14. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Following the non-canon exploits of Circle of the Moon, series producer Koji Igarashi took control of the next Game Boy Advance entry, bringing on-board Symphony of the Night artist Ayami Kojima to handle the character design. As if this reunion wasn't enough, protagonist Juste Belmont looks a lot like Alucard, which got a lot of people excited that this would be the true successor to Symphony of the Night.
Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, Harmony of Dissonance is a step backwards from Circle of the Moon. The sprites are larger, sure, but the garish visuals are quite jarring – an attempt by Konami to avoid the criticisms levelled at Circle of the Moon regarding its dark graphics. Dracula's castle is also quite dull to explore, and the game feels empty and uninteresting as a result. It's still enjoyable if you're a fan of the Metroidvania entries, but it's perhaps the weakest of the lot.
13. Castlevania: Bloodlines (MD)
Available on Switch as part of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, as well as with the NSO Expansion Pack, Castlevania: Bloodlines — or Castlevania: The New Generation as it was known in Europe — has the distinction of being the only series entry to grace SEGA's 16-bit console.
While Dracula X would show the world what Konami could achieve in the realm of CD-ROM, Bloodlines – which was released around the same time – would prove that the company's staff could make Sega's 16-bit hardware sing. Konami pledged its support to the Mega Drive / Genesis around this time after years of being committed to Nintendo, and while this instalment feels slightly different from what went before, it's still an utterly fantastic take on the series. Set around the period of World War I, it attempts to link up the Castlevania narrative with the events of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel.
However, it's the globe-trotting nature of the game – levels take place across Europe, including Greece, France and finally England – which makes it stand out. Michiru Yamane – whose compositions have become synonymous with the series – began her association with Castlevania here, and despite the comparative weakness of the Mega Drive sound hardware compared to that of the SNES, she delivers some of the best tunes in the franchise.
12. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES)
After the deviation that was Simon's Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse returns to the level-by-level approach seen in the 1986 original, but evolves the concept in every conceivable way. There are now four characters to control – Simon Belmont's ancestor Trever, female magic-user Sypha Belnades, pirate Grant Danasty and Alucard, the half-vampire, half-human son of Dracula himself. Trevor can switch to one of these companions during a level and benefit from their unique powers.
This adds to the gameplay considerably, as does the fact that your path through the game branches in places, offering plenty of replay value. Add in some of the best visuals and music ever seen in a NES game, and it's easy to see why so many Castlevania fans consider Dracula's Curse to be the pinnacle of the series, at least in terms of the more 'traditional' entries before Symphony of the Night shook things up in 1997.
11. Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch eShop)
It’s mostly the sublime Aria of Sorrow that’s doing the heavy lifting with Castlevania Advance Collection; it really is one of the best entries in the entire Castlevania series. Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance are alright but on a lower tier, while Dracula X is middling even on its own standards. These are still very much worth playing, though, and this collection makes for an essential purchase for both longtime Castlevania fans and newbies.
10. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a 2.5D remake of the legendary 1993 PC Engine title Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, which, for a long time, was totally exclusive to Japan. The core game is retooled drastically, with the anime art style of the original being replaced by Ayami Kojima's more mature designs. While the new visuals arguably haven't aged as well as the 2D graphics of the PC Engine version, it's still well worth a play – and even if you don't fancy the remake, the fact that Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night are included as unlockable extras makes this an essential purchase for Castlevania fans, and followers of the action-adventure genre in general.
9. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Following the footsteps of Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin positions itself as a sequel to the Mega Drive title Castlevania: Bloodlines, and is set in the aftermath of the First World War. It's a 'Metroidvania' again, but this time, the game is sub-divided into various worlds which are accessed by jumping into various pictures. Because the developers aren't limited themselves to the traditional castle, it means they can be inventive with level designs – one stage takes place in Egypt, for example.
Another neat touch is the fact that you're controlling not one character, but two; Jonathan Morris is your typical whip-wielding Belmont–alike, while Charlotte uses magical attacks. You can toggle between them at will, and there are some puzzles that require the use of both characters. There's definitely the feeling that Portrait of Ruin contains a lot of needless padding-out, but like all three of the DS Metroidvania efforts, it's still worthy of your attention.
8. Dead Cells: Return To Castlevania (Switch eShop)
Is this really a Castlevania game? Fans might argue that point either way, but, after being starved of 2D vampire-hunting action for so long, we'll happily consider it part of the lineage. Dead Cells: Return To Castlevania feels like it’s primarily made for Dead Cells fans who also happen to like Castlevania — it's unlikely to convert Castlevania aficionados who don’t get on with Motion Twin's roguelite. At any rate, we loved it, and it's great to see Castlevania back in video games again.
7. Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
In Europe, Super Castlevania IV actually released before Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, which gives you some indication of why so many fans directly compare them, despite the power difference between the NES and SNES. On many levels, Super Castlevania IV – which is essentially a retelling of the original game – scales things back. There are no branching pathways and Simon Belmont is the only character you get to control.
