Every Castlevania Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST

vampires have had it rough they used to be scary and go to Raves until a certain special glittery boy came onto the scene and made them just downright suck before all that back when vampires who were exposed to the sun would burn like a marshmallow under Peter's care Konami put a stake in the ground with their very own vampire Centric franchise Castlevania inspired by the old Universal monster movies from the 1930s they crafted their own fangtastic sorry we'll stop now Gothic Masterpiece in video game form starting out with an action platforming game Castlevania has evolved numerous times since its original title employing more RPG elements and pushing exploration over linear progression it became partly responsible for the popularity and naming of the sub-genre metroidvania a combination of Metroid and Castlevania I suppose Castle roid just doesn't have quite the same ring to it sounds like a medieval disease the franchise is even sport on a successful Netflix series with a further spin-off planned unfortunately though much like Metal Gear Solid Konami has allowed the gaming side of the franchise to slowly dry up making it unclear what's next for Castlevania okay that's our last vampire pun I swear I do I do cross my heart and hope to die sorry if you've not yet closed the video let's go over the ground rules we'll be ranking the games on a combination of critical reception how well they stand the test of time and a Sprinkle of personal preference for good measure this means if you disagree with any of our placements we can chalk it up to a difference of opinion and laugh it off right as usual we won't be including mobile games except for those that originated on another platform we'll also be excluding Pachinko slot and patchy slot machines Konami may not be able to help themselves but we certainly can collections also won't be ranked as we're already ranking the individual game separately and finally will only include ports of the same game as separate entries when the port is different enough to Warrant its own spot on the list with all that out of the way and a spoiler warning throughout let's sync our teeth in and rank him I'm Ben and I'm Peter from triple jump and here is every Castlevania video game ranked from worst to best number 36 Castlevania PC we're kicking off our list with a port and what a port following the success of the first Castlevania game for the famicom disc system in the Nintendo Entertainment System clonami tasked distinctive software with the all-important job of translating the Smash Hit game for the PC market well distinctive software must have used Google translate because the end result didn't resemble the original one bit the plot is roughly the same as the OG Castlevania but that's about as far as the similarities go look we have to be fair to distinctive software the relationship between consoles and PCs was very different back then nowaday species are at the Forefront of gaming architecture with Microsoft and Sony always playing catch-up but there was a time when home consoles were more advanced than the average home PC this meant that developers would often have to downgrade a game in order for it to be playable on a wider range of graphics cards however it did not mean that they had to cut off the game's head stuff it full of garlic and toss it in a river in this PC Port the atmosphere is completely butchered in favor of bright wacky colors and cursed painful music akin to TV static the only new things that the PC Port brought to the game were features such as visual stuttering clunky animations and unresponsive controls great in fact about the only thing the developers did get right was the soundtrack if the game's audio is played through the correct ancient sound card some of the noise scrambling disappears and leaves you with an adequate rendition of the classic Castlevania soundtrack considering that the original does everything better and doesn't make your eyes and ears bleed we think this one is best left in the vaults number 35 haunted castle arcade and PS2 it may be low in the rankings but haunted castle has the best opening to any Castlevania to date the hero Simon Belmont is leaving a chapel after marrying a woman who we can only assume is Princess Peach however the Wedding March is crudely interrupted as Lightning Strikes the chapel and Bowser so sorry Dracula swoops down from the clouds abducting Simon's bride the game then puts the player in control of Simon who has shredded his tux to make an outfit that better displays his incredible biceps now that's storytelling the graphics look great and the music gets you in the mood to whip some Ghoulies so where does it all go wrong well this is a game originally developed for the arcade and only ported to PS2 18 years later in Japan this means that the game's true intention is to steal every single coin from your grubby little hands the laziest way an arcade game can rob you blind is through artificial difficulty and with a development cycle of only six months Konami left no time to fine-tune this approach so as not to frustrate the player too much haunted castle mercilessly Beats players into the ground at every turn and even refuses to reward them with health replenishment after beating each boss unlike previous Castlevania games another franchise departure is that the fast tricky enemies like the hunchback now require two hits to kill instead of the usual one this results in cheap shots that can't be undone without a shiny penny once that game over screen starts to flash the PS2 ports did away with these issues by offering unlimited continues but that's hardly a fix considering that other games in the franchise were able to limit continues due to better balancing presenting more of a challenge without tipping over into frustration there are other issues such as slow movement that makes Simon look like he might be suffering from shin splints Simon's bulky design is a bit out of place for the series and it also means a larger hitbox which results in even more of those cheap hits the bosses in this game are also a little odd such as a stained glass window man on a pogo stick and the multiple semi-naked bosses that might be too racy for the YouTube police now they are sort of they're a bit blurred but they're there there are many positive elements to haunted castle but they're unfortunately outweighed and then crushed into Oblivion by the brutal difficulty number 34. Castlevania judgment we by 2008 Castlevania had well over 20 games under its belt which spanned multiple time periods characters and storylines if only there was a way to bring all those characters together to make something truly amazing okay picture this a scenario in which a great threat faces the planet and the only way to stop it is to hold a fighting tournament where heroes and villains engage in combat to the death in order to determine a champion what do you mean you're picturing Mortal Kombat no this is Castlevania judgment thank you very much completely different concept yes this is a Castlevania fighting game released for the Nintendo Wii and if you think that's silly then you should hear the plot a new character Eon scrambles to bring our favorite Castlevania heroes and villains through time and space to discover the greatest fighter and their for the most capable of beating the time Reaper a servant of galamoth you know gallimoth the Lord of space who plots to travel back in time to defeat his rival Dracula so he can change history it's gallimos come on skellemoth if all of that sounds like nonsense to you that's because this is a fighting game so that's par for the course Castlevania judgment does boast an impressive roster of 14 Fighters including Dracula himself the characters were designed by Takeshi opator known most famously for his art in the Death Note manga unfortunately something was lost in the redesign process and the characters look great but they don't quite look like Castlevania characters anymore however fighting games live and die by their gameplay so how does Castlevania judgment fare unfortunately like a vampire out of baptism one major issue is the implementation of the Wiimote which will perplex players until they realize that they can treat it like a match of Wii Sports tennis and wave the remote around until they develop a repetitive stress injury critics at the time of release complained about a lackluster story mode terrible camera annoying dialogue and the absence of balancing which allowed certain characters and moves to be game breakingly overpowered developers 18 did include a castle mode that tried to provide players with a more traditional Castlevania experience but this wasn't fleshed out enough to make Castlevania judgment worth the purchase so since the title of the game demands it let's deliver judgment we find the defendant guilty of being a rubbish game and sentences to death thank you very much number 33 Castlevania The Adventure Game Boy set a century before the original Castlevania Castlevania the adventure follows Christopher Belmont ancestor of Simon Belmont and wielder of the Vampire killer whip it was the first Castlevania Game to make its way to the Game Boy and it followed the classic Castlevania route of progressing through Dracula's castle in order to reach and defeat him considered by some to be the worst Castlevania game ever but obviously not by us this title is frustrating Bland and two to some extent broken the excuse cannot be made that the game was hampered by the Limited technology of the Game Boy as we'll see other Game Boy Castlevania games higher on this list Konami simply managed to copy the template over Castlevania game without injecting any of the fun Christopher himself walks as though he's wading through custard on an invisible cross trainer and to make matters worse there's a time limit for each stage which probably resulted in players screaming at their game boys for Christopher to get a move on and take things seriously none of this is helped by Boring level design and Bland backgrounds that were lacking in detail by Game Boy standards even the enemies can be unconvincing like this tennis ball throwing sock puppet thing but the final nail in the coffin for Castlevania the adventure is the difficulty with the slow movement it's incredibly easy to take hits and some are simply unavoidable the Vampire killer whip can be upgraded to a chain whip and then a flame whip but taking one hit will downgrade the weapon as well as your patience the music manages to make it out of the experience mostly on