/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7828302]

What are the best and/or hardest Castlevania games?

[Anonymous No.7828316]

SOTN speedrun has highest skill ceiling then Super IV speedrun. If you're doing a normie casual run then the differences don't matter

[Anonymous No.7828318]

>>7828302
Castlevania III

[Anonymous No.7828326]

>>7828302
The best is CV3, Rondo, Bloodlines, and IV
The worst is probably the GB games
SoTN and it's clones are medium tier

[Anonymous No.7828332]

I've only played I through IV (plus SoTN and the first DS game) and the US version of III is just downright malicious. After finishing the game I just felt empty.

[Anonymous No.7828338]

>>7828302
The US version of 3 is definitely the hardest but also my favorite.

[Anonymous No.7828450]

>>7828302
Most of them are closer together in difficulty that people will admit. Haunted Castle might be the most difficult, but CV3 US is probably the hardest one you would actually want to play.

[Anonymous No.7828451]

>>7828302
Chronicles original mode, Dracula X,3 and Adventure are all hard.
My favorites are 1,3 and Rondo

[Anonymous No.7828887]

>>7828302
Any of the metroidvanias are very fun to play. The NES games still hold up. Bloodlines and Rondo are great. But Super Castlevania 4 holds a special place in my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7laVyX5sz0I

[Anonymous No.7828916]

>>7828316
super 4 has the highest ceiling.

[Anonymous No.7829017]

>>7828916
Nope, Bloodlines does because you have to never take damage so you keep your flame whip/spear to deal the most damage on enemies or else your time will suck.

[Anonymous No.7829023]

SCIV is great

[Anonymous No.7829028]

>>7829023
Literally the only thing it has going for it is the graphics as a novelty after coming from the NES titles. Other than that it's completely mediocre and babby-tier

[Anonymous No.7829032]

>>7828326
>The worst is probably the GB games
People that say this haven't played Belmont's Revenge. The other two aren't even in the same league.

[Anonymous No.7829197]

>>7829017
Bloodlines is a masterpiece

[Anonymous No.7829258]

>>7829023
>>7829197
I agree

[Anonymous No.7829265]

-Classic
*Best: Rondo. Most beautiful, biggest moveset, not the highest but still fairly challenging on the second path
*Hardest: 3, no questions asked

-Nonlinear
*Best: Circle of the Moon. Only one with a challenge, least ways to cheese stuff, no bullshit
*Hardest: Circle of the Moon

-3D
*Best: Lament. Smooth movement, meaningful combos
*Hardest: Lament on crazy mode

[Anonymous No.7829473]

>>7828302
Best: X68000 Castlevania, The New Generation, Vampire Killer for MSX2

Worst: Super Castlevania Bros., the awful port of Rondo for Snezz, Simon's Quest

[Anonymous No.7829727]

>>7829265
Curse on Crazy mode is way harder than Lament's Crazy. It's actually legitimately crazy; so many boss attacks will kill you in one hit or cleave off huge chunks of your health, forcing you to get very strategic with how you use your Innocent Devils.

[Anonymous No.7829805]

>>7829473
Castlevania Dracula X for the SNES is a game of it's own, don't see it like a port of Rondo and maybe you'll like it, give another try

[Anonymous No.7829824]

I loved Aria Of Sorrow and Dawn Of Sorrow. The soul system is really well done, and the stories are pretty engaging.

[Anonymous No.7829909]

The gba ones look cool to me

[Anonymous No.7830113]

>>7829824
Everybody seems to hate aria of sorrow.
Collecting enemy abilitys was so much fun imo.

[Anonymous No.7830401]

>>7830113
>Everybody seems to hate aria of sorrow
Literally who and where? I can't even remember the last time I saw someone say anything bad about it. That said, I used to hate it myself for its plot and easy difficulty, but I warmed up to it years later and am actually enjoying a playthrough right now on a repro cart.

