Is there a way to make this game challenging? I've heard

Red Rust Only run.

play with your feet instead of your hands

There is a "hard type" romhack

>>4135805
I dunno. Maybe try using a single weapon rule. As in you have to get whatever weapon gets dropped and use only that one until the next one drops. Even if it's weaker than you current one.

>>4135805
X-XIV``Q for username.

99 luck with shit stats. It's the only way to play.

>>4135858
That's only hard in the beginning. Then you'll be swimming in OP equipment

>>4135864
Don't equip it, go fists only

>>4135805
Even if you play with shit stats the boss patterns are still too easy and predictable. Go play X68k Castlevania or Haunted Castle US for Arcades or something.

>>4135864
I don't remember if you have to skip death or not with it but at least spells are still severely gimped.

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>>4135805
>Turn on luck mode using name X-X!V''Q (those are single quotes)
>Use glitch to keep Death from stealing your shit
>After that unequip all armor and weapons
>take shortest possible route to all bosses
>save points are off-limits except the first one (to fix the game after the Death glitch) and any you are required to go through (like the long library one). Use these as much as you like for healing.
>all other healing comes from the food you find
>if you manage to reach shaft and drac, you can finally equip your Alucard stuff again

This makes the game feel like a retro-vania, is challenging, can be played in one sitting, and gives new life to a great and greatly broken game.

>>4135943
Why is it necessary to do the Death glitch if you're not going to use any of the stuff he takes from you?

>>4136009
because shaft will kill your ass with his gay lightning attack before you can take him down, and dracula has a stupid amount of HP if you try beating him with your mitts.

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>>4136013

>>4136013
But you can recover your stuff on the way there.

>>4135805
The balance of this game is so absolutely fucked.
People who think it's better than Super Metroid must have brain damage.

>>4136091
It's not better, it's just more fun.

>>4136101
>blasting through enemies that pose no threat whatsoever
>fun

>>4136109
The thing is that you have a thousand ways to blast through said enemies.

Most of the times I replay this game I just do it without saving and kill Richter

>>4135805
Just play Order of Ecclesia if you want a harder metroidvania, or grow a pair and play Castlevania 3

>>4135805
https://anonfile.com/K4r0Z0b4bc/lvl1.zip

Here you go Anon. I'm the original creator of this save, and it should work for both the translation patch of the Japanese version and the US release. Knock yourself out my dude. Just make sure to spread it on somewhere when you can.

>>4135826
That's too easy. I've beaten countless games this way.

>>4136019
I forgot to say it's a minimal run. I go straight from one boss to another. I only get the Cube of Zoe, Jewl of Open, Leap Stone, Soul of Bat, Soul of Mist, and all of Vlad's shit.

>>4136109
It's not like like Super Metroid is challenging either.

dont know if this is the right thread, but in every emu i try SOTN it gets crackling/choppy audio. Any fix for this?

It's supposed to be easy. It can't be made challenging. The game was designed for children and women.

>>4138849
It's probably the rip you have, you may have to look for a new one. There was a rip for the longest time that causes sound distortion in Alchemy Lab.
It could also depend on the emulator. What are you using, and what plugins if that's relevant.

>>4138883
i've tried PCSX and PSXe with the default plugins and with SPU eternal

Do a naked pacifist run. Good luck. You'll need it!

>>4138876
>"Even today I am amazed that this game has many adult male fans discussing it online. I thought it was obvious that we designed the game for women and children." - Toru Hagihara, 2008 interview
Damn

>>4135805
yeah, it's called Circle Of The Moon

>>4138913
Try setting up Mednafen or downloading the Mednafen core in Retroarch.

>>4137319
Play with your dick then.

>>4135805
Stop being a tryhard faggot before I fuck you up the ass jabroni.

>>4135805
No, OP, there isn't. Just enjoy exploring the cool castle and find some neat treasures. Or play classic Castlevania.

The Level 1 runs for these kind of games are stupid.
The only difference is how much longer you'll take to bring bosses down which doesn't make the game challenging, makes it a chore.

A hard mode is nice but keep the leveling. Infinitely punching something isn't fun.

No equipment and only use the 2-h axe?

>>4135805
play with a guitar hero controller

>>4135805
No

>>4136109

Yes that is fun thanks for noticing.

