Castlevania SOTN is an ill-conceived fossil of mediocrity
4th February 2024, 12:53 PM
(This post was last modified: 4th February 2024, 12:54 PM by Sacred Jellybean.)
So I'm 13 hours and 177% of the way into this game and ready to eat my words. Hard to keep shitting on a game when I've felt compelled to google how to do this or that, and pick up advice on how to progress further into the game. I was disappointed by Richter's battle, not only because it was easy, but because it made the game so short. Which possessed me to complete more of the map for the sake of it, finding out about the catacombs, all that good stuff.
I eventually found that you could see/defeat an orb that's controlling Richter. As an aside, it seems very Japanese for someone to go in swinging at you so they can test your strength and prove you're worthy enough to beat a tougher enemy.
I hadn't expected the upside-down castle to be a full mirror of the existing castle, but I'm glad I can get more hours out of this game. I've just given the short range punch/dagger weapons a chance. I initially wasn't impressed by their lack of range, but since they're faster, it's been a boon to taking down certain tough enemies. It's been pretty rare for me to use a shield, so no great loss there: I just re-equip it when there are projectiles to ward off.
Annoying things: it's frustrating that not only do you need to equip healing items to use them, but that if you want to use more than one and press the button too fast, you'll waste them. omg are you kidding? But whatever, it's a minor inconvenience once you know about it.
And what's with the high potion's description being "heals about half your health" and giving me 100 HP, just one fifth of my total. Is this vampire math? >: (
So much this. At least organize them so I don't have to scroll through a hundred of them to find something. Not to mention that most of the weapons/armor I pick up tend to be weaker than what I'm already wielding. I like the idea of picking up a multitude and varied amount of items, but takes some of the fun away when 95% of them don't make sense to swap out.
I'm a naturally bitchy person so it probably sounds like I'm down on this game, but I am having a lot of fun, otherwise I'd have washed my hands of it after defeating Richter. I'm kind of mixed on the fact that the game is less orderly than your normal metroidvania. Other games of the genre feel more intentional: to get to this area you have to defeat this enemy, which drops this power-up, which unlocks these other areas, rinse and repeat.
SOTN is more of a scattershot of areas and weapons that may or may not be useful. Part of me likes that the exploration is more spontaneous in this sense, and that the game is "subjective" in that you can choose what weapons you like and drift along without the game leading you on. I haven't played all that many Castlevania games, so maybe this is typical for them.
Last I played is Circle of the Moon, which I remember liking, and don't remember being as vexed as I was at the start of this one. Could just be me remembering it fondly, though... as much as I like to complain, I tend to remember enjoying the experience of something more than not.
I eventually found that you could see/defeat an orb that's controlling Richter. As an aside, it seems very Japanese for someone to go in swinging at you so they can test your strength and prove you're worthy enough to beat a tougher enemy.
I hadn't expected the upside-down castle to be a full mirror of the existing castle, but I'm glad I can get more hours out of this game. I've just given the short range punch/dagger weapons a chance. I initially wasn't impressed by their lack of range, but since they're faster, it's been a boon to taking down certain tough enemies. It's been pretty rare for me to use a shield, so no great loss there: I just re-equip it when there are projectiles to ward off.
Annoying things: it's frustrating that not only do you need to equip healing items to use them, but that if you want to use more than one and press the button too fast, you'll waste them. omg are you kidding? But whatever, it's a minor inconvenience once you know about it.
And what's with the high potion's description being "heals about half your health" and giving me 100 HP, just one fifth of my total. Is this vampire math? >: (
Quote:There are some obvious misses, like how you can only sell specific items designed specifically to be sold, while your inventory bursts with a hundred obsolete weapons and armor
So much this. At least organize them so I don't have to scroll through a hundred of them to find something. Not to mention that most of the weapons/armor I pick up tend to be weaker than what I'm already wielding. I like the idea of picking up a multitude and varied amount of items, but takes some of the fun away when 95% of them don't make sense to swap out.
I'm a naturally bitchy person so it probably sounds like I'm down on this game, but I am having a lot of fun, otherwise I'd have washed my hands of it after defeating Richter. I'm kind of mixed on the fact that the game is less orderly than your normal metroidvania. Other games of the genre feel more intentional: to get to this area you have to defeat this enemy, which drops this power-up, which unlocks these other areas, rinse and repeat.
SOTN is more of a scattershot of areas and weapons that may or may not be useful. Part of me likes that the exploration is more spontaneous in this sense, and that the game is "subjective" in that you can choose what weapons you like and drift along without the game leading you on. I haven't played all that many Castlevania games, so maybe this is typical for them.
Last I played is Circle of the Moon, which I remember liking, and don't remember being as vexed as I was at the start of this one. Could just be me remembering it fondly, though... as much as I like to complain, I tend to remember enjoying the experience of something more than not.