@@MrPeterStevens same!! Nothing like a nice cup of Joe to go with some Joe. It’s such a cozy, happy place for me. I’m a coffee fiend, so coffee alone makes me very happy, but paired with a game sack video ..🤌🏼 perfection
Had already watched these individually when they came out but since I like Castlevania and Joe's content so much I just watched the whole thing again 🤣
One of my favorite videogame franchises of all time. Thank you!! Sigh...if only Konami would do something with this franchise besides re-releases and Pachinko.
A shame besides Igarashi's team we know nothing about the other Castlevania developers. Toru Hagihara was SOTN co-director and also made Belmont's Revenge and Rondo of Blood.This guy took the series to another level . Hitoshi Akamatsu created the series and directed all the games for the NES.Nobody knows what happened to him,he vanished.
Really appreciate these Joe. Game Sack is my comfort watch. I have it on in the background during various things, multiple times per week, then I always catch the new episodes before bed Saturday nights.
I remember the first time I played Rondo of Blood, I played it on an emulator and when I started playing I was like wow this is actually really good (by this point I had played and owned all the NES games, gameboy, Bloodline on Genesis, which funny enough i had the same reaction as you like this dont feel like a Castlevania game, feels off but then I realize it is a masterpiece even better than Super Castlevania, that one is 2 easy, anyways the SNES games and PS1 games), so im playing Rondo of Blood and i went from this is really good, to starting to get angry and angrier and angrier, until pausing the game and screaming "THE BEST 16 bit Castlevania GAME OF ALL TIME NEVER CAME OUT IN THE WEST, WTFFFFFFF" it is that fucking good and being the first part of my favorite castlevania game of all time, i love it.
I still feel somewhat blessed knowing that there is a 2 hour video on TH-cam, made by Game Sack, about Castlevania 😮 Seriously, it's great to witness it 👍
Probably should’ve mentioned the main draw of Harmony of Despair, that you can play as all the main characters of the IGA Castlevania games, and they all play using the mechanics they had in their own game.
That outro, for the 16bit games, man, that was perfect. I had a good chuckle, from that. In Harmony of Dissonance, I think your characters name, is pronounced, as, Joo-stay. A notable takeaway, from Harmony, is, how tedious, the map design, can be and, it employs WAY more backtracking, than, any other Castlevania. My top two, are the same as yours. SoTN just feels so "rich and thorough", with perfect control and has, absolutely incredible, music, so, it gets my top vote. AoS gets my second, for the quick and solid gameplay, with excellent tunes, and an addictive soul system. Collecting the Tsuchinoko and Sky Fish souls, was satisfying, and the Game+ mode, was perfect.
Hey Joe, I especially like that wrap-around filter you used for the end-credits video. Some really cool effects right there, definitely use that some more in end-credits, or other parts of future vids! Thanks for all your hard work brother.
As a pretty big fan of the series since the NES, I came around to Harmony of despair on Xbox 360. You're right that, single player alone, it's not amazing. But the multiplayer is one of my finest memories with the franchise. Especially with Soma. But having all sorts of different characters to play, all online with friends was a blast. Leveling up your abilities, farming bosses for rare drops (Dual Wielding Valmanways was amazing), playing levels from various Castlevania games... Just great. And the DLC was reasonable by today's standards. I think it was $2/character when they added them, and levels were like $4 or $5. They got difficult since you had to play on the hardest difficulty to get the best drops (Valmanway+1 was extremely rare). Me and a friend of mine used to go back to it every now and then. They eventually made it backward compatible on Xbox one. I really wish they would make a newer one. If Konami came back and made true new 2d Castlevania in the same vein as what they did for the TMNT franchise with Shredder's Revenge, I would be all in. I also enjoy the compilations they've released so I can play on Switch. Really hoping they find a way to do the DS games.
Such a great trip down memory lane, Love the series and as much as I love SOTN I will always love the original trilogy for NES and yes I actually like Simon's Quest. One day I'll get my Castlevania NES boxart completed on my back!
I wanna see a 3D castlevania game done with the help of Platinum games where you play as either Alucard or Soma Cruze Bayonetta style, imagine how crazy that'd be!
Lords of Shadow is awesome, don’t care what the haters say. The environments are gorgeous, top notch voice acting, lots of great art and lore, Patrick Stewart, etc. When Carmilla tells Gabriel to join her, I would’ve said heck yeah. That real estate alone! 🎃
on the PSP's game, you can unlock the PS1's Symphony of the Night game too. The PSP's game has actually 3 games on it. on Mega Drive's Bloodlines you can do a Spear Rotating attack as well.
When you were talking about the X68K Castelvania, I was thinking I’ve played this before. Then you said it was on Castlevania Chronicles, I’m like hmmmm. Dug out my old PS3 and sure enough I got this game on there. Score!
