@@laughingman9574 to be fair, haven't played those ones yet since they aren't as readily available. However, I have played aria of sorrow and that one is usually regarded as the best and I still liked symphony better
@@azeplays3563 Oh man, you absolutely should, there are ways ;) My favourite is Order, followed by Portrait, then Aria, Dawn, then Symphony. Don't get me wrong, I love Symphony too, It's not saying much that I like those better, all are great games, I just find Symphony's other half tedious (inverted castle is amazing idea on paper, however). Combat and the variety of it, bosses and movement are amazing in Order and Portrait.
being honest difficulty wise its like a C its too easy(even with non op weapons) Music gameplay and presentation tho combined would be A+ really close to S the difficulty kind of drag it down a bit but doesn't mean it wasn't fun to power trip as alucard tho
@@kinamiya1 Yeah, I mainly love SotN for its exploration and music, but the RPG balancing has always been off, and it does get too easy for my taste. Wish they was a remake or mod to make everything better balanced and harder.
@@A-Dubs398 I don't mind easy games. I don't like the Bloodstained route, where it's just too damn hard and grindy (the crafting/quest system is utter ridiculousness). SotN was just plain fun. Not the hardest thing in the world, but it didn't need to be, for me to enjoy spending hours exploring a couple castles, and beating up lots of baddies in THE game that defined Metroidvania and set a lot of the standards you'd see in later games of the genre. Everybody who made a Metroidvania ever, copied at least some things that were introduced in SotN. It's like making a tier list and dropping Final Fantasy 4 down to D tier or something ridiculous like that.
@debaykroid9910 the story and art style bring Dawn a bit down for me, I know like no one plays Castlevania for the story, but I’ve always really liked Aria’s ideas, meanwhile, Dawn is just kind of boring for the most part to me
Yeah menace being the end of the castlevania lore was so stupid lmao I thought the anime artstyle was fine untel i played POR, everyone looks too childish @@dailydoseofvitaminc6565
The well-deserved love and respect on Curse of Darkness is bringing me great joy. This is also a powerful reminder that Adventure ReBirth desperately needs some kind of rerelease
it should be mentioned rondo of blood's cutscene artstyle is also the definition of "generic anime style" for the time it came out. the definition of "generic anime style" changed greatly between the 90's and 2000's though, and you could argue the story wasn't really a focal point in the early castlevania games, so perhaps thats why you don't recognize it/don't think its worth mentioning.
Surefire way to make sure Richter looks cool forever lol I've always disliked the newer boxart depicting richter with longer hair. Great art, don't get me wrong, but Richter has always had that short hair with the cool bandana.
the 8 bit games are great but i just REALLY hate the whole 2,5D crap, it just feels so unintuitive and glitchy... the 'metroidvania' would have been so much better if they would have just made sprites and make it look more like SOTN
@@kraken5003 personally I didn't really have a problem with it and thinks the game manages to look really great at times because of the 3d, but I've also played the 2.5 Metroid games like Samus Returns and Dread so maybe my eyes are just used to it?
@@kraken5003 They did multiple castelvanias with the wonderful sprites of SOTN. Dawn of sorrow, portrait of ruins, and order of ecclesia. They all are amazing, even better than SOTN for me. So I think it was time Iga tried something new in term of artistic direction, and I think it looks great, plus you get to wear silly hats in 2.5D! I don't really see what you find unintuitive or glitchy. But if you are nostalgic for the pixel art of the 16bit era (I understand I like it too), the indie sphere is full of lovely rendered pixel art metroidvanias, who really are heavily inspired by the atmosphere and feel of SOTN: _Blasphemous I and II _Record of lodoss war: deedlit in wonder labyrinth _moonscars _death's gambit _souldiers _Dead cells _Momodora reverie under the moonlight _Phoenotopia awakening (more a zelda II clone, but still a pretty good metroidvania) And they keep coming, I saw there was an upcoming game "Gestatlt steam and cinder" in developement wich looks gorgeous and seem to really scratch that itch too.
@@sludgewave4786 it's unintuitive because when you add the extra dimension it becomes that much harder to see where 'exactly' the platforms are, and just getting a feel for everything isn't at all like when you are working with clearly defined sprites also it looks uglier and it's glitchy because things keep getting stuck in walls and such, the hit detection is crap compared to how 2D games usually work also the other games you mentioned are fine, but i don't think any of them top SOTN and only some of them are avalible on modern platforms, we need to get the DS games on ps4/ps5/switch and such
I second this. I wonder what other games have the potential to include. Like the advance collection having Dracula x for example. Adventure rebirth would be neat.
Except with the Magic Seal system in CV: DS automated. Easily the worst part about that game and, in my opinion, the most needless mechanic in the series.
@@orangeslash1667 I tried Dead Cells and it sadly didn't click for me. If it ever hit a deep sale or was a free PS+ game, then I'd give it another shot. Not bad, just not for me.
@@robertpadua6096 I seriously doubt it, not only is from a Nintendo handheld, but Konami doesn't like to do anything but pachinko these days, either that or Metal gear. They couldn't care less about Castlevania.
Gained major respect for not glazing Symphony. Bad controls, bad movement, uninspired map layout, has no challenge, bad enemy placement, bad traversal, RPG mechanics were undercooked, lack of memorable moments - I could probably say more. It's amongst the worst of the Castlevania MVs. All that said, stellar art, stellar music & despite it's many major shortcomings, people can still have fun with it (& I still had fun with it, even if it was at times frustrating, didn't match up to its children & was blindingly easy) - at its core it is a Castlevania MV & MVs don't get that much better than Castlevania. If it were a competition between all Metroidvania games, where S tier is like Hollow Knight, Astalon, Aria of Sorrow, etc. & the F tier is like, Salt & Sanctuary, Symphony is not going in F tier, it's going in like low-A, high-B, because even a bad Castlevania game blows out most MVs.
@@HeavensOfMetal I feel like Symphony is the perfect-LOOKING Castlevania game. The art just comes together so well. Color-grading is off the charts, and I feel like is only beat out by HODe in terms of looks, though I am a freak for that weird PS3 pseudo-classic look, if you understand what I'm saying.
Great list! I love all of the bloodstained games and I’m really glad you included them. Order of Ecclesia is my personal favorite Castlevania game and one of my favorites of all time, but both sorrow games are wonderful as well. Really stoked for the future of the bloodstained games
@WithScienceAsMySheperd SOTN is incredibly overrated. It deserves the respect for being the first to adopt the Metroidvania style, but there is a lot of things it does that the future games simply do better.
the fact that castlevania its so relevant now days its just cuz SOTN, thats it... Given a A its just to try not to fit with most ppl so its gets a lot of comments,likes,dislikes he knows Simphony its a before after of games.....
The simple fact that you put DoS in SS warrants my sub :D Also, the funny thing about Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is that, the first time I played it, I just got out of my, idk, 15th completion of DoS, which incidentally also has my second favourite soundtrack in the franchise after SOTN, and none of the songs in Bloodstained actually stuck during my first playthrough. But then, replaying it a couple years later, which incidentally was just a couple weeks ago, I could finally appreciate the soundtrack for what it was and I have to say, it is easily in my top 5 from the franchise - I also think that Bloodstained is Castlevania rebranded. Gameplay-wise, Bloodstained, to me, feels like IGA wanted to reexplore Order Of Ecclesia's glyph system and make it better. Now, I haven't played OoE in about 10 years at this point so I kinda forgot how the glyph system was, but the Shard system in Bloodstained actually reminded me more of the AoS/DoS soul system, AKA my absolute favourite system in the franchise. Which can't be a bad thing, obviously. Now the ONE thing I hope IGA add in a future update of ROTN, or maybe in the sequel, is a whip-holding character that uses the whip the way the Belmonts do. Because I, for one, don't like how Miriam uses it x). But that just a small, cherry picked issue I have that doesn't really change the fact that to me, Bloodstained is actually a SS tier.
