Very nice! Is it safe to say that you haven't done any hacking beyond that part in video?
This looks promising, I'll be keepin' an eye out for this one! :D
Hey man. I just wanted to give my personal opinion on one matter; I know that you want keep the different path system intact, but to be perfectly honest, as you play the game over the years, that goes from being one of the coolest aspects of the game, to one of the most frustrating. Why not just make the player play through all 15 stages? That would be really cool! It would actually make more sense, considering you need to put Syfa in 2 places at once. Think about it.
One more thing I would recommend doing, if you can figure out how to do it, is expand the ROM to make the stages longer than the original. Trax did this in Revenge of the Red Falcon, and I think it was a very cool idea! I honestly wonder why I've never seen anyone else do that. It's a ROM hack, so you might as well make the game/stages bigger. I would also recommend making it harder than the original. When I play a ROM hack, it's generally because I've mastered the game. Just a few things to think about.
Playing every level would be awesome. I wish someone would make such a hack for Legacy of Darkness. I'd love the oppurtunity to play every level as Carrie or Henry.
EDIT: And with the graphics question I was mainly wondering if it had anything to make editing the main character sprite any easy. The way the tiles are stored in the ROM is just weird.
Are you making any control changes? Screenshots look nice.
Okay, you mentioned music. I just want to state my personal opinion very clearly about changing music:
Music is a very big part of my life, and I'm always going to get very fussy about the soundtrack. A lot of people who change the soundtrack end up with sub-quality music. If you're going to change the soundtrack, make sure that it's comparable to the original, or, please just don't change it. There's nothing wrong occasionally just remixing a track that's already in the game, or even leaving a track as is if it was perfect to begin with. That's my personal stance. Take it as you will.
Yeah... I want to agree, and say I'm confident in your words, but unfortunately, some counter examples come to mind... like Chorus of Mysteries. I'm not even joking, in the soundtrack of that hack, there is absolutely no drumming whatsoever. I think that guy was biting off way more than he could chew.
Yeah... I want to agree, and say I'm confident in your words, but unfortunately, some counter examples come to mind... like Chorus of Mysteries. I'm not even joking, in the soundtrack of that hack, there is absolutely no drumming whatsoever. I think that guy was biting off way more than he could chew.
@SunGodPortal: You'll have to let me know when you begin working on it!
Any notes you've accumulated and wouldn't mind sharing would be nice (I'll do the same once I get rolling). I plan on working on a little bit of everything so anything would be relevant.
I'd personally hate to be judged solely by some of my earlier works, you should have a look at some of Optomons more recent Castlevania tracks:
Optomons YouTube Channel:
https://m.youtube.com/?#/user/Optomon (https://m.youtube.com/?#/user/Optomon)
Thanks for the reply. If it comes to it, what would be your ideas for control changes?
What I would like to see as general changes that, aside from convenience could allow for more aggressive enemies and bosses in some ways:
-Being able to jump onto and off of stairs
-Being able to turn around in mid-air
-Being able to control your jump height
-Less clunky sub weapon use near and on stairs
-A rondo of blood style sub weapon switch or weapon inventory
Thanks for the reply. If it comes to it, what would be your ideas for control changes?
What I would like to see as general changes that, aside from convenience could allow for more aggressive enemies and bosses in some ways:
-Being able to jump onto and off of stairs
-Being able to turn around in mid-air
-Being able to control your jump height
-Less clunky sub weapon use near and on stairs
-A rondo of blood style sub weapon switch or weapon inventory
Sounds good. I can get some notes put together on Monday from what I've discovered so far. Do you want them posted on this thread, in a PM or in a document like notepad or Microsoft Word?
To be clear, I never mentioned anything about diagonal attacks.
"Also with item talk, I don't want to change the values of their attacks nor am I going to change of how many heart usage that they have upon use."
Didn't mention this either.. I'm a big question mark right now.
It would be cool if they were public so others could take advantage too. Or if you don't want this thread clogged up we could start a separate thread like the one that exists as a catch-all for Persona 3/4 research. I'm surprised by how few notes I have found for this game considering how important it is.
I have absolutely no problems in making my notes public. I had planned on making a detailed log on what went to what since there's hardly anything to Dracula's Curse out there. Could start another thread for Dracula's Curse notes only. Would also give a chance for other people to dish in as well if they wanted to. No matter what happens I don't mind people offering help or supplying notes openly on this thread and if that's the case when the time comes I could add their names to the document when its all said and done or whoever beats me to it if this route is taken. I'm chill with any outcome really.
