played using the Super Castlevania IV Uncensored hack
"Mid July, 2017: Now that I've been getting into games before my time, it's time to finally dive into Castlevania. I picked up Aria Of Sorrow, since I already saw footage of it thanks to a YouTube video, and Super Castlevania IV cause it was supposed to be a great entry point. Time to start with this one and... huh? This was what I was hyped up to believe was one of the best 2D platformers ever, let alone on the SNES? A visual drivel containing unmemorable setpieces and music, and a dull difficulty "curve" that doesn't become truly challenging until near the end because I can whip in any direction like a moron? Pass, guess I'm just gonna one of the guys that's a fan of the Metroidvania (fuck you I'm not using Search Action, that's legit a more limiting term) style... wait, the first game's actually super good and not nearly as hard as people make it out to be? The third game is truly one of the best 2D outings you can buy so long as its the Famicom release? Bloodlines is a better 16-bit showcase of what the franchise can now do? Rondo Of Blood is now one of my favorite games ever? Huh... I'm pretty glad I kept pushing on with Classicvania, but now I'm left with one question:
why did people like this?"
Late January, 2023: Man there's been an obnoxious amount of people trying to act like this was "when the franchise became good", they're becoming the same annoying pricks who think turn based RPGs are only good when they're INSERT NINTENDO FRANCHISE HERE. They're just fans of this specific entry, which would be fine if they stopped acting so high and mighty about it and think they know what they're talking about with "archaic design" (purposefully built on positioning and adaptability like a Mega Man game) and "obnoxious enemy placement" (becoming impatient, not utilizing the many different subweapons for optimal attack, and failing to recognize patterns, with exceptions of course). The only thing keeping me from becoming uber-aggressive about it is from the radical shift in public opinion SCIV has been receiving, probably cause RoB's gotten more ways to be played and more people are talking about Bloodlines. I've been feeling stubborn about replaying this for years, but fuck it, I have nothin to do for the moment, and I'm motivated after Weatherby wrote their review for it, might as well.
What's the point of having the Holy Water, Dagger, and even Axe be here if whipping in any which way and doing the whip dangle is just as, if not more effective? I can do a diagonal attack at a standstill and hit the aerial enemies, crouch down or jump and hit a small enemy in a pendulum motion, and even attack on stairs with the whip now. What happened to that careful planning from before? Now I just feel more encouraged to stockpile hearts for the Cross, which at least still requires some tactful plays, and the Stopwatch. Also doesn't help some of these bosses are so pitifully easy, excluding or including the cross. Let's see here, the only time this mindset doesn't apply is in... 5-8 situations throughout the game's 11 stages, each containing about 2-4 sections within them. Great.... wait wait wait, why is this game so long now that I think about it? Wouldn't it be better to have some of these paths in alt routes like Dracula's Curse did? It'd not only make for replayability, but also lessen this feeling of arduous tedium from having to do all of them at once.
Why do people like this?
The music's like, fine, but what's with the reverence for it? Sounds like the composition team were told to make an atmospheric soundscape and went from there. Simon's Theme has some alright synths and gorgeous organs, but the drums are so tinny and the bass is lacking, making this one of the few times I feel like the rearrangements and remixes majorly stomp all over the original piece. What'd they do to Beginnings and Vampire Killer? This doesn't feel like the final stretch, feels like Simon's just about to keel over and take a nap! The Caves is pretty alright, some nice alteration the two instrument's melodies and, but it doesn't really have anything on Clockwork Mansion a few stages over with its drum rolls, plucks of strings, and more beautiful organs. Entrance Hall and The Chandeliers are pretty good too. Still though, this isn't what I consider to be "grand music", and of the SNES games I've dabbled in, it's nowhere near the best OST.
I'm still not really sure I understand...
