Do they explain anywhere in the game how you're supposed to get cards? I looked it up, and basically they just randomly drop from certain enemies? So you're just expected to discover them by luck? Some monsters don't even drop any, there isn't even a bestiary option to check drops.
>>12280297You have the 100% completion autism.You were meant to just play the game and use whatever cards dropped. It's not a very hard game anyway.
So apparently the manual just says "you obtain action and attribute cards throughout the course of the game" and literally nothing else about how to get them.In game, the Bomber Skeletons and Bone Heads have an extremely high drop rate for their starting DSS cards, and picking up your first card gives you a brief tutorial on using them from the DSS menu. A few other DSS cards early on have generous drop rates, and you're generally encouraged to kill every enemy you see and try farming them for item drops to improve your stats.Trying to get all of the DSS cards is the worst part of CotM, since like you say there's no bestiary or in-game info that lets you know which enemies drop what items; something that every Igavania before or after CotM had.Essential elements that modify the gameplay being left to chance and blindly hunting isn't great, and the rewards for exploring the castle are limited to mere health, MP, or heart capacity upgrades.There's literally a single collectible piece of armor in the game and it's your reward for completing the arena that "disables" the DSS system altogether, a whole buncha weird decisions altogether.
>>12280329It's pretty much why the game gave you Magician Mode as your second playthrough, where you start with all the DSS so you can see what you missed.The fact that you have to figure out what a DSS combination does after activating it, is a pain though. If the action card is one that requires an input command, good luck figuring that out even after looking in the menu for DSS card descriptions.Third playthrough is Fighter mode that disables DSS entirely, fourth playthrough is subweapon focused instead, and fifth playthrough is luck mode where you can actually try to get all DSS card drops albeit frail as fuck.
>find a secret place>inside of it is a new lone enemy never seen beforehOw WerE yOU sUppOseD tO KnOw???!!!!
>>12280297For a generation that loves roguelikes being shoved into everything, I'll never understand the selective 100% completion without putting in the work mentality. The card drops are supposed to change up each playthrough by taking what you get, and there's even the Magician class that has access to all cards right from the start. You'd have to actually beat the game to find it though, so I guess rewarding perseverance really is the ultimate filter.
>>12280364That's ignoring that there's a bunch of secret rooms that only start spawning these exclusive enemies during end game, when you have little reason to revisit those past areas when you already grabbed the item in there.Yes it's secret, but it's tedious as fuck to make the player re-explore previously explored areas because "something might have changed" despite the lack of obvious trigger.
Here are my plans for my CotM - Quality of Life Edition Remaster to bring the game to Modern Standards>Start by reverting the stat boosts of the US version, it's not like we need to fight rentals anymore in 2025!>Reduce the HP of all bosses as well they were clearly design to make the player lose and artificially inflate game time>100% drop rate for all cards >Drop rate for items go from 50% for the rarest to 100% for the most common>Add bloom and hdr like light effects all around the enemies that drop cards>Add an enemy lists which tell you which enemies drop cards before you encounter them>Reduce the consumption rate of hearts and MP by 80%. What's the point of having mechanics if you can't use them?>Add a shop to sell all your item drops and let the player buy potions so he isn't forced to grind potions from enemy drops >replace double tap running by running being default, using a d-pad in 2026 is such a strain on the fingers since they hadn't invented gyro yet and Nintendo was too cheap to add analog on the GBA>add objective markers on the map for the next logical place to go to. If it's a place the player hasn't been to make sure to encover the map for the way to get there>All secret places are now properly hinted by with a different wall colour>In-game achievements track your progress, now you can know when you beat the game and post it online!>Rewind and savestates are of course a given>16:9 widescreen support (horz -)>Remastered high res graphics (AI upscaled)>Optional CRT filter (blank lines covering half the pixels)Let me know what you think and what I'm forgetting :3
>>12280398this is a bullshit excuse. the ask isn't collecting everything, it's being able to approach the system in a meaningful way. I randomly got one card outside of the canned starting pair and have a bunch of pointless gimmicks isn't constructive gameplay.
