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What are your favorite video game franchises outside of the Megaten series?

I've been partial to the Grand Theft Auto/Rockstar free-roaming type games since the first GTA.  There's something just infinitely satisfying about the gameplay in most of them.  The Manhunt series (despite it's hilarious name) isn't really my thing.  Bully was an excellent game though - still I haven't got to try out GTA4 yet.

CastleVania/Akumajou Dracula series has always been a personal favorite as well.  Never liked the 3D excursions though.  I'm a side-scrolling purist I guess.  Haven't played the DS games but the GBA games were great.  My favorites in the series have got to be the original CastleVania for NES and IV for the SNES but Symphony of the Night was pretty damn good too.

I've always really like the MOTHER/Earthbound series as well.  I haven't gotten very far into 3 but I loved the first two. 

Final Fantasy was one of the best franchise until I see Megaten. But let's see, GTA is a really and addicting franchise (I finished GTA2 like 4 hours ago :xd:), Castlevania is also really cool! But as you say 2-D is the best, I guess between Castlevania Vampire Kiss and Nocturne in the Moonlight are my favorites. I also like, Guilty Gear, Rockman, Ninja Gaiden, King of Fighters, Street Fighter, Metal Gear Solid and a bunch more. :wink:

Silent Hill and Resident Evil kick ass too! :cool:

Never heard of those :confused:

Nocturne in the Moonlight = Symphony of the Night

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/X_HuNTeR_X/SOTNNTSCJ.jpg)

Dracula X: Vampire's Kiss = Castlevania 5

(http://www.peaso.com/files/caratulas/castrrxeur.jpg)

Awesome boxart! If I haven't played that one, I'd like the rom asap :redface:

Please post links if you got'em :hearton:

Here you go: :firstmate:

 Vampire's Kiss (http://www.4shared.com/file/37163373/98754bd7/Castlevania_-_Dracula_X__U__.html?s=1)

I tend to use the Japanese subtitles myself, but come to think of it, I don't really know them pre SOTN :redface:

Also I thought I knew every game... this Vampire Kiss business really freaked my ever Castlevania loving brain out :confused:

I know Super Castlevania is a little obscure. Even my cart when I was a kid disappeared mysteriously... we looked for it for years :frown:

I never heard of another Super Famicom title though :sweatdrop: Of course there's a chance I've played it, beat it, and forgot about it :biggrin:

Ah, I think maybe this is Dracula X from the Genesis? Based on the famed PC Engine game?

Yep, Wikipedia says Vampire's Kiss was the European title... still awesome boxart :rainbow:

Have you already tried the rom? I just found the link and I didn't know if was a rom for the SNES. :confused:

Hmmm, maybe I'm thinking of Bloodlines on the Genesis (it also saw a Mega Drive release)

Maybe I'll have to try this one.


I thought Bloodlines was supposed to be a basic port of the PC Engine game, but maybe not.

Yeah, it's basically Dracula X uncensored.  I think the control is a little clunky in that one, but compared to the original...  :sweatdrop:

Yeah! the one I liked the most was "Circle of the Moon", but damn! I spent a whole night trying to beat Dracula, he is to difficult, and when I finally deffeat him, I was like: :blow:

I stayed up all night once trying to beat the final boss of Guilty Gear on one mode... it just became an obsession that night. I was a babe of course :rolleyes:

Circle of the Moon was a solid game.  It's kind of a dark game though, but not in the macabre sense, in the "it's kind of hard to see your enemies on the screen"-sense.  Especially with those mannequins that curse you and a lot of the poisoned enemy projectiles.  I got pretty good at that game playing it at work and managed to beat all the modes up until Shooter.  Dracula can be pretty tough, but when he does that thing were he dashes across the screen you just have to do the super jump over and over until he changes back into the bats/floating eyeball.  There's kind of a strategy to beating him, like in the old NES games.

Aside from a clear favorite, I'm hard pressed to actually rank franchises I enjoy. To save you from lists of "Oh and that one too" I just won't list them. :p

Yeah, I had a huge Playstation collection of games I thought were exceptional. As for what became of it, its a bit of a story. Few if any of the titles were part of recognizable brand name franchises however.

