Noone cares about watered down handheld games

[kijib]

where is the Symphony of the Night? It's been 50 years

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

But no. Aria and Dawn of Sorrow has overall more variety in terms of weapons and abilities (Souls), Portrait of Ruin has a better difficulty, and Harmony of Dissonance does the two castles better.

weapons? I dunno, symphony of the night has 105 weapons not counting saturn exclusives. dawn meanwhile has 76 weapons and aria has 59 weapons. That and SotN has much more interesting weapons, in that some have extra moves or can combine like shield rod with shields similar to shanoa's glyph union.

but they do win out with souls. bullet souls are pretty comparable to subweapons, and soma has far more than subweapons from SotN and Portrait combined. even add shanoa's main glyphs and he still wins out.

While harmony may or may not do the 2 castles better, it overall isn't even comparable to the aforementioned 5. very floaty and lackluster controls. it's a decent game, but it's not a very good game to stand with the others.

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

Voice lines? Who cares, really? People used that to flex the PS1 to mixed (and WAY more often than not rather bad) results. CD Music? It gets lackluster because you have only so many minutes of CD Music allowed, rather than tracks, you can get nearly equally impressive results (and maybe equally altogether) by using MIDI and the right soundfont. Graphics? Harmony of Dissonance flexes as hard, and all 3 DS titles surpasses. SotN has difficulty options in the form of Luck Mode and Richter Mode, but they make the game rapidly become easier because everything drops more often or baselines the difficulty with a character that can't get items.

voice lines on the PS1 were great, especially when alucard shouts "what?!?" when petrified and some other things. And SotN even has an alternate dub in later releases. not as good imo, but it's subjective.

and who cares? I'm just saying it's got a better presentation. it's not that serious. and no, Harmony of Dissonance is like the ugliest castlevania I've ever laid eyes on after the gameboy games. it's really not anywhere near the good metroidvania games.

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

And I'll tell you this... I used to love SotN, really, but Circle of the Moon, and everything that came after showed me that SotN is bland, unpolished, too easy, limited in how fun it can get unless you create the challenge yourself (like people who do "No Armor and No Accessories" challenge).

oh my god, I absolutely hate circle of the moon. it's the absolute worst fusion of classicvania and metroidvania. the controls are absolute ash, the card system is absolute ash. if you like it better, you're more of a classicvania fan than a metroidvania fan, because that game is far more akin to classicvania than proper metroidvania.

SotN is just too easy. I don't see where you get it being unpolished. OoE is unpolished. it's a set of interesting ideas with lackluster follow through. and the absolute worst grind mechanics of all the games.

SotN though, has the best gamefeel of them all. while soma's arsenal of souls dwarfs what you have in the other games, you can only equip one bullet soul, one support soul or whatever the blue one is, and one passive. you can also use your weapon. you have a grand total of 3 offensive options at any time, 6 I guess if you count swap out. oh and I guess slide counts. so 7

Alucard can have 1 or 2 weapons, can attack diagonally with most weapons, and can kick with a punch weapon as well as diagonal punch. many weapons have special inputs to perform a special technique. alucard has access to many spells with special input at any time. he always has bat form, wolf form and mist form available, and bat and wolf have special input attacks. you have a sub weapon, and can equip a familiar, and the sword familiar also has a special input attack. that's partially why the game is so easy, because you have so much available to you. outside of level 1 hard mode, all the metroidvanias are pretty easy really.

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

Plus: When I start disliking a game, if people continue to blindly put it on a pedestal, I start HATING it instead. Which happened to Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 7, Castlevania SotN, Final Fantasy 7, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy 7, Castlevania 3 Dracula's Curse, Final Fantasy 7, Sonic Mania, Final Fantasy 7, Mega Man X5, Final Fantasy 7... Did I say I hate Final Fantasy 7?

blindly? dude, most of those games are in fact awesome. FF6 is better than FF7 though. you mean when the masses just don't agree with your takes. it's okay to like bad games, and it's okay to hate good games. but come on man, putting circle of the moon anywhere near the good castlevania games? I'm just disappointed here.

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by khaosklub:

blindly? dude, most of those games are in fact awesome. FF6 is better than FF7 though. you mean when the masses just don't agree with your takes. it's okay to like bad games, and it's okay to hate good games. but come on man, putting circle of the moon anywhere near the good castlevania games? I'm just disappointed here.

For me, all those games have another that is better than them. And citing Circle of the Moon in particular, it surpassed SotN in many aspects like more gameplay variety in the form of "classes" you unlock as you beat it, also adds "Continue" in the Game Over screen so you don't have to sit through logos, title, main menu, file menu, 100 different combinations of spells, sequenced music that sounds really amazing for a system WITHOUT a dedicated sound chip, and that's all on a LAUNCH TITLE for the GBA.

In particular with the masses, is that they refuse to reckon it is flawed, they call them "masterpieces" when the ones that followed (or, in some cases, precedes them) not only addresses the issues but also polishes other aspects. They don't just go "I like Final Fantasy 7", they flat out state "Final Fantasy 7 is the best!"

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

Originally posted by khaosklub:

blindly? dude, most of those games are in fact awesome. FF6 is better than FF7 though. you mean when the masses just don't agree with your takes. it's okay to like bad games, and it's okay to hate good games. but come on man, putting circle of the moon anywhere near the good castlevania games? I'm just disappointed here.

