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Akumajou Dracula series

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Akumajou Dracula series

Unread postby icycalm » 13 Nov 2006 12:04

Here's an idea. How about you forget about Gallery of Labyrinth for now, and just review the first DS title. The catch is: can you write your review, as if you were writing it 2 weeks after the game had just come out?

If you can do it, then I suggest you start on that as your next review. I'll be sure to add my opinion as well. Or, if you'd rather not do it, I can review it myself and you can add your opinion.

And then, you review the second game after you finish it. There is no hurry here, we are not trying to compete with IGN in speed -- only in quality.

By the way, I made two pages:

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/ds/sogetsuno ... review.php
http://insomnia.ac/reviews/ds/galleryof ... review.php

I've added all the details I know so far, if you know anything more let me know. And I've listed all the Castlevania games starting with the first GBA one. At some point I'll sit down and list all of them. If you have a list handy then post it here, otherwise I'll go with Wikipedia.
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Unread postby citcelaid » 13 Nov 2006 14:09

Sure, I can definitely review Sougetsu No Juujika, as well.

However, I don't understand what you mean by:

The catch is: can you write your review, as if you were writing it 2 weeks after the game had just come out?


How should a review written 2 weeks after release differ from one written a year later? My opinion on the game is unchanged.

Or are you just saying I should make no reference to current time in the review?


I also have a chronological list of all Castlevania games I can give you.


BTW, I really like the Sougetsu No Juujika page, but I think Gallery of Labyrinths' cover art is quite atrocious (the character design sucks). There's some nice desktop images here that would make a much finer header, I think. Especially the last two are quite nice, imo.
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Unread postby icycalm » 13 Nov 2006 17:07

Or are you just saying I should make no reference to current time in the review?


Exactly. So you can use phrases like "It's the best-looking 2D Castlevania yet", "Konami's latest Castlevania...", etc etc. I am not saying that it IS the best-looking 2D Castlevania, I am just giving you an example here of the kind of phrases that this approach would allow you to use.

On the other hand, you should not make any reference whatsoever to titles released after it.

The reason I like this approach is that you don't have to give a history lesson with every review. For example, we both gave history lessons with our R-Type and Xexex reviews, but that gets tiring after a while. So try this approach and see how you like it.

As for the header for Labyrinth, I made a new one. Check it out. And post that list of Castlevania games in this thread when you get a chance.

Dammit, I got to finish that Hokuto no Ken review now. It's turned into a monster, and I am trying to trim it down.
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Unread postby citcelaid » 13 Nov 2006 21:49

Cool. I can definitely do that.

I will have to talk about the GBA predecessor a bit though, since Sougetsu No Juujika is its direct sequel.

The new Gallery of Labyrinths header looks great, btw.

Here is a list of all Castlevania games released in Japan in chronological order:

Essentially same games that were released on different platforms are only listed once, even though there are usually small differences between these versions.


- Akumajou Dracula (FDS 1986, MSX 1986, FC 1993, GBA 2004)
- Dracula II: Noroi No Fuuin (FDS 1988)
- Akumajou Dracula (ARC 1988, PS2 2006)
- Dracula Densetsu (GB 1989)
- Akumajou Densetsu (FC 1990)
- Akumajou Dracula (SFC 1991)
- Dracula Densetsu II (GB 1991)
- Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (FC 1991)
- Akumajou Dracula (X68 1993)
- Akumajou Dracula X: Chi No Rondo (PCE 1993)
- Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (GB 1993)
- Vampire Killer (MD 1994)
- Akumajou Dracula XX (SFC 1995)
- Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka No Yasoukyoku (PS 1997, SS 1998)
- Akumajou Dracula: Shikokutaru Zensoukyoku (GB 1998)
- Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku (N64 1999)
- Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden: Legend of Cornell (N64 1999)
- Akumajou Nendaiki: Akumajou Dracula (PS 2001)
- Akumajou Dracula: Circle of the Moon (GBA 2001)
- Castlevania: Byakuya No Concerto (GBA 2002)
- Castlevania: Akatsuki No Minuet (GBA 2003)
- Castlevania (PS2 2003)
- Akumajou Dracula: Sougetsu No Juujika (DS 2005)
- Akumajou Dracula: Yami No Juin (PS2 2005)
- Akumajou Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinths (DS 2006)


