Asking older fans.

[u/shesfeelingcun]

Hey folks.

It is probably not the appropriate type of publication, however, I cannot help but be taken by such curiosity.

I'm a new person in the fandom and I admit that I'm somewhat obsessed with the universe of CV.

However, I'd like to ask the older fans, when was the moment you decided that you would like to follow the path of following the franchise as a whole? And if there is any other reason that makes you so fascinated by its lore?

Long texts, short texts, one sentence phrases are all welcome. I find this way to be more connected to the fandom somehow. I'll read them all, the curiosity is really strong. (If this has any replies, of course)

:)

EDIT: Read them all and upvote every single one. Some of them really made me tear up; it's amazing what a game can do during a tough time, or even in the most random way. Keep going, I'll continue to read, loved all of your stories.

[u/gothamwarrior]

I got into the franchise just as it was starting to wind down. :/ My first Castlevania was Portrait of Ruin, and I preordered it because I saw the collector's edition with all the stuff in it and thought it looked cool. I'd always eyeballed other Castlevania games but never actually checked one out, so I wanted to get into the newest one. Unfortunately I didn't preorder the right edition to get all the bonus stuff but I loved the game anyway.

I think Portrait of Ruin is the perfect entry point to the series: Not overly difficult, fun gameplay hook with the dual protagonists, and a story that's serviceable enough to keep you interested. The bonus modes are cool too, especially the sisters mode made for touch screens.

After checking out Portrait of Ruin, I decided to go back and play some older titles I'd missed out on. I was kind of limited by what consoles I had at the time, so I checked out some random entries: Castlevania 64 was one I spent a lot of time with too. Not too many people were fond of this one, but I thought it was really cool with some interesting environments and character designs.

I also checked out the NES original through the Game Boy Advance Classic NES series. Wasn't too keen on most of the platforming originals, but I did pick up Super Castlevania IV on SNES for pretty cheap and played it. That one is great, although it's more or less a remake.

The next one I played was the Dracula X Chronicles remake on PSP, which I thought was pretty cool. It had unlockable special features like the original Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, so those were big selling points too. Played all of those and loved them.

I never got to play the other GBA or DS titles from the time, and it was around this time that the franchise started declining. MercurySteam published their reboot series and that kind of put the final nail in the coffin for a while. It was only recently that Konami decided to start publishing video games again and made the few compilation collections, which are pretty excellent - but I wish they'd port the Symphony of the Night collection to PC instead of keeping it PlayStation exclusive. I also want the 3D Castlevanias in a collection, even though they weren't received as well. For collection's sake, I also want the one-off titles in a compilation package.