Castlevania series

[Queen]

I'm a big fan of the Castlevania series, so I'd was wondering what other people thought of it.


I understand that they have about as many games in the series as Final Fantasy, but what sets it apart is the fact that the games are tied together by more than just a title.(Which is a must in my book.)

I also like the fact that in some of the games, you can actually use more than one weapon which let's you set a preference as to what weapon you are most comfortable with using. Magic is also fun to use.

The bosses are pretty artful once you get to Symphony of the Night. They actually look cool as opposed to the earlier eight bit models(I won't rant on those. Those are classic.) Strategy also starts to play a key with some of the enemies too. Lament of Innocence is a good example of use of strategy.

Gameplay also has improved as the series progressed. I played Castlevania 1 and died many times whereas Symphony of the Night, I had a fighting chance. There's also a gameplay difference between the 3d games. Lament of Innocence was way more enjoyable, to me, than Castlevania 64(original huh?). Jumping was definitely less of a pain.

Storyline could use a bit of an original touch, but I guess one can't have everything.

So, what is everyone else's take on the games?
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[kuwaizair]

I only can recall playing the orginal NES ones, mind you I was possibly 10 or 8 at the time, and I found them very hard. I liked breaking Laurals. I hated the castle with the invisable platforms that You had to climb up. and the timer...the one where the'rd be creapy "you are almost out of time music" yes the orginals were a pain. I recall going to one end of the world, it was stoney...i forget what was there, but I'm always thankfull for daylight.

that is either Simon's Quest or the first. I may of played the 3rd somhow. I don't recall.
I played a lot of weird games in my youth. the worst was Monster Party (i found it again as a ROM, it had to of been the game because I fought a monster who turns into shrimp tempoura) if you want a scarry game...play that.

anway I've seen one PS Castlevaynia game being played. looked cool, but it seemed to have some problems with movement.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Mad Mage]

I'm a huge fan of the series. My favorites are the SotN style games, but I love the gameplay in general and had much fun playing Rondo of Blood and Castlevania 5 among others. SotN will always be the best imo. The shear amount of work and detail that went into it is phenomenal for a 2D game.

I've been enjoying the GBA games I think Aria of Sorrow is great. That's why I can't wait for the new DS Castlevania. Here's hoping for many 2D Castlevania's to follow!

As a series, Castelvania is nearly unrivaled in terms of great soundtracks. And I love the gorgeous 2D artwork. It creates an incredible ambiance.

[Starslasher]

Well, i'm not a fan of Castlevania to say. But my brother is, and i watched him play Syphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow and other Castlevania titles. I noticed that the titles have a musical title in it. Like stated above, Symphony, Aria and there is also the Lament of Innocence. If there is to be another Castlevania title, i'm guessing that it would start with Ballad. Or maybe The Gig of the Devil. :P Sorry, bieng silly now.

It was fun to watch though. Also the different moves, specials, magic was cool. If there was anything to complain about it, it's that it's generally repetitive. It's virtually the same castle, you fight pretty much the same bosses, and the pretty much the same character in all the titles. However, Alucard was pretty cool, better then the Belmonts IMO.
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Spell Breaker]

I never played any of the NES or SNES Castlevanias although I've always heard how good Simon's Quest was supposed to be. I haven't played any of the 3D games either althought I might pick up Curse of Darkness if it gets pretty good reviews.

Castlevania I on the GameBoy was the first one I played. That was one hard game. No secondary weapons, tough jumping puzzles and when you get hit you the whip degrades by one level. You could really see why some people didn't like that game at all. I was so happy to beat it. It was probably the second or third game that I beat. I also played Belmont's Revenge and got all the way to the end of it, but never beat it. Dracula was just too hard for me. :(

I next played Castlevania Bloodlines on the Genesis. Good game. I loved the levels in that game. It was so nice to get out of that damn dreary castle for most of the game for a change. And using Lecarde spear was a howl to use. I actually only was able to beat it on Easy level though. I usually just got fed up of replaying the last level and turned the game off.
I also played Castlevania Legends for the GameBoy. That game was unadulterated rubbish, so I just pretend that I never came into contact with it. :)

Next Castlevania game I played was Circle of The Moon since I bought that at the same as my GBA. Great game if you like a reasonably challenging action game with some depth (the DS cards), good music and a truly tough last boss.