I loved the music from harmony of dissonance. It's unique, I love the complex harmonies in it. I'll grant you the sound quality is not good. I wish more people liked it, so we could get a quality sound track from it.
I don't have a Castlevania T Shirt! Dammit! I love these CRUNCH episodes, real nice to put onthe tv right before bed and just veg out until fall asleep, then rewind the next day to where I left off and do it again
@@tonberrymasta i found it on Teepublic. I believe it should still be available. *edit* it's still available. One shirt i recommended is one where it looks a comic book cover with Simon getting in Dracula's face.
I literally watched all the castlevania videos yesterday. I guess now's as good as ever to see if there's anything I missed. I do love these compilation videos.
Overall, it's a great compilation of nearly all Castlevania Games and fun to watch Here's my Opinion on some Games which differ from Joe: _16-Bit_ Honestly Super Castlevania 4 and Rondo of Blood are both Number 1 with neither being better than the other since their focus are different which makes them equally good. Bloodlines was good, but not really that better when confronted with SC4. It's also worth mentioning that Dracula X for the SNES was known in PAL Regions as "Castlevania Vampire's Kiss" and that the Dracula Boss Fight for the SNES Port was the most infamous one in all of Castlevania History for being ultra difficult! _Metroidvanias_ Circle of the Moon: The Game was actually much harder than Joe said, due to the fact that there is no Shop so you have to heavily rely on cards or item drops for healing outside save rooms. This was also paired with the fact that there was no backdash which makes hits difficult to avoid. If you wanted 100% you also need to go to the Battle Arena which was very hard if you're not minimum Level 60 and needed to grind one card which was dropped by one enemy and if it didn't you had to do the whole Arena again! What this Game made actually better than Symphony of the Night or later Castlevanias was the fact that you could hit continue directly from the Game Over Screen without going back to Main Menu Harmony of Dissonance: Actually imo it has the best Art and Atmosphere from all GBA Castlevanias while Aria of Sorrow had a rather good mix but not being the better. Worth mentioning here is the ability to backdash again but you can also dash forward which makes fights and traveling much easier again! Aria of Sorrow: It was mentioned by Joe that as Julius you don't level up which is correct but unlike Maxim in HoD, Julius can raise his stats when he collects the orb at the end of a boss fight since Julius doesn't start fully powered up like Maxim. Order of Ecclesia: This is where i strongly disagree with Joe since imho Order of Ecclesia is the best NDS Castlevania out there. It has great Music, returning artwork from Ayami Kojima!, challenging fights, stages like Simons Quest with different designs (i do agree here that some stages are bland or only straight forward). If you rescued all villagers you could even unlock Dracula's Castle and explore it! Portrait of Ruin was also a good Game but really, it doesn't hold a candle against it even though the Portraits were a nice Idea but gameplay was rather just more of the same while Aria/Dawn of Sorrow was definetely more fun with the Soul System. _3D Castlevania_ I have to disagree here again with his opinion on Lords of Shadow The Game was rather good and featured a dark re-telling how Gabriel descended further into the Darkness until becoming Dracula in the 2nd game. Joe telling he rather prefered playing the N64 Games was very amusing but i can only agree with the fact that QTE's were a fad of the time and annoying if overused. That he also mentioned rather playing Dante's Inferno which also had tons of QTE didn't really help him here putting more critics on LoS. Personally i had no trouble with the gameplay which was also very tough and challenging (stronger focus on tactical side with dodging/blocking and using the resources for healing or damage buff) The other points that it barely resembles Castlevania is a bit wrong when many known Names (Rodolfi, Orloc, etc.) as also Enemies from the Original Storyline are included here and the Vampire Castle which was breathtaking! The 2D Spinoff was ok, but ofc it doesn't reach the same height as the original ones Lords of Shadow 2 was though a let down from the Story and Level Design but still good gameplay and brought the Story to a, if somewhat weak, conclusion. I rather wished he looked upon it in a more different view instead of being negative about it and somehow trying to find arguments to make it look less good imo.
I think they did an Advanced Compilation Digitally for the Switch. I hope they do a DS comp as well. I wish they would release a physical copy collection of them as I'd like to actually OWN the physical media rather than a digital copy.
And I believe they are working on a compilation of the DS game’s currently. I don’t have much to back that claim up with though. But, I think what is taking them longer on this one is Dawn of Sorrow is being slightly remade with new art and a removal of the touch controls. The other two will be mostly unchanged. Also, expect to see The Adventure ReBirth on that one
Awesome retrospective! Castlevania is my go to platformer, played all of them up to Lords of Shadow, which I didn't bother finishing. Hoping for a return to form some day!
