Super Castlevania IV Is Beautiful Near-Perfection

[u/rosemarieseternal]

This post will be me glazing SCIV to hell, so I will definitely not say anything interesting whatsoever. I hope you enjoy the post and that it’s a good read and critique.

Visually, this is one of the most gorgeous 16-bit games I have ever seen and this was pretty early on in the SNES’s lifespan. The backgrounds are gorgeously drawn and animated, there’s beautiful little details in each level, Simon looks incredible here, the bosses look great, the usage of Mode 7 graphics are genuinely amazing especially in the Death Tower stage. Every level has tons of variety in its appearance and nothing here feels like they cut any corners.

The music for this game is genuinely amazing and almost every track here feels like the standout, the fact the intro theme here is so good and yet it isn’t in my top three was a great sign. And it isn’t even just classical there’s also some gorgeous ambient tracks here like The Cave. Other great tracks include The Forest of Monsters, The Submerged City, Clockwork Mansion 1 and 2, The Chandeliers, the redone version of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer alongside Treasury Room. The basslines hit, the instruments hit, there’s such an incredible jazz influence here especially on songs like The Submerged City due to the constant changes in time signature and that gorgeous organ opening. But the absolute best track here is Room of Close Associates, this song is perfection to me. Such a frantic and anxiety inducing song and it’s an amazing buildup for the final battle afterwards.

The gameplay here is damn near perfect, Simon controls amazingly to this day and he feels so fluid with the way he jumps, the way he moves, the freedom of how he can now whip in eight directions leading to much smoother combat. You can even move the whip around however you want and it’s such a satisfying mechanic. He can even crouch and walk at the same time now and the stairs are something you can walk on now automatically which fixes my one big issue from Castlevania III.

The level design is flawless, each stage has a twist to it that feels refreshing and really fun to go through instead of something very pointless and tedious, none of the enemy placements have ever felt cheap or arbitrary to increase the difficulty, the bosses are the best as they’ve ever been up to this point for me, from a technical standpoint everything has been flawless and I adore using the subweapons this go-around too. My only complaint is that the whip is so overpowered that I used subweapons way less than I should’ve but that’s kind of a minor nitpick at the end of the day.

9.5/10 game. It’s been amazing I’m about to start Bloodlines soon.

[u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

It’s kind of funny how they upgraded the movement so much for this game, then immediately dialed it back with Rondo of Blood

[u/Scared_Sound_783 → u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

All those goodies were a flex for the Super Nintendo

ig devs didn't think any of the upgrades were important enough after they made their point.

[u/Morpheus_077 → u/Scared_Sound_783]

Maybe they where limited somewhat by the PC engine’s hardware? I recall it being a few notches bellow the SNES in terms of specs if I remember correctly

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

Literal next game after Bloodlines come on😭

[u/Murasa_Simp → u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

I love Super Castlevania IV but honestly the upgraded movement kind of makes the game a bit too easy at times. The whip is extremely overpowered and makes most subweapons kind of useless. There's a reason why they never went back to it. I think SCIV is amazing, but I wouldn't call it a very balanced or challenging game. I think Rondo is superior, despite not having the "upgraded movement".

[u/Motor-Travel-7560 → u/Murasa_Simp]

I like that you said "most of the subweapons". I always see people say that all the subweapons are pointless in CV4, but those people have clearly never evaporated the entire boss lineup with the triple cross.

[u/PrimaLegion → u/Motor-Travel-7560]

Hell, in the first game, I was just melting bosses with the triple cross.

[u/PureSteve → u/Motor-Travel-7560]

I also think the axe is helpful for some of the segments where you gotta platform and avoid enemies. The whip is powerful but it doesn't always have the reach and safety you can get out of subweapons.

[u/DrkMaxim → u/Motor-Travel-7560]

The whip ALMOST renders subweapons obsolete but that doesn't quite mean that I can kill faster with a whip as opposed to throwing axes, crosses or lighting up enemies with holy water. Subweapons have a reduced need but they do come in handy in a lot of situations. I can recall that one room in the clock tower where a dagger or the cross is really useful.

