Topic: Which Castlevania(s) do you feel is/are the most underrated?

[Odile Kuronuma]

Bloodlines and Lament. I liked those two games a lot ,even though they're not perfect in every aspect. Bloodlines suffers from the sound, but again i personally like it. And Lament because even though it's repetitive and the story isn't that great, but i really loved how they rendered the whip.

[VladCT]

Well, if I were to consider it from one aspect of the game, it's HoD's music. Sure, the instrumentation's crappy, but the composition's top-notch if you actually listen. It is, after all, a Harmony of Dissonance. Maybe the localizers had that in mind when they changed the subtitle from "Concerto of the Midnight Sun"?

[Nox_A15]

I'm not sure about overall reception, but Circle of the Moon is a little gem for me. With interesting, more western approach, big castle, many secrets and quite high difficulty level for "metroidvania" game. I enjoyed the plot, music (those classics, mmm ) and gameplay. The major flow is unclear card gathering.

But that might be my sentiments - it was the second Castlevania game I ever played (with first Castlevania for NES being... well, first one ). After that I discovered, how many Castlevania games were published through the years. That was... wow, just wow. Fun times.

[Castlevania Crypt]

I think Circle of the Moon is underrated when they mention the SOTN/Metroid style games. COTM was actually more difficult when compared to Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrrow. COTM did not have an item shop, you had to find potions, etc from defeating monsters. Also I remember Dracula being very hard to beat in that game. Plus the Battle Arena was awesome.

I think people did not give COTM as much credit as it deserved because when it was released the Game Boy Advance was not backlit yet, and the game itself is darker looking and harder to see on the original GBA. By the time I got COTM I had the backlit SP version of the GBA, as well as Gamecube GBA player.

[Ratty]

Bloodlines and Lament. I liked those two games a lot ,even though they're not perfect in every aspect. Bloodlines suffers from the sound, but again i personally like it. And Lament because even though it's repetitive and the story isn't that great, but i really loved how they rendered the whip.

I think the single worst advice I got for Lament was that "The house of sacred remains makes a great starting area!" Yeah, sure. The enemies are all weak but it's the single most confusing level in the game. I stopped playing for a while because of that only to come back and find a very enjoyable game after becoming more used to constantly checking the mapscreen. And after I stopped trying to follow the Bradygames guide, I can't recall another guide so sloppily edited. Just take the maps and run with them.

I'm really surprised to see votes for CVA, I've always felt the slowdown (especially when combined with the precise platforming sections) crippled the game. I will agree that Battle of the Holy is possibly the most underrated and underused theme though.

[Odile Kuronuma]

Yeah it happened to me the same thing when i first got my hands on LoI. I got stuck somewhere and give up playing it.I think it was when you fight the fire elemental, which is optional. Then last year i played it again, and this time I followed the map. It's really not that hard once you get used to checking it all the time. Also i used a guide to know which key to get and where to use it. Heck even the Forgotten One isn't that hard to take down. It's a pretty long battle but not too tough.
Tbh I haven't finished playing CVAdventure, but Battle of the Holy is one of my favorite cv themes of all time.Come to think of it, CV adventure was the first Castlevania i've ever seen and played. I was 4 or 5 back then.

[Ratty]

Yeah it happened to me the same thing when i first got my hands on LoI. I got stuck somewhere and give up playing it.I think it was when you fight the fire elemental, which is optional. Then last year i played it again, and this time I followed the map. It's really not that hard once you get used to checking it all the time. Also i used a guide to know which key to get and where to use it. Heck even the Forgotten One isn't that hard to take down. It's a pretty long battle but not too tough.
Tbh I haven't finished playing CVAdventure, but Battle of the Holy is one of my favorite cv themes of all time.Come to think of it, CV adventure was the first Castlevania i've ever seen and played. I was 4 or 5 back then.

Yeah CVA was one of the first I ever saw to. Though like the original game on the NES while I played it it was only borrowed at the time. Loved Battle of the Holy, wish it was used more often in the series. And CVA had good atmosphere, the problem was just that awful slowdown and as I recall limited continues I've never beaten it either. Ditto on only recently beating LoI

[SilentCircuit]

Simon's Quest and Harmony of Dissonance.

