Portrait of Ruin is AMAZING

[Christopher]

Best Castlevania game ever?  I'm gonna have to say yes.

[Christopher]

actually no i'm not this is a castlevania game that is actually fun to play sans Super Castlevania

[Darunia]

i'm gonna have to say no

only HoD tops it as the least fun metroidvania

[y2kev]

You know I thought I hated it but I think I like it more playing Order of Ecclesia. I am just not feeling OoE...the levels feel so lazy and I'm not sure I like the glyph system. I'm in Drac's castle and it's not that it's too hard...I dunno...

the music blows vs. yamane and koshiro though

[cool breeze]

I have to get around to playing OoE, I just can't really get in the mood to start playing it.  I think part of the reason is because while I think the DS has really good games actually playing the thing is annoying.

[OptimoPeach]

I guess I'm in the minority when I say I liked Dawn of Sorrow the best out of the DS installments. I loved the soul system, and the dual characters thing in Portait of Ruin is really gimmicky after you realize that there was only like one puzzle in the whole game that took advantage of it. I think I did all the boss fights solo, too. At least it was better than Ecclesia.

[Positive Touch]

very underrated.  i think it gets too much hate for the level recycling.  i think i got pretty close to 100% on all the lists, and i even unlocked axe armor.  shame about the sisters mode being unplayable for lefties though.

[patrickula]

I liked DoS more than PoR, though PoR isn't bad.  Haven't played OoE yet.

Aria's the best, like Jinfash says.

[cool breeze]

I like Aria the best of all those I've played.  And I really liked Circle of the Moon, sometimes I think people are a bit overboard when they think it's better than PoR/DoS, but it was a good start to mixing both styles of Castlevania games.  And Harmony of Dissonance was the only bad 2D Castlevania IGA made.

[y2kev]

I like Dawn best of the DS games too. I still prefer symphony. When the DS makes the games sound like Symphony, I'll forgive the other games of their other major flaws.

And it's not nostalgia, I play Symphony like three times a year.

[Van Cruncheon]

second best metroidvania after symphony

order of ecclesia is awful just awful

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

I liked Circle of the Moon :'(

[Van Cruncheon]

symphonia still has the most spectacular boss encounters, the best music, the best art (characters and levels) and the most interesting castle layout -- including the inverted castle.

i don't get the love for aria, though. it was short, had a gimmicky castle layout, and a middling soundtrack effort. at best, it was short and focused, and the soul system was great for the ocd set, but i think i actually slightly preferred dawn. por spanks both of them soundly.

[Christopher]

SotN was kind of barren though playing it today even though PoR has small story lines at least it gives you direction to keep going.

[Madrun Badrun]

Circle was my favorite.  My first one too. I remember the sore necks I got from it with joy.

[cool breeze]

I like Dawn best of the DS games too. I still prefer symphony. When the DS makes the games sound like Symphony, I'll forgive the other games of their other major flaws.

And it's not nostalgia, I play Symphony like three times a year.

Same here.  Well, at least once a year.  Twice this year because first on my PSP using the PS1 emulator a second time on the new version that came with DXC.

i don't get the love for aria, though. it was short, had a gimmicky castle layout, and a middling soundtrack effort. at best, it was short and focused, and the soul system was great for the ocd set, but i think i actually slightly preferred dawn. por spanks both of them soundly.

Dawn is a better game, but I liked Aria more if only because I played it first..if that makes any sense.  DoS and Aria are almost interchangeable because they are so similar.  Biggest differences are art style and touch screen gimmick shit.

[Van Cruncheon]

i think we can all agree that ecclesia is shitcakes, though

i'd rather play harmony of dissonance

[TakingBackSunday]

OoE is one of the biggest wastes of a download ever, it sucked

[y2kev]

i think we can all agree that ecclesia is shitcakes, though

i'd rather play harmony of dissonance

What do you hate about it? I...don't understand why I don't like it.

The mocking of Symphony is one of the things ntards managed to do once the games went handheld. It's a matter of dethroning a PlayStation classic, a standard. I normally don't think those kinds of things but you can only be told "ITS BETTER THAN SYMPHONY1111" 100 times before you start to realize people are talking out of their necks.

Given the option, I'd rather play broken, stiff Symphony than anything else.

[Don Flamenco]

You guys convinced me to start a new game of symphony tonight.  I haven't gotten the good ending/inverted castle yet.

and this is sad to see people hating OoE-- I'll start that when I get my DS this week.  PoR wasn't so bad, but there was nothing that blew my mind about it.

