Topic: Your very first Castlevania experience

[Lelygax]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations for doing that without help!

[jestercolony]

Castlevania has always been a special part of my life. It didn't take off until I was five years old, my brother was 8. Growing up, we used to live poorly - and my parents wanted nothing more for us than to be happy. So, yeah we had an NES, many games... But it wasn't until the day my mom went out and bought a copy for me and my brother and it was the very first time my interest in the horror movie/novel genre started. It was my first taste of these classic monsters that we have all grown up on and fell in love with.

It is because of this game, that also began to spark my interest in the paranormal, or rather parapsychology, mythological creatures and demonology. It also allowed me to become a short-term writer for some stuff, that I may publish as full novels in the future (when I get around to it.) But it wasn't just this that it started - because of this and many other games, my parents had found out that I was a music prodigy - it was because of these awesome tunes, that at such a young age that I began to develop a natural sense of rhythm and almost perfect pitch singing. Later this sparked my interest in guitar, and haven't stopped playing it since. Now I'm a guitarist in a death metal band, waiting for his big break.

Thanks to my mother, I would of never fell in love with all things that go bump in the night. May she RIP.

[mig3]

I was 10 years old . I can say that i began with the beginning because it was CASTLEVANIA 1 on nes . It was at place of a friend of mine . We played until the stage 6 and there, his sister want us to stop because she wanted to see the "21 jump  street" on TV ...

Then i bought the game very fastly after ....

[SabinFigaro]

Castlevania 1 of course. THE game that started it all for many of us. Besides the great music, gameplay and fun factor. I would say that what made it special, was the mood factor. Being 5 years old and knowing only of mario, this game brought something that was scarcely done right in those days. And that is immersion. You WERE Simon. You WERE alone against the unholy. And holy cow did U ever feel alone against this unending army of darkness. I remember, being (not scared, not the right word) anxious of what awaited poor Belmont as you progressed through the game. That queasy feeling you would get hearing the music in the last staircase leading to dracula. The sweaty palms holding that rectangular controller. That's what I'm talking about. Long live Castlevania!

[son_the_vampire]

glad you enjoyed it enough to make mention of "holy cows" +1 to you sir

[xeilua]

Dawn of Sorrow. I recall watching a video on Gamespot of Soma slicing up monsters in a snow-covered castle. At that moment, I was sold. From that point, I sought to claim SotN, the GBA trilogy, and LoI.

[Weiss Belmont]

On my 6th birthday my mom and dad took me to Toys R Us where I bought a Terminator 2 action figure and Castlevania III. After stopping by Pizza Hut, got home, popped the cartridge into my NES and was blown the hell away. Those were the good ole days. Even when your family splits there is always Castlevania.

[Nail_Bombed]

Think I became aware of Castlevania when I went to a then next-door-neighbour's house when I was 10. It was either CV1 or CV2 on the NES (he had both)- I was instantly taken in by the atmosphere and eerie presence of the game. And then I played it, of course, and died x1000. Couldn't at the time get into such a hardcore level of difficulty... and my parents at the time were fairly opposed to me having a games system of my own - so the next time I met CV was in the early days of emulation with NESticle. I still haven't managed to beat any of the classic titles, but certainly have more of an appreciation for the challenge. Also played the Genesis and SNES CV titles around 1995 (though not Dracula X till much later).
Then I met the Metroidvania's on GBA - and those were what cemented my view of Castlevania as one of the best videogame franchises. Again, the atmosphere, the music, level design and artwork all seemed to be exactly attuned to my view of gaming (of course, the Ghosts and Goblins and Gargoyle's Quest series were also some of my favourites).

[A-Yty]

CV, NES. I think the year was 1990. Possibly 1991.

When we finally made to it to Dracula, the guy I was playing it with, said "they used to be friends" (meaning Simon and Drac). Of course, this was just a boy making up stories (he was the kind of kid who wanted to see good in people instead of thinking someone is actually really bad), but it's funny how the story eventually turned out 

[Briraka]

CV, NES. I think the year was 1990. Possibly 1991.

When we finally made to it to Dracula, the guy I was playing it with, said "they used to be friends" (meaning Simon and Drac).

Was this guy named "David Cox" by chance?

[Nagumo]

Nope, if it was Cox he would have said: "Look! That guy is wearing a mask!"

