VinnyVania: Symphony of the Night - Part 05

My favorite series on GB right now, thanks guys.

Yay, I missed this episode due to work today.

We're going to start hitting the point where I won't actually have fast enough internet to watch stuff on here anymore.

Lovin' this one. Can't wait till Castlevania 64.

Join us, we who download all the videos instead of streaming :)

Out of context, you sound crazy!

Boy the rings are cryptic I mean are you actually supposed to wear a clock...or I suppose you could wear the rings in the clock tower AH bet that is it wear the rings in the clock room and the whole castle flips over I bet!

This stream is beautiful. Way to go @vinny! I feel like you guys have been out of focus for awhile but this 1080/60 stream is nuts.

Great stream! 1080/60 is awesome.

A part of me does wish they had these sessions a bit closer together so that they'd have a better understanding of the castle layout.

Man, chat has got to chill. Even Vinny called them out. Let him play the game, let him explore. Stop insisting he needs to go somewhere at that EXACT moment.

1080p60? Jesus bandwidth ain't free, @vinny!

So, does this mean no more mobile quality in the video buddy app? I hope not as my 50gb cap might not love the higher qualities.

I know that Shield Rod is dope. If Vinny wants the game to be bit challenging, try not to use it, and experiment with all the weapons.

I have to ask, is Vinny supposed to take 1 damage from everything? Because I remember there being a lot of dying starting out, but he's basically invincible now.

He leveled up and geared up bro.

1080p60 chat.

This feature is magical, thank you.

This game too, it's not particularly difficult or well paced/balance, but there are so many interesting little odd moments and bizarre mechanics, they give the castle a very mystical feeling and charm. Also some of the best 2D art and best music.

@vinny there is a relic you missed early on that allows you to see how much damage you do with each attack, it seems like something you would like to have before moving on. It is located in a large room right above an 'S' shaped corridor in the middle left of the map.

There is also a power-up for the wolf form that actually makes it useful and is good for traversal that you can now get near the entrance to the castle.

I just started watching the video. Damn, I wish people didn't mention about the "bad ending" and just let them go to the "BOSS" at the start of the stream.

How the hell did I miss another episode of this live? :(

I should really get some sleep but just gonna watch this till I pass out lol

What a game! This game was always right up my alley, finally playing it for the first time myself!

This game does get hard again. Soon. Soon!

Also the second castle is so fun to explore. You just kinda go in any direction you want and eventually you'll gather all the stuff you need, which is awesome.

So it high going to be 720p? Large downloads is gonna take a long time for me...

Really bad audio sync issues on Roku, unfortunately.

It's kind of weird to have a 1080p video of a ps1 game.

Aww so close to ending 1, they could always reload the save after seeing it to continue. That might actually be more fun to see how the endings progress, there are 4 I think on the main story.

I played and finished SOTN for the first time, thanks to this series. Awesome game, thanks for this feature, guys!

I second this, love every Castlevania game (I may have a problem) and really hope Vinny plays the 3d ones (N64 and PS2 games).

After a while you get equipment that is so good that the game becomes trivial. I played through it recently and during the last few hours I was just going through the motions.

You know, maybe it's just pure chance that Alex is picking up bad advice from the chat and maybe, just maybe, someone in the chat knows that they're talking about, but holy shit...

GREAT JOB, chat, on luring Vinny away from exploring the ONE FINAL BLOCK on the right side of the big, open area in Olrox's Quarters that happened to be a save point, only for him to die, essentially resetting his progress for the first half hour of the episode to zero.

And man, was there really any harm in Vinny stumbling upon the bad ending, which would've allowed him to restart from his save nearby, anyway?

Some of the people in the chat really need to learn to prioritize and, I dunno, maybe not completely spoil every little aspect of the game and ruin every attempt that Vinny takes to just naturally explore.

Try something like this:

1) Vinny goes toward bad ending.

2) Chat shuts up.

3) Vinny gets bad ending, wonders what's going on.

4) Chat lets Vinny and Alex watch bad ending.

5) Chat says, "Oh, that's the bad ending."

Is that really so hard?

For a game that's so much about discovery I feel like there's been next to none of it in this video series due to Alex reading every damn hint in the chat to Vinny the second it gets typed.

Wow, I thought it was just me! The chat aspect was driving me a little bananas this episode. Telling someone they're two seconds from a boss fight is way against the spirit of things, honestly, and I didn't think Alex would read that kind of 'advice'.

Vinny said he'd eat the peanuts to check out that different animation; he'd see it; then was immediately just told what it was in exact detail seconds after.

The only info that should be revealed is the stuff he would never ever figure out if he didn't explore every square of map (which Vinny pretty much does!), when he asks for a hint, or at the end of his run where you can say, "Hey, check this cool thing out before you're done with the game!"

