My favorite Castlevania games : 1st position : Castlevania 1 - Simons Quest - Rondo of Blood - Symphony of the night 2nd position : Castlevania 3 - Super Castlevania 4
This is what I been saying, Simon Quest and Symphony of the Night are the best ones, but I think the reviewers that did not played it at launch can't appreciated how good they were. I was disappointed with Castlevania 3 because of how much I liked Simon Quest.
I will defend Simon's Quest to my death. Switching from a linear side scroller to an open-world action RPG was brilliant, and I was SO disappointed when CV3 went back to the old format. The series never really went back to that format either, which is weird because every other franchise has by now.
It is horribly balanced and cheap. It is about as good as Castlevania the adventure. The enemy placements and levels are less a carefully designed platformer, and more a torture test like the original ninja gaiden. The levels are memorable but for all the wrong reasons.
@@irkinix1 Essentially, rondo of blood is a very fair but at times difficult game. It doesn't expect you to do the impossible. Dracula X on the other hand, does expect you do very hard things. Rondo has very little traps and is very fair about its enemy placements and platforming, whereas Dracula X isn't. An example is, in dracula x, in the second stage, you have to platform on a falling bridge and there are enemies that either pop up beneath you and knock you into death pits or pop up in front of you as you're jumping. It's not the hardest thing ever, but it takes a bit to get used to. Another example in dracula x is how you essentially have to beat most of a stage after getting a specific sub-weapon (a key) from the previous stage and keeping it throughout the new stage (meaning you can't die or you have to replay the entire game and get that subweapon in the previous stage (or use a savestate)) to unlock two doors and get the true ending. On top of that, levels are just worse. Rondo of blood has branching levels with hidden paths, all very fair and very well-designed that you can replay from the main menu (It's a very replayable game). Dracula X has one path with a few branching stages that are all unfun and brutal. The best way to summarize both games is to look at their final bosses. Check out Rondo's final boss, and then see Dracula X's torture-fest of a final boss.
SOTN is the peak because it disrupts that ridiculous 3D trend from mid 90s. A lot of classic franchises went down the hole, making horrendous 3D games just for the sake of making 3D games, while SOTN took advantage of 32 bit power to deliver an unmatched groundbreaker 2D sidescrolling. It's a revolutionary and genre defining game, artistically and technically flawless. No matter how good Aria of Sorrow is (and it really is), it will never come close to what SOTN represents. PS. SOTN aged better than AoS imo.
Sotn has the best movement of them all and does not seem like a pokemon grindfest which started from Aria. Easily the most replayable in the series as well and audiovisually so nice it’s ridiculous. Aria is great as a refinement of base metroidvania system and well designed too.
I've beat nearly every one and basically agree with him, though probably B for this one it's still a great game albeit ball crushingly difficult and cheap. Basically an inferior version of Rondo.
Man you did Belmont's Revenge dirty. Yes, it still plays slower than the NES Castlevanias but it is a quantum leap from Castlevania Adventure and impressively pushes the Game Boy hardware in terms of graphics and music. Hell, it's way better than Castlevania Legends too despite coming out 8 years earlier.
Fair point! I think at most I could place it in D tier and it's 100% better than Adventure and Legends. The one thing Castlevania has across the board, are fantastic soundtracks. Where would you rank Belmont's Revenge?
@MarshallFlores My thoughts exactly. Perfect length for a gameboy action game, Levels are Well diversified, and it probably has the best music on the system.
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy Belmont's Revenge's soundtrack is OUTSTANDING for a gameboy game. But yes, it plays slow, clunky and has a last boss you can only beat if you know the perfect standing spots.
@@MoonMagicks It was. And everyone can have their opinion but sometimes things are said just to create buzz for interactions. It’s not objective, but man I just don’t see how one could say Aria is better.
1, 3, Rondo of Blood, SotN, AoS and DoS are the best. Then IV, Bloodlines and 2. But basically all castlevania gba and ds games are good just not essential.
the problem is these games are from different times and systems it's not really fair to compare them this way mostly by graphics, ignoring the limitations of each system and experience of the devs...@@Tommy-cm9pb
Harmony of Dissonance above Dawm of Sorrow is wild. Also, I think Order of Ecclesia is the best one. At least Circle of the Moon gets the deserved recognition.
I Myself would have argued that Dawn Of Sorrow could have been an S tier, however, the touch screen Magic Seal DS gimmick, especially later in the game, became more than infuriating for me, so much to the point that I gave up pretty much right at the last boss, or probably the one before. After getting exhausted from battling a boss (also anxious), the last thing I need is to attempt to draw some arbitrary geometric shape, only to slightly deviate from a line point or some other easy failure reason and allow the boss to get like 20-30 percent health back, and im dry of health and/or resources! Oh yeah, I think you have 5-6 seconds to do even the last annoying seal pattern too! I too like Harmony of Dissonance more, but not by much, cause its music is mostly like it's title in the dissonance and drug induced composition, and personally, every time I try to beat it, at least, its dimensional doorways to the inverse castle (or whatever) gimmick confuses the hell out of me, almost at the same exact point! Im not sure if I was being simple minded, but I do remember there was a issue with keeping track of specific locations and items to find whilst switching between castle dimensions.....
@@marukuanfuni If you play in a less than official capacity there are mods that automatically complete the seals for you, that might give you the push to give it another shot.
@@shinken209 I can understand not being a big fan of the game, but _garbage?_ It plays perfectly adequately, there are no serious bugs, it has lots of replay value, controls are good, menus are easy to navigate, plenty of enemies, the movement feels good with the dashes... Really the only technical issues are that the music is terrible _(not the compositions themselves, moreso the compressed digital instrumentation coming out of the GBA speakers)_ and the colors can be seen as too saturated for the series. Both of those are due to the console it released on. But yeah, the game is obviously a genuine effort with serious work put into it, you _really_ think that it's just trash? Did Juste run over your dog or something??
I think Harmony Of Dissonance's beauty is the simplicity of it. Even Symphony of the Night is way more elaborate. Sometimes simplicty is just what you want though and that sets it apart from the other Metroidvanias. As such it's a good start to the entire series or something you can enjoy if you want some good old clean Metroidvania, but don't want dive into it that deep. Also the soundtrack is an absolute banger if you can enjoy it without the compression like in the Advance collection.
Yes. While that theme is badass, I actually prefer the music that plays after defeating Death and throughout the first part of the battle with Dracula. It's the same music that plays during the game's opening sequence. It has a spookiness about it that lets the player know that they're in for the fight of their lives.
@@RKsolid5586 Totally agree, when you beat Death and those candles start lighting up when you walk past them on the way to Dracula... and the music, oh my, what an epic scene. Beautiful stuff
It certainly seems like one of the entries that's hardest to pin down in terms of fan consensus. Ever since I got on the Internet, I feel like opinions on it have been all over the place. I for one, adore it. Its music and mood just stand out from its brethren. Also, I feel like it's one of the few games in the series that's optimal on hard mode. A lot of the typical complaints it gets (subweapons are vestigial, the whip is too OP for the enemies you face) are addressed in hard mode. Enemies come at you fast from more angles, and even bats can shrug off a few "flails", rewarding more precise aim and timing of hitting them with proper strikes, or using Simon's mobility to evade them.
I typically feel this is my personal favorite game of all time. I have completed it hundreds of times and while I have not done a no death run yet (stupid clock tower) I have done no continue runs consistently.
giving the original Castlevania a C was a rough start, i mean putting the original in the same tier as Vampire Killer and Kid Dracula? I really disagree with that placement, the original should be in A tier.
Aria of Sorrow was the Castlevania game that got me into the series. It's definitely my favourite one and I completely agree with it being peak Castlevania. I used to play it on an emulator on a crappy school laptop at school.
Curse of darkness was soooooo ahead of its time. It's so sad that it didnt get the recognition it deserves. That game was top 10 game of all time for me. Absolute masterpiece.
I loved the Tower in COD. Trying to beat both towers with a lvl 25 character was very hard. Most enemies would 1-2 hit kill you in 2nd tower. Any pet that could take damage was practically useless as they would be 1 hit ko'd.
I’m glad you also appreciated lament of innocence. And also to me, it had the best soundtrack out of all the Castlevania games, even though it wasn’t the best Castlevania game.
@@mauricedesantis9201 I found that the subweapons weren't useful at due to the diagonal whipping I do still think it's still a hard game, though. just not as hard as the other classic castlevanias Rondo is probably my favorite of the classics though
Very good list. I like the original Castlevania, Dracula's Curse, Rondo of Blood and Order of Ecclesia the most, but Aria of Sorrow, Super Castlevania 4, Symphony of the Night and Curse of Darkness are solid choices for S/A Tiers.
