deKay's Gaming Diary

What’s this? A game that isn’t on the Wii? Amazing!

It’s been around for a while, but for several reasons I never picked it up. I saw it for under £12 this week though, so couldn’t resist.

And, like every other “Metroidvania” game ever, it’s excellent. So far at least – I’m only about an hour in.

It differs to most others by not being almost entirely set within Dracula’s Castle. I’ve not even been near it yet. This makes for more variety in the “levels” (yeah, they’re pretty much levels rather than one huge map now), which is a good thing.

It does feel like an amalgamation of the ideas behind earlier Castlevania titles – the levels are a bit like Portrait of Ruin’s paintings and the glyphs are akin to Soma’s soul-catching from Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Which isn’t a complaint, as they’re some of the best bits of recent games.

Hard.

Very, very hard.

That is all.

This is how I want new additions to old 8 and 16-bit game serieses to be made. As if they’re for 8 and 8-bit consoles. Like Megaman 9 was.

Rebirth is a remake (or rather, complete rewrite borrowing nothing but the plot) of The Castlevania Adventure for the Game Boy. A game I played, and completed, almost exactly three years ago. It was rubbish. Rebirth, is not.

It looks like a SNES game, only with more detailed sprites. It plays like a NES Castlevania, only with more responsive, less fiddly controls. And it’s BRILLIANT.

So much so, I started and completed it today. I had it on pause for several hours, as there’s no save, save-state, password, or continue system (except I found later – there is: hold right on the menu screen) so it’s all-in-one-go or nothing. Just like 16-bit games!

More games like this please. Oh, if only Sonic 4 was taking this approach. Cry!

Next week on ugvm is Retro Week, and so I was hoping to play this a bit then. Only… I can’t.

For two reasons. Firstly, in order to not break the rules of the week, I would have to play either the original Rondo of Blood (rather than the 2.5D remake that makes up the main title in this collection), or Symphony of the Night. Both of which have to be unlocked in the main game.

Secondly, the main game is too bloody hard. The first two stages are easy. Very easy. But then once I’d rescued Maria it all became far too hard far too quickly. The men with spears are difficult when in pairs (one on a level with you, one spearing from above), and the Medusa heads, as always, are a right pain in the backside. But then I came across a gold skeleton and I just can’t bump him off. I’m not even sure I’m doing him any damage. Grr!

I have decided that this is officially the Hardest Game Ever (except for Game Over on the Spectrum). I’m still getting trounced by the axe armour and medusa head combo en-route to Death. Which is ironic, don’t you think?

I did actually make it to Death. Once. But I only had one notch of energy left and one of his sickles materialised exactly on my head, so I lasted less than a second.

GNnnNNnnnnnNNGGggggGGGGGggggH!

I reached Stage 15 again. Several times. And those bloody Medusa Heads killed me. Again. Wii controller through the TV screen time!

Hurrah! I did it!

No, not completed it. That’s a Whole Other Thing, but I did manage to get to and defeat The Creature. And it only took $hlmun attempts! It’s his imp friend that causes all the problems, as The Creature itself doesn’t really do a lot. In the end, I found it easiest to just dodge the imp and his rocks wot he chucks, and just get the occasional hit in to The Creature when possible.

When I finally killed him, I nearly messed it up anyway as I almost forgot about the two rocks still en route to my face. Luckily, one fell short and the other was destroyed accidentally by a dagger I threw.

Reached Stage 15, where lots of Axe Knights and Medusa heads made short work of me. Tch.

Gah. This is getting really annoying now. I can get from the restart point to The Creature without dying most times now, and often without even getting hit. However, that stupid imp that keeps hopping around the room once I get there kills be far too easily.

I even managed to get The Creature down to two energy bars – one more whipping would have done it. But no. I died.

FRUSTRATION FACTOR 10! Not only is it a bit bloody hard (I managed to get to The Creature, but died), but for some reason my Wii remote keeps cutting out. I’ve tried both remotes, new batteries, switching off anything that might interfere, switched the Wii off at the wall and all sorts. Nothing works. I had this problem with Sonic and the Stupid Rings a couple of weeks ago, but nothing since. Other games are fine, as are the other Wii channels. Gah.

