NintendoAge http://nintendoage.com/forum/ -Sqooner Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-18T20:32:29 -05.00 Zing 22 Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-17T22:43:16 -05.00 Zing 22 ]]> Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-17T21:54:45 -05.00 Zing 22 Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-17T20:04:02 -05.00 Zing 22
Another way to farm is to use the bone pillar enemies. They shoot two fireballs, and sitting back at the right distance, you can throw a fire bomb in anticipation of the first fireball. It will hit it, then plow through the second one as well. I think you earn 1,800 points each time you do that. You have to time it perfectly though, and if you don't, your fire bomb will go through the first fireball (even though it clearly looks like it hits), and you will get damaged.

The best point for farming is on Death's stage. You can get the red skeletons (three max from what I was able to do), group them together in one sport and use the fire bomb repeatedly. Their respawn rate is about twice as fast as the reappearing zombies on the first stage. I had nearly 600,000 points by the time I finished this stage, and that's only because I got bored and decided to move on.

I went by the recommendations here and used the fire bomb on Dracula's second form. It worked like a charm! Defeating his first form without the cross though was tricky for me at first. Normally in the past I would use the cross to attack his fireballs, then whip his head. I found last night though that if you wait for him to open his cape and *then* jump, his fireballs will always shoot straight and if you distanced yourself properly, you will clear them without a hitch.

Last night was the first time I really bothered to play the second quest. God damn is it hard! The original Castlevania has been "easy" for me for well over a decade, and actually having to WORK to get through it is proving to be a shock to my system! I got a game over at the cave and had to continue three or four times, maybe more just to get past the water part. The increased numbers of merman and flying bats makes it extremely difficult. Using the stopwatch helps, but you only have a very limited amount of hearts.. d'oh! ]]> Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-16T02:19:49 -05.00 Zing 22 Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-16T02:19:11 -05.00 Zing 22 I made it. I got to Dracula without dying and having 8 lives remaining. I died twice, but then finished him off.

This time, I decided to just blaze through the first stage and get to the zombie point as soon as possible, giving me the most time to farm points. Unfortunately, I ran out of hearts before my time was up. I also ended the level with slightly fewer points than usual. I guess all those bags do add up.

The "second quest" is ridiculous. Basically, everything does double the damage and there are flying enemies coming at you almost all the time. Bats, birds, medusa heads... almost non-stop. It gets particularly amusing when you reach a part where there are normally bats or medusa heads, since the game throws double at you during these parts! Getting through the crushing spikes with medusa heads is not easy. I lost most of my lives there. I made it to the Mummies, but I messed up and got hit. Stupid mistake. This pretty much ended the game for me, as I had to make my way across a bridge filled with birds and "dragon skull cannons" (I looked it up) with no whip upgrades since there is only one candle on the entire bridge. The cannons take 12 hits without the upgrade!

Great game. I'm sure I will play through it again someday, but it's time to move on.

]]> Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-15T22:22:13 -05.00 Zing 22 Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-15T22:02:40 -05.00 Zing 22 Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-15T21:15:06 -05.00 Zing 22
The bad thing about this trick is that it makes the money bags seem so weak. Grabbing a 100 point bag doesn't even seem worth the time to walk over to it!

One thing I really need to do is memorize the locations of all the weapons. Once you get fire bomb level III right before Medusa, you can keep it until Dracula and just demolish the bosses. Medusa, Mummies, Frankenstein, and Grim Reaper are kept literally motionless with constant fire. A few times I accidentally picked up a boomerang or axe, ruining my fire bomb. Now I just proceed slowly, checking each candle and enemy before I pick up the drop.
]]> Castlevania http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=47452 2011-03-15T21:10:01 -05.00 Zing 22