You're not far off. With each system Nintendo has implemented certain mandates to get certified and for the DS it was that there must be touchscreen controls for some gameplay element. Other notables being using motion for the Wii, the pad for the WiiU and having 3d for the 3DS. They were all eventually relaxed but Dawn of Sorrow (drinking game: take a hit for every DS game that has a "DS" initialism) was close enough to release to be caught in that.
12:06 One point of clarification, the wiki just straight up lies about the drop odds here, the soul drop is not anywhere close to 12%. In reality the odds are around 2.35%, or roughly 1 in 43. Which, granted, when compared to Dawn's more dire drops getting as bad as 0.39% (1 in 256), still generous in that context at least. edit: 14:25 Quite generously, for being only in the final few rooms of the game, Black Panther in reality is actually 12.5%, being 1 in 8
I think the single best part of the game is the Soma fight in Julius Mode, it's so sick. I especially like how Soma has a voiceline for whichever character you enter the room with, plus the incredible music...
5:15 Fuck... Apparently, whoever localized the game assumed "kataaru" (the Japanese term for the weapon) was the name "Cutall," whereas it is literally an adaptation of the proper word for this type of bladed weapon, the katar.
What about my favorite multi-armed sword-wielding demon in Aria, "Curly?" ...there's a lot of bad translations in these games, to the point where some soul descriptions are straight up wrong in Aria.
I honestly find it way worse with buttons. The visual feedback is just not there. Though grain of salt: I speak as someone who never had any issues/liked it with the touch screen.
I remember discovering the succubus-cutal glitch as a kid by accident and then going crazy around the castle with it, trying to finish the game as quickly as possible and being absolutelly taken out of my mind when i discovered that you could go off-bounds on save rooms and go around in such a way that gave you itens like Alucard Sword and the souls from Julius Mode. I was way too obsessed with this game tbh and i couldn't be happier i got the chance to feel this way, my favorite Castlevania game ev4r Note: I never could really finish the game as quick as i wanted, i avoided saves and even with them, doing Menace low-level is hell
Those seals don't even work all the time on emulator, which is why the "No Touch Screen" hack is allowed for the RetroAchievements set for this game. Did I feel silly when I realized that after failing the same boss several times...
@@gamerofthetime I thought they were cumbersome, awkward, and needless at the time, they were clearly there because Nintendo mandated that the devs made use out of the touch screen gimmick, hence why this iteration of it was not seen in the other DS games. Trying it on emulator with the patch after having played it many times over the years, I thought it made it much more fun to fight the bosses. I didn't have to tear my grip and grab the stylus out of my mouth to draw perfectly on a tiny screen in an increasingly tiny amount of time, I just had to engage in the combat itself.
I get why speedrunners hate it, but in my casual playthroughs of dos I always thought the seals were a fun final flourish on boss fights edit : ok so i made this comment before i was somewhere i could actually hear the video, turns out speedrunners like them, regular players dont like them also banana bread
I was never bothered by drawing seals in this game. I can't imagine how much people would hate a game like LostMagic - the combat was entirely based on drawing runes in real time.
Difference is that one game is entirely based on touch screen gimmicks qhile the other is 95% void of it and only throws these things on you at the worst possible noments
Seals are trash for casual players. Nothing like playing a side scroller, just for the game to force you to pull out that stylus and draw a bunch on lines on a crappy touch screen, then accidentally dropping said stylus and having to fumble around to retrieve it. On a train. God I hated it so much...
I not only never struggled with the seals but felt cool doing them. Perspective is a wild thing. ETA: I think I should clarify, having watched like 30 more seconds, that I only ever played casually
Same here. That final seal always made me feel great with that last upwards stroke. Not so much with the release tho but that's cause the screen is bigger. Could just memorize the buttons but the drawing feels better.
I've never played this particular Castlevania before, but I do feel like with what I've seen, there are a lot of games with notably more obtuse touch screen gimmicks that I imagine would drive speedrunners bananas. Bread-and-butter casual playthroughs might find it frustrating to have some of their progress undone if they mess it up, but assuming the mechanic works properly (like I said I've never played the game so I don't know how accurate the touch controls are), I don't think I would've found it as annoying as some do. Even so, it's definitely interesting how it allows for such wild skips, though funnily enough it's the tutorial that makes this possible - had Konami assumed the players didn't need to practice the seal motions, then runners would be a lot more limited in what they could do.
