Droning on and on about Castlevania

Last night I was over at a friend's house and he was playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for the PS3 and it got me to thinking about Castlevania in general. The new game looks pretty fantastic, plays like old school Castlevania but in 3d. A lot of comparisons can be made to God of War but on that note God of War is kinda like a old Castlevania game but in 3d. By this I'm not really talking about the Metroid style Castlevania games (like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) but the old ones like Castlevania, Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse, Super Castlevania 4, Castlevania Bloodlines, or the amazing Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. I will need more time with the new game to really get a solid opinion of it so once I play it more I'll write more about it.

Thinking back at my history of Castlevania, I have realized that I have played a good majority of the games. So join my on my recollection of the Castlevania games that I am familiar with. The first that I really remember playing was Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest. When I was really young that game was crazy to try to figure out. It was the first Castlevania game where you could just explore and try to figure out what you should do on your own. Since it depended on exploration so much I got super confused on where to go and what to do. I have since played it more and it is much easier for me to comprehend now. It is pretty fantastic when I go back to it now. When I was young I remember getting to Dracula somehow but I didn't have all the things I needed and he just kept beating me up. I would definitely recommend playing that game since it is pretty different than anything else on the NES. More Castlevania talk after the break.

Another that I played a lot as a kid was Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse which is more of a classic style Castlevania game as opposed to Simon's Quest. The thing that I remember most about that game was that you could get secondary characters at certain points. There was Grant DaNasty who was a pirate, he could climb up walls and switch directions mid-jump which is crazy. Castlevania is notorious for punishing you for jumping wrong, basically once you start jumping you are committed to that jump (which leads to many deaths). There was also Sypha Belnades who was really weak physically but she could cast magic attacks. I remember not really wanting to use her all that much. Then there was Alucard, he can turn into a bat and shoot fireballs. I know that Alucard and Grant were my favorites. You could switch between Trevor and the secondary characters by pressing the Select button. Another cool feature of the game was that there were branching paths. I remember getting a fair way through the game but I don't believe I ever finished it which is sad; I think I should go back and play it sometime.

Fast forward a bit and we end up with Castlevania: Bloodlines. I was big into the Genesis when I was younger and I was really excited when a Castlevania game came out on it. It came out back in the Mortal Kombat days so games where being edgy on the Genesis so this game was a little bloody and violent. You can play as 2 characters one of which is John Morris who has the vampire killer whip and plays like the typical whip wielding Castlevania character. The other guy is named Eric Lecarde who has a spear. I remember playing through and finishing the game as both characters. There were some really neat effects in the game, I remember the characters being reflected in the water (sounds lame now but it was really cool back in the day).

Fast forward to 1997 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night comes out for the PlayStation. This one is still one of my favorite games in the series to date. In this game you play as Alucard, who is also in Castlevania 3 and the son of Dracula. The game starts out with you as Richter Belmont is about to kill Dracula (which is actually the end of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood). So you play as Richter at the beginning of the game and kill Dracula. 5 years later you come back to the castle as Alucard. Right away this game plays very differently than other Castlevania games. This game is a mix of Metroid exploration with RPG stats, equipment, and levels. This style of Castlevania has been called Metroidvania recently. After you finish the game there is a way to play it in a more traditional Castlevania style by entering your save file name as "RICHTER". This allows you to play as Richter through the castle which adds a fun challenge to the game.

The Castlevania games for the GameBoy Advance share a lot with Symphony of the Night, which is not a bad thing by any means. These games are Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. All of these games are in the Metroidvania vein. I don't remember too much about them other than Aria of Sorrow which was a really fantastic game and has a direct sequel on the Nintendo DS called Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Both Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow you play as Soma Cruz who is the reincarnation of Dracula which is kinda weird but it seems to work. The game is really solid though and a lot of fun.

The next game I'm gonna talk about is Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the PS2. I know this game had some mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. You play as Leon Belmont and you are on a quest to save your lady friend. This game is technically the first in the series and it takes place in 1094. The thing that really stands out in that game is the music which I think is really incredible. I remember back when it came out I recorded the music from the games sound test menu onto minidisc (which was a fantastic format by the way). The game was the first real good 3d Castlevania game, had fun bosses but it does look a little stale after a while with the environments.

The last game I want to talk about is Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. This is basically a remake of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood which is by far the best classic style Castlevania game. You play as Richter Belmont who is at the beginning of Symphony of the Night (since that game is a direct sequel to this one). You are on a quest to kill Dracula which is normal enough for Castlevania games. You find a little girl along the way named Maria who is also in Symphony of the Night as a supporting character (though grown up in Symmphony of the Night). You can actually play as her after you beat the game in Rondo of Blood. On this version of the game you can only play the graphically remade version first but you can unlock the original TurboGrafx CD version by playing the game. You can also unlock Symphony of the Night in the game but I actually don't really like it since they retranslated the dialog which is so bad it's awesome in the original (sounds petty but I really like the campy dialog).

There are many other Castlevania games that I haven't talked about in this blog but I don't have the time or energy to talk about all of them at the moment. I actually have the second PS2 game which is called Castlevania: Curse of Darkness but I haven't played it at all yet. I also have Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS which I haven't played enough yet to judge properly. I'm also trying to find time to go through Castlevania Chronicles which I have downloaded on the PSN store for my PS3 / PSP. Chronicles is a remake of Castlevania for the Sharp X68000 which was only released in Japan. So when I actually finish those games I will write about them. Other than that I don't seem to have much to write on. Looking back at this post it just kinda drones on and on but it has helped me get through the night at work which is a good thing!