Topic: DS Castleroids overall better then GBA Castleroids?

[derision]

The GBA games edge out those on the DS. Well, for the most part- HoD is definitely the worst of all six while OoE is at least in the same league as AoS and CotM.

I'll admit, Circle of the Moon was my first Metroidvania so I may be a little biased here. I really like this game. The castle is large, has a bunch of secrets, and houses some intimidating boss fights. Your character feels weighty and movement around the castle is enjoyable. Enemy placement actually changes depending on your progress, which was a neat touch. The music direction is also excellent, especially for the (albeit few) original tracks- Castlevania could afford to have music that sounds more in line with Fate to Despair and Proof of Blood. Nonetheless, there is a general lack of animation frames and certain enemy sprites are frequently recolored and reused throughout. Some people also criticize the game's palette and how dark it is, but this is something I valued. It worked for this game and seemed appropriate.

Harmony of Dissonance is the only Metroidvania that I sincerely dislike. Juste's design is the worst of all the Belmonts and his spriteset is terrible. The music quality is bad, especially when you consider that this compromise was supposedly done for the visuals, which are gaudy and ugly. Many enemy sprites are simply downgraded Symphony/Rondo designs, the default castle is small and lacks breakable walls and compelling secrets, and the "B" castle is too similar to the original to be all that fun to run through. The plot is pretty ridiculous too- Alucard Belmont's jealous amigo, who happens to be a ninja, is brainwashed by Dracula's dismembered organs and runs off with his girlfriend. Err...

Aria of Sorrow is excellent, plain and simple. Whereas HoD struggled for a cohesive identity and opted to just ape Symphony up front, Aria is a focused experience presentation-wise. Along with many of the enemy types being unique, the game manages to look and sound significantly better than HoD. The castle design is very smart: the game environment is large, varied, and contains little recycling. The plot is also surprisingly ambitious and progressive, especially given the rest of the series. The game also has many things to do/collect, thanks to its weapon and soul systems. It represents a quantum leap over Harmony, in my opinion.

DoS, while an acceptable sequel, is inferior to its predecessor in terms of castle design, art design, and plot. PoR, though fun, really reeks of "Saturday Morning Castlevania". The characters are obnoxious and look terrible, the castle is right up there with Curse of Darkness as one of the worst in the series, and the game shamelessly recycles assets (moreso than the other DS games). Also, it's not as technically sound as the other games- it's more prone to slowdown and crashes.

OoE is generally more somber and, barring some of the townsfolk, has better and more appropriate characterization. The tone definitely does not feel as homogenized as the previous two games due these traits as well as the improved artstyle. Level design can be a mixed bag, as a good portion of the outdoor areas are used at least twice/have blatantly repeating rooms. However, I really like the endgame castle and how dense it is. It's varied, dangerous, and has a bunch of interesting abilities to go after. OoE is also the first Metroidvania since CotM to have any semblance of difficulty to it, which is something that I appreciated.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

DS Castleroids overall better then GBA Castleroids?

No.

That is not to say I do not enjoy them, but the DS games are wholly more lackluster works than the GBA games.

Part of this is due to timing. When the GBA games had come out, the Symphony formula was still unique and relatively untrodden territory. By the time the DS games came out, that path had been heavily trampled under the GBA games, and there were only so many ways to keep it new. Ecclesia managed to shake things up a bit with slightly improved graphics, classic/castleroid hybrid level design, a host of new enemies with fewer reused enemies, and an upped difficulty level, but I'd still be hard pressed to rank it in my top 5 games in the series.

But equally culpable is that the first two DS games smacked a bit of hubris, more so than previous entries. If not hubris, then my next word choice would be laziness.

Dawn was basically Aria made into a Saturday morning cartoon while trying to somehow be a sequel. Portrait was even worse in that regard. By the time Portrait had been out for a few months, it was evident that things needed to change, and Ecclesia was the result. Ecclesia is leagues better than either of it's predecessors, but still can't quite measure up to the GBA games.

All three of the GBA games make my top 10 at least, but only Ecclesia can manage that feat from the DS trilogy.

[Phoenix7786]

Having been in I wanna say 6th grade when I played SotN, I was definitely quite impressionable and absolutely loved it. Still though, me and my best friend preferred playing as Richter and not using his OP item crashes to keep the CV challenge and nostalgia there. I was in either in 8th grade or high-school when the GBA series came out, and I distinctly remember liking CotM for being a solid entry to the series, hating HoD for what I PERSONALLY felt as being a boring, uninspired water-down version of SotN (although I LOOOOOOVED the NES-esque music), and of course fapping to AoS like we all did (and I mean "all" loosely). That being said, when I bought the DS games, I was amazed at what I PERSONALLY felt was the greater level of quality and game-play.

