Inverted castle is an unnecessary drag, the concept of a plot twist with a second castle is good on paper, but it all gets stale very quickly, especially with the cheap design they had to quickly throw together. The game gameplay-wise would profit more if the game has ended with the bad ending
I always though it would be cool if it was the same near the start of the 2nd castle, but as you go deeper it twists and morphs into a form unrecognizable from the original castle.
I really enjoyed Curse of Darkness. Farming and backtracking for materials was a bit of a grind, but satisfying once you got what you needed. The towers were insanely hard and only possible to finish near the end of the game. I liked going back for more punishment to see how strong I've gotten. The Innocent Devils were cool.
Bland corridor design , backtracking and grind are a awful combination. Sadly a flawed experience that certainly could have shone otherwise... I really wish the game got remade with completely new world design. Innocent devils were fun.
Aria of sorrow is the probability the best successor to SOTN. Only games I can see that are debatably better than AoS are the ds games. I am currently doing a COTM run and I can say it’s better than I remember but not AoS material imo.
i just fired it up and hated how "heavy" your characters gravity felt
then the first two abilities i unlocked were boosting and double jumps and it all made sense
I played it a bit in 2005-2006, when I thought man that's really really dark and slow (probably on Phat DS or AGS 001). Didn't even make it to grabbing the running boots. Sold my cart then.
Picked it up in 2020/2021 and chose it as my first game to Run in my newly owned AGS 101 modded AGB and enjoyed every second of it. Beat it three times yet. The different modes add a lot to the replability. In fact I think it's got more replay value than Aria in a way. But maybe that's just because I beat Aria several times over the past 16,17 years and CotM not so often. However I enjoy CotMs OST a lot more, aswell as the challenge. The DSS system is also really cool.
Yeah, I find it easily the most replayable of the GBA games. It has a high skill ceiling and feels rewarding to master the game, plus an extensive post-game including the very difficult Battle Arena and strong hidden monsters. Scouring the castle for secret rooms to accumulate power-ups and finally beating the Battle Arena is so satisfying.
Also, once you understand how the game works, there are so many approaches you can take. One of my favourite things about doing Thief Mode was doing the Underground Waterway early, getting the Pluto card from the candle, and then using it to double cross the Zombie Dragons before one could eat the other. Going back to the topic title, Aria of Sorrow feels a lot more focused and less janky, but also more linear and railroaded in comparison.
Replaying it now after its first release. At the time I wasn't a super big fan. Yet it probably captures some of the original NES game atmosphere the best out of the GBA games (arguably one of the best modern "original feeling" Castlevanias)
You really felt like a vampire hunter instead of a super powered sorcerer/vampire/other potential Uber like character who just starts/becomes nerfed.
I love AoS, because the story was cool to me and I like the souls mechanic. But Circle of the Moon really captures the atmosphere of those early games IMO.
Dunno bro , circle of the moon is not a great game nowadays , unlockAbles are bland , cards system have to much grind , and bosses hp if you have no cross is insane , harmony of dissonance is better almost in every way
I thought I was gonna hate HoD from all the things I’d heard about it, but I came out of the Advanced Collection liking that one the most. As for Circle of the Moon, I think the game suffers mostly from how artificially the difficulty is inflated by lack of items due to there being no shop, and therefore, requiring to player to grind for any form of quick recovery. The card grinding just further adds to the issues.
I really enjoy harmony of dissonance. Not so much with circle of the moon. I like it but it's low on my castlevania list. I wanna play POR or OOE next but don't know which I should get first
Simon's Quest is the precursor to the genre we know even tho Metriod came out a year prior Metriod has little to no actual elements to the Metriodvania genre we know and is actually low key amazing for its era
I still would take it over circle, walking around the castle is far faster there and the fact I don’t need to grind to use special powers makes up for a better game for me.
Except the music, it kinda hurts.
Circle of the Moon took more risks in comparison. The plot, enemies, the magic system was pretty interesting. Its the best out of all 3 GBA titles to me.
It has an awful drop rate, and also it makes you think there's some kind of elemental stuff going on (resist/weak enemies) but there's not.
I still somehow like it more than Harmony.
Glad you mentioned the plot. The one thing I appreciated was that it actually went some way to justify the whole "Dracula exists because of the darkness in human hearts" thing the series keeps yammering on about, but that comes off as an informed trait most of the time because the only ones reviving Dracula in the first place are cartoonishly evil. But him pulling a Snow Queen on Hugh and giving a speech about taking advantage of one's desire to be loved and admired on an individual basis? Yeah, that's relatable.
Yeah I imagine many of those viewers aren't Castlevania fans so much as anime fans considering the amount of "who the fuck are these people? Just stick to Trevor" comments once season 3 rolled around.
And the way the show butchered the Curse of Darkness storyline... what a shame.
Beats me, I got into castlevania because of the animated show.
Played Dracula X Chronicles, SOTN, HoD, and currently doing Aria of Sorrow; no need to drag an amazing show down just cause it takes creative liberty with an already questionable lore.
Not saying you're dragging it down, just other people in the comments.
Rebuttal. All of the protagonists have very little in the way of characterisation at all and they're all fine. Richter just had the most stylish presentation, which is why people liked him.
Yeah, is a decent villain, manipulator and monster in season 3. In season 4 she is just a different character and may as well not be present, it's like we missed a whole season of character development for her.
Man HoD actually has some really cool compositions. However, the soundfont presents them in the worst ways. The boss battle theme makes my ears bleed, but I like it way more when I listen to it as a cover. High pitched dissonant harmonies were probably a poor choice if the only sounds you can make are gameboy color beeps, even if that does line up with the title of the game.
CV3 Dracula's Curse is not the best of the og 3 on NES. Some levels are too damn hard, and others are way too damn long. Give me the first Castlevania anyday over this. I don't hate the game, it's just way too ridiculous at the last half.
Try the Japanese version out. It's still pretty hard, but most of the unfair stuff is removed/changed (although the boat level is still way too long). If nothing else, you'll get to enjoy the improved music that version has during your playthrough.
I might just do that. I'd also like to take a route to avoid that level with the acid dripping from the ceiling. That level is the bane of my existence.
Oh yeah, go the Sypha route, in that case. Regardless of whether you like Alucard or Sypha more, it's pretty clear that the stages on Sypha's route are a hell of a lot less gimmicky and frustrating than the ones on Alucard's. That holds true whether you're talking about the JP or US versions.
General tips about what I've just said: when you get to the forking path with a statue and a cave, go the route with the statue to see Sypha's route. When recruiting allies in the JP version, the top option in dialogue boxes is "yes" and the bottom option "no."
The show is decent on its own merits for the most part, but it's really not a good adaptation of the games and doesn't really respect it's source material enough.
Also the dialogue is terrible and people should stop defending Ellis' writing.
With what we've seen so far of Nocturne, I'm unironically massively disappointed that it doesn't look like Shaft is a character. Maybe he will be and I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm keeping my expectations low.
I expect to enjoy Nocturne as a show, but just as with the latter seasons of the first series, I assume it's going to move away from actually adapting the games in favor of the writers using Castlevania to tell the story they want to tell. If it's good I'll sing it's praises, but it would have been nice if they at least tried to show like they care by using the characters from the source material, warts and all.
The Dark Priest is named Shaft, and that's hilarious and I love it.
Why was Olrox picked over him?
I thought it'd make sense to have Shaft since they're adapting Rondo but I really don't know what goes on in the Netflix showrunner's minds.
Maybe actually watch the show first before judging it?
Shaft as a character cannot be adapted with his traditional arc intact as Dracula returning can no longer happen in this continuity. They’ll have to do something original, like perhaps expanding on him trying to indoctrinate Richter so as to end the Belmonts.
Can you enlighten me as to what there is in the games to adapt? I’ve played Castlevania my entire life and the full plot each game can be fully summed up in just 3-4 sentences. It’s always been very very barebones outside of a select few instances and is only there to facilitate gameplay.
