Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

[nimble linden]

You just have to side fling yourself

Apparently Pneuma is not that good lol

[rotund dock]

I’ve spent more time than I care to admit trying to get this

[nimble linden]

Flick the dpad just a little bit using the magnet thingy at the top and its really not hard

[earnest spruce]

MAN, some of these no-damage boss achievements are making me sweat

And did I notice correctly? Does the "medal" only get awarded to you if you beat the boss without taking damage?

[rotund dock]

Yeah, I was pulling myself too far

[rose pendant]

Yeh I got 2 of them, one was the Crab boss because I walked in there with like 30hp and a bad save point

The other was Death because at that point I had the death ring and I enjoy seeing big numbers 😂

[earnest spruce]

Do they actually serve any function? The medals

[rose pendant]

|| I tried with Dracula but after about an hour or so I just wanted to beat the game ||

[rose pendant]

"Defeat a boss without receiving damage to earn this mark of valor. Merely decorative, unfortunately."

From the wiki

[earnest spruce]

ah ok - thanks!

[hardy sphinx]

Pro tip: bosses have a hard time killing you if ya get them to 0 hp before they get you to 0 hp!!

[cursive lagoon]

So I need to grind for potions basically

[rose pendant]

Need to grind for *Super potions

You can purchase them as well but they are expensive

[earnest spruce]

Tight - I literally just picked this up

[cursive lagoon]

I'm not sure I can even buy them yet

I'm at the sandfish currently getting WRECKED

[rose pendant]

You can bait it into performing certain attacks

Wrote a little blurb about if you want some help

#1335056372550864987 message

[cursive lagoon]

Oh man I am bad at this game

But thank you

I will try to be better

[rose pendant]

You're all good, these bosses are not easy and definitely take time ( & death) to get the patterns down.

[river steppe]

I used this. ||Vol Grando + Vol Macir = Easy.||

[chilly hill]

Any tips as to what map this last villager is on?

[river steppe]

Did you get ||the one next to the ice that turns into a waterfall. The mom?||

[chilly hill]

Yes I found that one by accident

[river steppe]

I think your missing Anna

Anna is ||hidden behind a breakable wall in the Somnus Reef||

[chilly hill]

Yeah I don’t see that name

Time to hit everything with a giant scythe

[earnest spruce]

Are the ||Training Hall|| and ||Large Cavern|| actually part of the critical path? I'm getting DESTROYED HERE, complete and utter difficulty spike

[hardy sphinx]

There not

[hardy sphinx]

But congratulations || you found the secret areas ||

[earnest spruce]

They are an absolute nightmare

[earnest spruce]

Sheesh! Let's go!!

[earnest spruce]

Rollin'!

[earnest spruce]

Shanoa's mobility is frustrating to me, especially coming from Harmony of Dissonance

her dodge move doesn't cover enough ground and has a SERIOUS cooldown attached to it

there's no straight dash forward - you have to slide, which can't be done on fall-through ground AND also has a serious cooldown attached to it

and she can't diagonal swing

(not expected of Juste because whip)

I haven't played Portrait of Ruin or [Other DS Castlevania] in a while, so maybe they are the same way

(Dawn of Sorrow, that's it)

[chilly hill]

Finally

Now all secrets will be mine

[chilly hill]

Makes it pretty obvious

[nimble linden]

Boy am I tired

On your tiny a30 screen I swore it said "Eye for daddy"

[undone summit]

goliath was the first boss fight I found fun

[rose pendant]

Cannot stop looking at the pics man, game looks so good on the A30

[nimble linden]

I thought Goliath was the first boss that was absolutely smoking me until I was watching a longplay and saw how you dodged his attacks, then he was suuuuper easy

[earnest spruce]

WOOOO!

Just finished, got myself the ||Dracula Medal|| as well 💪

[inland surge]

Anyone have tips for how to beat the horse thing in Dracula’s castle?

[rose pendant]

yes ||get rid of the 2 crossbows first||

||then all you have to do is avoid melee attacks||

||the head is the final part and the tells are pretty easy to identify where you need to evade||

[pallid latch]

||axes worked the best for me to take the crossbows out ||

End stats. Not nearly good enough to make the game easier.

Total time was around 2x the playtime. Had a different mentality going into this one. Knowing what type of game it is now, I would've played much differently. The game forces the player to grind to win. It is not paced in a way where the player plays from start to finish. Have to backtrack, take note of everything and read up a bunch on what is best. The manual is unhelpful. Wanted to make the best move and was never sure what to do next. Should I collect cats or gold ore. Where is the gold ore? Should I farm glyphs? Just was never sure of what to do.

Killing dracula in a specific way before he gets in a 9999 damage move felt cheap. Game felt like it needed an unworked designs edition.

[steady inlet]

I was going to say it's not a grind-oriented game, but that's not 100% true. It's more oriented towards making sure you have the right glyphs and tools, which sometimes involves grinding for glyphs and loot, particularly for villager quests

I would argue that it's not oriented towards level grinding, though. Levels aren't overpowering in value

[nimble linden]

They're not but they help. I haven't been grinding for gear, just a few levels here and there and I personally have found they help

But maybe i'm just "gitting good" lol

[pallid latch]

Felt like I was getting good in some places. Agree that the right glyphs make quite a bit of difference. Could play this game for a very long time to understand it. I happened to buy the combo boots which wasted about a third of all gold I collected 😂 .

[cursive lagoon]

Beat it. Thanks for the advice

Vol scutum is totally worth using. Scutum is TRASH

Will I remember the command for loadout switcher before I finish the game? I wonder

[hardy sphinx]

|| perple beam and I forget other gyth combo but it basic make a nuke heart attack goes berrrr ||

[river steppe]

Isn’t that just a different type of grinding?

[steady inlet]

Probably yeah

[blazing flume]

I just defeated Death and idk if I messed with the settings or if this part of the game but my running speed is waaay faster now 🤔

[rose pendant]

Did you equip the Winged boots?

I didn't think they made much a of difference but the description does read "Winged Boots are leg gear that allow their wearer to move faster."

[blazing flume]

Nope

Basically the moment I killed him i got hit by a sickle and saved in that instant lmao

So i was messing around with drastic cheats menu

No idea if it that made me faster or something

[rose pendant]

Well that's a fun game break then

[undone summit]

so is finding all the villagers necessary to complete the game?

what about the villagers' quests?

