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It's October, so let's whip Dracula! CASTLEWEEN 2020
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I finished both storylines in Dawn of Sorrow. So that's a Draculae, and at least a bonus Draculae. I also just played through Dragon's Curse last month, so I'm counting that Vampire Dragon as a bonus Draculae. So I have 2 Draculas to add to the pile. Probably all I'll get to contribute this year.
I completed Castlevania 2 and 3, that's three draculas! (two draculas and one alucard)
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
Nice episode, @ShakeWell! Always enjoy hearing about what is either my favorite or second favorite game of all time. 
1 Dracula in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. A little bit of outside support goes a long way towards a smoother experience. This one goes on my list of NES games to replay. Imagine the games which we might have had in a world where we'd had sensible discourse around titles like this instead of inane toxic gamer-rage ...
1 Dracula in Castlevania III. I'll try the Japanese version next time because people are not exaggerating the brutality of the Western version. This version is draining to play at my current level; I'm reconciled to using save states as I learn NES games but that does not mean I want to need them this badly. Some of the changes are outright cruel.
1 Dracula in Bloodlines with Eric, easy mode. Enjoyed this one a lot and will be replaying to improve my skill. The Mega Drive was my first console so it's interesting to see (and hear) this series through the lens of that hardware.
1 Dracula in Bloodlines with Chunkster McSteroids, easy mode. I spent the entire run unable to get over how ugly this guy's sprite is.
Draculas which do not count: 19 Kid Draculas died as I played through Kid Dracula. It's cute but I don't see myself playing again. Many of the levels are too simple to engage my imagination.
Not sure I'll have time to score any more kills; it's been a busy week. We'll see.
1 Dracula in Castlevania III. I'll try the Japanese version next time because people are not exaggerating the brutality of the Western version. This version is draining to play at my current level; I'm reconciled to using save states as I learn NES games but that does not mean I want to need them this badly. Some of the changes are outright cruel.
1 Dracula in Bloodlines with Eric, easy mode. Enjoyed this one a lot and will be replaying to improve my skill. The Mega Drive was my first console so it's interesting to see (and hear) this series through the lens of that hardware.
1 Dracula in Bloodlines with Chunkster McSteroids, easy mode. I spent the entire run unable to get over how ugly this guy's sprite is.
Draculas which do not count: 19 Kid Draculas died as I played through Kid Dracula. It's cute but I don't see myself playing again. Many of the levels are too simple to engage my imagination.
Not sure I'll have time to score any more kills; it's been a busy week. We'll see.
1 Dracula in Castlevania: The Adventure. I originally was going to play IV but read that this game was really short. My overall opinion on this game was that it was really odd. At first, I legitimately thought it was one of the worst video games that I have ever played. But once I got used to the idea of it being more of a game about navigating through puzzle rooms than traditional Castlevania (and the atrocious walk speed), I started to enjoy it a lot more. I'm also pretty sure that this is unplayable without save states. One of the spike rooms in the third stage legitimately felt like it took 20 minutes to pull off successfully with savestate abusing.
Definitely the weakest title in the series, but there's a bunch of pretty cool ideas here. Tried out the sequel for a stage and it seems like it pretty much solves most of my issues with the original, the stages seem way too long in that game though, and the bosses seem way tougher.
Definitely the weakest title in the series, but there's a bunch of pretty cool ideas here. Tried out the sequel for a stage and it seems like it pretty much solves most of my issues with the original, the stages seem way too long in that game though, and the bosses seem way tougher.
I decided to finish this run, so tack on one Dracula who lost the ability to love, and one bonus Dracula who does a fantastic Crocomire impersonation.
Killed what might be a bonus Dracula today: Vlad the Impaler in Nethack. The entire fight is contained in these two screenshots, though, so I'll understand if you don't want to award even the half-point for him.
Oh yeah, this counts as a full point. A Vlad is a Dracula.
With only a few hours left in the final day of October, we have reached a total of 60 Dracula Points!
I commend your efforts to stop me. I can feel the power seeping from my cursed veins, and soon I shall crumble to powerless dust. But I feel that the evil which lies within the hearts of man will one day raise me from my slumber to terrorize mankind again.
Fortunately even in powerless slumber I can still use the Internet, so when the day breaks (or thereabouts), I shall calculate who vanquished the most Draculae, and who is worthy of being called Belmont.
Sixty Draculas is outright impressive: a mighty staking by any measure. A number that even a dry dusty mummy couldn't sneeze at.
But I thought Dracula lowering the target to 50 was a pretty lame stunt. And as we all know, the only solution to a lame stunt is an even lamer stunt! So I threw Sotton onto my PSX Classic, got myself a couple bottles of Sam's Octoberfest, and played through Final Stage: Bloodlines fifty-five times. That's 55 more Draculas for the coffin, Drac.
Some thoughts on the fight:
Thanks, wiki! Alex (age 10) was half-watching as I popped the fight and eventually he asked "why does he throw his glass?" I laughed, realizing this was his exposure to a wider world than he had known, "If you were watching you'd know why." "I am watching! He says 'what is a man!'" That's when I proclaimed him a Real Gamer. They grow up so fast.