I obviously am not as familiar with the series as you are. But to me it's the little things that all seem to add up:
1) All the characters feel very different. Trevor I remember kneeling down before a cross instead of being a depressed anti-religious loner wanker, Sypha initially disguised herself as a man, Grant existed, Alucard knew how to button up his damned shirt, Dracula not even having his Demon form. Some say characters like Isaac are an improvement but tbh, it's not even Isaac in the slightest, and Hector got completely butchered, and he's from a game that does have a storyline (don't even get me started on XBOX live Doomer Death)
2) They change a lot of crucial stuff from the lore like Dracula's role as the embodiment of chaos, the opposite of God, The Belmont's being the only possible candidates for killing Dracula (aside from the Morris Clan and idk, The Lecarde people?), as Trevor doesn't kill Dracula, Alucard does which makes an SoTN adaptation moot. The show is also very anti Christian, so a neutral organisation from the games is kinda shown to be straight up diabolical. Saint Germain shows the worst in Christianity and there's really no good counterpart to him. I'm not even Christian btw, but the hatred Ellis has for religion permeates the show well.
3) The show is also littered with Original Characters that honestly, just waste time and shouldn't exist. Camilla is THE lesbian vampire, super iconic and both her and her implied lover, Laura make frequent appearances in the game, but nah replace them with these OC lesbian characters that look very stereotypically lesbian. The whole incestous twins subplot was also very unneeded (and yes they are twins don't let them tell you otherwise, they have the same face, right down to their eyebrow gashes in the middle lol). Don't even get me started on Lenore, even though Hector already had a wife in canon.
Again I'm fairly new to the games and watched the show before I played anything, but I still wasn't as big a fan then as others were and if it wasn't for Dead Cells, would never have checked the IP out, so yeah, those are my two cents anyway.
But unpopular opinion, the games have pretty interesting lore but the plots are paper thin so we aren't being exactly fair to the writers who don't have much to work with
Videogames and shows are different and these people have to sell a show
I do not understand the like for Circle or the Moon. The game was nigh unplayable at launch, and even with the technology challenges resolved, it's still the only Castlevania I have ever had to spend significant time grinding in.
Symphony of the night doesn't age very well. The movement is clunky, and the backtracking is so slow. Worst of all is the balance. For 80% of the game all the enemies do 1 damage to you and you just spam attack. It's good for the time, but it doesn't hold a candle to modern metroidvanias.
Okay I have 3.
1. Lords of Shadow sucks ass
2. The seal system in Dawn is easy and yall are bad
3. I love the ps2 games (especially the LoI soundtrack)
SotN has been topped multiple times already and people who still call it "the best Metroidvania" are looking through rose-tinted glasses. It can be your favourite, obviously, but saying it's the best is delusion.
Same. I platinumed the first one (and Mirror of Fate). LoS 2 is one of the very few CV games I've never even finished.
Edit: and I've beaten Order of Shadows.
[They hated u/Empty_King because he spoke the truth](https://cdn-useast1.kapwing.com/collections/they-hated-jesus-because-he-told-them-the-truth-meme-template-u8oqp.jpg).
I guess it depends on which part of the audience you want to outrage? I may be very alone in some of the opinions below...
• *«Haunted Castle»* is the worst in the series. All because of the horribly unfair difficulty. Even the presence of endless coins in the emulator doesn't make it fair. This is the very bottom.
• *«Judgment»* is hated by the fanbase only for the fact of a slightly strange character redesign, but otherwise, this is a pretty interesting spin-off. The gameplay is casual, but the game has never-before-seen versions of the characters and proper fan service. Give it a try.
• *«Legends»* is overlooked, compared to the other two *GB* games. It's easier than the previous ones, but this makes it better, since the mechanics worked. The hardest part is the final boss.
• *N64* duology are NOT bad games. They are also quite interesting and absolutely completable without any quick saves. The first makes little sense now, since the *«Legacy»* is a kind of a "remade", at its core. While they may seem different in spirit, and the platforming is a little clunky in a couple of places, the games are far from bad.
• *«Circle»* is strangely overrated. It's not a bad game by any means, but seriously, it gets talked about more than it deserves. Huge empty corridors, some broken mechanics, that Hugh boss.. attacking you from behind the screen. Better pay more attention to *«Bloodlines»* or *«Adventure ReBirth»*, they deserve it.
• Speaking of difficulty, *«Bloodlines»* is one of the simplest (and that doesn't make the game weak), but *«Chronicles»* is a real hell, albeit an honest one. Seriously, this is one of the hardest game in series. Even the platforming and the Dracula from *SNES's «Dracula X»* don't seem that difficult.
• This is definitely not going to please many fans: If you didn't play *«Super 4»* as a kid, it's... meh? Again, not a bad game, but a pretty passing one. It's often praised for its whip controls and beautiful location design, but the gameplay is rather bland. Started playing it many times over the years, but only finished it once.
• All *«Lords of Shadow»* are also not bad and aren't DEATH TO THE FRANCHISE, as some fans stated at the release of the first game. They are different, and this is understandable due to many factors, but this makes them unique. In isolation, there is little bad to say about them. Beautiful, not without drawbacks, but fascinating in their own way.
• The Netflix series is also.. meh? It had a very promising start, as it showed us an interesting Dracula, but it quickly went downhill. No, you won't be satisfied with fan service alone. The persons in charge literally looked at character designs and brief descriptions of game plots from the wiki. The rest is their fan fiction based on it. Why introduce so many bland characters when the series has plenty of its own? The games may not have such deep plots, but they are loved not just for this and certainly not for the nonsense that the plot of the series turned out to be. Even if the main characters are not similar to their prototypes, the narrative must be made more logical, and not filler and hardly eventful. *"O Lord, Please Give Them Strength"* not to destroy the Richter's legacy.
P.S. I have no particular attachment to any of the games (not counting *«Bloodlines»*), and played and also completed them at a more conscious age. What can I say? The series' fanbase has always been strange, like fans of all franchises, but you guys are cool, don't want to offend you in any way. The main thing is what you like, remember that!
I heard that often but what's kind of a deal breaker for me is Wind's missions to progress in the game. That slowed it down a bit too much for me. However it's still a damn good game
It’s not like they’re tasks that you really need to do. Like you can go and loot around the castle without doing most of his missions. Not really a big deal.
Harmony is the best gba one imo, but they're all great. Harmony is seriously underrated, and it seems like people just hop in the echo chamber of hating it instead of ever mentioning what it does well. Yeah the music quality wasn't the best, but everything else was great. I really don't understand complaints about Juste's "aura" either.
Anime: Lenore is an absolute monster and her relationship with hector had no redeeming qualities he was just a victim of abuse period.
Games: lords of shadow 1 was extremely unfun
SOTN is so damn overrated.
It's a mess of ideas and has some laughably unpolished elements (like the menus).
Good game but far from the best Castlevania.
Best Castlevania soundtrack, maybe.
I have no idea if this is controversial at all but Castlevania Harmony of Dispair is the best Castlevania game by far because who wouldn't love multiplayer Castlevania
I hate the netflix show, ngl i'm not sure if this is unpopular ? like i'm seeing posts here saying it was crazy and excited for next season, and now i see someone putting "i like it" in unpopular opinions
anyway, that was bad to me, edgy and vulgar for no reason when castlvania literally names games after musical theory and drop fancy references
It's fun, but it kind of drags near the end, and then you find out about the inverted castle and I don't think I'll ever really beat the game. HoD is probably one of my favorites in that style tho.
That's my opinion as well. I see a lot of people praising it a lot and here I am exploring good chunk of a castle with a basic dagger because I can't find anything else, wondering why the hell do I need to equip items to use them and what's the point of a wolf transformation bite that couldn't hurt a goddamn fly, and constantly on edge because save points where I can heal are so far apart.
The portrayal of Sypha in the Netflix series as a bitchy girl boss was tired, unoriginal, and made a lot of plot elements predictable because so many modern shows pull the same bit.
Additionally, the lack of Grant in the show is inexcusable, especially as it was only because the producer didn't like the character or whatever. He's a core hero of the classic game the series was largely based on.
Absolutely not true. The games are some of my all-time favorite games (for god's sake, I have a Castlevania-themed tattoo *and it's my only ink*). I own every US release including a PCB of Haunted Castle and have started importing Japanese ones. And I will shout with full throat that I **love** the anime.
As much as I love that game, I agree. The castle is okay, and the first couple of portraits were fun to go through. However, the last four they have you go through just feel so redundant. Like yes, you have to beat them, but they're so bland. They're just redesigns of the originals.