[nimble linden]

Yes you have to find all the villagers and no you don't need to do their quests

However the quests unlock things like armor and whatnot so

But yeah I agree now with past sentiments - the whole "Game over" thing when you don't have the villagers is extremely poorly done lol. Like the way its handled is a bit ambiguous. We all pretty much know here thats what to do, but the fact that its an option to get the "bad ending" like.... 75% of the way through the game is a little silly. If draccy's castle is basically just a boss rush then I'm almost done.

[hollow mica]

Nah, Dracula's Castle is moderately big.

It's about a fourth of the game by itself, maybe a bit more than that.

[rotund dock]

Yeah, I’ve essentially filled in more of the castle’s map than any other level and I think I’m still under 20% of it

[rose pendant]

I loved the castle part, felt very ready for it after all the tribulations that had passed to get there

And the most fun was the || Final Approach||
Zipping around there basically swatting mob out of my way.

Dracula had no idea what was coming

SSJ Shanoa

Like this (but ya know, not Sypha)

[undone summit]

when all is said and done, one of the most annoying things is how so many levels want you to go left

[cursive lagoon]

||Albus|| is a super fun fight, probably the best in the game so far imo

I think someone said it before in the chat, but the bad ending is dumb as hell

And it doesn't even give you the credits so I gotta keep playing lol

[inland surge]

I’m bagging this game and playing Magic Knight Rayearth as my first game to finish. I’m just not confident with my skill level that I’ll actually finish this game before the end of the month.

[steady inlet]

I might be able to help a bit, depending upon what you're struggling with

This one's kind of challenging but IMO it's not actually that bad. It really just wants you to find and use the right glyphs for enemies and learn patterns. Like how with one boss, you really just want to slide past him and then hit him in the back, etc.

I'm up to the final dungeon and I don't think I've used a single healing item that wasn't an antivenom or uncurse potion, though I've died plenty of times

[inland surge]

Right now I’m stuck at the horse man boss in Dracula’s castle. I think the game is just wearing me down and I’m ready for something different. The frequency of bosses that are not the final boss is just exceeding my endurance right now.

[undone summit]

Shanoa saying “time to end this once and for all” but the game is only 3/4 finished is pretty egregious.

[rose pendant]

You are so close, don't give up now

[pallid latch]

Take out the crossbows. It makes the boss so much easier.

[blazing jewel]

I ended up getting the switch version and the rewind feature is a game-changer

I'm pretty sure I've seen it available in RA but I've never looked into it. Definitely going to now

[cursive lagoon]

What's this

[hardy sphinx]

|| later ||

[cursive lagoon]

It is later

Or is it

[hardy sphinx]

|| it's from a boss of kinda start ig last area ||

[cursive lagoon]

Idk I beat ||albus and got the bad end already|| is it later than that?

[hardy sphinx]

More later

[cursive lagoon]

Dang ok

[hardy sphinx]

Trust it will be ovy

[cursive lagoon]

I guess that's not where my missing villager is

[hardy sphinx]

No

Unfortunately

[cursive lagoon]

Rats!

[hardy sphinx]

|| the game making ya find all villagers before albus to get good ending is truly crule || true inspirations for fromsoft games🤣

[cursive lagoon]

You're the second person to mention this game is the inspo for dark souls

[inland surge]

I can take out the crossbows. I always get hit when I’m on his back and end up losing so much health that I can’t inflict enough damage before he kills me.

[cursive lagoon]

That's kinda crazy

[hardy sphinx]

Well mores demon souls but ya

Morso*

And I breathe fromsoft so ovy I hate myself🤣

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah I was thinking that, just games for masochists

But it's so satisfying to actually get good too

So maybe there's more to it

[hardy sphinx]

Well fromsoft most times has a good way of making it hard without feeling unfair. It's does feel like your fault when ya die most times

I say most times

Cause more recently it's less true

Also erley fromsoft is not as hard as people make it out tbh they just have a high learning cuvre then most are pretty easy to exploit there less then good ai

[hardy sphinx]

This game less so🤣

[rose pendant]

[cursive lagoon]

The bosses feel pretty fair to me, they just have enough hp that you're forced to completely master the pattern

The hallways are just mean

[blazing jewel]

I think I just cleared the ||crab in the lighthouse|| boss but so far I'd agree

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah that's exactly the one that made me think so

You can't oopsie your way to a victory

[rose pendant]

haha yes, I felt the same way. I would navigate the hallways of each level just looking for the boss.

that way i could spend time "grinding" them

[hardy sphinx]

There a few tht are iffy but mostly ya

[undone summit]

Fromsoft bosses, at least early on, had long windups to give you time to react. Goliath was like that. I’m currently working on ||Barlowe|| and the window for dodging is just a little too small imo.

[hardy sphinx]

Facts the biggest issue with modern fromsoft is little to no release animations lol I could go on about tht for hrs🤣

[cursive lagoon]

Woo I got all the villagers

Now Nikolai wants me to talk to them. What am I, their therapist

[hardy sphinx]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-hmm-mhm-smirk-gif-13698815135656361759

[cursive lagoon]

Right I forgot

[cursive lagoon]

Oh wow ||Albus was a good boy all along||

I like this

[nimble linden]

I just finished up that boss. He's a bit of a marathon. The castle is starting to wear me down too but i'm getting pretty close lol. Almost there....

[chilly hill]

Don’t let us down

[nimble linden]

I'm trying so hard rn lol

I fired up Threads for a SECOND, then something came up and I immediately stopped

Then when I got free time I jumped back in here

The castle is a slight slog tho ngl

[rotund dock]

the castle feels like a lot compared to all of the little levels. don't be afraid to use tickets to leave and go do a villager quest or two to break it up

[cursive lagoon]

You were right. Wow it's obvious

[hardy sphinx]

Am I ever wrong? jkjk!! But did tell ya🤣

[pallid latch]

Been thinking of this game as a rogue-like rpg. It doesn't fit too well. There isn't a store to buy thing from after a death. Seems like death isn't as much a means for progress... but it is very much expected to occur. Death is more of a suggestion to get more gear or levels. Never played a game with this type of genre mix before. It seems close survival horror as well.

[obsidian abyss]

it's interesting that rogue-like rpg is inclusive of a death-to-progress mechanic. Used to be that if you died in a roguelike, you went back to 0, totally back to 0, and you rgame knowledge was your progress.

[undone summit]

I haven’t really died except at bosses. If I’m near death I just magic ticket away. Need to replay the section but at least i don’t lose exp or items.

[obsidian abyss]

See -- Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup for an example

[pallid latch]

Ah, nethack 🙂 .

[obsidian abyss]

yeah, exactly

[steady inlet]

Is this game really that hard?

[undone summit]

it's as hard as pocky and rocky

[rotund dock]

The large cavern is rough

[hardy sphinx]

|| welcome to secret area ||

[rotund dock]

I already did the other one. That felt much easier.

