Castlevania Hacks +

[PII | 1,972]

I finally received a copy of "Castlevania Remix yesterday.  Beforehand I had 5 Castlevania Hacks and so now I have a lot more.  The cart arrived with the top label pealing off and the circuit board slightly bent (sigh), but it fired right up regardless.  So I sampled everything minus the few cvII hacks and played through "Castlevania Black Remix."  The level layout was minimally different for the most part and there was a hard mode the 2nd time around.  It must be midnight on a moonless night / all the candles in the castle are out, so you have to guess / predict where they'll be; everything is super-dark.  All the hearts, power ups and double / triple shots are also invisible.  The music tracks that were left out were from levels 1,3 and 4 iirc and tracks 2,5 and 6 were played in round (perpetual cannon) which was really cool.  Dripping with style and just enough of a new feel as far as gameplay is concerned to sum things up.  

I just thought I'd make a little write up each time I play through a new one.  Here is a little blurb I posted in another thread about "Castlevania Holy Relics."

I received a copy of Castlevania The Holy Relics Hack for NES yesterday and played through it.  Graphics and level designs are cool and the music is great - a mix of New + Old Classics.  It has a unique gameplay feature of needing to find a key in order to exit each stage of each level.  IIRC the original plan for Castlevania titled "Vampire Killer", had some feature like this.  When each boss is beaten you receive a "Holy Relic" rather than a mysterious orb.  It has a mega-man-style-level select and after selecting you can choose which relic to enable for the level but I never figured out just what any of these relics do.  My only criticism really is that it's not challenging enough.  I liked that the final bosses were actually different from the usual, the first was a giant spider rather than a bat and actually more difficult so after that I was expecting bosses to be pretty hard but alas, they were way too easy, even the reaper.  One other cool feature was that at the end it gives a little readout of how many of those secret emerging treasures you found.  Make that two criticisms: It didn't seem to have a hard mode the second time around.  An all around good hack though.

I've also played through "Castlevania Overflow Darkness", which is Awesome! (I'll have to make some greater commentary at some point in the future) ...

...As well as "Castlevania Shadow", which was minimally different from the original and definitely easier.  It's most significant distinction is that when you get hit Simon simply flies upward rather than backward, making it a lot easier to keep from tumbling into those pits of doom {although this can also be a major hindrance when jumping over pits.}{There are some spots with added challenge, for example the ol' Holy Water trick isn't going to be effective on the Reaper.}{Also, whenever Simon uses a sub-weapon he will also use his whip which is pretty annoying because the whip comes a fraction of a second sooner and you'll always be thinking that you botched the sub-weapon maneuver until you've played enough to get used to the new pattern..}{Color Scheme will have your eyes buggin' good by the last couple of levels.}

I'm most of the way through "Castlevania Blood Moon" so I'll probably have a little something to say about that at some point in the not too distant future..

Feel free to let me know what you think of any that you have played.

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[Tulpa | 3,630]

I've played a little of Blood Moon and the retranslated Simon's Quest (cleans up the clues, doesn't stop you in your tracks on the day/night transitions, provides a map) and a few others. Overflow Darkness crashes on my Everdrive, though.

[CMR | 532]

I liked Castlevania Remix.  Unfortunately most Castlevania hacks fall into the category of morebats=better.  Optomon has probably done the best Castlevania hack, IMO, with Castlevania Holy Relics.  I thought is was pretty hard myself, but then I've never even beaten the original.

Edited December 28, 2020 by CMR

[PII | 1,972]

Alright, so I ran through "Castlevania Bloody Adventures" tonight.  This is definitely the easiest one I've played so far.  Simon only looses 1 bar for a hit throughout the game, even in hard mode.  Additionally you get to keep your Sub-weapon if you die and you get a triple shot automatically upon receiving any weapon.  I discovered two additional pork chops and saw indications to suggest others.  I also found a couple of hidden staircases, and there were a lot of hidden money bags to smash out of blocks.  It has nearly the same layout as the original with only very slight differences.  The first and 2nd level bosses had some bats and medusas during the boss fight.  The Reaper had a little surprise to liven things up (I won't ruin the surprise), but it was still very easy loosing only one bar per hit.  Dracula's 2nd form responded to body shots and something really weird happened my first time on Dracula.  His 2nd form with about half it's power down became invincible to both the ax and the whip so I died and the next time there was no such problem so I don't know if it was a glitch or what.  The music is the same just slightly switched around per level and the graphics are really pretty.  Also blood sprays out when you whip anything including candles, lol.

 

@Tulpa Overflow is definitely worth worth the price of a cartridge presuming you like the level of challenge.

@CMR I didn't think Holy Relics was painfully easy or anything, it has a challenge factor; it's just that I really wanted it to be a bit harder, or at least have a hard mode the 2nd time around...

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[Sumez | 3,109]

9 hours ago, PII said:

IIRC the original plan for Castlevania titled "Vampire Killer", had some feature like this.

You're thinking of the MSX game which came out the same year.
The MSX couldn't do smooth scrolling, so they had to base the core of the game around something other than just progressing from one end of a stage to the other.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Sumez

[Pendragonx | 117]

@PIIHave you tried Castlevania: Metal of The Night?

