And here I thought you were gonna show something great about the Commodore 64 version. Boo! ;) Seriously though, I really thought that this was the talking point, lol.
o btw when u talked about the whole take to long get a much more grim ending. sotn had it WORSE if u spent to much time grinding or leaving ur ps1 on. u can NEVER go into the coliseum/arena. thus soft locking yourself... atleast i dont know of any way to fix this. but that would of sucked for players :D kinda reminds me of breath of fire dragonquarter. where the game forced u to beat it on a timer. or turn into a dragon fully. and game over instantly.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment that Castlevania 64 was a trail-blazer. There were several 3-d games that came out before this game that would set the tone for 3d games in the horror genre Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil come to mind. Wait, you might ask. Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil might be survival horror but they are not also action platformer hybrids, and to that, I would say that there was a 3d action platformer with survival horror elements that came out in 1996. You may have heard of it, it's called Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider isn't known as a survival horror title but the first game limits your ammo and has you fighting a giant t-rex and the last boss of the game is a giant sleeping flesh demon that an ancient alien is trying to wake up from the depths of the Earth in order to devour mankind and the final level has you battling horrible monstrosities such as my favorite enemy in the game a flesh centaur in the bottom of a flesh pit. Tomb Raider is older than Castlevania 64 but has better platforming controls and far better camera angles. This doesn't mean that it's a bad game or anything, I beat Castlevania 64 back in the day and thought it was pretty decent but I can't say that it's what I would call groundbreaking. If you want a game that blazed some trails then play the original Tomb Raider.
Yo Castlevania 64 was legit terrifying for me as a kid. It was a gateway into Resident evil, Turok, silent hill. it was glorious for many different reasons.
Chainsaw guy in the maze still haunts me. It's been 20 years. I was so relieved to finally see someone in that place and he turns around and does that. Dammit.
@@Vaga-Bard Frankenstein in the maze with the 2 dogs😮. With that music made you panic. Specially playing at night.. I loved it because it played like a movie.
This is why I loved this game so much. Well, Legacy of Darkness, but more or less the same product. I really loved how this was genuinely the only actually macabre and scary Castlevania. With how cinematic certain reveals are to a maniacal gardener actively trying to gore a helpless child... it was pretty intense playing this game as a child myself to say the least.
I loved this game for the most part, though I seem to remember skeletons on motorcycles towards the end, and someone with a chainsaw, and those little bits of modern tech in a game that’s supposed to take place in times prior to the combustion engine really took me out of the immersion.
I grew up with CV64 and Legacy of Darkness. I'm nearly 28 now; but my fondest memories as a child were playing them with my dad, who was single and alone (Has been since I was 2) and it always seemed to bring light to his eyes when we sat down and played them together; taking turns on Death (Me making him get past the hard parts and fight Boss fights because I was too scared). It was only after one of Jontron's first videos that I learned how hated CV64 and Legacy of Darkness were by the CV fanbase. It made me feel quite isolated honestly. Even to this day, it stands as my favorites games, the only modern-esque CV games close to it are 'Lament of Innocence' and 'Curse of Darkness'. When I was younger and Minecraft had it's big BOOM, I even went back and tried to make a "Castlevania 64 Machinima" and tried to make a trailer for it. It was some really old, cringe stuff, but I just can't help but want a recreation of that experience. You can still find the trailer for it if you look it up. "Minecraft: Castlevania trailer" by Rulictar. Don't bother commenting, I lost access to that login years ago. Even recently, I had started working on a Legacy of Darkness fan-remake in UE4. The remade "Cornell" can be found on artstation under "Castlevania: Cornell" by Chris R. I'm sorry to just send a big wall of text. My intention wasn't to self-advert, but more or less prove that upon seeing your video, it was such affirmation that I wasn't alone in my feelings towards the game and that it means ALOT to me to see you do it justice as it deserves.
cv64 is awesome dude. i never even heard of it until recently and it has entertained me so much. im currently stuck because i stopped playing it but i have faith i will get unstuck and make progress soon
I’m a fan of Cornell as well, and I think that the 64 era castlevania gets a lot of hate. Good to see that it’s more love to the games nowadays. Saw your work on Cornell keep it up! 👍🏾
8:44 "Like a stoner in public places, you have to be purposeful in how you time your hits" is one of the most beautiful lines I have ever heard in my life
It reminds me of this one quote from "The Naked Gun: From The Files of Police Squad!", where the protagonist was saying something along the lines of "Like a blind man at an orgy, I'm gonna have to feel my way through." Super funny!
I mean.. i loved this as a kid. It's like when a band strays from a formula and makes a really good album but all the fans just scream "This doesn't sound like them at all!"
I would note that the platforming being hard at the start isn't bad: but they should teach this lesson somewhere fairly safe, where a fall will cost you like an eighth of your health or something.
CORRECTIONS: - Despite two levels having “open world” or “Metroidvania-style/Simon’s Quest-esque gameplay, it’s very important to note that MOST of Castlevania 64 is an extremely linear action game. Most of the levels do not contain puzzles or “Metroidvania” structuring whatsoever; they’re simply a point A to point B journey. - Rondo of Blood (26:35) is a PC Enginer CD game, not a Super NES game. It did get a very different adaption on Super NES, but that version doesn’t have Maria aside from a text-only cameo. - The Vampire status effect (32:28) was introduced in Catstlevania 64. Legacy of Darkness didn’t add this; it was already there in the base game.
It annoys me how often I see classic castlevania games (ie the level progression castlevanias) listed under metroidvania when they are not even vaguely related to the metroidvania genera. There was a time that the CV games were mostly metroidvanias, but also many are not.
@@TheFinagle Indeed. It was really just SOTN and its portable successors on GBA and DS that were deliberately designed to be metroidvanias (I say deliberate because Simon's Quest was supposedly not inspired by Metroid, but SOTN is more obviously inspired by Super Metroid in particular, no matter what its creators claim to contrary). On consoles, Konami was always experimenting after SOTN with 3D action/adventure titles (and even a fighting game).
Thank you for those corrections. I often stop watching videos if I catch an error like that, it undermines the credibility of the whole thing. Castlevania 64 is not AT ALL a Metroidvania game, because the #1 component - character ability upgrades used as unlocks - is not present. In this game, you do not gain new abilities that grant you access to areas you physically couldn't get into without those abilities. Therefore it's not that genre, full stop. "I say deliberate because Simon's Quest was supposedly not inspired by Metroid, but SOTN is more obviously inspired by Super Metroid in particular, no matter what its creators claim to contrary" Yes! I can believe that Simon's Quest was not inspired by Metroid because Simon's Quest could have been in development already, because Vampire Killer had a lot of that formula already in it, and because most of the unlocks were non-ability keys, like the three crystals. Igarashi's claim that Zelda, not Metroid, inspired SOTN is not something I'm able to believe. I can't prove it's a lie or anything, and I don't even know why he'd lie about it, but it looks so much like Super Metroid (even ignoring the side view camera) and so little like Zelda that I just don't buy it.
There are huge explorable levels, but once you finish them, you go to the next one and you cannot go back, so it's not metroidvania nor open world. About Legacy of Darkness, even if it is the better version, I don't like that they removed the Bloodlines theme, so I play both versions to be happy.
@@megavolt67 I'd say that saying that SOTN is inspired by Zelda is pretty believable. Not only because iga said it and how the games are designed to play but also because Metroid 1 was also inspired by Zelda. I think we gotta remember that there were only four zelda games out at the time SOTN came out and zelda only started to become to be what we think of it today by the third one. The first zelda didn't have that many puzzles in the dungeons, you explored the world to find them and when you were inside they were mostly linear levels focused on combat, the second Zelda was an action game with some level exploration but a focus on the action combat. I think it makes sense to say that SOTN is more like a huge Zelda II dungeon with less elevators crossed with a classicvania flavor rather than a gothic planet zebes. Fairy spell is basically bat+mist transformation. Exploration is a factor in the igavania games but the focus is the moment to moment combat action and the level design is there to facilitate that, most of the upgrades you get are for combat, very rare mobility upgrades and they aren't usually very fast until the very end. That's why areas with more platforming are so annoying in those games. In Super Metroid exploration is the main thing you do, combat is there give traversal and exploration some variety, but most of the upgrades you get are for making traversal and exploration more convenient and varied.
Just to clarify a small detail. IGA didn't direct Symphony of the Night, he was assitent director and aid the scenario writer Toshiharu Furukawa. The director of SotN was Toru Hagihara, who was part of the development team of Simon's quest, director of Belmont's Revenge and Rondo of Blood.
Yet he is the only one who received the credit. Hagihara retired after SotN and Iga got all the glory, he is also as I believe the sole reason for the toxicity that stains the fanbase.
@@renereyes2648 Yeah in my experience it's been the IGA timeline purists who have thrown the most shit around about stuff being "not true Castlevania" (with both LoS and Netflix) even though IGA changed everything about the series, IGA fans who give stuff shit for not being in his timeline and treating his timeline as "the one true canon" even though it's the 4th individual timeline the series had had at that point and nothing like the original continuity, and it's the marriage to IGA's timeline and inaccurate comments about the old games that has led to a majority of fans having very inaccurate information on the history of the franchise. I love the games from IGA's era but the guy was like a nuke going off in the fandom in many ways.
@@dommoore6180 The thing that made me love Castlevania in the first place was the heavy influence of Universal/Hammer horror which permeated earlier Castlevania titles... And IGA, although not triggering the transition, pulled them away exponentially from that initial, defining identity, with each new iteration under his name. Although I like the IGAvania titles a lot, as games, I can't help but feel that that special, unique characteristic, is missing from the experience. In hindsight, CV64/LOD were the last releases to retain a substantial resemblance to that original aspect. Oh well, it is what it is.
@@marlondemello8582 I completely agree again! It’s a shame tbh what IGA did to the series, not taking away from all the good he did but he wrecked the fandom (look it’s true we’re still seeing new fans who come in with stuff like LoS and Netflix be driven away by IGA purists and the misinfo surrounding series history is imo unforgivable) and he turned castlevania into something fundamentally different from what castlevania was when nobody was asking him to. I think at the least his earliest games retained the horror tone if not the universal monsters/hammer horror stuff - Lament of Innocence and especially Harmony of Dissonance still have a distinct tone of horror to them. But Aria of Sorrow onwards is more dark fantasy than horror. And it was the universal/hammer aspect that drew me to it originally too, personally the Simon games (and the early tie in media surrounding them) and the 64 games are my favourite parts of the franchise. Saying that it’s changed so much as a franchise and I don’t dislike any era of the series, so I really can’t understand why IGA’s version which only lasted from 2001-2009 despite containing various earlier titles in its timeline, has become the “main” version and anything different from it has been rejected at large. It’s just ridiculous imo but here we are.
@@dommoore6180 yeah they were several timelines kinda but it didn’t matter as long as good games were being pushed out. I like atuff he did too I love the PS2 titles especially CoD as it was a promise he fulfilled back in the interview that was included in Castlevania Chronicles also another favorite IGA release of mine since I could finally play a legit version of the Sharp X800 Castlevania. He has made some dumb statements after he became the producer of the series, it seems like it went to his head, also I believe he was scared of the fanbase primarily the western fanbase There was a time he was willing to experiment with the franchise but ultimately he began to pander to the weebs. He also would never make the 1999 story as he stated he doesn’t believe he could live up to the fans expectations. I whole heartily believe had he done that he would have given closure to the fans of his timeline and the would have accepted Lords of Shadow any other new Castlevania projects.
same here brother, but i mean as the first 3DVANIA i ever played since i grew up with all NES and SNES classics but i adore CV64 when i played Demon's souls for the first time, i could not help but to see so much similarities gameplay wise in this ultra under appreciated CASTLEVANIA
Same and when i learned (via angry video game nerd) that it wasn't the original and it's apparently one of the worst i was like "wow if this is bad i can't wait to play the rest because 64 is awesome." ... With exception to Simon's Quest but the soundtrack is still OP
The sad part was never knowing there was an updated version with more characters. I was sadly victim to "my dad bought all the games and if he didn't like it, we never saw the sequel" at the time.
The whole "people didn't like Castlevania 64 because they weren't familiar with 3D games/platforming" argument kind of falls apart when you consider that the exact same people enjoyed Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, or OoT/Majora's Mask. In fact, his example at 37:10 of how the game forces such players to slow down just sounds like retroactive apologism. People then didn't see it that way, they just saw it as the game being poorly designed and handling badly and why wouldn't they? If a game's camera suddenly shifts and causes you to jump to your death, that might force people to slow down but it's also going to piss them off. The thing about older games is that the challenge is presented to you directly on screen, not that the game suddenly messed with your controls right before you were going to jump if you tried to immediately. The whole thing with player expectations ruining the game is also a bit of an unfair point. Sure, these days it's easy to find all kinds of gameplay footage, let's plays, developer interviews, and dozens if not hundreds of reviews for even fairly obscure titles; but 1999 was a very different time. Castlevania 64 came out in January of '99, in December of '98 only about 26% of US households had internet access, meaning unless you read gaming magazines or some other such source you basically didn't know anything about a game beyond what was on the back of the box until you'd bought/rented it. So yeah, blaming players for being swerved when the game they got suddenly didn't live up to what they were expecting in that context is an extreme case of applying modern thinking to an older situation.
I was one of those kids who was already a castlevania fan and awaiting cv64. I can offer this one bit of incite; I wasn't disappointed. It was atmospheric, creepy and the difficulty level wasn't unexpected... (if you grew up on the series). all these years later- I still think it's unjustly maligned. If you weren't there and anticipating it's release, it's impossible to really understand it in context.
As a kid I played 4, was the first game I completed and it was due to its amazing atmosphere and (for the time and my age) dark story. I picked up 64 a bit afterward, played through it, and it felt as natural as going from Mario World to Mario 64, or ALTTP to OOT. It wasn't only a great game but a new perspective on the Vania world, letting me see it all in 3D and showing us a bit more of Dracula's effect on the various villagers. It was an amazing game for the time and extremely well thought out.
This game has such a unique eeriness to it that is lacking in every subsequent 3D entry in the series; one of the most horror-oriented iterations of the entire Demoncastledraculavania series.
@@jackskelington19 My ADHD 12yo cousin had nightmares about the garden maze. My brother has a drinking problem and a fear of dogs, .. so it was entertaining watch him have nightmares when drunk in his mid twenties trying to slap a dog off his leg in his sleep.
@@ReluctantWarrior yes, indeed. I think that the atmosphere from the n64 titles is almost as oppressive as the one from Castlevania 3 on the NES. That eerie ost, the decaying scenery... Amazing!
This is why I really respect Arino from the Japanese Tv show Game centre CX... The guy who play retro games and try to finish them in within a day (well emphasis on the try because his reaction speed isn't as good). As you know based on video, the retro games that he play are those early gaming days where there aren't well established control for them yet. So most of them are janky and hard to play with. But Arino doesn't look at them as bad game designs, he doesn't see at a Nintendo game where button B is for jump and button A for action as a jank design, he would see them as the game's unique feature.. he truly love every game that he plays.
Have you ever watched the show? Arino dislikes the majority of the games he plays. The only games I'm 100% sure he liked were Parappa the Rapper and Tokimeki Memorial, and maybe Metal Slug.
@@awkwardcultism he doesn't hate them, he just dreaded playing some the games because he's not good at them. He's not good at game that requires good reflexes but enjoy slow pace games and puzzles. We all have our own preference.
Castlevania 64 was my first Castlevania experience I fully dived into and it was memorable to say the least. The sense of utter loneliness you get before the garden, your first dialogue, has stuck in my memory to this day. The first vampire you fight down to defeating the true final boss was as intense and rewarding as anything I've ever played in my 30+ years. Between the haunting intro music, the atmosphere, and the sheer intensity and payoff of the fights, it will forever be a stand out in my early love of gaming and horror fiction.
I’m so happy you made this video. Castlevania 64 takes up a large portion of my childhood memories and it has always bummed me out that the seemingly overwhelming majority of people don’t share the fondness I have for this game. Long in short, you hit the nail on the head with this.
Im glad you did this video. I never thought of how slow legend of zelda was with exception of how difficult it made the battle sometimes,it would clip or auto adjust really bad,I never had that problem in castlevania 64. I never understood the hate,I never thought of it as great but competent with its content. I really thought it was a really good as far as controls went but like most 64 stuff I wasnt impressed with the graphics.
I just finished it 2024 I had experienced it for the first time With the bad reputation my expectations were low but dear god did I really enjoyed it so much there are some aspects that shows their age but man the game is way over hated it doesn’t deserve that
Listen. If dark souls, today, had me walk*not run, not jump, not fall an ankle height lip* an item that will blow me tf up, allllllllllll the way to the boss door only to say I brought the wrong item first and I can't set this one down or do anything except whole ass reload my save, I would tell you its bullshit too.
THANK YOU! That part of the game cannot be defended. CV64 wasn't the worst game ever, but that part was truly what single-handedly solidified it as awful.
I always thought the 64 games were diamonds in the rough. Even as someone who was raised in the generation, I still found it to be a compelling challenge and incredibly atmospheric experience. But that Mandragora + Nitro part, god rest my pre-teen (at the time) heart.
Diamonds in the rough is a very good description (I've always enjoyed this unrefined type of experience a lot, personally). Applies to many games of that era imo.
@@RagnarRoxShow maybe play it on an actual N64 on an OEM cartridge, not an emulator as you clearly did in this video, and then have a chat at how it controls... this game is trash and even the designers have apologized for the character controller and rushed design lol
@@dr.decker3623I played Castlevani 64 on original hardware and loved it, as a kid, so my memory might not be super accurate. I also didn't beat the entire game. But I don't see what the emulator has to do with it; was the video recorded with macros or modified controller settings?
