Favorite Castlevania game

I love Castlevania as many others, and I would like to know what is your favorite RETRO! Castlvania game, for me the original is beast, but nothing beats Super Castlevania 4 for the Super Nintendo, that game is just awesome. So what is your favorite castlevania game?

Symphony of the Night, for sure. I'd be willing to bet that SotN is gonna be the most popular answer on this thread.

However, my 2nd favorite title in the series is one that seems to garner scorn from fans. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. I blame a lot of that hate on The Angry Video Game Nerd, which far too many people take far too seriously (it's all a joke, people!). I will admit that it does get annoying that everytime it changes from day to night in the game there is a this text box that appears that completely halts gameplay for like 10 seconds. But that really is small complaint against what is a great game otherwise. I love the fact that this game is open-world (well as "open-world" as 2D side-scrolling games go). I love the fact that it has a lot more RPG-elements than the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit games. And I love the sense of accomplishment you'd get when you'd defeat a boss or find a new secret in that game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) is my favorite!:)

Rondo of Blood on TG-CD. Definitely the best Castlevania game, from top to bottom.

The more nostalgic I say the original Castlevania. The more rational I say Castlevania IV. But really, Castlevania I, III, IV and Bloodlines are pretty much on par in my book, they're not drastically different from each other. I never cared for the RPG-platformer-Castlevanias, where it's more about about having enough patience to level up than anything else.

Castlevania II was kind of an interesting game - or so I used to think, until i got stuck in it with no real clues on how to proceed. It had ridiculously cryptic, moronic puzzles. I'm thankful that I had magazines that gave me help with it, or else I wouldn't have gotten to the end of it. But there's no excuse for bad game design. Oh yeah, and as was mentioned earlier by Emerald_Warrior, the frustration in relation to the changing day/night-cycle... It made me furious. AVGN:s criticism of it is mostly valid. I see no reason to think that he's joking, it's not like he's alone in seeing the flaws that he sees in the game.

The problem with AVGN in general is that a good game, according to him, more often than not seem to need to adhere to some strict formula - to standards set by games such as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and other so called classics, which he tend to uncritically praise to the skies. His perspective is therefore limited. Of course, I realise that there's the comedic aspect to his reviews, but he often goes a bit too far, like... "screw this game, let's play the real classics.", falling back to "safe territory" simply because of some small annoying detail, or because he cannot figure something out, because it doesn't fit in to a familiar, established template. And yet, I think that he has much more patience and real interest than most (if that's always a good thing or not, I don't know), and often good points to make.

SotN, with Aria of Sorrow in at a very close 2nd place.

... I never cared for the RPG-platformer-Castlevanias, where it's more about about having enough patience to level up than anything else...doubutsuteki

CastleVania III: Dracula's Curse.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and going with SotN.

Symphony of the Night, by far.Allicrombie

1st one on nes..

Circle of the Moon, followed closely by Aria of Sorrow and the original game.

[QUOTE="doubutsuteki"]... I never cared for the RPG-platformer-Castlevanias, where it's more about about having enough patience to level up than anything else...El_Zo1212o

So you didn't have to grind to get through the games, but for anyone else who couldn't simply run through them it meant walking in and out of a room and slaying the same monsters over and over again to level up before heading towards the next area.

I can't say I've played the games as much as you have; I played most of them - except, perhaps most notably, Symphony of the Night - for a while, but quickly grew tired of them. The interesting question isn't whether you had to grind in the games or not, but if there was anything meaningful to do in the games besides that? I find the experience system to be not as much a redundancy, as a sort of a built-in cheat system. If I remember right, you could not only walk back and save your game at any time in a save room, but switch equipment at will - even in the middle of fights. Anyone can grind, go save, grind, go save, and then beat the bosses. What else is there? Role-playing? Hardly. Unsurprisingly, you mention a lack of difficulty. I don't remember there being any challenging platform jumping in the games. At least the old Castlevania games had that - and enemies you had to learn to beat the same as anyone else, whether you liked it or not.

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"][QUOTE="doubutsuteki"]... I never cared for the RPG-platformer-Castlevanias, where it's more about about having enough patience to level up than anything else...doubutsuteki

So you didn't have to grind to get through the games, but for anyone else who couldn't simply run through them it meant walking in and out of a room and slaying the same monsters over and over again to level up before heading towards the next area.

