6:15 It's quite funny how one person (James Rolfe/AVGN) has had such an impact on the discourse of Castlevania 2. No one who likes that game can just state it casually, but has to defend their opinion. It's like we all just assume the game is bad, even though many who've played it testifies otherwise. Just because one guy made a funny video on the flaws of the game 20 years ago.
People are coming around and starting to appreciate it more, I know I have. Theres some heavy Simon’s Quest influence in indie games like Infernax or Cathedral showing that there is a niche for that type of retro metroidvania
“Castlevania 4 has a bad soundtrack”? Are you guys crazy? Have you played the same game I played? Because that soundtrack is one of the best among Castlevania games!
This was my thought as well. It’s my personal favourite classic Castlevania despite it being a little on the easier side and certainly one of if not my favorite Castlevania soundtrack. So diverse from upbeat tracks to some more jazz inspired. The submerged city is one of my favourite music tracks on the snes
I agree. I'm a musician and have played hundreds of SNES games, and this soundtrack is absolutely mind-blowing. It certainly ranks as one of the best OSTs on a system with great soundtracks (DKC, Super Metroid, FF IV and VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, etc.).
Simon’s theme is like top 5 or top 3 best tracks in the series. That entire game has one of the best soundtracks if not the best soundtrack in the series imo.
so the thing is, Hideo Kojima didn't actually work on Lords of Shadow, he just let MercurySteam use his name so Konami would let them ship the games. also, Mirror of Fate is one of my favorites. I love how it mixes classic Vania, Igavania, & LoS combat. and most importantly Scottish Simon Belmont
Yup. Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack is not just amazing music, but a masterclass in how to implement it in actual game design as well. I would also add that none of us that grew up playing Castlevania games ever thought it was some type of aberration in the musical style we had come to expect from the series. You'd be hard pressed to find any reviews from the era saying that either. This is just another example of the group think bad takes that seem to be a product of the internet. These guys are clueless!
While I find many Castlevania games more fun to listen to when I'm not playing, SCIV's is an absolute masterpiece of mood, and my absolute favorite soundtrack to listen to when I'm actually playing the game.
2:03 I like how you can tell from this sentence alone that Jon was asked not to swear and he obliged with how foreign “pain in the butt” sounds coming from him. Like he’s referred to Bagel as a “butt” before, but you kinda expect him to say something else following “pain in the”. Watch as I’m proven wrong later as I’m only at Haunted Castle at the time of writing (9 minutes in). #WivesBeforeKnives
If you want the Classicvania experience, I recommend you start with the original *Castlevania* for the NES, *Super Castlevania IV* for the SNES or *Castlevania: Rondo of Blood* for the PC-Engine. If you want to jump into a Metroidvania-style game, I recommend you start with *Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow* for the GBA, *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* for the PSX or *Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia* for the NDS. All of these games can be found in collections that are in Steam (Anniversary, Advance, Dominus), in PS4 (Requiem) or can be easily emulated. Best of luck and I hope you have tons of fun! 😎👍
I think the difficulty of the US version of CVIII is a bit overblown. One of the benefits of how the last level is handled in the US release is that you can get the axe again, which makes all parts of the final boss easier. Otherwise I think you’re stuck with the knife or holy water in the JP version. The choke points I think are largely the same in both versions (especially the penultimate level - it’s still that level, either way.) “Good music for the Genesis” - It’s great period. Bloodlines is an example of why the Genesis has great sound. Reducing Genesis games down to the GEMS-type stuff would be like judging the SNES on all of the flat, muffled, bland music a lot of its games have. You couldn’t do the music for Final Fantasy VI the same way on the Genesis but the SNES certainly couldn’t pull off stuff like the Streets of Rage or Phantasy Star IV to the same degree either. Also, Chronicles is superb, just played through it again. The original, not the arranged version. And that New Jack Swing version of Wicked Child? Brilliant.
Recently been playing Castlevania 1 and I've sunk in over THIRTY HOURS and Counting! I'm currently stuck on Stage 13 and ffs those Skeletons are a nightmare to deal with!
Lords of Shadow and Order of Ecclesia were actually my first steps into Castlevania. Hopefully Mirror of Truth and LoS 2 will get Switch 2 ports. My 3DS kakked before I could play MoT and I never got to experience 2.
52:15 I don't think the 'anime' aspect was the core problem since Rondo also had a very anime-esque artstyle as well, I think problem is that it looks painfully generic. Especially compared to Order of Ecclesia which also uses and anime-esque artstyle but is a lot more evocative of the series' tone with the gothic style.
Personally I wouldn't put Portrait of Ruin so high, the empty feeling castle and reused themes in the portrait areas really brought it down for me. Order of Ecclesia is definitely my favourite though.
Yessssss ProtonJon and Derrick talking for 2 hours. Sidenote: kinda interesting to see Order of Ecclesia in S tier. Personally, I think it's a great game, but it's also a really odd mishmash with its glyph system (I like the experimentation, but the soul system feels better) and the level structure (I kinda prefer the way PoR handles having a large castle alongside a buncha smaller levels)
With the DLC, Vampire Survivors has become an S tier Castlevania game. Also the GBA/DS era was just peak. Aria, Dawn, Ruin and Ecclesia are just so damn good.
