GAF picks the best (metroid) Castlevania.

The Lamonster

The Lamonster

Member
map2.gif
Click to expand...
Which Metroid-style Castlevania game is the best? We may never get any more, so let's get this done. Here are the nominees:

Vampire Killer (MSX - 1986)
Simon's Quest (NES - 1987)
Symphony of the Night (PS - 1997)
Circle of the Moon (GBA - 2001)
Harmony of Dissonance (GBA - 2002)
Aria of Sorrow (GBA - 2003)
Dawn of Sorrow (DS - 2005)
Portrait of Ruin (DS - 2006)
Order of Ecclesia (DS - 2008)
Harmony of Despair (XBLA - 2010)

Remove your nostalgia. SotN was probably your first, but is it really the best? If so, why?

Which of these has the most interesting game mechanics, best pacing and length, scariest enemies and bosses, best music, strongest replay value, coolest weapons, abilities, etc? Basically, which game offers the most complete Metroidvania experience in Konami's beloved franchise?
 
For me it is between SOTN and Circle of the Moon, even though i like the story best in Aria.

Id have to say Symphony of the Night, simply because of the extras, i love the enemy design and music.
 
The original NES version is the absolute tightest design. It is my absolute favorite.

But Aria of Sorrow is a really really close second, and The Adventure Rebirth is also amazing.
 
I've still never played Symphony of the Night. I consider this a tremendous failure as a gamer.

I loved both Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. It's been so long since I've played either, but I remember preferring Portrait of Ruin, probably due to playing it when it was still new. I didn't play Dawn of Sorrow until just before the release of Portrait of Ruin.

I could never get into Order of Ecclesia. Was the combat really as bad as I think it was in my head? That's probably not possible.

I should really stop everything and play SOTN, right?
 
Symphony just had so much more than all of the others. It was a lot more ambitious. Plus you get to play it on a big screen!

Aria is great too. So are Circle of the Moon and Order Ecclesia. Well, they're all great, I just like some more than others.

So for me

1. Symphony of the Night
2. Aria of Sorrow
3. Circle of the Moon / Order of Ecclesia (two of the most challenging!)
 
Symphony still the best on pretty much every front.

Dawn of Sorrow is second best, but it's pretty close. Really solid exploration, the soul system was interesting, good music, etc.

Order of Ecclesia is 3rd, but it's pretty different from the others so I dunno how valid of a comparison it really is.
 
SteveWD40 said:
Aria of Sorrow, just all clicked so well, great music too.
Click to expand...

first post right as usual.

My top 3:

1) Aria of Sorrow

2) Order of Ecclesia

3) Symphony of the Night

Aria is the most balanced game all around, OoE has the best combat while SotN has the best overall presentation.
 
NME said:
I could never get into Order of Ecclesia. Was the combat really as bad as I think it was in my head? That's probably not possible.
Click to expand...

Ecclesia probably had the best combat of all the Metroidvanias. The dual wielding felt useful (lots of games mess dual wielding up), and the combat was faster than the other games, though you had something akin to a stamina bar.

It was also one of the few Castlevania titles where you could get away with using magic attacks exclusively.
 
Order of Ecclesia. They made minor improvements with almost every entry, and the last one ended up being the best. (HoDespair is more of a loot game than a metroidvania. It has too much DLC and not enough loot.)
 
Order of Ecclesia is by far the best IMO. Then comes Symphony and Aria. Harmony of Despair is a loot game so it shouldn't really be here. But I do love it and played it for several hundred hours.
 
Aria of Sorrow is my favorite. Dawn of Sorrow would probably be next followed by Circle of the Moon.

Simon's Quest gets alot of shit, but at the time the game was so good. First Castlevania game I played.

SotN is very good, but the fact that it was so easy and alot of the game is made into the reverse castle annoyed me.

Wasn't that into Portrait of Ruin and I haven't played enough of Order of Ecclesia yet. Harmony of Dissonance is trash. It's a decent game, but compared to all the others it's just bad. Never played Vampire Killer.
 
I wet my pants when that gold ring (one ring to rule them all) dropped from the very first gold skeleton I met in regular castle. regular alucard too. Will never forget that moment.
 
Alright so let's rank them all.