The gimmick is notably frustrating on PC emulators, its near impossible to do any kind of seal with the mouse and you can't even do it slowly since its a timed event. Thank god for patches.
@@jurel-enlatado1 Reminds me when I tried to play the first Megaman Starforce game on emulator. What should have been a very standard touchscreen minigame was near impossible, and it was required to progress. I had to slow down the emulator speed to get through those sections.
@@jurel-enlatado1 I actually never had any problem with the seals on the emulator, and I was dreading the hell out of them because I thought they were going to be miserable with the mouse. And yet I think I only failed a seal once.
@@ezelalia5739 I actually like Dawn slightly more than Aria by virtue of it being a bit more challenging IMO, but they're both top tiers in the series.
I loved this game when I was a kid. It was the source of my first ever rule breaking in my life, which was to sneak my DS up to my room in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep and playing with headphones on. We were only allowed 1 hour of video game playing a day, so this was MAJOR. Also, the soundtrack (and also obviously setting) was so sinister. It led to even MORE heart pounding excitement, cuz I would constantly whip my headphones off to listen in a panic, thinking someone was coming to catch me. The only was it could have been better is if I could have enjoyed some Banana Bread with it at the same time... ;) Excellent video, and thanks to Diagon for explaining! Very nice. When they preformed the first Zip with the Axe, I thought right away, "Wow, that's like the Sucubus-Cutall canceling glitch you can use to get around barriers and out of bounds..." only for that to also show up! That was pretty neat!
I actually enjoyed those seals. It was a nice touch where you do the final move yourself. It did help that I was good at it and almost never failed though. Probably saved me from a lot of frustration.
The one thing I hate most about Nintendo. They come up with some silly gimmick and either shove it down our throats (including devs) or it’s half decent and they forget about it and never mention it again. (WiiU touch screen game pad.) There’s never a happy medium, like if people don’t like the gimmick there’s no option to skip or auto complete. So glad I skipped the DS series. If only we could get ZombiU in the e-shop. 😢
My DS touch screen was off by a bit so the seal gimmick drove me insane. I eventually quit the game. I came back to it years later with a new DS and it was still frustrating but at least it was now doable. It's gotta be the worst feature they ever installed into a Castlevania game. I prefer NES commit jumps over that.
I never understood people's issues with the seal gimmick. It's kinda dumb sure, but did anyone actually struggle with it? other than children under like 7
Those little balls of teeth during the final boss have GOT to be inspired by the monsters in the old movie The Langoliers. They're almost spot-on copies.
I never played Dawn of Sorrow but i did played Harmony of Despair. While i spent tons of hours in HD, im shocked how similar HD is to DS. At least DS has banana bread
8:10 I remember doing this with the cutall all the time when playing the game as a kid, felt so good discovering something like that was possible, like eating a delicious piece of chocolate chip banana bread.
As much as most people dislike the seal system, I always liked for making the boss fights more challenging than just pouring some damage into them. [She banana on my bread, till I SeeAJuliusModeRunWithDiagon]
Can I still join the club if I don't use the passphrase? Something about a banana or whatever. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. Gotta make that bread.
Dawn of Sorrow was my first and so far only Castlevania game. I still love it, gimmick and all. Though, I would like a remake or something on newer systems that doesn't use it.
For everyone who complains about the seals. The seals make this generally easy game harder. So i like the seals and i I always succeed by the third attempt so stop complaining its not that bad
So...barring speedrunning, for the average playthrough, I'd strongly recommend getting the "Auto Seal" Romhack that just automatically treats it as though you performed the seal when you defeat a boss. I would *love* the seals system if it were implemented into like a VR game where you have to do hand motions to mimic the seal...but on a tiny, resistive touchscreen...I'd rather play with input lag.