[hardy sphinx]

|| it was made like 100% for people who just want something hard to do lol ||

[rotund dock]

Seems like it. I just finished the room with two ||double hammers||. Had to take a break after that.

[nimble linden]

Ugh. I'm at dracula now and he is p. Tough

[cursive lagoon]

Ooh I'm about to get the vaunted beam glyph

Update: it seems fine?

[steady inlet]

... I do not know what to do about the Tin Men. There's very little window to hit them before the turn around and hit me back, and Shanoa's attacks root her. :I

[steady inlet]

Oh man just got Nitesco. This spell slaps. Meanwhile Vol Ignis is disappointing. Will have to try it against things like the Tin Man and see if it's a good situational spell

[nimble linden]

Man. Dracula was a pretty tough and annoying fight here. Make sure your fully prepared friends. I did finally beat him so i'm 2/3 now

[hardy sphinx]

Me being at 3/3 waiting for milkman to not let me down

[nimble linden]

I'm working on it lmao. I should have an hour to get into threads tn

[hardy sphinx]

Haha I know no rush man!!

[rotund dock]

https://tenor.com/view/right-now-mad-angry-guardians-of-the-galaxy-chris-pratt-gif-5776790

[hardy sphinx]

Well @nimble linden Dirn has spoken now you don't have a choice

[chilly hill]

Damn

What a good game

Only real complaints were maybe the drop rates of the castle enemies were too low. Took forever grinding there. Dracula was also pretty tough until I went back and got the ||Nitesco|| glyph as defense

It worked really well as a single screen game too, which makes me think it was originally going to come out on GBA. Or maybe they just built it off the bones of Aria of Sorrow

[cursive lagoon]

Wow the blackmore fight is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in a Castlevania game

I hate it though

[rotund dock]

Yeah, I loved that room

[blazing jewel]

I've been sort of following a guide, sort of exploring. I'm at the point where the guide says I'd better go back and find all of the missing villagers. How bad of a time am I going to have if I ignore that advice?

[rotund dock]

You can’t finish the game if you don’t

Your progression gets blocked at one point without them. That’s probably where you are in your guide.

[blazing jewel]

Ah so pretty bad then 😂

[rose pendant]

https://tenor.com/view/monopoly-nes-jail-prison-board-game-gif-9370067810695798030

like Dirn said, just full on stops the game

[blazing jewel]

Time to backtrack then

[rose pendant]

I had 3 to find when i had to go back, none of them are 'difficult' to reach

[blazing jewel]

Ill have to check the in-game list to see how many I'm missing but had to stop for dinner & kids' bedtime. Ill get back to it in a couple of hours

[bold vine]

Crab boss wasn't too bad ||with the lightning glyph, but boy are "threshold" bosses annoying||

[cursive lagoon]

I'm loving Dracula's castle

It's certainly annoying but there's something cool about going in with all the movement abilities you'll need and not backtracking

Do I even like Metroidvania? I may have to reconsider my love for this genrr

[steady inlet]

Honestly I think the Igavanias in general were kind of built off of the bones of Symphony of the Night

[bold vine]

Nice, ||Double Jump acquired||, seems as good a place as any to call it a night

[acoustic bane]

Welp, no students showed up on my class so guess who just got some extra time to continue Castlevania

[vestal phoenix]

I’m a couple of stages into the game now, I do appreciate it blending traditional Castlevania level design with the metroidvania exploration, does feel a little jarring though

As for the glyph system, I see where Timespinner got its inspiration, and I loved that game

[nimble linden]

Yeah I think that by the time you get to the castle the little bite sized level designs were fun and the castle just sorta wears you down. Cause its like hey, you basically did almost all the things, now we're just gonna hit you with a gauntlet of bosses, and tough enemies and you can just slog through it

[undone summit]

I think I’d prefer if the whole game was just the castle.

[nimble linden]

I mean one or the other though?

Like I guess subconsciously it was a little jarring

The bite sized levels felt good as a DS game playing on an actual DS

The castle did have enough save points and stuff. Idk, I guess my "complaint" is this one is a little more challenging then I expected lol

||I had a hell of a time with Dracula. Had to go back to the village and get all the healing items I could. After memorizing the patterns for the first part of the fight, I could make it through there without getting hit, but Dracula's summon dogs, and arrows that follow you while I still go after you were too hard to dodge, and super high damage. In the end I basically cheezed him a bit with the death ring.||

[chilly hill]

That stupid life steal attack

[undone summit]

I have been trying to make it through the game with no healing items because I don't want to do quests or farm

[chilly hill]

Wall meat

Yum

Broke one section of wall in a room full of demons for some wall cream puffs to drop

[sacred plinth]

A lot of these early areas are "long annoying hallway followed by a copy of the same annoying hallway"

[cursive lagoon]

Oh good the Medusa heads are in this game

Although in the context of this game they make more sense since every area is annoying

[nimble linden]

Yeah the dusa heads arent TOO bad here

But yeah honestly Tao I didn't farm any healing items, or use any at all until the last few bosses

One of the bosses drops atleast one Super Potion and they give you one before draccy, so you have atleast one if not two full health refills for draccy that are pretty much free of charge

[cursive lagoon]

Death ring is DOPE

Very much in line with this game's philosophy

[pallid latch]

Dracula was easier with a couple specific glyphs ||the upper shield was the only thing that saved me from the bats ||

[undone summit]

Blackmore was a fun fight

[nimble linden]

Honestly that one felt like a gimmick fight to me. I won't say I didn't enjoy it, and it wasn't too hard to memorize and get through, it was just a little annoying if you ||got to the end of the fight where you could actually damage him, then fell off, then needed to go alllll the way back through to get back onto its back||

[undone summit]

huh? we talking about the same boss? the shadow guy?

[hardy sphinx]

He frustrated me cause || it forced the ones thing them kinda games are bad at and feel bad to die. Getting trapped on conrer. And tht boss forced ya to fight in basicly a corner fight || music and boss looking design was great tho

[nimble linden]

Oops

Nope lol

Thats like .... 1-2 bosses from now

Blackmore I felt the need to just brute force and use a healing item or two

[rotund dock]

Damn, 95.2%

[undone summit]

I felt every move was dodge-able. I didn't get the medal but felt like I learned all the patterns at the end.

Love the background here

[steady inlet]

It's a very pretty game.

[bold vine]

The sprite work makes it feel like it maybe was going to be a GBA game, then pivoted to DS.