[Gecko]

Nope, if it was Cox he would have said: "Look! That guy is wearing a mask!"

I always thought he was wearing a mask...


I first played my brother's copy of Circle of the Moon. At the time I was really into the Diablo games, and I thought it felt a lot like a sidescroller Diablo. I really liked the DSS Card Combo system, the free-roaming through the castle, and especially the music. The atmosphere was awesome. From there I started collecting the old games, starting with the NES games. I got my ass kicked a lot, but I thought it was fun nonetheless. And there we have it.

[son_the_vampire]

I got my ass kicked a lot, but I thought it was fun nonetheless. And there we have it.

You are not alone in your troubles with this. Its good that you power through the pain.

[The Silverlord]

You WERE Simon. You WERE alone against the unholy. And holy cow did U ever feel alone against this unending army of darkness. I remember, being (not scared, not the right word) anxious of what awaited poor Belmont as you progressed through the game. That queasy feeling you would get hearing the music in the last staircase leading to dracula. The sweaty palms holding that rectangular controller. That's what I'm talking about. Long live Castlevania!

Brilliant post, sir!  Much of the pure essence of Castlevania here, and emotions we all surely felt while playing.  It really was one hell of a moody game experience!

Why I positively endorse Lords of Shadow in the is it/isn't it Castlevania question: it did the lone warrior against the hordes of darkness thing, same as the original. Sure, the plot was long-winded and took a strange twist at the end, but it tried to bring some of the original game's feelings/emotions and themes into play. Mood, atmosphere, lonliness, the fight of good and evil. It did it differently with some of the creatures and environments, but the intent was there. What did you think of Lords of Shadow incidentally?

On the 'scared' thing, know you weren't with the game, but I grew up watching some of those early Dracula Hammer horror films and I was terrified watching those (was around 9 or 10 years old, can't be sure though).  I think Castlevania really did come in under that horror genre with its creatures and its palette of colours and rugged graphics.  As a game it was just a brilliant experience, top game in terms of atmosphere.

[SabinFigaro]

Well I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post anything here since it's been a while, but I want to answer The SilverLord and I think this a great topic, very accessible to everybody. So forgive me if I'm breaking any rules, it is not my intent.

To start off, I would say that those early Dracula movies you were speaking of, are probably still scary to this day. Never really watched them, but I did see some scenes here and there in documentaries and boy, is that bald Nosferatu something. I mean, I'm a grown man now, and I still find him scary. There is a quality to these black and white movies that I think is probably impossible to re-create in this day and age. And I might be wrong, but those were silent movies right? I think it adds even more mystery/horror to the experience. It lets you use your imagination and somehow , I find that having Drac just staring at the camera without saying a word is 10000 times scarier (than those Blade vampires for example) and prevents the character from ruining the vision you have of him.

As for the Lord of Shadows thing, well, I have to admit I'm not the biggest fan. I mean, I don't mind some changes and I have to give them credit for trying, but my opinion is they went overboard with that. That game didn't feel like Castlevania to me. From the soundtrack to the gameplay, I mean this game could have been called something else entirely. However, that was for LOS. I did find myself enjoying Mirror of fate quite a bit. Maybe because of the return to 2d. But there is something else. It's hard to explain, but the ««feel»» of the game, the general mood of it, for some reason, felt more castlevania-ish to my eyes. I just didn't like the whole (Spoiler ahead) Trevor is Alucard plot. Trevor is my favorite belmont and to make him a vampire is a travesty in my opinion lol! Asides from that, loved the little puzzles, loved the fact that you had to do some backtracking (symphony style, not to the same extent but still) and appreciated the soundtrack more. Although, OST speaking, I always thought the one-stage, one-music setting always fitted the franchise better. I mean, Castlevania has some of the best music in videogame history and I find that the quality went downhill in the last installments. Although, this a very personnal question of taste. I've always prefered catchy classical-rock pieces of music over generic scores. Generic soundtracks are not that appealing to me, but I understand that this is not the same type of castlevania and in this case, was well done. Keep in mind that I am a old conservative nostalgic fool, and games truly have to be special to move me. Don't even start me on Final fantasy 13 lol  At the end of the day, t's all a matter of opinion, and I respect all opinions. So that's it. Don't know if u will see this because it has been a while, but it's always a pleasure to exchange with fellow Castlevania fans!