You know, watching the video as Soma repeatedly smacks the personification of Death with a borrowed tail, I begin to wonder In the Sorrow games it... actually doesn't make a lick of sense that you fight Death. Because in a lot of official artwork, Soma has the Crimson Stone, and Death pledged obedience to whoever has the Crimson Stone (though in some artwork it's also blue so who knows if it's intentional?). Even back then it sort of didn't make sense considering Death's bestiary entry suggests it is Dracula's closest confidant and, well, near the end of the game you learn that Graham was wrong and it's actually Soma who is the reincarnated Dracula. So why does Death fight you when it should be helping you? If there was ONE game where they should've bucked tradition and not had the Death boss fight, it was the Sorrow games, hell, maybe you could've even pulled a double bluff by having Death initially help the player because it is no longer bound to Dracula, have it be like "I wish to stop Graham from becoming Dracula so that I don't become obedient to a mortal again" and maybe have Death be the prompt that gets the players looking for the tomes that are the clues for the true ending, then after you beat Graham, Death shows up and you get a choice there where Death is like "glad to see you back my good friend old buddy Matty boy, now what say you we go on to slaughter us some humans?" and if you answer yes you get the worst ending but if you say no THEN Death goes "oh well I see that you need a little bit more of a push to regain your old self so let's have a match" and then you fight, ending with Death taunting Soma about how his fall to darkness is inevitable because Chaos cannot be beat, giving Soma the impetus to go battle Chaos. Suggest on the epilogue of the game that Death actually was 100% on Soma's side whatever choice he made because he's still subservient to Dracula and the final fight was a test of his might and resolve before giving Soma his soul to empower him to go fight Chaos, and that's the reason why he even mentioned Chaos at all. Boom, instantly more involved in the plot as it traditionally has been, and you have it make sense why Death fights you in a game where by all means it should be your closest ally.
Man, do people actually complain about speedrunners using glitches to cheat and skip? 2 things: 1: That's the point 2: Literally every game I've seen in the speedrunning community has a "glitchless" category. Nothing is stopping you from watching that.
I'm about to blow your damn minds then, you absolutely can succubus skip Abaddons room without double zipping. Try standing near the edge of the platform right beneath the door. Thank me later.
Man, i need to replay this sometime. I didn't even know half these souls existed (I really have bad rng in general) . I also really liked the boss designs, but i get the frustraion of bosses like 16:15. It wastes time, and if you're not challenging yourself with stuff like halberd/sword only, it can get annoying fast. Banana bread club let's go.
I'm not a pro speedrunner on any CV game, I do try to do challenge runs once I've beaten them to challenge myself by using only specific weapons and gear...but as to the whole Magic Seal thing? I actually rather liked it as a mechanic, didn't even know it was glitched like this to assist in zips. I just thought it was a cool way to use the touch screen.
I... loved the seals and can still perform all of them in half a second with my thumb 😅 (And I specify thumb bc I feel like why players hate the seals is bc they would default to using the stylus, but I really don't know. I just never used the stylus for this game growing up)
I'd recommend watching it, it's a pretty good show. I was caught off guard how much I liked it. If you want to do more, I'd love to see Sir Pentious and Cherri bomb.
I dont speedrun but can it be that opening practice is checking your location and brcause your hit box is over a load zone thr preactice location check reads the room and saves that to memory. Then when you complete the practice it pulls that memory for your new location.
Initially thought that the "RPG route" was role playing as a vampire because of the succubus souls. Actually, it was much more literal than that.
Well Soma almost kind of is a vampire anyway so it's hardly even roleplaying.
same here
Rocket Propelled Game... Role Playing Grenade... um...
Listen, you have a touch screen, you gotta gimmick. It's the law
Ecclesia had the best gimmick
Thankfully Mario Kart DS has the right idea of just make up your own emblem.
@@theblaze5530 The Albus teleporting, right? Its obscenely fun!
You're not far off. With each system Nintendo has implemented certain mandates to get certified and for the DS it was that there must be touchscreen controls for some gameplay element. Other notables being using motion for the Wii, the pad for the WiiU and having 3d for the 3DS. They were all eventually relaxed but Dawn of Sorrow (drinking game: take a hit for every DS game that has a "DS" initialism) was close enough to release to be caught in that.