The Sorrow games are godlike, and you've got my respect putting Aria on top. Imo, even with the no touch romhack, I still prefer Aria, it's definitely one of my top 10 favorite games of all time
@@DanielVast well the QTEs were a product of the time. Most action games then had plenty of them because of God of War. But they didn’t really detract from the game much. Mostly they were used in finishing boss fights, the game used them as ways to set up the cinematic finishes.
Based tierlist. Curse or darkness is great. Would love to see a remake or remaster that adds a little bit faster movement and more combos. The wacky and secret equipment in the metroidvanias is my favorite aspect of them.
Portrait of Ruin was my favorite of the DS games, was young and doing nightshifts a lot at the time. Being able to main Charlotte who was cool and competent and a girl lifted the game for me.
Honestly the funniest thing about Bloodstained to me is that they straight up remade Castlevania 1 with Bloodstained's assets and released it as an extra gameplay mode
Order of Ecclesia is my personal favorite of the DS vanias (though havent played Dawn all the way through yet) hearing that its your least favorite of the DS vanias and still being in S tier was a pleasant surprise.
Ecclesia is automatically better than the other two DS games since it is a hard game. The difficulty is appropriate and finely tuned, but it isn't a cakewalk which can't be claimed for the other two
@@Leo80310 That'd be a great idea... if you could do that with a physical copy. I'm sorry, but as much as I like Dawn of Sorrow, I feel he gave it WAY too much slack. But that's the cool thing about opinions. We all can have our own and nobody can take them away from us.
I loved the pause before actually placing SotN followed by the immediate opening argument for the defense lmao. I haven't played every Castlevania, but of the ones I did I think they were placed fairly. Good tier list.
SotN has one of the dumbest hardcore, blindfolded, rabid fanboy followings in retro gaming. SotN IS GREAT, every castlevania fan will say that, but these dudes cry when it's not in it's own quintuple S tier category despite that fact that multiple games are better than it in several way. So anytime anyone says it's not in that special tier there has to be a pause and an immediate defense of what is a very logical, and respectable ranking.
I like that you included all three Lords Of Shadow games in the same tier. And I also found your ultimate opinion of them very interesting: "These games aren't terrible, but, they just lack what makes Castlevania so much fun to me." I think that's one of the most neutral opinions I've ever heard about the LOS Trilogy, which is a welcome change, because most opinions I've heard regarding that trilogy lean more towards the negative side, whereas I am one of the few who actually really enjoyed that trilogy. One thing that you and I really seem to agree on regarding LOS is that the main thing that trilogy has going in its favor is its story. And for me, its story is also one of the main reasons why (and this is a very UNpopular opinion to a lot of die-hard Castlevania fans) Gabriel Belmont is my personal favorite incarnation of Dracula in the entire franchise (although the version in the Netflix anime is a very close second).
Simons Quest could've been so much better if the translation hadn't been so atrocious and maybe shortening the day night transition. For what it was, it was ambitious for a Castlevania game for its time
It's also one of those games where I feel like if they made it out to be a spin-off, instead of a sequel, might have been better received since the gameplay is such a departure from castlevania 1 (specifically the nes one).
Harmony of Dissonance is actually my favourite castlevania. The low quality samples for the music add to the unique atmosphere, in combination with the weirdly bright colors giving the feeling that this is just a really weird castle. (since it kinda formed from the whole double soul thing Maxim has going on at the start, it IS kind of a weird castle) It's right there in the name. Dissonance. Of course it's gonna have kinda unnerving music. Its twin castles are a better executed version of the two castles in SotN, which makes it REALLY fun to explore. It's interesting to see that doing something in one castle can affect the same room in the opposite castle (Just wish it was used a little more often). I like Juste's spellbooks more than Aria's soul system (a spicy take, but there's a lot of souls that just feel downright redundant), and his having both a back and forward dash just makes movement (and combat!) really fun.
You have my respect for not overrating SotN and putting both Aria and Dawn of Sorrow in SS. There are some places i disagree, but overall i think your tier list is very good.
Just started to play some more games from the castlevania series after i finished aria of sorrow. This vid made me realize i was playing a not so great version of rondo of blood so thanks! i also got to see a ton of other games i didn t know about from the series. I recommend the ”Return to Castlevania DLC” for the Dead Cells game also. Altough not a stand-alone game, the addition of new weapons, dialogue, map layout/design and well placed refferences is worth checking out.
Hard agree on Bloodstained! The fact that the developers were still improving the game's technical problems, while adding fun new content for free deserves a lot of respect. Also, the endgame becomes really fun. And yeah, Aria of Sorrow might be the best Metroidvania, period.
Dude me too, Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 make the part of my heart reserved for classic Castlevania sing, and Ritual does the exact same for the part reserved for Metroidvania Castlevanias.
29:40 I wanna say that in 2024, the game is still alive, it has it's own dedicated discord, and even has it's own dedicated unity port of the game, featuring additional content not seen in in the original versions of the game on Xbox and PSN. Featuring more stages, characters, items, as well as makes characters like Jonathan behave like how he would more like in portrait of ruin, being able to use more than just his whip.
Personally, I feel that PoR stands in SS tier. The game has an absurd amount of content to it, that content is generally extremely good, and the game isn't bogged down by the content. You can beat the game and have an authentic experience without bothering to level subweapons or deal with the sidequests or anything of the sort. The portraits play very differently, with Sandy Grave being easy enemies and deadly traps, the Circus of Fools being complex platforming, the Evil Forest being a nearly linear gauntlet of hard enemies, and the pixel art detail being completely absurd. Just the shops in the first portrait alone are so absurdly detailed that it boggles the mind. Someone really spent time making individual sprites for cakes.
This video was awesome for the sheer fact that it shows so much love to the GBA & DS games Castlevania games. While Symphony of the Night will always be in my Top 10 games of all time, Aria & Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin made so many improvements on the SotN formula and are just totally addictive!
Another banger tierlist, our tastes more or less line up in this one as well. The DS Castlevanias were honestly so good, I really hope they're next to get a modern rerelease.
Breathed a sigh of relief to see the DS games in (roughly) the right spots lol Great list, but I do encourage you to spend a bit more time with Chronicles. It really hits a groove when you get comfortable with the jank, and the aesthetics are probably my favorite out of any of the Classicvanias. I probably will never put it above Rondo, but I was surprised how much I ended up treasuring my copy.
I love your videos. The passion and way you articulate how good certain games are make me want to play them. Same with the SMT games you talked about, except I’m way less familiar with those (hoping to change that)
There is actually a fan port of Harmony of Despair for the PC. It's basic features are complete. But I think currently the project is in an indefinite hiatus.
