GBA games.

The Core RPGC Main Forum
41

drools why certainly, this is one of my favorite game series!

Castlevania (NES) - Of course, playing the original is always recomended. The game was rough, and by today’s standard the game was INSANELY hard. Good game none the less, but not really the top of the series by far.

CastleVania 2: Simon’s Quest (NES) - This is when the series starts to take off, in my opinion. This would be the closest game of the early ones to have the free roaming Symphony of the Night feeling to it. Good music, good game play, still challenging, must play.

Super Castlevania 4 (SNES) - If ever there was a game for the SNES that brought a tear to my eye with wonderful music, great gameplay, and an AWESOME feel… It would be Final Fantasy 6. However, this game was badass, fucking badass… Best SNES platformer in my opinion. While the Megaman X games are great, there was a certain feeling to Casltevania 4 that just makes me excited to this day. This also introduced us to the free whipping style where you could hold down the attack button and move the D-Pad around to flail your whip about! This is a MUST OWN of the series. I’ve collected two copies for myself.

Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES) - Also a good game, the music improved slightly over Casltevania 4, but not much, and the gameplay went back to the roots of the series. This one’s a good one but not required in my book.

CastleVania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation) - Hailed as the BEST castlevania of all time. And while I’d like to agree, I still prefer the whip lashing of the Belmont family over Alucard. This game, however, was ahead of it’s time and proved that platformer games could STILL earn respect among all the 3d games of its time. This is without a doubt a MUST OWN.

Castlevania Chronicles (Playstation) - If you want to get the same idea out of the First castlevania but dont like the old graphics then pick up this game. The graphics and music have been givin a HUGE ASS overhaul (its also based off of the Arcade version of “Akumajo Dracula”). I loved this thing, gameplay suffered from oldschool syndrome even though the game LOOKED like it would play better. It’s worth trying out, but I own it as well.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) - This one got me back into the series after Symphony of the Night. I fucking loved this game. I also cosplayed the main character, Juste Belmont for an anime convention two years ago. This is a must own.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) - This is the new Symphony of the Night. The main character once again uses swords instead of whips. The gameplay is astounding and rivals all the previous games. I dare say this is better than Symphony of the night because the updated ideas that were implemented. However, symphony has the advantage of being on a more powerful system and thus still plays faster and shows better graphics and music quality. Regardless, Aria of Sorrow is a MUST OWN.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) - The most recent in the series and returns to 3d style of Castlevania 64. Only this time… It was done well. This game was badass but certainly not as much as the 2d versions… I loved it none the less, and they gave alot more effort with the story telling aspects of this one. Coupled with good voice acting and a decent script, this game is a classic. I’d vote it as a must play though, just cause it lacks some of the “classic” feeling of the old ones.

Those are my picks from the series. I hope this helps you out in your quest!

42

All but three actually: Mew, Lugia, and Celebi.
Jirachi can be gotten on Ebay, Ho-oh can be caught in Colosseum, and Deoxys can be gotten in New York.

Still if you don’t like the solutions for Jirachi and Deoxys, that makes five unavailable.
(Celebi can be caught using the Japanese bonus disc for Pokemon Colosseum, which requires a Japanese GCN to play.)

43

wait…couldn’t you get jirachi from the bonus disk in pokemon colosseum? I rememeber getting mine from that when Kaldorei got it. Mew will be avaible in emerald with a damn tickict…oh wait that means we still can’t get it because they A: don’t give out the tickets in any magazine and B: give them out in places where I’m not even close to. :stuck_out_tongue:

44

EVERYONE IS WRROOOOOONNNGGGGGG!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

The Japanese version of Crystal did have a catch-able Celebi, but since certain hardware was unavailable in the US/Europe, it was stripped from the game.

See here, about half-way down the page.

And SB, they DID give out tickets on one issue of Nintendo Power magazine for catching Latias/Latios in Ruby/Sapphire, so it’s not unreasonable that they may do it again for another Legendary in a newer game. Who knows? Not I.