Great stuff Joe! I'm a big of this series so I have my personal favorites: From the original trilogy: Castlevania III From the 16-bit games: Super Castlevania IV From the GBA games: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon From the 3D-games: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness I also gotta say that I didn't hate Lords of Shadow. It's a flawed experience for sure, but I thought it was more good than bad. The ambiance, the visuals and going back to earlier levels to get hidden power-ups felt Castlevania-ish enough for me. Not to mention the Castle area where you go against the vampire queen, that's as Castlevania as you get. It also helps that Gabriel was voiced by Robert Carlyle, an underrated Scottish actor and one of my favorites, he did a excellent performance for the game.
What are your favorite Castlevanias? Early: Nostalgia aside, it’s Rondo Of Blood. Super CV4 is a close 2nd. Castlevania Chronicles could’ve been great but it has so much BS that the fun factor is hurt by it IMO. Metroidvania: Aria Of Sorrow. SoTN is the best looking/sounding but Aria perfected it and the story twist is fantastic. Other: I’ve never played any of these.
Agreed on the metroidvania pick. SOTN is beautiful looking, sounding and has plenty of content with both the reverse map and regular map along with plenty of customization. Problem is there’s stuff like having to equip your potion or meat and then pressing the button you assigned to equip it and then when it drops you can use it that really shows the games age. The fact that you’re limited to what you can sell to the merchant and forced to keep usual items and weapon’s you’ll never use also always bothered me and there’s a little too much back tracking in SOTN compared to pretty much every other metroidvania castlevania game where you not only see yourself constantly going to the same area more times than you should but you’re also constantly pressing start to equip or unequip something and the whole thing becomes really repetitive (this is mostly just an issue when you first play the game but that’s really the whole point of a game to begin with is to judge it based of your initial experience of it). Again SOTN is a classic and paved the way for the following games that succeeded it but Aria of sorrow really fixed a lot of that bs along with still maintaining a fantastic soundtrack, beautiful looking areas, a variety of different enemies, items and weapons and a good story along with a good amount of content that’s not too over inflated or repetitive. I also love the anime look style the game had something that dawn of sorrow changed and I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot with the seal bs after beating a boss and that puts it below Aria in my opinion despite still being a great game. Aria is the clear metroidvania castlevania game winner to me
My first console that I got that was actually mine was an NES in 1988, and the first game I asked for was Castlevania. Before that I played the game in one of those tabletop arcade cabinets in a local Pizza Hut, so it blew my mind that I could play the game at home.
This is a great visual representation of the downfall of Konami over the years, starting with the N64 days...their first major fumble. Now where can I buy me some Castlevania Crunch cereal !?. I heard it is the perfect part of any balanced breakfast.
Hey Joe! This is my favorite mini-series you've made. It's cool to watch them back to back, and I also appreciate the added intro! Also, the post credits scene for the 16 bit Castlevanias video is my favorite post credits scene in the entire channel! Keep up the good work!
Nice video! I love Castlevania the Adventure on gameboy. I beat it all the time when it first came out but I never knew it had a GBC release. Can't wait to play it!
The 2nd one is my favorite!... It's good to hear someone speak well of it! I like the open world and the high difficulty at night. It was a good first stab at taking the game out of the castle...
I finally realized the logic around the seemingly random crouching you need to do in Simon's Quest When I replayed it for the first time in years for this year's Halloween season without a guide. Each orb represent different kinds of magic, the white orb enhances your sight, the blue orb manipulates water while the red orb manipulates wind. When you're crouching, it's supposed to represent you invoking the magic of your orbs. In other words, there's no reason to randomly crouch in a location unless manipulating water or wind seems beneficial in that particular moment. When you're following a guide, the cause and effect of the crouching moments seem utterly random, but it actually does make sense once you try to go through the game with nothing but your own intuition, provided that you know that crouching does something to begin with, of course.
My feelings are in the series are that Konami is neglecting this franchise. Although I'm not a fan of the more exploration based titles I think there is an opportunity here. The game mirror of Fate was very flawed but they were going in the right direction. That game showed despite its flaws that exploration and arcade style platforming can work in a game.
Wow, a ton of work went into this, great job! Notice that there is no Japanese version of vampire killer as such on MSX2. If you play it on a Japanese MSX2 it shows the Japanese title, on an European MSX it shows Vampire Killer. Clever for the time :-) I actually really like the aspect of the key-searching in the MSX version, it adds a challenge. But I grew up with MSX so I might be biased.
