Castlevania Season 1 (TV-series)

Love the homage to the game covers.

A little Christmas special as this goes up (although a bit early for Halloween as of writing). So I got my hands on the blu-ray dvd of the first season of the Netflix series (since I don't have Netflix and are a bit old-school that way) and watched it an early Sunday morning. Great decision. It begins as Lisa, arrives at Castlevania and wants to speak with Dracula about the secret knowledges he possesses and almost like an homage to the Beauty and the Beast-movie (animated of course) she seems to like a person with a big library... I clearly need more book shelfs in my home.

Cut to Lisa burning at the stakes a couple of years later and Vlad Tepes going berserk promising retribution on the people of Wallachia if they don't leave within a year. They don't listen so all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile we are introduced to Trevor Belmont being hounded by some locals in the countryside until he beats them up. Arriving at the last town standing he saves an old man being harassed by priests and it turns out that he is the leader of the seekers, a nomadic people gathering knowledge, but like the Belmonts being blamed for the demons overruning the land. One of the seekers have gone missing and Trevor reluctantly agrees to help. Apparently there is some legend about a saviour beneath the city sleeping and they try to awaken it. Trevor find the seeker turned to stone and defeats the cyclops and its Sylpha. They return and Trevor gets taken to the bishop who was the one that burned Lisa at the stake and ask him to leave town as the seekers shall all be killed for causing this... according to him. Trevor don't take lightly to this news and evacuates the seekers to the chamber he found Sylpha and then awaits the church move.

He kicks their asses until he is cornered on a town square, but Sylpha shows up using her magic to allow him to escape and turn the people on the church right before the demons attacks. Fighting them off Trevor and Sylpha falls into the catacombs and ends up at a tomb, where Alucard sleeps. Trevor and him fights for a while until Alucard finds them worthy on the quest to kill his father that wounded him as Alucard tried to stop him from unleashing the demons. 

Awesome shot!

I really liked this series, just waiting for the blu-ray release of season 2 this November (when I'm writing this, while you read it I probably already seen it). The visuals are amazing, and the voice actors... fantastic. The music is good for its purpose with the Gregorian chanting and such... but I would like something like the game music for the action scenes. But I'm hooked now.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)

This ship pulled in without a sound
The faithful captain long since cold
He kept his log till the bloody end
Last entry read "Rats in the hold.
My crew is dead, I fear the plague"

Continuing my Castlevania adventure with the third game in the series on the Anniversary Collection and it's a return to the first game with how the game plays. Playing as Trevor Belmont a 100 years before Simon Belmont, you are the last of the Belmont family to make a stand against Dracula's armies after being exiled from Walachia due to the Belmonts super-natural powers, but eastern Europe is being overrun so the church have no other choice. On his quest he meets Grant Danasty, a pirate that was turned into a monster that you had to defeat in order to save. His abilities is that he can climb on walls and such making certain portions easier to traverse. Next they meet Sylpha Belnandes, a sorceress that have been turned to stone by a cyclops and when freed joins up with her different spells. 

Now, in the game you can only have one companion with you (Trevor is permanent) and I don't think you can meet all in one playthrough since depending on which route you take you either get Sylpha or Alucard, the fourth companion, the son of Dracula and the protagonist from Symphony of the Night. I've never got him since it's the harder route I gathered and this game is hard enough for me. Also, I would have missed the ship if I didn't get Sylpha.

See, it fits the lyrics!

Mostly I preferred to play as Trevor since he is a Belmont and play like most of them. This game is hard. Dracula has 3 forms, and the ending form demands that you run back and forth avoiding beams from the count while jumping on floating floors to reach his hit zone and since the floor is flying around there is bottomless pits under you if you miss, or more likely, gets shot of the platform. Thank God for save states. Hey, if the game cheats so can I! I don't feel as much for this. Technically it's more replayable with the choices you can do while traversing the world map and the different companions you can gather differing the gameplay due to the different characters and their abilities. I would never have finished this as a child. Music is good, graphics looks pretty much like the other NES games, maybe a bit more refined. This game is also the inspiration for the Netflix TV-series... which gives me an idea!

