Leechboy

I think I may be in a minority when I say that I do not like the GBA Castlevanias. When I first start playing them I love them but soon the love goes away when I expose more of the castle and get lost. Both on COTM and HOD I have gotten hopelessly lost. I really wish they would go and do another Castlevania game like Part IV on Super Nintendo. Or at least they could have a "hint" function like the navigation rooms on Metriod Fusion. I hate wandering around aimlessly. Am I the only one that wishes they would make another level based Castlevania???

darkside

I love the current Metroid type layouts in the Castlevania games. If you get stuck just head over to Gamefaqs and read a walkthrough. Searching the castles and trying to find everything is part of what makes these games great.

Kellehair

I agree with you 100% Leechboy.

I see the connection but that's an insult to Metroid.

trigun

I don't really see how to get lost in these games. It's usually pretty obvious when you can't proceed past a certain point until you get a particular item or spell. Just jot down a few notes now and then.

A game shouldn't need to hold your hand every step of the way.

Josh H

I love the GBA Castlevania games. I was never a big fan of the series until Symphony of the Night came out.

Super Metroid is my all time favorite games, and these Castlevania games are clearly heavily influenced by it.

I only got lost once in HOD for a pretty long time. COTM I got through without getting lost too bad, and I've just started AoS.

Kellehair

That's got nothing to do with it. I personally think the Castelvania series took a wrong turn with Symphony of the Night. I much prefer the action-based NES/SNES versions to these new exploration-based versions. Exploration just doesn't fit the Castlevania series well because there's never anything interesting to see. Metroid Prime and Fusion on the other hand have many unique environments and many elements within those environments to interact with. The recent Castlevania's have a bunch of rocks and some rubble. Wow. Maybe if the level design reverted to its past glory with castles, churches, clocktowers, etc. it would be more interesting to explore.

darkside

Same here. I never like the Castlevania series until Symphony of the Night. Next to Super Metroid its probably my favorite adventure game ever.

Outlaw

yep! I also thought they were awesome! Still haven't picked up Aria of Sorrow yet, but will soon. I like level based castlevania's as well but they tend to be pretty short (you can beat them pretty quickly). I'm a big castlevania fan, I own them all (except the PCengine dracula X ) so either way is fine with me even though I like the exploration kind, like Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

I didn't really have a problem with getting lost either. I thought it was pretty easy to figure out where you had to go. On the map it even shows the path to rooms that you haven't been to, there's no need to wander aimlessly.

I love adventure type games. Its cool exploring the castle and getting to new areas and enemies and hearing how the music fits each area.

edit: I think the new ps2 one is level based (and in 3D) though.

JNielsen

If I can remember correctly, wasn't Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest basicly an exploration type setup. I don't remember it being level based.

trigun

So the series went wrong with the first sequel (Simon's Quest)?

I guess I don't see that the environments in the more recent Castlevania game are any worse or different than in the past games - in fact they seem to be lifted directly from them. Caverns, libraries, churches with stained glass windows, and clocktowers (doesn't every Castlevania game have this?) are all present.

darqleo

How can one get lost? There is a map screen.

Kellehair

Not really. The next 3 sequels were all level-based and action-heavy.

Maybe I over-generalized before. CotM did take place largely in a cavern though and that was boring. I haven't played AoS yet and SotN had other aspects that turned me off.

PixyJunket

People getting used to stuff like Final Fantasy where you don't do any exploring and the game just kinda runs automatically.

fujishig

I actually love all three GBA games. I think the RPG fan in me likes the leveling up part, and finding new weapons/items/skills, as opposed to the straight action of the original Castlevania. I also like having an inventory instead of just one item at a time.

The new PS2 Castlevania is removing the rpg aspect, though, since the creator thought that "leveling up" made it too easy to finish the game... and it's true, since Aria of Sorrow is probably the easiest and shortest of the three. The map is a great feature, and as someone said before will always show you the essential areas that you haven't been able to get to yet (though there are still hidden rooms). I enjoy exploration and killing monsters a lot more when I have the incentives of leveling up, finding items, and getting more "souls."

Josh H

Yep. Plus no RPG elements at all. It's basically Devil May Cry with the castlevania listen.

I don't plan on checking it out as I hate the DMC games and the exploration and RPG elements (which will be missing) are the main reasons I like the GBA games and SOTN.

PalmerJoss

People are just used to easy games with cheat options. Castlevania has always been a challenging series and that has always been one of it's appealing qualities to me. I love the side-scrolling view because it brings back great memories of the 8-bit NES days and some of the Castlevania games that came out for that system. I also love the music, character and level design, and some great bosses and enemies(with the exception of Super Castlevania).

Josh H

When I got lost in HoD it was because I had missed a key (it blended in with the background) in a room I'd already explored.

Thus when I went to the "new" area's on the map all I found were locked doors and the Map couldn't help with finding the key as it showed the room it was in as already fully explored since I had been in it and missed the key.

So it is possible to get lost, but it takes some bad luck.