@@dr.decker3623 I actually played this game a few months ago on a n64 and honestly does not deserve all the hate it gets I honestly agree with him it only feels bad if compared to sotn
I gave this game a shot after watching the Digital Foundry video on it, since I'm completely obsessed with early 3D graphics in video games, I had to take a look. I remember stopping every other minute to take screnshots of interesting things I saw in the environment, from big things like the red full moon rovering over the buildings to small details like the furniture. I also remember one thing that stood out to me, you know how in the maze near the beggining of the game there's an encounter with Frankenstein's Monster? Where he chases the player with a chainsaw? If you take a detour from interacting with the trigger that makes him attack you (If I remember correctly, it's a gate you'll have to open) and explore the maze a little bit, you can actually see him taking care of some plants, his guard down, his behaviour gentle, he's just taking care of some plants. It's a shame there's no option to befriend him or bypass the fight at all (as far as I know) but it was a pretty cool bit of characterisation not often given to common foes in video games. I haven't finished the game yet, but I enjoyed it for what it is, certainly not the best Casltevania, but still a solid game that didn't deserve the amount of hate it got, lot's of enemy variety and amazing *atmosphere*
While I enjoy Castlevania 64 a bunch, you're embellishing certain aspects of it. The targeting system of LoZ:OoT not only allowed you to lock onto enemies, but reorientate your camera. Camera control is a big part of why CV64 can put people off. If you look at another Konami game that came out later, Hybrid Heaven, you only had a single option to orientate your camera and that was using the over the shoulder anti-robotics gun which is more often used to shift your camera angle. The controls can also not be as forgiving as you'd like in regards of grappling edges as well. These are flaws of the game, but it is something the player has to adapt to even if it isn't ideal. CV64 isn't a Metroidvania. You don't progress your character to open up new paths, you find key items to unlock doors from literal doors to blowing open holes in the wall. You look at Super Metriod and most of your progress is locked behind different items you obtain that you can utilize from opening doors. Such as jumping higher, grappling tractor beam blocks, firing progressively more powerful missiles, being able to augment your weapon to freeze enemies, and so on. What you start out in CV64 is what you are restricted to doing for the whole game compared to actual Metriodvanias. Lastly the similarities of the Souls series and CV64 are that they're dark themed 3D action games. More focus on battles, it isn't aiming to be a platformer, various equippable items that alter how you approach combat, and a stamina meter. With that said I believe CV64 deserves a fair shake since it is a good game, but it depends upon your tolerance towards 5th gen 3D games.
You can do the same as Ocarina lo lock on and reorientate with the same button, but in CV is R instead of Z. It's just better, more intuitive and satisfying in Ocarina than CV.
So, theoretically speaking, if a mod came out that implemented the OoT camera reorientation lock on, would that boost the game in terms of difficulty? Always wanted to play both Castlevania N64 games. Cheers!
@@CatterCattington In Castlevania there are keys for gates that aren't power-ups, some of them are levers, destroying a wall from the other side, and so on. The same in Dark Souls 1. I can think of many from SotN through the CVs from GBA and NDS. Your DOOM example is wrong because to be a metroidvania it needs to have elements of backtracking and level exploration involved, an interconnected world for example. Another element is having optional rewards behind said gates. DOOM doesn't have backtracking for optional rewards behind gates. Optional rewards are hidden as secrets which don't need backtracking or gate-keys to open. >"I hate it when people twist easily defined terms to suit their dumb arguments." We're only arguing on the definition of what is and what is not a Metroidvania. I haven't said ANYTHING about Castlevania 64 and I do not care for it. I only said that not having gate-opening-powerups don't make a game not be a Metroidvania. And don't kid yourself, Metroidvania is not an easily defined term, seeing the confusion you're having with powerups and this discussion.
@CodySwartzS Nothing wrong with that, everyone has their different opinions on Simon's Quest depending on if they've played it or just watched someone review it.
3d controls of this game were bad. Players had a taste on how to properly control a character in a 3d environment via Mario64. You can't say that people were still getting used to 3d thats why they don't like Castlevania64 cuz people were already enjoying mario64 at that time.
Although I do not agree with all points in this video, which is of course fine. I do have to say that your perspective of "Does the game achieve what it intents?" to be a whole lot more healthy way at everything in life and I am going to implement it in everything. Such a good way of looking things!
it's a really good way to critically look at media (though, not the be all end all, of course). Sometimes a game might be flawed or unappealing but manages to convey this one thing the developers set out to do, so it should be considered successful. Sometimes it has a great concept but doesn't manage to convey that, like the day and night cycle in Simons Quest for example. good idea, not very well executed (or whatever they acutally tried to convey in Last of us 2 O.o)
Ehhh... what if the game designers intend to do something that is not enjoyable? When trying to judge a game based on more objective criteria, "What did the designers intend" isn't a bad metric, but especially in the lack of interviews the devs give, it can still be pretty muddy. Best criteria is "Does this game appeal to the intended audience? And is there any unintended audience who like it?"
@@Sines314 Who decides whether it's enjoyable? A lot of people get a great deal of joy out of soulslike games, but the idea is the absolute least appealing thing I can think of. I like base-builders and explorers, but some people think that's the most boring idea ever invented. You can't really define what 'enjoyable' is, because even Train Simulator: This Year's Edition has a passionate and devoted fanbase that most other people look at a little funny. 'Enjoyable' doesn't have a definition you can point to that works for everyone, but 'works as intended' does.
I’ve rented this game dozens and dozens of times and LOOOOVED it. I knew everything about it by heart. The soundtrack is forever engrained in my head. For YEARS I hoped for a rental place near me to get the “director’s cut” version that came out a year after, but I never could get my hands on it sadly!
Castlevania 64 was gripping, atmospheric, punishing, and genuinely unsettling much of the time. The atmosphere alone encapsulated everything I was looking for in a Castlevania experience, and this is easily one of my favorites on the 64. I thought I was alone in loving this game, and it makes me so happy to see - many years later when the Castlevania 64 *could* have been buried beneath the folds of time - that I am not. ❤️ Thank you, Ragnar, for saying what needed to be said in a public forum.
I was gonna jump in here and give a shout out to this game as well bc i loved this game from the first moment i fired it up. That solo violin intro was haunting and u nailed it too. The atmosphere and FEEL of this game, made it more Castlevania to me then any other game on that alone. You can see what the developers were going for in this game and they succeeded. I was terrified of this game in a way i have never been since. That grating going up and locking u IN the castle wall - holy shit. Bravo, to the devs and thumbs down to the nay sayers. Castlevania 64 is easily one of my, if not favorite titles in the entire series.
@@vagabon5130 The moment, for me, which solidified how highly enthused I was for the game, was the large room in the mansion that is just empty except a couple of large tables windows with red curtains bl
C64 legacy of darkness was better in every way ! Loved turning into the werewolf and I had a Fever dream that there was a playable character that turned into a skeleton …
I played this game in 1998 and I can tell you that after that game Konami just couldn't make something better. I played all Castlevania games but this one has that unique dark ambiance and unique music that catches your spirit immediately. Just imagine this game with today's graphics, larger maps and longer missions. It will be outstanding.
I remember how they marketed Lament of Innocence as "solving" all of Cv64's problems, which they did by removing the game's soul and replacing it with mechanics half-heartedly copied from DMC. To call it disappointing would be an understatement.
I dunno man, this one was kinda weak. Calling the video "why everyone hates this game" and then just going "I won't even talk about the criticisms becaue they are invalid anyway." is just kind of a nothing burger? It's fine if you want to make a video about why you love the game, that's really cool, but why even frame the video with a title like that if you just dismiss the criticisms anyway? Similar thing with the Simon's Quest bit, even in the AVGN video the issue wasn't the night and day cycle existing, it was the obnoxiously slow message interrupting the gameplay out of nowhere, which made it feel more annoying than terrifying. Same thing with the platforming section in the beginning of Castlevania 64 (never played much of it, but I died there too lol), if the intention was to use this to teach the player to take it slow but almost nobody got it and gets frustrated instead - isn't that a failing of the developer anyway?
I found the game really ugly looking and lacked the pixel charm of the early side scrollers. I also found moving around weird and not great. If you enjoyed it, that's cool, but people do have their reasons for not liking this entry. Not every change to aesthetics and gameplay is going to appeal to everyone.
@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 True, but this was in 3D and for it's time with the limited hardware it was quite unique. The level design in this was pretty seamless as well which was quite a feat. Although the environments weren't as brightly colored in spots it still had a ornate dark aesthetic which I quite liked and really set the tone of it compared to Lament or even Curse which were just elevator/design access points to new areas.
blame popular youtubers starting a bandwagon of hate on the game. From the simple fact that it was different from what everyone was used to prior, the hate snowballed into a direction where the people who hate it likely never played it and just repeat the opinion they heard from a youtuber. It definitely wasn't the best game in the series, but it really wasn't that bad and was pretty solid
AVGN memes, he played the game like a jackass just to exagerate and presented it as much more janky than it is. He is the reason Simons Quest is hated on too. Other copycat reviewers just parrot him the same way everyone parroted Spoony's FF8 review.
@@silverdededestruction2197 Nah man that's not true at all. These games got heat from both fans and critics when they came out. It has nothing to do with RUclipsrs telling people what to like.
I played this game alongside OOT MM and SM64 at the time when i was a kid and i always knew of its greatness and loved the game and every time i replay it, theres always something for me to notice about it. i love its Atmosphere and its very dramatic slowburn cutscenes and Storytelling. it brings me joy everytime i find kindred spirits that recognize what i see in it too.
I know it was a bit rough at points, but I loved that game and bought both versions back in the days. It felt like I was truly in a haunted house setting. Something I never experienced on N64 before
2:01 "or the appendix in humans" What an NPC and mainstream thing to say: The appendix is actually really important, in contains the reserve biome to repopulate the digestive tract in case of an emergency. Those that have their appendix removed, are destined to a lifetime of gastro-intestinal issues after they hit their mid-thirties.
This is coming from someone who actually really loves castlevania 64, but i can't fully agree with your defense of the platforming. I do understand that 3D gaming was still in it's infancy, but my gripes with it was always the occasional button input problems. Also, just the general unpredictability that comes with the camera shifting against your will. Not to mention, narratively, the game was pretty weak. The two characters had their mission and their stories do have interesting scenes, but Reinhardt and Rosa don't get nearly enough screen time for us to care much about their relationship. Also, Carrie and Actrise share the same problem. Some of the puzzles were interesting on paper, but even when i was a kid something felt tacky about them. What you failed to include is that Castlevania 64 was rushed to completion which is why it has the jank that it has as well as why they made the Legacy of Darkness game later on. Legacy of Darkness brings more to the table by a landslide (although i feel final form dracula is a lot less interesting in LoD) So yeah i did paint a picture of the flaws i remember from my time playing it as a tween. I remember much because I played it obsessively and even emulated it years later to keep the memory fresh. Contrasting with my initial tone, I WILL agree with you that the game's bad reputation truly is unjust. Despite it's flaws, I will also agree with you that it ultimately did what it set out to do. It 1000% is a castlevania experience translated 1:1 to 3D.
pretty much my feelings as well Gutsy- no reason to defend it especially since Rondo and Symphony are two of the greatest games ever made so no reason to compare them really
I've always been a fan of these fog effects in early 3D games since they more often than not add to the atmosphere and give the games this really cool mystical feeling to them
Yeah! It was honestly a really great way to simultaneously add atmosphere and improve performance (by hiding draw-distance pop-in). Such a technique works better in some genres than others, but with horror/darker games it is a perfect fit! Like, imagine trying to play Silent Hill without the oppressively dense fog... it honestly adds SO MUCH to the tension of exploring the world and does other things to the experience indirectly like forcing you to get into the habit of listening harder for the monster-static as you approached new areas you weren't familiar with, and having to roughly memorize the layout of the path you just travelled should you need a fast retreat, etc. Imagine how much different the feeling of discovery in these games (CV64 and Silent Hill) would be if you could see buildings, POI's, and enemies from a mile away- I feel like it would actually make the world feel *more* hollow/gamey, and like the world was literally missing something (weather + fog impacting visibility) It's crazy to think about technical limitations ended up providing an experience that I do not think would have had the same success or acclaim if they weren't forced into creative workarounds like that d:
30:00 no. The day/night cycle was NOT loathed, the implementation, shoddy and ridiculously unskippable slowly written pop-up was, and it left a sour taste in peoples mouths. I love day/night cycles exactly because it makes the game feel more alive but fuck me if I had to skip a notification every time the day entered a new time of day I would throw that game in a fire.
Simon's Quest was horrendous, but I know in Castlevania 64 it was disliked because certain events/doors wouldn't trigger unless it was the right time, and if you used too many sun/moon cards to speed up the game, it would net you the bad ending. And then there's getting cursed by a vampire just before midnight.
I have to agree. While I also think Castlevania 64 is vastly underappreciated and agree with many of his points there is quite a few points in this video where I feel he is misrepresenting the arguments from those critical of it and with a general attitude that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
@@lepot23 love that game, too. I _personally_ don't think things such as the day/night cycle were as intrusive as people make them out to be. It was a novelty at the time; some like it, some don't. Besides, the transitions didn't occur THAT often, especially because the game had a slower pace. In fact, they were waaay shorter than load times on disc-based consoles, which couldn't be circumvented, as well - we just had to get used to them. Not the same thing, sure, just reminiscing. That said, I can see why it could bother some people. But, to each their own, of course. Having good, pleasant experiences is what matters. Peace.
As one of the asterisk people (bought both games on their respective launch days, replayed them multiple times), I have to say that suggesting the game's graphics are as good as Ocarina's and the camera not being awful sounds like the result of some high quality copium intake. The graphics are much blockier than Ocarina's, and aside from the player character models, I'd argue not as detailed. The game looks fine, however, due to its art direction. The camera, I honestly don't see how anyone can defend that. Even for its time, it was pretty horrible. Sure, there are cases where it's due to a user error like you point out in the video, but there are cases where it just loses track of what's happening and you die an unfair death as a result. To make matters worse, cameras from that era of gaming have aged terribly in general even if they were good for the time (poor Banjo) yet Castlevania 64/LoD still sticks out for its horrid camera compared to its contemporaries. That's not to say that I disagree with the video in general; as a matter of fact, I think it was a fantastic showcase of why these games are very underrated (a Castlevania game where you routinely fight VAMPIRES!) and get shat on unfairly. But the argument on why this is so works better if we're realistic about the game's shortcomings, rather than trying to sugarcoat all of the games' ugly aspects.
There are lots of dishonest takes in this one. I understand you want to convince people this game is amazing, but it clearly isn't if you play it on N64 and don't ignore half of the games released at the time. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, Thief were all released either before or at the same time and all had "smooth" animations for the time, not a single one inferior to Castlevania 64. This game ran like trash in the N64, it's unfair to other games when you compare them on their original consoles to CV64 on an emulator. You spent almost 1 hour praising this game without mentioning its lackluster main characters, absurdly infuriating camera and platforming. Liking a game doesn't make it a good game. You can enjoy bad games, I love so many games from my childhood, but I can't really say they were good games. Not every game we enjoy is a masterpiece or a hidden gem.
100%. It feels like he was going on and on about the graphics and the atmosphere, and while... sure, it looks nice... it didn't really *play* nice. No, it's not a Metroidvania game as it rather is a very linear A to B level transition sort of game with maybe 1 or 2 shortcuts you unlock as you go. No, it's also not "the first to really try 3D action combat" in this style as other contemporaries at the time did the same... and did it much better. He then utterly ignores the main points of critics of this game, seemingly as he knows them to be true but doesn't want to admit it... ...I, myself, wanted to like this game back in the day.
I’m not even far in and I could kinda tell this was what the vid might shape up to be. Like, the fact it tried things when there wasn’t yet a rulebook on 3D action games doesn’t make it an innovator. That’s an excuse for why the game can be bad. Conventions and design choices made in CV64 are not in the blood of its genre just because it was a game that existed. Something like Demon’s Souls isn’t perfect and now that future installments exist doesn’t hold up as well, but what’s crucial is that creative and design decisions going back to Demon’s Souls resonated. The same cannot be said of CV64. With Demon’s Souls, DNA from it carried forward into all the From games and numerous non-From imitator games since then. The same cannot be said of CV64, I can’t say it has anything that the industry or its own franchise gained from it or credit to it, other than a stumble to learn from next time, on the way to the more positive-leaning, but still mixed-reception future 3D entries, like Lament and Curse. I can entertain “CV64 isn’t as bad as people think” but “it’s not too bad at all” and it being innovative I think are generous to a fault.
I'm one of the few that rly enjoyed this game! 😅 I beat this game 6 times at least back to when I was about 13 yrs old. I loved it that much lol. Ok, I understand where some of the hate come from whit those insane glitches that sometimes even force you to restart the whole game. 🙄But other then that I loved the atmosphere & mystery this game had.
@@ratreides6353 I actually didn't mind the nitroglycerin part as much as others. The hardest part was staying in between the cogs. Then again, I was 15 and had oodles of time compared to now.
@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 what??? Its better then the 2d games, and on par with the LoS games. If only we can have a remastered of Legacy Of Darkness.
Idk if we're playing on the same hardware, but Castlevania 64 ran significantly worse than OoT and that's just a fact. OoT ran at a locked 20, with dips to be sure, but it was consistent in sometimes entire sections. Outside of literally two rooms across every dungeon in the game, I've never experienced a framerate dip just by being in a level. The drawbridge section of the Fire Temple and the main room in the Water Temple Outside of indoor areas, Castlevania 64 almost never even semi-consistently hits its target framerate. There are no levels where the framerate doesn't have several points where it TANKS to 20 FPS itself. A semi consistent 20fps with random dips is a HELL of a lot better then the absolute fucking insanity that Castlevania 64 was. Unless the re-release a year later cleared up some performance issues
performance is definitely fixed a large deal in Legacy of Darkness. However it does dip in some areas, especially the lava splashes in the Tower of Execution section or if you turn the game settings to "Hi-Rez" mode.
