Symphony Of The Flow

Castlevania Dominus Collection

Off The Richter Scale

Return To Cellulose

O, Konami!
Anuna?

Renfield

Castlevania but with Nicolas Cage.

Whiptastic!

This fan made game is so cool! Castlevania: Simon’s Destiny looks LIT! pic.twitter.com/01fMrJm8pv

— Mark Julio 『マークマン』 (@MarkMan23) August 27, 2022

God damn!
Fan-made stuffs are so much better than what Konami releases!
This actually feels like a brand new game in itself.

Inferness

Kastilyong Buhangin

Konami 50th Anniversary Collection

Devil May Cry x Castlevania

Open for business. pic.twitter.com/TCT5JH9fXz

— Adi Shankar (@adishankarbrand) November 16, 2018

Castle Of Silvanas

Deds na si Weegee!
Pero nandito na sina Mayor Sonny Belmonte at Betty-Go Belmonte!

And also, THIS:

Danasty Warriors

Hey you guys, I think you're missing out on one more party member.

There you go!

Ah yes, we finally saw the first four episodes of Netflix's

There were a few mixed reviews about it on Youtube. But depending a show's fate on various stranger's (at times) biased opinion could be quite questionable at best hence we just had to watch this series ourselves.And to be honest, I kinda liked it. The first and the last episode at least.

But more importantly, everyone's been commenting as to how the said squad lacks the aforementioned thief named Grant Danasty.
You know, the pirate looking bald dude.

The one who carries a dagger and has the uncanny ability to scale walls.

But I think everyone else missed out on the more OBVIOUS clues that the show had been hinting
as early as the second episode. Our very keen Vania senses kinda picked up on quite a number of them hence here were a few of our own theories.

Notice how Trevor deliberately said NASTY as opposed to maybe...UGLY?
Nasty is of course NOT a reference to the wrestling duo THE NASTY BOYS

but rather,  could be hint on the said lanky looking bald priest's last name.

A little foreshadowing if you will.

And although he might look clueless and unassuming, he actually was quite skilled with a knife.

Trevor even go as to describing the weapon as a THIEF's knife.

Hinting even more on our unnamed priest's hidden persona/profession.
The unnamed priest even spun the said knife in a very fancy manner.

Making his airtime all the more questionable.

Sure, the fight with Trevor cost him an eye (quite literally) and a leg (ok,not really!).

But he survived the said skirmish and was able to shake it off.

Not now, Taylor Swift!

Fast forward to Trevor's abduction scene.
Look at how everyone else holds their knives.
Everyone holds their knife in a "stabby"-pretending to be threatening sort of way.

Now, look at our bald priest in question.

That is clearly a fighting stance of someone who specializes in knives.
There were also very deliberate attempts to isolate the shots so that he would look nice and
centered.

And here he is again,

Again, is all this airtime really necessary for such a mere jobber character?
His knife skills were a bit more slicker this time around.

And oh, he just lost another eye.

Imagine that!

But more importantly he never died in the said encounter.
After being blinded by an arrow, he just got push aside by Trevor.

Whilst all the other priests got severed arms

(Nice pose, Trevor!)
and were killed by either spears or arrows.

And you could argue all you want as to how the bald priest looks nothing like the Grant from the NES version of things.

(Courtesy of : https://www.gamingrebellion.com/2016/02/amazing-life-lessons-from-the-belmont-clan/ )
Well no shit, so does everyone else!
The main characters alone looks NOTHING like how they were supposed to be.

Assassin's Creed-ish.

Definitely "Symphony" inspired.

The only design they got right was that of Sypha.

And God forbid we get THIS version of Alucard again!

And have you ever heard about disguises?
The priest costume is probably a front for his thief or pirate life.

And quite frankly, a few bandages and a bad priest costume wouldn't be the weirdest look this character had to go through.

Remember this?

So there you go. All four of them had made an appearance in the first season alone. Although we could say Grant's appearance was a little more subtle and cryptic than the rest.
So, not now, Grant Morrison!

You too, Amy Grant!

All in all, the episodes were kinda nice despite what everyone else had to say about it.
The comedic aspects were nicely inserted as well.

They definitely were able to pull off the whole Cowboy Bebop thing they were originally hoping for. The views and opinions about religion does strike a chord.

I guess most organized (or disorganized) religion had it coming then.
And every priest and clergymen does look like a fat person's butt.

Which is quite fitting since most of them were assholes anyways.
The short but memorable exchange between Lisa and Dracula was also a nice touch.

Although predictable, I've always been a sucker for the whole "Friendly Monster" gimmick.

The bar room fight scene were a bit sluggish but both the Cyclops and Alucard scenes were OK.
And I understand how most fans might felt like the show was deliberately disregardeding the source material. For writing a story about a game could be quite difficult hence some (if not most)elements might be lost in the said translation.

But we would have preferred a more famous boss characters rather than the ones we did get.
So instead of this Cyclops,

we should've gotten Balore instead.

Or better yet Medusa.

This scene that sort of resembles a Clock Tower, 

would've appealed more to the hardcore Vania fans with the inclusion of either Harpies

or Medusa Heads.

(Courtesy of: http://strangegaming.blogspot.com/2013/10/castlevania-house-that-dracula-built.html)
And instead of these things,

( Which we could only assume were Gargoyles 

from Aria Of Sorrow, and a slightly decomposing Warg (Anfauglir)

from Symphony Of The Night)
they should've went with these things instead.

Although probably not as intimidating though.

The show left us off at a cliffhanger. A very ONE PIECE-ish

thing to do but that's that, I guess?

Hopefully there would be more episodes for Season 2!
So here's to Trevor And The Gang!

And to you too, Bald Priest in question!

Pencilvania

Hot on the trail of the recently streamed Castlevania series on Netflix.

We've decided to play/replay 2 Vania games and see how gracefully or how poorly they've aged over the years.

So crack those whips and bring those sub-weapons for tonight's "an excellent night to play a game"!

Ohhh, we're playing the balls hard NES classic then.
Or we could also refer to it by its Japanese title :

The  American version has that iconic font, animated bat and a turd looking castle but the Japanese version had a cooler looking castle, dripping blood font and that surprisingly calming blue background. Both game still plays the same way, I guess?

We are then immediately treated to a cutscene.

And it's of you staring at a castle!
There you go, That's as much of a backstory you'll ever need.

As mentioned earlier, this game could be unforgiving with its respawning enemies and merciless ghouls that will intentionally attack you while you're climbing the stairs or attempting to do a jump.

So t'would be best to outsmart the game and show him who's boss!

Surprisingly enough, these are Spartan X cheats that I've accidentally left enabled and oh boy, was it all the cheat codes you'll ever need for this game.

You now have the castle to yourself. Whip as many candles as you want. Whip them all if you really want to!
And do you have problems with Mermen?

Problem solved!

Now take a dip in their pool. (No, please don't do that! It's rude and could possibly be life threatening.)

And hey, Wall Chicken!

I guess they weren't able to include that in the Netflix version of things. 
Absolutely bollocks!

The game does become a little bit more manageable.
The only level that I could finish without any cheats would be the first stage.
You just have to hide in this said area and spam the Bat Boss with numerous axes.

After which you get to see a castle map screen, which we really really liked at the time.

But certain enemies will and can still attack you.

Like the Bats ,White Dragons,

Axe Armors,

and the dreaded Medusa Heads.

You might also would want to have a designated button for the enabling and disabling of cheats for the Boss Battles couldn't be activated with the cheats enabled. You are left with a motionless final boss.

And to save time and precious typing efforts, here's a quick boss montage.
HIT IT!

More often than not, the sub-weapons you need for spamming the boss to death are conveniently located right before you fight the boss. So pay attention to what you're obtaining for it might be a crucial item for your victory.

You then fight the two forms of Dracula.

After which you receive this sort of "Funny Ending"

All that trouble for just a bunch of lousy name puns.

Ok, let's move on to the next game!

Now we're talking!

We've actually obtained this game many moons ago. But was unable to play it due to certain specs of our VisualBoy Advance playing GBA games at an abnormally faster speed. Which also meant our enjoyment of Warioware Inc. was at a different pace back in those days.

But alas, enough about the past. For we now can review this Metroidvania game properly and review it properly we shall!
First and foremost, we should just quit comparing this game to that of Symphony Of The Night.

We get it, it's the same exploration formula and all.
But all this nostalgia is weighing us down

and making our enjoyment of the newer games far less special. So let's leave all those Alucard stuff right at the main entrance

as we the enter the realm that is Soma's World.

My god, that sounded like a bad 90's sitcom.
But anyways, let's continue!

As the series shifted its play style, so did the appearance of its lead character.

Gone are the Conan-esque looking buff guys

(Courtesy of  http://jogur.deviantart.com/art/Castlevania-Evolution-212895502)
and in are the more pretty boy/ K-Pop look.

Appearances aside, we intentionally picked Aria Of Sorrow over both Circle Of The Moon and Harmony Of Dissonance due to its non Belmont and non whip wielding protagonist, Soma Cruz. 

Oy, CRUZ pala siya, nag-CRUZ nanaman ang landas namin!

Pinoy jokes aside! 

The game can be visually familiar 

and yet different at the same time.

As with most Metroidvania games, map memorization is quite important. The exploration aspect is quite heavy and at times, the items from the said hidden area aren't really all that worth it!

Oh boy, yet another SCARF to add to my collection!

And congratulations, 

I JUST PLAYED MYSELF!

Save Point/ Save Room:

Game Over Screen: 

And due to the new system of soul collecting, you are then REQUIRED to kill an unspecified amount of monsters in order to obtain their souls. There is also an easier way of doing this by doing some fancy attack. But we weren't skilled enough to pull it off.

And there are 113 souls to collect!

Meaning there is twice 

the grinding required to get that very elusive 100%.

And as always, some bosses 

and rooms can be downright unfair.

I've also found it intriguing that there are now devils and demons on this game.

No more blurring the lines between vampires and demons.

No more masquerading them as giant bald men with horns and bat wings!

I guess Nintendo isn't too strict about religious imagery anymore. And that's a good thing!

The dialogues in this game are dreadfully long! Half of the time you're not even reading them because you're low on health and a save room is far more important than any old storyline.

The character designs for the enemies are still pretty darn detailed as they are stunning.

It was quite impressive as to how they were able to fit this many data within a GBA cartridge.

And WOAH, what a twist!

See these are the only dialogues I've ever read! And it pretty much told me everything I needed to know. And also worth mentioning is that GIANT BAT, FLAME DEMON & SUCCUBUS souls are needed to be equipped in order to obtain the BEST ENDING.

And yes, there are 3 Endings for this game, a 

Good Ending.

(Which we were unable to screencap, stupid us!)

Bad Ending.

& last but not the least,

the BEST ENDING!

Please refer to this link as to how to obtain these said endings:

http://www.chapelofresonance.com/games/aos/endings.html

The random soul combination was never really hinted anywhere within the game. This is yet another case of the NINTENDO POWER strategy that most Vania games usually utilize.

After which you do get to face off against Julius Belmont.

Yeah, that guy!

He is not possessed by Shaft or anything like that. He just NEEDS to kill you because he's a BELMONT and you're DRACULA. 

After which you obtain a skill called BLACK PANTHER.

Nope, not that kind of BLACK PANTHER!

It's a speed ability that makes castle exploring a lot faster.

You are then given a pass to go to the Chaotic Realm.

Where everything is RED and WHITE.

No, I said, RED and WHITE and not REDFORD WHI....oh nevermind!

But it was great to see him again!

Oh, and will you look at that!

It's a motherfuck'n HANDGUN!

How many Vania games would allow you to use such modern day firearms? Only in this game, baybay!

You then face off against CHAOS (we're not gonna spoil its appearance but it's nothing to write home about) and then THE END!

You then unlock a Boss Rush Mode.

Complete the said mode and be rewarded with the most futuristic weapon on the planet.

A frikk'n gun from the future.

Which pretty much makes the game a walk in the park.

And those were the two Vania games. The first one was alright. It was a little cheap with the constantly respawning enemies and Simon bouncing backward after a hit would usually result in instant death. But it is the pioneer and the franchise starter so to speak. So I'll give it that.  But the second game was the shiznit! It was really addictive. I actually played it for 2-3 nights straight. Trying to find all the hidden rooms and grinding my way to obtain all those poor souls.It can be quite enjoyable just as long as you stop comparing it to SOTN.

And speaking of breathing new life to tried and tested formula. We are actually looking forward to Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night.

I think the trailer and all these lovely low-res images could pretty much speak for themselves.

So let us go out this evening for pleasure. 

For after all, the night is still young!