And Sohee; eh? Lugia was catchable in Gold normally, or did you mean something else?

Oh, and Ren, I didn’t notice your second post, this is my STUDENT loan I’m using, not an actual loan. I wouldn’t be that crazy just for a GBA. :stuck_out_tongue:

45

We were totally having this conversation last night when I said how much I wanted a new GBA game to play! It was great!

I won Aria of Sorrow on ebay today, and I’m even hoping it might maybe be delivered before I leave for Vegas.

edit - Someone said something about bringing back “makes you throw your controller in anger” hard games… it tickled me, because I thought, “Well, with a handheld, that’s going to get really expensive!” So anyway. =)

46

Psh. AS much as I loved Castlevania, Harmony of Dissonance sucked in comparison to Aria of Sorrow or Circle of the Moon.

47

Lugia was in Silver, and Silver is incompatible with the current generation games, so it doesn’t matter, since there’s no way to get one currently. Same with Celebi and Crystal. Geez Pier, get with the times. :stuck_out_tongue: Celebi comes from the Japanese Colosseum Bonus Disc only now. And Jirachi comes from the NA Colosseum Bonus Disc, which is quite difficult to get in stores nowadays.

And using a Gameshark to get the Pokemon doesn’t really count as catching or earning them, now does it?

(First & Second Generations: Red, Blue/Green, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal)
(Third (Current) Generation: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red, Leaf Green, Colosseum)
(The first and second are compatible with each other, but not the third.)

48

Here is a list of GBA Games I Currently Own
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Phantasy Star 1-3*
Mega Man Battle Network Blue*
Lufia*(*these three I won’t get till I send the money to My brother for the SP/PS1-3, MMBN and Lufia)

GBA games I used to own
Golden Sun
Super Mario Advance 1 and 2
F-Zero
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4

Games I plan to get
Pokemon : Fire Red/Leaf Green
Fire Emblem
Golden Sun(again)
Metroid Fusion

49

I only use Gameshark when I replay I game (for a different experience) or when I feel the game is being unfair (and all this rare pokemon business certainly is.) I’ve decided I WILL buy Fire/Leaf, play thru it, and THEN use my beloved GS to get the secret ones. Won’t be able to until at least Xmas, tho. I’ll let you people know what happens.

Edit: I’ve always wondered about Phantasy Star, Fire Emblem and Lufia, but never bought them as I know zip about them. Opinions?

50

Phantasy Star was originally a series by Sega (1 was on master system, 2, 3, 4 on genesis) Very good series. Definitely worth a look. Mixed Sci fi with fantasy long before SE ever did. Fire Emblem is an SRPG which is published by Nintendo. The First 5 games in the series were only released in Japan. FE Advance is the first one to go stateside. Fire Emblem is the Granddady of SRPGS. If you like SRPGs, then buy Fire Emblem. Lufia is more of the standard Turn based RPG, but still good. And since you don’t know much about them, You should rent them first just in case it’s not for you. But since I know enough about FE, I will buy it.

51

i really liked castelvania circle of the moon but i havent gotten to play any of the other gba or psx/ps2 ones so i should play them is what im getting from people?

52

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow should be your biggest priority… It’s almost on par with Symphony of the Night.

Speaking of Castlevania, in addition to the games Izlude recommended, I’d also recommend Castlevania 3 (most people consider it to be the best NES CV, except for the people who really love CV2), Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine version, released only in Japan, but arguably the best in the series), Vampire Killer (The FIRST Castlevania game (It came out before even “Castlevania 1”, but is still clearly part of the series), for the MSX, it’s nice to see the series’ origin), Castlevania Bloodlines, the oft-forgotten (and underrated) Genesis CV, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (the first GBA CV… most people consider it better than Harmony of Dissonance) and Castlevania Legacy of Darkness, the remake of Castlevania 64. Legacy of Darkness is a really good game, and is what Castlevania 64 should have been in the first place.

