Castlevania Fans?

[A Nobody]

Anyone in love with the series?

[[McD] James]

It's my favorite video game series. What do you need? 

[Jayextee]

Pre-Lords of Shadow, yeah I dig.

Prefer ClassicVania on the whole, but I'd conversely cite Aria of Sorrow as my favourite in the series; followed up almost-imperceptibly closely by Rondo of Blood.

[A Nobody]

4 hours ago, Ajora said:

It's my favorite video game series. What do you need? 

Wondering who here loves Castlevania, and what their favorite games in the series are. =)

[xdarkmasterx]

29 minutes ago, The Strife Commando said:

Wondering who here loves Castlevania, and what their favorite games in the series are. =)

 

Mine is the very first one. Nice compact game, interesting levels and the bosses after stage 3 are surprisingly fun and complex. I prefer classicvania to the "metroid" ones by far (but some of the boss fights are great like PoR dracula).

[geo]

I love the series... then they had like 20 games I never played. People wonder why they don't make 2D CastleVanias... it's because when they do, no one cares enough to buy the games. That's what TV advertising is for.

 

CastleVania IV, III, II are probably my favorites.

 

Soundtracks for III and IV are still standouts to this day.

 

I think I quit after the first game on GameBoy Advance... but I own all 3. I never finished the first and it was such a grand, extensive experience that I never felt the need to play the next two.

Edited July 12, 2019 by geo

[[McD] James]

Between SOTN and Aria, I'm not sure which of the two is my favourite. 

 

Also, you guys should play The Soul of Dracula. It's awesome and it's free. Better than a good number of the official Castlevania games. 

[Mizuki_Jun10]

My favorite series of games, Sotn is my favorite game, and always will be, what really touches the soul is the soundtrack, I'm even creating a megawad inspired by it .. I even created a forum to find someone who was interested in the project and me help, but I think it will not work ...

[OliveTree]

does anyone else have those franchises they consider themselves fans of despite barely interacting with them? I've played a decent amount of the nes castlevania game (never finished because holy shit) and I watched the netflix show, but from everything I've seen and experienced about the games its absolutely my kind of thing, and my ears perk up a bit whenever I hear it mentioned, even though I've basically not touched the franchise at large haha

[SOSU]

It's my favorite video game series and i have played most of the games :D (The onlyones i haven't are the Tiger games CV2 and SotN, the 3D first person one and the LoS games for a good reason :V)
Looking forward to getting Bloodstained when it's cheap on PS4 :D

[seed]

8 hours ago, EtherBot said:

does anyone else have those franchises they consider themselves fans of despite barely interacting with them?

 

Yeah me, with Castlevania.

 

I've played a few NES games but never got to the ones released on other platforms, and probably will never get to them. I'm hoping more collections come to PC so that I can experience the others by myself rather than rely on videos to see them in action. I should probably check Bloodstained as well. I wonder what's the status of Castlevania as a game series tbh.

 

Spoiler

Fuck, this wishlist is only getting bigger.

 

[[McD] James]

7 hours ago, SOSU said:

It's my favorite video game series and i have played most of the games :D (The onlyones i haven't are the Tiger games CV2 and SotN, the 3D first person one and the LoS games for a good reason :V)
Looking forward to getting Bloodstained when it's cheap on PS4 :D

 

Have you played Order of Shadows? Not many people can claim to have played that one.

 

[CherubCorps]

Castlevania is amazing, SotN and Super castlevania 4 are among my favorite games. I even like Castlevania 64. It's a shame that Konami gave up on it. I think the only new Castlevania games Konami makes are pachinko machines.

 

On the plus side, I'm playing through Bloodstained, and it's just as good if not better than most of the castlevania games. 

[SOSU]

2 hours ago, Ajora said:

 

Have you played Order of Shadows? Not many people can claim to have played that one.

 

Beat it two times actually :D
I thought it was cool back then but man it looks like shit  nowadays :O
(I also played the mobile versions of Aria and Dawn)

[[McD] James]

So what do we all think the worst Castlevania is? My pick goes to The Haunted Castle. 

[CorianderCastor]

Circle of the Moon is one of those rare games that I beat tens of times and spent over two hundred hours playing.

[Barry Burton]

*raises hand*

 

Love Castlevania, as long as we're sticking to the 2D stuff (although Curse of Darkness is alright).

 

Super Castlevania IV is my favorite of the "classic" Castlevanias. The music especially, but the game itself is just a masterpiece from start to finish. Sure, some levels are a chore (the library...) but it's still my absolute favorite out of the classic ones, with the first NES game in close second. Dracula's Curse is way too hard and unfair (the last level is a fucking nightmare) and it's just too un-enjoyable for me. Simon's Quest I love for the music, but the game itself is pretty ass. Bloodlines... I would rank as my 3rd favorite (dat Lecarde spear).