I just kept trading stuff until I arrived at what I thought was the complete list of especially playable PS1 games :biggrin:

I tend to be drawn to certain series but overall I pick and choose too.  Just trying to foster discussion.  :monocle:

On a related note, what do you like/dislike about certain franchises?  Final Fantasy too easy?  What do you think are the biggest bombs as far as sequels go?  Which franchises do you think have gotten better over time?   

Better over time, Megaten (at my opinion), Final Fantasy? They began to suck on FFX! I didn't feel connected with the story as with FFVII and FFVIII (which is my favorite), the characters were not attractive to the look. And FF touch the button of the barrel with FFX-2, that game really suck ass!! I just hate Yuna and now she is the protagonist? At least they gain a little of my respect with FFXII.

I'll say that FFVII was the best, because it has a deep story and was the game that has many other "sequels" like Dierge of Cerberus, Before Crisis, Crisis Core and even a movie which totally kick ass. But I like FFVIII even more. :razz:

EDIT: oh! and about the upcoming Silent Hill 5, I cannot say much but of all I've seen, the only thing that catches my attention is the Pyramid Head, and the game doesn't look too good.

Nope. Bloodlines is Genesis exclusive. Also, one of the best game in the series. :smile:

To bad, neither one of the two characters is a Belmont. :dazed:

I liked FFVII, but my personal favorites in the series were II and VI.  I agree with you that FF died at X, but VII marked the big change in the overall theme of the series.  While I liked VII for its (for the time anyway) ground-breaking qualities, I think overall it suffers from some major design flaws that the subsequent games did everything but fix.  The sequel games of FFVII itself I don't really understand.  It seemed they just designed them to make FFVII appear to better fit into the current visual style of the Final Fantasy franchise.

I don't see what is supposed to be so awesome about the Metal Gear games.  They always struck me as ridiculously cheesy in that Steven Sagal/Jean Claude Van Damme, squinty eyed action hero-sort of way.

I thought FFVIII was the worst of the litter (the last sequel I played)

Since you thought it was the best Emilio... maybe you could explain to me what the hell the alternate universe party even was? And what the hell was going on in general?? I played it in English for chrisakes and I still don't have clue one!

I actually held out hope for FFVIII until the end. The thing is, when it ended, I thought surely it was just beginning -- the game was just getting started... nope, end credits, that's it. No closure, no explanation of wtf just happened. It seemed to me like the game was supposed to be 3x longer, but the rest never got made.

Ouch! >_< can't explain! I didn't understand to much either! I guess it was because I play it like 7 or 8 years ago, and by that time I didn't catch to much of the story, sorry! :sweatdrop:

Legacy of Kain ---> Superb storyline complimented with incredible gameplay. And it probably has the best script and voice-acting i've ever heard in a game.

Silent Hill ---> It scares you in a  profound way and the psychology behind it's story is pretty amazing.

My favorite games along side Megaten are the King's Field & Shadow Tower games. I'm not sure why, but the core Fromsoftware franchises just feel the same way games used to before people found out you could make easy money with them :doh:

Yes kids, once upon a time, video games were not mainstream anything period :razz:

I'll be blunt. Pokémon.

Also Harvest Moon, Creatures, and the Goemon series.

I'm finishing Final Fantasy 8 these days (replaying actually, I finished it 6-7 years ago), and I must say it's a love/hate relationship. The technical side of that game is perfect. I think even the junction system is great, you don't have to draw for hours if you know which Triple Triad cards you have to mod. You can play thru the game with almost no encounters if you want to, because the enemies are almost always the same level as you are. Simply, the depth of the game system is amazing. However the characters are extremely irritating. The only sympathetic main characters are the silly ones (Laguna, Selphie and sometimes Zell). And what I totally dislike is how the characters and the world of Final Fantasy 8 look. That mix of The 5'th Element, Star Wars and Gianni Versace. It's tasteless like putting a leopard thong on Michelangelo's David. The game is at moments even repulsive, with no/very little atmosphere at all. I'm not saying the game is bad, it's better than maybe 70% of all other RPGs, I'm only saying it could have been much, much more. I can't even compare it with other Squaresoft games like Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X. In my opinion, FF 7 was perfect and is my favorite game of all time, Chrono Cross came very close to it (even 90% of the people prefer CT over CC, I like CC much better). And about FF X, I think it's simply great. Great character build system, great atmosphere (the first totally "Asian" Final Fantasy), nice characters. That game even made me change my opinion about one of the characters. Wakka being a racist and religious fanatic turned into a nice guy. He was actually a nice guy all the time, but he had some serious problems in the beginning. The reason I never played FF X-2 is that a friend knowing my taste very well told me it was like playing with a Barbie doll.
I like the Final Fantasy series, I even like them more than Megaten (because I was never sorry for playing any of the FF games, but I was sorry for playing SMT 1).
To yksehtniycul: "Castlevenia: Vampire's Kiss" is the SNES version of "Akumajo Dracula - Chi No Rondo" (only released for home computers in Japan). Try to find the Japanese PC version of the game. I have it, it's much better than the SNES version (more (different) levels, two characters and it's easier). And when you reach the last boss in the SNES version, good luck until you find the pattern to beat him. Actually, good luck reaching him at all.
I like the first two Tenchu games, Silent Hill series (I think the first game is still the best), KOF series, Samurai Spirits series, DOA series, Megaten series, Vagrant Story, Castlevania series and those sweet RPGs from the SNES era.

