Castlevania II - COA (Linear Reboot) & Castlevania II - SQ (Linear Reboot)

[Sephirous]

Hey Everyone,

With all the hype going around about Un-Censoring old school Castlevania Games.
I decided to create my own version of what I think Castlevania III should have looked like upon it's original release.
I'm not talking simply bringing over all the Japanese Graphics Ect, My goal is to combine both The American and Japanese Versions together using the best of both games.
For example, I think the Leviathan's body in the American version looks good but would look cool with the Japanese versions horns.
The reason I have decided to call the project "Rated M For Mature" is because I intend to give the Censored graphics more than just undressing them, Example Statues and Sprites. I want to give them more realistic features. In comparison to the newer Castlevania games where now and days NOTHING gets Censored.

For starters I noticed the Prologue in the Japanese Version contains the title screen with a white box around it like slides from a reel. But the American Version had it removed. So I created the Prologue removing all the Boxes to see what it may look like....

[MathUser2929]

Ok, but you're gonna have to refine the Medusa sprite further if you want me to buy that that's a woman. Medusa was always drawn as male I think.

[Disch]

Medusa was always drawn as male I think.

o_O

AFAIK Medusa was NEVER drawn as male.  The character from mythology is definitely female and I don't think anyone ever changed that aspect in any reinterpretation.  Especially not Castlevania.

[jink640]

Medusa was always drawn as male I think.

That's one of two things. Could be a snake woman. Or could be a snake man that only goes to the gym on pectoral day.

[Sephirous]

Here is some more pics,

I started with the easy stuff first, Then I will begin working on Sprites and other stuff.

Here you can see the Menu Statues are now women, Added more feminine features to the exposed side of the statues.

[Rodimus Primal]

Have you thought about making changes to the Japanese Translation patch with the Title screen add on? I wish that it was the US title screen and had the NES Leviathan boss.

[Sephirous]

Have you thought about making changes to the Japanese Translation patch with the Title screen add on? I wish that it was the US title screen and had the NES Leviathan boss.

I'd probably have to get permission from the original creator of the patch.

But yes, Leviathan would be easy to fix.
I'm almost tempted to make a Japanese patch as well but instead of Uncesoring obviously, but rather fixing the things they fixed in the American release by adding them into the Japanese version. Creating a final combination release. With the best of both games.


I also noticed in the Title Screen add on patch they didn't use the third flea man jump sprite that was unused in the original. But had an excellent chance to.
In fact in the sprite sheet the hacker replaced the jumping red devil sprite with the first frame of the flea man instead of the unused frame. Meaning it could have been done.

The prayer cross also for some reason wasn't the Japanese Version in that patch.

[zstandig]

This is exciting, I love hacks that combine regional variants. 

[Bahamut ZERO]

The intro looks kickass without the reels on the sides. 


Any plans on tweaking the characters' looks? I remember playing through a fair chunk of the game a good while back, got Alucard to join me, switched to him once the next level started and thought to myself, "Why the hell does he look like Count Chocula??"

[jimstrom]

I agree, one of my biggest request is to have a NES Alucard sprite who look more like Symphony Alucard.

[Sephirous]

That might actually be possible, I saw a Video someone did converting SOTN into an 8 - Bit type thing.
If the Sprite has the same amount of Blocks available, You should be able to simply copy one over. 

Floating Eye now is bloodshot.

Seems due to the poll, The Red Devil will make it in the patch.

Here is an image showing that both Japan and American releases have all three frames for the sprite.
In the American one the third sprite was unused but meaning most likely the coding for him was disabled more than simply not writing it.
Based on how it seems the American Version is a recreation of the already existing Japanese Version.

I probably won't be able to activate the third frame.
My knowledge of that kind of coding is pretty much zero.
But I will attempt to at least use the first two frames and see what happens.


As I thought the Red Devil's mouths do not open, They just hop around like the Flea Men but then again if they had left the Devils in the American Version, Would they have still taken out Frame Three?
I'm not sure. For now it's better than nothing.


For anyone that was curious,

This is what the unused sprite looks like in the Japanese Version.
Not finished, I've got a foot coming out of their backs, But the general idea is there.
Though I have to admit, It doesn't flow right. I see why they didn't use the unused sprite it just doesn't mesh.
Mainly the head.

[U
Small Update,

I have looked into upgrading Alucard and found a very nice creation, However it seems to belong to Optomon whom was part of the development of the abandoned project "Cadence Of Agony". I'm going to be contacting him and seeing if he would allow me to use that sprite in this patch.