Nice! Yeah Castlevania feels iconic and I know I said Portrait of Ruin was the best DS game, but I really liked Order of Ecclesia and that OST was amazing.
To be fair, you had to be around when these old retro games came out for the first time, playing games that were out in those days, to fully appreciate and rank games like these. These were released in very different times. The original Castlevania was S-tier back then.
Simon’s Quest gets more hate than it deserves. I get that its cryptic, but we figured it out back in the day. It was easier in those days when you weren’t flooded with a billion different games every few months, you just kind of played a game until you beat it. Always made me laugh how hard that game could be at times, and then Dracula was just… a pushover.
CV1 in C tier? CV3, Chronicles, Dawn of Sorrow, and the remake below Dracula X?? Rondo of Blood NOT in S tier? CV4 in S tier? 64 being above Legacy of Darkness when the latter is the same game but more? This is one weird tier list. Listening to the video, it really feels like biases and prejudices are being played into here; The treatment of Belmont's Revenge, Legends, and Legacy gives evidence towards this. What kills the reliability of this tier is that at the beginning of the video at 1:04 he says that he played all Castlevanias in four days. Given the fact that it would be completely impossible for him to beat all 37 Castlevania's in only four days if he knows nothing about the games, he actually didn't complete most of these games and is going off of opinions he's made from the couple hours he played it, with the footage coming from different sources. Playing a Castlevania is different from COMPLETING a Castlevania.
The story was amazing, and the gameplay was highly underrated, even though it did get decent praise. The second wasn't bad. Both would make excellent film releases.
Even though Simon's Quest has tons of issues, which are well documented. That game was my childhood and gave us Bloody Tears as a song which is undoubtly the greatest Castlevania track ever. So it will always be S tier for me.
Castlevania LOS 1 & 2 may not be truly loved by Castlevania fans but personally I find its story well thought of and deep. I love how Gabriel Belmont epitomizes "You die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Although he was a necessary sacrifice for balance of good and evil.
I didn’t care for it initially when I played the demo.. Then I had a change of heart.. I don’t think every CV needs to be MetroidVania.. LOS seems more in tuned to the series original vision albeit in 3d
Im actually did enjoy the LOS saga. over the original Castlevania saga. The only thing I didn't like about LOS2 were the stealth missions, metal gear style. I found them very out of place, you are supposed to be the prince of darkness and you have to infiltrate that way? But other than that, the game was great. And I disagree with the criticism of the video, there were not as many cinematics as he says. And the gameplay was pretty solid.
The difficulty of these games wasn't because they were expected to be ported to Arcade cabinets. Though being ported FROM arcade cabinets was a big factor. Looking at you Super Ghouls n Ghosts. It's because of video rental stores. They didn't want kids being able to beat the game in the two days they'd have it from renting it. They made Castlevania 3 significantly harder when it was ported from Japan to the US specifically for this reason. Did you know the pirate character was suppose to throw his dagger and be able to climb on the ceilings? He's absolutely useless in the US version but he was easy mode in the Japanese version.
Awesome Video! Never played any of the Castlevania Games, but now know exactly which ones I WOULD play. Also, just the 2 second clip from Dynasty Warriors made me want to give that another go. Keep it up Shaggy!
@@KeranuI can't believe anyone would think Rondo is ranked higher than IV. The play control is what sets IV apart from every game before it and within its same timeframe.
Always nice to see people diving into a series and trying to build a full picture of what it's all about. Anything that encourages people to check out some Castlevania deep cuts will always have my support. That being said I don't think our tier lists could be much more different! Dracula X in A and Belmont's Revenge in E is like acid in my eyes! You maniac!
This is a huge coincidence considering I watched your Castlevania Retrospective which was the deepest of all dives! Incredible video and appreciate the kind words
Great video. I love castlevania 2 though lol Probably due to nostalgia and being stuck with what you had back then. Also glad to see someone else who liked Dracula x!
Simons quest has one of the best NES soundtracks ever. The game is super fun but has its issues. (Way too cryptic) but goddamn- that soundtrack was amazing. S tier for that alone in my opinion
I think you missed Mirror of Fate for the 3DS. The 3d visuals are incredibly rich. I think it’s a super fun game. Maybe the non-3d version for consoles didn’t make sense, but the 3DS one did and it’s way underrated.
Pretty solid list. I would have put Lords of Shadow in A and Dracula X SNES in B. But I can’t argue against the rest of you list. Edit: As a kid it was mind blowing to see and hear Super Castlevania 4 at the time. Especially the soundtrack. Because we had seen good 2D graphics in Arcade for a while at the time, but the OST blew my mind.
I agree with most, but the DS games are all S, plus Symphony of the night was the one that allowed the franchise to grow even more, so that is the peak for me. Great video tho. Keep up with the good work.
If you had to pick one DS game though, what would it be? And I can easily see people choosing SotN since it was the foundation for all future games so I gotchu, thanks for the kind words
I disagree on Simon's quest it's a top 5 Castlevania game for me. Probably didn't age well but for it's time it was amazing. And the soundtrack was great.
The #1 problem is that it just wasn't complete. There's literally boss rooms with no bosses. It's a shame because it could've been so good with a better translation and more time.
Solid List, just two comments : - Belmont's Revenge is the exact gameplay of the NES games, but with a more open level design. Its only problem is that it was on GameBoy, but it's one of the machine's top games. - I honestly can't think of anything wrong with Mirror of Fate. It's not the most Castlevania-esque game of all Castlevanias, but still has big chunks of its DNA and looks absolutely gorgeous wit the 3D.
Symphony of the Night is the goat, but there's a lot to love in the series. I know a lot of folks don't care for 2, but I enjoyed it a lot. 1, 3, and 4 are really high on my list. The DS/3DS ones are next for me. Some of these I haven't played like the phone one. Good list
Haunted Castle wasn't ported to the arcade, it was an arcade game. It was hard for arcades could make money via tokens. Also I think it had switches in it to make it harder or easier.
Not switches, the American release of Haunted Castle had two different versions respectively titled “K” and “M”, with the former being the original less punishing one. Though, bear in mind that by “less punishing”, I mean “you actually have a shot at finishing it, provided you’re familiar with the game and have retained your NES Castlevania skills”.😅
To be fair to Soma, he was thrown into a place he doesn't remember (no spoilers), and facing a ton of skeleton enemies and then a guy wearing a black suit (no spoilers on who he is actually) tells him that he just absorbed the soul of the winged skeleton he killed. Makes sense he would be apprehensive when he meets Graham.
Spent the last 3 weeks answering and liking comments so I'm no longer going to be going through this post, but appreciate the support! Here's some things to take away... - I played all of the Castlevania games in September. I said I played all of them in 4 days which actually wasn't true. I started all of them in a 4 day span and spent all of September playing and creating this video. - I didn't beat all of the games as the title suggests. The only ones I beat were Castlevania 1, Super Castlevania, SotN, Aria of Sorrow, and Harmony of Dissonance. - I DO plan to beat more of them like Dracula's Curse, Portrait of Ruin, Rondo of Blood, Bloodlines, and a few others. - There's no nostalgia or attachment for me so you probably had a much different experience playing one of these games 20-30 years ago compared to myself playing all of them back to back. - I'm going to try the Dead Cells DLC and Bloodstained now that I have time. - Castlevania Nocturne was a 7.5, not the greatest compared to the first Castlevania. - This is a first video of this style and length so I'll only improve on the process moving forward with the next idea. - I respect everyone's opinions and ultimately, it's a tier list and just for fun. Don't let it ruin your day
@Problem- I said that at first but this explains it. Playing SOTN on PlayStation at a time where everything was 32 or 64 bit, gameplay had to be unmatched. I can tell you that game in 97 was awesome! And word about it spread strictly through word of mouth.
It’s ok you did an amazing job. The only thing I don’t buy is calling it a ranking video, calling a game “dogshit” with no argument and without even playing it and then saying “hey but it’s for fun”. Yes you can do it whatever you want, and people need to treat it with their own opinion, but this was a dumb move sorry.
Castlevania 2 was amazing. Sure, I'd agree the Day/Night cycle could have been longer. But the number of items let's your play style have variety. The music is S+ tier. The graphics for the time conveyed the mood well. It had a password to continue, and wasn't linear. It is B tier at the least.
Not to mention you don't lose your weapons and upgrades. And I love that the wilderness becomes more dead and barren the closer you get to Dracula's castle. Great atmosphere. Jumping can be a bit iffy though.
