Honestly you shoulda probably used the No Magic Seals patch, it doesn't compromise the challenge, just corrects for the difficulty of performing on emulator Also shoulda allowed the dive kick, its a martial attack like sliding and punching, and it would have made Gergoth in particular significantly less dangerous, since you can bounce on him/his gas clouds to dodge
UPDATE: Castlevania Dominus Collection got released for all platforms and the seals are properly implemented button QTEs now, imo much better than the total removal in the hack I mentioned below. All that's left is to see if people patch in the other two into the PC version of the collection. ORIGINAL: Worth noting there's a ROM hack of DoS (labelled Definitive Edition+) that 1. Restores the Kojima portraits (and creates new lookalikes for characters that didn't have pre-existing ones from Aria) 2. Fixed Luck stat to influence soul drops 3. Removed all touch screen requirements In case you're feeling the itch to play DoS, I do recommend it, changes just enough without going overboard imo
I played the game vanilla and then in Definitive Edition, and I've gotta say I love the latter much more. Plus the Alucard Sword is obtainable legitimately (albeit at the end of the damn game in the penultimate room)
"Soma,a dark cult is attempting to resurrect Dracula's power.." "Okey dokes, I'mma punch 'em in the snoz" seriously though, I love these Castlevania runs, and I am definitely excited to see more
27:32 of course you don't notice a difference, you only have 1 golem soul, you need to farm more of them to stack the effect and make it stronger, in this game you can collect some souls multiple times to make them more powerful like the golem one
If for some reason you ever want to try this again, there's a fun "cheat" you can do in the Gergoth fight: When he transitions to part 2 and breaks the floor, jump up, jump-kick downward in the center and use the Medusa head soul. It keeps you in the air for as long as your magic bar holds out, and an aspect of the game they don't tell you about is that the longer you fall, the more damage your jumpkick does. So you can use that to do one huge alpha strike that has the potential to 1-shot his 2nd phase. Very fun little tidbit.
I’m pretty sure the seals have a timer, as indicated by the flames around the circle disappearing. When the all the flames are gone, you fail the seal. Some of the bosses you killed you barely finished the seal before the last flame disappeared.
Yup. The thing is that you don't actually need to draw straight lines as long as you hit the orbs in order, so for this final seal, you can start off by simply drawing a circle instead of attempting to draw straight lines from orb to orb, which saves a huge chunk of time. Strangely enough, the first tutorial DOES expect you to draw straight lines and punishes you accordingly, but everything past that point really does not care about accuracy.
5:20 A little clarification here though, which some people may want to know about. The magic seal timer won't start *until* you touch the screen, which means that you can take all day if you want when it comes to drawing the seal. This game is very much playable with a controller, and then swapping to the mouse for a moment to do a seal (Or use the remove seals patch if you are that kind of player too), but there is no rush in drawing the seal regardless of the circumstances. Just to be clear, this isn't a "you did bad!!!" comment, it was just to clarify something that can be easy to miss on the moment to moment gameplay. I actually went and checked on my copy of DoS just to make sure I wasn't imagining things, and the timer doesn't start as long as the screen is not touched, which is not a problem on emulator at all.
The long awaited sequel to the Castlevania Challenge run YESS, been waiting for this one 😂 Pretty funny how this is the complete opposite of last time too. Instead of using a Gun emphasizing range, this time it’s BARE FISTS requiring direct close up combat. Soma really wants to throw hands this time around
In the “bat company” boss fight, when it’s in the form where it’s shooting “circles” at you, it’s in the shape of a face, like the Easter Island heads, and it’s a direct reference to the Easter Island heads in Gradius, that shoot circles at you in that game. It’s a fun Easter egg.
Aria of Sorrow Challenge Run: Soma Cruz guns down Castlevania while he finds a way out. Dawn of Sorrow Challenge Run: Soma throws hands with a cult to save his girlfriend... literally.