I know this was a launch title, but the aesthetics are unruly garish, and not in an appealing way. Nothing really stands out compared to what you can find in the NES games, even including Simon's Quest, and the other two 16-bit titles. Colors are so needlessly saturated even with Ares' CRT filter applied, and stuff like 3-1 feel like hurtful noise to the senses. Goofy Halloween vibes? The only thing goofy about it is... oh, whoa, I don't remember Stage 3-3 having these lovely blues as the water. Did the halls of Stage 4 and Stage 6 always contain these different hues and tones, I only remembered the Mode 7 setpieces. I wish Stage 8 didn't contain such similar looking palettes, cause the actual detail within the foreground and background are pretty damn good, but at least Stage 9 makes up for it with how the treasury is laid out. Hm... though it still doesn't suit my senses and I doubt I'd still remember everything like I could for the other entries, maybe it isn't as bad as I once thought, there's some good stuff going on here.
I... think I get it?
Hmmm.... I still loathe the changes to the whip and changes to the subweapons, but I gotta admit once 3-3 comes on, this can be pretty fun to break open. I could've sworn the whole grapple aspect fell off after Stage 4, but this gets some fair mileage actually, though they still should've leaned harder on what the whip can now do instead of keeping it mostly the same. Wow, finally some fun encounters and thinking with the enemy, it took until the midway point but better late than never I guess. These bosses are still kinda lame though, but I'll concede in that maybe holding onto the Stopwatch is becoming guilty of the same stubbornness I criticize others of doing since Sir Grakul, Akmodan, Slogra, and Death got me to put in more effort into what I"m doing, and I felt limited since I can't be able to use it in this game like in the first game. That being said, why'd they gotta go all-in on the understandably cheap aspects of insta-pits and one hit spikes? These are already pretty adequately laid out such as the use of turning platforms and tight object drops, they could've cut it back a bit. Man some of these scenarios are gimmicky, but I'll gladly take the block paths in Stage 4-4, the intermediate and lax nature of Stage 5, pretty much everything in Stage 7, and of course the Clock Tower, they stand out. Aw fuck, now that I'm writing this, I learned there's some pretty cool secret rooms to uncover, I don't usually dabble in doing this but they look cool.
This Dracula fight is somethin... it's probably the only time in the game to really get me to act like how I usually am with the other Classicvanias. The fire attack sucks shit, and the timing window for the lightning pillar is a smidge too tight for my liking... yet there's something about this allurement that pushes me to keep trying. Feels like even the designers figured this out with that secret invisible staircase right before the actual leadup. I gotta admit, timing the triple shot cross attack, combining the jump turns with whip movements, finalizing the kinks of these patterns... seems like there's still a little bit of the old formula under the hood after all. Would never recommend this as a starting point at all cause of the extremities taken in streamlining this, especially since there's still the first games and even Bloodlines if people really wanna go at it, but I guess I was a wee bit harsher on SCIV than necessary.
Alright, I get it now. This isn't and won't ever be for me, but I understand the appeal finally, after all these years.
"Mid July, 2017: Now that I've been getting into games before my time, it's time to finally dive into Castlevania. I picked up Aria Of Sorrow, since I already saw footage of it thanks to a YouTube video, and Super Castlevania IV cause it was supposed to be a great entry point. Time to start with this one and... huh? This was what I was hyped up to believe was one of the best 2D platformers ever, let alone on the SNES? A visual drivel containing unmemorable setpieces and music, and a dull difficulty "curve" that doesn't become truly challenging until near the end because I can whip in any direction like a moron? Pass, guess I'm just gonna one of the guys that's a fan of the Metroidvania (fuck you I'm not using Search Action, that's legit a more limiting term) style... wait, the first game's actually super good and not nearly as hard as people make it out to be? The third game is truly one of the best 2D outings you can buy so long as its the Famicom release? Bloodlines is a better 16-bit showcase of what the franchise can now do? Rondo Of Blood is now one of my favorite games ever? Huh... I'm pretty glad I kept pushing on with Classicvania, but now I'm left with one question:
why did people like this?"