That was priceless! :biggrin:

Harvest Moon is a truly awesome series. The PS2 port o Wonderful Life sucked in my opinion, though. :sweatdrop:

Quoting myself...
I actually am pretty sure why, just wasn't in the mood at the time to digress. Basically these games are good because they're tailored to a specific audience and don't even so much try to attract people outside of the audience into the game. The game knows what it is, and that's what it is. The barrier to entry / learning curve is very high, especially for Armored Core. AC constantly gets panned by reviewers in the states, though some of the bigger names are beginning to admit it's the best "mecha" game -- if that is you can get into it and still wanna play it. AC is really not at all popular in the states. It appears to have a rabid core audience in Japan of significant scale, but still they don't overlap with more casual players. The King's Field games are much less complicated, but apparently most people just feel like playing them is some form of torture... citing the slow speed/turning and depressing environments -- doesn't help that Japanese players say KF gives them motion sickness -- which probably accounts for the slower speed some. Never the less if you don't load your character down with the biggest baddest equip, it's generally quite fast, and there is a run button to boot. King's Field is probably the penultimate masterpiece of immersion, everything about it serves to suck the player mentally into that world. And it's the only game of it's genre produced in Japan afaik... though the format is not uncommon in western games, there tends to be nothing artful about it's western counterparts (first-person non-shooter dungeon crawler)

Bottom line, I think Fromsoftware uses these two founding franchises as a bulwark against their books dipping into the red. I think they know there are a fixed number of people in the world that will buy everyone of these games no matter what, so that allows them to always know bare minimum what their fiscal quarters will look like down the pipe. Which ultimately I'd think is more valuable than gambling on a breakout hit with every title with the risk of alienating a reliable fan base that knows exactly what it wants.


PS: Someone said Tenchu?? I played the first game to hell... 100%. The follow-ups never recaptured that magic however. Fromsoftware apparently owns the rights to Tenchu now, but I haven't seen any signs of that being a better deal for Tenchu. In fact most of Fromsoftware's stuff is really eyebrow raising I think. But their two babies the company was built on remains tried and true. I'd hate to produce games in the Japanese market honestly... I have a feeling the islands of Japan are sitting astride a sort of insanity vortex?? :ninja:

I like Tenchu! Is really awesome, but at first I thought it was a copy of the Metal Gear franchise, it may have they're similarities I just like Tenchu a lot more. I play from Tenchu 1 to Wrath of Heaven and they totally satisfy my hunger for a cool ninja's game, I haven't played the rest but the upcoming Tenchu for Wii doesn't convince me at all. I always think that the Nintendo kills the game franchise, the same happens with FF Crystal Chronicles and Valkyrie Profile The Accused One. :mad:

Afaik I've played every 2D Castlevania game (including the b/w gameboy titles) to date, and I gotta admit that one (SNES Dracula X) was the clunkiest one ever in all respects :confused:

You have exactly three moves available... swing whip, walk like your stomping on ants and can't afford to miss a single one, and jump in the usual exacting arc. The hit radius is four times larger than the giant character sprite itself. The bosses are relatively giant and just propel themselves around the screen begging to be super attacked.

The environment started out very much like Bloodlines. I could've sworn it was the same game, but it wasn't. Still you wonder if the sprites for Bloodlines were lifted from that one. I've yet to track down a PC Engine emulator / rom for the original (I'm still working thru PC-88 titles) but it would have to be at least four times better than this SNES port or I'd say it might be the worst Castlevania ever gameplay wise.