While Symphony of the night is good one annoyance is that the difficulty curve is reversed. The game starts out with a good challenge but becomes easier the further in. Later in the game I could just facetank bosses and kill them in a short time (except the super boss unless cheesing him)
that might be true for someone familiar with the genre, but the openness of the inverted castle can create a lot of challenge depending on the order in which you choose to explore it. I know I've had friends lose hours of progress in their first playthroughs by fighting bosses they really shouldn't have gone anywhere near yet
Heard something like SOTN's inverted castle, or entire 2nd half of the game was VERY rushed in development. Something bothers me more is that still none of the ports had properly implemented saturn exclusive elements..
Thats why sotn Is not on my top, Is one of the easiest game i have ever played, also, the dialogues are cringy, but the music, art, animations, are one of the best in the history of videogames.
symphony of the night is only easy because people spam overpowered weapons like the sword familiar, the crissaegrim, the jewel knuckles, every chance they get. if you play the game with your own rules, or what the game gives you at the time, instead of pocketing certain subweapons, & being cheesy, the difficulty is fine. honestly aria of sorrow has the smae issue anyways, i beat 90% of the game just using valkyrie soul. if you go look at guides and find what the most op weapon and soul is, aria of sorrow difficulty is the same as sotn. also aria of sorrow goes from easy to hard to easy again, the game isnt hard at all, until death, and then its a sudden major difficulty spike, and then it gets way easier again.
I was kinda dreading your opinion on Castlevania 64 & Legacy of Darkness purely due to their reputation online caused by, as you said, certain internet personalities. I was surprised when you gave them a fair shot and rating though! They're certainly not the best games, but they're definitely up there in my top Castlevania games. The levels, character designs and music are all so memorable to me.
Definitely enjoyed your insight on what Castlevania game is good and average. Also liked how you implemented the Bloodstained games as well especially since their Igurashi's babies. I speedrun the first Curse of the Moon game and it's a lot of fun to run for sure, BUT I would like to learn CoTM 2 and RoTN at some point.
I'm glad to hear that someone else loves the lament of innocence soundtrack. Everyone talks about how good the soundtrack of Symphony of The Night is (which I agree that Sotn has one of the best castlevania soundtracks of all times), but Lament of Innocence is almost as good as SOTN. Btw, both soundtracks are composed by Michiru Yamane, and she also worked on the Skullgirls and Castlevania Bloodlines soundtrack as well.
SoTN of the probably should be higher, and I don’t even like Metroidvanias like that. Also respect for not overrating Super Castlevania IV like most people.
Not a Castlevania expert. I despise the oldschool ones, love the metroidvanias, but I'm an RPG guy, so... I'll just enjoy the rankings for what they are.
Dawn of sorrow to me is a C my reasoning being is bc to me Aria did not need a sequel I rather would’ve gotten a game about the epic battle of 1999 where Dracula was destroyed for good and also the fact that it was plagued with touchscreen gimmicks bc of Nintendo’s ridiculous hard on for gimmicks on their new consoles which tbh ruined MANY games that would’ve been masterpieces if they decided to NOT go crazy with the gimmicks
The game was good for its time, but the gameplay is brain dead. Not challenging in my opinion. That's why I prefer Lords of Shadows 1 and 2. Dodgeing and more fast paced combat.
Nice ranking! Imo you have been too harsh with some games though, especially with some of those in A-Tier. Symphony should be at least S. I share your appreciation for the Metroidvanias, they deserve their ranking.
I think i'd genuinely put Bloodstained (Ritual) in SS simply for its depth of content ans ease of replayability thanks to things like its inbuild randomizer. It's just such an easy game to randomply pick up every once in a while and have a fresh experience with. Other than that, i'd personally rank the Lords of Shadows games much higher, but i can definitely see why people don't like them. For me, it's the voice actor performance that anchored the game into my memory. There's this dialog between Gabriel (Robert Carlyle) and Marie (Natasha McElhone) in LoS2 that, to this day, gives me goosebumps. Great List!
Seconded on the LoS games, even though i've not played Mirror of Fate. I know what scene you mean, seeing Gabriel at that point being in tears at all that has happened, preceded by recounting the misfortune that has befallen their family, is heartrending. It's fair enough if people don't want to count them as true Castlevania games on their own, and I personally have had my issues with gameplay and story. And yet, overall, i've had fun with both LoS 1 and 2, played them all the way through (bar the DLCs), there's a lot I like about the combat, art direction, lore, bosses, environments, and a lot of it is like you say elevated by the voice acting-- and also the MUSIC! Oscar Araújo has delivered beautiful pieces, bombastic and intricate alike. All in all, sweet to encounter a person who looks positively upon the LoS games throughout their shortcomings. Both in a vacuum, and as experiences on their own.
Here is my list, which is more a favorites than objective list: 1) Portrait of Ruin - Simply does so many things great. 2) Aria of Sorrow - Good story, souls system is great, fun game 3) Dawn of Sorrow - At first lower on my list, but after revisiting it, I must pump it up. I love the Julius mode is tied into the story. 4) Circle of the Moon - I am biased, since this was my introduction to the series. Even though the light issue is objectively a bad thing, I really liked the dark gothic style and I think this entry did it great if not best. I completed all modes, so to this day is the game I have beaten the most in the series. 5) Bloodstained - Great spiritual successor, but I think it lost something in without the eternal conflict between Dracula and the vampire hunters. 6) Order of Ecclesia - Like you, I didn't liked it that much at first and may still feel like I enjoyed SotN better, but it did do many things well, including the magnet glyph that made traversal challenging and fun. A game I think I would enjoy more if I revisited it, just as I did with DoS. 7) Symfoni of the Night - I respect what it did, but I feel it has been surpassed. The surprise of the inverted castle just felt like bad pacing to me, you have already unlocked enough to freely explore, so you somewhat lose the core of a Metroidvania here. 8) Dracula X Chronicles (Rondo) - I am more into Metroidvanias and I bought this game for SotN, but still played Rondo. It is a great game, but I just like the Metroidvanias more. 9) Harmony of dissonance - I really disliked the style of the game, especially coming from CotM and only found it good enough to play once.
I find it funny how you said that Bloodlines was the most difficult of the 16 but era, with Bloodlines being the only Castlevania I have ever fully beat, I love it, SS tier easily.
I agree with Symphony of the Night. While I own Orders of Ecclesia. I have yet play it lol. Portraits of Ruins its still my favorite Game in the series, Love how the game looks and the replay ability. I remember beating the game Multiple Times back in the day. This Video got me Hype! now I just want to play Castlevania again lol
I liked your selection, mine would be almost the same but with 2 major changes 1 in my tier Castlevania 3 should be in rank A, just a lever higher that the original Castlevania, my reason is simple, it had alternative routes and we knew new characters that continued until the end like Alucard, of course it was so important, that we had the fake trio in Symphony, also Trevor appeared in Curse of Darkness, and it was a good starting point to know the lore and netflix did the best with that story as starting point. 2 finally symphony of the night would be in top, by the moment it was released we only had linear maps, it was the beginning of a new concept and the serie of DS followed and expand the Metroidvania formula from Symphony, also it was a before and after point in the series, for that reason they included it the PSP port of course it would be nice to have the best version at the beginning with Maria as playable character. Beyond that I agree with your selection, it was very entertaining and I enjoyed it... well maybe Lord of Shadows 1 would be higher since it was an interesting experiment but I agree... without the time events and the colossus fight would be much better
Portrait of Ruin is, IMO, the single best Metroidvania. I love the stage based progression, and I think of all of the Metroidvanias, it's the one with the tightest gameplay balance. It's always challenging, you have to work to get the cheese up to max (you know what weapon I'm talking about), and because there's no Souls fuckery, you can't actually just blast through the game when you get the perfect combo of high powered super souls. Don't get me wrong. I -love- Aria and Dawn but IMO, Portrait of Ruin has them both beat because it does what they do but better (weapons variety, different gameplay styles, multiple characters), and at no point do I feel I can just steamroll the game. Also Level 1 Hard Mode makes me Level 1 Hard.
