Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Hayoam on April 04, 2012, 10:45:13 AM
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Hello Castlevania Community 8)
I just want to hear your opinions on this :D
Which is better for you Curse of Darkness or Lords of Shadow
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in my opinion Curse of Darkness is totally better than lords of Shadow
What do You think :rollseyes: :rollseyes: :rollseyes: :rollseyes:
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Not sure if serious...
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Ok it's not about the graphics
It's about the gameplay
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If i was a hardcore Cv fan,i wouldn't really consider LoS to be a true Cv game.. :-\
Both seems to be fine gameplay-wise.Graphics are just irrelevant in this case.
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Gameplay-wise, Lords of Shadow shits all over Curse of Darkness.
Music-wise, Curse of Darkness shits all over Lords of Shadow.
LoS has chain-swinging similar to Super Castlevania IV
CoD has a wide variety of weapons to use, including a baseball bat & a guitar (seriously)
LoS has substantial platforming but too much wall-shimmying & plank-walking
CoD has little-to-no platforming & Hector runs too slow
LoS has unlockable combos
CoD has devil forging, "familiars" that you can & must use in battle
Personally I enjoyed the overall narrative in CoD, LoS' was okay but too predictable.
Trevor Belmont is & always will be a cooler Belmont than Gabriel Belmont.
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Trevor Belmont is & always will be a cooler Belmont than Gabriel Belmont.
Seconded... 8)
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Definetly Curse of Darkness man. Lord of Shadow excelled in alot of areas for sure. 1. amazing graphics(perhaps the best i've ever seen on ps3 at that time), cool bosses, enemies, a zelda esk approach with the medallions and the pieces you collect of dead soldiers like heart containers. Plus the fact that the game was task oriented and had puzzles like zelda was pretty awesome. I loved that aspect of it. But where the game really trails off for me is the storyline. As original as it was and as unexpected as it was it didnt' add up to me. What exactly is Zobrek's goals? That mere fact he becomes death and gabriel dracula does not really appeal at all to me. I don't see fighting as a good guy to become a bad guy. This storyline had sadness written all over it. Not but even one happy part too it. You murder your wife, and that poor girl by being tricked and not knowing it, then you can't forgive yourself and become dracula? Really? Yeah i would hope the future of Vania games have better storylines and endings than that. They'd have been better off leaving the ending where he sees his wife and that girl ascend to heaven. Not all that jazz after word. Yeah we get the picture the devil is more or less rivals with gabriel at this point. But like others say is this storyline plausable to be canonized. I could see CV Legends being more canonized than that. How does everyone keep becoming dracula? Well in the strange case of Curse of Darkness it appeals far more to me. That ending was much better and far more positive. I think in a day were gloom and doom sorta fills the atmosphere, people need positive enlightenemtn. Even if it's from a video game, like say an ending. In all honesty curse of darkness's levels were long and hector runs sooooooooo slooooooowwww! I did like the enemies and the bosses defeintly. The fact that their weren' enough bosses could have been changed. Also the enemies seemed regurgated in certain areas. And ogre's and cyclop's tend to look the same with their pallete's edited. Yeah they coulda put in more enemies for sure. But i did like the levels,concept and the storyline was pretty damn awesome. Much better than that of LoS imo. Plus it adds great drama to the 1476 era of CV3. I actually liked how konami remeshed a side story with another story from that era. That was pretty ingenious of them. I do like orginality i won't lie, and both games definetly had that, but Los storyline tanked imo, in comparision to CoD. CoD is definetly thier top 3d game imo. LoS had a lot of good concepts but they defeintly need to get a better storyline script writer for their game in the future. I also like in CoD how they give the unlockable player Trevor more leverage on his game than they did with the vampire guy from lament. I almost wouldn't mind seeing them start to make a full fledge game for the unlockable players with differnt paths, and different levels,achievements, etc.
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Lords of Shadow is the better game, by far.
Curse of Darkness is more Castlevania than Lords, though.
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They're both awful video games, but Curse of Darkness' general aesthetic is way more interesting.
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Tabloid title, flamebait topic, what was I expecting?
I'm not even answering.
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How do you even begin to compare the two...
LoS vs LoI would have made so much more sense...
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I... and....I....
You know what, Im taking the third option, Castlevania Judgement is better that Curse of Darkness, Lords of Shadow, Lament of Innocence, Legacy of Darkness and Vanilla Castlevania 64 combined.