A fantastic documentary. Great delivery, vast vocabulary, while very clearly thoroughly researched. I am, too, pleased to share that I mirrored your love for the villa corridor as a child.
The four reasons people don't like it are understandable, the camera is awful (not the worst but by this point we already had Zelda and Mario which were leagues ahead) the platforming is pretty bad (especially considering the camera issues), puzzles aren't particularly clear (no map really hurts the pull a lever to open a gate in earlier area mechanic) and that stupid nitro part where you can't run, jump or get hit or face instant death was just frustrating, actively ruining an otherwise excellent part of the game. It fully deserves it's high 70s/low 80s review scores but not the universal hate it seems to garner.
I remember my older brother buying this game when it came out and letting me play it as a kid. If it wasn't for this game I wouldn't be so into the castlevania series as I am now. The one part that is still burned into my mind is how scare I was when I had to go back into that stupid garden maze because I knew frankenstein was there, hearing his foot steps getting closer was terrifying as a kid! To me this game will always hold a special place in my heart. I even decided to speed run it after seeing people doing it, I might not be the fastest, but I'm happy with my personal best of 4hrs.
This was my 1st castlevania game at age 8 and i had no memory card. Each time i died i had to restart from the beginning if i remember correctly 😂 i managed to become super good at it and beat it with Carrie. To this day i still love Carrie and wish she was actually part of Lore. Actrise the witch is still my fav witch of all time and i always model my characters after her in MMOs.
I have just started the video so I haven't watched everything yet. But although I understand you're trying to smash a myth about CV64 - and it truly isn't a bad game, I'm here exclusively because I'm looking to listen to a lucid point - , you can't do that by spreading yet another myth about its canon standing, my guy. At around 3:50 you say that Igarashi kept CV64 out of canon because "it was a side-story", and how that is an "incredibly heartless, graceless and cold-blooded thing to do fellow creatives who built this series alongside him", as if it were his sole personal choice. Which of course is a very popular myth in itself, and omiting of information, because Igarashi explained that he treated CV64 as a side-story because that's what was _intended to be treated as by its developers,_ an equal situation to Circle of the Moon, and the only game he did in fact exclude for lack of quality being Legends - the source for all three statements being a statement to 1UP and Konami Magazine. We later see Cornell on Judgment because, again according to Igarashi, CV64 properly captures the worldview of Castlevania and canon didn't matter for that context, demonstrating he didn't actually "look down" on it or something. I feel there's an unwillingness to look at the dude with a bit more honesty just because "my fave game is not canon". He didn't just say "it's not canon because side-story", your own point about Bloodlines proves this is not enough motive. He said it's not canon because he treats it like its **developers intended**, and it can be very well the case that they STILL intended that to be true for CV64 at the time a timeline was established. Don't forget- These people were all working together at that time and could very well have given their input. Igarashi was RESPECTING their wishes, not ignoring them. Imagine thinking adding the game to a timeline DESPITE the creators saying not to do it is "respecting" them. I'll avoid projecting my assumptions on you. I'm here to have a good time with your video. But I'm already a bit turned off, not gonna lie, and the appending of adjectives to IGA's name ("Lord", "God Emperor") does make me think you believe the guy is an egotistical hack for no good reason other than you like CV64 a lot and is bummed it's not canon.
Well, I finished it. I gotta say the video isn't as bad - like the game itself it's defending. But there were some amazingly ridiculous gems like 28:40, where you say SotN takes the entire game to show a huge impressive/scary boss when Granfalloon exists, shows up on the first castle itself, is bigger than Dracula, AND is set up to appear in such a way as to shock the player. It's not worth writing a "rebuttal" to every single pearl I heard. I'll leave a like but dear god does this video sound like an exercise in devil advocacy. EDIT: Coming back to this video after a week for a rewatch. I'm taking away the like, this video is not that great at all. Who wrote this had an axe to grind and, in the way, wrote way too much nonsense (the whole "this game is a metroidvania actually" bit is hilariously terrible to anyone who actually played CV64. The game BENEFITS from being linear and dressing it as a metroidvania is a disservice to it). I'm also told that this video in special is a nosedive from the rest of the channel's quality, but I don't know because this is the first one I watched and I'm not very inclined to return.
As someone who just watched a Tomb Raider retrospective. Castlevania 64 doesn't have the same jumping mechanics and polish at all. Tomb Raider had grid or rather square design for everything. You jumps and movement in every variation were very specific. Something like short jump one square, long jump 2 squares and running 3 squares with grab. Castlevania 64 on other hand looks very loose and very unprecise with platform placement and distance. Tomb Rider also had very deliberate and i would say slow controls. Personally never played the game and it's flaws were probably exaggerated. But while this video is fun to watch, it feels like this might be the case of analysis tunnel vision. Aka you get so deep into analysis that everything seems to click into place, but you need to step back and see that the thing just doesn’t work or isn't really that good. Still appreciate your personal look on games, it's always great to see a different perspective.
Ultima 8 had unprecise jumps. This game here didn't. Just because the jumps aren't exactly tile/unit normalized doesn't make them unprecise, otherwise Mario 64 would be unprecise. And that's just *silly*. Most platformers have unfixed jump distances for a reason! Tomb raider went fixed ALSO for a good reason, in that the jumps were more "puzzly", so it made sense to have it more fixed. It was a way to get the Indiana Jones feeling across, of puzzling out the room and figuring out the traps. That's better done with movement that can always be planned ahead perfectly. Castlevania is not going for that.
@@fy8798 Just because something more garbage exists, doesn't mean jumps were good in this. They don't look easy or enjoyable to control. That's my whole point of Tomb Rider being a bad comparison about jump precision. This is the whole problem with this discussion. Maybe not all game elements are good, but also not all of it is garbage. Saying one of it's aspects is better than complete trash isn't making a point for it's case, it only makes it look worse.
I know I'll probably never meet you in real life, but if I ever do, I hope you'll let me shake your hand and buy you a drink. Castlevania 64 and Castlevania Legacy of Darkness have always been games I loved and always knew were good - even if the entire internet hated them. You have put in this video aspects of the game which I have said to others who have merely dismissed me as having rose tinted glasses.
A good lesson to learn is that most people on the internet are just plain stupid. Most of them have never even played these games and I have never seen a video of a person that hates the N64 games play it with any level of skill approaching my own. They hate it because they are completely incompetent.
@@davidaitken8503 I'd argue that most ppl who talk shit have never played it and just saw the AVGN video and adopted the opinion of a fictional character lol
@ZAMN "rose tinted glasses", with a Rocky Horror reference in the video... Icing on the cake (there's a song in the Rocky Horror Picture Show called Rose Tint My World lol) as I listen to one of my favorite games get praised lol thank you
@@moneenerd Yup. Exactly. They not only take what these RUclipsrs say as gospel, but these jokers are so bad at playing the game that they can't help but make the game look bad in the footage they show. You should always learn how to play a game a bit before you start filming. It's genuinely painful to watch just how bad and incompetent these people are.
@@davidaitken8503 well you gotta also remember that AVGN is a character and he often over exaggerates the poor quality for laughs and entertainment so his opinions shouldn't be taken that seriously. But ppl take AVGN far too seriously constantly. Just take a look at the Truth About Cinemassacre subreddit or whatever the fuck it's called 😂
The mark of the hackfraud is that they always go for Dark Souls comparisons, rather than Demon's Souls, which is what actually started the series. Especially relevant here because Demon's Souls draws a lot from Symphony of the Night.
Dark Souls is the one where the formula worked. The interconnected world, facilitated by being the only souls game where you can't teleport around from the start, is an incredibly important feature. Even among the Souls genre, Dark Souls stands alone. While I'm here, SOTN is extremely overrated. Super Metroid is the real foundation of the genre, and predates SOTN. There is nothing to learn from SOTN that cannot be learned from Super Metroid, other than what not to do, like, don't let players level up without exploring.
@@TheMisterGuy Super Metroid has a big importance of that, after all, the genre IS called METROIDvania. But SotN mixed this kind of game progression with RPG elements that greatly enhanced the depth and replayability of the genre, allowing for different builds for example. So, no, I'd say SotN isn't overrated. It just highlights already good aspect of Metroid while putting a shitton more over it.
@@agnuswulf I think that's where I disagree. For me SOTN missed almost every opportunity. I'll talk about three big ones: Level-up System, Builds/Stats, and Weapons. The level-up system in SOTN ruined the game for me on my first playthrough. The first couple of bosses, from Slogra and Gaibon up to the level 10 Alucard clone, were great fun and good challenge. After that, I got lost and wandered around the castle, then stumbled into a boss. I don't even remember which, but I killed it in two seconds because getting lost and wandering leveled me up. Compare to Super Metroid, where exploration levels you up, so this effectively never happens. SOTN has character stats that increase when you level up, but there aren't really "builds" in the game. You don't choose how the stats grow. You don't change your play style based on the stats. Compare to Nioh, where you're boosting stats and unlocking skill trees, and this sets you up with certain strengths and weaknesses that inform your playstyle. Each playthrough can feel like a different character class. And then weapons. SOTN weapons, aside from a few broken ones like Shield Rod and Crissaegrim, are mostly just variations on range, speed, and damage. Super Metroid has way fewer beam upgrades and alternate fire modes than SOTN has swords, but each one does something significantly interesting and different. Or compare to Ninja Gaiden, where each weapon Ryu gets has a whole different move set that can be effective if you figure out which moves best capitalize on each enemy's weaknesses while not exposing you to their attacks. Now look at SOTN, with like a hundred weapons, and most of them are just bland variations. Different color particles. Longer reach or faster recovery or higher damage. They don't affect your play style. So that's where I am on this. The music is awesome. The art, although many sprites are from previous games, still looks great for the most part and has a ton of variety. The environments are beautiful. And all of this holds up just fine 25 years later. I don't think it's a bad game, I just don't think it deserves to be considered an innovator in the genre, because I have trouble identifying actual contributions that would influence future games other than just generally being polished like a mirror.
13:30 On emulation, as with most N64 games, there are amazing HD Texture Mods for this game that make this game look in quality of a PS2 in graphics (still blocky, as N64 is, can't fix that). If you can, would look into it. It makes older games shine. Fan communities with mods, makes things stay fresh.
Hang on--how is it "cruel and heartless" of Iga to choose not to count a particular game in the main timeline, and why exactly shouldn't Bloodlines count? Also, I DARE you to try and convince me that if any game today forced you to slowly walk--not run, not jump, not drop down from a one-inch ledge--all the way to the boss door, while carrying an item that will blow you the fuck up, through numerous other hazards, only to say you brought the wrong item first and you can't set this one down or do anything except reload your goddamn save, that you wouldn't call the game bullshit.
Bloodlines was a spin off. So were the Dracula X games. So there's a good reason why Bloodlines shouldn't count (although I think it should count, I'm just saying it's logical for it to not count given it was a side game). Ironically the 64 game was not a side game, it was mainline and had a hell of a lot more in common with the original Castlevania games than the IGA titles did. As for your second paragraph, by that logic many, many games are worthless down to having one clumsy stage or section. I guess SotN is a trash dumpster fire of a game just because the Inverted Castle is terribly designed? Or because it's near non existent balancing can be broken wide open in the first 10 minutes? Or because many rooms are copy/paste empty corridors with nothing but damage sponge enemies inside?
I'm sorry, but I can't buy into this idea that Castlevania 64 was in any way impressive. It came out 2 years after Symphony of the Night, 3 years after Dead or Alive & Tomb Raider, and the same year as Final Fantasy VIII. What does it accomplish that those games don't do vastly better?
I'm so happy you made a video on Castlevania 64. I remember playing it way back as a wee lad. Didn't have a developed enough brainstem to progress far into the castle, but I always remember the intro sequence, the giant skelly boss, the goofy bike skellies. The environment as the player walks through the forest during a dreary night was memorable giving a sense of wonder and unease, never knowing what was deeper in the castle but always returning to the game to try and find out. Back then I wasn't able to appreciate the game. If I were to play it again now I think my experience would be vastly different now that 3D games have become much more normal.
That violin intro screen literally sent shivers down my spine. I never realized how much of a formative memory this game held for me. Also I would replay the first segment a million times cause I sucked, so the game for me was mostly giant ape skeleton with motorcycle skellies. Amazing stuff.
personally: the first C64 has nostalgia going for it, and thats all. its VERY rough around the edges and feels rushed (hence the sequel/ gaiden release 10 months later), which is understandably forgivable considering its the 2d-3d transition and that was hit or miss at the time. 2ds are a safe/comfort zone for this series... its been done over and over so the "blueprint" is ingrained in gamers and game makers alike. my personal issues: ~camera angles ~camera control ~player control ~climbing/hanging (no that NEEDS to be its own bullet point) and little things here and there depending on which character you use and where you are in the game (such as Reinhardt's 2 levels after the Castle Center and the limited/ NO SAVE POINT on top of the issues i mentioned above) CV64:LOD vastly improves, fixes and enhances many elements from its "predecessor" unfortunately, unless you're a fanatic of the Franchise, you probably felt burned from the unfinished and incomplete mess that preceded it and moved on and though a lot was improved there are now a few different issues i have: ~Queen Algenie's (first form) initial grab and life drain... ~Cornell's rival Ortega can stun lock if too close when he swats you down ~Dracula Ultimate... how in the Fu¢k can you avoid many... no, ALL of its attacks? (shoutout to the uppercut that puts Tyson to shame) again, those are the most frustrating PERSONAL issues that you might/ might not agree with but it is a drastic improvement over the greasy horror show that is Castlevania 64 ... WTF did i write so much, apologies
Hey there. Lifelong Castlevania 64 fan here. I really enjoyed the video and was glad to see someone with any sort of platform step up to bat for this game, and I really do appreciate the effort you put into it, but I do have a lot to say about it. Yes, Castlevania 64 is a weirdly maligned entry in the series that has a lot of strengths that are oft ignored in favor of exacerbating its faults. It's atmosphere and music is excellently done - that violin cover of Opposing Bloodlines on the title screen easily makes 64 my most favorite in the series for title screens alone (and the fact Legacy of Darkness took it away forever frustrates me, arggh!). However, for its time it's not the most gorgeous looking game out there for the N64. It's not bad looking by any stretch and where they really put their money to it (such as Giles de Rais' dramatic COME, MEET YOUR DOOM moment) it shines brilliantly. On the other hand, other times the game is lacking in detail, such as the extremely low-poly Hydra Skeleton in the gatehouse. It's good to praise the visuals when they land, but you felt a bit over-compensating for it. Moreover, though, I was extremely put off by specifically your potshots on Ocarina of Time? They felt unnecessary and mean spirited. Castlevania 64 doesn't need to bring Ocarina of Time down just to stand taller, and what's more is they honestly felt really dishonest. Yes, Ocarina of Time struggles to keep its 20FPS rate. Yes, it occasionally can dip below that, all while Castlevania 64 generally keeps a strong solid 30 the whole time - but Ocarina's combat encounters don't rely on fast, snappy framerates to be satisfactory. Enemies are slow, methodical, and are often about correct and clever item utility instead of reflexes. Frame drops are also very uncommon in the game to really notice them impacting the moment to moment gameplay regardless - you're not going to flub a jump or beef an attack because of a Blight Town tier chug on your hardware. And really, a shot at Z-Targeting? Z-Targeting did right in 1998 what most games even NOW still struggle to get right. It's snappy, fast, responsive, and it keeps the enemy perfectly in focus with you the entire time. To bring this back to Castlevania 64, its combat IS kind of crappy, it is easily the weakest part of the game imo. Your movement is floaty and slippery, your character's responsiveness isn't the best, and most of all, enemies are FAST. Chainsaw Frankenstein can easily stunlock you to death, the vampire minibosses can bite-grapple much the same, and while your subweapon and main attack auto-aim is decent, you just don't feel as in control of the situation as is comfortable for a 3D action game. This also goes directly against the slow and methodical take-your-time approach the platforming often requires, a point I did agree with you thoroughly on. On top of all this, the feedback is just poor, especially for Carrie's magic laser balls and Reinhardt's shortsword side weapon. Lastly, this game is NOT a Metroidvania. It is extremely linear. Each zone has some degree of exploration to it, yes, but once you move beyond that zone you often can not go back to the previous one, and when you can do that there is never any point or need to it. Shortcut doors looping back around to earlier parts of a stage do exist, but they're totally self contained, and most of the areas in the second half of the game like the Towers are totally linear as well, with no exploration at all. Lastly, the game has a critical flaw in comparison to Dark Souls for its difficulty. When you die in CV64, there are no checkpoints. You go back to your last save - which is a fixed point, as there is no manual saving. It is very easy to lose a large chunk of progress do to less that snappy controls or design and die to a cheap death. In Dark Souls this teaches you a lesson, yes, but your progress is not lost per se. Souls can be reclaimed. CV64 doesn't do that, and some areas like the Drider cave can be exceptionally stingy with savepoints. Again, there's a lot to defend in Castlevania 64... but don't exaggerate to cover for its flaws either. This game is no masterpiece. It's a solid 7/10 sort of experience, one that is fun but also often frustrating and not constructively so. Beyond those shortcomings, however, is a good game, and one that needs to be broken free from its poor public image. I too do wonder how this reputation came to pass, because as you said, it reviewed fine back in the day. I know for a time in the 2000s there was a backlash against ANY 3D Castlevania, including IGA's own admissions to the series Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, but both of those games eventually got the recognition they deserve. I hope one day CV64 can get that as well. Shit, it deserves it better than the derivative mess that is Lords of Shadow anyway.
CV64 is one of those games that I rented multiple times as a kid even though I was never very good at it and never even got that far. That opening area with the skeletons is still one of the most nostalgic gaming memories I have.