unscathed it doesn't sound its best coming from the small speakers of the Game Boy but it's by no means a slouch although when it comes to Castlevania or any game for that matter a soundtrack that doesn't make your ears bleed is quite frankly the bare minimum players should expect number 32 Castlevania Commodore 64. here we are again back at the start and look it's our old friends distinctive software the same developer that worked on the god awful PC Port of the original Castlevania but this time they're porting it to the Commodore 64. since we're now higher up on the list distinctive software must have done a better job this time around well the graphics are certainly improved there's still much blocky than the original but this time the player controls a distinct Roblox man instead of the blurry Breeze block man from the PC version but hey an improvement is an improvement the enemy Sprites are still clunkier than the original but at least now we can tell what they're supposed to be although the Commodore 64 Port beats out the PC port when it comes to the visuals its gameplay is almost as bad the Commodore 64 only had the joystick and a single action button to control the game compared to the NES which utilized three this meant that players had an attack button but no dedicated jump button and to counteract this pushing up on the joystick was used to jump however to throw a sub weapon on the NES players had to hold up on the d-pad and press attack with up on the joystick now being used to jump the Commodore 64 made the player hold down the attack button to throw a sub weapon this one designed floor artificially makes the game much harder due to the delay caused by having to hold a button rather than a quick press as though it didn't make things hard enough some enemies have slightly different attack patterns from the original creating situations in which the player can't avoid taking a hit distinctive software did seem to recognize their mistakes led to a higher level of difficulty as they added a save feature to the game that wasn't available in the NES version but this feels somewhat akin to applying tea tree oil to a gunshot wound other than the the save feature Castlevania on the Commodore 64 much like the PC Port is a lesser experience by a wide margin unlike the PC Port this version manages to retain some of the spectacle and mood of the original but it falls short of a fun experience fortunately for us this was distinctive software's last experiment with the Castlevania franchise number 31 Castlevania the arcade arcade recently we ranked another cone Army franchise Silent Hill and within that list was a very odd and out of place light gun arcade shooter our main issue with Silent Hill arcade was that the Silent Hill series was never about action and a quick trigger finger making the arcade version feel forced and more like an exploitation of the Silent Hill name Castlevania is a much more action-focused series so could it work here in short not really but for different reasons the first concept to Grapple with is the fact that this light gun shooter doesn't use a gun peripheral at all but a mock whip the Whip has two buttons one to activate the whip if followed by a whipping motion and the second to throw a sub weapon such as a knife the attempt to incorporate the franchise with the design of the arcade machine is admirable even if the whipping motion is less precise and less enjoyable than aiming and shooting at the screen if that's too off-putting there are additional characters such as the lady Gunner who use more traditional light gun mechanics unfortunately this light gun shooter isn't immune to the arcade plague known as greed similar to other light gun titles like House of the Dead there are numerous unavoidable hits that will chip away at your health and will ultimately gobble up your pocket money another common complaint is the short length of the game as well as a lack of replay value Beyond trying the other characters as much as this arcade game mines the action root of the Castlevania franchise it's missing the joy of exploration that the series had become known for by the time of its release oh and if you did want to check this one out despite its flaws then good luck finding it as it was released in Japan only in the number of playable machines is dwindling number 30. Castlevania year Legends game boy Castlevania Legends is the third Castlevania release for The Game Boy and we've already talked about the first unfortunately however Castlevania Legends takes its cues from that first release as it's also not great Legends is set sometime in the Middle Ages positioned as an origin story of the Belmont Clans packed to Forever hunt and Destroy Dracula that was until the Game's plot was later declared non-canon by Konami in favor of a later game's alternate origin story want fun in this version we follow Sonia Belmont who upon reaching her 17th birthday begins to manifest mystical powers and decides to set out to Dracula's castle and use them to defeat him she also bumps into Siri's favorite Alucard along the way as is usually the case with Castlevania the plot is serviceable as a means to get us face to face with Dracula's Army of the undead as quickly as possible as soon as the game gets underway the issues inherited from Castlevania the adventure are obvious movement is painfully slow and the graphics are bland and unimaginative Sonia become faster more powerful and even Invincible if the temporary burning mode is activated though if the player is Savvy enough to save this until they reach the mini bosses they can obliterate them in seconds effectively reducing the game's difficulty to almost nothing the first phase of the final battle with Dracula is Trivial and the less said about the second phase the better okay we have something to say what is what is that arguably though the biggest crime that Castlevania Legends committed was being released in the same year as Castlevania Symphony of the Night while Legends tried to copy its predecessors in a mediocre fashion Symphony of the Night innovated transforming the Castlevania formula into something new and exciting Legends ended up being such a letdown that longtime series producer Koji igarashi labeled the game as an embarrassment for the series oof poor Sonia now amount of Blaze mode will protect her from that burn number 29 Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 Xbox 360 PS3 and PC Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 is a direct continuation of Castlevania Lords of Shadow and Castlevania Lords of Shadow mirror of Fate whoever told to give the second game a subtitle with a colon and a hyphen and the third game the number two needs to have a long hard look at themselves in a mirror oh maybe that's how they came up with a name in the first place anyway the Lords of Shadow Trilogy is a set of 3D hack and slash games that vary in gameplay from one to the next the story of Lords of Shadow 2 continues from the previous two games and even includes a recap though the plot is even more dramatic convoluted and comical than what came before it let's just say it involves Amnesia deception and Beelzebub himself voiced by Jason Isaacs you know Lucius Malfoy and field Marshal zukov among others one benefit of the story is that it launches Gabriel Belmont later known as Dracula into more modern times allowing the player to explore a new backdrop that has seldom being seen elsewhere in the Castlevania franchise not to mention that it gives players control of the series great antagonist and all of his power players get a brief sniff of these possibilities at the start of the game before it goes on to commit one of the worst video game same sins of all giving players a full Suite of powers at the start just to take them away and force them to slowly earn them back throughout the course of the game here's your fun and now it's gone the developers decided that after being stripped of his powers it was a great time to make Dracula transform into a rat and hide from regular men in fear this is the franchise's big bad we're talking about here yes the Lords of Shadow Trilogy attempted to humanize the dark lord of the Castlevania universe so having players feel vulnerable in control of him could be narratively effective if the stealth in this game wasn't the most tedious and painful experience possible if we're really trying to find something positive here we can applaud the Developers for taking on fan feedback and removing QuickTime events which were so prevalent in the first game they also allowed players to move the camera this time even if it was still awkward and stilted look with really trying here oh did I mention Dracula can turn into a black folk thing to pass through bars we nearly missed that one off our list get it here you get it number 20 8 Castlevania 64 N64 we arrive now at the very first 3D Castlevania game the Nintendo 64 saw a slew of classic titles make the jump from 2D to 3D think Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time okay now unthink those and instead think of earthworm gym 3D and Donkey Kong 64. that's it now we're in the right ballpark despite being 3D Castlevania 64 has quite a lot in common with Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest there are open areas for the player to explore Merchants to buy useful items from and a day night cycle that is incredibly infuriating some passageways or characters may only be available at certain times of the day and some enemies can also be easier or harder to kill depending on whether it's day or night to navigate these issues players can either wait around and smell the flowers wait are those even flowers or they can use sun or moon cards to advance time on paper they sound interesting and inspires dreams of Majora's Mask style puzzles and gameplay but in reality considering the that good or bad endings are dependent on how many in-game days you take to complete the title this mechanic is too clunky and Half Baked but what about the amazing 3D gameplay well when players boot up the game they're given the choice of two playable characters Reinhardt the heir to the Belmont Clan and Annie a singing orphan sorry a Carrie a magical orphan if players don't pick Carrie they're in for a Hard Knock Life as Reinhardt utilizes the series famous whip which translates to 3D horribly a terrible camera and clunky controls make Carrie a better option since her magic attacks home in on enemies either way players still have to tackle the many lengthy platforming sections while the camera shows them a very interesting bit of stonework that's off to the