@@phorchybug3286 but it also have the microphone gimmick in Ballon Battle
I'm surprised you did not mention that this glitch can be used to obtain all three possible endings in one speedrun
what
I like your funny words magic man
the fact that the other route involves a goddamn RPG is really the banana on the bread
This is the first time I have ever heard this saying, and I feel like it should be a timeless one that everyone had used at least once in their lives.
12:06 One point of clarification, the wiki just straight up lies about the drop odds here, the soul drop is not anywhere close to 12%. In reality the odds are around 2.35%, or roughly 1 in 43. Which, granted, when compared to Dawn's more dire drops getting as bad as 0.39% (1 in 256), still generous in that context at least.
edit: 14:25 Quite generously, for being only in the final few rooms of the game, Black Panther in reality is actually 12.5%, being 1 in 8
Fix the wiki
So did you fix the wiki?
I think the single best part of the game is the Soma fight in Julius Mode, it's so sick. I especially like how Soma has a voiceline for whichever character you enter the room with, plus the incredible music...
Flint!
2:11 "this bald man" This is a disrespect to Hammer, and you're about to pay dearly for it.
Commenting after the release of Castlevania Dominus. The seals can be done as a basic QTE now.
5:15 Fuck... Apparently, whoever localized the game assumed "kataaru" (the Japanese term for the weapon) was the name "Cutall," whereas it is literally an adaptation of the proper word for this type of bladed weapon, the katar.
What about my favorite multi-armed sword-wielding demon in Aria, "Curly?"
...there's a lot of bad translations in these games, to the point where some soul descriptions are straight up wrong in Aria.
final boss Stephen King with the Langoliers
3 days late with the same thought...
I always thought they looked like goddamn Langoliers.
It's just a XXL sized Flesh Golem that summons Langoliers
Nothing like drawing magic seals to zip into oblivion (also banana bread?)
We got button prompts now. I wonder how this will change things if people start running the Dominus Collection version.
They're kinda meh. The last one requires memorization. If you enter it by sight-reading, you'll time out. I wish they had just removed them.
@@asteria9963just beat it didn’t think it needed to be there but wasn’t bad the last one was literally just a giant circle with squiggly lines
I honestly find it way worse with buttons. The visual feedback is just not there.
Though grain of salt: I speak as someone who never had any issues/liked it with the touch screen.
It's a little less annoying since it's now a standard QTE
I remember discovering the succubus-cutal glitch as a kid by accident and then going crazy around the castle with it, trying to finish the game as quickly as possible and being absolutelly taken out of my mind when i discovered that you could go off-bounds on save rooms and go around in such a way that gave you itens like Alucard Sword and the souls from Julius Mode.
I was way too obsessed with this game tbh and i couldn't be happier i got the chance to feel this way, my favorite Castlevania game ev4r
Note: I never could really finish the game as quick as i wanted, i avoided saves and even with them, doing Menace low-level is hell
Those seals don't even work all the time on emulator, which is why the "No Touch Screen" hack is allowed for the RetroAchievements set for this game. Did I feel silly when I realized that after failing the same boss several times...
What emulator are you using? I'm using Desmume and never had any issues.
@@gamerofthetime Desmume core in Libretro. This was quite a while ago. Should mention that I'm using a touchpad on a laptop.
Patching out the seals improves the flow of the game so much.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine Debatable.
@@gamerofthetime I thought they were cumbersome, awkward, and needless at the time, they were clearly there because Nintendo mandated that the devs made use out of the touch screen gimmick, hence why this iteration of it was not seen in the other DS games.
Trying it on emulator with the patch after having played it many times over the years, I thought it made it much more fun to fight the bosses. I didn't have to tear my grip and grab the stylus out of my mouth to draw perfectly on a tiny screen in an increasingly tiny amount of time, I just had to engage in the combat itself.
I get why speedrunners hate it, but in my casual playthroughs of dos I always thought the seals were a fun final flourish on boss fights
edit : ok so i made this comment before i was somewhere i could actually hear the video, turns out speedrunners like them, regular players dont like them
also banana bread
I was never bothered by drawing seals in this game. I can't imagine how much people would hate a game like LostMagic - the combat was entirely based on drawing runes in real time.
