Beware the wall of text: This was not easy, and I don’t know that one can ever be 100% about this within themselves after so many games. I made my criteria as such: Years after playing the games, what is my impression of where they stand for me personally when the pros and cons are added up, and what do I like to go back to. Some of these games could definitely flip-flop spots, or go up one tier even, but I tried to get them in a general order I could be satisfied with. The tier system instituted at the start of this thread helps a lot, because numbering in and of itself is tricky. The other parameters were I had to have played the games extensively and beaten them at least once. As such, there are some omissions. I have only played Bloodlines a handful of times, and have never beaten it, though I love what I played and it would theoretically stand in the Very Good Tier, possibly even higher. On the other hand, I have not played at all the following: Vampire Killer, Haunted Castle, Mirror of Fate, Lords of Shadow 2, Order of Ecclesia, Order of Shadows, and Harmony of Despair. Of those, if I were to guess, I’d say Order of Ecclesia has the best chance to be something noteworthy. All that said, I know in advance that many of my views probably aren’t the norm, but that’s what this thread is all about. I won’t mention music very often, but that’s basically a given positive for a majority of these...
--GREAT TIER--
1.) Castlevania III: Dracula’s CurseThe Good: A sprawling, beefier evolution of the original Castlevania that marries some of the non-linear format of Simon’s Quest and adds multiple playable characters with distinct play styles.
The Bad: The diversity present with so many potential characters and paths results in cases of unbalanced level design.
Second Opinion: The sheer variety of levels and ways to play them make this the most comprehensive Castlevania experience with the best replay value.
2.) Super Castlevania IV
The Good: A paradigm-changing eight-direction whip that is used to augment classic action-platforming with a creepy atmosphere on par with Simon’s Quest but with much better graphical presentation.
The Bad: The game is not as sprawling as Castlevania III and the new whip mechanics can sometimes make certain scenarios overly simple.
Second Opinion: Taken as an experience, it’s an immersive entry that is just plain fun to come back and play casually over and over again; and its big and moody visuals rival anything done with Castlevania to this day.
--VERY GOOD TIER--
3.) Castlevania: Dracula X
The Good: It has a snappy arcade-like feel to its level design’s action-platforming, a painterly graphical style that draws you in, and a consequential branching system that makes for only one path through the castle being the correct path to get the best ending.
The Bad: Some levels have some disjointed transitions, the requirements to get the best ending are very strict, as is its unique fight with Dracula, and the game borrows a lot of assets from Rondo of Blood.
Second Opinion: Despite using Rondo of Blood as a template, the aforementioned arcade-like flow makes it more fun to pick up and play, and the secret areas and bosses, whether you end up with the bad ending or the good one, encourage playing through the game multiple times.
4.) Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
The Good: An extremely atmospheric entry with an ambitious and engrossing game structure that utilizes a night-and-day mechanic.
The Bad: For whatever reason, localization or otherwise, the game can be overly cryptic, and parts feel almost unfinished with the overall lack of boss battles and the lack of difficulty in those boss battles; also, grinding for hearts can be a pain.
Second Opinion: A non-linear Castlevania game with NPCs and character building, along with plenty of surprises and secrets, was well ahead of its time and, together with Vampire Killer, you see an almost proto-SotN, while at the same time it creates an interconnected Transylvania bigger in scope than any game since and keeps the consequential action-platforming of the original.
5.) Castlevania 64
The Good: With no 3D template to follow, Castlevania 64 ambitiously manages to translate the core action-platforming elements of the series to the third dimension while also welcoming numerous supporting aspects from across the entire series, from exploration to an RPG management system to a night-and-day mechanic to multiple playable characters and alternate levels to NPCs, and does this while having an atmosphere as strong as any entry and adding its own wrinkles, such as survival horror-like elements. (See
Video Example)
The Bad: The game has some overly demanding puzzles, the camera occasionally goes off the rails, and the platforming includes some very awkward sequences, especially in the first level; in addition, the beta videos and developer interviews suggest a lot of neat elements (and potential polish) were left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints.
Second Opinion: While rough around the edges in more ways than one, to date, this is the defining 3D Castlevania entry in my mind, giving players a little bit of everything Castlevania while still feeling fresh, and doing it all on its own terms rather than trying to copy templates from other franchises.
6.) Castlevania Symphony of the NightThe Good: Great atmosphere and the addition of a Metroid-like layout create an experience that is an invitation into mystery and adventure, with a nice change of pace coming in the form of Alucard as the main character.
The Bad: The game is often a little too easy and some of the design comes off as superfluous or underutilized.
Second Opinion: Perhaps because of its graphics, perhaps something else, this entry has atmospheric exploration and a sense of mystery that is stronger than its successors, and that engrossing sense of discovering what will come next makes it an iconic experience.
