That's nice, but I have trouble getting excited for anything Castlevania related that's not on a console.
Apple's got a pretty good track record of picking actually good and actually free games for Apple Arcade, so it might actually be decent.
My understanding is this is more of a mandate than some curation thing. You must strip out MTX from your game for it to show up on arcade. All your money comes from whatever deal you cut with apple, which may or may not care about engagement numbers depending on the deal. Which is I think a bit part of this coming back, Apple probably offered them a nice lumpsome, and Konami care fuck all if this game fails to catch on any better than the beta did.
So Nando V Movies is doing this whole One Villainous Scene submission thing and the geniuses at Overly Sarcastic Productions chose Netflix Dracula and his confrontation with Alucard Trevor and Sypha.
So Nando V Movies is doing this whole One Villainous Scene submission thing and the geniuses at Overly Sarcastic Productions chose Netflix Dracula and his confrontation with Alucard Trevor and Sypha.
Indeed it is. Quick note, though: while it largely focuses on season 1 and 2, it also involves some discussion of some end-of-season-4 stuff. Just in case someone who’s only seen part of the series wants to watch it.
I bought the first Axiom Verge the other day. I've got maybe 1.5 hours of gameplay on it so far (ish). It seems really good though. It came recommended to me through a friend at work. He claims it's a top tier Metroidvania so I figured I would give it a shot.
So far so good. It seems like the weapon progression is very fast though? I'm barely into it at all and I already have 4 guns which feels very odd to me to have that many weapon choices this early in the game.
I bought the first Axiom Verge the other day. I've got maybe 1.5 hours of gameplay on it so far (ish). It seems really good though. It came recommended to me through a friend at work. He claims it's a top tier Metroidvania so I figured I would give it a shot.
So far so good. It seems like the weapon progression is very fast though? I'm barely into it at all and I already have 4 guns which feels very odd to me to have that many weapon choices this early in the game.
It's both a strength and a weakness of the first Axiom Verge that it has so many guns; it's cool that they exist, but for the most part they have similar damage profiles to one another, you get more damage out of accumulating Power Nodes than you do by getting new weapons, and the basic Axiom Disruptor and Kilver you get in the main sequence are perfectly serviceable for the entire game. Worse, there's something like three or four guns that only become available with the final movement upgrade, at which point you only have maybe one or two major combat challenges you might actually need them for.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
I bought the first Axiom Verge the other day. I've got maybe 1.5 hours of gameplay on it so far (ish). It seems really good though. It came recommended to me through a friend at work. He claims it's a top tier Metroidvania so I figured I would give it a shot.
So far so good. It seems like the weapon progression is very fast though? I'm barely into it at all and I already have 4 guns which feels very odd to me to have that many weapon choices this early in the game.
I'd argue that Axiom Verge isn't a Metroidvania, it's just plain Metroid. It hews so close to Metroid that it single handedly balances out all the games in the Metroidvania genre that almost always feel closer to Castlevania.
One thing it does do differently from Metroid though is that your gun is not tied into progression outside the first few that let you shoot switches at odd angles. That's one of the few aspects of it that's closer to Castlevania but since it's a pretty short game like Metroid games are you get those new weapons at a really quick pace.
I played through it myself in the last few months and really enjoyed it outside of a useful minimap and a clunky to use grappling hook.
Blasphemous @BlasphemousGame
"And thus shall your name be erased under the heavens."
Yeees, more Blasphemous would be excellent. Grime was too hard for me, but Blasphemous has just the right amount of teeth-gritting challenge to it.
0
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I'm actually finally playing through Blasphemous. I made it to a boss yesterday who you fight outside the place that opens up after beating the first three bosses, but it's going to take me a bit more practice to beat him.
So far, so good though. I honestly only have the faintest idea of what's going on with the story. I appreciate them using, uh, ornate language for everything, as it contributes to the game's mood.
I'm actually finally playing through Blasphemous. I made it to a boss yesterday who you fight outside the place that opens up after beating the first three bosses, but it's going to take me a bit more practice to beat him.
So far, so good though. I honestly only have the faintest idea of what's going on with the story. I appreciate them using, uh, ornate language for everything, as it contributes to the game's mood.
