I think there was some Hallmark greeting card-style saying that went "Life is nothing but a series of moments." Or maybe it came from some godawful Reese Witherspoon movie I'd been forced to watch at some point. While I can't quite agree with that, there's always a moment when you're doing something - in this case, say, playing a video game - where you realize "Damn, this is REALLY cool", and you're hooked.
Konami has some of the most talented game designers on the planet, and they always have. Throughout the history of Castlevania, they've managed to put some incredibly innovative elements in their games that really seperate them from the pack. These are some of those moments.
As for my personal favorites? I've always dug the Prayer scene right before the first level of Castlevania 3. The music, the lightning, the way Trevor stood up around and turned around in his two color, bad assed glory.
My favorite boss battle would probably be the werewolf at the top of the clock tower in Castlevania Chronicles. Scoring a hit was a bit of a bitch, giving how agile the creature was, and the precious little vitality you're given at that point in the game doesn't help. And after you've dealt enough damage, the boss rips the clock hand from the background starts to smash you with it. This is actually a godsend, since it's much easier to hit. It's just one of the most intense boss battles you'll see in the series, though my most memorable is still Frankenstein and the stupid invincible hunchback from the first Castlevania.
And finally, I always really liked that one section of Castlevania 64 where you have to bring the bomb across the castle, without getting hit or jumping. Despite the reputation the N64 games seem to have, a lot of people pointed to them as having some of their favorite moments.
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My very favourite Castlevania moment would have to be the very first meeting
with "Dracula" at the top of the watchtower in Castlavania 64. This game had a
lot of marvelous cutscenes, but this one.. The music, the angles, and one of
the most threatening voice-overs I've ever heard (some might disagree).
You pull the lever, expecting nothing special, when suddenly your character
lowers his/her head to point out that there is something behind him/her. A
really low, scary tone is heard, accompanying the bells suddenly heard from the
clocktower. You turn around, and the music comes to an emotional climax that
just hit me in the stomach (why, oh why isn't that tune on the soundtrack?).
And then he appears, floating several yards of the ground, his cape flapping in
the wind, with the castle in the background. And then he speaks.
It's gorgeous! van Hellswing
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I can't say this moment had all that much impact on me, but it's good to see some respect to the N64 games.
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Hey Kurt, I feel like such a bad fanboy for not submitting my rants and raves for your mailbag, I will be sending in my badges and sash ASAP... As far as my FAVORITE moment? It would have to be the Boss battle when Alucard had to fight Trevor, Grant and Sypha. Not that I personally enjoyed handing them their rear ends, but I thought it was cool that they did that. The other scene would be the scene where after five minutes of Castlevania 64 where I pushed the power button and the screen went black... that was a memorable moment.... My favorite boss battle would have to be a tie between the one mentioned before and Death in CV3. Nothing made me more pleased than beating that stoopid golden skull after spending a day and a half trying to beat it. Of course, I look back at it now and it wasn't THAT hard, but when I played it, it was a terrifying moment indeed. Favorite Stage: Hey look, another tie... shock and/or surprise. Death's stage in CV3 where they did the same set up as the main entrance for CV and I would have to say that the blasted ice stage in CV: Chronicles was just too annoying not to enjoy... cheeky little devils. Favorite memory: The time when I saw that castle pop out from the sky after beating that stoopid ball over Richter's head. Even though most games would blow that out of the water today, it was still one of those moments when you went, "Son of a B***H, there is another CASTLE!". Well, I think that is all that I can think about... I think. I just wnat the CV for my PS2 to be filled with so much goodness that I can't help but get all a titter over it. And even though this doesn't have anything to do with Castlevania, I want to wish a speedy return home to our men and women overseas... I don't know when this will go back up, hopefully the war will be over by the time this gets posted, but come home safely. This is "former" fanboy #321590X signing off.... Damn, gotta turn in my badges... -Matt
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I loved the stupid little digitized laughter in NES games. Bald Bull from Punch Out, Ganon from Zelda II, and most importantly, that crazy gigantic skull from CV3. Quite the pain.
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Wow. This isn't easy but I'll try my best to choose one. One boss
battle that really stands out for me was the last Dracula fight in
Castlevania 64. Most of the game was so-so but that last battle looked
and played really cool. A stage that stands out is the first stage of
Rondo. It's a perfect example of what the first stage should be in
Castlevania; easy with good music to pump you up for the long and rough
haul. There's plenty of things in the series that stand out but probably
my all time favorite moment would be during the opening sequence of
Symphony of the Night when Richter and Dracula begin their conversation.