Lost Magic is ABSOLUTELY goated. Love my boy Isaac Lightbrad
Difference is that one game is entirely based on touch screen gimmicks qhile the other is 95% void of it and only throws these things on you at the worst possible noments
Seals are trash for casual players. Nothing like playing a side scroller, just for the game to force you to pull out that stylus and draw a bunch on lines on a crappy touch screen, then accidentally dropping said stylus and having to fumble around to retrieve it. On a train.
God I hated it so much...
I not only never struggled with the seals but felt cool doing them.
Perspective is a wild thing.
ETA: I think I should clarify, having watched like 30 more seconds, that I only ever played casually
Same. Never had an issue, in fact I thought it was super immersive.
Same here. That final seal always made me feel great with that last upwards stroke. Not so much with the release tho but that's cause the screen is bigger. Could just memorize the buttons but the drawing feels better.
I hereby state that we would indeed like a Julius run featuring Diagon.
I've never played this particular Castlevania before, but I do feel like with what I've seen, there are a lot of games with notably more obtuse touch screen gimmicks that I imagine would drive speedrunners bananas. Bread-and-butter casual playthroughs might find it frustrating to have some of their progress undone if they mess it up, but assuming the mechanic works properly (like I said I've never played the game so I don't know how accurate the touch controls are), I don't think I would've found it as annoying as some do. Even so, it's definitely interesting how it allows for such wild skips, though funnily enough it's the tutorial that makes this possible - had Konami assumed the players didn't need to practice the seal motions, then runners would be a lot more limited in what they could do.
The gimmick is notably frustrating on PC emulators, its near impossible to do any kind of seal with the mouse and you can't even do it slowly since its a timed event. Thank god for patches.
@@jurel-enlatado1 Reminds me when I tried to play the first Megaman Starforce game on emulator. What should have been a very standard touchscreen minigame was near impossible, and it was required to progress. I had to slow down the emulator speed to get through those sections.
@@Antifrost if you played Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, this is a worthy sequel, i still prefer Aria but Dawn is good
@@jurel-enlatado1 I actually never had any problem with the seals on the emulator, and I was dreading the hell out of them because I thought they were going to be miserable with the mouse. And yet I think I only failed a seal once.
@@ezelalia5739 I actually like Dawn slightly more than Aria by virtue of it being a bit more challenging IMO, but they're both top tiers in the series.
I really enjoy these Speedrun explanations.
I wonder which one will be next?
Maybe how to speedrun Banana Bread? Burn %?
I loved this game when I was a kid. It was the source of my first ever rule breaking in my life, which was to sneak my DS up to my room in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep and playing with headphones on. We were only allowed 1 hour of video game playing a day, so this was MAJOR.
Also, the soundtrack (and also obviously setting) was so sinister. It led to even MORE heart pounding excitement, cuz I would constantly whip my headphones off to listen in a panic, thinking someone was coming to catch me.
The only was it could have been better is if I could have enjoyed some Banana Bread with it at the same time... ;)
Excellent video, and thanks to Diagon for explaining! Very nice. When they preformed the first Zip with the Axe, I thought right away, "Wow, that's like the Sucubus-Cutall canceling glitch you can use to get around barriers and out of bounds..." only for that to also show up! That was pretty neat!
Love the video! I'd say more but I think I hear the oven beeping which means my banana bread should be just about done.
first you need a bananaa, then you need some bread....... spread banana on the bread then you have banana paste and maybe banana slices on bread
That was soo good.
God, zips are like ‘what if Richter’s special attacks sent him to another dimension?’ It’s absolutely bananas. (Bread)
I actually enjoyed those seals. It was a nice touch where you do the final move yourself.
It did help that I was good at it and almost never failed though. Probably saved me from a lot of frustration.
The one thing I hate most about Nintendo. They come up with some silly gimmick and either shove it down our throats (including devs) or it’s half decent and they forget about it and never mention it again. (WiiU touch screen game pad.)
There’s never a happy medium, like if people don’t like the gimmick there’s no option to skip or auto complete.
So glad I skipped the DS series. If only we could get ZombiU in the e-shop. 😢
Ooh, this one was on my main page, I hope algorithm is picking your chanel back up!
