Home Backlog Gallery Blog

The Vania-Type Castlevanias

Prelude

So, throughout the beginning of the year, I decided to marathon mostly all of the 2D metroidvania-styled Castlevania titles (along with the traditional games too). As I did not record any footage as I played them, and I really couldn't when it came to the DS games (not in amazing quality, at least), there is no real chance of my thoughts on them getting made into a video any time soon. That is where this blog post comes in. I'm just going to discuss my thoughts on each of the games, and perhaps give a guide on where to start, or some potentially helpful advice.

I would possibly consider the PS2 3D titles metroidvanias as well, but I still have yet to play them in their entirety. I may update this post at a later date after they are finished. I have not touched the Lords of Shadow titles at all yet and may or may not update this post with Mirror of Fate whenever I get around to playing it.

So, without wasting anymore of my or your time reading this, let's get into it, with the game that probably started it all... Simon's... Quest...

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1988)

Whether you want to consider this game to be a metroidvania or not, you cannot deny it differs from the game preceding it and the game following it, even standing out against Rondo of Blood, possibly the most different a 2D Castlevania title can get. In Simon's Quest, you are given the freedom to travel to any location you want at any given time, level up with experience gained by slaying enemies, and purchase potentially useful items with a dropped currency. There is no grid-like map to follow, but neither was there in Metroid or Metroid II.

To express my thoughts on this game in extremely blunt terms, it fucking blows. I know there are people out there who do love this game and defend it, and I completely respect them. I understand where they come from, and I believe my hatred for this game just stems from my irrational impatience. I don't like it when I feel a game is wasting my time, as it is something I have to devote my full attention towards. If an album has a repetitive or silent portion, I can often patiently forgive it, as at least I can get up and do something else if need be. This game, on the other hand, will constantly give you cryptic "hints" to "help" you on your journey to the remains of Dracula's Castle. Turns out that Simon was cursed by Dracula after his defeat in Castlevania in 1691. Seven years later, he nears death due to this curse unless he gathers Dracula's remains, resurrects him in Castlevania's ruins, and expels his returning body. He also must fulfill this process within a week, or he'll succumb to the curse and die either way. Even for the time this game came out, 1989, this has got to be one of the stupidest excuses for Simon to travel around picking up rancid vampire organs.

Simon starts out in ----- Village, and needs to make his way east, alternatively, he has his ass kicked when traveling west. Ah, but in order to even do anything in the first manor holding one of Dracula's remains, you must grind for the currency, hearts, to buy a crystal that will let you see an invisible platform. Although you start with 50 hearts, it is not enough to afford both the crystal and the holy water, another necessity for later in the game. After about 10 real-life minutes worth of killing skeletons, walking back and forth, you MAY have enough hearts for both items. If not, hope you enjoy grinding another night out. Yeah, there's a day/night cycle, and all shops are closed at night. So, if you have enough hearts, but it's nighttime, you might as well grind some more, even if it's going to be useless later. While you CAN get all your grinding out here at the beginning for the most part, you'll regret wasting another in-game day by the end of the game, where you either get the shitty ending or the shittier ending. Unless you are a speedrunning god at this game, you are likely only going to have seven days to get everything done, if you know where you are heading.

I used a guide for this game, as I recommend anybody else to do. If you have a lot of patience, and like solving riddles, then I guess do whatever floats your boat. Not only a guide, but perhaps try a retranslation hack if you are playing on an emulator. I played just this retranslation, but there is also a project called Simon's Redaction, which aims to fix many issues of the original game, along with providing a better script. I haven't played that version, however, so I cannot give much advice on whether it is the way to go or not. If you are more of a purist, just play the retranslation, as there is no reason to believe that the original English/etc. scripts were intentional and make the experience more "authentic." Japanese players didn't have to deal with the bullshit everyone else did, so at the very least, a proper translation will give us westerners a more "accurate" way of playing the original.

