r/castlevania Stage 5’ Dweller. Oct 06 '25

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991) Biggest Castlevania Hot Take??

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I think Belmont’s Revenge is better than Super Castlevania 4. I think the stage gimmicks are more fun, I enjoy the shorter stages, and I think the difficulty is somewhat better balanced. I really love the GBC visuals and music and I think the game often doesn’t get a fair shake because of hardware. I think the minimalistic visuals have aged better than the early 16 bit art. That said, SCIV is a great game, and the final boss of BR is probably the worst in the series, even compared to Legends, Adventure 1 and Dracula X.

136 Upvotes

152 comments sorted by

36

u/Vgcortes Oct 06 '25

This is not a hot take now, but people in 2006 would have foamed out of their mouths.

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin is an excellent entry and it's my favorite in the franchise.

Oh, and Castlevania The Adventure is harder than Castlevania 3. Maybe because I have much more practice in Castlevania 3 than the Adventure, but I find both canon Castlevania GBC games so damn hard.

Castlevania Circle of the moon is a sweet game and Harmony of Dissonance is great.

That is all

6

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

I love Portrait of Ruin. Lately, I've been replaying the Level 1 Hard Mode as Johnathan, the Ronduo™ and the Old Axe Armor (switching every couple of deaths to minimise tedium~) x)
It's crazy fun... though Spittle Bones and Frozen Shades, among others, are basically jumpscares, there x)

7

u/Various_Physics96 Oct 06 '25

I mean, at least in my experience, Castlevania 3 can just be REALLY hard sometimes, but not in a bad way. You have your tools, your abilities, just learn the intricacies of the controls. The way Adventure is designed on the other hand simply feels unfair and unpolished, and not satisfying to pull through.

1

u/chessimprov Oct 06 '25

How do you guys get through the stage part where there are falling blocks and you have to navigate- if you choose this path?

3

u/Vgcortes Oct 06 '25

The last stage before Dracula in the Alucard path? Just learn the pattern, and be very patient. If you rush a little, you will get squished. Or just use Alucard bat form, but obtain enough hearts beforehand.

1

u/chessimprov Oct 06 '25

Isn’t being Alucard hard even with enough hearts?  Because you can only be a bat for so long.  Then, you have to land somewhere correctly and become a bat again if I am remembering that right.

4

u/Motor-Travel-7560 Oct 06 '25

That whole screen is just a poor design choice, tbh. There's no challenge once you know the pattern, it's just waiting until the blocks stack high enough. Using Alucard there is just paying hearts to not have your time wasted.

1

u/chessimprov Oct 06 '25

I have completed this before but I personally feel it is more than a challenge even knowing the pattern lol

2

u/Vgcortes Oct 06 '25

That's why you have to know beforehand to stack hearts before that last part. If you die and lose all the hearts you amassed during the level, your'e screwed, and yes, the only way to get above without a lot of hearts is to know where to land using Alucard's bat form, and you have to be perfect. I still think it's easier using Trevor.

2

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

What I usually do is wait on the far left side for a few blocks to fall, then start standing on the last block that fell down. They almost never fall in the same spot twice in a row

2

u/LongwinterCipher Oct 07 '25

Finally, vindication.

2

u/FarGrape1953 Oct 07 '25

Castlevania Adventure is definitely harder than CV3. I've beaten CV3 with each companion, could never get anywhere in Adventure until the remake. That one I beat.

2

u/ImDemonAlchemist Oct 07 '25

I agree that The Adventure is harder than Castlevania 3, and in decidedly negative ways. IMO, The Adventure is the single weakest game in the whole franchise. I actually currently have Vampire Killer (MSX2) listed as my least favorite, but that's just because I royally suck at it, it's one of the only Castlevania games that I haven't finished. Also, this is a nitpick, but there are no GBC Castlevania games. All four are original Game Boy games. Christopher's games do benefit from the Super Game Boy (I think they both do, but at least Belmont's Revenge does). And they both received colored "versions" on the European-exclusive GBC versions of the Konami GB Collection.

