Every Castlevania Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST
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- Опубліковано 16 лют 2023
- Inspired by the old Universal Monster movies from the 1930s, Konami crafted their own fangtastic gothic masterpiece in video game form. Starting out with an action platforming game, Castlevania has evolved numerous times since its original title, employing more RPG elements and pushing exploration over linear progression. It became partly responsible for the popularity and naming of the sub-genre, Metroidvania; a combination of Metroid and Castlevania. Unfortunately, much like Metal Gear Solid, Konami has allowed the gaming side of the franchise to slowly dry up, making it unclear what’s next for the series. Here is Every Castlevania Video Game Ranked from Worst to Best.
VO: Peter Austin (@ThatPeterAustin) & Ben Potter (@Confused_Dude)
Script: Travis Cartwright (@T_Cantwright)
Video Editor: Alex Winters (@MrSteakFace)
Featured Castlevania video games:
• Castlevania (1986)
• Castlevania 64 (1999)
• Castlevania Chronicles (1993)
• Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (1991)
• Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987)
• Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989)
• Castlevania Judgment (2008)
• Castlevania Legends (1997)
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)
• Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994)
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001)
• Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (2004)
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005)
• Castlevania: Dracula X (1995)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (2010)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002)
• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003)
• Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999)
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (2013)
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010)
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014)
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008)
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006)
• Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
• Castlevania: The Adventure (1989)
• Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (2009)
• Castlevania: The Arcade (2009)
• Haunted Castle (1988)
• Kid Dracula (1990)
• Kid Dracula (1993)
• Super Castlevania IV (1991)
• Vampire Killer (1986)
#Castlevania #Konami #Ranked
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What's your favourite Dracula-slaying Castlevania game? 👹🎮
Your guys’ #1 pick.
It’s still one of the best and most influential gaming experiences I ever had!
Symphony of the Night followed by Rondo of Blood
Circle of the Moon. It was my first GBA game when I bought the handheld at launch and the first Castlevania game that I beat. And at the time I was 12 and really into the lore of the series so I have a lot of fond memories with the game.
Castlevania 3!
Super Castlevania IV. It’s is still the best game in the series imo. You’re the first people to put it so low in a list of the best Castlevania games.
Saying Harmony of Dissonance is better than Portrait of Ruin is a bold move, saying Circle Of The Moon is better than both is wild…but then saying Castlevania 3 is better than ALL of these is insane.
I'm still amazed by how low Ecclesia is in this list.
At least Castle 3 is really better than all of these
3 is good but there is way too much obnoxious unfair nonsense in the game.
@@michag798 not in japanese version
I am actually referring to the japanese version. I don't bother with the US one because that one is literally unplayable at later levels.
1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) 1:21:00 PS1, Saturn
2. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005) 1:18:10 DS
3. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993) 1:15:50 PC engine
4. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003) 1:12:50 GBA
5. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989) 1:10:30 NES
6. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001) 1:08:00 GBA
7. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002) 1:05:25 GBA
8. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006) 1:03:00 DS
9. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008) 1:00:40 DS
10. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010) 58:55 PC
11. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (1991) 56:40 GB,GBC
12. Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994) 54:48 Sega Genesis
13. Super Castlevania IV (1991) 53:07 SNES
14. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003) 50:47 PS 2
15. Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (2009) 49:05 Wiiware
16. Kid Dracula (1993) 47:15 GB
17. Vampire Killer (1986) 44:52 MSX2
18. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (2004) 42:25 PS2,Xbox
19. Castlevania (1986) 39:45 NES
20. Castlevania Chronicles (1993) 37:20 Sharp X68000, PS1
21. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (2013) 34:55 PC, 3DS, PS3, Xbox360
22. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999) 32:30 N64
23. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (2010) 30:25 PSN, Xbox live arcade
24. Kid Dracula (1990) 28:15 Famicom
25. Castlevania: Dracula X (1995) 25:47 SNES
26. Castlevania (1986) 23:30 Amiga
27. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987) 21:00 Famicom, NES
28. Castlevania 64 (1999) 18:15 N64
29. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014) 16:05 PC,PS3,Xbox360
30. Castlevania Legends (1997) 14:10 GB
31. Castlevania: The Arcade (2009) 12:35 Arcade
32. Castlevania (1986) 10:30 C64
33. Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) 8:42 GB
34. Castlevania Judgment (2008) 6:25 Wii
35. Haunted Castle (1988) 4:05 Arcade, PS2
36. Castlevania (1986) 2:25 PC
thank you so much for this !
