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DSWii

Teaching an Old Vampire Hunter New Tricks

by Zachary Miller - May 27, 2008, 4:19 pm EDT
Total comments: 25

Let's face it: Koji Igarashi has been making the same basic game for the last ten years. A large semi-nonlinear castle, multiple weapons and armor items to equip, magic spells, item shops, and multiple endings depending on whether you've equipped the proper item at a critical juncture or not. Harmony of Dissonance, one of the GBA games, was practically a love letter to Symphony. Aria of Sorrow, the final (and best) GBA game, broke with tradition as far as plotline, but kept most of Symphony's devices intact while adding a maddening, grind-heavy magic system.

Dawn of Sorrow, the immediate sequel to Aria, and the DS' first Castlevania game, was really more like Aria 2.0, featuring similar plot devices, environments, and enemy designs. And then came Portrait of Ruin, which actually felt like a break from the norm again, with two playable characters, unique environmental puzzles, epic boss fights, and locations set outside of the usual castle theme (like Egypt). However, the magic grinding from Aria and Dawn was made worse by the fact that spells were split between the two characters, and the method of leveling up physical spells was beyond ridiculous.

So perhaps you can understand my anxiety toward Order of Ecclesia. While the core, surface-level gameplay of post-Symphony Castlevania games remains virtually unbeatable, the deeper intricacies of that gameplay have become stale and repetitious over time. In fact, some aspects of the game, like the magic system, have become worse. As I'm sure you all have read, Order will feature a "Glyph" system that promises to allow up to 100 kinds of special attacks. After the last few games, I can't help but wonder if a Glyph is just a magic attack I'll need to grind for. I hope it's not, and I hope that Order delivers new gameplay devices and, hopefully, a brand-new plotline. I eagerly await its arrival, but I am restraining my fanboyism until I actually play it.

In the meantime, all of you DS gamers who don't yet have PSP's should really check out Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. It's a remake of Rondo of Blood, a game which never made it to our shores in its original form. Both an updated version, as well as the original game, are packed within this tiny UMD. And if you search hard enough in the updated game, you might another full game or two. It's a great package, and I highly recommend it.

Talkback

Resident Castlevania fanboy, ey? Git'em, Jonny!

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusMay 27, 2008

Jonny?  Who's the guy who wrote and recorded two castlevania remixes and has a castlevania avatar for the forum?

That said, I agree with all of Zach's points here, except I don't recall having to grind anything in Portrait (it may have been an option, though not necessary for those without OCD).

blackfootstepsMay 28, 2008

Quote from: Rize

Jonny?  Who's the guy who wrote and recorded two castlevania remixes and has a castlevania avatar for the forum?

That said, I agree with all of Zach's points here, except I don't recall having to grind anything in Portrait (it may have been an option, though not necessary for those without OCD).

Yep pretty much. It was a boring process, only really needed to complete certain quests. I think the problem was that the reward for 'mastering' a particular skill just wasn't worth the effort (by effort I mean mindless repetition) involved in raising skill points.

KDR_11kMay 28, 2008

That boss better drops a spreadgun glyph!

Yeah, glyphs will probably just end up as this game's flavour of magic, I hope they're varied enough to justify the new mechanism. Overall I pretty much hate levellable equipment that needs to be equipped to level, that just results in the things you're using all the time being much stronger than everything else and if you want to switch you have to level from zero again. I hope the segmented areas work better this time than in PoR.

Hell, PoR's skills had a tendency to be worthless even when levelled fully, expensive magic that would at best do as much damage as your physical weapon, usually less. With everything using magic I hope it'll balance out better this time.

But WTF is with the PSP recommendation? You said those of us who don't have a PSP should look into it but we'd have to buy a freaking 200 Euro/dollar system to be able to buy the game! I'd rather get an XBox 360 Arcade for that money.

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusMay 28, 2008

Quote from: KDR_11k

But WTF is with the PSP recommendation? You said those of us who don't have a PSP should look into it but we'd have to buy a freaking 200 Euro/dollar system to be able to buy the game! I'd rather get an XBox 360 Arcade for that money.

Well, he did say he was a Castlevania fanboy.  I don't even have a PSP yet honestly... there's so little on it that I'm interested in.  I'll get one eventually, even if I have to wait for them to go on clearance.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 28, 2008

Playing Lament of Innocence once is enough to avoid all Castlevaniaing on Sony systems for good.

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusMay 28, 2008

Quote from: MADONNA

Playing Lament of Innocence once is enough to avoid all Castlevaniaing on Sony systems for good.

Actually, LoI isn't bad.  You should see the second one...  LoI at least had good music and good boss fights.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 28, 2008

"Actually, LoI isn't bad.  You should see the second one..."

That just re-affirms my original point.

"LOL at least had good music and good boss fights."

Music was remarkably unexciting for CD-quality orchestrated Sonyvania game music.  Castlevania64 gives it a run for its money.  Fighting was ridiculously reliant on the blocking mechanic, which sorta ruins the pace and mood of the fight.  Oh, and the jerk jumps nearly vertically just like Dante -- way to maintain the aerial maneuverability of the 2D games.

I'll take Shinji Mikami's P.N.03 over Igarashi's Castleflops any day.

vuduMay 28, 2008

Quote from: Rize

I don't recall having to grind anything in Portrait (it may have been an option, though not necessary for those without OCD).

Someone didn't unlock the OAA mode.  ;)

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusMay 28, 2008

No, I may be a huge Castlevania fan, but that doens't mean I'm unreasonable.  I got tired of Portrait of Ruin after the first ordinary play through.

KDR_11kMay 28, 2008

So Curse of Darkness is crap, right? Just asking because I see it everywhere for 20 Euros and was thinking I should see what 3d Cvs are like.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 28, 2008

Right.

vuduMay 28, 2008

Quote from: Rize

No, I may be a huge Castlevania fan, but that doens't mean I'm unreasonable.  I got tired of Portrait of Ruin after the first ordinary play through.

I beat it four times with each set of characters.  100% (well, except for the sisters, which the max you could get was like 60% or so.)

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusMay 28, 2008

I really didn't like the portraits in the game.  I prefer one big castle (or two).

vuduMay 28, 2008

As did I, but I'm borderline OCD, so I had great fun collecting all the souls (or whatever they called them in PoR) and leveling them up.  Killing that damn OAA 1,000 times got a little annoying, but it was pretty fun to play the game using him (her?) so I suppose it wasn't too bad.

Oh god. I didn't unlock OAA. That would have driven me nuts.

vuduMay 28, 2008

Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here. You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself.

/Cheshire Cat

The only Castlevainia I've ever played is Dawn of Sorrow (well, the only Metroidvania, I got Super Castlevania IV on the VC). I always hear that the GBA ones are great, but I don't know if I want to play one without the full screen map on the second screen.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 28, 2008

Taking 2 seconds to pause and look at the map is the hardcore way.

KDR_11kMay 29, 2008

OAA?

Old Axe Armor. If you kill 1,000 OAA's in the main game, you unlock a new "mode" in which you play as an OAA.

animecyberratMay 29, 2008

Well I have only played the original Castlevania, Bloodlines, 64 and DoS, so far DoS is my favorite next to Bloodlines and the original comes next. The 64 I never got into that much.


So my point was, how does this game compare to those.

vuduMay 29, 2008

Completely different.

animecyberratMay 29, 2008

Oh, I see that helps a lot thanks.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 29, 2008

No problem.

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