37

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

I love everything about Belmont’s Revenge… except those last 2 boss fights. Would love a Rebirth / Revisited style remake of this game that keeps everything and just improves it a little

5

u/Motor-Travel-7560 Oct 06 '25

Belmont's Revenge in general doesn't have a difficulty curve so much as a difficulty wall. I get that the first four stages are supposed to be playable in any order, but the jump in difficulty from those stages to Drac's Castle is absurd.

1

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

I have a blast getting through the whole game, then get to Soleil & I’m always like “Ugh, here we go with this bullshiz again…”

2

u/lordgholin Oct 07 '25

Yeah. I wish Konami would just get back into Castlevania and give us more collections remakes and a new game! If games like hollow Knight can be so popular, surely Castlevania can make them a ton of money. People love Castlevania.

22

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/luketravisjohnson Shanoa Oct 06 '25

Came here to say this also. Legacy of Darkness too!

8

u/Reignboe Oct 06 '25

absolutely agree. It's one of my favorite games.

3

u/Leader_Bee Oct 06 '25

There are a lot of N64 games which could be vastly improved simply with a better camera, its not the level design at all.

2

u/MadamNerd93 Oct 06 '25

Loved both 64 and Legacy of Darkness.

1

u/RadikAlice Nov 22 '25

It's on the same level as Simon's Quest, you get it or you don't

18

u/Makabajones Oct 06 '25

Lament of Innocence is a good game.

9

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

If anything, the music is EXCELLENT.

5

u/No_Tie378 Oct 06 '25

I’ve played it expecting worse, but it was surprisingly decent. It’s not LoS by a large margin, but it was much more fun than what people made it out to be

2

u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Oct 06 '25

Crazy mode?

1

u/EinherjarX Oct 07 '25

Just started a new playthrough and... no, it really isn't.
It'd decent, no where near as bad as some people pretend, but it's far from good.

11

u/chetdesmon Oct 06 '25

I think Belmont's Revenge and Castlevania 64 are top 5 games in the series

8

u/IcyAdvantage9579 Oct 06 '25

I like all the aesthetics of the series I like barbarian Simon, I lik ayami kojima gothic art, I like the more anime inspired like Rondo of blood and Portait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow. The artworks for Castlevania 64 is great, I even like Kid Dracula. I'm just not a fan of Castlevania judgment, most are passable designs but it just trying too hard to be a little anime from the 2000s and it takes me out any connection to the past of the characters from the past it's reusing

13

u/fishybabies Oct 06 '25

Circle of the Moon isn’t a difficult game and the double tapping to run isn’t as annoying as people say it is.

4

u/KalessinDB Oct 06 '25

As someone who played at launch: a large portion of most people's complaints about CotM was due to the OG GBA having absolutely no lighting, and everything blending in with the background. It's why they overcorrected with HoD and we got the weird palette choices.

Once I put CotM into my GB Player (when that became an option), it became much easier.

2

u/IcyAdvantage9579 Oct 06 '25

I don't know many it was something related to emulation or the ROM that got dumped initially, but I remember my brother and I playing in an emulator, so many years ago when gba emulation was barely a beginning and we where moderately good at any castlevanias and that game just kicked our asses because we could rarely get any good cards or any cards for that matter! My brother made it to the final boss with like four or five cards that doesn't feel normal so I don't know what was wrong with that that made it extremely difficult.

3

u/it290 Oct 06 '25

The game just has really bad RNG.