That strikes me as odd, since being that young would suggest that I should have been more biased to the games that made a bigger impression on my life. From an analytical  perspective at my current age of 26, CotM, HoD, and AoS indeed do have the biggest distinct difference between them (and hence an actual identity), whereas you could definitely lump DoS, PoR, and OoE into the same mold. And, as many others have pointed out in this thread, the GBA series seems to have better innovations. Nevertheless, I still, for some reason, prefer the DS generation of portable CV's to the GBA generation. In particular I love the fact that PoR gave us a partner system where both partners are active at once (although it took another 5 fragging years for a true multi-player CV game...) and that we got 7 total characters to play as in PoR.

And just for the record, having seen some battle-lines drawn between Castlevanias vs Metroidvanias, I prefer (and play) both. They are a refreshing change of pace to keep things from becoming stale and I feel their distinctive styles, as with the possible style of LoS, will ebb and flow as time goes on. Look at how popular the retro Megaman game was. We might see the same for Castlevania, or maybe a new game will take the series by storm. LoS may or may not have done it, but Konami finally seems to have fired off a 3D Castlevania that has gained at least somewhat approval from the consensus after striking out with CV64, CV:LoD, CV:LoI, and CV: CoD.

Also Chummers I've done my best to keep these from becoming icebergs of text, but long-winded has always been my downfall, even with an English Major.

If you're here for the TL; DR version the best I can do is: I played GBA series as a kid but don't like them as much as the DS series even though the GBA series is arguably more original. I see the IGA-verse as the other side of the Castlevania coin and play both archetypes with equal love. And sometimes that coin lands on its narrow edge, which might be the LoS style."

[The Silverlord]

GBA for me.  Those games still feel rougher and more atmospheric compared to the smooth and glossy affairs on the DS.  Probably as much to do with the limitations of the GBA architecture as much as anything else, although the first two DS entries also felt dumbed-down and riding on the coattails of what had come before.  I won’t go into detail, but I felt a sense of series fatigue while playing Portrait of Ruin.  The GBA entries felt significantly different from one another.

What helps the GBA’s case also, is that I feel that Aria of Sorrow is the best Castleroid entry in the series.  The Tactical Soul system was an outstanding achievement from IGA and his team, built in beautifully to the storyline and offering practical means to advance in the game.  I’m not one for collectathons, but Aria changed all that.  There was just a feeling that you had to collect all those souls and see what they did, see what they offered.  Every single one, for better or worse.

There’s also a pacing to the game that just feels right to me. 

Aria is the one Castleroid I do enjoy replaying time and time again.  There’s just something mystical about it.  Maybe it’s the Japanese-based storyline, its pale, pastel-like colours; perhaps the map layout itself, the strange hollow-feeling-like areas like the Underground Waterway, Forgotten Garden or Chaotic Realm.  The musical score doesn’t seem to be very highly regarded by fans but I absolutely love it for what it is.

[derision]

The musical score doesn’t seem to be very highly regarded by fans but I absolutely love it for what it is.

Not sure why you seem to think that. You would actually be hard-pressed to find a CV fan who doesn't think that Aria has a great soundtrack.

[thernz]

I mostly only really like the tracks by Soshiro Hokkai in Aria like Premonition. So you can just take that.
ofc I like Yamane's tracks too but they don't put up as strong as an impression. I like Top Floor and etc iirc.

[NeoLiza]

I think what makes Circle more appealing is that aside from collecting cards, it's the only GBA game that tries to infuse Classicvania into the Igavania style. While it is, for the most part, a weird experiment that makes the game atrociously harder than it needed to be, it really does set it apart from the other portable titles that literally try to outdo SOTN. Problem was the areas in the game being horrifically boring. HoD fixed that but created the problem of confusing map navigation due to the inverted castle sections. Aria was basically an upgraded SOTN as well as Dawn. Portrait.... ugh. OoE, however, stood out more as the game wasn't trying to redo the whole "castle collect0thon" like the previous installments did. It is in essence the true spiritual successor to the classicvania games. I thought it would be impossible to bring back the difficulty of the old games mixed in with the super abilities of the newer characters and gameplay, but that game did it. I don't know how, but it did it's job well.

So if anything, I would have to say that because of OoE alone, it's better than the GBA games. Because it was, to me, a successful hybrid.