Like the level of delusion is insane. Granted steam forums have always been detached from reality, but some of them are straight up hilarious on how detached certain users are.
**OPINIONS AHEAD!!! NOTHING I SAY IS THE LAW!!**
Okay? Okay! So I should start saying I used the hell out of save states and rewind with the classic games so call me a baddie if you need to. It saved my sanity with most of these games. Plus I only ever played Castlevania Bloodlines, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow and Dracula X Chonicles which let me play Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. These collections let me play far more than I'd hope. Good or bad, I'm glad I got to play them.
Castlevania 1: What it started is amazing. While a short game, during the era it came out something like this wasn't seen before. A villian the world knows sided with a vampire hunter. While the movements are slow, the console limitation likely had something to do with that. It provided a decent challenge the first time with Dracula being an absolute BS fight. Getting to the final level wasn't unfair, but I wouldn't say it's easy. Had a decent difficulty curve to teach you how to progress. My opinion is that he's the SECOND hardest Dracula fight in the games I'm about to mention. Overall, fun game that started something fun and new that was great *for it's time*, but today's era? It doesnt hold up, but we cant forget the roots of the series. Enjoyed it when I played it from start to finish. Now only of they kept this type of gameplay for the next game on the list.
Castlevania II Simon's Quest: HOLY EASY BATMAN! A tedious grind for hearts to get items and to find secrets in the most obtuse way. I nearly looked up EVERYTHINGGGGG for this game. Hell of a risk Konami took with this game, but man was it poorly executed. This game feels so slow, way too easy and just a straight up boring experience. Glad they learned to use this type of formula better in Sympathy of the Night and the other games beyond that. Did not enjoy and have no interest in touching this game again. I wish it got better with the next title, buuuuuut.....
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse: Oh hey! The game that started the lore for Travor, Sypha and Alucard which gave us a badass anime Netflix! Recommend watching it if you havent and avoiding this game because it's SHIIIIIIIIIT! Look, enemy placement in this one sucks so much and despite beating over and over to get the trophies with different character team-ups, I didnt enjoy this title either. Cool idea to mix characters together for traversing in a different way, but damn was it stupid. Dracula having three incredibly boring forms wasn't exactly thrilling either. Just like Castlevania II, this one introduced a neat idea that is later made better in other entries. Like the previous, I have no interest in playing this one again. (PS: Fuck the Medusa heads on the final level that progressively forces you down or you die). Recommend watching anime instead of playing this title.
Super Castlevania IV: WHY ARE YOU SO MUCH FUUUUUUUUN! Who'd of thought making your whip go diagonally would give so much more mobility to Belmont? They incorporated the swinging so well and the bosses were a treat to fight. Enemy placement wasn't unfair and gave you a look into how well level designs can be taken. Basically it's the first castlevania, but better in every way. Hard recommendation to play this one because it's definitely worth the time to go through!
Castlevania The Adventure and Castlevania II Belmonts Revenge: BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD! I'm putting these two together because I dont want to waste more time on these heaps of garbage anymore than I'd like to. The controls are awful, the levels are straight up boring and bullshit with spikes and bosses. Good lord the Dracula on the second game was so so UNFAIR to where I save stated EVERY SINGLE TIME I got proper hits in. I messed up the hit? REWIND TIME SO LETS DO IT AGAIN! Seriously these games sucked. I get they were meant for the gameboy so they were limited on what they could do, but other gameboy games did games better. I see no excuse for how these turned out. Hard recommendation to PASS these games. Save your time for something worth it like the next game.
Castlevania Bloodlines: MY BABY! This was the first ever Castlevania game I played when I was a kid(I'm 33 btw) and it's so much FUUUUUUUN! The different characters was basically perfected in this one that Castlevania III tried, but failed to do. Each level is dynamic, fair enemy placement, cool bosses and can I just say? It has a badass soundtrack that blows all others out the window on this list. Definitely have first game syndrome with thos title, but you can see the effort they put into this. Felt like a proper evolution from Super Castlevania IV. Oh right, remember how I said that game was an evolution from the first castlevania? Ya, Bloodlines made it even better and I say is the best game on the list! Play it, replay it and play it some more! It's a blast to go through and deserves go be called one of the best Castlevania games out there. Now for the next title? We'll I encourage experimenting with developers.