Anyways, back to discussing the game itself. There's not really much I can tell you that happens beyond: you travel to a town, learn some cryptic hints about the surrounding areas or the upcoming manors/mansions, fight through a hallway of infinitely spawning enemies, infiltrate the manor, fight through more hallways of infinitely spawning enemies, get a piece of Vlad, go to the next town, trade your items from the previous town, repeat. Sure, there are plenty of games that can be similarly boiled down to a simple, repetitive cycle, but Simon's Quest lacks interesting level design or challenge. The challenge stems from overpowered enemies that rabidly jump on you, or contrived "poisonous swamps" and the like you need to purchase temporary items for (such as the crystal mentioned earlier). An infamous video from AVGN speaks for itself on one of the worst examples of cryptic puzzle-solving in this game.

I can't say whether this game having more bosses would have been a blessing or a curse, either. This game sort of defined the Castlevania villain trio: Dracula, Death, and Carmilla, but all three bosses are nothing more than damage sponges. For Death and Carmilla, you can walk right past them to get to the room Dracula's part is held. They respawn, even if you defeat them once, so you are almost encouraged to ignore them, at least once. Only one of them holds a useful item, while the other gives you nothing, so keep that in mind before you ignore them on both of your trips through the manors. I recommend you do at least try a battle with them, as your chances of losing are slim (unless you're on 1 HP), and in-game time stands still in a manor. The boss battles may be the only - slightly - invigorating portions of your playthrough, so make them worth it. Dracula, on the other hand... just watch the AVGN video I linked earlier. Take advantage of his frames he's frozen, and he goes down like a chump. I mean... if you are really looking for a challenge to end off your playthrough, rather than just experiencing the instant relief of finishing such an already insufferable experience, then by all means, let Dracula recover fully and fight him in a proper battle. You are a braver individual than I, o sexy person reading this blog at this very moment.

If there is one thing I can praise Simon's Quest for, is its music and graphics. Well, maybe not so much the graphics. The Castlevania prior is quite on par with this sequel's graphics, if not exhibiting more diversity and character. Much of Simon's Quest is built off palette swaps and borrowed sprites. This isn't the first entry of the series to do this, but it definitely feels this game was forced out the door too early by (fuck-)Konami, that more assets couldn't be created in more time. The music certainly holds up, however, and I won't be the first to thank this game for introducing the beloved and ever-remixed track "Bloody Tears" Even the other tracks from the game, despite how over-played they become by the end of it, never outstay their welcome (perhaps you would like to disagree, though?).

Overall, I cannot recommend Simon's Quest to anybody looking to start out with the Castlevania series, metroidvanias, retro video games, or much of anything. Who I can recommend Simon's Quest to, are the insane completionists (like me), purists (not so much me), or sadists (hmmm...) out there who are just looking to complete the one game missing from their list or backlog in the Castlevania series (minus the OTHER game that I'll discuss at a later date). How should you play it? Well, currently, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is about the one and only official re-release of this game to date. With the closure of the 3DS and Wii U eShops, its virtual console forms are going to be out of availability soon (if they're even there, IDK, I haven't looked). Since you're reading a blog on the one and only JarateChop's page, however, you know I'm not about to tell you to spend money on a shitty game sold by a shitty company. Contact me [through Twitter or Discord, for now] for some of my... ~~~sources~~~ if you are not already privy to some of them yourself. Throw it in your favorite NES/Famicom emulator (especially with either of the patches I linked above!!) and go wild! You can at least use save states and rewinds, any (modern) way you play it, to make your journey less painful, if you decide to tackle this game... despite my warnings.

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 0.5/5.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Let's jump from the most stereotypically hated game to the most stereotypically praised game, of which I can agree with both popular opinions on. Does this make my opinions generic? Maybe, but at least I don't watch Anthony Fantano for music opinions. Now, let's gush about one of the most amazingly-crafted games in existence.

