Castlevania

I've been getting back in to the series lately, playing some of the portable ones I wasn't able to pick up when they were released. For a while, I forgot that I enjoyed the series.

Well, I'm highly anticipating Lords of Shadow. Some of the extreme fanboys are getting all upset about it being a reboot and not taking place in the "timeline," but in all honesty, I think it's about time the series got a reboot. When you got stuff like, say, the reincarnation of Dracula living in the year 2030 in Japan while being a good guy, you know that the storyline has gone to hell and it's time to start it over. Due to how messy it has become, I really do hope the "old" timeline is eventually dropped (Like how the timeline of the old Batman movies was dropped when Batman Begins came out and rebooted the Batman film franchise); however, it may not be any time soon, if that TGS 2008 Castlevania title is still in production.

As for Lords of Shadow's style, some are arguing that the game abandoned the cool art style of the series; that argument doesn't work, as the Symphony of the Night-esque art style stopped when the DS arrived. The series then, with Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, adopted a "saturday morning cartoon" look, and Lords of Shadow's darker, more realistic style is infinitely better than that garbage.

Well, anyway, who else is looking forward to Lords of Shadow, or the other upcoming titles in the series?

Looking forward to Adventure Rebirth, not looking forward to Lords of Shadow.

I'm just not big on 3D action games in general, and that's what LoS looks like from the footage I've seen. Doesn't look like an exploration-based platformer/action title as I myself would personally prefer. Then again, I'd like to be wrong.

You're forgetting that Order of Ecclesia went back to a darker style before Lord of Shadows was even announced, Andross, and that game kicked ass.

I both love and hate the classic Castlevania games. There much simpler games than the Metroidvanias we've been getting since SotN, yet they are insanely hard. The music of the old games also have more nostalgia value for me than the newer ones. Still, I'd have to say that Super Castlevania 4 fixed most of the problems the NES games had and was a bit more fair, while still adding innovation to the series. It was the first one where the main character could control the direction of his jump in mid-air, something that was sorely needed since the first game, and it added the ability to aim your whip in most directions and hold it to protect from most projectiles and swing it with the control pad.

I'm personally looking forward to ReBirth more than Lord of Shadows because it harks back to the old days of Castlevania before every game starting copying SoTN.

Originally Posted by Dread

You're forgetting that Order of Ecclesia went back to a darker style before Lord of Shadows was even announced, Andross, and that game kicked ass.

True, but the style just wasn't of the same quality as Symphony of the Night. While it was certainly darker than the "saturday morning cartoon" fare of Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, it lacked that "gothic" vibe that made the way Symphony and the others look and feel so great.

I'm personally looking forward to ReBirth more than Lord of Shadows because it harks back to the old days of Castlevania before every game starting copying SoTN.

Well, Lords of Shadow certainly doesn't look like it's going to be another Symphony clone; it looks like it's actually moving the franchise into (gasp) new territory.

No, Order of Ecclesia definitely had a Gothic vibe. Just take another look at the artwork.

I definitely agree with Dread on that statement. Order of Ecclesia seemingly went back to the dark art style that made Symphony of the Night so good. Plus, the vibe of the game was the same as Symphony of the Night, going back to the dual weapon style that made Alucard so famous. Except this time around, instead of actual weapons, you had glyphs that could create your attacks, and as the game progressed, you could get even better variants of those glyphs.

The environment wasn't just set to Dracula's Castle as well. It had you roam all around the Transylvanian countryside, having the ginormous Dracula's Castle appear much later on into the story, which was a definite good addition.

The puzzles of the game required you to actually think which specific Glyphs you needed to solve the respective puzzle. And the ability boosting & transformation glyphs for Shanoa's back were a nice bonus to the gameplay.

The bosses.......all I can say is that they were ingeniously designed, and were some of the best the series had to offer. Arthroverta, Brachyura, Maneater, Rusalka, Goliath, (can't remember his name, but it's the Lion Shark boss), Blackmore, Wallman, Eligor, all of them were too good. They presented the challenge that the series needed to reboot it to it's former glory.

