Nightbreed on the ZX Spectrum.  If it weren't for the tiresome cassette loading for each of the game's three main sections, it would easily gone down as one of the greatest Spectrum games of all time.  Thank gawd for Speccy emulators!  I honestly believed Clive Barker was a games developer for a long while until I realised it was based on a movie which was based on a book he wrote! o_O

Tie Fighter by LucasArts.  Bloody awesome game where you join a Grand Admiral called Thrawn to hunt down a traitor fleet led by another Grand Admiral who has decided to wage a technology war against the Emperor.  Although you play on the "Dark side", your role is about putting a stop to the traitor fleet's rampage throughout the galaxy.  Seemlessly adding in elements from Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy" and LucasFilm's Shadows of the Empire media project, Tie Fighter is just a stunning tour-de-force of Space Combat Simulator combined with great atmosphere and story.  At a very young age, I felt like I was living a double life of an ace space pilot in a suave galactic navy!  Happy days!

SOTN.  Went through an emo-stage in my late teens back in the late 90s, while watching too much Interview with the Vampire and The Lost Boys.  Alucard is one cool-ass-muddy-funster.  Face it,  Alucard even dismisses Death's warnings as if he is washing his socks the next day. Would YOU do THAT with a dude dressed in a black robe holding a nasty looking Sythe? Nah, I didn't think so.  Not even after 20 years of searching both castles high & low, have I given up the search for that elusive bottle of Old Spice that Alucard has stashed away...I know its there!

Oh, and Metroid is a big thing for me too.  Its like going on an adventure with your super cool auntie who plays paint-ball at the weekends with Captain Phasma.  I usually let her handle the Metroids though, because they are rather scary!  O_O

Anri, since you like SOTN, what's your opinion on the other Metroidvania Castlevania games (only six others, 3 for GBA, 3 for DS)? Specifically how do you like Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow? I thought those two games were really the culmination of all the good from SOTN and Circle of Moon, while trimming some of the missteps.

With those maps to 100%, these are good games to obsess about.

On 18/10/2017 at 6:19 PM, Lens of Truth said:

Anri, since you like SOTN, what's your opinion on the other Metroidvania Castlevania games (only six others, 3 for GBA, 3 for DS)? Specifically how do you like Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow? I thought those two games were really the culmination of all the good from SOTN and Circle of Moon, while trimming some of the missteps.

With those maps to 100%, these are good games to obsess about.

I would say Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin  were the ones I was most fond of after SOTN.   The others were still decent games. 

Harmony stood out at the time because of the more considerate colour palette when used with an original GBA, as it lacked a back-lit screen.  A very pleasant entry I would say, and I still come back to it once in a while.

Aria was a very strong game.  Probably as close to SOTN as we could have hoped for, and I enjoyed the solar eclipse story.  At the back of my mind I was still longing for another SOTN with the power of the PS2, but one could not complain about Aria. Loved the way Soma( was that his name? ) would fashionably teleport to another part of the castle.  If anyone is reading this and loves metroidvanias - stop what you are doing and get it now!

Although you didn't ask, but still Castlevania related, I have just got to the Metroid Queen in Samus Returns, by MercurySteam who made a Castlevania or two.  I never played those, but I have mixed feelings about what they've done to this M2 remake.  I love the visuals and enjoying the new control scheme, but damn, the first 80% is repetitive, boring and easy, then all of a sudden we're in Megaman country which totally ruins the game with a nasty difficulty spike.  If their CV games are anything like Samus Returns then I think I'll stear clear of them...

A bit late to the party, but I've been in love with Halo for thirteen years, give or take. The series that gave me inspiration to go to college to become a game writer (originally CS major). One day I want to work on that series that defined my childhood and what I love about games.