Released on the original PlayStation in 1997, Symphony of the Night went slept on until the recent decade, or at least that's how I see it. I'm sure Castlevania fans were praising this game to hell and back all throughout its 25 years in existence, but you also never saw this game skyrocket in price until the 2010s when the "casuals" became aware of its existence (I kid, I kid, as I have little room to talk in all this. I only played the game this year! I've known about it for a while nevertheless). I cannot deny the reasons this game is praised so well, however. If you don't care to hear the reasons why, thankfully, the game is available in many forms in the current day. The most recent release is in the Castlevania Requiem package, exclusive to PS4, which comes with its sister release from 1993, Rondo of Blood, both retranslated for modern, English audiences (and perhaps more regions, I'd hope...). A better package exists in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, only available on PSP, unfortunately. So, get ready to do some modding/emulation (which I am always welcome to help you with, if you contact me)! There is another version on XBOX 360 (maybe backwards compatible with the One?), then there is the... Saturn release. You may as well not bother with the Saturn release, despite it being a Japanese release. The Greasy Gamers_tm have already gotten their hands on copies of that release, making it unaffordable for most. So, "illegal" activities it is!

There are actually notable differences between SotN releases, which I will briefly discuss here, in the case you want to hear it from my vocal-text chords rather than another's. The original release on the PlayStation is the most vanilla you can get, however, it is also potentially the most stable version. The version on the Sega Saturn is the most feature-rich, but comes at the cost of: being Japanese-exclusive, having numerous performance issues, and releasing on the Saturn. Thankfully, there is NOW a translation patch for the Japan-exclusivity issue.
If any of you know me, you know the Saturn is my baby, and I would never intentionally say anything bad about it. So, anyways, (fuck-)Konami rushed the port to the Saturn faste than Sonc (joke only I and one other person will get), so the graphics are improperly scaled, and slowdown is prominent, which I believe is due to many of SotN's original sprites actually being flat 3D models on the PSX. The Saturn handles traditional 2D sprites better, but perhaps the sprites weren't able to be converted with the time constraints that we do know were held to the dev-team. There is a slight performance patch available for the Saturn version, however, it mainly fixes other issues present in the main game, not the slowdown. It is also untranslated (barring a few text elements), making it a harder sell for those really looking into playing it, despite its numerous fixes. There's also the issue of this game just being on the Saturn in the first place, a notoriously hard-to-emulate console with relatively pricey or damaging ways to play backup copies of games (STOP DOING SWAP TRICKS PLEASE, IT'S SATURN ABUSE!). Yabause and Yaba Sanshiro (uoYabause) have yet to handle this game with any grace, and I don't even know about SSF, but you can probably guess how that emulator would go.
"Ok, I get it, but why should I care about the damn Saturn version?!" Oh yeah, that's probably the important part. Basically, it gives you another playable character, two new major areas to explore in the castle, and a surplus of extra items unobtainable in the PlayStation release.
The next version of SotN has the third playable character, but they have an altered moveset, and neither of the added locations in the castle are carried over from the Saturn version. This is the version on the PSP Dracula X Chronicles, and current Castlevania Requiem collection (the 360 release seems to just be the vanilla PSX version). Most of the Saturn's items have been brought over, along with some new ones I believe though, so half of the definitive package is present in the current version of SotN. Some complaints are held on this version being buggy, but I have yet to run into any issues myself. I imagine nothing blatantly noticeable will happen to you unless you go out of your way to try breaking the game. This version also includes a brand new dub for English audiences, featuring a more competent direction than the original. I don't diss the original's dub though, despite a few weird lines said here and there. I know people throw around Dracula and Richter's argument from the opening, but I honestly fail to see how it is anything more or less laughable than the original Japanese voices. Mega Man 8 and X4 showed more obvious examples of poor voice direction honestly.

Speaking of the opening for Symphony of the Night, it actually starts where the direct game before it, Rondo of Blood ends. I suppose for those playing on the western side of the world back then, they would have had to assume this is the follow up title to Castlevania: Dracula X on the Super Nintendo, as Rondo was never released outside of Japan initially. Richter Belmont is playable in this beginning portion, demonstrating groundbreaking features for those familiar with other Castlevania titles. The ability to adjust direction mid-jump, slide, and dash were all adapted from other titles in the series to create the most comfortable character control yet! The developers really made use of practically every button available on a PlayStation controller. Richter's segment purely exists to introduce new and veteran players to these controls, as well as tell a story and get the player caught up on Dracula's defeat in 1792. From here until the end, however, we are given control of Dracula's rebellious and handsome son, Alucard, who has woken from his eternal slumber for unknown, but potentially world-ending reasons. Your job, as the player, is to help him investigate the castle that should not exist with his father's supposed absence.