@@kurioman You are most welcome! I've used hundreds of lists like these, so I decided to make few (for this and Zelda video) on my own =)
Thank you! As someone who's never played any Castlevania (but who's very much looking into it), keeping track of all the unfamiliar names on the ranking was a struggle.
@@amaerus_ Well, one of the reasons I did this is because I never played much Castelvania, so when I decide to play - I know which one are the best :)
Absolutely loved Aria of Sorrow. Cleared it many times as a kid and I still remember the joy of discovering more of the game upon finding out that the game had two alternate endings once Internet guides became a thing.
Same. Those two games were so addictive. IGA hit gold when he started using the soul system in these games.
Aria is great I just wish it had better graphics and music.
I felt the same joy after discovering that there was actually another castle to explore in Symphony of the Night. I first played SotN a year after release and discovered the inverted castle after reading about it two years later in a gaming magazine strategy guide my friend owned. To this day, it is still on my Top 10 of best gaming secrets and one of many reasons why that game holds such a special place in my heart.
@@NickG8420 the songs are good in my opinion, and on the gba screen the graphics are beautiful... maybe the graphics don't look very good stretched out on an emulator. The only good experience I had with this game in an emulator was using it on a real crt tv in 240p mode, it was very beautiful with the scan lines.
@@NickG8420Aria has amazing music.
Never forget that the first Angry Video Game Nerd started off with the simple phrase "This Game Sucks" and it was about Simon's Quest.
Curse of Darkness is my personal favorite. The Innocent Devil system and the weapons and combat were awesome. The music and atmosphere was catchy as hell, and the levels were varied enough and full of secrets, especially towards the end. Fantastic game imo
CV4 is and always will be the best Castlevania. Best music, best graphics, best gameplay, best atmosphere and most importantly, best boss enemies.
Before watching:
My favourite is symphony of the night, and I expect it to be really high on the list.
This is the rank list I've been waiting for!!! Comes at the perfect time, I've been replaying the whole series 😁
Symphony of the Night is a masterpiece and will forever be my favourite
Absolutely.
😄👍
considering the direction they took with the series is very likely that SotN will remain unmatched as the absolute Castlevania masterpiece. Too bad they are still to release a version which includes all the extra content from the Saturn version.
Yup, any of the Igarashi games could have been no 1 and I’d be happy.
Gameplay wise yes. Voice acting wise definitely yes.
My favorite game of all time.
I'll rank higher Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania Bloodlines, NES Castlevania 1, 2, 3 & GB Castlevania 2: Belmonts Revenge.
I see this ranking favors more towards metroidvanias which are very good, being Castlevania SOTN the best.
My top 3 games are Castlevania SOTN,
Super Castlevania 4 & Rondo of Blood.
For Dawn of Sorrow, there is a fan patch that makes the seals auto-complete when you beat each boss.
There's also a fan-port that replaces those awful portraits with classic-looking ones.
There's also a fan port that replaces Alucard with Mega Man and it's fabulous. Don't bother looking for it because I haven't finished it yet.
There's also a patch that fixes the luck in getting souls on normal mode, making it less grindy
Cool
It's still surprises me the consistent release of these Worst to Best videos. Never change TripleJump, please never change. I adore these videos.
Thank you I always wanted y'all to do one on Castlevania
I have a soft spot in my heart for The Castlevania Adventure on gameboy. I got it along with my gameboy for Christmas of ‘89, and played the hell out of it!