[Nox_A15]

I think people did not give COTM as much credit as it deserved because when it was released the Game Boy Advance was not backlit yet, and the game itself is darker looking and harder to see on the original GBA. By the time I got COTM I had the backlit SP version of the GBA, as well as Gamecube GBA player.

That may be it. I also started my adventure with GBA with SP version. To be honest - at first I finished Castlevania trilogy for GBA on emulators, so it wasn't a problem at all for me. When I first time read about GBA SP, I bought it and started to search for these games as well.

[Tavis Belmont]

I didn't hear too many people talk about Rebirth after it came out, and I felt it was a quality game. Granted, by that point none of my friends had a Wii OR wanted to purchase a "re-imagining" of Adventure, but I thought it was better than the Game Boy original. Christopher's animations were fluid, the enemies felt fresh (the power of new sprites), and Dracula's final form was pretty cool (and different). I liked it so much I was hoping for a Rebirth 2.

[Gecko]

I didn't hear too many people talk about Rebirth after it came out, and I felt it was a quality game. [. . .]I liked it so much I was hoping for a Rebirth 2.

I agree. It was a bit overshadowed (haha) by discussions of Lords of Shadow, which was still big news and not out yet at the time. While it does have a lot of original sprites, some of the sprite reuse is pretty obvious, like the white Soma bats. That irked me for a while, but I got over it. It's a good game, that's a great tribute not only to the Adventure games, but also to the classic stage-by-stage Castlevanias. I still really like it. Plus, the stages would be designed a little differently depending on the difficulty setting you played on. That's cool. Makes stage three a huge challenge though. You have to relearn how to play certain areas.


I also agree with those who mentioned LoI. In fact, I have the game paused on my TV right now! I still love this game. The first Castlevania I played was Circle of the Moon, but Lament was the first one I ever personally owned, so it does have a little nostalgia attached to it. But it has a fantastic soundtrack, and really beautiful, well-stylized graphics. I vastly prefer its appearance to that of CoD. This is also consistant with my view of 3D games with third-person perspective, but I really like automatic cameras that follow the action. This game does it pretty well, though not as well as LoS does (it being the only other 3D Castlevania with this kind of camera).

I love the combos, and it's fun messing with them to combine different moves for combat variety. Subweapons were made especially interesting with a system similar to the spellbooks in HoD, though instead you used the orbs obtained from beating each boss (+ the white orb). Relics really add to the experience as well. It'd be cool if one of our upcoming LoS sequels were to use this kind of system. LoS had an updated (and IMO improved) version of LoI's whip combo system, but the limited subweapons got kind of boring.

While largely repatative, LoI's stages are all pretty cool. They are all distinct from one another that you know where you are when you load your game. Yes, they all have silly hallways absent of enemies, but something I've always liked is the unique rooms that stand out. To me they're memorable, and one of the main things I think about when I think of this game. For instance, there's the room you traverse a room full of platforms in the aquaduct area before the ice elemental boss, there's the timed platforming segment in the Alchemy Laboratory, Peeping Eye/ Skeleton bowling in the Cathedral, the room in the theater where you can jump down from the first floor to the second and fight those two ogres, the neat coin minigame in the aquaduct area that you use to get to certain areas... etc.

I also like the story. It's really campy and predictable, but I've just always liked it. The cutscenes look really nice too, and the music that accompanies them fits each moment so well. I especially like the song that plays alongside Mathias' speech at the end of the game before the Death fight.


...That went on longer than expected. Now back to my game!

[benmont]

                                                 portrait of ruin

(click to show/hide)

because the confusingness of all the maps

[CrashDiary27]

simon's quest. The game was impossible without some sort of guide...heck, I remember calling video game hotlines when I got stuck for weeks. The overall feel of the game just struck something with me back then though.

[Dremn]

Bloodlines, Belmont's Revenge, and ReBirth are all extremely underrated. I don't ever see them getting as much love as the other games. I think I'm the only one who loves Rebirth as much as I do.

[davidwesterlund]

I don't know if it can be considered underrated since all DS Castlevanias got good scores, but I sometimes feel that Portrait of Ruin gets a bit sandwiched betweed Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclasia. The music is great, the character has a whip (I need a whip!) and I love stepping into the different paintings.