And that, everybody, is my review on Order of Ecclesia. Might have seemed unnecessary, but that's the review of it that I gave to other sites, so.....you're welcome (if you actually take the time to read it).

Order of Ecclesia seemingly went back to the dark art style that made Symphony of the Night so good.

Well, you two have a point. I do miss Ayami Kojima's style; she's to Castlevania as Amano is to Final Fantasy, I always felt.

Meh; looks like we probably aren't going to see much more of her work in the series, though, so at least Ecclesia, and Lords of Shadow to a greater extent, are pushing the series in a more "gritty" direction.

Portrait of Ruin is the only Castlevania game I've played, but I'm thinking of giving the others a try.

My brother rented Castlevania 64 when we were younger, but he was prolly the only one who played it.

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Portrait of Ruin is the only Castlevania game I've played, but I'm thinking of giving the others a try.

Symphony of the Night, now.

Originally Posted by Andross

Symphony of the Night, now.

With the exception of Harmony of Dissonance, all of the "Metroidvanias" are better than Portrait of Ruin.

So yeah, SotN isn't the only recommended choice.

LoS has not only Robert Carlisle (spelling) AND Patrick Stewart

I'm hyped

Originally posted by Rash
With the exception of Harmony of Dissonance, all of the "Metroidvanias" are better than Portrait of Ruin.

No, Harmony's better than Portrait of Ruin. Harmony, while being one of the most traditional titles in the franchise, was hugely underrated, with one of the biggest castles and some of the best combat in the series.

With the exception of Harmony of Dissonance, all of the "Metroidvanias" are better than Portrait of Ruin.

WHAT? HoD is awesome! That game is alot of fun. PoR is probably the worst of the Metroidvania titles. Dawn of Sorrow close in second. Ugh that game.

LoS has not only Robert Carlisle (spelling) AND Patrick Stewart

And Jason Isaacs, bee-otch!
Yeah im psyched for LoS too. Although Order of Ecclesia was a great game (mechanics, difficulty, etc-wise) it's story irked me. Mostly Shanoa irked me. Ehhh.. Im a bit tired of Mary Sues.
I for one, am not a total fangirl of the Castlevania power trio. (IGA, Kojima, Yamane) I do love the style those guys brought to the series but i dont think without them, the series will go to crap. Im sure they will return anyway. (Hopefully they will return if IGA is working on his rumored Alucard game.)

As for Classic vs New? Hmm. I like the classics but i do admit at finding them very difficult. I mean, i only beat the first game in the series ages ago only by using guides and tricks. (No, not a game genie) D: They are fun to play though! Thats why i want Rebirth. It looks like loads of fun like SCV4!

SotN is one of my favorite games in the universe so yeah, i would recommend that one to a first timer. But really if you wanna get to the very core of the series, go with Super Castlevania 4.

Originally Posted by Rash

With the exception of Harmony of Dissonance, all of the "Metroidvanias" are better than Portrait of Ruin.

So yeah, SotN isn't the only recommended choice.

I'm playing Harmony right now, and so far, it's infinitely better than that piece of trash Portrait of Ruin.

Well, I'm not saying I didn't like HoD. I did like it, just not as much as PoR. The concept of overlapping castles was very interesting.

Point is, they're both at the bottom of the list, whichever way you order them.

If you're talking bottom of the list for the Metroidvanias, then that means it's a list of 7 games.

And when all 7 games are pretty damn good (yes, Portrait of Ruin as well), that's not exactly a bad thing. I would argue that Harmony is a tad bit better than Circle of the Moon, actually.

I never hear people talk about Bloodlines for the Genesis. I actually liked that a lot. You had two different characters to choose from and the music was really good considering the limits of Genesis.

Bloodlines was really cool. Also one of the hardest in the series, that game was brutal. I'd say that only Rondo is better of all the pre-SOTN titles.

Rondo is the best castlevania. The igavania's are all pretty bad.

Originally Posted by Hazzle

Rondo is the best castlevania. The igavania's are all pretty bad.

I smell a fanboy.

I like both kinds of Castlevanias, mainly because I love 2d action platformers and Metroidvania-style games.