Say hi to mr. Daily for me
Was only aware of the RPG route, so it is really cool to see this route.
I love how there are so many exploits in this speedrun but all the RNG requirements makes speedrunning DoS seem like a gamble.
great video!
I've learned a few things here heh
hmm it would be nice to have some banana bread huh
Banana Bread
Another great speedrun explained. Thanks DB and Diagon
"THESE LITTLE JERKS!" Sir, they are called "Langoliers"
Humans and drawing, such a love-hate relation
Fun fact: "Malacoda" literally translates to "Evil Tail"
Banana Bread
If anyone wants to chat with me, I'll be in the Load Zone.
My DS touch screen was off by a bit so the seal gimmick drove me insane. I eventually quit the game. I came back to it years later with a new DS and it was still frustrating but at least it was now doable. It's gotta be the worst feature they ever installed into a Castlevania game. I prefer NES commit jumps over that.
I just don't bother and typically use a magic seal removal mod.
Bless me actually being able to play emulation via ds carts
Diagon just flexing with his seal skills, a true CHAD. Also BANANA BREAD.
this reminds me of a Flash game called "Salem", where you had to do a similar "seal" gimmick, using the Mouse.
I never understood people's issues with the seal gimmick. It's kinda dumb sure, but did anyone actually struggle with it? other than children under like 7
Banana Bread
Hell.yeah.dude
Best Metroidvania. All the DS games are great, but there’s just something about this game I can’t get enough of! ❤
Those little balls of teeth during the final boss have GOT to be inspired by the monsters in the old movie The Langoliers.
They're almost spot-on copies.
Wasnt expecting an Elden Ring style speedrun glitch in an older 2D game on DS
Pretty sure it's just poor translation, but the weapon used for the horizontal zip is actually a "katar".
Glad I don't have to perform a magic seal when making Banana Bread, it would be terrible! Thanks for uploading this, it was amazing to watch!
I should have known DoS speedruns would be super broken, it's a Castlevania game.
Where is the DBDaily comment?
I never played Dawn of Sorrow but i did played Harmony of Despair. While i spent tons of hours in HD, im shocked how similar HD is to DS. At least DS has banana bread
Homecooked Banana Bread goes hard though, no RNG about that
Not being able to do correctly the seal patterns sounds like a Skill Issue to me 🚬🗿
I now respect the thing I hated most about my least favorite castlevania.
pain à la banane
now i want banana bread
8:10 I remember doing this with the cutall all the time when playing the game as a kid, felt so good discovering something like that was possible, like eating a delicious piece of chocolate chip banana bread.
Hey Dragon I wanted to ask, with a couple of Aria/Dawn of Sorrow vids out now, are you looking to grt into speedrunning those games?
A yes, a type of non-yeast bakery product that is the saddest end for a certain yellow fruit.
As much as most people dislike the seal system, I always liked for making the boss fights more challenging than just pouring some damage into them.
[She banana on my bread, till I SeeAJuliusModeRunWithDiagon]
Dancing former vice presidents
These speedrun collabs are super informative and hella fun to watch!
Can I still join the club if I don't use the passphrase? Something about a banana or whatever. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. Gotta make that bread.
Banana Bread.
These glitches feel crazy to me as someone who hasn't attempted speedrunning, but they're quite fascinating!
Have some banana bread while watching this video
Just here for the banana bread...
Where can you find the full map at 2:06???
Thank you for delicious Banana Bread!
Now I want some banana bread 🤤
I just adore this game so much. Seals not so much. Great job by you and Diagon! Banana Bread!!
Castlevania skips are always odd
Banana bread
What did they do *this* time?! 😂
I literally beat Dawn of sorrow for the first time yesterday, what
Those tricks were so insanely easy looking, that made me crave some banana bread.
Al Gore rhythm banana bread.
I want some banana bread.
GREAT VIDEO
Dawn of Sorrow was my first and so far only Castlevania game. I still love it, gimmick and all. Though, I would like a remake or something on newer systems that doesn't use it.
