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.