Then I finally played Symphony of the Night. I must say that it was a very good game. Music was good, story was good but the last half of the game was just way too easy to beat.
Aria of Sorrow was good too with the Soul System. Nothing like running down a few weakling enemies when you're transformed into a devil. It was also pretty short and easy.

The big problem I have with SotN is that it pretty much every 2D Castlevania game after it plays pretty much the same. Harmony of dissonance, Aria and DS also look quite a lot like SotN. And what's with all the protagonists having white hair? I guess that there's not much that they can do with it anymore.

That said, I'll probably skip on Castlevania DS and check out Curse of Darkness if there's a demo and/or good reviews. Hopefully, Konami will be able to come up with something real good for the next gen systems.

[Justice Johnny]

Okay, instead of making a duplicate thread, I guess I'll post in this one.

OMG I AM ADDICTED!!!

I'm playing Curse of Darkness, and it's very addicting. Just very very addicting. I just love those big and little Innocent Devil thingies. Has anyone else played this installment? I'm at the Aquaduct or something right now. My favorite weapon is the sword, as always. I'm using the Foil sword despite stronger swords being available. I guess I prefer speed over power. I just made my Fairy-type Innocent Devil a Proboscis (sp? who cares?) Fairy. I got the "Just A Little" skill. That cracked me up. Any tips or whatever?
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"Oranges can't fit into circles because rectangles are made of cheese."

[Black Hayate]

Not really a big fan of Castelvani.
Think I only played the first one.
But is a cool game...2D and has many things.
But I like Metal Slug more :mrgreen:
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I am the military's dog....
And I serve my master...

[ard]

Castlevania is just great, i like it a lot. My favourite would probably be part 2 way back on the NES, though somehow i never seemed to be able to finish it, probably because quite young back then. Maybe i should fix my NES and try again sometime.
I thoguht that Lament of Innocenxe was a great step from 2d to 3d, but the 2d Castlevanias are my favourite i must say.

[Artificity]

I like the Castlevania series, really, I do. But Curse of Darkness was just a major letdown for me when it comes to the entire franchise. It's pretty much go into one corridor, fight a group of badguys, collect dropped items/beneficial stuff and move on until I feel like all the repetition has gone and forced my brain to ooze out of all my orifices. The puzzles are just a lot of backtracking and mapsearching and even though they toss a lot of weapons at you, there's really no reason to use a lot of them since they're almost all just there to look pretty. Let's not even get to how horribly wonky the camera can get at times and how nearly one half of the entire bestiary is just rehashed leftovers. I'm also annoyed that almost every single protagonist that came post-SoTN just has to be a palette swap of Alucard. Leon, Juste, Soma and Hector all seem to share the same basic pasty skin and pretty white hair that was almost iconic of Alucard and it feels like they've somewhat killed the image to the point that it can't be recovered. Where have all the iconic Belmonts gone and where did all the gothspawn appear from?

Something was just lost in the transition to 3d and I'm sure someone's just going to say that I'm kissing SoTN's ass by saying all of this, but it's true. I'm sorry, the game and a lot of the newer games just didn't live up to my expectations. I'm happy though that Aria/Dawn of Sorrow didn't suck at all.

Even for great games, opinions differ wildly. :|
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[Arenegeth]

Yeah I guess you can say I'm a fan of the series, Symphony of the Night is my favorite, and then probably Circle of Moon, on the GBA, though I haven't played a lot of them I played the old ones, the are a lot of Castlevania games and I'm currently tracking down some for my collection.

Haven't played Curse of Darkness yet but I'm most looking forward to Dawn of Sorrow on the DS, and of course tracking a mint condition Rondo of Blood (or Dracula X) on the PC Engine (also known Turbografx16) and flashing hundreds for it...
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"I am ye who walks his own path and thus I walk alone"

[RedCydranth]

I have only played a handful of the entire Castlevania series but I can say with ease that the games I have played turned out to be some of the most fun and in the upper eschelon of gaming quality.

The original is a classic and without it the series wouldn't be what it is today. This game not only was long for an NES game, it had a huge amount of challenge. There were times I would watch my brother sit down and destroy this game twice a day and I soon learned all the secrets and such. All hail Holy Water.

