Castlevania Megathread

[DanCalibur]

I must be the only one that likes Dracula X, it was my first contact with castlevania in the 90's. I've finally beaten it in the Advance Collection, twice for both endings.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

It’s kind of amazing how Konami went 10/10 with Castlevania on three different consoles in the same generation.

The fact Konami managed to master three separate hardware still surprises me.

Treasure were beasts on the Genesis but only on it before getting more diversified in the 32-bits era.

I'm surprised how Rondo of Blood could have passed as an early Genesis or SNES title and how Bloodlines managed to look impressive to the point of not shying out from the then more powerful SNES.

 

[Turbo Kid]

The fact Konami managed to master three separate hardware still surprises me.

Treasure were beasts on the Genesis but only on it before getting more diversified in the 32-bits era.

I'm surprised how Rondo of Blood could have passed as an early Genesis or SNES title and how Bloodlines managed to look impressive to the point of not shying out from the then more powerful SNES.

90s Konami was...

Even Capcom wasn't in their league back then and let's not forget that Treasure was born out of Konami.

 

[bjork]

Even Capcom wasn't in their league back then

whoa there

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

whoa there

I think we can agree that Namco, Capcom and Konami were the holy trinity of third party devs for action games.

 

[Isegrim]

Super Castlevania 4 is my favorite for 16 bit mainly because of the OST. It nails the whole Vampire Hunter on a lonely and dark quest to nail Dracula aestethic perfectly. It had a classical music vibe, the way I like it best and I really like almost all the songs in the game. (The library song is the only one I didn't like)

I'd score Rondo higher but it always irritated me that you can't save everyone in one go for the best outcome. In that respect, Dracula X for the SNES satisfied that need. Also, I might have been irritated with Symphony of the Night's intro if I didn't play Dracula X beforehand since it was the only game I could access at that time that referred to Richter's victory so there's that for nostalgia.

I always thought Bloodlines was neat in the sense that it tried to tie Bram Stoker's novel with the franchise...at least before it was retconned.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

My gripe about Super IV is that while the game is a great extended remake of NES Castlevania I didn't really like its overreliance on gimmicks like the rings to balance Simon, the Mode 7 (yes, it was the big gimmick of the SNES but to the cost of blurry sprites and black backgrounds for some bosses) and maybe because the art style is a bit too brown/dulled out compared to the colours that even the NES games had (yes, while it's semi horror I still think Castlevania should have many contrasting colours while keeping its gothic ambience)

Look at how magnificent this looks:

The colours are popping so much and I really like the blueish cross.


While it's subjective the OST is perhaps a bit too "experimental" which sounds a bit "un-Castlevania" to me. Yes, Rondo also had some weird ones in its soundtrack but it was because of Redbook Japanese techno from the late 80's - early 90's kicking in (like in Opus 13 or Cross a Fear).

I would've killed for a second original Castlevania on the SNES that would've pushed its capacities to its limits instead of that gosh darned Vampire's Kiss that felt like a regression from IV and a dullified port of Rondo despite that it was on a more powerful hardware.

 

[Turbo Kid]

I think we can agree that Namco, Capcom and Konami were the holy trinity of third party devs for action games.

Capcom was great in the 16-bit era, but too many iterative releases back then like fifty thousand versions of Street Fighter. They also weren't as prolific on both 16-bit consoles (three if we include the Turbo with Rondo) as Konami was.

Also, Konami went above and beyond with arcade/console ports. Capcom's ports were lazy i.e. Final Fight. Compare that to something like TMNT IV on the SNES

Konami was just more creative too with the design of a lot of their games. Like I can't imagine Capcom back then coming up with the SNES version of The Adventures of Batman and Robin and all the different gameplay styles it was juggling along with that amazing art style. Or coming up with something like Rocket Knight Adventures

Capcom even got showed up a bit by Sega, with the Streets of Rage series regularly outshining Final Fight.

Capcom was no 2, Konami was number 1 back then

 

[bjork]

Capcom even got showed up a bit by Sega, with the Streets of Rage series regularly outshining Final Fight.

Streets of Rage 2 was the only good one, though. Final Fight had one bad port to SNES because the hardware wasn't there, hardly Capcom's fault at the time.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Streets of Rage 2 was the only good one, though. Final Fight had one bad port to SNES because the hardware wasn't there, hardly Capcom's fault at the time.

Bare Knuckle III was great and the best one in every way but the music. Streets of Rage was pretty basic but gave players what Final Fight didn't, and with a far better soundtrack. Plus cop cars with explosive fire arms.

 

[bjork]

Bare Knuckle III was great and the best one in every way but the music. Streets of Rage was pretty basic but gave players what Final Fight didn't, and with a far better soundtrack. Plus cop cars with explosive fire arms.

Streets of Rage 1 runs so choppy that it's distracting and it feels like a little kid trying to emulate their cooler, older brother. Have not and will never get the love people have for it. SoR 3 somehow makes it feel less satisfying to hit things and it's ugly compared to 2.

Also keep in mind, without Capcom's supposedly lackluster game to ape, you would've never had SoR to begin with. Sega was content churning out sludge like Alien Storm and Greendog. I love Sega, but let's be real here.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Streets of Rage 2 was the only good one, though. Final Fight had one bad port to SNES because the hardware wasn't there, hardly Capcom's fault at the time.

Don't tell us that the first game was not good.

What about 4 then?

Bare Knuckle III was great and the best one in every way but the music. Streets of Rage was pretty basic but gave players what Final Fight didn't, and with a far better soundtrack. Plus cop cars with explosive fire arms.

