What a beautiful night to have a discussion
I have only played SotN (and I freaking loved it) and I want to get more into the serie: should I start to play right from the first title? What are the better versions of each title?
Most titles as they exist are the only playable versions. If you own a PSP try to snag DXC on there as it comes with Rondo of Blood. If I had to make a tiered list of what to play....
Must Play
-Castlevania 3(NES)
-Super Castlevania IV(SNES)
-Aria of Sorrow(GBA)&Dawn of Sorrow(DS)
-Dracula X Chronicles(PSP)
-Order of Ecclesia(DS)
Highly Recommended
-Castlevania Chronicles(PS1)
-Circle of the Moon(GBA)
-Portrait of Ruin(DS)
If You Loved All of the Above and Crave the Night
-Harmony of Despair(GBA)
-Lament of Innocence&Curse of Darkness(PS2)
Never Played and Have No Idea
-Castlevania Adventure Rebirth(Wiiware, probably dead)
-Those Nintendo 64 Games
Do Not Exist
-Castlevania Lords of Shadow Era
I may need to replay Portrait of Ruin, since not only it's my least liked entry of the DS trio, it acually left me with a slighly sour taste
- Jonathan is annoying at best, unlikable at worst
- Second half is pure asset recycling
- The vampire sisters are sorely underused in the main story. Wind, too
- Some bosses are actually en example of poor animation, with Dagon as the worst example.
Now, the game was also hype as fuck. Starting from dat intro
(I've never been actually agaisnt any art style for the series, even Obata's is fine in my book. Hell, his preteen Eric Lecarde is my favorite depiction of the character)
Music ranges from great to excellent
And the last battle, while shoehorned, is the most epic Castlevania boss ever. It's something that always comes to my head when i'm trying to choreograph a final battle for my old and abandoned Castlevania fanfic.
Wind was fine, because as I said, those quest where great incentives to explore. The recycled assets are a non-issue for me as well, considering that was the franchise for a good 10 years in terms of enemy design, I mean seriously. At least the maps were remixed. It was castlevania in its purest form presentation and gameplay wise, so forgive me if I give it some leeway where it had minor errors.
And yeah, that intro kicks ass. I want a Guilty Gear Xrd style 2D Igavania with that art direction, I mean it makes so much sense to not do it.