But enough talk, Happy Castleween! Now begins the long wait until we can punch Dr Wily in his dumb gob.
But I thought Dracula lowering the target to 50 was a pretty lame stunt. And as we all know, the only solution to a lame stunt is an even lamer stunt! So I threw Sotton onto my PSX Classic, got myself a couple bottles of Sam's Octoberfest, and played through Final Stage: Bloodlines fifty-five times. That's 55 more Draculas for the coffin, Drac.
Some thoughts on the fight:
- The dialog isn't skippable but why would anyone ever want to? Richter and Dracula's exchange is the Hamlet Soliloquy of Gaming. Let's see what the wiki has to say about this important piece of history!
Thanks, wiki! Alex (age 10) was half-watching as I popped the fight and eventually he asked "why does he throw his glass?" I laughed, realizing this was his exposure to a wider world than he had known, "If you were watching you'd know why." "I am watching! He says 'what is a man!'" That's when I proclaimed him a Real Gamer. They grow up so fast.
- The most efficient way I found to tackle the fight was to forego any cross shenanigans and beeline for the holy water. A well timed holy water crash can defeat Drac's first form in one cycle; then a second holy water crash and some furious whipping on Demon Drac made for a pretty quick churn. Demon Drac loves to spam those fireballs and its real easy for him to nail you out of the blue. In the end I only nabbed 12 damageless kills. I figure that nets me the rank of Vampire Hunter Baby. I'm happy with it.
- Once I item crashed accidently before picking up the holy water and Richter lit his whip on fire. I had forgotten this is part of his arsenal. Maybe it's viable technique in the castle, but it barely does more damage against Dracula here than the regular whip and is nothing more than a good waste of hearts.
- Another technique in Richter's quiver is a backflip out of a jump like his move in Rondo. This one seems pretty viable as you can whip while moving away from the enemy, but for the life of my I could not figure it out. Despite noodling with it through the duration of these fights I was only able to trigger it four or five times. Maybe there's a consistent input to it, but I couldn't figure it out. If any of you true Vaniaheads know the secret I'd love to hear what it is.
- Another thing I'm not sure about, but on the fights where I was humiliated with the Maria Prayer of shame, it seemed like Dracula took way more damage. Does she power you up as well as reviving? I couldn't find any collaborating information on the wiki, so it might just have been in my mind. If so though, I wonder if it would be faster to purposefully trigger her, though it does take a bit of time for her to bequeath you animals.
But enough talk, Happy Castleween! Now begins the long wait until we can punch Dr Wily in his dumb gob.
You can skip all the dialogue in SotN if you have a Clear file on your memory card.
Oddly, the flame whip does nothing at all. It's just a visual effect.
Press Jump in midair before Richter reaches the apex of his jump for the backflip. Richter can also run (double-tap Forward) and has a slide (Down+Jump), a slide kick (press Jump again while sliding), a flying uppercut (Down, Up+Jump), the whip dangle from SCVIV (hold Attack and use the D-Pad), and a damaging dash forward (Up, Down, Forward+Attack). You can use the dash in midair, and there's even a small window where you can jump out of the end of it, backflip, chain another dash, and repeat.
I don't know if Maria increases your power in addition to making you invincible, but the fastest way to pile damage on Dracula is to use the holy water Item Crash and then immediately throw a normal holy water with a certain timing that causes the Item Crash to freak out and deal damage every other frame. It's possible to take him out with one crash per form (plus a few additional hits) this way.
Personally, I like to bonk into Dracula on purpose and get Maria to join the fight for lore purposes. (This also causes you to start with a Potion in Alucard's inventory, in one of the many ways the prologue battle influences his initial state.)
Oddly, the flame whip does nothing at all. It's just a visual effect.
Press Jump in midair before Richter reaches the apex of his jump for the backflip. Richter can also run (double-tap Forward) and has a slide (Down+Jump), a slide kick (press Jump again while sliding), a flying uppercut (Down, Up+Jump), the whip dangle from SCVIV (hold Attack and use the D-Pad), and a damaging dash forward (Up, Down, Forward+Attack). You can use the dash in midair, and there's even a small window where you can jump out of the end of it, backflip, chain another dash, and repeat.
I don't know if Maria increases your power in addition to making you invincible, but the fastest way to pile damage on Dracula is to use the holy water Item Crash and then immediately throw a normal holy water with a certain timing that causes the Item Crash to freak out and deal damage every other frame. It's possible to take him out with one crash per form (plus a few additional hits) this way.
Personally, I like to bonk into Dracula on purpose and get Maria to join the fight for lore purposes. (This also causes you to start with a Potion in Alucard's inventory, in one of the many ways the prologue battle influences his initial state.)
Holy shit. I spent over two full decades thinking A) it was a 3/4-circle motion (up-to-back-to-down-to-front + Attack) and B) I was really bad at doing it consistently. This changes everything!
I actually just beat Bloodlines again, so take that.
This is... usually true. But in the later revisions of the Japanese release (and the subsequent ones, including PSP/PS4), it actually has the properties of doing Holy damage, so it will buff any attacks to enemies weak to that.