I’m Juste Fine

Juste Belmont: Harmony of Dissonance.

Halloween may be over, but I’m finally feeling the Autumn vibes. I’ve pretty much been enjoying the tastes of spring and summer all up til the last few days, when the rain came and forced my hand to imbibe warmer, spicier drinks. Today was a nice late sleep in kind of day, we had a bit of a rough storm that helped lull me into a fever dreamed slumber. I’ve also been playing more Castlevanias. Been beating up Harmony of Dissonance.

I’ve been bouncing a bit between all of them, but so far HoD has taken the lead. You play as Juste Belmont, Grandson of Simon Belmont (Original Castlevania). The story to this one is your classic damsel in distress type of thing (typical for the era). Your friend Maxim returns out of nowhere after two years of training to inform you that one of your childhood friends (Lydie) has been kidnapped. You storm the castle looking for her, and learning more about Maxim during your exploration.

The bosses they throw at you are much easier than the old school encounters. I’ve only had to use a couple potions on one or two boss fights so far. They changed it quite a bit from its first predecessor, but I think they were changes for the better. Especially when they added save rooms, backtracking, and a map system.

I’m over the halfway point. Now I’m backtracking to get to places I couldn’t access at the start of the game. There are still a bunch of doors waiting to be unlocked, until then there is still much to be discovered.

Castlevania PUT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS

I was determined to kick Dracula’s ass… and after a few hours of bitching out the screen in constant failure I succeeded! The worst part was Dracula spawning on top of me, but eventually I psyched him out until I got him to show his final form. The second part was actually pretty easy to do compared to Dracula’s teleportation bullshit at the start of the boss battle. But now I can finally say that I BEAT CASTLEVANIA!!!… and I have the achievement to prove it! Sooooo glad I could use save states.

No Princess In This Castle

Put a little bit of time into chipping away at Castlevania. I’m really glad they allow you to save whenever you want via the emulator, because if I played this back when it originally released I probably wouldn’t of had the patience to complete it. I had to watch a video to get some tips on how to “git gud” and it seems Holy Water is the perfect weapon. There are only 18 stages in the game, and so far I’ve made it to stage 13 before saving and calling it a night. I might consider grinding it more tomorrow, or if I’m too irritated with it switch to another Castlevania/Metroidvania. I’m so glad the newer ones have save rooms…