Current Events > What castlevania games are and arent worth playing?What sinilar games are there?

(+) Yeah! (+)

In the mood for both the old style straight platformer and the metroidvania style, but I know the series has had its ups and downs, especially in 3d

Gal Guardian

Everyone knows it by now but Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was cool maybe I'll finish it next Halloween. There are some other Bloodstained titles too.

I know this is getting off topic but I just learned there was a Castlevania fighting game for the Wii! Wow that's a sure well clever way to use the license.

Dracula's Curse
Bloodlines
Rondo of Blood
Symphony of the Night
Aria of Sorrow
Order of Ecclesia

Kamil posted...

Everyone knows it by now but Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was cool maybe I'll finish it next Halloween. There are some other Bloodstained titles too.

I know this is getting off topic but I just learned there was a Castlevania fighting game for the Wii! Wow that's a sure well clever way to use the license.

I actually didn't really like Bloodstained, I could never put my finger on why but it just felt off. At least for the bigger budget one, the retro game they put out was goddamn amazing.

I suppose sometimes the horror atmosphere was suddenly broken by shovel knight or giant cat or hilarious metal band enemies but I liked it. I need to finish it someday.

Try the Guacamelee games, I enjoyed them both a lot. They both scratched that metroidvania and challenging platformer itch very well imo.

As far as classicvanias go Super castlevania IV and castlevania Chronicles are way above other classicvanias IMO. While not on the same level, you can't go wrong with Rondo of Blood, Bloodlines or Castlevania Rebirth (though the latter was Wii exclusive and I'm assuming Wii's shop is closed so good luck with that one lol).

When it comes to the Metroidvanias they're all pretty much good, with the weakest of the bunch to me being Circle of the Moon, which is still decent enough.

I'll go ahead and give a special shoutout to the castlevania: Dracula X Chronivles on the PSP. This is a remade version of Rondo of blood, and you can unlock the original Rondo of Blood and even Symphony of the Night! Damn good collection if you have a PSP (or maybe they ported it to other Sony consoles by now?)

SoTN and all the GBA/DS games rule

OoE is the best of them imo

MagnusDJL posted...

I'll go ahead and give a special shoutout to the castlevania: Dracula X Chronivles on the PSP. This is a remade version of Rondo of blood, and you can unlock the original Rondo of Blood and even Symphony of the Night! Damn good collection if you have a PSP (or maybe they ported it to other Sony consoles by now?)

Sadly the closest we got to that was Castlevania Requiem, which excludes the PSP remake of Rondo entirely.

The Castlevania DLC for dead cells is pretty sweet. If you already have dead cells you should pick up the DLC

Ecclesia manages to be a classicvania and metroidvania at the same time somehow.

If you didn't like the metroidvania bloodstained but like the sidescroller, try:

Castlevania 1

Castlevania 3

Rondo of Blood

Super Castlevania IV

Bloodlines

Castlevania Chronicles

fwiw the game that Curse of the Moon seemed out to emulate most was Castlevania 3

KarsaToblakai posted...

I actually didn't really like Bloodstained, I could never put my finger on why but it just felt off. At least for the bigger budget one, the retro game they put out was goddamn amazing.

Wile I did complete it, there is something just inherently clunky about its movement. I don't know what it is.

pegusus123456 posted...

Wile I did complete it, there is something just inherently clunky about its movement. I don't know what it is.

It felt like it was trying to copy SotN 1:1 with the movement.

Bloodstained seemed unnecessarily grindy, or maybe I just sucked at it.

The last time I played Ritual of the Night (the big budget one) I got stuck on this fiery place in the game and it was pretty difficult. I couldn't just eat pizza to survive anymore (which tbh I didn't like burning health items like that for no reason when I knew I could just stop by a save point, level up etc to regain health) I had to actually play good again so I just stopped.

The movement in the metroidvanias all feel pretty similar to me and in my experience dont really matter that much because with one exception they are all very easy

Questionmarktarius posted...

Bloodstained seemed unnecessarily grindy, or maybe I just sucked at it.

Depends on the difficulty you picked. On normal it definitely doesn't need any grinding.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It felt like it was trying to copy SotN 1:1 with the movement.

Then it faaaaaailed. SotN is very smooth to play, Bloodstained is not.

Bloodstained did feel a little clunky. TBH I do know some of the bosses I just face tanked to win, but I was still trying to evade too at times, as I said sometimes I would eat a lot of pizza but like the game did a lot of cool shit. I would never use a fireball input maneuver against a regular enemy with a dagger but if you cared it was there.

