Castlevania - all around discussion

[Stillborn]

I don't like to start new threads, but some time ago I was reminded of Castlevania and got curious about the sentiment here.

So? What do you think of Castlevania in general? Which one is your favourite or what bothers you and so on.

[TehDonutKing]

In general, i love Castlevania. As for each individual installment, it varies.

[Stillborn]

I didn't played each part. I got used to the metroidvania style of the hand held consoles

[Ænimal]

Aria of Sorrow is one my favorite Gameboy Advance (and just in general) games of all time. Lament of Innocence was pretty nice too (never beat it though, unfortunately). i am also fond of Curse of Darkness, although i have the creeping notion that i might be in the minority on that one, but whatever. One good thing about the Castlevania series is the consistently awesome soundtracks

[Stillborn]

You know, I've seen my first Castlevania when I was visiting my cousin when I was a kid and he was playing the old SNES version. I couldn't understand what supposed to be interesting in this slowly jumping sprite, attacking with slow inefficent weapon.

Then ears later I accidently got into my hands Harmony of Dissonance... And I loved it. Since then I went on to beat all metroidvania I could get my hands on XD

Symphony of the night was awesome. I also played Lament of Innocence which was amusing to some extent and secret boss was very climatic, but it wasn't as fun as 2D versions. I couldn't get my hands on the curse of darkness sadly. Portret of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia also are on my list. But my favourite is still Aria of Sorrow, followed by Dawn of Sorrow. I would proably like the DoS more if they didn't change graphic from artistic, painting-like pictures, to Naruto style cheap anime to appeal to younger generations.

Sadly I can't say much good about recent Castlevania remakes...

[ElMariachi]

^
The important thing with the LoS remakes is that you shouldn't expect the old metroidvania style, the change into a beat them all style was deliberate and the reason why Konami delegated the development to Mercury System, a Spanish studio.

[Stillborn]

Truth to be told I didn't know that original Castlevania were not metroid style. It was later that I learned that LoS was more of a return to roots with its chapter style gameplay. Still I eventually got used to that (altough solving the same long puzzles multiple times just to finish the level so your new power ups would save was a pain). And I somehow enjoyed it... Untill they pulled out Satan out of nowhere.

Generally the amount of biblical references, religious doubts and so on, seemed a little too much for me. A bit too heavy handed. I mostly enjoyed the gameplay and the boss battles were interesting, but the story felt... lacking and forced.

And then I played LoS 2 and I banged my head on the desk

[Dataprime]

No one mentioned Symphony of the Night, yet?
For shame...
Not only one of the better Castlevaina games but maybe the best game ever.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

As a series, it's had a mix of great and not-so-great titles.

The old NES/SNES/Genesis titles are good (particularly Simon's Quest, which was kind of a predecessor to SotN), but the PSone/GBA/DS games are the crowning moments. Generally speaking, every "Metroidvania"-style title is worth your time.

The N64 titles are throwaway. First one for PS2 (Lament of Innocence) was alright and second (Curse of Darkness) was a little better, although still not quite that good.

Lords of Shadow was actually better than I had been expecting it to be (and I dug how they retconned the whole series, honestly). Haven't tried LoS2 yet...but from most of what I hear, I'm not missing anything.

[ElMariachi]

Truth to be told I didn't know that original Castlevania were not metroid style. It was later that I learned that LoS was more of a return to roots with its chapter style gameplay. Still I eventually got used to that (altough solving the same long puzzles multiple times just to finish the level so your new power ups would save was a pain). And I somehow enjoyed it... Untill they pulled out Satan out of nowhere.

Generally the amount of biblical references, religious doubts and so on, seemed a little too much for me. A bit too heavy handed. I mostly enjoyed the gameplay and the boss battles were interesting, but the story felt... lacking and forced.

Satan had foreshadowing earlier in the story, the insane monk who held the holy water artifact said that the devil taunted him that Gabriel and Zobek were coming for him, and Baba Yaga said that the "Kings of Angels" warned her of Gab's coming, "King of the Angels" being Satan's original title when he was still the Archangel Lucifer.

Personally I find the

SPOILER: Show

Zobek = Death

twist coming more out of nowhere.


As for LoS2, there's a little story behind why it isn't as good as the first: the success of the first game made the head of studio's ego grow to insane proportions, leading to a lot of meddling from his part and strife with the rest of the team, imposing his own ideas while ignoring everyone else's advices and opinions (the mechanics of Dracula transforming into fucking rats comes from him for example), which led to part of the staff to leave the studio mid-development, between the more important leaves being the Lead Artist, which explains why the parts in the castle are generally both more beautiful and fun (and lets be honest, the castle is drop dead GORGEOUS!) while the segments in the modern world are less fun and with uninspired sceneries (which Zobek's HQ and the first part of the laboratory being the exception, having been created before the split) and the waste of characters like Victor or the last two Acolytes.

If you want to have a look at what LoS2 could had been, you should play the "Revelations" DLC (where you plays as Alucard prior to the events of the main game), for which the head of studio wasn't involved. Everyone agrees that it's what the main game should had be.

[NemZ]

I can get behind some old-school castlevania stuff, sure.

My view:
Classics = 3 > Rondo > 4 > 1 > X > Bloodlines > ReBirth > Revenge > Legends > Adventure
Metroids = Ecclesia > Dawn > Aria > Symphony > Portrait > Harmony > Circle

And the outlier, Simon's quest, was a great idea but shitty execution. Just ahead of it's time I guess.

The rest I haven't played, either through lack of system or lack of motivation.