Already, Symphony of the Night delivers a much more enthralling tale, with grace and effort, compared to the contrived plot of Simon's Quest. I may be biased with those words, as I would sleep with Alucard in a heartbeat but ghost Simon before our first date, but Alucard's journey has the mystery and potential dangers that Simon's doesn't. Simon knows that if he doesn't revive Dracula again that he'll die, even if he's likely to die if he does defeat him again. His whole journey feels like, as a player, you are just choosing how long you want Simon to live for by the end of the story, because he's going to ultimately die and Dracula will come back in a few years anyways. Actually, that's sad, I'm sorry for what I said about you, Simon.
Nevertheless, I won't spoil the entire story here in the off chance you, o sexy person reading this, have not played this game and yet are visiting my site. Basically, I just feel more involved with this plot, and we get to see character growth from not just our main boy, Alucard, but the other cast that he runs into throughout the castle. I can forgive Simon's Quest for not containing cutscenes, extra lore, etc. though, since it was a 1989 NES game released almost a decade prior.

Just like Simon's Quest, Alucard gains experience points and currency from defeating enemies. Alucard also has the ability to switch weapons, however, his arsenal can be far more expansive than Simon's. Whereas every Castlevania title up until now has had a character wielding a whip (with two/three exceptions), Alucard can wield knives, short swords, long swords, fist weapons, and more, along with a sub weapon like the returning holy water, axe, etc. Alucard gains additional moves to his arsenal, such as a double jump, and morphs for different forms: a wolf, a cloud of mist, and a bat. You are always given plentiful items to pick up and equip, benefitting whatever playstyle you find the most comfortable. Stats like Attack, Defense, and Intelligence require more thinking on the type of armor you equip with what weapons, making the game more like a 2D action RPG than a metroidvania. Heck, Metroid games can typically be beaten in a few hours, but THIS game may take you up to 10 hours, especially if you are just starting out and soaking in the environment while playing. The castle layout is also very memorable, making it feel like a hub you know all too well from your favorite RPG. If there's an item you need from a certain place in the castle to progress, you can recall that location easily, and get there in little time, often thanks to the handy teleportation rooms.

Symphony of the Night is very open-ended, allowing you to explore much of the castle from the beginning. Even if certain parts are gated from progression without a certain item, usually that one item is not far out of reach, nor is it only useful for that one area. About every important item you pick up opens five new pathways for you to explore, so there is little chance of getting yourself lost without finding something useful while wandering around. There is only one event that I find a bit annoying to do, and that is the spiked corridor near the northwest side of the map. While the event is not """necessary,""" it is in order to access the other half of the campaign and see the true ending of the game. The only annoyance comes from the looping around the castle to grab the items you missed in order to pass through it, like the Spiker Breaker armor that requires the bat morph and a sonar move for the bat, but the mist is required for that power, and so on.

Yes, I did mention a "second half" of the game as well. While your main playthrough may amount to about 5 hours, another 5 will take place in the "Inverted Castle," which is literally what the name says. I've heard some people that find the Inverted Castle an unnecessary bloat on a flawless game beforehand, which I used to agree with more back when I first played it. Now that I've played the title a few times over, however, I enjoy the Inverted Castle as an extension to my shortening playthroughs, and a much more challenging addition than what became of the normal castle. By the end of the first half of your playthrough, bosses are going down in mere seconds with certain weapons, while Alucard holds more potions and food than what he knows to do with. There are many bosses in the Inverted Castle that require more thinking and strategy in comparison, letting you still use your powerful weapons while keeping you at a level playing field with the enemies.

