Topic: Castlevania Confessions

[crisis]

I’ll start:

I’ve never played Legacy of Darkness, I have a massive collection but this game is not in it.
and,

I’ve never finished Circle of the Moon 

[JR]

I've never legitimately beaten Dracula X and very likely never will. I'd rather play Haunted Castle over that one.

[PFG9000]

I don't really like Vampire Killer MSX.  I know years ago Morgoth Galaxius raved about how good it is, and I don't doubt him.  But I just find it boring, and the constant searching for items unengaging.

I've never beaten Dracula X SNES.  I've played up to Dracula but never beat him.  I know people say it's not as bad as it looks, but I've never given it many tries.

I feel strongly that Bloodlines suffers from having limited continues.  It's harder to learn the game with limited continues, so I've never tried.  I did beat it once, and never went back.

[JR]

I hear you on limited continues. That's the worst thing about a lot of retro games.

(Speaking of Bloodlines, I just played that last night, lol. I'm surprised I remembered the boss patterns as well as I did)

[Solomon]

Said this before but Portrait of Ruin is better than Dawn of Sorrow, in hindsight.

Circle of the Moon's extra modes are a waste. Hugh Mode would have been so much better.

Castlevania could have done without time travel and the Morrises being unable to wield the VK naturally.

I liked The Belmont Legacy comic and was disappointed we didn't get more of it.

I would love Judgment HD with full couch and online play.

I don't think Symphony of the Night will ever be surpassed.

I would gatekeep Castlevania from post-Netflix fans but then I'd become what I hate.

[GuyStarwind]

I'm sure most of you know this, but I'm just not a fan of non Belmont characters. I've said this a hundred times that Belmonts are the heroes, and your Alucards, Somas, Shanoas, etc are supporting characters that should never outshine the heroes. I know many will say "oh but that's not true because of this or that" but that's not how I see it. To be honest this isn't just a Castlevania problem, it's an anything that says something is supposed to be the strongest yet there is something that's somehow stronger problem. Yes, I know there is story strength and gameplay strength, but they should still match. Not sure I'm making sense but yeah.

The other thing I don't care for is the Soma story. The games are very fun, but I'm sorry I'm just not into the Japanese kid becoming Dracula thing. I get these are Japanese games, but feels off from the rest of the European theme.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

The other thing I don't care for is the Soma story. The games are very fun, but I'm sorry I'm just not into the Japanese kid becoming Dracula thing. I get these are Japanese games, but feels off from the rest of the European theme.

I like to imagine, like the initial localized story implies, that he's a Latin-American weeb. Mina obviously being his long-distance discord girlfriend.

I don't think there's been a single title that's truly Castlevania in quality since Aria and Lament. I've played them all except LoS 2 and the mobile game and they're either too mediocre to be memorable or they're just nostalgia bait. Feels weird to be like that since it's almost a third of the series that exists and I know a lot of people were introduced to the games that way, but man, LoI was the last mainline game that doesn't suffer from incredibly obvious asset reuse. Somebody made that RoB skeleton sprite over 30 years ago and I don't think they made a new one until Haunted Castle Revisited. That philosophy and complacency effects the entire gamefeel top to bottom, and I don't think there has been anything produced close to the quality Castlevania had in the 90s in a long time.

I also like Simon's Quest a lot. I don't think it's fun. It's almost exclusively not fun. But I like it.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Somebody made that RoB skeleton sprite over 30 years ago and I don't think they made a new one until Haunted Castle Revisited. That philosophy and complacency effects the entire gamefeel top to bottom

I mean in Symphony of the Night, it made thematic sense to reuse Rondo assets as it was a direct sequel, but honestly the asset reuse wasn't really just complacency. Konami has never really judged Castlevania "worthy" of a proper AAA development budget, and especially as we got into the DS era, that got worse. So the asset reuse was more a way to keep things within the narrow scope of the budget (especially as Rondo's assets were of REALLY GREAT QUALITY), but that why Order of Ecclesia feels so special in a way. There's a ton of new enemies with detailed and colorful original spritework, and the whole game is an visual feast compared to just about every post-Symphony 2D game thanks to that.

That said: one of my confessions is while I appreciate the work that went into Ecclesia... it's probably my least favorite game made under Iga's tenure.

[crisis]

That said: one of my confessions is while I appreciate the work that went into Ecclesia... it's probably my least favorite game made under Iga's tenure.

Hah! I’ve had my own grievances about that game. Care to explain?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Hah! I’ve had my own grievances about that game. Care to explain?

It feels very compromised to me. It's harder than the other Castleroids, but in a way I cannot describe using any other word besides "rushed", like enemy aggression and behavior does not match how much damage they do, and Shanoa's dodge is very finicky, enough that I just resolved to learn the game such that I never needed to use it. While they all look GREAT, I'm not the biggest fan of many of the new enemy types. For most of the story, Shanoa is just kind of THERE, only really blooming in the game's second half, and there's little to the game in general that feels like it meaningfully adds to the overall story Iga was already telling for Castlevania.

I think it's compromised between Konami's DESIRES for a Castlevania game versus Iga's genuine need to advance and improve things.

But after playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, it all really clicked for me. Ecclesia feels MUCH less like Castlevania and MUCH MORE like a prototype for the game that would eventually become Bloodstained. Ritual of the Night reuses much of the artistic and design choices that Ecclesia used, adapts a bunch of the core plot elements, and reuses and improves several of the major gameplay concepts, and it generally has the overall feel of being the game Iga WANTED Ecclesia to be. I wish it had Ecclesia's more fluid and rapid movement and traversal, but who knows, maybe ROTN2 will have that.

So I like Ecclesia more on that basis than as a "Castlevania" game, now that I have a different frame of reference to appreciate it.

[LuxKiller65]

My mind just exploded as I made the connection between Order of Ecclesia and Bloodstained. I think it's obvious when you think about it. I platinumed Bloodstained on PS4 and never thought about it, not even for a second.

[Kaneda]

*I don't like the Netflix series at all.

*I vastly prefer linear or branching paths over the exploration platformers that came from SOTN and onward.

*I like Tom duBois's artwork way more than Ayami Kojima's. The latter stayed on for far too long and made all the heroes too feminine.

*I think Dracula X is underrated and a great companion piece to Rondo. Like a second quest or DLC.