Castlevania Judgement is truly the superior 3D Castlevania with the best art direction and character design the series has ever seen, trumping Kojima's "manlady" art style. The combat is better, the music is masterful and the story is on par with Citizen Kane, a true work of art and the Castlevania game we deserve and the Castlevania game we need.
*Note: this is not sarcasm*
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Gameplay-wise, Lords of Shadow shits all over Curse of Darkness.
Music-wise, Curse of Darkness shits all over Lords of Shadow.
I agree with that, though LoS' music had a very epic feeling. I wonder how good could sound CoD's music with a full orchestra and choir. It'd be awesome.
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Tabloid title, flamebait topic, what was I expecting?
I'm not even answering.
Well, you don't even have to answer. You're one of those people that, you can just say "Hi!" and we already know where you stand on the matter. ;)
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@Las
Oh no, the Impenetrable Wall of Text! We're all doomed :-\
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Lords of Shadow by far, in my opinion. I prefer the stage-by stage setup, ACTUAL PRESENCE OF PLATFORMING, art direction, atmosphere(not the same thing as art direction) and combat setup.
CoD does have a badassly revamped Trevor Belmont, a killer soundtrack, an AMAZING Dracula battle at the end, and continuity with the past storyline.
I just like LoS better. As a Castlevania game, and as a general game. These two are vastly different games though. As others have pointed out, LoS vs. LoI would have made more sense, since the have a lot more in common.
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LoS by a mile for me.
Curse of Darkness is definitely one of my least favorite games in the series. For me it was fun from a collectible/forging standpoint, but that's about it.
Not to say I was completely happy with LoS, but that would be beating a dead horse at this point.
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Gameplay-wise, Lords of Shadow shits all over Curse of Darkness.
Music-wise, Curse of Darkness shits all over Lords of Shadow.
LoS has chain-swinging similar to Super Castlevania IV
CoD has a wide variety of weapons to use, including a baseball bat & a guitar (seriously)
LoS has substantial platforming but too much wall-shimmying & plank-walking
CoD has little-to-no platforming & Hector runs too slow
LoS has unlockable combos
CoD has devil forging, "familiars" that you can & must use in battle
Personally I enjoyed the overall narrative in CoD, LoS' was okay but too predictable.
Trevor Belmont is & always will be a cooler Belmont than Gabriel Belmont.
Agreed.
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I'll go with Curse. I've played through both games a couple of times and Lords is cool but once you've beaten it there isn't really any reason to go back, where as with Curse I'm always finding new stuff I never found the first time. Also the soundtrack is just infinitely better in Curse, so much so that I bought it when I was in Japan. Of course thinking about it I did enjoy the battle system more in Lords mostly because it was just faster and more chaotic. Maybe somehow they can mix the two together and come up with something good. I'm pretty sure Mercury Steam is well on with LoS2 at this point so we will have to wait and see where they take it.
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LoS. While CoD has a few fun ideas about it (weapon forging and ID leveling), the level design instantly sucked most of the fun out of the game.
LoS isn't flawless, but the levels actually have colors other than brown and grey, not to mention *gasp!* vertical depth! What a concept!
The only thing I'd say that neither game really exceeds the other is the music. LoS for reasons stated a jillion times, and CoD because Yamane (as much as I like her stuff) was really phoning it in. It's easily the least imaginative of any of her works, especially with tracks like Followers of Darkness being composed almost entirely of the same goddamn arpeggios. Don't get me wrong, this is Castlevania and even its worst music is still pretty good, but Yamane's other soundtracks are much better IMO.
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Lords of Shadow is the better game, by far.
Curse of Darkness is more Castlevania than Lords, though.
I gotta agree with this. If they actually hired a level designer for CoD, that could have been a great game. Combat was great, customization was fun, and so on, but my god who the hell designed that game's levels. It ruined everything.
LoS is still a pretty weak game overall though. It really fails to stand up to other action games like Devil May Cry. Being the best 3D Castlevania game in recent years is hardly a notable feat.
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Hey guys, which is better? Eating a conch shell, or eating a sea urchin?
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My mom owns a conch shell and seeing how dense it is my teeth would shatter from just trying to bite through it. The sea Urchin is more edible then the shell but you have the poison to worry about. Although it's nothing an experienced chief couldn't fix.
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A better question is:
Which is better, three sea shells or toilet paper?
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I wish I knew why we're comparing these two at all.
Are we really that bored?