>>12280408>16:9 widescreen support (horz -)Oops, that was supposed to be ver-
I started playing this the other day - is the level design ugly and very repetitive or is it just me? I feel like I enjoyed HoD and AoS more of the GBA games just cause they weren't the exact same room layout over and over.
>>12280416How is not using what you get interacting with it in a meaningful way? You're pretty likely to at least get a few combinations as long as you're not just running past every single enemy. You don't have a compendium of who drops what but they are 100% optional and the Fighter class doesn't even get access to them at all. Just wear luck equipment if it bothers your butthole that badly. Or use the activation swap glitch if you really suck ass.
>>12280329>>12280398>>12280408Fucking retards, you literally made up a strawman in your head and attacked it. I wanted cards because the game is repetitive as hell, and the combat is the most basic bitch stuff I've seen in igavanias>99% of time you're just using the same whip attack, can't even cancel it>your whole "moveset" is whip spin and slide, both barely useful >barely any equipment to speak of>the whole "variety" in combat is using different subweapons, and cross is the best one as usualAt least I could get some variety through cards… If I knew where to find them. All interesting attacks, effects and summons are locked behind them, yet I can't find them anywhere. I don't even care for 100%, I'm already bored with this game and its mediocre abilities, it's just copypasted corridors and nothing else. I feel like I've doing exactly the same thing for the past X hours>inb4 another idiotic strawman
>>12280425OP here, yeah that's my main problem. Even with a dash ability it's extremely repetitive
>>12280437>>12280297Just get 2 cards and use the glitch
>>12280437Pot pot.
>>12280437>I wanted cards because the game is repetitive as hell, and the combat is the most basic bitch stuff I've seen in igavaniasSo it wasn't a strawman, you're just an impatient cunt like it was assumed. You'd have to be young to not realize how much of a step up CotM was at the time compared to handheld fare before it, the GBA in general was a pretty big deal for its quality reaching levels consoles had years earlier. An early GBA castlevania incorporating things introduced to the series with SotN was pretty ambitious as it was.>At least I could get some variety through cards… If I knew where to find them. All interesting attacks, effects and summons are locked behind them, yet I can't find them anywhere.This is like complaining that shmups generally don't let you horde powerups, taking what you're given and adapting your playstyle to it is a skill you clearly lack. And again, 100% optional aspect of the game, and as long as you don't avoid every enemy like a soulsbourne autist running from fog gate to fog gate, you should get at least a few cards per playthrough to give you that spice you so desperately require.>I don't even care for 100%, I'm already bored with this game and its mediocre abilitiesThen stop playing it, dumbass. If you're incapable of appreciating a game for what it is, why apparently torture yourself with it? You will never be James Rolfe.
>>12280439OP doesn't want decades old solutions he wants to be an autistic faggot.
>>12280297You’re supposed to just play the game through using whatever you find without being an autistic retard about it.
>>12280437It's not an Igavania, but an actual Castleroid.
>>12280439>>12280467I know about the glitch but c'mon. I want to play normally, jumping to glitches is the last resort solution. I'm not THAT obsessed with cards, I just want the game to be less repetitive, and to power up a little bit, because I just got to eternal corridor (or whatever it's called) and I almost got my ass kicked. Moreover, the cards I have so far make little sense. So you got a whip that's like a venomous vine… And? It does more damage on some enemies, less on others. I literally couldn't even figure out what one combination does, turns out it gives you +25% luck. It feels useless and like I'm missing something, that's what I'm saying
>>12280523ALL games are repetitive to some degree. Sounds like you don't even like video games.
>>12280451>ackshually it's your fault, not the game's I at least get defending the classics, but CotM isn't even that acclaimed, pretty much everyone knows it was good for its time but it's not as good as AoS/DoS/SotN>you'd have to be youngNigger, it was literally the first game I've tried on GBA when it released. It was really cool for the time, I got filtered by it back then though. Now I'm playing it and I get why I dropped it often, it's extremely repetitive and a huge downgrade from SotN. It's still alright nonetheless but not some flawless masterpiece you claim it to be. >impatient No shit? So far it's really monotonous and every ability I got so far was shit.
