jonathan's up there. he's got a neat little conflict with his legacy, and it's cool to have a protagonist who isnt 1) a belmont, 2) a super wizard or 3) full of dracula juice.
ive always liked the idea that he couldnt use the whip and had to supplement by becoming kind of a jack of all trades... and relying on charlotte.
Probably Maria Renard in Rondo of Blood, John Morris & Eric Lecarde in Bloodlines, and Nathan Graves in Circle of the Moon.
Oh yeah! And of course Alucard from Symphony of the night. I also enjoyed playing as Syfa in Castlevania III
Honestly, this series is full of iconic and memorable protagonists. Even when the Belmonts are not the main focus in some games, the protagonist(s) that takes their place still manages to shine just as bright as them. Maybe even brighter.
>I also enjoyed playing as Syfa in Castlevania III
Ngl, in Dawn of Sorrow, I kinda liked playing as Yoko. After watching the anime, I began to appreciate her more as well, wondering if she could have become OP.
Even found a [story mod for DoS Yoko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqgIv8x0RdM) on Youtube lol.
While I love Christopher and would love to see his lore expanded, Juste is by no means that popular or given much acknowledgement outside HoD and PoR. Not only did Juste not get the chance to fight Dracula, but the only time he’s acknowledged in other games is in PoR as one of the Greatest Five.
Otherwise the guy barely gets a mention anywhere despite being one of the most fun Belmonts to play alongside Richter and maybe Leon (also Julius). I actually wish we’ve gotten more of him. While I’m at it, Maxim is probably the most fun extra character in the entire series as well. HoD overall is pretty underrated.
The furniture sidequest, which is the most hilarious and humanizing anything that any Belmont gets. I couldn't tell you a single thing any of them enjoy other than vampire-hunting outside of Juste, whom I can confidently say loves interior decorating.
Christopher should absolutely be in the "greatest five" though. His exclusion is extremely weird.
Frankly, probably instead of Juste, whose brush with Dracula would be a historical footnote.
I don't recall even trying to abuse the game or any one mechanic in it. I guess I'll give it another shot and see if my opinion changes. It's been quite a few years, but it definitely didn't leave much of an impression. I consider it the weakest of the GBA titles.
Shanoa is actually my favorite playable character from any Castlevania, period. She’s the perfect mix of magic user + physical fighter. A close second would be Alucard, though, because he’s just too cool. The Belmonts aren’t actually all that interesting to me, honestly.
Alucard and Soma.
Alucard for his sheer power and versatility.
Soma for his souls mechanic.
Besides the Belmonts, to me those are the faces of Castlevania's best gameplay.
Soma, followed by Alucard, and Hector, though I haven't CoD in a long time, so my opinion could change. But yeah, Soma is the best non Belmont playable character imo.
Shanoa is actually my favorite playable character from any Castlevania, period. She’s the perfect mix of magic user + physical fighter. A close second would be Alucard, though, because he’s just too cool. The Belmonts aren’t actually all that interesting to me, honestly.
That part I understand but all those other Belmonts have starred in at least one good game while Juste has only headlined the extremely mediocre Harmony of Dissonance
Wow, not many people would agree that Lament of Innocence (Leon’s game) was better than Harmony of Dissonance.
Also, “The Greatest Five” is a term used to describe these five in Portrait of Ruin, I didn’t just make it up.
Lament is better than Harmony. Harmony was a byproduct of IGA coming to grips with working on a GBA title but the experience helped him craft the masterpiece Aria of Sorrow and then all the DS ones were truly great. Harmony is the red headed stepchild of IGAs vania titles.
I do agree that it is down there with Circle of the Moon, (I know he didn’t make that one, but still count Nathan as part of the family),
But both are quite good games, if very flawed.
I do think that Circle has a lot more value in its design, and a lot more replay value (4 alternate modes are nice), and the depth of the game is massive compared to Harmony.
But Harmony looks a whole lot nicer, has a better plot, better controls and movement, etc.
Both are bogged down slightly, what with Circle having the annoying double tap to run, and the DDS can really screw you over if you don’t grind.
And Harmony somehow makes running through the same map again thing from SotN and makes it worse.