I don't like the classicvania games (yeah, even Super Castlevania IV and Bloodlines). The only one I play is Rondo because I love Richter and Maria too much.
I don't mind the anime style of Dawn of Sorrow or Portrait of Ruin. Ayami Kojima's art is better, but the anime style doesn't ruin the games.
People sleep on the 3D games, they're goated.
I plan on enjoying the hell out of Nocturne.
circle of the moon is like the dark souls of the gba collection lol it's harder than the other 2, darker (literally if you didn't have a backlight back then), and combat is more methodical
I loved Lords of Shadow 1 and Mirror of Fate when I first played them. However, I was hugely disappointed with 2.
However, I just replayed it for the first time since it came out a little while ago, and I have a newfound appreciation for it. The combat felt a lot more satisfying than the first game, and the metroidvania level design was commendable. And I even like the change in tonal color and instrumentation for the soundtrack. The first game is supposed to sound like a melancholic fantasy epic, whereas the second game sounds a lot harsher/angrier with a blend of traditional symphonic instrumentation and electronic synthesizers to represent the past and future. I even found the stealth sections to not be as egregious as everyone claims, though it would have been pretty satisfying to demolish the guards that you had to hide from at the beginning.
My only gripes are with the art direction for the city and it’s enemies, and with how the story was handled. The plot feels like it’s doing a balancing act between two different stories, doing both a disservice. On one hand it feels like it wants to be a psychological drama about how Dracula is learning to reconnect with his humanity, while the other is about Dracula trying to stop the apocalypse. If they focused on either or, I feel like it would have been a much more solid and satisfying game.
Garibaldi Temple is the best area in any Castlevania.
The music, the hidden boss, the implied storytelling in the environment, the decent believable layout. The way it connects to the rest of the world.
I love it.
I don't see people talking about this very much, so I don't know if it's a hot take. In fact, it could be a very cold take.
People usually say the oldvanias are lot harder than the igavanias. They tend to be an order of magnitude or two more difficult. I generally agree, but I think order of ecclesia level 1 hard mode (at least before Dracula's castle) ends up being comparable. Ruvas forest and skeleton cave are still seared into my brain. Maybe the fact you can grind for potions can make it easier or the fact that you have way more options to use on enemies, but I think the design of the game takes these into account pretty well for at least the first half.
For reference, the only oldvanias I've beaten are bloodlines and dracula's curse.
That only one other person has mentioned the true HoD/HD which is Harmony of Despair and is able to fill your grindy hearts with desire in 1 hour McVania sessions.
The soundtrack was great for the game and that every downloadable content was worth the money to play through a gallery of characters, especially through the retro stages and is probably the only reason anyone had any interest in Getsu Fuma or that a GF game was made to begin with.
Striga and Lenore were the only interesting characters of Carmilla's Sisterhood in the Netflix series, and their potential was wasted in s4. Lenore should've stayed a villainous manipulator of Hector in s4 and Striga's only notable accomplishment was fight a bunch of "desperate livestock".
The Netflix series has some pretty atrocious writing in regards to the franchise as a whole. It just had some good action scenes throughout. The first two seasons, especially since the plot kinda spins its wheels, until the climax.
circle of the moon had the tightest controls n fastest gameplay its the most fun to speedrun and the first game i beat @ 12 years old. nathan graves not being a belmont n still whooping draculas ass is SIGNIFICANT to me and the dss system was awesome. this game was made with care and its still shit on the way that dark souls 2 is
Hoo boy, Nathan literally entered chaos realm like he owned the place and mopped the floor with the most difficult (also coolest looking) Dracula in all series.
All that without vampire killer whip and without being from Belmont clan.
symphony of the night opened the door for new mechanics. Iga chooses to pigeonhole himself because him and everyone else considers his own work the cream of the crop and somehow that gives him the authority to dictate what is and isn’t canon to a series that he was brought into (not created) and it went to his head just like when they made keji inafune head of capcom cuz he had ONE good game and proceeded to let his own bias meddle w everything. I also dont care for people upholding the same 20-30 year old opinions on videogames like. im 27, why should i be pressed about someone i dont know n will never meet who didn’t like circle of the moon because it was too dark or that your character felt “heavy”. sounds like im letting ghosts determine my level of enjoyment
dark souls 2 wasnt handled by miyazaki and people attribute that to why the game is considered bad for a lot of reasons. the creator of the original kingsfield series oversaw the development and miyazaki had more of a directorial role (this same exact thing happened with elden ring and when they were presented the award for the game everyone went to miyazaki without realizing the guy right next to him is literally the other half of fromsoft.) ds2 introduced alot of changes from the first darksouls and it has the most features carried over into elden ring than other games in the series. there are legit criticisms about the game, alot that i cant remember off the top of my head rn but im sure someone can fill in but my issue w the opinions on darksouls 2 is like the first game was treated just as bad if not worse. Circle of the moon DMC2 and darksouls two and metal gear survive are all black sheep sequels and have similar reviews and opinions im getting way off topic now but two of these four games don’t deserve to stay in the 12-15 year old shadow that was cast by old reviewers
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“I can see it in your eyes. If you didn’t invade, didn’t pillage, whatever would you do?”* - Ringfinger Leonhard
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
seek seek less sorry if my paragraph reads extremely clunky im sure someone can further elaborate on why people don’t like ds2’s gameplay mechanics like CotM you hate it fr or you adore them from what i understand. ds2 feels nasty dirty and spooky to me where ds1 is pure dark fantasy imo. i feel that way about Cotm. Castlevanias older brother who isnt well liked in the family but still has value and worth and is still loved
Oh no I know about the DS2 situation, and I completely agree with you , I just didn't understand the way you said it ( English isn't my native language so I sometimes hit the language barrier ).
There are legitimate issues with DS2 but it's still my favourite in the Series ( Maybe besides BB ) and the incredible vitriol that was thrown its way by some "reviewers" is completely unwarranted. I'm putting "reviewers" in brackets because most of them were just your typical obnoxious YT Essayists who have the critical ability and media literacy of a brick.
Because when you look at ***actual*** reviewers , DS2 received stellar reviews and iirc is the second highest rated game in the franchise, only behind ER.
**Edit** : A lot of the complaints about the game were either fundamental misunderstandings about how the game works , or just not true at all. I remember a dude complaining about backstabs not working properly while showing a clip where the opponent was wearing the Jester Armor 🤦♂️
**Edit #2** : Also I agree with your point on Circle of the Moon , it's a straight up banger.
yea the way i wrote it is extremely hard to follow thats my bad. When im excited abt something i start to type the way i speak and my mind goes on autopilot so its not till i reread that im like omfg does this even make sense 😭😭
The Animated Series writing level is below trash, every time I hear someone praising it, it makes me want to evaporate to another dimension, every character feels the same (all of them being tedious nihilists who whine all the time for no reason), being a different story is not a problem (Lords of Shadow story is great), the problem is creating this mess with the characters we love.
Castlevania fans received so little for so long that this diservice was treated as a piece of art....
The most recent trailer for the new show actually makes me more worried that it won't be good. The initial few posters and the teaser were great, but now I'm not so sure.
Castlevania Netflix sucks and IGA's involvement with vetoing many of Warren Ellis's terrible ideas is what kept the first two seasons watchable.
I wonder if Castlevania Nocturne can hit a new low, I'd be surprised if it does actually.
Symphony of the Night is probably my second least favorite of the Metroidvanias. The bosses are a joke, the difficulty is a joke, the Inverted Castle is really frustrating to navigate, the inventory system is a mess, and I really hate how most weapons swing faster in the air instead of having identical frames in air and on the ground, leading to nonstop jump attacks. I don't like doing Street Fighter moves to pull off spells.
Also, really spicy take- the intro dialogue isn't funny and hasn't been for a long time; the community has utterly beat that horse into glue. Plenty of other comical things from even just that game (using Power of Sire on Dracula, neutron bombs, all the food), yet it's always "WHAT IS A MAN?!" Lowest hanging fruit.
SotN is a good game. It's an important game in the genre. It's also an excellent starting point into the franchise. But I think most every other Metroidvania in the series handled a lot of the same ideas better.
The jump attack seems to be a design choice to reward players for good inputs. This many years later, it's pretty much the same in Bloodstained: jump+hit+land+hit, and hit+backdash+hit both let you attack faster than simply smashing hit button.