The worst that can happen is he tells me Tootafanoot.
But we shall see what happens. 
This is not official yet but an idea.

[Sephirous]

It's pretty obvious this project is dying.

I sorta hit some road blocks that I just couldn't find the patients to get past.
So I started messing with some other things in the game, After getting permission for the Alucard Sprite from the Abandoned Cadence Of Agony Project. I couldn't help but start importing some of the cool aspects of the fallen project.
I'm not making anything official at the moment. In other words I'm messing around with the patch but not doing anything intentional.
There is no way in a million years I would consider trying to fix the project myself, I just don't have that kind of knowledge yet.

I took the Richter Sprite and inserted him into the patch, I tried the colors that are in the abandoned project first but then did a dark hair version as well, changing the palette.

Personally I think the brown hair looks better.

Something will come out of this mess but as for now what I have been working on has become a "Working Title".

[MathUser2929]

I'd go with the brown hair palette. It spits in the face of limited colors. You look at it and say REALLY? NES can only use 3 colors on each sprite? Well look at this sprite then.

[SunGodPortal]

I think the brown one looks a little better but somehow I don't think it matches the style as much as the blue one. Also, what stands out about it most is the brown and because of past depictions, the color I associate with Richter is not brown but blue.

[MathUser2929]

o_O

AFAIK Medusa was NEVER drawn as male.  The character from mythology is definitely female and I don't think anyone ever changed that aspect in any reinterpretation.  Especially not Castlevania.

I only meant in CV3. But when I replayed CV3 Jp Version I saw that it was just a badly drawn female.
July 17, 2016, 06:09:21 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
But a blue outline? That's pretty HODish. You know people made a hack to remove the blue outline, right?

[VicVergil]

But a blue outline? That's pretty HODish. You know people made a hack to remove the blue outline, right?

Harmony of Dissonance's hack didn't affect the outline the playable character's pixel art had. It removed a separate glowing (and very distracting) outline surrounding it. I don't even know how this looks close in any way to HoD - with three colors in the NES palette, there's only so much one can do with character art.



This is what a character missing the outline in a NES game looks like. I think this is one aspect Miyamoto loved to criticize in Western-made 8/16-bit era games at the time.



In fact, the JP release for this specific game actually redid the sprite to add an outline.

[FCandChill]

Comment removed because reasons...

[Sephirous]

After taking some lessons from You Tube,

I finally got the hang of Text Editing. So here is the beginning of my attempt to fix the Prologue.

I was unable to use the one that was done in the Castlevania III Localization Project because there are less characters that can be used in the American Version.

So I am going to try and compact it where necessary.
What I have done so far is a rough draft. It needs some work.

Page 2, I should be able to fit the entire translation.

I'll try doing that later.

Side Note - Since I figured out the Text Editing, I'm going to reattempt working on the Konami Logo from earlier.
If I can memorize hot keys as to what Key goes to which Pixel. I should be able to find the Screen in the Hex Editor and change the Pixels to the correct ones so that horrible mess in the previous screen shots will be fixed.
I'm probably attempting that the hardest unnecessary way possible, but as long as it gets done, GOOD!
July 19, 2016, 01:01:37 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
After finding the abandoned project I keep doing stuff to the Rom.
I created this for fun.


Note - The reason I made it Castlevania II was because from what I understand it was to be the Sequel to Chorus Of Mysteries.
July 19, 2016, 01:52:06 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Much better....


July 20, 2016, 05:58:25 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Next, I am going to look into Expanding the Cadence Rom.
I'm hoping to created custom Sprite Sheet Space so it will be easier to import the graphics from the abandoned rom.
I'm trying to keep the prayer scene untouched, To do this I will need to move the Stage One Graphics to a separate bank. 
July 20, 2016, 06:19:08 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Note - All set, The Rom has been Expanded we now have a 512 MB Rom Image.
Let's see what happens. 
July 20, 2016, 04:15:39 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
OMG!

Ok, I'm sure none of the Veteran Hackers out there are going to find this exciting.
But for me this is extreme!
I've successfully expanded and imported the first stage graphics from Cadence Of Agony.
Originally I wasn't going to peruse this idea because as far as I am concerned Optomon and Dr. Mario are the genius's behind this project and anyone else that was involved in it's initial release.
I'm basically just running on the quote that Optomon said in one of his You Tube Videos, "We should have done a Linear project instead of breaking the editor with non-linear design." Or something to that nature.
I'm basically doing just that, If this does get finished...(Big If). Everyone that originally designed this will get the credit, I in no way am taking credit for the designing of this game. Only the arranging and rebuilding of it. Optomon and Dr. Mario from what I understand were the primary creators.
Other than that we will see what happens from here.