I'm kinda curious about the levels/bosses, but the first level design was really unimpressive -- not a good way to kick off a game! I wonder if X was before III? Had to have been before Super Castlevania, though I think it was released after???

Chi No Rondo was released for the PC Engine CD, not the PC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akumaj%C5%8D_Dracula_X_Chi_no_Rondo

You are right, my mistake, but I'm playing it on my PC normally, and I don't think it's somehow emulated. What's a PC engine anyway? The game is chronically a prequel to SOTN. You know the intro in the game where Richter kills Dracula? It's the last level in Chi No Rondo. They called the level Bloodlines in the American version of SOTN. I don't know why, it has nothing to do with the Sega Genesis game. They also remade the game for the PSP but I haven't played it. Both the SNES Dracula X and Chi No Rondo have been released after Super Castlevania.
To yksehtniycul: I don't know what you are expecting, but you could call Chi No Rondo the last classic Castlevania game.

Vagrant Story was always my favorite Square game sadly it never had a follow-up  :geno:

I also adore games made by the ICO team games made by them are surely athmospheric and artistically original.

Yeah, the Colossus game is a no brainer (whatever you wanna call it)

It's atmosphere is actually a whole lot like King's Field, just brighter :smug:

Ran into this unknown:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_The_Dracula_X_Chronicles

Funny not to've heard of this one??

That's the PSP remake of Chi No Rondo I was talking about.

Sorry, I somehow missed that particular post :sweatdrop: Thanks for pointing this out :redface:

Here is a timeline: http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/castlevaniaakumajo-dracula-series

I was shocked X came so late in the chronology. Though I understand the X is for 10, whereas I thought it was just an indicator of the Crash system (I think it's called crash)

Judging by the clumsiness of it's execution I would've guessed it was an early PC Engine title probably predating III by a year or two. III was much more sophisticated. I don't know if X was going for a retro feel or what. Even II seems more sophisticated... hell even I for that matter. Guess you can say I don't much care for X :rolleyes:

edited: I mean why do people care X had two characters? III had like four characters or more, and a non-linear level structure just like X.

I found this: http://www.mobygames.com/game/castlevania-curse-of-darkness/cover-art/gameCoverId,98345/ :smug:

This is why 99% of graphic artists shouldn't be allowed work in the industry. No one understands fundamentals anymore!

Wish I could remember what BeetleJuice said to that head shrinker about now :rolleyes:

(http://www.retro-trader.com/images/pcengine/PC%20Engine%20+%20CD-ROM2%20System.jpg)

Japan has had "how much plastic crap can we attach to this to resell it"-syndrome for forever.

EDIT: It's also called the TurboGrafx-16 in North America.

(http://www.computercloset.org/NEC_Turbografx16.jpg)

Yeah, that's just... ugh...  I think that same artist has been with the series for a while - at least since Symphony...  I don't know... 3D CastleVania always seems to fail in some crippling and major way.

Yeah! She's been working as a designer of the Castlevania franchise since Symphony of the Night, really cool work, to bad it is not used on ALL Castlevania games.

(http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/756/756624/castlevania-the-retrospective-20070118061928080.jpg)
Ayami Kojima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayami_Kojima

Yeah, but doesn't mean she did that cover. I'm surprised it was used in any region, but I wonder if the Japanese cover was the same??

Well, now that we know No More Heroes is getting a sequel... :biggrin:

Fable is probably a favorite MAJOR property, and the first F.E.A.R. game was an amazing piece of horror.

I had a blast from the past this morning...

One of my all time favorite obsessions was WipeOut XL, back on the PS1. I played the hell out of the first game as well, but XL is generally regarded as on of the few outstanding exemplas of gaming perfection.

Just the other day I setup an HD setup for my PS3, primarily so I can put Yellow Dog Linux on it and start building some stuff... but I was a little disappointed there aren't really any full HD games for the PS3. So I started looking into what games are HD and I ran into WipEout HD, which seems to be billed more like a promotional release before an actual PS3 WipEout release to come, so it's just a 19.99USD download. What HD titles there are, are generally more toy/arcade type releases it seems.

I was really turned off of the franchise by the awfulness of WipeOut 3 (whatever it was called if not 3) ...but HD feels pretty close to classic play. Though gone seems to be the headlining electronic/techno soundtrack (whatever the diff between the genres) ..which is really unfortunate stylistically, but doesn't subtract from the gameplay I guess. I suppose it might be asking too much to license tracks for a download release.