>>12280523Literally just use the glitch if you want to enjoy the game more
>>12280542>pretty much everyone knows it was good for its time but it's not as good as AoS/DoS/SotNAnyone with half a brain knows it's better than these.
>>12280576It's better than HoD but every other igavania destroys CoM
>>12280576Oh wow, you are a circleofthemoonfag?? I didn't know these existed. Anyway, you do you I guess, it takes a certain degree of autism to enjoy this monotonous game for what it is
>>12280581Hardly.>>12280635>this monotonous game But enough about HoD and Aria.
>>12280297I remember finding all cards back in 2001 or 2002 when this game released on the gba. I unironically dont remember it being a difficult thing to do. am I missing something? I do have probably 10000+ hours in diablo 2 and path of exile so its probably me not minding "the grind".
>>12280425Yeah it tends to be a bit messy, amusingly COTM has the least amount of map squares among the igavanias, but the actual design of the rooms makes it feel larger than it truly is.
>>12280542>I at least get defending the classics, but CotM isn't even that acclaimed, pretty much everyone knows it was good for its time but it's not as good as AoS/DoS/SotNAnd anyone who played it at release, as an early GBA title, used to shit like castlevania adventure/legends/etc was fucking blown away that a portable game could get that close in quality to SotN. You could argue it didn't age well just like I can argue you're being a cunt about it. You even admit >It was really cool for the time, I got filtered by it back then though.in the same fucking post. Meanwhile you're trying to force today's sensibilities on a handheld experience from fucking 2001.> It's still alright nonetheless but not some flawless masterpiece you claim it to be.Where did I say it was flawless? I just said you're being a fucking toddler about your expectations for what they accomplished at the time, and what their intentions were with their design choices. Down another rolling rock for me.>No shit? So far it's really monotonous and every ability I got so far was shit.The thing that makes you impatient is not being able to get past that. Old games were monotonous as shit a lot more often than people admit, even masterpieces had boring stretches and setpieces. Your complaint is about core aspects of the game, which is why I ask why you're even bothering if you refuse to take them as they are to experience the rest. Fine scholars like yourself are why shit like the pixel remasters exist with FF. Stop being a whiny bitch and adapt, or just go play something else. Also>>12280523Stop making excuses, people used the glitch back when it came out when it bothered them, anyone with a library card or internet access found that shit on gamefaqs while trying to find drop locations for cards. If it bothered you that much, the solution was always there, even if by accident.
>>12280437>made the thread as /vr/'s thinly veiled CotM hate thread #2345You never wanted a genuine answer
>>12280338Yeah Magician mode seems to be a tacit acknowledgment that you weren't supposed to get them all before because otherwise getting them all right up front the second time wouldn't be much of a reward. And once you have access to them all you realize there's a lot of redundancy and only a few crucial ones so no big loss if you miseed a few.But the thing is, you don't get any indication of that in your initial playthrough. You just see the empty slots of the ones you haven't collected yet and kind of suggests an attempt at completionism should be made. Yes, >>12280329, autism. But the game should not give me an in-game checklist if they don't expect me to complete the list
OP here. I found several cards with the guide, and the game is indeed much better now. I saw these brain float enemies and thought, "these clearly remind me of Super Metroid… would be weird if I needed an ice card just to jump on them". And what do you know?? Yeah you need a card to freeze them. Wow. Hell, I'm not sure how you're supposed to find most cards, I had to kill like 50 lightning skeletons before they dropped the Golem card. And yeah I used the luck boost cards (because I had THOSE at least).All I'm saying is that the game has lots of fun stuff, but it's all locked behind cards, and the game gives you no clue where those are. If I played on my own, I'd just think it was a boring repetitive slog.
>>12280336Yeah, it was this. You were expected to farm enemies and figure out what they dropped because a lot of them would have new equipment for you, I figured out very fast that all enemies had two drops, one common and one rare. If you do this you'll get at least the majority of the cards.
