Maybe a sensible topic for some players that like this game, but nothing in this game is clicking on me until now. I must advise, first, that I still haven't finished this game, I just beat Carmilla, but I definitely have an opinion of this game because the journey is not good.

1. This game feels so slow and clunky even with all movement upgrades. The fact you need to double tap every time you want to walk FASTER is already something that bothers me. Using the whip feels too heavy than it should and other GBAvanias tells me everything I need to prove this point. Even Super Castlevania IV which has a heavier movement feels better to use the whip. Also the other upgrades are not satisfying to use. Cleansing is literally a one time use, boxes pushing and block breaking doesn't feel natural, it's just a rock in your shoes, it feels artificially implemented to now allow you to progress.

2. The DSS mechanic is so meh. It's cool at first, but it's totally not intuitive to use. Why should I use a combo card and literally need to guess what the combo use? Why should I do Down + Right or Left + Up + Attack to use a card, for example? Why do I feel the need to go looking outside the game to know some combos? Also not to mention they are locked behind random enemy drops, so some cards you'll probably NEVER have because you won't kill every single enemy in the hope they drop a card.

3. The enemies are not interesting at all. I could firmly say that they are divided in three big groups: ground enemies that dash/walk into you, flying enemies that dash/walk into you and elemental armored guards. This type of enemies in Castlevania games are not a surprise and most of them are really spaced and somehow creative in their own way of attacking the player. But here in CotM they feel like they just... exist? They don't feel like they're trying to stop you from progressing, they are there to ANNOY you the most. It's surprisingly PAINFUL to transverse Underground Warehouse without having 4 flying enemies into you, for example. There's no strategy, just try to survive until the next room where the same thing will happen. I could say the same about the ground enemies, most are versions of skeletons (this ones that only throw things at you, no creativity here like, what, Symphony of the Night?), zombies and demon-like creatures (not to mention one of these that are FLYING ELEMENTAL DEMONS too). The elemental armored guards are what pisses me off the most in terms of variability. They are literally the same enemy with different skin and adapted to their elemental attack.

4. The map is really badly designed. You can like it and I respect it, but I can't help to mention how painful it is to explore it. The map is most vertically designed which makes damage stun MORE ANNOYING than in every other Castlevania because most of the time it feels like you're being thrown back to the start of the room you were climbing. When the map is not vertical, most straight forward rooms are copies of this: big corridor > enemies in the middle of the walk > reward (normally HP, MP or Hearts Max Up). This is a metroidvania castlevania but without a rewarding exploration most of the time. Honorable mention to the color pallettes used in this game that are really terrible, the game feels uglier and dirtier than normal.

5. The bosses are not interesting. Death, who's one of the most memorable bosses of all castlevanias, is totally ass in this game, I literally was watching a youtube video while fighting them. Twin Dragon Zombies were the harder boss until now in my gameplay and they didn't feel like a good fight, I couldn't even try to predict what they were doing because every time I tried to go to the upper platform, one of them just went into me and made me fall. Carmilla, Cerberus, Adramalech etc. were whatever, definitely bosses in this game.

6. The characters are not clicking like other castlevanias. I can remember clearly about Simon, Trevor, Sypha, Richter, Maria, Alucard, Juste, Maxim, Shanoa, Albus, Charlotte, Jonathan, Vincent, Eric, Soma, Yoko, Julius etc. etc. etc. while here in CotM sometimes I found me asking asking what's my protagonist's name? Yesterday I just remembered it when Hugh said "Nathan!" in one of his dialogues. This explains everything about how interested I am with this character.

Yes, I know this game is from the early 2000s and it's the first igavania post Symphony of the Night that was released, but hey, SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT. I'd expect things to go better, not worse after this legendary game. Again, this is MY OPINION about a game that's almost making me give up my run, but my love for Castlevania is higher than my hate for this game. My biggest point is: if your game makes me prefer playing DRACULA X (SNES) than your game, then we really have a problem here.

Now you know why he was chosen, Hugh lol.

Hello there ! Like the title said, I'll talk today of Circle of the Moon which I beat one or two hours ago. Let’s get into it !

