#igavania

[melblur]

well. in honor of the halloween spirit. i would like to formally reintroduce everyone to the only good tweet i ever made

(& CoolBoxArt posted a tribute to it a year later)

[doshmanziari]

Just a few edits I'd made of screenshots from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and which I found lying around in a folder.

[fredccassar]

aria of sorrow

[marluxialarxene]

Because Millenial1992 truly died… Millenial1992 didn’t make it.

I hope there is no castlevania in the future, in the pasts that both Castlevania and Street Fighter Ex ruined my life, I hate to suffer, distress, and rougher life.

The ugly house boy wants to kiss my admin, Fucking Kaneto Shiozawa!! 💢🔪

[weirdunclegamer]

Replaying Aria of Sorrow and I love that this and Mega Man Zero were two GBA games that each had a line of their "dark hero" motif MC telling a "light hero" motif'd opponent "naw, the real you is better then that".

The context of the two lines is totally different, but that's a sort of moment in fiction I love, it's not even like a backhanded compliment sort of thing, it's just the ultimate call out. This "you" can't win, shame shame shame. Now if the real "you" had been fighting...

[tsuki-sennin-creations]

Miriam, of the wonderful smash hit indie franchise Bloodstained! Although I had no means of backing it myself, it was easily my most anticipated game of last decade since I first saw several of my favorite YouTubers at the time talk about its Kickstarter campaign.

...and let me tell you, if even a rough Switch port still managed to be an immensely enjoyable experience before patching, you've got a damn fantastic game on your hands. Please give it a shot if you haven't already. ...or y'know, buy the Circle of the Moon games if you love retro action games, they'll scratch that itch real good.

And, for the sake of letting you know that I'm genuinely improving with my art and preserving it, here is a previous Miriam piece I did in 2020. It's uh... not especially good, but never mind that!

[rosellabascomacapinlac]

Shirase Mizugami and Leon Belmont was there everytime shits on my life, shit on my life, shit on my job, and shit on my body I mean attempted shit on my virginity that they want me to give birth a super shit.

水神報瀬とレオン・ベルモントは、私の人生がクソになるたびに、私の人生がクソになり、仕事がクソになり、私の体がクソになるたびにそこにいました、つまり、私の処女を傷つけようとしたのは、彼らが私にスーパークソを産ませようとしていたということです。

The tragic incident about the pregnant stray cat, that same stray cat have kittens, she entered my house then brought many of her kittens into the spaceless room, and too hard to find the stray cat family where they hid then phishing shitty man who needed to get paid that that he will do his job, that's a big waste of time, money, and hygiene. Then Shirase Hokuto was there then Leon Belmont thwarted my self-defense in vain, what a big waste of time with those cursed monsters who were so obsessed with me.

野良妊娠中の悲惨な事件猫、その野良猫には子猫がいます、彼女は私の家に入り、それからスペースのない部屋にたくさんの子猫を連れてきました、そして彼らが隠れた野良猫の家族を見つけるのはあまりにも困難でした、そして、そのためにお金を受け取る必要のあるクソ男をフィッシングしました彼の仕事、それは時間、お金、そして衛生面の大きな無駄です。 そして白瀬北斗がそこにいて、レオン・ベルモントが私の正当防衛を無駄に妨害しました。私に執着していた呪われた怪物たちとのなんて時間の無駄でした。

They said the super low quality men should touched my body or should be my date and they must take my virginity. Shit, thats a waste of body and virginity, they want me that I will give birth a monster, lazy, untalented, brainless, and ugly. They want me to have an offspring 🧌

彼らは、超低品質の男たちが私の体に触れるべきか、デートすべきであり、私の処女を奪うべきだと言いました。 くそー、それは体と処女の無駄だ、彼らは私が怠け者で才能がなく、���脳がなく、醜い怪物を産むことを望んでいます。彼らは私に子孫を残したいと思っています🧌

Shirase and Leon Belmont wants me to date with a shit, kissed by the shit, smelled by the shit, touched by the shit, hugged by shit, flirted by shit, seduced by shit, fucked by shit and pregnant by shit.

