| Artificial Challenge |
| I wanna talk about my favorite game ever, Castlevania : Circle of the Moon. Now, it's on the Gameboy Advance so I've obviously only been playing it fer a few days, so calling it my most favorite game ever might seem a bit odd, but it's THAT good. I only have one real problem with it: the Artifical Difficulty. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a hard game, and that's rarely a bad thing, but ALOT of the challenge comes from bad planning and stupid design. I'm all for smart attack patterns and a huge amount of HP when it comes to bosses, but you never see that mentioned online as bad because it's not. What are you going to read about online? The screen is too freakin dark and the DSS cards are randomly found. Now, I realize that Konami has no control in how dark the screen is now, to be honest, it only bothers me because it seems like they programed the game to be even DARKER than the other GBA games, which is good for atmosphere, but means that it's almost impossible to see everything if you don't have like, incredible lighting, and if you're not seeing EVERYTHING then you WILL be hit by small, fast moving projectiles. The only way to prevent many of the hits is to use a DSS card, which I shall use as my transition... DSS cards. An incredibly good concept gone horifically wrong in execution. But first, let me explain. DSS cards are small items you collect (cards) that essentially let use use magic. Sounds good, right? To get these cards, you must kill monsters. Still sounds ok, I think. Now there are 20 cards over all, and each is held by a specific enemy, the catch is, that the enemy randomly drops them. Now, keep in mind that when I say random, I don't mean 1 out of every 10, I mean that I've gone two hours of killing a single monster type that I KNOW has a card and not getting it. Still sound good? To me, no. Now, It is good motivation to level build, but the monsters chosen are the absolute WORST for Experience Farming as they are all either far away from a room break (which makes them regenerate), take WAY TOO MANY hits to kill or just plain give you crap Experience, so fer all the time you spend trying (uselessly) to get cards, you don't really feel like you're doing anything good with your time (though, as an aside, when you do, you feel pretty god-damn accomplished). Now all that STILL wouldn't be too bad, but there are many parts in the game, where the only viable way to win effectively is to use DSS cards (like the Goat Boss, who's black orbs are almost invisible on the dark screen but disappear on contact with the Manticore card's poison-mist shield)... Now, don't get me wrong, I really love the game, I just had to say it.... If you agree, or disagree (or just wanna drop me a note) feel free to Email me at : [email protected] (oh I pray that I set that addy up right...) Till the next time, have fun. |