Castlevania fan thread

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Hey hang on... That artwork seems a bit familiar... I wonder who drew it...

I don't actually know

 

[destinyduelist]

I don't actually know

Ayami Kojima, the artist behind most Castlevania art.

 

[_Lorenzo_]

I became interested in the saga very late, coinciding with the release of SotN. I had never before been a fanatic of Metroidvania-style games.... For me it was a phenomenal discovery to then play RoB and the NES and SNES chapters, which in comparison seemed quite challenging and with very little margin for error... I mean, am I the only one who finds SotN far too easy? I had also replayed it with luck mode, but even then Alucard became hopelessly a power monster especially with the more powerful swords...

 

[happymasksalesman happymasksalesman]

Talk about Castlevania stuff here!

I play n64 version. It was so hard to me. I like the story and character death. Yes he is a villain but in n64 he has best show case. He threw his scythe to character and then take her and leave. Also remember that demon wear glasses and remind me a guy from legend of zelda ocarina of time. I finish game and then find out there is more! I stuck in Henry quest which should find 6 children in whole game in a period of time. How good it was. If my pc didn't broke i would finish all stuff on game.

 

[moonbits]

The Castlevania 64 games weren't that bad. I love Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.

 

[happymasksalesman happymasksalesman]

The Castlevania 64 games weren't that bad. I love Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.

I'm actually enjoy it but some puzzle like maze was a bit hard and that puzzle work with night and day system was cool but take me a while.i actually stuck on second quest. First quest was so great and amazing. I like the game and my regret is i didn't finish it completely.

 

[destinyduelist]

What do you guys think about the PS3 games though? Personally I don't like them, they're not Castlevania anymore. Still though, IF they were given the proper Castlevania gameplay loop and kept the combat, polished it up a bit, they would've been great games in my opinion.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

What do you guys think about the PS3 games though? Personally I don't like them, they're not Castlevania anymore. Still though, IF they were given the proper Castlevania gameplay loop and kept the combat, polished it up a bit, they would've been great games in my opinion.

I never played them

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

Back from work and a nap. Now, I shall speak up.

Castlevania's one of my all-time favorite game series. I will admit I am most well-versed in the Igavania platformer-RPGs, and not the old-school hard Classicvania games. Still, I've got Rondo of Blood and the original trilogy on my bucket list. Let alone 64 / Legacy of Darkness!

Top three games are probably in order: Portrait of Ruin, Curse of Darkness and Dawn of Sorrow. Honorary mentions to Aria of Sorrow and of course, Symphony of the Night. I've played Which brings me to this post.

For me it was a phenomenal discovery to then play RoB and the NES and SNES chapters, which in comparison seemed quite challenging and with very little margin for error... I mean, am I the only one who finds SotN far too easy? I had also replayed it with luck mode, but even then Alucard became hopelessly a power monster especially with the more powerful swords...

Yep, SotN seems kind of easy. I get they were experimenting with a new game system, and it'd make sense for Dracula's dhampir son to be seriously powerful. But yeah, the late game becomes a slog because the only way they could challenge you is to make the Inverted Castle unfair at times. In theory I should like an open-world scavenger hunt for Drac's body parts, in a map that works surprisingly well upside-down. In practice, I despise the Inverted Castle.

After a while, none of the Igavanias are quite challenging. Mostly. Circle of the Moon and Order of Ecclesia are still a challenge to me, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons at times?

If there is a concession for the Igavanias compared to Classicvanias though, it's the Belmont fights. They are agile and hard-hitting just like the player, and really sell the idea that the Belmonts are badass even compared to your main protagonists in those games.

Carrie Fernandez

Yes. Even though Reinhardt Schneider is more my speed. But have you considered:

Jonny Morris? Or even...

...Charlotte Aulin might be more your speed? And if you're ignoring how dirty he got done in the Netflix series, there's also...

