Castlevania Thread

I'd be happy with a simple Classicvania that merged CV3 and Rondo so you'd have 18-year-old Julius as your whipper and Item Crasher, some magician (maybe the shrine priest mentioned) as your Belnades, Alucard, some Grant Danasty pastiche (maybe a military man as a reference to Hammer's scrapped role in Dawn of Sorrow).

Either that or Dawn's approach of a several-man team going through a Metroidvania castle, except not shit and not totally dependent on Alucard for progression through certain areas this time around.

I have to wonder, has whoever did the art for OoE done the art for any games out there since, or did they just kind of drop off the grid?

Part of what it seemed like in AoS was that the sealing ritual was either so taxing that the process stripped him of his memories, or perhaps the journey through the castle robbed him of some things he held dear (maybe he lost some close friends to Dracula?), to the point he would have rather not remembered the event if he didn't need to. Granted, I've never played DoS so I'm not sure if it gives more information on Julius' experiences with the 1999 war, but there's some inferences to be made. If it might have been him assaulting the place with the army as a distraction (best case scenario I see with all those dead soldier being that they wound up being fodder to the monsters to perhaps allow for an easier entry) while he and some friends (I assume Alucard would have wanted in on the action) made their way through, and it wouldn't shock me if maybe some might have died in the process.

Not sure, Dawn certainly didn't go into it in any further detail; Julius's experiences during 1999 aren't ever even brought up again and he's just kind of there for the sake of being around to kill Soma on a bad-end new game+.

I was under the assumption Julius's amnesia was kind of a last-laugh on Dracula's part since Aria didn't much go into the root cause of it either, and Julius not even remembering he needs to leave an heir to keep the Belmonts going would certainly further along Dracula's goals, knowing he's going to reincarnate or have an heir to his power sooner or later and wouldn't have a Belmont to contest him.

Well, considering that the Vampire Killer was outright needed as part of the sealing ritual to the point it was apparently left in the castle somewhere, I'm not sure if an heir would be all that useful or on his mind if to even get the Vampire Killer, the castle would have to reappear, and then that person would somehow have to get up there to the castle to retrieve it. I mean, I'd think that Julius and Alucard, or whoever's idea the sealing ritual was, had thought this would put the whole thing behind them rather than just being a temporary solution, or that if he did reincarnate, Alucard could maybe track him down first.

The bigger question might be when did Alucard learn about the font of chaos keeping the castle around in some form, especially since he himself can't enter that domain since while a Dhampyr, he is NOT Dracula. I can't recall if he learned of it directly in Aria (which would make sense, considering he seemed confused by the castle's reappearance and for a good bit of the game is doing his own thing) or might have learned of it before.

wow this looks pretty gud, thanks user

I wish there was a Metroidvania which let you go full Dungeon Fighter Online or Path of Exile with your character progression. IGAvanias rely on being able to tackle challenges in any way possible to be fun, so I'd wish they capitalized on that. Or alternatively, go full 2D Devil May Cry.

OoE is "Metroidvania Fusion" level-wise, you may or may not like that. The visuals are probably the best of the 3 DS games, especially the character art, there's none of that bland anime shit. Unfortunately the game is challenging, but sometimes not in a good way, hard difficulty is particularly stupid.

Give Portrait and Dawn a go too. Dawn is a good game despite being inferior to Aria.

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Well, i may have a game for you.
I didn't have too much fun with it personally but it does fit the "2D DMC" requirement.

Carmilla should've been featured as a notable antagonist more often during the IGA era.

Don't get me wrong, I think the 'old' non anime stuff is better but it wasn't that bad.

I think it's just disappointing. Castlevania has an interesting style and a generic anime look isn't part of that.

I'm disappointed too. The anime style feels like it just drops lots of the style and appeal to the characters.

Ecclesia was excellent.
I do remember dying a lot in a couple of bosses: feel free to watch the battle in a youtube vid so you can feel like an impatient fool.

Portrait of Ruin was even better.
I remember collecting every item just for the kicks.

I wish a new game like this was released every year.

I agree. Considering Carmilla's importance (She was the basis for Dracula's story) she should appear more and have her own games.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla

You really don't.