Agreed. They did so many good things in this game. I love that you visit other worlds, but are still in a main castle, so you get variety, but not these broken up smaller parts like OoE. I think it was a smart idea to twist the boss fight with the sister, so it was all about being able to cast the spell without being interrupted. I like the difference and synergy between the two characters. So many good things about that game.
I only game placement I disagree with is SOTN. I would put it in SS. Its just a good as any other game in the top tier. You're basically saying circle of the moon is as good as sotn and thats just a nope lol. Also, dawn probably would be the best game if it wasn't for the seal mechanic.
Aria of sorrow is the best game in the series, mostly because of what it pulled off on the GAME BOY ADVANCE. Dawn is good too, but the environments and level design is not as tightly woven as it is in aria, Symphony of the night, or even in portrait of ruin. Plus it's pretty easy. Great ranking, except not putting Symphony of the night in S tier. I would have accepted A teir if there was no SS tier.
Symphony of the Night overrated? Finally someone said it! Also I buy the fight all the time in internet about how Aria and Down of Sorrow are great games, not many people had the opportunity to play on a DS and the emulators really don't do justice to the DS. It's funny how our experiences with Order of Ecclesia was the same, I hated at first (especially the difficulty lol) but now it's one of my favourite games, in my opinion all the DS games are SS, also I don't buy the argument of DS games being bad because of anime style where Rondo of Blood had it and also had a silly end with Maria.
This is a great tier list, and if you are into this series I’m gonna mention, could you do a tier list on the final fantasy franchise please I would love to hear your thoughts on them
compared to the other metroidvanias that dont get much recognition because less people are nostalgic about them? yes absolutely. they do almost everything better but dont get talked about much outside the fandom
Though it IS a masterpiece and has important place on the series, the rushed design of inverted castle and continued ports with flaws(still no saturn exclusives wtf) are kind of a minus
@@tiagocrypto just because something is first doesnt mean it needs to be ranked the highest on a personal list about how much he likes a game. i love zelda but why tf would i rank the first one above botw, ww or oot
So happy to see the original Bloodstained project so high lol. Everyone always just talks about the 8bit ones but god I love Ritual of the Night so much. It’s a game that more people seriously need to play, it’s got so much to enjoy and it really is just metroidvania goodness. Although I haven’t played all the metroidvania ones, I can say that I only prefer Order of Ecclesia and the sorrow Duolingo over Ritual of the Night. It really just is so fun
You nailed the ranking of COTM, but you completely underrated Symphony of the Night, you placed way too many games ahead of it. SOTN is top tier, no need to put it in number 1, but it's top tier...
Calling Legacy of Darkness an enhanced re-release does a disservice to Castlevania 64. The original had superior level design, pacing, balance and atmosphere. I enjoy the second game, but the original captures a gothic horror atmosphere better than just about any other game in the series
Super useful. I've never played any Castlevania and was looking to play Symphony of the Night as a starting point because I simply didn't know anything from the other games. Buying a copy of Order of Shadows right now
Symphony not being SS is a crime
DSvanias look better, have better combat, better bosses, and are paced better.
Exactly, what in the world. This guy is dumb.
What is a tier list?
@@laughingman9574 to be fair, haven't played those ones yet since they aren't as readily available. However, I have played aria of sorrow and that one is usually regarded as the best and I still liked symphony better
@@azeplays3563 Oh man, you absolutely should, there are ways ;)
My favourite is Order, followed by Portrait, then Aria, Dawn, then Symphony. Don't get me wrong, I love Symphony too, It's not saying much that I like those better, all are great games, I just find Symphony's other half tedious (inverted castle is amazing idea on paper, however). Combat and the variety of it, bosses and movement are amazing in Order and Portrait.
Aria of Sorrow is legit awesome. Underrated because it was on the GBA, but it is a true masterpiece of a game
It wasn’t underrated when it came out it was highly praised
I played it after others and found it a bit overrated
I wish we could get a remaster with psx graphics of that game. truely deserves it
I get what you're saying, but Symphony of the Night is still at least S.
being honest
difficulty wise its like a C its too easy(even with non op weapons)
Music gameplay and presentation tho combined would be A+ really close to S
the difficulty kind of drag it down a bit
but doesn't mean it wasn't fun to power trip as alucard tho
It's SS. They still haven't made a Castlevania coming close to it.
@@kinamiya1 keyword is fun
@@kinamiya1 Yeah, I mainly love SotN for its exploration and music, but the RPG balancing has always been off, and it does get too easy for my taste. Wish they was a remake or mod to make everything better balanced and harder.
@@A-Dubs398 I don't mind easy games. I don't like the Bloodstained route, where it's just too damn hard and grindy (the crafting/quest system is utter ridiculousness). SotN was just plain fun. Not the hardest thing in the world, but it didn't need to be, for me to enjoy spending hours exploring a couple castles, and beating up lots of baddies in THE game that defined Metroidvania and set a lot of the standards you'd see in later games of the genre. Everybody who made a Metroidvania ever, copied at least some things that were introduced in SotN. It's like making a tier list and dropping Final Fantasy 4 down to D tier or something ridiculous like that.
Extreme respect for the Aria placement
@debaykroid9910 the story and art style bring Dawn a bit down for me, I know like no one plays Castlevania for the story, but I’ve always really liked Aria’s ideas, meanwhile, Dawn is just kind of boring for the most part to me
Yeah menace being the end of the castlevania lore was so stupid lmao
I thought the anime artstyle was fine untel i played POR, everyone looks too childish @@dailydoseofvitaminc6565
The well-deserved love and respect on Curse of Darkness is bringing me great joy.
This is also a powerful reminder that Adventure ReBirth desperately needs some kind of rerelease
I liked that game but I could never get a certain familiar to evolve. And it nearly drove me crazy.
The one who look like an incubus, you need Isaac's spear, and that needs an special material i think
@@n.borreros2889 That's the one, wish I would have known that back then.
It really is tragic how Konami just put in 0 fuckin effort into the franchise after Iga left and devolved it into casino machines
it should be mentioned rondo of blood's cutscene artstyle is also the definition of "generic anime style" for the time it came out. the definition of "generic anime style" changed greatly between the 90's and 2000's though, and you could argue the story wasn't really a focal point in the early castlevania games, so perhaps thats why you don't recognize it/don't think its worth mentioning.
Surefire way to make sure Richter looks cool forever lol
I've always disliked the newer boxart depicting richter with longer hair. Great art, don't get me wrong, but Richter has always had that short hair with the cool bandana.
90s shonen anime Richter is the best Richter. Just imagine how excited he'd get over finding a whole turkey in the wall.
Very happy you included Bloodstained, those games are severely underrated
True successor to the metroidvania castelvania (A bit redondant lol). I really love that they integrated a randomizer in the game.
the 8 bit games are great
but i just REALLY hate the whole 2,5D crap, it just feels so unintuitive and glitchy... the 'metroidvania' would have been so much better if they would have just made sprites and make it look more like SOTN
@@kraken5003 personally I didn't really have a problem with it and thinks the game manages to look really great at times because of the 3d, but I've also played the 2.5 Metroid games like Samus Returns and Dread so maybe my eyes are just used to it?