The first time watching it I felt like I was many rows back watching a
Broadway show. Richter even had that classic overacting element in his
voice typical in shoddy stage acting. Tony T. Tiger
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BUT ENOUGH TALK. HAVE AT YOU!
I really love moments that put in completely arbitrary and unnecessary bits of nostalgia that have no real purpose other than pleasing old-tyme fans. The burning town is probably one of the best. I also enjoy when they resurrect random old enemies from the obscure games - the skeleton spider/dragon appears in Harmony and the ninja maids make appearances in Aria of Sorrow, both from Chronicles.
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How can I narrow this down? There's quite a few. I remember when I used to rent Super Castlevania IV that my favorite thing to do was to turn the lights out in the basement at about midnight when everyone else was gone or asleep and just listen to the beginning music while Dracula escapes from the tomb. Some of that stuff is downright spooky if listened to in the right atmosphere. The invisible bridge in CV IV. The atmosphere of the Chapel in Symphony of the Night. Actually, that whole section of the castle. Along with the chapel lights in the background where you fight the Spectral Sword. Especially the high towers. When I first played it, I'm like, "Oh, I must go here later." Then when I realized there was no where *else* to go... "You're kidding me, right? On bells?" Then I realized this game is so much more... Hearing Tragic Prince for the first time. Fighting Granfaloon for the first time. Oh my LORD that freaked me out! I think I had this grossed out look on my face the whole time, especially when all those bodies shriek and fall off the thing. That and seeing Beelzebub. Sick. But memorable. Actually, you might as well chalk up most of Symphony as solid Castlevania moments. One can see in the fanfiction section how it affected me. *shameless plug* ^^ --- Setzer
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Symphony had some really amazing looking bosses, even if they actually turned out to be kinda lame when actually trying to fight them. Beazulbub definitely comes out on top for me. A three-screen tall corpse strung on a meathook. Brilliance, I say.
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STAGE My favorite Castlevania stage? Without going through every game again for full remembrance, I'd say my favorite is Stage/Block 7 in the much hated Castlevania Chronicle/Demon Castle Dracula X68000. The stage that plays the music track "Etude for the Killer", and is a redesigned version of stage 5 from Castlevania 1. It seems to offer the most in the whole game. You get great creatures and obsticles like the bizarre two-headed beast at the opening, the Skeleton Spider, a whole army of Blood Skeletons, the silly little purple monsters that come out of the lab flasks, a MID BOSS, along with a pile of swinging guillotines and floor/ceiling spring traps. Lots of interesting scenery as well. The stage starts off as a dungeon with several trapped prisoners in the background then changes into a torture chamber with LOTS of complete and incomplete bodies everywhere followed by the laboratory where you see what all the prisoners and body parts are used for -- to build Frankenstein's monster, or simply "The Monster". The mid boss encounter. Afterwards is the Art Gallery where one of the two time-related features of the original x68000 version comes in. Depending on the date, you'll get a different first painting depending on what season it is. Just a neat extra. The boss of the stage is Death which is always an exciting battle just to top it off (or aggravating depending on how much Vania you've played). A runner up for favorite stage (as best as my memory goes) would have to be stage 3 in Legend of Dracula/The Casltevania Adventure. You know, the stage that's a gigantic rope climbing, moving spike puzzle. Sure it was rough. Some may argue that it was too memorazation heavy, almost like a stage of an R-Type game, but what pre-32 bit Vania didn't require you to at least be aware of what was ahead at some point? The disappearing/reappearing blocks in the first Megaman games should have been preperation enough for this >:b. Not my fav, but thought it should at least get a mention.
BOSS --CSB
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ARGH, I hated level 3 of Castlevania Adventure. Making all of those jumps at the EXACT right time when your in the vertical section drove me insane. But yeah, seeing the dungeon from the original Castlevania with almost the same exact structure but all sorts of new goodies was quite cool.
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Castlevania has been a major part of my gaming life since I was a
child. I'm 18 now and eagerly awaiting Aria of Sorrow. My first
Castlevania experience was the original GameBoy version. I loved
especially the music of the first level. Then came Simon's Quest. I
loved it too. I think it's way too unappreciated. My only beef with it
was having to go find all those freakin hearts just to buy some garlic or
a stake or something. Castlevania III was probably my favorite. Best
music in the series. Awesome gameplay. Multiple characters. One of my
favorite moments in the series is the start of the first level. Trevor's
kneeling before the cross, he gets up and flings his cape, and then
Beginning starts up. Great stuff. The ending was awesome as well. After that I kinda didn't play any new Castlevania games for about five or six years. I didn't get a Super NES until late in its life span. By then I was all into RPGs and games like Donkey Kong Country and the Marios. The Castlevania games went under my radar. That is, until I got my N64. I heard about CV64 and EGM gave it good scores so I rented it. I loved it. I played it and played it until I beat it. Then I actually bought it. I played the mess out of that game. Another one of those unforgettable moments was the hedge maze chase with chainsaw Frankenstein after you. That was pretty stinkin intense. The first time I did it, it took me close to twenty minutes to find my way out. Actually, that whole level was amazing. The boss fight was especially cool. The girl's body drops from the ceiling, the vampire hangs there talking to you. You approach him emotionless, as if to say "Oh. There he is." Then the girl attacking you after you kill the first guy was a good touch. Equally cool was the Nitro episode. It didn't make that much sense, but darn was it fun to play. When I turned 16 I used my birthday money to grab a PSOne and some used games. Lunar: Silver Star Story, Tony Hawk 2, and Symphony of the Night were my picks. Symphony opened a whole new world to me. It was nothing like I expected. I hadn't played any game like it (Super Metroid was one of those games that slipped under my radar). The bosses were pretty cool. Some were pretty disturbing (Granfaloon!). One great moment was getting the Holy Relic. It was a snorkel for crying out loud! I especially loved this game because it gave some insight into the background of Drac himself and his life before getting all undead on the world. Well, the miracle of Emulation was in full swing at about this time and I got to experience all those CVss I missed (and Super Metroid). I also got a GBA and snatched Harmony. I love Harmony for the same reasons I loved Symphony. A particularly good moment was in the Chapel of Dissonance. After exploring it and fighting for a while I noticed that the music had a touch of Bloodlines in it. I've heard seen that technique used in other CV games, but in this it astounded me. I love Konami for not letting good music die. So my all time favorite moment? The CV III one. I love the opening and first level of that game so much. Either that, or finding out how to open up Samus Aran as a playable character in Symphony. Well, I made that last one up but it would if it could happened! Dag. I typed a lot. ~~Patrick Leslie
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I admit I was a Genesis kid, so I didn't get a SNES until after it was dead and buried. But going back and rediscovering some of the stuff I missed rocks. I still have tons of shooters to catch up on....
The hedge maze is my other favorite part of Castlevania 64 - not the actual exploration of it, which was tedious and dull, but the chase through it with the chainsaw monster.
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Well, here's my two cents on my all-time fave Castlevania moment. I was always a big fan of the Castlevania series ever since I played my first Castlevania game; Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. The thing I loved the most about that game was the fact that it was relatively non-linear as far as the levels go and you could switch places with another "spirit" and have him assist you during your travels. It's this reason that CV III has attained "All-time Fave Video Game" status with me. But after a while, something happened and the love for Castlevania died away. I don't know why this happened, but regardless, I lost all track of anything Castlevania and, no offense, didn't really care for it. But then, back in mid-'98, I found a copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Bought it, played it, and the lust for Castlevania came back. I think the thing that got me the most about the game - and I'm liable to be shot for this - was the VA job. For the most part, I thought it was great (with a couple of exceptions). And not only that, the game started off in a way never done before: you had to fight Dracula as Richter first, to kind of gauge where you are at in the story. I thought that was awesome (and still do to this day). Not only that though, I also very much enjoyed the conversation between Drac and Richter just before the fight: RICHTER: Die, monster! You don't belong in this world! DRAC: It was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh. I was called here by humans, who wish to pay me tribute. RICHTER: Tribute??!! You steal men's souls, and make them your slaves. DRAC: Perhaps the same could be said of all religions! RICHTER: Your words are as empty as your soul. Mankind ill needs a saviour such as you! DRAC: What is a man??!! A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!!! Sure, it got a little corny toward the end, but it was the tension that was building up during this little repartee, that was what really hooked me. Not only that, but most of the big fights with encounters beforehand. It was astounding to me. Death, for instance, just before you fight him: DEATH: So, you've made it this far. In the name of your father, cease this foolishness! ALUCARD: Not while there is a breath in my body. DEATH: Then, for the Master, I'll feast on your soul this night! That to me just added to the greatness of CV:SOTN. These days though, the thing that gets me the most about CV is the music. IMHO, CV and the folks at Konami has churned out the best music I've ever heard..... the only people that can (and has on a couple of occassions) beat them is Squaresoft and their FF/Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross soundtracks. So, in closing, CV for me is more than just gameplay or plot. I always, above anything else, anticipate the music....... and always hoping every now and then, that Vampire Killer will make a triumphant return (Yeah, it was in CV:COTM, but the Observatory Tower was somewhat of a short stage, and CV: HOD only had it in the music test screen). PS: Anyone know where I can find a ringtone of Vampire Killer for my cell phone...... wouldn't that be the shiznit?????? VK playing whenever someone calls.......... anyway, that's all for now. Good bye, and good night.