The issue with the anime styling is that one, yeah, the variant used does indeed look generic, but two, a more or less direct sequel was NOT the place to start using it. I don't mind it in PoR all that much, since while a sequel to Bloodlines it's a ways in the future. But with DoS being so close after AoS in the chronology, and AoS having pretty nice portraits, the shift is that much more jarring. Changing clothes? Sure, I can see that, even if I do miss Soma's pimpcoat. Changing art styles for a direct sequel just because? Fuck that.

I mean, it's certainly not like they were the first ones to have an anime style to them, but Rondo kind of has that 90's charm to its anime stylings in comparison to DoS and PoR.

OoE bosses were great
always kept you on the edge the first time playing through unless you found the way to cheese everything later in the game

Am I the only one who thinks Reinhardt Schneider is best protag for Castlevania even though the only games he starred in were pretty shit. I really just like his name his haircut and his badass breastplate jacket, other than visually though he's absolutely forgettable.

Also it's funny that Konami never managed to get Castlevania forumla right in 3d, sure they got you working games but those didn't feel like Castlevania.

I don't know because N64 emulation a shit and I can't play it.

ehh… I dont know
he looks a bit generic character imo
lack of charisma, just some hero dude who has to save the day

I played it in June on Mupen64, I beat the whole game as all characters, it's a pretty shit game but I didn't have any troubles with emulation.

Nah, he's cool as fuck, and a badass to boot, the only character I like more is Richter, Alucard goes third because of his stupid name.

You sure? I admit last time I tried playing it was like five years ago.

Everyone tried to migrate their franchises to 3D. Sometimes it worked and some CastleVania games are benefited from the whole realistic 3D atmosphere.

Although I hate the first N64 CV game (never tried the 2nd), I admit it had some good ideas and the atmosphere was correct.

As for protagonists, I prefer Richter from the game that preceded Symphony of the Night. I guess I like him because he reminds me of the old blue NES Ninja Gaiden. I admit he looks rather plain now. I miss the armor of other Belmonts.

I get it: I never played the Soma games.
I was disoriented from the beginning because they didn't look like centuries old Transilvanian tales. Do they really happen in 21st century Tokyo?

Well, Portrait of Ruin kinda looked more like classic old CastleVania.

Aria of sorrow is actually pretty good, you should play it.

Bu the reason why you don't want a yearly release is because the quality would drop down to Mega Man levels of cutting corners and reusing assets and you'll burn out by the third year.

what's the verdict on judgment? I've heard some very mixed things

Great music, below average everything else

It's shit.

I think the atmosphere and visuals were correct, the gameplay was shit, the level design was shit, platforming was shit, the puzzles were shit, the day and night cycle was pretty cool, the bosses were shit.

I can't get over the fact someone in charge thought these redesigns were good. It's one thing to let an artist do their own take on things (look at various art swaps some mangaka do as one offs, drawing the other series characters with their own style just to see how it would look), but have some respect for the original designs.

Aria's good. Yeah, it's in 2035, but aside from a few things here and there, it's still Dracula's decrepit castle, full of older weapons (in addition to a very small handful of handguns) and monsters. Only big difference being that the castle is flying over Japan and is starring an albino Japanese teen (an exchange student in the western release) trying to get him and his shrine maiden love interest safely out.

This is really cool but god fuck this control scheme.

I wanna get a tattoo like pic related, do you think I'll look like a fag?

Just to double check, that's meant to be the whip wrapped around the handle right? Just going by the filename; otherwise I'd ask if the cross subweapon was all that big a favorite of yours.

It would look like a cross tattoo so it depends on the people seeing it.
tattoos are for faggots

It's from lords of shadows, the whip is a long chain that ends with the spike/grapple at the top of the cross and the cross frame is just for looks.

That's the handle, the whip comes out of the tip when swinged, kinda like pic related

Okay, maybe it's just me, but I'm not sure I'd want anything related to Lord of Shadows tattooed on me for life.

In general though, give some thought to what that tattoo is going to look like years down the line. Your body won't always look the same as it does now as you age.

I like the combat cross and all, but I wouldn't get a tattoo of it.

I think it's a pretty cool design because you take this symbol of the cross and then you make it into this versatile, badass weapon for removing monsters.

I remember that!
is grinding an option?

