Classic Review - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- In this review, I take a look at the third and final Castlevania game for the NES/Famicom, which also serves as the source material for the Netflix animated series and the origin story for the entire Belmont saga.
ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) - Fantasy Violence
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After having played Castlevania 1, 2 and half of Castlevania 3 by now, I must say that I do not fully agree with your description of the NES trilogy having BS-design (discounting the puzzles in Simon’s quest ofc). Rather than playing purely like arcade games, I found that the games actually are very well designed in regards to stepping up the difficulty.
An example: The owls in level 3. The first owl you encounter is low enough for you to kill it before it even starts moving. The next owl however is higher up. You have been introduced to the obstacle in a safer environment, now that obstacle is made somewhat harder with you having to jump to get it. At the same time, you get at cross in this section - a weapon perfectly suited to counter the owls.
Design decisions like this reappear throughout the NES series. The fact that a game over at worst brings you back to the beginning of a stage (or give you a password to return there later) also results in a far more forgiving experience than an arcade game that requires you to play it all from beginning to end.
I have yet to play the latter half of the game, but so far (I’m at level 6 with Sypha now) I would personally give it a 5/5. Just as modern platform games like Celeste, I always feel that I have learnt something about the mechanics or level design after dying, allowing me to try again and put this knowledge to the test.
Just finished the US version without save states. Last few stages were brutally hard. Use of Syfa's spells made last two bosses easier though. Very hard but at the same time very rewarding game :).
Having finished the game yesterday, I don't think it has unavoidable damage. There are sections where dodging everything is hard, yes, but by playing them over and over I was able to get through them eventually.
The classic Castlevania games are a test of patience more than skill imo, to beat them you simply have to understand what you can do and how to beat the enemies. And sure, this means it requires trial and error, but I don't think that's inherently a bad thing. And don't get me wrong, I do think Castlevania 3 has cheap difficulty at times, but it's nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be.
I'm sorry, man, but every time you say some hits are "unavoidable", you lose me. I mean, there are tons of "no hit" videos of Castlevania 1 and 3 right here on UA-cam that prove you wrong on that point. And, contrary to the rest of the review, that part is NOT subjective: if there are people who can play the entire game without getting hit, then there simply are no unavoidable hits anywhere in the game.
These are some of the hardest games of all time, no doubt about it. But their difficulty is entirely fair, you only have to practice. Because that was the design mentality back then: make the gameplay fun, and players will want to keep playing, again and again, until they master it. Dying is just part of the learning process, and it just means you will have to play the game again - which, with gameplay this satisfying, is never a chore.
Don't get me wrong: I love how games evolved to be long experiences where you get immersed and progress without that much difficulty, but that doesn't mean I don't ALSO love the simple yet addictive skill-based gameplay of past eras, where simply playing the game was its own reward - the only reward you needed.
That's why I have Contra Collection and Death Stranding side by side on my PS4 library, y'know? 😉
I was going to write in response, but then found your comment. Thank you for putting this mediocre review in its place.
@@ultrairrelevantnobody1862 same!
One hour for a no death run is actually incredibly long for a NES platformer: a no death run on Castlevania 1 and Ninja Gaiden is about 25 minutes and a similar run on Contra 1 can go as low as 12 minutes.
Games in general were pretty short back then. Such are the consequences of very limited storage capacity.
Still the best Castlevania game.
Rondo of Blood is my favorite.
Not the best one but a great one nonetheless
This game sucked for me. Castlevania 3 was the most difficult game in the NES series or any Castlevania game I've played. I never beat it as I quit about 25% playing through. AVGN ended up biting the controller and quit as a result of dying repeatedly. He over exaggerated while playing but he hated the many ways of dying and zero forgiveness aka NO MERCY.
The funny part is AVGN may have exaggerated the reactions a bit for comedic effect... but it really *is* that brutally difficult. I lost count of the number of expletives I rambled off playing this for the review.
@@Megatron-sl5us cheat codes to beat this game? Another fake ads gamer on deck.
@@Megatron-sl5us really? You are talking to someone who beat the American version of ninja gaiden 3 without cheats. How about admitting that you suck at this game?