 

For the Metroidvanias, it's a hard tie between Circle of the Moon, Aria of Sorrow, and SotN. I love SotN's beautiful soundtrack and graphics, but it's way too easy and the leveling system kind of sucks with the whole "every enemy gives you 1 xp after a certain level" mechanic. Plus, the upside down castle isn't fun to go through. It's not as bad as Harmony of Dissonance's castle though (more on that later).

 

Circle of the Moon was my first Metroidvania and first game on the GBA as well, so I played the crap out of it and I love it still. I never agreed with the criticism it had about its dark color palette. Sure it's not fun to play on a real un-backlit GBA, but compared to HoD I think it looks way better. The DSS card system is cool, and the game is challenging and nice to look at. The music, even though they are remixes, is still some of the best sounding on the system. My only gripe is with the DSS card drop rates. Some are simply bonkers to get.

 

Aria of Sorrow is amazing. The twist with Soma is one of my favorites ever, and battling Julius is a great challenge. The soul system works great, even if it's a little grindy, and the music is fantastic as usual.

 

Harmony of Dissonance.... oh boy. Where to begin? Probably the most poorly designed castle in CV history, with no clear direction on where to go or what to do. I just beat it for the first time last month, and with the castle A and castle B mechanic, I got fucking stuck halfway through the game. Both castles are too similar, and I didn't even realize the first time I warped to castle B that I had actually switched castles. This led me to a bunch of dead ends until I figured out finally that I had to be in a certain room in castle B, do something there, then go to castle A and finally get Maxim's bracelet. I almost quit playing until that happened. The spells aren't very fun to use, and with the Bolt+Book subweapon combo, the shield is gamebreaking (I beat Maxim without being hit in less than a minute). Even the different whip upgrades kind of suck. Certain ones are stronger against certain mobs, and that's kind of it... The music is great though. Successor of Fate and Offense and Defense are seriously underrated tracks.

 

Edit: Oh, and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Fucking fantastic game right there. I played every scenario in the game and it's a blast.

Edited July 12, 2019 by R4L

[[McD] James]

 

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, R4L said:

Harmony of Dissonance.... oh boy. Where to begin? Probably the most poorly designed castle in CV history, with no clear direction on where to go or what to do. I just beat it for the first time last month, and with the castle A and castle B mechanic, I got fucking stuck halfway through the game. Both castles are too similar, and I didn't even realize the first time I warped to castle B that I had actually switched castles. This led me to a bunch of dead ends until I figured out finally that I had to be in a certain room in castle B, do something there, then go to castle A and finally get Maxim's bracelet. I almost quit playing until that happened. The spells aren't very fun to use, and with the Bolt+Book subweapon combo, the shield is gamebreaking (I beat Maxim without being hit in less than a minute). Even the different whip upgrades kind of suck. Certain ones are stronger against certain mobs, and that's kind of it... The music is great though. Successor of Fate and Offense and Defense are seriously underrated tracks.

 

From my experience, Vampire Killer's castle design seemed a lot worse, but I was only able to stomach about 20 minutes of that crap game. HOD's level design wasn't bad, but it was kinda padded out, and the dual castle concept felt sloppily implemented. More warp rooms would have helped. The music sounds like it's coming out of a tin can, and the actual compositions themselves are some of the weakest from Michiru Yamane, who usually does fantastic stuff. I still like the game a lot, but it's severely outclassed by Circle of the Moon and Aria. Maxim should have his own game. 

[A Nobody]

I feel like Castlevania is the 2D equivalent to Classic Doom, by how awesome, fun, and revolutionary it is. Also because of the level structure style of the different entries. Doom 1 to Final Doom are set up level by level rather than having a huge place to explore, with Classicvania being similar. However, Doom's levels have exploration where as Castlevania's we're a bit more linear, but you could go to other levels by different exits (which Doom also has, going to secret levels). With Metroidvanias, it's similar to Hexen and Strife. Level structure is done by a hub for those two games, and MV's is done with a massive place to explore. Instead of going from level to level, you explore a big map and backtrack to go to different places.

 

Heck, Castlevania was brought over to Doom in the form of Simon's Destiny. =)

Edited July 12, 2019 by The Strife Commando

[YukiHerz]

Castlevania is a series I love.

 

From the classic platformer bunch I'd say my favorite is Rondo of Blood, it's simply an enjoyable game that I can just pick back up and play without much hurdle, thanks to the PSP remake/rerelease.