Same here. I didn’t even know it was largely considered a bad game until fairly recently.
Your opinions are the only ones that should matter to you. It's great you had a good time regardless of what others think. I've only recently tried it, and I think it's fun.
@@darthboxOriginal it took me over 20 years before I finally beat it!
Same. For a very early early Gameboy game it's impressive. Plus people forget it was made slower because screen blur was an issue at the time and nobody at that had figured out to get around it yet in 89.
It’s pretty clunky and rough but I still have a good time with it
If people would stop treating Dracula X as rondo they would realize it's a beautiful simple and fun game with a wonderful soundtrack.
That's what we saw when we first played it.
Agreed. It’s a perfectly good CV game when it’s judged on its own merits and not directly compared to Rondo
Even the story, for example the ending, has a darker tone than Rondo's.
It's pretty good. It's just the unfair difficulty that brings it down for me. Whoever thought designing Dracula room as such is a massive sadist.
@@RipVanWinkleXXKonami was and sometimes still is fairly sadistic
Hard to argue too much, but Order of Ecclesia will always be my favorite. The best combination of of level-based and Metroidvania-style gameplay, satisfyingly difficult, and an excellent art style.
Ecclesia is probably the most consistently good Castlevania in the series and with the most polished gameplay. It's a shame that its popularity still is somewhat affected by the Castlevania fatigue of the time.
Ecclesia is an ode to the fans. The first half of the game kinda resembles the claissic formula, where you enter the stage from one side, and finishes it in the other. The second half is a Metroidvania by the books.
Personally, it clashes with Aria of Sorrow as the second best in the series.
Definitely the first time I’ve seen someone rank vampire killer above CV1. Interesting list! My only gripe is that CV1 for NES still holds up really well and should be in the top ten
The first one is so tight. Absolutely should be top 5
Wah
The first one is the only one
@@BeatlesFan1975I’m with you.
Harmony of Despair is a gem of a game. Play it more like Diablo where you are hunting drops, spells, weapons, upgrades and do it with friends and it is an absolute treat.
Full lobby's hit different when there was an online community
@@StonerWeeb There is an active discord of players that host games regularly, and Xbox having back compat really helps
@@SaintsXIV I had no idea, I'll have to check it out, thanks
these are y'all's best kind of videos! love 'em!
Wow been waiting a list for castlevania. Nice one.
Quality content! Thanks triplejump!!
I always loved Harmony of Despair and felt it's underrated.
I would still play it if I could, in fact I kept the xbox hard drive just because of the work I put in lol
@@jdarrogerscloud save?
Full lobby's were so much fun when there was an online community
This was a lot of fun to watch! Have not played most of these, but I very fondly remember Super Castlevania when it first came out on SNES. The graphics in the game, some of the great mechanics like the spinning room, and that incredible music were really top notch. None of us were really ready for how big a step up that was, from the originals!
I just got home from work exhausted and see that I have this waiting for me. I love you lot. I really do.
Probably the best Castlevania tier list I've seen, very thorough and well thought out.
Nice to see Dawn Of Sorrow rank so highly, it's my personal favourite. If it wasn't for the annoying touchscreen gimmicks at times, I think a lot of other people would rate it higher as well.
Same. I hope they can automate that part if Konami is ever smart enough to do a Castlevania DS Trilogy.
If you're not opposed to romhacks, there's one for Dawn called:
"Dawn of Sorrow: Definitive Edition +" that fixes many of the common issues that the fanbase has reported over the years, like the Luck glitch, and it removes the Magic Seal touchscreen gimmick.
Worth a try, especially if you really like the original Dawn!
AoS is still better IMO, even with the no-touch patches. DoS is definitely a close second, though
Dawn is great, I personally prefer Aria slightly over it but I do think dawn is a top 5 castlevania game.
no it sucked
I *KNOW* they did not just rank Belmont's Revenge over SCIV *AND* Bloodlines 😭
I came here to comment exactly this 😂
Belmont's Revenge is pretty good.