I can't say I've played the games as much as you have; I played most of them - except, perhaps most notably, Symphony of the Night - for a while, but quickly grew tired of them. The interesting question isn't whether you had to grind in the games or not, but if there was anything meaningful to do in the games besides that? I find the experience system to be not as much a redundancy, as a sort of a built-in cheat system. If I remember right, you could not only walk back and save your game at any time in a save room, but switch equipment at will - even in the middle of fights. Anyone can grind, go save, grind, go save, and then beat the bosses. What else is there? Role-playing? Hardly. Unsurprisingly, you mention a lack of difficulty. I don't remember there being any challenging platform jumping in the games. At least the old Castlevania games had that - and enemies you had to learn to beat the same as anyone else, whether you liked it or not.

I grew up on Castlevania 1-4 on the Nintedno platforms. I hated SOTN because it strayed from the oringal formula. To me it aint Castlevania without the whip.

I grew up on Castlevania 1-4 on the Nintedno platforms. I hated SOTN because it strayed from the oringal formula. To me it aint Castlevania without the whip.

jdc6305

[QUOTE="jdc6305"]

I grew up on Castlevania 1-4 on the Nintedno platforms. I hated SOTN because it strayed from the oringal formula. To me it aint Castlevania without the whip.

BranKetra

[QUOTE="BranKetra"][QUOTE="jdc6305"]

I grew up on Castlevania 1-4 on the Nintedno platforms. I hated SOTN because it strayed from the oringal formula. To me it aint Castlevania without the whip.

amari24

Super Castlevania 4 is my favorite, and it had the best music IMO.

SotN with CV4 and CV3 tying a close second.

Super Castlevania 4 by far. It´s one of my favourite games of all time!

[QUOTE="doubutsuteki"]

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"] I had to stop here and reply- (let me drop some credentials here, so we know I'm talking from experience) I've successfully completed every handheld Castlevania since Circle of the Moon, including Castlevania X Chronicles on PSP, and Symphony- through the course of those games, I have never been forced to grind out levels in order to proceed(excepting, of course, CVX:C which had no leveling system). I have to admit here, to never having been a fan of the retro CVs; Konami's insistance on having them be the most bone-crushingly difficult games in existence did a great deal to deter me in my formative years. Best Castlevania ever, though, is still Aria of Sorrow, followed by Symphony of the Night.El_Zo1212o

So you didn't have to grind to get through the games, but for anyone else who couldn't simply run through them it meant walking in and out of a room and slaying the same monsters over and over again to level up before heading towards the next area.

I can't say I've played the games as much as you have; I played most of them - except, perhaps most notably, Symphony of the Night - for a while, but quickly grew tired of them. The interesting question isn't whether you had to grind in the games or not, but if there was anything meaningful to do in the games besides that? I find the experience system to be not as much a redundancy, as a sort of a built-in cheat system. If I remember right, you could not only walk back and save your game at any time in a save room, but switch equipment at will - even in the middle of fights. Anyone can grind, go save, grind, go save, and then beat the bosses. What else is there? Role-playing? Hardly. Unsurprisingly, you mention a lack of difficulty. I don't remember there being any challenging platform jumping in the games. At least the old Castlevania games had that - and enemies you had to learn to beat the same as anyone else, whether you liked it or not.

I'm tempted to suggest that you have a vivid imagination. It was completely standard fare from what I gathered.

There's no excuse for not bringing gameplay to the table. I'd rather watch a movie, read a book, or play something that has puzzles or actual gameplay in it than spend hours upon hours on a grind 'n' collect fest just to get snippets of story through dialogue once in a while.

But whatever floats your boat.

Castlevania 1,3,4 and for some reason the Castlevania 64 legacy version.(That one is not cannon but still)

Castlevania Symphony of the night.

...But whatever floats your boat...doubutsuteki

Super CV4

symphony of the night.

I love Super Castlevania on SNES and Order of Eccelsia on DS. I also loved Castlevania 64. I know there might be a lot of hate for it but its on my favorite list of castlevania.

I like a lot the first Castlevania game,the box art is also great.