Select Thine Weapon
May 10, 2015 11:37 AM   Subscribe

 
I say whip it.
posted by sleevener at 11:39 AM on May 10, 2015 [6 favorites]


Whip it good.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:42 AM on May 10, 2015 [5 favorites]


Uhh, I'll take Swords for $400.
posted by Drinky Die at 11:47 AM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


Historically, the whip has far broader non-violent applications in video games and so is clearly the superior choice.
posted by seraphine at 11:54 AM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'll take a ZF1, if you don't mind.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:58 AM on May 10, 2015


I picked whip, but ... ?
I'm probably going to forget about this before I come back later.
posted by lkc at 12:00 PM on May 10, 2015


Pro Gamer Tip: You can keep on clicking to get the man to say more words.
posted by codacorolla at 12:02 PM on May 10, 2015


I choose the banjo!
posted by Avelwood at 12:12 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


Brave people may want to try the konami code.
posted by effbot at 12:13 PM on May 10, 2015


effbot: what makes you think that would work there?
posted by Navelgazer at 12:14 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Anyone who's played Soul Calibur knows that the real answer is "Why not both?"
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:20 PM on May 10, 2015 [8 favorites]


You can find existing clans via this twitter search: https://twitter.com/search?q=join%20%23igavania&src=typd
posted by effbot at 12:27 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sword is nice (am I the only person who likes the sword fighting in Zelda 2?) but it's gotta be whip, yeah. And hey, an excuse to talk about one of my favorite games!

I liked Castlevania when I first played, but now I think it's one of the best games on the NES. It's got some bugs and its scoring system is way out of balance (give me enough time and I can roll the score counter on the first stage), but it's about as close to a perfect video game that I can name.

Just about everything about it (except the scoring) shows immense care. Simon doesn't run fast, can't jump very high, and can't change direction in mid-air, but has an amazing weapon, with a huge reach. The whole game is a meditation on these limits and strengths, and every situation says something different about them, asks that you take advantage of them or overcome them in some new way.

I'm not sure there is a game that seems hard but falls so easily to practice and experience, and isn't that what games are supposed to be about? It's full of places that seem hard but are actually simple, with practice. Those medusa heads have caused countless players to throw their controllers down in disgust, but I almost never get killed by them now. Every bone-throwing skeleton, even with their substantial random aspects, are placed so you can get by them without taking a hit, with handled properly. Fleamen will pounce you to death if not handled correctly, but when handled correctly are trivial.

I can even often wipe out the Grim Reaper without Holy Water more times than not; with Holy Water he's simple. Four of the game's six bosses can be destroyed without taking a hit if you have Holy Water. Oh, and guess what's the only subweapon besides the Dagger (the "suck weapon") that is available in every stage?
posted by JHarris at 12:28 PM on May 10, 2015 [9 favorites]


The real question here is, "Unidirectional Whip or Omnidirectional Whip?" All those crazy people who jump up and only whip in a straight line right in front of their faces are so wrong about everything.
posted by byanyothername at 12:30 PM on May 10, 2015 [8 favorites]


Anyone who's played Soul Calibur knows that the real answer is "Why not both?"

Dear god, they've really made Ivy grotesque in recent versions of SoulCalibur, haven't they?
posted by JHarris at 12:32 PM on May 10, 2015 [9 favorites]


Whip seems like the obvious choice, owing to its versatility. But swords can cut through shit! I guarantee you are not going to kill any dragons with a bloody whip.

Also I wonder how responses to sword or whip compare with responses to flight or invisibility.
posted by Cash4Lead at 12:33 PM on May 10, 2015


All those crazy people who jump up and only whip in a straight line right in front of their faces are so wrong about everything.

I would respond to that, but up above I think I already have. Castlevania games are about the whip, what it can do and what it can't. When you can use the whip for anything, you don't need subweapons anymore, and that eliminates a major aspect of the game.
posted by JHarris at 12:33 PM on May 10, 2015


I traditionally like whips in action RPGs, but I'm immersed in Bloodborne now and realized how terrible the threaded cane (which has a whip in its extended form) is, so much so that I can't believe anyone would use such a weapon for crowd control. I've now begun to love the axe and broadsword.
posted by mysticreferee at 12:38 PM on May 10, 2015


I was just watching the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night "Devs Play" in the other tab.
posted by RobotHero at 12:42 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


> You can find existing clans via this twitter search: https://twitter.com/search?q=join%20%23igavania&src=typd

You're displaying https://twitter.com/search?q=join%20%23igavania&src=typd but linking to http://swordorwhip.com/?c=BxVyDCYywGi23iyuvQLv2p9FG982yN
posted by ardgedee at 12:44 PM on May 10, 2015


Trick question. The correct answer is hookshot.
posted by dephlogisticated at 1:01 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]




Bloodborne also asks "Why not both?".
posted by zabuni at 1:23 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sword on the streets, whip in the sheets.