Castlevania HD was fun. You had to play it when the servers were active. Full party speed runs through the maps were unforgettable. Just had to grind to get your characters powerful
That was a pretty slick, albeit LONG, video. One thing I really enjoyed in Lament of Innocence was the orb magic system that works in tandem with your current sub-weapon, making for all sorts of useful combinations. There even was the (not so) secret “item crash orb” that made fights much easier. The other thing it did that I wish more games also would have done back in the days was giving the option to choose the original Japanese voice acting, because to be honest the English VAs were pretty bad, especially Leon’s.
Castlevania was one of the first batch of games we rented when we got our NES back in the 80s. I tried my damnedest to get anywhere on Simon's Quest but had to skip it. We owned Dracula's Curse and it became our most played game on the console. Castlevania has remained one of my favorite series of games. Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night are my two favorites. The GBA games are damn good too
game sack is like a recliner that's so comfortable and familiar you can't help but sink into it.
You have obviously never been in a steiner recliner before.
Beanbag?
It is usually part of my Sunday morning ritual. Coffee + game sack.
@@MrPeterStevens i can dig it. I'm more of a Game Sack before bed kind of guy myself.
@@MrPeterStevens same!! Nothing like a nice cup of Joe to go with some Joe. It’s such a cozy, happy place for me. I’m a coffee fiend, so coffee alone makes me very happy, but paired with a game sack video ..🤌🏼 perfection
I appreciate you recording new intros for the crunch videos. Not everyone takes the trouble. Ok, time to binge!
I always start my day with a bowl of Castlevainia Crunch!
Shameful comment, you should be ashamed of yourself
Pour the cereal before the blood
I love the Medusa head marshmallows! Wow!
Pass the box I got a bowl too!!
Part of your complete breakfast.
2 hours and 18 minutes of Joe and Castlevania. What more could you ask for? Thanks for the good times! :)
Dave
It is getting that time of year where I play Castlevania and Super Ghouls and Ghost. They always remind me of fall and Halloween.
🎃
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is also good at this time of year :)
GNG resurrection was fun 2 player but tough even on easier levels. I do like the art books and sound in both castlevania/advance collections.
Happy castlevania season!
For me too especially in the winter
Well, I wanted to be productive this Monday. Guess that isn't going to happen. This video won't watch itself. Lol
😂🤙
sho won't
😆
Oh man, the Dracula X vs Rondo of Blood skit was spot on! I'll always have that speech between Richter and Drac etched into my memory.
Had already watched these individually when they came out but since I like Castlevania and Joe's content so much I just watched the whole thing again 🤣
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
bring it on punk
Rondo Of Blood is truly the purest embodiment of what Castlevania stands for as a franchise.
Rondo Of Blood is tough as hell. I can't get past stage 2.
@@slipwagon7944 Did you unlock Maria?????
@@orangeslash1667 Trying too. That part after you fall down the hole is difficult.
One of my favorite videogame franchises of all time. Thank you!!
Sigh...if only Konami would do something with this franchise besides re-releases and Pachinko.
A shame besides Igarashi's team we know nothing about the other Castlevania developers.
Toru Hagihara was SOTN co-director and also made Belmont's Revenge and Rondo of Blood.This guy took the series to another level .
Hitoshi Akamatsu created the series and directed all the games for the NES.Nobody knows what happened to him,he vanished.
This is amazing, I always go back to watch them all because they are so incredible, being in one video is a treat and absolute joy.
Thank you.
Really appreciate these Joe. Game Sack is my comfort watch. I have it on in the background during various things, multiple times per week, then I always catch the new episodes before bed Saturday nights.
I remember the first time I played Rondo of Blood, I played it on an emulator and when I started playing I was like wow this is actually really good (by this point I had played and owned all the NES games, gameboy, Bloodline on Genesis, which funny enough i had the same reaction as you like this dont feel like a Castlevania game, feels off but then I realize it is a masterpiece even better than Super Castlevania, that one is 2 easy, anyways the SNES games and PS1 games), so im playing Rondo of Blood and i went from this is really good, to starting to get angry and angrier and angrier, until pausing the game and screaming "THE BEST 16 bit Castlevania GAME OF ALL TIME NEVER CAME OUT IN THE WEST, WTFFFFFFF" it is that fucking good and being the first part of my favorite castlevania game of all time, i love it.
So true, all of it
I appreciate the attention to the super Gameboy and details like differences between releases. Awesome show. Thanks!
OMG, you said FEWER appropriately instead of LESS. Joe, THANK YOU.
That aside, I love this compilation.
I still feel somewhat blessed knowing that there is a 2 hour video on TH-cam, made by Game Sack, about Castlevania 😮
Seriously, it's great to witness it 👍
Probably should’ve mentioned the main draw of Harmony of Despair, that you can play as all the main characters of the IGA Castlevania games, and they all play using the mechanics they had in their own game.
That outro, for the 16bit games, man, that was perfect. I had a good chuckle, from that.
