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StarTopic Castlevania Appreciation Thread |ST| You Belong In This World!

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787E8A535F38F76A1FE9E6C2803C1BA70B87DC63


One of the coolest game franchises out there. Interested in how Konami ends up handling the rumored new entry.
 
GoGoDezmo said:
Alright! Thanks @A.G. Cook for getting this thread going!

Castlevania isn't a series I really grew up with, honestly. I know of the series, sure, even knew of specific games in the franchise. But it wasn't a series I was interested in getting invested in. That was, until the Castlevania Netflix series. This excellent animated series finally got me invested in Cazstlevania, and now I want to experience it all!

So far I own:
  • Super Castlevania IV (SNES Classic)
  • Bloodlines (Genesis Mini)
  • Symphony of the Night (on the PSP)
  • Dracula X (Advance Collection)
  • Circle of the Moon (Advance Collection)
  • Harmony of Dissonance (Advance Collection)
  • Aria of Sorrow (Advance Collection)
I haven't beaten any of them yet, but I've recently started a playthrough of Circle of the Moon that I've gotten pretty far into. I've just defeated death, so I figure I'm approaching the end. I'll post my thoughts on the game once I've finished it.



Oh heck yeah! I've got a decent little collection of n64 games myself, so count me in!
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Let us know when you beat your first Castlevania game! I'm excited for you to jump into the series.
 
This thread made me go download the requiem collection on my ps5. I’m not playing till I get my limited run copy of the anniversary collection at the least
 
Lant_War said:
787E8A535F38F76A1FE9E6C2803C1BA70B87DC63


One of the coolest game franchises out there. Interested in how Konami ends up handling the rumored new entry.
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The DF Retro episode on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection was really informative, especially in regards to the special effects to Bloodlines. An interesting watch!

 
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vhoanox said:
Funeral is appropriate place to promote for this series.

Kidding, streaming Good Ones!@
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Sadly, this is the truth. The Collection releases just highlight how this series hasn't been given proper treatment over the years.
 
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I’m just here to post about how great Portrait of Ruin, and how it’s unfairly forgotten due to being between Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia.
 
I have the extremely common opinion the Rondo of Blood is The Best One, but my underdog fave is Adventure 2 for GB. The first Adventure game is arguably the worst in the series, but 2 is a real gem don't sleep on it.
Would be intrested to see what the split on classic action Castlevania and IGAvania is. I'm a fan of both, but I like the classic style best.
 
I only really enjoy Classic style, don't fuck with the modern games. But I also still need to play III and Bloodlines so like, I can't even claim to be that big of a classic fan.
 
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Reinhard Schneider said:
I think it would, since while the modern Castlevanias take from the classic ones, each type is its own different beast.

For the classic series, start from the first one, it's a surprisingly solid game that will prepare you for the rest of the series.

For the metroidvania games, i would either start from Symphony of the Night OR Circle of the Moon
  • Symphony of the Night was the start of the Metroidvania style
  • Circle of the Moon is the perfect marriage between the metroidvania style and the classicvania gameplay sensibilities.
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Thank you! I went ahead and bought the Anniversary Collection for Switch to start with the classic series. For metroidvania I'm more tempted to go for Circle of the Moon, considering it's available on Switch. I have a PS4 on which I could play Symphony of the Night, but I'd also want a portable option. There seems to be a mobile port, but for that I'd need an easier controller setup.
 
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Marathoned most of the series last year (still need to finish Bloodlines), great games overall.

My personal favorites are the original, SOTN, Circle, and Aria.
 
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still don’t get how people finished these long ass bloodlines stages with only two lives lmao. Thank god for the save states in the collection, saving me sooo much time and it’s a great game that I probably wouldn’t be exposed to without them.
 
I finally got around to playing through most of the games in the series this month, been a blast so far.

I think my fav has been SotN so far, but I really like the original NES one as well. Don't really have a preference between the post-SotN or pre-SotN ones, they're both fun in their own ways, though I do think the SotN style ones are a bit more comfy to play for me at least.
 
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YoboD said:
I’m just here to post about how great Portrait of Ruin, and how it’s unfairly forgotten due to being between Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia.
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PoR was the first DSvania I played and I have a real soft spot for it. It's definitely overlooked and has some amazing music.
 
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PoR got too much flak for what supposedly was a weak art style. I still remember all the shit and giggles for the intro (wich i personally love)



I have my own qualms with the game, personally i strongly feel that most characters are underdeveloped except for Jonathan, Charlotte particularly is just there in the background, and don't make me talk about Stella, Loretta and Brauner.

To make things worse,
it HAD the potential to be a Castlevania without Dracula. Brauner was such a menacing vampire, and then you defeat it and Death fucking kills him. Dracula battle, while well designed, seems to be tacked on only to offer a contrary to the dual character mechanic.

But aside of that (and some heavy asset reuse) it's a great game that plays better than DoS and even OoE in my opinion. One of the underrated jewels of the series.
 