S tier:
Aria of Sorrow

A tier:
Order of Ecclesia
Symphony of the Night

B tier:
Dawn of Sorrow
Portrait of Ruin

C tier:
Circle of the Moon

D tier:
Harmony of Dissonance


Aria of Sorrow gets to be at the top because it executes everything flawlessly: level design, variety of weapons (based soul system), good soundtrack, intriguing good story, and awesome art style. The re-playability is solid with hard and Julius mode. Finally the pacing is good and is not a broken as Symphony. That and the fact that the game is very cryptic (bat combos, magic spells, getting to the inverted castle without a guide) place it underneath. Ecclesia is probably on par with SotN. While it has many of the features that make Aria great, the Castle itself is a little lackluster. I know the game takes place in many locations in order to make it less monotone to play. But it was a bit detrimental to the castle design which wasn't a good call IMO.

Dawn and Portrait follow the formula to the book. In the process they do seem to be a little bit less memorable. Also, the anime art-style was a terrible choice that immediately made me not dig those 2 games that much. Portrait in particular has a very annoying cast of characters.

Circle of the Moon was an outstanding Castlevania given the limitations of the era, but it has been superseded in every way by the handheld sequels. The card system was a good idea but poorly executed due to the drops being very rare. Also, the game is surprisingly hard.

Finally, Harmony of Dissonance. It baffles me that this game was developed at the same time of the one at the top. Its only redeeming quality is that it had the most innovative use of the secondary weapons with the spell books. Apart from that it looks ugly, the soundtrack is awful, the level design is all over the place, and it's broken from pretty much the beginning as Juste is way to OP.

Despite how sad it makes me that we may never get another Castlevania by Igarashi. He and his team put an outstanding amount of quality games in a short timeframe. I'm ahppy I least I got the chance to play them all. :)
 
I'm torn between Symphony of the Night and Order of Ecclesia.

SotN has its share of flaws, an unbalanced difficulty curve, finicky warp system, the often praised inverted castle to me is more of an awkward to traverse boss hunt highlighting the previously mentioned difficulty problem and Alucard's abilities feel a bit limited compared to those that would follow in his footsteps.
But the main attraction of SotN to me is the castle itself, each area is not only distinct visually but often in how they're laid out which adds an extra layer of authenticity to each location, some like the tower are quite clear, it's tall and relatively slim, others like the chapel with its long staircase and sprawling bell towers or the Colosseum with its symmetrical arena layout, all of these places fir together wonderfully to create an enjoyable to traverse Castle.
On top of this you have the sublime soundtrack which I love more than any other CV soundtrack and it has a strong atmosphere as well created through visuals and sound, the various little details all over SotN really shine be it the cape pose when standing near an edge or how the tower area has various types of weather and is also home to some bird with its nest in the room with the telescope.
Regarding a point made in the OP, I played SotN after the 3 DS games so no nostalgic ties here but damn i'd give anything for a slightly retooled SotN with the extra little conveniences of modern Metroidvanias and with a better difficulty balance.

Order of Ecclesia is a different beast entirely, while its map consists of a bunch of standalone areas, some of which with incredibly basic layouts Ecclesia still delivers the enjoyment of exploration albeit toned down, to make up for this the other elements are refined, particularly the combat which poses more of a challenge than before. Getting out of the castle works in OoE's favour as journeying around the countryside makes a nice change of pace. I thought the bosses were really good in this one as well, Ecclesia feels like the most rewarding of these games to complete, one that was truly an earned victory even though i'm sure there's probably an easy way to cheese this game as well.
At first it was my least favourite of the 3 DS entries but when I went back through them I found out how wrong I was, and that PoR is kinda lame really.
Albus mode is also pretty fun, starts off like a cakewalk, ends up pretty tricky.

OoE is probably the better game strictly speaking but I just can't say no to SotN.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Who got the Best PC on GAF?
2 3 4 5
212
8K
digital_ghost replied
UNCOMPRESSED metroid prime 4 footage best looking switch game??
Analysis Trailer Hype  8 9 10 11 12
593
26K
IbizaPocholo replied
  • Poll
What's the best Castlevania sub-weapon?
2
50
2K
BossLackey replied
Rumor: Metroid Prime 5 Made Simultaneously With Metroid Prime 4, Will Launch in 2027
2
72
3K
Dr. Wilkinson replied
Metroid Dread lttp kindda disappointed
LTTP  2
76
3K
gunstarhero replied
Top Bottom