Whipping A Dead Mr. Hed: The Castlevania Thread Of Sacred Remains

[Tato]

I spend 99% of my time in the CotM fight jumping to the top of the screen and just spamming Dracula with DSS spells. I may see him for like 5 seconds tops. It's a lame battle.

The Dracula X SNES battle is one of the worst final bosses I've ever experienced, so in a way it's a perfect cherry on top of a bad game.

 

[Octopus Prime]

CorM Dracula has one of my favorite Drac designs in the series

 

[Sarge]

I'm a weirdo that actually liked Dracula X, so there's that. The last boss fight isn't ideal, but I've generally figured out how to handle that fight by now, even if it gets dicey in the second phase. The first is super easy to clear if you're just patient - there's one pillar where he almost never materializes, and you can pop him with an axe. Also, if it looks like you're going to get hit, duck! You won't go flying back.

Now, one major gripe I have about the game is that your invincibility window is tiny. It's very easy to get trapped on an enemy or pinballed and just watch your health melt away. Not even sure how that gets greenlit.

Basically, I don't think it's as good as Rondo (a game I think is a bit overrated but still great), but I do find it more enjoyable than the X68000 version.

The CotM fight is pretty tough, but yeah, all the pointers here are solid. But you do have to just accept that sometimes you're not going to get a shot at damage if you're running with just a whip, which does make it a slog. Some card combos make it super easy, assuming you got lucky and found some good ones.

 

[MetManMas]

Basically, I don't think it's as good as Rondo (a game I think is a bit overrated but still great), but I do find it more enjoyable than the X68000 version.

IMO X68000's got better art direction and music than Dracula X so I know which game I'd rather bash my head against.

But honestly though I'm just not a huge fan of the Rondo look? I mean, the sprites and occasional li'l details are good, but something just feels off about the background art, like a lot of it just feels more tile-y than the other 16-bit games.

I dunno, maybe it's just 'cuz I had more experience with many of those sprites in SotN, which had the visual prowess and disc space for fancier set pieces.

 

[Kazin]

Just beat Circle again, and Dracula wasn't so difficult this time - I rewound a little bit just for convenience's sake, but I still hate that fight. It goes on far too long.

I want to go through the Arena in Circle, I've never done it before. I feel like I'm going to have to do a TON of grinding to survive it, though, much less grind out potions and whatnot, ugh. Maybe Magician mode eventually.

 

[Sarge]

IMO X68000's got better art direction and music than Dracula X so I know which game I'd rather bash my head against.

But honestly though I'm just not a huge fan of the Rondo look? I mean, the sprites and occasional li'l details are good, but something just feels off about the background art, like a lot of it just feels more tile-y than the other 16-bit games.

I dunno, maybe it's just 'cuz I had more experience with many of those sprites in SotN, which had the visual prowess and disc space for fancier set pieces.

Yeah, I can see that if Rondo isn't your jam. I like the way it looks a lot, and I actually like how the X68000 one looks, too, but I found myself incredibly frustrated at spots in that one, too, so I guess it's all personal preference. Basically, if it ain't Simon's Quest or Super Castlevania IV, you're gonna be in for tough times regardless. (Well, and Rondo with Maria, haha.)

So, just out of curiosity because I've lost all perspective on the series, which do y'all think is the hardest? I have to think both Dracula X and Chronicles in non-arrange mode are way up there, as is Castlevania III. Any other ones that are harder that I'm forgetting?

 

[Lokii]

Haunted Castle is the easy answer, right? Not taking things like balance or fair design into account it seems like a top contender.

 

[Ludendorkk]

When I played an actual Haunted Castle machine I couldn't even get past the second skeleton

 

[Kazin]

I want to go through the Arena in Circle, I've never done it before. I feel like I'm going to have to do a TON of grinding to survive it, though, much less grind out potions and whatnot, ugh. Maybe Magician mode eventually.

I beat the Arena last night for the first time in my life! It's actually not too bad if you also grind out the stupid Dark Armor (which has a very low drop rate from a single enemy in a secret room that only appears after you kill Death) and having some potions and heart up items handy. I didn't even need too many health bonuses, and I only used rewind to get the DSS card drops near the end (because I'm not doing the Arena multiple times just to get the dumb cards). I actually had fun with it, to be honest, once I got the stupid Dark Armor which was a huge pain!

I've never played Haunted Castle because I heard how bad it was, so for me the hardest Castlevania has been the X68000 one, even though I quite like it (but have never beaten it).

 

[Peklo]

Haunted Castle is brutal for newcomers but ultimately it's a pure memorizer where learning it once will not lead you astray on any subsequent run because its behaviour is so consistently immutable and setpiece-driven. The baseline in the series tends to incorporate reactive play rather than only pattern.