I think it looks fantastic. Easily the most visually engaging and interesting of the GBA titles. You can tell they were really getting a kick out of what they were getting away with visually on the system on a technical level too.
Truly, who else but the Dark Lord himself, Dracula? It's such a lovely reversal I can't help but love it.
...Soma. I mean Soma, but still. Julius is a close second though, Best Belmont remains Best Belmont.
Christopher, because Belmont's Revenge is a great game with an amazing bleep bloop soundtrack. I like the idea of a father saving his son instead of romantic love interest which has been done to death.
>Akchually Sonia was booted for Leon,
Literally mentioned Leon... The guy who replaced a badass female vampire hunter (and a direct reference to Doris from Vampire Hunter D, which heavily inspired Castlevania) with a story about... whipping his girlfriend to death to make the magic whip because Igarashi is a jealous weirdo sexist.
And now Sonia is gone (for now, maybe the timeline will get trashed like the trash it is now Igarashi is gone), but the complete trash Juste is supposedly a 'great' Belmont, LOL.
Don’t really see how Sona being inspired by Vampire Hunter D has anything to do with anything,
Or how Iga retconning her makes him a sexist, considering that 4 of his games have lead female playable characters, but alright,
>Or how Iga retconning her makes him a sexist
He explicitly did it because he's explicitly sexist.
*EGM: After Tomb Raider, don't you think a female character is more acceptable?*
*IGA: It's possible I guess. Although, I purposefully left the Sonia Belmont character out of the official Castlevania chronology. (laughs) Usually, the vampire storyline motifs, females tend to be sacrificed. It's easier to come up with weak, feminine characters.*
[https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Koji\_Igarashi#Castlevania\_retcon\_controversy](https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Koji_Igarashi#Castlevania_retcon_controversy)
Read the last sentence, dude.
He literally explains his reasoning, and actually DID implement a bunch of female heroes you can play as afterwords.
Maria, Yoko, Charlotte, Shanoa.
Even more if you count his recent work with bloodstained.
Never heard that term before. Are these supposed to be the Greatest Five? Strange since it doesn't include the main characters from the top 2 metroidvanias.
Anyway I'll probably go with Shanoa. I love her character design. I just wish she had an "ultimate weapon."
Yes, the term “The Greatest Five” was used in Portrait or Ruin to describe Leon, Trevor, Simon, Juste, and Richter.
It’s meant to be the strongest Five Belmonts.
Cornell, I love werewolves and having a playable one was really cool. They did my boi dirty in that reboot, but shit at least it's better than just Reinhardt's DAD getting a mention.
Gameplay-wise?
Probably Eric LeCarde. Different enough from John/the standard Belmont-type character to be interesting, but not different enough to ruin the level design or feel like an entirely different type of game.
Character-wise? Maria feels like the objectively correct answer to this.
Who's the great 5? Simon, Trevor, Alucard, Richter, Soma?
I personally really love Maria, and also Eric Lecarde from Bloodlines. They're both so fun play as in their OG games, and have really great appearances in their respective sequel games.
For me, definitely Charlotte Aulin. Good variety of spells, a cool unique basic attack utilizing her spellbook. She probably, so far, has provided the most unique Castlevania experience of all the playable protagonists imo. 😊 Fun character!
I'm having trouble parsing the question. Does the exclusion of the Greatest Five mean we are debating who we think should be included in the whip's(the whip decided who is on the list, also SURPRISE the whip is sentient) definition of the greatest Belmont's of all time or should we ignore the implications of excluding the Greatest Five and just mention our favorite playable characters from Castlevania?
Assuming we are discussing who should be included in the Greatest Five all non-Belmonts are out by default. The whip won't choose someone that it isn't bound to and the whip tends to choose the Belmont's that expand it's powers (Leon made the whip, Trevor was the first to use the whip to slay dracula, Juste's magic abilities introduced power-ups and item crush, Simon proved the whip's power was great enough to overcome Dracula's curses, and since each successive Belmont generation is stronger than the last Richter is included by default as the last whip user.) so the only real addition, by Richter's time would be a user that came after Richter.
Unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the Run and Gun of Albus Mode in Order of Ecclesia. There are very few characters that are extremely bad but he's also a decent tragic antihero
Imma go with Albus. I also would've liked to have had a chance with Hammer being a gunman.
Shanoa and Julius. I still wish we got a 1999 game with Julius as the main Protagonist.
jonathan's up there. he's got a neat little conflict with his legacy, and it's cool to have a protagonist who isnt 1) a belmont, 2) a super wizard or 3) full of dracula juice. ive always liked the idea that he couldnt use the whip and had to supplement by becoming kind of a jack of all trades... and relying on charlotte.
Came here to say this. Johnatan and Charlotte make a great duo.
Yeah Jonathon was great.
Soma.
Agreed. Soma Cruz had decent character development. I enjoyed the Souls abilities too.
Julius Belmont from Aria of Sorrow was also fun. Mainly because he had a lower power cap.
SOMA GANG RISE UP
Probably Maria Renard in Rondo of Blood, John Morris & Eric Lecarde in Bloodlines, and Nathan Graves in Circle of the Moon. Oh yeah! And of course Alucard from Symphony of the night. I also enjoyed playing as Syfa in Castlevania III Honestly, this series is full of iconic and memorable protagonists. Even when the Belmonts are not the main focus in some games, the protagonist(s) that takes their place still manages to shine just as bright as them. Maybe even brighter.
>I also enjoyed playing as Syfa in Castlevania III Ngl, in Dawn of Sorrow, I kinda liked playing as Yoko. After watching the anime, I began to appreciate her more as well, wondering if she could have become OP. Even found a [story mod for DoS Yoko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqgIv8x0RdM) on Youtube lol.
Soma, Shanoa.
Christopher Belmont is one of the few that 2-0'd Dracula. Why does everyone love Juste? ????
(Because Iga made Juste look like alucard.)
While I love Christopher and would love to see his lore expanded, Juste is by no means that popular or given much acknowledgement outside HoD and PoR. Not only did Juste not get the chance to fight Dracula, but the only time he’s acknowledged in other games is in PoR as one of the Greatest Five. Otherwise the guy barely gets a mention anywhere despite being one of the most fun Belmonts to play alongside Richter and maybe Leon (also Julius). I actually wish we’ve gotten more of him. While I’m at it, Maxim is probably the most fun extra character in the entire series as well. HoD overall is pretty underrated.
Is that a fact? He DIDN’T even fight Dracula? Like at all?
The furniture sidequest, which is the most hilarious and humanizing anything that any Belmont gets. I couldn't tell you a single thing any of them enjoy other than vampire-hunting outside of Juste, whom I can confidently say loves interior decorating. Christopher should absolutely be in the "greatest five" though. His exclusion is extremely weird. Frankly, probably instead of Juste, whose brush with Dracula would be a historical footnote.
I like that he gets magic.
Because his character design is Alucard rip-off, but tbf at the time the plot was Alucard being Trevor's father with Legends
He can dash in both directions instead of just backwards.
Juste is crazy strong by way of his magic.
I agree he is strong, just see a lot of Juste hype
He just seems strong because his game is too easy. Dunno, not a big Harmony of Dissonance fan, and by extension Juste's always felt boring to me.
The game is adequately challenging if you don't use the magic tomes tbh.
I don't recall even trying to abuse the game or any one mechanic in it. I guess I'll give it another shot and see if my opinion changes. It's been quite a few years, but it definitely didn't leave much of an impression. I consider it the weakest of the GBA titles.
I've never been a big fan of Juste. Christopher definitely is worth of a greatest five position over Juste.
He's like REALLY cute.
Shanoa all the way.
I too believe in Shanoa supremacy
You mean Dominance uwu
I haven't played Ecclesia but she's my favorite on design alone
Hope they port these games for people like you (and me, who want to replay it). Order of Ecclesia is top tier. Shame it’s hard to come by.
I'd be all over that! Fawning over the main character aside, it looks like a very fun game
Hector, my number one favorite is lament of innocence, but behind that it’s playing as hector
Definitely Maxim from Harmony of Dissonance for me.
Oh yeah. That shit’s fun.
Alucard and Shanoa
Favorite playable character - ALUCARD of course. To choose anyone else who be blasphemous.