side and it's just so amazing you must see it luckily there's an easy mode if the terrible camera makes the game feel too difficult but be warned in what is possibly the cruelest and most unusual rug pull ever concocted by game developers players will be allowed to play through a large portion of the game in Easy Mode before they are presented with a message stating that it cannot be completed and the player must start again on normal mode to see the full game wow Castlevania 64 just wow it's not all doom and gloom though well it is which is on brand Castlevania 64 really leans into the horror aspect that the franchise has been known to sometimes dilute the early 3D graphics and sparse areas do add a desolate atmosphere that helps to build tension just for said atmosphere to be ruined by Frankenstein's monster with a chainsaw for an arm and skeletons on motorbikes what the year's supposed to be 1853 has Eon been meddling with his time machine again Castlevania 64 more like please sir I don't want anymore why why can't I stop thinking of Orphans number 27 Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest famicom disc system and NES set directly after the events of the first Castlevania Game Simon's Quest follows you guessed it Simon as he tries to rid himself of the curse set upon Him by Dracula just before or he was slain Simon must collect Dracula's five scattered body parts across five different Castles in order to break the curse what exactly he's supposed to do once he has all five we're not quite sure I suppose he has to piece them together like some kind of fleshy jigsaw Simon's Quest has one major change from the first two Castlevania games that preceded it rather than a linear Journey players have more freedom to go anywhere they want there are some light RPG elements too such as leveling up and items that provide access to past areas that were previously inaccessible if it sounds like I'm describing a metroidvania game that is because I am this is the first game in the Castlevania franchise to take this route and it was repeated and perfected by later Castlevania titles you see Nintendo's Metroid was released in 1986 the year before Simon's Quest and included a very similar style of gameplay gameplay director hitoshi akamatsu denied that the game was inspired by Metroid but instead by another Konami game The Maze of gallius although the Maze of gallius did still release after Metro Droid so it's unclear where the game got its ideas from either way being second or third person on the moon is still impressive so we'll let Simon's Quest keep its Pioneer status the problem with being one of the first to do something however is that you could also be the first to do it wrong Simon's Quest was the earliest Castlevania Game to include a day night cycle with villagers only appearing during the day and monsters being stronger at night there are also three endings depending on how long you take to defeat Dracula the most frustrating issue with this mechanic is that every six minutes a text box appears to indicate the transition from day to night that states what a horrible night to have a curse this can be quite ominous when it happens for the first time but the novelty wears off by the 10th and after they've seen it for the 30th Time Players begin to wonder whether the game itself is a curse it doesn't help that gameplay has to come to a standstill for 10 long seconds every time this happens at least that small irritation can be overlooked through Zen Master Level self-discipline or the Zen master wouldn't be able to do is solve the empire possible riddles given by the villages in broken English that are vital to progress in the game with all of that said although Simon's Quest didn't quite hit the mark overall it was an incredibly important step in the direction that would soon Define Castlevania and so we have to give it props for that at least number 26 Castlevania Amiga 500. no still not the NES version I'm afraid although the Amiga Port did try desperately hard to be the NES version and in our opinion it's the port that came the closest the game's Graphics have been redesigned for the Amiga and they're detailed and very clear though these enemies didn't come through the conversion quite so well they just kind of looked like regular people wearing purple sheets but then to be fair if somebody in the street ran at me with a purple sheet over their head waving their arms around I'd run oh and Dracula has received a full makeover too instead of looking like the lesser-known fifth member of Kiss he's now taken on the form of a troll doll on acid we we aren't trying to shame him though I mean giving himself a makeover is probably the only thing he has to occupy his time while he waits for Simon to slowly make his way through that giant castle the Amiga Port has the same unfortunate button mapping issue as its older brother the Commodore 64. with the player having to hold the attack button to launch a sub weapon there's also a clear jittering as the levels scroll along with Simon and the only way players might not have noticed this is if they'd been sat on an active washing machine while they played the Amiga Port also boasts similar changes to enemy movement as the Commodore 64 version with some having slightly different patterns or increased speeds this makes the game unnecessarily harder and it wasn't a cakewalk to begin with thankfully there is a save system though so you can always return to where you left off to continue having your rear handed to you the Amiga does improve on the Commodore 64 versions soundtrack and some even argue that the music is as good if not better the mat of the NES builds now that is a bold claim and It ultimately comes down to personal preference either way the music alone isn't enough reason to go for the Amiga version over the NES and the redesigned Graphics lose some of their Mystique in the conversion that coupled with the artificial difficulty leads us to point you in the direction of the original but the Amiga Port was a worthy Contender indeed you could even say that it wasn't a meager effort I won't be saying that though and I will instead be firing the writer number 25 Castlevania Dracula X SNES here's a fun fact Castlevania Dracula X not Dracula 10 is known as Castlevania Vampire's Kiss in Europe does that mean that the X in Dracula X is meant to be a little kiss will leave you to be the judge of that but we're saying it very much is kiss kiss anyway Dracula X is some sort of port of Castlevania Rondo of Blood which was released two years earlier in Japan only we say sort of because it's a shadow of its former self due to an exclusivity deal Rondo of Blood couldn't be copied and pasted directly across to the SNES rather than mix up the levels change the bosses or replace the two playable characters with new ones though Konami decided that the best way to alter the game was to Simply remove content granted the SNES itself also introduced Hardware limitations but fans did expect a like-for-like port the graphics are mostly the same but there are fewer levels only one playable character instead of two and the eight-way attack scheme is paired back to only four another major setback Was the removal of branching levels in favor of a more linear design that aged this title back to the NES era Castlevania as a whole was moving in a New Direction and was expanded upon even further in the release that followed Dracula X but sadly Dracula X itself sat awkwardly in the past and was already dated upon its release the game is also harder than its counterpart due to the previous dimensioned limited attack directions as well as enemies executing follow-up attacks too quickly after hitting the player effectively stun locking them a 2.5 D collection titled Castlevania the Dracula X Chronicles was released in 2007 for the PlayStation Portable but this is a remake of Rondo of Blood and not a remake of Dracula X now when Castlevania fans hear Dracula X they can think fondly of the PSP collection rather than enjoy horrific flashbacks of the SNES title it's no surprise really that Castlevania Dracula X is commonly labeled as one of the biggest disappointments in castlevania's repertoire it's far from the worst Castlevania game but given the material that Konami started with Western audiences expected much much more number 24. kid Dracula famicom disc system kid Dracula is not Dracula as a child he's actually Dracula's spawn which would presumably make him Alucard I don't know he was such a 90s kid though look at that gelled hair or he's just one fruit Winder away from asking his mum for frosted tips but hang on I hear you cry I thought vampires didn't age how did Alucard grow to become so tall and handsome we assume it's probably something to do with the fact that Alucard is only half a vampire that will be damned if we can find anything in kid Dracula that actually confirms this anyway I digress kid Dracula was released for the famicom as a parody of Castlevania but the gameplay is actually more in line with the likes of Mega Man the player must make their way through stages defeating enemies as they go to reach an end level boss and earn a power up that can be used for the rest of the game the demon galam moth has declared himself Demon King a title held by kid Dracula until he hibernated for too long you know what they say you snooze you lose the aim then is to beat the demons that have taken Gollum off the side and reclaim the title there's very little plot delivered in the game though with the focus primarily being on gameplay despite its cute appearance kid Dracula ramps the difficulty up after the first few levels and can be quite frustrating as you get further into the game partly due to kid Dracula's huge Sprite that takes up far too much of the screen that being said there is a lot to love here the music is on par with other Castlevania titles there's plenty of level variety and there are some really creative bosses one level has players running across the roof of a train while being attacked by Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th only to then go to Toe with Lady Liberty okay this title is remembered so fondly that it's earned itself Hidden Gem status amongst fans who actually know it exists it also received a port to Nintendo's Game Boy but more on that in a bit number 23 Castlevania Harmony of Despair PlayStation Network and Xbox Live arcade not to be confused with Castlevania Harmony of dissonance Harmony of Despair is a multiplayer Castlevania game released exclusively for the PlayStation and Xbox digital platforms but why did it not see a