In Harmony of Dissonance, I think your characters name, is pronounced, as, Joo-stay.
A notable takeaway, from Harmony, is, how tedious, the map design, can be and, it employs WAY more backtracking, than, any other Castlevania.
My top two, are the same as yours. SoTN just feels so "rich and thorough", with perfect control and has, absolutely incredible, music, so, it gets my top vote. AoS gets my second, for the quick and solid gameplay, with excellent tunes, and an addictive soul system. Collecting the Tsuchinoko and Sky Fish souls, was satisfying, and the Game+ mode, was perfect.
Hey Joe, I especially like that wrap-around filter you used for the end-credits video. Some really cool effects right there, definitely use that some more in end-credits, or other parts of future vids! Thanks for all your hard work brother.
You should see his stop-motion animation of the innards of a RetroN5. It is creative and a display of great skill.
I like all of your videos Joe! Game sack is my favorite retro gaming channel
I do NOT have a Castlevania t-shirt... I need a Castlevania t-shirt.
As a pretty big fan of the series since the NES, I came around to Harmony of despair on Xbox 360. You're right that, single player alone, it's not amazing. But the multiplayer is one of my finest memories with the franchise. Especially with Soma. But having all sorts of different characters to play, all online with friends was a blast. Leveling up your abilities, farming bosses for rare drops (Dual Wielding Valmanways was amazing), playing levels from various Castlevania games... Just great. And the DLC was reasonable by today's standards. I think it was $2/character when they added them, and levels were like $4 or $5. They got difficult since you had to play on the hardest difficulty to get the best drops (Valmanway+1 was extremely rare).
Me and a friend of mine used to go back to it every now and then. They eventually made it backward compatible on Xbox one. I really wish they would make a newer one.
If Konami came back and made true new 2d Castlevania in the same vein as what they did for the TMNT franchise with Shredder's Revenge, I would be all in. I also enjoy the compilations they've released so I can play on Switch. Really hoping they find a way to do the DS games.
Such a great trip down memory lane, Love the series and as much as I love SOTN I will always love the original trilogy for NES and yes I actually like Simon's Quest. One day I'll get my Castlevania NES boxart completed on my back!
I wanna see a 3D castlevania game done with the help of Platinum games where you play as either Alucard or Soma Cruze Bayonetta style, imagine how crazy that'd be!
Dude you referencing the line from Castlevania Rondo of Blood at the end of the 16 bit part was funny and great :D
Lords of Shadow is awesome, don’t care what the haters say. The environments are gorgeous, top notch voice acting, lots of great art and lore, Patrick Stewart, etc. When Carmilla tells Gabriel to join her, I would’ve said heck yeah. That real estate alone! 🎃
i liked it a lot too, also one lament of innocence for some reason, none can beat SOTN tough
True indeed , I’m sure that bearded little guy just sucked at lords of shadow .
@@juanpineiro4507 🤡
on the PSP's game, you can unlock the PS1's Symphony of the Night game too. The PSP's game has actually 3 games on it.
on Mega Drive's Bloodlines you can do a Spear Rotating attack as well.
When you were talking about the X68K Castelvania, I was thinking I’ve played this before. Then you said it was on Castlevania Chronicles, I’m like hmmmm. Dug out my old PS3 and sure enough I got this game on there. Score!
Glad to see some love for Dante's Inferno. Never understood the hate for it when it was released, as I enjoyed it from start to end.
Love this channel. I hope it keeps going for many years
Rondo of Blood is still my favourite castlevania of all time.
I loved the music from harmony of dissonance. It's unique, I love the complex harmonies in it. I'll grant you the sound quality is not good. I wish more people liked it, so we could get a quality sound track from it.
I'm mad at myself for not discovering Game Sack sooner.
I don't have a Castlevania T Shirt! Dammit! I love these CRUNCH episodes, real nice to put onthe tv right before bed and just veg out until fall asleep, then rewind the next day to where I left off and do it again
The Treasure room music in Super Castlevania is the best song of all of the SNES games! :)
Dracula's theme is still good. Haunting and eerie. When you walk into that room be prepared for a showdown with The Prince of Darkness!!
LOS 1&2 are masterpieces , lament of innocence is also one of my favorites .
I've never thought of myself as being a substandard Castlevania fan for not having a Castlevania T-shirt, but I guess that is indeed the case.
Good point, applies to me too
I'm a fraud.
I'm wearing a Castlevania shirt right now. Not an official one but it has the map from Castlevania 3 with all 4 characters underneath walking along.
@@derek-64 That actually sounds really awesome!
@@tonberrymasta i found it on Teepublic. I believe it should still be available.
*edit* it's still available. One shirt i recommended is one where it looks a comic book cover with Simon getting in Dracula's face.
