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Post by DarkPrinceAlucard on Apr 18, 2021 0:19:38 GMT
I honestly don't have any CV games I outright hated, I do have some that are towards the bottom of my personal preference.
Here is my list for my favorite to least favorite Castlevania games,
1. Castlevania Symphony of the Night 2. Super Castlevania 4 3. Castlevania Rondo of Blood 4. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow 5. Castlevania Aria of Sorrow 6. Castlevania Lament of Innocence 7. Castlevania Order of Ecclesia 8. Castlevania Portrait of Ruin 9. Castlevania Circle of the Moon 10. Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance 11. Castlevania 3 Dracula's Curse 12. Castlevania 13. Castlevania Curse of Darkness 15. Castlevania Bloodlines 16. Castlevania Legacy of Darkness 17. Castlevania Adventure Rebirth 18. Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles 19. Castlevania Dracula X 20. Castlevania Legends 21. Castlevania Mirror of Fate 22. Castlevania Lords of Shadow 23. Castlevania Harmony of Despair 24. Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 25. Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest 26. Castlevania Judgement
I know there may be some missing but those would simply be the ones I never played.
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Post by DarkAidan95 on Apr 18, 2021 3:42:57 GMT
a simple thread to get to know each other better and discuss our tastes on: Castlevania! Here we will discuss our favorite CVs, non-favorite CVs and much more. Mine will be a good example: Mine: Favorite ClassicVania: Rondo of Blood, BloodLines, CV 1, CV 3 (Japan) Castlevania Legends. Favorite MetroidVania: Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow (Julius Mode). Favorite 3DVania: Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness (Trevor Mode), Legacy of Darkness (Reinhardt Mode), Lords of Shadow 1. Least Favorite ClassicVania: Super Castlevania 4. Least Favorite MetroidVania: Dawn of Sorrow, Harmony of Dissonance. Least Favorite 3DVania: Legacy of Darkness, Curse of Darkness. Best ClassicVania: Rondo of Blood. Best MetroidVania: Order of Ecclesia, SOTN. Best 3DVania: Lament of Innocence. Worst ClassicVania: Simon's Quest. Worst MetroidVania: Circle of the Moon. Worst 3DVania: CV64, Mirror of Fate (it's 2D but whatever). BEST OF ALL: ORDER OF ECCLESIA. WORST OF ALL: CV JUDGMENT. AND WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CV? Favorite Classic-Vania: Bloodlines.
Favorite Metroid-Vania: Portrait of Ruin, though Symphony of the Night is a close second, followed by Order of Ecclesia. Favorite 3D-Vania: Lament of Innocence. (Disclaimer: only personally played Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness) Least Favorite Classic-Vania: Dracula X
Least Favorite Metroid-Vania: Harmony of Dissonance (though I do have something of a soft spot for the Revenge of the Findesicle romhack...) Least Favorite 3D-Vania: Curse of Darkness (Disclaimer: again, only personally played Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. Nothing against the latter personally: just can't really give my own opinion on the rest of the existing 3D-Vania's without having played them) Best Classic-Vania: Rondo of Blood (Easily the pinnacle of Classic-Vania action if you ask me)
Best Metroid-Vania: Symphony of the Night (It's the first of what would be the modern Metroid-Vania types, and it clearly shows, but be honest, what would the rest of the Metroid-Vania titles have been if not for this one?) Best 3D-Vania: Lament of Innocence (The game may have its share of issues, but I think this is the game with the least of them in the 3D-Vania side of things) Worst Classic-Vania: Dracula X (Okay, so trying to fit Rondo of Blood onto an SNES cartridge would have been impossible. Fair point. But that... sorry, but no. At least Dracula's Curse had a partner mechanic and much better alternate paths, as archaic as those deals may have been) Worst Metroid-Vania: Harmony of Dissonance (The game has a few genuine merits, to be fair. I like Juste as a character, and there are a few pieces of the OST I like. But outside of that... eh... can't really say I feel a lot of replay value with this one, at least while remaining within the bounds of vanilla) Worst 3D-Vania: 64 (Even without having played this, I already know from popular opinion that this one isn't rated highly. But I do applaud it for the OST, so there is that...) BEST OF ALL!: Symphony of the Night (I ask again: what would the rest of the Metroid-Vania titles have been if not for this one?) WORST OF ALL!: Judgment (All I can really ask is... what was Konami thinking?)