physical release is it because it's bad well yes sort of but also because the gameplay relies heavily on having two or more players the game allows up to six participants to get in on the fun either online or through local play the latter being something of a rarity nowadays it plays similarly to Boss Rush modes of previous Castlevania titles where players race through a level defeating enemies to reach the final boss as quickly as possible there are multiple playable characters and a leveling system but no overarching plot or huge intermingled map just smaller spaces with a focus on exciting monster slaying with Pals a versus mode is also available for those who'd rather take out their frustrations on a friend but what if you're like us and don't really have any friends well there's not much for you here I'm afraid Harmony of Despair is playable solo but without the manic multiplayer it's a pretty boring and empty experience and it becomes quickly apparent that the core of the game was built around buddies some shortcuts in certain Maps require at least two people to access so it's the long way round for Singletons and even with friends the content is fairly threadbare unless players enjoy replaying the same maps to grind XP or to beat their high score it feels like Harmony of Despair was made for series veterans who longed frayfully fleshed out multiplayer experience what players ended up with was something certainly more extensive than previous multiplayer attempts but still very much lacking at least the price reflects this though as it can be purchased currently for less than the cost of a greasy takeaway it's probably slightly healthier too number 22. Castlevania Legacy of Darkness N64 Castlevania Legacy of Darkness was released in the same year as Castlevania 64 and sold as an expanded version of said 64-bit title the reason for the close release window was because Konami rushed the development of Castlevania 64 and had to cut unfinished content at the last minute as such Legacy of Darkness benefited from two new playable characters improved Graphics reworked levels and a few new bosses see kids game developers have been releasing games in an unfinished State long before downloading patches was a thing the difference between now and then is the Konami me had to release a whole new game to incorporate all the features that were missing critics were Naturally unimpressed by this and gave Legacy of Darkness a lower score on average than Castlevania 64 itself citing that Legacy of Darkness was what Castlevania 64 should have been on release however in retrospect it seems unfair to rank the game lower than its predecessor since it's mostly the same game but with a few improvements and more stuff if we had to pick one to play now we certainly wouldn't pick the unfinished game just because it came first the story and Legacy of Darkness begins before the plot of Castlevania 64. players control Cornell a man Beast capable of switching between human and wolf form on his journey to rescue his adoptive sister Ada when it comes to combat Cornell's lock-on is possibly even worse than reinhardt's which is truly saying something players will have to struggle through though as the other characters aren't unlocked in the game until it's been completed with the Beastie Boy this does make sense from a narrative standpoint because Cornell's story is a prequel but it doesn't make for a very good time all in all Legacy of darkness is a more complete Castlevania package even if it maintains most of the issues that Castlevania 64 had some might argue that those issues are so severe that having an additional two characters to replay the story with is actually a negative however since nobody is being forced to complete the game while strapped to some sort of torture device we've placed this one Higher the only person in any immediate danger is our writer we won't let him leave until he's finished ranking everything that's ever existed number 21. Castlevania Lords of Shadow mirror of Fate 3DS PS3 Xbox 360 and PC following the generally positive reception of Lords of Shadow developer Mercury team decided to fill the gap between it and the next numbered Lords of Shadow sequel with a game that was much smaller in scope mirror of Fate was a hybrid of new and old returning to a more metroidvania style of side-scrolling gameplay with elements of the button-mashing combat found in Lords of Shadow The Offspring of this strange courtship isn't terrible but it's still far from perfect the story continues from Lords of Shadow but this time players have the opportunity to play as four different characters each bringing a bit of variety to the gameplay Simon throws axes and can summon familiars Alucard can turn into a wolf and breathe underwater Gabriel wields a whip like in the previous game and Trevor utilizes magic and can do a double no sorry I can't say that we can't afford the legal fees unlike other Castlevania games though the player doesn't choose a character from the start but rather the playable character changes as the story progresses sadly this actually works against the game game since players barely have enough time to settle into a character before they're whisked away to the next one like in the previous game combat depth comes from Combos and it still feels satisfying when translated into a 2d perspective what mirror of Fate doesn't get right though is something that had become a core tenet of these side-scrolling Castlevania games exploration there is no large interconnected map this time around but instead chapters with mostly linear progression once a chapter is cleared there's no backtracking to that area which doesn't incentivize players to do anything other than keep pushing right this is a huge oversight and mirror of Fate winds up feeling far hollower because of it adding to this feeling is the difficulty or lack thereof button mashing tends to get the job done in most cases and if you do come across a particularly tricky boss and die don't worry because you'll respawn right back into the fight with progressively more and more Health until you come out on top because of all this it's hard to deny that mirror fate felt like a disposable title to fill the void between the two numbered games in the trilogy number 20. Castlevania Chronicles sharp X 68000 and Playstation what on Earth is the sharp X 68000 I hear you cry well I'm not telling you okay I will the sharp x68000 was a home computer only released in Japan it was a popular choice for playing video games as a lot of the hardware in the x68000 was similar to the tech in arcade cabinets at the time and Konami saw this as a great opportunity for a modern take on the original Castlevania with better graphics this was called Castlevania Chronicles this game is a remake not a remaster aside from the reworked art and Sprites there are new stages areas taken from the original game and altered to make them feel fresh new music multiple playthrough options with higher difficulties and a time trial mode Castlevania Chronicles was also ported to the PlayStation where the graphics were slightly better and new intro and ending renders were added but that's about as far as the differences go hence them being bundled into one entry Castlevania as a franchise has always struggled to find the right balance when it comes to difficulty but Castlevania Chronicles tips the scale in the wrong direction firstly despite all the improvements from the original very few of its issues are addressed in this remake the knockback when the player is hit is still severe but what's worse is that Castlevania Chronicles introduces new levels that make this an even bigger issue you only have to look at the raft stage to understand what we mean honestly if Simon still doesn't know how to swim at this point then he probably deserves to drown this game is set centuries ago what else was there to do that kept him too busy to learn to swim oh was he too busy farming and making everything for from scratch oh yeah he probably was okay fair enough the main thing Castlevania Chronicles set out to do was to create a newer more accessible version of the original Castlevania for fans and new players alike to enjoy did it succeed in replacing the original we don't think so it certainly did a better job at emulating the OG Castlevania than all the ports did but Castlevania Chronicles fails both to replicate the feel of the original and improve upon its flaws it is different enough to stand on its own though because of this it's hard not to recommend it to fans of the series number 19. Castlevania famicom disc system and NES we finally made it to the best version of the original Castlevania first released for the famicom disc system in 1986 and quickly ported to the NES a year later the NES version is almost identical to the original unlike the other ports you know the Narrative of the game by now so let's just talk about why this is the best way to play the first Castlevania not many horror games existed back in the mid-1980s unless you count ghosts and goblins which took more of a wacky approach Konami then tried their hardest to create an unsettling Atmosphere by pulling from the horror classics inspiring castlevania's incredible backdrops and enemies additionally Castlevania boasts a map showing Simon's progression through the castle and the Spire where Dracula sleeps can even be seen in the background earlier in the game a style of level design that went on to inspire the likes of Dark Souls decades later the soundtrack is also one of the best on the NES though considering that back in the day many games were content with 20 second Loops to cover an entire game that might not actually be saying much combat is simple but it's kept exciting thanks to the sub-weapons which would continue to be a franchise staple Simon can throw knives axes holy water and a sacred cross which is essentially a boomerang players can only carry one at a time though which doesn't really make sense couldn't you just attach them all to his belt or something additionally Simon can utilize a magic watch to freeze time which is giving us some serious 90s British kids TV flashbacks Bernard's watch anyone know okay fair enough however Castlevania is far from perfect which is why it isn't number one in the list you silly goose delete that comment when hit by an enemy Simon is thrown backwards which was quite common amongst games at the time yes but given that this game has a large platforming element players will often fall to their death stairs also appear to confuse Simon as he can't jump off them and he walks up and down them at a near