@@kraken5003 They did multiple castelvanias with the wonderful sprites of SOTN. Dawn of sorrow, portrait of ruins, and order of ecclesia. They all are amazing, even better than SOTN for me. So I think it was time Iga tried something new in term of artistic direction, and I think it looks great, plus you get to wear silly hats in 2.5D! I don't really see what you find unintuitive or glitchy.
But if you are nostalgic for the pixel art of the 16bit era (I understand I like it too), the indie sphere is full of lovely rendered pixel art metroidvanias, who really are heavily inspired by the atmosphere and feel of SOTN:
_Blasphemous I and II
_Record of lodoss war: deedlit in wonder labyrinth
_moonscars
_death's gambit
_souldiers
_Dead cells
_Momodora reverie under the moonlight
_Phoenotopia awakening (more a zelda II clone, but still a pretty good metroidvania)
And they keep coming, I saw there was an upcoming game "Gestatlt steam and cinder" in developement wich looks gorgeous and seem to really scratch that itch too.
@@sludgewave4786
it's unintuitive because when you add the extra dimension it becomes that much harder to see where 'exactly' the platforms are, and just getting a feel for everything isn't at all like when you are working with clearly defined sprites
also it looks uglier
and it's glitchy because things keep getting stuck in walls and such, the hit detection is crap compared to how 2D games usually work
also the other games you mentioned are fine, but i don't think any of them top SOTN and only some of them are avalible on modern platforms, we need to get the DS games on ps4/ps5/switch and such
*Edit: I Know*
Hoping we can get the DS games in a future collection. Perhaps handled like how the ZX games were in the Mega Man Zero collection.
I second this. I wonder what other games have the potential to include. Like the advance collection having Dracula x for example. Adventure rebirth would be neat.
Except with the Magic Seal system in CV: DS automated. Easily the worst part about that game and, in my opinion, the most needless mechanic in the series.
@@qster4 Good news: Dead Cells is getting Castlevania content.
I guess their unique systems involving touch screen are preventing ports..
@@orangeslash1667 I tried Dead Cells and it sadly didn't click for me. If it ever hit a deep sale or was a free PS+ game, then I'd give it another shot. Not bad, just not for me.
Order of Ecclesia is my favorite Castlevania game of all time, it's good to see there's some appreciation for it.
Just beat it about two months ago. It's now my second favorite Castlevania.
Mine as well, especially after recently replaying the DS ones!
Is there a way it can be ported on PS5?
@@robertpadua6096 I seriously doubt it, not only is from a Nintendo handheld, but Konami doesn't like to do anything but pachinko these days, either that or Metal gear. They couldn't care less about Castlevania.
It's always been my fav hand-held Castlevania, love the difficulty of it too. Love the environments too! The Light House area is very pretty!
You lost me at Symphony not being S tier.
Whole list is out the window for that
Gained major respect for not glazing Symphony. Bad controls, bad movement, uninspired map layout, has no challenge, bad enemy placement, bad traversal, RPG mechanics were undercooked, lack of memorable moments - I could probably say more. It's amongst the worst of the Castlevania MVs.
All that said, stellar art, stellar music & despite it's many major shortcomings, people can still have fun with it (& I still had fun with it, even if it was at times frustrating, didn't match up to its children & was blindingly easy) - at its core it is a Castlevania MV & MVs don't get that much better than Castlevania. If it were a competition between all Metroidvania games, where S tier is like Hollow Knight, Astalon, Aria of Sorrow, etc. & the F tier is like, Salt & Sanctuary, Symphony is not going in F tier, it's going in like low-A, high-B, because even a bad Castlevania game blows out most MVs.
@@HeavensOfMetal I feel like Symphony is the perfect-LOOKING Castlevania game. The art just comes together so well. Color-grading is off the charts, and I feel like is only beat out by HODe in terms of looks, though I am a freak for that weird PS3 pseudo-classic look, if you understand what I'm saying.
Rondo of blood is my favorite. Just a top tier game
Don’t really like the older games but Rondo of Blood is a straight banger
I know it actually is NOT, but it kinda suits the mood of "last pre-sotn castlevania"
Rondo of blood is what made a fan of the series after playing the metroidvanias and I've been hooked on the series ever since.
I feel like the hype behind it kind of made it less enjoyable. The weakest of the 16 bit Castlevanias though.
Symphony is simply SS.. played that over 10 times or so and never got bored of it
Symphony Of The Night deserves SS rank and it is a masterpiece.
@@hermis2008 it even looks better when playing of big tv. Aria of sorrow and Dawn aged much worse :(
at fact
No, it's balance is too broken for ss but otherwise solid game
Symphony is not SS is barely SSSS+ this tier list is bad. period
Rondo and the Sorrow games being at the top is exactly what I wanted to see, hell yeah
People talking about Symphony, but Dracula's Curse in B tier is the greater crime.
Great list! I love all of the bloodstained games and I’m really glad you included them. Order of Ecclesia is my personal favorite Castlevania game and one of my favorites of all time, but both sorrow games are wonderful as well. Really stoked for the future of the bloodstained games
Yeah I agree with aria being SS but I would’ve swapped dawn and order of OOE.
9 games superior to Sotn ? Yeah noob peasant opinions in this video
@WithScienceAsMySheperd SOTN is incredibly overrated. It deserves the respect for being the first to adopt the Metroidvania style, but there is a lot of things it does that the future games simply do better.
@@Edo_Luna_ i haven't played any yet, I dont care, SOTN is still perfect just replayed it 3 times ... last month.
@@WithScienceAsMySheperdentonces tu opinion no vale 🗿
Giving Bloodstained their deserved place in this list and the Sorrow Duology in SS? This is officially the best tier list
Bloodstained is one of those very rare Kickstarter winners, alongside Shovel Knight.
SOTN is not only the best castlevania game, it is one of the best games ever made.
Of course 👍🏼
Lol A tier it should be S at least.
@@charaznable8072no, SS and not a debate, just a fact.
the fact that castlevania its so relevant now days its just cuz SOTN, thats it... Given a A its just to try not to fit with most ppl so its gets a lot of comments,likes,dislikes he knows Simphony its a before after of games.....
His opinions lost all credibility for putting it in A tier 🤡 would have accepted S tier based on personal preference but A is just a dumb take.
The simple fact that you put DoS in SS warrants my sub :D
Also, the funny thing about Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is that, the first time I played it, I just got out of my, idk, 15th completion of DoS, which incidentally also has my second favourite soundtrack in the franchise after SOTN, and none of the songs in Bloodstained actually stuck during my first playthrough. But then, replaying it a couple years later, which incidentally was just a couple weeks ago, I could finally appreciate the soundtrack for what it was and I have to say, it is easily in my top 5 from the franchise - I also think that Bloodstained is Castlevania rebranded.
Gameplay-wise, Bloodstained, to me, feels like IGA wanted to reexplore Order Of Ecclesia's glyph system and make it better. Now, I haven't played OoE in about 10 years at this point so I kinda forgot how the glyph system was, but the Shard system in Bloodstained actually reminded me more of the AoS/DoS soul system, AKA my absolute favourite system in the franchise. Which can't be a bad thing, obviously. Now the ONE thing I hope IGA add in a future update of ROTN, or maybe in the sequel, is a whip-holding character that uses the whip the way the Belmonts do. Because I, for one, don't like how Miriam uses it x). But that just a small, cherry picked issue I have that doesn't really change the fact that to me, Bloodstained is actually a SS tier.