I don't have time to watch the whole video atm but great video and I hope you included the Castlevania: Revamped fan game because it is excellent and super fun. Also you should include the three Bloodstained games as they are castlevania in all but name
I wonder if ProtonJon will ever get around to doing a Dawn of Sorrow LP like his Aria one. His Aria of Sorrow LP is one of my favorite UA-cam series to rewatch now and again.
Loved hearing your guys thoughts on this amazing series. I'm currently on the first PS2 game going through chronologically, haven't touched any of the DS games so far. Excited to get to those. S ranks for me are Rondo, SOTN, Aria, Super IV, and weirdly enough probably the Haunted Castle remake. It was short sure, but I loved it and the OST was phenomenal!!
As a long time fan of Castlevania I agree with these rankings (though I would put Dawn over Symphony personally)😤 Edit: Pie in the sky want for Castlevania in the future: Castlevania 1999 done by Mercury Steam
Thing is, a collection of them already exists, Castlevania Requiem, but it's exclusive to PS4 for some reason. Although at this point, I hope they throw in Castlevania Chronicles / Akumajo Dracula or like The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP remakes of Rondo of Blood & Symphony of the Night) as well for a future collection.
@Mimi.1001 Requiem seems to use the PSP version as some kind of emulator base. Presumably, this caused an issue for porting since all of their other collections are on all platforms. At least Xbox has the old XBLA version of SOTN.
@SIXminWHISTLE Oh, didn't know that. But shouldn't be that hard to throw in the original SOTN and Rondo of Blood Rom/ISO then, maybe with an English translation for Rondo. Konami seems ready to provide Castlevania with a "bigger" budget now seeing Haunted Castle Revisited.
@@Mimi.1001 Castlevania Requiem is just the weird versions that were unlockable games (With the worse rewitten dialog) from Dracula X Chronicles for PSP without the main 3D game. It uses a proprietary PSP emulator. Better to just play them with a Playstation Emulator and PC engine Emulator. I play them with retroarch on my hacked PS Classic Mini. Works fine.
@Shantae1188 ah okay well glad they fixed that i have been meaning to go back to that game know that all the backer goals were finished but just kept putting it off for other stuff.
There is a reason to play 64 instead of Legacy but it isn't necessarily a good reason. The main campaigns of that game are a bit longer and more open, while Legacy is more condensed and streamlined. If you want to experience the "full" version of Carrie/Reinhardts campaign then 64 is the way to go, but with the concession that the controls will be a bit more ass.
also kinda wished you added the 'Vania DLC for Dead Cells (perhaps add dead cells into the list in turn too? but Not the newly released 'Vania dlc for Vampire Survivors due to the gameplay being too different) and throw in the Bloodstained games please.
Just gonna say this: next Castlevania collection needs to be the 3D games. Lament of Innocence and Lords of Shadow were pretty good and I’ve heard good things about Curse of Darkness.
Baby take, but I much prefer when Castlevania is easy. SotN is always my favourite of that style because I find exploring less stressful when I'm not worried about dying and getting sent back every new room. I really hope we get another 3D Castlevania one day it could be so good.
I recommend Bloodstain Curse of the Moon, it's easier than than the game it's based on Castlevania 3. It counts as Castlevania because Koji Igarashi worked on it. There's also Castlevania content in Dead Cells.
@kevinfromsales9445 Yep, Castlevania Anniversary collection has the JP version of several of the games, including 3. CV1 also has an easy mode totally unique to the JP version (not just tweaking HP/damage...it changes things like how subweapons and double/triple shots work, starts you with more hearts...it's very interesting). And Belmont's Revenge has region-exclusive subweapons (ax in the US, cross in JP).
Great tier list! Such a fun time and hoping the rest of the series gets collections or some new ones. Definitely check out the Dead Cells X Castlevania DLC!
As someone whos has played Order of Shadows on it's intended platform (There are Java phone emulators if you really want to try this game.). It's fine for what it is, it's not good but it's not the worst like some people on the internet claims it is. It's definitely better than the other 2 D rank games IMO. I'd put it either high D or low C. It's clunky and very easy but it was made for mobile flip phones so expecting it to be anything else is silly. Also, most videos make it look uglier than it's intended to be since it's not meant to blown up on the average UA-cam video (Not that the game normally looks good mind you. :p). Personally if M2 gets to remake another Bad/Mediocre Castlevania OoS would be my first pick. Not only because they could flesh out the characters and gameplay more but because it would allow a official version of OoS to be preserved.
damn, I just remembered that ProtonJon was the first youtuber i subscribed to. that was in july 2008, 16 years ago! what a coincidence that i love castlevania too
Did we really just put Lament of Innocence below some Gameboy games..? Personally LoI is A tier for me, and easily the best 3D CV to date. It has an amazing soundtrack, a hack n slash combat system that is a bit more methodical than something like God of War/Lords of Shadow (you can't get away with brainless spamming as much so), and a very awesome and overlooked sub-weapon system. It definitely has its flaws, such as overly samey/repetitive rooms, but in the realm of 3D CV's its the best we have had so far. CoD is pretty good, but I prefer the whip/sub-weapon combat of LoI as it feels a bit more like a 3D "classicvania", whereas CoD was trying to be more of a "metroidvania".