First of all, Castlevania 4 is criminally underrated here. It’s runner up, if not the best, cv game. Music and atmosphere were perfect in that game.
Also, got to mention the mobile titles and others that weren’t in the video. Order of shadows was just kinda okay-ish and can be emulated on pc. Moonlight Rhapsody (later changed to Moon night Fanstasy oddly) was an awesome mobile cv in Metroidvania form that was axed just before release. I got to play the beta and it was a great experience as you could go through and beat dracula and get the ending even in beta. shame it never released. And Grimoure of Souls was excellent. Played the beta, the soft launch, and finally the final ressurected release. The beta had a multiplayer tony hawk tag style arena where you had to destroy enemies in the rooms to color them your team’s color. You could actually attack opposing players. The soft launch had a single map area where 4 players competed for points by killing as many enemies as they can and then competed for who got the i-frame on one shotting the boss to usually win a round they had no business winning. But it was a blast. Then the final release finally allowed you to finish the story and defeat dracula and is available on Apple Arcade.
There were 3 pachinko releases I believe. Who cares.
And a couple years ago a demo for the legendary canceled Saturn game, Castlevania: resurrection, was unsurfaced, and is available to download on pc. It’s worth checking out for any lifelong Castlevania fan.
There are other ports and what nots out there as well but won’t get into all that here
Oh yeah, I shoulda put “imo” about Castlevania 4. I mean, you know what they say about opinions…
I actually have Super Castlevania as one of the least favorites I’ve played. Although I haven’t played the 3D games or portable Metroidvanias, I just prefer the more action oriented games over it. I found Super Castlevania quite frustrating and I prefer the movement of the previous games. I also prefer the music and atmosphere of Symphony to Super Castlevania.
Totally agreed. Far far too low on this chart. The graphics, music, last great TRUE Castlevania game
Great video 🔥
imo order of ecclesia was the best of the ds trilogy. The art, music, enemies, twist, and amount of content was everything I wanted in a castlevania aside from playing as Alucard again.
the first half of the game was in segments, then Dracula’s castle opens up and is interconnected. Wish you would’ve mentioned that
Top 10/ Personal Preference;
• 01. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Sega Genesis [My entrypoint to the series])
• 02.* Castlevania: Simon's Destiny (GZDoom/ Doom Mod [Yeah, yeah- not an official title but a perfect remake of the original, nonetheless])
• 02. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PlayStation 2 [The quintessential 3D Castlevania experience. As well as, direct sequel to "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse"])
• 03. Castlevania 64/ Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (Nintendo 64 [Not the best mechanically, but definitely ambitious, and raised the bar in many regards often overlooked by today's standards. Definitely a game with which you had to grow up playing to truly appreciate. And so, a product of it's time. With particular regard to casual fans])
• 04. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PlayStation 2 [Both, the blueprint for "Castlevania: Curse of Darkness", as well as the first title in the series chronologically])
• 05. Castlevania Chronicles (PlayStation [Best OFFCIAL remake of the first title)
• 06. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Nintendo DS [Direct sequel to my favorite game in the series "Castlevania: Bloodlines"])
• 07. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Gameboy Advance [First, and personal favorite title on the Gameboy Advance])
• 08. Castlevania: Dracula X (Super Nintendo Entertainment System [I prefer the level design/ uptick in difficulty over the original title from which it is based; "Casltevania: Rondo of Blood"])/ Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PlayStation Portable [A dated remake, for sure. But a faithful adaptation with additional content, all the same])
• 09. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS [Any game where you challenge Dracula to fisticuffs is an automatic win in my book])
• 10. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PlayStation 3 [A granidose reimagining of Castlevania lore. The sequels of which had suffered tremendously from rushed-development. Namely, "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2". A game that had arguably more potential than any other in the franchise.])
My favorite is curse of darkness. I have been following it since the beginning, love it
Not sure if this is the first script from Travis, but either way he knocked it out of the park!