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Post by ACE on Apr 20, 2021 0:17:54 GMT
For me, Jonathan Morris is the best character in the franchise along with Charlotte, in the other games the player is a Belmont, religious warriors with sacred powers and a magic whip that thanks to trevor in 1476 are now adored and revered by everyone, ( At DraculaXChronicles, women think Richter is the incarnation of God for F ** ks sake!) Until SOTN arrives, where you play with Dracula's frickin son! that's awesome, and after that, you play with the reincarnation of DRACULA HIMSELF! Jonathan on the other hand, is the next heir to the Vampire Killer and to kill Dracula, but he doesn't want that, he is being forced to fulfill the destiny of his family, which was left to them because the Belmonts gave up, I know the prophecy and that the Belmonts could not touch the whip until 1999, but in addition Richter felt that he disgraced the legacy of the Belmonts by becoming the lord of the castle at Symphony of the Night, and passed the whip to the Morris, We ended up seeing the burden that the Belmonts there is for those close to them, the Belmonts are not perfect as we thought, he also has his problems with his father but that throughout the game he discovers the truth and forgives his father, when he yells at the charlotte when she mentions John he at the same moment he apologizes and admits the mistake, and besides all this he likes to face things with a smile and always saying his catchphrase: No problem! All his special attacks are in conjunction with his partner and best friend Charlotte, if this is not real teamwork and friendship I don't know what it is. At the end of the game he accepts his fate and is ready to move the Vampire Killer to a new Belmont in 1999, in addition he managed to DEFEAT RICHTER without having to be a sacred magical warrior or a vampire, and he was the most powerful Belmont at the time! He could defeat BOTH RICHTER AND DRACULA ( and Dracula was with Death! ), there is a widely accepted theory that it was he who passed the whip to our beloved Julius Belmont and that Charlotte helped the Hakuba and Belnades to seal Dracula once and for all, he is the most human character in the franchise and deserved more respect.
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Post by Mindslash on Apr 20, 2021 13:22:20 GMT
My favorite and my first one was Sotn. I've beat it so many times that I lost the count (over 50 for sure) , to a point that I started seeking in-game challenges , mods and Gameshark codes to make the game harder and more enjoyable.
I've enjoyed most of the castlevanias ,but if would point the top ones that I actually replayed, are :
- Order of Ecclesia .For me , closest to take Sotn spot due to balanced difficulty, native level 1 run and reuse of all systems and extras I consider good at castlevania , plus the use of non- castle areas .
- Aria / Down of Sorrow . A staple for any castlevania fan . the only downside for me was the shift to anime-look of characters / cutscenes .
- Circle of the Moon. Surprisingly difficulty , this game was one of the games I was interested to hack /mod , but I was unable to do it and gave up. the downside is the lottery that is getting those DSS cards,cryptic descritpion of what each combo does. but I loved the system anyway ( black dog + mars for OP slow gun) . It was fun one and paved the way for souls /book & spell combination / gliph system
- Super Castlevania 4. Boy... I only played this at 2020 , but I could see why it was so acclaimed. That game is truly a gem ! My only complaint was final boss fight , but the creativity of scenarios / sounds are the best of all classicvanias!
-Rondo of Blood. It was my top classicvania before playing Super Castlevania 4. Prequel of Sotn ? Checked. Has Richter on it ? checked. Awesome sounds and stages . checked! the downside for me was that maria made the game a bit sassy and cheesy , but I got a like for it
-Curse of Darkness : Castlevania pokemon. Liked the innocent devils skills, forging weapons , challenge towers, hard mode . However, innocent devil /rare item farming was annoying if you wanted an specific ID with specific stats
There are others that I did liked as well, but not so much about those above:
--Lament of Innocence : Nice game overall. Played for the plot, gameplay was kinda acceptable ,but scenario was boring and repetitive . Active Item system was a nice attempt to put player at leon's boots , but I would love if it was optional (or locked for an specific difficult ) . Also, so much backtracking ! Optional boss fight was nice tho...
- CV64/LoD: Unique atmosphere completely different from any other CV . I feels like I was playing a Resident Evil . It would love a remake or remaster of this game. However there are some flaws like the graphics did not well, camera , explosive part sucked a lot (although it was more like a puzzle) , awkward jumping through plataforms . I would play it again if mods were released to improve visuals/gameplay elements
- Portrait of ruin : not a bad game, but I didn't hit me like my top list. I liked the attempt to put 2 character and divide responsibilities (like that viking game from NES /PS1) . also cool double inventory system. One of the best final fight of series . However I didn't liked Jonathan as protagonist. Also some of the subs were pretty silly . that being said, still a pretty good game
- Original CV1 : Disliked it, but It did grow fond on me. It took a long time for me to beat it (and I was able to beat the 2nd round at the same sitting!) . Although some says to git gud , that Dracula thing to teleport on top of you was one of the most annoying things on the game. Also stage 4 was annoying as well
Now , at bottom of the list : - Castlevania mirror of fate : played and 100% it, but I dont desire to play if anymore. As part of shadows timeline , already starts with a negative point for me . the 2.5d style didnt appealed for me .