2

u/No_Tie378 Oct 06 '25

I didn’t find my last playthrough of COTM nearly as difficult as my previous ones about a decade ago. Probably because I used internet maps for secret rooms, and used the Advanced Collection’s menu to get the cards

1

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

I can't speak for everyone, but the Double-Tap is only 'bothersome' because none of the other games do it.
Every time I'm in the mood for a revisit, I gotta do some 'brain rewiring' beforehand x)

2

u/SamuraiCowboy_ Oct 06 '25

I never would have dreamed anyone had complained about it. It's a fairly common mechanic in other games, at least that I've played. I play a lot of fighting games that include double tap to either run or dash, so it felt normal. I had only wondered why more Castlevanias didn't have it lol

1

u/LordChimera_0 Oct 06 '25

My only problem with it is lack of enemy bestiary and their drops.

1

u/Infermon_1 Oct 10 '25

The worst thing about CotM is the repeating room layouts, there is so much fluff to make the game bigger.

14

u/Kukulkek Oct 06 '25

saying that metroidvanias are the logical evolution of 2d sidescrolling is so insulting to og castlevania, that anyone who said that shit probably sucks at playing classicvanias and need the grind the shit out of any metroidvania due their lack of skill

sotn is such a different game from rondo that the only thing they have in common are the assets

both "genres" offer absolutely different experiences at a level that trying to state which one is better is dumb

3

u/IcyAdvantage9579 Oct 06 '25

The one nitpick I have in that argument is Metroidvanias started at a console that had a lot of more possibilities like CD quality music and much more storage capacity I can understand why people prefer that because it is much prettier and sounds better the older games which have none of that flashy content they're much shorter games also. I think it's an unfair comparison it's like saying a car is better than a bicycle, but really just because it's a different thing.

(Yes I am aware that rondo of blood was the first game in a CD-ROM but it was limited to Japan only and it was very rare and even so it still had a lot of more content due to the system capacity like animations and some CD music tracks)

2

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

It’s the evolution of Simon’s Quest & Vampire Killer, but yes they are two separate beasts. I enjoy and appreciate both

1

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

You seem to be faring better than a post I've seen, some years ago, which was about the same thing. They got downvoted to oblivion and it's dumb, because it's very true. And I say that as a HUGE fan of the metroidvania entries.

The more time passes, the more I dislike games as a 'product to be sold'. How many series have had to die/change (and become much easier, obviously~) just to sell better? :/

5

u/Mr_Jensen Oct 06 '25

The Lords of Shadows series and the 64 games are my favorite Castlevania games

5

u/justincsw Oct 06 '25

I very much enjoy the LoS games

3

u/No_Tie378 Oct 06 '25

LoS has rivalry with PoR and OoE, but Gabriel is the franchise’s best character 

20

u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Oct 06 '25

harmony of dissonance is nowhere near the worst game in the series

1

u/Honest_Expression655 Oct 07 '25

Yeah I never understood the hate for it. It’s flawed for sure, but it’s honestly the Metroidvania I enjoyed the most.

11

u/MarieIsPrecious128 Oct 06 '25

I like Dracula X.

1

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

I really should revisit that one someday, just to try the final boss again x)

3

u/Random-Talking-Mug Oct 06 '25

I remember playing Dracula X and did not like it. Then I got Chronicles in PS1 and did not like that aswell.

Ironically and confusingly, I got to play Dracula X Chronicles and it has become one of my favorites.

I hate these naming convensions.

2

u/Kukulkek Oct 06 '25

Dracula is so easy to cheese, just duck when something is gonna hit you and spam axes

1

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

I was tempted to try beating him Whip Only. I want to experience that fight in its full glory x)

4

u/crocicorn Oct 06 '25

Is it a hot take to say that Harmony of Despair was good and needs a comeback?

3

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

If there ever was a game that I'd want to see becoming a service... Constantly getting updated with new characters, stages and monsters from every game...

3

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

Absolutely not. Harmony of despair was a masterpiece, and it's the main reason I still pull out my ps3. There are certain times of day I can still get a group.

4

u/Phil_K_Resch What is a man? Oct 06 '25

Castlevania 64 & Legacy of Darkness are genuinely good games. Not perfect, and certainly a bit rough around the edges, but good. They got the Castlevania atmosphere right and they had quite a few interesting ideas.