Vengeance on Hell was what inspired me to to total conversion style hacks like Dragoon X Omega. If I had spare time I'd contribute music or something to this.
It would be cool if they were public so others could take advantage too. Or if you don't want this thread clogged up we could start a separate thread like the one that exists as a catch-all for Persona 3/4 research. I'm surprised by how few notes I have found for this game considering how important it is.
Stupid question. Which section within the community forums should that be posted under? I did a quick gander around and could not find it though I shall look again in case I over read by accident.
Something to consider:
You may be up against limitations in the game itself but if possible I'd recommend revisiting the areas that have a great deal of repletion and maybe work in some different tiles or even modify your graphics to better utilize black. One of the secrets to working around the NES's limited tile availability is to utilize black where ever possible. Your columns in the background look good and do successfully utilize black, you can use this technique in your foreground graphics as well. Also you don't have to completely fill the areas that are solid such as platforms and walls, you can fade into black with transitional tiles, like the area between a lite surface and shadowed dark area.
Let me know if that makes sense, I can elaborate more if need be.
It was in the ROM Hacking section.
Persona 3+4 Hacking (http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,16217.0.html)
I like the format of it. The OP is updated from time to time and that helps keep things organized.
Thanks for that. I'll most likely start the thread about it tomorrow evening as I'll get stuff together. I had some notes written down but they're nowhere to be seen. Wasn't much but no biggie to regain all the info as I didn't have much. The main majority of it from my end would most likely be small stuff like which enemies share color palettes, reVamp guides from stage to stage, YYCHR info, etc.
Cool. I'm gonna start doing experiments this week. Might be able to get some RAM and ROM addresses out of it.
Nice work on the weapons sprites. :thumbsup:
Okay, I've taken my second glance almost immediately after making my first post, and, as expected, I take back a number of things that I said; the 1st and 3rd stages look awesome. My initial criticism only really applied to the second stage, and it's hard to articulate what it is about it that's not very appealing. The best way I can put it is that it feels rough, while the 1st and 3rd stage are very smooth. Take that as you will.
With my 3rd, it's not as messy as I remember, and I think it could work, but the big thing that takes away from the atmosphere is the blackness patches near the stairs. Would it be possible to add some colours there, or does reVamp limit you in that way? (I actually tried using reVamp, and I know how much of a pain in the ass it is. I've never really had the patience to do anything with ROM hacking).
Seriously, you're crazy dude. This is turning into something else. When I said to clean up level two, that wasn't code for "destroy everything in existence". It also wasn't code for "rip through time and space, causing seizure inducing flare all over the galaxy. Children in Africa certainly didn't need this. This should be the last level, or maybe a bonus level, if only that was possible.I have to concur. The children in Africa - you should always think about them first.
Hi. I support this mod. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan but I love hacks and this looks wonderful so far. I hope it gets finished.
Seriously, you're crazy dude. This is turning into something else. When I said to clean up level two, that wasn't code for "destroy everything in existence". It also wasn't code for "rip through time and space, causing seizure inducing flare all over the galaxy. Children in Africa certainly didn't need this. This should be the last level, or maybe a bonus level, if only that was possible. All we really need now is a harmonic, tritonal, 8-bit version of Edge of the Blade by Journey, and this level would be complete! (Okay, I'm just messing around, I'm sure you know that. This is really cool what you're doing).
This is lookin' real cool, I love the progress... :beer:
Do you plan on making this hack harder than Castlevania III? In order for me to feel like hacks are worth while, they need to be harder than the source material. But just slightly harder. When in doubt, always resort to quality over difficulty, making little things here and there be harder without taking anything away from the fairness factor. To be honest, this actually applies to the original Castlevania III on the Alucard path; some of those stages were very poorly designed, and I really don't want to see that in this hack. The Sypha path was perfect, and it makes Castlevania III my 2nd favourite NES game to Battletoads, but I never play on the Alucard path, because the same kind of love wasn't put into that experience. Make sure that both paths are well designed, so that people will be inclined to take both paths in any given playthrough. In Castlevania III, not only do I prefer the Sypha path, but I don't even play the Alucard path anymore, which sucks, because my favourite track in in that path. I don't want to have the same experience with this hack. One path is allowed to be harder, but make sure it's because of legitimate reasons. Also, how many different level tracks will be in the game? Is the music going to be differently formatted tracks from other games, or is the music going to be completely original?
That looks very, very good. The Hanz one maybe lil bit too much of the red color but it's just normal.