>>7829824
Used to dislike the soul system, too. I played Dawn first and it just seemed...too subdued? Like it tries balancing things compared to SoTN and AoS and I respect that, but the end result tended towards making Soma's abilities look really plain and uninteresting, and making some if not many weak without grinding for more of the same soul sucked. Compare that to Aria where fucking Ukobak goes from just being a tiny flame when he does to a fucking wave of fire in Soma's, or Tiny Devil shoots out one projectile while Soma shoots out slew of them in a three-pronged attack. I didn't like how strong everything was at first, but then I just accepted that I would enjoy things more if I just embraced it and went with what I like.

[Anonymous No.7830538]

>>7828450
nothing comes close to Haunted Castle. That is the Ghost N Goblins of the Castlevania series

[Anonymous No.7830574]

>>7829805
so many people dont get this. Its like how Ristar on GameGear is different then Mega Drive version or how so many "multiplatform" titles back in the day were really entirely different experiences

[Anonymous No.7830965]

>>7828302
Best:
Haunted Castle (doubters just suck at hard games)
Castlevania NES, (not the ruined Vs. arcade version)
Bloodlines
Rondo of Blood
Dracula X SNES
Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse (it's really, good, but the American version is too hard
Kid Dracula

Worst:
Castlevania II (it's just unfinished and frustrating, great music and nostalgia dough)
Castlevania: The Adventure (too hard, too slow)
All the Fagglevanias, yes, including Muh Simpony.

The Ugly, Castlevania games that are good, but have some problems:
Castlevania IV-it's a good game, but...its controls and feel just..I dunno, it's not my favorite one in the series, although its visuals and music are captivating.
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge--a great game, with excellent music that reaches sublime levels, but alas Dracula is so hard and the penalty for losing at him is severe enough that it sullies an otherwise stellar game.

[Anonymous No.7830974]

>>7830538
>nothing comes close to Haunted Castle
Disagree hard. I beat Haunted Castle version M, the hardest version with some difficulty in about two days of trying after being rusty for years, but Castlevania III is sheer madness. With that game, you're talking weeks of trying if not months, unless it's the Japanese version, then nevermind.
CV3 (USA) is the hardest Castlevania and cannot be argued otherwise.
Trust me, once you get past Haunted Castle's glitches and oddities, it's far easier.

[Anonymous No.7831130]

>>7830965
Haunted Castle is genuine garbage.

[Anonymous No.7831367]

This is a good enough thread to ask. Does anyone have the Dawn of Sorrow rom with the non anime portraits and the seal mechanic autocompletes? Was posted a while ago but I forgot the link

[Anonymous No.7831568]

>>7830401
>Repro cart
Why ? Are the original cartridge or the double pack that hard to find nowadays ?

[Anonymous No.7831613]

from a no-death faggot:

Chad no-death runs:
x68000 (ps1 version sucks)
Castlevania 3 - Trevor solo bottom with the retarded block stage
Castlevania 1 whip only
Castlevania 1 hitless/no-death
Dracula X - any route
CV4 - actually hard because of platforming and one-hit deaths + length

Normie no-deaths:
CV 1
CV 3 Sypha route
Rondo of Blood - Richter

Doesn't count tier:
Rondo Maria

Don't bother with this shit:
Simon's Quest

Haven't played enough/don't care:
Bloodlines
GB games

[Anonymous No.7831978]

Classic:

Hardest I've finished is 3.

The one I enjoyed the most was Rondo.

Honorable mention is Bloodlines.

Worst I've played is Super Castlevania IV.

Metroidvania:

Hardest was CotM

Best: SotM was never outdone by later entries, similar to Super Metroid.

[Anonymous No.7832006]

>>7831613
I lucked out ln not dying in Akumajou Dracula x68000 until the last room of the clock tower (the werewolf would have ended me anyway). I'm a shitter so surely it can't be that much chaddesque to no-death.

[Anonymous No.7832009]

>>7831978
Fuck I meant SotN

[Anonymous No.7832091]

>>7831130
No, it's just too hard for you. The graphics are superb, has music to match, the controls are responsive, the enemies are well drawn and imaginative, the bosses are good, the atmosphere is the best of all Castlevanias, and finally it filters faggots right out.