You gotta let people enjoy those little thrills when they stumble into something new; so many of the good vibes are bottled up in those moments.

You're a patient man V-bomb!

Great episode otherwise. I'm glad you're still really digging the game. It's in my top five of all time. On a different note, the inverted castle, for me, is the second half of SotN and should probably be experienced to fully click with why it's so cool. It's bonkers, much tougher, and the funnest hours of the game also (again, for me). Would love to see them whiz through it at some point!

Fantastic, as always.

Ukoback/Gremlin might be my favorite new enemy design in the Metroid-like Castlevania games. It just sorta messes up your flow more and more the longer you take to defeat it. Though sometimes it's a little easy to defeat right away and completely miss out on the hell it unleashes.

Legion is also my favorite reoccurring bossfight. Not that it's ever really hard, I just like the concept I guess, and the name.

Yeah, I've got the same issue on my Roku.

You can just Soul Steal the flames to get rid of them (and restore a bunch of health in the process). Vinny also kind of had the right idea at times by teleporting through them, but I wish he'd realize that you can cancel the fireballs by holding Down to get moving more quickly.

@kevinski: I completely agree. I'm only 50% through this episode, but it's pretty much like the chat is playing this game now. Even the simplest things are being told to them. Like when Vinny just got to Abandoned Mine and found the save point, people spoiled that there was a boss in the wolf door room. I mean, Vinny's going to go there next, it's the only place for him to go! Just relax and let the guys play!

I wish it was just the duders playing, and then when Vinny asked for guidance on where to go next, Alex got a vague hint (ex. visit the wooden bridge in the water place). Half the joy of these types of games is exploring places on your own and being able to access them now because you have a new powerup.

This whole posts sounds somewhat negative, but that's just because this is my favorite feature on the site and I love it!

Jeez, I'm glad later games was balanced better in this aspect. I don't ever remember being able to tank a boss' attacks like that in the DS Castlevanias.

They need to stop reading the chat from here on out. At this point they have the obtuse items they need to be fine on their own from here on out.

I want Vinnyvania, not Chatvania. The chat killed this episode

Yeah, I know. Same thing with the Olrox's Quarter rant above. Vinny seemed like he was gonna explore the entire right side first, and he only had the save room left to discover, and the suggestion from the chat completely derailed him. He would've gone to the left, anyway!

And the axe requirement for the breakable ceiling? Not at all the case. You can hit that with pretty much any weapon in the game. I'm not quite sure why, but it seems like either weapons' hit boxes are oversized vertically or the ceiling is set up to have a hit box that stretches below the ceiling itself. You can hit it very easily with a normal attack from most weapons if you're close enough to the ceiling.

That said, I hope that Vinny and Alex will consider only taking suggestions from the chat when they're stuck. The occasional tip is fine (such as how to use the Gravity Boots), but there's too much misinformation and vagueness to what the chat is saying. Like turning off the Leap Stone to do the high jump easier in mid-air. I'm almost positive that you HAVE to double-jump before using the high jump in mid-air. So frustrating.

I love VinnyVania, but SotN has been kinda rough so far. I feel like Vinny didn't quite explore enough at first, but he's kind of fallen into a groove and adapted, only for the chat to take over (which I hope Alex learns to just ignore somewhat).

Is Vinny playing the xbox version on an xbox one or emulating the playstation version?

He's playing on Xbox One via backwards-compatibility. You can tell it's the Xbox 360 version because of the UI that appears at times in the video.

Alex, stop with the specific directions.

Man, I don't know if it's placebo because of those video notes, but 60 fps people looks weeeeird

I don't think that the secret, overpowered super moves ruins the neat idea of that enemy's design any less than it trivalizes the rest of the game when you use it, so I don't see why that's relevant. Ukoback appears in a bunch of subsequent games where it can be killed off quickly but will still mess up your day if you don't because you won't have an easy way of dealing with it. I just wanted to say that I thought that was neat, is all.

Comments: "You guys need to stop reading the chat and doing whatever they said, but you also need to do these specific things that you don't know about or we're going to get mad at you."

I find it really funny that you're so angry about the chat, but here's an idea: you know who told everything to Vinny? Even things he might shouldn't have? Alex. That's right. Let that sink in. I hope it makes you even angrier :P

@vicious17: Yes! Chat can just let dudes play games and then inform them when asked

I already said that. Thing is, Alex has no context for a lot of what he's passing along. The people in the chat who seem to have *some* experience with the game, however, need to learn to prioritize what's important with that in mind.

Again, I see no problem with tips if they're completely stuck or if it's something that would've been in the manual (such as how to use the high jump), but yeah, it'd be best if Alex relied less on the chat, and it'd be even better if the chat was reliable when Alex *did* need to consult the chat.

Hey guys dont worry about anything, they can still easily do the bad ending... you just have to not equip something... thats all Ill say on it.