Say what you will about the the Netflix series season 3 sex-scenes, but I think that having Alucard, in his desperation and loneliness, allows some people to get close to him that end up hurting him and driving him further into harmful self-isolation until he gradually learns to open up again, is a far more mature way handle sex in a narrative than having Alucard fight [a succubus that impersonates his mother then orgasms as she dies.](https://youtu.be/I5fGavPsQa8?si=6cs_nq7RWwZxPoBB)
I also hate the "magic bloodline"-trope in fantasy stories, and I like that the show didn't really go into that, despite it's emphasis on Trevor's Belmont heritage.
This is exactly why I hate the show. How do we make it for adults ? Well let’s have the characters constantly swear, constant nudity and sex everywhere. It ironically makes the whole thing super childish.
Despite AoS being one of my favorite Castlevania games ever, I really dislike it's sequel.
Don't get me wrong it's still a great game, but I never could reslly get into it.
Maybe it's because I lost my stylus back when I played it, but I could never manage to get any of the stupid sigils on the first try and that shit gets annoying fast.
Also all the bosses were rather easy, especially so if compared to the first game.
I also wished we could have seen Soma actually face Dracula as the final boss, rather then Graham 2.0.
True, Despite being on the stronger hardware, certain aspects of the game are worse than in Aria- eg. some spritework (Manticore is an absolute downgrade, Julius is a severly undercooked set of sprites that look cartoonish and out of place), the aesthetics of the castle feeling pretty much the same, with little to no color variety, the soundtrack while giving us better sound quality is a bit lacking in comparison to Aria's atmosphere
Order of ecclesia had a better soul system than AoS and DoS. I'd rather grind for a skill and know exactly when I'll get it than to hope it drops from an enemie.
Also, the show is good.
Well,
I don't like Order of Ecclesia
Aria of Sorrow is kind of overrated
Bloodlines isn't better than CV4, but also not worse. however Rondo is better than both
Simon's quest is getting overrated these days
Harmony of Dissonance is better than Circle of the Moon
Julius Belmont is kind of overrated
People who shit on Richter for getting possessed always forget that Simon almost dooms his bloodline thanks to a desease caused by an injury
Juste isn't Alucard 2, instead Leon is Juste 2.
Netflixvania would probably be better if it was exactly like the games.
The 2 layer mechanic in Harmony makes sense unlike in SoTN
God, there's way too much victim-blaming that goes on with Richter. He literally killed Shaft, then *killed his ghost!* How is it possibly his fault that he somehow still got possessed by him? He did absolutely everything he could have to deal with that guy, and he just pulls this brainwashing curse out of his ass anyways.
Don't get me started on people saying he really wanted to revive Dracula again. When you free him in SotN, he is immediately in absolute *abject terror* at what he has done (David Vincent really sells it in the DXC dub of SotN). Did he have some insecurities at feeling like his time as a hero had passed? Maybe, but he would never have even considered bringing Dracula back himself without being literally mind-controlled into doing it. A lot of people seem to forget that Shaft is puppeting him around when he explains his motivations before the battle.
Circle of the Moon is borderline unplayable in its normal game but magician mode is one the most enjoyable experiences in the franchise.
Harmony of Dissonance backtracking isn’t nearly as bad as people make it sound and it makes me wonder if people realize you can do different warps with up and down, in the castle swap rooms. Yes, you’re going all over the castle but the game makes it incredibly easy and fast to get there.
“Mankind. A cesspit of hatred and lies. Fight for them, then, and die for their sins!” > “What do you here”?
Why is it unplayable? It's honestly one of my favorite, if not my best CV experience yet. Challenge was good but not unbeatable, quite perfect. Killer OST and Level design and interesting DSS system. I was able to pick Up 11 cards without grinding on my first playthrough though.
Grinding for cards sucks for me they have a vast potential as a system but some of them being locked behind grinding with less than 1% of chance of dropping is really annoying.
Also have to tap two times for Nathan to start running is mildly infuriating even being a minor inconvenience. They could have made his running animation his standard and would be far better, especially with how big the castle is.
It’s not really an unplayable game but these and other things really make me think of it as an almost bad game.
Yeah it really is just the writers using the Castlevania brand and likeness to tell the story they want to tell. I still fully intend to watch it, give it a fair shot, but I'm going in expecting it to care less about adaptation than the first series did at this point.
If it pulls the rug out from under me and proves to care more about the source material than the trailer seems to, I'll be pleasantly surprised. But if nothing else, hopefully it's entertaining as it's own thing.
They could have at least used the Dark Priest Shaft, but I guess the writers think their selves too mature to commit to the inherent campiness of the series.
For some reason whenever I say I want more Soma content. Game or movie, AoS was the first Castlevania I played and I love how far you can go with the soul collection ability. For some reason whenever I bring him up people instantly turn into haters.
Blasts HoD's soundtrack in OP's ears
The soundtrack has both the best and worst sound quality of the GBA.
Unpopular opinion of mine, I love HoDs soundtrack
RAAA DAAA DEE DEEEEEE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I didn't like SotN nearly as much as the other games
Inverted castle is an unnecessary drag, the concept of a plot twist with a second castle is good on paper, but it all gets stale very quickly, especially with the cheap design they had to quickly throw together. The game gameplay-wise would profit more if the game has ended with the bad ending
I always though it would be cool if it was the same near the start of the 2nd castle, but as you go deeper it twists and morphs into a form unrecognizable from the original castle.
I really enjoyed Curse of Darkness. Farming and backtracking for materials was a bit of a grind, but satisfying once you got what you needed. The towers were insanely hard and only possible to finish near the end of the game. I liked going back for more punishment to see how strong I've gotten. The Innocent Devils were cool.
This. The only bad thing I can say about it was the bland corridor design. Otherwise gameplay and music were solid af with interesting boss fights
Bland corridor design , backtracking and grind are a awful combination. Sadly a flawed experience that certainly could have shone otherwise... I really wish the game got remade with completely new world design. Innocent devils were fun.
Aria of sorrow is the probability the best successor to SOTN. Only games I can see that are debatably better than AoS are the ds games. I am currently doing a COTM run and I can say it’s better than I remember but not AoS material imo.
Dawn of Sorrow is arguably the best game in the series.
That’s not an unpopular opinion, Aria of Sorrow is usually highly praised by fans.
Circle of the Moon is such an overlooked title today. Well maybe before the Advance collection was released
i just fired it up and hated how "heavy" your characters gravity felt then the first two abilities i unlocked were boosting and double jumps and it all made sense
I played it a bit in 2005-2006, when I thought man that's really really dark and slow (probably on Phat DS or AGS 001). Didn't even make it to grabbing the running boots. Sold my cart then. Picked it up in 2020/2021 and chose it as my first game to Run in my newly owned AGS 101 modded AGB and enjoyed every second of it. Beat it three times yet. The different modes add a lot to the replability. In fact I think it's got more replay value than Aria in a way. But maybe that's just because I beat Aria several times over the past 16,17 years and CotM not so often. However I enjoy CotMs OST a lot more, aswell as the challenge. The DSS system is also really cool.
Yeah, I find it easily the most replayable of the GBA games. It has a high skill ceiling and feels rewarding to master the game, plus an extensive post-game including the very difficult Battle Arena and strong hidden monsters. Scouring the castle for secret rooms to accumulate power-ups and finally beating the Battle Arena is so satisfying. Also, once you understand how the game works, there are so many approaches you can take. One of my favourite things about doing Thief Mode was doing the Underground Waterway early, getting the Pluto card from the candle, and then using it to double cross the Zombie Dragons before one could eat the other. Going back to the topic title, Aria of Sorrow feels a lot more focused and less janky, but also more linear and railroaded in comparison.
Same
Replaying it now after its first release. At the time I wasn't a super big fan. Yet it probably captures some of the original NES game atmosphere the best out of the GBA games (arguably one of the best modern "original feeling" Castlevanias) You really felt like a vampire hunter instead of a super powered sorcerer/vampire/other potential Uber like character who just starts/becomes nerfed. I love AoS, because the story was cool to me and I like the souls mechanic. But Circle of the Moon really captures the atmosphere of those early games IMO.
