Let's Play Castlevania Legends - Secret Stage and Good Ending

[@CharemTheShadox]

Ohhh it led to the secret level, that's why this secret was so well-hidden compared to the others.

[@Zero-ELEC]

Her son's meant to be Trevor

[@sebastiann.8088]

Really? Didn't know that, pretty cool! Just wish it were still canon, but IGA is a douche.

[@volltrottel9322]

@@sebastiann.8088 IGA is not at Konami anymore, so you can pretend it is still canon, as there is nobody who will say otherwise

[@seovania9601]

Not canon.@@volltrottel9322

[@LemonnNote]

I've said it once and I'll say it again This game feels like a fanfic that a 12 year old Alucard fangirl would write on wattpad

[@piers1796]

So, uh...here's a big post XD. Considering the game was basically Castlevania with a new can of paint, I need to bring up how Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon does the candle system there. In CotM, you can tell which lanterns drop which goodies based on one of three colors. You'll know immediately which lanterns drop your special weapon jugs, which lanterns drop special weapons, and which lanterns drop the special lightning spell. This isn't something revolutionary; Castlevania Legends has the same sort of system, but I think it's so limited here that it just makes the gameplay annoying. There are so many hallways you can drag yourself down where your 'reward' is food or just a few hearts. The problem with this is two fold; first of all, a lot of people won't see a point in going down hallways that just contain candles because they feel the reward is substandard and not worth it because they're trained to know that they'll only get hearts out of it. At least for this, better utilizing the different candles, a feature this game PROMINENTLY USES, would help immensely. There are many alternate hallways of candles throughout this game you either travel under or over (Because who needs unique level design for each level am I right?) where you will see the candles. If these candles were marked a bit, that could incentivize actually going down and whipping them. Why not have an ornate candle that represents a 1Up, or a candle with a noticeably bigger fire that might somewhat charge up Sonia's super form gauge? Or have a candle that actually denotes meat? Sure, not everyone will take the bait, but those who feel they need some more lives or who think they're coming up on a tough boss might feel the need to explore a bit. The second problem, one that cannot be solved by changing candles, due to the nature of the problem, are the special items. In this day and age, getting a copy of this game outside of a rom could be very difficult. And finding the manual for it, even more so. And that's assuming people read the manual. Now, a guy like me, I like exploring. I'd be that prick who'd examine every inch of Castlevania. But I know dozens of LPers and Streamers who, for one reason or another, are just as likely to bumrush through a stage and never think about alternate paths and the like. Every gamer is different. The problem here is that many of the longer alternate paths just lead to meat, and that is indeed a problem, because people who might not fully understand the secret item system might be trained into thinking, 'If I explore, all I'll get is food or hearts.' I know I'm making gamers sound like idiots, but it's not an unreasonable expectation, especially if someone doesn't play games all that often. And to be fair, you didn't go down the shaft in the first playthrough, I'd assume, partly because you maybe didn't think there was anything worth it down there. You even noticed the shaft the first time you played and ignored it. Imagine everyone else who may have done the same. I've already spoken at length at how the gameplay failed, so I'll change tacks now to where the story failed...and, uh...given some other comments on this video, I can see there was already a debate here, so I'll try to focus on my own arguments. I'll straight-up say right now I'm a feminist, so if that bugs you, feel free to just tune me out, but... I ultimately agree with your argument, especially because the game focuses on Sonia as a woman, and focuses on her implied (and if this game weren't struck from the timeline for VERY misogynistic reasons, I would not have been surprised if it would have been outright confirmed at some point) romance with Alucard. Getting past the age issue (Which is an issue) the big problem here is something you tend to see a lot with female characters in the Castlevania games; a major part of their character and/or their motivation is love or a significant attachment to a man. Shanoa and Albus are the biggest example (aaaand somewhat creepy because, while we can all agree Shanoa is a badass and Order of Ecclesia handles the female protagonist angle better than Legends, Iga basically outright said Shanoa was based on his wife and he predictably used Albus as a bit of a self-insert) but even Maria and Richter deserve something of a mention given Maria's big purpose in SotN is looking for Richter instead of going and kicking whoever rose Castlevania this time's ass, and in Rondo of Blood, her ending is treated like a joke ending...though that may have more to do with her being a child at the time and less the fact she's female. I'm willing to give Charlotte a bit of a pass because, to a degree, you can argue Charlotte and Jonathan share the protagonist role, and the whole theme of the game is partnership; it makes sense that Charlotte and Jonathan are close to each other and care for each other, as both trained for their role in beating up Dracula. Now, of course, Richter was motivated by a woman as well, but that's honestly one man out of many, many men in Castlevania. I think Soma might also be motivated by a woman, but I haven't played his game. Being motivated or showing care for someone of the opposite sex isn't bad, granted, but it feels somewhat gendered here. For a female Castlevania protagonist to save the day, they either need the help of a man or a man needs to be heavily involved in their story, which isn't something most of the Castlevania men need to even consider. Shanoa needed Albus' soul to survive draining Dracula of power, Sypha needs to be saved first before she can aid Trevor, Maria needs to be saved before she can help Richter, etc. Simon and Alucard and Leon and Hector and Eric really never need something like that. It creates a bit of a double standard. Of course, as you pointed out, and I wholeheartedly agree with, the big thing here is the theme of motherhood. It is certainly badass that Sonia made it through Castlevania while pregnant with a Dhamphir and then kicked Alucard's butt before slaying Dracula, but the fact the game puts the pregnancy on a pedestal as the ultimate reward for 100%ing this game just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. While I can agree it did make some bit of sense at the time to establish Sonia as the alpha Belmont who bred the future savior of mankind, who started the illustrious Belmont line, I don't think it was something that needed to be focused on. Her conversation with Dracula after beating him already draws attention to the fact she fully intends to start a family line of vampire slayers who will kill Dracula; we didn't need another scene for it. There could have just been a throwaway line to tip off the baby's connection to Alucard, and their kinda already is given her conversation with Alucard literally a level before. Does Jonathon go on and on about having a child after slaying Dracula? Does Trevor? If you're with Sypha, there are implications of a relationship, but fatherhood is never brought up. Eric and Nathan and Richter don't bring it up either. Which is ultimately why this ending feels somewhat insulting; it's pointing out that Sonia is a woman and making that her big quality, not the fact she just fucking slayed Dracula. We've already had the scene where she expresses the intent to create a family line; we don't need to suddenly shift focus and paint the baby as the messiah after everything Sonia just did. Iunno, I think the ending could have been far better.