I was just playing on Normal I know a few times I did find myself going through a harder area than was probably intended so my determination there leveled me up more so other normal fights (even against bosses weren't so hard). I think that fiery area had more platforming too. So I was like ohhh someday, I'll just play Yakuza.

Skimmed, but that Record of Lodoss War Wonder Labyrinth was a good metroidvania I played recently.

I didn't know that anime had a metroidvania.

I'll probably crash out soon and I really don't have much more to add this topic, but I did recognize the name.

pegusus123456 posted...

Then it faaaaaailed. SotN is very smooth to play, Bloodstained is not.

Ehhh I disagree. SotN controls at platforming almost like classicvania. I played through the whole thing 2 years back so my memory is still fresh. SotN has a lot in common with games like dark souls IMO the way buttons feel like animation commitments rather than actions.

Play a bunch of modern metroidvanias like Shantae and the Seven Sirens, Time Spinner, Dust: an Elysian Tail, etc, then go back to SotN and it's quite an adjustment.

I really liked Dawn of Sorrow even if it was unpopular at the time.

Master of Darkness on the Master System is the only classic Castlevania clone I know of, and it is pretty good.
https://youtu.be/wTkUj6qZwmM

3d castlevania was my dark souls back then

Tyranthraxus posted...

. SotN controls at platforming almost like classicvania.

How? You have a great big floaty jump that you don't have to commit to. Classic CV is entirely about unadjustable jumps with a super limited arc

Tyranthraxus posted...

Ehhh I disagree. SotN controls at platforming almost like classicvania. I played through the whole thing 2 years back so my memory is still fresh. SotN has a lot in common with games like dark souls IMO the way buttons feel like animation commitments rather than actions.

Play a bunch of modern metroidvanias like Shantae and the Seven Sirens, Time Spinner, Dust: an Elysian Tail, etc, then go back to SotN and it's quite an adjustment.

Oh, I'm sure it's not great compared to other modern platformers.

But it's fucking stars ahead of Bloodstained.

And this is probably just a personal issue, but that one area with the tower that had the 3D background nauseated the hell out of me. I just had to close my eyes whenever I had to walk though it.

Some non-Castlevania titles that I have enjoyed, some have been mentioned and some may be borderline metroidvania:

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Hollow Knight
Infernax
Touhou Luna Nights
Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth
Axiom Verge 2 (1 felt more Metroid than Castlevania, but is still great)
Timespinner

Foppe posted...

Master of Darkness on the Master System is the only classic Castlevania clone I know of, and it is pretty good.
https://youtu.be/wTkUj6qZwmM

even did a decent imitation of the music.

I need to finish Hollow Knight too

I have mixed feelings about Rondo of Blood tbh. The levels and scenery are amazing but I had to play as Maria because the levels are too complex for Trevor's limited movement. The main character is not the best character to play as and I don't really like that. I feel the same way about Castlevania III, but it's worse in Rondo of Blood imo

Also play the Japanese version of Castlevania III

All the GBA/DS games

I actually haven't played very many. The only ones I don't think are worth playing are Harmony of Dissonance and Castlevania Adventure. You may like them however.

There are 2 collections you can get for a good price right now.

I enjoy playing
Castlevania
Simon's Quest
Dracula's Curse
Kid Drac
Belmont's Revenge
Super Castlevania
Aria of Sorrow
Dawn of Sorrow

Other games in a similar vein

Faxanadu
Bloodstained games
Demon's Crest
Infernax

Blasphemous

manhookcardoor posted...

Blasphemous

Such a great game I need to finish it

manhookcardoor posted...

Blasphemous

Good call

I'd say any from symphony of the night all the way before the reboot. Skip those.

All the GBA/DS ones are fucking rad.

Anyone play Ender Lillies? I think I want to try it but I dunno how hard it's going to be. I am not really too good at these kinda games. Seems cool though.

Ender Lilies is one of the GOAT metroidvanias

Maybe I'll buy it later. Was looking for some new games to try last night and a little today. I got a couple games last night during the steam sale.

Kamil posted...

Anyone play Ender Lillies? I think I want to try it but I dunno how hard it's going to be. I am not really too good at these kinda games. Seems cool though.

I liked this one a bunch. Probably a top ten Metroidvania for me. It's pretty easy/convenient to 100% due to the map telling you which rooms are done, the bosses get minor changes in NG+ that makes it a little more fun, and I get to make Jojo jokes to myself due to the way Lily fights <_<

I didn't think it was hard because the dodge was generous and they give you two pretty good parries, but ymmv. The platforming is easy so any difficulty would come from the combat, but it's easier than something like Grime imo.