Speedrunners Broke Castlevania's Most Annoying Mechanic

[@ChristerOsorioHoyos]

Initially thought that the "RPG route" was role playing as a vampire because of the succubus souls. Actually, it was much more literal than that.

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

Well Soma almost kind of is a vampire anyway so it's hardly even roleplaying.

[@maximinimarq6254]

same here

[@why_i_game]

Rocket Propelled Game... Role Playing Grenade... um...

[@vonmatrices]

Listen, you have a touch screen, you gotta gimmick. It's the law

[@theblaze5530]

Ecclesia had the best gimmick

[@phorchybug3286]

Thankfully Mario Kart DS has the right idea of just make up your own emblem.

[@gabrielcastejon7914]

@@theblaze5530 The Albus teleporting, right? Its obscenely fun!

[@gaspump]

You're not far off. With each system Nintendo has implemented certain mandates to get certified and for the DS it was that there must be touchscreen controls for some gameplay element. Other notables being using motion for the Wii, the pad for the WiiU and having 3d for the 3DS. They were all eventually relaxed but Dawn of Sorrow (drinking game: take a hit for every DS game that has a "DS" initialism) was close enough to release to be caught in that.

[@EduCrossHands]

​@@phorchybug3286 but it also have the microphone gimmick in Ballon Battle

[@NoVa_Dragoon]

12:06 One point of clarification, the wiki just straight up lies about the drop odds here, the soul drop is not anywhere close to 12%. In reality the odds are around 2.35%, or roughly 1 in 43. Which, granted, when compared to Dawn's more dire drops getting as bad as 0.39% (1 in 256), still generous in that context at least. edit: 14:25 Quite generously, for being only in the final few rooms of the game, Black Panther in reality is actually 12.5%, being 1 in 8

[@pedropimenta896]

Fix the wiki

[@Jabler-]

So did you fix the wiki?

[@CommunistRainbowdash]

the fact that the other route involves a goddamn RPG is really the banana on the bread

[@someoneusedtobeknown2645]

This is the first time I have ever heard this saying, and I feel like it should be a timeless one that everyone had used at least once in their lives.

[@Saryuja26]

I'm surprised you did not mention that this glitch can be used to obtain all three possible endings in one speedrun

[@huhneat8908]

what

[@GigalassII]

I like your funny words magic man

[@gegor41311]

2:11 "this bald man" This is a disrespect to Hammer, and you're about to pay dearly for it.

[@firedrake110]

I think the single best part of the game is the Soma fight in Julius Mode, it's so sick. I especially like how Soma has a voiceline for whichever character you enter the room with, plus the incredible music...

[@RezaQin]

Flint!

[@RaspK]

5:15 Fuck... Apparently, whoever localized the game assumed "kataaru" (the Japanese term for the weapon) was the name "Cutall," whereas it is literally an adaptation of the proper word for this type of bladed weapon, the katar.

[@djoshawott2850]

What about my favorite multi-armed sword-wielding demon in Aria, "Curly?" ...there's a lot of bad translations in these games, to the point where some soul descriptions are straight up wrong in Aria.

[@BafemousGoat]

I remember discovering the succubus-cutal glitch as a kid by accident and then going crazy around the castle with it, trying to finish the game as quickly as possible and being absolutelly taken out of my mind when i discovered that you could go off-bounds on save rooms and go around in such a way that gave you itens like Alucard Sword and the souls from Julius Mode. I was way too obsessed with this game tbh and i couldn't be happier i got the chance to feel this way, my favorite Castlevania game ev4r Note: I never could really finish the game as quick as i wanted, i avoided saves and even with them, doing Menace low-level is hell

[@sunasuna16]

final boss Stephen King with the Langoliers

[@TheJCHarkins2]

3 days late with the same thought...

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

I always thought they looked like goddamn Langoliers.

