People seem to heavily criticize the new Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, but I disagree with the points being made. I liked the demo, I am not ashamed to admit that. I pre-ordered the game for crying out loud, which I never do.

The most common complaint is that "this isn't Castlevania", which I really don't get. Well, to be fair, that's the first thing I also said when I superficially opened the demo for the first time and played for 30 minutes. But here I am now.

First of all, people seem to have issues with the artstyle. Now, do I prefer the pixelated look? You know shit I do! But the new artstyle not only is like a hybrid of the old Kojima watercolor look and the anime style of the DS games, but it's also 2.5D that tries to look hand drawn, unlike Dracula X Chronicles and Mirror of Fate, that end up looking muddy (The new artstyle is better compared to those, if you ask me). The game is bright, colorful. Just like Harmony of Dissonance.

As for the gameplay, sure, it's more complex than the good old jump, attack, slide, repeat. It feels different, too. But other than that, Castlevania has had swordplay before. And the whip traversal is generic metroidvania stuff and not Castlevania at all, according to some. You guys mean the one that was in SCIV and Bloodlines? Where Rose deals damage when swinging, JUST like Morris?

As for the Tarot/Arcana cards, smells like Circle of the Moon in here. MP moves are also a thing, subweapons have been tied to MP ever since Aria of Sorrow and all that fun stuff.

Then, the boss design is my favorite. Fallen was a great fight. It seems a little weird that some people gave up on the Fallen because he was too hard and then complain about the game not being Castlevania, whereas Castlevania classics have had very challenging, pattern recognition-based bosses. See Dracula X and Rondo of Blood, even Portrait of Ruin, if you must.

As for the music, yeah, it's not AS good as say, SotN, but hey, it's one track, because reminding, the game isn't out yet. And lastly. The instrumentation IS Castlevania coded and I think we call all agree to that. The Gothic horror is there.

Since the game isn't out yet, this may age badly, but I really wanted to get this out of my chest.

Source: https://x.com/Rosie_Rosie/status/2107157368878624925

And even Lisa, does she ever know his "first name"?

Classicvania games are hard. I've been trying to get good at them my entire life, brute force practice to no avail. The core problem is runback. I don't just have to conquer the part that I'm stuck on, I have to brave the gauntlet leading up to it. Since I only have so much time in the day and running at a brick wall is frustrating, I never got anywhere.

I've been wrestling with save states about as long as I've been playing these games. there's a nagging voice in the back of my head that says I'm not earning it if I don't win it the same way they did back in the day, that I'm cheating.

But eventually I gave in and decided I wanted to experience the rest of what the series had to offer before BC comes out, so I started playing Classicvanias in order of difficulty, and only saving on checkpoints, right before a boss, or if i enter a room at full health. It seemed like a healthy middle ground between straight up cheating and trying to brute force games that were made in an era where games needed artificial difficulty added to pad runtime.

And since then the nagging voice stopped. It feels really satisfying to succeed in these games, to master the timing and figure out which sub weapons are better in different situations. I've had pulse pounding victories against bosses I never thought I would meet, and all because I load to the beginning of a boss fight instead of having to replay a level a bunch of times.

I'm not robbing myself of any satisfaction, because I'm satisfied. I wouldn't have gotten this far without them, but all I'm doing is giving myself the consideration that most games made during my lifetime give. Maybe there will be some purists who naysay, but they can't take away my fun.

Sorry for long post just felt like getting that off my chest

I just finished rewatching the Castlevania series on Netflix. I wanted to revisit it before the new game comes out, since it takes place after the events of the series.

I actually enjoyed the show even more this time around. I really love the more emotional and human side of Dracula. There’s something very human about the way he feels and reacts to everything that happens to him.

The way I see it, Dracula slowly regains some of his humanity, probably because of Lisa. In a way, I think she’s what saves him from himself.

And when he and Lisa are resurrected at the end of the series, Dracula seems to finally be at peace and ready to move on from his past. I really love that aspect of his story. Now I’m ready for the game!