--GOOD TIER--
7.) Castlevania Circle of the MoonThe Good: It largely manages to marry the whip action and greater sense of danger from earlier entries with the exploration and RPG systems defined by Symphony of the Night, and introduces an intriguing new magic system and whip-spin mechanic to boot.
The Bad: The game can alternately feel too stiff and too floaty compared to other entries, its motifs are a bit too conservative, the graphics are a little underwhelming more often than not, and the magic system is overly difficult to obtain and fully understand.
Second Opinion: On the whole, this entry feels a little more focused and rewarding than other games of this type in the series, even if aspects of it are a little more bland.
8.) Castlevania 2: Belmont’s RevengeThe Good: It refines a lot of the uniqueness The Adventure brought to the table and keeps up the creative level design ideas, while at the same time adding in more traditional elements like sub-weapons and putting its own spin on things with a non-linear Mega Man-style stage select.
The Bad: Much of the game feels too easy and for some reason there are region-exclusive sub-weapons, the North American release missing the Boomerang but adding the Axe in its place.
Second Opinion: This is the most balanced Castlevania entry on the original Game Boy and seems to encompass the kind of experience one would have expected to have from a Game Boy Castlevania, in the same way one would compare Super Mario Land to Super Mario Land: Six Golden Coins.
9.) Castlevania: Rondo of BloodThe Good: It has branching paths with a lot of secrets, a sense of ambitious scope not seen since Castlevania III, alongside two playable characters, and an exciting Item Crash system that highlights a more anime-like flavor of extremes.
The Bad: The way the branching paths work makes several levels feel truncated and almost inconsequential, the fact that there is no correct path to get the best ending makes the game feel somewhat unfocused and unfulfilling, and the second playable character doesn’t fully fit within the world Castlevania, not to mention there is basically an unfinished hidden level in the game.
Second Opinion: Item Crashes are a game-changer and the amount of variety within this game makes it charming and encourages replayability, though the overall design doesn’t feel quite as tight or rewarding as other entries, and some of the backgrounds feel a little stark.
10.) Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirthThe Good: It does a decent job blending the original Game Boy titles with more NES and SNES sensibilities; its use of multiple modes resulting in multiple level layouts, and each level having a strategic setup with alternate key-based paths, is an inspired development.
The Bad: The game does feel like it was made with a fairly limited budget, remixing assets, and it doesn’t utilize its namesake Game Boy entry to the fullest.
Second Opinion: The multiple modes and key paths make it fun to play, and it adds just enough new to be noteworthy, yet it ultimately ends up feeling a little indistinct.
11.) Castlevania: Legacy of DarknessThe Good: The addition of extra characters, new and remixed levels and bosses, some camera improvements, and stackable sub-weapon effects makes this a fun add-on to what Castlevania 64 had started.
The Bad: The game lies between DLC and a remix of the original game, as it fails to completely replace the original due to a number of omissions and doesn’t feel quite meaty enough to be a proper sequel; moreover, not all of the improvements are consistently, definitively better, and it still doesn’t have all of the content promised in the beta videos, etc.
Second Opinion: This game is fun to experience for the extra content, but despite some improvements, as a whole it feels somewhat stitched together and less focused than Castlevania 64.
12.) CastlevaniaThe Good: Basically all of the fundamental action-platforming and thematic elements are here.
The Bad: While it set the basic template, later games make it feel sort of bland.
Second Opinion: It is a very lean game that knows what it wants to do and does it well with almost no wasted space, which is admirable.
--NOT BAD TIER--13.) Castlevania: The AdventureThe Good: The game doesn’t rest of the laurels of its NES brethren, adding a distinctive rogue’s gallery, a new whip mechanic, and unique platforming that includes things like ropes and new types of moving obstacles.
The Bad: The platforming requires maddening player precision beyond even the carefulness of the NES entries, and elements like losing your whip’s upgrades when hit feels rather unfair.
Second Opinion: The game’s unique elements are intriguing, each level has a distinct flow with a setup that uses its real estate in very clever ways, and when you finally master a level, it is extremely rewarding.
14.) Castlevania: Harmony of DissonanceThe Good: A pretty expansive game with an eerie atmosphere, some very creative level themes, and some inspired moments of interactive design.
The Bad: The two-castle system felt fairly clunky in execution, resulting in a game flow that feels overly confusing at times, and the bosses were a bit underwhelming.
Second Opinion: This an entry that tries to marry Circle of the Moon with Symphony of the Night, and has some great ideas and moments while doing so, but the material ends up feeling stretched a bit thin and more tedious than it should; even so, it manages to stand out with its eccentricities.