Dear Konami, please announce something asap.
(And I pick LoS. It's the better game, which doesn't say much, unfortunately. CoD has a killer soundtrack and that's pretty much it.)
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Hey guys, which is better? Eating a conch shell, or eating a sea urchin?
Never had uni before?
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For me, CoD is better. I just couldn't get into LoS. I tried MANY times, but I just couldn't do it. LoS did have the better gameplay though. CoD had better everything else in my opinion.
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CoD. Mostly because I haven't played LoS and have no desire to... unless I find it for 20 bucks or less.
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Curse is the one I'm biased towards, since it's the game that interested me in the series in the first place.
Lords is better constructed, but FUCK if I ever go against the origin of my fandom.
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Despite the lack of more enjoyable and memorable music LoS is superior.
The stages in LoS are beautifully done and you just want to stop and admire all the hard work they put into it. CoD in contrast is a pile of garbage and it is laced in borning repetative level designs with very poor lifeless color choices.
With the gameplay there is no contest. LoS brings back the classic whip swinging platforming we see in CV4 (as mentioned earlier). Brutal combos that give you that enriching feeling when you're beating the crap out of enemies, a variety of interesting mounts and the most unique and gratifying expiriences with whip combat. CoD is just endless farming and looses it's appeal after a while. I don't think I even used all weapons and innocent devils, just waaay too much. Not mention the insane amount of running around you need to do.
Character designs...how can you even compare the androgynous ladyboy prostitutes to Gabriel Belmont? Finally Castlevania returns once again to the rugged, humble looking testoterone fueled brute thats dressed for battle. No more of this lavish bitch boy with fancy buckles, sashes and high heel boots. Oh and let's not forget and leather pants that expose half of the pubic and inguinal regions. Disgusting and over the top. Good to see Gabriel looks like a real warrior and doesn't have his hair dyed strawberry red, or flat white. *Alucard, Richter and Juste are the exception to this, but Issac and Trevor are just way too fruity.
How about storyline as well? LoS of shadow has to be one of the few games in the franchise that DOES NOT have some cheesy cookie-cutter plot filled with horrible voice acting and dialogue. CoD is boring, unremarkable and you just feel like Issac is going to come out of the screen and molest you. LoS has an unique retelling of the Castlevania world and shows how the Belmont's and Dracula are so intertwined and really sets the tone for the rest of the proceeding games.
LoS is a fine game and very decent addition to the series.
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*stuff*
*reads*
Erm... um... not even sure how to...
Did someone PAY you to say nothing but good things about Lords? I want that job. What's the hourly rate? Or is it by post?
In any case, I freely admit Lords is the better game, in terms of physical construction. The combat is tight, the whip feels like it's got some force to each strike, and so on and so forth.
On a gameplay front, I won't complain. I love Lord's gameplay. Didn't originally, but it's grown on me as I've come to like God of War recently.
I hate Gabriel's design though. I really do. Why? LOOK. AT. HIS. HEAD. It's the size of a grape compared to his torso in cutscenes, and most of his head's lack of size is made up for with improbably supported hair. And I don't think they had perms back then.
His physical proportions are an absolute MESS, and it's disturbing to see his front for a guy like me who spent over a decade trying to master realistic proportions with paper and pencil.
I much prefer the gothic fantasy designs of Ayami Kojima in the IGAvania era. Flawed in proportions as her artwork tended to be, the in game models did a great job of correcting those flaws. All the little flourishes and intricate designs were products of a talented artist creating a cohesive universe that was dark and grim, and yet had a romantic fantasy feel to it.
The music of Lords is a drunken slur of a soundtrack; nothing really stands out. It all just sloshes together and hemorrhages into itself with incredibly bland mediocrity, whereas Curse of Darkness has some of Michiru Yamane's finest compositions present. I don't think anyone on this forum would have anything to stand on if they were to make the claim that Lords had a better soundtrack.
As for the story, when you say that
LoS has an unique retelling of the Castlevania world
you conveniently forget that it is only an original tale by virtue of trying as hard as it can to pass off some slapped on names and references in a story that's as unrelated as you can get as "a unique retelling of the Castlevania world". Take out the "Belmont" in Gabriel, and I'd honestly have no idea it was a Castlevania game by watching the story unfold. It's a game that takes a few cues from Castlevania for it's story, but is otherwise unrelated.