I actually want a re-release / remaster of both Castlevania 64 + Legacy of Darkness. I prefer Legacy of Darkness more than Castlevania 64, but I enjoy the heck out of both of them and have never changed my opinion on that for a long time :D Castlevania 64 was one of the games I got along with a used N64 in Highschool, and it was wild to me back then.
Imagine these games receiving the Nightdive Studios treatment! I like to imagine that happening in an alternate reality, for the way things are, it's easier to expect Konami releasing a CV64 Pachinko Edition :(
I loved this game, no matter what everyone said. I loved the soundtrack and mostly I loved how each character had unique encounters. I liked how Reinhardt had the Rose segment, and how Carry fought against Actrise on top of the tower, I remember I loved her design! And Silvester Stalone-like 2nd dracula form always made me chuckle. But yeah, that OST, a total banger.
"take your time" it doesn't matter how long you take to line up your jumps sometimes the collision detection will simply not work. there is no amount of preperation that will fix this. your video would be a lot better if you ackowledged the actual faults like these.
I appreciate you're framing C64 as a bold experiment but I have to vehemently disagree with alot of your assessments. It was not a trendsetter: Many contemporary or even earlier games had DONE what C64 did in appearance, gameplay, and theme. Scale and Scope first...because I am actually deeply and personally offended by your brazenly incorrect assertion at 28:50. You MUST be joking. By comparison, we have Demon's Crest's first scene. It's bloody tutorial is a fantastic example of cinematic dread. Out the gate you fight a giant freaking zombie dragon stomping onto screen. Additionally, we have Kraid from Super Metroid emerged in behemoth grandeur. We also have SotN, which included Granfaloon, Beelezebub, Galamoth, and Olrox as examples of giant bosses that took up many screens. A giant skele awkwardly waddling past is hardly ground breaking, imposing, or operatic. Appearance: Seems disingenuous, no matter how technically skilled some of the tech work was. Using Mario 64 is a GREAT example of a much earlier version of a 3D game on the N64 that in many ways look better. Gameplay: NO. Nonononono. That game PLAYED like garbage and was not a TREND SETTER for 3D gaming or platforming. Even the clips you use, you can see the difficulties in enemy targeting and use of the whip subweapons. Your argument at 40:30 is absolute nonsense. Compare to other earlier 3D titles. Mario64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Zelda64 pulled it off better. Resident Evil is a great example as well, with a style choice of ponderous and deliberate. Heck, MediEvil had already shown up to say nothing of Spyro and Crash Bandicoot as terrific examples of how to make a 3D character NOT play like a wooden marionette thrown down some stairs. Point being: There were MANY 3D games already out and about to show these things could be handled. Atmosphere: Subjective but NOPE. Nuh uh. Veto. C64 shoots itself in the foot 10 min into the game. Ooohhhh scary moody setting then...MOTORCYCLE SKELETONS! Oohhh isnt it ZANY!? Like a CHAINSAW ARMED FRANKENSTEIN. Sticking to contemporaries and ignoring the SplatterHouses and Demon's Crests of earlier generations, Soul Reaver is a far better example of setting a gothic mood in a 3D, navigable environment. In short: C64 is a mediocre game, at best. It was neither brave, nor bold, merely awkwardly executed. Even attempts to make it seem "deliberate" as if it were new, is not the case. Prince of Persia, Blackthorne, and other cinematic platformers existed before hand. Making it difficult to make your character perform simple tasks (due to controls or wonky camera) should not be viewed as a positive. Conversely, within the same franchise, Simon's Quest WAS a trend setter in an era of pushing the boundaries and defining what made videos and that particular genre. It was only number two, after all. From it, many others adopted elements and refined them, such as the RPG, shop, and other elements. By the time of C64, games had developed and the franchise had evolved. This game SHOULD be viewed as the Pager of the Castlevania series. In response to your: IGNORING THE VALID CRITICISMS OF SOMETHING IS NOT A VALID BASIS FOR PROCLAIMING ITS GREATNESS, particularly based on a flawed assertion of groundbreaking novelty.
This was the first Castlevania I ever played and it will always have a place in my heart. 64 and Legacy of Darkness were both fantastic. Yeah Symphony is definitely my favorite, but I adore the 3D titles as well.
nobody was "wrong" about castlevania 64 lmao. what is with gamers and trying to reclaim mediocre titles as hidden gems? I like a ton of stuff that people think are mediocre but I'm not gonna go "this game is actually a masterpiece!" 64 had the worst introduction ever with the awful forest level and the fucking mandragora quest is some of the worst shit in videogame history. not to mention all the obtuse gameplay mechanics the devs admitted that they kinda messed up with (a lot of it was due to time constraints and how hard the videogame leap to 3D was) it and bounced back with the better kinda re-release, kinda sequel castlevania legacy of darkness
Every time I see a video about how everyone was wrong about it just further proves why everyone was right. You want to like a bad game? Go ahead. You want to have nostalgia for a bad game? By all means. But please. Don't try and say the bad game is good just to pretend you have some extra special intellectual quality that sees what _hoi polloi_ don't. And yes I used gratuitous Greek to act like I'm smarter than you. _That's how easy it is._
I never know where to stand with videos of this kind of scope....on one hand I more than agree that the perception of many games is largely based on what people have said about it over the years, and not based on actual experience. That part is unfortunate, nor do I think popularity is the most important criteria to judging quality. On the flipside the "millions of people were wrong, and I have the *real* scoop" is kind of arrogant and presumptive, especially when it's based on erroneous details.
I adored this game and the sequel. I played these games so much as a kid, unlocking all the characters and stories. What a blast. It really is a shame so many people hate it.
I've been watching for so long that I remember you headbanging to SoTN's boss theme on camera lol. You, Extra Credits and Game Theory were literally the first channels I subscribed to on youtube. I remember I found you cause Game Informer shared one of your videos, tho I don't remember which. I really appreciate your videos, you have no idea how much, keep up the good work.
I don't think the "early 3d" excuse for the poor camera/controls/plaforming carries much water. This game came out after Mario 64, Tomb raider 1, 2, 3, Spyro, Banjo kazooie, etc Like all bad games, it has a lot of good and interesting features, they just don't sum to make a good game.
In this video you praise the idea of a feature a lot, when the execution is very very lacking. The day and night cycle in Simons Quest is a really great IDEA but in execution its tedious and breaks up the game. Crediting a game for trying new things is fine, but dont act like it wasnt far off target in practice.
I hear what you're saying, but also please consider that the first innovative step in any medium is almost always a misstep. The only way you can get a *good* day+night cycle is to even have one to iterate upon in the first place, as you'll never have one if you are afraid of making that misstep. It's the *unwillingness* to go beyond *anything* but the tried and true of what succeeded before that causes any IP of any medium to stagnate and quickly become accused of lazily producing their franchise via "copy+paste" before riding the IP right into the grave because of fear of upsetting their formula. So, yeah, the day+night text screen in CV2 was interruptive, slow, and long- I am in agreement there, as it definitely and desperately needed some iterative tweaks- but the potential for what it could open up for Castlevania (in terms of world interactivity)? That was kind of insane! Just poorly executed lol And for that, I applaud the ambition that went into the idea, and am truly sad to see it never was polished and reincorporated- probably largely in part of the community being so loud with their immediate grievances with it and failing to see the same potential that the devs saw in the mechanic that the devs simply decided to never consider having the mechanic ever return; at least that's my observation on how things shook out.
Made it further into the video now: since I disagree with you and apparently you’ll compare my opinion to Prager U who are trash humans and dishonest interlocutors, I guess I don’t need to watch you. Some games can just be “not great” or even “average”. You don’t need to overcorrect in the other direction. Maybe it’s not unplayable, but tbh you’re doing the same thing you’re accusing others of. When this was new nobody was doing anything for “the clicks”, the world didn’t exist the way it does now, not everything was a cynical attempt to grab attention dishonestly, which is ultimately what you’re doing and seem very preoccupied thinking about.
So, I appreciate your perspective, but I think it's hyperbolic to assume that all arguments against cv64 are in bad faith. I've played Legacy of Darkness and I adore enjoyed it, but it IS a clumsy platformer by virtue of being a 3d N64 platformer. It's easy to fall and die on those platforms at the beginning of the game even if you're being careful and taking it slow because of the momentum you leave platforms with. And CV2 isn't hated just because it's a meme, the game is a badly translated, confusing game with weird esoteric mechanics that are almost impossible to figure out on your own. Like the part where you need to kneel with a crystal to summon the tornado.
I would love to see a remaster/remake of cv64/LoD though. I played through Legacy on a PC emulator with a keyboard, and playing through the game with no analogue stick was... Challenging. But I still really loved it, and I'd love if more people got the chance to love it.
As a fan of the game, you're right that it's platforming is a bit too clunky but it's difficulty is blown way out of proportion. You have to be very deliberate in your approach kind of like in those old cinematic platformers like Out of This World and Blackthorne. I used to breeze through this game once I got used to the platforming. Of course nowadays these types of mechanics are far more forgiving so it's hard to go back to old platformers like this
I'll be honest, I'm glad a found your channel a while ago, thanks to you I found a serie I am happy to call one of my all time favorites, Fatal Frame. Was watching some top 10 horror games moments videos, and RUclips decided to recommend your video regarding the first Fatal Frame, and from there, the rest is obvious, always waiting for your new vids, and been trying to play a lot of the games from your vids. Cheers and best of luck Ragnar, you're doing an awesome job being a modern day folklorist :D
I remember this game getting praise when it was released. I loved it. I loved the story, the interaction with NPC's, the twist ending, the final boss, the music, the environment, everything. And the DLC-like sequel "Legacy of Darkness" was even better. It wasnt until online gamer "Reviews" started cropping up that the negativity was amped up. Great video!
Look, this game came out in 1999. That's a year after Half-Life. It wasn't ground breaking in any way. It was dated, clunky, and boring for its time and it still is. It had a boring plot, bad controls, bad music, bad graphics, I could go on forever. People weren't wrong about this game or the other n64 Castlevania. They are both bad games. They're not the worst games on the n64, but they're still bad.
Looks like I'm going to be the bad guy here. But as much I liked the video and got the points, but the sheer dodging of the games problems and excusing them does not make the point correct. Liking the game is fine, but it's always good to acknowledge a games faults (I like Circle of the Moon, so I know what I'm saying). The controls and camera were clunky and the early era gaming of 'what do I do now?' is still a great problem. I don't know if you were deliberate or not, but watching your game play is pretty much evident as well. It may not be 'as bad' as people say it is but it's still not as good as you say it is. Still, good to see people liking this game.
The atmosphere for this games is brilliant, and the art direction of the small moments in the game are beautiful, blink and you miss it, like the rose garden, the time changes etc. Theres greatness in the game, but the gameplay is bad, yes it is, thats just a fact, and the platforming control is just bonkers, as the camera is just jankey as hell. Ive smashed this game and legacy of darkness, no easy feat, trust me. The direction is there, and the story is there also, i love the rebieth of dracula, i love the old vampire hunter who can can be a vampire if you fail in segemnts in the game, the trader who can claim your soul of you spend too much etc... This game would be the oerfect candidate for a remake. Keep the art direction as the focus but use a game engine that works.
I kinda blame AVGN for the hate on this game. I think it's one of the best offerings on the N64. The camera is what can make this game a chore but overall it's a fantastic game considering it was the first 3d entry of the series.
I really love this game to, but LOD a little bit better. The ship scene, the forest section and the grafics are better. Unfortunately the Reinhardt game has no voice acting and the “courage dont leave me“ line is sadly missing. You know what also helped for the atmosphere? The fact that you can inspect a lot of things a la Resident Evil. To this day I find new things to inspect. For example the fence in front of the mansion and the sacks of grain in the castle wall level. But please explain me this, and it has bothered me my whole live, howcome if Cornell jumps in the coffin you wind up at the outer wall of the castle? I can imagine the sewers of the caves, but high up at the outer wall? Do you have a explanation? 😅
As someone who played this when it came out, as of now I'd disagree, I still don't think this was as good game. But it's also been years and years since I last played it, so it's possible my opinion could change with fresh eyes as it were. Most of what I recall about the game was the terrible camera that messed up the platforming.
I never played it but saw Symphony of the Night looking absolutely incredible in magazines. I had both consoles. Castlevania 64 looked awful. Never even rented it. It may be better than "awful" but when we had the two choices in front of us, it was easy to go to the PlayStation title.
Creator kind gives it points as appreciating it from a current perspective. Soul Reaver came out like 5 months later. Could be argued that is the better and more influential game. Great vid still.
serious question and I'm hoping to get a serious response. Why do so many YTers make videos with voice overs that sound like they are whispering?? I dont get it
You're making a lot of effort trying to justify the "artistic accomplishments" that the team managed for an early 3d title. Which might be convincing if Thief, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid hadn't all been released months earlier, games I would argue are objectively more developed in their aesthetics and aptitude at presenting early 3d video games; even with MGS being on ostensibly worse hardware. N64 is simply not great hardware to present the more serious stylings of the Castlevania franchise, and comparing the visuals here to Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness makes this abundantly clear.
It's been a veeeeeeeeery long time I dreamed to see someone defending Castlevania 64 and Legacy Of Darkness as I always did (and still do), demonstrating how these games are such underrated gems. Thank you for this video, indeed !🤩😍
I remember playing a bit of LoD a year or so ago, and going "oh, huh, where's the part that sucks?" I got killed by my own impatience plenty of times, but I ended up loving Cornell as a character and never really figuring out why the game got bashed as much as it did, aside from some jank that was caused by my aforementioned impatience. At the time I chalked it up to LoD being the fixed version, but now I'm not so sure.
Dude I loved this game since I first played it. Reindhardt was my first choice. My buddies hated it but when they stayed over on fridays they’d cheer me on to see me fight to the next boss and unravel its secrets. This was MY game in the n64 era. Thank you for this video!!!
From me I feel like a lot of my friends start it with this game in other words for a lot of my friends of my this was their introduction to the franchise
19:57 also love how you gave that motor-skelly that epic FLAMEWALL behind XD got to love it, but hey the mighty REINHARDT also deserve his own badass flaming wall i know the part of the motorcycle skeletons may come as a little cheesy and always got to wander if this kind of motorcycle truly existed in that type period where Legacy of darkness it's supposed to take place ???? ? ? but got to also give a token for just plain badassery
I always loved this game, I never had a problem with it, to me it was the cinematic version of Castlevania, yeah it doesn't beat the other ones, but for what it is, it's an awesome game, I remember renting it still from Blockbuster, and it's sequel as well, and loved that one also, I just think at the time it wasn't good cause people were interested in other things, but if people gave it a chance today, they'll think differently about it. 🧐
I must say that this video cleared my eyes of hating a game for no reason. First time I saw this game was avgn or someone like that. And never gave it a second look. Now I really want to try this game, Im always up for a good or decent metroidvania, not enough 3d ones out there.
I was around 13 when my friends and I played this one; one of the first games to genuinely creep me out due to its very strong atmosphere, achieved through a combination of setting, music, and general ambiance. When you read up on its development history it's also remarkable how ambitious the game was for its time, both what made it into the game and what got cut. Had it been attempted maybe a generation later it's interesting to think if it could have had its controls and camera smoothed out a bit and become a more widely-accepted success. How might that have influenced the future of the series as a whole?
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Is this Keeps' strategy to remind us that we are decaying, aging, midlife-crisis-eligible gamers!? Hahaha shit, we're getting old, mate
And here I thought you were gonna show something great about the Commodore 64 version. Boo! ;)
Seriously though, I really thought that this was the talking point, lol.
Keeps is for noobs. Go pro with Formaldehyde!
o btw when u talked about the whole take to long get a much more grim ending.
sotn had it WORSE if u spent to much time grinding or leaving ur ps1 on. u can NEVER go into the coliseum/arena.
thus soft locking yourself... atleast i dont know of any way to fix this. but that would of sucked for players :D
kinda reminds me of breath of fire dragonquarter. where the game forced u to beat it on a timer. or turn into a dragon fully. and game over instantly.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment that Castlevania 64 was a trail-blazer. There were several 3-d games that came out before this game that would set the tone for 3d games in the horror genre Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil come to mind. Wait, you might ask. Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil might be survival horror but they are not also action platformer hybrids, and to that, I would say that there was a 3d action platformer with survival horror elements that came out in 1996. You may have heard of it, it's called Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider isn't known as a survival horror title but the first game limits your ammo and has you fighting a giant t-rex and the last boss of the game is a giant sleeping flesh demon that an ancient alien is trying to wake up from the depths of the Earth in order to devour mankind and the final level has you battling horrible monstrosities such as my favorite enemy in the game a flesh centaur in the bottom of a flesh pit. Tomb Raider is older than Castlevania 64 but has better platforming controls and far better camera angles. This doesn't mean that it's a bad game or anything, I beat Castlevania 64 back in the day and thought it was pretty decent but I can't say that it's what I would call groundbreaking. If you want a game that blazed some trails then play the original Tomb Raider.
Yo Castlevania 64 was legit terrifying for me as a kid. It was a gateway into Resident evil, Turok, silent hill. it was glorious for many different reasons.
Chainsaw guy in the maze still haunts me. It's been 20 years. I was so relieved to finally see someone in that place and he turns around and does that. Dammit.
@@Vaga-Bard
Frankenstein in the maze with the 2 dogs😮. With that music made you panic. Specially playing at night..
I loved it because it played like a movie.
The lightning in the beginning and the skeletons seizing up and coming out of the ground will never leave my braina
This is why I loved this game so much. Well, Legacy of Darkness, but more or less the same product. I really loved how this was genuinely the only actually macabre and scary Castlevania. With how cinematic certain reveals are to a maniacal gardener actively trying to gore a helpless child... it was pretty intense playing this game as a child myself to say the least.