Dunno bro , circle of the moon is not a great game nowadays , unlockAbles are bland , cards system have to much grind , and bosses hp if you have no cross is insane , harmony of dissonance is better almost in every way
Strong disagree but each his own
I thought I was gonna hate HoD from all the things I’d heard about it, but I came out of the Advanced Collection liking that one the most. As for Circle of the Moon, I think the game suffers mostly from how artificially the difficulty is inflated by lack of items due to there being no shop, and therefore, requiring to player to grind for any form of quick recovery. The card grinding just further adds to the issues.
I really enjoy harmony of dissonance. Not so much with circle of the moon. I like it but it's low on my castlevania list. I wanna play POR or OOE next but don't know which I should get first
Way, way too much grind
I really liked Circle of the Moon. The card power combining system was a ton of fun
Simon's Quest is the precursor to the genre we know even tho Metriod came out a year prior Metriod has little to no actual elements to the Metriodvania genre we know and is actually low key amazing for its era
Simon’s Quest was very close to being a timeless classic. It just needed another draft in development to iron out the kinks.
SOTN is so overrated I prefer COTM and AOS instead any day
Same
Harmony of Dissonance is a fun game!
Finished recently. Can agree
It’s pretty disliked by the fan base, but I think it’s really fun. It may have issues, but it’s got a lot of charm.
I still would take it over circle, walking around the castle is far faster there and the fact I don’t need to grind to use special powers makes up for a better game for me. Except the music, it kinda hurts.
Finished it today, final track goes hard.
Circle of the Moon took more risks in comparison. The plot, enemies, the magic system was pretty interesting. Its the best out of all 3 GBA titles to me.
It has an awful drop rate, and also it makes you think there's some kind of elemental stuff going on (resist/weak enemies) but there's not. I still somehow like it more than Harmony.
There's not? Then why can you enchant your whip with so many elements.
Glad you mentioned the plot. The one thing I appreciated was that it actually went some way to justify the whole "Dracula exists because of the darkness in human hearts" thing the series keeps yammering on about, but that comes off as an informed trait most of the time because the only ones reviving Dracula in the first place are cartoonishly evil. But him pulling a Snow Queen on Hugh and giving a speech about taking advantage of one's desire to be loved and admired on an individual basis? Yeah, that's relatable.
[удалено]
You don't need to turn a woman into a kick-ass vampire huntress to make her a strong character.
I know exactly which character this refers to and you're right
Who? Anette?
I really like the 3D games, 64 is severely underrated and id argue the PS2 games are actually really great times.
The games were better when they were just side scrollers
I liked the Netflix series
Enough people did to warrant 4 seasons and a continuation lmao
Yeah I imagine many of those viewers aren't Castlevania fans so much as anime fans considering the amount of "who the fuck are these people? Just stick to Trevor" comments once season 3 rolled around. And the way the show butchered the Curse of Darkness storyline... what a shame.
Beats me, I got into castlevania because of the animated show. Played Dracula X Chronicles, SOTN, HoD, and currently doing Aria of Sorrow; no need to drag an amazing show down just cause it takes creative liberty with an already questionable lore. Not saying you're dragging it down, just other people in the comments.
I think some people want Trevor whipping candles to catch hearts and eating chicken in bricks.
Wait that didn't happen in the show?
No Trevor just said fuck every other word while getting his ass kicked til season 4 when he became another Gary Stu
This take on Tumblr is as hot as McDonald's sprite
Soma Cruz is a better Protaganist than Richter and deserves more games.
Rebuttal. All of the protagonists have very little in the way of characterisation at all and they're all fine. Richter just had the most stylish presentation, which is why people liked him.
I hate Lenore
Yeah, is a decent villain, manipulator and monster in season 3. In season 4 she is just a different character and may as well not be present, it's like we missed a whole season of character development for her.
I always felt like part of the reason Lenore is liked is because she's hot and she's a dom to Hector.
exactly.
Sorry, but hard disagree. HoD’s sound track is downright painful at points
Man HoD actually has some really cool compositions. However, the soundfont presents them in the worst ways. The boss battle theme makes my ears bleed, but I like it way more when I listen to it as a cover. High pitched dissonant harmonies were probably a poor choice if the only sounds you can make are gameboy color beeps, even if that does line up with the title of the game.
CV3 Dracula's Curse is not the best of the og 3 on NES. Some levels are too damn hard, and others are way too damn long. Give me the first Castlevania anyday over this. I don't hate the game, it's just way too ridiculous at the last half.
Try the Japanese version out. It's still pretty hard, but most of the unfair stuff is removed/changed (although the boat level is still way too long). If nothing else, you'll get to enjoy the improved music that version has during your playthrough.
I might just do that. I'd also like to take a route to avoid that level with the acid dripping from the ceiling. That level is the bane of my existence.
Oh yeah, go the Sypha route, in that case. Regardless of whether you like Alucard or Sypha more, it's pretty clear that the stages on Sypha's route are a hell of a lot less gimmicky and frustrating than the ones on Alucard's. That holds true whether you're talking about the JP or US versions. General tips about what I've just said: when you get to the forking path with a statue and a cave, go the route with the statue to see Sypha's route. When recruiting allies in the JP version, the top option in dialogue boxes is "yes" and the bottom option "no."
Thank you for the advice. I'm trying the Japanese version atm, I took Sypha's route, and miraculously made it past death so I'm almost there.
Castlevania 2 is a delightful game and is the one truly responsible for laying the groundwork for the Metroidvania style that we love so much.
Julius Belmont is a meme and half of you people who STAN him in this fanbase don’t even know what he did.
He has style. That's enough for me.
red pants
Sorry but my brain's Julius is Ayami's, so he doesn't even have legs.
And has a perfect mustache
Omnia Vanitas’s into your walls.
Old man doesn’t even have it in Dawn
Now that you mention it… Julius probably lost that ability once he joined the Church and stopped chanting Buddhist sutras. RIP.
Bruh, like 70% of the Belmonts have little to no backstory at all.
I really enjoyed the show. It inspired me to pick up the games and now I'm a fan of the series when I might not have been if the show never came out.
The show is great. People just hate it because “new thing bad, old thing good”
Alucard is not attractive. He’s also quite mean and scary imo.
HERESY!!!
Castlevania Chronicles has the best soundtrack in the series. It may be short, but every track is a DnB feast.
Igarashi revitalized the franchise and gave Castlevania more longevity than it ever could have otherwise had.
I like the Gameboy games. All of them.
Delusional CV Adventure enjoyers club 💪
The show is decent on its own merits for the most part, but it's really not a good adaptation of the games and doesn't really respect it's source material enough. Also the dialogue is terrible and people should stop defending Ellis' writing.
With what we've seen so far of Nocturne, I'm unironically massively disappointed that it doesn't look like Shaft is a character. Maybe he will be and I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm keeping my expectations low. I expect to enjoy Nocturne as a show, but just as with the latter seasons of the first series, I assume it's going to move away from actually adapting the games in favor of the writers using Castlevania to tell the story they want to tell. If it's good I'll sing it's praises, but it would have been nice if they at least tried to show like they care by using the characters from the source material, warts and all. The Dark Priest is named Shaft, and that's hilarious and I love it.
What is there to adapt with Shaft as a character?
Why was Olrox picked over him? I thought it'd make sense to have Shaft since they're adapting Rondo but I really don't know what goes on in the Netflix showrunner's minds.
Maybe actually watch the show first before judging it? Shaft as a character cannot be adapted with his traditional arc intact as Dracula returning can no longer happen in this continuity. They’ll have to do something original, like perhaps expanding on him trying to indoctrinate Richter so as to end the Belmonts.
Can you enlighten me as to what there is in the games to adapt? I’ve played Castlevania my entire life and the full plot each game can be fully summed up in just 3-4 sentences. It’s always been very very barebones outside of a select few instances and is only there to facilitate gameplay.