Ecclesia's hard mode level 1 or Curse of Darkness's @CRAZY mode are probably the peak as far as just the numbers game bearing down on you, but for standard runs... Vampire Killer is pretty tough, because the progression is obscure, the hitboxes not all that great, and it has a tendency to just wear one down while searching for an exit from a stage, resources dwindling. Dracula's Curse is difficult because the routes are generally long and overshoot the stage concepts in many places with attrition to the game's overall detriment, and it's about as merciless as the slugfest style of boss design gets in the series. Akdra X68K is demanding in its precision, but it's still one of the only ones that allows the use of a health-restoring sub-weapon at will in the laurel which can carry one far if you luck into it. The dark horse in all of this is probably The Adventure ReBirth, because as a game conjured up by the turbonerds at M2, it's got that for-super-players-only spirit with some absolutely devious stages, enemies and bosses and a single loop length that's one of if not the longest in the series, and it rarely lets up for the duration. It's also one of the least played out of all of them, so player familiarity with its nuances typically isn't that high.

 

[YangusKhan]

Haunted Castle does the thing where the Japanese and NA versions have different difficulties. The harder one is a bunch of bullshit where a single bat hurts for like 4 bars of health or something ridiculous. The easier one is fairly comparable to JP Castlevania.

 

[Sarge]

I completely forget about Haunted Castle. It's like I've blocked it from my memory, haha. Good call on ReBirth - I remember the Drac fight being pretty dang nuts, and the rest of the game wasn't exactly easy, either.

 

[Kazin]

I really enjoyed ReBirth, and I really wish it'd get rereleased - I need to figure out how install it somewhere I can play it again (or, I guess, hook up my old Wii, but ehhhhhhhhhhhh)

 

[Regulus]

I loved ReBirth when I played it. Great level design and bosses, and I love classic Konami style FM OST... and some of the left field music choices. Riddle makes a surprisingly good final boss them, and repurposing the high score table music from Haunted Castle was great.

My only complaint is they let Manabu Namiki do FM arrangements of Battle of the Holy and Lost Painting and then only put them on the OST release. It's madness that a retelling of The Adventure is missing Battle of the Holy in particular.

 

[balder the brave]

I never actually played the game, but I love the Castlevania Rebirth soundtrack. One of my go-to OSTs.

 

[Sarge]

I really enjoyed ReBirth, and I really wish it'd get rereleased - I need to figure out how install it somewhere I can play it again (or, I guess, hook up my old Wii, but ehhhhhhhhhhhh)

That's what the Steam Deck is for! I should toss it on there for sure.

 

[Kazin]

That's what the Steam Deck is for! I should toss it on there for sure.

I guess I'll learn how to install WADs or whatever they're called on Deck, ugh...

 

[Kazin]

I know it's the easiest game in a series known for fair but punishable difficulty, but I just beat Super Castlevania IV again and had an absolute blast doing it. I wish we'd get a follow up of sorts with controls like IV has - I love being able to whip in all those directions, and you could still make a difficult game with those mechanics even though Konami really didn't with IV.

The music is superb, even if it's mostly subdued compared to many other games in the series. I love me some SNES music.

 

[Voncaster]

So, just out of curiosity because I've lost all perspective on the series, which do y'all think is the hardest? I have to think both Dracula X and Chronicles in non-arrange mode are way up there, as is Castlevania III. Any other ones that are harder that I'm forgetting?

For me Rondo of Blood playing as Richter is way up there in difficulty. I have never beaten the game as Richter.

The gameboy ones are absurdly difficult as well.

I have beaten Castlevania III*, Dracula X* and Chronicles (1st and 2nd quest).

In Chronicles I got lucky and got the healing herb item. Without it I don't know that I could have beaten the Werewolf on the 2nd quest.

*I had used save states to beat the indicated titles.

***
Castlevania IV is amazing; Its probably the Castlevania I've completed the most.

Also how awesome is it when Simon's Theme plays in the second part of the battle with Dracula?

 

[Beta Metroid]

For me Rondo of Blood playing as Richter is way up there in difficulty. I have never beaten the game as Richter.

The gameboy ones are absurdly difficult as well.

I have beaten Castlevania III*, Dracula X* and Chronicles (1st and 2nd quest).

In Chronicles I got lucky and got the healing herb item. Without it I don't know that I could have beaten the Werewolf on the 2nd quest.

*I had used save states to beat the indicated titles.

***
Castlevania IV is amazing; Its probably the Castlevania I've completed the most.

Also how awesome is it when Simon's Theme plays in the second part of the battle with Dracula?

It's the most awesome!

As for me, III may be up there, but the Famicom version is nowhere near the most difficult 'Vanias of the series. I haven't played Haunted Castle. The X68000 version of Chronicles is probably the game that's given me the most fits.

 

[Kazin]

I just beat Castlevania 1 instead of working, which is a sign of how good the game is (also a sign of how lazy I am lol).

I'm going to do it, everyone. I'm going to finally play through Castlevania II this weekend. I will be using a guide because I don't particularly like the game when I've played it in the past. Talk me down from that ledge if you must, but I'm just going to breeze through it I think.