>>12282494The luck stat actually works in this game, so boosting it with items actually has an effect.
>>12282494>Hell, I'm not sure how you're supposed to find most cards, I had to kill like 50 lightning skeletons before they dropped the Golem card.As >>12282510 says, all enemies drop two items, so you farm them until you see what both items are.
>>12282515Thanks, I was wondering that. I don't know how they messed it up so hard with both AoS and DoS
>>12282527There isn't even a bestiary to check the drops. You're just supposed to manually track them? That's pretty evil.
>>12282494That's because its a game designed around replay value. I know people speedrun games once and then cross them off a checklist before moving on to another these days, but when this game came out getting your money's worth was a big deal. It was toward the end of the rental days, but the best ways to avoid rentals were inflating difficulty or trying to make each playthrough feel different to reward people for sinking time into it. When you were poor, that type of design was awesome since it gave games much longer shelf lives.
>>12280297This was before people were completionist turbo autists. No one gave a shit about getting them all until later. And the actual point was to make each of your play throughs different, as opposed to getting 100% every time and destroying the intended uniqueness of each run.
>>12281852When did people start being weirdos about 100% completion? Don’t most people play through the game once and then after they beat it, try to get the shit you missed if you wanted to?
>>12281852Part of it is down to personal playstyle. Some players like to be as thorough as possible before moving onto the next area, or before finishing the game.I'm usually like that, but I've gradually learned to let go of that because more and more games are introducing "clean-up" systems that let you know what things you missed after you complete the final boss, help you track them down, enable other conveniences, etc.After all, the actual goal of the game is "go kick Dracula's ass", not "satiate your collection autism".This is something that Metroid Zero Mission does effectively, it unlocks a per-area item checklist on the map screen so you can turn your first run into a 100% run, and see the first two gallery unlocks for any% / 100% fairly easily. It's training wheels towards the fast any% and fast 100% runs, and then they also introduced the low% runs.Harmony of Dissonance's optional collectables on the other hand is some real dumb shit. Hurr durr let's go decorate a room in Dracula's fucking castle that we know for a fact is gonna disappear when we slay his ass.
>>12282882Around the time achievements came along and gave you recognition for finding all 300 pigeons in GTA or similar bullshit.
>>12282882It's especially dumb in Circle of the Moon, a game that's specifically intended to be played through 5 times.
>>12282882People hate replaying games now, especially older ones. Gaming has been in an age of consumerism for years, and younger people specifically grew up only knowing it. We're not in the days of only being able to afford a handful of games a year and having the rest be rentals, people want to get "the full experience" as fast as possible so they can move on to next product. Its just the result of how the medium has changed and how concepts like delayed gratification have been reduced in everything down to design itself. There are plenty of people who can get past that, and there were certainly some games like that in the past, but its just the way things are now.
>>12283032>games can't be difficult because zoomers need to beat them quick and move on to the next one>but they have to be 50 hours long and full of retarded checklists of bullshit to collect or doI don't get it...
>>12283043Of course you don't, because game design hasn't worked that way for almost as long as this game has been out. Games weren't meant to be beaten in an afternoon, yet people try to when "visiting the past" with retro games. There's an air of entitlement that has been bred by years of press X to win bullshit and streamlining out the negative aspects of games so much that these people end up with little tolerance for them, with shit like the FF pixel remasters being a perfect example. Take something like Legacy of the Wizard and compare the experience pre-internet to today and it would be an entirely different game. Shit was made to hold your hand less, and that tends to be anathema to the expectations of zoomies and alphies who aren't used to having to toil through bullshit to get rewarded with the good stuff. The end result with a game like CotM is constant whining about "why isn't X in the game" when it was a game that was actually fairly ambitious for its time and its lack of comparisons (as it was an early title on a very large hardware upgade.)
unclevania
>>12282925They were thinking the card drops add an element of randomness to your playthrough, making you use different abilities and creating replay value. And they were right.
