deKay's Lofi Gaming

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Switch): COMPLETED!

More than 14 years after last completing this, it was re-released on modern consoles as part of the Castlevania Advance Collection along with some of the other GBA Castlevania games (it’s missing the NES Classic original on there) and Castlevania X for some reason. Since it really needs to be played on a handheld, I bought the Switch version and then played it almost entirely on the TV. Tch. The general consensus is that of the three GBA IGA-vania games, …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA): COMPLETED!

After trying several times to kill Dracula, I gave up. The final boss has two phases: one where he appears and disappears, and has three attacks – poison clouds, laser beam, and meteor strike, and after that he flies around a lot, then turns into a load of bats and a giant eyeball. The first phase was easy, especially if I used the DSS card combo that effectively grants you double energy. The second, however, was not. Dodging Dracula flying …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Damn that Devil thing! I either get past it unscathed and then have my HP demolished by the Dark Armours, or the thing kills me. Thankfully, I found a fantastic way of killing Hugh without me losing much energy at all – shoot a load of crucifixes away from him, then jump over him and them as they come back, they all pass though Hugh and Super Damage ensues. Aces. So after a couple of attempts with this tactic, he …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I’m getting near the end now. I can smell it. That, and I’ve uncovered more than 80% of the map and have only one “magic power” left to obtain. Killed Camilla, who was actually very easy once I took my time about it and actually dodged her attacks rather than blindly trying to whip her. My axes proved very useful too. My power-up gained was Roc’s Feather (isn’t that Link’s power-up? Hmm…) which lets me jump very high indeed. Then …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Off I went to the bit where the acid water was, and as expected, it became normal water again. I then worked my way through quite a few lizardmen, ice women things, and some witches, before finding a huge ice demon thing which killed me. So I tried again, took a slightly different route, and found a save point. Just past that, was the next boss – Camilla (who is the woman right at the start of the game who …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Decided to try and level up a few times before attempting Death again, and also found some Chain Mail (which was better than my armour at the time), and realised that equipping two Cursed Rings would boost my strength and defense hugely (although my luck would drop – not important for a boss fight though, I don’t think). I also found a HP Max upgrade too, which would help. It still took me five or so goes to kill Death, …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Aha! I think the rivers of acid bit was the wrong route to take, as I found another way to go today, into some sort of warehouse or something. And there, so my dismay, I found Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliche #2 – crate puzzles. GAH! How many games must people RUIN with crate puzzles? And why are they always actually crates? Surely other things could be used instead? Broken Sword 3 and Lost in Blue both had game-almost-breaking crate …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Dragons SLAIN! Hurrah! I found a pattern I could stick to that made them much easier to kill and dodge, and so they were soon dead. And then it was off on another wander around the castle opening areas I couldn’t previously get to, since I can now push big crates out of the way. Found some more HP/MP/heart upgrades, and then wandered into an area full of Ice Armour baddies and some sort of acid water. Eurgh.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Spent ages trying to get through the moths-and-triffids area, and found it pretty hard going. Retreated instead, and worked my way around areas of the castle trying to find new areas (which I didn’t really manage), and secret rooms leading to power-ups (of which I found loads). My heart, HP and MP maximum levels were then somewhat higher than previously, allowing me to get through the moths to another save point. I then wandered around to bump my level up …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

After what seemed like ages, I finally found another boss – a giant ram’s head thing that threw ghost faces and stuff at me. He was really easy to kill though, as I had my magic fireballs-that-spin-round-me on (which killed most of the projectiles before they hit me), leaving me to just jump-whip his head over and over. Once dead, I could hit a switch which I think has now made new pathways available elsewhere on the map. No new …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I’ve just realised that this game has an ID in my games database of “1337”. Hilarious. Anyway, I’ve now opened up what seems to be a huge portion of the map. I’m getting very lost still, trying every dead end with each new power-up I get. My most recent one is wall-jump, and with it I’ve got into an area full of were-bears and hippo things and all sorts of baddies that take loads of hits. I’ve found three teleporters …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I killed the puma boss thing without much difficulty on my first attempt today. I’d levelled up a few times first, however, and had picked up some better armour and a couple of cards (which when combined gave me a magic power that made my whip do more damage), all of which helped a lot. I then wandered round for a while trying to find where I needed to go next, which turned out to be pretty obvious as it …

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Since I’m limited to handheld consoles at the moment (I’m at relatives for Christmas), I’m using this opportunity to actually start some games I’ve had for a while but not touched yet. See also Contact on the DS from earlier today. Anyway. Since I have all three GBA Castlevania games, this is the one to start with. When it came out, people complained it was virtually impossible to play on the non-lit-screen original GBA. No such problems with the super-bright …

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Switch): COMPLETED!

No sooner had I completed Circle of the Moon I made a start on Harmony of Dissonance. Two things are immediately apparent: 1) the background and enemy graphics are much, much more impressive than the previous game, and 2) your main character, Juste Belmont, looks incredibly garish with a clashing outline. The reason for the latter is probably because Circle of the Moon got a lot of stick for being too dark to see on the original GBA. Back then, …

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (360)

Being so like Circle of the Moon is actually disturbing me somewhat now, as I feel I’ve played the game before, but not quite. It’s odd. I had a go flicking the “enhanced graphics” off and on, but aside from Som–uh, Alucard, it doesn’t make a lot of difference to my eyes. I killed my clone, who was somewhat easy, found a thing that turns me into a wolf (which I haven’t found a use for yet) and braved the …