Bloodlines is the most underrated cv ever
Yep!
The Sorrow games are godlike, and you've got my respect putting Aria on top. Imo, even with the no touch romhack, I still prefer Aria, it's definitely one of my top 10 favorite games of all time
Lords of Shadow 1 was amazing. It was by far the best of the God of War clone games.
It's SS tier for the scenario, but he's not wrong about QTE and the gameplay feeling slow. Definitely not C tier though, maybe A tier
@@DanielVast well the QTEs were a product of the time. Most action games then had plenty of them because of God of War. But they didn’t really detract from the game much. Mostly they were used in finishing boss fights, the game used them as ways to set up the cinematic finishes.
symphony of the night it's just a masterpiece
SSS tier
It was a good game for it's time, but not challenging for me. The gameplay is basicly brain dead for just moveing forward and spamming attacks.
Just began watching your videos, I LOVE the quality and information provided. Keep up the great work!
Order of Ecclesia my favorite of the DS titles but I agree that the 3 games are peak castlevania. Glad you gave it another chance
Based tierlist. Curse or darkness is great. Would love to see a remake or remaster that adds a little bit faster movement and more combos. The wacky and secret equipment in the metroidvanias is my favorite aspect of them.
Portrait of Ruin was my favorite of the DS games, was young and doing nightshifts a lot at the time. Being able to main Charlotte who was cool and competent and a girl lifted the game for me.
Honestly the funniest thing about Bloodstained to me is that they straight up remade Castlevania 1 with Bloodstained's assets and released it as an extra gameplay mode
the moment he put SOTN in A Tier I stop watching
Order of Ecclesia is my personal favorite of the DS vanias (though havent played Dawn all the way through yet) hearing that its your least favorite of the DS vanias and still being in S tier was a pleasant surprise.
Ecclesia is automatically better than the other two DS games since it is a hard game. The difficulty is appropriate and finely tuned, but it isn't a cakewalk which can't be claimed for the other two
@@wedding2710 And it doesn't have the awful Magic Seal system, so it's automatically better than Dawn of Sorrow.
@@qster4 just use Definitive edition patch from romhacking, meh.
@@Leo80310 That'd be a great idea... if you could do that with a physical copy. I'm sorry, but as much as I like Dawn of Sorrow, I feel he gave it WAY too much slack. But that's the cool thing about opinions. We all can have our own and nobody can take them away from us.
@@wedding2710 Hard dosen't mean good, lol
I loved the pause before actually placing SotN followed by the immediate opening argument for the defense lmao.
I haven't played every Castlevania, but of the ones I did I think they were placed fairly. Good tier list.
SotN has one of the dumbest hardcore, blindfolded, rabid fanboy followings in retro gaming. SotN IS GREAT, every castlevania fan will say that, but these dudes cry when it's not in it's own quintuple S tier category despite that fact that multiple games are better than it in several way. So anytime anyone says it's not in that special tier there has to be a pause and an immediate defense of what is a very logical, and respectable ranking.
I like that you included all three Lords Of Shadow games in the same tier. And I also found your ultimate opinion of them very interesting: "These games aren't terrible, but, they just lack what makes Castlevania so much fun to me." I think that's one of the most neutral opinions I've ever heard about the LOS Trilogy, which is a welcome change, because most opinions I've heard regarding that trilogy lean more towards the negative side, whereas I am one of the few who actually really enjoyed that trilogy. One thing that you and I really seem to agree on regarding LOS is that the main thing that trilogy has going in its favor is its story. And for me, its story is also one of the main reasons why (and this is a very UNpopular opinion to a lot of die-hard Castlevania fans) Gabriel Belmont is my personal favorite incarnation of Dracula in the entire franchise (although the version in the Netflix anime is a very close second).
Your videos make me want to jump into the franchise. Played a few growing up. But maybe i need to take a closer look.
Nyarly Castlevania arc continues.
Simons Quest could've been so much better if the translation hadn't been so atrocious and maybe shortening the day night transition. For what it was, it was ambitious for a Castlevania game for its time
It's also one of those games where I feel like if they made it out to be a spin-off, instead of a sequel, might have been better received since the gameplay is such a departure from castlevania 1 (specifically the nes one).
Harmony of Dissonance is actually my favourite castlevania. The low quality samples for the music add to the unique atmosphere, in combination with the weirdly bright colors giving the feeling that this is just a really weird castle. (since it kinda formed from the whole double soul thing Maxim has going on at the start, it IS kind of a weird castle) It's right there in the name. Dissonance. Of course it's gonna have kinda unnerving music. Its twin castles are a better executed version of the two castles in SotN, which makes it REALLY fun to explore. It's interesting to see that doing something in one castle can affect the same room in the opposite castle (Just wish it was used a little more often). I like Juste's spellbooks more than Aria's soul system (a spicy take, but there's a lot of souls that just feel downright redundant), and his having both a back and forward dash just makes movement (and combat!) really fun.
Other than bumping SotN up one tier, I can't really critique much about this tierlist.
It's well thought-out and reasoned so kudos for that.
You have my respect for not overrating SotN and putting both Aria and Dawn of Sorrow in SS. There are some places i disagree, but overall i think your tier list is very good.
Same same
i consider Aria to be the overrated one :P
@@somefries3101 dumb
@@somefries3101 Agreed. It has aged very poorly in a lot of areas like graphics, sound effects/music, and weird pacing, imo.
@@somefries3101la mayoria de elige a symponhy como el mejor
Just started to play some more games from the castlevania series after i finished aria of sorrow. This vid made me realize i was playing a not so great version of rondo of blood so thanks! i also got to see a ton of other games i didn t know about from the series.
I recommend the ”Return to Castlevania DLC” for the Dead Cells game also. Altough not a stand-alone game, the addition of new weapons, dialogue, map layout/design and well placed refferences is worth checking out.
Hard agree on Bloodstained! The fact that the developers were still improving the game's technical problems, while adding fun new content for free deserves a lot of respect. Also, the endgame becomes really fun.
And yeah, Aria of Sorrow might be the best Metroidvania, period.
I've got nothing but praise for all the bloodstained games to date. I hope to see more of them.
Dude me too, Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 make the part of my heart reserved for classic Castlevania sing, and Ritual does the exact same for the part reserved for Metroidvania Castlevanias.
29:40 I wanna say that in 2024, the game is still alive, it has it's own dedicated discord, and even has it's own dedicated unity port of the game, featuring additional content not seen in in the original versions of the game on Xbox and PSN. Featuring more stages, characters, items, as well as makes characters like Jonathan behave like how he would more like in portrait of ruin, being able to use more than just his whip.
Yeah I play this with my friends pretty often. It's fun going through this with friends on rpcs3
bro got me offended with that sympathy of the night being A tier
I've been a Castlevania fan for more than 30 years, I think Lords of Shadow 1 is very worthy of being placed at tier S.
Personally, I feel that PoR stands in SS tier. The game has an absurd amount of content to it, that content is generally extremely good, and the game isn't bogged down by the content. You can beat the game and have an authentic experience without bothering to level subweapons or deal with the sidequests or anything of the sort. The portraits play very differently, with Sandy Grave being easy enemies and deadly traps, the Circus of Fools being complex platforming, the Evil Forest being a nearly linear gauntlet of hard enemies, and the pixel art detail being completely absurd. Just the shops in the first portrait alone are so absurdly detailed that it boggles the mind. Someone really spent time making individual sprites for cakes.