15.) Castlevania: Aria of SorrowThe Good: An overhauled magic system refined from Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance with a unique setting and story and a very balanced castle layout.
The Bad: The castle feels almost too balanced and too safe in design overall, resulting in an emphasis on the story and a power-up magic system to keep things engaging; also, the modern setting isn’t fully exploited.
Second Opinion: This feels like the most balanced of the GBA entries, and perhaps more balanced than Symphony of the Night; but while there are standout elements, the sum of its parts make the whole thing feel a tad bland.
16.) Castlevania Chronicles (X68000)The Good: Mixes together Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV with some really inspired moments.
The Bad: The Original Mode is overly frustrating (seems like you have to use to life refill item to even beat the game), and too much of it feels like the “same old same old.”
Second Opinion: While not bad, there’s not enough that stands out here from other entries, and the whole adventure feels more tedious than fun, as if it has trouble balancing the old and new in its DNA (regardless of mode).
17.) Castlevania Lament of InnocenceThe Good: A smooth combat system with an interesting on-the-fly magic system, hauntingly elegant visuals, and an intriguing if somewhat familiar plot.
The Bad: The level design is a lot flatter and more repetitive than the N64 games, and it subscribes to a hallway-heavy format that encourages long jogs and extensive combat that is largely removed from platforming.
Second Opinion: The sum of its parts hold it together into a decent experience, especially early on, but its stunted level design, fixed camera, and focus on Devil May Cry-like combos hurts its potential and gives it more style than substance in the long run.
--MEDIOCRE TIER--
18.) Castlevania Dracula X ChroniclesThe Good: An intriguing 2.5D update of an already ambitious game that adds in new content; the new graphics shine in moments like the river chase.
The Bad: The game feels clunkier and somehow looks less charming than its source material.
Second Opinion: It brought Rondo of Blood to the masses, but this 2.5D update is more of an entertaining experiment than a memorable entry.
19.) Castlevania: Portrait of RuinThe Good: The two-character setup and the concept of the castle as a hub leading to diverse standalone levels, as well as the concept of quests, make things feel fresher than Dawn of Sorrow.
The Bad: There is way too many reused assets and too much recycling of levels, the questing is often trivial padding, and the standalone nature of the paintings is terribly, tragically underutilized.
Second Opinion: The two-character system is a really fun, inspired idea, and the idea of the castle as a hub is a brilliant concept that could have led to a completely new style of Castlevania which would have more fully married its action-platforming roots with its modern exploration heritage; however, the execution of the hub system is very uninspired, being little more than, say, Lament of Innocence in 2D.
20.) Castlevania: Dawn of SorrowThe Good: Some interesting power-ups and level additions, like a snow area and a collapsing tower, alongside an interesting after-game bonus mode and solid design throughout.
The Bad: Aria of Sorrow already did everything this did, though with lesser graphics and a better story.
Second Opinion: I just felt like this game was the prototypical safe sequel, and that after the experimenting of Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow had refined and milked all that was left in the formula Symphony of the Night started, leaving Dawn of Sorrow as mere spit-polish at best.
--BAD TIER--
21.) Castlevania LegendsThe Good: A female protagonist with interesting gameplay wrinkles like the Soul Burn ability, earned magic abilities instead of sub-weapons, and an alternate ending depending on what collectable items you pick up along the way.
The Bad: The level design feels too long and uninspired, some clever elements like the trap rooms are awkwardly implemented, and the Soul Burn ability can completely break the game.
Second Opinion: Despite the interesting choice of protagonist and a handful of other curiosities like the cleverly remixed Bloody Tears theme, this game is very forgettable.
22.) Castlevania: Lords of ShadowThe Good: Impressive visual presentation, interesting light and dark combat system, and some decent variety of level scenarios.
The Bad: The game really doesn’t understand the action-platforming concept of Castlevania any better than Lament of Innocence did, there is way too much emphasis on combo beat-downs, and the game as a whole doesn’t feel very much like Castlevania, even considering its reboot status, as it borrows heavily from way too many outside sources.
Second Opinion: It has moments of triumph and it’s not a bad game, but it does very little that wasn’t already done with Lament of Innocence, and the former had more consistent atmosphere and a better origin-type story for Castlevania.
--VERY BAD TIER--23.) Castlevania Curse of DarknessThe Good: An interlinked world map with plenty of outdoor areas provides a nice sense of scope, and the 3D camera functions great.
The Bad: I did not like the combat system as much as its predecessor, the level design expanded upon the flat and tedious elements of Lament of Innocence rather than the promising parts, and the ID and crafting systems were more overbearing and distracting than thrilling.