Hey dude. I watched the video, and here is my current concern; when the game was in motion, the whole scene didn't look nearly as smooth as I imagined it. But, with that being said, I did feel like it could have been due to not the best quality video capture. What program did you use, and how good was the quality, if I may ask? Also, if you feel comfortable doing so, could you release a bit of a demo to check out the levels so far? I wanted to take a look at it for myself, and my computer has a very good graphics card, so I will definitely be able to tell if it was just a matter of the video quality, or if it should be cleaned up a little bit. Fortunately, I have some good news; I'm... pretty sure it was the video quality, because something I noticed was that it wasn't just the level I was seeing that didn't look as smooth; there was also the life bar at the top, and the rest of the stuff on screen. I could have sworn that in the screenshots, everything looked smoother. So I'm 65% sure it was just the video, but if you want me to take a look at it for myself, I can definitely do that for you, and I'll give you my personal diagnosis.
Also, one last thing, if I may add, I feel like the lone strand of background fire next to the door at the very beginning is out of place. Every other instance of fire is fine, but that one has bothered me since you introduced the flames, and now that I've seen the game in motion, that definitely confirms it. The rest of the fire is fine, but seriously, that background strand right next to the start really doesn't need to be there. I only try to give input and advice, but I seriously advise that you take that one out, because it honestly looks like filler, and it would look better without it. Keep the rest of the fire, the rest of it is awesome, but just that one strand of flashing background right at your spawning point shouldn't be there. It doesn't even have any grounded fire causing it to be there, making it seem even more pointless. I really don't know any other way to put this besides, "that really needs to go." Again, I'm here 99.9% of the time to just give input, but I'm telling you, that should not be there. Still though, it's your choice in the end.
Must say this Vengeance of Hell 2 hack looks great. :thumbsup: I really admire the Sonia sprite. Looks great.
I am so happy right now. For the first time in my life, I have successfully managed to do a playthrough of Castlevania III without dying a single time. About a year ago, I managed a 1 death playthrough, and it seemed like I was never going to manage to uplift that one death, but I decided to pick the game up again this week, and on Friday, I did it! I have no plans to do a no deaths run for the Alucard path though. They really showed a lot of love for the Syfa path, which makes Castlevania III my second favourite NES game of all time to Battletoads, but it's too bad they didn't show the same kind of love for the Alucard path. It's just not as well designed. (Sinis, I'm counting on you to make both paths just as well designed in your hack! It honestly kills me that Castlevania III suffers from not having both paths well designed, and if you are able to give both paths the amazing treatment that this hack is getting in general, I just might like this hack even more than Castlevania III. But just remember, that's a high standard. I love, love, love Castlevania III, and I really hope you live up to that love that I have for the game).
Whatever you do though, absolutely do not place spiders to come down where stairs are. That was a terrible design choice in the original game on level 7 in the Alucard path. If you do that, we will have a problem... are we clear...? Good.
I approve of this project.
Unerstood,but do think you think you can bundle NSF music files when either of your two games get done and released in the near future?
I still plan on keeping the option in to listen to the music in Castlevania 3 when you hit A + Start buttons together so you'll be able to listen to them that way :)
@TheLuigiLightning
I appreciate the idea but I already have a full track made up for VoH II :)
Do you plan on implementing any newfound advanced knowledge to Vengeance on Hell? A while ago, you said that it wasn't going to be a high end hack, but you might be able to after learning all of the ins and outs of Castlevania III. I still stand by my statement of there being uses for enemies that can only be placed on certain screens with the knowledge you currently possess. Wouldn't it be great if you could find a way to place enemies at will?
It's funny,
The thing that I look forward to doing in COA above all else is editing the Track Names in the Sound Test Option. (A+B+Start)
It's going to be neat seeing the new names. I have no idea why that excites me but it does. :crazy:
Welp when CoA gets finished,I'll be playing that game like crazy and I think it'll keep me busy while waiting for these two games,I am finally glad to see that Castlevania rom hacks are finally getting the full treatment they deserve,keep up the good work Sinis. :thumbsup:
Alright hearing this from you Sinis has got my interest even more,I can't wait to see on what you do with both games but first you have to finish your end with CoA first of course.
Would it be possible for you to make it so that your health scrolls when you gain, or lose health. That was a nice little detail that they had in CV1, and I don't know why they took it out in 3?
In all honesty, I'm not sure as to why they left it out. Probably due to the fact that Castlevania 3 was rushed out is my only guess. Hell, just recently Sephirous found an entire unused level within the game itself so he's still exploring that while also seeing what other secrets lay in the programming. Who knows on what else they left out and didn't program in.