My old XL fav AG Systems seems to have changed beyond recognition, so I'll probably have to find a new team. I kinda liked the blue dual engine car, forget the team name, but it looks like the Icarus team is probably the spiritual successor to the old AG Systems, but you have to unlock that team so I can't try it yet.

So whatever... I don't know what WipeOut has been doing since XL, but it was cool to find a nice little game in my budget range for my PS3. I also setup the Playstation Network for the first time, and tried Home (which I won't go into) ...I downloaded the WipEout HD demo last night while sleeping (1024MB) ...and was happy to learn purchasing just meant unlocking the demo rather than another large download.

All and all, it was all pretty neat to fool with :hearton:

Actually here is the "soundtrack"

    * MoveYa! & Steve Lavers: Chemical
    * Stanton Warriors: Tokyo
    * DJ Fresh: X-Project (100% Pure mix)
    * Ed Rush, Optical & Matrix: Frontline
    * Noisia: Seven Stitches
    * MIST: Smart Systems
    * Mason: Exceeder - Special mix
    * Booka Shade: Steady Rush
    * Kraftwerk: Aerodynamik - Special mix

After the power went out I've just gotten around to playing this one, and I'm really enjoying myself... the music isn't nearly as memorable as XL's was, and I think I preferred the industrial climes of XL more than HD, but it is pretty slick... which probably compliments the whole "HD" thing a little better.

You can even make a custom soundtrack by putting songs on your PS3 harddrive, but I haven't figured that out just yet.

Here is another odd Castlevania I half-way didn't realize existed...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_Chronicles

I've been playing this one lately (download-purchased it off the PS3 Network) and was pretty surprised when I first jumped in. I thought this game back when it was originally released was a faithful remake of the original Castlevania (Akumajo Dracula) but with new graphics, and an arrange version with pink hair :wink:

But it turns out this is a remake of an odd Japanese PC version of the original, which was actually radically different from the original itself. In fact, it has more completely original levels than the original levels themselves (and I even believe leaves out a couple of the original levels) ...plus must larger/clearner graphics and is much more controllable. You can swing straight down and at a diagonal while jumping, and change directions mid-jump. And most valuable, you can swing much quicker... still I think the game is considered more difficult than the original. Oddly when hit, you plummet straight down. Which generally is a life saver if you're over something (versus being catapulted backwards) but often a pain when being hit mid-jump would've put you wear you started (and generally kind of unnatural) ...but some parts of the game, probably would've been unplayable if not for this.

All and all, it is one of my favorites. Especially the arrange mode. The black leather Simon with pink hair, extra levels, and the futuristic looking torture devices in the castle really give it a Vampire Hunter D / Rock'n'roll feel, more than with any other Castlevania (that would be a refreshing kind of Castlevania I think)

Also the arrange mode has a more experimental and more rock like soundtrack... surely just odd remixes of the original score. For Castlevania fans, you don't wanna miss this one. Check it out!


PS: The Laurel special weapon is kind of odd. But I'm pretty much unbeatable with it, short of the game timing-out (which you can disable for the arrange mode if you want) ...I couldn't imagine beating the Werewolf or Doppleganger boss on anything but easy. They're just insane. Otherwise it's not that hard, and Dracula seems easier than ever. You can save your game, change the difficulty, then re-load it on arrange mode.

I remember I played that one on my PSX and yes, is really cool and like you say, it feels just like the original arcade. And I like the look of that Belmont with the Red/Pink Hair.

I've been enjoying Mirror's Edge a lot lately. I would say more on the subject, but this thread is pretty dead anymore (for now)

Really? I haven't play it yet, but it doesn't attract me at all. :dazed:

I payed 9.99$ to download Mega Man 9 the other day. The demo was pretty brutal, but the rest of the game is not quite so tough... but it's still the most intentionally difficult Mega Man ever. It feels more like Gameboy generation Mega Man to me for some reason -- which I'm not quite sure if that is a step up from Famicom or not??

A woman!! boss makes a first appearance ever, and the rest of the lineup have never seemed so gay... so Mega Man can still break some glass ceilings in this day and age I guess :rainbow:

I would've preferred Rock Man, but despite my machine being Japanese only the English store is available to me :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown:


PS: I wonder if I can buy a Japanese PSN gift card somehow??