 

[Sarge]

Of the 16-bit entries, I think Super Castlevania IV is my favorite. I still think the original NES game may be my absolute favorite of the classic entries, though. It's just so tightly designed, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

If you play through Simon's Quest, I'd highly recommend using bisqwit's retranslation. It fixes some of the egregious errors in the US release and just generally improves the experience.

Castlevania II English Re-translation (+Map)

This is an English re-Translation of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. In addition to translating

www.romhacking.net

 

[Kazin]

Despite having all these games on emulation, I'm playing them in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, so no mods or retranslations for me haha. Plus I kind of want to experience the game in its original form, even if I'm following a FAQ, just to see what it's like, II especially.

 

[Sarge]

There's only really one or two spots that I think are egregious in the US release, but most people probably used word of mouth or Nintendo Power, anyway. And no shame picking up Castlevania Anniversary, because I did too, despite owning most of those games legit.

 

[Kazin]

You know, I had a pretty decent time playing through Simon's Quest with a guide. Not having to puzzle out which villagers are liars and where to go (and *especially* what to do - having certain items equipped to make a platform appear or a tornado to take you to the next screen are just nonsense). It's surprisingly easy - the main enemies that gave me trouble were not bosses (of which there's surprisingly few) but those damn little slimes that basically act like fleamen and hop around and are hard to hit.

I do not understand how the leveling system works.

Anyway, no regrets for me using a guide, the puzzles in that game are the type I don't find compelling and I would not have taken the time to figure them all out on my own, even as a kid. Still, not as bad as I thought originally once you know what to do.

Now for Castlevania III... which I remember being pretty difficult!

 

[Kazin]

Basically played classic Castlevania all day today and had a really good time getting all the achievements in the Anniversary Collection. I played through Dracula's Curse four times because you have to to get the achievement, but mostly because I was enjoying myself so much. Alucard isn't very useful, is he? Maybe I just didn't find an upgrade subweapon for him or something, but he seemed pretty weak and has a bigger hitbox than Trevor. Also his route was the most annoying to actually play through. All those falling block levels! Creative for a Castlevania game, but it felt pretty tedious pretty quickly. Meanwhile Grant and Sypha are both super useful and were fun to play - Sypha is just powerful and can attack from quite a range, and Grant can just skip huge chunks of level by climbing on walls. I think III is my favorite NES Castlevania... and it might be the best one on this collection, as much as I love IV.

I don't have much to say about Castlevania: The Adventure. It's as bad as you've hard. Cheap, slow, the music isn't even all that good.

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, though, is a MASSIVE improvement over it's predecessor - it runs much smoother, has fantastic music, has subweapons ffs, and the levels aren't cheap nonsense. The Dracula fight is a bit ridiculous, though, if I'm honest. Still, really good game.

I think Castlevania: Bloodlines might be the best looking Sega Genesis game, and that includes latter day stuff like Pier Solar that packs all kinds of new tech in the cart. It's not even just the fun technical stuff Konami did (though that stuff is pretty impressive) - the art is just very well done. The enemies all look better than anything in IV or Dracula X (SNES), and everything runs absolutely smoothly, which isn't the case on the SNES games. It also has kickass music. Really fun to play, too, though the final boss gauntlet drags far too long (though that, too, is packed with pretty neat effects). Great game.

Kid Dracula surprised me - I'd heard it was good, but it does all kinds of weird, cool stuff. It has an ability, for example, that lets you turn your personal gravity upside down for a few seconds, and barely makes you use it - plenty of games are based around that gimmick alone haha. It's a charming little game, and I'm really glad they put it on the collection as I'm not sure I'd ever get around to playing it.

Right. Time to play Rondo of Blood again, since I'm somehow still in the mood for Castlevania. I wish it'd have been on the Anniversary Collection, dangit.

 

[Voncaster]

Good call on ReBirth - I remember the Drac fight being pretty dang nuts, and the rest of the game wasn't exactly easy, either.

ReBirth is great.

ReBirth Dracula fight strategy:

The thing I love about ReBirth Dracula is that the go to sub weapons, holy water and cross, are not optimal. I used the axe and its arc hits both his left and right eyes on Dracula's final form. The axe is very effective. Its nice for the axe to get its time in the spotlight.

It is kind of crazy how often Konami has made basically remade the original Castlevania: Haunted Castle, Super Castlevania, Castlevania Chronicles, and ReBirth all feel very similar to the original Castlevania.

 

[Octopus Prime]

The thing I love about ReBirth is that Dracula looks like he’s wearing a track suit.

Like you caught him when he was doing laundry

 

[Exposition Owl]

All things considered, are the fine people of this thread as unhappy with Castlevania Requiem as Diamond Feit was?

 

[Torzelbaum]

The thing I love about ReBirth is that Dracula looks like he’s wearing a track suit.

Like you caught him when he was doing laundry

"Behold my true form, and despair!"