[PSP] Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for PSP

Screen blur is perfectly unobstrusive. Some of you guys sure are pedantic; or is it because you have a hard time playing that you need to vent frustration on something other than difficulty? Daxter - now that had some terrible screen blur. Yet it was still highly acclaimed, back before we could hook up our PSPs onto a TV to eliminate the lacking refresh rate.

The 3D ain't half bad either. It fits the game well and the game still plays great. Sure, there's a learning curve, but I feel like I now have nearly as much control with Richter (who I still find superior to Maria) as I did with Alucard and co. And it's great to have to play properly for once, instead of just trying to jump or bump past everybody since you know they're not gonna do much harm to you.

This is my #1 PSP game fellas. No GnG cos that isn't quite my style, no FFT cos I don't have a clue how to play anymore, no Crisis Core because well, I haven't played it.

Now where's my DS announcement?

Ah, so people who notice the ridiculously slow refresh rate obviously find the game too hard and blame that, but you on the other hand are good enough to play the game without problems, yet somehow GnG "isn't your style"

The screen blur has always been obstructive, it simply becomes especially obstructive for games with lots of sidescrolling motion and ones that require an especially large amount of precision, such as Castlevania. I already said it's all very playable regardless, I've already gotten the true ending and the blur doesn't affect boss fights anyway since those are always mostly static screens. Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins had a much brighter palette and bigger characters moving about, so the blur wasn't quite as noticeable.

Daxter, like a lot of 3D platformers, didn't require nearly as much precision.

The fact remains Richter is a stiff mofo with a useless sommersault, and you have to learn to play with what you have. Comparing him and Maria is like comparing the movement of Suikoden 1 characters to Arc from Terranigma.

Originally Posted by Torte

Screen blur is perfectly unobstrusive. Some of you guys sure are pedantic; or is it because you have a hard time playing that you need to vent frustration on something other than difficulty?

I do hope you're joking.

Rondo of Blood is easier than the NES Castlevanias, and only gives up the title of "Easiest Castlevania" to Symphony of the Night. That doesn't retract from it being one of the most solid Castlevania titles around, but it is by no means difficult, aside from probably one boss battle. Dying a lot in this game is typically due to you not having the right weapon for the situation to ensure you don't fall to a unsightly end.

I've beaten the remake four times already. Twice with Richter and twice with Maria. I've only died once or twice with Maria due to being stupid, and a few times with Richter because my analog didn't want to respond so something poked me off a cliff.

I do believe if this was truly challenging I would have been "whining" a lot more about the difficulty instead of silly things that cannot be controlled by the game itself.

It might be because I play hard games all the time (lol touhou) but I don't find this game difficult at all. Hell, even Cave Story on normal mode is harder. That says something.

But I really like it. It's a fun game. Sure I don't like the new dialogue in SotN but ultimately people play Castlevania for the gameplay, and that hasn't changed a helluva lot.

It was supposed to be a happy day... *sigh*





What you guys see, it's what I got. Box is pretty damn busted, UMD works fine (well, so far I guess) though.

Daaamn.. <Insert Ricther death theme song>

Solution : buy a cheap ass umd movie and replace it =].

Solution: Take it back to whatever store you preordered it from and tell them it isn't acceptable. Xaekid, that's just ridiculous. Where did you purchase it from?

Yep Elixir, already sent a mail complaining, waiting for their answer. The company is Camelot Games. I'll be honest here, I've heard stories from other customers in the past (a friend of mine got an used Xbox from them some years ago) having some kind of issue with their service but this is the first time it happens to me (previously, I ordered 2 times from them, never had a problem) and I doubt this is a matter that can be blamed to the delivery company.

Why? because we ordered 2 copies, one for me and the other for a friend. They were perfectly packed in the same box and only one is damaged as you can see. By some kind of miracle only one got busted? I don't know about you guys but that doesn't make sense at all.