They're making easily avoidable mistakes, like usual.
Castlevania Chronicles on PS1 has an easier difficulty - Konami wasn't blind to complaints about the X68000 original, which wasn't called Chronicles. And I'm not sure why they're mentioning the loss of Super's 8 way attacks when talking about Rhondo's downgrade to Vampire's Kiss.
Other than that, it's not bad.
The joke about the camera in Castlevania 64 got me.
For some reading I thought you guys did this ranking list!! I enjoyed the list either way!! Cheers 🍻
Oh yeah! Here we go! Ranked list time!
Yes! I freaking love castlevania, thanks for doing this guys!
Wait... Super Castlevania IV not in the top 10???!!! No, just... No, triple jump.
Agreed! This is in my top 3!!!
Many people consider that game too easy. I liked it a lot, but it's not my favourite, i dig the one on mega drive a lot more.
And with Lords of Shadow (meh) ahead.
@razumijinatreides4691 that's not a reason to have it so low on the list.
I mean. They've dropped the ball here with that one
Seasons change, people come and go from our lives but I find myself returning to Symphony of the Night again, and again, and again
None of the others even come close to the amount of content and attention to detail.
29:14 Outstanding work here sir. Terrific dad joke. I applaud you👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thou shall not piss all over my favourite Castlevania 64 ;(
Nah, Portrait of Ruin deserves to be higher. It is SUCH an underappreciated gem, and imo the BEST handheld Castlevania of them all.
I can't stop with your lists! You are awesome people, triple jump!
For me, I’d probably rank the Castlevania series that I played in the order of:
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania (for the nostalgia of it)
Symphony of the Night
Castlevania III
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
I still enjoy the mechanics and interesting quirks they put into the SNES game (from the ability to swing using the whip, to levels where the floor disintegrates as you climb, to the various bosses).
The original game just set everything up wonderfully.
SotN was a big shift in play style, but looked and sounded great.
III had the cool feature of being able to choose different characters with different abilities for the playthrough, which was a nice addition.
Simon’s Quest gave a non-linear way to play the game, but frustratingly didn’t give much in the way of figuring out some obscure mechanics (invisible moving blocks, places you had to kneel for several seconds with a specific item in hand to trigger an event).
I think I must have played one of the PS2 games, because I remember that playstyle, but not sure which it was.
Edit: Dug through my games today and found it was Lament of Innocence. 👀
A great series of games that brought much frustration and entertainment to my childhood and young adulthood…
@joels5150 It shocked me that Super Castlevania IV didn't rank higher on their list
@@someoneelse1534agreed, very weird
Great video guys! The saddest part is that the last true castlevania was order of eclessia in 2008....and after the hype of the last summer's trailer of castlevania nocturne....nothing.only cameos here and there...
I'm pretty sure it was mirror of fate, that one seemed very classic and I rather enjoyed it
@@toadynamite8141Yes, "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate" is indeed a Castlevania game. But it isn't part of the original timeline. And so, in that way- isn't a "true" Castlevania title.
Order of ecclesia is easily a top 3 Castlevania game. They managed to put classicvania style stages into a cohesive metroidvania style game and the then difficulty too? Chef's kiss It was perfect marriage of the two main types of Castlevania games. Shanoa is so dark and the artstyle going back to the food portraits vs the shitty anime style ones is just icing on this already delicious cake.
Alright time to watch the video
You forgot that in the Sega Saturn Version of Symphony of the Night; an Adult Maria from Rondo of Blood can be unlocked as a payable character.
@KMatt I know right?
She’s actually playable from the get go she doesn’t need to be unlocked and she’s much better than the Maria we got in the symphony of the night port for psp and ps4
As someone who isn't British and has seen Bernard's Watch, I loved that reference at 41:23.
For the video, Although i don't agree with the ranking of some games, I still enjoyed the video very much and had a blast, Very good video!
