[♪ Theme of Simon Belmont - Super Castlevania IV ♪]
Life fucking sucks. And so does this game.
After "Castlevania" on Nintendo 64, I'd given up hope for the next great game in the series.
Several years later, I realized I've been looking in the wrong place.
Like I said before, I stuck with the Nintendo consoles
and I missed out on the on the other Castlevania games.
Like "Castlevania Bloodlines" on the Sega Genesis.
[♪ Bloodlines - Castlevania Bloodlines ♪]
That's what you call Castlevania.
Traditional, side scrolling action.
Familiar, yet fresh.
It takes place all over Europe, rather than just strictly in Transylvania.
You get a choice of two characters
John Morris & Eric LeCarde
I wonder what happened to the Belmonts?
Who are these people?
Well supposedly, John Morris is the son of Quincy Morris
from "Dracula", the Bram Stoker novel.
That just blew my mind.
It's like now we are bringing the novel into it?
So, the whole canon of the games, is now with the canon of the book...
And its like taking two "cannons" and putting the together.
Anyway, this is a great game
for the Sega Genesis library.
But it's still not on par with Castlevania IV.
Whipping in eight directions,
the moonwalking, all that's gone.
The graphics, the sounds, the gameplay...
It's all really good,
but it's not AS good.
Then I turned to the Playstation,
the console which I underestimated so much.
There I found "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night".
Holy hot damn...
This is fucking good.
[♪ Dracula's Castle - Castlevania Symphony of the Night ♪]
The graphics and sound are superb...
But there is some pretty cheesy voice acting.
The game is a sequel to "Dracula X".
In the opening scene you play as Richter Belmont
battling Dracula.
The rest of the game you play as Alucard.
Who's powerful as fuck.
Anything that stands in your way, no matter how big...
one hit and it just fuckin' explodes.
That is, until you meet Death, who takes all your weapons away.
Now, Alucard sucks.
All you get is this dinky sword
and every enemy takes like 9 million hits to kill.
As you go through the game, you gain power-ups.
and upgrade your weapons.
Which is like many games, but to start you off with the good weapons and then take them away...
...is just fuckin' teasing you.
Alucard has this backward dash, but I never found a reason to use it.
Other than to go slightly faster.
...and what are these skeletons
Shooting lasers out their cocks?
The one thing I truly hate about this game
is that whenever you die, you go back to the main menu.
In the other games, you get a continue screen.
That's all you need, right?
But here, you gotta wait for the screen to melt
Then you gotta stare at the game over screen
[annoyed] Oh, come on...
This takes forever...
And then it's back to the title screen.
Hit start...
Then select the file...
Wait for the screen to load...
And then pick your saved game.
"AnalBag", that's me.
Then you gotta wait for the game to load...
[annoyed] Come on!
And finally, you continue from your last save point.
That. Is fucking atrocious.
The boss battles are epic.
In the end, you have to fight a dark priest named Shaft.
But what's up with the name?
Seriously, Shaft?
[♪ Shaft - Isaac Hayes ♪]
[♪ Shaft - Isaac Hayes ♪] "Damn right!"
And after that, you fight Dracula.
And... just... uh... wow. Holy shit.
The last and most important thing I have to address with this game
is its game play style.
It's the major breakthrough, what sets it apart from the previous games in the series.
Instead of the simple linear style, it goes for a "Metroid" style...
with endless forks in the road, save points, and a map system.
It's EXACTLY like "Metroid", and thats why many fans refer to it as "Metroidvania".
It also has some RPG elements.
By fighting monsters, you earn experience points, and when you get enough experience points,
you level up your power.
There's all kinds of potions, items, and armor
weapons, and sub-weapons.
and this is a HUGE game.
It takes hours to get through the castle.
Does Dracula really need such a big place to live?
And if tha'ts not enough, you have to go through the whole castle all over again, upside down.
Anyway, this "Metroid" style of Castlevania would become the dominant style of Castlevania for the rest of time.
Sure, there was a 3D game every now and then, and it pretty much took on every style imaginable.
But never again was there another classic linear Castlevania.
The console versions continued to experiment...
While the portable versions followed "Symphony of the Night" as the example.
Pretty much the whole games takes place inside the castle.
I missed all that spooky scenery.
The old games had cemeteries, and forests...
I mean, since when did the whole game have to take place inside the castle?
Since "Symphony of the Night". That's when.
This is where Castlevanias seem to become more distant
from the more classic games, and gravitate away from what I originally loved about it.
They have so much text, and the story lines were getting ridiculous.
In "Dawn of Sorrow"...
Dracula's castle emerges from a solar eclipse in Japan.
I thought Japan had enough trouble with Godzilla stomping around
now they have Dracula too?
By the way, that's a nice cover, isn't it?
It's like a game within a game.
Anyway, "Symphony of the Night" is often considered to be the best of the whole series.
While I think it's an amazing game, my favorite is still Castlevania IV.
The control was so satisfying in that game.
Alucard's sword is not as much fun as Simon Belmont's whip...
Sure, there is a way to unlock Richter Belmont...
but this is only after you've already beaten the game.
You can't whip in all directions
but you can do that little twirly thing.
and Richter has some neat special moves.
But I still prefer the feel of Castlevania IV.
And being in total control of my whip.
But for the most part, I think the challenge is better.
In "Symphony of the Night",
whenever you come to a hard part,
There always seems to be an easier way around it.
You can turn into a bat and fly over,
or sometimes you need to get more experience points.
or there might be some weapon you need to equip
or an item that improves your stamina,
or resists fire, or makes you immune to certain magic spells.
There's so many variables here.
In Castlevania IV, all you had was your own whip.
You don't rely on tricks, it's just you and the game.
And the only way to beat it is with your mind and your reflexes.
And that to me, is what Castlevania is all about.
And once you've beaten the game in the wee hours of the morning...
and watch the castle crumble,
you reflect on all that time you just spent.
The credit sequence shows little replays from each level.
It's like watching old memories.
And that's what the Castlevania games are for me.
Memories that will last forever.
[♪ Ending - Super Castlevania IV ♪]