 

From the "Metroidvania" era, my opinion is a bit controversial, I think Curse of Darkness is superior to both Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, sue me.

 

Recently I played Mirror of Fate on the 3ds, it's probably the worst thing I've played in quite a while, is there even a point to the minimap? the game reeks of thinly veiled linearity so it's not really that close to the "Metroidvania" games but it's also hilariously easy and shallow compared to the classics.

 

I haven't watched the netflix series but I've somewhat kept up with them through other means, I was interested in watching it was fresh, but I kept putting it off and eventually, as is par for the course with netflix shows, they made unnecessary visual redesigns of established characters and the art quality also dropped significantly.

 

Spoiler

If you're gonna try to imply something about me for not liking bald dark skinned Isaac or other characters that got changed in netflix shows you should know that I'd find a dark skinned Isaac with his original design fucking hot.

 

[A Nobody]

2 hours ago, YukiHerz said:

Castlevania is a series I love.

 

From the classic platformer bunch I'd say my favorite is Rondo of Blood, it's simply an enjoyable game that I can just pick back up and play without much hurdle, thanks to the PSP remake/rerelease.

 

From the "Metroidvania" era, my opinion is a bit controversial, I think Curse of Darkness is superior to both Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, sue me.

 

Recently I played Mirror of Fate on the 3ds, it's probably the worst thing I've played in quite a while, is there even a point to the minimap? the game reeks of thinly veiled linearity so it's not really that close to the "Metroidvania" games but it's also hilariously easy and shallow compared to the classics.

 

I haven't watched the netflix series but I've somewhat kept up with them through other means, I was interested in watching it was fresh, but I kept putting it off and eventually, as is par for the course with netflix shows, they made unnecessary visual redesigns of established characters and the art quality also dropped significantly.

 

  Hide contents

If you're gonna try to imply something about me for not liking bald dark skinned Isaac or other characters that got changed in netflix shows you should know that I'd find a dark skinned Isaac with his original design fucking hot.

 

I heard the show has heavy swearing such as Trevor letting out the f word a lot, which sounds completely out of place in Castlevania. It's not supposed to be The Witcher.

[Barry Burton]

@Ajora

 

I think I'm just spoiled by AoS and CotM. Those games are far more interesting than HoD IMO. HoD is just really boring. The compositions in the music aren't the greatest (I'm a big fan of Michiru Yamane. Bloodstained's OST is God tier) and I just think the combat is pretty meh. Otherwise, I agree with you haha.

[A Nobody]

34 minutes ago, R4L said:

@Ajora

 

I think I'm just spoiled by AoS and CotM. Those games are far more interesting than HoD IMO. HoD is just really boring. The compositions in the music aren't the greatest (I'm a big fan of Michiru Yamane. Bloodstained's OST is God tier) and I just think the combat is pretty meh. Otherwise, I agree with you haha.

Music isn't bad. I really like the game's rendition of Vampire Killer. So awesome. 

 

[[McD] James]

Circle of the Moon's rendition is the best. 

 

 

[june gloom]

Big fan. Have played most of them pre-Lords of Shadow, but nothing beats the original. Except Super Castlevania IV. Circle of the Moon is crap, though, and Order of Ecclesia is........... underwhelming.

[A Nobody]

1 hour ago, arobase said:

Big fan. Have played most of them pre-Lords of Shadow, but nothing beats the original. Except Super Castlevania IV. Circle of the Moon is crap, though, and Order of Ecclesia is........... underwhelming.

Isn't SC4 considered one of the easiest Castlevania games in the series? What did you not like about OoE?

[SOSU]

Everybody loves SCVIV (me too) because you can whip in all direction and the amount of movement control but the problem with 8 way whipping was that the sub items became mostly useless >:/

[DustFalcon85]

Any fans of the Netflix series in here?

[[McD] James]

Whipping in all directions was a lot of fun, but also kind of broken. I'm glad it happened, but I hope it doesn't happen again. Castlevania 4 is my favorite traditional Castlevania game, but Bloodlines comes extremely close to it.

 

Unpopular opinion, but I think Rondo of Blood is slightly overrated. It's still a great game, that doesn't have any glaring flaws, but there's a good handful of traditional Castlevania games that are better in every possible category. 

[Barry Burton]

@The Strife Commando I gotta agree with Ajora on that haha. CotM may be all remixes, but they sound amazing. The Sinking Old Sanctuary with the baseline is so good.

 

I still like HoD's OST a lot though.

 

Edit: CotM also has the best version of Illusionary Dance: