Another rainy day gives way to some cozy gameplay time with Harmony of Dissonance. Been doing A LOT of backtracking, and with having to travel between two parallel castles it starts to add up after awhile. At one point I did end up having to break down and look up some things I missed just so I could continue. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to destroy breakable walls, or that I had to find a room to lower an object in a previous room. Even during moments of annoyance I have to admire how sophisticated the layout is. I still probably would have played this on my GBA back in the day if I somehow got my hands on it.
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.
Another evening, another metroidvania to try! Tonight I decided to play The Messenger! You play a ninja that has to carry a scroll to its destination, while slaying demons along the way. In some ways the controls are pretty basic, and the boss battles aren’t over the top hard, but still leave room for error if you die. What I like most about it though is the writing. It has a brilliant sense of humor that ties it all together.
On the surface this game looks like a typical old school platformer from pixel art all the way to music, but then you read the dialogue provided by the characters and it takes you by surprise. From the shop keeper to boss battles – The Messenger shows its sense of humor.
Throughout your adventures you can pass through a portal to the shopkeeper, where you can not only purchase upgrades, but listen to some odd stories as well. The shopkeeper can also give you (not so) valuable advice on boss battles. So far I’ve destroyed two, and only died during the first boss battle. Oh yeah! That’s another thing…
When you die you’ll meet this tiny demon by the name of Quarble who saves your soul, for a price. They save your life in exchange for however many points they decide to steal from you, they’ll even follow you around with a notepad until they’re either satisfied or bored.
I’m pretty happy with it so far. In fact I might continue the party on Steam Deck before calling it a night. There’s just something relaxing about curling up in a blanket with some tea to slaughter a few demons, or at the very least convince them to be less evil.
Since I’ve been doing well at progressing at Metroidvanias as of late – I’ve decided to return to Gal Guardians: Demon Purge to take on a boss that left me raging back in May. Tonight I return to The Little Shop Of Horrors to destroy the Karen of Venus Flytraps. I still died a bunch, but I did eventually destroy the damn thing.
Made it to the library, but as usual it’s getting late just as the gettin’ gets good. I miiiight sneak in a tiny bit more on Steam Deck before fully passing out though. 😉
After last night’s long ass battle in Castlevania I wanted to take a break from the series… kinda. I’m still in a Metroidvania type mood, and when scanning my library of infinite entertainment I landed on Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Unlike Ritual of the Night, Curse of the Moon stays closer to the old school.
In Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon you play as Zangetsu, a demon slayer who doesn’t take too kindly to demons or anything/anyone inhabiting demonic energy. He bears a deep grudge and seeks a powerful demon in an evil castle. As Zangetsu travels the unforgiving lands he later meets up with characters that also hail from Ritual of the Night.
Curse of the Moon is neither a sequel or a prologue to the first game, but rather a spinoff. At the time of writing I’ve only beaten the first stage, and now that I’m playing a more modern retro-like game I’m not able to rely on save states. I’m not sure how long this will take me to finish, I can’t help but admire how much effort they put into making this look and feel like something that should play on an NES. If I put my mind to it I’m sure I can beat it!
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.
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…
Every night before I go to bed. I’ve been playing some form of Castlevania, or Shantae. There’s just something about playing these games at night, during the witching hour that brings out the perfect mood in me to commence the grinding. I even got an achievement/trophy the other night for destroying a druid at midnight! I didn’t even know that was a thing! Now that I’ve achieved Shantae’s final form for this game (that I know of) I’ve been circling back and looking for all additional items that can only be received with the proper abilities and power-ups.
If I finish this before they release Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution I’ll probably have to shell over a few schmeckles on launch day. The release date has yet to be announced, so who knows? If I finish the game and it still hasn’t been released I still have plenty of other Metroidvanias to tie me over. 😛
Spent some time in bed today with my Steam Deck to keep me company. Finally getting around to playing Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. One of the many games I kept starting but never really did anything with it. I used feeling unwell in bed as a good reason to delve into it. 😛 So far I’ve unlocked the Monkey Dance, and a couple of other buffs from the item shop.
It was a toss up between this and Pirate’s Curse. But since I’ve barely touched this one, and I’m a good ways into Pirate’s Curse I wanted to explore new territory. It looks like it follows a similar playstyle to Half Genie Hero, in which you collect different power dances to explore new areas. My only complaint is remembering to press the B button to confirm menu options, usually it’s A. I’m guessing that’s because it was originally released for the DS? Either way it’s not a deal breaker for me.
Cerberus is set ablaze by Nathan’s endless whipping.
We had a lovely summer like day today – too nice to waste at my desk, so it only made sense for me to take my Steam Deck from its case and venture into the Castlevania Advance Collection!
It’s kinda funny to reflect on, when I was a kid I didn’t really think much of Metroidvanias. As a child my Gameboy Advance mainly received Mario platformers, and one Mario Kart game. Apart from my GBA I didn’t grow up with any Nintendo, the closest I ever got to Nintendo consoles was through visits to friends and families houses who were lucky enough to have acquired them. Even then, they never had any Castlevania or Metroidvania games. It was always Mario Games, Final Fantasy and Mortal Kombat.
It also didn’t help that back then Metroidvanias weren’t really as common on PC, which had plenty of other genres going on, but very little in the way of Castlevania/Metroid likes. It would be several years later when I really begin get into the Metroidvania genre. Better late than never I guess?
Learning to double jump.
Thanks to Metroidvanias like Dust: An Elysian Tail, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and of course, the Shantae Series;Â I’ve started to appreciate the genre and have come to understand it enough to brave the old school. In platformers you’re used to getting from Point A to Point B, whereas in a Metroidvania there is a lot of backtracking after you acquire different abilities and equipment. Tonight in Circle of the Moon (Castlevania Advance Collection) I learned to double jump, possibly one of the most satisfying abilities to learn in a good few of the Metroidvanias I’ve played thus far. There’s just something awesome about double jumping to areas that seemed unobtainable before, and in Circle of the Moon it felt like I was able to get this ability faster than the other Metroidvanias I played where it took me a good while.
Which one is Mummy Dearest?
Another thing that took me a good while to get was the control scheme. Tapping the D-Pad allows you to dash (if you have the dash boots), and holding down the action button lets you twirl your whip around like a fan of destruction. Until I figured that out some of the monsters felt cumbersome, but now that I’ve learned how to properly navigate the game even the poison worms are easy to avoid. The bones from the bone throwing skeletons on the other hand…
I had just scratched the surface of the castle before calling it a night. But I’m glad to have made a nice dent in the game. I’ve made Nathan stronger with extra hearts and jugs, uncovered a good few secret walls and even bested Cerberus himself. Overall I’d say a jorb well done! I’ll have to see about playing more of these during Spooktober! 😀
