Castlevania Series

[Ultimecia]

Yeah, all the DS versions are colorful, but the later title, Order of Ecclesia, got a much sober style than the previous two. Dawn of Sorrow is good because it's a sequel of Aria of Sorrow, one of the best GBA titles, and Portrait of Ruin is a sort of sequel of Castlevania Bloodlines for Genesis. Aria got the classic SotN feel, I recommend both of them.

You should play Symphony of the Night first. It's PS1 but a modded PS2 should do the trick, or if you got PSP you can get Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles and unlock/download one unlocked save the Symphony of the Night. If it's what you're looking for, try Aria of Sorrow for the GBA. And if you enjoyed Aria of Sorrow you might want to try Dawn of Sorrow for DS. Despise the anime portraits, it keeps most of the atmosphere and feel of Aria.
If SotN style it's not quite you're looking for, try Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and/or Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for the NES. You're young and I'm not sure if you're the type to shun away because of graphics, but if you're not, you should try them. Castlevania Bloodline for the Genesis/Mega Drive is also a solid choice.

[Deathbringer]

Modded PS2 for Symphony of the Night? What version of the PS2 doesn't have backwards-compatibility with PS1 games?

[Ultimecia]

As far I know it can be hard to find the original SotN in today's market. And here in Brazil...Well, let's say it's kind of a Heaven for "alternative copies" because of the abusive prices of the original games.
Not to mention that I've met people who didn't knew that PS2 got backwards-compatibility. Heck, even found someone who never heard of Genesis and the PSP once.

[Gors]

Yeah, that's incredibly common here. Not enough official game ads, way too much piracy and abusive prices.

sometimes, with stupidity added.

[TomGuycott]

What makes the Castlevania series lots of fun, and at the same time harder to describe, is the fact that all the various games cover a lot of bases. The original NES title offers NES-hard, controller breaking challenge. I remember being soooo damn proud of myself for getting to Death's room, only to die in two hits on my last life. xD This style is pretty much limited to the NES games, particularly 1 and 3.

Then you have your titles that follow in Symphony of the Night's footsteps, with lots of exploration, collectables, monsters and bosses. SotN will always be my favorite just because of the intial impression it left on me, but Dawn of Sorrow is another good one I played. I never played Aria, surprisingly. Those two games offer a lot of fun abilities through Soma's Soul abilties, and eventually it just gets fun to play around with different Souls to just see what fun stuff you can do. Portrait and Eclesia, regrettably, I have yet to touch.

Then there also exist the 3D Castlevanias... the N64 versions are pretty much considered to be black sheep. If you were to play one, I might go with Legacy of Darkness, which is essentially the first N64 one with more content, including 2 new characters (although one is more of a minigame from what I understand.. never played that part). I remember the last boss of the N64 one to be haaaaaaaard! It was also one of the more ridiculous transformations of Dracula I'd ever seen.

Some of the newer 3D ones aren't THAT bad, to be honest. They are enough to retain my attention, but then again I'm the kind of guy whose attention can be retained by Dynasty Warriors titles, one of the most notoriously repetative game series ever. xD Lament of Innocence is okay, I never actually owned that one, but it was fun. You can unlock a really cool extra character in it, as well as a kickass, gigantic secret boss fight. As much as I respect the character who ends up being the final boss, though, I think he could have been cooler.

One of the other 3D titles that doesn't seem to be as well-known is Curse of Darkness (I think that's what it's called). I don't really like the storyline that much... It introduces these two characters who were apparently servants of Dracula, and apparently are his best kind of servants, despite their profession NEVER being mentioned in any game before it, or any game after. Still, there are some fun things you can do with your demon minions that you more or less cultivate... There's some busy work involved to get good weapons, involving stealing from enemies, which can be a fun challenge for completionists. The game has a very Dynasty Warriors-like combo tree, in the sense that you have light attacks, and depending on which light attack you use your heavy attack on, you do a different heavy finisher.

This is even the only reason I mentioned this game, the weapons and the attacks you can do with them. You can get the samurai sword Muramasa (the strongest combo ending with him repeatedly slashing his sword and making lightning rain down around him.. the sword is HUGE by the way), Death's Scythe (the strongest combo making mini scythes, just like Death would want!), and even a gatling gun, as anachronistic as it is.. the guy is a forge master though. You are pretty much forced to steal items to forge your weapons, though, and if you miss a boss' steal opprotunity, and they have something valuable, you won't be able to get it until Boss Rush mode is unlocked. But yeah, the game has a boss rush, unlockable character modes, including Trevor Belmont!.. who kinda has a dark-haired David Bowie look to him, if I remember correctly (which I probably don't).

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough... Hopefully their upcoming Castlevania 3D title will blow me out of the water. Otherwise, they do well enough with their handheld 2D titles. Delve into some of those.

