That. Fucking. Preta.
Critical Feral Claws are a bitch. Real wakeup call after thinking it's stomping time with the new demon on the block, Chazz "Dudebro!" Bromann, the Demi-Fiend.
I'm thinking abut playing my first Castlevania game.
I'd go with either Super Castlevania or Rondo of Blood/Dracula X. The NES ones...I can't really enjoy them much anymore; it's just too hard after becoming acclimated to fluid platforming controls to go back to them and enjoy facing unforgiving difficulty using them. It's a little easier to stomach the SNES-era games or Bloodlines for the Genesis. Quite a shame that Castlevania has become Metroid with vampires, and that all these years there has never been a more modern take on the classic formula but with better controls/maneuverability.
Take my recommendations with a grain of salt, however. I enjoyed Castlevania 64 and loved Lords of Shadow. I don't really dig Metroidvanias that much. I'm the sambo that all the Castlevania fanboys would like hanging from a big, oak tree for looking the wrong way at one of their ladies.
AKSHUNFAGGOT TYME.
Don't read this shit if you, like, don't want brain herpes or something worse. Shit's bad for your health.
It's different, that's for sure. Trippy aesthetics combine with random Mesopotamian mythology and a sprinkling of Biblical apocrypha for one of the weirdest, most incomprehensible things I've ever played. I like the idea of gameplay being based around stealing opponent's weapons and mechanics that push you to keep doing so, making you constantly improvise to get through fights. Problem is the game also tries to do too many gimmicks in addition to that, which don't work too well. "One button" (for attacking) combat could work out if it was implemented well, but here it really isn't. None of the timings really have a natural feel, and there are no demos of the timings for specific combos a la DMC3. The idea of going interface-less as a gimmick didn't work out too well either when you don't give proper feedback through animations. You can never really tell how much damage any certain attack does, so you're left in the dark as to what moves are effective. You tell how much health you have left by the state of your character's armor. Problem is, it's already really haphazardly covering your character, so intermediate states between full heath and being on the verge of death with no armor. They have the gall to only give you health gauges as an unlock for completing the game. Kind of a dick move.
The things that really sink it are the tiny amount of weapons, clunky combat, and bad 3d platforming. There are only three weapons in the game, four if you count the unarmed state, and all enemies basically use one of the three weapons. That means that after five or so encounters, things get really boring, because all those fights are the same. Bosses are different, but here the clunky combat really shows off. The lack of ability to cancel stuff out and the timing based combat system means that you'll often get stuck in moves you don't want and take hits you really don't want. Also the lack of a general dodge move (they are all weapon specific) and any exploitable i-frames means that sometimes you face a boss with an attack you really might not be able to dodge, or that you'll find is a crapshoot to dodge, or maybe I was just faced. Who knows? Anyway, nothing particularly amazing comes out of the combat to make up for all the lackluster elements and empty gimmicks. No amazingly designed bosses, no cool encounters, no unique playstyle (exempla graaaaaidon'tknowlatinandstuff Shinobi and the "EVERYTHING can be one-shotted by the player" style of play)...just kind of bland. I really liked the ideas they had in principle, but the execution was lacking in the Department of FIGHTAN AN KILLEN!
The game also tries to be a platformer hybrid. It does well enough in the 2d parts, but in 3d it flops hard. For some reason the depth perception is all out of wack, meaning that you will often think you are about to do a jump well and then you find yourself falling in a pit. Not a lot of penalty for doing so, but the problem here is that a lot of the gameplay isn't too fun as a result of this. And, as in combat, nothing in the platforming sections are all that amazing mechanically. Sure, they look damn trippy, but all the design is probably captured at some point in the first few levels of Mario 64.
All in all, it's an okay experience, but even at only five or six hours it started to feel a little stale in a little too many places, and I was glad that this was GameFly'd rather than purchased. It's like a kinda homely alternative-type girl. Okay for a short fling, provided you are not sober, and aren't paying much of anything.
And, yeah, I can totally see why Black Cat loved this game :dramatroll:
