Thirith on 27/1/2025 at 10:46
For someone who likes quite a few Metroidvanias (and absolutely loves Hollow Knight) but has never played a Castlevania (except for one of those 3D ones that aren't really in the same genre anyway): which is the one you'd recommend I'd check out?
Malf on 27/1/2025 at 10:53
I get a kick out of the vengeful contract-giving lady who wants you to avenge various dead people by killing x-of-y, and the fact that she says the same thing every time:
"Kill those murderers dead!"
It's overly melodramatic, and feels like a loving nod to the campy, crappy VA of past titles.
Not sure I've come across anything quite as memeworthy as "What is a man?" yet mind you.
Malf on 27/1/2025 at 11:06
@Thirith:
My Castlevania experience is probably fairly limited compared to others here; my first one was the N64 version (which bears almost no resemblance to the classic formula), then Dawn of Sorrow on the DS.
I also played the spectacle-fighter Lords of Shadow on PC, which while being a complete deviation from the formula, I actually really liked.
But I bounced off of Lords of Shadow 2, having played more refined spectacle fighters between the release of the two games that revealed just how poor an example of the genre they were.
So yeah, Dawn of Sorrw was my only experience of the classic SotN formula until Bloodstained.
I see there's a collection of the DS Castlevanias available on Steam, which all seem to follow the same formula, but I can't vouch for how they play.
To be honest, until I plugged in my Xbox controller, Bloodstained was a pain in the ass to play, as it wouldn't properly register buttons on my Dualsense. But since switching controllers, it's been smooth sailing.
From my point of view, it looks like the Konami DS ports are fairly low effort, so I wouldn't be surprised if they play pretty badly. So to that end, I'd probably end up recommending Bloodstained, as it's designed for modern systems and resolutions.
But as I say, my experience is fairly limited.
Sulphur on 27/1/2025 at 11:24
Quote Posted by Thirith
For someone who likes quite a few Metroidvanias (and absolutely loves
Hollow Knight) but has never played a
Castlevania (except for one of those 3D ones that aren't really in the same genre anyway): which is the one you'd recommend I'd check out?
My experience with them has been solely the old ones from the NES/SNES and PS1 era, and I haven't played any of the Gameboy/DS Castlevanias, so I can only recommend Symphony of the Night as an entry point if you're looking for less friction (otherwise it'd be Castlevania 4 for the retro fun times). I've heard that that some of the later ones better the formula, so maybe more folks can weigh in on that.
If you're not too fussed about it being a
Castlevania exclusively, like Malf I'd say you're probably best off with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as it's a refinement of the formula and makes some fun additions to it.
Malf on 27/1/2025 at 11:30
Oh yeah, one major barrier to entry is that for some completely batshit reason (this IS Konami), despite making all of those DS / Advance games available, they never ported Symphony of the Night to PC.
Sulphur on 27/1/2025 at 11:42
Yeah, if you want a current-day barebones port of SotN, it'll have to be on Playstation. The original runs absolutely fine on emulators on your PC platform of choice, though.
Malf on 27/1/2025 at 11:46
I'm just wondering exactly how big the pillarbox blanking will be on Thirith's ultrawide monitor for a game that runs 4:3 :D
Thirith on 27/1/2025 at 12:30
Oh, no worries about that. I've watched enough letterboxed films not to be fazed by big black bars.
WingedKagouti on 27/1/2025 at 13:40
My main issue with Bloodstained is that to access the good ending, you need to not kill a specific boss during the battle, but instead do something else that depends on a trigger close to when the boss would actually die. And the boss obviously doesn't stop attacking at this point. Otherwise it's a great metroidvania with lots of additional modes.
Aja on 27/1/2025 at 17:17
Quote Posted by Thirith
For someone who likes quite a few Metroidvanias (and absolutely loves
Hollow Knight) but has never played a
Castlevania (except for one of those 3D ones that aren't really in the same genre anyway): which is the one you'd recommend I'd check out?
Can't go wrong with Symphony of the Night, but also Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, the latter two of which you can actually buy on Steam in a collection.