The sound effects when putting games into consoles on Game Sack are underrated.
Ahhh another Game Sack crunch to fall asleep to...just in time for Halloween🎃. Thanks Joe. 👍😎
I literally watched all the castlevania videos yesterday. I guess now's as good as ever to see if there's anything I missed. I do love these compilation videos.
Great show Joe! I'm a Castlevania fanatic... Always have been... Perfect timing on the Hallow's Eve stuff, and Yes! The Music❤🔊
I love all your videos, but I really appreciate all the work you put into your stop motion shorts, you must have the patience of a jedi
You are fake news son
@UCZ_p2FZpxH184u4j3zOQDgg awe TELEGRAM ME changed his name, or did he delete his wittle 3 week old fake account bot bot bot
Overall, it's a great compilation of nearly all Castlevania Games and fun to watch
Here's my Opinion on some Games which differ from Joe:
_16-Bit_
Honestly Super Castlevania 4 and Rondo of Blood are both Number 1 with neither being better than the other since their focus are different which makes them equally good. Bloodlines was good, but not really that better when confronted with SC4. It's also worth mentioning that Dracula X for the SNES was known in PAL Regions as "Castlevania Vampire's Kiss" and that the Dracula Boss Fight for the SNES Port was the most infamous one in all of Castlevania History for being ultra difficult!
_Metroidvanias_
Circle of the Moon:
The Game was actually much harder than Joe said, due to the fact that there is no Shop so you have to heavily rely on cards or item drops for healing outside save rooms. This was also paired with the fact that there was no backdash which makes hits difficult to avoid. If you wanted 100% you also need to go to the Battle Arena which was very hard if you're not minimum Level 60 and needed to grind one card which was dropped by one enemy and if it didn't you had to do the whole Arena again!
What this Game made actually better than Symphony of the Night or later Castlevanias was the fact that you could hit continue directly from the Game Over Screen without going back to Main Menu
Harmony of Dissonance:
Actually imo it has the best Art and Atmosphere from all GBA Castlevanias while Aria of Sorrow had a rather good mix but not being the better. Worth mentioning here is the ability to backdash again but you can also dash forward which makes fights and traveling much easier again!
Aria of Sorrow:
It was mentioned by Joe that as Julius you don't level up which is correct but unlike Maxim in HoD, Julius can raise his stats when he collects the orb at the end of a boss fight since Julius doesn't start fully powered up like Maxim.
Order of Ecclesia:
This is where i strongly disagree with Joe since imho Order of Ecclesia is the best NDS Castlevania out there. It has great Music, returning artwork from Ayami Kojima!, challenging fights, stages like Simons Quest with different designs (i do agree here that some stages are bland or only straight forward). If you rescued all villagers you could even unlock Dracula's Castle and explore it!
Portrait of Ruin was also a good Game but really, it doesn't hold a candle against it even though the Portraits were a nice Idea but gameplay was rather just more of the same while Aria/Dawn of Sorrow was definetely more fun with the Soul System.
_3D Castlevania_
I have to disagree here again with his opinion on Lords of Shadow
The Game was rather good and featured a dark re-telling how Gabriel descended further into the Darkness until becoming Dracula in the 2nd game.
Joe telling he rather prefered playing the N64 Games was very amusing but i can only agree with the fact that QTE's were a fad of the time and annoying if overused. That he also mentioned rather playing Dante's Inferno which also had tons of QTE didn't really help him here putting more critics on LoS.
Personally i had no trouble with the gameplay which was also very tough and challenging (stronger focus on tactical side with dodging/blocking and using the resources for healing or damage buff)
The other points that it barely resembles Castlevania is a bit wrong when many known Names (Rodolfi, Orloc, etc.) as also Enemies from the Original Storyline are included here and the Vampire Castle which was breathtaking!
The 2D Spinoff was ok, but ofc it doesn't reach the same height as the original ones
Lords of Shadow 2 was though a let down from the Story and Level Design but still good gameplay and brought the Story to a, if somewhat weak, conclusion.
I rather wished he looked upon it in a more different view instead of being negative about it and somehow trying to find arguments to make it look less good imo.
Great job, I love those kinda videos
Brilliant starting my day off with game sack and it's Castlevania! What could be better 😄
I love this time of year - Hyper focus on the spooky games!
Happy castlevania season!
Me and my friend has been recently hooked on this series
so i was currently watching your Cool Compilation and Anthologies video and then you uploaded this crunch, perfect timing i guess
beer is ready, time to watch 2 hours of Castlevania
Rondo of Blood, or Super Castlevania IV? I can never decide. Don't make me decide!
Dude are you purposefully trying to steal all my time??? Can't wait to get stuck into this one.