However, in practically every other respect, Super Castlevania IV is the better of the two games. The visuals and music are taken to an entirely new level thanks to the power of the console, with the soundtrack, in particular, being one of the best you'll hear on any cartridge-based system. The gameplay – which makes good use of the SNES' Mode 7 capabilities – is also tight and engaging, even if it's perhaps a little less challenging than the NES entries. A true classic.
6. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
The Nintendo DS trilogy of Metroidvanias is rounded off by this offering, which features a female protagonist and a structure that calls to mind the likes of Simon's Quest. Ayami Kojima wasn't hired to do character designs but replacement Masaki Hirooka does a good job of mimicking the style, avoiding the anime-like art seen in the previous two DS adventures. Order of Ecclesia was something of a divisive release at the time; many hailed it as the best of the DS trio, while others bemoaned the fact that the format had become very stale by this point, and that Ecclesia was too reliant on quests and its map was too disjointed to be satisfying to explore.
Over time, it has become one of the most well-respected of the handheld Castlevanias and is worth a look – if you can pick it up for a reasonable price.
5. Castlevania Requiem (PS4)
With two brilliant retro games in one bundle, the gameplay in Castlevania Requiem is excellent. As a starting point to the 1792 Dracula X story-line, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is a fantastic 1993 example of the traditional NES Castlevania's arcade, platforming template, which shouldn't be missed. However, Castlevania Requiem disappoints with a lack of extras like developer interviews, or an art museum.
It's contentious that Castlevania Requiem is based on the Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles' version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, because it alters the original PSone's voice acting and script, although pleasingly the PSP version enables you to unlock a playable version of Maria Renard. The PS4 Trophy list deserves special mention for giving extra incentive to explore both games more thoroughly. The simplest way to recommend Castlevania Requiem is by acknowledging that it includes one of PSone's best ever games, in 1997's frightfully superb Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Comments 26
Good list. Though personally I liked Lords of Shadow (sacrilege I know) and would have it above Castlevania NES and GB entries. I know which i've enjoyed replaying more recently.
@themightyant Same here. I really liked the three Lords of Shadow games, but the first one I think it is pretty underrated in the series.
TBH, back in the day, I LOVED Lament of Innocence. It was one of the few PS2 games which I bought day one.
I played it recently (via the PS3 port) and it has hold up really well, IMO. It has great music too! It was exciting to see a 3D Castlevania on the PS2.
@HarmanSmith Yeah it was a bit long... 2 slow swamp levels! and could have done with a bit of cutting but it was a stunning game, with a great story and excellent combat. Obviously a huge departure from the 2D Metroidvania style but for me a huge improvement over most of the 3D efforts.
Mirror of Fate was a solid entry on the 3DS, Lords of Shadow 2 was pretty disappointing though. Didn't get close to the first game, and all the stories of mismanagement, devs angry and leaving really showed in the final product. The first felt like a labour of love the last the opposite sadly. Still enjoyed bits of it.
Can't argue with this! I don't think anything will ever top Symphony of the Night, and Konami certainly doesn't seem keen to even try.
Damn Damien!! This must have taken some time to put together! Great top 10, by the way. Good work!!
NINJA APPROVED
Wow, such a great series! Honestly, if you play any of the games in the top 15, I think you're guaranteed to have a good time.
I still think the 1st Lords of Shadow and the 3ds entry are 2 of the most underrated games out there.
@BloodNinja Thanks, it did take a while... and picking the ranking was hard!
@Damo I will always maintain that the N64 games are somewhat underrated these days, for the time they were very good 3D action titles with pretty great performance compared to many others back then.
Still my top 3 will revolve around Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood and Symphony of The Night and it's a shame Rebirth is locked to the Wii as an official release
Interesting overview of a great series, played all of the GBA and DS games as well as the original NES game back in the day, but can't even remember how many times I've played and beat Symphony of the Night, most recently on my PS5
I do love Castlevania, the good ones at least. Though, for me, one of the "good" ones just doesn't do anything for me, and that's Castlevania 4. Some say, it's because I didn't play it in its time. I also didn't play Bloodlines or Rondo in their time, and I love those. In fact, I've started to see those who love CV4 put Bloodlines ahead of it. I ended up playing Rondo, Bloodlines, and CV4 at around the same time. I didn't like the level design in relation to the multi-way whipping. In fact, the most enjoyment I could get from the game involved not using that feature except when absolutely necessary. I also did not like about half of the soundtrack. The attempts to be cinematic just didn't work in my opinion in various stages and some music just felt inappropriate to me for a Castlevania game, though that's with the benefit of hindsight. It's weird how much of an outlier CV4 is for me and I really did want to like it(more classic CV is a good thing).