Late January, 2023: Man there's been an obnoxious amount of people trying to act like this was "when the franchise became good", they're becoming the same annoying pricks who think turn based RPGs are only good when they're INSERT NINTENDO FRANCHISE HERE. They're just fans of this specific entry, which would be fine if they stopped acting so high and mighty about it and think they know what they're talking about with "archaic design" (purposefully built on positioning and adaptability like a Mega Man game) and "obnoxious enemy placement" (becoming impatient, not utilizing the many different subweapons for optimal attack, and failing to recognize patterns, with exceptions of course). The only thing keeping me from becoming uber-aggressive about it is from the radical shift in public opinion SCIV has been receiving, probably cause RoB's gotten more ways to be played and more people are talking about Bloodlines. I've been feeling stubborn about replaying this for years, but fuck it, I have nothin to do for the moment, and I'm motivated after Weatherby wrote their review for it, might as well.
What's the point of having the Holy Water, Dagger, and even Axe be here if whipping in any which way and doing the whip dangle is just as, if not more effective? I can do a diagonal attack at a standstill and hit the aerial enemies, crouch down or jump and hit a small enemy in a pendulum motion, and even attack on stairs with the whip now. What happened to that careful planning from before? Now I just feel more encouraged to stockpile hearts for the Cross, which at least still requires some tactful plays, and the Stopwatch. Also doesn't help some of these bosses are so pitifully easy, excluding or including the cross. Let's see here, the only time this mindset doesn't apply is in... 5-8 situations throughout the game's 11 stages, each containing about 2-4 sections within them. Great.... wait wait wait, why is this game so long now that I think about it? Wouldn't it be better to have some of these paths in alt routes like Dracula's Curse did? It'd not only make for replayability, but also lessen this feeling of arduous tedium from having to do all of them at once.
Why do people like this?
The music's like, fine, but what's with the reverence for it? Sounds like the composition team were told to make an atmospheric soundscape and went from there. Simon's Theme has some alright synths and gorgeous organs, but the drums are so tinny and the bass is lacking, making this one of the few times I feel like the rearrangements and remixes majorly stomp all over the original piece. What'd they do to Beginnings and Vampire Killer? This doesn't feel like the final stretch, feels like Simon's just about to keel over and take a nap! The Caves is pretty alright, some nice alteration the two instrument's melodies and, but it doesn't really have anything on Clockwork Mansion a few stages over with its drum rolls, plucks of strings, and more beautiful organs. Entrance Hall and The Chandeliers are pretty good too. Still though, this isn't what I consider to be "grand music", and of the SNES games I've dabbled in, it's nowhere near the best OST.
I'm still not really sure I understand...
I know this was a launch title, but the aesthetics are unruly garish, and not in an appealing way. Nothing really stands out compared to what you can find in the NES games, even including Simon's Quest, and the other two 16-bit titles. Colors are so needlessly saturated even with Ares' CRT filter applied, and stuff like 3-1 feel like hurtful noise to the senses. Goofy Halloween vibes? The only thing goofy about it is... oh, whoa, I don't remember Stage 3-3 having these lovely blues as the water. Did the halls of Stage 4 and Stage 6 always contain these different hues and tones, I only remembered the Mode 7 setpieces. I wish Stage 8 didn't contain such similar looking palettes, cause the actual detail within the foreground and background are pretty damn good, but at least Stage 9 makes up for it with how the treasury is laid out. Hm... though it still doesn't suit my senses and I doubt I'd still remember everything like I could for the other entries, maybe it isn't as bad as I once thought, there's some good stuff going on here.
I... think I get it?