Finally, some love for Portrait!
This video was awesome for the sheer fact that it shows so much love to the GBA & DS games Castlevania games. While Symphony of the Night will always be in my Top 10 games of all time, Aria & Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin made so many improvements on the SotN formula and are just totally addictive!
The DS and GBA games are undoubtedly the best Castlevanias. SotN is still my favorite.
Another banger tierlist, our tastes more or less line up in this one as well. The DS Castlevanias were honestly so good, I really hope they're next to get a modern rerelease.
Merry Christmas! 😅
Breathed a sigh of relief to see the DS games in (roughly) the right spots lol
Great list, but I do encourage you to spend a bit more time with Chronicles. It really hits a groove when you get comfortable with the jank, and the aesthetics are probably my favorite out of any of the Classicvanias. I probably will never put it above Rondo, but I was surprised how much I ended up treasuring my copy.
😊😮
Well put together video! I personally have castlevania 4 as my top game, but respect the list
I love your videos. The passion and way you articulate how good certain games are make me want to play them. Same with the SMT games you talked about, except I’m way less familiar with those (hoping to change that)
There is actually a fan port of Harmony of Despair for the PC. It's basic features are complete. But I think currently the project is in an indefinite hiatus.
SOTY being ranked only A and not S or SS should be considered a war crime
While Symphony of the night is good one annoyance is that the difficulty curve is reversed.
The game starts out with a good challenge but becomes easier the further in.
Later in the game I could just facetank bosses and kill them in a short time (except the super boss unless cheesing him)
that might be true for someone familiar with the genre, but the openness of the inverted castle can create a lot of challenge depending on the order in which you choose to explore it. I know I've had friends lose hours of progress in their first playthroughs by fighting bosses they really shouldn't have gone anywhere near yet
Heard something like SOTN's inverted castle, or entire 2nd half of the game was VERY rushed in development.
Something bothers me more is that still none of the ports had properly implemented saturn exclusive elements..
Thats why sotn Is not on my top, Is one of the easiest game i have ever played, also, the dialogues are cringy, but the music, art, animations, are one of the best in the history of videogames.
That's my only gripe with SoTN. It's just too easy. Other than that, I love everything about it.
symphony of the night is only easy because people spam overpowered weapons like the sword familiar, the crissaegrim, the jewel knuckles, every chance they get. if you play the game with your own rules, or what the game gives you at the time, instead of pocketing certain subweapons, & being cheesy, the difficulty is fine. honestly aria of sorrow has the smae issue anyways, i beat 90% of the game just using valkyrie soul. if you go look at guides and find what the most op weapon and soul is, aria of sorrow difficulty is the same as sotn. also aria of sorrow goes from easy to hard to easy again, the game isnt hard at all, until death, and then its a sudden major difficulty spike, and then it gets way easier again.
YES, i love castlevania. super happy about seeing you cover it
My favourite castlevania games are basically sotn, the ds games and my top 2 are specifically the Soma games in no particular order.
Pretty based list , only disagreement would be OoT and POR would be SS for me.
I was kinda dreading your opinion on Castlevania 64 & Legacy of Darkness purely due to their reputation online caused by, as you said, certain internet personalities. I was surprised when you gave them a fair shot and rating though! They're certainly not the best games, but they're definitely up there in my top Castlevania games. The levels, character designs and music are all so memorable to me.
"The weak part of Bloodstained is the music"
EXCUSE ME?
Definitely enjoyed your insight on what Castlevania game is good and average. Also liked how you implemented the Bloodstained games as well especially since their Igurashi's babies. I speedrun the first Curse of the Moon game and it's a lot of fun to run for sure, BUT I would like to learn CoTM 2 and RoTN at some point.
Where would you put Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania? I loved it a lot, but it's also my only direct exposure to the franchise.
I just watched your Castlevania Handgun-Only Run. What a coincidence!
Castlevania 3 and lament of innocence are my two favorites. Both SS for me their so good and are great challenges. Not to mention the soundtracks 😮
I'm glad to hear that someone else loves the lament of innocence soundtrack. Everyone talks about how good the soundtrack of Symphony of The Night is (which I agree that Sotn has one of the best castlevania soundtracks of all times), but Lament of Innocence is almost as good as SOTN. Btw, both soundtracks are composed by Michiru Yamane, and she also worked on the Skullgirls and Castlevania Bloodlines soundtrack as well.
SoTN of the probably should be higher, and I don’t even like Metroidvanias like that. Also respect for not overrating Super Castlevania IV like most people.
Eclessia not being SS is nuts.
🤣
All three DS games are SS imo.
This guy put Circle of the Moon and SOTN in the same tier?????? Bruh!
Not a Castlevania expert. I despise the oldschool ones, love the metroidvanias, but I'm an RPG guy, so... I'll just enjoy the rankings for what they are.
Dawn of sorrow to me is a C my reasoning being is bc to me Aria did not need a sequel I rather would’ve gotten a game about the epic battle of 1999 where Dracula was destroyed for good and also the fact that it was plagued with touchscreen gimmicks bc of Nintendo’s ridiculous hard on for gimmicks on their new consoles which tbh ruined MANY games that would’ve been masterpieces if they decided to NOT go crazy with the gimmicks
Lords of shadow is so underrated...MAKES ME SAD.
Glad you put bloodstained in the list. It belongs here. Igarashis passion project.
This is the first tier list that didn’t feel like a generic SotN fan
Bloodlines is awesome!! Still play till this day.
Aria had so much memorable tracks. Castle Corridor and Clock Tower were already bops the first time I heard them
I love that you added bahjet mountains from curse of darkness when the 3d versions started, such a good soundtrack
Saying SotN isn't a masterpiece... my heart. Is absolutely IS a masterpiece 😫
The game was good for its time, but the gameplay is brain dead. Not challenging in my opinion. That's why I prefer Lords of Shadows 1 and 2. Dodgeing and more fast paced combat.
Nice ranking! Imo you have been too harsh with some games though, especially with some of those in A-Tier. Symphony should be at least S.
I share your appreciation for the Metroidvanias, they deserve their ranking.
I think i'd genuinely put Bloodstained (Ritual) in SS simply for its depth of content ans ease of replayability thanks to things like its inbuild randomizer.
It's just such an easy game to randomply pick up every once in a while and have a fresh experience with.
Other than that, i'd personally rank the Lords of Shadows games much higher, but i can definitely see why people don't like them.
For me, it's the voice actor performance that anchored the game into my memory.
There's this dialog between Gabriel (Robert Carlyle) and Marie (Natasha McElhone) in LoS2 that, to this day, gives me goosebumps.
Great List!
Seconded on the LoS games, even though i've not played Mirror of Fate. I know what scene you mean, seeing Gabriel at that point being in tears at all that has happened, preceded by recounting the misfortune that has befallen their family, is heartrending.
It's fair enough if people don't want to count them as true Castlevania games on their own, and I personally have had my issues with gameplay and story.
And yet, overall, i've had fun with both LoS 1 and 2, played them all the way through (bar the DLCs), there's a lot I like about the combat, art direction, lore, bosses, environments, and a lot of it is like you say elevated by the voice acting-- and also the MUSIC! Oscar Araújo has delivered beautiful pieces, bombastic and intricate alike.
All in all, sweet to encounter a person who looks positively upon the LoS games throughout their shortcomings. Both in a vacuum, and as experiences on their own.
