How do I?
Being a zoomer getting into retro action games, I struggle with even the supposedly dead easy super castlevania iv.
I'm having a good time, but am confused as to the best strategy to level up my gamer skills to be able to play some of the greatest action games ever

>>11883465 (OP)
Practice

>>11883465 (OP)
>dead easy
Nah. Pre-Castle its easy-ish, once you get to the castle it's a ballbuster.

If you're not aware of this, you can level up your subweapons by using them on candles, projectiles, and enemies. This'll spawn a level II or level III upgrade after destroying ten things. It goes away if you die or pick up a new weapon but you can level them up pretty quickly. It's a lot easier to fight with a maxed out weapon.

>>11883465 (OP)
What's giving you trouble? If you can't answer that then just keep playing it until something specifically gives you problems.
Castlevania is generally a much more deliberate action platformer. Don't be afraid to take your time. While the whip is really strong in IV, don't forget to use your items as well.

>>11883465 (OP)
Zoomers and younger never really developed the skills to play these sorts of games. It’s just alien to them. I could be Super Mario Bros when I was 4. My 7 year old can’t make it past 1-2

>>11883503
*beat

>>11883465 (OP)
Take a break from your target game, and play something that's simillar but even harder. When you return, you'll often find that sections which troubled you before all of a sudden feel much more doable.

>>11883519
I'm gonna try this.

I just grinded stage 8 on a save state for like 5 hours last week. I'm close to doing a 1cc, but need a little more practice.

I'll check out the castlevania chronicles on PSX for a bit more difficulty.

>>11883503
True. It took me weeks to play through super mario bros 1 via all-stars on snes. I'm slowly building the gaming muscle tho, I'll just keep up the grind, since nothing modern comes close to the fun I have with snes games

>>11883492
Damn I didn't know that. I had no idea what the II item was.

>>11883572
>I'm close to doing a 1cc, but need a little more practice.
Good luck! The process that I described above is how I got my first arcade 1CC (Futari, after a two or three week detour playing Ketsui and DOJ). It's a great way to overcome plateaus while simultaneously avoiding burnout.

>>11883465 (OP)
>supposedly dead easy
You fell for the modern meme. Most people who parrot this never beat it without save states.

>>11883465 (OP)
just git gud. there's nothing else to say. or play easier 2d platformers like super mario wonder or shovel knight or whatever that's more recent.

Start with the NES Mega Man games, they're really simple and the punishment for a game over is to just start the level from the beginning. MM 1 (sans Yellow Devil) and 2 are as meat and potatoes as it gets

>>11883975
Pretty much any retro game can help newbies develop patience and reflexes, and while Megaman is a great choice, my personal recommendation to git gud is playing Shadow Dancer for the Genesis. It can be a tough game, one hit kills you, but when you're killed the game highlights the point of impact and gives you a second to notice and study where you screwed up. This makes it easier to really learn from your mistakes in a way most other action games, who have faster paced deaths, do not.

>>11883602
Always try to read the manual, devs back then expected you to be able to read it. At worst it'll just hype you a bit for the game, at best you'll learn things that will help you and you wouldn't learn otherwise.

>>11883465 (OP)
I don't know if your muscle memory is difficient or if you just have unrealistic expectations about how you should struggle in even an easy game. like are you dogging it on the first level or are you just dying a lot on instant death platforming? no game back then was really 'easy'.

>>11883465 (OP)
latent muscle memory can help you coast with some games, but most stuff back then was just balls hard. if you actually wanted to beat a game you pretty much needed to dedicate yourself to it. boomers that have been playing sidescrollers for 30 years will eat shit in castlevania 3 and ninja gaiden, let alone a game with limited continues.

>>11883465 (OP)
Zoomer here, just keep playing, if you die keep trying. Pick a game you like and don't stop until you beat it. The most important thing is not changing the game because you have died. And never use save states.

>>11884559
Yeah seriously. Just practice OP, it's not magic. The special weapon upgrades thing might help and all but fundamentally you're just gonna have to keep doing it until it becomes easier.

