castlevania advance collection

content/games/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Except when you play it on Switch. I've had it crashing on me multiple times - a
 
 ![](/img/articles/bloodstained-4.jpg "Loading...")
 
-Miriam controls terrible. It feels very janky, especially with the thumb stick, and the Pro Controller's D-pad is not that great. She wants to duck when I don't want her to and swings are especially slow (yes, I know Sword Expertise exists). Compared to Soma, Alucard, or even Circle of the Moon, it feels like two steps back (if only taking a step was that easy).
+Miriam controls terrible. It feels very janky, especially with the thumb stick, and the Pro Controller's D-pad is not that great. She wants to duck when I don't want her to and swings are especially slow (yes, I know Sword Expertise exists). Compared to [Soma](/games-castlevania-aria-of-sorrow), Alucard, or even [Circle of the Moon](/games/castlevania-circle-of-the-moon), it feels like two steps back (if only taking a step was that easy).
 
 Then there's the graphical part, the Unreal Engine. Dracula X Chronicles was also a 2D castlevania rendered in 3D, but it is clear now that it's not the best direction to take. Many parts of the castle look like drab: a few colors smeared all over the screen, making it impossible for me to see the difference between foreground and background. Inferno Caves are red, the Sorcery Lab is green, the Forbidden Underwater Caves are purple. Add some sheen to rocks, color the enemies the same, and there you go. To what purpose serve game graphics? To add atmosphere and to be able to actually _see stuff_! What purpose do they have if I'm unable to see the difference between an enemy and a useless animation of lava flowing in the background? It's especially frustrating if that part of the castle is difficult, I'm out of potions/food, and I'm desperately looking for a save or warp room. 
 
@@ -40,4 +40,4 @@ For example, there's crafting. Good. Once you crafted (or "cooked") something, i
 
 Some boss fights like Bloodless are ridiculous damage sponges that required me to use a cheap trick such as spamming Bunnymorphosis kicks or holding down `R` for the Heretical Grinder. Boss design is overall good, and I did throw my controller a few times out of anger (or incompetence). Compared to the Twin Dragon and other challenging bosses of Circle of the Moon, these still feel like cheap to me.
 
-Luckily, there's the 2D retro spin-off Curse of the Moon and its sequel... Compared to 2D Metroidvania clones the genre has seen lately such as Hollow Knight, Ritual of the Night is a prime example how to ruin a castle run. If only they simplified things, instead of trying to impress players with a blurry gooey mess of an engine. Because deep down there, the game actually **is** excellent. Somewhere. 
+Luckily, there's the 2D retro spin-off Curse of the Moon and its sequel... Compared to 2D Metroidvania clones the genre has seen lately such as [Hollow Knight](/games/hollow-knight), Ritual of the Night is a prime example how to ruin a castle run. If only they simplified things, instead of trying to impress players with a blurry gooey mess of an engine. Because deep down there, the game actually **is** excellent. Somewhere. 