@@sergiobitencourt2864 lowkey my favorite in the series, folks complain about level design but that’s a more realistic approach tbh, some places in castles look and appear literally identical. The combat and weapon mechanics are amazing
Super Castlevania IV is overrated to me. I prefer the aesthetic, gameplay and music of Rondo of Blood and Castlevania III. I love the multiple. Honestly I think that it has the weakest level design compared to the other Classicvanias. It’s also great to see someone actually like the controls of the jumping and attacks and I loved it when I played it for the first time a couple of years ago. I always see people say it is outdated, and I disagree with that. It feels satisfying to master the controls, which I think makes the Metroidvanias feel like the same franchise because they are both about mastering the domain.
Think it's more of a realistic style. I mean look at 3D games right now, if you jump forward - a good bit of them don't let you correct that input or change direction. I totally agree, super rewarding when you start to master it.
SotN was the beginning of the end for Castlevania. The Metroidvania style ones have always suffered from perhaps the most boring and bland level design and enemy placement imaginable. I wish you younger players would wake up to the fact that having a huge selection of weapons is not depth. These games are a mile wide and an inch deep. They are simply inferior to the classic style of games in every way in ways that should be obvious to anyone.
@@Haruhiayesha That is definitely the most enjoyable way to play it but only further highlights how lacking the level design is compared to traditional Castlevania.
I think the fact that the studios eventually forgot that Castlevania was a horror game is what inevtiably caused the series to drop off. In my mind, the first thing you have to get right in the game to call it a Castlevania game is ambience and art direction
I agree with this. It's the primary reason why, despite the good gameplay, I wasn't able to connect with the DS games, the poppy colors, artstyles and even the particle effects kind of diminished the horror atmosphere of the genre.
Ah yes, Aria of Sorrow is perfection. And great to see Curse of Darkness getting the love it deserves. Really enjoyed that one too and think it's one of the more underrated games in the series. Only game I'd put on a higher tier than your placement is Dawn of Sorrow. I personally thought it had one of the best soundtracks in the series and a really good difficulty curve (actually thought it was harder than Aria), but fully agree that drawing the seals was its main flaw and should've been taken out.
I'm surprised by the middling opinion of Dawn of Sorrow. I absolutely loved that game. The "draw the sigil" mechanic is awful and I hope they just quietly remove it from the PC port, but otherwise I think it's S tier. There's multiple endings depending on certain things you do during the game, with the "bad ending" unlocking a whole new, Castlevania 3 inspired mode where you play as all the side characters banding together to defeat a resurrected Dracula in the form of Soma. Best reason to get the bad ending ever. That's me, though. Otherwise, I think the list is pretty much spot on.
I love Castlevania 2, despite all of the usual criticisms. More than the original or part 3 on NES. It’s much more of an open world style adventure, which I prefer to linear games. If you haven’t played the Redacted version, you must. Highly recommend.
i can not be happier with this rank Aria of Sorrow was the best Castlevania I have ever played and I have great memories of it, I am glad you put it in the right place
Castlevania 3 > Castlevania 4 Honestly I'd even say Castlevania 2 = Castlevania 4 But better than Vampire Killer. Everyone has their own personal taste 4, just didn't do it for me, the sprites were way too big. Given 2 has some ridiculous spots like crouching at the wall. This game still has a place in my heart, I like the art and colors, the music brought us Bloody Tears which is my fav song of all time from Castlevania games, They changed a lot, I can see why people hate it, but I loved it.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but Castlevania Bloodlines is an S tier while Super Castlevania 4 is a B. . First off, Bloodlines gets rid of Level finish timer, which makes the games way more fun to play. Not to mention a completely original storyline to accommodate 2 new characters in series! . Super Castlevania is okay, but the story is not original, since its a remake of Castlevania 1. Besides some enemy placements are unfair in SC4 even by Castlevania standards
@@broom673I don’t think he beat any of these games dude just spewing opinions based on 30 min of gameplay if he beat the original game there’s no way he’d put in in C he might have beat Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow that’s about it
Harmony of despair is my favorite Castlevania game. I haven't spent hundreds of hours playing any Castlevania game before, but I enjoyed every second of it.
I have played every Castlevania game since launch. I really think Mirror of Fate was a great game. The first LOS was also a banger. I pretty much agree with every other grade.
When I finally got around playing Rondo, I was honestly shocked by how hard the game was with Richter. Unlike in Symphony’s prologue, Dracula is far from a cakewalk, though I personally found the gauntlet of classic bosses to be one of the toughest challenge in the game. Then, you play as Maria and everything yields to the might of the animal companions.😂
Love coming across a video that clicked for someones channel. Hold onto that feeling, get to work, and dont get down when it takes a while for a video to pop off like this one
Appreciate it! Yeah first video reaching 50K is a great feeling. I've been through the gauntlet of streaming previous years and starting to only do TH-cam as of this year. Really implementing a strategy and schedule on uploads that started in August so I'm happy where it's going. Good luck to you too!
Would kill for a curse of darkness remake. I replay it all the time. If it was updated a little bit it would be a very solid game! I love how the IDs grow. Great video! Thank you!
Oh yes please. Up to this day, I've never seen a robust system like curse of darkness has. Hector is already fun to play by himself, but the innocent devil system takes it to the next level, along with the equipment system.
I agree with almost every decision you made I think the only reason someone would switch symphony of the night with Aria of sorrow is if they're older which I am and I had more experience with symphony of the night than Aria of sorrow but every choice on this list is pretty accurate which is very rare to see in a TH-cam video.
There should be a tier list for these hot takes. Four days is not enough time for you to rly get through these games, you should as many have stated here, played them to completion. I appreciate the fact that you played most of these (cuz how did you play the pachinko game properly or at all?) and took the time to make this video. I let you cook and honestly you need way more time in the kitchen.
everyone hates simons quest yet its one of the most revolutionary games in the series and even created a amazing genre. modded versions make it one of the best.
Great stuff overall! Obviously any game that people decide you ranked too low is going to draw complaints, and the scope you're dealing with here is massive, but I gotta voice some support for Belmont's Revenge. It clearly takes a good, hard look at The Adventure and improves on it in every sense, getting really clever with its level design (ropes and chains are used to great effect in the level design here, and the cave section where you need to either keep candles lit or use Holy Water's flame to keep a unique light-averse enemy type at bay is really neat). It's still slow-paced, but the challenges seem better "tuned" to that pace. But most importantly, the soundtrack is incredible. I ask that anyone who has dismissed the game at least give the Belmont's Revenge OST a listen (New Messiah, Ripe Seeds, Praying Hands, and Original Sin are my personal highlights).
I agree, the OST of every Castlevania game is amazing! And yes, there's tons of complaints and insults thrown around over a tier list lmao but I appreciate you for being sensible and articulate with your comment - that's why I responded. Glad you enjoyed though!
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy Yeah, Belmont Revenge was the first Castlevania game of a little programmer that later became know as the director of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night: Toru Hagihara. It was done dirty in this video as it is a huge improvement and some of the best levels in the series. It's funny how it was kinda overlooked in this video.
SOTN is not only the best castlevania game , it is one of the best games of all time , it paved a way and redefined a genre called metroidvania ,which is one of the most popular genre even today , even games like dark souls follow the formula of metroidvania
Juste is my favorite Belmont. He is cool, swag, chill, can do magics and I love his fighting style and mechanics in HoD but the game itself was underrated in my opinion so Juste wasn't getting enough attention. I was so happy when he appeared in the Nocturne series as Richter's grandfather (although it is unclear whether Richter is a direct descendant of Juste). I just wish I could see more action from Juste in the Nocturne series and show how powerful he is/was. After Nocturne, I believe Netflix would probably announce Julius Belmont in the next series (hope it happens) since he is considered to be the strongest Belmont although it's still unsure whether Richter or Julius is considered the strongest Belmont.
I loved Castlevania 1 when it came out. The day Castlevania 2 came out I was in 7th grade. I walked 2 miles in a blinding snow storm to get it. It deserves a higher score just for the soundtrack alone. Castlevania 4 was the last game I played when it came out. I still haven't gotten around to playing Symphony. I own it just haven't played it yet.
Please play it what are you doing man shelfing the best in the series and one of the best games ever made imo! with Aria of Sorrow being second but not even close to Sotn ! Super 4 , 3 , 1 , rondo and bloodlines were all good I couldn't ever get the good ending on 2 so I say 2 while having one of the best sound tracks is just frustrating for me you're really missing out on one of life's best experiences not playing Symphony of the Night.
@@gavinmoody5678 I don't have room currently in my house. I'm going to be moving soon and I plan on setting up a game room. I'm saving it for a special occasion. It's at the top of my list. I'm a huge Metroid fan and I love super. Cross that formula with a Castlevania and I'm all in.