[@mrex666productions7]

It's just a XXL sized Flesh Golem that summons Langoliers

[@ShadwSonic]

Those seals don't even work all the time on emulator, which is why the "No Touch Screen" hack is allowed for the RetroAchievements set for this game. Did I feel silly when I realized that after failing the same boss several times...

[@gamerofthetime]

What emulator are you using? I'm using Desmume and never had any issues.

[@ShadwSonic]

@@gamerofthetime Desmume core in Libretro. This was quite a while ago. Should mention that I'm using a touchpad on a laptop.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

Patching out the seals improves the flow of the game so much.

[@gamerofthetime]

@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine Debatable.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

@@gamerofthetime I thought they were cumbersome, awkward, and needless at the time, they were clearly there because Nintendo mandated that the devs made use out of the touch screen gimmick, hence why this iteration of it was not seen in the other DS games. Trying it on emulator with the patch after having played it many times over the years, I thought it made it much more fun to fight the bosses. I didn't have to tear my grip and grab the stylus out of my mouth to draw perfectly on a tiny screen in an increasingly tiny amount of time, I just had to engage in the combat itself.

[@DoctorSwellman]

Nothing like drawing magic seals to zip into oblivion (also banana bread?)

[@rudorot65]

We got button prompts now. I wonder how this will change things if people start running the Dominus Collection version.

[@asteria9963]

They're kinda meh. The last one requires memorization. If you enter it by sight-reading, you'll time out. I wish they had just removed them.

[@coochielord_ultimate_gamer6969]

@@asteria9963just beat it didn’t think it needed to be there but wasn’t bad the last one was literally just a giant circle with squiggly lines

[@VicViper]

I honestly find it way worse with buttons. The visual feedback is just not there. Though grain of salt: I speak as someone who never had any issues/liked it with the touch screen.

[@Fenyx_Birb]

It's a little less annoying since it's now a standard QTE

[@keyblader1985]

I was never bothered by drawing seals in this game. I can't imagine how much people would hate a game like LostMagic - the combat was entirely based on drawing runes in real time.

[@elivcdxv1852]

Lost Magic is ABSOLUTELY goated. Love my boy Isaac Lightbrad

[@funninoriginal6054]

Difference is that one game is entirely based on touch screen gimmicks qhile the other is 95% void of it and only throws these things on you at the worst possible noments

[@asteria9963]

Seals are trash for casual players. Nothing like playing a side scroller, just for the game to force you to pull out that stylus and draw a bunch on lines on a crappy touch screen, then accidentally dropping said stylus and having to fumble around to retrieve it. On a train. God I hated it so much...

[@kenji6492]

Commenting after the release of Castlevania Dominus. The seals can be done as a basic QTE now.

[@123darkelf]

which is helpful cause doing it like on ds on an emulator with a joystick sounds so painful.

[@Shiratto]

​@123darkelf Also the tiny PS TouchPad isn't great either. Glad I can just use the face buttons as well

[@CloudCuckooKing]

I not only never struggled with the seals but felt cool doing them. Perspective is a wild thing. ETA: I think I should clarify, having watched like 30 more seconds, that I only ever played casually

[@Deathslayer296]

Same. Never had an issue, in fact I thought it was super immersive.

[@ReikuYin]

Same here. That final seal always made me feel great with that last upwards stroke. Not so much with the release tho but that's cause the screen is bigger. Could just memorize the buttons but the drawing feels better.

[@arkhe1n107]

I hereby state that we would indeed like a Julius run featuring Diagon.

[@KatouToast]

I loved this game when I was a kid. It was the source of my first ever rule breaking in my life, which was to sneak my DS up to my room in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep and playing with headphones on. We were only allowed 1 hour of video game playing a day, so this was MAJOR. Also, the soundtrack (and also obviously setting) was so sinister. It led to even MORE heart pounding excitement, cuz I would constantly whip my headphones off to listen in a panic, thinking someone was coming to catch me. The only was it could have been better is if I could have enjoyed some Banana Bread with it at the same time... ;) Excellent video, and thanks to Diagon for explaining! Very nice. When they preformed the first Zip with the Axe, I thought right away, "Wow, that's like the Sucubus-Cutall canceling glitch you can use to get around barriers and out of bounds..." only for that to also show up! That was pretty neat!