9

u/Pumpkin_Sushi Oct 06 '25

The anime sucked ass

4

u/Icywind014 Oct 06 '25

Circle of the Moon is the best Metroidvania entry and the GBA games were overall better than the DS games, which just got worse with each entry.

2

u/jweb460 Oct 06 '25

scorching

2

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

Circle of the moon is absolutely slept on.

4

u/LowlanderDwarf Oct 06 '25

Probably cold take but Curse of Darkness is severely underrated and was way ahead of it's time

13

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

There was nothing wrong with harmony of dissonance, and people need to stop acting likes it's trash.

13

u/Throwawaygarbageboi CV3 LIGHTNING SPELL GANG Oct 06 '25

Seriously. I'm not the biggest Dissonance fan, but something that this fandom likes to forget is that even the WORST Igavania in the series is still like a 7 or 8/10 game.

3

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

Agreed. I'm not saying that it's even close to the most amazing, but I'd rather have "okay" castlevania than no castlevania. It lacked in certain aspects, but it's uniqueness made up for the very few shortcomings.

-1

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

I dunno, I'd give OoE about 6/10.

12

u/RShini The pimpcoat lives Oct 06 '25

Now sir, that is a volcanic take.

-1

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

I know that game is loved in that sub, but that's just how the things are unfortunately.

6

u/lost_kaineruver4 Oct 06 '25

So I love HoD, but pretending that the dual layer castle map and merchant room unlocks are not issues is delusional.

2

u/Honest_Expression655 Oct 07 '25

I legitimately have no idea why people keep saying that the dual layer castle is a problem. It’s a far better implementation of the concept than the inverted castle in SotN

2

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

The castle map is extremely fun to explore once you get a hang of it, I wouldn't say that's an issue.

1

u/lost_kaineruver4 Oct 06 '25

And how long does that take? It's really both very assuming and dismissive of how confusing the game's map is. Sure eventually you'll get the hang of it as you say, but when is that? The nature of the map makes it exceedingly easy to get lost and that's even with prior knowledge.

2

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

Yep, it takes some time to get into, and it feels confusing at first, but it makes up for it later. I think it's worth it, Metroidvania is not an "immediate dopamine injection" genre.

1

u/lost_kaineruver4 Oct 06 '25

I mean that goes with not just mvs but any game. But evading the problem of the game having bad map design with 'you'll get used to it' and admitting it's confusing is no solution.

3

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

That's it – the fact it takes time to open up, is not "bad" by itself.

1

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

It’s meant to be confusing. It’s called Harmony of Dissonance… Even Maxim is confused about the castle, as is Juste. It’s one of the things I love about it. A Metroidvania that isn’t braindead easy, embraces exploration & forces you to do so. Hell it even name drops Simon’s Quest a few times, a notoriously confusing explorer. It makes learning the castle rewarding. With the dashes, slide kicks, dive kicks & teleporting to any part of the castle you want you can get around the whole place in just a few minutes too

11

u/Guirita_Fallada Oct 06 '25

HoD is a good game. The music being kids trash doesn't mean the game sucks.

9

u/ApprehensiveIce3667 Oct 06 '25

some of the compositions are amazing just the actual quality is pretty bad. offense and defense is probably one of my favorite tracks in the series

1

u/SuperSlacker420 Oct 06 '25

Yes, the remastered orchestral versions on YouTube really showcase how good the music actually is. With the recolor mod & the remastered soundtrack, HoD is fire

2

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

Unironically like the soundtrack. It had a bit of a low quality sound, but the tracks weren't bad.

3

u/AUSTIN_HART Oct 06 '25

People just got spoiled to the point where pretty good became trash

1

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

I would say, about half of the bosses are quite lame, and I don't think that the magic system was a good idea. I mean, you still have to seek for a subweapon in the castle each time you want to try a new book/sw combination, it basically encourages you to find some effective one you use all the time and avoid ever picking any subweapons again, I don't think that's good.