I want some delicious banana bread
I always knew that banana bread would break the gamr.
uoooot?
yea name brand DB daily
banana bread
Imma go for some banana bread now
sounds tasty
All starts with Dinner Dog
For everyone who complains about the seals. The seals make this generally easy game harder. So i like the seals and i I always succeed by the third attempt so stop complaining its not that bad
I always really wanted to play this game, hahaha. I had no idea the seals were that problematic; I thought they looked as cool as banana bread.
So...barring speedrunning, for the average playthrough, I'd strongly recommend getting the "Auto Seal" Romhack that just automatically treats it as though you performed the seal when you defeat a boss. I would *love* the seals system if it were implemented into like a VR game where you have to do hand motions to mimic the seal...but on a tiny, resistive touchscreen...I'd rather play with input lag.
You know, watching the video as Soma repeatedly smacks the personification of Death with a borrowed tail, I begin to wonder
In the Sorrow games it... actually doesn't make a lick of sense that you fight Death.
Because in a lot of official artwork, Soma has the Crimson Stone, and Death pledged obedience to whoever has the Crimson Stone (though in some artwork it's also blue so who knows if it's intentional?). Even back then it sort of didn't make sense considering Death's bestiary entry suggests it is Dracula's closest confidant and, well, near the end of the game you learn that Graham was wrong and it's actually Soma who is the reincarnated Dracula. So why does Death fight you when it should be helping you?
If there was ONE game where they should've bucked tradition and not had the Death boss fight, it was the Sorrow games, hell, maybe you could've even pulled a double bluff by having Death initially help the player because it is no longer bound to Dracula, have it be like "I wish to stop Graham from becoming Dracula so that I don't become obedient to a mortal again" and maybe have Death be the prompt that gets the players looking for the tomes that are the clues for the true ending, then after you beat Graham, Death shows up and you get a choice there where Death is like "glad to see you back my good friend old buddy Matty boy, now what say you we go on to slaughter us some humans?" and if you answer yes you get the worst ending but if you say no THEN Death goes "oh well I see that you need a little bit more of a push to regain your old self so let's have a match" and then you fight, ending with Death taunting Soma about how his fall to darkness is inevitable because Chaos cannot be beat, giving Soma the impetus to go battle Chaos.
Suggest on the epilogue of the game that Death actually was 100% on Soma's side whatever choice he made because he's still subservient to Dracula and the final fight was a test of his might and resolve before giving Soma his soul to empower him to go fight Chaos, and that's the reason why he even mentioned Chaos at all.
Boom, instantly more involved in the plot as it traditionally has been, and you have it make sense why Death fights you in a game where by all means it should be your closest ally.
Man, do people actually complain about speedrunners using glitches to cheat and skip?
2 things:
1: That's the point
2: Literally every game I've seen in the speedrunning community has a "glitchless" category. Nothing is stopping you from watching that.
I'm about to blow your damn minds then, you absolutely can succubus skip Abaddons room without double zipping. Try standing near the edge of the platform right beneath the door. Thank me later.
Man, i need to replay this sometime. I didn't even know half these souls existed (I really have bad rng in general) . I also really liked the boss designs, but i get the frustraion of bosses like 16:15. It wastes time, and if you're not challenging yourself with stuff like halberd/sword only, it can get annoying fast.
Banana bread club let's go.
I did the sensible thing and played the ROM hack that removed the need for touchscreen controls.
I'm not a pro speedrunner on any CV game, I do try to do challenge runs once I've beaten them to challenge myself by using only specific weapons and gear...but as to the whole Magic Seal thing? I actually rather liked it as a mechanic, didn't even know it was glitched like this to assist in zips. I just thought it was a cool way to use the touch screen.
I... loved the seals and can still perform all of them in half a second with my thumb 😅
(And I specify thumb bc I feel like why players hate the seals is bc they would default to using the stylus, but I really don't know. I just never used the stylus for this game growing up)
Banana bread is quite tasty
I'd recommend watching it, it's a pretty good show. I was caught off guard how much I liked it. If you want to do more, I'd love to see Sir Pentious and Cherri bomb.
banana bread!
Banana Bread for the Algo
I actually liked the seals
I dont speedrun but can it be that opening practice is checking your location and brcause your hit box is over a load zone thr preactice location check reads the room and saves that to memory. Then when you complete the practice it pulls that memory for your new location.