I don't want to digress too much but Bare Knuckles III is indeed making it much better and showing its potential compared to the botched western release of the game. I'd also argue that Story of Thor is a decent answer to Zelda as well.

I think Final Fight 1 is good on its own but suffers from being really hard since it's an arcade game whereas Bare Knuckles/Streets of Rage was more "console-like" and more forgiving.

 

[bjork]

Don't tell us that the first game was not good.

The first game was not good. It feels like an incomplete proof of concept.

SoR4 is an entirely different thing since Sega didn't even do it and came decades later.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Streets of Rage plays exactly like Final Fight. It even has an infinite just like Cody's infinite punch. SOR instead has an infinite grab attack

SOR 3 was butchered through localization, the original is far better than Final Fight 3. And I don't care who did it first, I care who did it better, and that the SOR series.

That's me being real.

 

[bjork]

Streets of Rage plays exactly like Final Fight. It even has an infinite just like Cody's infinite punch. SOR instead has an infinite grab attack

SOR 3 was butchered through localization, the original is far better than Final Fight 3. And I don't care who did it first, I care who did it better, and that the SOR series.

That's me being real.

We can agree to disagree, I guess. They're both games I wouldn't even pick up and play at this point.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The first game was not good.

Let's not delve too much into the digression.

 

[bjork]

Let's not delve too much into the digression.

I forgot I wasn't allowed to have an opinion, apologies.

 

[Turbo Kid]

I'm not trying to argue. Opinions are opinions, but SOR had some other cool things over Final Fight. The vault over move, the cool ability to land on your feet when someone threw you, the black pepper weapon, it was more than the sum of its parts. Also, Sega had a way of always making their games cooler than the competition. That's subjective of course, but Sonic felt cooler than Mario and SOR felt cooler than Final Fight.

 

[bjork]

I'm not trying to argue. Opinions are opinions, but SOR had some other cool things over Final Fight. The vault over move, the cool ability to land on your feet when someone threw you, the black pepper weapon, it was more than the sum of its parts. Also, Sega had a way of always making their games cooler than the competition. That's subjective of course, but Sonic felt cooler than Mario and SOR felt cooler than Final Fight.

ok

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I forgot I wasn't allowed to have an opinion, apologies.

I haven't said that, the topic is about Castlevania on the 16-bits consoles.

You can still have your opinion but the thread is currently derailing in beat'em ups.

As for Castlevania I think that Symphony of the Night shouldn't have stopped classicvania games from existing, we got around 3 episodes like that but nothing else.

 

[bjork]

I haven't said that, the topic is about Castlevania on the 16-bits consoles.

You can still have your opinion but the thread is currently derailing in beat'em ups.

As for Castlevania I think that Symphony of the Night shouldn't have stopped classicvania games from existing, we got around 3 episodes like that but nothing else.

It's fun to participate in a thing and then play cop about it later.

Anyway, there's a place for both types if they wanted to do them. That 2D Castlevania on the Wii was level based and it was quite good.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

It's fun to participate in a thing and then play cop about it later.

I'm not playing cop I'm just politely asking to get back on tracks. I won't delve further into that conversation thanks.

Anyway, there's a place for both types if they wanted to do them. That 2D Castlevania on the Wii was level based and it was quite good.

It was a good remake indeed.

I am almost surprised Konami hasn't decided to make the Metroidvanias the home console games like seeing a spiritual successor to SotN on the PS2 and the handheld keeping the classic side of things.

Are the 3D, post-64 entries good anyway?

Is Mirror of Fate on the 3DS a classicvania?

 

[bjork]

Are the 3D, post-64 entries good anyway?

I heard good things about the 360/PS3 era ones but haven't played them myself. Watching some footage, it's one of those things where you have to go in knowing it's a reimagined take on an established franchise, but it didn't look awful.

I did play the first PS2 one and thought the samey room designs kind of made it feel a bit bland, but then a friend managed to softlock his progress somehow, so I stopped too and never got back to it.

 

[ONecessario]

Nah.. I have to apologize for having ignored this game, since it was also released on a 16-bit platform.

I have just beaten this masterpiece. I don’t know if I’m suffering from recency bias, but this might now be my favorite classicvania.

 

[throughdarkness]

Nah.. I have to apologize for having ignored this game, since it was also released on a 16-bit platform.

I have just beaten this masterpiece. I don’t know if I’m suffering from recency bias, but this might now be my favorite classicvania.

I was just playing this last night on the MiSTer X68000 core. Actually bought an mt-32 pi hat just to get that epic soundtrack for this one game lol.

My first experience with this one was on the Chronicles release. Back then I was coming off the high of SotN so was disappointed in it. Not to mention it beat my ass harder than I could have imagined possible. But after having played the original release with the mt-32, I can say that I was foolish back then and this one should sit at the table with Rondo, IV, and Bloodlines. Now if only I could beat it.

Post automatically merged: Sep 29, 2025

I heard good things about the 360/PS3 era ones but haven't played them myself. Watching some footage, it's one of those things where you have to go in knowing it's a reimagined take on an established franchise, but it didn't look awful.

I did play the first PS2 one and thought the samey room designs kind of made it feel a bit bland, but then a friend managed to softlock his progress somehow, so I stopped too and never got back to it.

Man, I felt exactly the same way about Curse of Darkness on PS2 back when it released but went back and played it a couple years ago all the way through and have repented. It's held up super well imo. Very tight, fun gameplay. Still a bit bland environments but it's the best 3D CV has been and probably will ever be.

The modern games are alright but mostly because I thought the art design and music was good. It felt like the environmental moodiness of Super Castlevania IV, translated to 3D. Gameplay is not sufficiently CV though.