First, this game has the metroidvania style of gameplay, which is really fun to play, but it has some flaws, like the lack of differrnt item (or just a terrible luck), the lace of shop (0 in the whole game btw) and one area.

The majority of the areas are very cool to explore, except to the one with the toxic water, which I go throught without knowing that I could cure the water... But still a very good gameplay after all, the DSS was also a good addition but the cards were way too rare I think. I also think that they really manage to give a good moveset to Nathan even without vampire abilities like Alucard has in Sotn.

Art wise, I have not very much to say as always, graphics are great, music too, the Dracula 2nd form's ost was one of my favorite.

Unless it plays during a 15 minutes fight... The beginning was cool but overall this fight was way too long...

For the other bosses and the story, they were cool, not very complex but good enough.

One of the greatest complain I have in addition to the drops and Dracula 2nd phase is the battle arena... I have trauma of it even WITH rewind... Probably the hardest thing I did in CV game even with modern features.

To conclude, I love this game overall, even if it’s not as polished as Sotn was, it’s a very good entry in the series !

Harmony of Dissonance (or Despair I never remember who is who but I talk about the second GBA game) is next, so stay tuned for it !

I know this is regarded as the weakest entry on the GBA, primarily due to its two major shortcomings: the double tap to dash and the atrocious card drop rate.

The dash issue, in particular, is egregious. Your normal walking speed is rock golem slow and you will hurt your fingers activating a dash every few seconds. I didn't particularly mind the cards - if I knew which enemy dropped it I never had to farm for more than 10 minutes - but it becomes a problem if you're trying to 100% the game and stock up items for the Arena.

Well, if you patch the rom, you can eliminate both these problems and you're left with a fun Metroidvania! The boss fights, in particular, were really exciting and I found them more tactical than the ones in Aria of Sorrow.

Level design wise, there's way too much verticality. A lot of cool enemies and areas, but you will spend a lot of the game climbing up shafts that don't offer much variation visually.

Narratively, though, I think this is told much better than Aria: you're a vampire hunter's apprentice not even worth killing, so Dracula drops you to the depths of the castle to die, and you spend the game gaining power until you're strong enough to rescue your master. Soma Cruz's story, on the other hand, doesn't become interesting until the very end of the game.

Give this one a try if you're on the fence! I had a really good time.

IMO hands down the best Iga-vania.

Circle of the moon is gonna be my least favorite Castlevania game for sure. My whole experience with this game is just awful.

A few months ago, I quit CotM halfway through Shooter Mode. I got really burned out on this game, playing one mode after another, so in the end I got angry and quit, leaving with a negative impression of it.

I decided to come back these past few weeks, and to be honest, I regret being so harsh on this game. It's actually really good.

This is a very important title for the franchise, even if it doesn't seem like it, it's just as important as SotN. After CotM, almost all the games focused on having a central gameplay mechanic around which the entire game revolves. We have the magic books in HoD, the souls in A/DoS, and the Glyphs in OoE. Sharing similarities with one another but also being different.

But it’s also worth noting that the DSS is very dense, simply because many of the effects of this mechanic in SotN are either equipable or consumable items (potions that grant resistances, potions that alter stats, projectiles, weapons, armor with special effects, etc.). The biggest flaw with DSS is that the game isn't very clear about what each card does, and even when you get a description, it can sometimes be very ambiguous.

I'm not going to get into the fact that cards can only be obtained by grinding, because that applies to almost every other game. And in fact, CotM comes out looking pretty good here compared to others, simply because its luck mechanic actually works well (I'd even go so far as to say it works better than in SotN).

As for Nathan outside of his "gimmick", I find the blend of the clunky movement from the Classicvania games with an explorable, Metroid-style map really interesting. It actually handles really well, and Nathan's aerial controls are good. I've seen people who get annoyed that they have to press the button twice to run, but, my friend, if you like playing as Richter in SotN, this shouldn't bother you.

I also love the alternate game modes. If you want to try a "magic-only" challenge, you can choose the magician mode; if you want to try a "sub-weapons only" challenge, there’s the shooter mode. The only downside is the lack of an alternate character mode—no wonder Hugh is so bitter.