I'm really excited to finally play Order of Ecclesia- it was the DS 'vania that I missed out on, and now that there's the Dominus collection I can finally get around to it! ...once i finish my replay of Portrait, of course. That's my current favorite. 1:04:20 - On the topic of "good flip phone games", Konami actually made a full port of the original MSX Metal Gear for feature phones. Wiki says *that* port was the one used for the version on MGS3 Subsistence since it was more modern and easier to bring in line for international release. The mobile phone version was out in Japan for 4 years before it finally hit the US, and I remember it working surprisingly well for its time- yeah it's a very simple game, but for 8-bit games there's only so far you can go. lol
I want harmony of despair to be re-released!!!! I hate that I can only play it on ps3. I know it's ok Xbox too but I had it for ps3.. it needs a pc release at the very least.
It's time to bring the PS1 titles to other platforms I want Symphony of the Night and Castlevania Chronicles on my Switch Bring the 3D titles from PS2 would be good also
Interesting. I never really vibed with PoR or OoE, that's where they started to implement these stupidly grindy sidequests. They even locked gear behind sidequests in OoE. PoR had the annoying double character puzzle aspect, and I remember getting the true ending in that game really sucked. It was a good game otherwise. OoE is hardly a metroidvania, has bad level design with copy/paste rooms everywhere. There are many better metroid-like games out there, imo. As for my favourite, that's not an easy choice. It's between Aria, RoB and SC IV i think.
Seeing Symphony of the Night not making it to S tier breaks my heart a little but the rest of the S and A tier is mostly agreeable. Though I didn't think Lords of Shadow 1 & 2 to be that great. They are okay though.
3:34 No there isn’t… The original Castlevania is such a masterfully put together game, and so fun to replay. This is not taking away anything from any of the future games, but to say there are much better games is not true.
SoTN Art Style and Music quality are still the best of the Metroidvanias for me, the DS games have a lot of improvements in the gameplay, but are not on the same level on the art/Music style.
I respect everyones opinions on Castlevania but I will never EVER see Rondo of Blood as better than Castlevania 4 XD say all you want about how the 8 directional attack making the game too easy GOOD! it doesn't make it the EASIEST it just makes it feel more fair XD there are still hard parts to IV but it doesn't feel bullshit like most other classic vanias Rondo feels like absolute bullshit at times despite it still being a good game
Real Castlevania players don’t put Symphony of the night as the best, it’s a casual player’s game. It ranks as a low c for me, there’s just nothing there in terms of difficulty.
Harmony of Dissonance is so fun! I played that game with 4 of my friends after i had to covid quarantine in 2020 and we played the hell out of that game in like 3 days. 🤔 I kept jumping between the Belmonts. P.S Say what you want about Mirror Of Fate but that Simon design goes hard AF!
I've heard plenty of CV tier lists before, and I'll listen to many more CV tier lists in the future. Symphony should be higher, but glad to see the Portrait of Ruin love. I always preferred Ecclesia, but replaying the collection gave Portrait a slight bump over it (but both rule in their own ways). And Harmony of Despair rules. And Lords of Shadow 2 is so much better than its reputation, which made it seem like reviewers played up to that early stealth section and stopped.
Normally there's like, at least one opinion that gets me heated in a Tier List video, but I genuinely either agreed or respected every single one of you guys' opinions, you definitely know what you're talking about. Really my only dissenting opinions are that you slightly underrated Lament of Innocence (it'd go above Dracula X imo), I have a completely swapped opinion of Aria and Dawn (Aria playthroughs feel kinda samey due to the strong souls/weapons being so far above the other options, while Dawn has better balance and therefore has more variety in repeat playthroughs, on top of having more content in general), Castlevania 1 should be raised a few spots (I like it more than 3), and as ice cold of a take as this is, I can't think of a single game in the series I'd seriously rank above Rondo.
LoI at least deserved to be higher than those Gameboy games... LoI is my personal favorite 3D CV, and that is considering that I do actually like CoD and both LoS games pretty well too. LoI has one of the best soundtracks and the sub-weapon system is really cool and underrated.
You know how Metroid Dread was a long rumored game that was brought back to life by Mercury Steam well I'd to see them do the same for Castlevania 1999. Alucard and Julius.
Most of your list I agree with but I rank Ooe at the bottom as a mid d and sotn low c. I’ve played Vampire Killer and rank that a d at the back of the row, it’s just not good.
I haven't played many Castlevania games, but for me personally I would disagree and have Circle of the Moon over Harmony of Dissonance since I ranked it at least a C. A at best for Circle despite the double tap run and finding the cards, and honestly I would have Bloodlines at high A but its close to S. I would also disagree and have Castlevania NES at B but close to low A and yes, Portrait of Ruin is S, love the game it deserves it. I may update and come back to this when I have played more.
