What made you fall in love with the Castlevania series?

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I remembered playing the first Castlevania game at my friends house back in the late 1980's. The gameplay, the difficulty, the music, the weapons all drew me into the game. I never owned a NES myself back then but had a lot of friends who did. Every chance I got, I got to play almost all the games and those I didn't get to play, I eventually played on Emulation. Playing the SNES version of Dracula X I was told wasn't as good as the the Turbo Graphics 16 CD-Rom version but sadly the system came and went before I got a chance to buy it and the Dracula X import became too much for me to spend on a single game.

I have however in the last few year have been able to enjoy the DS/GBA versions of the series, the genesis version, a few of the gameboy versions, xbox/ps2 versions and of course the famous SOTN.

Personally I don't like the way the series has gone overboard by using Anime like/RPG elements (with the exception of SOTN). I can never get into the 3d versions of the game like COD or LOI. 2-D has always been it's strong selling points.

In early 2001, I bought a sega dreamcast in the hopes that the Castlevania game would be released later that year. But of course it was mysteriously canceled and never saw the light of day.

Al thought I do not a PSP yet, I do plan on getting it soon and with that the new Dracula X Chronicles. I really can't wait to play the remake and the classic Rondo of Blood version. However I am concerned that it's only a matter of time before they pull a Liberty City Stories port from PSP to PS2...meaning that if I do get a PSP and this game, that it won't show up on the PS2 a few months from now.

So lets here it, what brought you to fall in love with the series?
 
Like most people I wouldn't call myself a fan until SOTN. I never went back to play the orginals but after that I played all the GBA and DS Castlevania games. I even liked the PS2 ones. I think what got me hooked on SOTN is the RPG element and Alucard being such an awsome character.
 
I gave Aria of Sorrow a try because I had heard good things about it and I loved it! Since then, I've gone and played many of the others, including the 1st for the NES. That sucker is hard! I hope to try out Dracula X Chronicles sometime soon too. Like you, I don't think I'll ever get into the 3d games. They just seem kinda bleh to me.
 
My first experince was Simons Quest on the NES . . . i loved this castlevania , but there is a lot of people who dont like it for some reason!!! Ever since ive played all the castlevania games. SOTN is one of my favs , ive played the 3d ones just cuz it being castlevania . . . but yes the 2d ones are the series strong points!! The newer ones on the GBA and DS i like but the heavy anime element i can do without , i mean come on its castlevania!!!! The art for SOTN fits this series the best , hands down. All in all this series will be around forever!!!:applause:
 
Symphony of the Night blew my mind. I played Castlevania when I was a kid, but it was way too damn hard for me to play, and I hated it really. SOTN was like "Hey, I'm radical." I agreed.
 
For me, I played Castlevania in an arcade many years ago and I quite enjoyed it. By the time Simon's Quest hit the NES I ran out and got a copy and, despite it being different, I loved the hell out of it. The fact that there was sickening amounts of exploration, hidden areas, secret items, and townspeople who would lie to you made it quite a challenge. And upon reaching the end and finding out that I would need to shave a good 7 or so hours off of my time to get a better ending? That was well worth the money back then.

I missed Castlevania 3 but it looked fantastic. Same thing with Super Castlevania and Rondo of Blood. I hit up Symphony of the Night and...well, it's still my favorite of the series. It wasn't just what it offered (I do enjoy my Metroid-ish gameplay) but all of the secrets and hidden things involved. A wealth of rare weapons, armors, and items, secret motions that create different attacks with different weapons (ie: Back -> Forward for Holy Rod/Holy Sword to do an extra 30% or so of damage)...it was something that I played for a good two years and still found little things here and there. Utterly brilliant.

While I do enjoy the GBA and DS ones as well I still feel like they're missing the extra depth that SotN had, if just a bit. It's a minor quibble and I still love the series something fierce but I like that little extra bit of replayability, the additional touch that makes me forget about buying other games for a few months.
 
Castlevania 3 was amazing. The branching paths were a lot of fun to explore. It's a true shame that Konomi abandoned the first 3 games. Many people including myself would hope that they would go back and do a remake of all three games using current generation technology methods. Imagine the response if they remade the games using the new game's engine.
 
[quote name='dim2192']Castlevania is overrated![/QUOTE]


I wouldn't call the Castlevania series as being overrated.
 
