Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

 

The moon rises yet again!

The final of the three DS games on the collection. And I've played it not that long ago after playing through the Advance Collection since I just wanted to continue the stories. Pretty much the same as last time, except that I actually had to play the game legit from beginning to end. And I recalled that in a normal play, the game is hard. Went through a lot of potions and meals I tell you. 

Overall, it get's better as the game went on, but it's a bit obnoxious. A lot of item and glyph grinding to finish quests or even get enough levels to stand a chance. Cause you gotta do the quest of the villagers to get useful items like the more effective potions and armors. At least the castle actually feels like fully explored compared to Portrait of Ruin. Nice with a lot of voice clips, both the intro scene, all the villagers and a lot more monsters having voices beyond the succubus.

So of the three, I actually end up with Portrait of Ruin the best. Didn't think that back in the day. It's more fun to play through and the choices of weapons and such is more interesting. 

The Dominus Collection then. It was really good. The main three games are good either way, I've only played around the Haunted Castle bonuses on there since it's bit much for me with the arcade feeling of it. One thing I was bothered with was that the three main games wasn't in release order of Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order Ecclesia. No they put it in Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow. I get that they where going for in-game chronology order since Order of Ecclesia is 1888, Portrait of Ruin 1944 and Dawn of Sorrow something like 2036. You get art and music so it's all nice. Some people wished for Symhony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, and I would like that too, but hopefully there will be another collection... and I would like the 64-games as well to see if with a better controller I might get around it. Or Konami can give me a Mystical Ninja collection so that I can have Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon at home.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

Time to break out the whip again!

Well, continued with the other game in the series, Portrait of Ruin. Nothing much to add from the last time I played it. I somehow enjoy this game a bit more than Dawn of Sorrow this time around. I actually almost 100 % the main game by grinding all items from the monsters and such, I got through the Nest of Evil around level 65 compared to the level 80 I was on my first playthrough. Probably got lucky since the Castlevania III cameos got into a loop where I could stand in a corner and whip Trevor until he died, beat Grant after that and Sylpha was rather easy after that moment. Didn't take 8 hours this time, but it was enjoyable enough. It might have to be due to the music, I prefer the music in this game than Dawn of Sorrow, it is more "forceful" here compared to the other game. 

That and the customisation of the main characters. It's fun to change sub-weapons and such compared to the soul system of the last game. The only one that would probably need some work though is Charlotte since it's a lot of changing around spells and such for her being good in special situations. Jonathan is a lot better. Maybe it's the fact it's a whip-wielding hero with options. Or that the quest system is actually rewarding in revisiting area beside grinding. Although, one quest I realised doesn't jive with modern life and that was to talk with Wind when it's between 12 and 1 (am or pm). I work or sleep at that point, I had to do that at midnight between Friday and Saturday pretty much expanding the game for a couple of days. My whole weekend was off after that... god I'm getting old! 

Some things I realised I like less with the game is the map, the castle map is so small, hardly any secret rooms and the left side of the castle map is empty. Usually the map covers the whole screen. And the paintings are pretty much a straight line with a loop back to the beginning. And the fact that the second half of the painting is just the same first maps again is rather boring. But it's a solid game, and there is no touch screen shenanigans that hold Dawn of Sorrow back... at least in the main game.

There is the sisters mode that exclusively plays with the touch controls on the DS. They did the stick option like the in Dawn of Sorrow for the ice breaking ability. It works rather well, I find that Loretta's Ice magic being the best option to traverse the castle since you only need to aim direction. compared to Stella's slash attacks where you need to mov the cursor back and forth. Didn't finish it, I thought I just needed to reach Brauner to finish the mode, forgot you needed to defeat the bosses in each painting in order to get near Brauners sanctum. Maybe I will play the alternate modes some other time when I play through all the games. Less grinding for most of them since there is no items to get.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Castlevania Dominus Collection) (Switch)

 

They are all here!

Well, I didn't think they would port the DS games when I played through them after the Advance collection, but here we are and I had to get them right after the Direct. And I finished Dawn of Sorrow three days later. And I had a better time it seems than last time. Is it that I played it on Normal Mode? Is it due to not having to use touch screen controls? Maybe the bigger screen? Who knows, I enjoyed myself greatly this time either way.

It's the same story so no need to add to that from the last time, so let's go on how the game play. And as mentioned there are improvements. The Magic Seals work using button prompts now, wish they weren't there at all like in Julius mode, but it's workable. Didn't have that much of trouble when I trained up some of the seal combos. They are also nice enough if you miss the first attempt they highlight which buttons to press. Thanks for that!

Then the screen, since it was a duel DS screen in the original they decided to put all three beside each other with the main screen being the gameplay and the others being a status screen and a map. Diminish the need to shuffle around the other screens. Played it mostly on handheld mode due to using the TV for other things. The screen is bigger than my 3DS so no problem with that. It works fine. You have the option to change the screens for example emulate the DS screen set up, but not a single lone screen. I don't know why, at times I would like to have the whole screen with just the battle, for example bosses since I don't need the map and mostly you don't need the status screen. A bit of complaint online about this as well.