The best way to level up your gamer skills is to game. Learn enemy patterns and levels, accept that you'll eat shit. Eventually you'll develop skills based on enemy patterns that transfer to other games. If you start getting frustrated maybe it is time to put the game down for the day.

Most important thing, don't expect to start a game and beat it in the session you first sit with it.

Just play them, and don't use emulator cheats, and you'll get better at them. I grew up with 2d platformers, but I had to relearn how to play them because I stopped playing them for a long time when they stopped making good ones.
CV IV isn't all that easy. It has really nasty platforming in later levels.

Castlevania 4 really isn't that hard at all. Just try and actually think out and analyze where you are dying and how to correct it? I mean don't zoomers get into dark souls and shit? Those games are way harder

>>11884885
>don't zoomers get into dark souls and shit? Those games are way harder
Different genres. Souls don't have platforming, which is the genre a lot of younger folk have trouble with.
IV isn't ultra hard like CV3 but also not easier than most other Castlevanias. The meme that "it's the easiest" mostly comes from modern revisionism.

>>11883602
You pretty much want to keep the triple cross for the entire game, it's the best subweapon and it annihilates most bosses.

>>11884902
It was by far the easiest to me. The platforming sections aren't even really that hard. The trick about castlevania is theres a bunch of bullshit jumps you have to take off the very last few pixels. Other than that I cant think of any parts that I remember being super hard. Castlevania 3 is absolute insane levels of bullshit at the end with the staircases.

>>11884907
I found Rondo to be the easiest (it was the first one I could beat without getting a Game Over).
Bloodlines also wasn't particularly hard to me, and yeah I played with Morris.
IV seemed harder than these 2 because of its later levels. Nothing on Rondo or Bloodlines was as hard as IV's stage 8 or stage B to me. Also no boss felt as challenging as Slogra.
CV1 is initially a very challenging game but once you memorize it (and use holy water stunlock on Death) I found it to be an easy romp.
CV3, X68000 and XX are the real harder Castlevanias.

>>11884915
eh, I felt bloodlines was on par in difficulty with IV. And I only beat the game as Belmont. Slogra was kind of hard I guess? I felt every boss in IV was disappointingly easy. Dracula was kind of hard in IV, but overall the bosses in Bloodlines were harder especially the boss rush and 2 more bosses at the end

>>11884902
It's easier due to whip length and flexibility along with infinite continues. While not being a complete cake walk, it isn't hard to find more difficult games than it as well. You're expected to be proficient at the game to beat it in the end.

>>11883465 (OP)
This game being easy is a meme. Enemies are easier to deal with since your whip is so powerful, but platforming in this game is still tricky and the bosses can be harsh too

holy shit the new stage show confirmed Alucard is in love with Maria

>>11885965
Are you talking about the pajeet netflix shit? Not real Castlevania, it's just an humilliation ritual.

>>11883465 (OP)
I always have to stop and enjoy this cover's art. One of the best ever.
That frog chilling there is the cherry on the top.

>>11885968
No, the Takarazuka Revue show that just finished its first run
>Moved by her pure and sincere devotion, Alucard confesses his feelings to her. He tells her that this is the first time in his 400 years of life that he has loved someone.

>>11885975
Nice legs.
Didn't know there was a takarazuka SOTN play

>>11885968
What's so bad about it.

>>11883465 (OP)
The cross break this game, specially against bosses.

>>11885969
>That frog chilling there is the cherry on the top.
I never noticed him before

>>11885989
All, but the death is especially insulting

>>11883492
WHAT

>>11883478
I would say play, but practice works, too.

OP report back. How are you doing in your journey?

>OP's face when

Playing for long extended periods can sometimes get your worm out and you can lose interest. I always play everyday maybe 2-3 sets of lives for each game im trying to master and see a lot more gradual improvement by coming back to game fresh and eager. Then, when I am in sight of finishing it by regularly reaching the final stages I focus solely on the game I’m trying to beat until it’s done. I noticed that gaming skills improve a little bit more when I dont just focus on one game. It’s like getting better at other games helped me get better at the game I am focused on winning at, plus playing multiple games at once kept me from getting to strung out from inching forward little bits along in the game that was the most challenging. It’s harder to stick to a game your getting slow gains at so rotating to a game where progress is easier gets your attention to stay focused much easier to attain on the more challenging one your failing at.