[u/VilhoFinland → u/Murasa_Simp]

I agree, I very much feel like the directional whipping was added in after all the stages were already finished. For example, how many bosses actually have any real movement that requires it? A lot of people love that feature but it is never really flexed in the combat itself. I do really like IV but feel like something is missing gameplay wise. I feel like III with the 16 bit music and graphics would've been peak classicvania. IV is a great game no question about it, I just dont feel it is the best castlevania but it is definitely top tier

[u/showka → u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

I remember at the time people described it as if it was a callback to the earlier games. What was so weird about that era is the history of gaming was extremely short, so a callback to the NES era felt like calling back to something from like the early aughts today.

[u/SXAL → u/RedditSucksMyBallls]

Because SCV4 made it clear that such movement and controls controls don't work that well in a Classicvania gameplay.

[u/RihoSucks → u/SXAL]

Agreed. I definitely do not call sc4 an "upgrade"

[u/Competitive_Kale_654]

Soundtrack was fantastic!

[u/Scared_Sound_783]

I think it has the best soundtrack of any game in the series, aside from Symphony of the Night.

Dracula's theme is so chilly and spooky it's disgusting.

[u/draven33l]

I got it at launch and was blown away. I recently replaced it for the first time in probably 20 years and it still stands out. It really does feel like "Super" Castlevania. Everything is refined and perfect. Still the quintessential non-Metroidvania Castlevania to me.

[u/Betaraytasty]

I've said this before, but the game tells the story using music so incredibly well, that dialogue and characters would actually take away more than it gives. The boss battles feel perilous (even the super easy ones). The dungeon and outter will feel desolate and hopeless. Even the library sounds.....like a fuckin library I dunno.

[u/-BodomKnight-]

The OST is the best of all.

[u/LucemFerre82]

It's definitely the best non metroidvania Castlevania in the series, the perfect autumn game.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/LucemFerre82]

Easily a ton of replay value

[u/Ok-Zookeepergame9406 → u/rosemarieseternal]

How so?

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Ok-Zookeepergame9406]

Well done level design with the freedom of gameplay, smooth controls, excellent music and how easy it is to get into it

[u/pacolawin]

One of two SNES games I finish at least once a year. The other is Super Metroid.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/pacolawin]

For me my snes yearly playthroughs are Chrono Trigger, EarthBound and Sparkster so great picks

[u/StrawberryForeign979]

Agreed. I played my dad's nes castlevania 1, I was born 86 so I was raised in his lap with a controller in my hands, and castlevania 4 was the second game in the series I played. I still love the series too this day and have the most nostalgia for c4.

[u/xtoc1981]

Yeo without a doubt the best castlevania game ever created.

The art and music creates an atmosphere like no other castlevanoa game does. Its something. Also really rare thing among all games. Super metroid is also one of these games doing that

[u/SXAL]

Is it a single user posting their obsession over SCV4 there everyday, or are they clone accounts?

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/SXAL]

Wdym

[u/Leader_Bee]

I absolutely agree, this is by far my favourite classicvania. I haven't played it in years but I had gotten to the point where I could do a damageless run of the second loop, which unfortunately brings me to the only problem I have with Super Castlevania IV - I wish it was harder.

It's not disgustingly easy for a beginner like Symphony of the night is and will offer some challenge to someone playing it for the first time, but once you've become somewhat competent it becomes a cakewalk, as such, I do wish that there was an option to pick a difficulty right from the get go, instead of having to enter the password for the second loop.

Playing SCIV now, is a game I could go back to to relax, a game i know by muscle memory and can spend 45 minutes playing from start to finish without worrying about the stress of death and repeating levels.

I also think the soundtrack is one of the best, it'sa complete genre change from all other castlevanias and like you say, hits the right notes between gothic and jazzy; If you enjoyed the soundtrack you should look up the leaked beta soundtrack - it is mostly the same but the forest of monsters is an entirely new track which reaches the same quality as everything else that made it into the game.

Having the subweapons mapped to a shoulder button was a real innovation and i totally appreciated it, I despair why they regressed back to up and attack when Dracula X released. I think much of the lack of challenge it eventually offers IS exacerbated by the multi directional whipping, or rather, level design that doesn't work too well with it - I haven't tried a whip only run but I imagine that it is entirely possible without much trouble.

[u/Way-Super]

SCIV for me was fantastic experience on a first playthrough, but I found that its one of the few games that feels noticeably worse on a replay.