[nimble linden]

Idk all of them look like GBA pro games to me

AKA damn pretty pixels

[undone summit]

there's some fancy effects that the gba wouldn't have been able to do

[chilly hill]

Like walking ||dracula||

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah I think I'm at that fight now

I had to put the game down

[bold vine]

That ||Albus fight|| was pretty fun, I've enjoyed the boss battles in this one.

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah I'm pretty much slogging through the rest for the boss battles

Although speed force + beam + devil ring has been a pretty enjoyable way to get through the castle

[hardy sphinx]

O there deff a pattern lol the one ya gotta || duck in his 3 hit combo second phase was so annoying || I say this as if he was not easily my fav boss🤣.

Also it's a very good looking game

[undone summit]

double jump, duck, double jump :D. the hardest attack to dodge was the overhead swipe. felt like you need to spot it early and timing was tight.

[hardy sphinx]

O ya I know what it was but figuring out the duck was wild cause it's not the most ovy attack tht looks duckable 🤣. It was truly the only one I had trouble with lol

[chilly hill]

https://tenor.com/view/duck-ducky-jumping-duck-jump-duck-cute-duck-gif-13585676

Everything is duckable

[undone summit]

That’s true. They don’t telegraph what can be ducked/slid under very well. For example the nova skeleton’s attack and ||Death’s pincers||

[hardy sphinx]

Top tear answer tbh🤣

[hardy sphinx]

Ya tht was one of my biggest issues with game!! I love having things tht need to be jumped and others dogded and other ducked makes for a fun and slightly diverse combate system. But when it's not clear with readable animations it's feels bad when it hits ya. But once again I'm likely the most picky perosn in the discord🤷‍♂️

[rotund dock]

https://tenor.com/view/dodge-dodgeball-duck-dip-tips-gif-16899633

[cursive lagoon]

Ok, dracula time

Teleporting down 8 stairs instead of walking is such a power move

[bold vine]

Alright, looks like it's time for Dracula's Castle!

[bold vine]

||Blackmore|| fight was super cool, the bosses kick ass in this game!

[obsidian abyss]

truuuuu

[bold vine]

Goddamn this castle is big, feels like I've been at it for a while and I've only gotten like maybe 40% of the way through

[undone summit]

Can I have some suggestions for glyphs/equips to use against Dracula?

[nimble linden]

Honestly I just used Nitesco and Vol Luminato. Then had on hot swap, Whatever the final Scythe glyph was + vol Luminato. That "combo" when you do the "up and attack" move that uses hearts does a light dmg sword that hit for around 250 pts of damage at level like 45ish

[undone summit]

I’m level 37 🤔

It’s the dogs in phase 2 that mess me up the most. I can’t seem to attack fast enough to get rid of them before the next attack comes.

[nimble linden]

Someone said they used one of the shield glyphs

If you have 30 mins to mindlessly kill I'd grind a few levels

I think I was like 42 when I finished

But I would say i'm probably not amazing at this game

Not bad but not great

[chilly hill]

I used Nitesco but couldn't get Vol Luminato to hit. Nitesco was great defensively too

[chilly hill]

Nitesco from Void skeletons should clear them up

[nimble linden]

Nitesco was good for wiping out fireballs. Vol Luminato you just needed to jump and line up with his head

Honestly even with Nitesco I couldn't kill all the dogs fast enough to not get hit

[rotund dock]

I just hit them with the sword

[rotund dock]

Not who said it, but that’s how I blocked the bats

[chilly hill]

Death ring it

[undone summit]

So beginning of bats and dogs looks the same: Dracula spreads arms. With bats there’s a sweet spot where I can crouch and avoid everything. But going for it usually lets one of their dogs past me.

Will need to adjust.

Scythe deals more damage than vol luminato for me.

[nimble linden]

I needed the death ring

I was tired and wanted to finish it lol

[obsidian abyss]

For Drac: ||vol laminatio, vol umbra (spellcheck), equip your best rings, death ring included, and equip the Dominus buff. When you start the fight, activate Dominus buff and use the union glyph attack to nuke him for like 2000-3000 hp. He has 9999. You should be able to get 3 attacks off, then drink any MP consumables you can to try go get to 50 again for another attack. You should be able to do all of this without taking much damage from dominus buff because pausing. After that, you're looking at 6000-9000 damage down.||

Just remember ||after nuking him, remove the death ring and swap glyphs so you're not dieing to dominus buff||

[rose pendant]

Yep this is how I did it. After removing the ring I just stayed on Nitesco and just played defensively from there getting off double cast whenever an opening would occur

|| After Dracula goes into his monologue about lord knows what, you just pause and equip all the Dominus glyphs, use it........and the game is over. Congratulations||

[undone summit]

Wild. So doing this blind, my scythe with best gear does 100 damage per hit. So I’d have to hit him 100 times to beat him.

[nimble linden]

Honestly his first "form" really isn't too bad to not take damage at all

Its just "Cloak fireballs" "cloak big darkness magic balls" "arrow rain"

[undone summit]

Right the first phase is easy. It’s just a tedious fight with my current level and setup

[rose pendant]

Many Bothans died restarts were used to bring us this information

[rose pendant]

Nitesco while doing less per hit, usually hits 2 times per cast(iirc), so double casting usually gets a higher avg

[nimble linden]

With the general difficulty of this game I did not feel bad semi cheesing draccy

[rose pendant]

Not mine

[chilly hill]

“What nonsense is this”

Fits really well with that clip

[cursive lagoon]

Oh so that's the solution

I gotta soften him up before I use the forbidden glyph

[rose pendant]

After he monologues

[cursive lagoon]

I tried it first thing, did 5214 DMG and didn't kill him

[nimble linden]

This is amazing

[rose pendant]

The anime, continent sized explosion had me rolling

[nimble linden]

Yeah its a goodn - ngl

[undone summit]

ok done. with my level and equipment the "cheese" above was only doing like 1300 damage? so not quite a phase even. so I ended up fighting the first phase normally, throwing out the three big union attacks at the beginning of phase two, and then finishing the rest normally.

[nimble linden]

I didn't realize I was cheesing wrong, so I just toggled the death ring and got it done with...still some difficulty

I'm used to a few deaths in a castlevania game, but again, this one was TOUGH

[undone summit]

my definitive boss tier list
||S: Blackmore
A: Barlowe, Goliath
B: Death, Albus, Eligor
C: lobster
D: crab, Gravedorcus, skull, Rusalka, giant skeleton, Dracula
F: Wallman||

[cursive lagoon]

I don't even remember a lobster

I hope there's some kind of ng+

[rose pendant]

|| Wallman || doesn't even get a proper name, love it. He was pointless

[nimble linden]

Lol homie coulda been a glyph statue and a chest with a super potion

[undone summit]

It was the first boss.