-Lords of Shadows 1: Used to hate it, but for me now its an ok game(never replayed it though) . Art /sounds/ gameplay are beautiful . book art and animations were done really well . The story is good , but since conflicts with Lament of Innocence , I've disliked it (since I consider LoI the true cannon of the game) . For someone that never played other castlevania it will find it thats a pretty nice twist at the end
- Harmony of dissonce .Too colorful in contrast with the story , one of the worst final boss designs of all cvs and it looked like a romhack game instead of official one (front dash and inspiration from DSS to book /whip combination was still nice tho ).
- Vampire Killer ( alternate Castlevania 1 for MSX) : I was able to beat it , but it was damn hard! A game without continues and only 3 lives, cryptic merchants , ancient key/map system , it was even harder than original CV !
- Castlevania 2 (without guides): cryptic npc messages that caused more harm than good . getting stuck because there no clear points on where to go was annoying too. With a guide is a bit enjoyable. Nice options for sequence breaking, possible to skip bosses , powerups, etc
-Castlevania 3 : It was more a thing of Git Gud than the game being bad by itself. I believe CV3 is a nice classicvania , but final boss was so unfair that I've dropped the game at it . I may revisit in future , but its still one of cvs that I didnt beat it yet.
- Lords of Shadows 2 : Stupid stealth parts, bland story, worst ending on the series. The only thing good was the bit of improvement at gameplay and the DLC (playing as alucard).
- Castlevania Judgement : insert meme *we don't talk about it here* . Joking aside, good points of the game were the attempt to make a fighting spin off game , the music (best versions of some themes of CV ) . The downside... I believe is the same of everyone : butchered visual designs, bland moves and story , cartoony characters ,grindy if you wish to unlock true final . etc . If you want a castlevania fight game, do a favor a go play castlevania fighter mugen and be happy with it...
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Post by ACE on Apr 20, 2021 18:31:00 GMT
How did you guys get to know Castlevania? I'll tell you mine: that was in 2018, and I saw that Castlevania 1 from NES was one of the best games in the system, curious and wanting to know Nes games, I played CV1 but I didn't get very far, and after a few days I stopped playing, until something else caught my attention, the MetroidVania genre was expanding a lot on Steam and everywhere I saw it talked about metroidvanias and as it was an evolution of 2D platform games, I decided I wanted to know the genre and wanted to start from I started, and I saw that the term MetroidVania came up because of Super Metroid and SOTN, Super Metroid didn't seem interesting to me and I had already played Metroid Fusion. I fell in love with the game, and after finishing it I discovered the other metroidvanias within the castlevania franchise and finally finished both CV1 and Rondo of Blood, then the fantastic Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, after that I played almost all s the games in the franchise and watched the Netflix series.
What's your story with Castlevania?
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Post by kainreaver on Apr 20, 2021 19:18:10 GMT
How did you guys get to know Castlevania? I'll tell you mine: that was in 2018, and I saw that Castlevania 1 from NES was one of the best games in the system, curious and wanting to know Nes games, I played CV1 but I didn't get very far, and after a few days I stopped playing, until something else caught my attention, the MetroidVania genre was expanding a lot on Steam and everywhere I saw it talked about metroidvanias and as it was an evolution of 2D platform games, I decided I wanted to know the genre and wanted to start from I started, and I saw that the term MetroidVania came up because of Super Metroid and SOTN, Super Metroid didn't seem interesting to me and I had already played Metroid Fusion. I fell in love with the game, and after finishing it I discovered the other metroidvanias within the castlevania franchise and finally finished both CV1 and Rondo of Blood, then the fantastic Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, after that I played almost all s the games in the franchise and watched the Netflix series. What's your story with Castlevania? Was on holiday, visiting family in Newcastle with my Mum and Dad. Had Birthday money to spend, saw a game called Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows. "I have read about this (in a magazine), it's Metroid Fusion with swords, I love Metroid Fusion". 16 years (f##k I'm old) and countless playthoughs later just finished another playthough of Dawn of Sorrows (Dissonance) and own/played the majority of the rest of the series.