I won't play Portrait of Ruin right now since Nintendo also released the next Famicom Detective Club the same week so that will be the weekend game, but I will continue the Dominus Collection after that.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

 

Seems a lot like the characters from Bloodstained.

The final Castlevania-game for the DS and the last entry into the old lore of the series (besides Castlevania: Judgment, but that's a fighter game so doesn't count... and I don't have it as well) before rebooting it with Lords of Shadows. It was also a return for the art style they used on the GBA games and updated the sprites so it wasn't just a copy-paste of previous games.  It is also hard as hell playing from the start since the enemies pack a punch and you can't take anything. Great then to start the game from level 71 and pretty much every equipment and glyph taking away a lot of the grind making it a rather smooth experience.

Story is that since the Belmonts disappeared after the event of Symphony of the Night and Nostradamus prophesy predicting that they shouldn't return until the year 1999 and the final battle with Dracula different orders appeared in their stead to stop Dracula whenever he showed up in the meantime, one of is the Order of Ecclesia, led by the alchemist Barlowe. He has help from Albus and Shanoa, "step-siblings" that lost their parents to the darkness that swore to fight evil. They have created the Dominus glyph which will end Dracula once and for all, but at the night of the ritual Albus interrupts it and steals the glyphs for himself as he was promised to be the one receiving Dominus. The interruption makes Shanoa loose her memories and emotions as well her combat skills so Barlowe trains her quickly to get back the glyphs so that they can defeat Dracula.

Her travels across Transylvania takes her to the village Wygol who's citizens have been kidnapped by Albus and imprisoned in crystal. Rescuing them all and absorbing the seals is the way to get the true ending since by doing so Shanoa absorbs part of the blood that the citizens possess since they are in fact the Belmont Clan in hiding, but without any powers to stop the darkness. At a confrontation in an abandoned mansion Albus is able to absorb the three Dominus Glyphs after studying Shanoa, but is overtaken by the soul of Dracula which the Glyphs are powered by. Shanoa defeats him and get the glyphs back, but the soul of Albus is absorbed by the glyphs and tells Shanoa that he did this because Barlowe promised him that he would be the vessel of Dominus in order to save Shanoa and that the Glyphs are powered by her memories and emotions as well, meaning that Barlowe lied to them. Confronting Barlowe and he is shown to be in league with Dracula and as he is defeated sacrifices his life to destroy the seal upon Dracula's soul so that he can return and his castle shows up again.

Alone Shanoa braves the castle and its dark secrets. At the top of the castle she confronts the resurrected Dracula and as he is about to unleash one final devastating attack, Shanoa assembles the three glyphs of Dominus and defeats him, but to the cost of her soul. Until Albus soul intervene by finding Shanoa's memories and emotions, giving them back to her and then taking her place as the soul sacrifice needed. Shanoa is alive and can finally smile and be happy (and cry) and the game ends.

I won't cry... *sniff*

This game is rather good. Gathering glyphs can be a hassle and it's not always clear what they do by reading the name and description, but it is easy try it around and you got at least three different set-ups compared to Dawn of Sorrows two, a pity the armour isn't switchable in the same way. You finally got to travel the lands of Transylvania for the first time since... is it Castlevania II, III or Bloodlines... maybe Castlevania 64... Curse of Darkness? It has been a while at least. Villagers to talk to get quests and such is rather enjoyable, at least more intuitive than Wind blocking Jonathan from certain rewards that can be helpful to defeat Brauner and rescue his daughters. Also interesting tidbits like the demon possessed child Anne and Danielle the old vampire hunter woman that found vampires along her grandfather... might that have been Richter Belmont? Now, some of you might complain that I played it to easy what with level 70+, but I compensated by the no-hit challenge with bosses instead. If you are able to defeat a boss without taking damage, you get a medal. Equip the Death Ring that boost your stats through the roof, but a single hit kills you, then go to town on the bosses. First two just spam attacks before their first attack, but after that it gets harder, the crab boss being the hardest early boss since it's more about avoiding attacks until you can activate the elevator in the lighthouse to smash it. I thankfully forget all this to after that boss, up until I tired out in Dracula's castle with the shadow man and after that just raced to the finish. 

I recall really hate you the first time through.

Other content is an Albus mode where you play as Albus, attacking everything with your gun and that's it. A bit of a let down compared to the four different modes in the last game. You also get hard mode and such. Music is alright, the best thing though is that you have the option to play any of the tracks from the original Castlevania by buying records and playing them. A bit cumbersome since any room that is a passage between areas reset the music and it is a bit of hassle to go into the item menu and look it up. Still, I found it fun and the rapid flu glyph is amazing to speed things on.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

 

Well, New Generation works rather well for this game

The second DS game and continuation to the Mega Drive Castlevania: Bloodlines. And as of writing... and probably forever, the closest game in the timeline before the Battle of 1999, the event that destroyed Dracula for good mentioned in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow. And we're never gonna see it due to IGA leaving Konami and Konami... being Konami. The lore of these games was fascinating. In this game you play as Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris that defeated Dracula in Bloodlines (who in his turn was son to Quincy Morris that stabbed Dracula in the Bram Stokers Dracula, which is strange since I recall that he was a suitor for Lucy and therefore didn't have any children?) and Charlotte Aulin. It's the end of the second world war and Dracula have appeared so the church has contacted Jonathan to investigate. Turns out that it isn't Dracula, but a vampire named Brauner with his two daughters that summoned the castle which he intends to use in order to destroy the world (he also looks a lot like count Olroc from the silent movie Nosferatu).