I played the first nes game at a friends house. I didnt own a nes yet. Then I bought a nes, and got Simons Quest. My friend and I played it together and when we got stuck we called the Nintendo Helpline. I learned about kneeling in a certain dead end...

After that I was hooked.

SotN is still my favorite.
 
Simon's Quest was my first experience. I think it was the complexity of the game that got me hooked and my brother and I got really into it. Castlevania III, however, got me hooked because of how vastly different it was from II. I beat III within a few days of getting it, but kept playing it to try the multiple paths. I then played I, what I thought was easy, but the clincher for me came when I got Castlevania IV, before I got a SNES. Level 4-3 did for me, with the revolving background (best Mode-7 effects ever) and the rest is history. That is one of my favorite parts of any game I've ever played. I now a complete U. S. Castlevania collection (working on getting all the boxes and manuals) and I also have Rondo of Blood because I got tired of waiting for Dracula X Chronicles. My favorite game in the series is Symphony of the Night, with Castlevania III, IV, and Rondo of Blood not far behind.
 
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the PS2 actually wasn't too bad. It came out at a really bad time, right after God of War and the bar for action games were raised. The weapon creation mode was cool and the music was also nice. I didn't care too much for the familar creation. But the big problem was the back tracking. Overall I enjoyed it. Definatly not the best of the series but I always thought it deserved more credit than it gets.
 
I was hooked after playing the original NES Castlevania. I enjoyed Simon's Quest, but Castlevania III reminded me why Castlevania was so great.

Castlevania III is the best in the series (SotN is way overrated).
 
simons quest was the first one i played, and i sure played that a lot. castlevania iv i played the shit out of. symphony of the night i still pop in every now and then. but after that i havent really played any.
 
I had played Castlevania games before SOTN, but it was always like I just played them because everybody else was playing them. I never finished any of them except for Super Castlevania on the S-NES and my overall feeling about the series was that it was cool, but I wasn't in love with it.

SOTN really blew me away like no other Castlevania game before it, and while I can't say that I LOVE the series now, I do love SOTN and it has made me want to play Dracula X one day on the PC Engine, or maybe the PSP version since it definitely influenced SOTN.

I should mention that my feeling towards Metroid games was similar to how I felt about Castlevania before SOTN. Never a huge fan of the series, but didn't hate it either. However, the mix of Metroid style gameplay with Castlevania in SOTN was just a match made in heaven. Add in a dash of rpg elements, and the same awesome new visual style from Dracula X and one of the best soundtracks in gaming history and you've got yourself a masterpiece
 
Most of the nes games that I played at the time were sidescrollers, but Castlevania had whips and axes and a castle. The music was unique and enjoyable.

Why did I enjoy it? Probably the atmosphere, and it was a very playable game.
 
Castlevania I, third level climbing and jumping through the ivy-covered ruins, feeling a vague sense of vertigo and hearing the great music and seeing Dracula's lone tower off in the distance.

SOTN is great, but it's not a "lonely" game like the first game, which is why the first is such a masterpiece. You have to understand how effectively atmospheric the game was back in the 80s - we had literally never seen anything like it for a home console before.
 
The first Castelvania game I got into was Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. It was just a well made, well thought out game. I liked the fact you had the opportunity to play as different characters and the music was superb. The game was just great all the way around. That reminds me, I bought the PC version and I need to install that game so I can play it again.

I really didn't care for the 16-bit Castlevanias much. Bloodlines was okay, but I couldn't stand Super Castlevania or Dracula X.

SOTN brought me back into the fold though. One of my favorite all time games. It copied the mapping of my favorite, Super Metroid, and that took the game to a whole new level IMO.

One of the worst experiences I had thought was Circle of the Moon. It wasn't due to the gameplay because that part was stellar. It was because I was 95% complete and at the final battle...then my save disappeared (my copy was a legit one I bought from Circuit City BTW). That was the disapponting thing I ever experienced in gaming because I put a lot of hours into exploring everything without a guide. I haven't bought a new copy since that.
 
^ Dude, I remember, I also had some kinda problem on my cart. I lost my entire save. I was trying to get 100% and one day it wasn't there anymore. I thought I did something wrong, but maybe it wasn't my fault after all... Was Konami to balme for my crestfallen feeling?

lolcatsdotcomt4u6hdhw06glgm5z.jpg
 
^ :lol:

Crestfallen is definitely an appropriate way to describe what I was feeling. I usually just try to beat a game without searching everywhere, but Castlevania and Metroid games are ones I make exceptions for.
 
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