Too tough on the Lords of Shadow series Shaggy. You mention your gripes but you don't mention the positives. The Lords of Shadow series has amongst some of the best music, voice acting, story/ cutscenes, and art direction among pretty much all games. Like literally the art direction in the whole series can pretty much compete with any other top tier game. It's that good. People can say what they want where it's a drastic departure from the regular castlevania games, but so weren't Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. (which I love both of those as well). You actually kind of verified what I already knew about people's opinions of the Lord of Shadow series. Too many people for some reason toss out the quality of the series, all because it takes heavy elements from the action games you listed, specifically God of War. But not every game has to re-invent the wheel. As long as it uses those components well and is something of quality. Your entitled to your opinion of course, and for the most part you were respectful. But I've always found too many people and critics were too harsh to the Lords of Shadow games. The first game is something I find truly special among video games, and while LoS2 has it's flaws, it ultimately is greater than the sum of it's parts. And it definitely has some very good Highs! More so than the lows.
To be honest, I felt it was needed to be harder on SotN because of the massive appraisal as well as the Lord of Shadow series because it was a much newer installment. I think the first one was a great time, the boss fights felt intense, the mechanics were smooth, but you have to think about the games that were coming out during that time as well. 2010 had amazing games across the board and I think B is showing pretty high praise considering we had seen that formula before. Mirrors of Fate, I really did not enjoy and Lords of Shadows 2, I was visibly and audibly frustrated with because of the amount of cutscenes. Did you know that there's almost 3 and half hours of cutscenes in the game? While the game takes around 14 hours to beat. It has nothing to do with the gameplay because I thought the beginning gameplay was fun, but there was a lot of edginess that I didn't enjoy from the story and voice acting. So that's kinda where I stand, but like you said to each their own opinion - I wanted to clarify more of where I was coming from though.
Yea I'd have to go back and look at what top games came out during 2010. As for LoS2, I mean I hear you. But at the same time you're talking too a Metal Gear Solid and Legacy of Kain fanatic. Long cutscenes and movie like presentation is like my bread and butter in games, and so it's obvious why I would not have a problem with that. I do understand though. Lol definitely an edgy game!! @@ShaggyMcSwaggy
No, no no no, LoS2 is the worst garbage I have ever played, from bad story, to awful ideas, to bland and boring areas, I hate this game so much, it's F, I will never watch or touch this mess again
4:20 can’t believe you ranked Simon’s quest a D shutting off video now. Simon’s Quest was the foundation for how I learned to play video games. It’s not easily figured out and they don’t just paint a straight forward picture on how to beat it the right way. It was a masterpiece. The soundtrack was great great castles and bosses and the night cycle was brilliant
It's funny, I decided I couldn't watch Nocturne until I finished this video so right after I binged it in one day. I thought it was an overall good show especially after playing all the games and understanding who Richter, Maria, Alucard, and Juste were. the animations were great and I enjoyed the story to an extent, but I think they put a lot of focus on Annette's character compared to Maria - kind of assuming the audience just knows who she is. Maybe that'll get more flushed out in season 2 though. I'd say it was a solid 7.5 while the original Castlevania show with Trevor and Sypha was easily a 9.5, I love that show and watched it multiple times.
The problem with ranking so many games is you have to actually play through them all to give a fair ranking. Belmont's Revenge is easily an 'A' for me. I'm not sure he actually played this game for more than a couple of minutes. Castlevania 3 is 'S' tier and has the best music of all the Castlevanias imo. Dracula X is ok at best, probably a 'C' for me. It's nowhere near the same level as Rondo.
You should have reviewed Ritual of the Night. Technically not castlevania but it’s has pretty much all the elements. Fantastic game very similar to symphony of the night but with modern graphics.
The Bloodstained games are Castlevania games in every aspect except name, and in a rather poetic justice twist modern Konami will never get a single yen of their profits.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
My favorite Castlevania games :
1st position :
Castlevania 1 - Simons Quest - Rondo of Blood - Symphony of the night
2nd position :
Castlevania 3 - Super Castlevania 4
This is what I been saying, Simon Quest and Symphony of the Night are the best ones, but I think the reviewers that did not played it at launch can't appreciated how good they were. I was disappointed with Castlevania 3 because of how much I liked Simon Quest.
I will defend Simon's Quest to my death. Switching from a linear side scroller to an open-world action RPG was brilliant, and I was SO disappointed when CV3 went back to the old format. The series never really went back to that format either, which is weird because every other franchise has by now.
The fact dracula X and Ronso of blood were put on the same tier is absolutely criminal.
Rondo of blood is S
Dracula X being A isn't bad though
It is horribly balanced and cheap. It is about as good as Castlevania the adventure. The enemy placements and levels are less a carefully designed platformer, and more a torture test like the original ninja gaiden. The levels are memorable but for all the wrong reasons.
Why? I’m new to the Castlevania and I haven’t played the og ones 😅
@@irkinix1 Essentially, rondo of blood is a very fair but at times difficult game. It doesn't expect you to do the impossible. Dracula X on the other hand, does expect you do very hard things. Rondo has very little traps and is very fair about its enemy placements and platforming, whereas Dracula X isn't. An example is, in dracula x, in the second stage, you have to platform on a falling bridge and there are enemies that either pop up beneath you and knock you into death pits or pop up in front of you as you're jumping. It's not the hardest thing ever, but it takes a bit to get used to.
Another example in dracula x is how you essentially have to beat most of a stage after getting a specific sub-weapon (a key) from the previous stage and keeping it throughout the new stage (meaning you can't die or you have to replay the entire game and get that subweapon in the previous stage (or use a savestate)) to unlock two doors and get the true ending.
On top of that, levels are just worse. Rondo of blood has branching levels with hidden paths, all very fair and very well-designed that you can replay from the main menu (It's a very replayable game). Dracula X has one path with a few branching stages that are all unfun and brutal.
The best way to summarize both games is to look at their final bosses. Check out Rondo's final boss, and then see Dracula X's torture-fest of a final boss.
I love you for putting Curse of Darkness on S. We really need a remake or just simple port
SOTN is the peak because it disrupts that ridiculous 3D trend from mid 90s. A lot of classic franchises went down the hole, making horrendous 3D games just for the sake of making 3D games, while SOTN took advantage of 32 bit power to deliver an unmatched groundbreaker 2D sidescrolling. It's a revolutionary and genre defining game, artistically and technically flawless.
No matter how good Aria of Sorrow is (and it really is), it will never come close to what SOTN represents.
PS. SOTN aged better than AoS imo.
I do agree with you. Personally, I never forget the rewarding feeling when I found the inverted castle without any walkthrough just out of curiosity
Sotn has the best movement of them all and does not seem like a pokemon grindfest which started from Aria. Easily the most replayable in the series as well and audiovisually so nice it’s ridiculous.
Aria is great as a refinement of base metroidvania system and well designed too.
Castlevania 64
Everything is up to opinion
Personally SOTN is good but I liked OOE better
SOTN is a deeply overrated game, plague by repetitive backtracking and lack of substantial progression.
AOS is a better game in almost every aspect.
Aria of Sorrow is a Masterpiece.
Facts
Finally someone realizes. And it's a on the GBA so it's portable as a bonus.
Absolutely! And Dawn of Sorrow! I beat Dawn of Sorrow the other day with the good ending on the first try. I’m pretty proud of myself🥹
Aria of sorrow is incredible
Really is, one of the best portable-designed games of all time.
Playing a Castlevania and finishing a Castlevania are two very different things
No **** right?
Agreed
Dracula X on A tier without last dracula boss fight being considered. Wonder if he actually fought and beat that cheap mf.
This comment should be pinned.
I've beat nearly every one and basically agree with him, though probably B for this one it's still a great game albeit ball crushingly difficult and cheap. Basically an inferior version of Rondo.
Man you did Belmont's Revenge dirty. Yes, it still plays slower than the NES Castlevanias but it is a quantum leap from Castlevania Adventure and impressively pushes the Game Boy hardware in terms of graphics and music. Hell, it's way better than Castlevania Legends too despite coming out 8 years earlier.
Fair point! I think at most I could place it in D tier and it's 100% better than Adventure and Legends. The one thing Castlevania has across the board, are fantastic soundtracks. Where would you rank Belmont's Revenge?
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy I'd rank it B-tier. By far the best handheld Castlevania until we get to the GBA entries.
@MarshallFlores My thoughts exactly. Perfect length for a gameboy action game, Levels are Well diversified, and it probably has the best music on the system.
He did every game dirty. He played them for 5 minutes each.
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy Belmont's Revenge's soundtrack is OUTSTANDING for a gameboy game. But yes, it plays slow, clunky and has a last boss you can only beat if you know the perfect standing spots.
SOTN is peak castlevania while aria is S class for me. SOTN also has the best soundtrack.
I respect it, feel like most people are thinking that too.
