My adventures through the Castlevania universe continue! I suppose I could have finished off Harmony of Dissonance tonight, but instead I advanced through Aria of Sorrow. Soma’s moveset takes a little getting used to, especially when I’m used to dashing around as Juste. Soma plays a bit slower, but he does have some interesting powers. Tonight I learned how to walk on water, slide on my ass and a few other abilities. My next boss battle will be with Death, he kicked my ass one too many times tonight which tells me it’s time to take a break. At least I polished off two other boss battles! Plus I can rest easy knowing I’ve covered a good chunk of the map.
We played one of the newer Quake campaigns tonight, and I have to admit that despite the bugs there is a certain beauty within Quake’s official and final campaign; Dimension of the Machine. We’re back on the hunt for runes, but at least one of the portals we took lead us to a place that isn’t totally boxed in and dark. It’s rare to find a level that looks like a nice sunny day, or as close to a nice sunny day as the game will allow. I kinda want to play this in the older versions of Quake to see how it compares. It feels out of place and yet at home at the same time. They also cram a bunch of enemies into each level, there were many deaths, both us and them.
There were only two realms remaining for us to traverse before opening the gates to the final battle, but it grew too late for us to finish. At least we can look forward to another evening where we are guaranteed to never be bored. 😉
Did a small bit of achievement hunting in DOOM tonight. Went on a punching spree, shot a couple hundred bullets with a chain gun, and washed it down by chainsawing a hundred demons. I made it four episodes in before calling it a night. I’m not sure why, but I had a need for badass music and old school demon murderin’. So many other games in my collection, and yet I keep replaying the classics… I blame Bethesda this time. 😛
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.
Returned to the battlegrounds of Trick & Tear! Finished a couple of levels before calling it a night. I’ve spent so much time Quakeing and Castlevainiaing that I haven’t given myself time to go over this deadly wad of deadliness. As usual there are more pictures in my post over at Mastodon, or your choice of Fediverse.
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…
Returned to modded Quake and successfully finished a couple of maps in the 2019 Quake Jam. This one had all kinds of Halloween vibe, tough and fair overall. I think it’s time for me to take a break from this universe though, it has consumed my weekend and it’s time to move onto something else.
Introduced a friend to the world of Quake this evening! We made it three episodes in before calling it a night, had a fun time blowing things up and finding secrets. We played the Remastered Version just so they could get a feel for the controls. One of these days I’ll have to see how well we can co-op with mods! Speaking of…
I finished up the 2018 Halloween Jam, so it only made sense to see what the 2019 Halloween Jam had to offer. It starts off very similarly to the 2018 version, but it has even more maps. I’ve only played a few of them so far. The level design is incredible, if not even better than the previous year.
My current favorite is The Outhouse. It features a shitter that takes you to another dimension. Traverse the void and interrupt a Satanic ritual, and eventually fight the outhouse after it transforms into a demon. Amazing what people can come up with for a game that was released decades ago.
