On Being Hard

It's okay to snicker at the title, I did.

Anyway, I had some free time today so I decided to give Dracula another run for his money in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS. So far, it's been a generally easy game, just a pleasant stroll through the castle of eternal torment and damnation. Squaring off against Drac himself, though, is a completely different story.

I'm sure I'll look back at this someday and laugh, but that bastard totally had my number tonight. This happens to me often: I'm looking forward to finishing a game, free up an evening to spend some quality time saving the world, and summarily get my shit ruined by some punk calling himself the final boss. It's such an inconvenience when my m@d sk1llz don't show up on schedule. I'm blaming this one on the alignment of Jupiter.

I faced this problem all the time back when I was but a wee dibbun, the usual result being that I'd give up on a game I was only a scant hour away from finishing, or just hurl a controller against the wall (that one gets expensive). Seems I wasn't alone either, and that's a fact some game companies are starting to pick up on. For a pittance, you can purchase super duper weapons and upgrades and armor online to help you beast your way through a game you just aren't man enough to finish yourself.

I liked this idea better when it was called an "indulgence" and involved the Catholic church selling fast-passes into heaven. Screw that, I'm playing life on hard mode, no regrets.

So let it be known: I won't play the quitter anymore and I'm not giving up on Castlevania until I put the final nail in Drac's coffin...so to speak.