I'm a huge fan of this game. I have crazy nostalgia for it that always makes me jazzed to come back. That said... You're right. If I look past my nostalgia goggles, the game had got issues. Props to you for having the balls to say this one is less than perfect. XD
Good video
Although I hope you would play this game fair and square without save states and also play at 4:3 ratio the game looks better that way
15:43
Not really because the difficulty increases as you progress further in the game (it's not ghouls n ghosts shit where you are assaulted from the first stage)
I am sorry for criticizing you so much but your critisism on the games length and art are not true
The artwork is fantastic enemies and bosses are well drawn which is the most important aspect of a castlevania game
The replaybility is insane
The game can be cheap at times
Overall castlevania 3 is a great game
But far from the masterpiece some people call it
I just can't abide the Japanese version, personally. I've played so much of the NA release that I can 1CC it pretty easily, so the original balancing just lacks that edge I enjoy. I'd rather just play the NA game and listen to the Japanese soundtrack on vinyl. ;)
Point of fact, though: There is absolutely no unavoidable damage in this game. There are real hardware no hit runs right here on UA-cam to prove it. You're projecting quite a bit by blaming the game so much for your own performance issues, which does it, you, and your audience no favors in the end.
People don’t complain about this game enough lol. Thank you
Think the main reason so many people have trouble with the game is that you need to use the sub weapons often. If you focus on mostly whip-only you'll get destroyed. Thing is balancing the two: knowing the enemy patters, seeing their placements, knowing how your sub weapon can make up for the whip's downsides. Same goes for the other characters except Alucard who really needed better attacks.
Can't deny it has some newcomer traps towards the end but I equate it to Dark Souls' principles. Gaining familiary with the mechanics, items and enemies, putting the time in to get to the point of mastery. Had the same frustrations as a kid emulating the NES games, especially starting with 4. Around college, however, I was determined to complete the game on every possible route, and that first time completing it filled me with such a feeling I only had after completing 4 as a kid one night. Once I realized to use the sub weapons often, how they'll tear down enemies and bosses in a few seconds, it makes the game that legit fair but hard challenge. Grant and Sypha provide an extra sub weapon slolt so you can keep the benefits of say holy water for Trevor while saving Grant for the axe or Sypha for her extremely useful magic. I still go back to 3 often for it's variety and atmosphere. It asks a lot of the player but if the game clicks with you mastering it is extremely rewarding.
I feel playing this game, or at least the Japanese version, is like reading Wuthering Heights. Its such a train wreck, as the AVGN described it, but you just want to keep playing and get better. I think its a better game than 90% of its NES, Genesis and SNES contemporaries. (Stage 7Alucard sucks tho) I disagree that the difficulty comes from BS. Everything in Densetsu is telegraphed before it happens and you are able to defeat everything with just the whip. I only started playing Cv a couple years back and have very little skill as a gamer and I can beat it. If you are using savestates and playing the Japanese version and still find it frustrating, platformers are probably not for you. I struggle heavily with Shoot em ups, but I don’t diss Gradius or Life force because of my lack of skill. Not saying you’re not entitled to your opinion, but considering the popularity of “difficult” 2d platformers like Celeste, Hollow Knight and Dead Cells, I think you are wrong in saying modern gamers could not tolerate it. Classicvanias are essentially puzzle games masquerading as action games; the slow pace and room design incentives finding a “solution” to the obstacles. You do not need reflexes to beat this game, just strategy.
Just played it through and I 100% agree with your review. Cheap difficulty and those infuriating steps really hurt this otherwise solid game. Like most NES games they just made it too hard for the target market.
I think its good but Sypha i just... ugh that Sunken City level with her is a madhouse! So i never bothered. But one thing i compliment this game for is adding variety by having more characters, so you can find different ways of getting good in this game.
Castlevania Netflix series is more ok if you dont think of it as much connected to the Castlevania 3 plot of game lore. If you look at Famicom translation in english interms of the intro.... it basically contradicts the whole Church banishing Belmont thing lets just say that. But as a show of itself its alright
I think Castlevania 3 has a surprising amount of good and less BS level design compared to arcade games at that time, Haunted Castle came out the same year as this game and that game is a TRUE Castlevania arcade experience (aka unfair BS). But Castlevania 3 has great difficulty scaling throughout the game (level design wise not taking more dmg). I'm 19 now but I was able to beat the US version without the "HELPME" cheat when I was 15 and no save states. (IK my experience doesn't reflect the majority but I figured id mention its possible for a 15 year old to beat in 2019.) There is some trail and error like the flipping platforms and certain enemy placements (like in the rising tower level). But overall a lot of my deaths while playing that game were my fault, I got frustrated, but I also got hooked because I knew that I could get past that obstacle now whenever I would die.
