I Just Put On A Playthrough Of CV1 As Background Noise For Drawing And I Have Realized That I Can Tell

I just put on a playthrough of CV1 as background noise for drawing and I have realized that I can tell exactly where this guy is in each level by sound effects alone. He just missed a secret chest.

Ok stupid rant, but I’m sick of looking up a game and only being able to find guides and wikis made by people who obviously hate the game they’re writing information about.

I was looking for guides for the hedge maze portion of Castlevania 64 because I was stuck in it and couldn’t visualize what the layout of maze looks like (turns out, it’s not technically a traditional maze, aka one route to the exit, which helps a lot) and the only guide I can find is one on gamefaqs or something where the person cannot contain themselves from constantly interjecting to say how much they don’t like Malus cause “ugh overdramatic cutscene, his parents are dead who cares, he looks like a girl” or how they hate the game cause it’s too hard and annoying and “oh boy as if this game couldn’t get worse”.

And like dude! Sincerely! Shut up! I don’t care! I just want to know what I’m supposed to do! You are allowed to dislike the game and express your opinions, just please keep those to a little ending opinion section or a review!!! Stop breaking up actual instructions I can’t keep track of what you’re telling me to do!!!!!!!!!!!

And I saw something similar happen on a different smaller wiki-ish sort of website (it might have been the Castlevania Dungeon, I’m not sure. Definitely not Fandom tho.) on the Castlevania: The Adventure page when I was looking for some facts. Again, the person writing was constantly being all “not that this game is important anyway” and like! I literally don’t care if you don’t like the game that’s not what I’m here for!!! Heck the website even had some misinformation on the page too saying that Christopher was Simon’s grandson in that “or whatever, it doesn’t matter” kind of tone! Like!!!!! Shut up!!!!!!!!!!!! I am here for factual information! Not a review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s just absolutely annoying and now I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do in CV64 cause I can barely process what this guy is saying ugh.

I wrote a silly Castlevania ficlet about Christmas traditions. It's under the cut. I'll probably delete this later, but I hope it makes you smile. I've never shared my writing before so I'm quite nervous about sharing it here. I beg your kindness. Q_Q Happy Holidays. Characters: Simon Belmont, Selena Belmont, and Gabriel (a character I've added who is like a brother to Simon and an ally of the Belmont family) Context: Pre-Castlevania 1. Simon and Selena are recently married (it was arranged, and they are not terribly attached yet.) Rating: Appropriate for all audiences

“I’m not familiar with the traditions of Christmas,” Selena begins, draping her shawl over her body as they exit the hold. The cold winter air greets them with its now-familiar burn on her cheeks.

“Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.” She adds, shuddering from the change in temperature, and bundling herself tighter still.

Gabriel smiles in reply, closing the heavy door firmly behind them.

“There’s no expectation for you to participate, of course.” Gabriel adds quickly.

“Does Simon celebrate?” She asks as they begin their walk across the yard of the hold.

“I don’t get the sense that he cares much for the family’s festivities. But, there’s a certain… expectation for him to participate. It’s significant to the family’s faith.”

Selena hums with understanding. Duly noted.

“Have you seen him?” Gabriel asks.

“Not for some time, no.” Selena replies, looking off into the distance. It is the afternoon, and snow is beginning to fall. She hopes that Simon may return home soon, before it gets dark.

As if on cue, as the pair approaches Simon’s home, Simon does, too.

Behind him, he’s dragging a large pine tree through the snow. It’s fastened by ropes slung over his shoulder. Despite his strength, he’s visibly tired from dragging it around.

Gabriel’s face lights up at the sight, and Simon gives a sheepish smile before raising a hand in greeting to the pair.

“I was just telling her you’re not one for festivities!” Gabriel calls out as they approach.

Selena blinks, not immediately understanding the significance of a felled tree in Christmas festivities, but she follows closely behind Gabriel.

“I thought a change of pace might be nice.” Simon replies breathily, looking between Gabriel and Selena.

Selena, meanwhile, is examining the tree behind him.

“You felled it yourself?” She inquires.

“Yes.” Simon nods in reply, revealing the axe strapped at his hip.

A moment passes before a smirk creeps onto his lips. “Care to help me bring it inside, Gabriel?”

Gabriel groans—making a dramatic show of it—before approaching, conceding. “I’m not as strong as you are!” He complains as he moves to grab the top of the tree.

Inside?

Selena merely watches as the men wrestle the foliage into Simon’s home. It’s disorderly, and the pair quickly erupt in laughter at the realization that it is simply too big to fit through the doorway.

Selena watches, and can’t help but smile at the absurdity of it all. Still, it was nice to witness this change in behaviour. To listen to laughter in an otherwise taciturn person. Gabriel brings out the best in him.

“Do you want to go inside first?” Simon asks, taking too long to realize that poor Selena was out in the cold.

“And miss out on the show? No, that’s quite alright.” Selena has quirked a brow, smirking. “I’m learning so much about Christmas from here.”

Another breathy laugh from Simon as he nods, looking to Gabriel.

“What if we turn it around?” Simon asks.

“You’re kidding me, Simon.” Gabriel groans before inevitably doing just that. The men struggle to turn the massive evergreen around, and without meaning to, Simon moves it in such a way that sends Gabriel to the ground. He whines disapprovingly.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” Simon moves around the tree to help Gabriel up.

But not before getting a snowball to his face.

Simon blinks before wiping the snow from his eyes, his gaze landing on Gabriel, still leaning on the ground, hands busy with preparing another ball.

Selena doesn’t know what’s happening. A game, maybe?

Simon moves quickly to duck the next ball that aims for his face again. Gabriel is granted a moment to recover onto his knees.

Both full-grown men are occupied making snowballs, some distance away from each other, before moving to fling them at each other. Selena steps back to not get caught in the crossfire.