Yeah, I mean, you're not just stuck with the stage/area you're at without being able to go back to prior ones you've cleared (and some glyphs you'll have to grind some for; thankfully a number of spell ones can be stolen right from the enemies during their casting) considering they have a quest system similar to PoR as you free the people to populate town, but ideally you get good with the combat as the game goes on, learn your glyphs and which ones work well together (glyph switching becomes less tedious after you get an item that lets you create three preset sets to quickly toggle between on the fly), manage Stamina, exploit enemy weakness, learn how the bosses fight, and remain aware of your surroundings, as there's both hazards as well as things you might be needing to interact with in order to deal with the bosses. The difficulty isn't unbearable (it's up there with CotM on the harder end of the Metroid inspired ones), but it's likely going to take you some time to get a feel for how to deal with certain bosses. And that crab took me a number of tries before I got it down. It's only the second or so boss as well.

The way you ultimately kill the crab is extremely satisfying given the amount of grief he's likely to give a new player.

OoE had some good music

youtube.com/watch?v=V2iV4oxEMU4

So when are they releasing this?

Q2 2017

also that last battle

probably one of the most satisfying final battles in the series, considering youre just some random girl (albeit quite trained one), no relation to belmonts or anything, even dracula himself is amused you're trying to take on him

youtube.com/watch?v=7VdHNAG0b7I

Is there a fan game?
What events would need to happen in it?

WHAT? People do that? What is this faggotry?

Goddamn. That is not even difficult.
The way that he dies is nice and brutal, though.

Order of Ecclesia has some really cool bosses.

I don't get the hate for this game. I've seen a lot of people call it shit but it's actually my favorite DS CV.

The crab is even the game's easiest boss.

So easy to get the "Don't get hit" medal with him.

I actually agree with that. No idea why anyone could possibly dislike it. I liked pretty much every innovation that they made. Playing with two characters and visiting the paintings gave you more variety. Having the Vampire Killer helps quite a bit considering that it's the best weapon in the series. It was just really fun to move around and swing it. Soma's weapons, on the other hand, feel extremely slow and clumsy most of the time.

And that Dracula + Death fight was something special.

I guess some people just expect to be able to destroy a boss really quickly and not having to dodge anything, but that boss makes that impossible. In fact, the game in general does that because the bosses have more HP.

He's easy once you know his patterns. Avoiding his claws is really just trial and error until you know exactly where they hit.

And I even forgot to mention the amazing soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro.

I'm sure this will be fine but i just can't fucking stand the 2.5D.
A big part of the appeal of not just metroidvanias but castlevania titles in general for me was the wonderful spritework.

I don't even really like the 3D elements in SOTN, that's why i like AoS more, it's all 2D (aside a couple of things? i forgot if there's any 3D elements).

Jesus just fucking these ugly ass 3D models that age like goddamn ass after a couple of years, hire some good sprite artists.
Fuck the moder industry and it's obsession with cheap graphics styles.
You know what, just hire Vanillaware and let them do their tweening shit or whatever they do, it would be better than 2.5D shit.

I think Dracula stripped Julius of his memories because that was all he could do before being sealed away permanently. It may not have been directly killing Julius, but it was a way to end the Belmont family line. But who knows, maybe he really was putting his bet on humans trying to find a loophole around the seal.

Shanoa a best and brawler Dracula fight was perfect. That was such a cool surprise. Honestly, I just liked that a little fighting game stuff snuck in to OoE. Albus having Fei Long's DP with invincibility frames included was fun to play with. Albus in general was great. OoE in general was great.

For some reason, that song really reminds me of Maze of Gallious.

sorrow's distortion was pretty tight theme
imo it was almost there with the hearts of fire remix in AoS

oddly, Ive yet to try the Albus mode you can't hit me

why are the TASes of metroidvania games so amusing

Why the FUCK is X68K's Medusa so bullshit?

This is the funniest shit

the game has reppuken, double reppuken, and raging storm.

Enjoy.

hm hm

That Drac is particularly stylish compared to other ones, particularly how he smacks you out of the air if you try jumping over him. Norio Wakamoto voice best voice too.

It's a pretty stupid waiting boss and pattern boss, also quite tricky to figure out how to dodge that one claw swipe that I thought was impossible to.

No the first boss is easier.

This is the best Castlevania song, prove me wrong

Easy.