Another point, Castlevania 1 is hardly close to BS (no real difficulty) level design, there's only 6 levels and each one is deigned very well especially for 1986, they give you the subweapon you need right before every boss, the levels are short and the difficulty scales very well. I can understand calling CV3 BS to some degree but I think Castlevania 1 is insanely proactive and has almost a perfect challenge for its time. Anyways great video, I just thought id share my own experience and thoughts because I love Castlevania.
I beat Cv the adventure when I was 17 with no save states last year, and I have very little skill with video games, so 15 year olds beating this game isn’t that far fetched . I think if you played the Japanese version of Cv3, you will see it has even less BS than Cv1.
Totally disagree with this review. This is one of my all time favorite games.
I love Castlevania IV, and wish there were more games in the series like it - with a focus on ONE weapon that has more thought put into its control, and with a gothic artstyle. The series went anime for its artstyle later and I don't enjoy the metroidvania entries myself.
Yeah it was bs hard but when isn't (which is mostly isn't like 99%) is actually really good game but I guess like you said it was the norm back then I still loved and hated. Good review I wounder when will you review the 16 bit castlevania
16-bit Castlevanias won't get looked at for a while. Bloodlines got a review many years ago but it's such an old review that it's practically unwatchable, so I'll be reduxing that one.
This was Igrarashi's favorite Castlevania that he didn't work on. It's nice it was the basis for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon which was really good.
i would not describe squashing the image as "correcting for the 4:3 aspect ratio", quite the opposite, otherwise nice video
50% of the screen being black bars on either side of the actual image doesn't look any better. That's also assuming UA-cam doesn't detect the black bars and break the actual video formatting, too. I've had that happen before.
@@DWTerminator black bars blend in the background, then just sit a bit closer to the screen to mitigate for the reduced size
No bs here bro. U gotta get good. The game gives you every tool to get through unscathed if you have the skill but maybe im just bias cuss ive played through it 50 times
I played this game on FCEUX, an NES/Famicom emulator, some weeks ago. I screwed around with the video settings in order to avoid uneven pixels. However, whenever I picked up the item that kills every enemy on screen, the black borders that were present because I didn't want the game being stretched were also affected by the flashing effect that that item makes. In other words, the entire screen was flashing/blinking. Since I'm using a 21:9 monitor, this effect screwed my sight for a bit.
I switched to a NES emulator called Mesen and never looked back. Great UI.
That sounds pretty rough. The emulator they use in the Anniversary Collection seems to work pretty well, though it only has one save state slot per game so definitely not ideal.
@@DWTerminator 0:00 If you see the player's health bar, you'll noticed that some holes are less wide than others. This means that you were playing the game with uneven pixels. And yes, with FCEUX, you can have more than one save state. Although I try to avoid using them, except for battletoads, which is mandatory.
This game is garbage. It has great music, but the level design is terrible and unfair.
For the record, I finished the American version for the first time today (with Sypha). Does it feel amazing the fact that I finished what is considered one of the hardest games on the NES? Not really. The reason why I didn't die a lot during level 9 (fuck this level) and level 10 in this version is because I already played and finished the Japanese version, and in that version, I died a lot when I played level 9, to the point where I ended up hitting my desk. The only other game that made me do that was the final boss in Ys 1 Chronicles. It took me like one hour to beat it. At least the music that came after that (rest in peace) was able to calm me.
I'll pass on this game. I don't bode well with frustration
So instead of emulating it and trying it yourself, you are going to act the bitch based on one mixed review of otherwise a great game.
Calling someone a bitch for knowing they don't handle something well and acting based on that? Grow the hell up, AJ.
Hey DW, I got a new piece of PC hardware: A Dell M783s CRT Monitor. I overclocked it to 1920x1440 and it can do progressive scan and interlaced. I use it for emulation, getting an "HD" resolution and real scanlines to preserve the original intended artstyle.
I also found a Sony Trinitron at a recycling center. I am gonna test it and sell it to a group I know.