July 20, 2016, 04:17:55 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Note - This patch will only work on FCEUX, The other emulators seem to garble the graphics.
This has to do with mappers not being supported from what I understand.
July 20, 2016, 06:43:10 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Hot Damn!!!!!

July 20, 2016, 08:56:18 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
After fighting with doors for the last 2 hours...
I finally said, The hell with the damn door and removed it.

Screen one is almost complete...


Note - I don't have the experience yet for Music Editing. So as of right now I will be using what we got.
I have changed the Prologue to Demon Seed and Stage 1 is now Vampire Killer.

Cool enough, Demon Seed really works with the Prologue, I didn't think it would mesh well.
July 21, 2016, 12:35:18 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Second Screen is done.
Needs a color adjustment because I hit the Status Bar Palette.
I'll deal with that later. Candles have been moved to the correct spaces on the first screen.
Once I finish the graphics for Stage 1, I will install the Enemies and get them working.
Stage 1 is the hardest of all of them because I had to expand the rom to move the sprites from Stage 1s spot to the very end of the rom.
This also caused the attributes of the Sprite Blocks to get somewhat mixed up, So I ended up falling through solid blocks and background scenery started crumbling as if the player was standing on a crumble block.
Lots of trial and error, Finally I managed to match the blocks with the unedited USA Version and very carefully put the graphics together pixel by pixel....EXHAUSTING! But well worth it!!
This was done to protect the graphics on the Prayer Screen from getting destroyed. So far it worked like a charm.
The rest of the stages will be much easier since I can simply replace the existing sprites without the fear of a garbled mess occurring.


July 21, 2016, 12:38:46 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Note - I pray that the editor doesn't crap out on me, I have this project backed up many times for safety. But already had problems with doors. Hopefully the game will be nice to me and not crap out. 
July 21, 2016, 05:03:01 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
After hours of learning that you have to replace Sprites with the same Attributes so your foreground doesn't become background.
The first two screens are complete and looking awesome! Just about all the original Stage 1 Graphics have been imported.
Enemy placement has begun, First enemies you will see are the Retro Ghosts from the Second Quest later Stages.
Trying to keep the difficulty to a normal feel, This is in no way going to turn into one of those Super Hard Nightmare Hacks.


July 21, 2016, 05:04:53 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Note - Next I am going to work on more enemy placement, Finish designing the later rooms of Stage 1 and adding the first boss fight which is going to be the Vampire Bat that splits into many tiny ones as hit.
July 21, 2016, 11:22:44 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Enemy placement is installed, I'm going to import the custom enemy sprites after I complete all the enemy placement.
More screens complete.
I'm not going to be big on Pitfalls, The game was originally planned to be Non Linear so the difficulty will remain on Strategy not Cheap Pits.


Note - In time I will run into the Character Replacements, I plan on using the new cast, Armand, Maria and New Alucard.
Changing the dialogue Etc. I'm going to do some research on what there is for the original project, I want to get it as close to what was originally planned as possible. But of course to the limits of my knowledge and skills.
July 22, 2016, 01:28:23 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Eyeballs, Slime Balls, Pissed Off Knights, Starting to look like a challenge instead of just pretty graphics.
Noticeable is the missing Skeleton Portrait, That is because I am still trying to figure out how to put him together. Very scattered through out the Sprite Sheet.



July 22, 2016, 08:39:33 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Ok, Time for the Prologue.

It ain't great, But based on what I could find it does get the point across.

[Googie]

Cool changes you've been making so far, I'll keep an eye on this topic for sure, this'll be so cool to play when it's done... 

[Sephirous]

Just finished another block, Almost to the first boss!
This section is very reminiscent to Symphony Of The Nights water part in the Entrance.
Added some more details to the solid floor sprites so they merge in the background better.

Cool changes you've been making so far, I'll keep an eye on this topic for sure, this'll be so cool to play when it's done... 

Thanks,
I'm also going to investigate in a third project where I create a Boss Rush Mode for the Original Game.
July 24, 2016, 01:56:48 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Finally got to Stage 1 Boss.

Have to do some touch ups on Stage 1.


July 24, 2016, 02:33:08 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Note - For the part where Richter saves Armand, I am thinking about designing the clock tower so it matches the one from Chorus Of Mysteries, This will connect the two game together kinda how in Sonic 4 Episode II Robotnik finds Metal Sonic in a past stage from Sonic CD.
July 24, 2016, 02:52:00 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Title Screen Upgrade