I do have a Castlevania T-shirt, I'm wearing it right now. Great vid, good job!
Really hoping they release a DS compilation.
If there was going to be one, the only platform that would've played it mechanically intact is... The Wii U.
@@ZeroHourProductions407 they could change some of the touch screen controls and keep the games mostly intact.
I think they did an Advanced Compilation Digitally for the Switch. I hope they do a DS comp as well. I wish they would release a physical copy collection of them as I'd like to actually OWN the physical media rather than a digital copy.
@@animatedplastic There is a physical version of the Anniversary Collection and Requiem so far
And I believe they are working on a compilation of the DS game’s currently. I don’t have much to back that claim up with though. But, I think what is taking them longer on this one is Dawn of Sorrow is being slightly remade with new art and a removal of the touch controls. The other two will be mostly unchanged. Also, expect to see The Adventure ReBirth on that one
Awesome retrospective! Castlevania is my go to platformer, played all of them up to Lords of Shadow, which I didn't bother finishing.
Hoping for a return to form some day!
Great stuff Joe! I'm a big of this series so I have my personal favorites:
From the original trilogy: Castlevania III
From the 16-bit games: Super Castlevania IV
From the GBA games: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
From the 3D-games: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
I also gotta say that I didn't hate Lords of Shadow. It's a flawed experience for sure, but I thought it was more good than bad. The ambiance, the visuals and going back to earlier levels to get hidden power-ups felt Castlevania-ish enough for me. Not to mention the Castle area where you go against the vampire queen, that's as Castlevania as you get. It also helps that Gabriel was voiced by Robert Carlyle, an underrated Scottish actor and one of my favorites, he did a excellent performance for the game.
In Dawn of Sorrow I remember the touch screen functions were important at the time because they needed go justify having a touchscreen in general.
Watching this makes me want to go finish some of my playthroughs of Infernax.
Also - Curse of Darkness is the best 3D castlevania
Awesome compilation of games. Another video that comes a close second is the old Gametrailers Castlevania retrospective
What are your favorite Castlevanias?
Early: Nostalgia aside, it’s Rondo Of Blood. Super CV4 is a close 2nd. Castlevania Chronicles could’ve been great but it has so much BS that the fun factor is hurt by it IMO.
Metroidvania: Aria Of Sorrow. SoTN is the best looking/sounding but Aria perfected it and the story twist is fantastic.
Other: I’ve never played any of these.
Agreed on the metroidvania pick. SOTN is beautiful looking, sounding and has plenty of content with both the reverse map and regular map along with plenty of customization. Problem is there’s stuff like having to equip your potion or meat and then pressing the button you assigned to equip it and then when it drops you can use it that really shows the games age. The fact that you’re limited to what you can sell to the merchant and forced to keep usual items and weapon’s you’ll never use also always bothered me and there’s a little too much back tracking in SOTN compared to pretty much every other metroidvania castlevania game where you not only see yourself constantly going to the same area more times than you should but you’re also constantly pressing start to equip or unequip something and the whole thing becomes really repetitive (this is mostly just an issue when you first play the game but that’s really the whole point of a game to begin with is to judge it based of your initial experience of it). Again SOTN is a classic and paved the way for the following games that succeeded it but Aria of sorrow really fixed a lot of that bs along with still maintaining a fantastic soundtrack, beautiful looking areas, a variety of different enemies, items and weapons and a good story along with a good amount of content that’s not too over inflated or repetitive. I also love the anime look style the game had something that dawn of sorrow changed and I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot with the seal bs after beating a boss and that puts it below Aria in my opinion despite still being a great game. Aria is the clear metroidvania castlevania game winner to me
For my money, Castlevania and Mega Man/X have the best series soundtracks in all of gaming.
My first console that I got that was actually mine was an NES in 1988, and the first game I asked for was Castlevania. Before that I played the game in one of those tabletop arcade cabinets in a local Pizza Hut, so it blew my mind that I could play the game at home.
I like your subtle sense of humor. Great videos man.
just what i needed at this moment. stop reading my mind! (no actually, please continue)
Thanks for this video! This is one of my favorite series' of all time! Growing up, I always thought the sword and snakese were chandeliers too! Haha!
Yes! How nice is this. Thank you Gamesack 🤩
Can't lie your Screen transitions are unmatched anywhere online!
This is a great visual representation of the downfall of Konami over the years, starting with the N64 days...their first major fumble.
Now where can I buy me some Castlevania Crunch cereal !?. I heard it is the perfect part of any balanced breakfast.
I like your sense of humor.
Hey Joe! This is my favorite mini-series you've made. It's cool to watch them back to back, and I also appreciate the added intro! Also, the post credits scene for the 16 bit Castlevanias video is my favorite post credits scene in the entire channel! Keep up the good work!