If it's the one I'm thinking of, he was the toughest fight for me. Had to go against some of my instinctive reactions to succeed.
HiT BiT🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man'sRegistered Userregular
edited August 2021
Trailer of the new free DLC for Blasphemous (December 9th, it will be its last content update). Also, a sequel is confirmed: https://youtu.be/RKg34fPKaQU
Get the Castlevania people on it, they're gonna need work after the next series wraps up.
After the next series they just move on to the next Belmont. Maybe once they run out.
+1
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I beat Blasphemous and, unsurprisingly, got the bad ending. I looked up what you need to do to get the good ending and I doubt I ever would have figured that out on my own.
I enjoyed the game, but not enough to play through it again anytime soon.
I love me some Castlevania, but it's a pretty uneven series at times, so I wish they had a la carte options. I really just want 3, SOTN, Aria, Dawn, and Order on the Switch without a bunch of other stuff I'll likely never replay.
+3
KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
edited September 2021
Ugh pleeeeeeeeeeeease. Let's see an official announcement Capcom. Would love to replay the advanced games.
Well, I'd say the drop rate on souls can get pretty poor at times. But my view on that may be skewed by my actually going for the chaos ring at one point.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
That video was very interesting, thanks for sharing!
My only wish is that they went into some more detail on the Saturn version. Calling it a port seem reductive when it has multiple new areas, characters and boss fights.
Did Rondo of Blood show up on steam or something yet?
EDIT: Nevermind, I read two different posts that made me think the DS games had been rated, but it's the advance ones.
If they're just the same ports that were on the Wii U, no thanks. The GBA Castlevania games were good for their time, but have aged extremely poorly.
There is nothing poor about Aria of Sorrow.
Well, aside from the crackly audio, maybe. But still some decent tunes.
I loved all of the GBA Castlevania games (though maybe CotM not as much), and played the living hell out of them.
Aria has definitely aged the best out of them, but they're all rough on a bigger screen, and HoD and CotM are just a bit janky, particularly relative to modern games in the genre.
My point that I removed from the post because I misunderstood what games had been approved, is that my concern is less with the games being rereleased, but more that if nothing is done to improve them at all, they're unlikely to attract any more attention than the hardcore fans who already like them (and probably already have them on VC or even still the GBA carts), and that they could very well turn off new players or players who just heard about them and check them out.
I dunno, I'm not saying they shouldn't be rereleased or anything, I just am concerned because Konami, specifically, is really bad at all of this these days, and I feel like an underperforming release here will just give them more internal justification to go back to turning Castlevania into a softcore porn pachinko franchise. The GBA and DS games kind of straddled a line of being acceptable (mainly visually) for their time, but unlike the NES/SNES/Genesis era games, there's less of the massive nostalgia factor that make the old graphics still appealing/acceptable; and instead just feel kinda chunky and cramped, particularly the GBA games (though, again Aria has definitely aged the best here, even better than the DS ones arguably). I just doubt Konami would bother doing the work to make them work better on displays that are larger than a couple inches.
EDIT: The Saturn version may have added a bit of stuff, but pretty much every other aspect of it was inferior to the PS1 version. performance problems, stretched visuals, way more loading times, etc. It's a bummer that they've never really added in the areas in that version, or Maria to later releases of SotN, but I think part of that is also IGA apparently didn't approve of it anyway.
I'd definitely get a GBA Castlevania collection but would much rather have a DS collection. Dawn, Portrait and Ecclesia were an excellent trio of releases. The only difficulty is the system they were made for. I imagine they could remove the bottom screen stuff. The map was useful but hardly necessary. The touch screen stuff would have to be changed. I wouldn't mind terribly if they completely took out Dawn's boss sealing mechanic. Did anyone like that shit? I doubt many did. And as I recall, the vampire sisters mode in Portrait needed the touch screen. I could live without that mode, even though it was a fun extra.
The map could be on the map button, like in every other game. Boss sealing could be deleted because it sucked. And the sister mode could be slightly redesigned to be a twin stick shooter instead. It's doable, who knows if there's a will to get it done. If the Advance Collection is a real thing, but flops, it won't be. For the Advance Collection, making it look fine on a big screen (Circle needs WORK) and a music rearrange would make it pretty good honestly. Maybe a re-arrange mode for Circle where it's not so based on stupidly random drops and passwords but achievements completed in the game instead to get the cards and the different play modes.
