AMERK'S PROFILE

Point taken. Should have said "some of the NES themed games".

Edit:

Finished up part 1, and for some reason the ending taste of what's to come reminds me of A Blurred Lines' end. Please, please don't go down Lys path and fail to provide us with closure.

Okay, that said, without your video I would still be struggling with the Soulkey and melody. Essentially, silencing them is the real key to the puzzle, so I was thinking you could add a sort of hidden clue that reveals this. Maybe an NPC that says something like:

"The symphony is great, and I love hearing different melodies. But when you need a peace of mind, silence can be bliss."

I also received the Tsunami and Hellfire combos, but could not get these to work for whatever reason, but LeafGust worked well enough on the final boss for part 1.

Hopefully in part 2 I'll finally be able to open those elusive doors with the cross symbol!

I should have been more clear. When I say "building themselves up" I don't necessarily mean grinding for a long length of time; I mean through the natural course of the journey, making sure to fight the monsters you come across and not running, so that you have a decent amount of health that will sustain you when you face against an enemy that requires strategy. As much as I love the games of old, I am also not a fan of heavy grinding, but I enjoy seeing my characters get stronger through the first part of the game as I explore and fight.

Edit: Started playing this, and I haven't been able to stop. I sort of see where the grinding feel comes in initially though, so here are my thoughts that may balance this out.

Start it at Level 1, but lower the EXP requirements to gain the initial 2 levels. This way the player can still learn the ropes of the game, and not have to spend so much time grinding at the beginning. In addition, I would encourage you to make it so that Finishers aren't usable until after you've found the guide.

Right now, I've learned Finishers before getting the guide, and so when I do get the guide it feels sort of pointless since I already know the move. Making the guide a requirement forces the player to use what's currently at their disposal, plus the player can feel a sort of accomplishment when they discover a new guide, and it would encourage players to explore more thoroughly.

Plus, it would make sense to learn the move "after" you get the guide.

As far as everything else, whatever changes you want are fine but I have had no problems with the layout so far. Consumable items isn't really needed in my opinion, and the menu system works well.

Edit # 2: On a side note, I'm really enjoying the game. It reminds me a lot of what Castlevania might have looked like had it been an rpg!

Sounds like an up and coming community site that needs a bit of a boost, so a contest to generate more interest may work. My only thoughts on the site is that it's a bit of a cluster trying to find games (hell, you've got 100+ pages to surf through), so a lot of games will get lost in the shuffle. My advice, create a category that breaks these down (Category 1 can be rpg, real time, strategy, tactics. Category 2 can be platform/arcade/shooter. Category 3 can be simulation/puzzles...)

I vouch for Cherry to take this up, as she's already created some wonderful patches and plugs for 2K3, but not sure if she'd be willing to take a stab at this.

On a joking matter, hopefully we don't come up with several different versions to this and then have to decide which we like better, assuming we get a wide variety of people doing their own coding.

Or am I misunderstanding that?

I would personally have the window skin changed to something a bit more retro and dark.