I feel like a less cruel but interesting challenge would be beating Order of Eclessia only by using any of the three transformation glyphs (transform in to a succubus, panther, or robot). If you use the robot I recommend looking up the movement techniques, you can actually move pretty fast as the robot by backward jump-dashing. Btw that menace fight looked miserable, fantastic job you mad lad o7.
In terms of what Metroidvania I’d love to see Nyarly tackle next, I think Order of Ecclesia is my first pick too. In terms of a game with a challenge I have in mind, though, there’s a pretty obvious one for Portrait of Ruin: only use Charlotte.
@@isenokami7810 Charlotte's so easy though! You just cast Spirit of Light on the entire game. The _only_ part where you want to use Jonathan for anything is the boss where you need charged Clear Skies to block her attacks. …Okay, Sanctuary while controlling Charlotte would also suck.
@@FlameUser64 Oh really? In that case, maybe I’ll try it myself someday, minus the two bosses you mentioned. Then again, I mainly beat PoR through the infinite potion glitch…
@@isenokami7810 Legitimately the first time I played through PoR I played as Charlotte most of the time because her spells are so powerful and so MP-efficient when charged.
For future reference for any future runs, there is a romhack that basically leaves everything unchanged except for getting rid of the touch screen seal mechanic. iirc they all just auto-complete as long as the seal is unlocked and other than that its 100% identical to vanilla.
So interesting info about Zephyr: He only tracks you in front of him and only if you're on the ground when it comes to his time stop attack. If you double jump in place at a precise time or just jump behind him and don't attack him until he's done laughing, he'll just stand back up and won't do anything.
I'm honestly glad you ran into the fish boss later, Narly. I recall in my 1st time playing Dawn of Sorrow, getting lost not realizing I miss going back to a section to unlock traversing underwater. It'd scary to learn that the fish boss is meant to be fought BEFORE fighting Gergoth.
To answer your question about the magic seals failing at the end, there's a timer on it. You can tell by the fires disappearing in the seal itself, and if all the flames go out, the seal breaks.
My suggestion from your last Castlevania challenge is still my request for you. Play Portrait of Ruin using only Charlotte without any offensive spells, no support from Johnathan(unless needed to traverse through areas the require 2 more characters), and get the true ending. Simple, but very challenging. Edit: In case if you did took this challenge and plans on mentioning me, I forgot to put a disclaimer in the no offensive spells part that you can only use Sanctuary. The spell required for the true ending. The reason why I first thought of disallowing using this is because Sanctuary can insta-kill enemies on screen. Assuming you succesfully cast it, of course.
You don't have to "rush" for the seal screens, at least not initially. That timer to do the seal right only starts when you begin your first stroke. Otherwise you can take as long as you need when the circle appears.
ORAORAORAORA! I can understand the frustration of people to Magic seals, I myself have no problem with it because I'm an artist so I can control the drawing line well. Most people aren't and it's not that easy so I get where they come from. Thanks for the run btw, it's very entertaining to watch.
One thing to mention: Some souls grow stronger the more of each soul you have. So, if you have 1 golem soul vs having 9 of them makes a huge difference.
The gun does not add 15 to your attack, it also, like in aria, has a special secret effect. Its attack can never be raised past 15 no matter what level or attack buffs you have, making it actually quite a bit weaker than your fists anywhere except early game.
My most recent Dawn playthrough actually used primarily Punching weapons not as strong as SotN fists but it's a really fun way to play the game. Though I did have bullet souls
I'm honestly surprised you didn't use the Devil soul at all. It would've made this so much more bareable while making this actually a skill test rather than 'did you grind for 600 healing items'. I'd also have made an exception for Slaughterer just because it is also literally just a punch.
Boss: "Ah I cannot wait for our normal boss fight- wait what is that button." Soma, holding a remote labelled 'press in cage of cage match' Boss, nervous: "Er normal boss fight right?" Soma presses the button with malicious intent. Alternatively: Gene from God Hand gets lost, punches different set of demons.
19:46 puppet master plus skeleton ape. While Zephyr is charging for his dash attack, run to the corner, jump up, as soon as you see him, throw the puppet, teleport behind him, and he will be stun locked against the wall. As long as you keep your distance, he will stay there forever, allowing you to throw hands with no effort required. 😊
So glad they released this game on modern systems now. The new system for the magic seals is way better than trying to do them with the mouse. But man, you have some insane patience and dedication. I struggle to farm a valkyrie soul for 10 minutes, let alone a boss for an entire hour.
Something that I wonder about sometimes in these games is why The Grim Reaper has no move that one-shots you,even if it is super slow.That would be very fitting for him.
@@gilbertinastefan Death in portrait of ruin has one attack that if you get caught by it you lose like 75% your Health bar but that's the closest thing to one shot lol
As a protein-obsessed friend once said, I've been waiting for this! On the Magic Seals, there's actually a patch for the game that just auto-completes them for you that I've been playing this one with lately and it makes the game so much better. Easily the definitive way to play the game if you ask me
Castlevania is a solid franchise for challenge runs it seems :). Well done, and much respect from me. Would love to see ya do more challenge runs for this series (altho i don't know the series well enough to recommend a challenge or specific game). Maybe the devs realized how bs the "redo the boss if you mess up the seal" mechanic was by the time they got around to programming/playtesting the final boss lol.
I do. Portrait of Ruin, only use Charlotte. Though the two characters in that game are presented as equals, male lead Jonathan is more in line with a Castlevania protagonist, while female lead Charlotte is more of a mage. So exclusively using her, even without restricting her equipment, means piss poor standard attack strength, and strong but slow spells. Technically this isn’t quite possible, the boss that can lead to a false ending requires that you have Jonathan protect Charlotte as she casts a spell to move forward properly, but the whole rest of the time it should be possible.
You know, I've been thinking. Yoko Belnades, Julius Belmont and Arikado/Alucard make a neat trio, just like Sypha Belnades, Trevor Belmont and Alucard did, to the point where you can switch between these three in Julius Mode just like you could back in Castlevania 3. But someone's missing, the oft-forgotten fourth member of their little gang... All of that to say, does that make Soma their Grant Danasty? Realistically it's probably more Hammer that plays the role of Grant, since Soma is more of a stand-in for Dracula, but wouldn't it be funny if that were the case?
Fun note, when vergirh breaks the floor and you fall to the bottom of the tower, hug the wall as tight as you can and jump just before he lands to stay up high and then you can just spam drop kick to kill him without taking any more dmg as he can hit you and will just turn left and righ trying to face you till he dies. I did it a few times. Pretty funny tbh.
I'm loving the Castlevania challenges! This particular video, I noticed, had you sounded a lot more tense due to the challenge than usual which was interesting to hear. A Castlevania challenge I think that could be cool is a run of Symphony of the Night where you only use the Takemitsu. Yes, it is stronger than the Red Rust, BUT, it deals Hit damage as opposed to the Red Rust which does Cut and even Curse damage (meaning no Dark Metamorphosis). If you wanna REALLY spice up the run, make it so you don't use a shield or transformation attacks beyond what's needed for progression.
Glad to see someone cover this gem of a game. Yeah, the floating mouths from Menace are the absolute worst and easily one of my most hated things. Doesn't help that Menace is just a giant walking hitbox, and he does a lot his damage by even unintentionally touching you.
this was hard to watch at the end. I can feel the pain and frustration of you fighting Menace, you deserve more views and likes man. I hope to see more from you later on, just not too soon. got to rest up and destress from what looked like a difficult and painful time with fists only.
I just have something to say about Zephyr boss (the one that stop time), when he folds in on himself if you are not touching the ground while he is going to stop time to put knives above you, he's just gonna do nothing. Since it immobilize you, it's easier to beat him while knowing this.