[A.T. Fish]

What a coincidence, I just finished Symphony of the Night a couple days ago after putting it off for a long time, it was the only major old school Castlevania I had not played yet (not counting the NES ones). The game was ok but I didn't like it for one reason, there was no challenge. Maybe I did something wrong, maybe I killed too many monsters while exploring the castle and ended up overleveled, that's the only explanation I can think of for all the ridiculously easy boss fights. I barely died during the whole thing, when I opened up the inverted castle I was already bored with the game and the thought of going through an entire castle again annoyed me. I thought maybe the real challenge would start there, and even though it was harder than the first castle it was still pretty easy due to how strong my character was. I'm sure SotN deserves all the praise it got back then because it introduced a lot of new mechanics to the Castlevania series, but in comparison with more recent titles it's just not as good.

Other than SotN I have played Super Castlevania 4, Bloodlines, Dracula X, Rondo of Blood and the DS ones, which are my favorites.

[Dataprime]

The game was ok but I didn't like it for one reason, there was no challenge. Maybe I did something wrong

Try playing as Richter Belmont. The game gets a lot harder when you play as him.

[Stillborn]

No one mentioned Symphony of the Night, yet?
For shame...
Not only one of the better Castlevaina games but maybe the best game ever.

Hey I mentioned it XD
One of my favourite as well. Still, double wielding Crisseagrim is an overkill XD
So is "awakened" Alucard's shield

Still, I liked Alucards spells and powers as well as his interactions with the few NPCs that there were.

El

Ok Fine. He was foreshadowed. But I feel this... i don't know... Unispired. You just fight the ultimate evil that looks like typical metal band singer... In pants of smoke. And you beat him with all the finesse of a bar brawl. That's something more fitting in Diablo then in Castlevania for me. And yeah

SPOILER: Show

Zobek=Death

was facepalm worthy.

Still in LoS some battles were hard. You could feel the struggle of a lone warrior against horeds of unholy, with all the burden weighning on him but still he manages to stay decent person (unlike Kratos for example). And LoS had the benefit of having Laura. Childlike vampire who seems to retain more humanity than any other blood sucker in the game, even if its seen in tiny details, like when she spares Gabriels life when reminded of human love, or better yet: In DLC there is a short moment when you play as her since Gabriel can't get through. When they again reunite, she says "don't ever live me again". That sounds like very human, childlike longing for company, from a kid who was lonely and scared for to long.
While we are at DLC part I didn't like the Forgotten One. I remember hi first appeared in Lament of innocence as a secret boss. We first see a hint of him in a dark room when we see a crude painting on the wall, almost child like doodle, depicting some creature torn in half, and with one arm torn off.

Later we see what it was. A giant monstrosity that was skinned alive, lacking lower body, with innards spilling out and giant maggots dropping from his guts. It's missing an arm but the remaining one can still hit hard, and its blood is highly toxic. And his mouth laser kills you in one hit I'm pretty sure he was supposed to be call back to Beelzebub from SotN, but my first impression was an Eva without armor
In short, it was hard, awesome and very satysfying enemy.

The Forgotten One in LoS was... unispired compared to that. He was just a black and green faceless lump, stuffed into spiked armor. He was hard to beat due to his cheap, AoE attacks that were quick and hard to avoid especially in air where his weak point was. I was not satisfied with beating him, more like relieved that frustration was over.

As for LoS2... I'll get to that in a moment but I need to gather my toughs for now

[ElMariachi]

Oh yes, fucking SOB Forgotten One, what the hell did the creators thought when they created it!? One of the cheapest boss I ever saw, like you said once I defeated it I didn't felt any satisfaction, just relief that it was over.

[Justacrazyguy]

I hate to see Castlevania II Belmonts Revenge for the Gameboy be ignored. That game had fantastic music AND good gameplay, something the first Gameboy title lacked.

:.Cough.: Still, when it comes to the classic Castlevanias, the Rondo of Blood remake is my favorite. For the Metroids... SotN I guess? I haven´t had the chance to play the others yet. Can´t find CotM anywhere, which is a shame, because now that I´m older I´d probably be able to finaly beat the damn thing.

[NemZ]

Ignored? It was on my list. And yes, it was the best of the gb games, no question.

[Justacrazyguy]

^ I meant in general. I don´t hear that much about it. Then again, it is a gameboy title so I really shouldn´t expect many people to know it. For what it is, it´s not has obscure as it could be.

Also, I´m wondering why is CotM so low in your list. I thought it was well regarded by the fans?

[Squigsquasher]

I should really play a Castlevania game. I'm wary of the NES games due to their infamous difficulty, and Simon's Quest is known for being fucking awful so I'll avoid that like the plague. Super Castlevania 4 looks like a good place to start though, same with SotN.

I kinda hope they do a Zero Mission-style remake of the NES games, ramping down the difficulty a little bit and improving the visuals. I hated the NES Metroid but I love Zero Mission so I reckon it should work.

Also, Judgement- one of the few fighting games that can boast that it has a character whose sole motivation for fighting is to get bigger breasts.

"Uh huh...they're huge..."

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

^ Dracula's Curse (the third NES title), Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night are probably the best overall places to start with the series. Just go from there.

And Simon's Quest wasn't that bad. Like NemZ said, it was just ahead of its time (I'd LOVE to see a remake one day) and wasn't the most user-friendly.

Hey I mentioned it XD
One of my favourite as well. Still, double wielding Crisseagrim is an overkill XD
So is "awakened" Alucard's shield

Sounds like we've had about the same experience with it, then (I do both of those things every time I play it through). Lack of difficulty isn't that big an issue to me, it's still a lot of fun.

Also, I'm wondering why is CotM so low in your list. I thought it was well regarded by the fans?

It is, it's just that the following games like it (Harmony/Aria/Dawn/Portrait/Ecclesia) were ALL better. Progression and all that jazz.