Many videogames failed to make the transition to 3D, whereas others found success and never looked back. Castlevania is a weird one, it tried several times and failed, but it achieved moderated success as a 2D game to the point many indie developers still copy their designs. I too like the games, but also enjoyed the 2D zelda and marios, so I wonder what makes Castlevania different.
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All 4 retro 3D castlevania, on N64 and PS2, are really fun. I'd even argue that the N64 games are better games some of the GBA ones.
>I'd even argue that the N64 games (worst in the series) are better games
esl post and most franchises continued to have 2D entries (megaman, rayman, sonic, zelda) so castlevania is not unique here
eop post and most of the franchises you mention are either dead or are 90% 3D anyway.
the problem with cv is that in a 3d space it'd really be closer to a shooter than a brawler or 3d action adventure. bit homosexual to say but that doom total conversion is probably the closest thing we've got.
>bit homosexual to say but that doom total conversion is probably the closest thing we've got.
Are you talking about pic?
>doom CV
hey i remember that
thought it was kinda fun
Has anyone even played the 3D castlebanias lol
Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters all tried going 3D as well and despite there being some quite popular 3D fighters, it didn't work out for any of those franchises either and they went back.
I played 64, the first one on PS2 and part of the second one. The first PS2 one, Lament wasn't totally awful, but it wasn't that good either and they don't feel much like Castlevania.
I played the Dreamcast one
I rented both the N64 version and silent hill 1 on the same day. That was a fantastic Konami weekend, but SH was definitely the winner. Castlevania 64 looked like it could've been a neat game, but I remember it was a little too hard and I was happy to beat the motorcycle skeletons. I also played Lamont of Innocence for a little bit. Wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing either and I remember dropping it early. The music was good though.
Someone recently ripped a bunch of 3d meshes from the game.
Did he get some unseen cut / early material? Game is apparently loaded with stuff
Dunno, but you can check it here
https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-42492.html
cool
i think the biggest thing was that at the time when CV was trying to make the jump to 3D, 3D looked like fricking dogshit. if you tried to give a 3D game the CV aesthetic, with its darker and much less saturated colors, youd end up with
theres a reason most 3D games of that era opted for their bright colors and high contrast. it was just easier to look at. a LOT easier to look at. hell even CV4, an early SNES game, looked a lot better than anything on the later consoles
meanwhile they still kept making 2D CVs, and the spritework in those games were masterful.
another anon also mentioned the gameplay
in 2D it was pretty cut and dry: an action platformer, jump + whip to beat the stage. later on IGA went for the metroid-style, but it still kept mostly to its gameplay roots, at least in feel.
the 3D CVs kinda got lost in the sauce with all the new possibilities they had.
>is it a platformer?
sometimes, and a clunky one at that
>is it a 3D action game?
sure, but its kinda wonky
>is it full of random gimmick lvls/bosses that play more like a tech demo?
absolutely
the 2D games never had that problem. even the IGAvanias maintain their tight focus from a gameplay perspective. they know what theyre supposed to be, and they are that the whole way through
Mario 2D games aren’t more complex than castlevania yet the franchise found success in 3D. Maybe in retrospective not everybody managed to make the transition.
p much what he said
tbh
but id like to re-iterate how fricking ugly and shitty the controls were on those first few 3D CVs.
mario made out just fine since the dopey cartoony gfx work perfect with simple polygons. and the controls were actually fantastic. 3D mario still controls almost exactly the same to this day. they nailed it
3D CV had neither of those things
in fact they really kinda royally fricked up both imo
Mario is more of a pure platformer. There are enemies, but they aren't the focus in the same way. Castlevania's hallmark is really the mix between platforming mixed with a lot of combat. It's going up stairs while having to avoid knights throwing axes at you, it's traversing a series of tough jumps while a constant stream of medusa heads come at you, or making your way up the clock tower being harassed by flea men jumping all over and flying skeletons.
For Mario which focuses mostly on the platforming aspect, the move to 3D went pretty well. But with Castlevania it seemed much harder to hit that delicate mix that gives the series that distinct feel.
>castle of war
I genuinely love the N64 games. They're my favourite N64 games alongside Duke Nukem Zero Hour but admitedly I've only beaten 14 N64 games and I never played SM64 for more than 10 mins.
The skill ceiling is a bit low in the first game but LoD sorta fix that with the Hard mode
Is CV64 even worth it when LoD exists?
I want to try them out but not interested in playing the 'same game' twice
I like both equally, and several levels were completely changed in LoD to the point they're unique in the original. For instance one of my favourite levels in the original is a leaned tower surrounded by lava that you climb little by little, in LoD you don't even climb the tower, it's just an unreachable place (except for a secret) and instead you have new rooms around it.
The hedge maze in LoD also feels like the game assumes the player is already familiar with it from the original. I'd recommend playing the original first, as Belmont, and then check out LoD.
Also DON’T play on Easy Mode, the game ends after Castle Center
Thanks for the summary, CV64 it is then
Another weird difference is that in CV64 the main characters and even Dracula have voiced lines. Dracula sounds suspiciously like Robert Belgrade. His dialogue is in that cutscene in tbe Castle Wall stage
The game is super easy on normal mode too.
The hardest fight in the game are the cerberi early on right before you enter the mansion.
What?
Why do you only have to fight a single cerberus? Are you playing on easy?
It should be a big group.
I remember playing the first one on Project64 when I was a kid and the Frankenstein chainsaw hands guy in the hedge maze spooked me so bad I deleted the entire emulator
I still love lords of darkness 1
>B-but muh gow clone
And? Classic gow gameplay suits whip combat a lot. Also the healing/chaos magic system rewards you when you play well.
Story is great, but falls a lot once in realm of death
OST is also great.
Art design is great.
Mob variety is very good for a game of this type
The adventure last 20h without the 2 dlcs. And the amount of recycle is almost 0.
The upgrades are great and makes replaying a level a breeze
It's great to hear Patrick Stewart in a castlevania game
Gabriel is on the podium for best protagonist since he has an actual personality, and it's one of the few times where we seem to impersonate a battle monk.
>it tried several times and failed,
This is where your entire post falls apart. You don't bother telling us what fail means but so I'm just going to assume it's "I do not personally like it". The 3D games generally sold well and have their fans. So by any measure except your personal enjoyment they succeeded. And trying to hammer home the idea that the 2D's success by saying "indie games copy it" is stupid. Indie game devs are talentless. They go with 2D not because they cannot do 3D. It has no relationship to the quality of the thing. If anything indie correlates with crap choices, so if they choose to copy something it's morel likely a sign it's bad.
I actually like the 2D vanias but your take is awful on so many levels.