On this adventure you also meet Vincent the priest that sells you potions and such and Wind, the ghost of Eric Lecard, the other main player of Bloodlines that died while fighting Brauner in order to stop Dracula's resurrection, which caused his daughters to follow him into the castle and Brauner believing them to be the reincarnations of his daughter's that died in World War 1. Brauner is a painter and have trapped the castle as well as Dracula with his paintings that acts as portals to the worlds painted. You have 18th century english town, a derelict mansion in a forest, a pyramid in the desert and a gravity defying ruined town and circus. So the painting concept allows us to go beyond the usual castle interior that have been standard since Symphony of the Night or something like that. Nice change of pace, Sadly four more stages, which are like mirrored versions of the first ones. Kinda boring, but the bosses is Wolfman, Medusa, the Mummy and Frankenstein, the classic monster villains as well as a staple of Castlevania bosses.

Next us is the fight against the daughters which can be skipped if you found the sanctuary spell and uses that to cure them off their vampireism so that they can help you unlock the Vampire killer. Brauner doesn't take that lightly, but he goes down easy and then Death shows up and kills Brauner and resurrects Dracula that you know have to fight both at the same time. Played it on normal and don't get how I could have so much problem with this as a kid. I mean, I finished it at level 43, when I think I grinded to level 80 or something like that. Maybe mostly for the Nest of Evil, a gauntlet of enemies and bosses from Dawn of Sorrow, and thankfully no stupid magic seal making them so much more fun to fight. There's also other modes, you can play as the sisters that search for their father, a Richter Belmont mode... which isn't that special when the main guy also is a whip wielder. There's also Hard modes and a Living armour mode. Get's overkill on it, but it has a lot to replay the game for.  Takes 8 hour as well. Mostly gets out of the game after 4 hour when I hit the Mansion and Circus level since they are the most boring. 

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

 

At least better than the box in the box version

So, got an urge to replay Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow after playing the Castlevania Anniversary Collection with the game Aria of Sorrow that this is a sequel too. And since I already had a file why not play a New Game + version? Stupid me of course choose Hard Mode. Game starts out somewhere in Japan as Soma Cruz having a... date (?) with Mina Hakuba when suddenly a woman named Celia Fortner shows up and summons a couple of monsters to kill Soma so a new Dark Lord can be chosen. Arikado shows up and hands Soma a knife to fend them off. Celia disappears and Arikado mentions that she is the high priestess of a cult bent on resurrecting the dark lord to prove that... God is good? Well, obviously the cult is crazy.

So Soma with the help of Hammer tracks down the cult to their castle and apparently Arikado have appeared as well together with Julius Belmont and Yoko Belnades. Celia has found two more Dark Lord candidates, Dimitri and Dario and its Soma that gotta stop them. Dimitri is the first one encountered and he has the ability to copy others ability. And he seems to die and Soma absorbs his soul?

Well, that looks painful

Continuing across the castle you find Dario that have the power of fire and hides at the top of the castle. If you beat him here you get the bad ending since the trick is getting the Paranoia soul and use it to enters the mirror in the throne room to fight the demon hiding there to take away Dimitri's powers. With that you gotta confront Celia that seems to have taken Mina and sacrifice her to force Soma into the role of the Dark Lord. If you have equipped Mina's talisman Arikado for some reason appear before its to late and shows that it's a doppelgänger that taken the form of Mina, but this unleashes the dark soul that enters the Doppelgänger and Dimitri is reformed. They head to the abyss and Dimitri sacrifices Celia to gain dominion of a demon that backfires and turns him into an abomination. Which Soma kills, everyone gets out, the end.

I haven't played this game since I got my 3DS (which I can see since there isn't any note in the records of this game) which means that it gotta be at minimum 11-12 years since. Why is that? Mostly because like everyone else I dislike the forced touch screen controls. It's fine with breaking the ice and such, but the damn magic seal. It's so hard to know what you did wrong and there's also a damn time limit. Thank God the final boss didn't have it. Don't know how many times I had to use up potions that I shouldn't have to draw that stupid seal correct. 

I hate you!