You're both wrong. The best Castlevania tune is actually two of them put together.

Are the N64 games any gud?

Legacy of Dick is alright, I guess. The camera is pretty wonky and some of the map designs are questionable. The PS2 games are pretty boring, and Lords of Shadow shouldn't even be called Castlevania games really.

Bump, but seriously. Are thes the only fan vidya worth playing?

There's the roguelike.

Thanks, gonna try it out.

Wasn't the I Wanna Be The Guy dev making some Castlevania-like vidya?

Odallus is pretty cool

Dark Flame's pretty good

Thoughts on Spectrumvania?

Yea, it looks pretty neat
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=650786800

Get on it nigga. I played the gba / ds games back-to-back and Albus mode was the most fun I had in all of them.

The Brachyura fight in that vid is a work of art.

CUM ON STEP IT UP

The only thing it was missing was Hammer as a Grant equivalent.

fucking disgusting

The Zee Ex Spectrum is a meme machine only held dear by nostalgic Britbongs. Like the Doom ZX port, the music will only be the worthwhile thing about it

Who is your Castlevaniafu?

Castlevania 2 was the first metroidvania and ya'll faggots for believing the hate from the angry vidya cuck.

I thought it was Egofaggot that caused people to hate Simon's Quest?

I always felt it was the perfect balance of Classicvania and Metroidvania.

you give him way too much credit

It's still not very good though. Between the bad translation, cryptic as fuck exploration, and shitty day/night system it's simply not that great of a game. Sure, it had a lot of good ideas, and was quite ahead of its time, but it failed in a lot of areas. I feel like if they made it for the SNES around the time of Super Castlevania 4, then it would have been a masterpiece, but their vision was too big for the NES.

But James, when out of character, said that he liked CV2 and thought it was a good game with some issues. Arin the Ayylamo Layer 100% believes exactly what he said about Simon's Quest.

Not the game's fault.
This one's subjective. Some people like this sort of thing I do, others like a more linear layout to a game.
What's the problem with it? It doesn't interrupt you at any critical moment and the various endings are purely fluff anyway.

link?

Just google it. It's not like there's a ton of Castlevania roguelikes out there or something.

It still has its flaws, though. Intangible floor tiles that you have to either trial and error or spam holy water to get past. Lack of the tight level design from 1 and future classic titles, even though the mansions were the perfect opportunity for them. You have to buy an arbitrary item to beat a mansion, even though just getting to the end is already a challenge. Only two of the mansions have a boss at the end, and they don't even bar you from getting to the end of the mansion (though they do have to be defeated to beat the game). And, aside from being the first Metroidvania and some of the music, Simon's Quest isn't really notable. The level design isn't engaging, there's barely any bosses to be memorable, the puzzles and exploration aren't all that satisfying, and there's barely a sense of progression to the game. It's a poor mesh of Metroid and Classicvania that has a lot of bad from both but barely any good.

30 years later, day\night cycles are more common but also meaningless. Those weird warnings told a story of their own, and are no less memetic than "miserable pile of secrets".

Scratch that. It's the "night", not really the "cycle" that matters. In Castlevania 2 you are routinely ambushed by the night, not unlike blowouts in Stalker.

loli Maria

Niggers, all of you.

I want another super castlevania 4 ;_;

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Super IV was so bad that Konami had to kill off the mainline numbered entries and just focus on spin-offs.

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I've only played the DS ones, where should I go from here?
Dawn of Sorrow > Portrait of Ruin >>> Order of Ecclesia

I dont care, i had way too much fun with it back when i still had a super nintendo.
Pls no bully.

I guess you could go play Aria, just work your way backwards

Play Aria, man. It's just like Dawn but better, then you should play Symphony. Maybe try out some of the classic games like Rondo of blood or Chronicles.

Are there any that aren't worth playing, though? Or did I already hit on the mediocre ones by playing Order of Ecclesia?

They are all worth playing.

Getting 100% on hard is fun too.

Are we talking only metroidvanias or the entire library of Castlevania games?

Huuumans, please.

Harmony of Dissonance is pretty disappointing (easy as fuck, shitty bosses, weird graphics, poor sound quality).
Circle of the moon is hit or miss, I loved it, a lot of people hate it, it is a metroidvania but the gameplay is kinda like a classic one.
CV2 gets a lot of shit because it's cryptic as fuck but it's actually a really good game. You'll have to use a guide to figure some shit out though.
On gameboy play the Adventure (there's a remake for Wii too) and avoid the other two.
Finally, people don't like SCV4 that much because it's really easy but you should try it out anyway.

Also, I liked OoE more than Dawn of Portrait, why the hate?

Who was planned but ultimately not included for unknown reasons, probably because he would've made Alucard not a necessity to get through areas with his up-L high-jump or his bat transformation

tcrf.net/Castlevania:_Dawn_of_Sorrow

Except it's not, and it isn't because of the poor translation.

There's no reason to fight a man who's right.

Weird difficulty curve, levels are way too linear, overworld map instead of interconnected levels, and I feel like it would have benefitted from more weapon variety.

At least there are many good weapons. Dawn of Sorrow is my least favorite on the DS because I don't really like any of the weapons, especially the strongest ones.

Portrait of Ruin has the Vampire Killer, so it's obviously the best DS one when it comes to weapons.

Anyway, just compare the Claimh Solais in DoS to the one in AoS. The one on DoS is such a sluggish piece of shit AND it's smaller.

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I didn't use the claimh solais, so I wouldn't know. I had a katana because you can attack really fast by using various cancels, like backdashes into crouches, or just shorthops.

Charlotte was better than Jonathan anyway, even if he was obviously meant to be the one doing most of the fighting. apparently in the jap version their relationship was a lot less platonic and it's implied they marry sometime after the game

Uhh, Jonathan's father was one of the playable characters of Bloodlines, and did use Vampire Killer. It's a giant plot point in Portrait, in fact.

John Morris was Jonathans father
Quincy was Jonathans grandfather
Either way none of them wear cowboy hats and use whips and pussy magic weapons

Where the hell is Quincy even mentioned in the games?

All the weapons in DoS are slow except weak one handed swords. I think I just used the Valmanway from the Boss Rush most of the time for regular enemies and a spear for bosses (because at least spears have good range), but the Valmanway is boring weapon, and not that strong either. Attacking in AoS just feels much better. Every strong weapon in DoS feels like the AoS Excalibur, and that was a joke weapon.

Morris family is stated to be a relative of the Belmonts to tie Bram Stoker's novel into Castlevania. With them actively writing Belmonts out of the series by claiming Richter's possession by Shaft tainted their bloodline and rendered them unable to use the Vampire Killer until they were finally purified enough that Julius could use it, the Morris family picked up the whip for their own use in the meantime.

Apparently Quincy has a whip in his possession in the novel, and Castlevania states that whip was the Vampire Killer.

But where, is my question. I've seen claims that Castlevania states this, but no actual examples of it doing so.

I thought Castlevania lore tried to distance itself somewhat from Stoker's Dracula?

I don't remember Quincey having a whip in the books, he was always fucking around with a knife, I read it a long time ago so I might be wrong.

Quincy Morris is the father of John Morris, the Belmont stand-in for Bloodlines. They're related to the Belmonts by the fact they can use the Vampire Killer at all without dying from it.

Both yes and no, canonization of Bram Stoker's Dracula is odd for Castlevania. Probably if they actually showed some adaptation of it it'd just be a general "quincy morris fought dracula" overview rather than taking anything from the book at face-value.

It's been a long while since I read it myself but I remember something about a whip he used infrequently, certainly not as a weapon at any rate.

Oh, it was Portrait of Ruin that actually went into that the Morris family was entrusted with the Vampire Killer. Bloodlines I recall stating the whip was the Vampire Killer but not offering how it was in the hands of the son of the guy who offed Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel.

You don't seem to understand what I'm asking. I want a specific example from either ingame or in a manual saying that Quincy is John's father and killed Drac one time.

from the Bloodlines manual

But anime Julius is best Julius. He looks like a rugged cowboy, and more badass as a result. The Japanese look is effeminate dandy as all out.

I have to wonder if that was the same sort of line in Japan.

