was looking forward to some couch comfy time on my old system
fuck you Bill Gates

peak 2d platformer with rpg elements
ghostly pale aesthetics
a hipster japanoid’s fever dream

SotN is one of those games like Chrono Trigger where I just pity the people who don't "get it" and I'm not here to convince them either. Sorry you missed out on the good time man.

>>11433562
SotN is garbage as a platformer.

File: 1708316498927068.gif (2.41 MB, 225x255)

2.41 MB GIF

>>11433551

File: CASTLEVANIA SERIES.png (43 KB, 199x991)

43 KB PNG

>>11410307
i played almost every single castlevania game and im currently doing sotn
aria is easier but it has way more dept and interesting things than sotn

but i think if you want a realy hard castlevania you gotta play order
order is almost a classic game from how fucking bullshit hard it is at times
wonderfull little game

>>11410272
Mist form let's you effortlessly cheese pretty much every difficult room of the inverted castle. Every boss that isn't the lightning guy is a joke

>>11410881
Because it's actually one of the best games in the series and more Castlevania than anything IGA/KCET ever shat out. Also the PS2 games are garbage.

>>11415383
>They were convinced that CV64 was going to be Castlevania's future
Was it really though? Konami wouldn't have given it to KCEK if that was really the case. It sounds more like KCET wasn't capable enough to do a 3D entry on the PS1.

Also CV64 wasn't even in development when SotN was made/came out. KCEK wasn't founded until Summer of 1997.

>>11427329
Games don't age and CV64 is actually a much more focused, better game.

>>11434584
Even then, mist is the actual key to beat Galamoth legitimately without cheese strats/equipment

>>11434409
>order is almost a classic game from how fucking bullshit hard it is at times
Man you always got my hopes up with the first half of this statement because it made me think the game was mostly a Classicvania but apparently it isn't
>>11434854
>>11434584
The gas upgrade you find in the inverted castle is overpowered as hell

>>11434854
Galamoth is a very easy boss by Castlevania standards. It is only difficult by SotN piss easy standards.

>>11434865
>Classicvania but apparently it isn't
it IS the most linear of all metroivanias
until the last map of course
its basicaly various scenarios that you need to do before unlocking the castle that is a giant metroidvania style map

>>11410236
The first good game for the PSX that didn't rely on its wobbly broken 3D

File: Harmful_Park_video_game_c(...).jpg (32 KB, 315x315)

32 KB JPG

>>11436018

>>11411274
As if Alucard is the archetype of masculinity, right?

Do people really play this game facetank and spamming spells and complain about it being too easy? The least you can do is try not to get hit. If you're like "yeah I'm a god this game is easy trash" while your Alucard is going AWWH AWWH ULLH then you should know you look pretty slily.

>>11438161
This game is too easy just using the stuff you find on the floor everywhere.

>>11433574
Chrono Trigger bombed twice. Can it even get a HD-2D remake?

>>11438161
I'm amazed that every single "hard type" mod this game gets just turns the enemies into unbearable health sponges (something that is anathema to the metroidvania design) and never do something as simple as making a high lethality mod in which Alucard dies in 1-3 hits without having to spend an entire hour trying to kill a foe.

>>11410236
It's overrated