content/games/castlevania-advance-collection.md

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+---
+title: 'Castlevania Advance Collection: Are GBA Vanias Still Worth It in 2021?'
+date: 2021-10-10
+game_developer: 'Konami'
+game_genre: 'Metroidvania'
+game_name: 'Castlevania Advance Collection'
+game_platform: 'switch'
+game_release_year: 2021
+howlongtobeat_hrs: 19.5
+howlongtobeat_id: 98279
+tags:
+    - 'Aria of sorrow'
+    - 'Castlevania'
+    - 'metroidvania'
+---
+
+You enter the Castle Corridor with a knife, handed to you by Alucard, who ushered you in, to "go to the throne room, all will be revealed". Zombies appear to come from all nooks and crannies, secreting fedit mucus spilled all over the slippery floor. Crows in the distance keep watch, the light of the moon somehow completely absorbing in their pitch black feathers. You take a stab at a zombie. It barfs and crumbles into four pieces. Six more appear. 
+
+Welcome to Castlevania!
+
+Or rather, welcome back. It's been what, 20 years? Yup. [Castlevania Circle of the Moon](/games/castlevania-circle-of-the-moon/) was a Game Boy Advance launch title, released all the way back in 2001. Harmony of Dissonance would follow a year later, and lastly [Castlevania Aria of Sorrow](/games/castlevania-aria-of-sorrow/) in 2003. The GBA castlevanias did end in a bang---Aria of Sorrow is well-regarded as one of the best Castlevanias ever, let alone on a handheld system. A few years ago, the classic Metroidvanias received a timely collectable re-release---Game Boy games included. But the best [metroidvania](/tags/metroidvania) ones were left in the dark. This collection contains all GBA games plus Dracula X on SNES as a bonus. Let's take a look if they're still playable. After all, we're used to [Hollow Knight](/games/hollow-knight) now!
+
+## The GBA Vanias
+
+To get the obvious out of the way: Aria of Sorrow is still one of the best GBA games out there, period. Everything in my [2018 article](/games/castlevania-circle-of-the-moon/) I wrote during my third playthrough still holds true. This time, I knew almost every location of good equipment by heart, although that did not bother me at all. It was a breeze to replay the game for the _nth_ time, and probably will be the next run. The atmosphere here does it all. After opening up your first "barricade" (door), you're greeted with _Castle Corridor_'s soundtrack and it his all the right notes---as does the game. 
+
+I'll let the screenshots do most of the talking here.
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/aos1.jpg "Do not carelessly run through the Floating Gardens, like I did!")
+
+Aria is the culmination of two other GBA Castlevania attempts. Circle of the Moon's atmosphere (and perhaps its emphasis on castle design, although some things went wrong there) and Harmony of Dissonance's bright and big graphics. The conversation text box and the in-game menu reveals that it shares (more or less) the engine with its predecessor, but the annoying bits and pieces of Harmony of Dissonance have been completely fleshed out. 
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/aos2.jpg "One of the most iconic locations in Aria of Sorrow: the Clock Tower, a build-up to your fight with Death, a big difficulty spike.")
+
+These games are almost twenty years old and they're still better than the average metroidvania rip-off released nowadays. That is pretty telling. Iga knows his stuff really well---apart from getting [Bloodstained to run well on switch](/games/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night)... Aria's soul system was recycled in Dawn of Sorrow and the unofficial Castlevania sucessor Bloodstained. It is a clever way to keep the player farming for both more gear and abilities that works better than Circle of the Moon's DSS card system, simply because of higher drop rates. 
+
+Soma can equip weapons in Aria of Sorrow, just like Alucard could in Symphony of the night. For Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of the Moon, you're playing as a Belmont, and your whip is mandatory. There are still plenty of ways to upgrade or enhance it, though, but to me, it never felt as great as being able to equip a cooler weapon. Furthermore, in Harmony, I spent ages walking around before finding the _Steel Tip_ that ups my damage. On the other hand, once you've got your hands on weapons like Balmung and Claihm Solais, you likely won't equip anything else in Aria. It's a delicate balance that works well enough in all three games, although I prefer Aria's system. 
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/aos3.jpg "Whoops. Spoiler!")
+
+Don't play this collection starting with Aria of Sorrow: try to adhere to the original release dates. Because that's exactly what I didn't do, and it was admittedly a bit tough to get back to Harmony of Dissonance after finishing the masterpiece that is Aria. The castle layout is a big chore: Konami stole the dual castle layout (and enemy layout and elevator sprites and ...) from Symphony of the Night, increasing the backtracking rate to an alarming rate. 
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/hod1.jpg "Harmony of Dissonance's whole castle design is very familiar to Symphony of the Night fans. Does this save room look familiar to you?")
+
+The game never really clicked with me until I finally reached the clock tower and was able to unlock the better portion of the game. Harmony's castle is full of what I'd call _hard stops_: barricaded walls, locked doors, and dead ends. Although the latter might contain a HP Max Up item, you'll only be able to overcome the former near the end of the game. This, again, makes backtracking a pain. There aren't as much neatly placed portals sprinkled around as in Aria and the music can sound really awful at times. 
+
+That sounds bad for an Iga-Metroidvania, but in practice, it's still a very good installment. The chiptune like music was the consequence of going big and bright on the graphics---which was a consequence of the critique Circle of the Moon got, thanks to the Game Boy Advance's absence of a backlit screen. You can see why they needed two "test"-games to get the third one right. 
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/hod2.jpg "The Skeleton Cave, showcasing both scary and bright graphics. The end result is sometimes a bit goofy.")
+
+As for Dracula X, the addition is a pleasant surprise. Not being a Metroidvania, the game might not be the reason to buy the Advance Collection, but it wasn't there in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Rondo of Blood was, which still is a superior game compared to this SNES port. Still, the music is awesome, and the Mode-7 graphics are still impressive. A nice dessert after you've ploughed your way though the main course. 
+
+## The extras in the Collection
+
+Besides the presence of the obvious save state and not so obvious rewind system, which I never bothered to try out, there's actually a lot to like in this package. A built-in encyclopedia is present for each game, spoiling the surprise for the items but reminding you that there's still more to fetch. I especially liked that with Harmony of Dissonance's furniture collecting quest to fill Juste's room. 
+
+The emulation work is top notch here, which can be expected from M2, who also were responsible for putting out the Anniversary Collection, the Genesis Mini and the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. 
+
+![](/img/games/castlevania-advance-collection/savesystem.jpg "This collection is neatly packed with ease-of-use features, like quicksave slots. ")
+
+Perhaps the best reason to buy this collection, even if you like me already own all three GBA games, is the ability to play them on the go (on Switch) or the big screen. The pixel-perfect rendering option does a great job at putting out these retro pixels on any screen. It's still a joy to watch the graphics and animations from the GBA era. 
+
+That said, if you do plan to play it on the Switch, perhaps go for the Switch Lite or buy a Pro controller. The joypad buttons are laughably bad for a fast-paced 2D platformer such as these ones. They are extremely loud and clicky and even hurt my thumbs after a while. The D-pad on the Pro controller is also a bit better, but compared to my original GBA, not much. In Harmony of Dissonance, you constantly press L/R to zip through the castle, and the clickclickclick gets annoying fast. 
+
+But don't let that stop you from (re)visiting these classic and pristine Igavanias! Happy vampire hunting!

content/games/super-mario-land.md

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ game_name: 'Super Mario Land'
 game_genre: '2D Platformer'
 game_release_year: 1989
 game_developer: 'Nintendo'
-
 ---
 
 

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