I loved this game for the most part, though I seem to remember skeletons on motorcycles towards the end, and someone with a chainsaw, and those little bits of modern tech in a game that’s supposed to take place in times prior to the combustion engine really took me out of the immersion.
I grew up with CV64 and Legacy of Darkness. I'm nearly 28 now; but my fondest memories as a child were playing them with my dad, who was single and alone (Has been since I was 2) and it always seemed to bring light to his eyes when we sat down and played them together; taking turns on Death (Me making him get past the hard parts and fight Boss fights because I was too scared).
It was only after one of Jontron's first videos that I learned how hated CV64 and Legacy of Darkness were by the CV fanbase. It made me feel quite isolated honestly. Even to this day, it stands as my favorites games, the only modern-esque CV games close to it are 'Lament of Innocence' and 'Curse of Darkness'.
When I was younger and Minecraft had it's big BOOM, I even went back and tried to make a "Castlevania 64 Machinima" and tried to make a trailer for it. It was some really old, cringe stuff, but I just can't help but want a recreation of that experience.
You can still find the trailer for it if you look it up. "Minecraft: Castlevania trailer" by Rulictar. Don't bother commenting, I lost access to that login years ago.
Even recently, I had started working on a Legacy of Darkness fan-remake in UE4. The remade "Cornell" can be found on artstation under "Castlevania: Cornell" by Chris R.
I'm sorry to just send a big wall of text. My intention wasn't to self-advert, but more or less prove that upon seeing your video, it was such affirmation that I wasn't alone in my feelings towards the game and that it means ALOT to me to see you do it justice as it deserves.
cv64 is awesome dude. i never even heard of it until recently and it has entertained me so much. im currently stuck because i stopped playing it but i have faith i will get unstuck and make progress soon
I’m a fan of Cornell as well, and I think that the 64 era castlevania gets a lot of hate. Good to see that it’s more love to the games nowadays. Saw your work on Cornell keep it up! 👍🏾
@@ramonayala4726 Would you happen to be stuck at the Garden? That's where I got stuck the most as a kid, before getting both parts of the tablet!
@@driftingswordsmanzer Hey, thank you very much! I agree, it gets a lot of hate and definitely got some harsh treatment over the years.
Im the same age as you and I loved the shit out of this game growing up.
8:44 "Like a stoner in public places, you have to be purposeful in how you time your hits" is one of the most beautiful lines I have ever heard in my life
bahahahah so so good
That tells me a lot about this creator. No judgement, I used to have a stealth joint everywhere I went.
It reminds me of this one quote from "The Naked Gun: From The Files of Police Squad!", where the protagonist was saying something along the lines of "Like a blind man at an orgy, I'm gonna have to feel my way through." Super funny!
Cringe
@@MagnesVestergaard commenting calling someone else cringe (especially when they're not being cringe) is the cringiest comment possible
I mean.. i loved this as a kid. It's like when a band strays from a formula and makes a really good album but all the fans just scream "This doesn't sound like them at all!"
I would note that the platforming being hard at the start isn't bad: but they should teach this lesson somewhere fairly safe, where a fall will cost you like an eighth of your health or something.
It does it early enough and close enough to a save that you get set back maybe 5 minutes.
I didn't even have a memory card back then so I had to restart the whole stage with a failed jump and I still didn't think it was that bad.
CORRECTIONS:
- Despite two levels having “open world” or “Metroidvania-style/Simon’s Quest-esque gameplay, it’s very important to note that MOST of Castlevania 64 is an extremely linear action game. Most of the levels do not contain puzzles or “Metroidvania” structuring whatsoever; they’re simply a point A to point B journey.
- Rondo of Blood (26:35) is a PC Enginer CD game, not a Super NES game. It did get a very different adaption on Super NES, but that version doesn’t have Maria aside from a text-only cameo.
- The Vampire status effect (32:28) was introduced in Catstlevania 64. Legacy of Darkness didn’t add this; it was already there in the base game.
It annoys me how often I see classic castlevania games (ie the level progression castlevanias) listed under metroidvania when they are not even vaguely related to the metroidvania genera. There was a time that the CV games were mostly metroidvanias, but also many are not.
@@TheFinagle Indeed. It was really just SOTN and its portable successors on GBA and DS that were deliberately designed to be metroidvanias (I say deliberate because Simon's Quest was supposedly not inspired by Metroid, but SOTN is more obviously inspired by Super Metroid in particular, no matter what its creators claim to contrary).
On consoles, Konami was always experimenting after SOTN with 3D action/adventure titles (and even a fighting game).
Thank you for those corrections. I often stop watching videos if I catch an error like that, it undermines the credibility of the whole thing. Castlevania 64 is not AT ALL a Metroidvania game, because the #1 component - character ability upgrades used as unlocks - is not present. In this game, you do not gain new abilities that grant you access to areas you physically couldn't get into without those abilities. Therefore it's not that genre, full stop.
"I say deliberate because Simon's Quest was supposedly not inspired by Metroid, but SOTN is more obviously inspired by Super Metroid in particular, no matter what its creators claim to contrary"
Yes! I can believe that Simon's Quest was not inspired by Metroid because Simon's Quest could have been in development already, because Vampire Killer had a lot of that formula already in it, and because most of the unlocks were non-ability keys, like the three crystals. Igarashi's claim that Zelda, not Metroid, inspired SOTN is not something I'm able to believe. I can't prove it's a lie or anything, and I don't even know why he'd lie about it, but it looks so much like Super Metroid (even ignoring the side view camera) and so little like Zelda that I just don't buy it.
There are huge explorable levels, but once you finish them, you go to the next one and you cannot go back, so it's not metroidvania nor open world.
About Legacy of Darkness, even if it is the better version, I don't like that they removed the Bloodlines theme, so I play both versions to be happy.
@@megavolt67 I'd say that saying that SOTN is inspired by Zelda is pretty believable. Not only because iga said it and how the games are designed to play but also because Metroid 1 was also inspired by Zelda.
I think we gotta remember that there were only four zelda games out at the time SOTN came out and zelda only started to become to be what we think of it today by the third one. The first zelda didn't have that many puzzles in the dungeons, you explored the world to find them and when you were inside they were mostly linear levels focused on combat, the second Zelda was an action game with some level exploration but a focus on the action combat.
I think it makes sense to say that SOTN is more like a huge Zelda II dungeon with less elevators crossed with a classicvania flavor rather than a gothic planet zebes. Fairy spell is basically bat+mist transformation.
Exploration is a factor in the igavania games but the focus is the moment to moment combat action and the level design is there to facilitate that, most of the upgrades you get are for combat, very rare mobility upgrades and they aren't usually very fast until the very end. That's why areas with more platforming are so annoying in those games.
In Super Metroid exploration is the main thing you do, combat is there give traversal and exploration some variety, but most of the upgrades you get are for making traversal and exploration more convenient and varied.
Just to clarify a small detail. IGA didn't direct Symphony of the Night, he was assitent director and aid the scenario writer Toshiharu Furukawa. The director of SotN was Toru Hagihara, who was part of the development team of Simon's quest, director of Belmont's Revenge and Rondo of Blood.
Yet he is the only one who received the credit. Hagihara retired after SotN and Iga got all the glory, he is also as I believe the sole reason for the toxicity that stains the fanbase.
@@renereyes2648 Yeah in my experience it's been the IGA timeline purists who have thrown the most shit around about stuff being "not true Castlevania" (with both LoS and Netflix) even though IGA changed everything about the series, IGA fans who give stuff shit for not being in his timeline and treating his timeline as "the one true canon" even though it's the 4th individual timeline the series had had at that point and nothing like the original continuity, and it's the marriage to IGA's timeline and inaccurate comments about the old games that has led to a majority of fans having very inaccurate information on the history of the franchise. I love the games from IGA's era but the guy was like a nuke going off in the fandom in many ways.
@@dommoore6180 The thing that made me love Castlevania in the first place was the heavy influence of Universal/Hammer horror which permeated earlier Castlevania titles... And IGA, although not triggering the transition, pulled them away exponentially from that initial, defining identity, with each new iteration under his name. Although I like the IGAvania titles a lot, as games, I can't help but feel that that special, unique characteristic, is missing from the experience. In hindsight, CV64/LOD were the last releases to retain a substantial resemblance to that original aspect. Oh well, it is what it is.
@@marlondemello8582 I completely agree again! It’s a shame tbh what IGA did to the series, not taking away from all the good he did but he wrecked the fandom (look it’s true we’re still seeing new fans who come in with stuff like LoS and Netflix be driven away by IGA purists and the misinfo surrounding series history is imo unforgivable) and he turned castlevania into something fundamentally different from what castlevania was when nobody was asking him to.
I think at the least his earliest games retained the horror tone if not the universal monsters/hammer horror stuff - Lament of Innocence and especially Harmony of Dissonance still have a distinct tone of horror to them. But Aria of Sorrow onwards is more dark fantasy than horror.
And it was the universal/hammer aspect that drew me to it originally too, personally the Simon games (and the early tie in media surrounding them) and the 64 games are my favourite parts of the franchise.
Saying that it’s changed so much as a franchise and I don’t dislike any era of the series, so I really can’t understand why IGA’s version which only lasted from 2001-2009 despite containing various earlier titles in its timeline, has become the “main” version and anything different from it has been rejected at large. It’s just ridiculous imo but here we are.
@@dommoore6180 yeah they were several timelines kinda but it didn’t matter as long as good games were being pushed out. I like atuff he did too I love the PS2 titles especially CoD as it was a promise he fulfilled back in the interview that was included in Castlevania Chronicles also another favorite IGA release of mine since I could finally play a legit version of the Sharp X800 Castlevania. He has made some dumb statements after he became the producer of the series, it seems like it went to his head, also I believe he was scared of the fanbase primarily the western fanbase There was a time he was willing to experiment with the franchise but ultimately he began to pander to the weebs. He also would never make the 1999 story as he stated he doesn’t believe he could live up to the fans expectations. I whole heartily believe had he done that he would have given closure to the fans of his timeline and the would have accepted Lords of Shadow any other new Castlevania projects.
Ah. The first castlevania game I ever played. Put so many hours into it as a kid. Definitely jumpstarted my love for dark and difficult games
same here brother, but i mean as the first 3DVANIA i ever played since i grew up with all NES and SNES classics
but i adore CV64
when i played Demon's souls for the first time, i could not help but to see so much similarities gameplay wise in this ultra under appreciated CASTLEVANIA
Same and when i learned (via angry video game nerd) that it wasn't the original and it's apparently one of the worst i was like "wow if this is bad i can't wait to play the rest because 64 is awesome."
... With exception to Simon's Quest but the soundtrack is still OP
Im so sorry for that trauma.
The sad part was never knowing there was an updated version with more characters. I was sadly victim to "my dad bought all the games and if he didn't like it, we never saw the sequel" at the time.
Igual a mi....
The whole "people didn't like Castlevania 64 because they weren't familiar with 3D games/platforming" argument kind of falls apart when you consider that the exact same people enjoyed Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, or OoT/Majora's Mask. In fact, his example at 37:10 of how the game forces such players to slow down just sounds like retroactive apologism.
People then didn't see it that way, they just saw it as the game being poorly designed and handling badly and why wouldn't they? If a game's camera suddenly shifts and causes you to jump to your death, that might force people to slow down but it's also going to piss them off. The thing about older games is that the challenge is presented to you directly on screen, not that the game suddenly messed with your controls right before you were going to jump if you tried to immediately.
The whole thing with player expectations ruining the game is also a bit of an unfair point. Sure, these days it's easy to find all kinds of gameplay footage, let's plays, developer interviews, and dozens if not hundreds of reviews for even fairly obscure titles; but 1999 was a very different time. Castlevania 64 came out in January of '99, in December of '98 only about 26% of US households had internet access, meaning unless you read gaming magazines or some other such source you basically didn't know anything about a game beyond what was on the back of the box until you'd bought/rented it. So yeah, blaming players for being swerved when the game they got suddenly didn't live up to what they were expecting in that context is an extreme case of applying modern thinking to an older situation.
I was one of those kids who was already a castlevania fan and awaiting cv64.
I can offer this one bit of incite; I wasn't disappointed. It was atmospheric, creepy and the difficulty level wasn't unexpected... (if you grew up on the series).
all these years later- I still think it's unjustly maligned. If you weren't there and anticipating it's release, it's impossible to really understand it in context.
As a kid I played 4, was the first game I completed and it was due to its amazing atmosphere and (for the time and my age) dark story. I picked up 64 a bit afterward, played through it, and it felt as natural as going from Mario World to Mario 64, or ALTTP to OOT. It wasn't only a great game but a new perspective on the Vania world, letting me see it all in 3D and showing us a bit more of Dracula's effect on the various villagers. It was an amazing game for the time and extremely well thought out.
This game has such a unique eeriness to it that is lacking in every subsequent 3D entry in the series; one of the most horror-oriented iterations of the entire Demoncastledraculavania series.
I'm remember playing this as a 11 yo kid after school in a house alone and genuinely feeling scared. Especially in the garden maze💀
@@jackskelington19 that was a memorable sequence, indeed!
@@jackskelington19 My ADHD 12yo cousin had nightmares about the garden maze.
My brother has a drinking problem and a fear of dogs, .. so it was entertaining watch him have nightmares when drunk in his mid twenties trying to slap a dog off his leg in his sleep.
And absent from just about every metroidvania which came after Harmony of Dissonance.
@@ReluctantWarrior yes, indeed. I think that the atmosphere from the n64 titles is almost as oppressive as the one from Castlevania 3 on the NES. That eerie ost, the decaying scenery... Amazing!
This is why I really respect Arino from the Japanese Tv show Game centre CX... The guy who play retro games and try to finish them in within a day (well emphasis on the try because his reaction speed isn't as good). As you know based on video, the retro games that he play are those early gaming days where there aren't well established control for them yet. So most of them are janky and hard to play with. But Arino doesn't look at them as bad game designs, he doesn't see at a Nintendo game where button B is for jump and button A for action as a jank design, he would see them as the game's unique feature.. he truly love every game that he plays.
Have you ever watched the show? Arino dislikes the majority of the games he plays.
The only games I'm 100% sure he liked were Parappa the Rapper and Tokimeki Memorial, and maybe Metal Slug.
@@awkwardcultism he doesn't hate them, he just dreaded playing some the games because he's not good at them. He's not good at game that requires good reflexes but enjoy slow pace games and puzzles. We all have our own preference.
Castlevania 64 was my first Castlevania experience I fully dived into and it was memorable to say the least. The sense of utter loneliness you get before the garden, your first dialogue, has stuck in my memory to this day. The first vampire you fight down to defeating the true final boss was as intense and rewarding as anything I've ever played in my 30+ years. Between the haunting intro music, the atmosphere, and the sheer intensity and payoff of the fights, it will forever be a stand out in my early love of gaming and horror fiction.
I’m so happy you made this video. Castlevania 64 takes up a large portion of my childhood memories and it has always bummed me out that the seemingly overwhelming majority of people don’t share the fondness I have for this game. Long in short, you hit the nail on the head with this.
Im glad you did this video. I never thought of how slow legend of zelda was with exception of how difficult it made the battle sometimes,it would clip or auto adjust really bad,I never had that problem in castlevania 64. I never understood the hate,I never thought of it as great but competent with its content. I really thought it was a really good as far as controls went but like most 64 stuff I wasnt impressed with the graphics.
I loved it. My mom didn’t though, because I begged her for the controller pack on top of having to buy me the cartridge lol
I just finished it 2024 I had experienced it for the first time
With the bad reputation my expectations were low but dear god did I really enjoyed it so much there are some aspects that shows their age but man the game is way over hated it doesn’t deserve that
My favorite Castlevania game.
Listen. If dark souls, today, had me walk*not run, not jump, not fall an ankle height lip* an item that will blow me tf up, allllllllllll the way to the boss door only to say I brought the wrong item first and I can't set this one down or do anything except whole ass reload my save, I would tell you its bullshit too.
THANK YOU! That part of the game cannot be defended. CV64 wasn't the worst game ever, but that part was truly what single-handedly solidified it as awful.
I always thought the 64 games were diamonds in the rough. Even as someone who was raised in the generation, I still found it to be a compelling challenge and incredibly atmospheric experience. But that Mandragora + Nitro part, god rest my pre-teen (at the time) heart.
Agreed. Enjoyable but flawed game with one of the hardest challenges in gaming (mandragora).
Diamonds in the rough is a very good description (I've always enjoyed this unrefined type of experience a lot, personally). Applies to many games of that era imo.
@@RagnarRoxShow maybe play it on an actual N64 on an OEM cartridge, not an emulator as you clearly did in this video, and then have a chat at how it controls... this game is trash and even the designers have apologized for the character controller and rushed design lol
@@dr.decker3623I played Castlevani 64 on original hardware and loved it, as a kid, so my memory might not be super accurate. I also didn't beat the entire game. But I don't see what the emulator has to do with it; was the video recorded with macros or modified controller settings?
@@dr.decker3623 I actually played this game a few months ago on a n64 and honestly does not deserve all the hate it gets I honestly agree with him it only feels bad if compared to sotn
I gave this game a shot after watching the Digital Foundry video on it, since I'm completely obsessed with early 3D graphics in video games, I had to take a look. I remember stopping every other minute to take screnshots of interesting things I saw in the environment, from big things like the red full moon rovering over the buildings to small details like the furniture.
I also remember one thing that stood out to me, you know how in the maze near the beggining of the game there's an encounter with Frankenstein's Monster? Where he chases the player with a chainsaw? If you take a detour from interacting with the trigger that makes him attack you (If I remember correctly, it's a gate you'll have to open) and explore the maze a little bit, you can actually see him taking care of some plants, his guard down, his behaviour gentle, he's just taking care of some plants.