It took me somewhere around 8 hours to play through (but then I got all souls before starting the game). Getting the second bad ending (failing to equip Mina's talisman before seeing "her" sacrifice) unlocks Julius mode like in the prior game where you run around as a classic Belmont whip wielding hero, but this time you can get Yoko and Alucard as well and the final boss is Soma that acts like Dracula. Noticed I had a save right before the boss and did some grinding and then defeated Soma. Just about 9 hours. I restarted and played a bit in the beginning of the game and it's kinda fun so that might be future playthroughs if I play through it again, especially since I don't have to use the touch controls. Also, the art is a bit of hit and miss. I've gotten used to it, but it was a bit jarring to go from the previous games art style to a more... I can't say "anime-esque" sine that is true of the GBA games as well, but a more... cartoonish look maybe? Music also... not that many good tracks actually, the wizard lab is nice, but otherwise it's the old tracks like Vampire killer and Bloody Tears that sticks out, as well as the final boss battle theme against Soma with Illusionary Dance as its theme.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch)

 

In the Vampire Hall of Fang, Yeah! 

There's not a vampire zanier than! 

Duckula!

Continued and finished the third and last game of the Advance games. And yet again I summarised it rather well last time. Same observations and the same problem that I start and let it go. Not 7 months like last time, but a week. It goes well until a certain point in the game where every monster is overwhelming in the new area until a couple of bosses later, the giant that takes the giant bat to be exactly. Then the games get easier and you rack up a lot of EXP and levels making the end easier. I could probably extend the game another 10 hours with getting all the souls or playing as Julius to get the Belmont-feel.

What did they do to enhance the game then? Used the same thing from Circle of the Moon and added a pop-up for all the souls, meaning every monster. And a beastiary, but like Harmony of Dissonance not that practical when there is one in game. Great to replay these games after 6 years.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch)

Crack That Whip!

Continuing the Castlevania Collection we got Harmony of Dissonance, Juste Belmonts fight against Dracula. Playing through it again and reading my thoughts I feel the same way for the game. Everything from graphics and music is as mentioned. The added thing was... a monster book? Why? There is one in game? The explanation of the different sub-weapons combinations is rather nifty. They also added a marker for collectable items and relics so that you know which area they are in, but the magic books are not part of that, also a rather strange decision. Not much to say, solid game.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch)

Whip it Good!

Time to replay Circle of the Moon on the Switch with the second Castlevania collection released by Konami. Still a great game. Every moment is enjoyable... well, maybe not the hard sections of the game where I constantly gets pounded by the enemies, mostly at the harder bosses. So there isn't much to say about the game particularly. This version on the other hand has some nifty updates that I'm proud that I identified in my original post. They added a monster book and an explanation for what every card combination did so that you knew how to use them. They also added a notification which you can turn on and off where you hit a monster with a card it will show so that you know who to grind. All great improvements. Only irritating thing with that is that it show for every hit and if you try to look at the right part of the map the note obscures the right parts of the map.

Overall, still good.

Addendum: I found the game at my parents attic so I have the original, as well as the Wii U virtual console... I buy these games all to many times over.

Castlevania Season 2 (TV-series)

Showtime

Finally have a Netflix-account so I could watch the second season. Basically the good guys decide to go to Belmonds old mansion to get information from the archives below the mansion that survived people burning it down. There they also finds things like the morning star and so on. And they do that for 5 episodes out of 8. Episode 6 they fight of demons from Dracula's castle that found them in their library, and then the last they bring Castlevania to their location and then the fight begins.

In the meantime we followed the real stars of the seasons and that is Isaac and Hector, Dracula's generals that wage the war for him. Both human forge masters that creates the minions that are part of the army from the corpses of the killed humans. Hector an outcast necromancer that created pets out of dead animals and then killed his parents as they beat him. Issac a slave that killed his tormenter, a holy knight that beat him with a belt which caused him to constantly flail himself. Now, Hector was the protagonist of a PS2 side game Curse of Darkness which I never played, but was interested in playing, but it didn't get that positive reviews at the time. 

So Dracula gives them the control of the army that upsets the other vampire lords, but they are rather ineffectual until Carmilla shows up that have been part in many Castlevania games and begins plotting by ensnaring Hector in a scheme to overthrow Dracula since his plan to eradicate humankind would end badly for the vampires as well. Meanwhile Isaac in his undying loyalty for Dracula kills one of the vampire lords that where also trying to usurp Dracula's throne. Interesting played by Peter Stormare. Carmilla is able to persuade everyone to attack a certain town, but planned to take the castle for herself and as her own troops began entering the good guys forcefully transports the town right to their location. And finally the battle begin.

And what a battle... all to the sound Bloody Tears. It's the only instance the music is from the game, but what a sound, what a scene. And then the battle with Dracula that raged all over the castle, and Dracula that made one act of compassion by throwing Issac through a portal to the desert to spare him from being killed by the heroes. The battle rages onward and ends only when Alucard and Dracula end up in Alucards bedroom from when he was a child and Dracula once again finds his humanity and realise how his hatred pushed his son away, leaving him open for Alucards killing blow. And that just episode 7. Episode 8 is just the aftermath. Isaac killing some slave traders and beginning to build his own army, Carmilla enslaving Hector so that she can create her own army and Trevor and Sylpha leaving the Belmond mansion and Castlevania to guard its secrets while they travel the land to heal it. And it ends with Alucard sitting in the castle crying and seeing visions of his parents from happier time. Love it, and in march the third season hits (which is incidentalley when I write this so it should be around the corner).

