[Renfrew]

This is pretty old, but its still a nice little feature about the 20 best things that the N64 games had going for them.

http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/Features/n64good-1.html

[mechanori]

Without knowing anything about Castlevania, I picked up the N64 game from a bargain bin. But that was then! I should play it.

[diplo]

actually, most of those reasons are pretty lame!

i mean, the besitary is mostly comprised of really angry furries on steroids.

the n64 games aren't offensively bad, but they severely lack imagination.

[Renfrew]

I think at least a few of the points are valid, like the one about extra characters who actually have a story, or the vampires.

[Mr Mustache]

I am actually pretty interested in this game. Someone should send it to me, and I will play it.
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The people are like wool to me

[Renfrew]

I wish I had the second one, I just have the first. I rented the second way back when. Most of the things pointed out in the list are from the second game. I could maybe send you the first if you really wanted.

[Mr Mustache]

Oh, I was actually talking about the second. I have the first, and kind of like it but mostly don't.
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The people are like wool to me

[Renfrew]

The second is much better. I love Henry mode.

[Churippu]

Oh they are right about the Reaper. He was awesome.

I think the designs for most of the enemies in this one were pretty good and for some reason I always loved the design for Carrie she is so cute! I dunno, I always enjoyed looking at the art for both Castlevania 64 and SOTN (of course)

[newave]

I vaguley remeber thinking these games werent that terrible...minus the platforming bits. Then again it was tought ot be a n64 owner in those days.

[showka]

The N64 games were more imaganitive because they tried to do justice to what the older, broader concept of Castlevania was, back before IGA turned each (pre-1999) installment into a goth opera. The over-abundance of furies was a little odd. it was strange in Cirlce of the Moon too.

I wish Konami would let the Circle team make a new Castlevania game. If they let IGA write the script so the plot would comply with his overall epic vision I'm sure he'd be fine with it.

[Maztorre]

I wish these would come onto the Virtual Console already :(

[diplo]

[Renfrew]

It would have made more sense if they had just left Reindhart's name as they had originally planned it.

[Levi]

True of False:

Castlevania 64 wouldn't be nearly as hated if it weren't named Castlevania.

[nixon]

I remember playing through to completion back when it first came out. I generally liked it, but the controls were the part that made it the most difficult for me. Coming off of the tight controls of Zelda, Castlevania64 just didn't have the same ease of use like Zelda. I felt I had to fight the game to play it much more that I felt was needed.

Example: Platforming bits. That stupid walking with the bomb thing.

[meauxdal]

Well, I'd definitely like to get one of these. If anyone is still interested in the mail...? Or is there some cheap ebay auction?

If someone sent me one, I'd send it back when finished.

[diplo]

[showka]

[Ebrey]

Showka, the thing about Castlevania is that what makes it Castlevania has little to do with gameplay, which has changed radically in between games. It's about the aesthetic and to a lesser degree the story, and that's why IGA's games are continuations of the classic Castlevania and the 64 games aren't. That doesn't mean that all of IGA's games are good or that the 64 games are bad.

[showka]

But the asthetic of the N64 games was much more in line with the series than Lament of Innocence.

[tacotaskforce]

[oneEIGHTkevin]

CV 64 looked a lot more promising from the assets and early previews than the final product. I remember looking at the art for it and getting odd inspiration from Cornell to grow sideburns. And this was when I was in 8th grade and couldn't grow sideburns so I just drew CV fan art in my spiral notebook. I based them off of these original illustrations:



When I finally played the game a year or so later I was kind of going into it with lower standards as the game was a stripped down version of what I was originally promised. And Cornell wasn't even in the damn game anymore! It didn't stop me from buying it however and I actually enjoyed a lot of it. I still remember a bunch of oldschool internet debate about how the game was so fucking stupid because there was skeletons on motorcycles in the 1800's but they actually ended up being a fun enemy to fight.

The song at the title screen was pretty cool in my opinion. The game wasn't filled with any classic tunes other than the Death fight and Dracula fights I don't think.

Later when the 2nd game came out (LOD) and utilized the expansion pack and everything we got the game we should've got in the first place. This game was passable in my book. My only problem was that it reused way too much assets from the first title. I understand it was a remix sorta thing but if you play from the very beginning and see the detail of that intro and the beginning segment where you are cornell on that ship you would wish they would have redone the whole game. Oh and they really fruitified Cornell!!




Just as an addition another thing I really hated about the environments was that your character felt wayy too small compared to the scale of the rooms! A lot of N64 games suffered from this however.
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[showka]

I've always wondered why they shit up the concept art. I mean Reinhert looked cool in the original drawings and nowhere else, so why'd they change the artist? If they'd sold the game with those drawings at least in the instruction manual he wouldn't have seemed so gaudy.

I think Cornell's frutification happened when they realized they needed to split the games. Because Cornell was going to be the main character in a "prequel" game, maybe they made him more bishy in a half-assed attempt to look like Alucard. In any case someone definetly made a bad decision that spoiled the brew a bit. It would make sense if Cornell was originally suppossed to be some kind of werewolf that was affiliated with the Castle but turned against it (thus the chain on his foot); that would explain why there were Werecreatures all over the place in the game.

[Ebrey]

[DonMarco]

I uploaded the guides I had to my wiki.

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Castlevania 64

It was pretty much the only Konami-related thing I did today.
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Still alive.