[chilly hill]

A lot of bosses were disappointing

[cursive lagoon]

Well if I don't even remember it it's probably an F

[cursive lagoon]

I feel like some died too quick and some died too slow

Eligor was such a slog, but ||albus|| felt like a dance and all of a sudden it was over

I love how ||Barlowe|| incorporated the voice lines

And fuck dracula

I don't know why I spoilered those two, WHO COULD IT BE? ||NIKOLAI||???

[bold vine]

Trying to get ||Melio Ascia to drop from the Great Knight|| is a pain in the ass

Tale as old as time, I just had to bitch about it and it appeared

[bold vine]

Done! Really enjoyed this one, Dracula's Castle was probably three times too big but otherwise very good.

[bold vine]

||Albus and Blackmore|| are tied for my favorite bosses, really enjoyed those fights. Dracula became a no hit run for me because I wasn't doing enough damage without the Death Ring.

[vestal phoenix]

Is spending money early on equipment a bad call in this one or are they pretty useful for a while?

[nimble linden]

Honestly Lunar when I got 80% of the way through the game money became irrelevant

Spend away IMO

The equipment system is weird anyway. You have to grind for materials

[bold vine]

I spent money on upgraded equipment as soon as it was available. Shanoa is made of paper, so the more I could do to reinforce her the better.

[vestal phoenix]

Alright cool, that’s what I thought but you never know with these games

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah you won't have to do it that often so you might as well

Combo boots are a bit of a scam, although they are sometimes ok for an early mobility aid

[bold vine]

I didn't bother with any gear that increased a "skill", like mobility or fall recovery. If it didn't increase defense, I usually didn't bother.

[cursive lagoon]

You didn't miss anything good lol

This game has the best movement of any Castlevania game but it's all in Dracula's castle

[bold vine]

Which is sooooooo long

[cursive lagoon]

Yeah, but its actually pretty chill compared to like SotN

Well, in terms of the map, not the enemies

I went from hating this game to wanting to replay it, I really gotta hand it to them for branching out the way they did here

[undone summit]

this game is like two different castlevania games stapled together

[nimble linden]

I liked it but didnt love it

[chilly hill]

I loved it but didn’t like it

[nimble linden]

lol getting weird with it

Shanoa was a pretty blank slate of a character

and I forget who it was but they were right when they said everyone was super thirsty for her lol

Rescue Jewelery girl

Immediately hits on you

[vestal phoenix]

Man the bosses are sponges

[rose pendant]

This game in particular would make for a great mini series anime. ||Just as you described 2 tonally different chapters. First the despair and betrayal & then the redemption arc of going to finish the job at Castlevania. Then at the end of it all, she is left with nothing and that great shot of her cathartic smiling cry 😭 ||

[steady inlet]

I'm gonna come in with an opinion opposed to KalKeg's: the effect of defense is pretty limited tbh. I didn't buy equipment in the early game

When you start having trouble, the best defense is a good offense. Shanoa is not a tank no matter how you gear her, but I notice a pretty chunky damage difference between being geared for loot or for damage

I did buy a sequined dress and lucky clover for extra loot

[undone summit]

the only time I felt hamstrung by my choices was the final boss. every point before that I felt like I could make do with whatever I had.

[vestal phoenix]

Good to know. I did buy the first set of gear available and it feels like it has helped a lot

But I probably don’t need to buy more

[rose pendant]

Agreed || Death & Dracula|| were the only ones I changed my glyphs up for

[undone summit]

hm, I guess I changed my glyphs for bosses. I meant that on the last boss, I felt like my choices to not grind for levels/glyphs and not make sure I found the best equipment made things more difficult.

[rose pendant]

O, I just continued to smash my head against a wall until something broke

Very akin to that movie Edge of Tomorrow. Learn a little more for the next round

[steady inlet]

I obsessively change my glyphs to match every challenge

I don't think I would've gotten through some areas without it

(using Vol Fulgur against the poison starfish instead of getting close to them, etc)

[hasty ravine]

Pneuma is amazing for exactly 1 boss and then can be benched for the entirety of the play through sadly.

[nimble linden]

I didn't use it once lolol

[hardy sphinx]

I don't know anytning about Pneuma the gyth but I'll tell ya what Pneuma the Tool song is 🔥

[inland surge]

Holy shit I finally beat the horse guy. How many more bosses before I’m at the end?

[nimble linden]

Like two

I think you CAN do the last 3 pre-dracula boss in any order

[steady inlet]

Which boss is it for?

[rose pendant]

Depends on where you went in the castle tbh

[hasty ravine]

The boss of that dungeon, cant remember the name, but the siren that summons a massive wave and you have to hide under rocks.

Pneuma kicks up the water and increases its size and damage.

[steady inlet]

Oh shit. I didn't know it had environmental interactions like that

[steel vine]

starting this really late lol but ive played it before, should maybe have time to finish? my ds shoulder buttons arent working tho so im not using real hardware :<

[nimble linden]

I beat basically one game a week. You can do it!!

[steel vine]

yeah i started with rayearth but idk if im enjoying that enough to finish it lol. and i have to play that on my ally vs playing castlevania on my 353m lol so i can take it with me on the bus and stuff

[chilly hill]

This is the way. I played it on an a30

Mostly commute time

[steel vine]

yeah the smaller levels vs most castlevanias makes it a bit more sessionable without me forgetting where i am too lol. just got to the mountain level

[vestal phoenix]

I think I really don’t like the level based nature of the game. I don’t think I have time to finish it before Friday either, so I think I’m dropping it

[sacred plinth]

Glad I don't have to backtrack for any villagers, all grabbed the first time through

[cursive lagoon]

So thorough! I missed 2

[steady inlet]

OK yeah fuck the big weapon horse boss

[steel vine]

how the fuck does the camera mechanic work lol i cant get a picture of this cave troll

[chilly hill]

The name has to be in the lower right of the screen

So basically you have to hit it and open inventory midhit

[steel vine]

ohhhh

i was trying to centre it in the screen, or get it right in front of shanoa

[steady inlet]

Really? I just caught it in the center of the camera box

[chilly hill]

Eh the only thing that worked for me was on hit

[steel vine]

got it eventually

its been weird (but good) playing this on a screen other than the ds lite screen lol. weird seeing it with more vivid colours and no real visible grid

[steady inlet]

I like me some vivid colors

But the DS Lite is such a nice little device and so pretty that I just had to

(and my first rodeo here on OG hardware, etc)

[steel vine]

yeah i love my dslite but my shoulder buttons both only work like 50% of the time now and thats no good for this game lol

probably gonna relegate my real hardware ds to touch-focused games (tho maybe its fixable)

this game is so so light on second screen use tho so its a pretty good fit for a nice small 4:3 handheld like my 353m

[steady inlet]

My DS Lite is still in excellent condition, but it was safely stored for most of the 15+ years I've had it

[nimble linden]

I have a sickness so I have several ds consoles lol.