[Vipershark]

tbqh I think PoR is the best of the DS Castlevanias. It's not as long or "deep" as DoS (DoS by far had the best equipment system out of all of the Castlevanias, maybe excluding SotN) but once I got used to PoR, I found it to be the most fun. Even though I rarely used Charlotte, I found that both characters had their own strengths and weaknesses, and the Dual Crashes were pretty cool too.

I think there's just that underlying puzzle solving element of having both characters. I dunno.

Ecclesia is sort of the "black sheep" for me, but it's still incredibly fun.

[PrettyNier]

One of the other 3D titles that doesn't seem to be as well-known is Curse of Darkness (I think that's what it's called). I don't really like the storyline that much... It introduces these two characters who were apparently servants of Dracula, and apparently are his best kind of servants, despite their profession NEVER being mentioned in any game before it, or any game after.

Actually in regards to the setting, they made it kind of work; this is pretty much only the second time Dracula ever really did anything - the game prior to it was CVIII, which was the first time Dracula was ever killed - and being an NES title, had very little story or extrapolation of setting, so they had some room to work. They provided reasons why they were unheard of during CVIII so in general, despite the kind of 'buhhh what?' feeling you might get, plot-wise they did a good job with it.

Isaac is incredibly gay and downright mad.

[Vipershark]

uh
technically, dracula is killed in CV1
that's why CV2 happens

simon kills dracula, but before he dies, he puts a curse on simon's family that cna only be broken id he's brought back to life
then in CV2, Simon has to adventure to find the scattered remains of dracula's body to revive him, break the curse, and then kill him again

it's stupid, but it makes sense if you think about it

[PrettyNier]

Castlevania III takes place in 1476

Castlevania I takes place in 1697 or something like that

chronologically speaking CVIII is the first time dracula dies, and it's also when dracula actually declares war on humanity after the death of his wife Lisa

[TomGuycott]

From what I understood years ago, Lament of Innocence with Leon Belmont was the first, and then came Castlevania Legends (although I'm not sure how canonical it was), followed by CVIII, then Curse of Darkness with Trevor again. Then CVI and CVII, Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the night, and then the rest are blurry in my head until 1999 and the 2000's in the game.

A looooooong period of history, and Dracula doesn't even abide by 100 year restrictions after a while, which gets confusing as hell.

[PrettyNier]

Lament of Innocence is the first, in 1097 or so, but Dracula does nothing but become a vampire in this and then leave. The final boss is Death.

Between then and CVIII (1476) (Legends is not canon as its terrible), he basically just spends his time being immortal and living. He gets a wife named Lisa, who is tried for being a witch (actually a doctor) and is burned at the stake. Dracula goes ape shit, and declares war. Castlevania III happens. 3 years later comes Curse of Darkness, and then it continues from there. (two GB games, castlevania I and then II, Harmony of Dissonance, Rondo of Blood, Symphony, Order of ecclesia, bloodlines, portrait of ruin, aria of sorrow, dawn of sorrow)

The 100 years thing isn't really a rule so much as it is a guideline, there are a lot of theories why but most of them are just supported by logic or extrapolations of vague statements.

[Rosencrantz]

yeah I never really understood why Sonia's storyline wasn't considered canon

I mean okay it went with Dracula's age as if he were the storybook Dracula and not Castlevania Dracula, but still it's not like they couldn't revise that small bit and make it canon
^^^^ never played Castlevania Legends




also where the hell does Order of Shadows fit in with the canon?

[Omegajak]

All this Vania has actually made me interested into what it is that get's one so into Castlevania. I remember back in like 2005 at the pinnacle of VGAEmu that I was notorious finishing games. I actually never tried Castlvania but when DoS happened the whole coolness of Soma kind of tacked onto me. As did the whole Japanese introduction.

Ironically though I was hooked but never actually finished the game. Now I have Order of Eccelsia just sitting on my cart and I said to myself: "Let's find out what everyone's talking about..." I'm in the process, but I can understand the rapaging NEED to defeat bosses that give you such a hard time.

Stupid Big Jail Skeleton.

[PrettyNier]

I mean okay it went with Dracula's age as if he were the storybook Dracula and not Castlevania Dracula, but still it's not like they couldn't revise that small bit and make it canon
^^^^ never played Castlevania Legends

women do not pass down family name generally speaking, especially in that time, so the 'first' belmont being female doesn't make much sense

it's stated that drac. doesn't die until cviii

legends takes place way too early

it insinuates alucard is trevors dad

alucard probably shouldn't have been born yet, or should be very very young as opposed to appearing about the same in this title


idk about order of shadows

All this Vania has actually made me interested into what it is that get's one so into Castlevania.

probably the whole "iceberg" factor

[Gors]

I don't pay attention to the story and chronological order, so I have nothing to add about this

But I've played a lot of Castlevania games, and I liked all of them. Just not CV2, I still have to play that one.

Also, those Metroidvanias are amazing. I thought they were weird at first, but I ended up enjoying them a lot.