Bloodlines did the same thing. Considering the series has a rep for being difficult, I'm not surprised. Even the Metroidvania titles did things like this with their being a Normal ending and an actual True ending that usually involves doing something counter productive during the penultimate boss fight.Originally Posted by Ayen
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In Collection news...
I finished Castlevania Adventure and holy hell am I grateful this collection has save states because I doubt I would have the patience to beat this game without them. The game is just clunky and bad with too many choke point areas that rely on RNG more than skill to proceed unmolested. The most annoying enemy in the games are either bats or the monsters that shoot fireballs at a diagonal since there is no way to counter them effectively. Making matters worse is that Belmont's hit box is larger than his sprite so it was annoying to think an attack would slide past you or that you cleared jumping over an enemy only to have the game act like Chris is twice his size and get hit regardless. The most obnoxious part is the platforming. Chris is just too slow and his jump is more awkward thanks to the inconsistent hit box. The third stage is one giant level of being chased by spikes and trying to clear the level ASAP which is a nightmare with his sluggish controls. The only saving grace of this game's original design is that all of the bosses are complete jokes once you pick up their patterns. Even Dracula is pretty easy. I checked out Belmont's Revenge, the Game Boy sequel and that game has already fixed most of the problems from this game by making Chris's mobility on par with the NES Belmont's and bringing back sub-weapons. I'll tackle that game once I finish Dracula's Curse.
Dracula's Curse has certainly lived up to its reputation as the hardest entry in the franchise, but more importantly, it has some of the coolest design elements. I now understand why Igarashi references and emulates it so much when he became the series producer. I'm doing the Alucard route, and I'll concede that Alucard is probably the worst of the three companions. He can only use the Stop Watch as a sub-weapon which is traditionally the most useless, his other ability is to turn into a bat which is nice for clearing tricky platforming sections but it consumes hearts the longer he's in the form and he instantly transforms back if he's hit. His main mode of attack is firing off fireballs like his daddy, and you need to find weapon power ups to get the full three fireballs. These fireballs are also weak and you're often better using Trevor. The only really plus with his attack is that two of his fireballs shoot in a diagonal direction meaning he can at least attack more annoying enemies like bats and ghosts. He's also next to Trevor in the tanky department, taking less damage than Sypha and Grant are.
What's interesting about this game is that beating certain stages gives you the option to choose the following stage with multiple paths to play the game. What's really interesting is that the stages still have an interconnected feel to them. So for instance, you rescue Grant in the Clock Tower after you beat him, but the exit to Drac's castle collapses in the cutscene you obtain him. So instead of just assuming the Clock Tower is beaten and jumping you into choosing the next stage, you actually have to leave the Clock Tower just as you came in, so you have to retread your steps. Some stages also overlap and so you might end up traversing parts of other levels as an intermediary stage to reach stages with actual bosses or stage choice sections. This game is incredibly ahead of its time.
My only real beef with it at the moment is the controls for using stairs is actually far more finicky than they were in the previous two games and not hitting the button correctly will simply have any character not named Grant walk off a ledge to a cheap death. Considering the high amount of vertical stages in the early portions of this game, it amounted to about 80% of my actual deaths. This brought back a lot of memories of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls where the majority of my deaths was simply falling to my death. Overall, I'm having a blast with this game because while it's hard, it doesn't quite feel as cheap as Castlevania Adventure did.
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