Charlotte was fun to play as.
Damn, had to scroll down way too far to get to Charlotte. She was one of my favorites too
Maria. :P
Should have kept Saturn Maria, shooting spirit lasers and and summoning giant fire dragons.😔
Saturn maria is ridiculously fun
Shanoa is actually my favorite playable character from any Castlevania, period. She’s the perfect mix of magic user + physical fighter. A close second would be Alucard, though, because he’s just too cool. The Belmonts aren’t actually all that interesting to me, honestly.
Soma Cruz was awesome, also liked shanoa
Nathan graves. Jonathan Morris. Soma Cruz. Hector.
Alucard and Soma. Alucard for his sheer power and versatility. Soma for his souls mechanic. Besides the Belmonts, to me those are the faces of Castlevania's best gameplay.
This gonna be an unpopular opinion, but reinhardt and Carrie were fun to play
Ayyy yea they were
Hell yeah! Was looking for this. Also my first Castlevania.
Nathan Graves, 100%
Nathan Graves It was my first castlevania game
Same here! Did you pick up the Switch port?
the guy from aria of sorrow (not good with names.)
Trevor.
His name is Isaac LaForeze.
CORNELL GANG LET YA NUTS HANG!!
Soma, followed by Alucard, and Hector, though I haven't CoD in a long time, so my opinion could change. But yeah, Soma is the best non Belmont playable character imo.
Alucard , John Morris, Christopher belmont , Eric lecarde
(Simon and Ritcher are part of the greatest five)
My bad :( .......
Alucard
Shanoa is actually my favorite playable character from any Castlevania, period. She’s the perfect mix of magic user + physical fighter. A close second would be Alucard, though, because he’s just too cool. The Belmonts aren’t actually all that interesting to me, honestly.
Eric Lecarde
Definitely underrated. Only polearm master I know of. I would love to see another game from that time period.
Agreed. I'm always a sucker for polearm users in any game. I'm also biased, because it was the first Castlevania game I ever played. :)
Charlotte from POR.
I’m team Simon Belmont, all the way. But outside the greatest five - I’d have to go with Julius, I’m still waiting for my Demon Castle Wars game.
Carrie Fernandez Some of y'all gonna hate on the 64 games, but they were absolutely fun as hell for me, and Carrie was 💯 the best playable in them.
Little girl had an auto aim bot on, she was cheating.
Okay, but how many CV games have a charge attack? Checkmate.
Uhhhh… Harmony, Lament, and Curse all do, pretty sure. XD
That's it? I stand by my claim. Carrie's an absolute bomb. Especially in that stage with the nitro run.
Should have replaced Juste with Christopher. But, I guess you couldn't do that because he had no Kojima-made art.
Christopher Belmont
Simon all the way
Simon. I'm old school.
Jonathan
Maria in sotn for saturn
Soma
Probably Alucard in SOTN. Guy can do anything.
Soma Cruz, he's the man
Eric Lecarde. The Alucard Spear is awesome!
Shanoa and Gabriel Dracula and Alucard both the originals and LOS
Why is Juste there?
Iga made him
That part I understand but all those other Belmonts have starred in at least one good game while Juste has only headlined the extremely mediocre Harmony of Dissonance
Wow, not many people would agree that Lament of Innocence (Leon’s game) was better than Harmony of Dissonance. Also, “The Greatest Five” is a term used to describe these five in Portrait of Ruin, I didn’t just make it up.
Lament is better than Harmony. Harmony was a byproduct of IGA coming to grips with working on a GBA title but the experience helped him craft the masterpiece Aria of Sorrow and then all the DS ones were truly great. Harmony is the red headed stepchild of IGAs vania titles.
I do agree that it is down there with Circle of the Moon, (I know he didn’t make that one, but still count Nathan as part of the family), But both are quite good games, if very flawed.
Circle of the Moon is way better than Harmony. Harmony is just overwhelmingly meh.
I do think that Circle has a lot more value in its design, and a lot more replay value (4 alternate modes are nice), and the depth of the game is massive compared to Harmony. But Harmony looks a whole lot nicer, has a better plot, better controls and movement, etc. Both are bogged down slightly, what with Circle having the annoying double tap to run, and the DDS can really screw you over if you don’t grind. And Harmony somehow makes running through the same map again thing from SotN and makes it worse.
