I'm trying Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[Vipershark]

Symphony of the Night is a pretty good game but has a whole bunch of weird design choices compared to every game after that, and the difficulty curves up and down like a motherfucker for absolutely no reason, and a lot of the bosses are really easy (with one notable exception) while regular enemies will have you pulling your hair out at how badly they're designed (the minotaur. fuck the minotaur.)

SoTN also uses a spell system that has you doing overly elaborate button combos, but the game doesn't tell you that you know all these spells from the start and then it asks you to pay to learn them. It's kinda lame.

(the DS castlevanias are objectively better in every way, also)

this post is completely and utterly perfect

that one bird boss halfway through the game i beat in less than 10 seconds, but the minotaur, UGH

as he said though, yu'll probably have much more fun with the DS castlevanias
SotN is a great game and everything, but compared to today's stuff it definitely feels a little dated

[ThePortalGuru]

(the DS castlevanias are objectively better in every way, also)

Though I will admit, Harmony of Despair looks pretty solid.

[Vipershark]

holy shit
i've never seen that before
definite buy

[a babyass man]

that one bird boss halfway through the game i beat in less than 10 seconds, but the minotaur, UGH

hey op i don't know how much you're concerned about spoilers (since this is your first castlevania game and whatever) but i'm going to spoil this anyways

Spoiler

When I typed that up I was thinking mainly of the difference between The Creature in the inverted Outer Wall, and fucking GALAMOTH, who you can find about ten minutes afterwards and is virtually unkillable without using the Alucard Shield trick.

e: and in another ten minutes you find Beelzebub, a boss that can be killed exclusively in bat form. man fuck this game

[Sol]

I'm definitely agreeing with Bryan here, Symphony of the Night is a good game, but there are parts of it I absolutely hate. The DS Castlevanias take what SotN started and make it so much better, plus, they're portable.

Also Harmony of Despair looks great, too bad my Xbox Live subscription ran out, not to mention that even if my friends got it to play with me, it would literally be the only reason I'd even want Xbox Live again at this point considering all my friends now have computers that are good enough to run TF2 and Left 4 Dead.

But uh, they say it's 6 player cooperative play, but they've only mentioned 5 characters, so I'm wondering who the 6th is.

[TomGuycott]

Spoiler

I HAAAAAAAAAAATED Beelzebub. So fucking annoying the first time I fought him. I also hate that hallway full of minotaurs.

[ThePortalGuru]

But uh, they say it's 6 player cooperative play, but they've only mentioned 5 characters, so I'm wondering who the 6th is.

Probably the minotaur.

[Sol]

But uh, they say it's 6 player cooperative play, but they've only mentioned 5 characters, so I'm wondering who the 6th is.

Probably the minotaur.

I was hoping Axe armor. He's my favorite!

[PrettyNier]

do you have a ds
seriously, do you have a ds

get any of the ds castlevanias
you'll get the whole SotN/metroidvania experience from those

not to mention that they're arguably better

dawn of sorrow and portrait of ruin are both miserable from an artistic standpoint and a game design standpoint: not a single thing has any lasting meaning or merit. the physics and movements are superficial at best, the level design is consistently little more than boxes or rectangles with floating platforms (with no attempted visual context to explain them), the enemies artificial intelligence is terrible and feels on par with something you would have fought in one of the first castlevania games. unfortunately for portrait and dawn, the character's capabilities have increased a thousand-fold. the primary focus of these games is more to arbitrarily collect things and max out percentages, simply for the sake of doing it; there is no soul, there is no reason behind it. and the few instances where there are rewards, these rewards are meaningless or do not justify the cost.

worst things about portrait of ruin: level design. jumping on charlottes back. frog form. owl form and super jump, and how the latter completely eliminates any potential use of the form. how unbalanced jonathan and charlotte are. how the game is practically tooled for grinding. the vast majority of sprites are re-used; the new sprites suck, and there is no real consistent style in the game as a whole. the game feels like it is a result of a check-list as opposed to a real effort on any front to do something interesting or entertaining.


even despite its flaws symphony of the night is basically objectively better on every front


e: im leaving out ecclesia. ecclesia is almost as good as symphony. it suffers from a few of the same problems as portrait and to a lesser extent dawn, but damn the difficulty is actually balanced out, the combat is incredibly tight and more often than not it actually gives purpose to things (you are not just handed a million potions) and utilizes the systems it has in place.

But uh, they say it's 6 player cooperative play, but they've only mentioned 5 characters, so I'm wondering who the 6th is.

i really don't think there will be a 6th character

[Vipershark]

i never use items (that aren't equippable) ever in any castlevania game so that whoole point about difficulty is moot to me

but the tin man in ecclesia and that entire hallway lined with them

[PrettyNier]

well, yeah, thats sort of the point, though; there is rarely any actual need to use them. they are rarely required. they are, simply put, not well integrated into the game itself; it feels like they're little more than an after-thought, something to do "because thats what you do in games".

SoTN also uses a spell system that has you doing overly elaborate button combos, but the game doesn't tell you that you know all these spells from the start and then it asks you to pay to learn them. It's kinda lame.

I actually really like symphonies spell system, partially for that reason; there is an element of mystery and depth to it that the overly simplistic and straight-forward DS metroidvanias kind of lack.

[PrettyNier]

basically when it comes to the metroidvanias, the games you want to play are:
symphony of the night
order of ecclesia
aria of sorrow
harmony of dissonance

[Vipershark]

(don't listen to him he's ruining the fun, all of the ds castlevanias are actually great but he goes way in depth about metroidvanias)

[Gwen]

It was Order Of Ecclesia that I had.

[PrettyNier]

(don't listen to him he's ruining the fun, all of the ds castlevanias are actually great but he goes way in depth about metroidvanias)

great is a bit much
they're fun and enjoyable but they're a far-cry from great. "good", maybe
the four i mentioned were absolutely fantastic, though

It was Order Of Ecclesia that I had.

i think you're kind of exaggerating then
or you're using the wrong weapon, because attributes actually matter in this game