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

Have you given any thought to playing the NES classic castlevania games?

[@SimplySimonLP]

Not really, no. I tried 1 and 3 (finished the first, the third is a bit much without more practice), and they don't grip me. I found the GB ones interesting especially for how janky and slow the first was, but the NES ones are competently made, I'm not competent at them however :D

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

@@SimplySimonLP No problem man. I missed out on a lot of the game boy and nes library on account of being too young at the time, so games from that era are rather interesting to me. There are some surprisingly amazing ones, like SaGa 2, MM Quintum as you showed me, Wario Land 1 and dragon warrior IV. I'm sure there are tons more I've never even heard of because my exposure to games from that period was so limited.

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

Your playthrough shows all the problems of the game. Horrid graphics and animation, terrible enemy placement and patterns, useless secondary abilities etc. and some of the music is disgusting (though a few tracks are great). As far as story is concerned it feels like a bad fanfic that doesnt make sense in the series timeline (even pre Iga it makes no sense). Oh and Adventure's graphics are FAR superior...... 8 years earlier...... It's easily one of the worst of the series. I'd argue it's even worse than Adventure because sure that game has awful control and infuriating design choices but at least the devs knew the game's problems and built the stage and enemy design around them so it comes together in some way even if it's still not really good. Legends just places enemies and platforms everywhere with no thought and the respawning is just broken. The devs didnt realize the game's design to build a game around (enemies move so fast compared to Sonia, BR's enemies move at a pace to make Chillstopher able in combat). There is an air of love for the CV series here and you can tell the devs had good intentions so it's a shame. The same director led DracX for SNES (pretty underrated imo) and the Legends team ported SOTN to Saturn with some technical issues yet a wealth of more content that was scrapped from the PS1 version. There are magazine scans from before release that show screenshots of better, more lively graphics so I imagine the game was rushed out the door before they could put any polish into it. I'll see if I can find a link to it.

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

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[@Hilipinapixili]

Eh... I don't know. I still would prefer playing this one over Adventure. True, that game had more care put into it and seemed to be made by someone who knew what he was doing, but it just feels miserable to play IMO. This one has absolutely idiotic enemies with ridiculous spawn rates and lame level design, but it doesn't make me want to kill myself when I play it, maybe because the healing magic makes everything less severe. Adventure and Haunted Castle still hold the title for worst CV games for me. This one would probably be in third place though.

