Castlevania Series Look: What is a man but a miserable pile of secrets?
Castlevania is one of my favourite gaming franchises of all time with awesome creature design, excellent gameplay and amazing OSTs. The recent release of the Netflix series (which everyone should check out because it’s awesome) prompted me to think back on the franchise and how great it is, or was, depending on if you have given up completely on Konami ever revisiting it.
Today I’d like to talk about my three favourite games from the series, Super Castlevania 4, Symphony of the Night and Order of Ecclesia. I’ll start with Symphony of the Night or SOTN.
SOTN marked a turning point in the Castlevania franchise, with the more capable PS2 hardware the franchise moved from a side scrolling adventure to an action platformer/RPG in a gigantic labyrinth in the form of Dracula’s castle.
When this game released, the most comparable game on the market to it was Metroid and this the term Metroidvania was invented. Despite the generally bad localization ( such as the infamous “What do you here?”) as seen below
The game still did have memorable characters, great boss battles, gorgeous art (I mean look at that boxart alone!), a killer OST and one of the most memorable lines in all of gaming (see post title).
Next I’ll talk about Super Castlevania 4
This was the last castlevania on the Super Nintendo system and the last of the linear side scrolling games in the franchise. This game refined all the mechanics of the early games into one complete, near perfect package. Featuring challenging gameplay, great bosses and art and some a nice OST (not one of my personal favourites but still good).
Lastly I’ll talk about Order of Ecclesia or OOE. I can’t decide which my favourite of these three Castlevania games is but I tend to have a special liking for this one. Like the others art, OST and everything else is great.
One of the things I really liked here was the story, SOTN’s was good as well but the others weren’t too appealing to me. Using a completely different organization compared to the Belmonts helped a lot in this regard and Shanoa was a great character. The glyph system was also really fun to use.
So that’s it for me, any Castlevania fans here? If so, which one do you like the most? Also make sure to check out the Netflix series even if you aren’t a fan, it was really good and I hope season 2 comes quickly. If you guys like this upvote and follow, I’ll keeping doing more posts on more franchises, platforms and maybe even some reviews!
If you like the art work of the series, you can see more of the artist's (Ayami Kojima's) work here
https://www.pinterest.com/persephone666/ayami-kojima/
Video Credits to youtubers Netflix, Mill Village, OstProject , ChapelofResonance and ZSylzer
Castlevania has been one of my favorite series since I was a kid in the late 80's. SOTN is not only my favorite Castlevania game, but one of my favorite games of all time. The series has so many amazing entries, though the shift to 3D has essentially ruined it. It just hasn't made the transition to 3D as well as games like Mario and Zelda.
Hopefully the Netflix series renews interest in this franchise and we get a new 2D game out of it. We need a true sequel to SOTN, and on modern hardware. I'd buy a PS4 just to play that single game.
I would be all over that if it happened as well. They also need to get Ayami back on the art and do some new sprite work or at least really stylish 3D models. IGA (the director for many of the metroidvanias) has a game coming out called bloodstained, but it really lacks the awesome setting and art the castlevania has, which is one of the biggest draws to the franchise for me.
I didn't mind LOS because it felt more like the SNES castlevania games (although I could have done without the QTE/Puzzles) but LOS2 was a huge misstep. Which is a shame because it has some truly amazing boss battles, but is bogged down by everything else. When you are in the castle in LOS2 the game feels extremely good, the moment you leave tho, it gets pretty horrible.
This is one of my favorite sagas although the lords of shadows 2 did not like me very much. For me the best are 2D games like SOTN
Yeah the best are definitely the 2D ones and LOS2 was really a disappointment. I'm hoping that the netflix series can see the franchise get a revival in 2D form.
I love Dracula X for PS1.
I want to play again..
You definitely should! You should also try out the others if you can!