Castlevania Crunch: the breakfast cereal General Mills should work on RIGHT NOW.
Sounds like a lost late 80s and early 90s cereal trying to cash on on the sucess of the Nintendo Cereal System.
You don't think they'd get sued by Quaker for stealing their "Crunch" IP?
That skit was all elite.
John!!! Another quality video on my day off?! Over two hours!!! You rule
The 3D/PS3 era games were sick. This video was awesome!
Nice video! I love Castlevania the Adventure on gameboy. I beat it all the time when it first came out but I never knew it had a GBC release. Can't wait to play it!
The 2nd one is my favorite!... It's good to hear someone speak well of it! I like the open world and the high difficulty at night. It was a good first stab at taking the game out of the castle...
Castlevania is my favourite franchise
Oh hell yeah. Booting up the collection and getting comfy for this one!
I finally realized the logic around the seemingly random crouching you need to do in Simon's Quest When I replayed it for the first time in years for this year's Halloween season without a guide.
Each orb represent different kinds of magic, the white orb enhances your sight, the blue orb manipulates water while the red orb manipulates wind. When you're crouching, it's supposed to represent you invoking the magic of your orbs. In other words, there's no reason to randomly crouch in a location unless manipulating water or wind seems beneficial in that particular moment. When you're following a guide, the cause and effect of the crouching moments seem utterly random, but it actually does make sense once you try to go through the game with nothing but your own intuition, provided that you know that crouching does something to begin with, of course.
symphony of the night and Aria of Sorrow, in my opinion, where the best castlevania games ever
No order of ecclesia love?
I love those two as well
Gamesack, joe u are the shit to put a two hour plus video together for us castlevania fans thank u for the killer upload
Watching this while waiting for hurricane Ian to make landfall. Thanks Game sack!
My feelings are in the series are that Konami is neglecting this franchise. Although I'm not a fan of the more exploration based titles I think there is an opportunity here. The game mirror of Fate was very flawed but they were going in the right direction. That game showed despite its flaws that exploration and arcade style platforming can work in a game.
Awesome content as always. Finally getting my Mister
kit today so will at last get to play rondo of blood.
Love Castlevania and loved the video! Hope to someday see a similar video but for Metal Gear.
Wow, a ton of work went into this, great job!
Notice that there is no Japanese version of vampire killer as such on MSX2. If you play it on a Japanese MSX2 it shows the Japanese title, on an European MSX it shows Vampire Killer. Clever for the time :-)
I actually really like the aspect of the key-searching in the MSX version, it adds a challenge. But I grew up with MSX so I might be biased.
Sega genesis castlevania is also one of the best castlevania games of any era
Castlevania HD was fun. You had to play it when the servers were active. Full party speed runs through the maps were unforgettable. Just had to grind to get your characters powerful
These video accidentally illustrates the rise and fall of Konami
😳wooaaah...this came unexpected😉
Perfect Crunchy-NES Castlevania-Galore with Special Intro from my Fav Game Sack👍...so whip'n cool🎊
All I heard was blasphemy when I got to Castlevania Lords of Shadow. That game was amazing.
"It's got Castlevainia for crunch, whip for punch, and it stays crunchy, even in milk."
Awesome! Literally have been watching Game Sack crunch videos and Castlevania videos all morning. How did you know? :O
I saw the title of this video and I was like Jessie spano (I'm so excited!). love me some castlevania and joes perspective/knowledge.
Damn, no t-shirt here. The passion is amazing to me as always!!!
Me at 05:00 AM, oh no Joe i've got to go to work now. How i am suppose to watch your 2 hours + great video?
That was a pretty slick, albeit LONG, video. One thing I really enjoyed in Lament of Innocence was the orb magic system that works in tandem with your current sub-weapon, making for all sorts of useful combinations. There even was the (not so) secret “item crash orb” that made fights much easier.
The other thing it did that I wish more games also would have done back in the days was giving the option to choose the original Japanese voice acting, because to be honest the English VAs were pretty bad, especially Leon’s.
Sounds like a new breakfast cereal!
I'll take a box of castlevania crunch for sure!
Every box contains a miserable little pile of secrets
Btw I needed to say thanks for all the years of content - What's amazing is your content keeps getting better. GG on that, no small feat. imo
Castlevania Crunch… sounds like a cereal I missed out on in the 90s!
They had a batman cereal, that was absolutely great!
Castlevania was one of the first batch of games we rented when we got our NES back in the 80s. I tried my damnedest to get anywhere on Simon's Quest but had to skip it. We owned Dracula's Curse and it became our most played game on the console.
Castlevania has remained one of my favorite series of games. Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night are my two favorites. The GBA games are damn good too