For me its Symphony of the Night. I haven't played any of the gba or ds games but they look lackluster in comparison
What Castlevania game do you think the franchise peaked at?
For me its Symphony of the Night. I haven't played any of the gba or ds games but they look lackluster in comparison
>Which Castlevania game do you like
>I haven't played most of them
moron
Fricking moron.
SoTN is actually one of the weakest metroidvania castlevanias.
Dawn of Sorrow is my favourite, followed by Ecclesia and Aria.
fpbp
>Dawn of Sorrow is my favourite, followed by Ecclesia
What's wrong with that? I'm basically the same but flipped
It's also my favorite igavania, but I also really liked Aria.
From the classvanias, my favorite is Rondo of Blood and Castlevania X68000/Chronicles.
I have to agree, except for the last one which I haven't played.
The gameplay is classic NES Castlevania but with a graphical overhaul, especially the "arranged" mode on the PSX version, but that's also an easier mode.
>classic NES Castlevania
Yeah, it's why I never bothered with it.
>The gameplay is classic NES Castlevania
Not really, you have full mid-air control and also there's even aerial multi-directional whipping
The only thing it has similar to the NES games is there's no jumping on/off of stairs
super castlevania IV
SotN fricking sucks
>super castlevania IV
Finally decided to play it yesterday. Didn't like it more than Rondo but I guess it's up there.
Portrait of Ruin for the search action style
Adventure Rebirth for the classic style
Most of the franchise is good though so you can’t go wrong with any choice
I played SotN but I don't get the hype. It's very good, but I didn't think it was the second coming or anything. What did you think was so good about it?
Atmosphere, gameplay, music, characters, overall presentation, etc. It's one of those "lightning in a bottle" situations like Diablo 1&2. May not seem like much now, but it was impressive at the time, same with Super Metroid.
Rondo, I do not like the "metroidvania" style. The only one I finished was SoTN, tried all the DS ones and Aria but I always get bored and drop them. I feel the gameplay is better suited to difficult yet short experiences than relatively long rpgs.
On paper, a merger of the two styles would work best, but I found Circle of the Moon the weakest of the GBA titles. It's better when they're distinct and you have the option of picking a mode.
>DmC-Vania
Holy garbage
It's a game with actually good gameplay, that plays much better than any backtracking-filled Castelroidslop with no good combat
This game is how classical Castlevania should look in 3D
The GBA games are well regarded by those who like SotN. The DS games aren't as good.
Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow are very similar.
Except Dawn is much worse by most metrics
Only thing worse about Dawn is the scribbling gimmick and the horrendous art style
Dawn's castle design is much worse and much more gimmicky. Also the soul grinding and weapons crafting are undeniably dog-ass additions that only make the game worse.
Aria naturally gives you better souls and weapons by exploring. Meanwhile Dawn makes you stay in one place, grind the same souls over and over in order to craft weapons, then sell them, only to then grind even more souls and make even more weapons and then grind even more souls.
Metroidvanias are supposed to reward exploration and Dawn's design is antithetical to this. Dawn has so few weapons placed around the game map, it's actually fricking insane.
All in all it's an objectively worse sequel that had no reason to exist, and it's one of the worst Castlevania games coming directly off of one of the best.
>Dawn's castle design is much worse and much more gimmicky.
How so?
>Also the soul grinding and weapons crafting are undeniably dog-ass additions that only make the game worse.
They're optional.
>Aria naturally gives you better souls and weapons by exploring. Meanwhile Dawn makes you stay in one place, grind the same souls over and over in order to craft weapons, then sell them, only to then grind even more souls and make even more weapons and then grind even more souls.
Optional.
>Metroidvanias are supposed to reward exploration and Dawn's design is antithetical to this. Dawn has so few weapons placed around the game map, it's actually fricking insane.
Dawn does reward exploration though.
>All in all it's an objectively worse sequel that had no reason to exist, and it's one of the worst Castlevania games coming directly off of one of the best.