Anyway heres wonderwall

[steady inlet]

Finally cracked and used a few healing potions on the centaur boss. Three regular potions and one high potion, for like. +350 HP?

I keep forgetting Glyph Unions exist, which doesn't help.

[steel vine]

yeah i dont use them that much. just beat the water lady boss (was she a siren idk), im at Giant's Dwelling now. should be on track to finish this week i think at this pace?

[rose pendant]

If you can get to Castlevania by Wednesday, I will say yes.

[steel vine]

i hate fleamen

[steady inlet]

fuck the large cavern

[steel vine]

managed to medal the rock fish boss

[steady inlet]

I'm actually not sure what to do about the large cavern. I got clapped out by the... wait, it wasn't the double weapon master room, though that one took a pretty big piece out of me. It was the demon lord + tin man room actually. Did the wrong thing there (the right thing there would have been to eat the tin men first with Nitesco)

Not sure what comes after that, though. I probably need to stock up on a lot more potions

and look up how the color drops work I should probably be using those

oh shit they're permanent

I should go use all of those rn

[steel vine]

oh i have some of those, that's what they do?

[steady inlet]

Yep

[cursive lagoon]

I took the easy way out in the dracula fight

I am not ashamed

Now I can play smtiv: apocalypse GUILT FREE

[steel vine]

okay just beat ||barlowe|| i should be on pace to finish by the deadline no sweat

[steady inlet]

What was that? Stuff like the ||Death Ring + Dominus Agony + Glyph Unions trick||?

Anyway I'm really behind, but I don't have a lot I'm doing this week, a new med is at least improving my ability to focus, and... distractions are really nice right now

Like I'm right at Drac in this game, but I've still got a lot of the other two games to get through. Just that I can fit in like 24 hours of gaming yet probably

[cursive lagoon]

Nah just straight up ||dominus union. At a certain point during dracula the game makes it clear that you can use it to end the fight. Idk what happens if you keep going as normal, but|| I suspect there is a better ending

[steady inlet]

||Ahh. I tried that but it might have been too soon, because I just got a Game Over||

[cursive lagoon]

Yep! I did that too lol

[steady inlet]

||And yes, there is a better ending. If you use strategies other people have discussed and take advantage of things like collected Super Potions and such, it should be doable without being too hard||

[steady inlet]

Twistedlink07 shared a strategy above for making an enormous dent in the HP bar

[steady inlet]

Replying to this to make an easy link to this strategy. Sorry about pinging you

[cursive lagoon]

You're good, I appreciate it

[steady inlet]

Get the good ending it's worth it

Won't take you too long, especially if you still have some Super Potions left

I should be more willing to lean on my potions for late-game stuff. First place where I did that was the horse boss (one high potion, three regular potions)

[steel vine]

i have a lot of money im not using lol gonna just stock up on bbq killer fish before i do the castle probably

[steady inlet]

I should look up the recovery values on the food items

[steel vine]

i think the fish is 450? which is pretty good. emperor ring can make it do more too

[steady inlet]

Huh, looks like curry is actually the best $/HP ratio, and the Super Potion is one of the worst items you can buy in practice

I'm glad I looked it up. It'll save me from ever buying a Super Potion

[undone summit]

I ate a lot of minestrone

[steady inlet]

Curry is only 400 HP vs. 450 HP for the fish BBQ but it's significantly cheaper

and yeah, I wish that recovery values were made transparent for the food items

I'm going to guess there's supposed to be an element of experimentation to them, but still, it's fiddly (I say, after complaining about MonHun reducing the fiddly bits as the generations go on)

[steel vine]

i dont think i have curry yet? is that from the third chef quest?

[steady inlet]

might be

[steady inlet]

OK looked it up. yes actually

seems like it might actually be the best healing item in the game, all things considered. A fair bit cheaper than a high potion and twice as powerful

[steel vine]

im doing a lot more magic stuff than i think i did on my first playthrough, i remember mostly sticking to melee weapons when i originally played it i think. ignis is so strong lol

still not really using the summons or transformations tho lol

[rose pendant]

They are so useless IMO 😂

So pissed when I got the bat glyph

[steel vine]

yeah lol im just using the int boost glyph on r most of the time

yeah i thought i would be able to fly with it LMAO

[rose pendant]

"alright I can fly now" ha, yeh right

[undone summit]

the medusa heads were a little useful for death

[steel vine]

got the wallman medal but like... who didnt lol

[steady inlet]

I didn't

I'm bad at making zero mistakes in a fight

[steel vine]

blackmore was tough lol bro hits like a truck compared to the non-castle bosses

[rose pendant]

Closing in man

Just need ||Death|| and then onto you know who

O wait you still got to face horseman

[steel vine]

yeah. ive got time tho ive made good pace

im just spamming the skeleton beam with some int-boosting gear and the int boosting glyph lol and just kinda shredding. was running more defensive builds earlier but nah i think this is the way

[rose pendant]

That beam is all you need till the end

40+ DMG per tick melts them

[steel vine]

yeah lol. similar to why i was using ignis so much tbh, the attacks that hit multiple times in this game are so strong cuz most things kinda just do similar damage

[jade scaffold]

I don’t think I’m going to manage to finish this before the end of the month and barely started threads. Just turned out to be a busy month

Just made it to the swamp. But thought I heard you need to have found all villagers and I’m guessing I haven’t

[steel vine]

wont take too long to backtrack with a guide, and swamp is pretty close to act 2 (which is probably at least 2/3 through the game really)

[jade scaffold]

Oof. Got shown 4 villagers…

[steel vine]

oh rip lmao

i had played this before so i knew to check before that fight but i was only missing one, ||the one behind the waterfall||

a lot of them are behind breakable walls but most of those breakable walls have an enemy or a torch or a conspicuous ledge that has no platforming reason to be there so there's some reason you might hit them either organically or otherwise

[jade scaffold]

One down

[jade scaffold]

Is there any way to check count in the game?