I would be lying if I said that this game was much of a challenge as a whole. Realistically, only a few of the Inverted Castle bosses are much of a challenge, and still nothing more than minor roadblocks with the right weapons (nothing that couldn't be fixed with a challenge run or difficulty/randomizer hack). Nevertheless, I would consider Symphony of the Night to be one of the easiest 'vania' games in the franchise, in terms of difficulty and accessibility. Fortunately, it helps that this game is practically the first in the series to handle this type of gameplay, so if you wanted to play in order of release chronology this game is a great way to start (I'm going to assume you skip Simon's Quest though lol). Unfortunately, this game is NOT the place to start if you're looking to play the games in timeline order (that would be hell to do for the Castlevania series though, honestly). If you're really a sucker for lore in games, you may find that the direct prequel to Symphony of the Night, Rondo of Blood, is a bit drastic of a gameplay difference to want to play. Rondo is an amazing game on its own, but definitely a "traditional" Castlevania game. So, if you find any of the other games in the series to be challenging, Rondo isn't going to be any more forgiving. Thankfully, there is an unlockable character in Rondo that may offer you an easier playthrough, if you'd like to tackle the duology in timeline order anyways.

Let's move on from the garbage only I would find enough time to waste typing up to something more interesting. GOD, IS THIS GAME BEAUTIFUL. While many of the future titles in this series would live up to the spritework present in this game, after some slight faltering on the GBA (we'll get there), there is a reason that even 2008's Order of Ecclesia STILL borrows sprites that were originally created for this game. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is so perfectly illustrated and animated, from the character sprites to the backgrounds. Perhaps the pause menu is a bit lame in comparison, but! IT LET'S YOU CUSTOMIZE IT'S COLOR! SO ALL IS FORGIVIEN! As I discussed earlier in this game's section, the sprites were actually treated as 3D models on the PlayStation I believe, so there are many 3D effects dispersed throughout the game. This sometimes gives the game a bit of a 2.5D aesthetic, though it doesn't get to that point beyond a few objects that would have been hell to animate as sprites (like the save rooms).
I know there is so much more I could discuss, like the fluidity of the animations, giving everything such a mystical, floaty feeling, but you should just look at the assets from the game yourself. Better yet, you should just play the game and see it in motion!

To end off my praises, I'll just say that the music, like the graphics, is a pleasure to the ears. There are few tracks I tire of hearing on my journey, and none that are outright bad from the entire soundtrack. Most of the tracks are original too, which is a rarity for a series that likes to remix the same ten tracks for each game (a bit of a joking exaggeration, but they do that a lot). The Saturn version throws in some tracks not in the vanilla version, but those are pretty much the remixed tracks I said were lacking from the original OST lol. I won't complain though, they sound good! Anyways, I never thought an out-of-tune guitar could sound so good in the Clock Tower!

Is there much more for me to say? Go play this game if you are at all interested! I thought it would be overhyped like many games I've tried throughout my years, but I was thoroughly surprised by this one! I wouldn't have marathoned the rest of the games if this didn't prove to me how good they could be! Play whatever version suits your needs or is the most accessible to you (probably the PSX or Requiem versions), and get absorbed!

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 5/5.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001)

After the critical success of Symphony of the Night compared to its 3D sibling releases on the N64, Konami was probably looking to milk a bit more out of the new metroidvania-like formula. With Nintendo's new Game Boy Advance, the hardware would be capable of handling a game in similar scope to SotN in comparison to its handheld predecessor, the Game Boy / Color (which had already shown its limitations with games like Castlevania Legends). Circle of the Moon was also released as a late launch title for the system, so it would be a showcase of sorts for what the new handheld could do. How did it accomplish the tasks of living up to SotN and showcase the new hardware?... Not too bad either way, I suppose.