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)

I have plundered time itself, put the world inside it
I'm the mysteries, day and night, divide it
A plague of wonders, on your knees beside me
Know the secrets, you shall not deride us

So instead of doing it like everyone else and play the game first released in the series in wait for the main game I played it afterwards. Or I rather started and didn't finish it until afterwards when I just went for it. Basically an alternative reality from the main game since you play as Zangetsu fighting his way toward he castle. On the way he meets up with Miriam, Alfred and Gebel, allowing Zangetsu to choose if he will let them live or die. I went with letting them live for this playthrough. Which, to the credit of the game made it a lot easier when you could spam homing magic on the final boss, killing it instantly. Always loved a legit method to cheese the final boss. 

Basically it plays like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, although better I gotta say. Casual allows me to play with infinite lives, you don't start at the beginning of the stage if everyone dies, and each character have their own life bar. And you can go back to earlier parts of the game if you missed something and play from there, although I assume you can't wind it forward. Funny enough, Miriam plays like a Belmont with a whip, but with a high jump. Alfred is Sylhpa, and Gebel is Alucard. Zangetsu is the one that stands out since he isn't Grant, but Zangetsu, sword wielding demon slayer. 

Rather fun playing it and the 8-bit graphics speaks to me more than the 3d of the main game. Fun to see all monsters in 8-bit that appeared in 3d in the main game, bosses and all. Game is set up so that the first playthrough leads to Zangetsu sacrificing himself to protect the others as the final boss does it's last strike. Which in like Dawn of Sorrow leads to the other heroes needing to get to him, by doing the game all over. Thanks game! There is one thing I'm a bit miffed over and that is the bosses last desperate attack as they are dying. Some of them are rather easy to avoid, but others don't miss... or rather I'm not good enough to avoid them, but as of yet the characters haven't died of it, but I would be mighty pissed if that would be the case. 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch) part 2

I have plundered time itself, put the world inside it
I'm the mysteries, day and night, divide it
A plague of wonders, on your knees beside me
Know the secrets, you shall not deride us

So after a couple of days I was finally able to boot up the game again and could continue it. Like proper Castlevania the easy way isn't the right way. No, here you needed to traverse the castle in order to find Zangetsu and fight him for a second time after your first meeting. Proving your worth he gives you his blade that can cut the moon in half. And that is your clue that when the full moon behind Gebel turns red, slice it with that sword sewering the demon Gremory from Gebel, releasing him from her possession and giving him peace before the crystal overtakes him and turn him into a red crystal. Meanwhile he drops the Liber Logaeth that Alfred is able to catch with Gremory following him and you hunt for away to enter the other dimension to find them. Find another blood moon and cut it to enter it. There you find Alfred mortally wounded and the plot is revealed.

Gremory worked on the orders of Dominique to get Gebel so that Miriam, the strongest shardbinder of them all would follow and become corrupted by the demons in the castle and then use her powers to unleash Bael. Alfred tried to get the book back to stop it and Dominique set Zangetsu to stop him, but got suspicious when Miriam arrived instead of letting them team up to hunt Gebel. Zangetsu and Alfred talked it over and Zangetsu gave his sword to Miriam since Gremory feared him more than her. Zangetsu arrives with Jonathan that talks to Alfred before he begs forgivness for what he did to Miriam and Gebel, but it was also he who put her to sleep to make the guilds plan fail, thinking it was better to do something and give the world a chance of survival than let the world get destroyed by inaction. And then he passes away.

Zangetsu tells Miriam to follow him as quickly she can since he will trap Gremory now that she thinks him harmless. Traversing the icy domain of the castle you find Zagetsu trapping Gremory in a room with those paper charms before Gremory drags him into a dark dimension. Killing Gremory gives Miriam a teleporting ability and access to the last part of the castle where Dominique awaits. First for she just jumps around whipping you and defeating that form leads her to summon Bael, but before he enters our dimension Miriam jumped in and destroyed him as well as Dominique. Back at the castle Jonathan arrives. Miriam gives him the Liber Logaeth she took from Dominique and using a spell from the book together with explosives  set around the structural weaknesses that Alfred put in place, the castle is destroyed and drawn into its own dimension. Jonathan reveals that Alfreds last words where how he could stop the crystal spreading in Miriam permanently. Miriam puts Zangetsu's sword in the ground and they walk away. Cut back to the sword and it's gone leaving the opening that Zangetsu survived.