...Hector. :)

 

[mini pancake]

I beated Aria 4 times, and i going to my fift. I beated orde some days ago, its one of my favs, and I'm playing portrait now, Charlotte is my passion lol

 

[NeonKnights]

What do you guys think about the PS3 games though? Personally I don't like them, they're not Castlevania anymore. Still though, IF they were given the proper Castlevania gameplay loop and kept the combat, polished it up a bit, they would've been great games in my opinion.

Didn't see this post. I haven't got around to most of the PS3 games as the only PS3 I have is a delicate backwards compatible model with the onboard Emotion Engine, and I only use it as a PS2. Though I have been playing Lords of Shadow on my Trinity 360. I was initially interested in this title because of the involvement of one Hideo Kojima. After playing it quite a bit and loving the narration by Patrick Stewart I have really been enjoying it. At first I was not liking the gameplay, this improved immensely however once I switched the difficulty to hard. It's not my favorite, yet it's Hands down my favorite Hideo Kojima related Castlevania.

Back from work and a nap. Now, I shall speak up.

Castlevania's one of my all-time favorite game series. I will admit I am most well-versed in the Igavania platformer-RPGs, and not the old-school hard Classicvania games. Still, I've got Rondo of Blood and the original trilogy on my bucket list. Let alone 64 / Legacy of Darkness!

Top three games are probably in order: Portrait of Ruin, Curse of Darkness and Dawn of Sorrow. Honorary mentions to Aria of Sorrow and of course, Symphony of the Night. I've played Which brings me to this post.


Yep, SotN seems kind of easy. I get they were experimenting with a new game system, and it'd make sense for Dracula's dhampir son to be seriously powerful. But yeah, the late game becomes a slog because the only way they could challenge you is to make the Inverted Castle unfair at times. In theory I should like an open-world scavenger hunt for Drac's body parts, in a map that works surprisingly well upside-down. In practice, I despise the Inverted Castle.

After a while, none of the Igavanias are quite challenging. Mostly. Circle of the Moon and Order of Ecclesia are still a challenge to me, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons at times?

If there is a concession for the Igavanias compared to Classicvanias though, it's the Belmont fights. They are agile and hard-hitting just like the player, and really sell the idea that the Belmonts are badass even compared to your main protagonists in those games.


Yes. Even though Reinhardt Schneider is more my speed. But have you considered:

View attachment 47506
Jonny Morris? Or even...

View attachment 47507
...Charlotte Aulin might be more your speed? And if you're ignoring how dirty he got done in the Netflix series, there's also...

View attachment 47510
...Hector. :)

I am more a fan of the Classicvania games and I find it odd that Symphony
repurposed elements of Simon's Quest such as finding the Dracula Relics.
I also am also not a fan of the inverted castle as on my first real playthrough in
2009 I beat the game without even knowing this was possible and got the bad/fake
ending. A few years later I was made aware of the inverted castle and was quite incensed.
The Richter boss fight is I have to say one of my favorites in the entire game and amazing.
I have many of these games on my DS Lite. I need get around to beating them sometime soon. Out of the DS Igavanias which should I play first? I must add as an aside that I felt lied to, and very nearly cheated out of an amazing game the first time I played/beat Castlevania 64, imho. There's one that didn't live up to the hate. Had I listened to popular opinion my life would be a poorer one.
"Let us go out this evening for pleasure. The night is still young."

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

Out of the DS Igavanias which should I play first?

I'd definitely recommend Dawn of Sorrow and/or Portrait of Ruin first.

Dawn can get a bit grindy at times when looking for monster soul drops, in order to create stronger weapons. That said, the various abilities from said souls are fun, so Gotta Catch 'Em All™. But Portrait is straight-forward with its progression, and you control both a vampire hunter and a witch and can swap between them. One can even have both characters fight at the same time, where your inactive partner will only make you lose MP on hit and not HP.

Plus, the big gimmick of Portrait of Ruin? While the game mainly takes place in Dracula's Castle, it's mostly a hub world of sorts. There are various different main stages within these pocket dimensions in magical paintings. I feel this keeps things fresh. Yes, even three of four "remix" versions of those stages before the finale are still fun.

