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Post by GamerL on Jun 16, 2016 18:25:25 GMT -5
The setting is super cool, being the first SMT game centered around a school.
Also the title references the Malcolm McDowell movie If....
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Post by Exhuminator on Jun 17, 2016 7:47:49 GMT -5
My favorite "deep cut" from one of my all time favorite franchises was this: www.romhacking.net/translations/1994/Even as a free self contained little adventure, it provided a better experience than many retail games on its same platform.
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Post by windfisch on Jun 17, 2016 8:18:17 GMT -5
Castlevania: The Adventure is only redeemed by its awesome soundtrack. The game is garbage, aside from that. Thankfully, Belmont's Revenge fixes pretty much every issue that Adventure had, and has a pretty damn good soundtrack of its own, too. Of course, most of Adventure's failings can be chalked up to the fact that it was a Game Boy game from 1989. Most franchises stumbled at the beginning on that platform, but recovered with their next iteration. What do you feel Belmont's Revenge "fixed"? Because, fundamentally, they're extremely similar games. Basically, Belmont's Revenge moves faster, is easier, adds subweapons, and gives the player some freedom in level order. Beyond that, it's essentially more of the same. The speed boost was nice, but I didn't really have a problem with the methodical pace of Adventure. It's debatable whether being easier is an improvement or not. The subweapons are nice in terms making the game more similar to the rest of the series, but I don't think their absence made Adventure any worse off (and Belmont's Revenge retained other elements that made the GB Castlevanias different from their console counterparts, like the rope climbing as opposed walking up and down stairs). The stage selection made no difference to me either way. I do agree that Belmont's Revenge is the better game, but everything about Adventure is solid. I really don't get how people can like Belmont's Revenge but hate Adventure without it boiling down to the common complaints of "it's too slow/hard". Basically, I agree a 100% with eveything you've posted in this thread about Castlevania: The Adventure! It's nice to know that I'm not alone The one general criticism I agree with is the slow pace and the even then unstable framerate. But with a little patience you can get used to it. The difficulty is challenging, but rarely unfair - only the last stage has a few moments (the stage one boss-clones) that can be quite tricky without having the chain whip. Some orthodox fans even regard The Adventure as too un- Castlevania like, for not having subweapons and relying on ropes instead of stairs...*sigh* (Of course the game is designed around the fire whip upgrade system and ropes make a lot more sense on the smaller GB screen). I find it interesting, that stage 3 seems to be especially divisive: Personally I think it is brilliant! And CV:TA is full of cool design ideas, many of which were quite original (or at least not that common) at the time of the game's release: Stage 2, has the destructable bridge and a small non-linear section right after that, level three has the big destructable "screws" that lift up the floor towards the deadly ceiling and stage four has the background knight-armours that suddenly come to life (and so on). One of the coolest things this game did first, is that it references the invisible stairs glitch of the first NES Castlevania. And it does so in EVERY stage (always leading to a bonus room), and each time it is done a little differently. Games like Axiom Verge are applauded for their glitch gimmicks nowadays, so it's nice bonus fact that this game basically used a similar concept decades earlier. Belmont' Revenge is great and compared to The Adventure it is the more polished game: it runs more smoothly, the ability to slide down ropes is both useful and fun, it has more stages (and a password system) and prettier graphics. However I still prefer The Adventure: it has more original ideas, the level design is more daring, I like its soundtrack even more and it offers a decent challenge, which Belmont's Revenge sadly lacks for the most part. I actually wish BR would not feature subweapons, (since they make the character completely overpowered) and that the whip downgrade would work like in the first game. My advice to any old-school Castlevania fan: give it a try - and give it a little time. (Actually I recommend giving all three Gameboy titles a try, even the somewhat weaker Legends has some redeeming qualities).
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Post by windfisch on Jun 17, 2016 8:37:36 GMT -5
Quote: "And probably my "favorite" example is near beginning of the game, where you have a room with a rope and some rolling eyeballs that can barely be avoided. What developers did is that they placed invincibility power up in the middle of the room, so you can simply run past all these eyeballs, since the section is unfair anyway. And then this exact setpiece repeats after a couple of minutes, only now it's mirrored. So yeah, of course there are games with some debatable design, but in this one it's objectively bad, I seriously can't close my eyes on stuff like this even if I wanted to." Like Scylla said: the first stage obviously exists to teach you the game's basics. Many people seem to completely overlook this, even renowned critics: In a review (http://www.gameboyworld.com/1989/10/27/castlevania-the-adventure/) Jeremy Parish, whose "Anatomy" series usually very sharply identify the purpose of design choices like this, simply wrote the aforementionend section off as bad level design. However: a) It is a very brief portion of the stage, which merely exists to make you familiar with both the eyeball-enemies and the invinciblity item. b) It is in fact not unfair: the frequency of the eyeballs dropping down follows a certain pattern – in between there is always a slightly longer pause, during which the player can climb up the rope unharmed (even without using the invincibility cross). I believe it is completely fine not to like the game, but it I think it can be helpful to think about what the designers were trying to accomplish.
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Post by The Great Klaid on Jun 17, 2016 14:38:00 GMT -5
Castlevania: The Adventure is only redeemed by its awesome soundtrack. The game is garbage, aside from that. Thankfully, Belmont's Revenge fixes pretty much every issue that Adventure had, and has a pretty damn good soundtrack of its own, too. Of course, most of Adventure's failings can be chalked up to the fact that it was a Game Boy game from 1989. Most franchises stumbled at the beginning on that platform, but recovered with their next iteration. As for the topic at hand, I've always wanted to play Shin Megami Tensei...if, but it's one of the last major SMT games to not have an English translation. Supposedly it was pretty close to being finished last year, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while now. moran and X-pert74 - Portable Ops was okay for its time, since it had a lot of voice acting in a handheld Metal Gear game in 2006. Unfortunately, it was an absolute pain to play through without a second analog stick. You also had to recruit people for your personal army, much like Peace Walker and MGSV, only instead of using the Fulton system, you had to manually drag them all the way back to a truck located within your current level. Extremely annoying. The story also didn't make a lick of sense, but that's kind of par for the course by this point. I really want to play SMT: ...if someday. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to anyone. I own a CIB copy of it. And Last Bible III. And Tales of Phantasia. Well the last one is my favorite game. So that's why.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2016 15:50:48 GMT -5
For reasons that aren't entirely clear to anyone. I own a CIB copy of it. And Last Bible III. And Tales of Phantasia. Well the last one is my favorite game. So that's why. Nice! I always wanted to have a "complete" SMT collection, so that's pretty cool.
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Post by Resident Tsundere on Jun 18, 2016 2:17:16 GMT -5
I really want to play SMT: ...if someday. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to anyone. I own a CIB copy of it. And Last Bible III. And Tales of Phantasia. Well the last one is my favorite game. So that's why. Sweet!
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Post by Échalote on Jun 18, 2016 2:25:54 GMT -5
Supposedly it's a huge pain in the ass to actually play. Even more archaic and rigid than Persona 1. Even so...It tasks me. It tasks me, and I shall have it! It's based on SMTII's engine so I don't really see how it could be more clunky than P1.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2016 2:35:30 GMT -5
It's been a while since I read about it, but I think it was something to do with your helper spirit. They were sort of like proto-Personas, but their functionality wasn't nearly as straightforward or something.
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Post by akumajobelmont on Jun 21, 2016 21:00:11 GMT -5
Mine would be WipEout HD Fury and 2048.
I've played every single WipEout game bar the very last two - mainly because I never had a PS3/Vita. If I had both of them, I'd definitely give them a crack.
When it comes to CastleVania, then for me, it's only really Lords of Shadow 2. And I'm not beating myself up over that one. Lords of Shadow was ok, but way over-long, and the music just wasn't CastleVania, so I had no motivation to see it through to the end. LoS2 looks like the first, but worse, so I don't think I'll ever, ever play it.
The only Sega Rally game I've not played is 2006 (and the N-Gage/Mobile versions, if they count). I've been meaning to give it a go via emulation for a while, but it doesn't seem to carry the Sega Rally vibe, so I've been in no great hurry to try it out. I'd much prefer to play it on real hardware, but since I've only got a PAL PS2, it's off the cards for now.
Also, Grandia III. I adore the first two, but I don't think I've played the third for more than 2 seconds when trying it out on PCSX2.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2016 21:01:43 GMT -5
Aren't the later Grandia games supposed to be pretty awful?
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Post by akumajobelmont on Jun 21, 2016 21:29:55 GMT -5
Aren't the later Grandia games supposed to be pretty awful? Not awful, but from what I've heard, Grandia III isn't on the same level as the first 2. I'm eager to find out though
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Post by GamerL on Jun 21, 2016 21:40:05 GMT -5
When it comes to CastleVania, then for me, it's only really Lords of Shadow 2. And I'm not beating myself up over that one. Lords of Shadow was ok, but way over-long, and the music just wasn't CastleVania, so I had no motivation to see it through to the end. LoS2 looks like the first, but worse, so I don't think I'll ever, ever play it. I'm curious about Lords of Shadow 2 because while I didn't like Lords of Shadow 1, LoS 2 is in all likelihood going to be the very last game released with "Castlevania" in the title so part of me can't help but want to see how the series ends even if it sucks. I'm also curious about Castlevania: Judgement because I've noticed it's pretty cheap on Amazon and might be good for a laugh.
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Post by akumajobelmont on Jun 21, 2016 22:28:55 GMT -5
When it comes to CastleVania, then for me, it's only really Lords of Shadow 2. And I'm not beating myself up over that one. Lords of Shadow was ok, but way over-long, and the music just wasn't CastleVania, so I had no motivation to see it through to the end. LoS2 looks like the first, but worse, so I don't think I'll ever, ever play it. I'm curious about Lords of Shadow 2 because while I didn't like Lords of Shadow 1, LoS 2 is in all likelihood going to be the very last game released with "Castlevania" in the title so part of me can't help but want to see how the series ends even if it sucks. I'm also curious about Castlevania: Judgement because I've noticed it's pretty cheap on Amazon and might be good for a laugh. I own CastleVania Judgment - it's decent. If you're fanatical about the lore, then you'll find it blasphemy, but as something to play for an hour or two, it's ok enough. It's definitely more along the likes of Powerstone than a traditional fighter, though. Great arrangements of the music though EDIT: It goes without saying that you'll be best off with a classic controller though - the standard controls are horrendous...
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Post by GamerL on Jun 21, 2016 23:06:35 GMT -5
I'm curious about Lords of Shadow 2 because while I didn't like Lords of Shadow 1, LoS 2 is in all likelihood going to be the very last game released with "Castlevania" in the title so part of me can't help but want to see how the series ends even if it sucks. I'm also curious about Castlevania: Judgement because I've noticed it's pretty cheap on Amazon and might be good for a laugh. I own CastleVania Judgment - it's decent. If you're fanatical about the lore, then you'll find it blasphemy, but as something to play for an hour or two, it's ok enough. It's definitely more along the likes of Powerstone than a traditional fighter, though. Great arrangements of the music though EDIT: It goes without saying that you'll be best off with a classic controller though - the standard controls are horrendous... Can you use a Gamecube controller?
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