It's a shame there's no option to befriend him or bypass the fight at all (as far as I know) but it was a pretty cool bit of characterisation not often given to common foes in video games.
I haven't finished the game yet, but I enjoyed it for what it is, certainly not the best Casltevania, but still a solid game that didn't deserve the amount of hate it got, lot's of enemy variety and amazing *atmosphere*
While I enjoy Castlevania 64 a bunch, you're embellishing certain aspects of it. The targeting system of LoZ:OoT not only allowed you to lock onto enemies, but reorientate your camera. Camera control is a big part of why CV64 can put people off. If you look at another Konami game that came out later, Hybrid Heaven, you only had a single option to orientate your camera and that was using the over the shoulder anti-robotics gun which is more often used to shift your camera angle. The controls can also not be as forgiving as you'd like in regards of grappling edges as well. These are flaws of the game, but it is something the player has to adapt to even if it isn't ideal.
CV64 isn't a Metroidvania. You don't progress your character to open up new paths, you find key items to unlock doors from literal doors to blowing open holes in the wall. You look at Super Metriod and most of your progress is locked behind different items you obtain that you can utilize from opening doors. Such as jumping higher, grappling tractor beam blocks, firing progressively more powerful missiles, being able to augment your weapon to freeze enemies, and so on. What you start out in CV64 is what you are restricted to doing for the whole game compared to actual Metriodvanias.
Lastly the similarities of the Souls series and CV64 are that they're dark themed 3D action games. More focus on battles, it isn't aiming to be a platformer, various equippable items that alter how you approach combat, and a stamina meter.
With that said I believe CV64 deserves a fair shake since it is a good game, but it depends upon your tolerance towards 5th gen 3D games.
You can do the same as Ocarina lo lock on and reorientate with the same button, but in CV is R instead of Z. It's just better, more intuitive and satisfying in Ocarina than CV.
Gated progression is not only about powering up your character. Not having powerups opening gates don't make a game not a metroidvania.
So, theoretically speaking, if a mod came out that implemented the OoT camera reorientation lock on, would that boost the game in terms of difficulty? Always wanted to play both Castlevania N64 games. Cheers!
Your absolutely right 👍
@@CatterCattington In Castlevania there are keys for gates that aren't power-ups, some of them are levers, destroying a wall from the other side, and so on. The same in Dark Souls 1. I can think of many from SotN through the CVs from GBA and NDS.
Your DOOM example is wrong because to be a metroidvania it needs to have elements of backtracking and level exploration involved, an interconnected world for example. Another element is having optional rewards behind said gates.
DOOM doesn't have backtracking for optional rewards behind gates. Optional rewards are hidden as secrets which don't need backtracking or gate-keys to open.
>"I hate it when people twist easily defined terms to suit their dumb arguments."
We're only arguing on the definition of what is and what is not a Metroidvania. I haven't said ANYTHING about Castlevania 64 and I do not care for it. I only said that not having gate-opening-powerups don't make a game not be a Metroidvania.
And don't kid yourself, Metroidvania is not an easily defined term, seeing the confusion you're having with powerups and this discussion.
The problem with the night toggle in Simon's Quest is that it takes so long. I can understand having it change slowly the first time...
can't be skipped and happens far too often. When he starts defending that, I realized he's a contrarian..
The mod for it that fixes that slow shift to night makes it so much better to play.
@CodySwartzS Nothing wrong with that, everyone has their different opinions on Simon's Quest depending on if they've played it or just watched someone review it.
3d controls of this game were bad. Players had a taste on how to properly control a character in a 3d environment via Mario64. You can't say that people were still getting used to 3d thats why they don't like Castlevania64 cuz people were already enjoying mario64 at that time.
Although I do not agree with all points in this video, which is of course fine. I do have to say that your perspective of "Does the game achieve what it intents?" to be a whole lot more healthy way at everything in life and I am going to implement it in everything. Such a good way of looking things!
it's a really good way to critically look at media (though, not the be all end all, of course). Sometimes a game might be flawed or unappealing but manages to convey this one thing the developers set out to do, so it should be considered successful. Sometimes it has a great concept but doesn't manage to convey that, like the day and night cycle in Simons Quest for example. good idea, not very well executed (or whatever they acutally tried to convey in Last of us 2 O.o)
Ad that's the only metric that truly matters. After that, whether or not a person enjoys it is dependent on the person, not the game.
he only stated facts though
Ehhh... what if the game designers intend to do something that is not enjoyable? When trying to judge a game based on more objective criteria, "What did the designers intend" isn't a bad metric, but especially in the lack of interviews the devs give, it can still be pretty muddy.
Best criteria is "Does this game appeal to the intended audience? And is there any unintended audience who like it?"
@@Sines314 Who decides whether it's enjoyable? A lot of people get a great deal of joy out of soulslike games, but the idea is the absolute least appealing thing I can think of. I like base-builders and explorers, but some people think that's the most boring idea ever invented. You can't really define what 'enjoyable' is, because even Train Simulator: This Year's Edition has a passionate and devoted fanbase that most other people look at a little funny. 'Enjoyable' doesn't have a definition you can point to that works for everyone, but 'works as intended' does.
I’ve rented this game dozens and dozens of times and LOOOOVED it. I knew everything about it by heart. The soundtrack is forever engrained in my head. For YEARS I hoped for a rental place near me to get the “director’s cut” version that came out a year after, but I never could get my hands on it sadly!
Castlevania 64 was gripping, atmospheric, punishing, and genuinely unsettling much of the time. The atmosphere alone encapsulated everything I was looking for in a Castlevania experience, and this is easily one of my favorites on the 64. I thought I was alone in loving this game, and it makes me so happy to see - many years later when the Castlevania 64 *could* have been buried beneath the folds of time - that I am not. ❤️
Thank you, Ragnar, for saying what needed to be said in a public forum.
I was gonna jump in here and give a shout out to this game as well bc i loved this game from the first moment i fired it up. That solo violin intro was haunting and u nailed it too. The atmosphere and FEEL of this game, made it more Castlevania to me then any other game on that alone.
You can see what the developers were going for in this game and they succeeded. I was terrified of this game in a way i have never been since. That grating going up and locking u IN the castle wall - holy shit.
Bravo, to the devs and thumbs down to the nay sayers. Castlevania 64 is easily one of my, if not favorite titles in the entire series.
@@vagabon5130 The moment, for me, which solidified how highly enthused I was for the game, was the large room in the mansion that is just empty except a couple of large tables windows with red curtains bl
My thoughts exactly, an excellent transition to 3D and just a completely immersive experience from the plot, to the setting and the music
@@MelancoliaI YES! the score was just as brilliant.
The game is bad.
C64 legacy of darkness was better in every way ! Loved turning into the werewolf and I had a Fever dream that there was a playable character that turned into a skeleton …
I played this game in 1998 and I can tell you that after that game Konami just couldn't make something better. I played all Castlevania games but this one has that unique dark ambiance and unique music that catches your spirit immediately. Just imagine this game with today's graphics, larger maps and longer missions. It will be outstanding.
I remember how they marketed Lament of Innocence as "solving" all of Cv64's problems, which they did by removing the game's soul and replacing it with mechanics half-heartedly copied from DMC. To call it disappointing would be an understatement.
I dunno man, this one was kinda weak. Calling the video "why everyone hates this game" and then just going "I won't even talk about the criticisms becaue they are invalid anyway." is just kind of a nothing burger? It's fine if you want to make a video about why you love the game, that's really cool, but why even frame the video with a title like that if you just dismiss the criticisms anyway?
Similar thing with the Simon's Quest bit, even in the AVGN video the issue wasn't the night and day cycle existing, it was the obnoxiously slow message interrupting the gameplay out of nowhere, which made it feel more annoying than terrifying.
Same thing with the platforming section in the beginning of Castlevania 64 (never played much of it, but I died there too lol), if the intention was to use this to teach the player to take it slow but almost nobody got it and gets frustrated instead - isn't that a failing of the developer anyway?
I never got the hate
I grew up with legacy of darkness and it had a lot of good moments
And the Art Tower theme is still on of the best in the series
I found the game really ugly looking and lacked the pixel charm of the early side scrollers. I also found moving around weird and not great. If you enjoyed it, that's cool, but people do have their reasons for not liking this entry. Not every change to aesthetics and gameplay is going to appeal to everyone.
@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 True, but this was in 3D and for it's time with the limited hardware it was quite unique. The level design in this was pretty seamless as well which was quite a feat. Although the environments weren't as brightly colored in spots it still had a ornate dark aesthetic which I quite liked and really set the tone of it compared to Lament or even Curse which were just elevator/design access points to new areas.
blame popular youtubers starting a bandwagon of hate on the game. From the simple fact that it was different from what everyone was used to prior, the hate snowballed into a direction where the people who hate it likely never played it and just repeat the opinion they heard from a youtuber.
It definitely wasn't the best game in the series, but it really wasn't that bad and was pretty solid
AVGN memes, he played the game like a jackass just to exagerate and presented it as much more janky than it is. He is the reason Simons Quest is hated on too.
Other copycat reviewers just parrot him the same way everyone parroted Spoony's FF8 review.
@@silverdededestruction2197 Nah man that's not true at all. These games got heat from both fans and critics when they came out. It has nothing to do with RUclipsrs telling people what to like.
I played this game alongside OOT MM and SM64 at the time when i was a kid and i always knew of its greatness and loved the game and every time i replay it, theres always something for me to notice about it. i love its Atmosphere and its very dramatic slowburn cutscenes and Storytelling. it brings me joy everytime i find kindred spirits that recognize what i see in it too.
I know it was a bit rough at points, but I loved that game and bought both versions back in the days. It felt like I was truly in a haunted house setting. Something I never experienced on N64 before
2:01 "or the appendix in humans"
What an NPC and mainstream thing to say: The appendix is actually really important, in contains the reserve biome to repopulate the digestive tract in case of an emergency. Those that have their appendix removed, are destined to a lifetime of gastro-intestinal issues after they hit their mid-thirties.
This is coming from someone who actually really loves castlevania 64, but i can't fully agree with your defense of the platforming. I do understand that 3D gaming was still in it's infancy, but my gripes with it was always the occasional button input problems. Also, just the general unpredictability that comes with the camera shifting against your will. Not to mention, narratively, the game was pretty weak. The two characters had their mission and their stories do have interesting scenes, but Reinhardt and Rosa don't get nearly enough screen time for us to care much about their relationship. Also, Carrie and Actrise share the same problem. Some of the puzzles were interesting on paper, but even when i was a kid something felt tacky about them. What you failed to include is that Castlevania 64 was rushed to completion which is why it has the jank that it has as well as why they made the Legacy of Darkness game later on. Legacy of Darkness brings more to the table by a landslide (although i feel final form dracula is a lot less interesting in LoD)
So yeah i did paint a picture of the flaws i remember from my time playing it as a tween. I remember much because I played it obsessively and even emulated it years later to keep the memory fresh. Contrasting with my initial tone, I WILL agree with you that the game's bad reputation truly is unjust. Despite it's flaws, I will also agree with you that it ultimately did what it set out to do. It 1000% is a castlevania experience translated 1:1 to 3D.
the character controller is broken and even the designers said so, it was rushed, and the rest is crap too lol.
very much so agree. There's a lot to like but yknow.
pretty much my feelings as well Gutsy- no reason to defend it especially since Rondo and Symphony are two of the greatest games ever made so no reason to compare them really
I've always been a fan of these fog effects in early 3D games since they more often than not add to the atmosphere and give the games this really cool mystical feeling to them
Yeah! It was honestly a really great way to simultaneously add atmosphere and improve performance (by hiding draw-distance pop-in). Such a technique works better in some genres than others, but with horror/darker games it is a perfect fit!
Like, imagine trying to play Silent Hill without the oppressively dense fog... it honestly adds SO MUCH to the tension of exploring the world and does other things to the experience indirectly like forcing you to get into the habit of listening harder for the monster-static as you approached new areas you weren't familiar with, and having to roughly memorize the layout of the path you just travelled should you need a fast retreat, etc.
Imagine how much different the feeling of discovery in these games (CV64 and Silent Hill) would be if you could see buildings, POI's, and enemies from a mile away- I feel like it would actually make the world feel *more* hollow/gamey, and like the world was literally missing something (weather + fog impacting visibility)
It's crazy to think about technical limitations ended up providing an experience that I do not think would have had the same success or acclaim if they weren't forced into creative workarounds like that d:
30:00 no. The day/night cycle was NOT loathed, the implementation, shoddy and ridiculously unskippable slowly written pop-up was, and it left a sour taste in peoples mouths. I love day/night cycles exactly because it makes the game feel more alive but fuck me if I had to skip a notification every time the day entered a new time of day I would throw that game in a fire.
Simon's Quest was horrendous, but I know in Castlevania 64 it was disliked because certain events/doors wouldn't trigger unless it was the right time, and if you used too many sun/moon cards to speed up the game, it would net you the bad ending. And then there's getting cursed by a vampire just before midnight.
I loved Castlevania II. The only one I could beat at the time. I just think people thought it was to different to give it a chance.
I have to agree. While I also think Castlevania 64 is vastly underappreciated and agree with many of his points there is quite a few points in this video where I feel he is misrepresenting the arguments from those critical of it and with a general attitude that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
@@lepot23 love that game, too. I _personally_ don't think things such as the day/night cycle were as intrusive as people make them out to be. It was a novelty at the time; some like it, some don't. Besides, the transitions didn't occur THAT often, especially because the game had a slower pace. In fact, they were waaay shorter than load times on disc-based consoles, which couldn't be circumvented, as well - we just had to get used to them. Not the same thing, sure, just reminiscing. That said, I can see why it could bother some people. But, to each their own, of course. Having good, pleasant experiences is what matters. Peace.
As one of the asterisk people (bought both games on their respective launch days, replayed them multiple times), I have to say that suggesting the game's graphics are as good as Ocarina's and the camera not being awful sounds like the result of some high quality copium intake.
The graphics are much blockier than Ocarina's, and aside from the player character models, I'd argue not as detailed. The game looks fine, however, due to its art direction.
The camera, I honestly don't see how anyone can defend that. Even for its time, it was pretty horrible. Sure, there are cases where it's due to a user error like you point out in the video, but there are cases where it just loses track of what's happening and you die an unfair death as a result. To make matters worse, cameras from that era of gaming have aged terribly in general even if they were good for the time (poor Banjo) yet Castlevania 64/LoD still sticks out for its horrid camera compared to its contemporaries.
That's not to say that I disagree with the video in general; as a matter of fact, I think it was a fantastic showcase of why these games are very underrated (a Castlevania game where you routinely fight VAMPIRES!) and get shat on unfairly. But the argument on why this is so works better if we're realistic about the game's shortcomings, rather than trying to sugarcoat all of the games' ugly aspects.
Imagine mentioning Ben Shapiro in a Castlevania video. Dude, lay off twitter.
There are lots of dishonest takes in this one. I understand you want to convince people this game is amazing, but it clearly isn't if you play it on N64 and don't ignore half of the games released at the time. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, Thief were all released either before or at the same time and all had "smooth" animations for the time, not a single one inferior to Castlevania 64. This game ran like trash in the N64, it's unfair to other games when you compare them on their original consoles to CV64 on an emulator.
You spent almost 1 hour praising this game without mentioning its lackluster main characters, absurdly infuriating camera and platforming. Liking a game doesn't make it a good game. You can enjoy bad games, I love so many games from my childhood, but I can't really say they were good games. Not every game we enjoy is a masterpiece or a hidden gem.
100%.
It feels like he was going on and on about the graphics and the atmosphere, and while... sure, it looks nice... it didn't really *play* nice. No, it's not a Metroidvania game as it rather is a very linear A to B level transition sort of game with maybe 1 or 2 shortcuts you unlock as you go. No, it's also not "the first to really try 3D action combat" in this style as other contemporaries at the time did the same... and did it much better. He then utterly ignores the main points of critics of this game, seemingly as he knows them to be true but doesn't want to admit it...
...I, myself, wanted to like this game back in the day.
I’m not even far in and I could kinda tell this was what the vid might shape up to be.
Like, the fact it tried things when there wasn’t yet a rulebook on 3D action games doesn’t make it an innovator. That’s an excuse for why the game can be bad. Conventions and design choices made in CV64 are not in the blood of its genre just because it was a game that existed.
Something like Demon’s Souls isn’t perfect and now that future installments exist doesn’t hold up as well, but what’s crucial is that creative and design decisions going back to Demon’s Souls resonated. The same cannot be said of CV64. With Demon’s Souls, DNA from it carried forward into all the From games and numerous non-From imitator games since then.
The same cannot be said of CV64, I can’t say it has anything that the industry or its own franchise gained from it or credit to it, other than a stumble to learn from next time, on the way to the more positive-leaning, but still mixed-reception future 3D entries, like Lament and Curse.
I can entertain “CV64 isn’t as bad as people think” but “it’s not too bad at all” and it being innovative I think are generous to a fault.
Castlevania 64 has the best menu sounds of any game I have ever seen it's worth it just for that in my opinion.
I'm one of the few that rly enjoyed this game! 😅 I beat this game 6 times at least back to when I was about 13 yrs old. I loved it that much lol. Ok, I understand where some of the hate come from whit those insane glitches that sometimes even force you to restart the whole game. 🙄But other then that I loved the atmosphere & mystery this game had.
@@ratreides6353 I actually didn't mind the nitroglycerin part as much as others. The hardest part was staying in between the cogs. Then again, I was 15 and had oodles of time compared to now.
@@ratreides6353 I owned the game so I played it over and over again haha
Nothing is quantifiable in the quantum foam chaos of smudge.
Just so we're perfectly clear, Dark Souls is based on King's Field, which is based on games like Wizardry. Not this game.
late reply, but while everything you said is absolutely true, Miyazaki has said before that both Zelda and Castlevania served as influences as well.