Amazing list
I'll echo what others have said: *Super Castlevania IV* not even making the top 10 is pretty mind-boggling. It's my all-time favorite Vania, even over SotN. The 8-directional whip action was a revelation. The ability to swing from ledges with the whip is a great mechanic and actually FEELS good to do (unlike in Bloodlines). The gameplay in general is buttery smooth. The atmosphere and OST have never been topped by any other Vania. The difficulty is (in my opinion) perfectly balanced, and the 16-bit pixel artwork is excellent. In terms of the "ClassicVanias," Rondo of Blood may get all the hype these days, but that game didn’t do anything for me, despite it having the advantage of superior hardware. And I like Bloodlines for the Genesis - it's a good game - but it doesn’t have the stellar atmosphere of SCV4, nor does it feel as good to play.
My two cents. Grace and peace!
Great video. I personally started collecting and settled for getting games that I had as a kid or were interested in on different systems but mainly the MD. I have ever had any interest in collecting complete sets at all. Gotta ask, is that cover on Masters of Combat holographic?
Love it, thanks
I enjoyed it, different from the deals videos which can be a repetitive. I look forward to the next one. Great there is so much news in a day
Castlevania Judgement was a great fun game. Loved the vibe of it. No way was it rubbish. Of course it wasn't top tier but it was fun for what it was.
My top five: Castlevania, Symphony, Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania 3, Castlevania 4.
24:00 Dracula in that Amiga port looks like a Sesame Street Muppet. But... not the Sesame Street Muppet that's a vampire.
This is a fun list. So far I've beaten three Castlevania games: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate on 3DS, Harmony of Dissonance on GBA and the original on the NES Classic. I loved them all! Just insanely fun experiences. I also have recently started Simon's Quest. I'm open to using a guide and think I'll have fun with it no matter what.
I also want to try the N64 titles at some point...
I think there's something for everyone in the series, and if you're feeling brave, even the two on the 64 aren't completely irredeemable.
In fact, some super fans of the 64 titles are working on some romhacks, aiming to fix a lot of the common issues, and maybe even restoring cut content. And one crazy soul is even working on a randomizer!
But yeah, if you enjoyed Harmony, I think you'll find something to like in the other GBA & DS titles.
Good luck!
Would try the original Lords of Shadow if you enjoyed Mirror of Fate. The first Lords of Shadow is legitimately the best "origin story" of Dracula in the series and just has some great puzzle solving and action set pieces. It still holds up pretty well today even. the N64 ones are pretty rough.. but playable I'll say, just rough. Expect to get frustrated in some areas.
I agree, I also on the other hand, think Castlevania: Dracula X for SNES is really underrated despite of all scaling back that version had to have to work on the SNES. There was no way really to have fully ported the PC Engine CD version over to a SNES cart.
Super castlevania 4 is always going to be the best but I do love 2 of the nes castlevania games I think we all know witch 2 I mean 😆
After Super Mario 3, Simon's Quest was my 2nd favourite NES game. Yes I'm that old. Such an in depth game tho, had me calling the Nintendo Hotline multiple times
I had Symphony Of The Night since from day one. And I've bought many different versions of it. It will always be my favorite. My top 3 are SOTN, Aria Of Sorrow, and Dawn Of Sorrow.
Curse of Darkness is way better than Lament of Innocence. The weapon variety, the demon familiars, the interconnected map. It's not a contest.
Wait, who the hell said Order of Ecclesia has terrible voice acting? There's barely any to begin with and what's there is perfectly fine.
Symphony of the Night is one of those special, rare games where you start it at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning... Play it for a 'couple' of hours... And then read the clock again... And it's already 10:00pm.
Saw that coming… Symphony of the Night. Too bad there is no mention of the Saturn version’s ability to play as Maria, as well.
Or the extra zones still only on the Saturn version
@@NostalgicPixelThe PlayStation port may be more refined. But to me, the Sega Saturn's additional content more than make up for it. And in that way, makes it the definitive port.