Yeah, I love Aria! It is my second favorite C game. However, SOTN is peak Castlevania. That soundtrack to me is unmatched in gaming!
Most definitely sotn is peak, I play it til this day now that I see there more spells and moves you can learn ,imma play it after work lol
Aria, to me, felt like an inferior clone of SOTN. But that's my opinion and I'm glad you love it.
@@MoonMagicks It was. And everyone can have their opinion but sometimes things are said just to create buzz for interactions. It’s not objective, but man I just don’t see how one could say Aria is better.
Castlevania 1 is an S in my book. Such a rewarding challenge to beat.
Yes! 1 and 3 are my favorites. I still can't beat 1 without saving the holy water from the previous stage for the grim reaper. Such shame.
3 is absolutely fantastic. I really thought this list was atrocious
I think that the second loop of Castlevania is one of the best experiences to be had on NES. It's Castlevania with slightly more enemies lol
1, 3, Rondo of Blood, SotN, AoS and DoS are the best. Then IV, Bloodlines and 2. But basically all castlevania gba and ds games are good just not essential.
the problem is these games are from different times and systems it's not really fair to compare them this way mostly by graphics, ignoring the limitations of each system and experience of the devs...@@Tommy-cm9pb
The original castlevania deserves at least a B rating, but really enjoyed your tier list video😊
A or S!
Simon’s quest as well
A, classic, finally beat it last year for its time a A+.
I find it wild he gave the original a C tier
I'd put it in A, but anything less than B is criminal
Simon's Quest is at least a B for introducing Bloody Tears to the world, if nothing else.
I agree! That’s the one I started out on. Awesome soundtrack too.
Harmony of Dissonance above Dawm of Sorrow is wild.
Also, I think Order of Ecclesia is the best one. At least Circle of the Moon gets the deserved recognition.
I Myself would have argued that Dawn Of Sorrow could have been an S tier, however, the touch screen Magic Seal DS gimmick, especially later in the game, became more than infuriating for me, so much to the point that I gave up pretty much right at the last boss, or probably the one before. After getting exhausted from battling a boss (also anxious), the last thing I need is to attempt to draw some arbitrary geometric shape, only to slightly deviate from a line point or some other easy failure reason and allow the boss to get like 20-30 percent health back, and im dry of health and/or resources! Oh yeah, I think you have 5-6 seconds to do even the last annoying seal pattern too!
I too like Harmony of Dissonance more, but not by much, cause its music is mostly like it's title in the dissonance and drug induced composition, and personally, every time I try to beat it, at least, its dimensional doorways to the inverse castle (or whatever) gimmick confuses the hell out of me, almost at the same exact point! Im not sure if I was being simple minded, but I do remember there was a issue with keeping track of specific locations and items to find whilst switching between castle dimensions.....
@@marukuanfuni If you play in a less than official capacity there are mods that automatically complete the seals for you, that might give you the push to give it another shot.
Harmony of Dissonance is GARBAGE!
@@shinken209 I can understand not being a big fan of the game, but _garbage?_
It plays perfectly adequately, there are no serious bugs, it has lots of replay value, controls are good, menus are easy to navigate, plenty of enemies, the movement feels good with the dashes...
Really the only technical issues are that the music is terrible _(not the compositions themselves, moreso the compressed digital instrumentation coming out of the GBA speakers)_ and the colors can be seen as too saturated for the series. Both of those are due to the console it released on.
But yeah, the game is obviously a genuine effort with serious work put into it, you _really_ think that it's just trash?
Did Juste run over your dog or something??
I think Harmony Of Dissonance's beauty is the simplicity of it. Even Symphony of the Night is way more elaborate. Sometimes simplicty is just what you want though and that sets it apart from the other Metroidvanias. As such it's a good start to the entire series or something you can enjoy if you want some good old clean Metroidvania, but don't want dive into it that deep. Also the soundtrack is an absolute banger if you can enjoy it without the compression like in the Advance collection.
I still get goosebumps playing final boss Dracula in SCIV. That music that starts up when Simon has Drac against the ropes is so dope.
that music is aptly named "Simon's Theme"
Yes. While that theme is badass, I actually prefer the music that plays after defeating Death and throughout the first part of the battle with Dracula. It's the same music that plays during the game's opening sequence. It has a spookiness about it that lets the player know that they're in for the fight of their lives.
@@RKsolid5586 Totally agree, when you beat Death and those candles start lighting up when you walk past them on the way to Dracula... and the music, oh my, what an epic scene. Beautiful stuff
I cannot agree more on the rating of Super Castlevania IV. I still play it to this day because of how amazing it is (music, gameplay, graphics, etc)
True and real, it's a criminally underrated game.
Same here, Super Castlevania IV is my number one castlevania game of all time.
I still play it.
it's one of the mid entries tbh. but tastes differ
It certainly seems like one of the entries that's hardest to pin down in terms of fan consensus. Ever since I got on the Internet, I feel like opinions on it have been all over the place. I for one, adore it. Its music and mood just stand out from its brethren.
Also, I feel like it's one of the few games in the series that's optimal on hard mode. A lot of the typical complaints it gets (subweapons are vestigial, the whip is too OP for the enemies you face) are addressed in hard mode. Enemies come at you fast from more angles, and even bats can shrug off a few "flails", rewarding more precise aim and timing of hitting them with proper strikes, or using Simon's mobility to evade them.
I typically feel this is my personal favorite game of all time. I have completed it hundreds of times and while I have not done a no death run yet (stupid clock tower) I have done no continue runs consistently.
giving the original Castlevania a C was a rough start, i mean putting the original in the same tier as Vampire Killer and Kid Dracula? I really disagree with that placement, the original should be in A tier.
putting a free to play phone game over the original castlevania is incredible trolling
Yeahhh I'd probably put Castlevania in B, but I couldn't deny that Grimoire of Souls was actually a fun game
Both N64 Castlevania games are criminally underrated. Both are awesome titles! Such nostalgia.
Agreed, I loved 64 and Circle of the Moon as much as SOTN.
I have played both
two of the absolute worse.
Aria of Sorrow was the Castlevania game that got me into the series. It's definitely my favourite one and I completely agree with it being peak Castlevania. I used to play it on an emulator on a crappy school laptop at school.
Curse of darkness was soooooo ahead of its time. It's so sad that it didnt get the recognition it deserves. That game was top 10 game of all time for me. Absolute masterpiece.
I loved the Tower in COD. Trying to beat both towers with a lvl 25 character was very hard. Most enemies would 1-2 hit kill you in 2nd tower. Any pet that could take damage was practically useless as they would be 1 hit ko'd.
Very good pick sir. I remember beating the game in first grade
And to top it off they did the MC Hector dirty in the netflix series 😂
@@despair_ts1823
yea they did
it had way to much gay crap in the series
@@despair_ts1823 lol ikr? And alucard too, but i guess in alucard's case, he's just really longing for human affection. Still weird tho
Harmony of despair is absolutely amazing! The replayability is just phenomenal, especially with friends!
I know right, they need to port it to modern consoles.
The remade soundtrack was an absolute banger. When I heard it ported to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, it was perfect.
@@Jsobone works on xbox series consoles
@AnthonyKreamer I need a Playstation version now since I no longer own Xbox console. For the time being I'll have to boot up my ps3.
I’m glad you also appreciated lament of innocence. And also to me, it had the best soundtrack out of all the Castlevania games, even though it wasn’t the best Castlevania game.
Leon has one of the best themes in the entire series.
The PS2 3Dvanias had really great music. So very glad I bought them both.
Lament of Innocence is still my favorite in the series, it has so much charm and replayability
If they HD remake Lament of Innocence, I will probably have an or gasm..
SNES Castlevania IV is really a pinnacle of gaming, I’m glad you ranked it S!
the game looks cool/different and all but it lacks that challenge the other games had. i found it too easy...just saying
@@mauricedesantis9201 yeah that’s a good point, some of my best memories ever are desperately trying to beat Castlevania 1 and 3 on NES.
@@mauricedesantis9201 I found that the subweapons weren't useful at due to the diagonal whipping
I do still think it's still a hard game, though. just not as hard as the other classic castlevanias
Rondo is probably my favorite of the classics though
Yep agreed..the last last great true Castlevania..Rondo and Bloodlines deserve mention of course
It’s not better than Rondo
Very good list. I like the original Castlevania, Dracula's Curse, Rondo of Blood and Order of Ecclesia the most, but Aria of Sorrow, Super Castlevania 4, Symphony of the Night and Curse of Darkness are solid choices for S/A Tiers.
Nice! Yeah Castlevania feels iconic and I know I said Portrait of Ruin was the best DS game, but I really liked Order of Ecclesia and that OST was amazing.