You made a bunch of statements that are not true and came to a conclusion that is also not true.
>LALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU
Ebin.
>didn't answer ANY questions
As expected from the Ariagay.
You asked a single question, "how is a castle with a sliding puzzle section gimmicky?" you fricking moron.
Lol Aria vs. Dawn is a good litmus test for someone's taste in vidya and overall IQ. If you prefer Dawn then you're pretty much subhuman.
The questions were implied, by saying "they're optional" you were supposed to explain how them being optional doesn't completely invalidate your point.
Wait, what were you saying, about IQ and litmus testing? Oh, the irony.
Recently we got a fan patch to use all the power of the Saturn + english fantranslation working.
>If you prefer Dawn then you're pretty much subhuman.
based.
t.morons who think bloodstained is the best igavania.
>graphics
Dawn
>music
Dawn
>weapon variety
Dawn
>soul variety
Dawn
>bosses
Dawn
>level design
Dawn
>character portraits (almost irrelevant)
Aria
>not having a minigame to finish off bosses (almost irrelevant)
Aria
So yeah, I'm going with Dawn.
Classicvania peaked at Castlevania III
Metroidvania peaked at Aria of Sorrow
castlevania peaked here.
Ok grandpa
You posted it. After that it was just knockoff sotn games on gameboy and a couple of ok but not great 3d ones.
Classicvania, I'd dare say the original. It's just so tight. Super Castlevania IV is my favorite, but I think 1 is probably the best.
Metroidvania, I'd say OoE, but I need to replay them.
Also, why are you calling SotN the peak if you didn't even play the GBA and DS ones? That's borderline moronic of a comment. Wait, is this bait?
SotN has really solid music and visuals, but other than those it loses to almost every other Metroidvania.
Have you played the japanese version of Castlevania 3? I like it more than 1 as a big classicvania fan.
>Super Castlevania IV is my favorite
SCIV isn't tight at all. It's by far the easiest game in the entire series, although it looked good, it actually got interesting only in the final boss rush (gaibon, slogra, death and dracula all in a row). Super castlevania ? more like super casualvania.
>SCIV isn't tight at all.
I didn't call it tight. Re-read my post. I guess you read the words "Super Castlevania IV" in the middle of the post and got your eyes filled with blood from anger and you didn't manage to read my post correctly.
you said classicvania. all of them before sotn are classicvanias.
Just fricking read the post, you fricking moron. I called a specific game tight.
ok terraria go frick yourself.
Frick the moron who made that cover
They literally just slapped on a random castle and called it a day
>casually mogs every mainline Belmont castlevania in terms of artstyle.
bloodlines is the peak.
Portrait of Ruin was pretty good
sotn Is the alpha and omega!
SotN is a good game with a god-tier soundtrack that was so, so far beyond anything else released at the time in terms of quality and scope. It's like playing a rock opera. That being said Aria of Sorrow is, in my opinion, the best of the SotN-style Castlevania games. Its mechanics are interesting enough to warrant repeat playthroughs, it has extra game modes that enhance that replayability. Control is very tight and there are enough secrets to uncover to make exploration worthwhile. My only complaint is that the enemy soul system can be extremely grindy, and even the abilities that supposedly increase drop rates for souls makes no practical difference whatsoever.
>even the abilities that supposedly increase drop rates for souls makes no practical difference whatsoever.
The Luck stat doesn't work, but the Soul Eater Ring does.
You need to beat the game twice on both Easy and Hard mode to get all the items anyway, I just do that and then sell off all my duplicate items to buy the Soul Eater Ring. Absolutely no item farming or Mimic damage farming is required.
>Joyeuse: 90k
>Claimh: 50k
>Gungner: 28k
>Balmung: 25k
>Eversing: 22k
>Tallhammer: 20k
>Total: 235k
>Soul Eater Ring price w/ Tsuchinoko soul: 240k
You end up with just the right amount of gold with zero grinding required. Your time hasn't been wasted because the game is naturally fun and replayable enough to warrant a second playthrough, and you're rewarded by having all items on a single save.