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Post by DarkAidan95 on Apr 20, 2021 20:00:53 GMT
How did you guys get to know Castlevania? I'll tell you mine: that was in 2018, and I saw that Castlevania 1 from NES was one of the best games in the system, curious and wanting to know Nes games, I played CV1 but I didn't get very far, and after a few days I stopped playing, until something else caught my attention, the MetroidVania genre was expanding a lot on Steam and everywhere I saw it talked about metroidvanias and as it was an evolution of 2D platform games, I decided I wanted to know the genre and wanted to start from I started, and I saw that the term MetroidVania came up because of Super Metroid and SOTN, Super Metroid didn't seem interesting to me and I had already played Metroid Fusion. I fell in love with the game, and after finishing it I discovered the other metroidvanias within the castlevania franchise and finally finished both CV1 and Rondo of Blood, then the fantastic Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, after that I played almost all s the games in the franchise and watched the Netflix series. What's your story with Castlevania? My first experience with Castlevania was way back in... around 2007-ish? We had moved into a shared household with a couple of my mom's friends. Everyone was a very-avid gamer all around, and occasionally, there would be a tabletop session going on, usually of the Dungeons & Dragons variety. I was just a young teenager at the time, and back then I wasn't heavily into tabletop stuff. But one of my mom's friends who had been living with us back then didn't have any issue with letting me borrow his Nintendo DS and one game. The game lucky enough to be picked? Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. From there on, my status as a Castlevania fan eventually cemented itself.
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Post by xavierbelmont on Apr 20, 2021 21:26:41 GMT
So to be honest I love Castlevania symphony of the night but I got bored of playing it over and over and over again and so to be honest my favorite Castlevania it actually not one made by Konami actually it's made by someone here on the forum and that being dark prince alucard his Castlevania dawn of symphony is my favorite Castlevania game I have probably played that game way more times then Castlevania symphony of the night and I've played Castlevania symphony of the night quite a bit and don't get me wrong it's an amazing game but when you look at it and then compare it to Castlevania dawn of symphony Castlevania dawn of symphony actually has a bigger storyline because it has more dialogue than Castlevania symphony of the night which I absolutely love I've always loved playing Castlevania Dawn of symphony and then going back and playing it over and over again and reading the story every time although I love Castlevania symphony of the night and the dialogue and story was good some of the voice actors and I'm excluding Robert Belgrade here can be really cheesy when they spoke their lines in that game and so you can't really take them seriously it can make me want to laugh sometimes
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Post by ACE on Apr 21, 2021 1:09:36 GMT
How did you guys get to know Castlevania? I'll tell you mine: that was in 2018, and I saw that Castlevania 1 from NES was one of the best games in the system, curious and wanting to know Nes games, I played CV1 but I didn't get very far, and after a few days I stopped playing, until something else caught my attention, the MetroidVania genre was expanding a lot on Steam and everywhere I saw it talked about metroidvanias and as it was an evolution of 2D platform games, I decided I wanted to know the genre and wanted to start from I started, and I saw that the term MetroidVania came up because of Super Metroid and SOTN, Super Metroid didn't seem interesting to me and I had already played Metroid Fusion. I fell in love with the game, and after finishing it I discovered the other metroidvanias within the castlevania franchise and finally finished both CV1 and Rondo of Blood, then the fantastic Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, after that I played almost all s the games in the franchise and watched the Netflix series. What's your story with Castlevania? Was on holiday, visiting family in Newcastle with my Mum and Dad. Had Birthday money to spend, saw a game called Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows. "I have read about this (in a magazine), it's Metroid Fusion with swords, I love Metroid Fusion". 16 years (f##k I'm old) and countless playthoughs later just finished another playthough of Dawn of Sorrows (Dissonance) and own/played the majority of the rest of the series. Kainreaver at 16 years old: "I have read about this (in a magazine), it's Metroid Fusion with swords, I love Metroid Fusion" I have that same mentality bro! i think it makes sense since im 18 years old haha! and I still have a job (F ** k!)
