GAF picks the best (metroid) Castlevania.

I fought Galamoth without the Beryl Circlet and all I got was this lousy transformation spell.

SOTN's music edges out the competition. You have to play without Criss or the Shield Rod to get any real challenge out of the bosses though.
 
GrotesqueBeauty said:
I've replayed it several times, before and after PoR. It's always passed off as just a bad SotN clone, but honestly it has one of the better maps of all the handheld Castlevania games, and it's far and away the most underrated and unfairly criticized of the group imo. Underwhelming bosses and weak soundtrack aside I think it's really good.
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I agree with this assessment of Harmony of Dissonance, although I heavily disagree with calling PoR worse than it, or the worst, or even absolute garbage as you are. =P
 
SOTN. I played it for the first time about two years ago, and then played several of the others and they just weren't as good.
 
We have to mention what games we played/beat and then give our opinion.
I played: SOTN, Down of Sorrow, & Portrait of Ruin. I choose Down of Sorrow to be the best.
 
Jazzy Network said:
No way Portrait is worse than Harmony. Try playing Harmony again.
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Oh man...I thought you were talking about Harmony of Despair haha. Yes Portrait of Ruin is vastly better than Dissonance. It's easily the worse handheld 'Vania. Harmony of Despair on the other hand, might be a weird amalgam of stolen bits of everything else, but it's solid and addictive as hell.
 
Order of Ecclesia.

1. You don't start in the castle. Hooray! Some of my favorite Castlevania games (Super Castlevania IV, Lords of Shadow, Ecclesia) make you earn the right to step into Dracula's abode and I love the journey through the countryside feel.

2. Which also gives it some of my favorite settings in the series. You're not confined to the castle (which can be colorful on its own, sure!) but getting outside the castle means you can explore forests, mountain ranges, even lighthouses.

3. The glyph system was great and an interesting concept that I felt kept the combat unique and experimental.

4. The story was actually kind of cool which is rare in these games, as were the characters. I liked Shanoa's design and enjoyed what was actually happening in the game.

5. Symphony of the Night has a killer soundtrack. Well, so does Order of Ecclesia!

6. Boss fights were challenging but far from unbeatable, which is the way I like it.

7. The hub village reminded me somewhat of Simon's Quest and something about the music there was spectacularly magical and slightly eerie at the same time.

I just think it's overall one of the most unique Castlevania games and took a lot of concepts that I love about the series and snowballed them into one game. If I have one complaint it's that the stages are too copy and paste, but that has been going on since Symphony of the Night.
 
Aria of Sorrow. I still remember grinding those big ass knights for hours to get the Final Sword to drop. IIRC its drop percentage was 0.3%.

Alucard is too OP. Honorable mentions go to Circle of the Moon for being hard as nails and Simon's Quest for introducing me to the metroidvania genre.
 
Order of Ecclesia also has one of the strongest protagonists in the series. Shanoa is truly a great video game heroine.

"I am the morning sun, come to vanquish this horrible night."
 
Red Arremer said:
I 100% completed it several times (including a couple of NG+ runs), and Albus mode, and beat boss rush with all 3 characters (Shanoa, Albus and Shalboa), and I also speedrun the game (casually).

So... no, of course, I didn't play very far in.
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Then you should know that the mana bar quickly becomes a non-issue.

What's more, it makes magical attacks more viable as a form of main offense, whereas in the other games, save for perhaps Portrait of Charlotte or Magician Mode of the Moon, your MP and magic or soul attacks are always going to be in short supply. Ecclessia's mana bar recharges much faster than the other games, and magic glyphs use little more MP than weapon glyphs.
 
Red Arremer said:
I agree with this assessment of Harmony of Dissonance, although I heavily disagree with calling PoR worse than it, or the worst, or even absolute garbage as you are. =P
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Believe me, I wanted to like it, but there's something about PoR that just rubs me the wrong way. It's the only portable Castlevania I can't bring myself to finish. Some of the enemies are fantastic, but I hate the layout and I personally think the two character system is the worst gimmick they've shoehorned into the series. There are too many bright spots to call it a truly "bad" game, but it's sort of an unfocused badly tied together hodgepodge compared to the rest imo. I kinda lost faith playing PoR, which made the amazingly good OoE a revelation.

That said, I'd take another PoR before MoF.
 
Portrait of Ruin was definitely the best in my opinion because of the Nest of Evil, which was probably the biggest challenge offered by any of the metroidvanias. No matter how good SotN looks or sounds, I can never look past how easy the game is even without items like the shield rod.
 
