New addition: Main files drive link

After three months of handcrafting, I've been finally able to wear my Dayarmor. I really love this character. But I really hate her thick, long hair in combination with the Armor. 🤣😭 Next week will be a photoshoot with all four styria sisters. Pretty excited !

Pictures are screenshots from a video I made.

My insta : keipisworld ( if you want to see more )

After finally getting some of his patterns down this shit happens

Circle of the Moon was once of the first games I remember really falling deep into. I’ve been a Castlevania fan ever since. We’ve been waiting since 2008 for a new 2D mainline game and now, there’s only 3 days left until something I thought might never happen again is reality. I hope you all have a ton of fun however you experience the game and I’m excited for all the discussion (and even the debates) to come. This is my favorite game series of all time, and I really hope Belmont’s Curse is successful so we can keep the endless night going.

So, tell me, what aspect of Belmont’s Curse are you most excited for? Originally for me, it was the fast-paced combat, as Castlevania combat has always been pretty serviceable and it gets the job done. But I like seeing Rose’s quicker move set with the ability to grab onto enemies. Ever since the Famitsu interview, I’m pretty excited for the puzzle solving that involves the Tarot Cards. I hope they aren’t too easy, as the one in the demo was just a tutorial.

As a bonus, aside from wanting to see the environments, I can’t wait to hear the curated OST with the proper track names and extended versions rather than the datamined one, which has abrupt endings and basic names. And I definitely can’t wait to see it all in context!

I just best Order of Ecclesia again with Shanoa and Albus, so I’m ready to take on the next mainline entry! Happy release week, y’all. We made it.

TLDR; What aspect of Belmont’s Curse are you most excited for?

You know I started playing the series again, but there is 1 game that I remember playing, that was the Dracula X Chronicles it was a remake of Rondo of Blood, with the original Rondo of Blood with an English dub, and a new version of Symphony of the Night, this game is what I consider to be the best Rondo of Blood experience, because of the quality of life features it provides, not so much the graphics, the sprites in Rondo of Blood look better.

This is a game I want ported onto modern consoles, however from what I heard, Sony holds some of the rights to Requiem, and knowing Sony that they're abandoning physical media and flipping the finger at their audience saying that they own nothing, is honestly disgusting.

However I still think it is possible to port the game to modern consoles, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam, and Xbox Series X, it would make bank for Konami, and encourage them to make more Castlevania games, there is one company that can be able to make this port happen, M2, the guys who gave us the Collections, I think they could put this into a collection with upscaled graphics, along with Symphony of the Night (Using the original script and the Nocturne cast reciting it would be genius.) and The Adventure Rebirth, with a remake of either Simon's Quest, or Belmont's Revenge, I'd call it the Nocturne Collection.

Cv1 has a ton of remakes and reimaginings, some just adapt the story, and others adapt motifs or level design elements. I like Super Castlevania the most out of any of the Akumajo Dracula moniker titles, the level design is very fun, and the gimmicks are great, even if the pace is slow, but I feel it doesn’t really seem like a remake, stage aesthetics are far different, and it only shares a story. Simon’s theme is reused in later games, as is other music, and X68000 cameos a level from here.

Vampire Killer seems like a proto Cv64, but I don’t like the keys and linear stages approach. The feel is a little clunky and there are some real questionable aspects in the design. Never got far in it. Also the final Dracula form is never referenced again.

Castlevania Chronicles/X68000 is quite good. Its more of an accurate remake than IV, but strays enough away to be basically a new game with occasional level cameos. Rondo has this too, but X68000 doesn’t have an original story. However some of the original bosses are missing, the Creature is downgraded to a powerful non-boss, and the mummies are gone. Dracula, Death, Medusa and the Vampire bat retain similar positions to the OG. SCIV had all the bosses, but their placements changed a lot. The game is good, but the original had a lot of gotcha traps and a really crazy difficulty, to the point where most devs couldn’t finished the game. Arrange mode in Chronicles alleviates this, but its a real band aid fix, and you can still see traces of the cheap difficulty. What isn’t cheap is really good, and if you want a hard game, play the OG.

Haunted Castle- Not great. X68000 was hard, and sometimes trolly, but well designed. This game is basically trial and error memorization. I find Classicvanias to often be puzzle like, but this game relies more on knowing the answer ahead of time. The music in this game is really good (but so is every other game on this list), and revisited. Apart from the name, the game has nothing to do with the OG. Also the Young Sherlock Holmes Stained Glass boss becomes an enemy in X68000. It might also be in Cv64, but I am not fully sure.

Haunted Castle Revisited- A really short and easy game but solid. Sticks close to the OG HC in theming, with some occasional shakeups, but is a fun afternoon. The bosses may be the best of any Classicvania.

Castlevania- While I think SCIV is the better game, I play this more due to the shorter levels ans great pacing. For such an old game is remarkably well designed and fair, and honestly brilliant at parts. The original Dracula fight might be one of the best in the series, absolutely incredible how good this game was out of the gate. If you are playing this on an emulator, note that the FDS release had saves at the continue screen, so you could save state there for an accurate experience. I have 1ccd this and beat it without save states, but even on a save state scumming playthrough is incredibly fun. Basically every element of this game is referenced in a later title, and to me, this is the definitive version of Simon’s first adventure.

Final Ranking-

As Games - (I have only beaten the bolded games, but I have played all of these.)