19:59 never thought of him as spiderme even backas a child i was like " hey that looks like a charakter from this fighting game what was it called jojo futrueee orsomething" when i grew up i was like " LOL ITS A JOJO REFERENCE"
I think portrait of ruin could have an interesting challenge run idea, that game has so many different types of attacks to use that limiting yourself to just one, maybe only charlotte or only johnathon run or sub weapon only run or only magic run, idk one of those things might work. Circle of the moon could have a no card run, and harmony of dissonance no sub weapon run, those tore the final boss a new one when i played it last year so maybe. I haven't played order of eclesia though, despite playing the other two ds games since i was a freshman in high school and have been meaning to for years but for some reason never getting to it, but there's an interesting idea there too. A lot of challenge runs ideas for this series really kind of boil down to, only use this attack or don't use this attack, but hey like for your two videos that can be very interesting still.
I was hyped the second i got the notification for this video, ever since I watched the Aria of Sorrow run I’ve rewatched it every once in a while and it even got me into actually playing a lot of the castlevania games, so glad that this sequal is out i’d love more Castlevania content!
Two Ideas for you: 1. Can you beat Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin by flipping the roles? Basically, you can only use sub weapons with Johnathan, and regular weapons with Charlotte. 2. Can you beat Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia using only necessary glyphs? If you have to pick up a Glyph you can use it, nothing else.
Yes, more challenge runs! I know these are probably a lot of work "just" to get a 45min video, but I really love them, from SMT4 w/o Mido to today's. Big props for all the work you do for our entertainment 👍
Huh... I just realized there is a really good in universe reason why Soma has gone from shooting demons to punching them. In Dracula's castle there wasn't really anyone who would try and stop him from wielding a gun. However now he is unfortunately now back in the real world and as someone who lives in japan he wouldn't exactly be able to own a gun. So now he punches then in the face... a lot. Poor guy probably misses his gun
Bit of trivia about Gergoth, you cannot bring him below 900HP during the falling sequence. Even though it's possible to kill him at the very top he cannot die after he starts this until his shackles breack.
I've done Portrait of Ruin fist Weapons only, but that still meant using stuff like the Cestus and Kaiser Knuckle when I got them. True unarmed? That's impressive.
The funny thing about the 5th magic seal is that I've watched the opening so many times I know exactly how to do it without practice, counter clockwise circle into a lightning bolt from 12 to 8 to 2 to 6, and then up from 6 to 12.
OH THAT REMINDS ME Where you need to draw the magic glyphs, there's a mod that removes that! Even speedrunners consider it valid to use that because the magic seals are just that impossible. The mod literally just autocompletes them so it doesn't change anything else. Might be useful for the future.
About the not being able to use a controller thing: The timer to draw the seal actually doesn't start until you actually make contact with the touch screen. So you can take all the time you need to get in position, make sure you remember how to draw the seal, etc etc, so theoretically you can fight the boss with a controller and just move in to use the mouse as soon as the seal pops up. Not THAT important, but I played DoS like this too, and having the time to plan out my mouse strokes and not just immediately panicking trying to go as fast as possible helped a LOT for later fights.
Man, you put yourself through so much torture for these challenges, but they are always entertaining. Since you’re getting back into Castlevania, would you be interested in a challenge run for Igarashi’s spiritual successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night?
That would be a bit easier, Miriam's kicks have a whole small moveset dedicated to them. Plus the fact passive shards increase in power exponentially as you level and rank them up and the fact you can double up on them by equipping a mastered one creates some pretty busted combos.
@@snailthelostcow63 True that, Bloodstained's moveset is fun. Perhaps a more challenging run would be a No Shard run (including using shards to craft).
34:00 I can tell you why it was rejecting your seal over and over. After you do the circle bit you need to go from north to south, then south to north east, north east to south west, and finally end it by going back north. What you did was you started at the north point then went south west and basically completed the seal backwards.
Gratz for another great video and challenge. Also yes, I would love to see more Castlevania challenges or videos: Complete Symphony of the Night while using only Red Rust and no sub weapons.
For the "No damaging bullet souls unless absolutely necessary" rule, I feel like you could make an exception for the Slaughterer soul because it's litterally a stronger punch attack.