That is, until Gabriel clamours behind her, Simon’s onslaught of snowballs following closely behind him. Selena stiffens, bracing herself for the impact that never comes.

Simon halts as Selena is used as a shield.

“That’s underhanded, Gabriel, you know I cannot hit her!” Simon reprimands lightheartedly. Selena has relaxed a little bit, her hands returning to her sides. Gabriel covertly hands her a snowball, and she takes it.

“Throw it at him.” Gabriel goads, and Selena is already a step ahead as she launches the ball forward, squarely for Simon’s chest.

It connects, and Simon is taken aback with surprise at her participation. Eyes land on her, and she’s smiling. It’s a bit of a hesitant smile, like she was doing something wrong.

Gabriel erupts with a cheer: he and Selena are a team now.

“You’re going down, Simon.” Gabriel taunts, handing Selena another ball. “I found your weakness!”

Simon steps back, trying to find an opening to throw a snowball at Gabriel and evade Selena. The duo is quick to work in tandem, hurling snowballs at Simon in unison. They both connect. Simon steps backwards, and—

suddenly, he’s on the ground. He’s fallen backwards onto the tree that never made it inside his home. Going down was literal. The tumble was softened by the tree branches catching his fall, but it was graceless.

Pushing aside his embarrassment, Simon laughs, and it’s warm and hearty.

Selena and Gabriel flock to his aid, at either side of him.

Gabriel’s expression flashes with realization before he tries to run away. Selena, however, is none the wiser as Simon hurls a snowball (with probably too much force) squarely at the back of Gabriel’s head.

Simon laughs, victorious, he seats himself onto the snow, recovering from his blunder. Selena blinks and looks between them. Gabriel has made a great show of being defeated, rolling onto his back in the snow not far away.

Selena can’t help but laugh, too. And it’s a sound that Simon isn’t familiar with—it’s bright, delightful. He can’t stop himself from looking at her face as she tries to hide her prominent smile behind her hand.

God, she’s pretty.

“Is this a Christmas tradition?” She finally asks, and Gabriel shakes his head from the ground.

“No, this is war!” Gabriel springs back to life, readying snowballs to hurl at Simon. Simon, too, gives in to the banter and participates again. Selena kneels and begins to make snowballs, as well.

“Which side are you on, Selena?” Gabriel groans, noticing that she’s readying to throw a snowball at him.

To everyone’s surprise, Selena instead throws the ball to Simon at her side, on his chest again. Gabriel cheers wildly, and Selena is giggling.

“Forgive me, husband.” And she gives him the sweetest smile, face flush from the cold.

“You wound me, wife.” Simon replies with a laugh.

Gabriel merely observes, happy that the arranged pair was becoming more comfortable with each other.

Hm - maybe he could help.

“Selena!” Gabriel calls, and before she has enough time to react, a snowball is flying straight towards her.

Simon, with expert precision, wraps one arm around Selena to shield her against him, while he grabs the snowball in his free hand, swiftly sending it back to Gabriel.

Selena merely blinks, suddenly against Simon’s chest.

“Which side are you on?” She lightheartedly reprimands Gabriel before looking to Simon, expression grateful. She allows herself to linger, appreciating his firm warmth against her.

“Whichever wins.” Gabriel teases, smirking at Simon. It’s a knowing, “you owe me one” look.

Simon scoffs, holding Selena close to him for a moment before he parts.

“Help me bring the tree inside, Gabriel.” Simon reprimands with a laugh, moving to resume his task. Gabriel hauls himself off of the ground, dusting snow off of himself before moving to help.

The men have managed to turn the tree around so it enters the home from the pointed end, rather than the trunk. It was easier to bring into the home, assuredly, but still made a mess, branches fraying against the threshold.

“You couldn’t have selected a smaller tree?” Gabriel inquires with a groan, colliding with the dining room table as he pulls the tree into the home.

When they finally get the tree inside, and position it upright, it is much too tall for the space. Simon places his hand on his face as he takes in the sight of the tree, whose tip is bowed against the ceiling. To add insult to injury, there is a notable sparseness where he had fallen on the tree earlier.

Simon groans as the hand moves to cover his eyes. What a mess.

Selena enters the home at last, closing the door behind her. Minding the pine needles on the floor, she approaches the men to observe the tree in its full glory.

What an odd tradition.

“It’s… lovely, husband.” Selena smiles, strained.

Gabriel is the first to burst into laughter. Simon can hardly contain himself as he shudders with stifled laughs. His restraint just makes Gabriel howl even louder, and that causes Simon to lose his composure and laugh audibly. Selena, still thoroughly confused, can’t help but join in the infectious laughter.

This could be a new tradition.

I wish it was standard for social media to have year based sorting on hashtags or at the least to have an oldest first option. I know for a fact there’s more things in the Castlevania tag than what tumblr shows me because I’ve run into older posts from times when things about the series would still get 1000 or so notes through reblogs, but searching Castlevania gives you only a select amount of recent content and usually caps off the feed super short if you ever block anyone in the tag for any reason (even if it’s just a ton of porn scam link bots alas) making it stupidly difficult to see anything!!! Most older posts are new to me!!! There’s a whole large time period of fan content I didn’t get to experience and I wanna see it!!!

Yo omg I just got to the part of the game with my wife and my husband ahskfkshajdksjwjwkda I am so excited to meet them in person—

i only know people exist if i see them or theyre extremely significant to me and when i dont see them they dont exist so our relationship just Pauses because it cant keep going if theyre not there so whenever i dont talk to someone for months and then talk to them again and i act like im the same amount of closeness with them its because in my head i am because our relationship doesnt exist outside of our interactions to me and ill forget they exist again the second we stop talking despite liking them a lot. does this sense