The all encompassing "Suggest a game!" thread.

[Jetsetlemming]

So, are there any more Castlevanias in the metroid style of SOTN and the handheld games? I feel like playing another castlevania, but I don't really like the style of the first games (straight action/platform run through the levels, no saving, no exploring, no meaningful items to collect). Anyone got a recommendation of a good Castlevania, or castlevania knock-off?

[Vesper]

The only mentroidvanias are

Castlevania Symphony of the Night
Castlevania Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) (Which sucks BTW)
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow (NDS) (Sequel to AoS)
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin (NDS) (Best portable Castlevania next to DoS)

The PS2 ones are sorta in a similar style but I've only played Lament of Innocence. And it sucks.

but I don't really like the style of the first games (straight action/platform run through the levels, no saving, no exploring, no meaningful items to collect). Anyone got a recommendation of a good Castlevania, or castlevania knock-off?

D=

The old Castlevanias were awesome! Super Castlevania 4, Bloodlines, Dracula X Turbo Duo... *drool*

[crusher]

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) (Which sucks BTW)

Your mom sucks!

[Roux!]

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) (Which sucks BTW)

You need patience for that game. And look past the horrible synth to get to the nice compositions underneath...

The PS2 ones are sorta in a similar style but I've only played Lament of Innocence. And it sucks.

Lament of Innocence isn't BAD. But I wouldn't pay over $20 bucks for it ($10?). Curse of Darkness? Better. Same thing, though...

The old Castlevanias were awesome! Super Castlevania 4

Agreed.

Bloodlines

Nah!

Dracula X Turbo Duo... *drool*

Agreed.

[Jetsetlemming]

Was Harmony of Dissonance the one with the cards for the spells? That one was good. Not as good as Aria of Sorrow, though.
The thing that most gets me about the old-school Castlevanias is the lack of saving and free exploring. Besides that, they're ok, but I prefer the RPG style. Lots of different weapons, spells, powerups, progress saving, a story told ingame and not just in intro and ending screens...
I want to play the two DS Castlevanias, but I just can't justify the purchase of a whole system for two games. ; The stylus is really, really awkward for me to use, so I don't like most DS games cause I can't get past the controls. Just like, I want to play the two PSP GTA games, but I don't think I'll be buying a PSP for that anytime soon.
I've got a ROM of Dawn of Sorrow, and the IdeaS emulator, but it's got a long way to go. It's definitely promising, though! The game started, and played, it just played at about 2 frames a second, with no sound and the foreground graphics not showing and black boxes around the sprites and effects (the ones that were visible, of course ).

[pkt-zer0]

Was Harmony of Dissonance the one with the cards for the spells? That one was good.

Nay, that was Circle of the Moon. Harmony of Dissonanance used a book-based spell system, IIRC. And that one wasn't that good.

Anyway, La-Mulana rules, and happens to have been translated to English recently. There's quite a focus on puzzle-solving, though.

[Ultimate X]

i've only played curse of darkness on xbox. it wasnt that great but not bad either

[polokitty]

biko3 for pc with the nude patch trust me look up the game

[Ultimate X]

biko3 for pc with the nude patch trust me look up the game

ill give it a try

[Jetsetlemming]

the first link google displays for that game is a torrent link.
lol.

[Tayls]

Personally im not a castlevainia person but the one i did play (Dawn of Sorrow) wasn't bad at all.(ended up selling it back to GameStop)

[Vesper]

Nah!

D=

You need patience for that game. And look past the horrible synth to get to the nice compositions underneath...

The music is one thing but the gameplay ain't too hot either. All the bosses are sissys =(

[Jetsetlemming]

Mm, Dak'kon, the game looks good. I'm always a fan of puzzles and traps and such... as long as you don't take a "Prince of Persia" route. Hated that game. ;
Downloading it now. Thanks!
*edit* Well, the low resolution and jumping controls will take a bit of getting used to (Why doesn't this have a windowed mode? O_o) , and money is extremely hard to come by so far (enemies are dropping way more weights than coins, oddly enough, even though the manual really stressed the importance of stones as puzzle tools. I'd expect them to be rarer). I've managed to get the save ROM and the hand scanner, at least. Still need the translator thingy. Overall, it looks really fun, and I think I'll keep playing this (and keep wishing it didn't run full screen ).
The ingame music is also great. It kinda makes the visuals seem worse because of how good it is in comparison.

[pkt-zer0]

Well, the low resolution and jumping controls will take a bit of getting used to (Why doesn't this have a windowed mode? O_o) , and money is extremely hard to come by so far (enemies are dropping way more weights than coins, oddly enough, even though the manual really stressed the importance of stones as puzzle tools. I'd expect them to be rarer). I've managed to get the save ROM and the hand scanner, at least. Still need the translator thingy. Overall, it looks really fun, and I think I'll keep playing this (and keep wishing it didn't run full screen ).
The ingame music is also great. It kinda makes the visuals seem worse because of how good it is in comparison.

Bah, graphics never bothered me - "text only" is good enough graphics for me. Also, check out some Maze of Galious screenshots, it mimics its art style pretty accurately. It almost feels as if it were running on an actual MSX. The jumping (which is indeed odd at first, as is the whip usage) and difficulty just adds to the retro feeling of the game. You want to play the game with a piece of paper and a pen nearby, so you can jot down the hints, and not have to revisit them later. Also, don't worry about having too many weights, there are doors that can only be opened through the use of them, and become closed again once you leave the screen.

As for the windowed mode, Alt+Enter works just fine, for me at least.

And yeah, the music is great. Even more so since it's 'just' MIDI. I also like how you have two sets of instruments to choose from for any given song.

[Jetsetlemming]

I don't mind the graphical style, really, just the low res in full screen. Don't need to go THAT far to emulate the MSX. I'll try Alt+Enter.
Oh, another good point: Controller support! I hate playing games like this on the keyboard.
*edit* Alt+enter makes the game run at half speed.
I managed to get a glyph reader and map card, though. whee!