I loved it as a kid and had a blast with it. I was really surprised when I got older and realized the entire world hated it.
I felt the same way about Bubsy the cat. Doesn't mean you were right for liking it.
@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 what??? Its better then the 2d games, and on par with the LoS games. If only we can have a remastered of Legacy Of Darkness.
only castlevania fanboys hate it, i love this better than sotn.
@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 that is one hell of a false equivalency
Me too.
I remember loving Legacy of Darkness when I was a kid. The atmosphere just remained with me.
Idk if we're playing on the same hardware, but Castlevania 64 ran significantly worse than OoT and that's just a fact.
OoT ran at a locked 20, with dips to be sure, but it was consistent in sometimes entire sections. Outside of literally two rooms across every dungeon in the game, I've never experienced a framerate dip just by being in a level. The drawbridge section of the Fire Temple and the main room in the Water Temple
Outside of indoor areas, Castlevania 64 almost never even semi-consistently hits its target framerate. There are no levels where the framerate doesn't have several points where it TANKS to 20 FPS itself.
A semi consistent 20fps with random dips is a HELL of a lot better then the absolute fucking insanity that Castlevania 64 was. Unless the re-release a year later cleared up some performance issues
performance is definitely fixed a large deal in Legacy of Darkness. However it does dip in some areas, especially the lava splashes in the Tower of Execution section or if you turn the game settings to "Hi-Rez" mode.
In that time, fps was not a problem. Controls was a problem.
A fantastic documentary. Great delivery, vast vocabulary, while very clearly thoroughly researched. I am, too, pleased to share that I mirrored your love for the villa corridor as a child.
The four reasons people don't like it are understandable, the camera is awful (not the worst but by this point we already had Zelda and Mario which were leagues ahead) the platforming is pretty bad (especially considering the camera issues), puzzles aren't particularly clear (no map really hurts the pull a lever to open a gate in earlier area mechanic) and that stupid nitro part where you can't run, jump or get hit or face instant death was just frustrating, actively ruining an otherwise excellent part of the game.
It fully deserves it's high 70s/low 80s review scores but not the universal hate it seems to garner.
I remember my older brother buying this game when it came out and letting me play it as a kid. If it wasn't for this game I wouldn't be so into the castlevania series as I am now. The one part that is still burned into my mind is how scare I was when I had to go back into that stupid garden maze because I knew frankenstein was there, hearing his foot steps getting closer was terrifying as a kid! To me this game will always hold a special place in my heart. I even decided to speed run it after seeing people doing it, I might not be the fastest, but I'm happy with my personal best of 4hrs.
This was my 1st castlevania game at age 8 and i had no memory card. Each time i died i had to restart from the beginning if i remember correctly 😂 i managed to become super good at it and beat it with Carrie. To this day i still love Carrie and wish she was actually part of Lore. Actrise the witch is still my fav witch of all time and i always model my characters after her in MMOs.
Congrats, You played the game it was intended to be actually
I have just started the video so I haven't watched everything yet. But although I understand you're trying to smash a myth about CV64 - and it truly isn't a bad game, I'm here exclusively because I'm looking to listen to a lucid point - , you can't do that by spreading yet another myth about its canon standing, my guy.
At around 3:50 you say that Igarashi kept CV64 out of canon because "it was a side-story", and how that is an "incredibly heartless, graceless and cold-blooded thing to do fellow creatives who built this series alongside him", as if it were his sole personal choice. Which of course is a very popular myth in itself, and omiting of information, because Igarashi explained that he treated CV64 as a side-story because that's what was _intended to be treated as by its developers,_ an equal situation to Circle of the Moon, and the only game he did in fact exclude for lack of quality being Legends - the source for all three statements being a statement to 1UP and Konami Magazine.
We later see Cornell on Judgment because, again according to Igarashi, CV64 properly captures the worldview of Castlevania and canon didn't matter for that context, demonstrating he didn't actually "look down" on it or something.
I feel there's an unwillingness to look at the dude with a bit more honesty just because "my fave game is not canon". He didn't just say "it's not canon because side-story", your own point about Bloodlines proves this is not enough motive. He said it's not canon because he treats it like its **developers intended**, and it can be very well the case that they STILL intended that to be true for CV64 at the time a timeline was established. Don't forget- These people were all working together at that time and could very well have given their input. Igarashi was RESPECTING their wishes, not ignoring them.
Imagine thinking adding the game to a timeline DESPITE the creators saying not to do it is "respecting" them.
I'll avoid projecting my assumptions on you. I'm here to have a good time with your video. But I'm already a bit turned off, not gonna lie, and the appending of adjectives to IGA's name ("Lord", "God Emperor") does make me think you believe the guy is an egotistical hack for no good reason other than you like CV64 a lot and is bummed it's not canon.
Well, I finished it. I gotta say the video isn't as bad - like the game itself it's defending. But there were some amazingly ridiculous gems like 28:40, where you say SotN takes the entire game to show a huge impressive/scary boss when Granfalloon exists, shows up on the first castle itself, is bigger than Dracula, AND is set up to appear in such a way as to shock the player.
It's not worth writing a "rebuttal" to every single pearl I heard. I'll leave a like but dear god does this video sound like an exercise in devil advocacy.
EDIT: Coming back to this video after a week for a rewatch. I'm taking away the like, this video is not that great at all. Who wrote this had an axe to grind and, in the way, wrote way too much nonsense (the whole "this game is a metroidvania actually" bit is hilariously terrible to anyone who actually played CV64. The game BENEFITS from being linear and dressing it as a metroidvania is a disservice to it).
I'm also told that this video in special is a nosedive from the rest of the channel's quality, but I don't know because this is the first one I watched and I'm not very inclined to return.
40:32 It's an underrated game, sure, but let's not get hyberbolic...
To be fair about Simon's quest it was never the day night cycle that was the problem, it was how long the transition took
As someone who just watched a Tomb Raider retrospective. Castlevania 64 doesn't have the same jumping mechanics and polish at all. Tomb Raider had grid or rather square design for everything. You jumps and movement in every variation were very specific. Something like short jump one square, long jump 2 squares and running 3 squares with grab. Castlevania 64 on other hand looks very loose and very unprecise with platform placement and distance. Tomb Rider also had very deliberate and i would say slow controls.
Personally never played the game and it's flaws were probably exaggerated. But while this video is fun to watch, it feels like this might be the case of analysis tunnel vision. Aka you get so deep into analysis that everything seems to click into place, but you need to step back and see that the thing just doesn’t work or isn't really that good.
Still appreciate your personal look on games, it's always great to see a different perspective.
Ultima 8 had unprecise jumps. This game here didn't. Just because the jumps aren't exactly tile/unit normalized doesn't make them unprecise, otherwise Mario 64 would be unprecise. And that's just *silly*. Most platformers have unfixed jump distances for a reason!
Tomb raider went fixed ALSO for a good reason, in that the jumps were more "puzzly", so it made sense to have it more fixed. It was a way to get the Indiana Jones feeling across, of puzzling out the room and figuring out the traps. That's better done with movement that can always be planned ahead perfectly. Castlevania is not going for that.
@@fy8798 Just because something more garbage exists, doesn't mean jumps were good in this. They don't look easy or enjoyable to control.
That's my whole point of Tomb Rider being a bad comparison about jump precision.
This is the whole problem with this discussion. Maybe not all game elements are good, but also not all of it is garbage. Saying one of it's aspects is better than complete trash isn't making a point for it's case, it only makes it look worse.
I know I'll probably never meet you in real life, but if I ever do, I hope you'll let me shake your hand and buy you a drink.
Castlevania 64 and Castlevania Legacy of Darkness have always been games I loved and always knew were good - even if the entire internet hated them.
You have put in this video aspects of the game which I have said to others who have merely dismissed me as having rose tinted glasses.
A good lesson to learn is that most people on the internet are just plain stupid. Most of them have never even played these games and I have never seen a video of a person that hates the N64 games play it with any level of skill approaching my own. They hate it because they are completely incompetent.
@@davidaitken8503 I'd argue that most ppl who talk shit have never played it and just saw the AVGN video and adopted the opinion of a fictional character lol
@ZAMN "rose tinted glasses", with a Rocky Horror reference in the video... Icing on the cake (there's a song in the Rocky Horror Picture Show called Rose Tint My World lol) as I listen to one of my favorite games get praised lol thank you
@@moneenerd Yup. Exactly. They not only take what these RUclipsrs say as gospel, but these jokers are so bad at playing the game that they can't help but make the game look bad in the footage they show. You should always learn how to play a game a bit before you start filming. It's genuinely painful to watch just how bad and incompetent these people are.
@@davidaitken8503 well you gotta also remember that AVGN is a character and he often over exaggerates the poor quality for laughs and entertainment so his opinions shouldn't be taken that seriously. But ppl take AVGN far too seriously constantly. Just take a look at the Truth About Cinemassacre subreddit or whatever the fuck it's called 😂
The mark of the hackfraud is that they always go for Dark Souls comparisons, rather than Demon's Souls, which is what actually started the series. Especially relevant here because Demon's Souls draws a lot from Symphony of the Night.
Dark Souls is the one where the formula worked. The interconnected world, facilitated by being the only souls game where you can't teleport around from the start, is an incredibly important feature. Even among the Souls genre, Dark Souls stands alone. While I'm here, SOTN is extremely overrated. Super Metroid is the real foundation of the genre, and predates SOTN. There is nothing to learn from SOTN that cannot be learned from Super Metroid, other than what not to do, like, don't let players level up without exploring.
@@TheMisterGuy Super Metroid has a big importance of that, after all, the genre IS called METROIDvania. But SotN mixed this kind of game progression with RPG elements that greatly enhanced the depth and replayability of the genre, allowing for different builds for example.
So, no, I'd say SotN isn't overrated. It just highlights already good aspect of Metroid while putting a shitton more over it.
@@agnuswulf I think that's where I disagree. For me SOTN missed almost every opportunity. I'll talk about three big ones: Level-up System, Builds/Stats, and Weapons.
The level-up system in SOTN ruined the game for me on my first playthrough. The first couple of bosses, from Slogra and Gaibon up to the level 10 Alucard clone, were great fun and good challenge. After that, I got lost and wandered around the castle, then stumbled into a boss. I don't even remember which, but I killed it in two seconds because getting lost and wandering leveled me up. Compare to Super Metroid, where exploration levels you up, so this effectively never happens.
SOTN has character stats that increase when you level up, but there aren't really "builds" in the game. You don't choose how the stats grow. You don't change your play style based on the stats. Compare to Nioh, where you're boosting stats and unlocking skill trees, and this sets you up with certain strengths and weaknesses that inform your playstyle. Each playthrough can feel like a different character class.
And then weapons. SOTN weapons, aside from a few broken ones like Shield Rod and Crissaegrim, are mostly just variations on range, speed, and damage. Super Metroid has way fewer beam upgrades and alternate fire modes than SOTN has swords, but each one does something significantly interesting and different. Or compare to Ninja Gaiden, where each weapon Ryu gets has a whole different move set that can be effective if you figure out which moves best capitalize on each enemy's weaknesses while not exposing you to their attacks. Now look at SOTN, with like a hundred weapons, and most of them are just bland variations. Different color particles. Longer reach or faster recovery or higher damage. They don't affect your play style.
So that's where I am on this. The music is awesome. The art, although many sprites are from previous games, still looks great for the most part and has a ton of variety. The environments are beautiful. And all of this holds up just fine 25 years later. I don't think it's a bad game, I just don't think it deserves to be considered an innovator in the genre, because I have trouble identifying actual contributions that would influence future games other than just generally being polished like a mirror.
13:30 On emulation, as with most N64 games, there are amazing HD Texture Mods for this game that make this game look in quality of a PS2 in graphics (still blocky, as N64 is, can't fix that).
If you can, would look into it. It makes older games shine. Fan communities with mods, makes things stay fresh.
Hang on--how is it "cruel and heartless" of Iga to choose not to count a particular game in the main timeline, and why exactly shouldn't Bloodlines count?
Also, I DARE you to try and convince me that if any game today forced you to slowly walk--not run, not jump, not drop down from a one-inch ledge--all the way to the boss door, while carrying an item that will blow you the fuck up, through numerous other hazards, only to say you brought the wrong item first and you can't set this one down or do anything except reload your goddamn save, that you wouldn't call the game bullshit.
Bloodlines was a spin off. So were the Dracula X games. So there's a good reason why Bloodlines shouldn't count (although I think it should count, I'm just saying it's logical for it to not count given it was a side game).
Ironically the 64 game was not a side game, it was mainline and had a hell of a lot more in common with the original Castlevania games than the IGA titles did.
As for your second paragraph, by that logic many, many games are worthless down to having one clumsy stage or section. I guess SotN is a trash dumpster fire of a game just because the Inverted Castle is terribly designed? Or because it's near non existent balancing can be broken wide open in the first 10 minutes? Or because many rooms are copy/paste empty corridors with nothing but damage sponge enemies inside?
I'm sorry, but I can't buy into this idea that Castlevania 64 was in any way impressive.
It came out 2 years after Symphony of the Night, 3 years after Dead or Alive & Tomb Raider, and the same year as Final Fantasy VIII.
What does it accomplish that those games don't do vastly better?
I'm so happy you made a video on Castlevania 64. I remember playing it way back as a wee lad. Didn't have a developed enough brainstem to progress far into the castle, but I always remember the intro sequence, the giant skelly boss, the goofy bike skellies. The environment as the player walks through the forest during a dreary night was memorable giving a sense of wonder and unease, never knowing what was deeper in the castle but always returning to the game to try and find out. Back then I wasn't able to appreciate the game. If I were to play it again now I think my experience would be vastly different now that 3D games have become much more normal.
That violin intro screen literally sent shivers down my spine. I never realized how much of a formative memory this game held for me. Also I would replay the first segment a million times cause I sucked, so the game for me was mostly giant ape skeleton with motorcycle skellies. Amazing stuff.
personally:
the first C64 has nostalgia going for it, and thats all. its VERY rough around the edges and feels rushed (hence the sequel/ gaiden release 10 months later), which is understandably forgivable considering its the 2d-3d transition and that was hit or miss at the time. 2ds are a safe/comfort zone for this series... its been done over and over so the "blueprint" is ingrained in gamers and game makers alike. my personal issues:
~camera angles
~camera control
~player control
~climbing/hanging (no that NEEDS to be its own bullet point)
and little things here and there depending on which character you use and where you are in the game
(such as Reinhardt's 2 levels after the Castle Center and the limited/ NO SAVE POINT on top of the issues i mentioned above)
CV64:LOD vastly improves, fixes and enhances many elements from its "predecessor"
unfortunately, unless you're a fanatic of the Franchise, you probably felt burned from the unfinished and incomplete mess that preceded it and moved on
and though a lot was improved there are now a few different issues i have:
~Queen Algenie's (first form) initial grab and life drain...
~Cornell's rival Ortega can stun lock if too close when he swats you down
~Dracula Ultimate... how in the Fu¢k can you avoid many... no, ALL of its attacks?
(shoutout to the uppercut that puts Tyson to shame)
again, those are the most frustrating PERSONAL issues that you might/ might not agree with
but it is a drastic improvement over the greasy horror show that is Castlevania 64
... WTF did i write so much, apologies
Hey there. Lifelong Castlevania 64 fan here. I really enjoyed the video and was glad to see someone with any sort of platform step up to bat for this game, and I really do appreciate the effort you put into it, but I do have a lot to say about it.
Yes, Castlevania 64 is a weirdly maligned entry in the series that has a lot of strengths that are oft ignored in favor of exacerbating its faults. It's atmosphere and music is excellently done - that violin cover of Opposing Bloodlines on the title screen easily makes 64 my most favorite in the series for title screens alone (and the fact Legacy of Darkness took it away forever frustrates me, arggh!). However, for its time it's not the most gorgeous looking game out there for the N64. It's not bad looking by any stretch and where they really put their money to it (such as Giles de Rais' dramatic COME, MEET YOUR DOOM moment) it shines brilliantly. On the other hand, other times the game is lacking in detail, such as the extremely low-poly Hydra Skeleton in the gatehouse. It's good to praise the visuals when they land, but you felt a bit over-compensating for it.
Moreover, though, I was extremely put off by specifically your potshots on Ocarina of Time? They felt unnecessary and mean spirited. Castlevania 64 doesn't need to bring Ocarina of Time down just to stand taller, and what's more is they honestly felt really dishonest. Yes, Ocarina of Time struggles to keep its 20FPS rate. Yes, it occasionally can dip below that, all while Castlevania 64 generally keeps a strong solid 30 the whole time - but Ocarina's combat encounters don't rely on fast, snappy framerates to be satisfactory. Enemies are slow, methodical, and are often about correct and clever item utility instead of reflexes. Frame drops are also very uncommon in the game to really notice them impacting the moment to moment gameplay regardless - you're not going to flub a jump or beef an attack because of a Blight Town tier chug on your hardware. And really, a shot at Z-Targeting? Z-Targeting did right in 1998 what most games even NOW still struggle to get right. It's snappy, fast, responsive, and it keeps the enemy perfectly in focus with you the entire time.
To bring this back to Castlevania 64, its combat IS kind of crappy, it is easily the weakest part of the game imo. Your movement is floaty and slippery, your character's responsiveness isn't the best, and most of all, enemies are FAST. Chainsaw Frankenstein can easily stunlock you to death, the vampire minibosses can bite-grapple much the same, and while your subweapon and main attack auto-aim is decent, you just don't feel as in control of the situation as is comfortable for a 3D action game. This also goes directly against the slow and methodical take-your-time approach the platforming often requires, a point I did agree with you thoroughly on. On top of all this, the feedback is just poor, especially for Carrie's magic laser balls and Reinhardt's shortsword side weapon.