[rose pendant]

the villager quest log

[steel vine]

there's a villagers entry in the menu that i think shows question marks for the ones you dont have?

or if nothing else it shows the ones you do have so you can check against a guide

[rose pendant]

but really just get a guide and go from there. there are 2 behind walls that aren't exactly obvious

[jade scaffold]

Thanks to your help 2 down

[jade scaffold]

Irina’s location was dirty by the delvs…

[steel vine]

is that the one ||behind the waterfall??|| cuz yeah lol

[jade scaffold]

Got them all. I guess go beat lay boss I did again

[jade scaffold]

Yes…

[steel vine]

yeah i stopped on every platform in that room for the items but didnt think to check the walls lol

[jade scaffold]

Defeated ||Barlow|| but had to help with kids so didn’t even finish dialogue. Hoping I’ll get to work more on it

[rose pendant]

he's a pretty fun fight

[steady inlet]

Exact same thing. I didn't do the out of box (or rather, out of room) thinking to solve that little environmental puzzle

[steel vine]

i just cheesed with vol luminus tbh lol so iwas just dodging really

but it was still pretty fun

[jade scaffold]

I poked him with lances 🤷🏼‍♂️

But I’ve most certainly not been playing with any optimization or even much strategy…

[steady inlet]

I think I used axes, because of that thing where you get openings while the boss is floating in the air

It was just too good of an opportunity to not use axes

[shadow furnace]

What is the point of this room?

[rose pendant]

Teleport room, you will find others on the same stage

[shadow furnace]

Okay, that makes sense. I just didn't know what I was supposed to thing from a giant floating bubble.

Probably not finishing this one, but wanted to give it a quick try if nothing else. Feels very SotN so far.

[jade scaffold]

I can walk through walls

[jade scaffold]

||Blackwater|| battle sucked!

[jade scaffold]

Game crashed and have to do like last hour of play over including last boss….

[jade scaffold]

One more ||dog|| glyph left to get.

[rose pendant]

Getting there for the ||Final Approach||

[shadow furnace]

Alright, I've made it to Minera Prison Island, and I've got to say, this is quite good. I thought it was going to be a slog and more like SotN, but I'm really liking the smaller map level stuff they've got going on with this one and the RPG elements seem a lot more fleshed out as far as the level gating and thing goes. I'm impressed with this one so far. This stupid giant skeleton is giving me fits, but I'm having more fun with this than I thought I would have.

[steel vine]

yeah i really like this one

its obviously quite a bit more linear than most of the series in this style but i dont think that really hurts it much?

[shadow furnace]

It's a benefit to me, honestly. I don't really like the metroidvania ones all that much, but I love the older ones like rondo and bloodlines. This one seems more similar to those to me, which is a good thing.

[steel vine]

yeah definitely difficulty wise. i remembered this one as having more platforming than it actually does tho lol i wish it had a bit more of that. magnes feels underused

for being a pretty well-implemented and fun-feeling mechanic

[shadow furnace]

I've only just beat the giant skeleton on the prison island, but it's been good. Kind of bummed I slept on it now.

[steel vine]

maybe itll get goty for something? its a pretty good looking game but maybe not enough to win that

[shadow furnace]

It's a castlevania game. It's got a very good shot. Lol.

[rose pendant]

IMO one of the best stories too.

[nimble linden]

I feel like what they decided to do here, is cut back on exploration, and pump up the difficulty

I'm not saying its good bad or otherwise, thats just the main driving force in the logic on this one

Sorta a love it or hate it that makes or breaks the game

[cursive lagoon]

Someone described it as a cross between classic Castlevania and SotN

I think that person is smart

[undone summit]

very smart #1335056372550864987 message

[steady inlet]

So for anyone stuck on Dracula, a strategy posted earlier absolutely destroys this guy

I used a variation on it, but basically, yeah, items and abilities you're not "supposed" to use because they normally get you killed are actually very good 🧀

||I did the Death Ring + Dominus Agony thing with a weapon and Nitesco and Glyph Union'd Drac for 1200+ damage a hit, and the Glyph Union in question is not super expensive||

[obsidian abyss]

Glad you got there lol

[steady inlet]

Yes, thank you for that tip

[obsidian abyss]

100000%

[steady inlet]

I could have beaten this guy the old-fashioned way--I did when I was younger--but I wanted to square this off quick so I can focus on finishing Magic Knight Rayearth before the cutoff

Hopefully my executive function will be better now that I'm getting back on a med that helped it in the past, even if I didn't realize it and was never actually asymptomatic

(executive dysfunction ruins lives, people. if you have trouble doing not just stuff you need to do but stuff you want to do, you may wish to speak to your therapist or psychiatrist about ED)

sorry, brief aside relevant to why I keep procastinating on fun stuff and then rushing these games last-minute

[rose pendant]

It's because of this game and GotM that I picked up a 6+ month old Circle of the Moon playthrough. Finally beat that game

[steady inlet]

Circle of the Moon was pretty fun too

I loved the post-game stuff you unlock

I know I got all the way to Thief but I'm not sure if I finished that playthrough

All right, clear. OG DS Lite and all

[nimble linden]

Samesies

[steel vine]

didnt really play this yesterday and wont have a ton of time today but i should have a lot of time tomorrow to close this out. im at the mechanical tower, i can go either up or down in any order right?

[rose pendant]

That's right

Besides the Dog Glyphs there isn't a "dead end" in there

[steel vine]

Okay cool

[jade scaffold]

Done. I liked this overall. I feel like this would have been better on a DS than what I played it on. I feel like the second screen for map and to know weaknesses was a big deal. I think if I replayed I’d either only want to play on a DS or to turn on cheats that got rid of the need to switch around or know weapons/weaknesses.

[steel vine]

once i got used to swapping it wasnt too bad to check map/enemy data

[obsidian abyss]

tbf, you didn't get weakness data until you killed something, so having it is nice, but you still needed to do without

[steel vine]

...yeah i tried to do horse boss without destroying the crossbows and that might be a no go lol. need to take it slwoer

[steel vine]

fighting death now

[steady inlet]

I used Vol Fulgur while I was stuck in the nope zone

You're probably already doing that though. It's that, or, what? Vol Luminatio? Ascia? Slash doesn't do shit against this guy sadly

(replaying this game really rubbed it in that at the end of the day, Shanoa is a wizard, not a fighter)

[rose pendant]

C'mon, you can do it!

[steady inlet]

You're so close!

If you struggle with Dracula afterwards, there is a cheese strat

[steel vine]

i cheesed death lol i need to get this done quick. ill probably go back and do them properly later but yeah ill cheese drac. going out soon so i dont have a ton of time

[rose pendant]

If it's in the toolkit, it's not 🧀

[steel vine]

yep done

[chilly hill]

Aren’t we all

[steel vine]

Judgement ring and death ring are op lol

[rose pendant]

Lol I was so excited when ||Dracula|| started monologuing. I paused so quick, ||equiped the Dominus|| and then poof he was gone 😂

[steel vine]

yeah i forgot that this fight doesn't have ||a monster form|| lol im so used to those in dracula fights

i should actually do the fight legit tho later cuz i remember it being really hard

[steady inlet]

I used the Sun/Moon Ring and Death Ring, though maybe there's something going on with Judgment that I overlooked

[steady inlet]

I mean, I honestly think the cheese strat was probably intentional. They put otherwise seemingly unusable stuff like the Death Ring in there, after all

[steel vine]

probably

[rose pendant]

Still such a good feeling in this game and other Castlevanias when facing a boss that's grueling and then you get that relief pause on the screen with LEVEL UP words and jingle

exhale

[steady inlet]

I also feel like the difficulty increase in general was intentional and actually expressing something

This is just some lady left to pick up the pieces in a world without the Belmonts. She is not a Chosen One. Even Dracula is like "lol you aren't the people with the macguffin"

This is just human ingenuity, blood, sweat, and tears, and some dirty magic hacking

[steel vine]

yeah. and the one before it portrait of ruin was kind of on the easier side iirc (tho its final boss is awesome)

portrait of ruin was anime art style too so i think this was kind of a course correction after somewhat negative reaction to that look and vibe

[steady inlet]

Yeah. Portrait of Ruin was a great game and I feel like it still paid its homages to the series classics ||being a direct sequel to Bloodlines|| but I think the traditional art style suits Castlevania better

[steel vine]

yeah

[rose pendant]

||I really like Shanoa. Her story is so F'd. I mentioned it B4 but I just can't stop gushing about it. They are indoctrinated into this cult to stop (raise) Dracula. Gets her memories wiped during the botched ceremony. Only to go on a quest to stop Albus from abusing the powers he had stolen. After doing so and retrieving the powers gives her such a badass approach to the castle so she can end all this madness. She then gruelingly defeats all of the minions in the castle and finally resorts to using the Dominus in a last ditch effort to save the world by sacrificing herself. But then after using it Albus returns and revives the memories of he and her as children and siblings, reminding her of the life they once had. And then as quickly as those memories return, Albus leaves, choosing to be sacrificed for the Dominus instead of her. The cathartic cry/smile portrait at the end of that Now she has nothing left......dam that's heavy ||

[steady inlet]

I mean she's got plenty of eligible and interested singles in Wygol

(but yes I understand you. more than I wish I did)

[stuck anchor]

necro bump! Started this morning, just doing the DS version

[stuck anchor]

just does not slap as hard as the Sorrow games to me, but I'm over all enjoying it

[rose pendant]

Very tight combat in this game

I got wrapped up in the story because it feels like a revenge story

[lapis pier]

I just got started on this, but my god, why is it so difficult?

[stuck anchor]

Save states keep making this crash for me so it’s a git gud moment, will help it last awhile lol

[stuck anchor]

Workin on fighting a crab boss, no save states no guide, need a third screen for the Thor for ds guides :p

[rose pendant]

You got this!

[stuck anchor]

Got past the crab and the next area, currently on Misty Forest Road. Stealing a glyph from an enemy using one was kinda cool lol

[stuck anchor]

Doin a lil power leveling in the skeleton cave after I figured out how to cheese a parade of skellys for ~500xp

[stuck anchor]

Yeah I took it to 30, might have been too high I reckt the floaty skull three tongue boss lol

Double jump

[stuck anchor]

I saw big foot

[stuck anchor]

Am I doin something wrong here or do I need something else?

[rose pendant]

That's the correct way, just aim for top right and as soon as you let go to get flung, start the absorption process and you should get it

[stuck anchor]

cool, I'll try a bit later, thanks

[rose pendant]

Just timing, you were like 4-5 frames off from absorbing it

[steel vine]

yeah that was surprisingly tricky to do lol

[stuck anchor]

I got it but I don’t wanna talk about how many tried it took lol

[steel vine]

yeah i mean this is probably the hardest metroidvania style castlevania in general. between this and circle of the moon and nothing else is in the convo. might replay this on ||albus extra text|| mode for the goty point

[stuck anchor]

It does remind me of a souls kinda game the way I keep accidentally losing progress and retrying things lol so yeah it’s got some difficulty

[stuck anchor]

Beat the giant in giants dwelling, currently killing owls over and over again in the next area because I can tell they drop a glyph

[obsidian abyss]

I had a lot of fun collecting stuff in this game, the glyphs were great fun

[stuck anchor]

Hell yeah pet owl

[stuck anchor]

Priest dude said I got all the villagers, must not be a whole crazy lot left

[stuck anchor]

Working through learning the ||barlowe|| fight rn

Got ‘im

[rose pendant]

Yeh he's not bad. Just a bunch of dashing back and fourth from what I remember

You are getting to my favorite scene in the game, where she marches into the castle super pissed about everything that has transpired recently

[stuck anchor]

Yeah I’m in ||Draculas Castle|| now

[stuck anchor]

Currently getting my ass kicked by Blackmore

[rose pendant]

Nah, He's a paper tiger

[stuck anchor]

He dead now

[stuck anchor]

Got the death ring and was excited until I realized it meant my instant death

[steel vine]

nah it's still busted lol. Cuz you can unequip it mid fight no problem. Death + judgement can nuke bosses

[stuck anchor]

Beat Eligor, have what appears to be 2/3 Cerberus glyphs now

[stuck anchor]

Anyone know how night/day work for the sun ring?

[stuck anchor]

Wrapped it up, excellent game, might go back and clean up quests and stuff I missed

[tired snow]

Last game of the month for me, Dominus Collection on Deck

[chilly hill]

You mean GotMotY?

[tired snow]

See I'm stupid and forgot this was game of the year

Swapped over to Bully for now, but I'll play this eventually for GOTY

[mint pollen]

Ditto

I've wanted to play this again for a while. I'm debating between waiting for a solid Dominus Collection sale or just hauling out my DS.

I'll just do whatever option is best when a couple of others start playing

[steel vine]

this one emulates pretty well too. i played it on 353m, no performance issues. second screen is basically just map and menus so as long as you have swapping on a hotkey you can play it single screen perfectly fine

[rose pendant]

This and Portrait of Ruin are great on single screen devices

[steel vine]

yeah. dawn of sorrow works fine with the patch too but portrait and ooe are fine unpatched (tho one of the bonus modes in portrait uses touch)