>>11883484
Agreed, people who say this game is easy havent played it. You do have a lot of options available to you though to make the game easier such as the cross and multidirectional whip, and being able to control your jump. Granted, this game is easier than the NES castlevanias and that arcade port of castlevania 1.

HOW DO YOU KILL THIS FAGGOTASS FUCKER? i'm on my 2nd playthrough, i don't know how i killed him the first time but i cannot get past him the 2nd. him firing his bolts fucks me up every time. using the cross is actually a detriment here

>>11887836
That guy is by far the hardest boss

>>11887836
>>11887841
he's the first boss in SotN get a grip

>>11883465 (OP)
I found SC4 harder than CV1 and way harder than CV2. CV3 (JP) is more tedious, but easier, too.

SC4 starts off really easy but the difficulty ramps up in bullshit ways. Fuck those plant shits in the garden. Their attack range is (whiplength - 1 pixel) and they attack almost immediately after appearing on screen

>>11887924
>Fuck those plant shits in the garden
Which ones?

>>11887836
Yeah, subweapons don't really work with the same way as other enemies because he has iframes after you hit him.
Strategy is: hit him, crouchwalk to the side and stay crouching while he lands besides you, be careful with the spear. You want to be close but not too close, then after he attacks (and doesn't hit you because you're crouching), whip him, while stil crouching.
Then repeat this until he enters his second phase which is where the real difficulty begins.
Hit it, then walk immediately to the furthest from where he's gonna land. Walk away and jump over the small platforms, or jump over them and go to the edge of the screen if Slogra is landing too close to you. He will start doing his beak dive attack, this is very quick and he can do it consecutively. Keep a distance, and whip, then again, as soon as you hit him, walk all over to the other side. There's a rhythm to it, you need to be quick and pay attention at where is he gonna land, if he's landing close to you, he will definitely try to dive as soon as he lands, so jump! And keep walking away, only turn back to whip once you're sure you're at a proper distance where he can't touch you. good luck!

>>11887948
Another more advanced and cooler, quicker technique is to hit him the moment he lands on the floor by jumping while pressing forward and hitting him with a diagonal-downward attack. He will keep bouncing fast and you basically keep jumping, whipping, walking a bit to the side, turn around, jump while pressing forward and diagonal down whip, rinse and repeat, you need good timing and inputs.

>>11885965
>>11885975
>>11885984
simping for those thighs is understandable

>>11887948
>tfw the original artwork for every Castlevania game up to like SOTN is lost forever

>>11887948
Man, it's a shame that the original artwork for every Castlevania game up to like SOTN is lost forever. It would've been great to get an artbook for the series like Mega Man's had.

>>11887924
Been a while since I played 4 but I would probably have a harder time with that one than 1 and maybe 3 too. I remember the buzzsaw segment being a pain.

>>11887865
good one but i actually died to him the first time i played the game... and i didn't find a save...
it hasn't happened again thankfully but i will say that the axe is noob bait, costs too many hearts by that point and doesn't do nearly as much as the knife which is very spammable

>>11883465 (OP)
My fellow zoomerbro, SCIV is genuinely not an easy game. It's on the harder side even among classicvanias (and I have beaten most of them) but it is definitely doable.
>am confused as to the best strategy to level up my gamer skills to be able to play some of the greatest action games ever
Just treat these 30m-1h long games as if they were a modern 10+ hour long game, because that's effectively how long they take. With that in mind, approach them the same way you would any other game. If the early parts become mind-numbingly easy then I usually use save states to skip ahead, but if you're having fun regardless then you don't even have to do that. And if you can string together a 1CC from start to finish, that's like reaching 100% completion and you can move on to something else.

