A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged castlevania
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Sep 30th
Two more bosses down – in an annoying “kill one boss, find the second two screens later” bit. Luckily, while the first one is tricky and took me three goes, the second is easy as piss. I’ve now got a lovely new move, so I’ve got to wander back through the places I’ve been looking for somewhere to use it.
I want to go back to Yoko’s shop at some point, too. After about fifteen minutes of trying I got a Great Armor soul, which I think is the next one I need to upgrade my halberd. Unfortunately, it’s a useful soul power, so I’m not sure if I should use the soul or not. So I probably need to go back and get another Great Armor soul, so I don’t actually have to choose.
According to the game’s clock, I’ve only played for 1 hour and 42 minutes, which seems very wrong indeed. I’m sure it must be more like three or four hours now. I’ve also uncovered 20.3% of the map already, but you always start off finding loads of new places. Later on I’ll be searching out a 0.3% here and a 1.2% there.
Oh, and those summoned zombies can actually be quite useful. Hooray!
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Sep 30th
Second boss, dead. Had to use a couple of potions, mind. Done a bit of exploring with my new touchscreen powers, but I’ve mainly been bagging souls and using them for upgrades. My main weapon was a spear – not too slow, good reach, fair amount of damage, best of both worlds – and is now a halberd. Everybody say “oooooooh!” I’ve kept a big slow sword and a small quick one, too, in case I ever feel I need them. The Katana might even be my main weapon if it wasn’t so short.
I’ve sold the rest and stocked up on various potions. Bought a couple of newspapers, too, but not sure what to do with them. You can’t seem to ‘use’ them.
Anyway, I suppose I should get back to exploring at some point.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Sep 30th
Went back and killed the boss without potion use on my first try. Lightweight bastard. I drew his seal first time – it’s very easy, but also annoying to have to leap for the stylus when he starts exploding. I don’t like it when games shove in stylus use when it’s not needed just to say they have.
I can now summon bats and cats as well as zombies, but haven’t tried yet.
Yoko’s shop is confusing me. You can upgrade weapons with souls and release souls, but I have no idea what releasing souls is for. RTFM? Maybe it’s time.
Got stuck for a while because I didn’t notice a switch by a door, but at least wandering around randomly nets you experience and souls, so it’s not wasted time.
Into a whole new section now, but I just wimped out and ran back to an old save point because my health was getting low.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Sep 30th
PRO: It’s Castlevania!
PRO: In 2D!
Introductory speaking bits are done.
The menus have been investigated.
The first save room has been located.
The first boss has been found…
And he’s kicking my arse.
Twice now. I suppose I could use a potion or two… but he’s the first boss!
I need to read the manual and maybe redefine the keys. I keep doing some sort of super attack by mistake and it uses half my magic.
On the plus side, I can now summon zombies to do my bidding shuffle around ineffectually. Bwa ha ha!
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Sep 27th
PRO: It’s Castlevania!
CON: In 3D!
Not played this before despite having it for years, but I’m home sick, so thought I’d give it a go.
Starts with some annoyingly long cut scenes. I really don’t see the point. Maybe fanboys will get some sad geek shivers at seeing this Belmont being given a whip, but… hang on, hang on! I’m a geek and I didn’t get any sad geek shivers. Cut scene failure, then.
Once into the game – oh, sweet interactivity! – you run around whipping monsters and jumping around. Unfortunately, while you can normally whip what you want to – as long as the camera is gracious enough to show you your target – jumping is incredibly imprecise. Which probably explains why there’s not a lot of it. Just enough to be really very annoying, mind.
Anyway, I got to some red skeleton guys who kept coming back to (un)life while a giant eyeball shot laser vision at me and I died. And I didn’t fancy restarting from the last time I bothered saving, so I gave up.
Plus, I’ve already got a Dual Shock finger blister. Stupid dangerous Sony controllers.