If I can find a programmer I'll ask them to implement both the scrolling health bar and extra level in to both VoH II and Legends NES :)
Can't wait to see more on this hack, I should give CV3 a spin to see what levels I can make. :)
That's a lot of projects to be taking on. Don't overwhelm yourself. The more you talk about publicly, the more you promise things, and the more likely you are to crash and burn out. There's no rush, and work at your own pace. It's the only pace you can productively work at in comfort, and looking too far forward can cause nothing to end up being produced. Finish this project first. You've already hit many bumps in the road, and I really want to see this hack finished.
You've just lost my support. I was specifically seeing this through as a US Castlevania III hack. I have no interest in playing this if it's the Japanese version. The difficulty is majorly toned down, and the music sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I am extremely disappointed that you are making this decision, and I can't find it in myself to accept it. If this is how you want to do things going forward, then, fine, I respect your decision, and I wish you the best on it, but I will no longer be following either of these projects. All the best.
To update everyone on the current status on both VoH II and Legends NES, I am halting these projects on the U.S version of Castlevania 3 and moving both to the Japanese counterpart, Akumajou Densetsu.Best decision ever! Music is a lot better
So, other than the different music chip, why are you changing to the Japanese version so late in development? I'm afraid I don't know very much about the differences between the two versions of the game other than the music.
@Moderator
Thanks for having this account in full control over this thread! I was going to ask someone about such a thing and to delete the Castlevania account but it kept slipping my mind so someone beat me to it. My apologies for not letting someone know about it sooner and for having two accounts. If such actions need to be taken towards me about such a thing I will not show resistance nor bicker about it :-)
Since you mentioned that you want to implement saving, I believe one of Drakon's hacks has SRAM saving. I'm not sure if it's the one that he has published.
Still, even if it's his unreleased hack, I'm pretty sure that he left some documentation.
well looks like i know what track i am doing next lol
bloody tears for stage 1 like in gameboy legends right ?
...The Japanese version. The difficulty is majorly toned down, and the music sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
People exist that don't like the Japanese CV3 music and think the US sounds better? Probably just one guy, actually.
That sounds awesome that he's helping you out with that screen problem,Sinis. :)
Wish could see it,god damn it Photobucket -_-;
People exist that don't like the Japanese CV3 music and think the US sounds better? Probably just one guy, actually.Well, I showed my friend the game on my actual cart and he said the Japanese music sounded too "techno" (or something similar) for the setting.
Both games look fantastic you are quite an artist. :thumbsup:
Awesome,I hope Sephirous can help you out more after finishing up all the work on CoA. :)
Ah hello there ShadowOne it's good to see ya,say have you ever consider adding stuff to your CVIII translated project?Depends on the stuff :P
As for the English translation, you are free to use my patch, however I requested Sinis to ask Vice Translations as well, since a big part of my hack is their translation, so if they give the thumbs up, he is free to use my hack as a base :)
Oh not much just like giving Alucard a Sword and sub weapons since Grant is a powerhouse in the Japanese version of the game.A sword for Alucard huh?
Besides I have my own personal ideas for the american version even though I don't have the skills to do so hence my name,Im just an idea person.
Towards the project right now, some stuff I came up with on the fly. A new jump and death animation I'd like to have and replace those currently in the game.Sorry... but I can't "read" the death sprite. Maybe give her lesser shading and give more emphasis on where her head and limbs are. Or you could base some poses on the GB game, esp. the idle pose (chest front, not back front).
(http://i.imgur.com/bU5SyU5.jpg)
Hmmmm sounds interesting :)
You know,Im surprised that Sephrious is helping with this project,but I hope he help you even more on it after he finally finishes everything for CoA.
Heh heh alright,sounds good :)
But also about Vengeance on Hell,since you are working one the sequel,it's ashame that the first didn't get the red carpet treatment like the second one?
Plus I wonder on what date Sephrious will plan to release CoA,when he get's it done. XD
Cool.
You know,Im surprised that Sephrious is helping with this project,but I hope he help you even more on it after he finally finishes everything for CoA.
My first thought was "wow i can't wait to play as a skeleton"!
I'm sorry if you've already answered this. The thread is massive, but is this going to include those stupid arena pits?
Nicely done Sinis,it's looking great so far,keep up the great and awesome! :thumbsup:
Also I hope it dosen't take Optomon long enough to finish his end of the work for CoA,because Im starting to loose my patients in waiting for the game,it's driving me nuts XD
If you need to expand the Rom for more code room, I can do that if you want as I did it to Cadence Of Agony.