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2111/

It's tough, but I like how they include unlimited axes and a99 lives right from the start to die-and-try-again

There's also Castlevania: Chorus of Mysteries .. which is very nice and polished hack.. though i can't seem to get past the beholder boss sofar
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/263/

[PII | 1,972]

@Pendragonx Only sampled the first level or so on Metal Of The Night so far, but it definitely seemed like one of the cooler hacks.  

Chorus is actually one of the few for which I have an individual cart.  I'm not certain which boss is the beholder but on my original few goes at the game I remember crapping out on the Frankenstein-like-boss-who turns-into-the-fellow-with-the-hunch.  It's up there with "Overflow" and one or two others I've had more than a taste of, that are unique enough to feel like a whole new Castlevania Adventure.  It gets major props for designing new bosses. I acquired it the same time as "Shadow" and "Blood Moon" and I was still pretty deep into playing Overflow at the time, and so it rather undeservedly made it to the back burner for a while..

[Tanooki | 5,028]

I generally am not a fan of or bother to play with hacks.  I don't really have the time being limited as it is to play with a freebie either around paid stuff.

That said, I have used ONE hack, and it was to the betterment of an original release than a recreation from scratch or cobbled from pieces.  Castlevania II is notorious for its lack of direction as much as it's truly awe inspiring craptactular translation.  Some years back before I got the Retron5 when that came out, a patch was made that expanded the original game to use a MMC chip and it fixed both.  The expansion added a world map that the creator worked up so you could find your place in the land.  And then the other was to give a clean and accurate translation of the game, with the only misleading garbage being what Japan intended, not what bunglers did to the US release.  Since the R5 did hot patching, I just threw it on my SD card, got my real game out I've always had, and went at it, and it was quite enjoyable.  I didn't have to refer back to the old NP magazine of the day with the fold out map and cleaned up stupidity to get by.

[Pendragonx | 117]

 @Tanooki - Hmmm you're not referring to Castlevania II: Redaction, right?
Oho, nevermind.. I think I found what you're talking about .. and that's pretty neat.. I didn't know they added a map feature for it

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/

[Tulpa | 3,630]

Yeah, that's the Bisqwit/Joel Yliluoma retranslation, IMO the better reworking of Simon's Quest.

You can see all the translation revision strings that he did here:

https://bisqwit.iki.fi/cv2fin/diff

Edited December 30, 2020 by Tulpa

[Tanooki | 5,028]

Yes yes, that's the one alright you linked.  It made the game a pleasure to bother with (aside from the crappy invisible floors in mansions a few times) because it didn't need a guide to make a bit of sense.

[Tulpa | 3,630]

I like his breakdown of the translations and why he thinks that some of them went so wildly sideways.

Though I think the infamous clue "Wait for a soul with a red crystal at Deborah Cliff" was translated by someone who confused "kaze" (wind) with "kami" (spirit or soul) because they knew the word "kamikaze" is "spirit wind" but got the two mixed up.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Tulpa

[Tanooki | 5,028]

He's probably right as it's like some big lack of logic puzzle crossed with translation errors.

[PII | 1,972]

Took this from my post in another thread because it fits in here:

So I actually started playing this on my Castlevania Remix Cart. and the bastard froze up on me on level 5 and I had to start all over so I switched to my own 5 screw cart.  In the past I've had the 5screw cart freeze up on me in about 4 spots: the penultimate corridor before the Reaper, The Reaper's Chamber, Dracula's Chamber and the room immediately before Dracula's Chamber.  This time was new.  It froze up in the very beginning of the area right before the penultimate corridor before the Reaper.  So I actually had to play it about 1.8 times.  

The reason I started with the Remix cart was that I figured the version that'd be used for the North American Version would be the Rev. A with that bug fixed, but alas..

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[Tulpa | 3,630]

Spamming holy water? Yeah, that happens with my 5 screw. I had to learn to beat the Reaper with the boomerang. But that's more fun, anyway.

[PII | 1,972]

It's December once again and I've popped my Castlevania Remix Cart back into the NES....

I played through CastleVania Extreme tonight.  There was enough New to make it marginally interesting, but not very.  All the bosses are the same with some graphical changes, all the same music in the same levels, and levels 5 and 6 were virtually identical to the originals aside from color scheme and some slight variations in enemy behavior.  There were a few creative ideas as far as level layout and gameplay, but the most consistent difference was probably in the moderate increase of pits of doom.  Simon took less damage initially and doesn't fly back quite as far as usual and the game actually has a "Normal or Easy" setting so I imagine "Easy" would have to be pretty easy.  It did have a hard mode the 2nd time around which was pretty much what one would expect:  Bats!

 

I'm currently working my way through "CastleVania 5" on the same cart which looks gorgeous w/lotsa new graphics, oldy-goody enemies/music from Castlevanias II and III and sports level layouts unique enough to feel like a somewhat New-ish Castlevania adventure...

