Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse -- Stage 5, Syfa (2/2)

So here we are again...and our heroes had better get their acts together if they ever hope to defeat this stage, much less Dracula himself...I mean they didn't even make it past the second room of the first block.

I want to point out, interestingly enough...that Syfa's blocks are generally labeled in the format of "Stage Number - Block Letter" as opposed to numbered blocks...although in one particular case, there's actually enough branching to the paths where there are THREE different stages in parallel...but only the one reached by following Syfa's route is lettered rather than numbered...the two branches reached via the path Grant took with Trevor are both somehow numerically tracked and are therefore given the same block numbers despite being completely different stages. Oh well, they can keep their crummy Universe 1 and we'll be Universe A.

Anyway, that's enough humoring my strange internal musings, there's yet another interesting gimmick to this stage that will make things that much more troublesome for our heroes: a "crumbling" tower that gradually scrolls along of its own accord by graduated "steps" downward.

As if that were not enough, it's almost immediately followed by another vertical "staircase tower"...but instead of gargoyle enemies, the level designers have left something far more dangerous unless you really slow down (which at least you can afford to do in this room, unlike the other one) to consider your ascent carefully: Bone Towers. Thankfully their fireball counts have been reduced to two consecutive shots, but that's really not of much consolation when they're stacked up and placed opposite one another and staggered at extremely inconvenient intervals for progressing onward.

It's enough to almost make you want to outright welcome the black crows you meet after you're finished working your way through that room
...almost. I'm still actually somewhat convinced that the black crow enemies are the most treacherous in the game, but fortunately they're usually the only hazards or enemies to worry about (besides the ever-present bottomless pits) when they actually do show up.

Well, Trevor was deprived of his Holy Water yet again, so I guess that means Syfa can actually handle this one, even though The Creature is definitely a prime candidate for being doused repeatedly in the strangely flammable liquid.

I promise that next time I'll stop letting Trevor hog all the drops from candlesticks that yield the Holy Water, because it also yields what is probably my favorite of Syfa's subweapons...so it makes it a really tough call.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Castlevania
• III
• Konami
• NES
• 1990
• Trevor
• Belmont
• Syfa
• Sypha
• Belnades
• Dracula
• Vampire
• Killer

[YuuGiJoou]

I'm not sure what you saw, but Trevor jumped, whipped to take out the candle on the way down, got his fully-upgraded whip, switched to Syfa to pick up a red book, and then Trevor switched back in so he could get his revenge on that Axe Armor.

Maybe those axes are *evil* axes? The Vampire Killer is the whip of evil's bane...or something to that effect.

It's always fun to bonk things on the head. I find that Syfa's superior speed and breadth (rather than range) better keeps the birds at bay.

[Overhazard]

What just happened around 4:23? Trevor jumped whipped the ground above him, and then you switched to Syfa.

And that's one powerful whip if it could neutralize an axe thrown at Trevor.

It looked pretty funny when the hawk came and swooped down at Syfa, then Syfa hit it with a stick.