[@CottidaeSEA]

I actually enjoyed those seals. It was a nice touch where you do the final move yourself. It did help that I was good at it and almost never failed though. Probably saved me from a lot of frustration.

[@Antifrost]

I've never played this particular Castlevania before, but I do feel like with what I've seen, there are a lot of games with notably more obtuse touch screen gimmicks that I imagine would drive speedrunners bananas. Bread-and-butter casual playthroughs might find it frustrating to have some of their progress undone if they mess it up, but assuming the mechanic works properly (like I said I've never played the game so I don't know how accurate the touch controls are), I don't think I would've found it as annoying as some do. Even so, it's definitely interesting how it allows for such wild skips, though funnily enough it's the tutorial that makes this possible - had Konami assumed the players didn't need to practice the seal motions, then runners would be a lot more limited in what they could do.

[@jurel-enlatado1]

The gimmick is notably frustrating on PC emulators, its near impossible to do any kind of seal with the mouse and you can't even do it slowly since its a timed event. Thank god for patches.

[@Antifrost]

@@jurel-enlatado1 Reminds me when I tried to play the first Megaman Starforce game on emulator. What should have been a very standard touchscreen minigame was near impossible, and it was required to progress. I had to slow down the emulator speed to get through those sections.

[@ezelalia5739]

​@@Antifrost if you played Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, this is a worthy sequel, i still prefer Aria but Dawn is good

[@Hilipinapixili]

@@jurel-enlatado1 I actually never had any problem with the seals on the emulator, and I was dreading the hell out of them because I thought they were going to be miserable with the mouse. And yet I think I only failed a seal once.

[@Hilipinapixili]

@@ezelalia5739 I actually like Dawn slightly more than Aria by virtue of it being a bit more challenging IMO, but they're both top tiers in the series.

[@SnakeHoundMachine]

"THESE LITTLE JERKS!" Sir, they are called "Langoliers"

[@halfhero]

I get why speedrunners hate it, but in my casual playthroughs of dos I always thought the seals were a fun final flourish on boss fights edit : ok so i made this comment before i was somewhere i could actually hear the video, turns out speedrunners like them, regular players dont like them also banana bread

[@Sestren]

Love the video! I'd say more but I think I hear the oven beeping which means my banana bread should be just about done.

[@smashbrolink]

Those little balls of teeth during the final boss have GOT to be inspired by the monsters in the old movie The Langoliers. They're almost spot-on copies.

[@dacosmicbrownie]

These speedrun collabs are super informative and hella fun to watch!

[@Kydrou]

I really enjoy these Speedrun explanations. I wonder which one will be next? Maybe how to speedrun Banana Bread? Burn %?

[@Veserius]

Was only aware of the RPG route, so it is really cool to see this route.

[@RenPenov]

This is such a cool video, basically a condensed explanation of the whole speedrun route. I hope you do more of these for other CV games. Keep it up Dr4gonBlitz!

[@cellularautomatFI]

I love how there are so many exploits in this speedrun but all the RNG requirements makes speedrunning DoS seem like a gamble.

[@nintendohunter783]

Another great speedrun explained. Thanks DB and Diagon

[@delacreaux]

8:10 I remember doing this with the cutall all the time when playing the game as a kid, felt so good discovering something like that was possible, like eating a delicious piece of chocolate chip banana bread.

[@Vanamonde]

Wasnt expecting an Elden Ring style speedrun glitch in an older 2D game on DS

[@darkmage123345]

first you need a bananaa, then you need some bread....... spread banana on the bread then you have banana paste and maybe banana slices on bread

[@artmccarthy3268]

That was soo good.