Lastly, this game is NOT a Metroidvania. It is extremely linear. Each zone has some degree of exploration to it, yes, but once you move beyond that zone you often can not go back to the previous one, and when you can do that there is never any point or need to it. Shortcut doors looping back around to earlier parts of a stage do exist, but they're totally self contained, and most of the areas in the second half of the game like the Towers are totally linear as well, with no exploration at all. Lastly, the game has a critical flaw in comparison to Dark Souls for its difficulty. When you die in CV64, there are no checkpoints. You go back to your last save - which is a fixed point, as there is no manual saving. It is very easy to lose a large chunk of progress do to less that snappy controls or design and die to a cheap death. In Dark Souls this teaches you a lesson, yes, but your progress is not lost per se. Souls can be reclaimed. CV64 doesn't do that, and some areas like the Drider cave can be exceptionally stingy with savepoints.
Again, there's a lot to defend in Castlevania 64... but don't exaggerate to cover for its flaws either. This game is no masterpiece. It's a solid 7/10 sort of experience, one that is fun but also often frustrating and not constructively so. Beyond those shortcomings, however, is a good game, and one that needs to be broken free from its poor public image. I too do wonder how this reputation came to pass, because as you said, it reviewed fine back in the day. I know for a time in the 2000s there was a backlash against ANY 3D Castlevania, including IGA's own admissions to the series Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, but both of those games eventually got the recognition they deserve. I hope one day CV64 can get that as well. Shit, it deserves it better than the derivative mess that is Lords of Shadow anyway.
CV64 is one of those games that I rented multiple times as a kid even though I was never very good at it and never even got that far. That opening area with the skeletons is still one of the most nostalgic gaming memories I have.
I actually want a re-release / remaster of both Castlevania 64 + Legacy of Darkness. I prefer Legacy of Darkness more than Castlevania 64, but I enjoy the heck out of both of them and have never changed my opinion on that for a long time :D Castlevania 64 was one of the games I got along with a used N64 in Highschool, and it was wild to me back then.
Imagine these games receiving the Nightdive Studios treatment! I like to imagine that happening in an alternate reality, for the way things are, it's easier to expect Konami releasing a CV64 Pachinko Edition :(
I loved this game, no matter what everyone said. I loved the soundtrack and mostly I loved how each character had unique encounters. I liked how Reinhardt had the Rose segment, and how Carry fought against Actrise on top of the tower, I remember I loved her design! And Silvester Stalone-like 2nd dracula form always made me chuckle. But yeah, that OST, a total banger.
"take your time" it doesn't matter how long you take to line up your jumps sometimes the collision detection will simply not work. there is no amount of preperation that will fix this. your video would be a lot better if you ackowledged the actual faults like these.
I appreciate you're framing C64 as a bold experiment but I have to vehemently disagree with alot of your assessments.
It was not a trendsetter: Many contemporary or even earlier games had DONE what C64 did in appearance, gameplay, and theme.
Scale and Scope first...because I am actually deeply and personally offended by your brazenly incorrect assertion at 28:50.
You MUST be joking. By comparison, we have Demon's Crest's first scene. It's bloody tutorial is a fantastic example of cinematic dread. Out the gate you fight a giant freaking zombie dragon stomping onto screen. Additionally, we have Kraid from Super Metroid emerged in behemoth grandeur.
We also have SotN, which included Granfaloon, Beelezebub, Galamoth, and Olrox as examples of giant bosses that took up many screens.
A giant skele awkwardly waddling past is hardly ground breaking, imposing, or operatic.
Appearance: Seems disingenuous, no matter how technically skilled some of the tech work was. Using Mario 64 is a GREAT example of a much earlier version of a 3D game on the N64 that in many ways look better.
Gameplay: NO. Nonononono. That game PLAYED like garbage and was not a TREND SETTER for 3D gaming or platforming. Even the clips you use, you can see the difficulties in enemy targeting and use of the whip subweapons. Your argument at 40:30 is absolute nonsense.
Compare to other earlier 3D titles. Mario64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Zelda64 pulled it off better. Resident Evil is a great example as well, with a style choice of ponderous and deliberate.
Heck, MediEvil had already shown up to say nothing of Spyro and Crash Bandicoot as terrific examples of how to make a 3D character NOT play like a wooden marionette thrown down some stairs. Point being: There were MANY 3D games already out and about to show these things could be handled.
Atmosphere: Subjective but NOPE. Nuh uh. Veto. C64 shoots itself in the foot 10 min into the game.
Ooohhhh scary moody setting then...MOTORCYCLE SKELETONS! Oohhh isnt it ZANY!? Like a CHAINSAW ARMED FRANKENSTEIN. Sticking to contemporaries and ignoring the SplatterHouses and Demon's Crests of earlier generations, Soul Reaver is a far better example of setting a gothic mood in a 3D, navigable environment.
In short: C64 is a mediocre game, at best. It was neither brave, nor bold, merely awkwardly executed. Even attempts to make it seem "deliberate" as if it were new, is not the case. Prince of Persia, Blackthorne, and other cinematic platformers existed before hand. Making it difficult to make your character perform simple tasks (due to controls or wonky camera) should not be viewed as a positive.
Conversely, within the same franchise, Simon's Quest WAS a trend setter in an era of pushing the boundaries and defining what made videos and that particular genre. It was only number two, after all. From it, many others adopted elements and refined them, such as the RPG, shop, and other elements.
By the time of C64, games had developed and the franchise had evolved. This game SHOULD be viewed as the Pager of the Castlevania series.
In response to your: IGNORING THE VALID CRITICISMS OF SOMETHING IS NOT A VALID BASIS FOR PROCLAIMING ITS GREATNESS, particularly based on a flawed assertion of groundbreaking novelty.
This was the first Castlevania I ever played and it will always have a place in my heart. 64 and Legacy of Darkness were both fantastic. Yeah Symphony is definitely my favorite, but I adore the 3D titles as well.
nobody was "wrong" about castlevania 64 lmao. what is with gamers and trying to reclaim mediocre titles as hidden gems? I like a ton of stuff that people think are mediocre but I'm not gonna go "this game is actually a masterpiece!"
64 had the worst introduction ever with the awful forest level and the fucking mandragora quest is some of the worst shit in videogame history. not to mention all the obtuse gameplay mechanics
the devs admitted that they kinda messed up with (a lot of it was due to time constraints and how hard the videogame leap to 3D was) it and bounced back with the better kinda re-release, kinda sequel castlevania legacy of darkness
Every time I see a video about how everyone was wrong about it just further proves why everyone was right.
You want to like a bad game? Go ahead.
You want to have nostalgia for a bad game? By all means.
But please. Don't try and say the bad game is good just to pretend you have some extra special intellectual quality that sees what _hoi polloi_ don't.
And yes I used gratuitous Greek to act like I'm smarter than you.
_That's how easy it is._
I never know where to stand with videos of this kind of scope....on one hand I more than agree that the perception of many games is largely based on what people have said about it over the years, and not based on actual experience. That part is unfortunate, nor do I think popularity is the most important criteria to judging quality.
On the flipside the "millions of people were wrong, and I have the *real* scoop" is kind of arrogant and presumptive, especially when it's based on erroneous details.
I adored this game and the sequel. I played these games so much as a kid, unlocking all the characters and stories. What a blast. It really is a shame so many people hate it.
I've been watching for so long that I remember you headbanging to SoTN's boss theme on camera lol. You, Extra Credits and Game Theory were literally the first channels I subscribed to on youtube. I remember I found you cause Game Informer shared one of your videos, tho I don't remember which. I really appreciate your videos, you have no idea how much, keep up the good work.
That's so cool to hear, thank you for sticking around for all this time
I don't think the "early 3d" excuse for the poor camera/controls/plaforming carries much water.
This game came out after Mario 64, Tomb raider 1, 2, 3, Spyro, Banjo kazooie, etc
Like all bad games, it has a lot of good and interesting features, they just don't sum to make a good game.
This game was my childhood . A underrated gem fr.
In this video you praise the idea of a feature a lot, when the execution is very very lacking. The day and night cycle in Simons Quest is a really great IDEA but in execution its tedious and breaks up the game. Crediting a game for trying new things is fine, but dont act like it wasnt far off target in practice.
I hear what you're saying, but also please consider that the first innovative step in any medium is almost always a misstep. The only way you can get a *good* day+night cycle is to even have one to iterate upon in the first place, as you'll never have one if you are afraid of making that misstep.
It's the *unwillingness* to go beyond *anything* but the tried and true of what succeeded before that causes any IP of any medium to stagnate and quickly become accused of lazily producing their franchise via "copy+paste" before riding the IP right into the grave because of fear of upsetting their formula.
So, yeah, the day+night text screen in CV2 was interruptive, slow, and long- I am in agreement there, as it definitely and desperately needed some iterative tweaks- but the potential for what it could open up for Castlevania (in terms of world interactivity)? That was kind of insane! Just poorly executed lol
And for that, I applaud the ambition that went into the idea, and am truly sad to see it never was polished and reincorporated- probably largely in part of the community being so loud with their immediate grievances with it and failing to see the same potential that the devs saw in the mechanic that the devs simply decided to never consider having the mechanic ever return; at least that's my observation on how things shook out.
Made it further into the video now: since I disagree with you and apparently you’ll compare my opinion to Prager U who are trash humans and dishonest interlocutors, I guess I don’t need to watch you. Some games can just be “not great” or even “average”. You don’t need to overcorrect in the other direction. Maybe it’s not unplayable, but tbh you’re doing the same thing you’re accusing others of. When this was new nobody was doing anything for “the clicks”, the world didn’t exist the way it does now, not everything was a cynical attempt to grab attention dishonestly, which is ultimately what you’re doing and seem very preoccupied thinking about.
So, I appreciate your perspective, but I think it's hyperbolic to assume that all arguments against cv64 are in bad faith.
I've played Legacy of Darkness and I adore enjoyed it, but it IS a clumsy platformer by virtue of being a 3d N64 platformer. It's easy to fall and die on those platforms at the beginning of the game even if you're being careful and taking it slow because of the momentum you leave platforms with. And CV2 isn't hated just because it's a meme, the game is a badly translated, confusing game with weird esoteric mechanics that are almost impossible to figure out on your own. Like the part where you need to kneel with a crystal to summon the tornado.
I would love to see a remaster/remake of cv64/LoD though. I played through Legacy on a PC emulator with a keyboard, and playing through the game with no analogue stick was... Challenging. But I still really loved it, and I'd love if more people got the chance to love it.
As a fan of the game, you're right that it's platforming is a bit too clunky but it's difficulty is blown way out of proportion. You have to be very deliberate in your approach kind of like in those old cinematic platformers like Out of This World and Blackthorne. I used to breeze through this game once I got used to the platforming. Of course nowadays these types of mechanics are far more forgiving so it's hard to go back to old platformers like this
I'll be honest, I'm glad a found your channel a while ago, thanks to you I found a serie I am happy to call one of my all time favorites, Fatal Frame. Was watching some top 10 horror games moments videos, and RUclips decided to recommend your video regarding the first Fatal Frame, and from there, the rest is obvious, always waiting for your new vids, and been trying to play a lot of the games from your vids.
Cheers and best of luck Ragnar, you're doing an awesome job being a modern day folklorist :D
I remember this game getting praise when it was released. I loved it. I loved the story, the interaction with NPC's, the twist ending, the final boss, the music, the environment, everything. And the DLC-like sequel "Legacy of Darkness" was even better. It wasnt until online gamer "Reviews" started cropping up that the negativity was amped up. Great video!
Look, this game came out in 1999. That's a year after Half-Life. It wasn't ground breaking in any way. It was dated, clunky, and boring for its time and it still is. It had a boring plot, bad controls, bad music, bad graphics, I could go on forever. People weren't wrong about this game or the other n64 Castlevania. They are both bad games. They're not the worst games on the n64, but they're still bad.
im sorry but i played this game as a kid and yes it sucks nothing you can will change my mind
As someone who actually played the game I don't really need a 50 minute video to convince me the bad controls were actually good controls.
Looks like I'm going to be the bad guy here. But as much I liked the video and got the points, but the sheer dodging of the games problems and excusing them does not make the point correct. Liking the game is fine, but it's always good to acknowledge a games faults (I like Circle of the Moon, so I know what I'm saying).
The controls and camera were clunky and the early era gaming of 'what do I do now?' is still a great problem. I don't know if you were deliberate or not, but watching your game play is pretty much evident as well.
It may not be 'as bad' as people say it is but it's still not as good as you say it is. Still, good to see people liking this game.
Despite all its flaws, this is sincerely one of my favorite Castlevania games, and I'm glad to see you cover it.
The atmosphere for this games is brilliant, and the art direction of the small moments in the game are beautiful, blink and you miss it, like the rose garden, the time changes etc.
Theres greatness in the game, but the gameplay is bad, yes it is, thats just a fact, and the platforming control is just bonkers, as the camera is just jankey as hell. Ive smashed this game and legacy of darkness, no easy feat, trust me.
The direction is there, and the story is there also, i love the rebieth of dracula, i love the old vampire hunter who can can be a vampire if you fail in segemnts in the game, the trader who can claim your soul of you spend too much etc...
This game would be the oerfect candidate for a remake. Keep the art direction as the focus but use a game engine that works.
I kinda blame AVGN for the hate on this game. I think it's one of the best offerings on the N64. The camera is what can make this game a chore but overall it's a fantastic game considering it was the first 3d entry of the series.
I really love this game to, but LOD a little bit better. The ship scene, the forest section and the grafics are better. Unfortunately the Reinhardt game has no voice acting and the “courage dont leave me“ line is sadly missing. You know what also helped for the atmosphere? The fact that you can inspect a lot of things a la Resident Evil. To this day I find new things to inspect. For example the fence in front of the mansion and the sacks of grain in the castle wall level. But please explain me this, and it has bothered me my whole live, howcome if Cornell jumps in the coffin you wind up at the outer wall of the castle? I can imagine the sewers of the caves, but high up at the outer wall? Do you have a explanation? 😅
As someone who played this when it came out, as of now I'd disagree, I still don't think this was as good game. But it's also been years and years since I last played it, so it's possible my opinion could change with fresh eyes as it were. Most of what I recall about the game was the terrible camera that messed up the platforming.
I never played it but saw Symphony of the Night looking absolutely incredible in magazines. I had both consoles. Castlevania 64 looked awful. Never even rented it.
It may be better than "awful" but when we had the two choices in front of us, it was easy to go to the PlayStation title.
No, you are not wrong, is a bad game.
If you play this on an emulator with a modern controller and the camera button mapped to something convenient, it becomes a LOT more fun
Creator kind gives it points as appreciating it from a current perspective. Soul Reaver came out like 5 months later. Could be argued that is the better and more influential game.
Great vid still.
i refuse to accept that Alucard is bi-sexual simply because it was released by the netflix series which is notoriously breaking character game lore.
serious question and I'm hoping to get a serious response. Why do so many YTers make videos with voice overs that sound like they are whispering?? I dont get it
Castlevania 64 was certainly NOT a reboot. Oh man. Where do those unspokenly stupid ideas come from?
You're making a lot of effort trying to justify the "artistic accomplishments" that the team managed for an early 3d title. Which might be convincing if Thief, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid hadn't all been released months earlier, games I would argue are objectively more developed in their aesthetics and aptitude at presenting early 3d video games; even with MGS being on ostensibly worse hardware. N64 is simply not great hardware to present the more serious stylings of the Castlevania franchise, and comparing the visuals here to Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness makes this abundantly clear.
It's been a veeeeeeeeery long time I dreamed to see someone defending Castlevania 64 and Legacy Of Darkness as I always did (and still do), demonstrating how these games are such underrated gems.
Thank you for this video, indeed !🤩😍
I remember playing a bit of LoD a year or so ago, and going "oh, huh, where's the part that sucks?" I got killed by my own impatience plenty of times, but I ended up loving Cornell as a character and never really figuring out why the game got bashed as much as it did, aside from some jank that was caused by my aforementioned impatience. At the time I chalked it up to LoD being the fixed version, but now I'm not so sure.
Dude I loved this game since I first played it. Reindhardt was my first choice. My buddies hated it but when they stayed over on fridays they’d cheer me on to see me fight to the next boss and unravel its secrets. This was MY game in the n64 era. Thank you for this video!!!
From me I feel like a lot of my friends start it with this game in other words for a lot of my friends of my this was their introduction to the franchise
19:57 also love how you gave that motor-skelly that epic FLAMEWALL behind
XD got to love it, but hey the mighty REINHARDT also deserve his own badass flaming wall
i know the part of the motorcycle skeletons may come as a little cheesy and always got to wander if this kind of motorcycle truly existed in that type period where Legacy of darkness it's supposed to take place ????
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but got to also give a token for just plain badassery
I always loved this game, I never had a problem with it, to me it was the cinematic version of Castlevania, yeah it doesn't beat the other ones, but for what it is, it's an awesome game, I remember renting it still from Blockbuster, and it's sequel as well, and loved that one also, I just think at the time it wasn't good cause people were interested in other things, but if people gave it a chance today, they'll think differently about it. 🧐
I must say that this video cleared my eyes of hating a game for no reason. First time I saw this game was avgn or someone like that. And never gave it a second look. Now I really want to try this game, Im always up for a good or decent metroidvania, not enough 3d ones out there.
I was around 13 when my friends and I played this one; one of the first games to genuinely creep me out due to its very strong atmosphere, achieved through a combination of setting, music, and general ambiance. When you read up on its development history it's also remarkable how ambitious the game was for its time, both what made it into the game and what got cut. Had it been attempted maybe a generation later it's interesting to think if it could have had its controls and camera smoothed out a bit and become a more widely-accepted success. How might that have influenced the future of the series as a whole?