Basically, I can’t actually progress now.

Also too hard! Well, not as hard as Dragon’s Curse, but certainly not easy. I’d left the game “saved” (using the Wii’s game state save function) on Stage 7, but stupidly didn’t continue when I died so had to start from the beginning again.

Luckily, I reached 7 again quite quickly, and then moved on past it – to Stage 10, killing two mummies on the way (and only just whipping them before they killed me too). Apparently there are 17 stages, so I’m most of the way there now.

Once again, it’s a Sunday, and once again, it’s New Game Time! Hurrah!

This week, it’s Dragon’s Curse on the Wii. Or rather, on the PC Engine on the Wii Virtual Console, if you see what I mean. Or even, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap on the Master System on the PC Engine on the Wii Virtual Console. Yes. That.

It’s a bit bloody hard, isn’t it? I’ve killed the dragon, been turned into Lizard Man, escaped the castle, ended up in the town, explored the beach area, found a key, found two hearts, been in the desert, and generally died a lot. I’ve bought some better armour, but I have no idea how to get through the lava section without dying, as each hit I take wipes out most of my energy.

Also: Castlevania has broken this game, as I keep trying to slash the candles to get hearts. Which (obviously) doesn’t work.

After killing another boss, I realised I had four of the five parts of Vlad already, meaning I was getting close to completing the game. However, it took me ages to figure out where the final piece was – and it turned out it was being held by Death in the Reverse Caverns area of the map.

I was expecting him to be hard, but in fact, since I’d just killed another Doppleganger of me which led me to a Dark Sword (which is really powerful against Dark-type enemies), Death died pretty quickly. My pet sword actualy finished off his second form on it’s own, which was quite good. In fact, my sword is getting very good now, actually aiming for baddies properly most of the time instead of randomly spinning in empty spaces on the screen.

With all Vlad’s bits, it was back to the upside-down big clock thing, and there was Shaft again. Who died so quick I hardly got a chance to see his attack pattern (mainly due to my sword pet again, actually). Then… Dracula himself. After a cringe-worthy bit of dialogue (complete with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and punctuation faux pas), I got to attack him.

He had piles of HP, and I didn’t have a crucifix on me to help. However, I did have some “resist Dark” potions, and a couple of smart-bomb type weapons. Then it was just a case of standing underneath him chucking axes up into his face(s). Luckily, since he filled almost the entire screen, my sword pet could get a load of hits in almost anywhere it span, so it wasn’t long before Dracula was dead and the dialogue got worse (in every respect). Finally – the credits! With spelling mistakes

So that’s another Castlevania game complete. I was hoping for an achievement for completing it (but no), and I didn’t unlock Richter Mode either, so I suspect I haven’t explored enough of the castle yet.

Haven’t played this in a few days, as Rocket Slime had taken over pretty much all of my gaming time this week. But, since I completed that earlier, I went back to SOTN.

It suddenly got hard. I’ve found loads of baddies who are difficult to kill and do stacks of damage. I’ve been trying to work my way back to the Entrance, or at least, where the entrance was in the right-way-up castle, and it’s slow going. My brain refuses to rotate the castle I’ve got to know already, confusing me all the time. I’ve fought a few more bosses (including Medusa, who was easy), and found a few power-ups, though.

The very first NES Castlevania at that. It appeared on the Wii’s Virtual Console downloads last Friday, so I downloaded it but didn’t play it until today.

Some people have said that Super Castlevania IV is a sort of remake of the original game, rather than a proper sequel. Konami themselves have retconned the story a couple of times themselves, so that it was, and then it wasn’t – so I’m not sure how it stands officially now. Either way, going back to Castlevania and it’s clear that they’re similar. Very similar, in fact.

I’m on Stage 6, where things have started to get difficult. There’s no fancy effects, no whippy-swingy, and some enemies are missing, but so far, it’s all given me a bit of deja vu…

After a very short journey to the middle of the map where I needed to use the two rings I had and met Maria again, it was off to kill Richter with my new Holy-resistant garb and Holy-killingerating sword. And lo – he was easy. Really easy, in fact, since none of his attacks could now do more than 1 damage, whereas previously 80+ was the norm. Excellent.

