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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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? …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Hmm. Not really enjoying this a great deal any more. Well, I was never enjoying it loads as it is, but there are just too many things I don’t like about it – the camera, the controls, the lack of platforming, the bits where there is platforming being difficult due to the camera or controls, etc. It’s all a bit rubbish, really. So I found the “e” stone to put in the “meth” stone in the Lab level, which brought …
Sand painting boss found! It was some woman who, who had a strange attack – she throws hearts at you, and if you’re Jonathan, and they hit you, then she takes control of you and you control Charlotte. Jonathan then attacks you. Erk. Luckily, I killed her without too many attempts, and then it was back to the Castle to rest up, and move onwards (and upwards). I found the next painting – Nations of Fools – which was set …
And into the next painting I went! One nice thing about the paintings is that it allows Castlevania-ing in locations not normally included in Castlevania. So there’s a bit less castle, and more, well – this painting is in Egypt, so it’s got sand. And sandworms! It adds a bit of variety to the proceedings, anyway. So I’ve gone though loads of this Egyptian level, and not found a boss yet. I’ve found a few places I can’t yet reach …
Wow. Just wow. Yeah, so it doesn’t have the soul collecting of Dawn of Sorrow, and the tag-team system ranges from pointless to annoying, but how any reviewer can say this is anything less than fantastic is beyond me. It ticks all the boxes: save points and warps in sensible places, a shop to buy potions, a great (if confusing, currently) story, and excellent graphics and controls. Today’s play took me back to the City painting, as Wind told me …