glacial pace which is another source of easy hits for your enemies with that said though the famicom version does have an easy mode and the NES build has infinite continues if you need a helping hand Castlevania is the one that started it all and its influence can be seen both in more recent Castlevania games and in other popular titles across the medium it's certainly showing its age now though and if Konami has taught us anything it's that the original Castlevania should be remembered fondly but probably left firmly in the past number 18. Castlevania curse of Darkness PS2 and Xbox following Castlevania 64 Konami made numerous other attempts at capturing the same success in 3D that Castlevania had managed to find in its 2D games Curse of Darkness focuses on Hector a devil Forge master who previously worked for drag killer who decides he wants to settle down for a normal life with his wife oh that's cute then Isaac his fellow Forge master has Hector's wife burnt alive ah not not so cute understandably Hector seeks revenge chasing Isaac across Europe the story is typically melodramatic for the franchise but it does its job of engrossing the player for the game's full run time also fans of the Netflix series will see influences taken from curse of darkness's narrative combat falls into the hack and slash category with one button dedicated to standard attacks and a second dedicated to special finishes since he isn't a Belmont Hector has access to a variety of weapons including a Gatling gun we must take this opportunity to remind you that this game is set in 1479 and while we're on the subject french fries and burgers for healing items whatever happened to Hearts a burger is more likely to give you a heart attack and yeah alright eating meat with bread probably he had been invented in 1479 but Burgers no I'm putting my foot down this shouldn't be allowed anyway I'm getting sidetracked Hector being a devil Forge Master brings another unique spin to the combat with his innocent Devils which are familiar as he can summon to help him fight or solve puzzles this was a welcome change to separate Hector from the standard Castlevania hero but four fans of the classic playstyle Trevor Belmont is also unlocked in extra modes following the main game Curse of Darkness saw the series taking a huge step in the right direction giving players maps that are large and interconnected unlike previous 3D Castlevania games that were segmented into levels one thing Konami couldn't work out though was how to make use of the 3D space corridors are bland and empty and fog looms ahead of the player to disguise the short draw distance the combat carries the game though along with some fun voice acting an impressive opening cinematic and a Star Wars style text crawl at the start art so it is worth a try if you can appreciate the cornea side of Castlevania and push past the floors number 17. Vampire killer msx2 Vampire killer quesca say is the black sheep of the Castlevania franchise that's the game we're talking about not the Belmont's whip it was developed and released alongside the original Castlevania game but it was the first of the pair to be localized in Europe the Castlevania name didn't exist until the OG Castlevania made its way to the West after vampire Killer's release strangely it even has the same plot as the original Castlevania but with entirely new levels and a different style of gameplay firstly vampire color isn't quite as linear and it's the first game in the franchise to use exploration as a gameplay mechanic Simon must hunt around maze-like levels in order to find a way out as well as a skeleton key to unlock the exit I don't know why there's so many keys lying around I guess Dracula's dropping them on a daily basis oh but his locksmith's absolutely loaded the keys are easy to find at first but as players progress through the game the levels become more complex and they become more difficult to find Merchants can be found throughout the levels and they sell items such as health potions and sub weapons players have to keep their eyes peeled as some of the keys or Merchants hide behind rock walls it's no wonder you're going out of business when you've set up shop inside Dracula's castle behind a rock wall guarded by monsters with no signage you fool the knockback issue from early Castlevania games is very much present and with no continue as Vampire killer can be very tricky to see through some critics also complain that the level design can be too confusing at times causing them to get lost upon death players also lose all of their equipment other than their hearts which seems a bit excessive despite these issues though it's easy to see in Vampire killer all of the Innovation that the franchise would later become known for the Graphics have even more detail than the original Castlevania and with the added depth that the new level designs bring to the formula it just edges out the original game in our opinion and if you still aren't persuaded just look how cool this game's version of the final Dracula fight looks we too have giant portraits of ourselves at triple jump Towers just so we can always have our eyes looming over James and since we installed them his editing proficiency has gone up 200 percent then I'll tell you number 16. kid Dracula Game Boy kid Dracula 1993 is part remake and part sequel to kid Dracula 1990. this time around there's a slightly more fleshed out plot told through dialogue boxes galamoth mistakenly called garamoth in the game is back again so kid Dracula sets out to defeat him with help from His companion death surprisingly death is a great friend as he provides kid Dracula with heirlooms that helps him on his journey what a lovely being in order to reset the Slate from the previous game death scolds kid Dracula for forgetting all of the Spells he learned in his last adventure meaning he'll have to learn them all over again we have to hand it to them this is a funny way of traversing a common gaming cliche funnily enough the lazy Amnesia plot device that its mocking is used in later Castlevania games a comical number of times now that's ironic don't you think in this game some levels are reused from kid Dracula's famicom counterpart as well as a few of the enemies and bosses but there is plenty of new content for players to be able to enjoy both games independently unfortunately the game boy version does still have the same issues with kid Dracula Sprite being far too large for the screen and the difficulty still ramps up too quickly but despite that however this one is generally considered to be the easier of the two games the added story elements help to create a more complete package than the one available on the famicom The Game Boy Graphics may not be in color but they're far more impressive than most other Castlevania Game Boy titles which remember look terrible since it's a new but well-respected title kid Dracula for Game Boy can be a bit on the pricey side it was included in a Castlevania Anniversary Collection but unfortunately that was a port of the famicom release kid Dracula didn't have much of a future in the Castlevania franchise with it being an of the moment spin-off but we're glad for the brief time we did get to spend with it number 15. Castlevania the adventure rebirth we wear Castlevania the adventure scarred many fans of the series making them wish they could forget it ever existed imagine their surprise then when Konami invited it to rear its ugly head once more in the form of a remaster for the Wii's Digital Store thankfully Castlevania the adventure rebirth is more of a reimagining of the original game and was developed by M2 the people behind similar remaster's Contra rebirth and gradius rebirth at a glance you'd be forgiven for mistaking the adventure rebirth for a different game entirely as the Sprites enemies and environments are completely redrawn and now in color in short you can now actually tell what things are supposed to to be Hooray the Remake also introduces the typical sub weapons from the Castlevania franchise which weren't in the original and adds the missing element to the combat that was previously lacking going above and beyond M2 also redesigned the levels improved playability by allowing movement while mid-jump and increased Christopher Belmont's walking speed it's nice to see him finally free of all of that custard the difficulty has been rightly adjusted in the remaster resulting in a perfectly balanced challenge taking hits no longer downgrades Christopher's Whip and the better jump controls and the easy mode make for a more friendly experience overall one area that did bother critics was the soundtrack Castlevania the adventure features a mix of classic Castlevania tracks but none are from the original game this feels like a huge oversight as the original soundtrack had a lot of potential and could have been rebirth just as well as the rest of the game M2 didn't push the metaphorical envelope of the Castlevania series but they clearly poured a lot of passion and Care into a game that was lost and forgotten and managed to create something new that felt pleasantly Retro number 14. Castlevania lament of Innocence PS2 vampire origin stories aren't always brilliant let's see there's morbius and there's Dracula Untold yikes Castlevania had Castlevania Legends which was also rather Naf actually thankfully in 2003 Konami decided to have another pop at telling the origin of the Belmont and Dracula Feud completely blasting Castlevania Legends out into the non-canon sphere lament of Innocence follows Leon no not that one Belmont who sets out to save his fiancee Sarah who is being held by a vampire called Walter Leon receives help from an alchemist called Ronaldo no not that one who gives him a whip to defeat the monsters in his way Leon learns of a special stone from another vampire called Joachim that might Grant Walter the ability to convert Sarah's Essence into Power once he's turned her into a vampire and the plot is incredibly melodramatic and It ultimately concludes with the birth of a century spanning spat can't we all just shake hands and get along boys come on lament of innocence was released the year before Curse of Darkness which made it the first 3D Castlevania game since Castlevania 64 and the legacy of Darkness on the n64. the technology had come Leaps and Bounds in that four-year interval and this could be felt in most aspects of the game except maybe the camera which still made platforming in a 3D space a nightmare one large area of improvement is in the combat which adopted a hack and slash approach with a satisfying Parry mechanic