Castlevania Appreciation Thread

[Ziggy587]

I recently posted this in the "So what have you guys been watching lately?" thread, but got no responses...

I watched the first season of Castlevania on NetFlix when it first came out. When the second season became available, I just wasn't in the mood for it. But now I got in the mood for it and binged the second and third seasons. I definitely enjoyed it, and can't wait for a fourth season!

I was still in the mood for something though. So I decided to give the Dracula series on NetFlix a try. To my delight, it was definitely enjoyable! Has anyone else seen this?



I just wish it had a subtitle or something. There's too many things out there titled simply "Dracula" at this point.

[dsheinem]

I’ve also recently picked the Netflix series back up after loving the first season but not having interest at the time Season 2 came out. I’ll finish Season 2 this weekend and probably watch 3 next week. It is indeed a well made show, and even someone like me who rarely watches dramatic animated shows is really digging it.

[Ziggy587]

The end of the third season gets a little... more adult, if you catch my meaning.

[Ziggy587]

I didn't realize VS Castlevania is on Switch, which includes online high scores. Pretty cool.

edit: This deserves its own thread. I've posted one here: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=53198#p1158412

[Ziggy587]

Someone hacked the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night to utilize the 4MB RAM cart. Improvements include faster loading and smoother animations, optimized data arrangement, and a button combo to open the map.

For those that don't know, in the Saturn version of SotN you had to press start to go into the menu then press L to access the map. Then you back out of the map back into the menu, then exit the menu back into the game. It makes pulling up the map a nightmare (considering how often you may want to do it) because each transition isn't instant. This is because the Saturn controller doesn't have as many buttons as the PS1 controller (no select button on Saturn). So getting a button combo to open the map is amazing!

Relevant Article: https://www.retrorgb.com/new-saturn-cas ... -more.html

[marurun]

If only they would put black borders to fix the resolution issue. The PSX original uses a lower resolution that the Saturn supports, so on the Saturn the graphics are scaled a little, unevenly.

[Ziggy587]

If only they would put black borders to fix the resolution issue. The PSX original uses a lower resolution that the Saturn supports, so on the Saturn the graphics are scaled a little, unevenly.

Yeah, to say that it was a "poorly optimized port" is an understatement. It basically wasn't optimized at all. The resolution never bothered me that much (I've only ever played it on a CRT, maybe it's a lot more noticeable upscaled on an HDTV?) but the broken transparencies and slowdown are on the top of the list of my least favorite things that are wrong with this port. First place on that list is definitely accessing the map.

Maybe this hacker or someone else will take this and improve it further. Then maybe that would motivate someone to give it a fan translation.



Speaking of quality of life hacks for Castlevania games, some SNES games have been hacked to utilize the SA co-processor to eliminate slowdown (Gradius III for example). It would be awesome if someone could hack Super Castlevania IV to fix the slowdown issues. There's some slowdown throughout the game, but especially in the two rotating mode 7 rooms.

[SpaceBooger]

Someone hacked the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night to utilize the 4MB RAM cart. Improvements include faster loading and smoother animations, optimized data arrangement, and a button combo to open the map.

For those that don't know, in the Saturn version of SotN you had to press start to go into the menu then press L to access the map. Then you back out of the map back into the menu, then exit the menu back into the game. It makes pulling up the map a nightmare (considering how often you may want to do it) because each transition isn't instant. This is because the Saturn controller doesn't have as many buttons as the PS1 controller (no select button on Saturn). So getting a button combo to open the map is amazing!

Relevant Article: https://www.retrorgb.com/new-saturn-cas ... -more.html

I played this with the patch and there is still slowdown with enemies... still real noticeable with the giant wolf things at the beginning. I was hoping this would even the playing field with the PS1 version, but it doesn't. Like mentioned the resolution is still off and the lack of transparencies still looks weird.
I did not play it long enough to see any real speedup in loading, but the slowdown was enough for me to move on from this again.

[Ziggy587]

Someone just released a hack for Castlevania Dracula X (SNES) that removes the pits from the Dracula fight!

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5223/



I was really hoping that someone would one day do this. Although, I was hoping for a flat ground so it could be a normal Dracula fight. This is still great though!

[marurun]

The way to cheese that Dracula fight is to try to crouch whenever possible. Then you don’t get tossed.