Wait...
posted by Reyturner at 1:48 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


There is a hidden message behind all of this, probably. This site was created by IGA, the person responsible for many of the 2d castlevania games. Given the current state of Konami, this could be a teaser for him going independent, kind of like Inafune went with Megaman.

One of the quotes the site gives out is "What do you do when you find yourself without a castle? You build another." From what it looks like, they intend to announce something tomorrow.
posted by zabuni at 1:48 PM on May 10, 2015 [8 favorites]


kind of like Inafune went with Megaman

I'm hoping his going independent means we'll get another visual novel as good as Sweet Fuse was, personally. (The protagonist is Inafune's fictional niece. It is delightful.)
posted by asperity at 2:03 PM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


!!!
posted by nadawi at 2:04 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Video game whips always work as both a weapon and a tool to grab things. So you take the whip and then use it to take the sword away from the first enemy you see that has one.

If you take the sword, you can't get close enough to the whip use to take it before they take your sword.
posted by VTX at 2:10 PM on May 10, 2015


I like the sword Castlevanias more than the whip Castlevanias, so I'm team sword all the way.

Be sure to check out @SwordOrWhip and note the #igavania hashtag; I'm thinking Kickstarter for IGAvania tomorrow.

Also, IGA appears to simply be made to smugly lounge in thrones.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:20 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yes, but: monofilament whip vs. lightsaber?
posted by cortex at 2:26 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


I would respond to that, but up above I think I already have.

I'm with you, actually! I'm just still a little in love with IV. The IGA games are prettier and much more interesting, and the NES games are probably the most well designed as platformers in retrospect, but IV is the weird awkward phase that wasn't quite sure who it was or why it shouldn't just throw in some ambient and downtempo jazz if it felt like it. It's been surpassed and sidelined in terms of design, and the aesthetic is mostly pretty generic actually, but it has so much more mood than the other games. Little details like the herd of grazing skelecows glimpsed briefly through a window in the first level, plus the surprisingly mellow soundtrack, give it a unique flavor the series never, ever tried again. The more flexible whip is something that could've been used in more interesting ways (and a few points in IV are pretty inspired, like the rotating room) but it just...went away.

And then we had swords.

And now we don't have Castlevanias at all. That...still feels so weird! It wasn't that long ago when there were way too many coming out way too fast.
posted by byanyothername at 2:34 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


Damn you Pikel! (Not Ted).
posted by comealongpole at 2:35 PM on May 10, 2015


I'm hoping they get Ayami Kojima back to do the art. The shift away from her designs toward the more anime style kind of sucked.

Oh! And here's a question: if IGAvania is happening, what on earth will they do without the Rondo sprites to reuse? The art budget alone...
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:36 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Dear god, they've really made Ivy grotesque in recent versions of SoulCalibur, haven't they?

Yeah, I really wanted to find a video of the (somewhat) more modestly/practically dressed Ivy from the Dreamcast SC, but I was on my phone and it was being a pain in the ass about Youtube. In the later games, it's as though not only she can't decide between a whip and a sword, but between wearing clothes and not wearing clothes.
posted by Strange Interlude at 2:44 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Um, wow. I thought she was kind of ridiculous in the Dreamcast version, but... yes, grotesque really is the best word for this version. I don't think I'd play as her, it's just embarrassing.
posted by Foosnark at 3:15 PM on May 10, 2015




A friend of mine mastered Ivy in SC3 and was so pissed off when they changed her moveset for 4.
posted by griphus at 3:40 PM on May 10, 2015


Dark souls 2 also asks why not both?
posted by Ferreous at 3:41 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


This doesn't seem to do anything for me beyond saying "Disconnected. Reconnecting ..." Maybe I'll try it on a pc when I get a chance.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:44 PM on May 10, 2015


I thought Indiana Jones already settled this.
posted by straight at 3:51 PM on May 10, 2015


According to Raiders, it's pistol > sword > whip > pistol
posted by Reyturner at 4:00 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


JHarris: I liked Castlevania when I first played, but now I think it's one of the best games on the NES.