Seeing SCIV so high up puts a song in the heart of long-lost 11-year-old me.
Thank you.
Belmont's Revenge is easily an A! Pretty amazing what they managed to do on a Gameboy!
Yeah putting it in E is fucking wild lol
that's the problem judgin things from another era and comparing games from different systems to a gameboy game geez@@chrispy3051
Yeah, that was really the biggest faux pas in this list. Belmont's Revenge is one of the best games on the system.
To be fair, you had to be around when these old retro games came out for the first time, playing games that were out in those days, to fully appreciate and rank games like these. These were released in very different times.
The original Castlevania was S-tier back then.
I noted that this guy acts like he doesn't know what a gameboy was 😅
He complains of every black and white game like it was a choice.
Simon’s Quest gets more hate than it deserves. I get that its cryptic, but we figured it out back in the day. It was easier in those days when you weren’t flooded with a billion different games every few months, you just kind of played a game until you beat it. Always made me laugh how hard that game could be at times, and then Dracula was just… a pushover.
CV1 in C tier? CV3, Chronicles, Dawn of Sorrow, and the remake below Dracula X?? Rondo of Blood NOT in S tier? CV4 in S tier? 64 being above Legacy of Darkness when the latter is the same game but more? This is one weird tier list. Listening to the video, it really feels like biases and prejudices are being played into here; The treatment of Belmont's Revenge, Legends, and Legacy gives evidence towards this.
What kills the reliability of this tier is that at the beginning of the video at 1:04 he says that he played all Castlevanias in four days. Given the fact that it would be completely impossible for him to beat all 37 Castlevania's in only four days if he knows nothing about the games, he actually didn't complete most of these games and is going off of opinions he's made from the couple hours he played it, with the footage coming from different sources. Playing a Castlevania is different from COMPLETING a Castlevania.
@@cassettecobra3848 fax lol
I personally love Lord's of Shadow. The first one, anyway.
True, I didn't mind playing the first one!
Ya, lords of shadow was excellent. Love Gabriel's voice actor as well.
The story was amazing, and the gameplay was highly underrated, even though it did get decent praise. The second wasn't bad. Both would make excellent film releases.
@@Diaszurana those are my favorites and my intro to the series
Even though Simon's Quest has tons of issues, which are well documented. That game was my childhood and gave us Bloody Tears as a song which is undoubtly the greatest Castlevania track ever. So it will always be S tier for me.
I'm 45 and about to play it for the first time. Having beat 1,3,4, SOTN etc I feel obligated to do so!
RIGHT
Castlevania LOS 1 & 2 may not be truly loved by Castlevania fans but personally I find its story well thought of and deep. I love how Gabriel Belmont epitomizes "You die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Although he was a necessary sacrifice for balance of good and evil.
I didn’t care for it initially when I played the demo.. Then I had a change of heart.. I don’t think every CV needs to be MetroidVania.. LOS seems more in tuned to the series original vision albeit in 3d
Im actually did enjoy the LOS saga. over the original Castlevania saga. The only thing I didn't like about LOS2 were the stealth missions, metal gear style. I found them very out of place, you are supposed to be the prince of darkness and you have to infiltrate that way? But other than that, the game was great. And I disagree with the criticism of the video, there were not as many cinematics as he says. And the gameplay was pretty solid.
I had a good time with these games
I agree. As a Castlevania fan since the NES days, LOS actually brought my love of gaming back again, as hadn't played anything for years. I loved it
The difficulty of these games wasn't because they were expected to be ported to Arcade cabinets. Though being ported FROM arcade cabinets was a big factor. Looking at you Super Ghouls n Ghosts. It's because of video rental stores. They didn't want kids being able to beat the game in the two days they'd have it from renting it. They made Castlevania 3 significantly harder when it was ported from Japan to the US specifically for this reason. Did you know the pirate character was suppose to throw his dagger and be able to climb on the ceilings? He's absolutely useless in the US version but he was easy mode in the Japanese version.
Putting Belmont's revenge in E but 64 in B is wild af
Awesome Video! Never played any of the Castlevania Games, but now know exactly which ones I WOULD play. Also, just the 2 second clip from Dynasty Warriors made me want to give that another go. Keep it up Shaggy!
OMG... Dynasty Warriors run when?
It really hurts to see Simon's Quest at a D and Adventure at and F, but at least Super Castle 4 ranking at S tier helped a bit.
YES! It's great to see someone showing so much love to Aria of Sorrow
Rondo is an S. And you can’t rank Dracula x on the same level as Rondo. It’s objectively inferior.
I can't believe IV was ranked higher than Rondo.
I'd say it's inferior in everything but music, bloody tears goes hard because of the SNES sound chip
For me i like psp version more than original
Everyone has their opinion but I totally agree with you. Rondo is right behind SOTN for me
@@KeranuI can't believe anyone would think Rondo is ranked higher than IV. The play control is what sets IV apart from every game before it and within its same timeframe.
Always nice to see people diving into a series and trying to build a full picture of what it's all about. Anything that encourages people to check out some Castlevania deep cuts will always have my support.
That being said I don't think our tier lists could be much more different! Dracula X in A and Belmont's Revenge in E is like acid in my eyes! You maniac!
This is a huge coincidence considering I watched your Castlevania Retrospective which was the deepest of all dives! Incredible video and appreciate the kind words
Great video. I love castlevania 2 though lol Probably due to nostalgia and being stuck with what you had back then. Also glad to see someone else who liked Dracula x!
Simons quest has one of the best NES soundtracks ever. The game is super fun but has its issues. (Way too cryptic) but goddamn- that soundtrack was amazing. S tier for that alone in my opinion
The thing that kept me pushing through this massive collection were the soundtracks. I can't think of another series that has this many bangers.
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy The Megami Tensei franchise does imo, tackling that would be insanely long though.
A+
way better than D rank
How dare you insult Simon’s Quest? That’s one of my favorite Castlevania games 😂
I played the game boy advance games as my intro into castlevania, really enjoyed them! Great video, keep it up!
Thanks! and yeah those games we're top notch.
I think you missed Mirror of Fate for the 3DS. The 3d visuals are incredibly rich. I think it’s a super fun game. Maybe the non-3d version for consoles didn’t make sense, but the 3DS one did and it’s way underrated.
Pretty solid list. I would have put Lords of Shadow in A and Dracula X SNES in B. But I can’t argue against the rest of you list.
Edit: As a kid it was mind blowing to see and hear Super Castlevania 4 at the time. Especially the soundtrack. Because we had seen good 2D graphics in Arcade for a while at the time, but the OST blew my mind.
I agree with most, but the DS games are all S, plus Symphony of the night was the one that allowed the franchise to grow even more, so that is the peak for me. Great video tho. Keep up with the good work.
If you had to pick one DS game though, what would it be? And I can easily see people choosing SotN since it was the foundation for all future games so I gotchu, thanks for the kind words
I’ve always liked Dawn of Sorrow the best. It’s my favorite metroidvania next to SOTN.
Dawn of sorrow!!
I disagree on Simon's quest it's a top 5 Castlevania game for me. Probably didn't age well but for it's time it was amazing. And the soundtrack was great.
The #1 problem is that it just wasn't complete. There's literally boss rooms with no bosses.
It's a shame because it could've been so good with a better translation and more time.
🥰
As a new fan of castlevania
Castlevania 1 and 2 were really good games for me and its what turned me to become a fan of castlevania series
Putting Castlevania 64 above the original should be a crime
Solid List, just two comments :
- Belmont's Revenge is the exact gameplay of the NES games, but with a more open level design. Its only problem is that it was on GameBoy, but it's one of the machine's top games.
- I honestly can't think of anything wrong with Mirror of Fate. It's not the most Castlevania-esque game of all Castlevanias, but still has big chunks of its DNA and looks absolutely gorgeous wit the 3D.
Symphony of the Night is the goat, but there's a lot to love in the series. I know a lot of folks don't care for 2, but I enjoyed it a lot. 1, 3, and 4 are really high on my list. The DS/3DS ones are next for me. Some of these I haven't played like the phone one. Good list
I really appreciated your thoughtful, in-depth review of Castlevania Legends.
Haunted Castle wasn't ported to the arcade, it was an arcade game. It was hard for arcades could make money via tokens. Also I think it had switches in it to make it harder or easier.
Not switches, the American release of Haunted Castle had two different versions respectively titled “K” and “M”, with the former being the original less punishing one. Though, bear in mind that by “less punishing”, I mean “you actually have a shot at finishing it, provided you’re familiar with the game and have retained your NES Castlevania skills”.😅
Just want to say I really enjoyed this video. Made me wanna play!