[y2kev]

You guys convinced me to start a new game of symphony tonight.  I haven't gotten the good ending/inverted castle yet.

da fug

And some of OoE's levels are literally just straight lines.

[Don Flamenco]

You guys convinced me to start a new game of symphony tonight.  I haven't gotten the good ending/inverted castle yet.

da fug

And some of OoE's levels are literally just straight lines.

yeah, I'm way late to the Symphony party.  I've started it several times and I've beaten Richter for the bad ending.  That was on another 360, so I need to start again, argh.

Nothing wrong with straight lines in Castlevania, imo. Then again, I grew up with 1-4, so Castletroid is a pretty novel concept to me.   I should qualify that straight line levels still need good platforming and action to be good.

[Christopher]

Guys two things:

1.) Where ist he best place to level up?  Death and Dracula are kicking my ass.

2.) Do I need the Vampire Killer?  It' said that I'll die if I get it

[cool breeze]

i think we can all agree that ecclesia is shitcakes, though

i'd rather play harmony of dissonance

I haven't played OoE yet but already know you're wrong because pictures from it don't look like it was designed with hyper color aids in mind

[y2kev]

You guys convinced me to start a new game of symphony tonight.  I haven't gotten the good ending/inverted castle yet.

da fug

And some of OoE's levels are literally just straight lines.

well how would you depict a forrest in a side scroller

since when do all forests exist on flat planes?

[Oblivion]

I like PoR's rendition of Simon's theme. 

Goddamn, I wish somebody would do a high quality arrangement that doesn't suck cheese.

[OptimoPeach]

iirc there was a quest to restore the VK's powers (or was it part of the main quest?), it wouldn't kill you too.

Yeah, that's a main part of the game. Once you unlock the inverted versions of the original levels you can talk to the twin vampire girls to try. Get the whip, it'll help a lot in that fight. If you are having trouble unlocking the whip then get some Ancient Armor.

I don't remember a good place to level either, though.

[Jabberwocky]

I'd put it slightly above Harmony of Dissonance, if not a complete tie. The absolutely horrific looking art doesn't help it either.

[y2kev]

since when do all forests exist on flat planes?

oh come on kev! it clearly wasn't intended to be a full fledged level, just a filler.

There are multiple levels like that! I don't think things get good until you hit Dracula's Castle.

[y2kev]

The common complaint is that Harmony's subweapons are straight up busted. Like worse than the Crissaegrim. I don't really care because challenge is not what I play Castlevania for.

[y2kev]

I thought OoE was at least a little difficult. Nothing you couldn't power through with the right glyph union, but at least you had to learn enemy patterns and stuff.

Symphony still has the coolest bosses. GALAMOTH AND GIANT BALL OF DEATH GUYS

AND ORLIX

Orlix was so fucking hard the first time I played! Oh god, I hung on for dear life.

[Christopher]

god damn richter is fucking hard

[Van Cruncheon]

and the giant corpse on hooks with the killer maggots

omg symphony

[y2kev]

Beelzebub! The bees omg I hate bees


omg Wandering Ghosts

OMG SPANISH GUITAR

[MCD]

SOTN needs a hard mode soooo bad.

[y2kev]

Modders need to hack into the rom and fix some shit. The game would be perfect with some fixes.

I've spent hours killing Schmoos in the inverted library for a crissaegrim...

[cool breeze]

I'm probably gonna start OoE later tonight.  Is there anything you can say that won't be a spoiler on how to get the 'true' ending?

[Van Cruncheon]

rescue all the villagers

[Christopher]

so OoE isn't even worth playing?

[tiesto]

I still need to play OoE... that's the only CV game I've never beaten, apart from the X68000 ones, Super, Bloodlines, and CV1 w/o using emulator savestates.

[cool breeze]

So far OoE isn't bad.  The combo glyph stuff is pretty cool.  My only worry is (this is just after the Prison) that it will be another case were difficulty is that enemies do a lot of damage and you do little.  So far it seems like that. 

[Jansen]

that carries along through the entire game. you are either one skilled mofo or a bitch that is gonna have to grind

[cool breeze]

or I just stop playing it all together because shit like that isn't fun.  Fought the crab boss twice, got bored of pressing x -> y over and over, it hit me two times and I died, turned off DS.  I'll try again tomorrow and grind or something...maybe

I'm guessing the claim that it's better than sotn is as bullshit as it being 'difficult'

[Don Flamenco]

None of the games are very hard at all though, and there are easy ways to bust all of them in terms of... whatever passes for difficulty with people these days.