I discovered Castlevania on my neighbors' NES and probably wore out my welcome playing it obsessively over the next couple of weeks. Turned out they had borrowed it from someone and after they gave it back, my withdrawal was bad enough for me to spend the entire next summer saving up lawn mowing money to get my own NES and copy of Castlevania. It really is wonderfully well-designed and remains fun to play year after year. The whole package; graphics, mechanics, music. One of my favorite touches in any platformer ever is on the third level when you're walking along the ramparts of the castle, and Dracula's tower scrolls by in the distance. Such a sense of place!

In conclusion: definitely whip.
posted by usonian at 4:21 PM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


As Bloodborne taught me, the only true solution is a cane that turns into a whip.

Look at the badass animation for going from whip to cane at 4 seconds in.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 4:40 PM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


Cash4Lead: "Whip seems like the obvious choice, owing to its versatility. But swords can cut through shit! I guarantee you are not going to kill any dragons with a bloody whip."

Challenge accepted.
posted by Splunge at 4:47 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Jesus used a whip, so...
posted by um at 5:15 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Bloodborne feels so much like a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. If there's a Igarashi Kickstarter tomorrow, there's a very good chance I'll be throwing currency at it. The Doublefine "Devs Play" series is also gold and I hope they keep at it.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 5:42 PM on May 10, 2015


It's late and I'm tired, so I'm just gonna ask. Is the title meant to be cheesily bad or did the thread honestly get this far without a discussion about grammar usage?
posted by ninazer0 at 11:40 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


I voted whip, even though I've played most of the IGAvanias and can't really deal with the originals. I just love the whip as a videogame weapon.

My favorite question is 'Have you dabbled in the alchemical arts?'

Bloodborne feels so much like a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. If there's a Igarashi Kickstarter tomorrow, there's a very good chance I'll be throwing currency at it. The Doublefine "Devs Play" series is also gold and I hope they keep at it.

Tim Rogers compares Bloodborne to Rondo of Blood, and I agree that the Souls games demand the precision of the older Castlevanias. But the Souls games really have everything that makes Castlevania great, except for the cheesy horror aesthetic.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 12:35 AM on May 11, 2015


I picked... both? I mean, the whip has been pointed out to be the iconic weapon of the Castlevania series, and picking that would be affirmative in signaling desire for that, but the sword reminds me of all the Castlevania characters who do not use whips primarily or at all, especially Alucard, and Symphony of the Night is my favorite game of all time.

It has been frustrating for me, because I am extremely excited by what is being teased here, and everyone I've tried to talk to about it is like "IGA? What? Who?"
posted by koucha at 7:27 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've got two friends who know who IGA is, and they're JHarris and a guy I know who works in the video game industry and adores 2D games with pixel art. Dude is sadly niche for somebody who's created so much great stuff.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:38 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]




That video is hilarious.
posted by JHarris at 10:20 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


This has to be the most elaborately gamified Kickstarter pitch I've seen yet. I love that they're balls-out pushing a multi-tiered, multi-platform social media incentivization that itself then feeds into a secondary system of social media unlock inventory items; the kickstarter for this game has more complicated cheevos than most actual games.

I feel like I should be angry about it or something, but I'm just sort of impressed.
posted by cortex at 10:46 AM on May 11, 2015 [7 favorites]


This is apparently for an active kickstarter, which I wasn't aware of when I first posted it, sorry about that. I understand if the site rules dictate closing it.
posted by codacorolla at 11:40 AM on May 11, 2015


What is a Kickstarter?!

A miserable little pile of secrets...
posted by Johann Georg Faust at 1:13 PM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


I feel like this is a sufficiently weird post-hoc twist that we can just ride this out as a one-off oddity and keep the actual silly link and happy Castlevania memories around as long as everybody promises not to be exceptionally tediously rules-laywerish about it in a random Metatalk two years from now.
posted by cortex at 1:27 PM on May 11, 2015 [5 favorites]


It's already made its Kickstarter goal!
posted by JHarris at 1:43 PM on May 11, 2015


as long as everybody promises not to be exceptionally tediously rules-laywerish about it in a random Metatalk two years from now.