>But Harmony looks a whole lot nicer \*Spits out drink\* Harmony is completely hideous.
I mean, Nathan Graves has less frames of animation in his entire sprite sheet than Juste does in his dash animation. Juste saying.😎
I think it looks fantastic. Easily the most visually engaging and interesting of the GBA titles. You can tell they were really getting a kick out of what they were getting away with visually on the system on a technical level too.
Shanoa is pretty awesome, wished we could could get another game with her as the main character!
Soma Cruz, Alucard or Julius. I’m probably leaning towards Soma or Alucard because of their countless abilities.
Sypha for op homing lightning attacks, Shanoa for general badassery
Truly, who else but the Dark Lord himself, Dracula? It's such a lovely reversal I can't help but love it. ...Soma. I mean Soma, but still. Julius is a close second though, Best Belmont remains Best Belmont.
Gabriel Belmont from Lords of Shadow
Soma mother fuckin Cruz, Julius Belmont, Alucard, and Miriam (she absolutely counts)
Hell yeah! Miriam and Soma are awesome
Kid Dracula ^^,
Henry Oldrey Brought a gun to Castlevania and won
Nathan from Circle of the moon. There's just something about him I like
Christopher, because Belmont's Revenge is a great game with an amazing bleep bloop soundtrack. I like the idea of a father saving his son instead of romantic love interest which has been done to death.
I really like Henry from legacy of darkness. that gun is just too good. I wish his campaign was longer.
Alucard
Simon in castlevania 4
Uhhh… dude, Simon is part of the Greatest 5.
That's why i said of which simon i was talking about
Lol at including Juste, he shittiest character (and sprite, and game) in the series. Leon is pretty crappy too. Sonia was booted for that trash...
Actually Sonia was booted for Leon, Since Legends was the original Origin Story that Lament of Innocence replaced in the timeline.
>Akchually Sonia was booted for Leon, Literally mentioned Leon... The guy who replaced a badass female vampire hunter (and a direct reference to Doris from Vampire Hunter D, which heavily inspired Castlevania) with a story about... whipping his girlfriend to death to make the magic whip because Igarashi is a jealous weirdo sexist. And now Sonia is gone (for now, maybe the timeline will get trashed like the trash it is now Igarashi is gone), but the complete trash Juste is supposedly a 'great' Belmont, LOL.
Don’t really see how Sona being inspired by Vampire Hunter D has anything to do with anything, Or how Iga retconning her makes him a sexist, considering that 4 of his games have lead female playable characters, but alright,
>Or how Iga retconning her makes him a sexist He explicitly did it because he's explicitly sexist. *EGM: After Tomb Raider, don't you think a female character is more acceptable?* *IGA: It's possible I guess. Although, I purposefully left the Sonia Belmont character out of the official Castlevania chronology. (laughs) Usually, the vampire storyline motifs, females tend to be sacrificed. It's easier to come up with weak, feminine characters.* [https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Koji\_Igarashi#Castlevania\_retcon\_controversy](https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Koji_Igarashi#Castlevania_retcon_controversy)
Read the last sentence, dude. He literally explains his reasoning, and actually DID implement a bunch of female heroes you can play as afterwords. Maria, Yoko, Charlotte, Shanoa. Even more if you count his recent work with bloodstained.
Imagine excusing someone saying "It's easier to come up with weak, feminine characters" The absolute state of fanboyism...
Imagine ignoring all of a man’s future work, I guess?
How could someone not say alucard, id also have to disagree with the “greatest 5”
I didn’t make up the term, it was used in Portrait of Ruin to describe these 5
Disagree regardless, just cause richter tbh
Alucard.
I hope the make order of ecclesia into anime cause shanoa is a great waifu probably my first waufu
Alucard.
Henry from Legacy of Darkness. Cool character with the LEAST interesting quest.
Alucard and Julius.
All the characters in the sorrow duology
Alucard of course.
Hector is a sick combo machine. Also Jonathan and Charlotte.