Lords is good. It's a fun game, and I greatly enjoy my time on it. But Curse of Darkness is a much better defined game that can call itself a proper "Castlevania" game. It has an identity of it's own, and a well established one while the story, music, and visual designs all link it to other entries in the series; Lords of Shadow has a few forced names and references to barely remind you that, yes, this IS part of the same series that started way back in 1986.
On those grounds, I hold Curse to be a better game. Sorry.
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Asides from Ayami aesthetics I'm not sure in how COD is really honoring its castlevania name. How you can say a game with not so good gameplay even for its time is better than a critical darling is beyond me.
Making Trevor-You-can't-be-as-badass-as-him Belmont being stabbed in the back like a careless lamb by a pussy does not do it many favors. Seriously WTF?
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His physical proportions are an absolute MESS,
CoD's character designs would like to say Hi.
particularly Trevor's art.
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages3.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20081027061131%2Fcastlevania%2Fimages%2Fthumb%2F1%2F1c%2FCod_offart47.jpg%2F540px-Cod_offart47.jpg&hash=fb2f6854ad21a3cbfc03bb8ed3718f87c60b06c7)
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Curse is the one I'm biased towards, since it's the game that interested me in the series in the first place.
Lords is better constructed, but FUCK if I ever go against the origin of my fandom.
Wow after reading this statement I believe your credibility is shot.
Like many CV fans I remember back in the late 80's playing Castlevania for the first time and falling in love with it. I've appreciated this series from it's very roots. You can keep your undying love for CoD as your initial interest in the franchise, I'll keep 25 years of watching the series develop. I've seen it's good times and bad times.
"origin of my fandom"
Lol, give me a break.
As for your other comment on the "storyline" bid it holds very little substance and is the same typical angry drivel you hear out of all the disgruntled nay sayers who think "their idea of Castlevania" is ruined from this reboot.
How much more do you expect to suck out of the lifeless husk of the original canon? Remakes at best right? Oh wait, there's a whole lot of those.
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CoD's character designs would like to say Hi.
particularly Trevor's art.
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages3.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20081027061131%2Fcastlevania%2Fimages%2Fthumb%2F1%2F1c%2FCod_offart47.jpg%2F540px-Cod_offart47.jpg&hash=fb2f6854ad21a3cbfc03bb8ed3718f87c60b06c7)
I much prefer the gothic fantasy designs of Ayami Kojima in the IGAvania era. Flawed in proportions as her artwork tended to be, the in game models did a great job of correcting those flaws. All the little flourishes and intricate designs were products of a talented artist creating a cohesive universe that was dark and grim, and yet had a romantic fantasy feel to it.
My original post would like to say hi.
Like many CV fans I remember back in the late 80's playing Castlevania for the first time and falling in love with it. I've appreciated this series from it's very roots. You can keep your undying love for CoD as your initial interest in the franchise, I'll keep 25 years of watching the series develop. I've seen it's good times and bad times.
Lol, give me a break.
How old was I in '86? Oh right. I wouldn't be born for another 3 years. Good for you. You've been a fan from the beginning. That changes nothing. Time spent on an activity does NOT directly relate to how credible your skills are at it.
If I spent 6 hours a day playing videogames and got 9 kills on an online deathmatch, and someone ELSE got 18 kills, I could not logically assume that they spent 12 hours a day playing. It's stupid, and a logically unsound assumption.
Likewise, I've only been a fan since 2006. You've been a fan since 1986. Whoop-di-fucking-doo. That doesn't make you any more or less a fan than I am, so please don't come to me with a "well I was here first" argument. It's not classy, or even relevant. I've played every game in the series. I may not have finished some of the rougher titles like Haunted Castle, but I've at least given them all a fair swing. Just because Curse introduced me to the franchise does not damn me in any way as your words and tone suggest.
My credibility is not shot because Curse was my first game, or because I enjoy it. To even claim such is the gaming equivalent of "I dislike scrambled eggs, so if you like scrambled eggs, you're an awful person and you'll never be right about anything."
I gave Lords a pretty favorable review (http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,4604.0.html), actually. As I've already said, I enjoy it a lot. But to me, Curse is still better, because it carries the gothic fantasy feel I most strongly associate with the series, and because Curse was the game that popped my Castlevania cherry, it sticks out in my mind far more than any other title.
There are younger generation gamers than you, GS. Get used to it, and don't judge them based on their "lack of experience".
And with that, I have nothing more to add to this thread.