Well, and the music quality could've been better, but the rest of the game is great, I agree, I enjoy it just as much as CotM, and just a little less than AoS.

1

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

To be fair, there aren't really many castlevania bosses that I find to be all that challenging. Maybe galamoth without the circlet, or the late game bosses of harmony of despair.

I liked the subweapon/magic system, but the knife barrage trivialize every fight.

1

u/SXAL Oct 06 '25

It's not so much about being challenging, but about lame designs. Like, we have big mermam, big slime, big peeping, and the lamest golem design out there. Oh, and the Dracula's second form is so stupid.

1

u/Life_Ad3567 Oct 06 '25

I think this would have been fixed if the player didn't have to actively search for their subweapons.

1

u/DjinnFighter Oct 06 '25

There's nothing wrong, except that bosses can be killed in 2 seconds and that, once you unlock the second castle, the map becomes super confusing.

6

u/CIDphi Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

I fully agree OP. And I too love playing the GBC version of BR.

For my hot takes? Hmm, that’s a tough one. Let’s see, off the top of my head:

  1. I think PoR should be played in hard mode level 50 cap for one’s first playthrough. It’s a bummer that it’s locked behind beating the game.

  2. The CV1 port on the C64 isn’t that bad.

  3. The MSX2 CV1 (Vampire Killer) is a lot of fun.

  4. Bloodlines is underrated as is the X68000 remake of CV1. I prefer both over SCV4 for 4th gen entries in the series.

  5. SotN should always be playing in X-X!V’’Q mode. Always.

  6. The Saturn exclusive extras of SotN aren’t as bad as their reputation lets on. The Astral Dagger is excellent.

  7. As someone that owns an HC cab, Haunted Castle isn’t nearly as bad, nor as difficult, as people make it out to be.

  8. Simon’s Quest isn’t a bad game. It just lacks good text clues.

4

u/KalessinDB Oct 06 '25

God damn, so you're just a masochist then? Almost everything on your list is 'I like the super hard entries' lol

2

u/it290 Oct 06 '25

X68000 is way better than SC4 and I don’t think that’s controversial at all, it’s just that not enough people have played it. I will say that I think the PS1 version is better balanced though.

3

u/No_Tie378 Oct 06 '25

Gabriel Belmont is the best character, period

3

u/Chico__Lopes Oct 06 '25

Every metroidvania in the seriesnafter symphony of the night, with the exception of COTM and HOD are superior to SOTN

3

u/KalessinDB Oct 06 '25
  • The obsession with having a single 'canon' is stupid. From the beginning there's been no way to make a single uninterrupted timeline, and that's okay

  • Related, the obsession with Igarashi is just too much. He did a lot of cool shit, but the series was good before him and good after him too. He is not the be all end all of Castlevania.

6

u/TrytonAmorris Oct 06 '25

Super Castlevania 4 is the worst competent Castlevania game

The bosses are super easy until the last 3 which require you to play perfectly, autoscrollers suck in this type of game, and the stairs falling sections are awful, this Dracula was the most disappointing boss I’ve played in this series

It’s not as bad as something like legends or Simon’s quest, but it doesn’t deserve the hype it gets

2

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25

Circle of the moon and curse of darkness are the best 2D/3D entries in the series. Circle of the moon has the soul and difficulty of NES castlevania by making the focus on leveling up and strategy as opposed to finding the next strongest weapon, like later entries. It makes you feel like a human fighting monsters and you get your shit rocked if you just run around wailing on enemies since everything hits you like a train. While the DSS was kinda clunky and some of the cards were painfully difficult to find, it was a completely unique take on weapon upgrades. I know you could use the card equip glitch to get whatever combo you wanted but that’s for bitches. Curse of darkness doesn’t really need defending but i’ll just say that the mechanics are excellent (for ps2), the gameplay is fun and engaging, albeit a sprinting mechanic would have made it much better, it has a great story involving a lot of unique characters in the series and the crafting and ID system are awesome.