Simons Quest gets lots of hate, but at the time when it came out it was amazing and one of my favorite NES games of all time
To be fair to Soma, he was thrown into a place he doesn't remember (no spoilers), and facing a ton of skeleton enemies and then a guy wearing a black suit (no spoilers on who he is actually) tells him that he just absorbed the soul of the winged skeleton he killed. Makes sense he would be apprehensive when he meets Graham.
Spent the last 3 weeks answering and liking comments so I'm no longer going to be going through this post, but appreciate the support! Here's some things to take away...
- I played all of the Castlevania games in September. I said I played all of them in 4 days which actually wasn't true. I started all of them in a 4 day span and spent all of September playing and creating this video.
- I didn't beat all of the games as the title suggests. The only ones I beat were Castlevania 1, Super Castlevania, SotN, Aria of Sorrow, and Harmony of Dissonance.
- I DO plan to beat more of them like Dracula's Curse, Portrait of Ruin, Rondo of Blood, Bloodlines, and a few others.
- There's no nostalgia or attachment for me so you probably had a much different experience playing one of these games 20-30 years ago compared to myself playing all of them back to back.
- I'm going to try the Dead Cells DLC and Bloodstained now that I have time.
- Castlevania Nocturne was a 7.5, not the greatest compared to the first Castlevania.
- This is a first video of this style and length so I'll only improve on the process moving forward with the next idea.
- I respect everyone's opinions and ultimately, it's a tier list and just for fun. Don't let it ruin your day
self centered and a fake hahaha. Dude
@Problem- I said that at first but this explains it. Playing SOTN on PlayStation at a time where everything was 32 or 64 bit, gameplay had to be unmatched. I can tell you that game in 97 was awesome! And word about it spread strictly through word of mouth.
It’s ok you did an amazing job. The only thing I don’t buy is calling it a ranking video, calling a game “dogshit” with no argument and without even playing it and then saying “hey but it’s for fun”.
Yes you can do it whatever you want, and people need to treat it with their own opinion, but this was a dumb move sorry.
You are an abusive liar.
Castlevania 2 was amazing. Sure, I'd agree the Day/Night cycle could have been longer. But the number of items let's your play style have variety. The music is S+ tier. The graphics for the time conveyed the mood well. It had a password to continue, and wasn't linear. It is B tier at the least.
Not to mention you don't lose your weapons and upgrades. And I love that the wilderness becomes more dead and barren the closer you get to Dracula's castle. Great atmosphere. Jumping can be a bit iffy though.
Thank you for referencing the 80s and coke
Why ??
SO GOOD to see someone recognizing the potential of Curse of Darkness. Not only one of the best, but one of the most underrated.
Great video.
@@sergiobitencourt2864 lowkey my favorite in the series, folks complain about level design but that’s a more realistic approach tbh, some places in castles look and appear literally identical. The combat and weapon mechanics are amazing
well done making this list! saw some castlevania games I'd never seen before, and I've been pretty invested in the games...
Appreciate! Any ones you’re looking to try out?
I never had a problem with the anime style dialogue, but the switching to anime style art in dawn of sorrow was the real turnoff for me
Super Castlevania IV is overrated to me. I prefer the aesthetic, gameplay and music of Rondo of Blood and Castlevania III. I love the multiple. Honestly I think that it has the weakest level design compared to the other Classicvanias. It’s also great to see someone actually like the controls of the jumping and attacks and I loved it when I played it for the first time a couple of years ago. I always see people say it is outdated, and I disagree with that. It feels satisfying to master the controls, which I think makes the Metroidvanias feel like the same franchise because they are both about mastering the domain.
Think it's more of a realistic style. I mean look at 3D games right now, if you jump forward - a good bit of them don't let you correct that input or change direction. I totally agree, super rewarding when you start to master it.
It’s amazing how Castlevania four and symphony of the night are considered so incredible even to this day
Not Putting SOTN at Peak is simply blasphemy
SotN was the beginning of the end for Castlevania. The Metroidvania style ones have always suffered from perhaps the most boring and bland level design and enemy placement imaginable. I wish you younger players would wake up to the fact that having a huge selection of weapons is not depth. These games are a mile wide and an inch deep. They are simply inferior to the classic style of games in every way in ways that should be obvious to anyone.
@@davidaitken8503lmao! Then thry finishing it using richter
@@Haruhiayesha That is definitely the most enjoyable way to play it but only further highlights how lacking the level design is compared to traditional Castlevania.
I think the fact that the studios eventually forgot that Castlevania was a horror game is what inevtiably caused the series to drop off. In my mind, the first thing you have to get right in the game to call it a Castlevania game is ambience and art direction
I agree with this. It's the primary reason why, despite the good gameplay, I wasn't able to connect with the DS games, the poppy colors, artstyles and even the particle effects kind of diminished the horror atmosphere of the genre.
Ah yes, Aria of Sorrow is perfection. And great to see Curse of Darkness getting the love it deserves. Really enjoyed that one too and think it's one of the more underrated games in the series. Only game I'd put on a higher tier than your placement is Dawn of Sorrow. I personally thought it had one of the best soundtracks in the series and a really good difficulty curve (actually thought it was harder than Aria), but fully agree that drawing the seals was its main flaw and should've been taken out.
I'm surprised by the middling opinion of Dawn of Sorrow. I absolutely loved that game. The "draw the sigil" mechanic is awful and I hope they just quietly remove it from the PC port, but otherwise I think it's S tier. There's multiple endings depending on certain things you do during the game, with the "bad ending" unlocking a whole new, Castlevania 3 inspired mode where you play as all the side characters banding together to defeat a resurrected Dracula in the form of Soma. Best reason to get the bad ending ever.
That's me, though. Otherwise, I think the list is pretty much spot on.
Im actually pleased that circle of the moon got an A. It was my first ever castlevania game that got me into the series
I love Castlevania 2, despite all of the usual criticisms. More than the original or part 3 on NES. It’s much more of an open world style adventure, which I prefer to linear games. If you haven’t played the Redacted version, you must. Highly recommend.
Castlevania II Simon's Quest is one of the better games made.
i can not be happier with this rank Aria of Sorrow was the best Castlevania I have ever played and I have great memories of it, I am glad you put it in the right place
Castlevania 3 > Castlevania 4
Honestly I'd even say Castlevania 2 = Castlevania 4 But better than Vampire Killer.
Everyone has their own personal taste 4, just didn't do it for me, the sprites were way too big.
Given 2 has some ridiculous spots like crouching at the wall.
This game still has a place in my heart, I like the art and colors, the music brought us Bloody Tears which is my fav song of all time from Castlevania games,
They changed a lot, I can see why people hate it, but I loved it.
I respect it, Bloody Tears will always be an all-time classic.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but Castlevania Bloodlines is an S tier while Super Castlevania 4 is a B.
.
First off, Bloodlines gets rid of Level finish timer, which makes the games way more fun to play. Not to mention a completely original storyline to accommodate 2 new characters in series!
.
Super Castlevania is okay, but the story is not original, since its a remake of Castlevania 1. Besides some enemy placements are unfair in SC4 even by Castlevania standards
Bro gives Dracula X an A and Belmont's Revenge an E because it's a sequel to The Adventure 💀💀
I don't think he beat Dracula X if I'm being honest. That game gets worse the farther you get.
@@broom673I don’t think he beat any of these games dude just spewing opinions based on 30 min of gameplay if he beat the original game there’s no way he’d put in in C he might have beat Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow that’s about it
Harmony of despair is my favorite Castlevania game. I haven't spent hundreds of hours playing any Castlevania game before, but I enjoyed every second of it.
I have played every Castlevania game since launch. I really think Mirror of Fate was a great game. The first LOS was also a banger. I pretty much agree with every other grade.
First LOS was indeed a banger - I loved it
Thank you so much, man, for putting Harmony of Dissonance high on Tier list. I know many don't like it, but I love it.
Grew up during NES era, that being said. SOTN and Rondo of Blood are the best.
When I finally got around playing Rondo, I was honestly shocked by how hard the game was with Richter. Unlike in Symphony’s prologue, Dracula is far from a cakewalk, though I personally found the gauntlet of classic bosses to be one of the toughest challenge in the game. Then, you play as Maria and everything yields to the might of the animal companions.😂
Love coming across a video that clicked for someones channel. Hold onto that feeling, get to work, and dont get down when it takes a while for a video to pop off like this one
Appreciate it! Yeah first video reaching 50K is a great feeling. I've been through the gauntlet of streaming previous years and starting to only do TH-cam as of this year. Really implementing a strategy and schedule on uploads that started in August so I'm happy where it's going. Good luck to you too!
Would kill for a curse of darkness remake. I replay it all the time. If it was updated a little bit it would be a very solid game! I love how the IDs grow.
Great video! Thank you!