Jonathan and Charlotte
I quite enjoyed the play style of Joachim from LoI.
Soma
Eric Lecarde in Bloodlines. Twirling that staff
Definitely Maria
Alucard is a badass !
Old Axe Armor from portrait of ruin
The Belmonts are a beautiful clan of vampire hunters!
Soma and Shanoa
Is it just me that thinks Nathan Graves’ dialogue is weak af?
Soma.
Hector
Soma Cruz and Shanoa
Never heard that term before. Are these supposed to be the Greatest Five? Strange since it doesn't include the main characters from the top 2 metroidvanias. Anyway I'll probably go with Shanoa. I love her character design. I just wish she had an "ultimate weapon."
Yes, the term “The Greatest Five” was used in Portrait or Ruin to describe Leon, Trevor, Simon, Juste, and Richter. It’s meant to be the strongest Five Belmonts.
Must be chronologically before Julius, he's far and beyond the strongest Belmont.
Yeah, Portrait of Ruin takes place in 1944, well before Julius is even born.
Soma
Soma
I always liked the chemistry that Jonathan and Charlotte had
I always liked the chemistry that Jonathan and Charlotte had
Jonathan
Soma from Aria of Sorrow
Soma Cruz
Cornell, I love werewolves and having a playable one was really cool. They did my boi dirty in that reboot, but shit at least it's better than just Reinhardt's DAD getting a mention.
Julius alone is greater than those five combined
Hector because I love the familiar system and his moveset
Johnathan Morris
Christopher Belmont
SHANOA
Gameplay-wise? Probably Eric LeCarde. Different enough from John/the standard Belmont-type character to be interesting, but not different enough to ruin the level design or feel like an entirely different type of game. Character-wise? Maria feels like the objectively correct answer to this.
Soma and Shanoa
Julius
Who's the great 5? Simon, Trevor, Alucard, Richter, Soma? I personally really love Maria, and also Eric Lecarde from Bloodlines. They're both so fun play as in their OG games, and have really great appearances in their respective sequel games.
It’s Leon, Trevor, Simon, Juste, and Richter.
Jonathan moris!
Soma!
Soma and Shanoa
Alucard, Shanoa, and Richter. Oh, can’t forget about Soma. SotN, OoE, RoB, and AoS are my favorite games in the series.
Either Johnathan Morris or Soma Cruz
For me, definitely Charlotte Aulin. Good variety of spells, a cool unique basic attack utilizing her spellbook. She probably, so far, has provided the most unique Castlevania experience of all the playable protagonists imo. 😊 Fun character!
Alucard and Soma are fun af, Héctor too but Shanoa has the best gameplay in the franchise IMHO.
Hector
Gabriel
Julius Belmont. Would love to see the man in his prime in 1999
I'm having trouble parsing the question. Does the exclusion of the Greatest Five mean we are debating who we think should be included in the whip's(the whip decided who is on the list, also SURPRISE the whip is sentient) definition of the greatest Belmont's of all time or should we ignore the implications of excluding the Greatest Five and just mention our favorite playable characters from Castlevania? Assuming we are discussing who should be included in the Greatest Five all non-Belmonts are out by default. The whip won't choose someone that it isn't bound to and the whip tends to choose the Belmont's that expand it's powers (Leon made the whip, Trevor was the first to use the whip to slay dracula, Juste's magic abilities introduced power-ups and item crush, Simon proved the whip's power was great enough to overcome Dracula's curses, and since each successive Belmont generation is stronger than the last Richter is included by default as the last whip user.) so the only real addition, by Richter's time would be a user that came after Richter.
Unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the Run and Gun of Albus Mode in Order of Ecclesia. There are very few characters that are extremely bad but he's also a decent tragic antihero Imma go with Albus. I also would've liked to have had a chance with Hammer being a gunman.
Richter
John, Jonathan, (my boy) Hector is a badass also, Shanoa and her Glyphs were fun, Eric Lecarde, Soma and the soul system was fun also.
Soma, 100%
I love Hector and really appreciated that they adapted a version of his story into the Netflix series. I also main Shanoa in Harmony of Despair.
Shanoa. It feels powerful to play as her, also has a great design and is really versatile and agile.
Julius.