Aww, that's adorable.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 1:58 PM on May 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's been my hope that Inafune and Igarashi would be successful in their indie careers, since that looks like the only way for the Japanese industry to survive and so many are currently failing to succeed in the transition. If a few big names make it, maybe they can lead the way forward?...

So, I am stunned and ecstatic that this already exceeded its goal! Wow. Obviously, it was the video and adorably oddball teaser. That's the most charming Kickstarter video I've ever seen.
posted by byanyothername at 2:22 PM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


And:
WHAT IS A BACKER?

A wonderful pile of sweetness!
Awww!
posted by byanyothername at 2:28 PM on May 11, 2015 [4 favorites]


I'm excited for this and the backer video is awesome. But this really does signal the end of the pre-IGA Castlevanias, with their gothic horror aesthetic (as opposed to the more anime style) and challenge based on enemy placement and the limitations of your character as opposed to exploration and items.
Hopefully Bloodstained will at least be as hard as Order of Eccelsia.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 3:32 PM on May 11, 2015


It needn't. I mean, why would one expect Iga to even want to make a pre-Iga Castlevania?
posted by JHarris at 3:41 PM on May 11, 2015


as long as everybody promises not to be exceptionally tediously rules-laywerish about it in a random Metatalk two years from now

"No, you can't cite the Bloodstained Kickstarter as a precedent. EVERYBODY PROMISED!"
posted by straight at 4:51 PM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


As for the aesthetic, the FAQ does mention they tried to get Ayami Kojima on board but couldn't... Maybe for Bloodstained 2: Leitmotif of Lunacy?
posted by byanyothername at 6:15 PM on May 11, 2015


Ugh. This is why I'm a magic user.
posted by ostranenie at 1:17 AM on May 12, 2015


I can retroactively see he did the Devs Play video at this time because it would help with the Kickstarter marketing.

In that video he briefly mentioned he was currently working on mobile games, and yeah, I did feel that moment of "is that a good fit for him or would he rather be making more Castlevania games?" So I guess the answer is the latter?
posted by RobotHero at 8:33 AM on May 12, 2015


It's late and I'm tired, so I'm just gonna ask. Is the title meant to be cheesily bad or did the thread honestly get this far without a discussion about grammar usage?

I'm not sure I understand yours problem.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:54 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Skwisgaar Skwigelf wants to know: do you wants to shoot a whips or a swords?

[guitar solo]
posted by cortex at 8:57 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


Oh man, I can't believe I only just saw this post now, days later. I was directing an 8 hour live stream with Iga as part of this kickstarter. It was completely awesome. Iga sat down with us and played indie games that were inspired by his castlevania work. The devs sat with him and lost their minds about it. Shovel knight, axiom verge, shadow complex, they were all there.

The best was what we did after, though. A speed runner showed him how fast he could beat SOTN and he just marveled at it.

Really wonderful show.
posted by shmegegge at 2:00 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was directing an 8 hour live stream with Iga as part of this kickstarter.

shmeggage, I knew you were cool, but damn, dude, save some for the rest of us. :)

I wanted to watch the stream, but circumstances prevailed. Is there an archive of it to watch?
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:02 AM on May 14, 2015


I just started Shadow Complex. Orson Scott Card horribleness aside (at one point your girlfriend asks you to shove her behind some shelves) it's a good Metroidvania that's heavy on the 'Metroid' side.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 2:30 AM on May 14, 2015


Shadow Complex is great; it's too bad it will only ever be available for the Xbox 360. You won't even be able to play it before too long.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:58 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


Pope Guilty, here you go.
posted by shmegegge at 10:29 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]




argh do they even know how much money would be flung at them if they finally released shadow complex 2??
posted by nadawi at 10:54 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


They are too busy cranking out sequels to Infinity Blade, sadly.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 11:00 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nah, you do need to get the timing right, at least on the first 2 Infinity Blades.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 3:56 PM on May 14, 2015


argh do they even know how much money would be flung at them if they finally released shadow complex 2??

We actually asked, and they do know but can't talk about it.
posted by shmegegge at 2:18 PM on May 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


I bounced off the demo of Shadow Complex when I tried it a few years back, but not so much because it was bad but because it wasn't what someone had pitched me. Sounds like I should go back to it while I have the chance.
posted by cortex at 2:42 PM on May 15, 2015


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