[Anonymous No.7832102]

>>7828302
haunted castle version m is hard

[Anonymous No.7832106]

>>7832102
Yes, but not as hard as the American Castlevania III.

[Anonymous No.7832147]

>>7832006
Just finished the game and now I can certainly say it's easier than IV considering I beat it without continues. Still a million times better than IV though.

[Anonymous No.7832154]

>>7831130
It's not bad, but it could've been a lot better. The final stage is extremely lazy. I heard HC was rushed which would make some sense.

[Anonymous No.7832160]

>>7832102
Also The Arcade Archives High Score version may be version K, but it's harder than even version M because you cannot add credit past one and it doesn't give you lives until level 4 and maybe only then as a glitch.
So you're more likely to get through version M with four credits added together than just one credit on the much easier version K.

[Anonymous No.7832173]

>>7832154
>The final stage is extremely lazy.
I like it. It's impossible at first, then you learn the way and from then on it merely looks tough, but isn't, I mean the bridge.

>The secret for the bridge is to keep the stopwatch and keep killing the bats as if the crumbling bridge behind you doesn't matter and then when the crumbling part is about two or three Simon-spaces away from you, start using the stopwatch to pause the bats and just keep going the whole time. Keep hitting the stopwatch every four to five seconds and you'll make it to the end with some hearts to spare if you've been collecting at every chance and haven't wasted too many.

[Anonymous No.7832205]

>>7831568
Kind of forgot about double pack, and I already had HoD anyway, no I am not always a smart man. AoS isn't hard to find...at least on Amazon, where the supposed real deal goes for $100 used easy. This isn't the first time I ended up with a repro, and the last time, I spent money for a "real" one that I strongly suspected was fake, so why bother, you know?

Kind of sucks, since it arguably screws over those with the real deal, but I strongly suspect that most if not all these sellers have probably been sitting on their CV stuff for awhile hoping to scalp; Belmont's Revenge is an old gameboy game going for fucking $120 used, and no, it's not anywhere near worth that, same with Legends being like $200 or some shit. I suppose that's Amazon for you, I don't know what it's like in the wild because no, I rarely if ever see this stuff in stores.

Repro works fine, for the record, never had real issues with the most serious being a pause when saving and that's it, I think.

[Anonymous No.7832241]

>>7829265
This. I don’t get the hate for Circle of the Moon. It was a great launch title for GBA and a lot of fun. Challenging, and the nonlinearity kept the whole thing refreshing

[Anonymous No.7832395]

>>7832205
Fucking hell man, that's hard to read. I remember buying the double pack for 5 bucks when I was 12, back in 2006. It's crazy that fucking GBA games can sell for 100 bucks or more

[Anonymous No.7832408]

>>7832241
The map is a little confusing, but it's still one of the more underrated ones.

[Anonymous No.7832446]

>>7830965
>penalty for losing at him is severe enough
There's no penalty, though. You go back to the beginning of his stage, which is just a short walk back to the boss room.

[Anonymous No.7832478]

>>7832395
I think it's just Aria that's like this out of the Castlevania GBA games, CoTM and HoD are like $30 or something, not all that unreasonable considering they're good games. Aria is good, too, but it should really only be like $50 or something, it goes for $100 because it's probably the most popular vania game second only to SoTN over the years, something sellers are likely aware and trying to take advantage of. Point of comparison, Dawn of Sorrow was like, $45 when I looked at it alongside AoS, and for that matter, PoR and OoE are a little over $60. This is all used, and personally are prices I'd be willing to go for one at time, in the span of years.

Looking at it right now, though, it can vary. Most options for OoE used are $60 like I said, then for some fucking reason someone is asking for used $379 alongside new shit like $189-301. People are fucking silly. I love OoE and $60 is already pushing it, used or otherwise.

[Anonymous No.7832479]

>>7832091
>No, it's just too hard for you.
Not at all. Unlike you I don't find the U.S. version of III "too hard" whatsoever. The problem with Haunted Castle isn't that it's too hard. The problem is that it's too shit. It's an ugly, glitchy mess.