[@LucianCanad]

Fun fact: "Malacoda" literally translates to "Evil Tail"

[@ericb3157]

this reminds me of a Flash game called "Salem", where you had to do a similar "seal" gimmick, using the Mouse.

[@DeceptiveSS]

A yes, a type of non-yeast bakery product that is the saddest end for a certain yellow fruit.

[@entheogenetic]

Whoa, fascinating! Cool vid - thanks for the edit/share, DB! I like tours like this

[@pehhii]

Diagon just flexing with his seal skills, a true CHAD. Also BANANA BREAD.

[@jbisthedj]

You are so good at explaining speedruns!! it's really impressive how comprehensive everything you say is

[@notspoileratall5471]

17:45 YESS!!!! MY BOI!!! Oh look at you my little prince, who's a good boy? *smooches its forehead*

[@Zabes10]

In the new castlevania collection the seal mechanic now use ñs bottons instead of the stylus making it the defenitive version

[@philnagle9024]

Dancing former vice presidents

[@SynysterProjects]

Pretty sure it's just poor translation, but the weapon used for the horizontal zip is actually a "katar".

[@exocryptic1472]

Where can you find the full map at 2:06???

[@airmanon7213]

Banana Bread. These glitches feel crazy to me as someone who hasn't attempted speedrunning, but they're quite fascinating!

[@AliceLoverdrive]

Ooh, this one was on my main page, I hope algorithm is picking your chanel back up! Say hi to mr. Daily for me

[@Densoro]

God, zips are like ‘what if Richter’s special attacks sent him to another dimension?’ It’s absolutely bananas. (Bread)

[@noctarem96]

Not being able to do correctly the seal patterns sounds like a Skill Issue to me 🚬🗿

[@Drangelon]

Glad I don't have to perform a magic seal when making Banana Bread, it would be terrible! Thanks for uploading this, it was amazing to watch!

[@Dark_Mario_Bros.]

Those tricks were so insanely easy looking, that made me crave some banana bread.

[@about99ninjas56]

How is that rare ring money not a pay to win mechanic?. They been getting us for DECADES. Lol

[@elivcdxv1852]

memory cards were the true p2w, auuegh

[@bluedelta18]

now i want banana bread

[@toshio1334]

I used to think the Malaconda Tail used to look like a stream of diarrhea and I'm glad it's being used as the main attack

[@YEs69th420]

I should have known DoS speedruns would be super broken, it's a Castlevania game.

[@CRojas]

The character design for those "things" in the final boss fight are definitely from the movie The Langoliers from 1995

[@SonySteals]

This and a prequel are one of my all time favorites. I love these games so much. Great to learn something new about them

[@GigalassII]

The fucking banana bread burnt while i was enthralled by the video, thanks for that dad

[@smok-e3396]

You actually can zip into abbadons room using axe zip or even by using its special right next to the save room because the animation puts soma next to the boss door from the back side so it knocks him into the room

[@blamblammcblam3922]

A Julius video would be a real treat just like having some banana bread

[@NoNameNoWhere]

12:17 What game is that musical jingle from? I know I've heard it before, likely SNES.

[@valdimer11]

My DS touch screen was off by a bit so the seal gimmick drove me insane. I eventually quit the game. I came back to it years later with a new DS and it was still frustrating but at least it was now doable. It's gotta be the worst feature they ever installed into a Castlevania game. I prefer NES commit jumps over that.

[@tomc.5704]

The RPG route is funny, but nothing tops the banana bread ending

[@madson-web]

All starts with Dinner Dog

[@michaeltedeschi9929]

That banana bread glitch is insane wow

[@pcdeltalink036]

Dawn of Sorrow was my first and so far only Castlevania game. I still love it, gimmick and all. Though, I would like a remake or something on newer systems that doesn't use it.

[@Ginsekami]

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Banana Bread- no, wait

[@Vandita3344]

I enjoyed hearing and seeing the speedruns, please do more!