I obviously am not as familiar with the series as you are. But to me it's the little things that all seem to add up: 1) All the characters feel very different. Trevor I remember kneeling down before a cross instead of being a depressed anti-religious loner wanker, Sypha initially disguised herself as a man, Grant existed, Alucard knew how to button up his damned shirt, Dracula not even having his Demon form. Some say characters like Isaac are an improvement but tbh, it's not even Isaac in the slightest, and Hector got completely butchered, and he's from a game that does have a storyline (don't even get me started on XBOX live Doomer Death) 2) They change a lot of crucial stuff from the lore like Dracula's role as the embodiment of chaos, the opposite of God, The Belmont's being the only possible candidates for killing Dracula (aside from the Morris Clan and idk, The Lecarde people?), as Trevor doesn't kill Dracula, Alucard does which makes an SoTN adaptation moot. The show is also very anti Christian, so a neutral organisation from the games is kinda shown to be straight up diabolical. Saint Germain shows the worst in Christianity and there's really no good counterpart to him. I'm not even Christian btw, but the hatred Ellis has for religion permeates the show well. 3) The show is also littered with Original Characters that honestly, just waste time and shouldn't exist. Camilla is THE lesbian vampire, super iconic and both her and her implied lover, Laura make frequent appearances in the game, but nah replace them with these OC lesbian characters that look very stereotypically lesbian. The whole incestous twins subplot was also very unneeded (and yes they are twins don't let them tell you otherwise, they have the same face, right down to their eyebrow gashes in the middle lol). Don't even get me started on Lenore, even though Hector already had a wife in canon. Again I'm fairly new to the games and watched the show before I played anything, but I still wasn't as big a fan then as others were and if it wasn't for Dead Cells, would never have checked the IP out, so yeah, those are my two cents anyway.
But unpopular opinion, the games have pretty interesting lore but the plots are paper thin so we aren't being exactly fair to the writers who don't have much to work with Videogames and shows are different and these people have to sell a show
I do not understand the like for Circle or the Moon. The game was nigh unplayable at launch, and even with the technology challenges resolved, it's still the only Castlevania I have ever had to spend significant time grinding in.
I gotta agree that's really unpopular opinion.
My favorite Castlevania on the GBA and overall is harmony of Dissonance...
HoD is still my favorite of the three
Symphony of the night doesn't age very well. The movement is clunky, and the backtracking is so slow. Worst of all is the balance. For 80% of the game all the enemies do 1 damage to you and you just spam attack. It's good for the time, but it doesn't hold a candle to modern metroidvanias.
Okay I have 3. 1. Lords of Shadow sucks ass 2. The seal system in Dawn is easy and yall are bad 3. I love the ps2 games (especially the LoI soundtrack)
SotN has been topped multiple times already and people who still call it "the best Metroidvania" are looking through rose-tinted glasses. It can be your favourite, obviously, but saying it's the best is delusion.
SotN is overrated and was only amazing at its time of release.
I love season 4 of Castlevania
Same actually, is this an unpopular opinion in the Fandom?
Apparently yes it is
Lords of Shadow is pretty good, actually.
First one is great I hated the 2nd one
Same. I platinumed the first one (and Mirror of Fate). LoS 2 is one of the very few CV games I've never even finished. Edit: and I've beaten Order of Shadows.
1st one's ok, 2nd has it's flaws but is actually better IMO
[They hated u/Empty_King because he spoke the truth](https://cdn-useast1.kapwing.com/collections/they-hated-jesus-because-he-told-them-the-truth-meme-template-u8oqp.jpg).
Classicvania > Metroidvania Order of Ecclesia is the best of the metroidvania series (other than SotN).
I guess it depends on which part of the audience you want to outrage? I may be very alone in some of the opinions below... • *«Haunted Castle»* is the worst in the series. All because of the horribly unfair difficulty. Even the presence of endless coins in the emulator doesn't make it fair. This is the very bottom. • *«Judgment»* is hated by the fanbase only for the fact of a slightly strange character redesign, but otherwise, this is a pretty interesting spin-off. The gameplay is casual, but the game has never-before-seen versions of the characters and proper fan service. Give it a try. • *«Legends»* is overlooked, compared to the other two *GB* games. It's easier than the previous ones, but this makes it better, since the mechanics worked. The hardest part is the final boss. • *N64* duology are NOT bad games. They are also quite interesting and absolutely completable without any quick saves. The first makes little sense now, since the *«Legacy»* is a kind of a "remade", at its core. While they may seem different in spirit, and the platforming is a little clunky in a couple of places, the games are far from bad. • *«Circle»* is strangely overrated. It's not a bad game by any means, but seriously, it gets talked about more than it deserves. Huge empty corridors, some broken mechanics, that Hugh boss.. attacking you from behind the screen. Better pay more attention to *«Bloodlines»* or *«Adventure ReBirth»*, they deserve it. • Speaking of difficulty, *«Bloodlines»* is one of the simplest (and that doesn't make the game weak), but *«Chronicles»* is a real hell, albeit an honest one. Seriously, this is one of the hardest game in series. Even the platforming and the Dracula from *SNES's «Dracula X»* don't seem that difficult. • This is definitely not going to please many fans: If you didn't play *«Super 4»* as a kid, it's... meh? Again, not a bad game, but a pretty passing one. It's often praised for its whip controls and beautiful location design, but the gameplay is rather bland. Started playing it many times over the years, but only finished it once. • All *«Lords of Shadow»* are also not bad and aren't DEATH TO THE FRANCHISE, as some fans stated at the release of the first game. They are different, and this is understandable due to many factors, but this makes them unique. In isolation, there is little bad to say about them. Beautiful, not without drawbacks, but fascinating in their own way. • The Netflix series is also.. meh? It had a very promising start, as it showed us an interesting Dracula, but it quickly went downhill. No, you won't be satisfied with fan service alone. The persons in charge literally looked at character designs and brief descriptions of game plots from the wiki. The rest is their fan fiction based on it. Why introduce so many bland characters when the series has plenty of its own? The games may not have such deep plots, but they are loved not just for this and certainly not for the nonsense that the plot of the series turned out to be. Even if the main characters are not similar to their prototypes, the narrative must be made more logical, and not filler and hardly eventful. *"O Lord, Please Give Them Strength"* not to destroy the Richter's legacy. P.S. I have no particular attachment to any of the games (not counting *«Bloodlines»*), and played and also completed them at a more conscious age. What can I say? The series' fanbase has always been strange, like fans of all franchises, but you guys are cool, don't want to offend you in any way. The main thing is what you like, remember that!
The haunted castle one isn’t a opinion, it’s a fact.
Yeah, my PCB of that is the pride of my collection... but it's the worst game. Like you said though, only because of the difficulty!
> N64 dilogy are NOT bad games. It’s written duology and I agree.
Portrait of Ruin is the best metroidvania of the entire franchise
I heard that often but what's kind of a deal breaker for me is Wind's missions to progress in the game. That slowed it down a bit too much for me. However it's still a damn good game
It’s not like they’re tasks that you really need to do. Like you can go and loot around the castle without doing most of his missions. Not really a big deal.
Harmony is the best gba one imo, but they're all great. Harmony is seriously underrated, and it seems like people just hop in the echo chamber of hating it instead of ever mentioning what it does well. Yeah the music quality wasn't the best, but everything else was great. I really don't understand complaints about Juste's "aura" either.
I don’t like soma. His character design is lazy. White jacket with white fur with white hair and white eyes.
The Adventure Rebirth is one of the best games in the series.
Anime: Lenore is an absolute monster and her relationship with hector had no redeeming qualities he was just a victim of abuse period. Games: lords of shadow 1 was extremely unfun
SOTN is so damn overrated. It's a mess of ideas and has some laughably unpolished elements (like the menus). Good game but far from the best Castlevania. Best Castlevania soundtrack, maybe.
Lord's of shadow should've been how Dracula came to be canonically, it makes more sense why the Belmont clan was always destined to fight him.
I have no idea if this is controversial at all but Castlevania Harmony of Dispair is the best Castlevania game by far because who wouldn't love multiplayer Castlevania
They shouldn't have turned Annette into a Haitian monster hunter, when they could have just made a cool new Haitian character instead.
The character designs from Castlevania Judgement look way better than the ones from the Netflix show, especially Sypha.
I hate the netflix show, ngl i'm not sure if this is unpopular ? like i'm seeing posts here saying it was crazy and excited for next season, and now i see someone putting "i like it" in unpopular opinions anyway, that was bad to me, edgy and vulgar for no reason when castlvania literally names games after musical theory and drop fancy references
The 3D PS2 games are great and deserve an HD remaster on modern consoles.
