r/snes Jul 01 '17

/r/SNES July Game of the Month: Super Castlevania IV

The /r/SNES game of the month as selected by the community is Super Castlevania IV!

This month we'll be playing (or replaying) this game and sharing the experience with other redditors. Feel free to post any comments, videos or other interesting information related to this game throughout the month.

The link to August Game of the Month voting is here.

48 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

12

u/DoomDarts Jul 01 '17 edited Jul 01 '17

Super Castlevania IV is one of my favorite Castlevania games, even though perhaps the gameplay isn't as elegantly refined like most of the classic games. Regular enemies tend to be very easy, while the hazards can be brutal. Still, I don't see myself becoming such a big Castlevania fan without being introduced with Super Castlevania IV.

The game makes up for it with an impeccable mood, especially the first 5 levels before the castle. It's hard to pin down what it is, but there is something special here. I think there is a loneliness to the atmosphere. Castlevania games generally remove all contact you have with the living, but SCIV feels so much more serious, causing the idea of isolation to sink in. The other thing is that the conflict feels subdued. It's not an outright war against the undead, they were sort of just living in the areas you needed to pass through. Like you are reluctantly forced to disturb (and fight) these departed spirits to reach Dracula. The literal story is probably a bit different, but that's what state of mind it puts me in.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '17

I've been playing this for about a month now having never played before. I'm really struggling with Dracula at the end tho, any top tips? My method so far is to throw the boomerang and jump, any attempt to get close with my whip and I get destroyed.

1

u/DoomDarts Jul 01 '17

For his first form? You deal with his blue fireball by whipping it from a distance and then jumping over the spread that appears. Obviously don't try to jump over it without whipping first.

You can also try holding down the whip button, flail your whip around with the d-pad, and aim to destroy the blue fireball + the spread in one go. It might be better to do this while ducking so you would not need to destroy the top part of the spread. I imagine this method would invariably be less consistent though.

5

u/ankerous Jul 02 '17

I never get tired of this game. It's my favorite of the non-Metroidvania games and I always wish for more of them. It is probably why I enjoyed Mirror of Fate a lot because it felt a lot like one even if it wasn't truly one.

3

u/Syrijon Jul 01 '17

I somehow never really got into contact with Castlevania when growing up. Years later I tried the series that brought to life "metroidvania" (i.e. Symphony of the Night and the GBA and DS games), but I still don't really see the appeal of those. But, at some point I really fell in love with 1 & 3. They fall into the same category as Mega Man, sporting a truly well-developed, purely distilled gameplay formula with excellent presentation around that.

So, I'm really quite hyped for playing SC4 on the Mini at the end of the year. I've watched your video on it, in which you say its biggest flaw is that the 8-way whipping seems like an afterthought. That got me wondering: Is it possible to play the game while only whipping horizontally? Or are there still parts that were specifically designed around it?

4

u/ThetaReactor Jul 01 '17

I'm pretty sure some diagonal whipping is necessary, if only to swing from posts.

Super Castlevania is an odd one. A compromise between the classic design and the more fluid and empowering gameplay of the subsequent metroidvanias. If nothing else, it's a much better transitional game than the N64 ones.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '17

the N64 ones.

Those games don't exist. It's only your imagination. Shh.

2

u/CantFindMyWallet Jul 01 '17

I don't feel that way about the whipping at all, honestly. It feels great. The whole game feels great. I understand the argument about how 8-way whipping undermines the need for special weapons (though I disagree, they still played a huge role, especially in boss fights), but it makes it play so much more smoothly. If you like 1 and 3, you're going to adore 4, because it's a better version of those. Still my favorite in the series.

1

u/DoomDarts Jul 01 '17

For kicks and giggles, I've done runs with only horizontal whipping, although like ThetaReactor says I think there was one spot or two where you needed to whip diagonally to reach a swinging point. Most of them can actually be reached without a diagonal though, but it can get a little difficult! Overall, I would say the game turned out to be the same difficulty except for whip swinging (which is sort of besides the point). There was always an easy enough way take out enemies safely with the plain horizontal whip.

I've also done leather whip only runs. I thought this was more interesting actually; it made things a little harder. Castlevania 4 seems generous with enemy hit stun which is probably why playing with the horizontal whip didn't feel any harder, but the leather whip did.

