IC Forum Archive

108 · Posts: 2600

before any of you even had the opportunity to buy it (unless you live in japan)

the music is fucking great! there's like a thick fucking permanent-marker-drawn black line between the stuff michiru yamane did and the stuff yuzo koshiro did

the koshiro stuff is sublime; maybe you've all heard it already

for extra fun, i used a line-out cable to plug the DS into my amp and turned the gain all the way up on a couple of pieces

now for the game:

man! it was pretty shockingly hard!

i mean, i died like a hundred times all over the place

there are points where you have like 200 HP and enemies will do 70 HP of damage just by touching you; it's pretty fucking nuts

the game, however, is very short; which i guess is okay

the "castle" itself is a joke -- i mean, it's really small

the "paintings" you enter in order to fight back the EVIL are reasonably well designed

as aderack described the middle half (yes) of dawn of sorrow, this game is entirely very much "monsters on shelves"; a mine cart very early in the game is the perfect example: you get on it, have your partner hit the lever to make it go, quickly switch to the partner on the cart, and then . . . . . . . it just speeds to the other end of the hall

and there are lots of rooms where you go in and there's just an axe knight throwing axes; kill him to proceed to another identical, long room with a zombie dragon

so yes -- wasted space

at least the enemies get more interesting, i guess -- in the egypt level, there are big sand-bodied pharoah-mask-headed beasts with killable segments. like, you can kill the hands before attacking the face

sometimes, they throw you for a loop by, say, stacking five to ten axe knights on top of one another so that there are just a hundred axes on the screen at any given time -- those are kind of fun

some bosses are kind of interesting, too -- like a blob in a pot you have to push left and right (using partner cooperation) so you can just fit behind his back and beat on him

within the "paintings", the level design starts to get way more "konami"-like -- the egypt painting, for example, has big long diagonal hallways with boulders rolling down them

the polygonal stuff in the backgrounds is pretty good -- the mansion in the "london" painting, for example

the two-player coop dynamic is a little wasted; in the beginning of the game, every damn thing you do nets you a new "ability" -- "call your partner with the A button" "call your partner in midair!" "call your partner while crouching to make them stay!" "call your partner while pushing something to push it together!"

and then you start to get abilities like "jump, and then press the jump button again, to jump on your partner's shoulders!" this serves as your double-jump . . . for a half an hour, when you get the proper double-jump -- then, every high place you have to reach requires you to jump on your partner's shoulders, then jump again in midair -- a kind of stunted triple jump

however, it's like the level designers fielded complaints from all the wrong people -- instead of packing the game with fun abilities that are really fun to use repetitively and master, they give you shit like this "make partner stay" ability, and then make you use it just once: make your partner stay, hit the lever on the minecart, quickly switch back to the player on the cart -- you'll never need to use that technique again, just as you won't need to use the "make partner stay on top of a statue while you push it and then switch to the partner so you can jump up to a high ledge" technique ever again

not that i'd WANT to use the techniques again! i mean, they're pretty shit-boring, is what they are!

i'd rather the game be packed with flipping aerial duels involving the super-high-jump skill, dodging spikes, tossing sub-weapons, whipping fucking bats, et cetera, in high-ceilinged and/or open-air environments -- roof of the castle, for example

though i guess, when you focus a game on a single play technique, you have to go all the way: you have to be treasure-y about it; you need love and devotion to concept and an attitude that the player is either going to like it enough to master it or they're a jackoff

so we got this experience system-like thing again

the sub-weapons work well, though; real honest; better than "souls": SOME enemies drop weapons; get a whole bunch of them to keep leveling that weapon up; also, you can buy sub-weapons at the shop, and then keep buying them to level them up; they get more expensive, however!!

i like the shuriken!! it has kind of a weird little downward-fading arc

i like how the sub-weapons are equipped via the equip screen; also, you can equip the girl with armor and weapons and stuff, though she's pretty weak until all the way near the end; on the upside, her magic spells take up very little MP, and you can make her use spells while you're controlling the dude -- and the spells level up! i really used this one wind spell a lot -- sends a green gust out forward really fast, which then turns around and sweeps the top half of the screen; it was nice to have her use that to clear whole rooms full of mummies, eventually

(oh yes, the game has plenty of zombie alternatives, which is nice -- you know, instead of just palette-swapping zombies for an excuse to make them take more hits, they have, like, mudmen and mummies and bloodmen and bummies and rockmen and stuff)

the downside to the girl's magic is that when she takes a hit (like from a fucking bat), it depletes your shared MP meter! this means you should send her away when things get hairy! at the risk of losing your awesome magic attacks! you can call in your partner to attack even when they're not out, just by pressing the R button, though there's a bit of delay (obviously they have to make some incentive for dealing with the risk of keeping her out there)

there are also team-up attacks (up + X (character select button)), though they're not as much fun as just running and whipping

my favorite monster: the invisible man, who throws off his trenchcoat and hat as you approach, and is then invisible -- you can only see his stomping footsteps; whip him enough and he SCREAMS and you see his outline DRENCHED IN BLOOD when he dies

man! the story is some ham-fisted, sausage-fingered, pork-chop-handed nonsense. OMG! the vampire in this castle isn't dracula! and he has DAUGHTERS!! and you have to go into paintings to kill everyone!! and WORLD WAR II is happening outside, and no one seems to notice!!

you have to sit through literally a hundred dialogue boxes before the game starts, and then a hundred more every time your character enters a dialogue-scene room

players new to the series, fear not! there are three save points in the first five minutes of the game! really!

also, there's a warp point RIGHT at the entrance of every painting stage, so you can warp from the boss area to the entrance of the painting -- and then, just outside the painting, back in the castle, there's a warp point and a save point, so you can exit the painting, heal up, and then warp back to the shop / base at the castle entrance!! there's also a "suspend" function, though who the hell needs it, eh!? we've got save points everywhere!!

the thing about the save point by the entrance of a painting and then there being a warp network inside each painting, designed to keep you like one hallway from a warp to the exit, is kind of chafing. i'd like one warp within each painting, and i'd like it to just be like a gate of light at the very end that drops me off back in the castle -- don't use fucking warp points that look exactly like the ones in the castle. it feels weird.

i really like some of the challenge -- the stacked axe armors, the insane clouds of ghosts -- though after a while, it starts to get to be too much. after you get knocked off enough platforms by enough bats, it's like, "shit!"

you got to be quick on that whip -- and even if you're not, there are swords being handed out from the second screen of the game

in closing, it's still "monsters on shelves" -- the shelves are better stocked this time, though they're still shelves; none of the "painting" stages feel "konami" enough for me; i want some more dynamic stuff -- they're just like little castles

like metroid fusion instead of super metroid or symphony of the night

IGA needs to go back and indulge his love of castlevania iii in a true, stage-based castlevania platformer, instead of this half-and-half shit

so yeah i rode a lot of trains this weekend

and that's the full report

two and a half stars out of four

discoalucard · Posts: 146

I concur.

Also what the hell was up with that Egyptian lady? It's not that hard to dodge her attacks but if she charms Jonathan, it seems like you're pretty much fucked, and there didn't seem to be a way to cure it. At that point in my game, Charlotte was dealing 1 damage and like two whips from him took her down.

108 · Posts: 2600

discoalucard wrote:

I concur.

Also what the hell was up with that Egyptian lady? It's not that hard to dodge her attacks but if she charms Jonathan, it seems like you're pretty much fucked, and there didn't seem to be a way to cure it. At that point in my game, Charlotte was dealing 1 damage and like two whips from him took her down.

See, I just used the green wind magic. I really like that green wind magic.

Mister Toups · Posts: 4943

so it's still worth it for the soundtrack CD.

James · Posts: 1735

Castlevania has always had inane monster placement, dudes!

108 · Posts: 2600

James wrote:

Castlevania has always had inane monster placement, dudes!

Well, duh. It's only in the "Sorrow" games that it was totally painfully fuckin obvious. And in this one it's even more obvious!

They could do a pretty good job if they tried!

dark steve · Posts: 3002

James wrote:

Castlevania has always had inane monster placement, dudes!

Bloodlines didn't!

Diplocephalus · Posts: 863

i will give the review a read once i finish the game myself!
here's hoping for greatness!

108 · Posts: 2600

Diplocephalus wrote:

i will give the review a read once i finish the game myself!
here's hoping for greatness!

well, i don't SPOIL anything

seriously, though, the only thing to SPOIL would be the placement of the monsters or whatever

Red_venom · Posts: 338

Had no idea Yuzo Koshiro was doing part of the soundtrack, gosh I wanna hear that shit.

James · Posts: 1735

dark steve wrote:

James wrote:

Castlevania has always had inane monster placement, dudes!

Bloodlines didn't!

Monsters come from the left and the right and you whip them, that's pretty inane.

Seriously, SotN and DoS more or less have similar monster placement.

ReroRero · Posts: 2148

James wrote:

Monsters come from the left and the right and you whip them, that's pretty inane.

The same could be said about any game where things enter the screen from left and right and you do attack them.

Diplocephalus · Posts: 863

James wrote:

Castlevania has always had inane monster placement, dudes!

the first had some pretty tight stuff in its 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels. really.
belmont's revenge had interesting stuff, and so did bloodlines.
symphony...didn't have it in the traditional sense of the word, but the situating was full of character and complimentary aesthetic, at least.

Dark Age Iron Savior · Posts: 3148

how are the extra modes sir

Levi · Posts: 41

The problem with filling a Castlevania with neat traps and interesting layout is that it gets in the way of monster farming, which is the only acceptable gameplay mechanic for a portable game.

I like Castlevania IV.

108 · Posts: 2600

Red_venom wrote:

Had no idea Yuzo Koshiro was doing part of the soundtrack, gosh I wanna hear that shit.

Yeah. It sounds to me like he did most of it. Or, at least, he "helped" Yamane on the rest. I mean, man. The guy has a lot of talent, as you probably know already, though hell. He can turn this stuff out like diarrhea.

I'm sure some people will find something wrong with the music, though.

So yeah, it even has Yuzo Koshiro's name on the back of the box! They call him "あの伝説のコンポーザー" -- "that legendary composer".

Fuck yeah!!

108 · Posts: 2600

discoalucard wrote:

I concur.

Also what the hell was up with that Egyptian lady? It's not that hard to dodge her attacks [though] if she charms Jonathan, it seems like you're pretty much fucked, and there didn't seem to be a way to cure it. At that point in my game, Charlotte was dealing 1 damage and like two whips from him took her down.

Wait are you still on her? Because if so do this:

Equip Charlotte with the pair skill "サウンドエッジ" and then turn Jonathon off. Now let some good distance open between Charlotte and Egypt lady and just use that skill maybe, uh, twice? You should be able to kill her without getting hit.

"Sound Edge" is the best pair skill on EARTH by the way!! It basically throws like 100 little knives, each doing about 15-20 damage, straight out in front of you.

I bet the boss on maybe level 12, I think.

internisus · Posts: 961