In fact, I didn’t kill Richter at all, but Shaft, the thing controlling Richter making him Bad.

And then… the whole world turned upside-down. Literally. There’s a second castle, which is the same as the first one, only the other way up! And harder! Gah! That means I’m only half-way through the game. Thankfully, though, I do have all the powers I need to navigate the new castle unhindered (I hope), and so I set about finding a save point and defeated two bosses, who gave me bits of Dracula. Yes, just like in, uh, Harmony of Dissonance. I think.

8 hours in, 125% complete. Ace.

A bit of a mammoth gaming session on this today, in several segments rather than in one go, however. In now particular order, I managed the following:

Got the Mist transformation, quickly followed by the Bat transformation and then all five Familiars. It seems the familiars all level up too, as you use them, starting out crap (where they don’t attack anything) slowly becoming more intelligent. My pet sword is actually pretty helpful now, especially when I was killing Legion.

Have defeated a few more bosses, and found Evil Richter Belmont in Dracula’s throne room. I couldn’t kill him. In fact, I barely scratched him, so I retreated and then found I probably reached him far too early, and explored more of the castle, finding armour and a sword which should help as they’re powerful versus Holy.

I’ve also got two rings now, gold and silver, which are telling me where to go next. I suspect it’s a quick stop somewhere before returning to Richter.

Aha! Double-jump GET! That opened up huge amounts of map for me to get to, although lots of items are still out of reach. I suspect a flying or super-jumping ability to become available at some point.

I’m really loving this, although I think I’ve found the entrance to Dracula’s room already. I can’t get there yet (there’s a jump I can’t make), but I’m running out of places to go. I did find out that my save file data shows how much of the castle you’ve explored – I’m at around 50% so far. That can’t be right, surely?

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 Clock Tower, only to find I couldn’t actually progress very far. Found a warp point which took me back to near the entrance to the castle, and then took a route up the left tower. Found another boss up there – a griffon or something – who was pretty easy, and then went back to the Library and found an old man who sold me potions and stuff. It doesn’t show what percentage of the map you’ve unlocked, which is a pain, as it doesn’t really give you clue as to how far into the game you’ve got.

I’m also well overdue a power-up or too – I really think I need a double-jump or something…

Finally! Symphony of the Night is in my grasp! Well, sort of – it’s on my Xbox 360′s hard drive. This is the first of the “Metroidvania” style Castlevania games, and I’ve just been playing it.

As always (well, except for that GB one and the PS2 one…), it’s great. I’m Alucard, who plays much like Soma did in Aria of Sorrow, and the graphical style is much like Circle of the Moon, so it’s like a kind of mish mash of all the CV games I’ve played over the last few months. I know this came first, but that’s what it feels like.

So I’ve killed the first boss, met Maria, and explored quite a bit of castle. It’s ACE!

That Richiter is a bit ACE with his whip, no? I mean, I killed Death on just my second attempt – and I was only on Level 13!

I then killed Stella and Loretta, although they were a bit more difficult (two hits from pretty much any attack and you’re dead), so I levelled up to 20 and tried again. Once dead, I found that I do need to do some paintings after all – the way to Dracula is blocked, and I can’t get into Brauner’s painting yet.

Played through a little more of Richiter Mode this evening, although mainly only to progress through the map. I’m trying to get to where Dracula should be, to see if I really need to do all the paintings to complete the game. However, I can’t remember the route and so keep getting lost.

As an aside, I really should get round to scanning the covers for some of these games…

I thought I’d have a quick go through as Richiter Belmont. And it was quick. I mean, he’s fast. Badly animated, but fast. I killed the boss at the end of City of Haze, who was really easy, and due to the way the map is open from the start I found my way to the Clock Tower and killed Stella (or Loretta? I don’t know which…).

Then I did a bit more on Sisters Mode, killing the boss in City of Haze again (and again, he was really easy), and then saved the game before working my way over towards the Clock Tower with them.