It was a fun game, the nods here and there to the Castlevania-series where fun, but also how they distanced themselves from it by doing many things the opposite way. Instead of Gebel throwing fireballs like Count Dracula he throws ice spears, instead of a burning hell, there is an ice hell pretty much. It's pretty much Castlevania in all but name and I like those games. Zangetsu is pretty much a Belmont, but with a sword and until the reveal I though Dominique was akin to Belnandes in the Sorrow-games.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch)

Stranger than the comet as it streaks across the sky
Stranger than the truth I know before my open eyes
I have dealt in mysteries and trickery of light to entertain
Looked into the abyss, called it by its name

Being a fan of the Castlevania-series, and especially the action-rpg games for the Nintendo handhelds it was just a matter of time before getting this game made by the same people for those other games after IGA left Konami. This game was apparently delayed, they released a short 8-bit game in the style of the first Castlevania games, which I got but never finished. This game stars the Shardbinder Miriam, a girl that have been asleep during the last 10 years as the Alchemy guild unleashed demons upon the world by sacrificing the other shardbinders. Sharbinders are somehow fused with a crystal that gives them tremendous power and the ability to absorb demonic powers and use them for themselves. Problem is that the crystals will devour them. The alchemist tried to use them to summon  the king of demons Bael, but since Miriam fell asleep they didn't have enough power. They still went through with it, but it failed and instead unleashed lesser demons upon the world wrecking havoc and killing innocents. All but two shardbinders where killed, one being Miriam and the other Gebel, her best friend. Gebel seems to go insane and starts killing alchemist and disappears... and then Miriam wakes up.

Together with Jonathan, an alchemist apprentice that tried to stop the ritual they set out to stop Gebel, and are helped by Dominique, an exorcist from the church. They travel to the Alchemist Guild location where a demonic castle have appeared and fused with the guild base. Miriam rescues a couple of villagers just outside the village and heads into the castle to find Gebel. From here it plays like any other Metroidvania game. Miriam is very much like Soma Cruz from Aria of Sorrow (GBA) and Dawn of Sorrow (DS) that takes the souls from the monsters and can use their abilities as weapons, abilities, summons or stat boosts. Dominique acts as a shopkeeper where you can buy stuff or sell things you don't need or even shards. Jonathan can use his alchemist skills to create weapons, items, shards or food or just enhance the shards you got. That one is new for me and is one of the more fun things in the game since you gather ingredients and such making it a bit more justifiable to carry those 20 rings. There's also a couple of quest giving villagers. One gives you a couple of bounty hunters quest in order to avenge the killed villagers. The other is a nun that want to give the dead one a proper burial so you gather different things and bury with the dead. The third one is some old lady that wants some food.

You're not alone in searching the castle for Gebel. Skulking around is also Zangetsu, a demon hunter from Japan that have been asked by Dominique to find Gebel and Alfred, Jonathan's master that ensured that the corruption of Gebel and Miriam from the crystal didn't kill them but now looks for the Liber Logaeth, the book that was used to summon the demons in the first place. Other denizens are the cursed barber Todd and O.D., the vampire librarian. Good time to mention that the game is voice acted and you got David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake, as Zangetzu and O.D. is voiced by the same voice actor that did Alucard in the original Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Cool.

It's a fun game if you like the Metroidvania games. Music is great and it looks good as well, but I don't know if I'm all that into the 3d character models and such. I assume also that is the reason why the game gets seriously sluggish when too much is going on, especially in rooms that are gigantic, like the Twin Towers that sometimes feared the game would crash. Of course, the reason why it might not was due to me waiting until they released a patch at the beginning of November that solved the most egreroius parts, with another patch supposed to follow afterwards. Apparently the Switch version was almost unplayable before they fixed some bugs and stuff. Still, I got to Gebel began slashing away and after some time I gets out victorious, Miriam stands outside the castle and... Game Over? I beat the boss what more do you demand of me?.... What do you mean I only finished 60 % of the map? Great, now the game crashed and didn't allow me to finish it... guess I have to wait a bit before continuing.

To be continued...

Castlevania: The Adventure (Switch)

Mortal terror reigned
Sickness now then horrible death
Only Lucy knew the truth
And at her window
Nosferatu

I got this for the 3DS, but never finished it... or rather played it at all. Part of my collectors OCD that gets me to get it to play someday. Part of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection I got it again and this time, I actually played it and finished it for the first time. A gameboy game so we will probably see some changes to the formula. It stars a Christopher Belmont some 100 years before Simon Belmont and it's his turn to fight off the evil count. There is no subweapons and instead you can upgrade your whip to shoot fire balls. At least there is no stairs this time around... instead you get ropes. It's gonna be that kinda game.

Apparently not that well received at launch. First off it's rather short with only four stages. And then it's the difficulty. And really there is only one stage that is ridiculously hard, and it's hard. The third stage is the torture chamber and begins with an area with a spiked ceiling that you have to traverse. Then follows a segment where you have to climb up while a spiked floor follows and then a spiked wall hunts you from the right to left. Insane stuff. The game also have a problem with lag with both monsters and candles. But at least it has a Dracula transformation.

Die Monster! You don't Belong in this World!

It was apparently remade as Castlevania Rebirth for the Wii Eshop (which no longer work), and I got it through my Wii U, but I never finished it. Maybe someday since I got a bit of training with all these old-school Castlevania games. Back to this game. Graphics decently for a Gameboy game. Music alright, mostly rearranged version of old songs I think. A good thing is that you actually can choose if you want the game displayed in Black & White, Green or colour. Why couldn't the 3DS fix that for its gameboy games? Would I recommend this game? Not as standalone, and the third stage is absurdly hard if you would do it legit (THANK GOD for save state). 