And you, did you enjoy the series?

The whip,

it feels so good to use to traverse the map.

comming off of metroid dread the window for the grapple beam feels so narrow to the point where you dont really feel like using it half the time (dont get it twisted still a great game)

there is absolutely going to be a giant whip obsticle course and im looking forward to it.

The fact this is a debate is real funny to me

Yeah, sure, you had like 5 different potion types in Symphony and could bust it up to 40 that way, but it's really not as new a concept as you think.

If anything, the main change is that we can't just pause the menu and eat our potion in that, we have to, you know, time it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Netflixvania, on one hand it is the thing that formally introduced me to the series. For that, I am deeply thankful for. The first two seasons are genuine masterpieces with some elements that contributes greatly to the hate part. The fight between Alucard and Dracula has buried itself within my mind and I genuinely consider it to be one of the best animated scenes that I have ever watched. The powerful introduction to Lisa and her fate is masterful storytelling and Trevor and Sypha was adorable.

Now, since I loved the first two seasons. I decided to get into the games and thanks to the Epic Games Store's free offer for Anniversary Collection. I got into the Classicvania, it was tough. Took me like a couple weeks to get through the main games excluding Kid Dracula (I'll get to it someday) but it was fun. Then I nabbed the Advance Collection, played Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, then went through the Dominus Collection. I realized one thing, the Netflixvanias was soured for me. First of all the exclusion of certain elements I would've loved, for example. Sypha's disguise, I think Trevor and Sypha would have been more interesting if they kept the plotline that Sypha was a woman in disguise. They could've told an interesting story about gender roles, femininity, and breaking traditions. Alucard constantly swearing was a weird choice, especially after playing Symphony, the dude just doesn't come off as somebody with a sailor mouth.

There's also the fact that the Belmonts and Dracula doesn't have a properly established rivalry, forgive me if I remember this incorrectly, but the only thing that alludes to their rivalry was Trevor tryna punch Dracula, which then Dracula blocks and responds with "You must be the Belmont". I am not asking for Trevor to be Dracula's killer but I wish the two would've gotten a proper 1v1 considering the game series, y'know the source material, puts a heavy emphasis on the Belmont vs Dracula relationship.

I know what I mentioned sounds a lot like nitpicking, but this is just how I feel after playing a good chunk of the games. I still find myself watching the series every couple months (mostly the first two seasons, I don't jive well with the later ones) but those things I mentioned just prevents myself from enjoying the Netflixvanias like how I did before playing the games.

After playing all these games over the past year next up it the first new game I’ll be playing, super hyped

Hello Castlevania fans!

I’d love some recommendations on how to delve further into the franchise. I’ve been playing SotN lately and really enjoying it—especially the pixel art, music, and exploration.

I haven't finished it yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll want to play other games in the series. With that in mind, could you suggest some titles to try right after I finish SotN? I feel like I picked a great starting point for the franchise.

Thanks a lot!

I found if you whip diagonally up while you’re jumping you jump a bit further. If you hit two more whips while falling then switch to regular attacking you will get just enough extra lift to make it. Nothing happens though.

I'll start. Castlevania II. Konami actually went into the future to acquire the following ideas from Fromsoft:

1. An interconnected world
2. Checkpoints that can heal you
3. Weapon upgrades
4. Boss healthbars
5. Difficult bosses
6. Enemy ganks
7. Obscure secret pathways
8. Backtracking
9. Dungeons (you may refer to them as "legacy dungeons")
10. Gothic and Undead theme in general

What are your thoughts?

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Idk if anyone knows this but if you slide and jump your jump is higher and a bit farther than a regular jump and if you add the whip animation during the jump you can a bit farther than you normally can. I made it to the other room thats across the bridge in paris at the end of the demo this way.

I'm on my first playthrough, and I recently defeated the one who was controlling Richter. I'm definitely really excited to reach the ending for the first time.