Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -- Part 4: Chaos Architecture
1Okay, so we've had poor Nathan trapped mid-warp, dematerialized in a pillar of light for days now, let's see where his indecision will carry him and all his rematerialized particles!
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Part 4: Chaos Architecture
Actually, a lot of this part of the castle is... familiar... but still confusing. A lot of rooms are seemingly similar, but not necessarily indicative of the sort of reliable navigation I crave. I guess it's a good thing I've got a map, but I think it's still pretty confusing in the meantime.
That said, once you've gone everywhere else, eventually all the dead ends will lead you to the one path that still wants to let you through... and you KNOW you're getting somewhere when the obstacle is no longer some manner of suspiciously arbitrary and patterned obstacle and instead takes the form of a powerful enemy! (Learn to love when you've found those totally out-of-place sliding doors!)
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BOSS: Necromancer
Huh, a boss that actually feels like being talkative. Neat! Most bosses in Castlevania games tend to be beneath the capacity for rational thought, much less speech. This has the effect of making the ones that are that much more notable, although not always more dangerous. Case in point, this guy's only the second boss, so he's not going to be TOO much to handle, but he'll probably have a little more up his sleeves than Cerberus did. At least one would hope so, anyway, since all that intelligence would be totally wasted in a combat setting... and this guy seems SO confident! (For a guy who's basically taunting what he expected to be the equivalent of roadkill and offering to finish the job...)
Basically, it'll come as no surprise that one of his primary tactics is to summon zombies who will... hang out down at the lower levels and be totally ineffectual. The other ...attack at all... he has (besides meandering around in the air trying to touch you for not-inconsiderable contact damage... no fair!) is to generate a ring of energy projectiles to surround him and gradually send them off flying lazily towards Nathan.
His biggest weakness is that he'll be totally still when he summons reinforcements, so you can use whatever your best attack happens to be repeatedly on him without hesitation. Sure is nice we picked up that Cross, eh?
All right! That was way too easy! ...strange that no level up happened, because bosses tend to be chock full of one-time lump-sum experience point dividends... Wait, what? .... .... ...this guy doesn't look like a Necromancer anymore, but I guess Dracula never looks much like himself by the time he's done playing around. Maybe it's an important tenet of Draculaism that you need to have a superpowered transformation up your sleeve if you want to get anywhere in (after)life?
At any rate, his tactics really don't change TOO much... instead of fleshy zombies, he summons bony buddies. No real improvement there, I guess. He also has a tendency to be a little more proactive with his energy attack, instead cloaking himself in energy and bouncing around rather vigorously... too bad his life doesn't extend far enough to give his attack pattern roulette enough time to use much variety...
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One of the bigger points of contention I have with trying to capture these kinds of games and then share them with YouTube is how ...super disorganized things tend to get! I mean, in the old days, there was a carefully-crafted stage that eventually ran straight into a boss and things wrapped up within one video, nice and tidy... well, most of the time. Assuming I didn't have too much trouble. (There's always trouble! More than that if it's Castlevania!)
But, I mean... there goes that boss and we're only halfway through a video! ...welp, I guess that means my course is clear. End video! See you all again later sometime maybe!
... ... ...okay, fine. That guy WAS super underwhelming... we're still in the point of the game where you can muscle past most opposition just 'cause you're not really all that tactically diversified or perhaps even well-versed in Castlevania-type action (this was my FIRST Castlevania game, after all!). Don't worry, a great reckoning and wake-up call is (probably) fast-approaching!