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Maxrunner said:
Still waiting for symphony of the night and rondo for switch. At this rate even the freaking Megadrive will have sotn first...
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The mobile port for SOTN gave me hope they might've been planning a Switch release soon but it's been more than a year with nothing since. Maybe if the Advance Collection does well they will change their minds.
 
I don't even care about SotN, but it bugs me how Rondo of Blood has suddendly become a Playstation exclusive for whatever reason.

Look, i have nothing agaisnt Dracula X/Vampire Kiss (in fact, i kinda love it) but isn't it strange as fuck to add it to the advance collection? And why wasn't Rondo on the Anniversary collection either? It's just strange
 
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Really cool series, I've always heard about it but never played a Castlevania game before this year.
I started with the first one, Castlevania on FDS, and it was so cooooool. One of my best surprise in gaming in 2021. So, after that, I also did a couple other games: Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. Oh, and I've beaten Castlevania: The Adventure yesterday!
There were such great games. Hot takes (maybe?): excluding The Adventure, Super Castlevania IV was the least good game I played in the series. It's cool, but I found it less enjoyable than the first one, III or Rondo of Blood (this one being an absolute banger on all aspects). In the regards of The Adventure: yes it's faaaar from perfect but I enjoyed the game. I think it's a fun little GameBoy game!

Now I'm looking forward to Bloodlines coming on NSO, and maybe I'll do Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge on GameBoy, since I heard it being far better than The Adventure.
 
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Raytro said:
Really cool series, I've always heard about it but never played a Castlevania game before this year.
I started with the first one, Castlevania on NES, and it was so cooooool. One of my best surprise in gaming in 2021. So, after that, I also did a couple other games: Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. Oh, and I've beaten Castlevania: The Adventure yesterday!
There were such great games. Hot takes (maybe?): excluding The Adventure, Super Castlevania IV was the least good game I played in the series. It's cool, but I found it less enjoyable than the first one, III or Rondo of Blood (this one being an absolute banger on all aspects). In the regards of The Adventure: yes it's faaaar from perfect but I enjoyed the game. I think it's a fun little GameBoy game!

Now I'm looking forward to Bloodlines coming on NSO, and maybe I'll do Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge on GameBoy, since I heard it being far better than The Adventure.
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Belmont's Revenge is a hidden jewel, don't miss on it.

The soundtrack is fucking amazing,
 
I've never tried the ps2 titles. I should try them some day. But Castlevania is one of my all time favorite series, even if my introduction to them started off terribly.

I had rented the first castlevania when I must have been around 4 and loved it. I asked my mom for the game with whips and monsters and she brought home...Ghosts and Goblins. It was so frustrating and hard she returned it for me. A year or so later it was my birthday and we went to Toy Warehouse and behind the cabinet was... Castlevania 2! Oh wow! a new one?! That is wild!!!

... 5 year old me in about 1990 did not do well at that game.

I still played it all the time and loved the music, but not the best intro to the series haha.
 
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Alright. I've finally got the key in Circle of the Moon, which means one thing; it's time to take on Dracula. Given how hard the other bosses in this game were, I'm feeling a bit of trepidation, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Wish me luck!
 
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Just saw the Anniversary Collection is on sale right now on EU eShop, 4.99€. I'm hesitating. Already did most of the games inside the compilation, but I would love to have them and play them again in the future, but I have some questions:
  • I saw the emulation seems pretty nice, can someone confirms me this?
  • I know most games have US AND Japan versions. My question here is: if I play, let's say, Castlevania 1 with the Japanese version, will I play the Famicom Disk System one, with checkpoints between levels and save system (that aren't save states)? It really is important for me to know this in particular.
  • Also, if you have anything I need to know, feel free to say it to me!
EDIT: Nvm I found this post on reddit and it answers to most of my question. But again if you know anything I don't I'm hearing!
EGaGGcT.png
EDIT 2: I know for sure I won't do Simon's Quest on Switch at least lmao (don't remember if there is a JP rom English patched, but it's not important right now bc I don't really want to play Castle2 at the moment)
 
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Legion of Primes said:
I’ve been sitting on the requiem collection from ps4 for a couple of years now, been considering playing it sometime in the future

I do have the anniversary collection ordered through limited run which should hopefully ship out soon and I’m looking forward to playing through the series
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Play Symphony of the Night.

Thank me later.
 
Raytro said:
Just saw the Anniversary Collection is on sale right now on EU eShop, 4.99€. I'm hesitating. Already did most of the games inside the compilation, but I would love to have them and play them again in the future, but I have some questions:
  • I saw the emulation seems pretty nice, can someone confirms me this?
  • I know most games have US AND Japan versions. My question here is: if I play, let's say, Castlevania 1 with the Japanese version, will I play the Famicom Disk System one, with checkpoints between levels and save system (that aren't save states)? It really is important for me to know this in particular.
  • Also, if you have anything I need to know, feel free to say it to me!
EDIT: Nvm I found this post on reddit and it answers to most of my question. But again if you know anything I don't I'm hearing!
EGaGGcT.png
EDIT 2: I know for sure I won't do Simon's Quest on Switch at least lmao (don't remember if there is a JP rom English patched, but it's not important right now bc I don't really want to play Castle2 at the moment)
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Emulation seems good to me in terms of latency, there are also the graphical options you'd expect in a collection like this (4:3, pixel perfect, stretched (yikes), dot matrix filter for the GBA games, CRT filter for the others). You can rebind the controls in the games that don't have in-game support for it, use savestates, etc. There's even a little in-game bonus book with the boxart of the games, a couple interviews and design documents.

