This one has been on my backlog for years, I just kept putting it off for a bunch of reasons: I've been disappointed by "classics" before, I'm rubbish at all the earlier entries, the only one I really loved is the odd-one-out Simon's Quest, and of the later ones I've only played Order of Ecclesia, in which I got stuck and bored. I've long been prepared to have a bad time, but with Halloween just around the corner I figured I'd given it a chance.

Turns out it's fuckin incredible. The music, the masterful use of 3D effects to enhance the 2D world, the rigid yet finely-tuned combat, the stumbled-upon secrets that would have made you wildly popular on the playground, the daft accessories...cool glasses, rainbow cape, platform shoes and nunchucks, Alucard's got it all.

If I'd played this back then, I just know I'd have gone through it over and over until it became a comfort game, much like Super Metroid or Ocarina. If they ever put it on Switch so I don't have to sit down in front of the TV and operate the goddamn PS4 then maybe I'll get there someday.

God, grant me strength!

I'm upsettingly rubbish at Castlevania. The rigidity just doesn't feel right to me, I feel like every move I make is immediately countered while I'm stuck in my current animation, as if I've fundamentally misunderstood the flow of play. I sort of coped with this on the NES games (though I seriously abused save states at times), but a 16-bit dude should have more moves. Please?

Looks and sounds great though, I really hope I get to see it all someday.

I've been itching for something like this since the summer I spent playing nothing but TIE Fighter, and yet again I am a fool for thinking I could ever get back there.

There's stuff I like, but overall it's slow and dull and what the hell is going on with the HUD? Really ugly videogamey information overload. Of course I soon turned all that off and played using the ship's instruments only, which sounded right up my street, but then I got shouted at for not refilling my missiles because I had zero indication where to do that. If someone can point me to an optimal compromise setup then I might stop my grumbling, but as of now I'm still grumbling.

In the first mission I was chasing someone but they got away and the mission just ended and dumped me to a menu. I tried again and pretty much caught them but then there was a cutscene where they got away anyway, and that counted as mission complete. Dumb crap.

I'm sorry to complain about the star war I'm just very disappointed :/

This one is something else. You won't find madness quite like this anywhere but here. Commit the time and focus and you might just fall in love. And the tunes! Maybe the first time I splashed out on an official soundtrack.


And artbook.


And actual copy of the game after playing a bunch of it badboy style.