The second wasn't my brother's favorite but I took a keen liking to the game. I spend hours upon hours playing this game from beginning to end making sure to do everything there was to do. I loved the day turning to night thing as I believe this was one of the first games to implement this feature (By this time Dragon Warrior may have done it as well, but I never considered any Castlevania to be an RPG truly). The monsters in the second were, in my opinion, more difficult and the fact there was a more involved storyline made me more drawn to it as well.

I never played Castlevania III for the NES but I have played it as a ROM (sue me). I enjoyed the game but for some reason it didn't have the uniqueness that the others I have played do. I liked the fact that Alucard was in it and it gave a background to what happened before Simon's birth. It was a good game but not the best at all.

I never played Castlevania IV for the SNES and probably never will. Anyone know if it was any good?

The ultimate game in the Castlevania series is easily Castlevanis: Symphony of the Night. It was really a great game that was more RPG than the rest of the series but I still classify this as a sidescrolling adventure game, since you can "level up" in almost every game now. Anyhow SotN has the greatest musical score of any Playstation game, yes, beating out Suikoden II and Final Fantasy VII and Tactics. The story was sheer brilliance and I have played the game over numerous times. I have the most fun playing as Richter. Too bad they didn't include Simon :(. The graphics for the time were superb and I liked this game better than any of the Castlevania games I played since.

I played Castlevania 64 for about an hour before I put it down, contacted Konami an demanded that hour of my life back. That game was horrible. It played more like Resident Evil than Castlevania.

Since then I have played the gameboy ones but never gotten too far and I played one of the PS2 games for a bit and I enjoyed it but not enough to buy it for myself, as I was only borrowing them.

All in all I enjoy the series a lot and reccomend the majority of the series to anyone who wants to try their hand at a cool series with dark tones and doesn't mind a bit of blood and decapitation.

My favorite character in the series is Richter Belmont, followed by Alucard and then Dracula himself. Dracula rules and you all know it.
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[Artificity]

Castlevania IV was fun but it's not a game that stood out. It does have the awesomeness that is Simon's Theme in it which gives it a little novelty but it's not a game I recommend hunting down. I was hoping that we'd get to see Grant and Sypha in the game but got none of that so that killed the game a bit more for me but at least it still has the same oldschool Castlevania difficulty, plus spinning Vampire Killer whip and some aerial acrobatics thrown in. The gameplay's still as linear as ever though and the game didn't add much to the story either.

Get it if you're really interested or just happen to be a sucker for Simon's theme like myself.
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[Starslasher]

[Edge Riou]

I've been playing Castlevania: Curse of Darkness lately, and I am pretty impressed with it. There is a lot to do in the game for me, since I like to get all the weapons and armor as early in the game as possible. Some materials are hard to find however, as you sometimes have to keep killing the same monster over, and over, and over again to get it. And for the items you need to steal, some enemies make it hard to steal from. There are these quick, hard to reach times when you have to do it, and it's all just blah.
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[Falcon Critical]

I am generally one to say I HATE platform games ( my hand-eye coordination and timing are appalling ), however SotN really sold me on the whole franchise. Mainly because they gave me easy ways around all the jumping - I could use the gravity boots, turn into a bat or mist... therefore the game was all about RPG for me and very little platforming. As an RPG it is excellent, a ton of variety and secret content like the Axe Lord armor ( best ever! ), along with strong story and interesting characters. I often used the fairy familiar just because she was so cute, and she sits on your shoulder :D

Anyhoo... I could talk about SotN all day, its the one game I have completed the most times ever, so many times I forget the number. I have a perfect playthrough with all the drops and 212% complete and everything.

I then played some of the early ones, and was instantly infuriated by the silly jumping and boring whip. This was remedied for me when I picked up Aria of Sorrow - here was what I would deem another real Castlevania! A lot of variety in attacks and benefits for attacking enemies over and over again! I didn't actually finish it though, I think I got lost...

Then came Lament of Innocence - I started the game 3 times but still haven't gotten far because the whip just keeps annoying me. I will go back and finish it eventually I guess.

I'm psyched for Curse of Darkness though, playing the antihero again and the return of familiars and changable weapons! That's all I wanted in one ^o^
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