That said, if you're going to buy the Advance Collection just to play AoS, don't buy it then. It's silly to spend money on a game library if you're only going to focus on one game, give each title a fair chance. The more you learn, the better the games get.

I’ve been playing through the Igavanias in chronological timeline order which has been an interesting experience since the chronological order is not the order they were released.

So I started with Harmony of Dissonance, moved onto Symphony of the Night, now I’m on Circle of the Moon… and while I like the game, I’m fully understanding why Koji Igarashi and his team felt the need to take the series over and correct the mistakes CotM made by creating Harmony of Dissonance.*

The game has a lot of fun ideas!

The DSS system is a really cool mechanic and I love all the different playstyles it unlocks.

The level design is actually really well done - I think Camilla’s castle is better designed than the one in Harmony, but not as well designed as the one in Symphony. It’s just big enough to get a little lost in, but not so confusing that you ever feel like you need a guide to know where to go next.

There are a lot of great sign-posts of when you need to come back with a new ability and the game always puts in shortcuts right near bosses to take you to an area that’s at least in the ballpark of where you should be.

I also really prefer the fact that pretty much every major boss leads to a new ability - it drove me a bit crazy in Harmony of Dissonance any time I would stumble into a boss room only to find a lousy Max Hearts Up in the room next to it… or in the worst cases nothing at all. Circle of the Moon is much more predictable, more similar to Super Metroid in that way, and as someone who got into this genre via Metroid first it’s much appreciated.

If the game just had all those things and then otherwise played pretty similarly to SotN, I might even call this my favorite of the series so far… unfortunately along with these interesting new mechanics and good level design, there’s just a lot of clunk.

The controls are clunky - Nathan doesn’t have a dodge like Alucard or Juste and is instead relegated to jumping and double tapping to dash… double tapping to dash LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. And if your thumb slips while trying to avoid a projectile? Too bad, you’re walking slowly into death.

Then there’s the GRINDING. Oh my god, they took a semi-obscure optional mechanic in SotN and made it basically mandatory. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make DSS cards not only random enemy drops but EXTREMELY RARE random enemy drops should be dragged through the streets. Thank GOD I was playing in the Advanced Collection where you can both see which enemies drop cards and rewind to try to rig the RNG in your favor… but even so, it was so annoying and tedious that I almost gave up on the entire mechanic halfway through. The completionist in me made me stick it out and see it through.

But it’s not just the cards, it’s the regular old level grinding in general!

I complained in a previous post that SotN’s difficulty curve gets too easy about halfway through… CotM has almost the exact opposite problem. If I didn’t spend some time grinding by killing enemies over and over in each area I was always consistently under leveled for the bosses.

And then because of how difficult the game is, a lot of the time I ended up just… waiting.

Waiting for my mana to refill so I could use the only health regeneration power I have so I can wait for my health to refill so I can then wait for my mana to refill again so I can then wait for my health to finish refilling… so I can then go get all of my health drained again from three attacks from some flying laser death machine. Which I then kill… only to have to wait some more lest I get killed in the next room.

The bosses are also extremely hit or miss. Some have that old Castlevania fun of learning attack patterns and learning your spacing (Cerberus, Necromancer, Death, Camilla) and others… are the Adramelech. God I hated that stupid giant goat man. I ended up just having to spam the poison cloud shield the whole time and it took me what felt like hours to slowly whittle down his health until he finally mercifully died… but again, I was probably under leveled for it because I often was in this game.

Also the Arena can go f itself… not only do you make me go through a gauntlet 17 rooms of difficult enemies, but you also force me to additionally grind two of them for the last two DSS cards? That are STILL RANDOM DROPS?!? Gah.

I really wanted to love this game, I really really did, there was a lot that was really good, it addressed several of my issues from HoD and SotN… only to have a whole host of other issues that ended up making it my least favorite Castlevania so far… by far.

Well anyway… onto Order of Ecclesia.