Do I have to do all the paintings with Richiter and the Sisters? I mean, I don’t get any power-ups after doing so, and everywhere on the map seems to be open anyway. Surely I can’t just find Dracula and kill him? Hmm.

TA-DAAAH! Completed!

I gave up on the Nest of Evil thing, and went back to the game proper. Decided it was time to actually learn to use the Vampire Killer, so set about killing Richiter Belmont. Yes, really. Well, a “memory” of him anyway. Bizarrely, the weapon I killed him with, was the Cream Pie. It dealt a fair amount of damage, and could be thrown at such an angle so as to be just out of reach of his whip.

So he was killed, I had the Vampire Killer, and it was off to kill Dracula and Death. And then Dracula again. One attempt and I died, and then the next attempt – kill0red!

After the credits and all, I found I’d unlocked two more modes – Richiter Mode and Sisters Mode. The former is just Richiter (and Maria) with a cut-down weapon set and no items. Played that for a bit. Sisters Mode is Loretta and Stella, controlled with the d-pad, and they attack using the stylus. It’s totally bizarre. Played that for a bit too.

Then I played online in co-op mode, which is basically Boss Rush (of a sort). The guy I was randomly paired up with was crap though.

Then I went through Boss Rush course 1 in just under two minutes. Go me!

Again, the stats: 8 hours 34 minutes in, Level 39 reached, 895.5% explored. Good lord. Who’s betting it’ll be 1000% when all is done?

So I completed the final four paintings. Or at least, what I thought were the final four. The bosses today included Medusa (who was VERY easy, once I realised there was a place you could stand, from where you could slap her about, but not get hit by any of her attacks (well, you had to duck for one, but still). I also had Frankenstein’s Monster, and a Werewolf to kill, neither of which were especially difficult. Oh, and a mummy, who was easy too.

I’ve ditched the Nebula whip in favour of the Royal Sword I got for completing one of Wind’s quests. It’s a little slow, but does waaaaaay more damage than anything else I had at the time of getting it, and even now it’s still my most powerful weapon.

Anyway. After all the paintings were done, the big one they were “sealing” opened, and I went inside to kill Brauner. He was pretty simple once I realised his pattern, and also I found that I’d picked up a Meteor spell somewhere along the way which really helped too. With him dead, the doorway to Dracula was open. So you do have to kill Dracula in this game – it didn’t look like that was going to happen…

But I failed to do so. The reason? You don’t fight Dracula. You fight Dracula and Death. At the same time. Gah!

So I stopped all that and decided to go and do some more quests. Collected loads more items and spells and things along the way, and when I reached 888% explored I opened up a new area and a new painting – Nest of Evil. It’s Boss Rush mode, more or less! I gave it a go, and got through all the rooms of “normal” baddies, only to come across a baddie from Dawn of Sorrow who promptly killed me.

I will start by pointing out my “stats” at the end of today’s play: 6-ish hours in, Level 30-ish ranked, and (wait for it…) 455% explored. Why bother with a percentage if you’re going to go over 100%? Eh? Anyway.

I finished my fourth painting, and then explored more of the castle. This involved back-tracking into other paintings for power-ups I may have missed (like the Toad Morph one), and then I made it up into the Clock Tower. Every Castlevania needs a Clock Tower!

There, as is usual, I met Death. And, as is also usual, he killed me. A lot.

Then I figured out his weakness (he has two forms – one is weak to magic, the other weak to physical attacks) and pattern, and so defeated him with relative ease. A short jaunt around a bit more of the top of the castle (returning to Vincent and Wind, and finding Vincent was turning into a vampire…), and I found Loretta and Stella. And I (after a couple of attempts) killed them. Oops.

It seems you’re not supposed to kill them. You’re supposed to cure them. With the “Sanctuary” spell that I didn’t have.

I decided to do some more quests for Wind instead, and in doing so, I found Sanctuary! This not only cured Vincent, but saved the twins too. Aces. They then opened up a new room, with five new paintings in. Apparently, I have to close the four smaller ones to open the last one.

Off I went into the “Dark Academy” painting, where I found an Owl Morph spell, and lots of big, difficult baddies. I think I may have to move past my Nebula whip (which has been great), as it just isn’t powerful enough any more.