VinnyVania: Dracula's Curse - Part 01

Yay more VinnyVania!

ahhhhhhhh it's happening

ty based vinny

FINALLY!!

Never played this one, so I've been really excited to see it after all these years.

VinnyVania!

NEW VINNYVANIA! Praise be!

hell yeah! I've been missing this! :)

Austin-Vania!

This is going to be great.

The best thing! Now with Austin. Even better!

Ohh, VinnyVania is back! I can't wait to watch this later!

alex? alex?!!! ALEXXXXXXXXXXX?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where is Alex :( ?

I always thought Syfa was a female. I think I had some Nintendo tip guide that referred to him as female.

Oh yes.

Vinny should play the Japanese version with the crazy sound chip that made the music even awesomer.

I've got the chat archived over here.

I thought she was an old man when I was young, something about the picture in the corner when you had her with you. There was an image in the instruction booklet as well but her face was covered by a hood, with bangs sticking out, which confused me at the time. I thought she looked more like a young boy there. It wasn't until much later that I found out about her true gender.

I do believe that her hiding that she was a woman was actually something revealed in the ending if you finish the game with her though, so them obscuring that from the player wasn't unintentional.

Austin being Vinny's weird uncle made me want them to do a GBEAST Unplugged for some reason.

Austin was great in this!

(As was Vinny, but that's always true)

1:05:30 to 1:06:00 runs the full gauntlet of human emotion.

How does a police officer eat a nacho chip?

With cell-sa.

?

Oh man, I'm so happy to have woken up to this! And super thrilled to see Austin in video content! He's awesome!

They're pretty dark. Should get some lights.

This is genuinely awesome.

Anybody else having mad sync issues though? By the end my audio seemed more like a minute ahead.

A fork

Use the power of backflips

@vinny VinnyVania doesn't seem to be a category in the RSS feeds, yet. Not sure to whom I should mention that, so I'm just putting it out here.

So is Vinny Gaiden next?

How many episodes in will Vinny realize that he's not going to be able to beat it? I'm putting the over/under at 5.

Caught this live. I love Austin so. freaking. much. You guys caught a keeper with him, for real. So nice to finally see him in some premium video content. I think I said to get him the hell in VinnyVania in his welcome post, so clearly I've been chomping at the bit for this for a while, lol.

Aww! Austin's first Giant Bomb character: Weird Uncle. He's fitting right in!

It's the opposite actually, Sypha is a female but incorrectly stated in the booklet as a male. You were right before. http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Sypha_Belnades

Wunderbar

Please, it's Vinja Gaiden

aw ya .

I had no idea who Syfa is so I googled it. After looking at the results, I think it's either the Scottish Youth Football Association or the Synthetic Yarn and Fiber Association.

He's the Black Knight. Hahahaha.

Uhh. No. CV3 is one of the greatest if not the.

Maybe I'm going crazy, but there have been some moments since he's joined where Austin's really reminded me of Ryan. Similar type of enthusiasm, I think.

Ah, the debate between which side character to take along. Castlevania 3's partner system is more balanced than most give it credit for, as each partner has a set of strengths and weaknesses that leads to specific situations where they can excel. Trevor is your stock Castlevania protagonist, with a stiff jump, good defense, and a variety of attack options (Upgradeable whip, and all of the sub-weapons).

Grant DaNasty has a greatly improved platforming ability, thanks to his better air control and ability to climb walls and ceilings. However, his attack range is short and limited, as he can only use a little knife for melee, the dagger, the axe, and the stopwatch. His defense is worse than Trevor's too. He's a good choice if you're having trouble with the platforming, since he controls almost as precisely as Ryu from Ninja Gaiden.

Alucard is the one that people tend to swoon over due to his status as Drac's son (and SotN protagonist). He has better defense than the other partners, his main attack (short-range fireballs) can be upgraded like the whip, and he can transform into a Bat. However, the only sub-weapon that he can use is the stopwatch, he's a little bit taller than everyone else (thus a bigger target), and his route is the toughest in the game. Alucard's Bat form is the main draw here, as he can pretty much skip over entire platforming sections with enough hearts.

Sypha Belnades probably has the best offensive capabilities in the game due to her spells. The fire spell works as an all-around replacement for the whip, as it is more powerful than, and has about the same range as the morning star whip. And, without spoiling too much, her other two spells are rarer, but extremely useful in certain cases; one spell works great against enemies in the levels, while the other spell utterly tears bosses apart. However, her defense, like Grant's, is lower, and her Staff attack is weak. Much like how Grant is great for platforming, Sypha is great against bosses.

In Castlevania 1 and 3 (so far), Vinny seems to have the platforming nailed down (outside of some unlucky hits), but tends to have the most trouble with the enemies and bosses. Therefore, it might be best to stick with the partner that specializes in boss fights, Sypha. Of course, Vinny could go back and get a feel for the other partners; he can always come back to this level with the password.

@ejc93: Yo! I agree :) Austin has this raw, energetic enthusiasm that Taswell had that sparked a fire in the other duders and the community at large... I'm really digging his fresh new vibe and can only hope he feels as comfortable as he looks on camera! Love you guys and can't tell you how happy I was while watching this installment of VinnyVania! Keep up the laughs!!!

There were a couple times during the E3 streams, during the breaks, where Austin would walk into the shot and I had to do a double take.

Wait, when did he finish SQ?

@almostswedish: Last month. I guess Vinny took a (well earned) break after the nightmare of Simon's Quest.

Turns out I had actually watched it. The end of the game was just not very memorable.

@almostswedish: Yeah, it's a super anticlimactic boss fight, especially compared to the multi-hour effort on the original.

@lordofultima said:

Historically there's no taking that away but my exposure to old Castlevania has made those games seem very thin and a slog to play because of the controls, enemy patterns, and structure.

Also you're talking to someone who thinks Symphony of the Night is the best Playstation game ever made so the thought that this game holds a candle to SOTN is laughable to me. I get the reverence the series has and 3's place in it but as raw video games this series doesn't actually get good until later.

I support the general consensus that Austin is indeed The Best!

Austin is great. I do however miss the ol' barkerville song...

So people don't like the Belmonts' but they put up with them to kill the monsters? Are the Belmonts' Witchers?

@tits_matador said:

I've sent them an e-mail about that but it wasn't read on the BEASTcast.

If you're unaware, Austin ran a Dungeon World campaign podcast with a couple of his friends called Friends At the Table. I've been listening to it for the past week. Outside of some audio issues (skype is a horrible thing) it's really really good. Austin is the GM and is a real fucking fantastic GM. I hope GBeast starts something similar.