Hmmm.... I still loathe the changes to the whip and changes to the subweapons, but I gotta admit once 3-3 comes on, this can be pretty fun to break open. I could've sworn the whole grapple aspect fell off after Stage 4, but this gets some fair mileage actually, though they still should've leaned harder on what the whip can now do instead of keeping it mostly the same. Wow, finally some fun encounters and thinking with the enemy, it took until the midway point but better late than never I guess. These bosses are still kinda lame though, but I'll concede in that maybe holding onto the Stopwatch is becoming guilty of the same stubbornness I criticize others of doing since Sir Grakul, Akmodan, Slogra, and Death got me to put in more effort into what I"m doing, and I felt limited since I can't be able to use it in this game like in the first game. That being said, why'd they gotta go all-in on the understandably cheap aspects of insta-pits and one hit spikes? These are already pretty adequately laid out such as the use of turning platforms and tight object drops, they could've cut it back a bit. Man some of these scenarios are gimmicky, but I'll gladly take the block paths in Stage 4-4, the intermediate and lax nature of Stage 5, pretty much everything in Stage 7, and of course the Clock Tower, they stand out. Aw fuck, now that I'm writing this, I learned there's some pretty cool secret rooms to uncover, I don't usually dabble in doing this but they look cool.
This Dracula fight is somethin... it's probably the only time in the game to really get me to act like how I usually am with the other Classicvanias. The fire attack sucks shit, and the timing window for the lightning pillar is a smidge too tight for my liking... yet there's something about this allurement that pushes me to keep trying. Feels like even the designers figured this out with that secret invisible staircase right before the actual leadup. I gotta admit, timing the triple shot cross attack, combining the jump turns with whip movements, finalizing the kinks of these patterns... seems like there's still a little bit of the old formula under the hood after all. Would never recommend this as a starting point at all cause of the extremities taken in streamlining this, especially since there's still the first games and even Bloodlines if people really wanna go at it, but I guess I was a wee bit harsher on SCIV than necessary.
Alright, I get it now. This isn't and won't ever be for me, but I understand the appeal finally, after all these years.
10 Comments
3/5? Grant DaNasty is en route to your location.
that can't be right, the Castlevania adaptation told me he doesn't exist!
Well I guess you're going to find out... Tonight!
I've been in a real Castlevania mood after playing Symphony of the Night and been thinking of running through the entire series (except the mobile and arcade game). I also wasn't a fan of SCIV after playing it, but curious to see what I'd think about it now.
Also based search action hater. I will forever use Metroidvania.
Also based search action hater. I will forever use Metroidvania.
I'm not sure how to put it more elegantly, but my take on this whole name debacle is that Search Action would've been fine early on, however since we've had several different titles within the genre leaning towards the -vania part - that being the RPG, more fantastical and elemental attributes and design instead of the action, more "grounded" approach - over the years it's... not as inclusive and well-rounded anymore, if that makes.
I won't deny Metroidvania is a rather "quirky" (derogatory) term that should've been tossed aside once and replaced with something more fitting, its garnered a largely similar case of Soulsborne (albeit that one rolls off the tongue a little better), yet at the very least it still establishes the different forms and threads for entries falling under the umbrella by comparison.
Then again, this is all semantics anyway. The only reason we'd have a discussion this serious about it is cause we're all giant nerds. I doubt more lenient and casual (saying this with upmost neutrality) players don't think too deeply about this.
I won't deny Metroidvania is a rather "quirky" (derogatory) term that should've been tossed aside once and replaced with something more fitting, its garnered a largely similar case of Soulsborne (albeit that one rolls off the tongue a little better), yet at the very least it still establishes the different forms and threads for entries falling under the umbrella by comparison.
Then again, this is all semantics anyway. The only reason we'd have a discussion this serious about it is cause we're all giant nerds. I doubt more lenient and casual (saying this with upmost neutrality) players don't think too deeply about this.
I like the term "Loseyourwayers", but that's probably only really apt for Simon's Quest.
"goingonwardupwards" could be used for all those dang vertical sections the series loves to do
good review however your rating upsets me so i have to say: not cool dawg.
No.... no!!!!! Not the dreaded text!!!!!!!
BlazingWaters
1 year ago