>>12280437unfortunately you did this to yourself by making a cotm thread on /vr/, since there's an autistic samefagging iga hater on this board that has to defend it in the stupidest ways imaginable instead of, y'know, actually responding to the critiques properly.personally i think the card idea was very neat on paper but the problem is like you said, you don't know the enemies that drop them. in theory, the fact that multiple enemies drop multiple cards (usually) means that you can get different ones for different playthroughs and be fine. the problem is, it's way too arbitrary the earth demon drops the ice card and the ice knights drop an element absorption spell, most enemies don't share drops, the drop rates are low to begin with, and some of the more interesting cards are in places you have no reason to backtrack to after you defeat certain bosses.for what it's worth, you do get a mode where you unlock all the cards but are even weaker somehow, and that's neat at least although it shows how unbalanced the cards are. which makes sense, there's literally 100 of them, but still.
>>12280408This image makes me irrationally angry. Good job!
>I'm confused by this system, it seems silly>YOU HAVE AUTISM the fuck is this thread
>>12285370>there's literally 100 of them20 cards in total, you disingenuous faggot.
>>12285507i obviously meant 100 card combinations, sperg. learn how to read between the lines instead being an argumentative prick and maybe people will actually respect what you have to say.
>>12285520>learn how to readLearn to write and grow a brain, ranjeet.
>>12285524>calling me a third worlder when you can't into subtletyso you're confessing your heritage to me in this post i assume? last (You) you're getting from me, i have to go to work unlike you.
>>12285526Learn to read and how to be of use to society.
>>12285370Thanks anon, these were my thoughts exactly. I checked online and I guess this is a common criticism of the game. Honestly, it's a strong 9/10 with cards, but only a 7/10-8/10 without them, carried hard by an addictive SotN formula. Sure, some of the cards are a bit OP, but not that many of them, and it's not like Aria didn't have any broken souls (lightning doll / devil / lubicant ).
>>12285540>carried hard by an addictive SotN formulaCotM is the closest a SotN-ish game comes to being in the style of a Classicvania. It's more like a Classicvania that happens to have a Metroidvania map. It is one of the more rewarding Castlevanias of its style to explore, and it does so with genuinely meaningful, permanent abilities and power-ups instead of shiny RPG nonsense equippable items that you discard five minutes later. It also has the decency not to focus solely on shallow secrets and gimmicks, ensuring the core game doesn't become a worthless afterthought like in SotN and its ilk.
I've played through CotM about a dozen times and i've only once went out of my way to get all of the DSS cards, and it was a big waste of time. Just take what you can get, farm the easier ones. I've never been a fan of the completionist mentality, I only 100% complete games I enjoy playing, and that's usually a 2nd playthrough, I would rather have fun on the first go of a game than turn it into a complete slog trying to get everything on the first go.This now raises a very important question: Do these autistic fucks actually enjoy games? If you're constantly anxious about missing something, and need to look up guides for a first playthrough, what's the point? Where's the fun? I don't get it.
>>12285540it's not /vr/ but if you like the idea of the classicvania + metroidvania but want more nuanced combat than circle's, try order of ecclesia on the ds if you haven't played it already. they recently rereleased it and the other two ds games on steam and it doesn't have any issues afaik, and the alternate character's move was swapped from tapping the screen to using the mouse or dualshock second stick (which would be the same on an emulator granted). pretty good story for a castlevania game too.
>>12286636>pretty good story for a castlevania game too.I only remember the beginning being super contrivied.
>>12286638yeah admittedly it kinda was but what it does after that contrivance is all great. although honestly, it's pretty realistic. how many times have you misunderstood someone and caused something bad to happen? well, hopefully not nothing that bad but the point is good communication is an essential skill.
i love how this game makes normies seethethere is nothing wrong with how DSS is implementedthere is nothing wrong with double tap to runthere is nothing wrong with the difficultyto date, it's the CV that i've played the most because it hits the right balance of everything to me
>>12280329>It's not a very hard game anyway.The last few areas and Dracula get hard, and they're way harder if you do the cleanse skip
>>12286765>there is nothing wrong with double tap to runThere's one crippling issue with it, that being there is zero leniency for turning.