[@se7enist]

Never thought I'd see Banana bread as a part of a major glitch.

[@ZinfulSD]

Homecooked Banana Bread goes hard though, no RNG about that

[@ManaBirb_0.1]

You always do such an excellent job breaking down these runs and the strategies.

[@gegor41311]

19:32 what's with the youtube video bar at the bottom there

[@snesgamer1253]

I never understood people's issues with the seal gimmick. It's kinda dumb sure, but did anyone actually struggle with it? other than children under like 7

[@maglen69]

My demon guest house sends me to room one is completely blocked off

[@syranas]

Good lord do I love the banana bread from breaking walls.

[@GerpidyGerpson]

The reason that the zips happen is The same reason why it happens in some mega Man X games and even Mario games where you can clip in between two walls and you're in a specific spot that the game will register you in for one frame and then the next frame you're going to be pushed aside to a certain degree and then set back into an X and y axis

[@dialgaofpower2]

Personally I'd make it so magic seals are used at the start of a boss fight, and if done successfully you lower the boss' stats by a small percentage; you can use any seal as long as you have it in your inventory on any boss, but more complex seals mean a higher percentage of the boss' stats reduced. Or maybe it could work as a speedkill mechanic somehow?

[@XinZ1138]

Al Gore rhythm banana bread.

[@trazodeltiempo1466]

great video! I've learned a few things here heh hmm it would be nice to have some banana bread huh

[@firedrake110]

I don't think I've ever dropped a seal, and I played through the game like 20-30 times as a bored teenager back when it came out - I also revisited it in 2020 when I suddenly had an abundance of spare time, and it was still great

[@Dom_Maretti]

So...barring speedrunning, for the average playthrough, I'd strongly recommend getting the "Auto Seal" Romhack that just automatically treats it as though you performed the seal when you defeat a boss. I would *love* the seals system if it were implemented into like a VR game where you have to do hand motions to mimic the seal...but on a tiny, resistive touchscreen...I'd rather play with input lag.

[@azraelroman1]

Just here for the banana bread...

[@sdsdfdu4437]

I'm guessing not every page or screen has a valid "load zone" connected to it so it uses some default or placeholder value?

[@Veketshian]

Great video!

[@flipperflapper6682]

I watch what the speedrunner do and a thought come to my mind, the same thought that come when I look online about Elden Ring walkthroug "How do you find this?!"

[@evandrake6269]

Banana bread? AT WORK? Hell yeah dude

[@Saltience]

turning those magic seals into magic spells

[@Cactrot]

Sure do love a good loaf of Banana Bread

[@midegola5623]

i loved this game when i was younger. but i never knew that soul was so strong because of how dumb it looked.

[@BelleMorte1979]

I just adore this game so much. Seals not so much. Great job by you and Diagon! Banana Bread!!

[@minirop]

pain à la banane

[@r4tbu564]

This deserves an algo push

[@artmccarthy3268]

I want some banana bread.

[@tipsyConfection]

I always knew that banana bread would break the gamr.

[@lukecwolf]

Man, i need to replay this sometime. I didn't even know half these souls existed (I really have bad rng in general) . I also really liked the boss designs, but i get the frustraion of bosses like 16:15. It wastes time, and if you're not challenging yourself with stuff like halberd/sword only, it can get annoying fast. Banana bread club let's go.

[@Daemonfelis]

I'd recommend watching it, it's a pretty good show. I was caught off guard how much I liked it. If you want to do more, I'd love to see Sir Pentious and Cherri bomb.

[@Morgan-ve2ow]

holy shit it's Jupiter Climb

[@clydefrosch]

the little langoliers are so cool though

[@KaijinZSurohm]

For the flame boss, Why not utilize the doppelganger so you can use Abandon on one set, then the tail wip on another?

[@Larky90]

Who doesn't like some Banana bread.

[@ryans5615]

Can I still join the club if I don't use the passphrase? Something about a banana or whatever. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. Gotta make that bread.