[Anonymous No.7832481]

>>7828302
Best linear Castlevania is on X68000.

Best non-linear Castlevania is on MSX2.

COMPUTERCHADS WE JUST CAN'T STOP WINNINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[Anonymous No.7832483]

>>7832446
>You go back to the beginning of his stage
Yeah which is far, not close or a short walk.
What brings you to lie over a Game Boy game, anon?
Did you parents not let you watch early Saturday morning cartoons?

[Anonymous No.7832486]

>>7832479
>It's an ugly, glitchy mess.
It's not ugly, but I freely admit that it's got several glitches that fuck up your shill royally, true.
I've been playing the game for maybe 15 years now and at this point they're endearing to me, but fair enough.

[Anonymous No.7832490]

Haunted Castle is going to be my first Castlevania game since I'm going through a bunch of arcade games.

How fucked am I

[Anonymous No.7832501]

>>7832490
>How fucked am I
Heh. Here's how fucked:
>you've just committed a felony with a weapon
>you're caught
>you're also one of the hottest traps in history
>the state doesn't care and puts you in with your actual gender
>no protective custody

Keep in mind that CV3 is harder, but Haunted Castle's learning curve is despicable because of some bugs alone. Good luck.

[Anonymous No.7832508]

>>7832501
will quarter spam save me

[Anonymous No.7832509]

>>7832490
I haven't even played Haunted Castle and from what I hear, it's stupid hard if not shit, you're probably pretty fucked. Land sake's, anon, why don't you play NES Castlevania 1 instead? I can assure you that one is in fact very well designed and fun, and will be a nice way for you to get a grasp on classicvania in general if you intend to play the other ones.

[Anonymous No.7832517]

>>7832508
Nope. The game has this sick feature where you CAN quarter spam for a dollar's worth, just four credits, but you get two options, you can press start four times and roll all those credits into one game where if you die once, you're done, no continue, but your life bar is combined from four credits, giving you extended hit points.
The other option is that you can continue three times, but keeping in mind that it's very easy to get killed on just one life bar.
And moreover:
>adding more than 4 credits is allowed, but will never allow a continue past the third continue

There's a few versions, so M is the hardest, K is the easiest.

[Anonymous No.7832526]

>>7832490
Here's some scrub strats for Haunted Castle:

>play the M version so you don't die in 3 hits
>farm hearts on stage 2, you can kill yourself in the water to repeat this as much as you wish
>keep the stopwatch to cheese bosses with, you're going to need it for the golem boss

[Anonymous No.7832532]

How to defeat the golem boss (if you get to him):
>turn your back on him and be as far to the right as possible
>either duck or just stand there looking to the right
>do not turn around because he's shy and will fuck off and screw you over with the time even if his cheap projectiles don't kill you
>after he's done throwing his poop or whatever, let him come into range, so that his face is at least of the halfway point of the screen
>the game is cheap and you will get hit once or twice no matter how good you dodge his shit
>use the boomerrang to kill him
or
>use the stopwatch to freeze him once he's in range

[Anonymous No.7832536]

>>7832526
This anon knows what's up.

[Anonymous No.7832547]

To the other helpful Haunted Castle player, I find that the cross is an effective replacement for the stopwatch, but admittedly takes more time to master, but not on the golem boss. Frankenstein's monster is most effectively killed by the stopwatch and the sword, but can be killed easily by the cross too.
Then it's a toss up at the last stage because the stopwatch is great and all with the bats on the bridge, but the cross is easier to use on Dracula, but getting to him with it is far harder.
The game's programmer's definitely ran out of time, but to me that seems like a deliberate "fuck you".

[Anonymous No.7832573]

>>7830965
>(doubters just suck at hard games)
>(it's really, good, but the American version is too hard
>(too hard, too slow)
>but alas Dracula is so hard and the penalty for losing at him is severe enough that it sullies an otherwise stellar game.

[Anonymous No.7832579]

>>7832573
Everything I said is correct. Your stupid meme disgust is not an argument.