Hoping for a 3D collection of Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, and Curse of Darkness! Appreciate the comment!
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy that would change my life
Oh yes please. Up to this day, I've never seen a robust system like curse of darkness has. Hector is already fun to play by himself, but the innocent devil system takes it to the next level, along with the equipment system.
I’m 47 and the GameBoy entrees are two of my all time favorite games that I still love returning to. I guess you had to be there.
I agree with almost every decision you made I think the only reason someone would switch symphony of the night with Aria of sorrow is if they're older which I am and I had more experience with symphony of the night than Aria of sorrow but every choice on this list is pretty accurate which is very rare to see in a TH-cam video.
Thanks! Yeah both are incredible experiences and can see them easily being interchangeable.
There should be a tier list for these hot takes. Four days is not enough time for you to rly get through these games, you should as many have stated here, played them to completion. I appreciate the fact that you played most of these (cuz how did you play the pachinko game properly or at all?) and took the time to make this video. I let you cook and honestly you need way more time in the kitchen.
It's very unsettling to see someone rate C64 above CV1 lol
One has skeleton bikers, the other doesn't. It was no competition.
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy they both have skele bikers tho..
everyone hates simons quest yet its one of the most revolutionary games in the series and even created a amazing genre. modded versions make it one of the best.
As a kid playing castlevania 64 and having Frankenstein chase you through the hedge maze was frightening.
Always have loved the Castlevania series. Really nice tier list! =-]
Thanks big guy!
@@ShaggyMcSwaggyI can’t find anything to disagree with in this list. Nice choices!
Great stuff overall! Obviously any game that people decide you ranked too low is going to draw complaints, and the scope you're dealing with here is massive, but I gotta voice some support for Belmont's Revenge. It clearly takes a good, hard look at The Adventure and improves on it in every sense, getting really clever with its level design (ropes and chains are used to great effect in the level design here, and the cave section where you need to either keep candles lit or use Holy Water's flame to keep a unique light-averse enemy type at bay is really neat). It's still slow-paced, but the challenges seem better "tuned" to that pace.
But most importantly, the soundtrack is incredible. I ask that anyone who has dismissed the game at least give the Belmont's Revenge OST a listen (New Messiah, Ripe Seeds, Praying Hands, and Original Sin are my personal highlights).
I agree, the OST of every Castlevania game is amazing! And yes, there's tons of complaints and insults thrown around over a tier list lmao but I appreciate you for being sensible and articulate with your comment - that's why I responded. Glad you enjoyed though!
@@ShaggyMcSwaggy Yeah, Belmont Revenge was the first Castlevania game of a little programmer that later became know as the director of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night: Toru Hagihara. It was done dirty in this video as it is a huge improvement and some of the best levels in the series. It's funny how it was kinda overlooked in this video.
Good list. I'm sure Konami is saddened you barely touched on all their casino games they put so much energy into making.
LMAO 😂
Four days is not enough time to play every Castlevania. I call BS
Play yes, but not complete
SOTN is not only the best castlevania game , it is one of the best games of all time , it paved a way and redefined a genre called metroidvania ,which is one of the most popular genre even today , even games like dark souls follow the formula of metroidvania
Juste is my favorite Belmont. He is cool, swag, chill, can do magics and I love his fighting style and mechanics in HoD but the game itself was underrated in my opinion so Juste wasn't getting enough attention. I was so happy when he appeared in the Nocturne series as Richter's grandfather (although it is unclear whether Richter is a direct descendant of Juste). I just wish I could see more action from Juste in the Nocturne series and show how powerful he is/was.
After Nocturne, I believe Netflix would probably announce Julius Belmont in the next series (hope it happens) since he is considered to be the strongest Belmont although it's still unsure whether Richter or Julius is considered the strongest Belmont.
Dracula X Chronicle on PSP is an S+ tier because you can unlock symphony of the night and get to play it wherever you want.
I loved Castlevania 1 when it came out. The day Castlevania 2 came out I was in 7th grade. I walked 2 miles in a blinding snow storm to get it. It deserves a higher score just for the soundtrack alone. Castlevania 4 was the last game I played when it came out. I still haven't gotten around to playing Symphony. I own it just haven't played it yet.
Please play it what are you doing man shelfing the best in the series and one of the best games ever made imo! with Aria of Sorrow being second but not even close to Sotn ! Super 4 , 3 , 1 , rondo and bloodlines were all good I couldn't ever get the good ending on 2 so I say 2 while having one of the best sound tracks is just frustrating for me you're really missing out on one of life's best experiences not playing Symphony of the Night.
@@gavinmoody5678 I don't have room currently in my house. I'm going to be moving soon and I plan on setting up a game room. I'm saving it for a special occasion. It's at the top of my list. I'm a huge Metroid fan and I love super. Cross that formula with a Castlevania and I'm all in.
Too tough on the Lords of Shadow series Shaggy. You mention your gripes but you don't mention the positives. The Lords of Shadow series has amongst some of the best music, voice acting, story/ cutscenes, and art direction among pretty much all games. Like literally the art direction in the whole series can pretty much compete with any other top tier game. It's that good. People can say what they want where it's a drastic departure from the regular castlevania games, but so weren't Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. (which I love both of those as well).
You actually kind of verified what I already knew about people's opinions of the Lord of Shadow series. Too many people for some reason toss out the quality of the series, all because it takes heavy elements from the action games you listed, specifically God of War. But not every game has to re-invent the wheel. As long as it uses those components well and is something of quality. Your entitled to your opinion of course, and for the most part you were respectful. But I've always found too many people and critics were too harsh to the Lords of Shadow games. The first game is something I find truly special among video games, and while LoS2 has it's flaws, it ultimately is greater than the sum of it's parts. And it definitely has some very good Highs! More so than the lows.
To be honest, I felt it was needed to be harder on SotN because of the massive appraisal as well as the Lord of Shadow series because it was a much newer installment. I think the first one was a great time, the boss fights felt intense, the mechanics were smooth, but you have to think about the games that were coming out during that time as well. 2010 had amazing games across the board and I think B is showing pretty high praise considering we had seen that formula before. Mirrors of Fate, I really did not enjoy and Lords of Shadows 2, I was visibly and audibly frustrated with because of the amount of cutscenes.
Did you know that there's almost 3 and half hours of cutscenes in the game? While the game takes around 14 hours to beat. It has nothing to do with the gameplay because I thought the beginning gameplay was fun, but there was a lot of edginess that I didn't enjoy from the story and voice acting. So that's kinda where I stand, but like you said to each their own opinion - I wanted to clarify more of where I was coming from though.
Yea I'd have to go back and look at what top games came out during 2010. As for LoS2, I mean I hear you. But at the same time you're talking too a Metal Gear Solid and Legacy of Kain fanatic. Long cutscenes and movie like presentation is like my bread and butter in games, and so it's obvious why I would not have a problem with that. I do understand though. Lol definitely an edgy game!! @@ShaggyMcSwaggy
No, no no no, LoS2 is the worst garbage I have ever played, from bad story, to awful ideas, to bland and boring areas, I hate this game so much, it's F, I will never watch or touch this mess again
4:20 can’t believe you ranked Simon’s quest a D shutting off video now. Simon’s Quest was the foundation for how I learned to play video games. It’s not easily figured out and they don’t just paint a straight forward picture on how to beat it the right way. It was a masterpiece. The soundtrack was great great castles and bosses and the night cycle was brilliant
I believe in Aira of Sorrow supremacy!
Also please do share your thoughts on Castlevania Nocturne.
It's funny, I decided I couldn't watch Nocturne until I finished this video so right after I binged it in one day.
I thought it was an overall good show especially after playing all the games and understanding who Richter, Maria, Alucard, and Juste were. the animations were great and I enjoyed the story to an extent, but I think they put a lot of focus on Annette's character compared to Maria - kind of assuming the audience just knows who she is. Maybe that'll get more flushed out in season 2 though.
I'd say it was a solid 7.5 while the original Castlevania show with Trevor and Sypha was easily a 9.5, I love that show and watched it multiple times.
The problem with ranking so many games is you have to actually play through them all to give a fair ranking.
Belmont's Revenge is easily an 'A' for me. I'm not sure he actually played this game for more than a couple of minutes. Castlevania 3 is 'S' tier and has the best music of all the Castlevanias imo. Dracula X is ok at best, probably a 'C' for me. It's nowhere near the same level as Rondo.
You should have reviewed Ritual of the Night. Technically not castlevania but it’s has pretty much all the elements. Fantastic game very similar to symphony of the night but with modern graphics.
The Bloodstained games are Castlevania games in every aspect except name, and in a rather poetic justice twist modern Konami will never get a single yen of their profits.
guy's on crack. skipped to end to see some WILD rankings.