Enemy Design

Which one? SotN? The first?

The first was more about placement relative to the platforming. It flowed together well because you could generally move forward and strike pretty consistently without loads of weird pauses and hesitations. The second actually fell apart in that regard. The enemies didn't seem especially well designed outside of that.

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>>2812792
How about Rondo of Blood? I've been playing through the series and it has my favorite enemy designs so far. I constantly find myself stopping to admire them.

>>2812806
I've only played the first two but I've been meaning to get around to the others. I kind of feel like I have an obligation to beat the second first before moving on to the third but it's just not my type of game.

Doom
Every monster is distinct in shape, color and movement that you can easily distinguish even from a distance or the corner of your eye what you're up for.

Also they're all cool.

>>2812810
The second CV is a bit of an odd one out, at least for it's time (though later on in the series, similar elements are explored again, but much much better).

It also has a bogus English translation, so when the game is meant to give you hints and directions you get told asinine rubbish and non-sequiturs that do absolutely nothing to help.

It's pretty frustrating to beat the game without Nintendo Power or another guide, because you're expected to do some things to progress that most people would never figure out unless told explicitly (such as in the original Japanese release, if you speak Moonrunes that is).
It has a few bad and questionable design decisions but most people would probably have looked past them if the game just made sense.

If you like spoopy side sprites, no. Unless you also give high points to gruesome gore then there's some competition on Genesis.

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>>2812779
The sprites are often of very high quality, but I find Castlevania a little derivative. It's your typical list of monsters with interesting twists, but that's about it. Certainly very good, but far from the best. Though what is I will have to think about for a while.

Darius certainly comes to mind.

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>>2812779
Earthworm Jim

>>2813251
enemies often blend into the backgrounds or environment, even when not intentional. This is a problem.

>>2812779
Metal Slug

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>>2813380
Whaat? When? I would say it's totally the opposite, that's why I mentioned it. Which enemies blend into which backgrounds?

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>>2812779
Castlevania had both great and terrible enemy designs.

Lots of enemies looked good (Like Sniper of Goth, Galamoth, the reverse Library monsters, etc), but the behavior of many is largely retarded.

Actually, this is SotN in a nutshell. It's a beautiful game that is fun to play, but the design (or maybe I should say polish?) is abysmal. I'm thinking about the whole layout of the castle in general. It's literally impossible to take a choice of paths through the game that doesn't leave you overpowered against most 90% of bosses half way through.

>>2812806
Btw SotN seems to have lifted most of its iconic sprite work directly from Rondo, so really its Rondo's design that you are mostly commending OP.

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>>2813412
behold, just about the only screen you can actually see the fucking crows on.
Most of the time you hear caws, and then you're taking damage without being able to draw a bead on them.

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>>2813464
For one, that's a pic of the remake. Second, maybe your eyes are super bad or you played on a crazy dark TV or something? I've never had trouble seeing any of the crows.

I'd say Umihara Kawase but the enemies are kinda just generic fish with good art design, so I'm not sure anyone one else would agree with me.