Which is a disappointment since the pre-metroidvania games were pretty damn tough.  I miss the platforming.


Started up SOTN again and got up to Scylla.  Good stuff.  I am interested in this. I am interested in this. I am interested in this.  Using a FAQ so I don't get the shit ending after beating Richter.

[Jansen]

or I just stop playing it all together because shit like that isn't fun.  Fought the crab boss twice, got bored of pressing x -> y over and over, it hit me two times and I died, turned off DS.  I'll try again tomorrow and grind or something...maybe

I'm guessing the claim that it's better than sotn is as bullshit as it being 'difficult'

oh i agree. i fall into my self described 'bitch' category because just like you, i got stuck at the crab battle. i had to gain levels in order to win.

and anyone that thinks that ooe is better than sotn is full of shit.

i'm at the misty forest road and really have no desire to continue further.

[cool breeze]

Is misty road the one with Q from Street Fighter 3? I think I'm on that now.  I think the game is great, as in standard sotn-style Castlevania, outside of the bosses.  The bosses so far have been awful.  I do like how the levels are broken up and it doesn't take place in one big castle, but that does lead to some boring situations like levels that are straight lines.

[Darunia]

Beelzebub! The bees omg I hate bees


omg Wandering Ghosts

OMG SPANISH GUITAR

my favorite CV track

[y2kev]

or I just stop playing it all together because shit like that isn't fun.  Fought the crab boss twice, got bored of pressing x -> y over and over, it hit me two times and I died, turned off DS.  I'll try again tomorrow and grind or something...maybe

I'm guessing the claim that it's better than sotn is as bullshit as it being 'difficult'

oh i agree. i fall into my self described 'bitch' category because just like you, i got stuck at the crab battle. i had to gain levels in order to win.

and anyone that thinks that ooe is better than sotn is full of shit.

i'm at the misty forest road and really have no desire to continue further.

Is the crab the one climbing up the tower? I didn't have to grind becuz I HAVZ SKILLZ but the game is such that even if you can avoid the hits, you do so little damage that I had to fight the thing for like 25 minutes before he died. I can't do the same repetitive motion on the DS for 25 minutes....my hands would fall off.

[cool breeze]

Is the crab the one climbing up the tower? I didn't have to grind becuz I HAVZ SKILLZ but the game is such that even if you can avoid the hits, you do so little damage that I had to fight the thing for like 25 minutes before he died. I can't do the same repetitive motion on the DS for 25 minutes....my hands would fall off.

yeah, the boss isn't difficult in the sense that he has a smart pattern or requires you to do tricky movement, it was just waiting until the end basically

the exact thing I did was this: top right, axe spam; he hit wall and spits bubbles, jump down and scythe spam; repeat; he turns read, jump to other side, scythe spam; wall is destroyed, jump up; repeat.  It's been the same for all bosses so far.

I didn't need to grind or try hard to even beat it since the pattern was mostly obvious, it was just boring to do.

[modkennylaine]

SoTN is the only one I can beat and still want to play again and again...just epic, even 10 years+ later.  I don't think any of the other Metroidvanias have matched the atmosphere and the sense of scale in SoTN.

OoE isn't too bad, it looks like I'm gonna actually beat it (good ending) which is more than I can say for the non-Soma games. PoR wasn't bad, I just never got around to beating it. I like OoE more now just based on the glyph system--even if I always forget to use the combos, whoops. It's not as hard as like, the original Castlevanias.  I will say that making Shanoa an emotionless robot is kinda crappy, since she may as well be "..." to everything.

Beelzebub! The bees omg I hate bees

Dude, FLIES. Lord of the FLIES.

[AdmiralViscen]

My biggest beef with these shits is the tired ending where you need to run around and collect obscure items just to see the last third of the game. It fucking sucks, I hate using guides for games.

[cool breeze]

OoE is really exhausting to play.  I finished the first ending or whatever and am now on the second part, but it all feels so half-assed.  All the weapons are also really dumb.  It's weak-medium-strong versions of the same exact weapons

[cool breeze]

ok, yeah...OoE isn't that great.  There are a lot of "new" things they do that I like, but the entire game feels so lazy.  Music is depressingly bad considering how good Castlevania music usually is.  There are only two good songs in the entire game.