Circle of the Moon feels very much like a spinoff Castlevania title (which is why I guess it was retconned from the """official""" timeline), but it is never to the point that I feel the game should be considered as anything but a mainline title. The main character, Nathan Graves, has little relation to any of the Belmonts, Dracula's family, or even the Belnades/Lecardes. Nathan's whip, the Hunter Whip, is itself a seperate weapon to the Vampire Killer, with its own magical, monster-slaying properties. All of the classic Castlevania enemies are present too, but they each share unique designs that look unlike those found in games prior. Carmilla is also here, serving as a primary antagonist, but this time, whether due to a typo, translation error, or intentional change, she is referred to as "Camilla" (still not going to stop me from referring to her name that's used in every other entry of the series).
Nathan is a bit of an oblivious himbo - more specifically, the kind of guy to never catch the hint when someone's crushing on him. He's only out for justice and will not stop until it is achieved. He's not my favorite protagonist in the series, far from it, but he's just a likable character. He storms a castle with his friend, Hugh Baldwin, both led by the latter's dad, Morris Baldwin (who is a bald win), but the old man gets seperated from the boys when Carmilla breaks the floor from underneath their feet. Carmilla intends to use Morris as a sacrifice for Dracula's resurrection (1830, about 33 years after his defeat in SotN), which gets Hugh in a frenzy to save his daddy. Nathan is like "hey buddy ol' pal, let's team up and stop this evil dude" but Hugh is like "NO. I'M BETTER THAN YOU. DAD LIKES YOU BETTER THAN ME. I NEED TO SHOW HIM I CAN PISS FARTHER THAN YOU. FUCK YOU." and leaves. Nathan does the Nathan thing to do, ignores his friend's rivalry he's trying to start with him, and that's about how it goes throughout the rest of the game until the end! CotM's story is very unobtrusive, only around major boss battles most times. For that reason, believe what you want is canon. Ignore IGA. There is nothing I believe that CotM's story does that creates contradictions or plot holes for other games in the series.

The first thing you may notice with Circle of the Moon is its VERY different control compared to other games in the series. You practically have the SotN Richter moveset available to you, namely the directional air movement and sliding, but the whip-dangly move introduced in Super Castlevania IV has been nerfed down to only a circular spinning motion with no input from the player on the direction of the whip. It's good for clearing away small flying enemies, which keeps it from being completely useless. Vertical momentum feels much faster than horizontal momentum in this game though. Nathan moves as slow as molasses until you pick up the sprinting item, but jumps and drops in an instant. It's definitely off-putting at the start, but able to be adjusted to. Despite implying the sprint boots save this game's movement, I regret to mention the activation requires you to double tap to initiate it. SotN's Saturn port had a sprint item that operated the same way, however, you were given a much larger window to input the command, as well as maintain the sprint while switching directions or when landing from a jump. As soon as Nathan faces an opposite direction, his momentum is cut, and you must initiate the sprint again. I know I make this all sound very negative, but I never thought the control of this game made my experience insufferable. Plus, I played it as it was intended to be played, in short bursts on a handheld! So, perhaps my advice to you is if your hands start to hurt from the excessive tapping, maybe it's time to take a break (which should apply to ANY video game or task)!

The design of the castle starts you off at the bottom, in the caverns below it, while you make your way up and to the further edges of the castle. You can actually reach the area the introduction cutscene took place in about half an hour in, which is where you'll need to return to at the end of the game if you want to open the sealed door and save Hugh's pappy. You run into your first boss quite early, which teaches you that you do not have many hits to spare. Thankfully, the boss is fairly simple, and may only take you one or two deaths to figure it out. That's how most other bosses in this game go, but it helps you learn and appreciate the boss designs more, preventing you from tanking them like in most other series' entries. CotM introduces a new gimmick in tarot cards equipable to Nathan that may boost his stats or give him new attacks/attributes, relative to the amount of MP he has available. This is a great gimmick, in concept, but it is frustrating in execution. While using a pair of cards together often produces fairly helpful effects, especially when you start getting to tougher boss battles, obtaining the cards in the first place is a tedious task of grinding enemies until one drops a card. The drop rate is extremely rare, even for basic cards it seems like. By the end of my main playthrough, which I'm sure took me almost double the amount of time of my first SotN playthrough, I had less than half of the cards available in the game. This will become even more frustrating when you do reach some bosses who repeatedly kick your ass, but you have very few cards that can stat boost you enough to ease the difficulty. This game can therefore be very unforgiving, but I still wouldn't hold it that much against the entire experience, which is much more enjoyable as a whole. In my Backlog, I rated this game a 4/5.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002)

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 3/5.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 5/5.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005)

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 4.5/5.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006)

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 4/5.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008)

This may just be the last mainline Castlevania game in many aspects. It was the last metroidvania in the series with its director, IGA, and last truly original title in the series, as Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth was a remake, Lords of Shadow was its own separate canon/series, In my Backlog, I rated this game a /5.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019)

In my Backlog, I rated this game a 3.5/5.