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Post by xavierbelmont on Apr 23, 2021 1:38:30 GMT
Was on holiday, visiting family in Newcastle with my Mum and Dad. Had Birthday money to spend, saw a game called Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows. "I have read about this (in a magazine), it's Metroid Fusion with swords, I love Metroid Fusion". 16 years (f##k I'm old) and countless playthoughs later just finished another playthough of Dawn of Sorrows (Dissonance) and own/played the majority of the rest of the series. Kainreaver at 16 years old: "I have read about this (in a magazine), it's Metroid Fusion with swords, I love Metroid Fusion" I have that same mentality bro! i think it makes sense since im 18 years old haha! and I still have a job (F ** k!) Oof
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Post by Locusbelmont on Apr 23, 2021 3:11:59 GMT
How did you guys get to know Castlevania? I'll tell you mine: that was in 2018, and I saw that Castlevania 1 from NES was one of the best games in the system, curious and wanting to know Nes games, I played CV1 but I didn't get very far, and after a few days I stopped playing, until something else caught my attention, the MetroidVania genre was expanding a lot on Steam and everywhere I saw it talked about metroidvanias and as it was an evolution of 2D platform games, I decided I wanted to know the genre and wanted to start from I started, and I saw that the term MetroidVania came up because of Super Metroid and SOTN, Super Metroid didn't seem interesting to me and I had already played Metroid Fusion. I fell in love with the game, and after finishing it I discovered the other metroidvanias within the castlevania franchise and finally finished both CV1 and Rondo of Blood, then the fantastic Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, after that I played almost all s the games in the franchise and watched the Netflix series. What's your story with Castlevania? Well I was really young, 11 years old. And one summer my family move to the capital. In my new home I found a CD with 3GB of GBA and DS roms and an emulator for both systems. That was my first time playing GBA or DS games btw. those was really fun nights searching among that shit ton of games finding for first time jewels like kirby, megaman zero or even pokemon ;-;. Then I find DoS and PoR rooms, games with stunning graphics and a terrific music. Was the first time I see that variety in a game and was like wtf my character display this new weapon I just found and is not like all those other platformers I've play. And I remember how I was in love with the lost town and his BG music and was like living that adventure. And once I discover the cheat codes to change the characters... I recognize julius and Yoko for the main game but Alucard? That guy for me was some kind of phantom hidden character cameo from some old castlevania game that I won't know. Like a left over character. Actually the first time I see IT Ive think that was the guy from the GBA game (juste). All of that was in 2009 btw
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Post by I am Me on Apr 24, 2021 11:07:10 GMT
Favorite ClassicVania: Dracula X Chronicles (an example of how old titles should be remade), also would mention CV4 - simple game for single run with 0 replay value, but gameplay there is just great (would love it to get DXC style remake).
Favorite MetroidVania: SOTN PSP (JP audio, Maria & additional costume for Richter, nothing else matters), Ecclesia (Albus rocks, one of the best characters in series).
Favorite 3DVania: Judgment - play as properly controllable Dracula/Death against a Belmont? Hell yes! I always wanted to know how it feels.
Least Favorite ClassicVania: Dracula X (SNES) - a version with less amount of playable content have no reason to exist.
Least Favorite MetroidVania: Circle of the Moon - rule of the two playable characters was broken, which killed all hope for this game, only mods can save this one.
Least Favorite 3DVania: Lords of Shadow.
Best ClassicVania: Dracula X Chronicles - challenging but accessible, old style but with good replay value, short but gives a reason to back for more.
Best MetroidVania: SOTN - huge castle to explore, several characters to play as, many weapons to use, simple yet catching story, a worthy protagonist, various endings. Rare modern game can offer this much.
Best 3DVania: none, they all differ from each other & I would not mention any single title here. Better try & see.
Worst ClassicVania: none, they all similar & if player is unable to past a first stage... a shame, but better play something else.
Worst MetroidVania: Circle of the Moon - a game where player character does not even have an evasive skill...
Worst 3DVania: Lords of Shadow.
BEST OF ALL: SOTN - a point from where CV series truly started, is it even a question?
WORST OF ALL: Lords of Shadow - instead of getting new & fresh stuff, CV series was distorted & butchered, after LOS Judgment feels like one of the best CV games ever made.
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Post by ACE on May 16, 2021 15:38:44 GMT
What do you guys think of Soma Cruz?
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Post by StarWyvern on May 16, 2021 15:48:24 GMT
What do you guys think of Soma Cruz? Personally I always liked Soma. The mere idea of a new hero that wasn't a Belmont, or Alucard, has always intrigued me. While I love Alucard, and the Belmonts, I like seeing them make appearances as helpers to the new hunters. I mean, they did have more than enough of their own time to be protags. lol. The fact that Soma became Drac was a great twist IMO. This pic is nice. It really illustrates the two powers at war within him. His own original power, and that of Vlad the Impaler.
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Post by kainreaver on May 16, 2021 16:10:40 GMT
What do you guys think of Soma Cruz? Dawn of Sorrows was my first Castlevania game and I originally loved Soma, him being the reincarnation of Drac and having the power of dominance was awesome. Now however while I still love the concept of Soma (Drac reincarnation/Dominance) I don't like him as a character. He is a generic anime highschool protagonist and not a very good one imo.
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