シラセとレオン・ベルモントは、私がクソとデートし、クソにキスされ、クソに匂いを嗅がれ、クソに触られ、クソに抱きしめられ、クソにイチャイチャされ、クソに誘惑され、クソに犯され、クソに妊娠してほしいと望んでいる。

[verumleonhart]

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

This feels like Iga & his team used everything they've learned from Castlevania and condensed that all into one title. While I do wish it was a proper 2d game I still had a blast exploring and defeating bosses while humming to the great music.

[shujinacademyvgmclub]

It's time for a new BONUS episode! Listen to 2 and a half hours of Castlevania tracks on my newest show: Every Drop You Drink II, or The Spooky Castlevania Leftovers. Find it at on Podbean or wherever your podcasts are sold except Spotify for reasons.

[beevean]

I love how fans of Circle of the Moon (no offense to all of them of course, you know what I mean) will cite its bosses as one of its strongest points, especially against the other Igavanias which are too easy, while I'm standing here waiting for some youtuber to make a video titled "The thematic relevance and depth of not getting healed after Hugh's fight and dying trying to make your way back to the Warp Room"

"it has high points in the form of its bosses" yeah, they sure are high! So high they can't even fit in the screen and you can't see what the fuck they're doing! Am I right Zombie Dragons you pieces of shit? :'D

Sorry guys, while it's true that HoD and AoS have mindlessly easy bosses, it doesn't mean that CoTM's unfairness is automatically better. Hell, most of them don't even have a particular strategy that makes them interesting! It's just a matter of luck!

Also yeah go ahead and defend me the choice of not healing you after a boss when it's been a staple of the series since day 1. Go on. Tell me where's the fun in that.

[clownkiwi]

rewatching egoraptor's video on castlevania (because im watching the 7 hour long castlevania retrospective and they referenced. avgn. because when you think of simon's quest who else do you think of but avgn) and i've noticed something. arin Really Doesn't Like metroidvanias...

[loborundas]

Rebel Transmute finished today, it was a bit disappointing ngl, I expected more Metroid and less Hollow Knight, But Scifi (I liked Hollow Knight but it's NOT my preferred variant of the search-action/metroidvania gente)

[somajean]

Posting now so I don't forgor! I'll be racing Bloodstained Ritual of the Night rando at 3 PM Eastern on Twitch.TV/Bobbeigh. I am looking forward to getting solidly 2-0'd and my ass knocked directly to the depths of the loser's bracket.

[foxstens]

about halfway through the game and suddenly i really wanna drop it

[xbuster]

I will say that Bloodstained is missing one thing and it’s sexy plant. Is it really IGAvania without sexy plant?

[emblemxeno]

Finished Harmony of Dissonance!

-Saw all endings and got 200% map completion

-Story was pretty good, I very much enjoy the game tackles the angle of how the Belmonts are cursed to eternally hunt down Dracula and inevitably their loved ones get dragged into it and they suffer yet still press on.

Again, Maxim's portrayal was handled really well as a sympathetic figure. He wanted to help Juste escape a torturous existence and ended up biting off more than he could chew, not really knowing just how soaked with evil the relics of Dracula are. Part of that was arrogance to prove himself better than Juste, but the two actually feel like proper friendly rivals compared to Hugh and Nathan.

-For a criticism, Lydie was certainly a character that was there. Igavanias have this issue that, due to how they're structured, sometimes characters just aren't developed or consequential. I don't really know what she was there for, other than to provide a second emotional crutch for Juste and Maxim. To the game's credit, Death does have a line where he says "When something is dear to you, its effect upon you becomes immeasurable" which becomes applicable to Juste just as much as it does Maxim, especially if you see all the endings. Technically, you could also argue that this same theme affects Death himself to the same degree given how many times he dies and comes back, all in service of Dracula.

It just doesn't reach Lydie the same way, unfortunately. I don't know how one would improve that (given how Mina in the next game kind of has the same issues iirc, it's clear that it's something to grow out of lol) but as it stands, her presence is pretty weak.