Aside from that, I like the other popular games in the franchise. Rondo, Bloodlines, and CV3 are fantastic games in the classic style. Aria of Sorrow, and all three DS games are great. Symphony is a masterpiece. And a couple of years back, I finally got around to trying Chronicles, and I liked that one a lot too. I was worried it would be too much like CV4, but it was more classic feeling and I really love the music in it, especially the FM.
I just bought SotN on series s. Whenever there's a lull, I'll get around to it. Or even during Halloween.
Super Castlevania, on Snes will always be my favourite. Absolute classic in every way to me.
What's the bets the article puts Bloodlines above IV.
I just have a feeling with the way the narrative around these two consoles is being more and more distorted in recent times.
I think IV really is the better the game overall, where it just feels more like a great and cinematic experience vs an also great but very obviously gamey experience, if that makes sense. It's all about the way it looks and sounds, with the difference akin to watching a film at the cinema (IV) vs watching a movie on your home TV (Bloodlines) imo, and I guess to some degree how it plays too. Or, maybe it's a bit like playing an old-school arcade game (Bloodlines) vs playing a slightly more modern console game (IV), with IV being more like a taste of the future of gaming rather than the past, despite it coming out around three years before Bloodlines. It's hard to explain, but anyone who gets what I'm talking about will know exactly what I'm talking about.
Note: And I did try playing them both again recently, just to make sure I was seeing them with fresh eyes, and indeed hearing them with fresh ears and playing them with fresh hands.
Now, let's see if I'm right or wrong about which one appears higher on the list. . . .
Edit: Well, I was wrong about that assumption.
The article actually got it correct.
@sdelfin Hmmm, what is it I'm sniffing here. . . .
The NES Castlevanias are underrated as they always are, I see. Just once I’d like to see the original beat Castlevania 4… and Simon’s Quest crack the top 10 (and Castlevania 3 in its rightful place at #3, tied with Rondo, of course).
Love this list though. Oh the hours I’ve spent with the Belmont clan over the years!
@RetroGames While I obviously have a different preference, you nailed it when you said CV4 is more of a cinematic product while Bloodlines is more of a game. That's exactly why I prefer it. Ever since I played these games, I always pointed out that I don't think the level design quite works in CV4, unless I only whip forward, like I mentioned. I also used a hack to replace the tracks I didn't like with Rondo's music. Even then, I thought it was still a ways off from Bloodlines and Rondo. I recognize that CV4 has many fans, and plenty of them highly enthusiastic, so this is just a case where specific game design didn't work for me. I suspect that Konami likely got mixed feedback since they basically built directly upon CV3 for the other games that followed this.
@sdelfin I didn't say Bloodlines was more of "game"; I said it was more of a "gamey" experience.
There's nuince between how you've misinterpreted that and how I actually meant it.
Castlevania IV is absolutely still pure game too, and a brilliant one at that, but it's also that bit more cinematic and future-facing on top of the more traditional and sometimes a bit more dated game experiences that it built upon imo. It's like, once I stepped up to the next generation of technically more matured visuals and audio that was the Castlevania IV game experience, it was hard to step backwards slightly with Bloodlines, even if there was more overt graphical arcadey-style effects and tricks in the later game to try and distract me from the more dated looking, sounding and indeed playing nature of it for the most part, even as good a game as it was in its own right.
To be clear, whatever your own tastes, there's not a negative to be pulled out of the way I specifically was using the descriptors of IV up there.
@RetroGames I knew how you meant that originally. I just didn't like the term. Nothing more. I only decided to reply on this topic when you made the comparison between Bloodlines being more like an older arcade game because I think that's a fair way to put it. In this situation, it's what I prefer, as is clear from my earlier points and the games I prefer. It's one of the earliest examples of a game that was largely well received that I didn't like specifically because of what other people liked(the whipping, the soundtrack). So I wasn't trying to find a negative in your explanation. I just think this divide makes for interesting discussion.
Good reminder that I still need to beat Belmont's Revenge on my GB Pocket
@RetroGames Yeah I agree. I think people have really praised Bloodlines disproportionately in recent years. I love the Genesis but Bloodlines looks downright ugly at times and it's basically "more of the same". I like it but Super Castlevania IV is the superior game with much deeper game play. If I'm remembering the making of video from strafefox correctly, Bloodlines was rushed to market so it was incomplete in a lot of ways and it shows.
Pleasantly surprised by this ranking. Top 5 is ironclad.
Lords of Shadow 2 and Mirror of Fate is two of my favorite Castlevanias. Are they perfect? No especially the former has its issues, but it still have some of the best boss fights ever imo to counter that.
The Igavanias are not my cup of tea, but of the 2D action Castlevania I do like the two Gameboy titles; The Adventure and II Belmont's Revenge plus Bloodlines and Rondo of Blood.
@BloodNinja This list is based on average user scores after all so it can't have been THAT hard to put together, just saying.
My favorite Castlevania is Maid-san o Migi ni - Shooting Star.
Super Castlevania IV for me, one of my favourite games of all time.
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