Konami’s Castlevania series has been around since 1986 and has over 30 games to its name. The franchise is dense with sequels, spin-offs, and remakes. With so many entries, how can gamers know which ones are the best and are worth playing today? A lot of the games have been made available via digital download or are part of a collection. In some situations, some entries have no official means to play due to rarity.
There are few games more fitting to play during the fall than Castlevania, but which is the best Castlevania? Niche Gamer has assembled a team of learned vampire hunters to assess which are the top ten Castlevania games in descending order. Is your favorite in the top ten? Read on to find out! Just don’t expect to find any of the Lords of Shadows in here.
10. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS)
Order of Ecclesia was the final Castlevania released on Nintendo DS and the last time Koji Igarashi worked on the franchise before Konami rebooted it with Lords of Shadow. The Belmont clan has vanished and only the Order of Ecclesia can prevent Dracula’s inevitable resurrection. Shanoa is one of the Order’s agents and follows a trail of incidents and kidnappings leading up to the dark lord’s return.
Shanoa’s game is a mixed experience compared to the other Nintendo DS Castlevania games. It takes some risks by having the protagonist focus almost exclusively on glyph magic she inherits from foes over traditional gear. In most regards, its design is a precursor to what Bloodstained would ultimately become. The level design takes a step backward featuring linear layouts and a bigger focus on combat over platforming.
While the boring level design is unfortunate, the pixel art and animation are some of the best the franchise has ever seen and pushed the Nintendo DS to its limit. The artists fetishized Shanoa’s sexy exposed back every chance they can, and her daring high slit on her skirt is especially appealing. The gameplay is adequate, but you will stay for its awesome art.
Order of Ecclesia is on the lower spectrum of “metroidvania” Castlevania games and is elevated by its awesome audio/visuals. This still makes it leagues above most metroidvanias, but you can feel how the developers were running out of ideas by the time it came out. Thankfully, Order of Ecclesia is widely available on most platforms and is included in the Castlevania Dominus Collection with plenty of extra features.
9. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PlayStation 2)
The lore of Lament of Innocense claims that it’s the earliest in the Castlevania timeline. Not that it matters much because the only thing that should concern the player is that this story explains the origins of Dracula and the Vampire Killer whip and that Leon Belmont has a bone to pick with Walter if he wants to save his girlfriend.
Lament of Innocence was a groundbreaking 3D Castlevania game that drew heavily from the action-oriented gameplay of Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, introducing fast-paced combat, stylish combos, and a focus on demon hunting. The combat is stylish as hell and very responsive, running at 60 frames per second.
The gameplay combines the snappiness of character-action games from the early 2000s with the largeness of an action RPG that fans adored in Symphony of the Night, but in 3D. On paper, this sounds awesome, but the execution is flawed due to repetitive and empty level design, rotten with mostly straight hallways or big rooms. The idea was to make areas easy to fight in, but it ended up making the core game feel barren and dull.
The picturesque fixed camera angles are distant to foster a wide view of the battle area, allowing players to keep an eye on all attacking foes. The drawback is that it’s hard to gauge the space between gaps while platforming. It’s difficult to perform the whip jump with the distant wide view.
The music is decidedly more gothic and ambient than normal. You won’t find shredding epic guitar solos or rousing swashbuckling themes. Instead, you get more consistently moody music that sounds like slow waltzes. It’s the kind of music to drink wine and smash the glass in a fit of rage, cursing those who wronged you.
Lament of Innocence is a solid 3D action game with the best gothic imagery the PlayStation 2 can muster. It isn’t perfect; the level design is very boring, but the ambiance and music rules. Anyone with a PlayStation 3 can still acquire it on PSN for $10, and physical PlayStation 2 copies are cheap and plentiful. Sadly, there is no way to play it on current platforms and it is not included in any compilation yet.
8. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Gameboy Advance)
In the gripping Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Soma Cruz faces his inevitable fate in the Devil’s Castle. Armed with the Power of Dominance, he gains the extraordinary ability to absorb the powers of the monstrous creatures he encounters. This newfound strength propels him closer to his ultimate destiny, becoming the abominable Dracula.