I saw give us both an Advanced and DS collection! GIVE ME ALL THE 'VANIA!
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
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+9
HiT BiT🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man'sRegistered Userregular
edited September 2021
Strafefox's Splash Wave series are always worth checking.
Here's a previous making of video about Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Bloodlines: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xB1-AKS3S0g
Also, a Castlevania retrospectiva covering different games through 3 videos:
The map could be on the map button, like in every other game. Boss sealing could be deleted because it sucked. And the sister mode could be slightly redesigned to be a twin stick shooter instead. It's doable, who knows if there's a will to get it done. If the Advance Collection is a real thing, but flops, it won't be. For the Advance Collection, making it look fine on a big screen (Circle needs WORK) and a music rearrange would make it pretty good honestly. Maybe a re-arrange mode for Circle where it's not so based on stupidly random drops and passwords but achievements completed in the game instead to get the cards and the different play modes.
They could do what they did with the Megaman ZX games when they were ported to console.
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My point that I removed from the post because I misunderstood what games had been approved, is that my concern is less with the games being rereleased, but more that if nothing is done to improve them at all, they're unlikely to attract any more attention than the hardcore fans who already like them (and probably already have them on VC or even still the GBA carts), and that they could very well turn off new players or players who just heard about them and check them out.
I got introduced to the GBA games well past their prime but admittedly did emulate with a portable system. Then again this collection is surely releasing on Switch and that is probably the main platform for sales, same as all these other retro releases.
CotM and AoS may be low res but still have great pixel art. Just give us some good LCD grid shaders, like Square used for their gameboy releases.
The map could be on the map button, like in every other game. Boss sealing could be deleted because it sucked. And the sister mode could be slightly redesigned to be a twin stick shooter instead. It's doable, who knows if there's a will to get it done. If the Advance Collection is a real thing, but flops, it won't be. For the Advance Collection, making it look fine on a big screen (Circle needs WORK) and a music rearrange would make it pretty good honestly. Maybe a re-arrange mode for Circle where it's not so based on stupidly random drops and passwords but achievements completed in the game instead to get the cards and the different play modes.
They could do what they did with the Megaman ZX games when they were ported to console.
Eh, I'm not a huge fan of that. There's so much wasted space on the right there. I'd rather they just do a corner minimap and full map in the pause menu. I would really love to see them port the DS titles to something though. Kind of miss playing those, especially Ecclesia...
Or hell, just make it a "portable collection" and throw the GBAs on there too. Six games feels like a nice, round number (Plus you have the two Sorrow games together that way )
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My understanding is this is more of a mandate than some curation thing. You must strip out MTX from your game for it to show up on arcade. All your money comes from whatever deal you cut with apple, which may or may not care about engagement numbers depending on the deal. Which is I think a bit part of this coming back, Apple probably offered them a nice lumpsome, and Konami care fuck all if this game fails to catch on any better than the beta did.
It’s a good watch.
Indeed it is. Quick note, though: while it largely focuses on season 1 and 2, it also involves some discussion of some end-of-season-4 stuff. Just in case someone who’s only seen part of the series wants to watch it.
You mean THE flagship game.
Humble tends to run only one of them per month lately.
Listen, Bloodstained is great and all, and worth buying the bundle for, but you're all burying the lede.
@BlasphemousGame
"And thus shall your name be erased under the heavens."
So far so good. It seems like the weapon progression is very fast though? I'm barely into it at all and I already have 4 guns which feels very odd to me to have that many weapon choices this early in the game.
It's both a strength and a weakness of the first Axiom Verge that it has so many guns; it's cool that they exist, but for the most part they have similar damage profiles to one another, you get more damage out of accumulating Power Nodes than you do by getting new weapons, and the basic Axiom Disruptor and Kilver you get in the main sequence are perfectly serviceable for the entire game. Worse, there's something like three or four guns that only become available with the final movement upgrade, at which point you only have maybe one or two major combat challenges you might actually need them for.
I'd argue that Axiom Verge isn't a Metroidvania, it's just plain Metroid. It hews so close to Metroid that it single handedly balances out all the games in the Metroidvania genre that almost always feel closer to Castlevania.
