The Castlevania franchises chronicles the ongoing fight against Count Dracula by the Belmont family and their allies. To this day, Dracula continues to pose a threat to the world.
My favorite is SOTN, but I also liked Curse of Darkness, despite the terrible grapics, I liked the fact that you could upgrade your weapons with random materials.
I'm a longtime fan as well, but those PS2 games were average games at best. SOTN is still my favourite, partiallly because it had the best hardware to push it's music/presentation/graphics and that I could play it on my television screen. However in lieu of that title I would say that the two "___ Of Sorrows" games were the best. Circle and Harmony were refinement periods; the Soma Cruz games were the peak and perfection; and anything including and post Portrait are the slide downhill.
As a fairly new fan of the series, I have no nostalgic value for any Castlevania game. With that said, I loved Harmony of Dissonance. Also Order of Ecclesia is amazing. As for old school Castlevania, I like Simon's Quest a lot. I'm aware I am in the minority here, but don't get me wrong, I liked 1, 4, and (I'm currently playing and enjoying) SotN. But Harmony was the first one I played that I truly enjoyed (played CotM and Lament of Innocence prior to that but did not really enjoy them). And SImon's Quest was the one that really hooked me onto Castlevania, having only played it for the first time 2 months ago. I just finished the awesome Order of Ecclesia and am now working on SotN.
I actually enjoyed Lament of Innocence a lot, though I can't say the same for Curse of Darkness. My personal favorite is Order of Ecclesia, despite it being the newest. It had a good mix of difficulty and an interesting interpretation of the Metroidvania that I really enjoyed.
@luce: See, with the character switching, it was my least favorite of all in the series that I've played. Didn't finish it, but I'm a much bigger fan of Order of Ecclesia.
" @luce: See, with the character switching, it was my least favorite of all in the series that I've played. Didn't finish it, but I'm a much bigger fan of Order of Ecclesia. "
I really liked Portrait of Ruin. Portrait of Ruin had an AMAZING pre-order bonus here in the US: - A soundtrack CD - A fold-out print that detailed the Castlevania timeline - An artbook - A retractable stylus pen and DS cart case.
" @luce: See, with the character switching, it was my least favorite of all in the series that I've played. Didn't finish it, but I'm a much bigger fan of Order of Ecclesia. "
I really liked Portrait of Ruin. Portrait of Ruin had an AMAZING pre-order bonus here in the US: - A soundtrack CD - A fold-out print that detailed the Castlevania timeline - An artbook - A retractable stylus pen and DS cart case.
"
Don't mean to be a jerk, but an artbook wouldn't have made Superman 64 any better.
@AgentJ: As a Superman video game, no, you're right. But if that art book featured artwork from Superman's history, a Superman fan would have have loved it. This art book was like this, featuring box art from older Castlevania games preceding Portrait of Ruin.
" @AgentJ: As a Superman video game, no, you're right. But if that art book featured artwork from Superman's history, a Superman fan would have have loved it. This art book was like this, featuring box art from older Castlevania games preceding Portrait of Ruin. "
Again though, I wouldn't call POR the best in the series just because it came with a bunch of awesome extras.
I like the DS Metroidvanias and Symphony of the Night a lot. If I had to pick one game though, I'd probably say Dracula X Chronicles. It almost single-handedly justifies my purchase of a PSP. Remake of Rondo of Blood plus Symphony of the Night, all on a portable? Fuck yes.
Symphony of the Night is one of those titles that I'll give a whirl every couple of years, and also has one of my favourite gaming moments / twists ever.
As a sleeper, Bloodlines / New Generation is a game I very much admire. I don't drag it out as often as I do SotN, but the cartridge still finds its way into my Mega Drive every now and then. It performs some technically impressive feats, and it's a pretty good game to boot.
My favorite is Rondo of Blood, because of the soundtrack, bosses, and general atmosphere. Although I think Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia are the best in terms of gameplay and other technical shit.
Castlevania III on the NES. Classic Castlevania 2D platforming, and tough as hell. Any of the classic, non-Metroidvania games are up pretty high. Now, I'm not saying that SotN is bad, it's a great game, but I really lost interest in Castlevania games after every game that followed had to be based on that. That being said, for recent games, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth on the Wii rules.
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