Now that Koji Igarashi has set the path to his return to the fray with his game Bloodstained: Ritual of the night, I was thinking of some of my past Castlevania experiences and other than the exciting action and awesome stories, another thing I am very fond of are the franchise's bosses which went from simple and easy to really complex and challenging. Today I am going to mention 5 of the Castlevania bosses that in my opinion were some of the best.
5) Water Wizard - Castlevania Bloodlines
This is one of the Castlevania bosses that can make any overconfident gamer to get cocky about it when facing it for the first time. The guy himself doesn't do much as he only teleports around the room a lot. The thing is that his teleportation pattern is kind of tricky to figure out at first and he has one ace up his sleeve. While he teleports left and right and you have to chase and whip him, an orb is constantly pouring water and because of that, the room starts to flood. This means that if you miss him enough times, water is going to get to a point where the fight will become next to impossible and before you now it, you will be swimming with the fishies.
4) Lord of Flies - Various Castlevania games
The Lord of Flies is one of those bosses that can go one of two ways. You either find a sweet spot and hack him to death while taking minimum damage, or the flies he throws make quick work of you. Either way, this fight requires you to be constantly moving and hacking away at the flies while trying to slash different parts of his body. Once the head and torso remains the fight gets a little more comfortable as you can concentrate on one part of his body until you finally defeat him. The cool thing about this boss is that it makes you move around a lot, making for a very nice fight. Also it is a lot of fun to slash his body parts away one by one.
3) Legion - Various Castlevania games
Making its first appearance in Symphony of the Night, Legion is a very impressive boss that thrives on the element of surprise. It is basically composed of a tentacle like demon that is hidden beneath a shell made of corpses, which gives it a very impressive look. As you slash away at this monstrosity, parts of his shell will fall to the ground, little by little revealing the demon hidden in it. Also while you hit the shell, the corpses that fall to the ground are re-animated and become enemies as well so it is best to either keep the floor clean or keep yourself on the platforms. The hardest part of this boss comes when he starts shooting lasers out of its tentacles and as you keep destroying the demon's shell, more tentacles will be free to shoot you. In the end, you just have the demon with all its tentacles shooting at you from different directions and if you don't get the pattern right you can be blasted away pretty fast.
2) Puppet Master - Dawn of Sorrow and Harmony of Despair
This boss is a race against time and it is almost guaranteed that he will defeat you the first time you fight it. At first you will think that the boss is slow and clumsy, but while you are trying to slash his face, he is trying to put your soul into one of the iron maiden coffins that surround him by using one of his puppets (sort of like voo doo dolls). As soon as you see that your soul is trapped in one of those, you must run and try to break the coffin it before he closes it, because if he does then it is game over. While this happens he will be attacking and moving all around a big area, so you have to move with him fast enough to prevent him from closing an iron maiden on you. In Harmony of Despair (or Castlevania HD) this boss is even harder, as the iron maidens are put in tricky places and he moves around even more than on his first appearance.
1) Galamoth - Symphony of the Night
The number one spot clearly belongs to Galamoth. This Egyptian god will be challenging regardless of your level, so this is a fight that relies mostly on skill (or equipment if you want to make it easier). For starters he can throw lighting bolts out of his cane that attack at random and cover 30% of the screen (the other 50% been covered by Galamoth himself). He can also throw very powerful lighting balls at you and walk back an forth which will cut the space you can use to fight him. Assuming that you are not using any lighting absorbing equipment or using the Shield Rod trick. Galamoth is one of the most satisfying bosses to beat in the whole franchise.
Wrapping it up:
There are a lot more creative and awesome bosses on the franchise, but these are the ones I remember the most. If you think there are other ones that should had made it to the list, tell me on the comment section below.
Just sharing with you people in case you haven't seen it already. Igarashi (Castlevania's creator), published that the Castlevania spiritual sequel that we were hoping for can actually happen. You just have to become a backer and make this project a reality. Let's tell all those nasty publishers that we still want this type of game. Btw did I mentioned that Yamano will be behind the game's music? (think Symphony of the Night) so this is even more awesome than I thought.
