Super Castlevania IV: Hard Mode, No-Damage, Eternal Candle Challenge [Block 3]

Level 3 is typically when the difficulty starts to pick up in a Castlevania game, and it definitely shows. I rage quited 2 times and spent about 5 hours total trying to beat this stage, and to be honest, none of it is particularly hard.

As I went through it, I couldn't help but notice all the empty, underutilized space this level has. It's mostly apparent in the first section of the level. Additionally, I noticed that Hard Mode doesn't really add much more challenge to the game than normal mode. All it really does is add the occasional bat waiting to ambush you, and a few extra enemies that are sort of just... randomly put in places. Places that really don't make them threatening.

The hardest thing about this level is it's length. It becomes more about endurance and patience rather than dealing with difficult situations. That said, the final area of this level has quite a few difficult scenarios.

This level also reminded me of one of the reasons I don't like Super Castlevania IV as much as Rondo of Blood or Chronicles: The slow down. There's a lot of places where the game slows down due to the developers' obsession with making the game super gorgeous to look at. This will become especially apparent in the next level...

If you watch carefully, you'll notice that as I get further in the level, my anxiety builds immensely. This becomes especially apparent when I reach the boss (Or bossES). Their movements are very erratic, and since my whip has poor range, getting hit by their heads is a very real possibility. Additionally, they sometimes don't take damage from my whip. No idea why. These, combined with the slow down and the consequence of having to redo the entire level, augment my anxiety to the point where I keep standing far away from the bosses, whipping the air, hoping they'll somehow move right into it despite being fifty miles away. If I wasn't panicking so much, the boss fight wouldn't have taken so long.

Despite their erratic movements, the bosses are absolutely pathetic. The only real threat here is that one of them shoots three-way fireballs, but half the time, the attack isn't even aimed at you, and when it is, your whip can destroy the flames.

Song replacements:
Block 3 is odd. It's essentially three mini levels in one. Each has their own graphics and music. It was difficult to find actual arranges and remixes for the stage tunes, and I was half tempted to use completely different songs entirely. Thankfully, the people at Castlevania Dungeon were able to find enough arranges that I liked. To start with, Vampire Killer of the CV Dungeon forums lead me to an orchestral arrange to the cave theme from the Perfection Selection Dracula -New Classic- Album (Thanks to Chernabogue for information on the source). Then comes the waterfall tune. Another Dungeonite Uzo recommended Jorge D. Fuentes's arrange of the theme, which combines the original tune with Waterfalls of Agartha, a song from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow that sounds similar. It works quite nicely. Lastly we have the theme for the Submerged City. Again, Uzo comes in and recommends a nice orchestral arrange made by Tobias L.. For the boss music, I used Enchanted Banquet from Symphony of the Night. I don't know why, but I felt it fit well. And for the stage clear theme, I used Chronicle's Arranged stage clear theme (One of the best stage clear themes in the series~).

That's not the last thing I had to replace though. Before the boss fight, the area fills with water. For some reason, the sound effect that occurs here didn't go off, so I opted to download some generic waterfall ambiance, which I took from QuakerVille's Waterfall video. I think it worked nicely.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• markyjoe1990
• super
• castlevania
• IV
• four
• simon
• belmont
• eternal
• candle
• challenge
• no
• hit
• death
• block
• three

[Chernabogue]

The arrangement of "The Cave" is from Perfect Selection Dracula -New Classic-.

[markyjoe1990]

@Chernabogue

Updated description and credited you. Thanks.

[Nidair]

That boss has very strange hit detection...

[marsgreekgod]

Man I really like this boss music. It's epic.