Portrait of Ruin and Rondo would definitely be my top two. Order of Ecclesia was in the top but after my replay in the Dominius Collection and how much i disliked the Union Glyphs requiring Hearts instead of Magic ended up hindering my enjoyment of the title. Still great game but between Union Glyphs requiring consumables and the Attribute Point system to strengthen certain attacks. It's definitely become my least favorite of the trilogy.
Enjoying this talk a lot, good stuff! I have one nitpick tho. Jon always starts by saying "No." And it feels like its meant as a hard disagree, so I get a a conversational whiplash every time. I realize its just a bad habit thing, most people have one or two, but it might be worth working out this little kink if talking in online videos is a regular thing😊🤞
I genuinely shouldn't have watched all of this. But it is interesting to see the games I missed at the least. I do need to get the three Lords of Shadows games now, as well as the ps2 game not on psn as downloadable. Don't think I know enough ppl to play any of the multiplayer ones though. Where would I even find a bunch of the ones not in collections, like GB Kid Dracula?
Nope...Lords of Shadow 2 was absolute garbage. The story is garbage and made absolutely no sense, the combat was clunky, it was a boring, far too dark of a game...but it did have good voice overs, but that ending sucked so much ass and was completely unsatisfying.
@orangeslash1667 yea it and Bayo 2 are why i bought a Wii U... thank goodness for Zelda or the only other worthwhile game for me would be... Rondo heheh.
6:15 It's quite funny how one person (James Rolfe/AVGN) has had such an impact on the discourse of Castlevania 2. No one who likes that game can just state it casually, but has to defend their opinion. It's like we all just assume the game is bad, even though many who've played it testifies otherwise. Just because one guy made a funny video on the flaws of the game 20 years ago.
People often forget AVGN is just a character. AVGN is a comedy show first and foremost. James Rolfe doesn't even dislike Simons Quest IIRC.
People are coming around and starting to appreciate it more, I know I have. Theres some heavy Simon’s Quest influence in indie games like Infernax or Cathedral showing that there is a niche for that type of retro metroidvania
@@187WretchedI remember Bloodstained Ritual of the Night has a dlc called Classic Mode 2 which is pretty much inspired by Simon’s Quest
Portrait of Ruin being ranked at S Tier automatically makes this the most based Castlevania tier list.
Absolutely - underrated hot-swap mechanic should be in more games. It was certainly special.
"Based?" 😂
I had one hell of an introduction to the series since Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, and Aria of Sorrow were my first 3 games.
Derrick talking about Castlevania for almost 2 hours on HALLOWEEN!?! Oh, it’s peak. I’m going to have this on throughout the day 🔥
“Castlevania 4 has a bad soundtrack”? Are you guys crazy? Have you played the same game I played? Because that soundtrack is one of the best among Castlevania games!
For real. Like, I can understand people taking issue with its gameplay, but the soundtrack?!
This was my thought as well. It’s my personal favourite classic Castlevania despite it being a little on the easier side and certainly one of if not my favorite Castlevania soundtrack. So diverse from upbeat tracks to some more jazz inspired. The submerged city is one of my favourite music tracks on the snes
I agree. I'm a musician and have played hundreds of SNES games, and this soundtrack is absolutely mind-blowing. It certainly ranks as one of the best OSTs on a system with great soundtracks (DKC, Super Metroid, FF IV and VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, etc.).
Simon’s theme is like top 5 or top 3 best tracks in the series.
That entire game has one of the best soundtracks if not the best soundtrack in the series imo.
Order of Ecclesia is my favorite Castlevania Game.
Same.
Same, I just beat the game on the Dominus Collection last night in celebration of Halloween.
Same. It’s HARD, but fair
so the thing is, Hideo Kojima didn't actually work on Lords of Shadow, he just let MercurySteam use his name so Konami would let them ship the games.
also, Mirror of Fate is one of my favorites. I love how it mixes classic Vania, Igavania, & LoS combat. and most importantly Scottish Simon Belmont
ProtonJon mentioning the romhack version of Simon's Quest is called Castlevania: Simon's Quest Redaction
Bloody Tiers
Nice to see a list rate Bloodlines so highly, it’s one of my favs for sure. Love the second stage so much.
Hard disagree on SCV4. Especially with regards to the soundtrack. Most underrated and misunderstood soundtrack in the series
Super 4 is one of the most beloved OSTs in the series. They were negative on it???
Yup. Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack is not just amazing music, but a masterclass in how to implement it in actual game design as well.
I would also add that none of us that grew up playing Castlevania games ever thought it was some type of aberration in the musical style we had come to expect from the series. You'd be hard pressed to find any reviews from the era saying that either. This is just another example of the group think bad takes that seem to be a product of the internet. These guys are clueless!
There is nothing under rated or misunderstood about SCIVs OST if anything it's overhyped.
@aureateseigneur5317 Go away TROLLBOT.
While I find many Castlevania games more fun to listen to when I'm not playing, SCIV's is an absolute masterpiece of mood, and my absolute favorite soundtrack to listen to when I'm actually playing the game.
