Castlevania: SOTN

[Mace121]

So I've beaten the game that coined the term, Metroidvania, and it was a pretty damn good and fun one. All the castle exploration, the hidden rooms, hacking & slashing shit while collecting powerful shit, and epic bosses (in 1997 standards). Yes of course there's some frustrations, like the long game over screen (which you could skip), enemies can be too powerful without certain items, and the Saturn port gets bashed a lot.

Yes, I was aware of the more powerful weapons in-game like the famous Crissaegrim, dual Heaven swords, and the Muramasa, but I'm able to defeat Shaft (you're damn right), and Dracula without such petty weapons. Instead, I spam the cross over & over with a couple heart refreshes, a certain ring for added effect, and wielding the Holbein Dagger.

So what do you think about this game, you miserable little pile of secrets?

[Dean]

It's the crown jewel of my video game collection. I own a PAL copy of the limited edition which sells for crazy prices now.

Aside from that, it's actually one of my favourite games along with Super Metroid. Not sure how long it's been since I last played either of them, but they're both the kind of games I could play annually and still be able to enjoy each time. I never did get that 200.6% map completion though.

[Jackho]

Excellent game. I played it back in 2008 or so, when they re-released it on Xbox Live. I wasn't into retro games and I had very limited experience with 2D games and pixel graphics back then. It blew my mind that such an "old" game (at the time I thought it was at least a generation older than it actually was) could feel so good to play and be as engrossing as any modern game just purely through gameplay. It was a major catalyst in getting me into retro games and game collecting. First metroidvania I'd played as well.

I got all the achievements too, which mostly meant getting 200.6% and then beating the game, including the inverted castle, as Richter. Richter doesn't have any equipment screen and can't level up etc., so it's a lot more like classic Castelvania without the RPG elements, and you need a little but of creativity to navigate the map without any of Alucard's fancy abilities.

It's ultimately not that hard since Richter's whip is pretty powerful and some of the item crash attacks are ridiculously overpowered. It certainly doesn't compare to older Castlevania games in difficulty, but at the time I was pretty proud of myself for doing it. I think the hardest part was an achievement for beating Dracula in the intro without taking any damage.

Yeah, good game.

[Kwing]

I was late on playing it - got it as part of the Dracula X Chronicles for PSP and it was OUTSTANDING. I'm annoyed that playing with Richter and Maria you have issues with accessing certain parts of the castle, but that doesn't take away from an outstanding action RPG experience.