>>4136448
I have to agree with this, honestly. There are ways to make SotN challenging, but doing so requires stripping out so much of the game's content that you're really better off playing something else.

>>4138940
>The fans of this game, they're kind of, ah, retarded I think. (laughs) We wanted to take Castlevania, this hardcore action game, and strip away all of the challenge. That was our main goal. Then we added a main character that would appeal to women. Then these otaku players get upset when they play this game and aren't satisfied. I don't understand. (laughs)

>Koji Igarashi, 2003

Almonds: activated

>>4141950
Not true. It only requires rebalancing damage & health while nerfing a few broken items, which is what the HardType hack does.

>>4138913

spu eternal is old, the base spu plugin in the latest versions seems to be more compatible

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>do as badly as possible against dracula as richter
>dont use accessories or armor
>red rust until you can do damage with tyrfing
>tyrfing rest of the way

>no challenge whatsoever
>literally nothing of value to find through "exploration"
>lame powerups that are blatant keys and have niche uses aside from the bat which is frustratingly slow
>tacked on RPG system
>tedious backtracking made even worse by the lack of challenge
>dull level design everywhere

How can anyone claim this is the best game in the series let alone the best Metroidvania. It's like the blueprint for every game that ever threw in a bunch of stuff and never thought about making it all work cohesively.

Not saying it's bad though. Wandering Ghosts is kino

>>4144132
Favored by hype alone. SotN is a overall good game, but Aria of Sorrow is the definitive game of the metroidvania style Castlevanias, Other then better graphics and music due to being n better hardware AoS is so much better in every way.

>>4144132
>no challenge whatsoever
It's easy but you can make the game a lot easier just by not grinding and not using the best weapons and equipment. It's still a flaw, but a flaw you can get around pretty easily. It even starts you with a shit weapon as an option for challenge purposes.

>literally nothing of value to find through "exploration"
Almost everything found through exploration is worth having. There's a damn sword that lets you summon a legion of the undead to fight for you, for fuck's sake. Tons of optional, hidden bosses, and all kinds of cool shit.

>lame powerups that are blatant keys and have niche uses aside from the bat which is frustratingly slow
Mist Form lets you avoid all harm. Acid Mist lets you do damage to enemies and pass through them. Bat lets you spit fireballs and fight aerial enemies. Wolf is lets you travel really long paths very quickly when you need to backtrack.

>tacked on RPG system
Didn't help or hurt anything. It may as well not exist.

>tedious backtracking made even worse by the lack of challenge
Between a shitload of Warp Rooms and the Wolf Form this is only a problem if you have a child's patience or you're an idiot.

>dull level design everywhere
Purely subjective. I liked a majority of the level design in the normal Castle, and while the inverted castle could have been done much better I still thought the concept of everything being upside down and different now was cool as hell, especially for the time.

I don't think it's the best Metroidvania by any means, but you also have to factor when it came out. For the time it was a pretty great game, and it's the ONLY Metroidvania that didn't have a previous Metroidvania to literally just copy and paste from.

>>4144267
>Almost everything found through exploration is worth having. There's a damn sword that lets you summon a legion of the undead to fight for you, for fuck's sake. Tons of optional, hidden bosses, and all kinds of cool shit.
>Mist Form lets you avoid all harm. Acid Mist lets you do damage to enemies and pass through them. Bat lets you spit fireballs and fight aerial enemies. Wolf is lets you travel really long paths very quickly when you need to backtrack.

Whats the point of any of this when you can bumrush all the enemies with just your sword because the vast majority of them are no threat, including the bosses. In SM every upgrade you get feels like a really big deal, it expands your combat capabilities and unlocks new areas for you to explore. In comparison a lot of the powerups in SOTN are a "hey thats neat" affair.

>Purely subjective. I liked a majority of the level design in the normal Castle, and while the inverted castle could have been done much better I still thought the concept of everything being upside down and different now was cool as hell, especially for the time.

I dont think this point is subjective. Where is the good level design? Most of the levels are flat hallways or pits with similar platform structure and the game is very bad at throwing new or interesting challenges at you, there is barely even a real platforming challenge in the game. Super Metroid was easy to but it was way more varied.

Play blindfolded.

>>4147102
That would work.

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>>4137292

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>>4137292
.