The video that Iga made is pretty awesome too, it takes a few jabs at publishers with a lack of vision and also establishes how gothic games need to make a comeback. Now, join the dark army people and let's bring this style of gaming back from the grave. It's like Iga said on an interview (paraphrase):
With this kickstarter campaign will see if we can prove that the publishers were wrong and I was right or if they are right and I was mistaken.
The new Super Smash Bros is already out there (3DS version) and it has proven to be another great addition to the series. This franchise is basically the most famous one that Nintendo has and it causes quite a stir when we talk about what characters should be in it. Nintendo has always stated that characters that appear on Smash Bros have to be ones that have appeared in a Nintendo platform at any point in time so the list is endless. We all know that from the nostalgic point of view retro characters have precedence over current ones, so today we are going to see 5 retro characters that would had been cool to have on this new Smash Bros game.
1) The Boy (from A Boy and his Blob on NES and Wii)
The original "A Boy and his Blob" game is considered a great classic and its main character duo would had made for a very versatile fighter in Smash Bros. This is because the boy can use his blob for pretty much anything, making him a more interesting character than Rosalina who has her Luma as her sidekick. Think about it for a second, using the blob to attack, guard and do special moves by morphing it into various objects is something that would had made this character to be very fun to use. Many things come to mind when we think of potential moves. For example if you were to be falling down, you turn the blob into a ladder and climb back to safety or if you needed a quick weapon then you could turn the blob into a sword, shield or projectile. Possibilities are endless with this one.
Speed: Med - Defense: Low - Power: High
Final Smash: Turning the blob into a giant bowling ball, rolling it in the direction he is facing and decimating anything it touches.
2) Billy Lee (Double Dragon)
We already have a hand to hand specialist in the form of Little Mac, but it wouldn't had hurt to have the most famous of the Lee brothers joining the fight. This one would had been similar to Little Mac, but a lot more controllable as Little Mac tends to fall out of the stage a lot if you get carried away with the special moves. Billy Lee would not only be able to use his martial art moves, but also have special moves that include the use of various weapons that appear on the original game like the nunchaku, whip or bat. Billy trademark grapple would had to make an appearance too as many players loved using it in the original game. It would also be very cool if Billy had his whirlwind kick as a risky move to clear the area (sort of like Kirby's block attack).
Speed: Low - Defense: Med - Power: Med
Final Smash: Two big Abobo enemies appear on stage, following enemies and punching them into oblivion.
3) Ryu Hayabusa (from the classic NES games)
One of the coolest things about the classic Ninja Gaiden games were the anime cutscenes they featured which was something that wasn't common in games at the time. In Smash Bros, we could have the anime styled Ryu Hayabusa that appeared on those cutscenes using the whole assortment of powers and weapons that he had in the classic games, but with a little less speed than Greninja. Other than the moves and weapons, one cool feature that Ryu could have is to be able to climb the wall if he's falling and somehow can get to it in time, the downside been that you could be knocked down if hit while climbing and haven't gotten to the ledge yet.
Speed: Med - Defense: Low - Power: High
Final Smash:The Jaquio appears and starts throwing big lighting spheres across the stage, severely damaging your enemies.
4) Bill Rizer (Contra)
By seen Bill Rizer in the list you may be thinking that it would be kind of unfair to have a character that has a machine gun all time, but it is not. Bill would be a slower but more powerful version of Snake (Super Smash Brothers Brawl), only using his equipment at some occasions and with a limited range. He would also be able to change his weapon into some of the special ones he finds in the original games and use small grenades like Snake does. He would also be able to double jump and prone (shoot while lying on the ground) to compensate for his lack of speed. His gun attacks will also had to be be very strong to keep up in the fight against faster opponents.
Speed: Low - Defense: Med - Power: High
Final Smash: Bill makes a call and in a second, a flurry of big missiles (like the ones on stage 4 in Contra III: The Alien Wars) blowing away any opponent they touch.