One thing it does do differently from Metroid though is that your gun is not tied into progression outside the first few that let you shoot switches at odd angles. That's one of the few aspects of it that's closer to Castlevania but since it's a pretty short game like Metroid games are you get those new weapons at a really quick pace.
I played through it myself in the last few months and really enjoyed it outside of a useful minimap and a clunky to use grappling hook.
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Yeees, more Blasphemous would be excellent. Grime was too hard for me, but Blasphemous has just the right amount of teeth-gritting challenge to it.
So far, so good though. I honestly only have the faintest idea of what's going on with the story. I appreciate them using, uh, ornate language for everything, as it contributes to the game's mood.
If it's the one I'm thinking of, he was the toughest fight for me. Had to go against some of my instinctive reactions to succeed.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I'm intrigued!
Very much looking forwards to this. Blasphemous is an excellent game with a wonderful dark setting.
Get the Castlevania people on it, they're gonna need work after the next series wraps up.
After the next series they just move on to the next Belmont. Maybe once they run out.
I enjoyed the game, but not enough to play through it again anytime soon.
https://www.gematsu.com/2021/09/castlevania-advance-collection-rated-for-ps4-xbox-one-switch-and-pc-in-taiwan
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Edit - Konami.
If they're just the same ports that were on the Wii U, no thanks. The GBA Castlevania games were good for their time, but have aged extremely poorly.
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There is nothing poor about Aria of Sorrow.
Well, aside from the crackly audio, maybe. But still some decent tunes.
At this point we don't know what actual games would be included. I'm hoping it's more than just the Advance games.
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Hell, expand that into Castlevania 99, if you want to chase that particular unicorn.
My only wish is that they went into some more detail on the Saturn version. Calling it a port seem reductive when it has multiple new areas, characters and boss fights.
Did Rondo of Blood show up on steam or something yet?
I loved all of the GBA Castlevania games (though maybe CotM not as much), and played the living hell out of them.
Aria has definitely aged the best out of them, but they're all rough on a bigger screen, and HoD and CotM are just a bit janky, particularly relative to modern games in the genre.
My point that I removed from the post because I misunderstood what games had been approved, is that my concern is less with the games being rereleased, but more that if nothing is done to improve them at all, they're unlikely to attract any more attention than the hardcore fans who already like them (and probably already have them on VC or even still the GBA carts), and that they could very well turn off new players or players who just heard about them and check them out.
I dunno, I'm not saying they shouldn't be rereleased or anything, I just am concerned because Konami, specifically, is really bad at all of this these days, and I feel like an underperforming release here will just give them more internal justification to go back to turning Castlevania into a softcore porn pachinko franchise. The GBA and DS games kind of straddled a line of being acceptable (mainly visually) for their time, but unlike the NES/SNES/Genesis era games, there's less of the massive nostalgia factor that make the old graphics still appealing/acceptable; and instead just feel kinda chunky and cramped, particularly the GBA games (though, again Aria has definitely aged the best here, even better than the DS ones arguably). I just doubt Konami would bother doing the work to make them work better on displays that are larger than a couple inches.
EDIT: The Saturn version may have added a bit of stuff, but pretty much every other aspect of it was inferior to the PS1 version. performance problems, stretched visuals, way more loading times, etc. It's a bummer that they've never really added in the areas in that version, or Maria to later releases of SotN, but I think part of that is also IGA apparently didn't approve of it anyway.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
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Here's a previous making of video about Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Bloodlines:
Also, a Castlevania retrospectiva covering different games through 3 videos:
They could do what they did with the Megaman ZX games when they were ported to console.
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I got introduced to the GBA games well past their prime but admittedly did emulate with a portable system. Then again this collection is surely releasing on Switch and that is probably the main platform for sales, same as all these other retro releases.
CotM and AoS may be low res but still have great pixel art. Just give us some good LCD grid shaders, like Square used for their gameboy releases.
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Eh, I'm not a huge fan of that. There's so much wasted space on the right there. I'd rather they just do a corner minimap and full map in the pause menu. I would really love to see them port the DS titles to something though. Kind of miss playing those, especially Ecclesia...
Or hell, just make it a "portable collection" and throw the GBAs on there too. Six games feels like a nice, round number