Topic: Castlevania Games that you dismissed at first but soon grew to like.

[Trevorcard]

I been playing Order of Ecclesia recently and I bought initially due to hype surrounding it as a worthy successor of Symphony of Night and return to form for Metrovania games. For the first couple of days I wasn't feeling it be due to the dull protagonist, ho-hum plot or the magnetic glyph mechanic takes some time to get use to. After playing it a bit I started to get into rhythm and I began to enjoy it way more. Have any of you guys ever played Castlevania game that you dismissed at first but as you played more of it started to get into it and appreciate it more?

[Pfil]

I was always so SUPER excited with any CV game that I never felt that, though there was one time when I acquired Portrait of Ruin together with Dawn of Sorrow, and since my brother played DoS first, I went for PoR.
Pretty much everyone here know by now that PoR totally blew my mind, so, adding that to the fact that Aria of Sorrow also totally blew my mind, the fact that I played DoS after my favourite game ever and the fact that I consider it an inferior sequel, I kind of felkt dissapointed until half way through the game.
I didn't like the touch screen gimmicks either (I liked them in Sister and Albus Modes in PoR and OoE respectively, though).
But then the game started with all its magnificent music themes in the second half, and the beautiful scenarios and all that extras like the occult periodics and that, and so it totally got me and I became fascinated like with every other CV game.

[LuxKiller65]

I hate to say it but initially I really didn't like HoD... now it's one of my favourite episodes. Love the music, the graphics and the eerie atmosphere throughout the whole game. It's really just a cheap copy of SotN but it has something special.

[Pfil]

Yes, the atmosphere is unique on that game, and music helped with its weirdness.
I didn't like the soundtrack at first, and it took me a lot of time until I figured out what the composer tried to do.
Then, I liked it, and now I can't imagine HoD without its soundtrack.
Offense and Defense is one of my rare favourite tracks from CV 

[KaZudra]

PoR came off really campy to me, but grew to be my favorite of the DS games.

[JR]

HoD and Adventure, for sure. I remembered HoD as somewhat dull, and the castle being a chore to venture through for some reason, but then I played it again and enjoyed it quite a bit. Adventure...I just remember thinking about all of the faults that everyone else finds with it, but just the same as HoD, I enjoyed it the second time I played through it.

Curse of Darkness even grew a bit on me, and it's probably my least favorite. First time I beat it was without 100% completion, so I decided to give it another chance a few years back. I liked it more the second time around, but started getting really sick of it by the time I was almost done.

[Flame]

cv2

[Maedhros]

LoS

[thernz]

The opposite happened where I ended up hating a quarter of the games as time passed on.

[Lelygax]

Okay, thats the time in that I will be crucified: CotM. I've avoided this title for so many time and only finished it in my Wii, this game is very unforgiving at the beggining compared to another metroidvanias (Im looking at you elemental demons, especially the earth demon at the beggining) that I despised this game at first.

[Dark Nemesis]

especially the earth demon at the beggining

I'm using this one to quick level up in the beginning of the game.


For me it's legends, but after saw a friend of mine playing it and getting obsessed with it, i decided to give it another try.

[TheouAegis]

Castlevania III. I wanted CVII. It wasn't at the store I shopped at, so I bought CVIII instead. Got my ass handed to me at the early levels. So I never played it again until I started hacking it. Now I love it.

[X]

This one's real easy; Castlevania 64. SotN had only been out for about a year? Two years maybe? And I was eagerly awaiting for another 2D CV blockbuster to tear into. But then low and behold Castlevania 64 was announced and it was a fully 3D rendered game. At the time I couldn't help but feel betrayed by this choice that Konami decided upon. But once I started to play it, it began to grow on me and to this day, despite all it's flaws it is the best of all the 3D Vanias that have ever been released. The only game that has not grown on me obviously is LoS.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Order of Ecclesia is odd. It's the one game in the series I have never had any real love or affection for, and I heavily doubt that I ever will.

That said, I initially didn't like Harmony of Dissonance very much. I found the graphics cartoony (my initial meeting was the Castlevania Double Pack on GBA SP, so bear in mind I was watching it with the screen light on all the time), the music grating on my ear-parts, and the story cliche.

Now it may be one of my top 3 Castlevanias, though it will never be the top.

It's still a superb turnaround of opinion for me, because I was able to eventually appreciate that it sort of represented everything Castlevania had been up to that point: a Belmont protagonist using the whip, the Metroidvania play style, yet with some old-school-like stages that were a tad bit more linear than the rest of the game, some old bosses come back to bug you once more (the Giant Vampire Bat, Skeleton Knight, Legion, and the Minotaurs spring to mind), Ayami Kojima's weirdly effeminate men (the series will just never be what it used to be without them!), a simple, uncomplicated plot to move things along, cute, weird, and funny easter eggs scattered throughout the game, and of course, Dracula (kinda) at the end of it all, with an unlockable character (or two) to serve as a reward for a Dracula killed, a damsel saved, and a job well done.

In short, that game is TEXTBOOK Castlevania. Possibly the most textbook Castlevania ever.

I love that game so very dearly.

It just took me a while to realize it.

[son_the_vampire]

HoD for me. I'm like c'mon this guy just glides everywhere man.... But then I realized after a while how easy this made the game so it grew on me big time. Sucks he needed a spellbook to perform a tackle tho