Give the programmer about 256Kb of code room near the end of the Rom. :thumbsup:
To save time and hours of pain I'm going to just stick with VRC6 and leave one future project that I have saved back for that idea. I'll let you know of those plans later on down the road :)
Ah okay then,I hope he's doing an okay job in putting everything together with the game itself?
Well well,so your going to make this game into a follow up to CoA huh,I think that's an interesting idea there,Sinis :) Im glad that you are not giving up on this project,keep up the great work! :thumbsup:
Castlevania: The Legend of Sonia Belmont seems classy and snazzy to me.How about Castlevania: Legend of Demon Castle
Use if you like. Forget the credit, I spat out words.
I'm actually working on a third game in the series, This one essentially would come after that.
I'm still doing the investigating part so far, It's going to focus more on the story rather than the game play.
Basically after Armand departs from Richter and returns to town. Armand's next journey begins. I am going to use The Simon's Quest Engine and have a plot where Armand seeks revenge against Death. Now if you think of Simon's Quest you probably can see where I am going with this...Maybe. ;D
How about Castlevania: Legend of Demon Castle
Castlevania IV - Legends Of Necrophilia
Legends of the Dark Dragon (1 vote)
Legends of the Demonic Castle (4 votes)
Legends of the Night
Legends of the Dark Concert
Legends of the Demonic Lords
To be honest, I almost did change things to that by going the Japanese name route but then thinking of how certain parties are now watching I'm going to go the safe route and go with something else. Besides, I don't wanna pull down the poll and look like a jerk in the same process as I want to let people decide this.
Ugh, trust me this shit is frustrating :-\
To be honest, I almost did change things to that by going the Japanese name route but then thinking of how certain parties are now watching I'm going to go the safe route and go with something else. Besides, I don't wanna pull down the poll and look like a jerk in the same process as I want to let people decide this.
Ugh, trust me this shit is frustrating :-\
Asking for suggestions worked out better for me.
There was one title that was thrown at me. Castlevania 4: Resurrection of Darkness.
Kinda has a nice ring to it in honesty :)
If it inspires you, go for it. Whatever makes you wanna work on the thing, amirite?
Awesome,can't wait to see more stuff for the mod,well Im not sure,because I think Optomon is working hard in hopes to finishing Rollie.
Stage 3, Dora Woods is coming along slowly. Making it a nod to Thaddeus and Optomon's work on Castlevania: Bloodlust from what I remember on that one video that used to be up on YouTube. I have 'limited' space compared to Castlevania 2 since Castlevania 3 has the status bar up top so working around that.You can use these for a reference:
(https://i.imgur.com/b9H2RdJ.jpg)
Been changing things around a lot and still feels I have certain things brighter and more color than what the video portrayed as certain things in that had a single color for quite a few things. Going to fiddle around with the ground, grass and stone more before I start working on my version of trees for the background colors. Going to squeeze things together as best as I can so the player can also traverse through certain caves. The background colors will change in time as I'm just creating the stuff that I need right now then will experiment around with night time colors :)
I'll post up more later once this stage is close to completion :)
You can use these for a reference:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/IO8bEE
https://m.imgur.com/a/kUrra
Hopefuly they'll be of some help.
Could you explain what do you mean by ankward?
This is very unexpected. From what I remember only Optomon and Thaddeus had this stuff though looks like someone copied it all down and saved it for themselves.
This feels awkward in seeing these, not gonna lie about that.
Oh wow,those are interesting sprite work that Optomon did for that canceled Mod,geez I would've played if it got done but still maybe you can use something for it,Sinis?
Thanks :)The 1st and 3rd one are good, the 2nd one looks like a downgraded version of the 3d one.
Its a nod to Thaddeus's stuff though after working on mocking his stuff I kind of see where I need to improve on my things. Once I'm done with Stage 3 I'll adapt his style into mine along with using those methods to redo stuff in VoH 2.
These are what I made for a new title to toss out the old one. I'm leaning more towards the third one though need feedback on these.
(https://i.imgur.com/CoVtITD.jpg)
Think I still can't design titles too well. Thought I once did but dunno :p
Trying something different since the area seems a tad bigger with Shadow's patch. I still plan on referencing the individuals for the translation patches of Vice and Shadow :)
Color palette for this? Not a clue yet :crazy:
There is more variation now compared to what I showed. Squeezing in a few more things for the forest before I use the rest of the space for the cave systems and waterway area. Title wise, went ahead to use the third one.No need and thank you. :)
I don't care if you use the cross. If you need the YYCHR of it I'll email it to ya :)
Dang it.