Creaking said:
Symphony's Audio quality isn't technically great in some aspects, but it's magical.
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Everytime I enter Orlox's quarters and Dance of Pales starts I get chills it's such a masterful OST.

F0rneus said:
Order of Ecclesia also has one of the strongest protagonists in the series. Shanoa is truly a great video game heroine.

"I am the morning sun, come to vanquish this horrible night."
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That quote with this music in the background was so pumping. I love Shanoa so much.
 
KTO said:
Portrait of Ruin was definitely the best in my opinion because of the Nest of Evil, which was probably the biggest challenge offered by any of the metroidvanias. No matter how good SotN looks or sounds, I can never look past how easy the game is even without items like the shield rod.
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I haven't played it in a while, but I think Order of Ecclesia's "Large Cavern" and Circle of the Moon's "Battle Arena" were more difficult.

Nest of Evil became pretty easy once you did it enough. Or abused "The Greatest 5" Dual Crush move.
 
Played SOTN again last year for the first time in ages. So good. Still great. Haven't played any of the GBA and DS games, though. Always wanted to.

It's dumb that Konami won't make any more games like this. Now that digital platforms are so prevalent it's the perfect opportunity to do so. Oh well - that's why stuff like Shadow Complex and Guacalemee exist.
 
Creaking said:
I haven't played it in a while, but I think Order of Ecclesia's "Large Cavern" and Circle of the Moon's "Battle Arena" were more difficult.

Nest of Evil became pretty easy once you did it enough. Or abused "The Greatest 5" Dual Crush move.
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Nest of Evil is harder because of the room with the 2 Creatures.
 
Red Arremer said:
Nest of Evil is harder because of the room with the 2 Creatures.
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Dear me, I remember so little of Portrait of Ruin...

I blazed through the game and did absolutely everything, maxed all the subweapons, played the Nest of Evil until I could beat it extremely fast, and I even ran through the game on the Lvl 1. Locked Hard Mode (thanks ancient armor!).

However, I've not played it since 2011.
 
Dawn of Sorrow. I loved being able to swap between two equipment sets - Silver Pistol in one set and Claimh Solais in the other was so fun. Also really dug the gotta catch 'em all feeling of the Soul system.

Honorable mention to the cards system in COTM. I loved trying out all the different combinations whenever I picked up a new card. Also, some of those endgame spells were godly - never felt so powerful in a Castlevania game.
 
harmony of dissonance is underrated though. replayed the game a couple of years ago and it was fun.some of the level design is top notch.
 
SotN

Most badass character. Amazing Music. Great plot. Relics. Spirit moves. So many items and secrets.


But the upside down castle hiding the other half of the game made my 6th grade mind fucking explode.
 
Harmony of Despair. Because I love co-op, 6 player online co-op is amazing, also all those characters from older castlevanias. I have hundreds of hours of playtime and could easily do hundreds more.
 
I played most of the Metroidvanias in order and I'd say I liked OOE the most, because it had some difficulty to it and the combat felt like an upgrade. SOTN always will stand out as a well constructed game, but it did feel bloated and had pretty much automode combat.
 
I played Symphony of the Night last of all the metroidvanias. I still think it is the best one.

Aria of Sorrow comes in a close second, and Order of Ecclesia deserves a special mention due to having the balls of breaking some of the metroidvania traditions.
 
Order of Ecclesia (DS - 2008)
Symphony of the Night (PS - 1997)
Dawn of Sorrow (DS - 2005)

These would be my top 3. I loved OoE, and looking back at the series as a whole it was better than SotN. Though SotN still holds that nostalgic crown.

I can't believe it has been 5 years since we got a Metroidvania. What happened to Iga anyway?
 
I'm all for Ecclesia, but it's no metroidvania (it's better) so, no contest, SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT FOR LIFE.

Thank you TORU HAGIHARA! You did the best games of the Castlevania eras (Rondo of Blood and Symphony) and I'm sorry most of people think your magna opus was made by IGARASHI who just copied YOUR ideas and style for 12 years. You'll always be in my heart.
 
Absolutely Aria of Sorrow. Most enjoyable experience from start to end. Easily beats the rest for me.

Likewise I love Portrait of Ruin, but I know it doesn't have a high chance of winning any polls on GAF.
 
sotn
harmony of dissonance
aria of sorrow


although i haven't' played the DS ones, everyone seems to have great things to say about eccelsia.
 
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