Super Castlevania IV (Switch)

Only a woman can break his spell
Pure in heart who will offer herself
To Nosferatu

Choosing Blue Öyster Cult's Nosferatu lyrics below the game cover was just a fun bit and the only vampire song that I had at the front of my mind, but it seems to have suited up better than expected with the curse mentioning in the second verse, the ship in the third and then the fourth is the refrain again (although had it been the first verse again it would have been even better) for the remake. Good choice on me. Back to the game. I completed it lastly back in 2014 for the Wii U and wrote of it here.  Much faster this time since I didn't spend a couple of months fighting Death. 

Pretty much a reimagining of the first game. Better graphics and music higher quality and certain songs are really good, but I miss certain songs from the original game like the music for the stage toward Death. Better gameplay since you have more control than ever and it's rather refreshing after the earlier first games. So game is better in most ways. The only thing now I would say is a bit disappointing is the ending battle with Dracula. Don't get me wrong, battling him is intense (reminder to myself, get the cross as a subweapon for Dracula next time compared to the holy water) and when Simon's theme kicks in at the end of the game it is awesome. But why isn't there a second transformation? Every game (besides Castlevania II) have had Dracula transformations. It began in the first game so why not here? On the other hand I'm glad it wasn't that hard. Still, games good.

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!

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Switch)

Only a woman can break his spell
Pure in heart who will offer herself
To Nosferatu

The second game in the series and takes place 7 years after the first where Simon has to travel the land of Transylvania in search of Dracula's relics spread out in different mansions in order to summon Dracula and kill him of and stop the curse that have been laid on Simon. In parts I actually like this game more than the first, mostly since I can see that if I had the game as a kid I might been able to win it. First of it's "open world", go where you want if you can handle the enemies. Secondly, it introduced RPG elements like EXP and levels rewarding defeating enemies so you can take more damage and survive the harsher environments. Thirdly, you can permanently upgrade your weapons and buy helping aids like laurels. And you can choose between your subweapons freely. All that makes it more likely that I could have won the game. Also the relics give Simon different abilities, of course better used in later games like Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance.

That said, there are problems with the game, better articulated by the AVGN, but take the cryptic nature of the crystals you carry with you and where to use them. I can see certain hints in the village, but the translation butchered parts of them and the other part is that the game gives itself an excuse to lie to the player with the corruption of Dracula. Still, with pen and paper I feel one should be able to do it. This time I even got the best ending that is determined by how many day/night cycles you go through before finishing of Dracula. To do this I skipped picking up certain upgrades for the whip since I didn't have enough hearts passing through (hearts are both the EXP and currency, also, after a certain level-threshold weaker enemies don't give EXP). That made traversing certain mansions and areas harder, but I still made it. The reward was a nice ending cutscene with Simon kneeling before the grave of Dracula and when the night comes, Dracula's hand raises from the grave.

THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!

Music is decent, not many tracks at all. Hardly any bosses which feels like they run out of time implementing since shouldn't there be a boss at every mansion? And I think you can skip one boss since it doesn't do anything other than give you a certain subweapon and doesn't even block the way to the relic of the mansion. Like my fascination for Zelda II I probably would play this game more often than the other games in the series for the NES. First time playing it was the Wii Virtual Console, and I got it for Wii U and 3DS as well. Interesting that it is seen as a bad game, even though it pretty much laid the foundation for the GBA-games that I recall where loved by most people. I've seen Egoraptors point on that as well, and I can see that it might have some coverage, but still.

Castlevania (Switch)

Deep in the heart of Germany
Lucy clutched her breast in fear
She heard the beat of her lover's heart
For weeks she raved in dreams he appeared
From far Transylvania

So now I played through the original Castlevania once again, this time for the switch with its Castlevania Anniversary Collection. First time playing it was for the Game Boy Advance when it was released as one of the NES Classics and since I liked the other Castlevania games for the Game Boy Advance (Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow) I thought it would be fun. I was a bit disappointed actually. The furthest I got was to the Frankenstein Monster Boss and since their was no way to "cheese it" as the kids call it, I never finished it there. Got it for the Virtual Console on the Wii, didn't fare much better. The Wii U on the other hand with its save state functionality was the first time I pushed through the game, and another time on the 3DS and now this.

The game isn't bad, but when you expect something like the Action RPGs and get just an action game, my skills aren't really up for task. Since I haven't played it as a kid, I have to cheese it to not loose my mind since the muscle memory doesn't exist and I don't want to spend all those hours that I would need to play it legit. It's still fun to play through, the music is fantastic and even though I save scum to win, it's still hard to actually get to the end and fight of the bosses. The story as told before is that Simon Belmont is on his way through Dracula's castle, Castlevania in order to end the vampire lords rule over the land of Transylvania. You battle armies of bats, skeletons, armoured knights and several other staple of monsters. Then we have the bosses, a giant bat, Medusa, a pair of Mummies, Frankensteins monster and Igor, Death and Dracula himself.