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch)

Why do the princes have flying googles?

Continued with the second game in the series released back in 1987, the most important year ever. It starts off with a retelling of the first game and that there is 100 years since the warrior Niklas defeated the draconlord and went travelling with his princess and founded several other kingdoms where his lines rule the land until this day. Now the forces of Hargon attack the castle of Moonbrooke where the king sends his daughter princess Peronel to safety and one lone soldier to warn the King of Midenhall before the whole castle is destroyed. The king of Midenhall sends his only son, Prince Niklas (yes, I named him after myself... again) and you are off. First by finding his cousin prince Randolph and with his help finding the mirror of Ra and using it to break the curse on Peronel so that she is turned back into a human after being turned into a dog by Hargon. Together the three sets out on a quest to find the five sigils that allowed them to speak with the goddess Rubis and get the eye of Rubis and then finding the False Idol and together with these items charged at Hargons castle and defeated him and the demon Malroth. So now I know what was up with Dragon Quest Builders 2. 

Overall I liked this game, more fun with a party of three compared to alone and therefore some strategy. Mostly no problem figuring out what to do, but in the dungeons and towers I usually used a map from the internet since I can't really bother with it. And when they threw in trap doors at the cave to the final area, I really can't stand it. Also, really problematic finding the star sigil and the sunken treasure that allows you to get the echo flute. Problems that still exist is the limited inventory and the end was just walking up the castle over and over again until I've reached a high enough level and getting by without getting attacked that much so my resources aren't all spent. But **** those kamikaze monkeys that one shot the whole party regardless of the health level. Fun enough and probably more fun to replay since there is more plot, and it's just not grinding for money and levels compared to the first game and it's bigger. So big in fact that it have most of the original world within this one (minus most towns and caves).

Civilization VI (Switch)

L'État, c'est moi.

I was a short time obsessed with Civilization, played the original with my best friend in school, and then I read about the fourth game in the gaming magazine Super Play where two of the writers reported about their game against each others. They never finished it but it caught my attention and then I asked and got Civilization IV for PC for my birthday/Christmas. As usual when playing games that actually needs a bit of thinking there is a learning curve that for IV took me a long time to get. Maybe I was to young (or rather to stupid) at the time, think it took the second expansion getting out that I bought before it really got fun since I then discovered how to change which tiles each city was supposed to use to boost either production, gold or population. Rather important since I before that just let the cities go on auto and if you wanna beat the AI, you gotta prioritise. 

Now, the fourth game was fun, it had Leonard Nimoy as the narrator. Then I heard Sean Bean was the narrator for this game and then that the expansions where heading for the Switch so I caved in and got it. First off, getting to know the controls was a bit weird, but playing it in handheld mode allowed me to use the touch screen so it helps. Secondly, the game is working pretty much as the fourth one so not that hard to adjust. The problem is probably all that is new and more subtle that I probably need to get before making a fool of me. At least I notice certain differences. Like, no more water transportation ships just to get settlers, soldiers or workers across the islands if you start, say, in Japan. Also, the workers are limited to a minimum of 3 actions before disappearing. Forcing you to constantly make new ones... and I have no problem with that since it limits it instead of the 10 workers you had in IV just waiting for the next city being founded or finding a new discovery that forces you to build a mine on a farm or changing all roads to rails.

Talking about discoveries, they implemented national wonders that you can find around the world, doing certain things enables you to gain advantage for research and you can choose to research one discovery and if it needs something researched before it puts it in the fastest way to get there. Simplicity. I haven't played it that much since there isn't really a point since it's an endless game, you always feel the need for just one more turn. Mostly been playing the actual earth and Rome and Japan since it was the civilisations I played the most in fourth. Bit surprised that it wasn't Caesar and Tokugawa, but hey, more people to learn about. Also rather many new civilisations that I haven't seen before. Haven't played V so they might have been there. Game crashed on me once when I tried to check if it was me that offered peace or if it was Australia and I had to pay for it. It isn't that clear if they mean me or him when they use My and Their. Still, I just gotta... play one more turn.