5) Simon Belmont (Castlevania)
Almost everybody agrees that Simon Belmont should be in Smash Bros and it is not a hard thing to justify considering that the franchise made its console debut with the NES and also that Super Castlevania IV is considered by many to be the best of the classic series. Simon would be a very interesting character to play with, as the whip gives him a good mid range attack and his assortment of sub-weapons can make for pretty good strategies to use against opponents. He would have limited jumping skills but would be able to cling and make an extra jump by whipping the edge of a wall or platform at the right time.
Speed: Med - Defense: Low - Power: Med
Final Smash: The Belmont's super attack of choice, the Grand Cross.
Wrapping it up:
It was once stated by Nintendo that Super Smash Bros would never become a fan service fest, but considering how the franchise roster has been evolving since Brawl we can see that the purist notion that they had is slowly vanishing and that we may see a lot of interesting character appearances in the future. Let's just hope that they keep up the good work of bringing some of our childhood video game heroes back to life. Who knows? Maybe the Wii U version has some nice surprises in store for us.
If there is a definitive truth in the core of the gaming community it would sure be that there are some things that are definitely "bigger than the game". A great game is often defined by the number of units sold, but if we take the time to look a little further into the effect that a game can have on gamers, we see that there are other things that sometimes are even more valuable than spreadsheet with money signs on it. We are talking about things like loyalty to a franchise and the kind of appreciation that can basically last for a lifetime. These kinds of things while embedded in the mind of a talented fan can result in some impressive pieces of work that can delight the fans in the case of an abandoned franchises or just give us a little extra material that the game company is not willing to make. Sadly, very few of these works survive all the way to a release and today we are going to see some of those that were close, but were shot down before we could fully enjoy them.
Square Enix went the way of Shinra on this one.
1) A Final Fantasy VII fan made web series.
This project began as an initiative in Kickstarter on July 22, 2013. It was supposed to be a 6 episode series based the popular JRPG and it had a goal of $400,000. The campaign for this project caused quite a stir when production photos began to appear on the net, mostly the ones showing Aeris working with her flowers on the church or her standing on an entrance where a "wanted" poster for the members of a "terrorist" group called Avalanche. The curious thing about this case is that the project producers even got the rights to use the game soundtrack, but the project got shot down anyway as Square Enix moved a team of evil black mages, I mean lawyers to make a cease and desist order that killed the project before it even had a chance. The people behind the project tried to plead that their work was entirely fan based and therefore was not to be seen as a threat, but Square Enix didn't back down and so the series ended lost in the lifestream.
You can say anything about the film quality, but at least this one was finished and fans liked it.
2) Castlevania: Prelude to War
It was 2004 when independent film maker Ben Isaac began promoting what for a short time was the first full feature Castlevania film. The quality of this 40 minute movie was not even close to Hollywood standards, but taking into account that high definition wasn't there yet and also that the project was made on a very small budget, we can say that the fan service that Isaac provided with Prelude to War was very good and loyal to the story of the game. The film's plot goes around Simon Belmont some time before the first game (NES) giving some background insights of the iconic character up to the point where the first Castlevania game starts. The film had decent costumes and some neat visual effects for the time like Simon Belmont using the classic flaming whip. This film was completed and even released on DVD for a while until Konami stepped up and stopped further distribution of the product, meaning that if you didn't get it back then when you had the chance, it is very unlikely to be able to find it now.
As an added fact, a real Hollywood style Castlevania movie has been "in the works" since 2005, directed by James Wan (Saw, Insidious: Chapter 2, The Conjuring) and written by Paul W.S Anderson (Event Horizon, Solaris, Resident Evil). The production of this movie has been quite long, going into several periods of silence with small announcements that had kept the film project barely noticeable and shrouded in mystery.
Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes and Chrono Resurrection
These are two of the saddest loses for any fan of the franchise since they were not movies, but full fledged games based on the famous JRPG that had its debut on the Super Nintendo in 1995. For Crimson Echoes, the game was supposed to become a sequel to the original with its game developers spending five years working on the project with the clever use of the graphics featured in the original game. By doing this they managed to create a new adventure with new places to explore and a completely fresh storyline featuring all the elements that gave the original one a legendary status in the gaming community.
In the case of Chrono Resurrection, a programmer called Nathan Lazur, began working on a 2D-3D rendered remake of the original game, filled with good stuff like new places and even different endings. The project at first was supposed to be released as a Nintendo 64 game, but later on became an interactive demo for Windows which once again began to capture the attention of the fans who wondered if the game was ever going to become the product they were waiting for.
Sadly, both games suffered the same fate as the other productions mentioned before. First, Square Enix struck down Chrono Resurrection in 2004 and later on stopped Crimson Echoes in 2009 when it was 98% complete. In both cases the game developers faced the risk of been sued with heavy fines so they had to kill their respective projects before they could be released.
With all the hype that LOZ is causing, it would be awesome to have this film now.
4) The Hero of Time - A Legend of Zelda fan made movie:
This isn't about that heartbreaking prank that IGN played to us on April fools day in 2008, much less the tons of LOZ videos you can find on YouTube. This is all about a full featured fan made Legend of Zelda movie that we are not going to see anymore. The movie was released in Atlanta by an independent film making studio called BMB FINISHED. The film was shown in a few theaters in 2009 and was shown online for a little while before Nintendo dropped the cease and desist hammer on them and the movie had to be pulled out and canned, which happened on Janurary 1, 2010 as the studio settled with Nintendo.
Many gamers and film enthusiasts alike still argue and see the movie as a fan made production that instead of "stealing" from Nintendo was in fact promoting the franchise with a good dose of fan service. Unfortunately for us, Nintendo didn't saw it that way.
This remake just looked gorgeous, it is too bad that Warner Brothers just came and crashed the party.
5) Mortal Kombat HD
Mortal Kombat HD was going to be an enhanced version of the first game with improved HD graphics. This remake was going to become possible thanks to a team assembled by a Mortal Kombat fan known as Gabriel "Bleed" Melendez. The complete name of the game was going to be Mortal Kombat HD: Kommunity Edition and it would had featured everything the original game had, but 10 times better with a great improvement on visuals along with more fluid animations all made with the help of Melendez himself as he is a graphic artist. The project itself started in 2011 and the motivation behind it was to fill the empty space left by the promised, but cancelled official Mortal Kombat HD remakes which were going to be Mortal Kombat I, II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
Not long after the remake began getting some attention, Warner Brothers stepped in and knocked down the project before it could be completed and up until now all that we have been getting are demonstration videos and pictures of what could had been. Up until know Melendez has permission to keep distributing any models, music, pictures or video that he makes, but he can never release a full game even if he plans to give for free.
Wrapping it up
There is still much debate about if big fan made productions are just stealing content from big companies or if the companies are just been too paranoid. There have been other fan made projects that were not shot down with copyright claims and we all saw how they helped the game franchise instead of hurting it. Take for example the MUGEN Project where fans began creating projects with many characters that are owned by Capcom. This would had seemed to be a sure cease and desist case, but Capcom did not stopped them because they acknowledged their actions as fan based work and not an attempt to steal from them. The same has been happening with the fan made Resident Evil 2 Remake that has been in development for some time now. Bottom line, if the companies will never do it then why prevent the fans from making possible an otherwise impossible thing?
Bonus Stage:
If you people were curious about the dead projects mentioned in the list, here are some trailers just so you can see how these initiatives looked like:
Final Fantasy VII Web Series Trailer
Castlevania: Prelude to War (Trailer 2)
Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes (Early Trailer)
Chrono Resurrection Trailer
The Hero of Time Trailer
For gameplay footage of Mortal Kombat HD please click HERE, as the blogger system could not find the video as it did with the others.