Megaman games were always a Pain in the ass, even the X series >_< I'm currently playing "Megaman X8" and I find myself stuck at the begining, I wasn't able to deffeat any boss, until I beat the first one, all began to fall preatty quickly.

I was able to setup a second PS3 user and register it with the Japanese PSN by giving it a fake address I cooked up. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be actually. I got the idea when I realized a lot of the stuff was free, so I shouldn't need a credit card anyway :razz:

But I think I also just purchased a 1man (10000yen) PSN card for 108USD... which is actually incredibly lucky, as that is actually probably less than you could exchange 108USD for its yen equivalent!!

I found the lead on this Ebay "auction" ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/PS3-Japan-playstation-network-card-ticket-3000-PSN-PSP_W0QQitemZ260357743929QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item260357743929&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50


I guess it's a promotional type deal?? But anyway, the seller seems squeaky clean, so I went ahead and contacted him, and I guess I was the first. I was expecting to pay a lot for shipping, but they just wanted 108USD total.

That said... though there were a lot more games in the Japanese PSN, they were actually much lamer than the English PSN's lineup. Most of the games were by very lightweight companies with very trashy type games. Rock Man 9 wasn't even there. Most of Fromsoftware's PS1 games were there. A lot of the games were actually Western games... ie. games produced in the west. It looks like Japanese companies are not as quick to jump on the PSN bandwagon.

There is an HD version of classic Street Fighter 2 in the English PSN (but not the Japanese) I'm thinking about buying. It claims to be fully redrawn with HD artwork. Very little info is given about titles via the network though, and the cover art graphics are teeny-tiny... but I'm thinking about trying that one. Guess I'll have to do some online research.

It seems like the Wii, even though it's lineup is very small, has a much better "Virtual Console", because Sony doesn't seem to have access to anything before the 32bit generation games. All the old PS1 games are 600yen. Seems pretty crazy, but it's convenient at least.

Another cool thing is there doesn't seem to be region locks on any of the old PS1 games once you download them. I just wish there was actually an effort made by the console companies to fill out their back libraries :frown:

Hmmmm... I'm not so sure I'm sold on the Street Fighter HD sprites. They're ok, but a lot of the time parts of them are really crappy, so I'll probably pass. Probably why it hasn't been released in Japan.

The company responsible seems pretty weird?? It isn't even Asian....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDON

Here is maybe my new favorite game you probably have not heard of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cM75tkek2U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Imcc7p_3I

Most enigmatic title ever too :rolleyes:

There are actually a lot of interesting titles on the Japanese PSN. It's pretty perverted that I will probably spend most of my time playing PS1 games at 600yen a pop on my PS3. Either that or monkeying around with Linux / trying to build PS3 games :razz:

edited: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/psx/weltorv/weltprev.html

PS: Also there are three screenshots for each game in the store, but they don't popup for a long time, and there is no indication of their existence until after they download :doh:

Fortunately they popup faster after you've browsed the store once before (apparently everything gets more or less cached on your box)

What if this song inspired the originator of Castlevania?

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Velvet+Underground/_/Venus+in+Furs (the whole song is on the youtube applet)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Furs

Could Castlevania be a metaphysical bdsm fantasy?

Found these if anyone wants them:

(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee182/arrakis1979/Games/Front.jpg)

(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee182/arrakis1979/Games/Cd.jpg)

(http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee182/arrakis1979/Games/Back.jpg)

That is the wimpiest Dracula ever :crying:

I gotta make a confession... Weltorv Estleia is definitely my all time fav rpg of all time, if you know what I mean. It has everything I've always wanted in an rpg that no rpg ever has!!

My only complaint is so far it is wayyyyy toooooo easssssssyyyyyyyy. It's been a perpetual tutorial, and I'm already like lv20. I know you're supposed to play the game thru multiple times, so it could be each round becomes more difficult or something. Also it seems so far you're stuck with the first two party mates you let into your party (P1 style) ...though I'm still looking for ways to replace them. You have other party members, but they're temporary slots (per adventure) ...I'm thinking one explanation for the easiness is I let the first two adventurers you find into my party, and that probably sets you on an easy route. Because if you did not let them in (so you could let others in later) the quests would be much more difficult to do alone.