Second Opinion: This is a game full of admirable ambition that, aside from some artistic merits, is the first Castlevania game I would go out of my way to admit was mediocre and a letdown.
24.) Castlevania: JudgmentThe Good: Places a number of iconic characters into atmospheric settings.
The Bad: The gameplay is clunky, the character design is iffy, and many things are handled in a goofy manner.
Second Opinion: An amusing experience to try, but it feels very rough around the edges and rather unneeded on the whole.
RichterB How much would I love Castlevania without IGA's Metroidvania style games...well, I still would. It wouldn't be too terribly much less, or more, since CV3 for instance as well as Rondo are already in or very near my top 3 as it is. They're not much farther off as far as my favorite games period.
The question is, would classicvanias have continued to be made anyway?..
That was an excellent post,
purifyweirdshard . I don’t mean to come off as saying IGA ruined the series by any means. I’m a backer, for Pete’s sake! As you astutely noted, he gave Castlevania an extra life and was an advocate for the series when few if any were within the industry. Frankly, I think IGA’s tenure added a lot of sophistication and class to the franchise.
...To dig down into my mindset on this a little more, it’s not that I wanted Castlevania to stay the same forever, but I wanted to see it evolve again, and after Lament of Innocence and Aria of Sorrow, the series stagnated under IGA, where game systems became more important than core gameplay and level design. Obviously there were things beyond his control, but the end result left me largely disappointed from that point onward.
Curse of Darkness was not a particularly logical 3D follow-up to solve Lament of Innocence’s many shortcomings, and while I can see he was trying to rework the 2D structure with Portrait of Ruin (which I played) and Order of Ecclesia (which I only watched clips of/read about), it seems like he wouldn’t go that extra mile to dump some of the baggage of Symphony of the Night. Once you get to ideas like level selects and/or hub worlds, you can do dynamic action-platforming with variable geometry and death pits and such without having to have them link back up with the primary Metroid-like map. I don’t know if it was budget or tradition or fear of losing the newer audience, but that never really happened.
To me, the evolution or variation started by Symphony of the Night did not negate the original strain of Castlevania, as if the original Castlevania was always destined to be SotN and nothing more. The strategy and versatility of whip-based gameplay combined with consequential platforming and enemy placement is something that should have been built on more, even as exploration and management grew. While the Metroid-style (or whatever one wants to call it) was an intriguing and fun evolution or variation, it shouldn’t have been the end of the evolution. I would have liked to see the Simon’s Quest format expanded upon, for one (while rough around the edges, the Lecarde Chronicles 1 and 2 show decent glimpses of how this could be done); and in the realm of 3D, as I tried to demonstrate briefly in the video above, I wanted to see a template that built off what the N64 games started. Those N64 games were a variation and an evolution that was mixing the entire franchise together in a distinctly Castlevania-ish way , with all of its core elements, and still moving toward the evolution of something even fresher. There was a lot of room to grow in 3D. But nowadays, I think there’d be a desire for 3D Castlevania to become a Dark Souls clone or, once again, some variation of a God of War clone, and neither of those would be fitting for the potentiality of this series.
That IGA sort of denounced that N64 era that got a lot of the fundamentals, even if roughly, and then produced the lackluster 3D entries he did as response was irksome to me. Though I want to say, pound for pound, I don’t think the Mercury Steam devs got any closer to the prize than IGA did. I mean no offense to anyone, and everything had its pros and cons, but by my estimation, this series ended up in the same trap it would have if it had stayed completely a retro 2D action-platformer. I credit IGA for keeping it alive as much as he did, and I’m sure the circumstances were not ideal to make miracles happen. But still, I do wonder what could have been. And so now with Bloodstained, I’m just hoping for something that at least matches the best of the Metroid-style titles, and all the better if it surpasses them and has enough new twists in game design that it becomes the “next evolution” I was hoping for, at least on the 2D front. I’m not sure if I was able to articulate all of that the best, as there’s a lot to unpack, but hopefully it makes sense.
EDIT:
purifyweirdshard , I forgot to comment on your Strider comment. As someone whose introduction to Strider was the NES Strider, the Strider 2014 seemed a logical evolution of that game's structure. It was almost Metroidvania before Metroidvania. All the 2014 version was missing for me was the globetrotting. But that said, I'm glad you brought that game up, because Strider 2014 includes a lot of the kinds of tweaks I was hoping would have happened to Castlevania's Metroid-style formula over the years. It embraces the traditional action-platforming while still doing the exploration and RPG elements. EDIT 2: As a final aside, I forgot to mention that I am of course grateful for IGA's efforts to get the two Chronicles games out and Adventure ReBirth--I believe he produced all three of those.
punish the noobs!
yey