I don't really have the room for a CRT anymore but these old games that were designed for those definitely look better with one. Good luck with the Trinitron.
Hey DW what font do you use for your on screen text in your videos?
I hate that they nerfed Grant and butchered the music in the US release.
They didn't really have much of a choice with the US music because of hardware limitations.
Gameplay and art changes though? Those are certainly annoying.
How do you record old games like this? Old games like this look fun even though they came out before i was born
As I said in the video, this was recorded from the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, which is available on PC (via Steam, which is the version you're seeing here), PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
@@DWTerminator Thanks for the reply I usually watch your videos just never comment. I was wonder what kind camera do you use to record games I try to use the camera on my phone but it doesn't work very good.
I don't use a camera. I record directly from the media using either OBS or Shadowplay if it's on PC and my LGP2 capture device if it's a console game. OBS and Shadowplay are both freely available online but Shadowplay requires an Nvidia graphics card to function.
@@DWTerminator Thanks for telling me what you use to record games I'm going to download one of those and try to record a game
i use "Digitnow" capture card. There is probably Elgato capture card that people talk about aswell.
I agree a lot with your take on this game, it's definitely not the best in the trilogy or even that good, especially when compared to the first game. However I disagree with you're take on Castlevania 1, there are many patterns within the enemy's movements that can be figured out and it doesn't follow many of the BS principles that are abundant in the third game. Even the hit boxes in the first game were better designed than the third game, but I guess your experience was much different from mine.
Even you are wrong to an extent. Castlevania 3 is a mostly fair and well designed experience that will frustrate, but keep you coming back for more. Not to mention the addition of password system that allows players to continue where they left off.
@@ultrairrelevantnobody1862 I disagree, certain levels are too long and brutal compared to the first game. The first game was more balanced and fair with checkpoints. The inconsistencies with enemies movements, enemy patterns and checkpoints (Dracula level), makes for an unbalanced experience, certain boss projectiles are too long making for nearly impossible maneuvers. Certain levels are almost impossible to beat without luck. The healing items are stingy in the third. Alucard path is slow, monotonous, and has a terrible level 7. The buddy system isn't utilized well and the game doesn't provide much gameplay for the partners to be worth it, Grant has terrible climbing controls, Alucard is weak compared to Sypha and Grant. The stairs are worse in this game than the first. And that is just scratching the surface for problems with the third game.
There's something you must understand about the first three games in the series. These games are called puzzle Platformers. The first and third game are indeed based on Arcade principles. The principles being moved correctly do not die. The whole point of the game is to figure out a way around or through certain obstacles in a timely fashion. I would assume that a person who played Super Mario Brothers back in the day would have ample skill to beat this game. This game is difficult but it's not impossible. I would recommend this game but only after playing ghosts and goblins for the NES which is truly unfair. I can understand the frustrations with this game however with the Advent of blood-stained curse of the Moon I don't see these games going away and I couldn't be happier.
I'm aware of how they play and what the expectations for the player were at the time. I had other games of similar design, after all. I just didn't have an NES back then.
None of the Castlevania games are called "puzzle platformers" so I don't know where you got that idea. There's not really puzzle-solving in them until you get to the "metroidvania" games, after all, and even in those it's a side feature.
"Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon" is pretty much this game, but "good" and without branching paths.
So this game is bad now? Fake ass gamers everywhere
What was good for an arcade-style game 30 years ago really hasn't aged well.
I picked up Curse of the Moon but haven't messed with it yet. Was going to do that when I get around to reviewing Ritual of the Night.
@@ajsingh4545 I meant CotM had all the pros of C3 and none of the cons (except for the branching paths, sadly).
I like C1 and C3, but they have some obvious problems that make them hard to recommend (Metroidvanias being my favourite genre, I "respect" C2, if nothing else.)
There is a reason even the games prying on nostalgia that come out of kickstarter or other crowdfounding platforms do overwhelmingly play on 90s and not 80s nostalgia, its pretty clear this was not an era where games where fair and thus lost most of their value these days. Its a shame, casue castlevania has one of the best video game osts i can think of, but if i do not enjoy playing any of them on the nes i rather just listen to the tracks as remixes or outside the games.
Super Castlevania for the SNES when? All the control issues are gone in this game, thx to the 8 way directional attacks you can execute!
Eventually.
Wtf, this is a stupid review. Best game ever.