Beware: Order of Ecclesia is not for Igavania novices. It's a challenging one, and actually fighting through Dracula's Castle later on felt like a slog to me. Healing items and equips aren't as powerful, the game relies on skill, and all of your attacks all use MP.

I must add as an aside that I felt lied to, and very nearly cheated out of an amazing game the first time I played/beat Castlevania 64, imho. There's one that didn't live up to the hate. Had I listened to popular opinion my life would be a poorer one.

Oh yes. The older I get, the more I find that people who bitch about games aren't the sages we once thought they were in the aughts. I'd rather just form my own opinions over the media I consume, not listen to some outrage peddlers who are probably full of shit.

"Let us go out this evening for pleasure. The night is still young."

A lovely and underrated quote from the most famous Castlevania. I adore it~

 

[NeonKnights]

Bravo.
Wow that was mind blowing. I had no idea Portrait of Ruin was like that.
This is a revelation. I long for such deep gameplay mechanics in this empty era.
That's one of the reasons I fell in love with Circle of the Moon's card system.
The hub world part is somewhat reminiscent of Lament of Innocence to me.
Another game in the series I find to be far too underappreciated and mysterious.
I'm going to give Portrait of Ruin a shot first as I have yet to complete Aria of Sorrow.
I played it but got stuck grinding Tsuchinoko souls, one of the most reticent monsters

in the game. I will make sure to try Order of Ecclesia after I beat Portrait.​

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

I know a lot of people love Circle of the Moon but it feels a little rushed to me. Like, some aspects of it feel like they needed more time to bake. I blame this on Konami wanting it out in time to be a GBA launch title.

 

[bigstinkie]

tomorrow we die but today we ramble to the annoyance of others
the original castlevania was one of the earlier video gamezors i ever played on my first console the nes - it is still my favourite castlevania due to how insanely sharp the game design is, no filler no phoned in concepts or half baked ideas, it is purely action from beginning to end with very crafty sub item designs to keep bosses from feeling insurmountable while keeping them challenging, really it is the perfect castlevania game to me
castlevania 2 its ok
castlevania 3 makes the women weep at midnight. very difficult but very fun really i should revisit this one more often
i haven't played rondo of blood and castlevania iv in over ten to fifteen years but i remember them being very good, really the same goes for symphony of the night i really should revisit these games
amusingly, the new castlevania games i have never played, the gba ones and so on (yes for the longest time i considered those the 'new' ones as i had never played them)
that ended a month or two ago when a friend give me the castlevania advance collection - wow what a surprise these games were very very good, far better than the castlevania experience on the original gameboy
circle of the moon has become a top five game for me in the entire series, with a strong difficulty and a very fresh and intriguing card mechanic layered atop the great castle layout, music and art, (nathan graves is our guy!!!!! the footie stadiums chant his name from the heavens!!!!)
harmony of dissonance was weaker in really all respects, with a chunk of the bosses being mindlessly easy and the visuals being a little brighter and less convincingly fun and gothic, but still a swell game
aria of sorrow is next and i look forward to playing it

 

[YoshifreakZX]

If I had to do a top 5 favorite Castlevania games that I have played and finished (so far), they'd be:
5. Super Castlevania IV
4. Rondo of Blood
3. Dawn of Sorrow
2. Symphony of the Night
1. Aria of Sorrow

 

[bigstinkie]

hmmmmm for me it would bezors
1. castlevania
2. symphony of the night
3. rondo of blood
4. circle of the moon
5. castlevania 3
but it feels a tad unfair for me to list them out like this - my memories of games like rondo of blood and symphony of the night are so far away, but even then it is impossible to forget moments like the werewolf howling so far in the distance against the moon before it mario 64 leaps from five counties away to your location in a heartbeat

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

My first interaction with the Castlevania series was Castlevania : The adventure for the gameboy and since then Castlevania hooked me .