Here's a question.
How many different types of Castlevania games are there?
I know you've got Classicvanias and Metroidvanias. Then you have a game like Castlevania 2 that's a little of both. Are there any other types or subtypes? Where does a game like Vampire Killer MSX fit in?

ya niggaz dum fam

ye ain't even kno

u myt look lyk a fag if dey fuk up n make it look like a dik or sumn but no one gone be able to tell w/ yo black ass

The weirdest thing about Harmony is the credits theme, it's like something else entirely compared to the rest of the music in the game.

Well, you could say the same thing about SotN. And Harmony of Dissonance is basically GBA SotN with a Belmont in a lot of ways.

I don't know which back alley on this fucking planet you come from, but the goddamn spic that designed this piece of shit has zero fucking knowledge of level design.

I thought it was fun, it's at lot better than the other shit i've played.

Lecarde Chronicles is like taking Haunted Castle and mixing it with Simon's Quest and throwing in Castlevania III for shits and fucking giggles.

There's a good game in here somewhere, there's potential, but holy fuck is it buried beneath a mountain of terrible level design, hit boxes being incredibly obtuse, and horseshit enemy placement. Hell, I could deal with the horseshit enemy placement if the fucking HIT BOXES weren't so fucking awful.

I reaaaaaally hope the guy that's coming out wit the second game did some research, because holy fucking christ it won't be worth it if it has the same shitty level design that the first one has.

Oh, and for FUCK'S. SAKES. learn how to optimize your fucking shit. The game crashes after detecting aspect ratio at random, you can't alter the joypad (but the game insists the snes pad you're using is following the exact button placement on the fucking control menu when it's fucking not), and your UI looks like absolute dogshit.

FIX
YOUR
SHIT

I'm just pissed because I know there's fun somewhere here, but there's so much bullshit blocking me from it.

Uh, it's very clearly the theme from the castle entrance, just slowed down and not using shit instruments like the rest of the game. The music's not so bad once it's been arranged properly.

The instruments used I believe was due to lack of time or money; it sure as hell wasn't a design choice by intent.

I didn't really notice all the bullshit that you keep going on about, but maybe that's because I've played lots of shitty games in my time. The controller part I will admit is garbage so I used Joy2Key for my controller instead.

the shit instruments were a result of the CPU being largely used for rendering HoD's graphics, with no room left for proper sound, hence the shitty instrumentation
the GBA has no soundchip, so everything had to be done through the CPU

Transform and roll out.

What are you talking about user? JUST LIKE THE WIIIIIND obviously fits in with SoTN.
In fact it's the best track in the whole game.

What's the one on the left?

Akumajou Dorakyura (blame the nips) on the Sharp X86000, later got ported to the PS1 under the title Castlevania Chronicles. You're welcome.

I don't get it. Why did they, in Judgement, make her story about her being ashamed of her flat chest? She's got huge tits in the original Rondo. Not like its excused even if she was flat in Rondo, but it's just an extra layer of stupidity added on.

I've played it, it's boring as fuck,

Is this something young people actually believe? It was critically acclaimed at the time, reviewed well through any publication from that time that I have a copy of, sold within the top ten of Super NES titles within the year of its release, utilized the hardware well to take advantage of mode 7 scaling and rotation, great music, and satisfied a lot of the conversation around castlevania titles on a new platform for better whip and movement mechanics.

I'm looking at mongoloid millennial hit pieces and all I'm seeing is "hyuk hyuk, he dun used dat whip to swang 'round hyuk hyuk".

You people should be shot.

It's not bad, but it definitely is on the lower end of the Castlevania spectrum. The mode 7 stuff is mostly just slow gimmicks that take your time, there to just show of the tech rather than using it to actually enhance the game. The directional whipping would be nice, but the level design wasn't altered for it, and it removes most of the function of the sub-weapons. Most of the platforming ceased to be a challenge, as you could turn around in the middle of your jump. At times the music was nice, but a other times, it was bland. The visual style felt muddy. Dracula X was a better SNES Castlevania, and that was a watered down version of another title.

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Why does Castlevania have so many sexy girls?

Succubi are hazardous to your health, user.

BRAVE EARTH WHEN

Great isn't it?

There's a reason I prefer to equip Charlotte with Lilith Corset and Succubus Boots.

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Maria made the whole game disappointingly easy, even if that was probably the whole point of her.

High mobility and Classicvania doesn't mix.

Also god, if only PoR actually had visible equipment.