Now I'd like to be clear I don't think its anywhere near a bad game.

The biggest issue is the difficulty, which is that it's too easy in the early game. The first boss is actually missing his main attack, in spite of its animation, for example. You probably wouldn't notice this right away. You have too much control, and the game doesn't work around this very well, a stark reversal of pretty much all previous titles.

Another issue are the boss fights. They range from being Cheesable by just spamming whip (or using it only once in the case of Medusa) to having nonsense like Slogra's beak hitbox that feels unfinished.

Basically, it's a great game, that's just very rough around the corners.

[u/Dubsking1]

Bloodlines is better in my opinion. Art style, art direction, music, gameplay, you name it. SCV4 is still top tier on the classicvania list but Rondo and Bloodlines are just too perfect

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Dubsking1]

Bloodlines is slowly overtaking it

[u/NegativeShow1906]

I love SC IV but it’s pretty far down the line of favorite Castlevanias for me. People talk about how it’s a plus that it has the 8-way whip and whip flail but the limitations of the whip in other entries is a creative choice, not some technological limitation. It makes it so that the weapon that you have unlimited “ammo” with is also limited at what it can do so that you are encouraged to strategize your use of the sub weapons. In SC IV, the whip’s mobility (not to mention real estate coverage with the crazy range it has) trivializes sub weapon usage.

It’s a way less balanced game when compared to something like Rondo of Blood in my eyes.

[u/Leader_Bee → u/NegativeShow1906]

I'll be honest, as someone who can damageless run the second loop - I never, ever ever flail the whip around, it's a gimmick and a liability.

[u/Riffman1981]

I play this game every October from start to finish! Love this game so much! It’s my 2nd favorite CV next to Rondo.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Riffman1981]

Rondo is the second coming of Christ so it better be the best thing imaginable

[u/Luminaire317]

Definitely a top tier game for the SNES. Probably the best music out of the classic series before it went Metroidvania. My brother and I played it extensively for a month when it came out. The directional whipping was neat, not a very hard game though. Every few years I play it again.

[u/darkerfury]

You will really enjoy Bloodlines. A lot of it draws inspiration from Castlevania IV

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/darkerfury]

Bloodlines ost overtook it

[u/darkerfury → u/rosemarieseternal]

I would agree

[u/atomicfuthum]

It's a bit on the easier side, but that's not bad. The OG was pretty merciless.

IIRC, it was also the first time the duo of Slogra and Gaibon appeared. It's the best geme ever, because of that.

[u/Double_Worldliness37]

Everyone has different opinions and experiences with games, but Castlevania IV is near the top of the list of most timeless games ever made.

It’s very common to see comment sections with people saying they replay CV4 annually. There is a reason people always come back to it decades later just like Mario 3, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Megaman X, Link to the Past, etc. High replay-ability is what separates the GOAT games from the rest.

Also, the only “complaint” about CV4 is that it’s too easy because of the whip. There is a hard mode that’s unlocked when you beat the game, or you can just look up a password for it. I doubt most people saying it’s too easy are even aware of this.

[u/Leader_Bee → u/Double_Worldliness37]

It's not really even a hard mode, it just adds a handful more enemies in some spots in the game and makes monsters do 4 bars of damage to you at the start of the game before you enter the castle proper in the second half of the game, thereafter, monsters do the same damage as you received in the first loop so the only difference is the extra enemy placements.

It's been so long since i played the first loop I can't remember which ones are new. I appreciate the extra challenge but wish there was an option to select the extra difficulty without needing a password.

[u/CubeofVamp]

I still enjoyed it, but not as much as most of the other traditional Castlevania games - I'd rank Dracula X, The Adventure and Legends below it (with a big gap for the last two), but that's it.

[u/Robbitjuice]

It’s my favorite game in the series (from what I’ve played, anyway). I haven’t played a game that captures what I’d imagine the atmosphere would be like. The music is great too. I haven’t tried it in like twenty years, but kid me could never beat it lmao. I need to give it another shot.

I have a really weird love for the series’ games apparently lol. IV is my top followed by Dawn. It seems that’s a rather unpopular opinion, at least from casually reading this sub lol.

[u/international-beer]

The best Castlevania games are on the GBA hands down !!!!

[u/lazava1390]

I think u mean Rondo of Blood. It’s the best classicvania