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[PII | 1,972]

Finished Castlevania "V" last night and found out during a new "wrap up" at the end that the protagonist is named "Daniel."  He dresses like Simon Belmont circa CastleVania II and caps things off with a do-rag.  This one was almost strong enough to feel like a genuinely new Castlevania adventure.  Only Level 5 seemed close to it's original layout.  "All the hits" from Castlevanias II and III in the soundtrack livens things up quite a bit.  Bosses were essentially the same with graphical variation: the bat looks really cool, Frankenstein appears to have a see-through bag over his head, "medusa" looks like something from the top of a Christmas tree and doesn't really fit in very well, the mummies are sword throwing skeletons that are a little bit harder and the reaper looks awesome and is a bit easier, although there are no other sub-weapons located in level 5 besides the boomerang unless you get lucky and an enemy drops the axe.  It was fun but too easy.  Hard mode started out by throwing multiple Vampire Bats at the player.  I was hoping to fight 3 of them simultaneously for the 1st level boss, but no dice...

 

I've made it about half way through the 2nd level of Castlevania Hell's Fury.  Don't think I'll be writing up a little report on that one for a while...

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[PII | 1,972]

Alright, I played through CastleVania Fan Edition tonight and it was very cool/fun.  Environments are from CV II and III and All the Bosses are switched around.  I had an early epic whip only fight with the reaper and 2 of the bosses are actually left out.  Level layouts were unique and definitely kept me wondering what would be next.  Lotsa Vampire Bats and aside from the fact that you get to keep your sub-weapon when you die it was a bit more challenging than the stuff I've been playing the last couple of nights.  First level of hard mode was the same except for 2 regular bats...

Also played through CastleVania Slain Dragon.  This one is just Regular CastleVania slightly sped up, Easier, more hidden money bags, 1 life bar hits and a really loud color scheme.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[PII | 1,972]

CastleVania Orchestra of Despair - Lots of cool Graphical changes, but otherwise pretty much the standard Adventure.  Best Graphic: Frankenstein with a hopping cephalopod on his shoulder.  The Dracula stage had no whip upgrades available and double/triple shots seemed impossible to manifest so I had to take him out with a leather whip for the first time.  Standard hard mode...

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[PII | 1,972]

CastleVania Blood Moon - This one, overall, I like quite a bit...

The Good:  Beautiful Sprites and Backrounds.  The level Design/Gameplay is New and different enough to feel like a unique CastleVania Adventure, and to me that is the heart of the matter.  However...

The Easy: You'll always keep your sub-weapon even when you die until you get a different sub-weapon.  Double/Triple Shots manifest like nothing along with whip upgrades with exception, I noticed, in the last stage of level 5 in which whip upgrades were kinda hard to come by (It's quite possible to end up on the Reaper with a leather whip.)  Also you start with a bunch of hearts so you'll never even have to think about that.  Prolly this is all the case because....

The Hard: ...the game is pretty challenging (4 hits the whole way even on levels 1 & 2) with no shortage of situations to think about, and figure out; and once again this is my bread and butter.  The Reaper Battle for just one example offers a much more challenging layout that could offer a lot of replay value for those who'd like to beat him with each sub-weapon in tow.

The Bad: Boy are there a lot of weird Glitches in this one.  For example there were a couple of spots that involved jumping up onto a platform and typically no problem results but sometimes, multiple times in a row, Simon jumps only to freeze and vibrate until he shakes himself loose of the cause.

The Ugly: Never knowing when Simon is going to get on his slip-and-slide and and go careening off an edge into a pit of doom, or the same when trying to line up an attack on say, one of those dragon-bone things that shoots fireballs, only to have him slide too far forward for an almost certain fireball hit; OR the same when being chased by an enemy and trying to put some distance between it and Simon before you turn around to whip it but he decides to slide into it instead.  It probably sounds worse than it is.  I just looked it up online and apparently its supposed to be his slide-whip attack.  I just figured it was another annoying glitch.  Now I'll have to figure out how its done and see if it's actually useful or just a nuisance.  Money's on the later.

It's kind of funny that something so full of unique level design, eye-pleasing visuals and new maneuvering would have the issues it does...

Anyway, this is one the few CastleVania Hacks that I actually have an individual hard copy of and when it's a good challenge and feels like a new adventure that makes it worth it.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by PII

[MrWunderful | 2,929]

Have you tried castlevania baleful sonata?

 

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=17679.0

[PII | 1,972]

6 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Have you tried castlevania baleful sonata?

IIRC that one became available in the form of a cartridge sometime shortly after the Re-Mix Cart showed up.  Haven't played it, but it's def. on my radar.

[MrWunderful | 2,929]

2 hours ago, PII said:

IIRC that one became available in the form of a cartridge sometime shortly after the Re-Mix Cart showed up.  Haven't played it, but it's def. on my radar.

Yeah i have a copy, it did. 

Edited December 24, 2021 by MrWunderful

[PII | 1,972]

Made it to Level IV tonight of CastleVania Prelude of Darkness when the bastard froze up on me, presumably due to my being less than a perfectly efficient killing machine with lotsa sprites flyin' about.  This one's tougher than the average CV hack and I was enjoying it...

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by PII