Regardless of what happens, it's the last time I order from them. Period.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Ah, so people who notice the ridiculously slow refresh rate obviously find the game too hard and blame that, but you on the other hand are good enough to play the game without problems, yet somehow GnG "isn't your style"

The screen blur has always been obstructive, it simply becomes especially obstructive for games with lots of sidescrolling motion and ones that require an especially large amount of precision, such as Castlevania. I already said it's all very playable regardless, I've already gotten the true ending and the blur doesn't affect boss fights anyway since those are always mostly static screens. Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins had a much brighter palette and bigger characters moving about, so the blur wasn't quite as noticeable.

Daxter, like a lot of 3D platformers, didn't require nearly as much precision.

The fact remains Richter is a stiff mofo with a useless sommersault, and you have to learn to play with what you have. Comparing him and Maria is like comparing the movement of Suikoden 1 characters to Arc from Terranigma.

Yeah they obviously do. Cos that's what I said... oh wait...

GnG isn't my 'style' as in it's not exactly Castlevania, is it now? Never said it was too hard. Maximo isn't too bad, though.

Daxter may not have needed as much precision, but the blur was definitely more annoying, dizzying.

The somersault isn't useless; you can whip higher by cancelling into an attack, flip back should you inadvertently jump into a pit, or simply fosbury over attacks like Dracula's fireballs or the minotaur's ram should you be in a tight spot. Yes, you need to learn to play with what you have, but past that learning curve, it's a cinch, and you know it.

Back off dude, I never meant to offend anyone. I just got a negative vibe coming into this thread as if it were actually run by Castlevania haters and responded accordingly. I'm not bashing GnG in any way, maybe Daxter, but meh.

So, they replied to me and said they will send me a new box to replace the broken one. Time to play some Rondo of Blood!

If they don't replace the box for you, you can always try going down to your local Blockbuster or something and asking them for one of the empty PSP cases, granted they have a Game Rush/game rental area.

It's pretty unacceptable that they sent that to you. I'd be miffed to, tbh.

Originally Posted by Torte

Back off dude, I never meant to offend anyone. I just got a negative vibe coming into this thread as if it were actually run by Castlevania haters and responded accordingly. I'm not bashing GnG in any way, maybe Daxter, but meh.

Back off? Haters? I called it the second best PSP game ever. Did you actually read the comments on screen blur, or did you just interpret them as baseless slander for the sake of it?

I'm not even going to get into an argument about the ridiculously long and crippling pause that follows a landing from the sommersault, or the complete lack of momentum for both jumping and falling/running off ledges, both seriously marring the usefulness of the move. If you manage to use it effectively, all the more power to you. It doesn't make it any less stiff. Oh look there I went anyway.

I've always found the sommersault kinda useful. This is coming from someone who's only played the SNES version, but it does insure some accurate jumps since you always go the same distance. I'd never think to use it when enemies were around, though, and it's not exactly necessary, but it's a nice "for the fun of it" touch.

I haven't heard much about this screen blur business, but apparently it's a problem in a lot of PSP games, not just this one. Dracula X Chronicles is still getting good reviews, though, so whatever refresh issues the game is having, it's obviously still very playable. If you're getting a bad vibe off anyone from not liking the game, Torte, just look at the reviews and you'll feel better.

I wasn't aiming for you. I read a few things and then off I went. Don't forget you misintepreted my UGnG statement too.

The somersault was even more stiff in the OG. To each his own.

Well, took a while but: Rondo of Blood (remake) done. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the game. Sure, it's a lot shorter than modern Castlevanias but that's no problem with me.

Coming up next: Rondo of Blood (original) and Symphony of the Night.

Does anyone knows how to unlock the Symphony of the Night?

Cheers

Originally Posted by Strahd

Does anyone knows how to unlock the Symphony of the Night?

Cheers

Sure do, mate!

Thanx Infernal Monkey

So far, I'm loving this one. The first thing that really struck me was the music. The theme's here bring new life to some of the classic songs of Castlevania. Does anyone know if there is a rip of it online yet?

Gotta say though, it's a bit harder than I expected, but that makes it all the better. Rather have a