Castlevania Review 2021

--- Castlevania Binge Review ---

:: See the tier-list video here (about 40 minutes) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1069336539 ::

Played 20 CV games + 3 Bloodstained games. Here's my experience with them all. Most of these were first playthroughs.

tldr Rondo was best and The Adventure was worst, but all of them were good to play.

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- Castlevania (NES) -
This might have been my first playthrough, but it wasn't a blind playthrough. I started this out on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, which I do not recommend because I softlocked on Stage 5 and had no way of recovering that progress except for the kindness of a viewer who let me use their state (ty fatkid).
Anyway, great game for a first CV. Satisfying difficulty, but some of the sections were very difficult (looking at Stage 5 final hallway followed by Death).


- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) -
I got 4 hints for this playthrough. I played the original (moved over to emulation because I didn't trust the collection version) with the original translation, so lots of things were very confusing. Holy water breaking walls??? Anyway, better experience than I expected, but still ranked very low because bosses were anticlimactic and it was just unsatisfying.


- Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES) -
Learned after playing that the Famicom version is more enjoyable for two reasons: 1.) better soundtrack, 2.) easier difficulty. Definitely a great game overall. Did Alucard route. Stage 7 was just awful, but otherwise the difficulty was very satisfying to overcome. Final boss was excellent. Highly recommend this for a challenge.


- Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) -
This was my first Castlevania game, so not a blind playthrough here. It's also my lowest-ranked CV game after this binge. I heard that if you ever play this game, play the ReBirth version on WiiWare instead. This game is great for a laugh in just how awful some mechanics are. Really hard game, but for all the wrong reasons. Stage 3 is an exercise in patience. Getting hit is the worst possible thing that can happen (worse than dying) because you lose your upgrades that just cripple you in terms of offensive capability.
Sure, go ahead. Give it a try!


- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB) -
Definitely an upgrade from the previous entry. Very creative boss fights compared to the previous entries, so that was a big win for me. I liked the stage select and the movement. Music is fantastic. Great game. Not a terribly difficult game, but still very enjoyable. If you play any of the Game Boy entries, play this one.


- Kid Dracula (NES) -
I enjoyed this game until the final stages, where the checkpoint system just doesn't exist. There's extremely long autoscrollers that don't have checkpoints, and dying is very punishing. The final boss is also a very excruciating experience. I considered quitting because dying at any point on the final stage sent you back to the very beginning. There was one section I had to use save states, but only because I played it in Japanese and it was a quiz section that I couldn't navigate otherwise. I don't recommend this game. Play the GB version instead.


- Kid Dracula (GB) -
Yeah. Play this version instead. Enjoyable little game with decent difficulty that isn't extremely punishing. Very similar to the NES version with more abilities. Good game!


- Super Castlevania IV (SNES) -
Solid game. I can see why it's a popular speedrun. Excellent soundtrack and movement, although this game does have some janky mechanics in it (swinging can clip you downward and kill you). I think I'm kinda divided on this game because I expected a lot more than it could possibly give, and that is unfair of me. I need to replay it at some point to give a fairer review.


- Castlevania: Bloodlines (GEN) -
Played as Eric (spear dude). Had some really cool bosses, but the final stage was too punishing. I think this was the only entry I played that didn't have a continues system, so I used a save state to avoid replaying the entire game and for stream value purposes. The game was difficult, but not overtly so until the final stage where it felt like 8 bosses in a row that you had to fight without getting a game over. Give it a try!


- Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE) -
This was my definite favorite of all the games I played. I used the English patch to play it. Played through as Richter, went back and unlocked Maria, then played as Maria. Definitely my favorite soundtrack of all the entries. VA work for English was very entertaining :MariaPout:. Very satisfied with this game, and I will always highly recommend it.


- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) -
This was another favorite of mine, slightly ranking below Rondo of Blood. This was actually the first game I played in my binge, since I'd always wanted to play this. Voice acting is amazing. Music is fantastic. Great atmosphere and gameplay. It's marred by the lost-in-translation in-game hints that didn't help at all. "There's something strange about this wall" when it is a floor that needs to be broken didn't help. The spike armor was another barrier for me. Regardless, good game!


- Castlevania Legends (GB) -
Unremarkable. Nothing bad, but nothing good either. Only thing I was remotely entertained by was the dialogue. Game was otherwise really bland for me. Apparently didn't get the best ending, but I'm not really up for going back to get it.


- Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64), Castlevania 64 (N64) -
Putting both games together, since they're very similar in stages and mechanics. This was the only 3D Castlevania I played. I rented Castlevania 64 a long time ago from Blockbuster, and I put it down after trying to play it for an hour from getting lost in the hedge maze. However, this replay was much more enjoyable. Deaths were very entertaining, and I died a lot. It wasn't particularly difficult (although some stages were really hard to survive in). Emulated 64, and that game had a fair share of softlocks from biker skeletons. One stage in particular, however, was very difficult. Exploding from jumping or getting hit was not fun, and I never did figure out the cow boss. If you want to play one or the other, play LoD.


- Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA) -
Not a first playthrough, this game holds a special place for me as one of the first CVs I played. It was also much much tougher than I remember it being. I would say that this Castlevania has one of the hardest final bosses to date. DSS system is cool for its time. Dragon Zombies can die again. Good soundtrack that didn't have as much originality as I initially thought after I played all these previous games.


- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) -
This was a game I came into with low expectations that got blown away. The soundtrack is a little meh, but I understand that they were constrained by the soundchip and didn't know how to make the best use of it. I loved the subweapon + element system and all the combinations you could do. It felt like the subweapons were very usable in this game, which I didn't find as often in some other titles. The game also had some ridiculous stages (volcano in castle), which I found very entertaining.


- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) -
Another not first playthrough, the game is still excellent. I had also previously speedrun this, so I didn't have too much trouble on my binge repeat. Good soundtrack and cast of characters.


- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) -
I had heard plenty of bad about this game, and I think I understand why. Regardless, this ranked as one of my top games, even over Aria. The music is fantastic. The bosses are extremely difficult but satisfying to beat. Julius Mode is really fleshed out and worth a play, moreso than any other bonus mode I've encountered. The touchscreen. The touchscreen is probably why people didn't like this game.
For those who don't want to play with the touchscreen, there is a hack that allows you to remove that feature. I would say that it doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all to play like this. I did play with touchscreen, personally, just for the full experience.


- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) -
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I loved the system with this game, how each character had their uses and both of them were relevant throughout the whole game. Unlocking stuff past the bad ending was a bit much for me, but the final boss was definitely the hardest of the games I played and worth the experience. Very satisfying difficulty. Great music. Story was a little campy, but I appreciate that Bloodlines was actually acknowledged.


- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) -
The game was alright. I liked the weapon system a lot, and the music was awesome. However, it starts off very slow. Things don't really pick up until you go to Drac's pad, and that hurt the game for me. It also didn't help that the game started with several water sections where you move VERY slowly through. Definitely worth a play, but don't go in with as high of expectations as I did. Do be prepared for a very tough experience. Some of the bosses were definitely satisfying to overcome.


- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PC) -
Not a first play, I replayed this game only using Zangetsu without any upgrades. That made me appreciate the difficulty a lot more than playing the other routes. The game has quite a bit of flexibility in how you want to play it, and I rank this game very highly because of that.


- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (PC) -
I had to finish this game's modes off-stream because there are a lot of stories that essentially have you replay the game. Hachi is best dog. Robert is not a dog and not the best. Other characters are decently good. Difficulty was a big jump up from CotM1, but nothing unbearable. The only stage I had a really tough time with was the shooter stage. Getting thrown into a stage where some stuff seemed unavoidable while having very limited lives being nothing like the rest of the game felt frustrating to me. Still a great game that I'll recommend. Surprised it got as bad of a reception as it did.


- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC) -
Glad that this worked on my PC, despite being under minimum requirements. This is a good game that fills the Castlevania experience appetite, especially if you enjoyed Aria and Dawn of Sorrows. Some of the glitches didn't sit well with me, especially one boss fight where the screen flashed for no reason because of graphical collisions or whatever. Some of the hints could've been done better, especially for a game that came out recently. I actually needed more hints for this game than I needed for Simon's Quest. Bosses didn't feel as challenging as other entries, but I also had more healing items than other games. I like INVERT.


- Castlevania: The games I didn't play -
I didn't play those games, so I can't say. I keep hearing a lot of good about Lord of Shadow, so maybe I'll have to try that sometime.

Thanks for reading!