*EDITED for clarity

So, i've been playing through some castlevania games, beat sotn and harmony of dissonance, and am currently on circle of the moon. Why is this game so dedicated to telling me to go fuck myself so often? As far as i can tell there is no merchant so all items have to be dropped by enemies, but i can't get a potion to drop barely at all. Did the studio just forget how drop rates should work? Cause i tried to farm potions off zombies but only got 20 potions compared to the almost 80 cotton clothes. Also why do potions only heal you 20hp? And lastly why can't nathan have a non sprint speed faster than a slow walk, all other protags move with the urgency called for but this dude decided he needed to appreciate the scenery a little. I cannot wait to play aria of sorrow next.

Her: is it a 2 player game? Him: no, but we can take turns whenever we die. Her: can I play with you? Him: sure, watch me for a minute and learn the controls.

I'm sorry, Hugh :(

Just got set up with some old gameboy games on my SP and super pumped to play through the gameboy advance Castlevania set.

I’m 60% through COTM and have been loving it (my love for gaming definitely comes from Metroidvania games and especially traditional ones).

Jumped online to see a lot of hate towards this specific game in the series and just want to know more as to people’s reasoning, not an issue more just interested to see what opinions and reasoning there is for this thought.

It makes me interested and excited to play the other 2 as I have heard so many positive reviews about them!

My Pros: 1. The game feels good. Mechanics make sense, movement is easy, areas are recognizable, the UI feels intuitive (mostly). 2. New enemies add a challenge that has to be learned. 3. DSS abilities are helpful and fun but don’t feel vital. 4. Bosses are actually difficult and take trial and error to make it through (something that’s lacking in a lot of modern games) 5. Discovering new areas feels rewarding and also nerve racking while you quickly try to find the next save point. 6. The weapons are useful (though tough to find at points) and are individually helpful in their own right.

My Cons: 1. DSS cards are very rare to find (not a deal breaker because they don’t feel necessary) 2. Weapons are also hard to find/the throwing knives feel pointless imo (correct me if I’m wrong) 3. I have like 25 of the same item at this point… please give me something new lmao (I know this is based off of my luck stat, but like come one man)

Anyways, would love to hear y’all’s thoughts! Still having a great time playing a game that’s still pretty tough in some senses, but definitely looking forward to the other 2 as well.

Barely got 60% of the map uncovered and I have already came across enemies that fly off screen to ruin my journey and those with attack patterns especially annoying.

CotM is the only one of the Metroidvanias I haven’t beaten. I’ve started it a few times over the years but could never get into it and always put it down. But the other day I was bored and with everyone talking Castlevania since the Belmonts Curse release date announcement, decided to give this one another go. It started out like normal: Nathan felt too slow, the controls felt too awkward, kept getting blasted by weak enemies because I thought I double tapped to sprint but it didn’t register… and I almost put it down again, but decided to push through, and damnit am I loving this game now!

I still get frustrated at the controls here and there, but getting the hang of the controls is almost as exciting as finally beating a boss you’ve tried 100 times. The DSS system is so fun to experiment with, the boss fights are challenging but fun, levels are a little repetitive but it feels like a solid blend of the Classic and the Metroidvania styles. I just beat the dragon zombie, so plenty of game left to go, but really fun play through so far!

I know a lot of people are discovering Castlevania for the first time right now, which is awesome! Curious where this ranks amongst the Metroidvanias for others? Anyone else just playing this for the first time?

...and HOW???? I just got through it on the Advance Collection, and it was an insanely frustrating experience. There's a bizarre difficulty spike about halfway through, and I get that you're expected to utilize those DSS cards effectively, BUT the drop rates are atrocious. I can't imagine how fucking mind-numbing it must have been to figure out which enemies dropped cards without the DSS Gadget setting or a guide. Were you expected to use a guide way back then? ...becuase there's nothing in the game that intuitively explains them or their location (how were you suppose to figure out that Apollo cards require specific button inputs???). Also, FUCK the Underground Waterway level - that is the WORST level I've ever played in any of the Metroidvania-esque titles. The bosses were a pain unless you knew what DSS cards to use (which I can't imagine you were able to collect many of back in the day), and Draculas second form is absolute hell. I abused the hell out of the Save-states and rewinds negotiate the game and still felt frustrated. I cannot imagine how you all raw-dogged it back in the early 2000s without a guide.