Here is my list, which is more a favorites than objective list:
1) Portrait of Ruin - Simply does so many things great.
2) Aria of Sorrow - Good story, souls system is great, fun game
3) Dawn of Sorrow - At first lower on my list, but after revisiting it, I must pump it up. I love the Julius mode is tied into the story.
4) Circle of the Moon - I am biased, since this was my introduction to the series. Even though the light issue is objectively a bad thing, I really liked the dark gothic style and I think this entry did it great if not best. I completed all modes, so to this day is the game I have beaten the most in the series.
5) Bloodstained - Great spiritual successor, but I think it lost something in without the eternal conflict between Dracula and the vampire hunters.
6) Order of Ecclesia - Like you, I didn't liked it that much at first and may still feel like I enjoyed SotN better, but it did do many things well, including the magnet glyph that made traversal challenging and fun. A game I think I would enjoy more if I revisited it, just as I did with DoS.
7) Symfoni of the Night - I respect what it did, but I feel it has been surpassed. The surprise of the inverted castle just felt like bad pacing to me, you have already unlocked enough to freely explore, so you somewhat lose the core of a Metroidvania here.
8) Dracula X Chronicles (Rondo) - I am more into Metroidvanias and I bought this game for SotN, but still played Rondo. It is a great game, but I just like the Metroidvanias more.
9) Harmony of dissonance - I really disliked the style of the game, especially coming from CotM and only found it good enough to play once.
SotN deserves SS simply for jumpstarting castlevania metroidvanias. And the soundtrack is 10/10.
I find it funny how you said that Bloodlines was the most difficult of the 16 but era, with Bloodlines being the only Castlevania I have ever fully beat, I love it, SS tier easily.
I agree with Symphony of the Night. While I own Orders of Ecclesia. I have yet play it lol. Portraits of Ruins its still my favorite Game in the series, Love how the game looks and the replay ability. I remember beating the game Multiple Times back in the day. This Video got me Hype! now I just want to play Castlevania again lol
I liked your selection, mine would be almost the same but with 2 major changes
1 in my tier Castlevania 3 should be in rank A, just a lever higher that the original Castlevania, my reason is simple, it had alternative routes and we knew new characters that continued until the end like Alucard, of course it was so important, that we had the fake trio in Symphony, also Trevor appeared in Curse of Darkness, and it was a good starting point to know the lore and netflix did the best with that story as starting point.
2 finally symphony of the night would be in top, by the moment it was released we only had linear maps, it was the beginning of a new concept and the serie of DS followed and expand the Metroidvania formula from Symphony, also it was a before and after point in the series, for that reason they included it the PSP port of course it would be nice to have the best version at the beginning with Maria as playable character.
Beyond that I agree with your selection, it was very entertaining and I enjoyed it... well maybe Lord of Shadows 1 would be higher since it was an interesting experiment but I agree... without the time events and the colossus fight would be much better
Sotn in the same tier as circle is a crime
Indeed
God sotn fans are so godamn whiney
exactly
Portrait of Ruin is, IMO, the single best Metroidvania. I love the stage based progression, and I think of all of the Metroidvanias, it's the one with the tightest gameplay balance. It's always challenging, you have to work to get the cheese up to max (you know what weapon I'm talking about), and because there's no Souls fuckery, you can't actually just blast through the game when you get the perfect combo of high powered super souls. Don't get me wrong. I -love- Aria and Dawn but IMO, Portrait of Ruin has them both beat because it does what they do but better (weapons variety, different gameplay styles, multiple characters), and at no point do I feel I can just steamroll the game.
Also Level 1 Hard Mode makes me Level 1 Hard.
Agreed. They did so many good things in this game. I love that you visit other worlds, but are still in a main castle, so you get variety, but not these broken up smaller parts like OoE. I think it was a smart idea to twist the boss fight with the sister, so it was all about being able to cast the spell without being interrupted. I like the difference and synergy between the two characters. So many good things about that game.
I only game placement I disagree with is SOTN. I would put it in SS. Its just a good as any other game in the top tier.
You're basically saying circle of the moon is as good as sotn and thats just a nope lol.
Also, dawn probably would be the best game if it wasn't for the seal mechanic.
I like castlevania: lords of shadow, but I'm going to respect your opinion on them.
Aria of sorrow is the best game in the series, mostly because of what it pulled off on the GAME BOY ADVANCE. Dawn is good too, but the environments and level design is not as tightly woven as it is in aria, Symphony of the night, or even in portrait of ruin. Plus it's pretty easy.
Great ranking, except not putting Symphony of the night in S tier. I would have accepted A teir if there was no SS tier.
I have the mobile port of symphony of the night and it rocks plus it's also my first Castlevania game.
Symphony of the Night overrated? Finally someone said it! Also I buy the fight all the time in internet about how Aria and Down of Sorrow are great games, not many people had the opportunity to play on a DS and the emulators really don't do justice to the DS.
It's funny how our experiences with Order of Ecclesia was the same, I hated at first (especially the difficulty lol) but now it's one of my favourite games, in my opinion all the DS games are SS, also I don't buy the argument of DS games being bad because of anime style where Rondo of Blood had it and also had a silly end with Maria.
This is a great tier list, and if you are into this series I’m gonna mention, could you do a tier list on the final fantasy franchise please I would love to hear your thoughts on them
SOTN IS NOT ON SS TIER LIST? THIS GUY CRAZY...DISLIKES
SOTN overrated? Are you high!?
compared to the other metroidvanias that dont get much recognition because less people are nostalgic about them? yes absolutely. they do almost everything better but dont get talked about much outside the fandom
Top 5 Castlevania but yes, it is the most overrated in the series.
Though it IS a masterpiece and has important place on the series,
the rushed design of inverted castle and continued ports with flaws(still no saturn exclusives wtf) are kind of a minus
@@tiagocrypto just because something is first doesnt mean it needs to be ranked the highest on a personal list about how much he likes a game. i love zelda but why tf would i rank the first one above botw, ww or oot
@@ActionAbe1I would hope something that came out after would do it better. God I hate presentism arguements
So happy to see the original Bloodstained project so high lol. Everyone always just talks about the 8bit ones but god I love Ritual of the Night so much. It’s a game that more people seriously need to play, it’s got so much to enjoy and it really is just metroidvania goodness. Although I haven’t played all the metroidvania ones, I can say that I only prefer Order of Ecclesia and the sorrow Duolingo over Ritual of the Night. It really just is so fun
"The Sorrow Duolingo"?
You nailed the ranking of COTM, but you completely underrated Symphony of the Night, you placed way too many games ahead of it. SOTN is top tier, no need to put it in number 1, but it's top tier...
Calling Legacy of Darkness an enhanced re-release does a disservice to Castlevania 64. The original had superior level design, pacing, balance and atmosphere.
I enjoy the second game, but the original captures a gothic horror atmosphere better than just about any other game in the series
SOTN being A... wtf
Afterimage is a recently release metroidvania and its a fantastic game. The hand drawn look is really pretty too.
The DS trilogy are the peak of castlevania. I spent hours on it until I got everything the game had to offer. Portrait of ruin is by far my favorite.
Super useful. I've never played any Castlevania and was looking to play Symphony of the Night as a starting point because I simply didn't know anything from the other games. Buying a copy of Order of Shadows right now
left the video when he said Symphony Of The Night is over rated lol
Gameplay wise it kind of is.