>>11886910
Splits of todays trial run:
5:04
4:19
6:11
12:03
2:10
8:20
5:00
14:38
7:15
9:32
36:40 (before I quit)

1:50:55 total

Really only struggling at stage B and a few sections in 8 now.
Tripple cross, limp whip and stair jumps are basic.
What I found to be really helpful is to work out a route with some high reward damage boosts and to ignore some enemies where possible.
Also nice how you can scroll away some enemies by briefly backtracking in the library.

I'm really not that bad at the game anymore, I'm hooked.

>>11888917
Just gotta treat it like one of those slop rougelikes that half the steam frontpage seems to be nowadays

>>11889198
Splits tracking huh? Are you going for a 1CC? I don't quite follow the story though - you had to quit rather than simply losing your last life? I guess that's not a 1CC then? And what's the 1:50:55? Are you practicing specific sections (via passwords or savestates) or just starting from the beginning?

Since this has turned into a more general castlevania thread I'm gonna also go on record and say that Bloodlines graphics are so bad they actively detract from the game.
Something about the water animation makes me feel sick, see picrel.
Rondo looks promising tho

>>11889210
I can see how this may be confusing, let me elaborate.
I track splits just to see progress. a week ago it took me about 70 minutes total stages 1-7 and then another 70 in stage 8 until I gave up for the day.

During the run I had a few continues. A true 1cc is the end goal, but I'll count it as my first playthrough when I get through it in one sitting, even with continues. I want to keep a record of the splits when I do because I can see myself speedrunning this game in the future.

With the trial run I start from the beginning, but I also do practice of sections 8, 9, A, B2 via savestates when I have something to listen to in the background.

>>11889217
Lmao Bloodlines is definitely not uglier than IV

>>11887813
Hard disagree, people who say this game is easy have played other Castlevania games. X68000 Castlevania is way harder for example; if you played the real one not that shitty Castlevania Chronicles shit.

>>11889231
Oh so you're letting your interest/energy/time for a single session dedicate the length of your run, I see. Also the reason I didn't understand the 1:50:55 is that I wasn't really paying attention to the details of the split list so I carelessly interpreted the 36:40 as the total of what was above it (or something), since it was so much bigger than the other numbers. But okay, that's just the time you spent stuck in the last stage reached. Well, whatever that stage is, I'm sure it had good music to listen to while you were stuck.

>>11889527
>X68000 Castlevania is way harder for example
You can't just say X68k "for example" you disingenuous muppet, X68k is like the single hardest game in the whole franchise. Compared to Rondo, Bloodlines, The Adventure: ReBirth, Belmont's Revenge, and even the JP version of 3, I would say 4 is harder. Conversely, I would say X68k, US 3, and Drac X are definitely harder than 4. With the rest it's hard to say, 1 has tricky parts but is also highly cheeseable.

practiced the bosses tonight, should be good to go now.
Going for another run tomorrow

>>11883465 (OP)
Play games of your own generation

>>11892659
No zoomer deserves that fate.

>>11892659
I already played them all bruh

>>11883484
Honestly there’s two “hard” parts
The dungeon’s opening spike jumps which insta kill
And the stair climb at the end, cause the controls are jank for that section

>>11883465 (OP)
>I'm having a good time, but am confused as to the best strategy to level up my gamer skills
Hard games are made for repetition and memorization

>>11883484
Especially if you play on hard mode, which does indeed make the game harder.

>>11892659
They're all shit

>>11884902
>but also not easier than most other Castlevanias. The meme that "it's the easiest" mostly comes from modern revisionism.
It is straght up the easiest one
>1 is harder
>3 is harder
>Dracula X is harder
>Rondo is harder
>Bloodlines is harder
>all of the GB ones are harder
>X68k is harder
>even the Kid Dracula games are harder

>>11883998
this anons right
shadow dancer showed me to take my time in a game, it gives you a toolkit and you have to utilize it to not die
in return recently I play SCV4 and i died once between both loops
was a little salty about it cause I wanted it to be harder after just coming off of bloodlines and rondo but, eh