[@MasterDecoy1W]

So, for the most part your text jokes were good. But as it went on your hit rate started decreasing, I'd put it at a 60-40 split. I'd recommend being a little more self-critical, and maybe writing the jokes, then coming back to review the video the next day to see if you still think it's funny. If there's any doubt, just cut it. We're here for the gameplay and your analysis of the experience, the jokes are just seasoning that can and should be cut if they don't add to the experience, doubly so if they detract. You leaned heavily on "Sonia's a girl" jokes, but the bit at the end about where you knock the game for treating motherhood as an achievement is ridiculously out of touch when the whole canon of Castlevania revolves around the Belmont bloodline. Also, Alucard is not creeping on a naive, sheltered child who lacks independent drive. 17 is marrying age in the game's setting and Sonia is established as competent, so don't drag the game by comparing it to Twilight. I think the thing that really riles me up about this is that instead of the commenting on a legitimate element, like the fact that the secret requires you to attack something the game has been training you to avoid, your venom is instead directed toward story stuff that didn't even matter since this game isn't canon anyway. Don't take this the wrong way, I love your stuff and eagerly await the MM7 playthrough. I just want to help you create something that stands the test of time, so we don't come back in a couple years and cringe at forceful attempts at humor.

[@SimplySimonLP]

I've called out dumb stories in every game I LP'd because every Mega Man game has a dumb story. That I do this is not unprecedented in the slightest. This game is completely devoid of any interesting gameplay, yet puts the story front and center because getting more of it is its ultimate reward; obviously, the story is therefore a huge part of the game and warrants focusing on it more, no? You say that its not canon anyway, so it doesn't matter; and yet, you bring up canon as an argument to defend it. You can't have it both ways. Also, canon or not doesn't matter in the slightest: this is a game that exists, that you can play, and you can read the story, and the story is terrible. Does Castlevania 1 end with "fortunately, Simon soon found a wife to reproduce so the next game in the timeline could happen"? Does ANY Castlevania? Might there be a reason for why this specific one is different - maybe because it has a female protagonist? This, her age, Alucard's callous behaviour towards her and IGA's terrible justification for the game's erasure from the timeline make the story misogynistic in its very nature, and that is worth calling out exactly as much, if not moreso than the horrible, horrible gameplay. I might also remind you that while this game is set in the middle ages, it was made in 1997, and we're analyzing it in 2018. Today's morals apply when you're talking about things that exist in the present. I still tried to be lighthearted about this issue because these videos aren't first and foremost meant as an illustration of how horrible women traditionally have been treated in videogames, but if you think the jokes aren't funny, there you go, that's the reason. It's not actually funny.

[@MasterDecoy1W]

That's really unfortunate to hear. I was with you for a while, I even lean on the side of "I can't have it both ways" on the canon aspect. I can still defend my point, but I understand that it would be convoluted and would not matter in the grand scheme. As to misogyny, I don't think you have the first clue as to what real misogyny is, and your perspective on "how horrible women traditionally have been treated in videogames" makes you sound like a poser jumping on the videogaming bandwagon instead of an ardent fan. Maybe take a break from Feminist Frequency. You are actually dead wrong about what morals apply, because you voiding something of context. This is the logic that gets books like Huckleberry Finn banned because they say the word "nigger" when they are trying to give you an accurate portrayal of their time period. Igarashi's justification is probably given edge by the fact that a group apparently unconnected to any of the source material were given free reign to muck about and write such a historic event, especially since he had plans for it in Lament of Innocence. And he even highlights that moving forward in time increases the prominence of women and the likelihood of a female hero. Just to be clear, I'm not judging you for your moral stances or political views, I'm judging you for letting them permeate your work, which revolves around an apolitical subject. You hold seemingly strong ideological convictions and I encourage you to reexamine them. These are easy to have as default, normal opinions, especially in the modern "enlightened" era, but often they don't hold up under truly critical scrutiny. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

[@RGBeagle]

Wow, you write a lot of crap about things you'll never hope to understand. Why don't you find another Let's Player to harass?

[@TheJobberwock]

I can't decide what's more boring, this game or your attempt to flood us with so many words that say nothing to hide the fact you're trying to defend a game claiming that its main protagonist's most important characteristic is that she's a woman rather than that she killed Dracula.

[@Ephraim225]

@@TheJobberwock It didn't say that.