-Presentationwise, again, it definitely has aged in the graphics department EXCEPT the enemy sprites. What a marvel it was that such detailed sprites, especially the bosses, were put on the GBA. They were always a sight to behold.

But I know the reason why they were able to do that is by sacrificing space, and the thing that took the hit was the music. I mentioned it in the first post, but it bears repeating. I don't think it's the compositions that are that bad bad, but it's the lower quality soundfont and the lack of musical variety that hurts the score.

There are, I think, two tracks in the game that use a higher quality soundfont, and those are the title theme and the credits theme. Those two tracks are incredibly high quality, and exceptionally lift up the compositions. Were the rest of the soundtrack like that, I have little doubt that it'd be received much better, if still paling in comparison to other tracks in the series.

-Figured there were two castles lol. It does seem unoriginal, but given that Iga explicitly wanted "Symphony of the Night but again" I can't really knock the game too much.

I will knock the game for its environments not being too distinct between the two castles, with the major differences being color schemes and subtle vibes (Castle B has red skies while Castle A has normal ones). If the game had a worse map system, it'd be a real drag to try and explore since I wouldn't otherwise remember which castle I was in. Thankfully, each Castle has a separate map with different colors, and one combined map of yet another color that does a neat layering trick to best show the player what rooms in which castle have been cleared.

That also made going for 200% completion much easier, though that goes into my next point.

-Warp points kind of came a bit too late to have the most meaningful effect. Of course, given that you have to explore two different castles, you're not warping with the intent to backtrack too much until the endgame, but it does bring a layer of tedium that otherwise wouldn't have existed.

This includes how warping from one point to another within the same castle is locked to the player until you get the appropriate hint card. I'd rather that ability just be unlocked from the start, with the player being told so directly.

This all kind of culminates in my last criticism, which is the grind for 200%, since a lot of things just aren't made clear to you where they are. The crushing boots, the various keys, and even some of the Dracula relics-the latter of which are required for the best ending I think-are all in locations that, to my knowledge aren't explained or hinted at, some even being behind invisible walls. I love exploring in Igavanias, but to me, part of the process and the fun is seeing clearly what you're missing, remembering that and coming back later when you have it and are much stronger. For some of these items, that wasn't the case, since I couldn't visibly see what I was missing or could do in order to get to the rooms. Not good design when I have to look up online where to find certain things I'm missing.

-That said, the overall flow of the game is still incredibly fun. I never once felt like I was just trying to get the game over with, and that's because I actually liked interacting with the systems the game put in place. Juste is strong and moves fast, has a typical RPG inventory of healing items, and has access to magic that isn't just screen nukes to pile on damage, many spells have incredible utitlity, like shields, taking care of grounded or air enemies the best, or cornering enemies to a part of the screen.

It's varied and fun, and promotes experimentation to figure out what suits your playstyle. Me personally, I like blitzing through rooms with shields like the Wind Cross spell, Wind Holy Book spell, or Thunder Holy Book spell; targeting enemies with Ice Dagger, Ice Axe and Ice Holy Water; and separating enemies from me with Thunder Holy Water and Fire Fist.

There's also the typical high damage high MP cost spells, like Grand Cross and Hydro Storm, but also basicaly a fucking Hadoken when using the Wind Fist spell which is cheap on MP and incredibly strong.

There's just a lot of stuff that feels good to use. The only thing that got a bit of snag to it is the high jump, where to use it you have to hold down then press up and jump at the same time, which is like, a fighting game maneuver? But in a platformer, it doesn't feel as good, and a big downgrade from the high jump in Circle of the Moon in terms of controlling it and the ease of motion it gives you.

-Overall, I had a really, really good time with Harmony of Dissonance. There were times where I felt it was pretty easy (the final boss in particular seems like a big overcorrection from Circle of the Moon, to give an example), but that was only about 10% of the time, and the rest of it I feel was curved pretty well.

I definitely forsee myself coming back to this one in the future, especially since there's Maxim mode, so trying a different gameplay style would be on the top of the list.

Aria of Sorrow is next, and I'm so excited to see my confused diva babygirl Soma Cruz again 🥺🥺🥺