there are also Elemental whips sub weapons and Magic attacks to mix things up and add some depth the biggest letdown which Curse of Darkness would later correct was the loss of a large explorable interconnected map that was proving successful in the 2D Castlevania games of the time Leon starts the entrance to Walter's castle and must go through five portals that lead to five segmented areas and must defeat that area's boss before he can return once all five bosses are defeated Leon can then enter the castle this linear approach feels more in line with the older Castlevania titles and by this point players expected more despite this lament of Innocence does still manage to be more enjoyable from a gameplay standpoint than Curse of Darkness also regardless of the short duration there's plenty of unlockable content to keep players busy easily on too boring for you perhaps you'd rather play as Sackboy with a pumpkin on his head we're not sure why you'd want to but you can do just that we don't judge there he is number 13. Super Castlevania 4 SNES despite being the fourth numbered Castlevania game Super Castlevania 4 appears to be another remake of the OG Castlevania as Simon Belmont players make their way through Dracula's castle to yep yeah you've heard it a million times by now to anyone who started a drinking game where you take a shot each time we've described a Bare Bones plot that involved finding and killing Dracula we hope you recover swiftly from having your stomach pumped the setup is the same as the original Castlevania so it's basically Castlevania Chronicles but better the visuals are deliciously crunchy the music is rich and creamy and the rhubarb filling is absolutely oh sorry I'll finish that later the levels are completely remade and they're extremely varied in terms of visuals and play Styles some have the player avoiding spike traps whereas others will see them swinging from hooks or traversing spinning cogs the SNES allowed developers to use a graphic style called mode 7 which meant that backgrounds could be rotated to simulate a 3D environment therefore some levels challenge the player's platforming skills as well as their ability to hold in the contents of their stomach dig God get it off the screen please thankfully this throwback to the first Castlevania benefits from more modern improvements such as the eight-way directional attacks and the ability to change trajectory while jumping still it wouldn't be a classic Castlevania title without the exaggerated knockback when taking a hit Konami why must you make us suffer critics rated the game rather highly upon release some felt conflicted by The Game's backstep from the branching levels in Dracula's curse but many agreed that Super Castlevania 4 had perfected the classic Castlevania formula if players want to experience said Perfection for themselves this is the game we'd recommend over the original as well as any of its ports and remakes number 12. Castlevania Bloodlines Sega Genesis Castlevania Bloodlines is something of a departure from the classic Castlevania plot formula as it follows John Morris the son of Quincy Morris instead of one of the Belmont Clan Quincy Morris is actually a character from the original vampire novel Bram Stoker's Dracula but who cares books are for no ads John is accompanied by his friend Eric lecard to stop a vampire called Elizabeth who has orchestrated the events leading to World War One intending it to be a sacrificial War to resurrect Dracula I don't remember learning about her at school but if I'd known history was this interesting I wouldn't have spent every lesson drawing Wilson's on every surface within arm's rage Bloodlines was different from the series at the time as it had more of a modern setting and a larger focus on quicker more action-heavy combat players have the choice of playing as Jon or Eric with each utilizing a unique playstyle and different paths throughout the game Jon has the ability to swing across gaps using his whip which Eric cannot Traverse while Eric can use his spear to perform high jumps and reach Ledges out of Jon's reach this allows branching paths that encourage multiple playthroughs additionally michiru yamane made her Castlevania debut in this title as the game's composer and following their success went on to compose music for many more Castlevania titles the problem with bloodline's attempts at being different to the previous games in the series however is that it ends up feeling like another franchise ape in Castlevania the colors across the game are too bright and garish which makes it feel more cartoonish than dark and creepy additionally the final fight with Dracula and his angry toothy crotch seem like a lovecraftian cosmic nightmare which isn't necessarily a bad thing if that's what you're into but it's certainly not Castlevania Bloodlines never quite find a personality of its own so it's left feeling like something between a Castlevania spin-off and a rip-off regardless if you can look past these discrepancies the fast-paced responsive action is more than enough of a reason to check this one out number 11. Castlevania 2 Belmont Revenge Game Boy and Game Boy Color yes Belmont's revenge is another game boy game yes it's the sequel to Castlevania the adventure but before you run for the Hills this one's actually good sandwiched between an awful game and a slightly less awful game Belmont's Revenge manages to hit all the points that make for a good Castlevania title said 15 years after the adventure Dracula's back again this time kidnapping Christopher's son Soleil at this point we've stopped feeling sorry for Dracula for being hounded by generations of whip-wielding psychopaths because he absolutely brings it upon himself Dracula turns Soleil into a demon by utilizing saleh's newcoming of age Powers allowing the big bad to take on a human form and rebuild his castle once more Christopher sets out to find and kill Dracula and take another shot if you're playing that drinking game from the offset Christopher can travel to any one of four castles with different themes Cloud plant Rock and Crystal you know the four elements this immediately gives Belmonts Revenge more variety in its level designed in the previous game boy title and the environments in more detail too despite sharing the same Hardware some rooms will even turn pitch black if the player smashes the on-screen candles making them choose between visibility and the items that the candle might drop one downside of allowing players to access any of the four castles from the start is that the difficulty can't curve naturally instead the four castles are roughly as tough to best as each other but once those are cleared players unlock Dracula's castle and its sudden difficulty spike is tricky to overcome also the boss fight against the demon version of Soleil is a lesson in frustration he doesn't react when hit meaning he can just tank damage and spam attacks at you so lay more like go away I mean it's sudden I'm disowning you there are other minor improvements to gameplay and Belmont's Revenge that make all the difference firstly Christopher is still slow but he's faster and snappier to control than he was in the adventure he now also has access to the typical series sub weapons and his whip won't degrade from touching enemies like it used to Belmont's revenge is a simplistic cast Sylvania experience but the game knows what it is and executes its scope admirably making it the very best Castlevania for the Game Boy number 10. Castlevania Lords of Shadow Xbox 360 PS3 and PC the people at Konami have an unfortunate and rare condition where their skin breaks out in hives and their hair starts to fall out unless they reboot Dracula's origin story once every five years or so the cure for this ailment in 2010 was Castlevania Lords of Shadow this time Konami wanted a full reboot of the franchise gameplay and all so they put it in the hands of mercury steam a Spanish game developer who would later co-develop Metroid dread for the Nintendo switch the story follows Gabriel Belmont a member of the Brotherhood of light in his journey to stop the Lords of Shadow from threatening the alliance between Earth and the heavens look we said it was a reboot but we never said the plot was going to be coherent the story however is bolstered by the voice acting talents of Robert Carlisle and Sir Patrick Stewart which is enough to distract anyone for long enough to allow for such an overly dramatic plot Lords of Shadow is the only 3D Castlevania Game to crack this video's top 10 which says a lot about what Castlevania does best but this is by no means a throwaway title yes the game did borrow from other popular hack and slash games of the time such as God of War but it's still an engaging and solid entry players use a whip to attack of course and also have throwable sub weapons just like in the 2D games Gabriel additionally has access to light and Shadow Magic the former of which is defensive while the latter surrounds Gabriel with a red Aura and increases his damage output destroyed enemies drop XP which allows you to level up and grants access to unlockable combos that can be worked into attacks critics enjoyed the combat overall but didn't give Lords of Shadow any praise for its use of QuickTime events which was considered old hat even in 2010. that said though the game was reviewed very favorably overall it's just a shame that it would be diminishing returns for the Lords of Shadow offshoot from here on out 9. Castlevania order of Ecclesia DS order of Ecclesia was the last Nintendo DS Castlevania title but it's the first to appear on this list proving that Castlevania DS games just do not miss set in the 1800s the game takes place after Symphony of the Night and following The Disappearance of the Belmont Clan this leaves nobody to defend the world against Dracula so the titular order of Ecclesia is formed in their stead the main character shanoa is a special member of the order tasked with being the vessel for a Triad of magical glyphs called Dominus which are based on Dracula's power they end up stolen and chinoa loses her memory and must try to get them back classic hijinks it does have some twists and turns later in the plot which becomes standard for Castlevania games by this point in the franchise and critics lauded the title for featuring such a strong female character as its protagonist they were however less enthused by the terrible voice acting that was on offer the main difference in this title is the glyphs which is a rework of the Tactical Soul system from previous games players earn glyphs by defeating enemies or completing