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

[Bloodreign]

Only CV Adventure and Bloodlines. CVA was a royal pain in the ass till I finally learned how to land jumps in the game (still suck at the game though). Sure it's ploddingly slow, but the music is ace, plus it is one of the first GB titles when the system came out, Konami may not have been familiar with the hardware yet, look at Belmont's Revenge to see it didn't take them long to learn.

Bloodlines, wellll I was a Nintendo kid growing up (after my Atari 2600 days of the late 70's to mid 80's), and I didn't care for Sega at that time. I laughed at screenshots in EGM and Gamepro at the time simply because I thought it and Contra Hard Corp didn't look all that hot. Things changed when my cousin brought me over to his house to beat the Tower of Pisa level, mind you I never touched the game before in my life till then. Not only did I clear the stage, I aced the Gargoyle without being hit, needless to say he was stunned I did something he couldn't do. Long story short in 1998 I bought my first Genesis, a model 2, and bought the Majesco re-releases of Bloodlines and Hard Corp. It was then I realized I was wrong all those years about Sega hardware (and being 23 at that time helped) and started enjoying both games. I felt Bloodlines was a return to an older style of CV, stuff we saw in CV1 and 3 with some changes and stuff brought over from SCV 4 (whip swinging). Some familiar enemies looked a little different, but I managed to recognize them (though the Bone Pillar Dragons sure looked the same, the bastards) and enjoy the game even more.

[Pfil]

Thanks! It's nice to be getting respect from you in particular - I don't post much (if any), but I've read tons of your posts and tend to respect and/or agree with them (especially the ones comparing LoS's music to the old stuff). I was actually watching a longplay of Portrait of Ruin the other day and earned a new respect for it from all the love you seem to have for it - It's still not my favorite or anything, but I see it differently now; so thanks for the input. :p

Thanks to you, I feel flattered! 
I'm glad I contributed to the appreciation of my favourite CV!

[GuyStarwind]

Probably CV64. Only reason I didn't like it because I thought it looked dumb. Mind you CV64 was my first real experience with the series. I knew what Castlevania was but didn't bother with any of the games. Anywho I now think it's one of the most Castlevaniaish games out there.

[Oniros]

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

Same for me. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites but definitely I'm liking it more than during my first playthrough.

[Beaumont_Belmont]

I think Aria of Sorrow is one that I dismissed right away. I just looked at the previews in magazines and I'm like "Oh...another Kojima white haired pretty boy." Coming off of Harmony of Dissonance which to this day is probably my second or third least favorite Castlevania, I think you can see where I'm coming from. However, when I actually did get down to playing it I found it to be an excellent game.

Second, there are the N64 games. I didn't have an N64 when they came out, so I only had the bad reputation they built up over the years to hear about them. I tried them a couple of years back, and actually really liked them. Granted, I played them on an emulator so I had a save state for that particular level where you need the Nitro (I think the game benefits from being played in such a way).  I like them both, story and gameplay wise. For the most part.