Well I've beat Symphony of the Night twice since my last post here. Once as Alucard getting 200.6% completion and the other as Richter. Think I'm hitting up the flea market this weekend before the outdoor vendors pack up for the fall and see if I can find 1&3 on NES for cheap. If not I may just bite the bullet and get them anyways.

Real men play as Richter and beat Galamoth!

He's blacktually not that tough, either. You just have to make sure to get over to the right ledge and hope he doesn't do anything cheap, which he will.

If you can manage to get the CV and CVIII before Halloween, congratulations. Well worth the money, anyway. After all, what else would you get? A WII GAME? HAHAHAHAHA!

I've actually beaten Galamoth with Richter before... just not in this run lol. I should go back and do that actually...

Well I need to add those two to my collection for sure so I think I'm going to get them either way, I just hope to run across a vendor at the end of the day just looking to dump the rest of his stuff and make away with a bag full of games for $5-$15 as I have before and pray that those two are in there.

Bumped due to the release of Lords of Shadow today. Picking up my copy after work.

don't do it.

Why?

Demo made me a very happy man inside, I'm getting it as soon as I can.

Oh yeah, good thread to remind me of my Castlevania series run again. Last year I finished close to every game in the series. This year I'm off to a slow start with having finished only Bloodlines (all the way through, Expert), Rondo of Blood (good ending, all the way through), and NES original Castlevania. I'm way behind schedule, because last year I managed to do the entire NES trilogy in a day, front to back. Then again, the weekend is always a good time!

PG you're my hero!

I only give myself the month of October to finish as many as I can. Chronicles on the PS1 is probably my favorite.

I think I may download Chronicles on PS3. Too hard to find a hard copy of it and I want to play it.

EDIT: Played a mission and a half of Lords of Shadow last night, and it's actually a lot of fun. I was worried there would be way too much story and currently it's not being forced down your throat like other Kojima games. It's there, but it's not overbearing so that's a plus. Two things though:

1) I really should have gotten in on PS3 over the 360 to get the best looking game possible.

2) Really wish I could control the camera. I know they were going for the God of War type of camera but they didn't do it as well. Also, I still haven't found a use for the right joystick so I don't know why they didn't let us use it to control the camera.

Everything else seems great so far. Haven't had any problems with the platforming or puzzles and the combat is awesome. For sure falls under the easy to use, hard to master category especially when you start unlocking new moves.

Cripes. I'm going to pick up a PS3 tonight after work. and was going to Pick up LOS on Xbox. . but Now. . I don't know.

I'm really liking it. The one thing I was really worried about was the story was going to be overbearing and it really isn't so far. It's there but you're not dealing with 20-40 min cutscenes like other Kojima projects. At most maybe 5 min. If you like God of War-styled hack and slash that's got more complexity and more of a classic NES Castlevania feel compared to Metroidvania then pick it up for sure. My one major gripe is not being able to control the camera. All the points that reviewers had issues with, framerate drops (in the 360 version), platforming problems, not knowing where to go etc. I haven't had an issue with at all. Seriously, I don't know what reviewers were talking about when they said they didn't know where to go in some of the platforming sections. I found it really straight forward.

More than anything, I'm glad they FINALLY went with a more masculine protagonist. I'm telling you, The Expendables has hopefully sent a message that we US Americans want manly men heroes back!

I agree 120%. I like Gabriel as a main character which I think really gives me that classic Castlevania feel mixed in with a dash of Lord of the Rings. Also the voice acting is quite good. Robert Carlyle's done a great job as Gabriel and come on... Patrick Stewart is the man.

I would like to refer to why people shouldn't trust IGNs reviews, or most big name reviewers in general. They complained a lot about the framerate issues with the 360 version, especially when you pull off grapple moves. I installed the game onto my hard drive and not once have I experienced a framerate drop performing a move. I actually haven't come across one issue with the framerate lagging at all.

Also the complaints about the platforming is stupid in what I've expereinced. I may have fallen once or twice experimenting in what ledges I can jump to and which ones I can't. The game doesn't hold your hand on where you can jump or what ledges you can grab which I greatly admire as I find there's way too much hand holding in games nowadays, especially when it comes to platforming. It's still very straight forward on where to go and where you can jump so I don't know why they're complaining. Just because the game doesn't show with bright lights you have to jump to this ledge or you have to climb this part of the titan you're fighting to find his weakness? Trial and error, the fundamental of classic gaming and it seems to be lost nowadays. Glad to see it back in this game. Also, the checkpoints are very generous if you die at a platforming section you'll most likely start where you left off.

Anyways, I'm gong to keep playing through it and I'll update my experiences with the game. So far I'm really digging it and think reviewers are dumb, especially IGN.

My copy of Super Castlevania IV arrived last week. I forgot how fucking wicked fun that game was. I actually managed to beat it for the first time ever. Not that it was overly difficult, it was just that I never owned it as a kid so I never got a chance to run through it.

Talk about one of the all time system sellers.

Almost done the second mission. Each mission is about an hour long I think. Let you know what happens after the second titan battle. The first one was a lot of trial and error, but not overly hard once you know what to do. The game doesn't really hold your hand and show you where to go to take him down though and will only tell you once to dodge one of his moves, the rest is up to you. It did remind me of Shadow of the Colossus though, just not as jaw dropping. I think the one I'm about to fight is going to be a lot cooler than the first.

Anyways, if you get it on 360 I suggest you download it onto your HD. Load times are pretty fast and no framerate problems that I've come across.

Ah! But which disc to load! There's 2 of them!!! Baha

..I'm having a lot of fun with this game so far.

I'm thinking of replaying some earlier levels to find more health and magic gems. I have a feeling I will need the extra health and magic soon.

Btw this is probably the best written review on the game I've come across. Pretty much mirrors how I feel about it so far:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/06/castl ... ow-review/

Also, another complaint about the GT review of the game for those of you who watched it. The part of the review where they showed Gabriel riding a beast walking into a wall to emphasize their point of not knowing where to go? Maybe they should have looked at the big glowing ledge on the wall they were walking into... maybe that was a clue of where to go as I figured it out the moment I got to that part. Simply terrible.