2:03 I like how you can tell from this sentence alone that Jon was asked not to swear and he obliged with how foreign “pain in the butt” sounds coming from him. Like he’s referred to Bagel as a “butt” before, but you kinda expect him to say something else following “pain in the”. Watch as I’m proven wrong later as I’m only at Haunted Castle at the time of writing (9 minutes in).
#WivesBeforeKnives
Having Order of Ecclesia on top is something I can easilly get behind
Longtime Metroid fan here, looking forward to getting into Castlevania. I already know this is going to be a great roadmap!
Start with SotN. The Advance and Dominus collections are also your best bet. You are in for fun.
If you want the Classicvania experience, I recommend you start with the original *Castlevania* for the NES, *Super Castlevania IV* for the SNES or *Castlevania: Rondo of Blood* for the PC-Engine.
If you want to jump into a Metroidvania-style game, I recommend you start with *Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow* for the GBA, *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* for the PSX or *Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia* for the NDS.
All of these games can be found in collections that are in Steam (Anniversary, Advance, Dominus), in PS4 (Requiem) or can be easily emulated.
Best of luck and I hope you have tons of fun! 😎👍
@@BknMoonStudios
Yeah, the Anniversary Collection has the best of the classicvanias except for Rondo of Blood.
I think the difficulty of the US version of CVIII is a bit overblown. One of the benefits of how the last level is handled in the US release is that you can get the axe again, which makes all parts of the final boss easier. Otherwise I think you’re stuck with the knife or holy water in the JP version. The choke points I think are largely the same in both versions (especially the penultimate level - it’s still that level, either way.)
“Good music for the Genesis” - It’s great period. Bloodlines is an example of why the Genesis has great sound. Reducing Genesis games down to the GEMS-type stuff would be like judging the SNES on all of the flat, muffled, bland music a lot of its games have. You couldn’t do the music for Final Fantasy VI the same way on the Genesis but the SNES certainly couldn’t pull off stuff like the Streets of Rage or Phantasy Star IV to the same degree either.
Also, Chronicles is superb, just played through it again. The original, not the arranged version. And that New Jack Swing version of Wicked Child? Brilliant.
You can tell it's a good tier list when the comments section is a mixture of "Damn, I agreed with most of this" and "Wow garbage takes you such ass".
Castlevania is such a GOATed series, and I hope Haunted Castle Revisited is a sign of us getting new games in the future.
Rondo of Blood is my favorite Classicvania.
Symphony of the Night is my favorite Metroidvania.
Recently been playing Castlevania 1 and I've sunk in over THIRTY HOURS and Counting! I'm currently stuck on Stage 13 and ffs those Skeletons are a nightmare to deal with!
Keep at it, champ!
Lords of Shadow and Order of Ecclesia were actually my first steps into Castlevania. Hopefully Mirror of Truth and LoS 2 will get Switch 2 ports. My 3DS kakked before I could play MoT and I never got to experience 2.
52:15 I don't think the 'anime' aspect was the core problem since Rondo also had a very anime-esque artstyle as well, I think problem is that it looks painfully generic. Especially compared to Order of Ecclesia which also uses and anime-esque artstyle but is a lot more evocative of the series' tone with the gothic style.
Juste is such a fun concept and needs a revisit. Leon also has a great design and a remake of Lament of Innocence would be a good idea.
Personally I wouldn't put Portrait of Ruin so high, the empty feeling castle and reused themes in the portrait areas really brought it down for me. Order of Ecclesia is definitely my favourite though.
Yessssss ProtonJon and Derrick talking for 2 hours.
Sidenote: kinda interesting to see Order of Ecclesia in S tier. Personally, I think it's a great game, but it's also a really odd mishmash with its glyph system (I like the experimentation, but the soul system feels better) and the level structure (I kinda prefer the way PoR handles having a large castle alongside a buncha smaller levels)
I still remember Derrick's old ranking from gamexplain. And the streams. Makes me nostalgic.
With the DLC, Vampire Survivors has become an S tier Castlevania game.
Also the GBA/DS era was just peak. Aria, Dawn, Ruin and Ecclesia are just so damn good.
I don't have time to watch the whole video atm but great video and I hope you included the Castlevania: Revamped fan game because it is excellent and super fun. Also you should include the three Bloodstained games as they are castlevania in all but name
Official games only but definitely worth shout outs
I wonder if ProtonJon will ever get around to doing a Dawn of Sorrow LP like his Aria one. His Aria of Sorrow LP is one of my favorite UA-cam series to rewatch now and again.
I hope so, but both streaming and IRL stuff gets in the way.
Loved hearing your guys thoughts on this amazing series. I'm currently on the first PS2 game going through chronologically, haven't touched any of the DS games so far. Excited to get to those. S ranks for me are Rondo, SOTN, Aria, Super IV, and weirdly enough probably the Haunted Castle remake. It was short sure, but I loved it and the OST was phenomenal!!
As a long time fan of Castlevania I agree with these rankings (though I would put Dawn over Symphony personally)😤
Edit: Pie in the sky want for Castlevania in the future: Castlevania 1999 done by Mercury Steam
Of COURSE Jon beat the segment that was seared into Derrick’s nightmares without save states lol
Great way to make it up to ProtonJon for having him play Yoshi's Story
I totally disagree with the rankings on here. Super Castlevania is way better than Bloodlines. Super Castlevania is an easy S.