There are a lot of powers to collect and like Alucard, Soma can equip gear, adding some RPG appeal to the experience. Like in its sequel, it is easy to become overpowered with some of the incredible abilities that players can mix and match. If some of the bosses become too hard, players are free to grind, which is like a soft difficulty modifier without physically selecting one on a menu.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was the third and final Gameboy Advance and it shows with its artistic panache that pushed the handheld to its absolute limit. The spites are tall, yet detailed and fluid. The background art is readable and intricate. It could almost pass for a PlayStation game.
Aria of Sorrow is an essential companion to Dawn of Sorrow, but it still makes some of the same mistakes as many metroidvanias. Soma can pick up a lot of worthless equipment, even later on in the story. As fun and devastating as the Power of Dominance is, certain combos can trivialize most of the game. It is a very replayable game with multiple endings and secret playable characters, but the low difficulty and shonen-inspired story make it feel un-Castlevania-like.
Aria of Sorrow is included in the Advance collection which also contains Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon, and Dracula X. These games can look a bit raw when blown up to high resolutions. The Gameboy Advance games were also designed to display on a screen without a backlight, which makes the graphics look more garish than intended.
This compilation is available on most platforms and proves to be one of the better collections Konami has released recently. While the Gameboy Advance games are better played on their original hardware, the Advance Collection is a worthy alternative that puts four excellent games together in one beefy package.
7. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)
The inspiration for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night came from the producer’s dismay at seeing copies of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood in a bargain bin. This experience motivated him to create a new Castlevania game with lasting value and content to prevent players from trading it in. Earlier Castlevania games were typically short but compensated for their brevity with challenging gameplay.
The best aspect of Symphony of the Night is its graphics. If there was anything about the game that has held up is its visuals, and the artistry poured into every single little asset and frame of animation. Every area is distinct with its theme and overall layout, making it very easy to develop a mental map of the castle. Massive ornate frescos become landmarks, and lovingly crafted marble statues subliminally guide the player through intended routes.
Symphony of the Night represents a major shift in the franchise’s design priorities and a much greater emphasis on story and lore. It’s easy to see why Symphony of the Night has remained so popular. The game is filled with intricate details and offers a wealth of optional activities. The castle feels like a second home with so much freedom to explore at your leisure.
The level design is varied, with plenty of platforming challenges and deviously placed enemies. There are even hidden areas that many players might never discover if they stick to the main path, creating a profound sense of exploration. With such a vast nonlinear environment, the designers had to fill it with compelling content. Ideally, the collectibles would be worth the effort to seek out. Unfortunately, this is one area where Symphony of the Night falls short.
You’ll make long excursions to backtrack to a path you couldn’t reach, and all you’ll get for your troubles is a pathetic sword that is 10 points weaker than the one you found earlier that is already too weak to use. Exploring becomes very disappointing after a while when you consistently discover weak equipment that you outclassed hours ago. Using items is also a pain in the ass.
Symphony of the Night is a little rough around the edges, but it is still enthralling despite some of its sloppy design choices. The pixel art, gaudy though it may be, is still some of the best around and has served as a basis for the franchise moving forward. Today, it is widely available digitally on Xbox and PSN, it comes with Rondo of Blood in the Requiem Collection. If you still own a PlayStation 3, the original PlayStation version is still available on PSN.
6. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Gameboy Advance)
Years after Simon Belmont vanquishes Dracula, his descendant Juste Belmont investigates the kidnapping of his childhood sweetheart. Dracula’s castle reappears and his lost love is connected with its emergence and ties to cursed objects of power that may resurrect the dark lord.
Harmony of Dissonance has several key features that make it special. There is a two-world mechanic where players will explore two versions of the same castle. In one dimension, there will be a slightly different layout and stronger enemies. It’s a neat feature that is more creative than inverting the castle.
While Juste will be able to equip gear, he exclusively uses the whip as his main weapon. Using swords is all well and good, but Castlevania makes the most sense when the hero uses a whip and Juste can combine magic with his. He can dash backward and forward, covering a lot of ground quickly and avoiding most threats easily.