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My credibility is not shot because Curse was my first game, or because I enjoy it. To even claim such is the gaming equivalent of "I dislike scrambled eggs, so if you like scrambled eggs, you're an awful person and you'll never be right about anything."
Read your entire previous statement please. You lack credibility because you openly admited to having a bias about "which game is better" without evaluating why. Also your attitude, tone and expressions like..
"Did someone PAY you to say nothing but good things about Lords? I want that job. What's the hourly rate? Or is it by post?"
..clearly states that you're irratated that I'm not giving the praise to your game of choice, while instead judging it for it's short comings. A pretty immature response because you felt someone struck a cord with a game you love. Almost as if you feel it's unbelievable that someone could like LoS more than CoD.
You're passionate about CoD and you're taking it to heart, it popped your CV cherry we get it, and you default it as your game of choice without hardly any foundation or justification. "Hey guys I prefer my tea served warm because the first time I tasted tea it was warm, cold tea might be awesome or even better but by default I'm gonna prefer warm tea because it's my first and only choice".
You're not allowing something a chance when you have a "bias". I'm sorry you put your foot in your mouth initially, but there's no back pedaling here friend.
I'm not looking down on you for not having the amount of time with the series as I have, I'm simply saying that I'm no stranger to it myself. Also I personally feel that people newly introduced to the series tend to lean towards the games they first come across. It's just an observation.
In total you can't stand much ground when you're openly biased nor do you have much a place to speak of "logic" when you're showing lapses in logic and consistency yourself. Your approach could be better fine tuned in terms of tact because you're quite an ass.
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And I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish with that post. I've said all I intend to say in this thread, and you are wasting your time if you think I will continue this discussion. I've said what I have to add. My part in this thread is over.
Resume discussion please. Nothing to see here.
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Both of you have some valid points to make.
However (@Graf):
I cannot say I'm pleased with the whole "I've got nothing so say so I'm not going to listen anymore **covers ears and starts to babble**" attitude, Graf Van Rainbow Shy.
Green Stranger clarified his post and toned down the rhetoric and explained himself and you're being a dismissive child about it. While you are right that your time spent being into CV is not to based on how old you are or what old game you got into, his argument was more akin to "Listen to what you're saying: You have a soft spot for a game so you have a bias toward it".... which you did say, outright. That indeed hurts your credibility because it puts a huge bias at start-up.
I got started into the series with Castlevania 1 for the NES, but I'm not going to go ahead and say, in a COMPLETELY OFF-THE WALL COMPARISON THREAD LIKE THIS (which I still don't get why exists; maybe the guy wants to shop and can only afford one game and is asking us which one he should get ahaha), something like "Well I got started with Castlevania 1 and no way Lords of Shadow is better because CV1 is what I started with."
See how crazy that sounds?
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i like curse of darkness much more, the monster desings called my attention.
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I... and....I....
You know what, Im taking the third option, Castlevania Judgement is better that Curse of Darkness, Lords of Shadow, Lament of Innocence, Legacy of Darkness and Vanilla Castlevania 64 combined.
Castlevania Judgement is truly the superior 3D Castlevania with the best art direction and character design the series has ever seen, trumping Kojima's "manlady" art style. The combat is better, the music is masterful and the story is on par with Citizen Kane, a true work of art and the Castlevania game we deserve and the Castlevania game we need.
*Note: this is not sarcasm*
Wait until the trolls roll in.
DEY SEE NE TROLLIN, DEY HATIN.
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*sees Shango's post*
OOOOOOOHHH GOD.
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Well seeing as Curse of Darkness was perhaps the worst game in the series just shy of the glorious Order of Shadows, I'll go with Lords of Shadow.
But I actually liked Lords of Shadow.
EDIT: Wait, I forgot about Haunted Castle. That makes it third worst.
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Haunted Castle is arguably the most challenging in the series, but I wouldn't call it the worst. Vampire Killer for DOS takes that title, unyuu~
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Dat DOS soundtrack. :B
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Haunted Castle is arguably the most challenging in the series, but I wouldn't call it the worst. Vampire Killer for DOS takes that title, unyuu~
I consider Vampire Killer more of a shoddy port, but I see your point.
As for Haunted Castle, it's not just that it's challenging, it's that its difficulty is completely unintuitive. I mean, I love a hard game, Haunted Castle isn't hard because it's set up to be hard, it's just hard because it seems like the developers were just overlooking a lot of crucial things, like jump height and sprite size.