What a horribly good night to have a Castlevania tier list!
Konami should rerelease rondo of blood and symphony of the night on switch
Thing is, a collection of them already exists, Castlevania Requiem, but it's exclusive to PS4 for some reason. Although at this point, I hope they throw in Castlevania Chronicles / Akumajo Dracula or like The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP remakes of Rondo of Blood & Symphony of the Night) as well for a future collection.
@Mimi.1001 Requiem seems to use the PSP version as some kind of emulator base. Presumably, this caused an issue for porting since all of their other collections are on all platforms.
At least Xbox has the old XBLA version of SOTN.
@SIXminWHISTLE Oh, didn't know that. But shouldn't be that hard to throw in the original SOTN and Rondo of Blood Rom/ISO then, maybe with an English translation for Rondo. Konami seems ready to provide Castlevania with a "bigger" budget now seeing Haunted Castle Revisited.
@@Mimi.1001 Good news there's Castlevania content in Dead Cells.
@@Mimi.1001 Castlevania Requiem is just the weird versions that were unlockable games (With the worse rewitten dialog) from Dracula X Chronicles for PSP without the main 3D game. It uses a proprietary PSP emulator. Better to just play them with a Playstation Emulator and PC engine Emulator. I play them with retroarch on my hacked PS Classic Mini. Works fine.
Happy Halloween!
I absolutely agree with Order of Ecclesia! I would personally rank it the only s tier, with portrait of ruin being 2nd best in A tier
I also rang OoE as number one and PoR as number two.
early castlevania games are escort quests, where you escort the holy water to the boss lol saw this in another comment section
I don’t know when this was recorded, but the 22nd of this Month, they released the update for Bloodstained that fixed a lot
What was wrong with it. I remember playing it when it launched (xbox) and it worked great for me.
@ The Switch version had a bug in 1.5 that literally made it impossible to beat.
@Shantae1188 ah okay well glad they fixed that i have been meaning to go back to that game know that all the backer goals were finished but just kept putting it off for other stuff.
There is a reason to play 64 instead of Legacy but it isn't necessarily a good reason. The main campaigns of that game are a bit longer and more open, while Legacy is more condensed and streamlined. If you want to experience the "full" version of Carrie/Reinhardts campaign then 64 is the way to go, but with the concession that the controls will be a bit more ass.
also kinda wished you added the 'Vania DLC for Dead Cells (perhaps add dead cells into the list in turn too? but Not the newly released 'Vania dlc for Vampire Survivors due to the gameplay being too different) and throw in the Bloodstained games please.
Just gonna say this: next Castlevania collection needs to be the 3D games. Lament of Innocence and Lords of Shadow were pretty good and I’ve heard good things about Curse of Darkness.
Personally, I want the next collection to be a modern port of Symphony and Rondo, but the 3D ones would also be great.
Baby take, but I much prefer when Castlevania is easy. SotN is always my favourite of that style because I find exploring less stressful when I'm not worried about dying and getting sent back every new room.
I really hope we get another 3D Castlevania one day it could be so good.
I recommend Bloodstain Curse of the Moon, it's easier than than the game it's based on Castlevania 3. It counts as Castlevania because Koji Igarashi worked on it.
There's also Castlevania content in Dead Cells.
Is there any official way to play the famicom version of Castlevania 3 like they recommend? Or is it only through Luffy methods?
It's available on the official collection if I'm not mistaken.
@kevinfromsales9445 Yep, Castlevania Anniversary collection has the JP version of several of the games, including 3. CV1 also has an easy mode totally unique to the JP version (not just tweaking HP/damage...it changes things like how subweapons and double/triple shots work, starts you with more hearts...it's very interesting). And Belmont's Revenge has region-exclusive subweapons (ax in the US, cross in JP).
Great tier list! Such a fun time and hoping the rest of the series gets collections or some new ones.
Definitely check out the Dead Cells X Castlevania DLC!
This video finally gave me the push I need to pick up the Classicvania collection
Happy Halloween it’s my favorite holiday and Castlevania is one of my favorite game series I’ve been playing it a good bit this October. Great video
love the Lords of Shadow saga, sure some things could be ironed out a bit, but still underrated and worth it to play and experience the story.
As someone whos has played Order of Shadows on it's intended platform (There are Java phone emulators if you really want to try this game.). It's fine for what it is, it's not good but it's not the worst like some people on the internet claims it is. It's definitely better than the other 2 D rank games IMO. I'd put it either high D or low C. It's clunky and very easy but it was made for mobile flip phones so expecting it to be anything else is silly. Also, most videos make it look uglier than it's intended to be since it's not meant to blown up on the average UA-cam video (Not that the game normally looks good mind you. :p).