[Anonymous No.7832593]

>>7832483
>which is far
It takes much less time to walk across the short bridge than going through the part 3's US release drops you off at when you die, or replaying the whole game if you used all your lives up in the case. It barely takes any longer than going up the staircase and grabbing all the candles on your way to the room in a typical game.

A more biting criticism would be that Dracula's fight is totally based on trial and error in order for the player to figure out where they can stand when he's in a specific position.

[Anonymous No.7832605]

If anons are confused how version can be the hardest version, yet is somehow easier than the others, you need to understand that enemy patterns are changed as well to be overall trickier to deal with in version M, hence the tendency to roll one's remaining continues into one life and no continues because of the seemingly massive amount of hit points (64), but they go quickly if you're not careful.
Other versions take less hit points and have somewhat easier enemy patterns.

[Anonymous No.7832612]

>7832579
>Everything I said is correct
No.

[Anonymous No.7832615]

If anons are confused how version M can be the hardest version, yet is somehow easier than the others, you need to understand that enemy patterns are changed to be overall trickier to deal with in version M, hence the tendency to roll one's remaining continues into one life and no continues because of the seemingly massive amount of hit points (64), but they go quickly if you're not careful, and the other versions don't let you roll all continues into one, I think.
Other versions take less hit points and have somewhat easier enemy patterns.
fihgzzd

[Anonymous No.7832619]

>>7832612
Git gud
Play version M, feel like a Marine at the end.

[Anonymous No.7832645]

>>7832593
>It takes much less time to walk across the short bridge than going through the part 3's US release drops you off at when you die, or replaying the whole game if you used all your lives up in the case. It barely takes any longer than going up the staircase and grabbing all the candles on your way to the room in a typical game.
It still eats up a lot of time and can yield some cheap last minute hits which are most unwelcome right before Dracula.

>A more biting criticism would be that Dracula's fight is totally based on trial and error in order for the player to figure out where they can stand when he's in a specific position.
Agreed. It's an infuriating fight unless one can unlock the patience of Job and the intellect of von Braun. The trouble is that the game before the fight is just not like that at all.
I consider getting to him beating the game.
foldedarmspepe.tiff

[Anonymous No.7832681]

>>7832645
>It still eats up a lot of time and can yield some cheap last minute hits which are most unwelcome right before Dracula.
You must be thinking of a different game. When you die or game over to Dracula, you're sent back to https://youtu.be/wZZ6dHVKJb4?t=553 .

Maybe you're thinking of The Adventure? If so I would totally agree that the last stage and the punishment for dying to Dracula are both bullshit. Especially the hallway with the knights, who are practically impossible to kill if you're at the base whip upgrade.

>Agreed. It's an infuriating fight unless one can unlock the patience of Job and the intellect of von Braun. The trouble is that the game before the fight is just not like that at all.
Yeah, it's tedious to have the players throw themselves against a pattern memorization battle when nearly every other Classic Dracula fight is based more on reflexes.

[Anonymous No.7832710]

>>7832681
Huh. Sorry, guess I had a weird brainfart, I could have sworn there was another semi-tough room after the slide down that rope (ouch).

>Maybe you're thinking of The Adventure?
Yes, must have confabulated the two.

>the punishment for dying to Dracula are both bullshit. Especially the hallway with the knights, who are practically impossible to kill if you're at the base whip upgrade.

Yeah. That's one of the few games that I have a desire to cheat on.

[Anonymous No.7832725]

Best/hardest: Classicvania
Worst/easiest: Metroidvania

>>7830965
>Castlevania NES, (not the ruined Vs. arcade version)
what's wrong with it

[Anonymous No.7832736]

>>7832725
>what's wrong with it
The timer is way too short and can kill you off even when you're not fucking around in the slightest. It happened to me before I got to Medusa. Ridiculous. Also the difficulty is ramped up too, maybe taking more hit points because NES Castlevania is a breeze on the first loop for me, sometimes even the second loop, but the first loop in Vs. Castlevania I can't get past the damn twin mummy boss. Unreal.
Still trying, though, and it's got a superior color palette than its cousin, so it's not a total loss.