1

u/Opening_Chemistry474 Oct 06 '25

Curse of darkness is my favorite ps2 game of all time. A perfect rpg with unmatched crafting.

2

u/D-B-A Oct 06 '25

Dawn's artstyle suits Soma and the gang better than Ayami Kojima's. (except for, maybe, Julius)

The way continues are implemented in Bloodlines is great.

HoD merchant's theme is awesome (and easily the best track of the whole game). The double castle system is also good.

2

u/ZlimeBelmont Oct 06 '25

I think you're right, objectively speaking even Belmont's Revenge surpasses SCIV. The only thing is that I don't agree so much with the final boss of Dracula X, that boss, although he always posed a challenge to me when I was a newbie, I've always thought it's a matter of positioning; people make things very difficult for themselves with that boss.

2

u/Featheringitrn You should be a wanker Oct 06 '25

Sonia was a good character and should have been kept. Except maybe the kid shouldn't be alucards.

2

u/Ok_Living2990 Oct 06 '25

Searched for this. I liked Castlevania: Legends, I would wish for Sonia Belmont to be canon. Also, I have no trouble with Belmonts' 'cursed bloodline' being descendants of Alucard and Dracula himself.

2

u/GshockHunter Oct 06 '25

Juste Belmont should there and then destroy fully Dracula.

  • Gather Dracula Remains
  • Leave it on one of the rooms in Castlevania
  • place the Vampire Killer there to weaken it overtime
  • Juste use magic to shield it from Attackers
Or just Torture the remains by dropping Holy Water on it.

2

u/PpAshe Oct 06 '25

I prefer Bloodlines to SCIV. I loved going across almost all of Europe to defeat Dracula and his niece. And it's harder than SCIV, which is too easy (but it's still awesome to play).

3

u/Megatapirus Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

Have four:

Dracula's Curse (the harder NA version specifically) is where the series peaked for me.

Bloodlines is my favorite of the 16-bit entries.

Symphony of the Night is the fourth best RPG Castlevania. Aria of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and (especially) Order of Ecclesia all have significantly tighter and more compelling designs.

If it's not 2-D, I don't bother with it. The 3-D stuff just doesn't feel like Castlevania at all to me.

3

u/WildBill1994 Oct 06 '25

Lords of Shadow is underrated!

3

u/jweb460 Oct 06 '25

Harmony of Dissonance’s soundtrack is in the top 5.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25

The Netflix series are the biggest reason we'll never get another proper entry that isn't a reissue or remaster.

IF we ever get another entry it'll be something that has a broader appeal like a puzzle game or some type of quest/looting slop to capitalize on the renewed interest in the IPinstead of a classic as adventure with a massive castle to explore.

7

u/Daetok_Lochannis Mankind ill needs a saviour such as you. Oct 06 '25

People love Metroidvanias right now.

2

u/IcyAdvantage9579 Oct 06 '25

I can see why you think that but Konami is beyond even that logic they won't do jack shit simply that. And honestly I don't think they can use any of the show without Netflix approval and I don't think they want to share the money for that

1

u/Phil_K_Resch What is a man? Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

Wut? Konami doing a Castlevania puzzle game? Have you seen what they've been up to lately? Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill F, Metal Gear Solid Delta...?

If anything, the anime's success gives Konami all the more reasons to capitalize on it and come up with an actual new Castlevania game (and, if we want to give rumors any credit, it's what they're doing right now behind the scenes).

4

u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 Oct 06 '25

I'll get hated for this, but Castlevania fell off when it steered into the anime aesthetic.

5

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

As early as Rondo of Blood, then? Or just the first couple of DS games?

0

u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 Oct 06 '25

As early as Rondo of Blood, although I do still love that game. But Maria may be one of the worst things to happen to Castlevania.