challenges and can equip up to two at a time with the powers consuming MP when used and allowing Chenoa to perform special moves or attacks there's also a glyph Union move that combines the powers of the two equipped glyphs creating unique results with over 100 glyphs available the huge number of possible combinations offers players plenty of opportunity to experiment and makes the game highly replayable strangely though Konami decided not to have the game take place in one large interconnected map which worked extremely well in the previous DS titles and instead decided to go for a Super Mario World style map critics also noticed that the structure of some areas were copied and pasted elsewhere in the game with different backdrops naughty naughty order of Ecclesia is still a brilliant game though and is definitely worthy of your time however if you're very conscious of the constant ticking of the clock and the looming bony Hand of Death grasping at your collar then there are better DS Castlevania titles to try number 8. Castlevania portrait of Ruin DS speaking of better DS titles portrait of Ruin is both the second Nintendo DS Castlevania game and the second best in our opinion it's set after Castlevania Bloodlines and follows John Morris's son Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Allen a descendant of the Bel nades Clan three vampires are out to recreate Dracula's castle and they must be stopped portrait of Ruin has a very unique premise into the lead vampire is Browner a character based on the Romanian artist Victor Browner in portrait of Ruin he uses his paintings to create pocket Dimensions to help power the castle players Traverse through these paintings throughout their Journey which makes a nice change from the usual Castle setting as by this point in the franchise the Stoney keep local had been done to death and it's literally called Castlevania if you're thinking oh boy Jonathan looks real cool with his anime hair and nice red jacket but Charlotte seems really powerful with all that magic which one should I choose then fear not you don't have to pick players can actively switch between them on the fly to opt for the most suitable character in the moment their powers can even be combined in a devastating attack called The Jewel Crush which while admittedly extremely rad does make some of the bosses a little too easy if you spam them with the old Power of friendship there's plenty of additional content outside of the main story too there are 155 enemies to discover and track in the best jury two endings to achieve and a Boss Rush mode with Co-op you can also replay the game in Richter mode as Richter Belmont and Maria Renard or in Sister mode as Loretta and Stella licarde the two vampire Daughters of antagonist Browner the latter mode is controlled in its entire t with the Nintendo DS Stylus which is a nice change up but thankfully it's only this additional gameplay mode that uses this scheme we can't imagine having to slog through the entirety of the main story with a stylus critics rated the game very highly but many thought the Dual character mechanic could have been explored further and a better co-op mode should have been implemented regardless portrait of Ruin is still an excellent entry in the franchise and demonstrates a great deal of creativity on konami's part remember when they were capable of that it's been a while number seven Castlevania Harmony of dissonance Game Boy Advance Harmony of dissonance had the difficult job of following Castlevania circle of the moon on the game by Advance an incredibly well-reviewed game from the year before rather than trying to emulate circle of the moon's success however Konami decided to continue innovating upon the metroidvania sub-genre Harmony of dissonance features a two-layered castle castle a and Castle Bay each is structurally the same but the enemies and item placements are shifted plus some puzzles require clever switching between the two in order to solve them the game is set in 1748 50 years after Simon's Quest players control the grandson of Simon named just juice to players control a Belmont as he tries to recover a kidnapped childhood friend with the help of another friend Maxime Maxime has lost his memory but he remembers facing off against Dracula just before his memory was wiped Maxime seems to be causing the Castle's Jewel personality and his mental state fluctuates throughout the game we've played enough Castlevania games to see where this one's going despite the amnesiac cliche critics found the story compelling if at times confusing something that divided reviewers however were the graphics despite the game's predecessor circle of the Moon being well received a common complaint was that the game was far too dark making it difficult at times to tell what was happening Konami heard that complaint loud and clear turning that saturation dial up to 11. some critics found that the rich almost neon colors of Harmony of dissonance brought a new style to the franchise whereas others considered them to be too Gordy and something of an over correction one thing's for sure though nobody complained that they were struggling to see the game as many of them still a bit burnt into their retinas to this very day it seems that Konami spent so much time focusing on fixing the brightness issue though that they had to sacrifice the quality of the soundtrack no one was divided on this front as everyone agrees it was one of the worst Castlevania soundtracks to date there's plenty to keep players busy here though there's a Boss Rush mode and also a Maxime mode where players can go through the game as Maxime who can say it with me now triple jump oh and few Animal Crossing fans out there Harmony of dissonance bizarrely provides players with a room that they can fill with Furniture there's not actually much crossover between the fans of those two franchises but I bet all eight of them were pleased with this inclusion 6. Castlevania circle of the Moon Game Boy Advance a launch title for the game by Advance circle of the Moon continued utilizing the strong metroidvania elements of Symphony of the Night while striving to push the envelope by adding its own ingredients to the recipe and the result was excellent the game follows Nathan Graves whose parents died when they banish Dracula a decade prior Maurice Baldwin helped Nathan's parents with this Mighty Endeavor and so he trains Nathan alongside his son Hugh in the art of vampire slaying Camilla who fans of the Netflix show will recognize manages to resurrect Dracula and as Nathan Hugh and Morris are about to banish him again the floor crumbles below them and they fall through the castle Hugh decides to look for his dad on his own as he hates thin because Morris gave the cool vampire hunting whip to him instead of his own son boohoo Nathan therefore explores the huge castle map by himself running into Hue here and there like a demon slaying Gary from Pokemon to change things up from Symphony of the Night circle of the Moon includes a magic card system oh joy and Nathan can find these cards throughout the game they fit into one of two categories and only one of each can be equipped at any one time much like in order of Ecclesia there are hundreds of combinations that each change up the style of play encouraging replayability and experimentation with different setups and critics loved it however as mentioned in our previous entry the brightness of the game was a common complaint amongst fans and critics the usual dank dark Castlevania mood is here but it made it very difficult to see the screen or clearly make out some of the enemies this is partly an issue caused by the game by advances lack of a backlight and partly konami's fault for not compensating for that overall though the game was very well received and it offered players a huge amount of content outside the endlessly replayable main story there are additional modes with different playable characters each with unique stats and obstacles to provide a challenge for those looking for more as much as any other this was one Castlevania title that truly deserved a port to resolve its only major drawback the brightness and thankfully it received just that courtesy of its inclusion within 2021's Castlevania Advance collection so save your eyes and play it there number five Castlevania 3 Dracula's curse famicom disc system and NES Castlevania 3 Dracula's curse was the last Castlevania game released for the NES we'd see Super Castlevania 4 benefit from the improved Hardware of the snares just two years later but Dracula's curse had to make do with what it had it may be easy to scoff at this game now but back in the day it offered incredible value when compared to many of its contemporaries plus they've even managed to improve upon the Castlevania formula in its own way the game's story was directly adapted by the Netflix TV show and stars Trevor Belmont and his friends on his journey to stop Dracula from ravaging Europe with his army of monsters Trevor stumbles across these Companions and while players can have them all join Trevor only one can accompany him at any given time players can switch freely between Trevor and their chosen Chum and each has their own unique play style sifa belnardes the Sorceress has powerful Elemental damage Grant Dynasty the pirate can climb walls and change direction mid-jump and Alucard the dampier can shoot fireballs and turn into a bat a dampier is The Offspring of a human and a vampire by the way not a vampire stuck out in the rain the companion switching ability gave players a great reason to replay the title and so did the branching Pathways Each of which led players on a different route to Dracula the open exploration seen in Simon's Quest is gone with Dracula's curse taking on the style of the original Castlevania while also offering more freedom and less linearity Dracula's curse can be brutally difficult but not unfairly so if the stiff jumping is an issue for example at least there's a pirate Spider-Man to fall back on if even more assistance is needed players can always type help me at the game's start screen to begin with 10 lives for that extra morale boost it might feel degrading but if this was a Wolfenstein game it'd probably make the player type I'm a big baby please help me so you're actually getting off pretty lightly the title is definitely showing its age now but if players want a classic NES Castlevania experience then this is the best of them number four Castlevania Arya of Sorrow Game Boy Advance Arya of Sorrow was the third Castlevania Game to hit the Game Boy Advance and critics