Personally if M2 gets to remake another Bad/Mediocre Castlevania OoS would be my first pick. Not only because they could flesh out the characters and gameplay more but because it would allow a official version of OoS to be preserved.
damn, I just remembered that ProtonJon was the first youtuber i subscribed to. that was in july 2008, 16 years ago!
what a coincidence that i love castlevania too
Mad respect for putting Bloodlines in S tier. Game is finally getting the recognition it deserves. It’s better than Super Castlevania IV. All day.
u should rank all bloodstained games including the classic modes!
Did we really just put Lament of Innocence below some Gameboy games..?
Personally LoI is A tier for me, and easily the best 3D CV to date. It has an amazing soundtrack, a hack n slash combat system that is a bit more methodical than something like God of War/Lords of Shadow (you can't get away with brainless spamming as much so), and a very awesome and overlooked sub-weapon system. It definitely has its flaws, such as overly samey/repetitive rooms, but in the realm of 3D CV's its the best we have had so far. CoD is pretty good, but I prefer the whip/sub-weapon combat of LoI as it feels a bit more like a 3D "classicvania", whereas CoD was trying to be more of a "metroidvania".
I'm really excited to finally play Order of Ecclesia- it was the DS 'vania that I missed out on, and now that there's the Dominus collection I can finally get around to it! ...once i finish my replay of Portrait, of course. That's my current favorite.
1:04:20 - On the topic of "good flip phone games", Konami actually made a full port of the original MSX Metal Gear for feature phones. Wiki says *that* port was the one used for the version on MGS3 Subsistence since it was more modern and easier to bring in line for international release. The mobile phone version was out in Japan for 4 years before it finally hit the US, and I remember it working surprisingly well for its time- yeah it's a very simple game, but for 8-bit games there's only so far you can go. lol
Harmony of dissonance was kinda boring to me. Kinda hurts putting it above circle of the moon
Solid list. Personally I’d swap super and Rondo of blood, but that is probably the only change I would make.
Anyone know which track is playing when they're discussing Adventure Rebirth and Judgement?
I want harmony of despair to be re-released!!!! I hate that I can only play it on ps3. I know it's ok Xbox too but I had it for ps3.. it needs a pc release at the very least.
Good news there's Castlevania content in Dead Cells.
It's time to bring the PS1 titles to other platforms
I want Symphony of the Night and Castlevania Chronicles on my Switch
Bring the 3D titles from PS2 would be good also
Could you add a link ot this tier list in the descrition?
This tier list is so close to my opinions across all these games, its almost scary lol.
Interesting.
I never really vibed with PoR or OoE, that's where they started to implement these stupidly grindy sidequests. They even locked gear behind sidequests in OoE.
PoR had the annoying double character puzzle aspect, and I remember getting the true ending in that game really sucked. It was a good game otherwise.
OoE is hardly a metroidvania, has bad level design with copy/paste rooms everywhere. There are many better metroid-like games out there, imo.
As for my favourite, that's not an easy choice. It's between Aria, RoB and SC IV i think.
Rating the N64 Castlevania's so low is criminal imo.
I am happy that the tierlist isn't pixelated
Seeing Symphony of the Night not making it to S tier breaks my heart a little but the rest of the S and A tier is mostly agreeable. Though I didn't think Lords of Shadow 1 & 2 to be that great. They are okay though.
Interesting list...but enough talk! Have at you! 🦇
Aria of Sorrow is my Favorite game and Symphony of the Night is super good too.
OMG finally a list that does portrait of ruin justice. Also my Favorite of the DS games.
Ranking Rondo of Blood at S isn't enough. It needs to be SSS rank Devil May Cry style.
I have the CV collections on my switch, going to play them in the order of your list
3:34 No there isn’t… The original Castlevania is such a masterfully put together game, and so fun to replay. This is not taking away anything from any of the future games, but to say there are much better games is not true.
11:49 wrong again, Legends is every bit as bad, if not worse, than The Adventure.
You realize all this is subjective right?
@@aureateseigneur5317😮
@@aureateseigneur5317 😮
@@aureateseigneur5317 Actually longtime Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi removed the game from the series timeline, which is not a good sign.
SoTN Art Style and Music quality are still the best of the Metroidvanias for me, the DS games have a lot of improvements in the gameplay, but are not on the same level on the art/Music style.
34:47 "mmm Imma three guy" I always liked proton john. man this explains everything.
There's no one on this channel I'd rather have rank the Castlevania series than Derrick. ProtonJon just takes it over the top.
I respect everyones opinions on Castlevania but I will never EVER see Rondo of Blood as better than Castlevania 4 XD say all you want about how the 8 directional attack making the game too easy GOOD! it doesn't make it the EASIEST it just makes it feel more fair XD there are still hard parts to IV but it doesn't feel bullshit like most other classic vanias Rondo feels like absolute bullshit at times despite it still being a good game
Real Castlevania players don’t put Symphony of the night as the best, it’s a casual player’s game. It ranks as a low c for me, there’s just nothing there in terms of difficulty.
Well, Symphony of the Night is in my top 5 games of all time (true), so the fact that it didn't get it's own rank above S is a felony (joke, mostly).
I love kid Dracula for GB
Harmony of Dissonance is so fun! I played that game with 4 of my friends after i had to covid quarantine in 2020 and we played the hell out of that game in like 3 days. 🤔 I kept jumping between the Belmonts.