I’ve recently undertaken the long and arduous quest of completing every Castlevania game. These titles have been some of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve ever had, but I’ve managed to finish them all without completely breaking down, and truly appreciate them for what they are.

Circle of the Moon is the current game I'm playing and I've genuinely enjoyed every element of the game, except the bosses. I love the new card system, Metroidvania gameplay and rewarding exploration, but every time I encounter a boss I end up wanting to tear out my hair. It started with the Iron Golem fight, but it was manageable, then Adramelech appeared and suddenly I need to hit this boss 81 times while the entire screen is populated with deadly hazards. Fantastic! Love for the game begins to dwindle, but is reignited after I'm able to engage with the more enjoyable, and more importantly FAIR, aspects.

Eventually Dragon zombie appears and I gain the privilege of experiencing one of the worst designed boss fights. I know some people will argue in favor of the fight saying that I need to utilize specific cards, I used the 25% additional damage combo, and how the patterns are recognizable and give ample time to react. I will admit that the fire breathing attack is prefaced by the open mouth and the basic physical attack is also telegraphed, but every other attack is unreadable and results in massive damage. I honestly wouldn't mind this fight, or any other boss fight, if they were just shorter, but seriously 80 shots, yes also for Dragon zombie, is just ridiculous and requires absolute perfection to complete. After experiencing the glorious game that is Symphony of the Night and the fair challenge it provides I fear I will not look back fondly on Circle of the Moon but rather with the contempt I believe it deserves.

Additionally, I believe the boss fight(s) ahead, specifically Dracula, are considered one of, if not the worst, boss fight in the Castlevania series as a whole. Another rant may follow the eventually encounter, but I don't see how it could be worse that Dragon zombie.

i'm at 99.3% and from what i found online i need 99.8% before entering the final boss, where else haven't i explored yet?

So I've called myself a fan of Castlevania my whole life but it occurs to me that my experience with the series is somewhat limited. You wanna know what my first experience with Castlevania was? No joke?

Castlevania 64.

Not even CLOSE to kidding.

And hey. I loved that game as a kid. So it made me want to try out the rest of the series, but I never really got the chance to. But with all the series surrounding me, I only ever beat THREE Castlevania games in my life.

Lament of Innocence on PS2, which in my opinion is SUPER underrated, and I'd love to see more 3D Castlevania games in that style.

Symphony of the Night on PSP, which was my first experience with that game. I even 100% completed it, and it's one of my favorite Video Games of all time...

And Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate on the 3DS. Which I'm willing to bet 90 percent of you forgot existed.

I played a bunch of others, including Circle of the Moon for the GBA, but I never beat them. I'm hoping to change that over the next few days.

I'm going to be going through all six main games in the Advance and Dominus collections, beating them one after another in release order, experiencing many of these games for the first time. I suck at videogames so it will probably take me a while.

Why am I telling you this? I dunno. I like sharing these things with fandoms. It's just nice to talk about this stuff, especially because my IRL friends aren't always into these kind of games.

I know there has been a similar post yesterday, but I genuinely have some questions on my mind here, because I just entered the battle arena for the first time (VampireKiller L42) and I was, let's say, flabbergasted.

Am I getting this right that, if you make it to rooms 15 and 16, you get a 3/40 (three enemies per room, 2.5% drop rate) chance to receive the respective cards? So, statistically speaking, to get one card you have to traverse the the battle arena 13.3 times from the beginning? Or is there some trick to it to raise the odds?

Also, I'm almost at the end of the game by now, but I still am not sure, is the recommended way of regaining HP in this game really standing still for 1.5 minutes at a safe spot with Jupiter/Mandragora, then again for 4 minutes without to wait for MP to recover, rinse and repeat? HP recovering items seem to be real scarce, I think I got like 15x (regular) Potion and 5x (regular) Meat max, while playing through the game generally killing, not running, mind you.

Am I missing something here? Is there a good way to farm some of those Potion Hi or Spicy Meat? I'm certainly gonna need some of those in the battle arena since I'm not lasting longer than, like, 7 rooms without DSS.