The gameplay is perfect though. I can't shake the feeling there will be a Weltorv Estleia cult somewhere in my future...

Awesome, looks like maybe you can download it here for now (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=22O0DH5X)

Got that here(http://snesorama.us/board/showpost.php?p=175708&postcount=1)

Google returns very few links for the English name. About the only good Japanese resource I can find is here:

http://park3.wakwak.com/~pierrot/est/ (a very good guide)

Official homepage(http://www.hudson.co.jp/gamenavi/gamedb/softinfo/est/)

I think this games is seeing an upsurge in attention due it being available on the Japanese Playstation Network (where I discovered it)

 :hearton: :hearton: :hearton: :hearton: :hearton: :hearton:


edited: Was able to find these via that rom post:

(http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1043/slps01887ay7.jpg)(http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6914/slps01887bgj2.jpg)

More for Castlevania hooligans...

Found this whilst looking for a Castlevania guide on gamfaqs:

http://www.konami.jp/products/dracula_ac/

I love anything first person, and it's starting to look more like Devil May Cry which is a plus in my book (character designs are still goofball though)

This game has not hit Japanese arcades yet afaik.

Castlevania still hasn't really jumped beyond the 2D side scroller format. Maybe something like Mirror's Edge would work for Castlevania?? I think this one might be on rails though, I can't quite tell.

I think Mirror's Edge style play could really work if the game applied some kind of forgiving AI interpreter to your input that adjusted jumping to what it seems like you're aiming for. That way you could have your wild arcade style platforming without infinite frustration (well more than usual at least)

^Speaking of arcades, I'm a big fan of Silent Hill and I would love to play the arcade one:

(http://tech2.in.com/media/images/img_4197_konami36_ss1.jpg)

(http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/09/silent_hill_arcade_impressi.jpg) :eek:

I'm currently playing SH Origins on the PSP and it's getting really good, not as scary as the previous ones (SH1 in special) but is really interesting to play at night! :dazed:

I think maybe Konami has a bug for these novelty arcade booths :eek:

I wish I could understand the appeal of SH, but I just don't get what people see in meat-puppets and geometry-headed-men :tongue:

^I don't what we see on those things but damn... It sures scares the shit out of me! I like the fear those games give us, the players (the first 3 were just awesome, origins and SH4 more or less and Home Coming really sucks >_>)

Continuing with the Castlevania theme...

I've been digging thru a stash of game roms (DevilRy's actually) and I noticed a Megadrive Castlevania game I'd never heard of called "New Generation" ...so I fired up, and I gotta admit, this might be my favorite classic gameplay Castlevania. The reason I say it might be my favorite, is the controls are very intuitive, plays almost exactly as I expect it to (whereas most Castlevania games before SOTN usually don't control how I want them too -- even though I'm apparently a natural when it comes to palying the games) ...and second point is the monsters are way more interesting design wise than what we get in most games.

Anyway, turns out "New Generation" is actually "Bloodlines" (even though I think according to Wikipedia the game was called Vampire Killer in Japan -- or maybe the article should read Vampire Killer: Bloodlines??)

I have never played this one. Though even while Wikipedia says it's the only Mega Drive Castlevania ever, I swear I remember playing a Castlevania game on my Genesis as a kid. I rented it and wasn't crazy about it. The first level was a lot like the 2nd Super Nintendo game (as I recall it) so it's possible that was the game I actually remember, yet it seems different also. It started with a burning village type first level... I swear it was a Genesis game. I remember it mostly because I didn't like it, and resented paying money to rent it :biggrin:

Yes it's really good and I do own that title for the Genesis, Bloodlines was really cool, it has some good tracks, the song of the second level  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmfXndr3tT0)was one of the best of the entire game and was even adapted to the "Circle of the Moon" game for the GBA. And about the "New Generation" thing, is that the Bloodlines was the uncut version of New Generation or it was the other way around :confused: well, something like that.

The only thing I don't like that much about Bloodlines, is that you don't get to play with a Belmont, but other than that, it was a really cool game for the Genesis.

(http://castlevaniadarkstory.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/castlevania-bloodlines.jpg)
An awesome cover if you ask me. :wink:

The whipping boy's upper body is comically large, but playing with the spear really works better perhaps. I like how the invincibility actually lasts long enough to be useful, and the screen kill drop is always in a place where it can really save your ass (or some trouble) if dropped at the right time.