Castlevania Chronicles was peak in its artstyle (classic and somehow arranged mode too) and the soundtrack in all its versions are just juicy soundtrack goodness .

About Castlevania 64 /Legacy of Darkness:

I think these games are the true concept to push castlevania into the third dimension even to this day .

Even the plans , cut-content and overall concept they got in mid-development are awesome and could push castlevania into new heights . While the N64 games play very well , its still needs some improvements and has still huge potential for sequels and evolving the concept much further to cement castlevania back to its heights .

The levels were not only astoundingly huge but had details , decorations and cool designs that exploration was always a treat .

I dont get why people want Souls-like gameplay in Castlevania when Castlevania 64 plays much smoother and refreshing by how fast and snappy the controls are (with few minor gripes) and combat doesnt end up into tedious Life-bar melting sessions .

Not every game should be a copy of Bloodbourne .

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Sadly no, though there are plenty of ways to play it on pc.
More a metroidvania fan than classicvania, but i wish they still made them.

If it doesn’t pop up in a collection, it’d be neat if it at least popped up on GOG

 

[ciro64]

My first interaction with the Castlevania series was Castlevania : The adventure for the gameboy and since then Castlevania hooked me .

Castlevania Chronicles was peak in its artstyle (classic and somehow arranged mode too) and the soundtrack in all its versions are just juicy soundtrack goodness .

About Castlevania 64 /Legacy of Darkness:

I think these games are the true concept to push castlevania into the third dimension even to this day .

Even the plans , cut-content and overall concept they got in mid-development are awesome and could push castlevania into new heights . While the N64 games play very well , its still needs some improvements and has still huge potential for sequels and evolving the concept much further to cement castlevania back to its heights .

The levels were not only astoundingly huge but had details , decorations and cool designs that exploration was always a treat .

I dont get why people want Souls-like gameplay in Castlevania when Castlevania 64 plays much smoother and refreshing by how fast and snappy the controls are (with few minor gripes) and combat doesnt end up into tedious Life-bar melting sessions .

Not every game should be a copy of Bloodbourne .

I love you

 

[bigstinkie]

can a viewtiful castlevania 64 lover tell me the name of the song that plays after cornell is captured by that wild looking man or is in jail while the wild looking man admits to serving dracula the level theme after that part
i apologize for my monstrously hazy maze memory

 

[ciro64]

can a viewtiful castlevania 64 lover tell me the name of the song that plays after cornell is captured by that wild looking man or is in jail while the wild looking man admits to serving dracula the level theme after that part
i apologize for my monstrously hazy maze memory

Sorry, all my 18 playthroughs were with Carrie

I'm skimming through Cornell's longplay, is it one of those two scenes by any chance? (same video but different timestamps)

 

[bigstinkie]

Sorry, all my 18 playthroughs were with Carrie

I'm skimming through Cornell's longplay, is it one of those two scenes by any chance? (same video but different timestamps)

no it was neither of them but thank you for taking the time to look
let me scroll through a longplay as well i probably should have done that earlier good idea
wow i kid you not the first video i clicked on the first random point in the video i clicked i found it, it is this song i cannot find the title of it in spite of going through a few youtube ost playlists for the game the other night

 

[ciro64]

no it was neither of them but thank you for taking the time to look
let me scroll through a longplay as well i probably should have done that earlier good idea
wow i kid you not the first video i clicked on the first random point in the video i clicked i found it, it is this song i cannot find the title of it in spite of going through a few youtube ost playlists for the game the other night

Is it this one?

 

[bigstinkie]

Is it this one?

ah that is it
i feel silly now for somehow missing it
a bit of a storytime for it - i have never played the castlevania 64 titles, but the part at 0:32 is in my mind sweetly as a memory, i remember watching a friend of mine play the game and falling asleep while that melody was playing
that melody, the sound of it, the soundfont, it reminds me so much of king's field iv
i really should give the nintendo 64 castlevania games a spin, they seem beautiful in their own ways