For me, all those games have another that is better than them.

I'd argue that they don't, at least not all of them. they have games that might be on par, but are also severely flawed in their own right, or are just incomparable.

like take super metroid. that's pretty much the best 2D metroid game. comparing prime to it would be like comparing mario wonder to mario kart 8. yeah, same cast but not at all same kind of game.

what are the compatitors? it's superior to metroid 1 in every conceivable way. metroid 2 is arguably worse than metroid 1.

then you have the GBA games, zero mission and Fusion. I love those games, and I'd say they may be good enough to stand beside super metroid. what do they do better? they have ledge grab, faster movement and a less abuseable wall jump. while you could argue that ledge grab is better, the other two are more just different than flat out better. you have simplified controls for missiles and super bombs? samus out of the suit for a segment? more narratives? more preference than "better".

super metroid is more free roaming extreme freedom, while those games are more narrative driven and linear. you can't say one or the other is flat out better, they're just different styles.

then samus returns, absolute garbo because of the focus on the counter mechanic, and that's all the game is, a long series of counters.

dread? why the long load times? death is so cheap in it and the emmi are very underwhelming. forced QTEs in my boss fights? a lot of downgrades in that one. it's definitely not in any position to be better.

so, there's a real legit reason for people to say it's the best, because it is at the top, and other games really just match it. you're confusing your personal preferences for hands down better.

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

And citing Circle of the Moon in particular, it surpassed SotN in many aspects like more gameplay variety in the form of "classes" you unlock as you beat it, also adds "Continue" in the Game Over screen so you don't have to sit through logos, title, main menu, file menu, 100 different combinations of spells, sequenced music that sounds really amazing for a system WITHOUT a dedicated sound chip, and that's all on a LAUNCH TITLE for the GBA.

it has some aspects that SotN doesn't. you have 100 different spells, yes, in the most convoluted system ever which is annoying to grind. pros and cons. you can also only have 1 out of 100 spells equipped at a time. you also only have 1 weapon and a sub weapon. the card system isn't very liked for a reason. it was an interesting attempt, but the soul system soma has just works better.

meanwhile, in SotN, you have more combat options period. you have more you can do and more ways to handle enemies with any character. you have less spells as alucard, but you can perform them all without going back the pause menu to change anything up.

different.

classes isn't very much different gameplay variety. your character has some different stats and maybe a different weapon? the game will be marginally different.

meanwhile, symphony of the night has richter mode, start with axe armor, maria mode, and luck mode. wow, 4 modes as well, with 2 being very different. you could also just, y'know, play with a different weapon and build. I really can't say circle even compares the variety department. Alucard just has so much you can customize to make playthroughs feel fresh and different. there's also variety in the releases, as different releases feature different features.

yeah, a continue options is great. not enough to make it a better game though. QoL featuers are always nice.

music is subjective, and "being good for a ♥♥♥♥♥ music playing device" isn't really a glowing review either. does circle of the moon have good music? does symphony of the night have good music? do we play video games based on which one has better music? no, that'd be a weird way to determine it.

meanwhile, CotM's map is an absolute slog to traverse, and the controls are absolute ash. double tapping forward to dash was an awful idea. you pretty much always want to be running, which is why playing as richter is fun, and playing as whomever is in CotM is a pain in the kiester. the controls in that game are just awful. it feels like you're playing as classic simon in a metroidvania... except that might be more fun.

Originally posted by Tsuki Zero:

In particular with the masses, is that they refuse to reckon it is flawed, they call them "masterpieces" when the ones that followed (or, in some cases, precedes them) not only addresses the issues but also polishes other aspects. They don't just go "I like Final Fantasy 7", they flat out state "Final Fantasy 7 is the best!"

[/quote]

address YOUR issues with the games and polish a small aspect here and there (in your opinion). like, you can like these aspects better, but they don't invalidate what the games everyone loves does. they're just not your preference.

but man... CotM is just soo bad. so very bad. like it makes me sad that you even bring it up to compare to any other castlevania game. I can see harmony of dissonance... but CotM? jesus christ!

[Soren]

Originally posted by khaosklub:

Shanoa can equip 2 weapon/sub-weapons and a auxilary/passive skill, can swap between two sets of glyphs only. she can equip armor, hat, boots and 2 accessories. she can also perform a union attack, combining some combinations of weapons/subweapons.

Can't she swap between 3 sets of glyphs? You are talking about the glyph sleeve right? That has A, B, and C among the 3 different loadouts you can use?

[Fatmagic]

Circle of the Moon and Portrait of Ruin are among my favorites in the entire franchise. Speak for yourself.

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by Soren:

Originally posted by khaosklub:

Shanoa can equip 2 weapon/sub-weapons and a auxilary/passive skill, can swap between two sets of glyphs only. she can equip armor, hat, boots and 2 accessories. she can also perform a union attack, combining some combinations of weapons/subweapons.

Can't she swap between 3 sets of glyphs? You are talking about the glyph sleeve right? That has A, B, and C among the 3 different loadouts you can use?

oh right, mixed her up with soma. yeah, she can swap out with 3 sets