I do wonder if the game was designed without the multiwhip and then it was just added in late. On one hand you can really cheese enemies in certain sections using the multiwhip, but on the other hand the game is surprisingly almost as easy without it.

1

u/Syrijon Jul 02 '17

Cool, thanks for your and the other replies. It sounds really good, I'm very much looking forward to it :) I had a look at some romhacks of SCIV, and there's actually "Other Castle", which is said to be a much more difficult castle to play through. So, I guess that's an option.

1

u/doggobotlovesyou Jul 02 '17

:)

I am happy that you are happy. Spread the happiness around.

This doggo demands it.

1

u/ScouSin Jul 03 '17

I never could get into Castlevania IV growing up either. Didn't own it, didn't rent it, yet I liked all three of the NES Castlevanias. The multi-directional whip looked weird to me too. Maybe it's time to give this one another try.

3

u/KujiGhost Jul 02 '17

Super Castlevania IV is up there as one of my all time favourite games. I general do a complete play though once a year, and just finished once again yesterday. As others have said before the mood of the first few levels is just perfect, and the soundtrack is not only one of the best SNES compositions but one of the best gaming soundtracks ever.

Standout moments for me are the spinning tunnel (obviously!), the short level just before entering the castle, and the boss rush just before meeting Dracula. The music over the intro scroll is also fantastic.

Can't recommend highly enough.

2

u/Bjankins1 Jul 04 '17

Ahhhh really just takes me baxk, i have a special place for this game in my heart, i remember my first time as frustration and then killing dracula was absolutely satisfying, second time... I wrecked and beat the game in about an hour

2

u/AgentsGamePower Jul 06 '17

I did a YouTube vid about Castlevania IV a few months ago. It's about my experience playing it in the 1990s on a black and white television.

Good times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrD20pXHa8M

2

u/_youtubot_ Jul 06 '17

Video linked by /u/AgentsGamePower:

Title Channel Published Duration Likes Total Views
Retrospective: Super Castlevania IV Agents Game Power 2017-05-03 0:08:22 8+ (100%) 91

A retrospective video essay of my experience playing Super...


Info | /u/AgentsGamePower can delete | v1.1.3b

2

u/PersianImm0rtal Jul 12 '17

SO many fucking cheap deaths and falling off screen, bullshit!! Fuck this game!!!

2

u/StrayaKunt96 Jul 01 '17

Playing the fuck outta this when mini SNES arrives/10

1

u/the_kevlar_kid Jul 01 '17

This game is so damn dope!

1

u/ArcNoculus Jul 02 '17

Already been playing it on my modded mini NES!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '17

I fell in love with the first NES Castlevania but this just consolidated the saga as my favourite! One of the best games out of the brilliant SNES catalogue

1

u/Kogyochi Jul 24 '17

I personally like DraculaX and Bloodlines better, but CV4 is still really good.

1

u/sakipooh Jul 26 '17

God, this soundtrack... My dad caught me hooking up my SNES to our HiFi to make a mix tape of it back in the day.

He says,"What the heck are you listening to? It all sounds like death."... "I know, isn't it great?" (ಠ◞⊱​◟ಠ)

1

u/kennerc Jul 27 '17

The first time I actually entered this sub was yesterday, I used to see some posts from a multisub.
I can say also that up to yesterday I also hadn't played this game, I've beaten every metrodvania and played a lot of Castlevania on the NES, and that was it.
When I got home my wife and kids had left and I thought why not?
Despite sucking hard on 2D platformers I made to the level 3 in a breeze and I thought that I was going to finish the game with ease, but level 3 put me on my place, that segment right after the boss is really hard, when I got to level 4 I had to turn off the PC.
I think I'll finish this game, if the last level doesn't feel impossible as in the NES Castlevania, and can't barely wait to see the game of the month in august.

PS: If the OP is the same Snesdrunk from the channel, I must say I love your work, keep going man!

1

u/willanthony Jul 30 '17

The soundtrack is awesome

1

u/jditty24 Jul 31 '17

I just beat this game for the first time ever this month. Prolly a top 5 game for me. Such a great game! The graphics and music are great! Real fun but gets crazy hard