were beginning to worry that Konami was falling into something of a pattern with previous GBA titles following heavily in Symphony of the night's footsteps to counter this Konami decided to add a double dose of anime Arya of Sorrow is set in the future in the year 2035 not long off now and follows a transfer student Soma Cruz who's been sent to study in Japan even the character art wears its influences boldly although you won't find Soma stuck choosing between the four girls in his after-school Club struggling to balance their friendship and happiness as things turn progressively horrific in this game Dracula was trapped in a solar eclipse 36 years ago and the antagonist Graham Jones believes he is Dracula's reincarnation ready to come into power and take over the world Soma who discovers he has the power of dominance wakes up inside the solar eclipse as you do where Dracula's Castle is located he's told to find the Masters Chambers by a mysterious agent and thus begins our adventure players explore the huge map in the classic metroidvania style collecting abilities that allow access to previously inaccessible Pathways Arya of Sorrow was the first game in the series to introduce the Tactical Soul mechanic when Soma defeats enemies there's a chance of them dropping a soul Somer absorbs the souls and can use them in Myriad different ways depending on their category bullet souls for example act as the game's sub-weapon and are often some form of projectile which consumes MP upon use Guardian Souls drain MP while active and allow Soma to change into another form or summon a familiar until his MP is depleted enchanted souls are passive stat boosts and ability souls are permanent upgrades that tend to come from bosses and usually Grant access to new areas via abilities including sliding and high jumps this tactical Soul mechanic added a collect em all aspect to the game and as the chance of dropping a soul can be very low for some enemies Konami included the ability to trade Souls between two Aria of Sorrow cartridges so friends could help each other to complete their collection move over Pocket Monsters the concept of capturing and trading wild animals might be questionable but harvesting their souls for your collection seems absolutely A-Okay to us again we're not here to judge but God is watching Arya of Sorrow has an excellent story Titan buried gameplay and performed so well with critics that it received a rare direct sequel on the Nintendo DS impressive number three Castlevania Rondo of Blood PC engine super CD-ROM Rondo of Blood has one floor and it's that it wasn't available in the west except in inferior form until 2007 over 10 years after its original release in Japan clearly it was just so good they wanted to keep it for themselves much like previous games in the series it still had a large focus on action and platforming and an amazing soundtrack but the title also had a slightly larger focus on narrative and planted the seeds of an open world the PC engine super CD-ROM also allowed for voice acted cutscenes and detailed Graphics the protagonist is Richter Belmont who is questing through Dracula's castle to save his love interest Annette Richter bumps into Maria Reynard a 12 year old orphan and this chance encounter gives players the option to play as Maria instead of Richter Maria attacks enemies using doves and a whole host of strange sub-weapons including a tiger kitten a musical note a baby Phoenix a dragon whelp and an egg can I offer you one in this trying time and before you start working out how long it takes to hard boil an egg before it can cause any harm it's actually the hatching of the egg that causes the damage not the impact and this is due to the nine doves that torpedo out of it I mean I take psychic damage from just watching that happen to be honest many critics applauded the inclusion of Maria as she acts as a natural easy mode is capable of high damage output with her doves doubling back like a boomerang making twice as many hits she's also more agile but she does take more damage than Richter which keeps her balanced Rondo of Blood is from a technical standpoint one of the tightest and most robust early Castlevania games mainly thanks to the hardware it was designed for and the graphics music and boss fights are some of the best from that era of the franchise this is a must play for fans of the series as well as for those who are simply interested in retro games and luckily it's now easily accessible no matter where in the world you live thanks to the Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles collection so go on have a go number two Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow DS Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow is the best handheld Castlevania game out there yeah yeah we said it as a sequel to Castlevania Arya of Sorrow it takes everything that made that game good and expanded upon it Soma returns and so too does his tactical Soul system with over 100 souls to collect each boasting a unique ability there's a large assortment of weapons and players can upgrade them using specific souls and collecting multiple Souls from the same monster will also improve that Soul's ability are you sick of the word Souls yet yeah well with the huge combination of Souls Weapons and abilities combat in a Castlevania game has never quite been as varied as it is here Dawn of Sorrow could have even clinched the number one spot if it weren't for one thing the forced and clumsy inclusion of the Nintendo DS Stylus throughout the title players must learn new magical seals which are shapes that must be traced on the screen by the player in order to open doors and defeat some bosses players will be nearing the end of a hard-won battle only to be prompted to quickly draw a magical seal to finish them off if the player traces the Shea incorrectly the boss will not be killed and will instead regain some health this may be fine early on when players only have to trace a rough v-shape but later on the shapes get far more complex and a bit of panicked Artistry can mean the difference between Victory and defeat having to go from using the buttons on the DS to quickly grabbing the stylus is awkward at best the stylus is used in a few other ways like to destroy ice blocks but these instances are so rare and clunky that they'll make you wish it just wasn't utilized at all outside of this gimmick though the game nears Perfection it may not innovate massively from previous handheld Castlevania games but it's the ultimate execution of the formula that manifested in the next and final game on our list Dawn of Sorrow has all of the Beloved extra modes from the previous handheld games A Boss Rush mode additional playable characters and multiple endings in fact our writer isn't ashamed to admit that he thought he'd completed the game on his first playthrough before going through it a second time and finding out that he'd actually received the bad ending and there was actually still a large portion of the game to play If Only he'd pay more attention to the story sadly there is at the time of writing no Current Port of Dawn of Sorrow likely due to pesky touch controls but if you still have a DS lying around it is worth experiencing the heights that the franchise managed to reach before it was so cruelly abandoned number one Castlevania Symphony of the Night PlayStation and Sega Saturn this is the title responsible for the Castlevania half of the metroidvania sub-genre the title that created the template for Castlevania games to follow and the title named by many as one of the best video games of all time we know that newcastlevania fans saw this one coming a mile away but there's a reason the number one spot is so obvious it's just that flipping good Symphony of the Night story follows directly from Rondo of Blood Alucard rises from a very long power nap to discover that Richter has disappeared and that Dracula's castle is back in searching the castle he finds rifter who claims to be the master of the Newcastle Alucard then discovers that Richter is being controlled by a servant of Dracula and from there the story flips on its head literally as the entire Castle Turns Upside Down this means the developers had to make sure that every level functioned both right side up and upside down which really is quite the achievement given the story was already extremely engaging we might have forgiven the game if the gameplay had some pitfalls but gosh darn it they managed to get both so right a Symphony of the Night also paved the way for the fluid combat that future Castlevania games enjoyed Alucard can wield a large collection of weapons use magic and sub weapons and summon familiars he can also learn to turn into a bat a wolf or Mist which are all forms that Dracula takes in the original Bram Stoker novel which we have not read said again books are for nerds as though that weren't enough a Symphony of the Night also brought RPG elements to the metroidvania formula via character stats players gain XP for defeating enemies eventually leveling up which increases alucard's strength Constitution intelligence and luck these vitals affect how hard Alucard hits and how hard he can get hit as well as item drop rates critical hit chance and more the system helped players feel a sense of progression through the game even after defeating common enemies over and over again also if players use Richter as their name at the start of the playthrough then Richter from Rondo of Blood will replace Alucard as the playable character it's difficult to find many flaws in Symphony of the Night without coming off as Petty is near enough every aspect of the game is polished to Perfection unlike some of the other highly rated Castlevania games on our list this one stands the test of time and is also easily playable on most systems today so there's really no excuse for not playing it and we mean that well what are you waiting for there are vampires to defeat get on with it

Channel: TripleJump

Views: 315,354

Keywords: Every Castlevania Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST, castlevania, best castlevania games, worst castlevania games, castlevania best to worst, castlevania ranked, triplejump ranked, ranked, triplejump, konami, symphony of the night, dawn of sorrow, rondo of blood, aria of sorrow, dracula's curse, dracula, alucard, castlevania netflix, netflix, circle of the moon, harmony of dissonance, portrait of ruin, order of ecclesia, lords of shadow, belmont's revenge, super castlevania 4

Id: Ahi5AHc04yU

Length: 83min 37sec (5017 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 17 2023