Castlevania Hot Take

[PacBunnyXV07]

The Castlevania DS games are better made than Symphony of the Night, FIGHT ME!!!

 

[Xdqwerty]

The Castlevania DS games are better made than Symphony of the Night, FIGHT ME!!!

i never played symphony of the night but i did play the ds games

 

[nWo]

Well, I would never compare games that have a gap of almost 10 years between them. Other times, other hardware, other completely different category in many circumstances.

Is just dumb. Is like saying that, N64's WWF No Mercy is better made than SNES's WWF Arcade Game.

 

[EchoStorm]

I've played both and owned both but SOTN is the only one I bother to emulate. The DS games may be objectively better but SOTN is timeless in its own way.

 

[TripleSMoon]

The Castlevania DS games are better made than Symphony of the Night, FIGHT ME!!!

I agree in some ways, but my problem with every IGAvania entry following Symphony of the Night is how strictly linear they are. You're still wandering around a big labyrinth sure, but in a pretty damn set order because of all the cutscenes and whatnot. Symphony was never quite as open as Super Metroid, but there was still a much wider possibility space because of how breakable sequence is and how crazy broken all your gear and whatnot could be.

Don't get me wrong, I honestly believe that the DS games are peak of the series, and Order of Ecclesia in particular is my favorite Castlevania overall. But man oh man, what I wouldn't give for them to make a game as refined as the DS entries, but with Symphony's openness. And while Bloodstained is kinda in that direction, I really don't like that game much.

 

[HiradeGirl]

They don't beat Aria of Sorrow IMHO

 

[x65943]

The Castlevania DS games are better made than Symphony of the Night, FIGHT ME!!!

Clearly true

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

I've played both and owned both but SOTN is the only one I bother to emulate. The DS games may be objectively better but SOTN is timeless in its own way.

Symphony of the Night is also easy, I always play that game on High Luck Mode. #X-X!V''Q

Post automatically merged: Nov 18, 2023

I agree in some ways, but my problem with every IGAvania entry following Symphony of the Night is how strictly linear they are. You're still wandering around a big labyrinth sure, but in a pretty damn set order because of all the cutscenes and whatnot. Symphony was never quite as open as Super Metroid, but there was still a much wider possibility space because of how breakable sequence is and how crazy broken all your gear and whatnot could be.

Don't get me wrong, I honestly believe that the DS games are peak of the series, and Order of Ecclesia in particular is my favorite Castlevania overall. But man oh man, what I wouldn't give for them to make a game as refined as the DS entries, but with Symphony's openness. And while Bloodstained is kinda in that direction, I really don't like that game much.

Would you like it if a Castlevania game was as open as Hollow Knight?

Post automatically merged: Nov 18, 2023

They don't beat Aria of Sorrow IMHO

Aria of Sorrow doesn't beat Portrait of Ruin, GOT'EM!!!

 

[TripleSMoon]

Would you like it if a Castlevania game was as open as Hollow Knight?

My platonic ideal for linearity in metroidvanias is for there to be maybe an intended path or two, but with a reasonable level of sequence breaking that can be done with enough player curiosity and skill. In other words, Super Metroid. You can't quite tell what the intended order is, but there's a general order of operations and knowledge of the game's mechanics allows you to really break the order in a way that makes it feel like you're breaking the rules even if you aren't, really.

Hollow Knight does a good job following this principle, so in other words, yes.

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

My platonic ideal for linearity in metroidvanias is for there to be maybe an intended path or two, but with a reasonable level of sequence breaking that can be done with enough player curiosity and skill. In other words, Super Metroid. You can't quite tell what the intended order is, but there's a general order of operations and knowledge of the game's mechanics allows you to really break the order in a way that makes it feel like you're breaking the rules even if you aren't, really.

Hollow Knight does a good job following this principle, so in other words, yes.

I agreed with you, I don't like Super Metroid that much because I played Zero Mission first and like how that game controls. Super Metroid is good at having some linearity and like sequence breaking without feeling you're breaking the game that much like using mock ball to get super missiles early, bomb jumping to Kraid's Lair to get Wave beam and using Ice Beam to freeze an enemy to get Power Bombs early.

 

[TripleSMoon]

I agreed with you, I don't like Super Metroid that much because I played Zero Mission first and like how that game controls. Super Metroid is good at having some linearity and like sequence breaking without feeling you're breaking the game that much like using mock ball to get super missiles early, bomb jumping to Kraid's Lair to get Wave beam and using Ice Beam to freeze an enemy to get Power Bombs early.

I played Zero Mission first too, and disliked Super for years. It wasn't until a couple years ago that Super really got its hooks into me in a way that I can't shake off: The possibility space in that game is so broad, and even when I'm not playing Super Metroid proper, the romhacks are incredible because there's basically no progression gating, so romhack devs can make whatever wild thing they please. It's the same reason Dark Souls 1 has so many interesting mods; the progression gating is near-nonexistent in a way that gives devs freedom.

Compare that to Castlevania GBA or DS romhacks, where no matter how wildly different they want to make the romhacks, they're still bound by the strict linear progression gating that has even the most robust romhacks feeling a bit too samey at times. That's why so many of the best ones use the secondary character mode as a base instead, because those tend to be more open in structure (id est, Julius mode in Dawn of Sorrow).

 

[Xdqwerty]

The Castlevania DS games are better made than Symphony of the Night, FIGHT ME!!!

and what about the GBA games?

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

and what about the GBA games?

Pretty sure people would say the DS games are better, Aria of Sorrow is great but thats about it.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Pretty sure people would say the DS games are better, Aria of Sorrow is great but thats about it.

in my opinion circle of the moon is better

 

[TripleSMoon]

in my opinion circle of the moon is better

I so badly want to like Circle of the Moon, but never really like it much when I replay it. I do always finish, though.

My dark horse pick for the best GBA Castlevania is Harmony of Dissonance, though. I love how diabolical navigation is, lol.