I appreciate that Castlevania is such a good series that in an 83 minute video it only took 15 minutes before the entries became elevated to adequate, with the later entries being awesome.
Great video as usual and for me rondo is the best and has a lot of replay ability
Yup. Symphony of the Night is brilliant but more people need to try Rondo of Blood. SotN owes Rondo it’s success.
Awesome list as always, guys! Thanks for all your hard work. Personally I'd rank Castlevania NES and Order of Ecclesia a bit higher, but can't really disagree anywhere else.
It's interesting how the review for the 1993 GameBoy version of Kid Dracula mentions Death being his friend, and his giving Kid Dracula heirlooms to help him out.
This seems to make it a direct connection to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, where Death tries to talk Alucard out of his path of fighting his father, then taking away all of his family heirlooms to try to keep Alucard safe from his quest, whether he loses, or has to live with winning, showing Death is actually still Alucard's friend, if viewed through the lens of the Kid Dracula game.
Harmony of Dissonance actually has one of my favorite Castlevania soundtracks
Right? There were definitely many who loved the soundtrack, I remember the reviews back then, saying it was universally considered bad is just crazy.
I'm curious, what is it that makes you like HoD's soundtrack over any other Castlevania soundtrack? Especially in its original sound.
@@zionfortuna I'll concede the mix could be much better. Better samples (especially the drums), less noise, less jumble would all be good. But I like how HoD committed to a theme of dissonance and never let up. It's so unique and I just can't fault the composition. Dissonant, jazzy, groovy, so good.
@@leandronc I see what you mean but bear in mind that the game is called "Concerto of the Midnight Sun" in Japan, Soishiro Hokkai simply did not know the title "Harmony of Dissonance" (given by the english localization team to justify the music) when he was composing: the dissonance of the music is mostly a reflection of his personal style (that uses a lot of parallel 2nds, clusters, and downright nonsensical harmony and melody at times) and not due to some grander theme of "dissonance" of the game.
That said, I can see what you'd like the jazzy aspect of it, sure, it is an acquired taste for most, (especially with the 8 bit samples) but it still remains the most unique Castlevania soundtrack to date, alongside CV4.
Dunno if it’s the greatest soundtrack I ever heard but I didn’t have an issue with it.. And it fit the game perfectly
1:12:51 number 4 untill 1 are the best _Castlevania_ games, I've been playing then all.
Belmont's Revenge also has awesome music like New Messiah and Ripe Seeds. :3
Symphony of the Night will probably forever be the gold standard for Metroidvania games.
Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia are better than the Gameboy Advance games, and even better than SOTN, they deserved to be in the top 5, since they have very good gameplay, graphics, story and soundtrack and are not as boring as Symphony of the Night that makes you walk around that damn castle 2 times lol. And perhaps Rondo of Blood deserved number 1 simply for being Castlevania in its purest and most perfect state.
A Bernard's Watch reference?? Not what I was expecting to hear today but very welcome!!
Castlevania Idiocracy: Brawndo of Blood: "it's got electrolytes"
I love Lords of Shadow, such cool game, too bad second didn't end up that well...
They really botched 2 didn't they? First one was superb
IMO COULD HAVE had to do with the fact that Konami was already starting to get out of the video game business by the time the sequels started to roll around.. and the tensions between Konami and Kojima were probably a thing too (even if Kojima didn't leave the company until a few years later.. you better know that they probably weren't getting along still, and Kojima helped produce the Lords of Shadows games), probably made the development of the sequels pretty choppy and hard. Like, there's a reason why the 1st one was so good I think and it's partially to do with Kojima studios involvement for one. As the games went on... it's pretty much said that his studio had less and less to do with the projects and... yeah.. it shows
I swore you guys did this.