Here is a second list where each game has been listed separately:

- Akumajou Dracula (FDS)
- Akumajou Dracula (MSX)
- Dracula II: Noroi No Fuuin (FDS)
- Akumajou Dracula (ARC)
- Dracula Densetsu (GB)
- Akumajou Densetsu (FC)
- Akumajou Dracula (SFC)
- Dracula Densetsu II (GB)
- Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (FC)
- Akumajou Dracula (X68)
- Akumajou Dracula X: Chi No Rondo (PCE)
- Akumajou Dracula (FC)
- Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (GB)
- Vampire Killer (MD)
- Akumajou Dracula XX (SFC)
- Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka No Yasoukyoku (PS)
- Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka No Yasoukyoku (SS)
- Akumajou Dracula: Shikokutaru Zensoukyoku (GB)
- Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku (N64)
- Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden: Legend of Cornell (N64)
- Akumajou Nendaiki: Akumajou Dracula (PS)
- Akumajou Dracula: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
- Castlevania: Byakuya No Concerto (GBA)
- Castlevania: Akatsuki No Minuet (GBA)
- Castlevania (PS2)
- Akumajou Dracula (GBA)
- Akumajou Dracula: Sougetsu No Juujika (DS)
- Akumajou Dracula: Yami No Juin (PS2)
- Akumajou Dracula (PS2)
- Akumajou Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinths (DS)


The reason I made two lists is because I'm not sure what your "philosophy" is about versions of games.

Also note that there are a number of games titled "Akumajou Dracula" even though they are completely different games (SFC, X68, ARC).
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Unread postby icycalm » 14 Nov 2006 04:58

citcelaid wrote:Cool. I can definitely do that.

I will have to talk about the GBA predecessor a bit though, since Sougetsu No Juujika is its direct sequel.


Yes, of course. That goes without saying. In fact, you are expected to talk about previous games and draw comparisons, as this is part of the job of the reviewer: to present each game in its appropriate context.

As for the list, let me ask you something. What do you think I should do? Should I list all these games in every single review? I mean it's easy enough to do that when the series has only 3-4 games, but when we are talking about more than two dozen, perhaps the page would look too heavy with all of them?

Or maybe we should wait for your first review and see how the page looks both ways...
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Unread postby citcelaid » 14 Nov 2006 13:36

Let's just see how it looks with the finished review. If the right-hand column isn't longer than the review it should be fine. :)
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Nov 2006 07:34

Well the thing is, even if the two DS reviews turn out to be long enough (and I wouldn't want you subconsciously pressured to make the longer...) it's not like there won't be any other Castlevania games released in the future.

Also, what if you decided to review the arcade game or the NES games? Those reviews will probably turn out to be much shorter.

So we are either going to have to accept that the sidebar will be longer for series such as Castlevania, or we are going to have to come up with another solution.

This is not a pressing matter anyway, but it's something to think about. I can always make these two pages without the "Series" column, and add it or modify it later.
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PC|ONE|PS4|SW Castlevania Advance Collection

Unread postby icycalm » 24 Sep 2021 02:42

This thread used to be in the Staff forum to be used for preparation of reviews of games in the series. As you can see above, citcelaid never produced any reviews in the end, but that game list he posted is handy. In any event, I moved the thread to the public forums to celebrate the release of Castlevania Advance Collection on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1552 ... ollection/

Image

It contains the following games:

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)

The Steam pictures are horrible, so I am not posting any. I am sure we can make the games look even better than on the original systems with advanced filters via ReShade. That 4K filter Beakman found, CRT-Royale, should make them look fantastic.

Btw, if you read the discussion above, you'll encounter a kooky idea I had in the early days: Reviewing old games today as if the review was written on the game's release... It's stupid beyond belief, and we didn't end up producing even a single review in this format. So the discussion is only of interest for historical reasons. I think there's another thread in the Staff forum where I explain the idea more thoroughly. It's basically the ultimate nostalgic reviewer's idea. I got over it very quickly.
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