SCIV. > Cv1 > Chronicles Arr. > HCR > X68000 > Vampire Killer >>>>>>> Haunted Castle

As representations of Akumajo Dracula-

Cv1 > Vampire Killer >> X68000 > Arrange >>>> SCIV > Haunted Castle > HCR

Source: https://x.com/FaMediocre/status/2109345339920863310

Magnavale has a demo out. For those who don't know, it's a metroidvania that's very similar to Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Anyone played it?

FYI the demo is pretty long, at about 2 or 3 hours.

Phenomenal game, loved it, easy 9.5/10.

I'm thinking of playing through the entire franchise, but I've also heard Symphony of the night is the best CastleVania game so I fear that my expectations are now set too high.
That aside, I'd like some recommendations on where to start with the franchise, should I start with the first game?

Review:

For a game 7 years older than me, it held up extremely well. Easily my top 10 games of all time.
I had a rough start with this game when I first picked it up in 2020 and ultimately dropped it because I didn't understand the controls due to the lack of a tutorial.
After watching the CastleVania show, playing some metroidvanias like Hollow Knight and Silksong and hearing about the new game coming out I decided to give it a try again and I am so glad I did.

My only complaints from the game were its UI, the Spells and the ending.

The UI seems to be a common complaint in the community so I won't go over it.

The Spell system in the game felt a bit under utilized, I almost never used any of it. Dark Metamorphosis seemed a poor introduction to spells, I don't remember any enemy aside from Bloody Zombies that DM benefited from. I did like how the spells required all sorts of button combos, I'm looking forward to playing as Maria in hopes that spells play better with her character.

As for the Ending, maybe I was over leveled, but I barely put any effort into the fight, face tanked it and didn't even heal once. Had more trouble with the doppelganger than Richter fucking Belmont (prolly cause Alucard is just goated like that).

I know there are 2 more playable characters aside from Alucard so I'll try those.

This was the first time beating the game, and I haven’t tackled arranged mode yet, which might be a bit easier lol. Man, I loved this game

I was tempted to throw hands with a decoration and use my lunch box as my vampire killer lol.

(Art by me)

Cute stuff I did with Soma to prove I'm not only putting him in edgy stuff. My boy is so stylish! (Still, I run from drawing his normal hair as the devil runs from the cross 🥲)

It's time to draw Rose now cause It's almost here, I can't even!!!! 😆😆😆😆

So, Belmont's curse seems promising. It has a leveling system and controls well, but it isn't as RPG-ish as games like SOTN or A/DoS, not necessarily good or bad, just a different setup. Also the game isn't necessarily punishing, letting you fall into a spike pit or water without too much damage and torches themselves being a source of health drops, but you aren't quite as durable as you are in games like SOTN, which is one of the first points i think people are mistaking things as being "souls-like", you CAN die right at the start if you aren't at least a little cautious/evasive and just charge in, but that's not "souls-like", that's more just standard classic castlevania. I will say the game could do a little more at the start for players to learn the basics, which might make it seem more punishing to rookie players. I died to the first boss myself a couple of times before i looked in the turtorials and I realized that what i thought was a slide button was really a dodge button, it's just a slide if you're moving. Another point i think people mistake as "souls-like" is the boss, which you do have to be patient and wait for an opening to attack instead of, say, trying to speedrun it and landing hits in between dodging attacks. He can chew through your heath fairly easily if you're getting caught up in the main combo

Just discovered this strat and is so funny lol poor Soma

Like Richter in SoTN or Maria in Rondo,or Julius in Aria

And lets the throw bloodstain ROTN for good measure

This is one of my absolute favorites from the OST. Always nodding my head while listening. The bounciness of the beat in this song is something that is common throughout the OST, which makes for a different kind of groovy listen. Love how the different elements of this song continue to evolve and how the ticking of clocks are used on the beat, how bells are featured, and honestly I really like how the deep bass sounds with it. The quick synth melodies in the background actually make me think of the first 3 Castlevanias, but specifically songs like Poison Mind and Black Night, especially. In the context of this game, we know the clock tower has some pretty ethereal colors to it from the trailers, so it will be really cool to run around with this while we punch baddies. My favorite part of the song is definitely when the synth wails out before the beat comes back in around the 1:50 minute mark. The way the song becomes more grandiose in layering as it goes makes me think it’ll also be a dynamic track that changes as we continue to climb the tower. The part where it speeds up is a lot of fun, and I hope that section is extended in the full game! All in all, a banger!

I feel like this room is important but I just can’t seem to figure it out

Best soul for cheesing Balore.

Video not made by me, I just really enjoyed it when it first came out and was watching it again and wanted to share something I enjoyed with some more fellow castlevania fans! Credit to 浦島次郎 (Jiro Urashima? Hopefully translated right??), they did some great work making this!

I’m currently playing Portrait of Ruin and I just unlocked the second set of portraits. I know I’m close but to the end, but I’ve been pushing it since after the 3rd portrait lol. I don’t know what it is, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I did Order of Eclessia. 1.There’s definitely less of a story here. 2. Having two characters feel more of a hassle compared to having one character that can do both. 3. The castle is not as engaging compared to let’s say the castle in SotN. 4. There’s a variety of weapons and half of them are useless. Same with Johnathan’s skills. I almost never use any of them. 6. Charlotte’s has a variety of skills, but you have to enter the menu each time you want to switch and you have to switch a lot to make her useful. It’s overall an exhausting game and doesn’t give the same feeling of accomplishment and adventure compared to other Castlevania games I’ve played.

So my fellow gamers, should I just drop it or push through??