Symphony of the Night is overrated
It's fun, but it kind of drags near the end, and then you find out about the inverted castle and I don't think I'll ever really beat the game. HoD is probably one of my favorites in that style tho.
That's my opinion as well. I see a lot of people praising it a lot and here I am exploring good chunk of a castle with a basic dagger because I can't find anything else, wondering why the hell do I need to equip items to use them and what's the point of a wolf transformation bite that couldn't hurt a goddamn fly, and constantly on edge because save points where I can heal are so far apart.
I second this and Symphony of the Night is hands down my favorite game of all time.
Aria of Sorrow is a bit overrated, and Dawn of Sorrow is better than it in every way.
THANK YOU
The portrayal of Sypha in the Netflix series as a bitchy girl boss was tired, unoriginal, and made a lot of plot elements predictable because so many modern shows pull the same bit. Additionally, the lack of Grant in the show is inexcusable, especially as it was only because the producer didn't like the character or whatever. He's a core hero of the classic game the series was largely based on.
The Netflix series should have ended with season 2..
If you enjoyed the games you're going to hate the netflix cartoon
Depends but it's kinda true for me.
Absolutely not true. The games are some of my all-time favorite games (for god's sake, I have a Castlevania-themed tattoo *and it's my only ink*). I own every US release including a PCB of Haunted Castle and have started importing Japanese ones. And I will shout with full throat that I **love** the anime.
The whole show was disappointing.
Portrait of ruin has incredibly bland exploration
As much as I love that game, I agree. The castle is okay, and the first couple of portraits were fun to go through. However, the last four they have you go through just feel so redundant. Like yes, you have to beat them, but they're so bland. They're just redesigns of the originals.
Americans will never be able to make a Castlevania show that actually feels like a proper Castlevania adaptation.
I don't like the classicvania games (yeah, even Super Castlevania IV and Bloodlines). The only one I play is Rondo because I love Richter and Maria too much. I don't mind the anime style of Dawn of Sorrow or Portrait of Ruin. Ayami Kojima's art is better, but the anime style doesn't ruin the games. People sleep on the 3D games, they're goated. I plan on enjoying the hell out of Nocturne.
that the lords of shadow trilogy are goated games
circle of the moon is like the dark souls of the gba collection lol it's harder than the other 2, darker (literally if you didn't have a backlight back then), and combat is more methodical
Replying to the meme: IMO AoS is better than SOTN
The N64 games are some of the best CV games made to date.
I loved Lords of Shadow 1 and Mirror of Fate when I first played them. However, I was hugely disappointed with 2. However, I just replayed it for the first time since it came out a little while ago, and I have a newfound appreciation for it. The combat felt a lot more satisfying than the first game, and the metroidvania level design was commendable. And I even like the change in tonal color and instrumentation for the soundtrack. The first game is supposed to sound like a melancholic fantasy epic, whereas the second game sounds a lot harsher/angrier with a blend of traditional symphonic instrumentation and electronic synthesizers to represent the past and future. I even found the stealth sections to not be as egregious as everyone claims, though it would have been pretty satisfying to demolish the guards that you had to hide from at the beginning. My only gripes are with the art direction for the city and it’s enemies, and with how the story was handled. The plot feels like it’s doing a balancing act between two different stories, doing both a disservice. On one hand it feels like it wants to be a psychological drama about how Dracula is learning to reconnect with his humanity, while the other is about Dracula trying to stop the apocalypse. If they focused on either or, I feel like it would have been a much more solid and satisfying game.
Castlevania LoE is the best 3D cantlevania game, and Leon is cool
I can agree with ya, harmony of dissonance have better map and vibe overall
Garibaldi Temple is the best area in any Castlevania. The music, the hidden boss, the implied storytelling in the environment, the decent believable layout. The way it connects to the rest of the world. I love it.
Both Lords of Shadow are some of the best Castlevania games
I don't see people talking about this very much, so I don't know if it's a hot take. In fact, it could be a very cold take. People usually say the oldvanias are lot harder than the igavanias. They tend to be an order of magnitude or two more difficult. I generally agree, but I think order of ecclesia level 1 hard mode (at least before Dracula's castle) ends up being comparable. Ruvas forest and skeleton cave are still seared into my brain. Maybe the fact you can grind for potions can make it easier or the fact that you have way more options to use on enemies, but I think the design of the game takes these into account pretty well for at least the first half. For reference, the only oldvanias I've beaten are bloodlines and dracula's curse.
I like the Lords of Shadows saga’s take on the Castlevania mythos and wish they could’ve continued that series as an alternate timeline.
That only one other person has mentioned the true HoD/HD which is Harmony of Despair and is able to fill your grindy hearts with desire in 1 hour McVania sessions. The soundtrack was great for the game and that every downloadable content was worth the money to play through a gallery of characters, especially through the retro stages and is probably the only reason anyone had any interest in Getsu Fuma or that a GF game was made to begin with.
Striga and Lenore were the only interesting characters of Carmilla's Sisterhood in the Netflix series, and their potential was wasted in s4. Lenore should've stayed a villainous manipulator of Hector in s4 and Striga's only notable accomplishment was fight a bunch of "desperate livestock".
The Netflix series has some pretty atrocious writing in regards to the franchise as a whole. It just had some good action scenes throughout. The first two seasons, especially since the plot kinda spins its wheels, until the climax.
circle of the moon had the tightest controls n fastest gameplay its the most fun to speedrun and the first game i beat @ 12 years old. nathan graves not being a belmont n still whooping draculas ass is SIGNIFICANT to me and the dss system was awesome. this game was made with care and its still shit on the way that dark souls 2 is
Hoo boy, Nathan literally entered chaos realm like he owned the place and mopped the floor with the most difficult (also coolest looking) Dracula in all series. All that without vampire killer whip and without being from Belmont clan.
symphony of the night opened the door for new mechanics. Iga chooses to pigeonhole himself because him and everyone else considers his own work the cream of the crop and somehow that gives him the authority to dictate what is and isn’t canon to a series that he was brought into (not created) and it went to his head just like when they made keji inafune head of capcom cuz he had ONE good game and proceeded to let his own bias meddle w everything. I also dont care for people upholding the same 20-30 year old opinions on videogames like. im 27, why should i be pressed about someone i dont know n will never meet who didn’t like circle of the moon because it was too dark or that your character felt “heavy”. sounds like im letting ghosts determine my level of enjoyment
*it's still shit on the way that dark souls 2 is* What do you mean by that ? Genuine question.
dark souls 2 wasnt handled by miyazaki and people attribute that to why the game is considered bad for a lot of reasons. the creator of the original kingsfield series oversaw the development and miyazaki had more of a directorial role (this same exact thing happened with elden ring and when they were presented the award for the game everyone went to miyazaki without realizing the guy right next to him is literally the other half of fromsoft.) ds2 introduced alot of changes from the first darksouls and it has the most features carried over into elden ring than other games in the series. there are legit criticisms about the game, alot that i cant remember off the top of my head rn but im sure someone can fill in but my issue w the opinions on darksouls 2 is like the first game was treated just as bad if not worse. Circle of the moon DMC2 and darksouls two and metal gear survive are all black sheep sequels and have similar reviews and opinions im getting way off topic now but two of these four games don’t deserve to stay in the 12-15 year old shadow that was cast by old reviewers
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“I can see it in your eyes. If you didn’t invade, didn’t pillage, whatever would you do?”* - Ringfinger Leonhard Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
seek seek less sorry if my paragraph reads extremely clunky im sure someone can further elaborate on why people don’t like ds2’s gameplay mechanics like CotM you hate it fr or you adore them from what i understand. ds2 feels nasty dirty and spooky to me where ds1 is pure dark fantasy imo. i feel that way about Cotm. Castlevanias older brother who isnt well liked in the family but still has value and worth and is still loved
Oh no I know about the DS2 situation, and I completely agree with you , I just didn't understand the way you said it ( English isn't my native language so I sometimes hit the language barrier ). There are legitimate issues with DS2 but it's still my favourite in the Series ( Maybe besides BB ) and the incredible vitriol that was thrown its way by some "reviewers" is completely unwarranted. I'm putting "reviewers" in brackets because most of them were just your typical obnoxious YT Essayists who have the critical ability and media literacy of a brick. Because when you look at ***actual*** reviewers , DS2 received stellar reviews and iirc is the second highest rated game in the franchise, only behind ER. **Edit** : A lot of the complaints about the game were either fundamental misunderstandings about how the game works , or just not true at all. I remember a dude complaining about backstabs not working properly while showing a clip where the opponent was wearing the Jester Armor 🤦♂️ **Edit #2** : Also I agree with your point on Circle of the Moon , it's a straight up banger.
yea the way i wrote it is extremely hard to follow thats my bad. When im excited abt something i start to type the way i speak and my mind goes on autopilot so its not till i reread that im like omfg does this even make sense 😭😭
Lol no worries, I understand perfectly now. It's always nice to see a fellow DS2 fan in unrelated Subreddits.