Kid Dracula: Japan is weird. No I dont mean that as a racist remark, but their humor is so foreign to me. This felt like a parody of the franchise and it doesnt take itself seriously. Does that make this a bad game? No it doesnt, but I cant help notice it takes a lot of notes from Mario games on the NES. To summarize how it felt; a kid version of metroid with gameplay while trying to be a Mario game. It's like they combined these two games together and slapped Castlevania into the story. The random intermissions between levels to play a mini-game was fun though, i won't lie. From what I know, they never tried this again with other games. Probably for the best because I wouldn't call it a bad game, but not a spectacular game either. Might be fun to try and beat a few more times so it gets a pass for me for having the feeling.
So that was the classic collection and now it's time for the advance collection! And to say before I start, only one is worth replaying while the rest can rot for all I care. As to why? See yourself on my opinion of them.
Castlevania Circle of the Moon: Oh boy where to start. Well you know that games with crafting often have you put two things together to make a new thing? Thats the main mechanic with game. You kill monsters, get their special card and combine them with other cards to make specia magic moves. It sucked so much because there is no rhyme or reason why certain ones do certain things and others cant. It wasn't a fun system to experiment with and was later adopted in *much better* Castlevania games in the future. Similar to Simon's Quest, this started(I think it was Symphony of the Night actually) a better rendition of the second Castlevania game. Proper progression to move through the castle and it never really felt like I was lost. Difficulty was okay with the final boss being cheesable so that was a joke of a fight. I was told this was the hardest GBA castlevania game, but that isnt true for me. It was a very meh game. Wasn't the worst, wasn't the best, but below the middle bar to be sure. Story was so bland I'd ask Nicolas Cage to act in it. Wouldn't recommend this game, but it's definitely better than the next title.
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance: This game straight up ripped the idea from Symphony of the Night with double castles and it suuuuuuuucks. Super easy game, obnoxious layout of the castle ive seen in any game and AND THEY BROUGHT BACK DRACULA'S RELICS! Why, for any reason, did they think this was a good idea? Finding those damn relics was not only unfun, but they gave such vague hints on where theyre at. With that being said, it was much better than Castlevania II, but not a bar that's hard to reach. With whatever good ideas they had in this one, such as combining items with magic to make for fun attacks, they took three steps back into mediocrity with this title. In fact, I'd say the combination of items with magic books is its strength. They took the crap from Circle of the Moon and made it better. Allowing for a more unique way to progress through the game, but it made it laughably easy as a result. Wouldn't recommend this and liked it a lot less than Circle of the Moon. Story was better than the previous one, albeit only slightly. With that said, what they learned from these two games made for an even better game on the GBA.
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow: ANIME BOY SAVES THE DAAAAAAY! It's like they took the good ideas from Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance while using Symphony of the Night as the cliff notes to make this game. Great castle layout, fun gimmick with collecting souls and a new intriguing way to continue the story without relying on Dracula as a character. The soul system not only let's you fight enemies in a myriad of ways, but let's you traverse the map as well. I appreciate the effort they put into character portraits as well compared to the first two GBA games. Progression felt nice, was never lost and the hints they give were far easier to understand than Harmony of Dissonance. Like before Dawn of Sorrow, this feels like what Castlevania II should of been. A path that isnt laid out for you, but doesnt obstruct your progression through bullshit vague hints that Castlevania II wants you to spend hours on figuring out. Backtracking was hardly needed and the bosses were just a treat to fight with how each felt different. The difficulty felt like it was in-between Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance. I can see why people say this one is one of the best Castlevania games and you'll hear no argument from me on that. A strong recommendation to play this game and ot even has NG+ to carry over items to speedrun it! Shame they didnt keep up the momentum with the next one.
Castlevania Dracula X: Holy shit was Dracula X Chonicles a massive improvement from this heap of unfair garbage. Enemy placement is straight up evil with Dracula having bullshit insta-death pits. I had the hardest time even wanting to continue this game because of how unfair this game is. Like they took everything they learned from the classic games from NES and threw them off a roof of a skyscraper. Doesn't help that the ending is one of the most unsatisfied endings ive seen in any video game. All I can say is im glad they learned with the PSP version and made it better in every regard. Skip this game entirely and go play that one. It'll save you a headache and give you two other games to boot.
Well those are my thoughts. Maybe they arent well thought out or have much meat in regards to summaries, but I wanted to get my thoughts out there on how I felt about these games regardless of how my thoughts are perceived. Overall im glad I got to play through the history of Castlevania and see what they learned or in some cases, go back on what they learned to make a shit game. Still I'm looking forward to playing the last of the collections and the new Castlevania coming out.
Thanks for your time reading! I'm curious on what other people's thoughts are on these games. More than happy to discuss them if you want or you can let this post die in obscurity.
Cheers.
Opened 10 legendary ones with some ancestral caches and hit 70 almost instantly. Thought I'd share that news to alt grinders this season.