For $5 it's a no brainer imo.
 
Lant_War said:
Emulation seems good to me in terms of latency, there are also the graphical options you'd expect in a collection like this (4:3, pixel perfect, stretched (yikes), dot matrix filter for the GBA games, CRT filter for the others). You can rebind the controls in the games that don't have in-game support for it, use savestates, etc. There's even a little in-game bonus book with the boxart of the games, a couple interviews and design documents.

For $5 it's a no brainer imo.
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Thanks for the additional informations! I agree, for 5€/$ it really is a great deal, even if I did most of the games this year. Tbh the only things that makes me hesitate are Castle2 being only in its US version and Castle1 not being in its FDS version (it seems to be the Famicom one which is a bit different but it's not a big deal I guess). Plus, I would be able to do Belmont's Revenue ans Kid Dracula, which is neat. And there is also Bloodlines, even if it's coming to NSO soon.

EDIT: Bought it, I couldn't resist more lmao
 
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I have the Symphony of the Night/Rondo of Blood pack on PS4 and finished SotN a couple years ago. Incredible game.

I played a few levels of Rondo but got stuck on one and haven't tried again since. What I played was great though and as I said in the Halloween games thread, I'm looking to get back into it soon.
 
Such a great series. Super Castlevania 4 was one of my first SNES games and the first one I beat start to finish. I really love that game and it gets some unfair flack. My only annoyance with that game is the timer, because is west I’ve lost lives more to the timer than the enemies.

Just picked up the Castlevania Advance collection and am going to finally play Dracula X to see for myself if it’s as bad as people say or if it’s a solid game on its own right without being compared to Rondo. We shall see!

Here is my personal hot take:

Dawn of Sorrow > Symphony of the Night
 
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Bloody tears rocks and is timeless. I’ve only beaten 4 and 1(which I literally did for the first time today, JP easy) which the latter is pretty well aged for a famicom game
 
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I love all the DS games, that was my first introduction to the series. Also echoing what others are saying that Portrait of Ruin gets too much flak and was a very fun and memorable game. Also I can still hear JONATHAN / CHARLOTTE so clearly in my mind, it's seared in there. You just hear those voice lines constantly playing those games 😂

I had played Dawn of Sorrow before but the other two in the Advance Collection were new to me. I really enjoyed Circle of the Moon, and was having a lot of fun with Harmony of Dissonance...until I got to the whole mirror castle bit. Immediately killed my interest, and then Metroid Dread came out so yeah, not sure if I'll ever get back to it.
 
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Vito said:
Eh. I never liked ClassicVania.

Too stressful.
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I think what I is enjoy how straight foward ClassicVania is, sometimes I don't want to play and dive in to a MetroidVania game.
 
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I’ve been a fan of this series since I was a little kid. It’s very hard for me to put into words just how much the series means to me because I can literally recall important times and moments in my life in correlation with a Castlevania game, some of which helped me get through some pretty rough times (playing Harmony of Dissonance when it first came out to mind fast).

I will always have a special place in my heart for this series. Also Castlevania 3 is my all time favorite, followed by Rondo, Dawn of Sorrow, and OoE.
 
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Looking through the Wii U eshop, it's weird that it has the GBA Castlevanias, but not the DS ones. I was hoping to snag them to further complete my collection, but I guess I'll either have to search Ebay or wait for a DS Collection.
 
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Those who’ve played them - do you think the touch screen features in the DS games would hinder them from being ported? I’m not really sure how present they are but basically do you think it’s too much work to adapt or remove them and they just won’t bother?
 
Phendrift said:
Those who’ve played them - do you think the touch screen features in the DS games would hinder them from being ported? I’m not really sure how present they are but basically do you think it’s too much work to adapt or remove them and they just won’t bother?
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Order of Ecclesia and Portrait of Ruin use it very sparsely for minor features from what I can recall. Dawn of Sorrow uses it more intensively but there's now a romhack to make the game beatable without it, so I imagine it would be possible for Konami to adapt it if they wanted.
 
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Phendrift said:
Those who’ve played them - do you think the touch screen features in the DS games would hinder them from being ported? I’m not really sure how present they are but basically do you think it’s too much work to adapt or remove them and they just won’t bother?
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One of Portrait of Ruin extra modes would have to be retooled, but aside of that, no, the games work well without the touch screen
 
Phendrift said:
Seriously have no idea how y’all beat Bloodlines without save states lmao.
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It’s a pretty hard game, I beat it as a kid but had trouble getting back into it as an adult. Another game I beat as a kid was Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Haven’t even tried to attempt that again. Lol
 
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