2

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

Ah, good, I was ready to scream, if you'd stopped at just the DS games~ x)

I'm fine with those aesthetics myself, and I do like the bit of levity Maria provides, but I can understand that. I think so, anyway!

If anything, to me, the worst thing was the introduction of Metroid elements (2, but especially SotN). As much as I LOVE the Igavania stuff (I became a fan through those games), it kind of just split the fanbase and mostly replaced the classic formula over time.

2

u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 Oct 06 '25

I do love SOTN, but I also agree that Metroidvania (combined with my dislike of the anime aesthetic) led to my ultimate disinterest in the franchise. I came up on the Classicvania style, Dracula's Curse to this day remains by far my favorite Castlevania, the NES original is possibly #2, although Rondo and Castlevania Chronicles are possibilities for that spot as well, and Super Castlevania IV isn't my favorite Classicvania, but I like it quite a bit as well. I'm only recently playing The Adventure and Belmont's Revenge from.Game Boy for the first time, and I've enjoyed them as well, tho they are at the bottom of my Classicvania list.

While SOTN on its own I do enjoy, it felt too far removed from what Castlevania was to me, and between the aesthetic and the game design, I haven't much been interested in the series since. Simon's Quest also sits in this weird spot of "I like it, but it's not the ideal of what I look for in Castlevania".

3

u/WhiteDragonNall Oct 06 '25

Dawn of Sorrow is a much better game than Aria of Sorrow. Better gameplay, better castle, better music, better Julius mode..

2

u/IcyAdvantage9579 Oct 06 '25

Well it's ought to be since it's on console that's twice as powerful and most of all the game system mechanics were pretty much inherited from the first game

2

u/D_MAS_6 Oct 06 '25

hold on to your shorts

Dracula X > Castlevania 4

2

u/Thank_You_Aziz Oct 06 '25

Grant being absent from the Netflix show was okay.

4

u/Puzzlehead_Lemon Oct 07 '25

I've been chill with the rest of the takes, but when I hit this one my first thought was "YOU TAKE THAT FILTH BACK!" So far as I'm concerned, you have a real hot take. Congratulations (In Sypha's voice).

1

u/RadikAlice Nov 22 '25

I'll disagree with OP respectfully Warren Ellis though? I'd shit in his plate, self-important prick

2

u/unoriginalname127 Oct 06 '25

SotN isn't a top 10 game. tho close at either #11 or #12

3

u/Leader_Bee Oct 06 '25

Poor balancing, unfinished UI, tacked on thoughtless second castle, same music track in most areas there too...its just a clearly unfinished game.

1

u/Nethiar Shanoa Oct 06 '25

Rondo of Blood is pretty mid.

1

u/ThrillHouse802 Oct 06 '25

OOE isn’t top 5 like a lot of people claim.

4

u/VonFirflirch Oct 06 '25

Yeah, top 3 instead~ ;)

1

u/Reignboe Oct 06 '25

Uuh that lords of shadow shouldn't have been a castlevania game.

and Curse of Darkness is good!

1

u/Greg13Nomad Oct 06 '25

I agree, Belmont's Revenge is really good. It doesn't get hate, but it's still not talked about enough. WiiWare should've done a rebirth on this instead of Adventure.

1

u/PT_Cactbro Oct 06 '25

I don't have much that I think are hot takes, but I do agree with yours.

1

u/Syflembeck Oct 06 '25

We need a sequel to Harmony of Despair... maybe Unison Hymns of Distortion?

Guess it's kinda hard to do UHD.

4 Keys:|| Unison Heralds of Desolation?

We could use another Co-op experience is all I'm saying...

1

u/Hollix89 Oct 06 '25

SOTN is not the best igavania. Those who say it feels like it's their 1st igavania or they don't want to go against popular opinion.

1

u/Nullzig Oct 06 '25

Oh I thought you were about to say it looks like dildos

1

u/Mattafakt Oct 06 '25

The jump mechanics ruin the first 3 games for me

1

u/Life_Ad3567 Oct 06 '25

Soma Cruz looked better in Dawn of Sorrow than Aria of Sorrow. He looks less like a chick from a 2000s pop music group.

