What is the best Castlevania game to start on? · 3:42am Feb 29th, 2016
As a person who has never played a Castlevania game in his life, what would be the best game to begin on? Literally all I know about the game is you play as Simon Belmont or one of his descendants or ancestors (or Alucard, apparently) and you have to go on a quest to defeat Dracula and save the world or some shit. I know the plot is bigger than that, but that just about sums it up, yeah? Anyway, yes, I want to know how I should start with this series, to anyone who is already a fan.
Should I play some of the GBA games or get a DS one? How about them PS games, huh? Also, yes; I understand that jumping onto the Castlevania train right now is a shitty fucking idea because of all the crap Konami's been doing lately. However, I still want to try and have some fun with this series before it fades away into obscurity because Konami's a bunch of fucking idiots.
Symphony of the Night.
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Any reason why?
Duly noted.
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Ah yes, the reasoning, rather essential, can't believe I spaced
In any case, Symphony of the Night was and still is considered to be the pinnacle of what a Castlevania game should be. It was the game that added the 'vania' half to the term "Metroidvania" you get to play as Alucard, son of Dracula, the game relies on exploration, and most of the GBA and DS games take a high amount of inspiration from it :) it's not like the early games, IE-1, 2, 3, 4, Bloodlines, X, but it's considered a masterpiece by a majority of gaming outlets, and it's up there with FF 9, MGS, and Silent Hill on the list of PS 1 classics for most peoples money, hope that helped.
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Great! Sounds like a blast!
...is there any possible way I don't have to play it on a PS1?
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If you have a PS3, it should be available on PSN :)
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...what the hell is PSN?
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By PSN I mean Playstation Store, my bad,
If you can't pick it up that way, I'd say....Aria of Sorrow
#fuckkonami
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Well, you see, I don't have a PS3.
Or PS2.
Or PS1.
...yeah, I'm pretty dirt poor.
Start on any of them.
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#fuckkonami
Yes, indeed.
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I'm asking this so I can find a good ground to cover. I want to hear it from people who've played some games and can recommend one for me to start on.
Well you could start with Castlevania: Lament of Innocence on PS2 who is chronologically the first Casltevania.
There's Super Castlevania IV on SNES who is a remake of the very first Casltevania but with better mechanics and considered the best Casltevania with the classic gameplay (before the Metroidvania style).
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on PSP is a remake of Rondo of Blood but also contain a port of Symphony of the night.
Here are some others I recommend trying after:
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness on PS2 and Xbox, Castlevania III Dracula's Curse on NES and e-Shop, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on DS, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on DS, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on GBA and Castlevania: Down of Sorrow on DS.
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Actually, I've already started Aria of Sorrow (thanks to emulation) and I'm loving it! 
Thanks for this.
3783527 I guess I'm rather late, but if you ever get the chance, do give Castlevania: Circle of the Moon a shot. Maybe not one of the better ones, but it's solid in its own right to play at least once. It's fun to mess around with the DSS at least as you acquire Cards over the course of the game.
Replaying isn't mandatory since it only changes certain stats more than anything, so the vanilla mode ought to be enough... if you're patient. Let's just say some of the best items and Cards are only easy to find if actually know where to look as some of the other modes facilitate either Luck for item drop or starting with all Cards available. Use of a guide is encouraged in this case as it is quite possible to play the full game without using or finding them regardless if you choose to do so since the whip and special progress items are all you need to play from start to finish. Heck, you can actually skip two areas and bosses altogether if you feel like it to come back for them later just before facing the final boss, or skip them in general(I did this the first time I played by accident, but I then found out I was just playing one area with a much harder difficulty than I should've been dealing with since I lacked a special item that made traversing safer).
you know what could could play ponyvania!
its a bit of a cross over between castlevania order of ecclesia and mlpfim!
check out my blog to download the game from there!
castlevania and ponies whats not to like!?
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I played it! It was good, but... there were a few problems I had with it. I only played about a few minutes or so, but I think I have a rough idea of what's happening.
First, the pros.
The animations look really good, and not to mention the actual sprites themselves! I also appreciated the "losing abilities" thing from the Playstation Castlevania. I unfortunately accidentally skipped through the character customization process (the reason being I'll explain soon) but I could see it was fleshed out. Finally, the story was kept nice and simple, which usually isn't something I would care for in an RPG game, but here it works.
Now, the cons.
I didn't like the controls, especially the menu controls. I'm okay with Z being A, and X being B, but in the menu the X button was also A for some reason. When I, naturally, tried to use the X button to go back, I ended up confirming something I didn't want to (i.e. Wasting my Water of Life, exiting out of the game). This doesn't sound like much, but how am I expected to play something if the controls keep clashing with each other? A few attack animations should also be slowed down, because even on Normal mode, which promoted towards beginners of the game, I was having a difficult time. Though, admittedly, this was probably because I skipped through the character customization and didn't make my character how I wanted it.
Otherwise, good start! I know this isn't your game, but if you're in contact with the creators it would make my day if you could give my opinions to them. Thank you!
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yeah i kinda had a hard time with the controls at first myself.
the developers actually made the game reflect on a belmont fighting style coz you cant use items or healing stuff to cure poison, mp drain, or being stoned (not the acid trip type of stoned
) you literally just have to walk it off
or get drop items from monsters that can that cure specific ailments.
well i hope the developers can come with something for the controls even i had to familiarize myself with my custom controls that is customizable by the way in the options menu.
hope that helps but ill still get in touch with the developers on the controls and the difficulty of the game coz right now im playing it on hard mode and aside from the spawn rate of the monsters and a bit tweaked attack patterns on bossses its kinda the same for me though.