P.S Say what you want about Mirror Of Fate but that Simon design goes hard AF!
Really happy to see Jon here as his Aria of Sorrow LP is an easy favorite of mine and still hope he'll do Dawn Of Sorrow someday!
I've heard plenty of CV tier lists before, and I'll listen to many more CV tier lists in the future.
Symphony should be higher, but glad to see the Portrait of Ruin love. I always preferred Ecclesia, but replaying the collection gave Portrait a slight bump over it (but both rule in their own ways). And Harmony of Despair rules. And Lords of Shadow 2 is so much better than its reputation, which made it seem like reviewers played up to that early stealth section and stopped.
Nice to see some love for Lords of Shadow 2 elsewhere!
Normally there's like, at least one opinion that gets me heated in a Tier List video, but I genuinely either agreed or respected every single one of you guys' opinions, you definitely know what you're talking about.
Really my only dissenting opinions are that you slightly underrated Lament of Innocence (it'd go above Dracula X imo), I have a completely swapped opinion of Aria and Dawn (Aria playthroughs feel kinda samey due to the strong souls/weapons being so far above the other options, while Dawn has better balance and therefore has more variety in repeat playthroughs, on top of having more content in general), Castlevania 1 should be raised a few spots (I like it more than 3), and as ice cold of a take as this is, I can't think of a single game in the series I'd seriously rank above Rondo.
LoI at least deserved to be higher than those Gameboy games...
LoI is my personal favorite 3D CV, and that is considering that I do actually like CoD and both LoS games pretty well too. LoI has one of the best soundtracks and the sub-weapon system is really cool and underrated.
I felt the content creator missed gameplay about lament of innocence. Haha
@@skeletankmcgraw7343i love central hub , real time inventory, roller coaster in lament. And many more
You know how Metroid Dread was a long rumored game that was brought back to life by Mercury Steam well I'd to see them do the same for Castlevania 1999. Alucard and Julius.
I respect this list but I cannot' understand people who put Aria over SOTN, otherwise I'd say Aria is nigh on flawless.
You should really review the DLC for vampire survivors. Ode to Castlevania
Oh heck yeah, another Castlevania tierlist this month.
Original is a easily a C maybe a B. Not an A. A for nostalgia and that should never be part of grading
Most of your list I agree with but I rank Ooe at the bottom as a mid d and sotn low c. I’ve played Vampire Killer and rank that a d at the back of the row, it’s just not good.
I haven't played many Castlevania games, but for me personally I would disagree and have Circle of the Moon over Harmony of Dissonance since I ranked it at least a C. A at best for Circle despite the double tap run and finding the cards, and honestly I would have Bloodlines at high A but its close to S. I would also disagree and have Castlevania NES at B but close to low A and yes, Portrait of Ruin is S, love the game it deserves it. I may update and come back to this when I have played more.
Good news there's Castlevania content in Dead Cells.
Thanks for this :)
Harmony of dissonance has the weakest music in the series. Absolutely grating to the ears
cv4 having a weak ost??? what are you guys saying 💀
Portrait of Ruin and Rondo would definitely be my top two.
Order of Ecclesia was in the top but after my replay in the Dominius Collection and how much i disliked the Union Glyphs requiring Hearts instead of Magic ended up hindering my enjoyment of the title.
Still great game but between Union Glyphs requiring consumables and the Attribute Point system to strengthen certain attacks. It's definitely become my least favorite of the trilogy.
Protonathan Jonathan!! This is a treat !!
Enjoying this talk a lot, good stuff! I have one nitpick tho. Jon always starts by saying "No." And it feels like its meant as a hard disagree, so I get a a conversational whiplash every time. I realize its just a bad habit thing, most people have one or two, but it might be worth working out this little kink if talking in online videos is a regular thing😊🤞
I genuinely shouldn't have watched all of this. But it is interesting to see the games I missed at the least. I do need to get the three Lords of Shadows games now, as well as the ps2 game not on psn as downloadable. Don't think I know enough ppl to play any of the multiplayer ones though. Where would I even find a bunch of the ones not in collections, like GB Kid Dracula?
Oh, gotta say though, I woulda docked Bloodlines some, cause of the limited continues.
Portrait was easily the weakest of the DS games for me. It was also pretty buggy. Funny how tastes differ so.
I just cant respect Circle of the Moon.
Nope...Lords of Shadow 2 was absolute garbage. The story is garbage and made absolutely no sense, the combat was clunky, it was a boring, far too dark of a game...but it did have good voice overs, but that ending sucked so much ass and was completely unsatisfying.
i adore Rondo. beat it for the 3rd time this year- it's the only tough side scroller i'm decent at! (cept maybe Viewtiful Joe)
Wonderfull 101 is considered a successor to Viewtiful Joe.
@orangeslash1667 yea it and Bayo 2 are why i bought a Wii U... thank goodness for Zelda or the only other worthwhile game for me would be... Rondo heheh.
@@danhectic5629 I recommend Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth for a Castlevania like game that is fair in difficulty.