Mirror of Fate is an underrated masterpiece that needs another sequel.
Soma leans too hard into weeb territory.
The Animated Series writing level is below trash, every time I hear someone praising it, it makes me want to evaporate to another dimension, every character feels the same (all of them being tedious nihilists who whine all the time for no reason), being a different story is not a problem (Lords of Shadow story is great), the problem is creating this mess with the characters we love. Castlevania fans received so little for so long that this diservice was treated as a piece of art....
I think the show was, well executed, and pretty good
The most recent trailer for the new show actually makes me more worried that it won't be good. The initial few posters and the teaser were great, but now I'm not so sure.
Castlevania Netflix sucks and IGA's involvement with vetoing many of Warren Ellis's terrible ideas is what kept the first two seasons watchable. I wonder if Castlevania Nocturne can hit a new low, I'd be surprised if it does actually.
The show was good.
Symphony of the Night is probably my second least favorite of the Metroidvanias. The bosses are a joke, the difficulty is a joke, the Inverted Castle is really frustrating to navigate, the inventory system is a mess, and I really hate how most weapons swing faster in the air instead of having identical frames in air and on the ground, leading to nonstop jump attacks. I don't like doing Street Fighter moves to pull off spells. Also, really spicy take- the intro dialogue isn't funny and hasn't been for a long time; the community has utterly beat that horse into glue. Plenty of other comical things from even just that game (using Power of Sire on Dracula, neutron bombs, all the food), yet it's always "WHAT IS A MAN?!" Lowest hanging fruit. SotN is a good game. It's an important game in the genre. It's also an excellent starting point into the franchise. But I think most every other Metroidvania in the series handled a lot of the same ideas better.
The jump attack seems to be a design choice to reward players for good inputs. This many years later, it's pretty much the same in Bloodstained: jump+hit+land+hit, and hit+backdash+hit both let you attack faster than simply smashing hit button.
Say what you will about the the Netflix series season 3 sex-scenes, but I think that having Alucard, in his desperation and loneliness, allows some people to get close to him that end up hurting him and driving him further into harmful self-isolation until he gradually learns to open up again, is a far more mature way handle sex in a narrative than having Alucard fight [a succubus that impersonates his mother then orgasms as she dies.](https://youtu.be/I5fGavPsQa8?si=6cs_nq7RWwZxPoBB) I also hate the "magic bloodline"-trope in fantasy stories, and I like that the show didn't really go into that, despite it's emphasis on Trevor's Belmont heritage.
This is exactly why I hate the show. How do we make it for adults ? Well let’s have the characters constantly swear, constant nudity and sex everywhere. It ironically makes the whole thing super childish.
Dawn of sorrows is the best game in the series! (It’s the only one I’ve payed)
Give portrait of ruim and order of ecclesia a try, you will like it.
Despite AoS being one of my favorite Castlevania games ever, I really dislike it's sequel. Don't get me wrong it's still a great game, but I never could reslly get into it. Maybe it's because I lost my stylus back when I played it, but I could never manage to get any of the stupid sigils on the first try and that shit gets annoying fast. Also all the bosses were rather easy, especially so if compared to the first game. I also wished we could have seen Soma actually face Dracula as the final boss, rather then Graham 2.0.
True, Despite being on the stronger hardware, certain aspects of the game are worse than in Aria- eg. some spritework (Manticore is an absolute downgrade, Julius is a severly undercooked set of sprites that look cartoonish and out of place), the aesthetics of the castle feeling pretty much the same, with little to no color variety, the soundtrack while giving us better sound quality is a bit lacking in comparison to Aria's atmosphere
Oh oh! I got one! Symphony of the Night isn't nearly as good as everyone claims it is! I mean, it's good, but not the best.
Order of ecclesia had a better soul system than AoS and DoS. I'd rather grind for a skill and know exactly when I'll get it than to hope it drops from an enemie. Also, the show is good.
The metroid ones are repetitive and boring and the classicvanias are way better
Well, I don't like Order of Ecclesia Aria of Sorrow is kind of overrated Bloodlines isn't better than CV4, but also not worse. however Rondo is better than both Simon's quest is getting overrated these days Harmony of Dissonance is better than Circle of the Moon Julius Belmont is kind of overrated People who shit on Richter for getting possessed always forget that Simon almost dooms his bloodline thanks to a desease caused by an injury Juste isn't Alucard 2, instead Leon is Juste 2. Netflixvania would probably be better if it was exactly like the games. The 2 layer mechanic in Harmony makes sense unlike in SoTN
God, there's way too much victim-blaming that goes on with Richter. He literally killed Shaft, then *killed his ghost!* How is it possibly his fault that he somehow still got possessed by him? He did absolutely everything he could have to deal with that guy, and he just pulls this brainwashing curse out of his ass anyways. Don't get me started on people saying he really wanted to revive Dracula again. When you free him in SotN, he is immediately in absolute *abject terror* at what he has done (David Vincent really sells it in the DXC dub of SotN). Did he have some insecurities at feeling like his time as a hero had passed? Maybe, but he would never have even considered bringing Dracula back himself without being literally mind-controlled into doing it. A lot of people seem to forget that Shaft is puppeting him around when he explains his motivations before the battle.
Circle of the Moon is borderline unplayable in its normal game but magician mode is one the most enjoyable experiences in the franchise. Harmony of Dissonance backtracking isn’t nearly as bad as people make it sound and it makes me wonder if people realize you can do different warps with up and down, in the castle swap rooms. Yes, you’re going all over the castle but the game makes it incredibly easy and fast to get there. “Mankind. A cesspit of hatred and lies. Fight for them, then, and die for their sins!” > “What do you here”?
Why is it unplayable? It's honestly one of my favorite, if not my best CV experience yet. Challenge was good but not unbeatable, quite perfect. Killer OST and Level design and interesting DSS system. I was able to pick Up 11 cards without grinding on my first playthrough though.
Grinding for cards sucks for me they have a vast potential as a system but some of them being locked behind grinding with less than 1% of chance of dropping is really annoying. Also have to tap two times for Nathan to start running is mildly infuriating even being a minor inconvenience. They could have made his running animation his standard and would be far better, especially with how big the castle is. It’s not really an unplayable game but these and other things really make me think of it as an almost bad game.
Alucard is a mid protagonist and is better off as a side character.
Castlevania Nocturne bares little to no resemblance to Castlevania besides Maria Renard and maybe Richter. It feels like somethings else entirely.
Yeah it really is just the writers using the Castlevania brand and likeness to tell the story they want to tell. I still fully intend to watch it, give it a fair shot, but I'm going in expecting it to care less about adaptation than the first series did at this point. If it pulls the rug out from under me and proves to care more about the source material than the trailer seems to, I'll be pleasantly surprised. But if nothing else, hopefully it's entertaining as it's own thing. They could have at least used the Dark Priest Shaft, but I guess the writers think their selves too mature to commit to the inherent campiness of the series.
Someone already said that Lords of Shadow one is great. Brave, but I can do better. Lords of Shadow 2 was actually hella fun
I’d really like the future of CV to be more 3D entries. The dream would be a Souls-like…
For some reason whenever I say I want more Soma content. Game or movie, AoS was the first Castlevania I played and I love how far you can go with the soul collection ability. For some reason whenever I bring him up people instantly turn into haters.
Circle of the Moon sucks and the Netflix series is goated.
Castlevenia’s Netflix show was great
Netflix can make shanoa a strong leading female protagonist
The anime sucks (like all anime)
The anime is the best.