I liked the Talking Heads reference to Psycho Killer lol
Great content. I knew SOTN will be 1. Eclesia should be higher though as well as Curse of darkness
Talking about Belmont‘s Revenge and not mentioning the Gameboy‘s greatest soundtrack of all time… bold move 😉
One of the few Judgement fans here:
I will agree that the character designs were butchered horribly and the story is a bit silly, but in terms of everything else, I think it's actually pretty underrated. You can do some pretty cool combos, especially off of subweapons like the Holy Water, and pretty much every character is strong and fun to play. I get why most people hated it (especially back when it came out), but I think there's definitely something there for people who like combo labbing and/or more "unforgiving" fighting games.
Also since the video got it wrong, you CAN play it with a normal controller.
I actually quite like it as well. It's obviously not a 'top tier' Castlevania game like Symphony Of The Night, but there's fun to be had, and I liked that a lot of the series' main characters (including Shanoa, who was new at the time) were all featured together in one game. Some attacks are definitely waaaay overpowerer though.
Didn't knew there was a PS2 version of Haunted Castle with infinite continues, i'm certainly going to play it
24:00 is Peter colorblind? Those cloaks are red right? Am I misunderstanding what he's saying?
SotN was also officially released on XBL Arcade back in the Xbox 360 days
I would say another thing with Circle of the Moon is that it was more difficult than Harmony or Aria mostly for me I think due to the low drop rates, no stores and some areas that were quite annoying to go through, exploring was almost an issue with how slow Nathan is if you don't use the quick boots.
Difficulty n‘est pas un adjectif.
@@Livingtree32 J'avais pas remarqué que j'ai fait une faute, déjà que le français c'est pas mon domaine de prédilection à l'écriture alors l'anglais c'est pire.
@@jordan20910 😁
SOTN is one of my fav game of all time, still playing it for time to time
Symphony of the Night was the first game I ever bought a guide for lol.. huge fan of Castlevania Lord of Shadow as well
I love these videos, have you guys done MegaMan? I would love to see that one or a Comic based videogames ranking would be fun. Love the videos and the work you guys do.
Sega Saturn version of Symphony has extra areas, but is also plagued with technical problems that aren’t present in the PS1 version
Castlevania 2 on the og brick Gameboy was my first one, glad to see it ranked so highly!
Rondo and Dracula's Curse are my top two!
My personal favorite has to be order of ecclesia, all the ds games have their own unique spin to the gameplay but OoE has the best combat of all of these games imo
Super Castlevania 4 not being in the top 5 is a crime.
I appreciate this on a Friday night with a beer
By far, my favourite Castlevania is Order of Ecclesia. It combines the old-style platforming Castlevania in the first half of the game with the Metroidvania style in the second half of the game. Excellent music, nice portraits, fantastic high difficulty, the smooth animations, the glyph system, the story, the sidequests, the hidden characters, etc. After enjoying Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow in the DS, Order of Ecclesia was the one that made me love the franchise.
Romans first came up with the hamburger so far older than Curse of Darkness' date xD. Fries though, give you that one xD.
How come you talked of hidden characters and alternate versions for Portrait of Ruin, Maria and even Maxim being playable but you missed the Sega Saturn Symphony of the Night aka Akumajo Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight? In that version bonus areas were added, Richter was playable without completion of the main story and/ or using his name for a save... and was irl Maria's debut as a playable character to those without the Rondo of Blood? Nocturne also added the two familiars that appeared only on PS1 menu but were not actually playable- Nosedevil and Pixie the latter able to even sing for you when you rested in a chair and she could use any Use item where Fairy was limited- it is the only pity with an otherwise stellar video
Mirror of fate had my fav reveal though. Alucards true identity. Pure gold
41:22 HELL YEAH BERNARD'S WATCH!!
No really, I loved that show as a kid.
Lament of Innocence has the most brutal and horrific secret boss in the series. Bonus points for that.
I know who you're talking about, he's also in SOTN.
One of the greatest game series ever. For me personally circle of the moon and sotn are the best
Dawn of Sorrow above Aria?! I actually agree, but I doubt many others do. Bold move, bravo!