[Anonymous No.7832806]

>>7832725
I'm currently going through the classic games after replaying SoTN which was my only Castlevania and now I fucking dread getting to the memetroidvania ones. Guess I'll have to get Bloodstained 1 and 2 in the future once I'm done.

[Anonymous No.7833115]

>>7828302
>What are the best
I, III, IV, Bloodlines
>hardest?
Who cares

[Anonymous No.7833143]

>best
Rondo
Japanese III
Bloodlines
1
>hardest
American 3
2 (for cryptic bullshit)
Haunted Castle
1

[Anonymous No.7833160]

>>7828302
>best
SOTN for Metroidvania style.
Super Castlevania 4 for retro style.
>hardest
Castlevania X for SNES.
>my personal favorites
Rondo of Blood
SOTN
Aria of Sorrow
Bloodlines
SCIV
NES CV1

And here is just one of my favorite OST in all CV games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRHXEtfawVo

[Anonymous No.7833294]

>>7830965
>Best: Haunted Castle (doubters just suck at hard games)
>Castlevania III Dracula's Curse (it's really, good, but the American version is too hard
This fucking board I swear.

[Anonymous No.7833321]

>>7833294
It's a "good" hard, you know what I mean?

[Anonymous No.7833437]

After playing as Maria I can safely say Rondo of Based is my favorite Castlevader. More games should feature dangerously capable lolis as alternate characters.

[Anonymous No.7834074]

1, 3 and 4 are the best for me.
Hardest are probably 3, x68k, Dracula X and Haunted Castle (this one sadly not very good a game but I love the aesthetic and música)

[Anonymous No.7835592]

>>7828302
Best: Bloodlines

Worst: Super 4 (Trashure made the gameplay too easy with the air control, crouch-walking, 8-way whipping, etc. BL should be commended for fixing much of the dumbing down that was caused by those overrated hacks).

[Anonymous No.7835604]

>>7832736
If you emulate your NES games you can give them all a pretty similar palette by selecting "RGB"

[Anonymous No.7835870]

I'm gonna force myself to play Rondo before I play Symphony of the Night, but I suck at classic vanias.

[Anonymous No.7835895]

>>7835870
>I'm gonna force myself to play
^This is what's with society in a sentence. Also SotN is when it stopped being Castlevania.

[Anonymous No.7835902]

>>7835870
>>I'm gonna force myself to play
^This is what's wrong with society in a sentence. Also SotN is when it stopped being Castlevania.

fixed While I'm waiting for it to post, will admit great joy in knocking down other anons on the leaderboards. :)

[Anonymous No.7835919]

>>7828326
GB games are fun with fan mods improving the speed of your character.

[Anonymous No.7835945]

>>7835870
Rondo's not that hard compared to other Classicvanias, you'll be fine.

[Anonymous No.7835962]

>mfw just started Bloodlines and saw the finite continues
It doesn't get as miserable as CV3 r-right?

[Anonymous No.7835987]

>>7835962
>not 1cc'ing Castlevania games
You didn't really finish them.

[Anonymous No.7835991]

>>7835987
I did 1cc Akumajou Dracula x68000 without even trying, somehow it was easier than IV.

[Anonymous No.7836002]

>>7835919
I don't think they really need it. The Adventure and Legends are just kind of a drag in general. Belmont's Revenge is great and I've never felt like it was particularly slow.

[Anonymous No.7836016]

>>7835991
Were you playing a ROM that has easier damage value scaling or something? She-wolf boss alone should have at least made you use a continue.

[Anonymous No.7836027]

>>7836016
I got mine from Emuparadise, not sure if that was the case since I beat her in one try.

[Anonymous No.7836032]

>>7835962
Bloodlines is not as brutal as Dracula's Curse. I highly recommend playing expert mode, it's the only enjoyable hard mode in the entire series. Use the Konami code to get it from the get go.

Also for extra Castlevania flavor make sure to set BGM to 005 and SE to 073 in the options.