Cheers,
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Here's another person that appreciates the voice acting and writing in Symphony, as bizarre as it was.
As a side note, in Harmony of Dissonance, the Vampire Killer song is used when you play as Simon is Boss Rush mode.
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Wow, that's a hard question, Kurt. Castlevania games have supplied me with
so many great memories. Seeing Granfaloon for the first time was pretty
awe-inspiring, or Beelzebub for that matter. The last stage in Bloodlines
has some great moments to be sure, what with that upside-down room and the
one that splits apart while you walk. I wasn't expecting that at all. The
first time I managed to figure out how to eat a peanut in Symphony was quite
a momentous occasion. No, I'm serious. But there's gotta be something better than these... Okay, I know. A friend of mine and I were in an Electronics Boutique at the mall one day when we saw that they had some Japanese Saturn games for pretty cheap on a shelf. Hey, look, it's the Japanese version of Symphony of the Night. Neither of us even knew they made a version on the Saturn. We thought it might be kind of fun to see how it would be different, and it wasn't much money, so he bought it. We brought it back to his house and his brother Jared and I dug right in. Jared got to actually play it, but I helped with my kana skills since he couldn't read anything. Anyway, we were just enjoying the basic novelty of the foreign language version pretty well, moving down a corridor, when all-of-a-sudden we were like, um... was that door there before?? Gradually we discovered that, oh my God, there's more castle in this castle! If you're expecting the additions to be there, the Saturn version doesn't seem that much better (and of course there's those things that aren't as good) but just imagine what it would be like to discover all of that extra stuff on your own. It was like uncovering a lost civilization or something. Ah, good times. Christopher Lundgren
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The new areas for the Saturn games are nothing all that important, but they're interesting, and really to make the game feel more complete (well, the Prison anyway.) Some cool enemies too.
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~As a music fan, my favorite Castlevana moment has to be in Symphony of
the Night. Once you arrive in the Library and "A Wood Carving Partita"
kicks in, you know immediately what time period you are in. I've had
dreams where I was Alucard running thru the Castle, double and super
jumpng around the room. My feeling is that if I can identify so deeply
with a game, then there is definately something special about it. The
only game that ever came close was Simon's Quest. ~Off topic though, I'm curious as to how Castlevania fans feel about having a female lead character? It's only happened a few times before, but really the one time they chose a frontrunning female lead for a major Castlevania game, the game was cancelled. Coincidence?
Burninating the peasants,
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Having a female vampire slayer would be a great idea, if only because you could snare Buffy fans away from that terrible X-Box game and show them how vampire should be slain.
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Hey Kurt, love the site, visited for years. Anyhow, I thought I'd throw
down for the latest mailbag topic. I've played through every Castlevania game as soon as it came out going back to the first one on the NES, at least the ones released in the states. And it's strange, but the biggest impression was made on me the first time I slogged through Simon's Curse and got the "medium" ending, in which you're informed that Simon died after defeating Dracula. The image of Simon kneeling at Dracula's grave seemed strange, but in that I sensed a form of respect Simon had for his mortal enemy. Enemies in video games those days were your stereotype all-evil, all-the-time bad seeds, but here Castlevania showed a bit more class, and that made a lot of difference. I may be reading into this ending more than was meant, but hey, it was my childhood. :) Finding out that Simon didn't make it really let me down. After all, I'd just played through the most complicated game I had ever played (these were pre-RPG days for me), only to find out I died anyway. It's the best Castlevania ending to me, and my favorite moment, despite its simplicity. Of course, I went back through again and trounced Drac in like five days and got the good ending, but that's another story. :)
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I'm a big fan of bittersweet endings when it comes to pretty much anything, although that doesn't seem to be the general opinion (RPG fans still bitch about how terrible the ending to FF7 was because, yes, it showed that humanity may have died eventually.) On that note, I kinda liked the really bad ending of Harmony of Dissonance, where both Lydie and Maxim have been killed, and Juste stands outside the castle, wondering what he's gonna do with his life. Pretty sad, but enough motivation to make you reset the game and get the ending RIGHT this time, goddammit.
So that's it for now. While the new PS2 game has been announced and a screen or two shown, there's not really much to say about it for now. But, Aria of Sorrow is looming in front of us, so - when you've played the game, send in your opinions!
-Kurt, who's quite happy with Aria as of now.