Plus at this point you're likely to have around 60-80% souls even with no grinding. The SER turns the remaining grind for 100% soul completion into a breeze.
And just to put into perspective how godlike AoS's pacing is, consider the fact that ALL of the above combined amounts to a casual 8-10 hour playtime.
>twice on both Easy and Hard mode
I meant once for each mode, but you get the point
Dawn of Sorrow is the best game in the series.
Yeah its Sotn. I honestly never bothered with the other games. They look so boring
>I haven't played any of the gba or ds games but they look lackluster in comparison
Like all console games that get sequels on handhelds, they suck. Don't listen to gameboybabies claiming they're the best.
either circle of the moon or aria of sorrow
I literally just beat Dracula in sotn. what did I think of it?
its SOTN simple as
I just hate the fact that all the extra content of SOTN stayed in such a garbage port as the Saturn one is.
If you actually played it then you'd know the extra content is garbage too. Who cares.
maria mode was good.
The Metroidvanias are all so unbalanced I always end up putting a whole bunch of restrictions on how I play, so I hesitate to call them super well done outside of presentation. I see them as make-you-own-fun type games and while I do enjoy them it's not generally what I'm into.
As for the Classicvanias, 1/3/Rondo/X68000 are my favorites. Adventure Rebirth could be up there if it had more of an identity of its own but it's bland on the design side and has (almost?) no new music.
>The Metroidvanias are all so unbalanced I always end up putting a whole bunch of restrictions on how I play,
Wait, what? I don't recall the DS games needing restrictions to not break the game.
Aria has the Red Minotaur soul for example that completely wrecks the game, and arguably the Claimh Solais too, but the DS games are fine.
I'll concede you may be right, my memories of the DS games aren't nearly as fresh. Gotta replay them one of these days, I guess.
>the DS games are fine
You're out of your mind. OoE is hands-down the most broken Igavania, to the point that nothing else even comes close.
>Aria has the Red Minotaur soul for example that completely wrecks the game
No, it doesn't. You only get it at the very end of the game and it's way too MP-expensive to be useful. Even on NG+ you physically cannot cast it at a low level. In practice, Red Minotaur is unusable unless you complete the game 100% and already have Chaos Ring equipped. AoS's "game-breaking" souls would be the rush souls and the electric puppet soul.
For the classic style games and imo the search action games never peaked OoE is my favorite but I still feel there's huge room for improvement
Rondo of Blood out of classicvanias
Portrait of Ruin out of metroidvanias
Also
>For me its Symphony of the Night. I haven't played any of the gba or ds games but they look lackluster in comparison
Most of them are actually better, I'd put sotn below all the DS ones
SotN still held on to old Castlevania mechanics like Sub-Weapons which gets replaced by improved mechanics in the GBA and DS games. And it was also quite broken at times in the game (shield rod). You're in for a treat because I want to play the GBA and DS games all over again.
>GAME IS BAD BECAUSE I HAVE TO DRAW A CIRCLE
will always laugh at you braindead homosexuals who got filtered by the stylus section in DoS. You can tell they never played the real game on DS
Not that anon, I think the game would be better off without the stylus stuff in it. Of course, them latching to these minor bits of the game to say the game is bad is completely ridiculous.
Well, we're still here. You can go ahead and explain how OoE is completely fricking broken. Can't wait to see how it's more broken than SotN which has soul steal, shield rod + alucard shield, shield rod + medusa shield, crissaegrim...
>rush souls
You mean like Demon, Manticore and Durga? They're way too expensive in terms of mana to consider using it for dealing damage, like you lose more than half your mana just morphing and the damage isn't anywhere near what the Red Minotaur does.
>electric pupet soul
It's very good yeah, but game breaking? C'mon.
Meanwhile, you pop Red Minotaur facing backwards and it'll hit anything twice, demolishes anything with a bajillion damage. Just keep some mana pots around. Unlike Demon this one will actually deal a frickton of damage.