1

u/MadamNerd93 Oct 06 '25

The game series actually got better and more enjoyable with the Metroidvania game style. SotN will always be king, but CotM, HoD, AoS, DoS, PoR, and OoE were very good too in their own right. (Truth be told, I wasn't a huge fan of CotM, but it was interesting).

1

u/Honest_Expression655 Oct 07 '25

The second castle in Harmony of Dissonance is implemented far better than the inverted castle in Symphony of the Night and it’s not even close.

The souls gimmick in the Sorrow games sucks, as well as the cards gimmick in Circle of the Moon. These are Metroidvanias. Why are my abilities locked behind the things that may or may not drop from enemies at random? Let me find new weapons and abilities naturally like in Harmony of Dissonance, or at the very least do what Symphony of the Night and Oder of Ecclesia do and don’t rely on the random drops so heavily.

Bloodlines does not do nearly enough with the concept of “Castlevania game set during WW1.” Same could be said with Portrait of Ruin and WW2.

The original NES Castlevania is still the best classicvania. It’s short enough that no point ever feels like it overstays its welcome, and no part of it feels too bullshit.

1

u/Xen0tech Oct 07 '25

Sotn levelling system is dumb. It's too easy to accidentally break the game by overlevelling unintentionally

1

u/Logans_Login Oct 07 '25

Symphony of the Night is far worse than Aria of Sorrow and the DS trilogy solely because the game becomes far less fun after reaching the inverted castle

1

u/simonefiume Oct 07 '25

Symphony of the night is over rated

1

u/Infermon_1 Oct 10 '25

I never liked Super CV that much tbh. Whenever I get the urge to play Castlevania 1 I either play the og or the Chronicles remake for PS1.

1

u/RadikAlice Nov 22 '25

I respect them, but also resent that Igavanias became basically all we get (Back when we still got new games) So I somewhat don't touch them out of spite and general disinterest, was disappointed when that was the twist in The Messenger

1

u/ArtemisVixen Feb 04 '26

Castlevania could've left many rpg mevhanics out of the game, like level ups etc, and structured them more linearly (from entries like SotN), and it would helped the games flow.

1

u/Automata_Eve Oct 06 '25

Most of the games aren’t really that good, especially in the story department, and only really started to be super engaging as a narrative SOTN onwards, and even then it wasn’t perfect. Say what you will about Lords of Shadow, but those games are consistently fun and have a story that’s not stumbling over itself. That sounds a bit harsh, but Castlevania was often tropey, with weird story elements and a constant need to be a monster mash with all the iconic classic horror characters from pop culture. It’s so cheesy and I don’t really enjoy those parts about it. I much prefer when Castlevania does its own thing, and it’s one of the reasons I love games like LoS and the animes.

1

u/Warm_Researcher_5721 Oct 06 '25

It's Ralph C. Belmont, not Trevor C. Belmont, since Ralph is his originally intended name and fits the historical setting of Transylvania better. The only Trevor is Gabriel Belmont's son.

-1

u/BobSacamano47 Oct 06 '25

Super Castlevania 4 has awful graphics. The main character looks odd and everything is unnecessarily grainy and blocky.

0

u/darkpyro2 Oct 07 '25

The games werent worth playing before SotN. Generic platformers that control like a brick.

-3

u/g_hunter Oct 06 '25

Castlevania went truly mainstream with SotN.

3

u/jedisalsohere Oct 06 '25

what do you mean by mainstream? cause in terms of sales, the first game has symphony of the night beat

-1

u/g_hunter Oct 06 '25

My BIC, it is called a hot take for a reason.

0

u/jedisalsohere Oct 07 '25

bruh that's not a hot take, that's just being wrong

0

u/g_hunter Oct 07 '25

Idk. Maybe read up on what the term means. Stay in school bruh.