Rantslevania
Jan. 1st, 2007 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lbd_nytetraynSo I beat the fucking treasure bat in Super Castlevania IV. Now it's the next level that's driving me bonkers.
Nintendo says they're after a lot of the people who stopped gaming, as well as those who never have picked up the controller.
It occurs to me now just WHY a lot of those people stopped gaming. A lot of them just demanded too fucking much perfection. I get way too pissed off at this thing for the stupidest little things that require you to start all over again if you don't do things JUST right.
Ironically, the Medusas (whom I strongly believe to have been most pre-adolescents first use of the word "BITCH!") have been the least of my problems.
This is a game where you just can't talk to people later on in (barring some speedrunning pros who play the game for a few hours every day), lest you miss the spot where you're supposed to swing and subsequently die.
I don't understand how the game improved so much on the CVs that came before it, like the whip mechanics (which are godly), yet leave in archaeic cheap-ass bullshit like dying if you happen to go down while you're trying to move up.
The "Metroidvania"ing of the series is the best thing to ever happen in that regard, and I think Iga should be worshipped as some sort of deity for figuring it out.
...on the same note, I'm stripping him of that same godliness because they went back to the same fucking whip mechanics as the first fucking game.
I'm still trying to play through Portrait of Ruin ("trying" in that Red is hogging it, and I can't even take it to work without her ready to come up there after me), and I've found there's a power-up that allows you to at least partially recreate the whip mechanics in SCV4; you can flail the whip around and hold it out after a strike. Now all we need is 8-directional whipping and the ability to swing from batrings, and we're set.
Super Castlevania IV, as it is, needs more bosses. If that's what keeps you from going back so damn far when you lose all your lives, then by all means. I mean, if I wanted this kind of repetition in gaming of doing the same fucking thing over and over again and getting my ass kicked, I'll start up Pac-man or something.
And just think, out of the first four games, this is one of the easier ones. The first game wanted you to do all this bullshit in one sitting. At least this one has a password feature, and now thanks to the Wii, a sort of indefinite save-state you can restart once.
This game is longer than I remember, too. It's supposed to be a remake of the original, but with the POWER of the SUPER NES. I forgot that for all intents and purposes, they somehow managed to fit the original game in so that it's essentially the last part of the rest of the game.
All this, and yet there's still some compelling quality that draws me back to it time and again. I've stopped playing for now, but I'll likely play again tomorrow.
...though even that bothers me. I don't like the idea that I can only seem to do one stage per day here. On the other hand, I guess I'm getting a lot of days out of it.
Don't know how to completely explain it. I mean, I don't get this pissed at something like Gunstar Heroes or Contra, so I wonder just what it is that makes Super Castlevania IV seem so damn cheap and frustrating by comparison.
Maybe it's that those others seem to have a more forgiving manner of restarting your progress...
--LBD "Nytetrayn"
Nintendo says they're after a lot of the people who stopped gaming, as well as those who never have picked up the controller.
It occurs to me now just WHY a lot of those people stopped gaming. A lot of them just demanded too fucking much perfection. I get way too pissed off at this thing for the stupidest little things that require you to start all over again if you don't do things JUST right.
Ironically, the Medusas (whom I strongly believe to have been most pre-adolescents first use of the word "BITCH!") have been the least of my problems.
This is a game where you just can't talk to people later on in (barring some speedrunning pros who play the game for a few hours every day), lest you miss the spot where you're supposed to swing and subsequently die.
I don't understand how the game improved so much on the CVs that came before it, like the whip mechanics (which are godly), yet leave in archaeic cheap-ass bullshit like dying if you happen to go down while you're trying to move up.
The "Metroidvania"ing of the series is the best thing to ever happen in that regard, and I think Iga should be worshipped as some sort of deity for figuring it out.
...on the same note, I'm stripping him of that same godliness because they went back to the same fucking whip mechanics as the first fucking game.
I'm still trying to play through Portrait of Ruin ("trying" in that Red is hogging it, and I can't even take it to work without her ready to come up there after me), and I've found there's a power-up that allows you to at least partially recreate the whip mechanics in SCV4; you can flail the whip around and hold it out after a strike. Now all we need is 8-directional whipping and the ability to swing from batrings, and we're set.
Super Castlevania IV, as it is, needs more bosses. If that's what keeps you from going back so damn far when you lose all your lives, then by all means. I mean, if I wanted this kind of repetition in gaming of doing the same fucking thing over and over again and getting my ass kicked, I'll start up Pac-man or something.
And just think, out of the first four games, this is one of the easier ones. The first game wanted you to do all this bullshit in one sitting. At least this one has a password feature, and now thanks to the Wii, a sort of indefinite save-state you can restart once.
This game is longer than I remember, too. It's supposed to be a remake of the original, but with the POWER of the SUPER NES. I forgot that for all intents and purposes, they somehow managed to fit the original game in so that it's essentially the last part of the rest of the game.
All this, and yet there's still some compelling quality that draws me back to it time and again. I've stopped playing for now, but I'll likely play again tomorrow.
...though even that bothers me. I don't like the idea that I can only seem to do one stage per day here. On the other hand, I guess I'm getting a lot of days out of it.
Don't know how to completely explain it. I mean, I don't get this pissed at something like Gunstar Heroes or Contra, so I wonder just what it is that makes Super Castlevania IV seem so damn cheap and frustrating by comparison.
Maybe it's that those others seem to have a more forgiving manner of restarting your progress...
--LBD "Nytetrayn"
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 01:33 am (UTC)It holds up to the nostalgia test too. I mean, I have sparkly-ass memories of it, and when I went back to it via walkthrough-ing for a buddy, it was still just as awesome as I remembered it to be. The silly voice acting somehow added to the experience, ebcause, shit, Dracula's actor is having the time of his life. XD
*fangirls hysterically*
Circle of the Moon has fun whip mechanics as well? Nate can spin the mofo and land in multiple watacks. I think - well, Harmony of Dissonance had something groovy that I forget - bah, ymn brain.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 02:26 am (UTC)My friend C used to backtrack with the - oh hell, what was it - the Yasutsuna sword? Whatever one it was that made about a zillion little slashes in front of Alucard. Zombie purée anyone? XD
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 01:50 am (UTC)I don't understand how in the DS games, they can use so much cool scaling and rotating effects on the bosses, but the main character has a two-frame walk cycle. XD
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 01:53 am (UTC)Mysteries of the gaming universe, I suppose.
--LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:49 pm (UTC)*spoilsport*
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 03:04 pm (UTC)Anyway the "Droopy Whip" think in PoR isn't anything like CV4's whip. I agree that it's lame they dropped the awesome whip after pretty much that game. There is another powerup that lets you whip "diaganol + down while jumping. Also a whip that "seeks out evil" ie it moves it's trajectory around but it's kind of limited in angle and range.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 05:00 pm (UTC)Vampire Killer sucks all around, even when powered up.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 07:38 am (UTC)Actually, I've yet to see any way that the flame whip is stronger than the vampire killer o_O. Seems to me more enemies are vulnerable to Holy than to Fire. It certainly does more damage than the Royal Sword (except against the rare holy enemy). The stronger enemies late game definitely seem weaker to holy. Sword is kinda mixed. I haven't played enough to get the Holy Claymore yet, though.
My claim of the Nebula's suckiness was because... it's got such low attack power, even by the time you get it.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 04:27 am (UTC)Otherwise, the weapon is pretty well interchangable with a number of others.
...I think it might've helped the 3-D games if they had that kind of control as well. At least, I don't remember the first PS2 game having it...
--LBD "Nytetrayn"