You know what? Actually, all the Castlevania games are good. Play them all.

Oh, GBA games. Get FFTA (People who bitch about it not being as good as FFT are usually whining about how it’s storyline isn’t as “serious”). Personally, I thought FFT’s story was pretty dry, but that’s just me.

Also, Metroids, Phantasy Star Collection, Dragon Warrior 1 & 2 and 3 (GBC), etc.

53

I don’t see how Circle of the Moon was in any way shape or form better than Harmony, but sure… I mean, the game play was jerky and slower than harmony. The music couldnt even touch the music to Harmony…

Not that it matters or anything though:

Harmony of Dissonance Score
IGN: 9.2
IGN Readers: 8.9

Circle of the Moon
IGN: 9.0
IGN Readers: 8.8

Now, although they are close, in BOTH factors Harmony of Dissonance was better. So I know I’m not the only one who realized it when playing them…

54

Harmony’s music fucking sucked.

55

Tossing your GBA around might void the Warranty. >_<;

As suggestions:

  • Mario Golf Advance tour. I clocked 25 hours without even noticing. Figures.
  • Pokémon’s a solid choice. Mmmyup.
  • PErsonally, I refuse to touch the GBA Castlevanias. (Unless I get 'em in a trade or cheap.)

(I have a few games I could… Trade. Includes titles like Megaman Zero and Legend of Zelda.)

56

I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree… While I’m not saying that either one was amaizing, I’m stating that IN MY OPINION, Harmony’s music was (at the least) better than Circle of the Moon’s.

57

It’s a pretty commonly accepted theory that Konami purposely cut back on music quality in Harmony of Dissonance so they’d have room to pump up the quality of the graphics. (Hell, both IGN and Gamestop complained about the poor quality of HoD’s music compared to CotM’s…not to mention just about ever reader review floating around on the internet.) I’ve never heard anybody say that Harmony’s music was better than Circle’s, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

And don’t get me started on IGN ratings. Not only do I think that IGN ratings are absolutely worthless (Some of their reviewers LITERALLY sound like they’re Junior High students), but I could just as easily show you other reviews that say the exact opposite thing. Like so:

Harmony of Dissonance Score
Gamespot: 8.2
Gamespot Readers: 8.5

Circle of the Moon Score
Gamespot: 9.6
Gamespot Readers: 8.9

But I’m not one to put weight on internet reviews. I’m just showing you that it can go either way. But I really <b>do</b> like Harmony of Dissonance, and more often than not, I find myself defending the game against people that claim that it sucks (I’m lookin’ at you, SG. =P). But I just think that Circle of the Moon has a more interesting magic system, a better castle layout, and is a better game overall.

58

I quite like FFTA. I’ve stopped playing that on emulation so I can finish it on an actual GBA (I got as far as The third crystal/Cid regaining his memory. I don’t know whether I like it more than FFT though. Grah. :\

I’ve completed AoS already (nice shrine Hiryuu ;D), so I’ll probably get CotM from the Castlevania series.

Phantasy Star definately at some point.

Not so sure about Dragon Warrior. I never particularly liked it on the NES anyway compared to FF Adventure. Speaking of which, Sword of Mana I’ll probably get also.

Those as well as FE and Sapphire should last me till Xmas. :smiley:

59

Hey Hiryuu. :D:D:D

Actually, about HoD’s music. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with the compositions…The quality is terrible, and that makes me really ANGRY…but, it’s an easy inference to make based on the game’s title (DISSONANCE) that the music was supposed to sound harsh on the ears. :stuck_out_tongue: So, I don’t think there’s a problem with how the music ‘sucked’ :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, Pierson, my reccomendations:

MMZ 1, 2, 3. I don’t know about 1&2, but 3 at least got a pal release. :stuck_out_tongue:
Advance Wars
CV Aria of Sorrow