This ain't looking good

It's not a long game, fun to play once and awhile. The action style of Castlevania games isn't my cup of tea, I prefer RPGs, mostly since I don't need to be super good at the gameplay.

Star Fox Adventure (GCN)

I actually liked it

Since I was playing the N64 again I thought give the Rare games a spin since I don't own a console that can play those game at home (the one and only reason I ever is interested in a XBox One in order to get the Rare Replay... and maybe the Mistwalker games). Sadly my sister have taken the Banjo-Kazooie games that I first intended to play so I picked up Diddy Kong Racing instead. Never finished it and didn't do it this time either, but I got further and only have one single stage left before defeating the dragon boss for the second time. So I picked up Jet Force Gemini, still stuck at the double boss at Lupus stage. Picked up Perfect Dark and got to the end boss on easy, but got killed. Tried getting invincible cheat to finally see the end credits, no. Couldn't finish the first stage on hard and actually got out of the Datadyne Tower intro stages on medium difficulty, but not further than that. Put in GoldenEye instead, sound not working so I should probably try to clean the cartridge and couldn't finish the first stage. Then I put in Shadow of the Empire instead, finished the speed-racer and space station stages before the sewer did me in. Put on some Castlevania 64 and actually got to the castle for the first time, where I got my ass kicked and closed the game. Then I remembered another Rare game, Star Fox Adventure on the GameCube.  No memory card though since all of them was at my place so I played the first half of the game in one go and then restarted when I got home on my Wii with memory card plugged in.

I think the graphics looks nice 16 years after the release (compared to many N64 games).

Simply put the game starts with the fox girl Krystal arriving at Dinosaur planet following a distress signal on a pterodactyl (called Cloudrunners in the game) where she is attacked by a flying ship that belongs to general Scales, the tyrant that almost have conquered the planet. Her staff fall to the planet and she is able to esquape to Krazoa palace, a holy place for the dinosaurs where she finds a krazoa spirit and releases it in the temple, but she gets caught in a crystal (ha) by an unseen force. Cut to the Star Fox team that have lost Falco and gets a mission by General Pepper to investigate Dinosaur Planet since it threatens to blow up the whole system (since the planet is being teared apart by the magical forces in the planet when Scales took the four Spellstones that kept the energies in check). As Fox arrives at the planet he is tasked with finding the prince of the Earthwalkers (triceratops) that have been kidnapped by the SharpClaw clan (General Scales army).  Doing so put Prince Tricky as your companion that can help in certain puzzles. 

Escort Mission: The Game

So get the Gatekeepers to open the portals to the floating continents in space, fly there, get spellstone, take it to one of two force point temples, get a Krazoa spirit and take it to the Krazoa palace in order to release it, rinse and repeat. And I gotta say, I liked the game when it came out, I finished it several times, but playing it again... it's rather linear. There's hardly any sidequests and only thing is getting stuff you don't actually need. Mostly cheat tokens that hardly does anything or Bafamdads (1-ups) that you hardly will use after the first spellstone gives you an extra heart container, or Airwing energy-balls that you need a minimum amount of that you shouldn't have any problem with getting. Your progress is constantly determined if you can get item A or do quest B that enables you to get onward, either giving you a ability or giving you the ability for more money to get another item or pay your way past a checkpoint. Why? Why can't I explore and try to find the krazoas in between on my own? Is this Rare's commentary on the rail-shooter by doing the whole adventure on the same style? Well, the reason is that the development got cut short since Microsoft bought out Rare and they finished this as their final game for Nintendo. And it was even in development for the N64, but titles Dinosaur Planet and without anything Star Fox. Now, I know that some people would have liked to see the original intent (and I would lie if I wasn't curious at the time the gaming magazines reported on it) and some people seems to really hate this Star Fox game. I get it if you want a on rails-shooter, but to me this was much more fun than the rails-shooter. It had enough deep story (although now I would say there's some weird things story wise). Then again, I only played the original Star Fox game and not the N64 that everyone seems to love.

I really like the design of the Airwing in this

You get all the stuff and at the top of Krazoa Palace a mysterious force makes General Scales give Fox the last spirit and releasing that and freeing Krystal, Andross awakens once again (being the mysterious force that trapped Krystal and controlled Scales) so Fox follows him on the Airwing and after fighting of the first waves of Andross Falco appears giving you bombs so Fox can blow the brains of Andross once again. Day saved, pay check arrived and Krystal thanks Fox by joining the Star Fox crew. It felt a bit rushed in the end, especially that you never fought General Scales and Andross was a bit from the left field, although it can be chalked up to be the constant enemy for Fox... although he wasn't there for the next two games if I recall. Overall I still liked it, but it is a bit much gathering items that you hardly use (why do I need 31 fairies to light my way when it's only required twice or to have over 100 energy-balls when only around 20 is necessary to complete the game?) and the linearity of the game makes replays rather redundant. You can't really miss anything except things that doesn't help you in any way. Wish they were able to let it stew a bit longer, but sadly it wasn't to be, but it was at least over 10 hours to play the game, but I have forgotten much since I was perplexed several times over the solutions of the puzzles.