[DS] Castlevania: Symphony of the Tits

GRINDAN,you say?


I'm really impressed by you guys,though. For once,there's an actual Castlevania discussion by people who have a deep knowledge,understanding and affection for the series. Jolly good show,old chaps.

That said,I really need to catch up to my Metroidvanias. Of the handheld ones,the only ones I played so far are Circle of the Moon and Portrait of Ruin (in progress at the mo),though I certainly intend to play every one out there (in b4 slowpoke). I have Dawn of Sorrow,but I'm not going to play it until after I've bought and beaten the shit out of Aria of Sorrow.

As annoying as GRINDAN is,it's ultimately voluntary (rare drops aren't required to beat the game on any of the endings),so if you do it,you obviously do derive some masochistic OCD pleasure out of it. I certainly do on some level,so I don't mind it as much. I know I'll do it anyway.

That said,the drop rate in PoR is BULLSHIT. I mean,jesus christ. Pretty much the only thing my Charlotte does nowadays is run around casting Luck Boost nonstop. I'm not even sure it does anything. Sometimes I see the star ratings on drops go down as she does it. Does that mean they become more likely to appear? Am I doin it rite?

Overall,though,I really like PoR. The lengths Iga went to to squeeze the game into the chronology right after Bloodlines really impressed me. I mean,when it's revealed that Wind is in actuality
[SPOILERS]Eric Lecarde[/SPOILERS]
,bricks were shat. Plus the whole WHAT A TWIST with the Vampire Killer and the Belmonts,and the Morris' and whatnot was pretty interesting (Whip's Memory,fuck yeah!). The whole premise with the portraits (btw lolwut,since none of the pictures you go through in the game are,you know,portraits) allows you to go into all sorts of crazy places without physically venturing outside of Castlevania. Abandoned schoolhouse (wut) in the middle of a swampland,trippy circus freakshow mindfuck (definitely one of the more original environments in a Castlevania game)and a goddamn Egyptian pyramid. AWESOME. Not too hot on the whole second palette-swapped visit part,but eh,there's enough differences between the the old portarait and the new one that I usually don't mind. The characters' little animations (especially Charlotte's) are adorable. Weapon upgrades are great. I'm having a blast so far.

As for the new one,fuck yeah,female protagonist! It's going to be at least on par with the other handheld Castlevanias,so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Torte

Re: 2D Metroids. The series is still fresh - and Nintendo are wise to keep it that way. Fusion wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and Return of Samus? Ick. That leaves only ZM and Super, which is only two games. I dunno what I'm on about exactly when I write this, but I DO wish to see another one of ZM quality, albeit 3-4 times in length, sometime soon.

Eh,Zero Mission,as much of a nostalgia bomb as it is,annoyed me greatly. The main reason would be the bullshit amount of backtracking required to get 100% completion. People derided Fusion for generally restricting the amount of exploration,but what Zero Mission took it to another extreme. Super was,of course,the perfect balance,no doubt about that.

Speaking of Fusion,it's definitely my favorite in the entire series. I generally end up enjoying the red-headed bastard stepchildren in any given series the most (my favorite RE is the third one,my favorite Golden Axe is the third one,ect.),because the reason they are declared the bastard stepchildren is usually because they try to introduce some radically new elements into the stale series,and I always appreciate such boldness. Fusion introduced an actual storyline,something the Metroid series has long been starving for.
That and it's the creepiest game in the franchise.
SA-X made me shit a fucking brickhouse every time she appeared.
OH GEEZ FUCK SHE'S HERE RUN RUN RUN OH SHIT IT'S DEAD END FUCK I'M GONNA DIE QUICK HIDE UNDER THE FLOOR GOD I HOPE SHE DOESN'T HEAR ME FUCK ME!1!1
Don't even get me started on Nightmare.

Epic game is epic.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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Anywho, I think most people just didn't like Fusion because of the "less talky more walky" mindset. It had a lot more un-skippable story elements which bogged it down as a "Metroid" title. I played through it once and loved it, but quickly realised it was not a good game to replay, which pretty much every other game had been up to that point and afterwards too. (Never played Prime 3 so I dunno about that one)

Try playing through it again.
From what I know,the game doesn't really allow to stray from the main storyline path on your first walkthrough. It's physically impossible to obtain 100% on your first run. However,on subsequent runs,the hatches that lock you inside or outside of the lab sectors supposedly remain open,allowng for actual freedom of exploration,just like in any other Metroid title.

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I'm not even sure Resident Evil 3 would be considered that, wouldn't that be RE4 technically considering, despite it's success, it was still, by your definition the red-headed stepchild of the series? It definitely did piss off a lot of hardcore fans with how drastically the formula changed anyway.

Bastard stepchildren usually don't end up being multimillion hits and the most successful games in the series that finally bring it out of the bog of repetition and stagnation. Butthurt fucking fans bawwwing "IT GOTS NO ZOMBIES SO IT'S NOT A REAL RE!1!!!1" doesn't change that.
As for RE3,I love it for the improved gameplay,the opportunity to explore environments from RE2 and,of course,Nemesis. I was a wee young lad,and that was my first real experience with a "terrifying invincible monster stalker" mechanic in a horror game. Naturally,I shat enough bricks to build the house that I live in right now. I don't think I was ever more scared of a monster in vidya than I was of Nemesis at that point.
Then I beat Mercenaries and earned enough money to buy myself a ROCKET LAWNCHAIR. Nemesis isn't that scary anymore. =(

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It breaks the sense of atmosphere and isolation to be answering calls while you're exploring an alien world.

In Fusion's defense,it helps that you are talking to a soulless automaton rather than an actual being. And to balance out those breaks,the rest of the game is way creepier than even Super ever was. Creepy in lots of subtle ways that you won't really get until you think about it really hard. Fusion is actually the closest in atmosphere and spirit to the movie that inspired it - the Alien franchise. I can elaborate,if you want.

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That and the Chozo Ghosts were kind of annoying in Prime 1, but I still think the game was a masterpiece.

Agreed on both counts. Chozo ghosts were ass.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.