What IS Castlevania anyways?

[turpinator]

Sorry if I sound abit ignorant to you higher-ups who have just added the new section, but I've never played a single Castlevania game. Ever. Could you enlighten me, and possibly a few others whom also have not played this game you speak so highly of?

[Foozdude]

The series overall is like a platforming-adventure game, akin to Metroid.
Though, the earlier installments acted on a stage-method, so there wasn't as much exploring as there is in today's installments.

Erh, it's pretty unique, but the newer ones have levelling up, exploring, many different weapons / armour / etc., and most of the games have their own little feature; Aria and Dawn of Sorrow had the Soul System, Circle of the Moon had the Spell Card things, and I believe Portrait of Ruin had the option of switching between two characters on the fly, or using them at the same time.

I like the series, or at least, more of the newer games.

EDIT: I'm not really sure if that explanation was fine or not, so if you need more details, you'd probably be better off with other people's explanations.

[turpinator]

I was kindof looking for a general storyline of sorts. XP

[Pinkie Pie]

Depends. The newest Castlevania's are Metroid style affairs. (hence the terms Metroidvania or Castleroid.)

The older games are standard but brutally hard platformers.

With the exception of the "Sorrow" storyline, all the games take place in medievial or victorian times.
And are basically a family of Vampire Hunters vs Count Dracula, whom in this continuity is the embodiment of evil.


Or something. It's slightly more complex than that, but not by much. They're fun games, like the MM series not all of them are "hits", but by and large, they're great games.

And the series is reknown for it's fantastic soundtracks. I've yet to play a Castlevania game with a crap Soundtrack. (Even HoD... at least the tunes are good even if they buggered up the intrusments.)

[turpinator]

Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll buy a copy when a new one comes out. XD I'm kindof on a personal tight leash for budget power, so I won't be getting much right now.

[The Sian Random Man]

Turp, If you wanna play any, I can help you get them.

Some basic important knowledge about Castlevania:

The belmonts
A family of vampire hunters, They will hunt Dracule untill he is killed. During the eclipse of 1999, I believe it was Julius who killed dracula, and sealed him and his castle of dark powers inside the solar eclipse. Julius loses his memory, and most of "Vampire Killer"'s powers. "Vampire killer" Is a whip that can/should kill anything associated with darkness. Julius regains his memory in 2035, the year of the solar eclipse after it. He regains it, of course, in Draculas castle itself. However, his over 500 year old whip has not regained its powers. During most castlevania games, you play Belmonts.

Dracula Vlad Tepes
The common foe, the deadly dark lord of mordorMuren Castlevania, a vampire. The last boss in... I believe all but a few games. AoS, DoS and PoR are probably the only exceptions.

Alucard
Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes
Dracula's son, and the true heir, apart from Soma, to Draculas throne. But Alucard actually hates his father, and helps the belmonts. During DoS and AOS he will be known as arikado, a secret agent.
also, lookatthis!
D-R-A-C-U-L-A
1-2-3-4-5-6-7
A-L-U-C-A-R-D
7-6-5-4-3-2-1
^-Alucard is the opposite of Dracula! zomg!


Graham Jones
The enemy in AoS, he believes he is heir to dracula, for he has some of his powers. He is like dimitrii blinov and whats his face... That werewolf-like... fire... dude... Damn, forgot his name. They are the dark lords candidates, while Soma controls the soul of Dracula, they only control some of draculas powers.


All my info. may be wrong about some of it.

[Clownman]

Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll buy a copy when a new one comes out. XD I'm kindof on a personal tight leash for budget power, so I won't be getting much right now.What consoles do you have?

[turpinator]

I have a Wii, a DS, and a PS2.

[Ryo Hazaki]

Let's see:

Wii: Unfortunately, I don't think any came out yet for that system.

DS: Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin are your best bet. (Besides, they're the only ones out fot that system)

The PS2 oes play more like Devil May Cry, but if you like those ones, then I suggest Curse of Darkness.

[The Walrus]

Including what Vega said, there are also Aria of Sorrow, Harmony of Dissonence, Circle of the Moon, and a port of the original for the GBA

[Ryo Hazaki]

I completely forgot about the GBA ones.

Of those, Aria of Sorrow is worth getting first.

[Clownman]

What about the Virtual Console? Has any Castlevania games been released for it yet?

And for the PS2, you can probably get Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness cheap by either getting the Greatist Hits releases (assuming they got that far) which would be 20 bucks each or buying used ones from Gamestop, EB Games, or Game Crazy. But sometimes buying used can be a problem, I had to buy Lament twice because the first one I bought had a problem loading a section of the Anti-Soul Mysteries Laboratory.

[MonoEyeGuy]

I've only played one Castlevania game. It was DoS. I'm going to buy it once I get my DS fixed, since I loved it.

[Rainbow Dash]

Do yourself a favor and stay away from 3D Castlevanias. Trust me.

[Pinkie Pie]

Clownman: The NES CV and Super Castlevania 4 are on the VC.

Turp: Dawn of Sorrows would be a very good perchase for the DS. It's more sound than PoR (which while a good game... has its problems.), and since it's now an "Old" game, you should be able to pick up a copy dirt cheap.

[Galeon]

Some things worth noting btw, I remember hearing this from an interview with IGA, the man behind Akumajo Dracula / Castlevania:

"What was your biggest regret in the series?"
IGA: It was putting in the timeline. Since Dracula was only supposed to rise once every century, it kind of made things difficult to explain somewhat...

"There's one question that has always bugged us... Why are there meat in the walls??"
IGA: Here's a better question; why do you eat it? The candles I have an explanation for. Since candles are like representation of souls, candles in Dracula's castle mean their souls are trapped. Once you hit them, they are set free and in return, they leave items for you to use out of gratitude. The meat... I'll leave that up to you..."

[kingofanime]

I like how he completely sidestepped the meat question. :/

[turpinator]

My guess? Probably the flesh of the souls in the candles. :|

[kingofanime]

I will bit into a fleshy wall tomorrow and expect fully prepared and cooked meat to fall out.

I will sue otherwise.

[Seth-Rah]

Be sure to cook it first. Wouldn't want you getting sick because they can't keep healthy meat in their walls.

[kingofanime]

Sorry guys, I'm suing IGA now.

I bit into asbestos, not meat...

I'm dying.

[Seth-Rah]

You should have set it on fire first! Last I checked, barring horrendous misinformation, asbestos is not exactly inflammable.

So if it burns, that's one toxin out of the way.

[Gizmonicgamer]

I'm dying.

Cool