Every sub-weapon can be combined with one of the five magical tomes. Certain combinations can be used to solve puzzles. He is a beast of a fighter and can become overpowered with little effort like in most metroidvania-style Castlevanias, trivializing most of the core game.
Before Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon was the biggest metroidvania on Gameboy Advance. It was also the earliest and looks like an NES game due to its basic color pallet, simplistic sprites, and spartan animation. Harmony of Dissonance resembles what Symphony of the Night might have looked like if it were on Super Nintendo but with its colors blown out due to the lack of backlighting on the Gameboy Advance.
Juste’s game is very ornate and colorful and the sprites are big and well-animated. Juste’s design is notable for taking cues from Alucard but with a whip and a cool, Dante-like red coat. Juste also has a glowing blue aura on him that makes him pop out from the background. It’s a striking visual flourish and adds a bit of extra luridness to the game’s style.
The music is a bit contentious since it relied on the Gameboy Advance’s sound chip instead of samples, which ended up making it sound more like an NES game. The songs themselves are very good, but it can be jarring hearing very basic chiptune music for a game that doesn’t match its visuals.
Harmony of Dissonance is compiled together with Circle of the Moon, Dracula X, and Aria of Sorrow in the Castlevania Advance Collection. It will look its best on original hardware, but this compilation does the job since it’s affordable, convenient, and widely available on most platforms.
5. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS)
Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow and further explores the dark destiny of Soma Cruz. A cult of Dracula worshippers is determined to make him complete a ritual to become the lord of shadows.
Succumbing to evil unlocks a bonus mode where players control Julius Belmont, Yoko, and Alucard in a showdown with evil Soma. Dawn of Sorrow is a pretty epic Castlevania that refined many sloppy aspects seen in Symphony of the Night. Better equipment is earned logically and there are much fewer worthless items.
Soma’s ability to absorb the souls of monsters is where the game allows players to experiment and tinker with combinations and even gear load-outs. Some abilities are used for exploration, many are for combat, and there are plenty of amusing joke powers too. Soma can become insanely powerful with the range of options available to power him up and his abilities to equip.
The environment is utterly massive. On par with the map size seen in Symphony of the Night (inverted castle notwithstanding). Combat is fast and Soma can quickly swap weapon and ability loadouts to suit various situations. Every enemy can drop an ability and the meta-game of collecting every single one while completing sidequests can make the game’s runtime eclipse the average RPG. Dawn of Sorrow was the first truly epic game on Nintendo DS and it still holds up.
The pixel art and animation are not quite at the level seen in the later DS Castlevania games or Symphony of the Night. There is some crushed-looking background art in several places that don’t hold up as well as others in the game and it is obvious when the developers recycled sprites from past games. Like most Castlevania games, the music is consistently awesome and very catchy.
You can’t go wrong with Dawn of Sorrow. Its biggest flaw is how safe it is, which guarantees most people will find it enjoyable. Getting it on DS might be a bit tricky today, but it is included in the Castlevania Dominus Collection which is available on most platforms.
4. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PlayStation Portable)
The original Castlevania: Rondo of Blood was infamously trapped on the PC-Engine CD and never left the shores of Japan until it had a Virtual Console release on Wii. It would eventually become more widely available in the Castlevania Requiem Collection on PlayStation 4, but that version was originally a bonus feature to the definitive remake.
The story follows Richter Belmont and his quest to thwart Dracula and Death while rescuing a few maidens along the way. The branching paths make this entry special. Rescuing every maiden isn’t easy and Richter can’t swing his whip in eight directions like Simon could in Super Castlevania IV. The Dracula X Chronicles is a demanding and highly replayable game that expects gamers to master Richter’s whip, backflip, and his sub-weapons.
The writing has been redone to fit more in line with the series lore and to neatly tie it closer to Symphony of the Night. Maria is rewritten to be less of a moronic comic relief and is more consistent with her older self seen in later games. Plot elements from future installments get call-forwards and there are a few added puzzles to keep Rondo of Blood veterans on their toes.
The redone graphics hold up for a PSP game and the designs are very faithful where they count. Richter is given a much cooler outfit and the monsters are redesigned to be more horrifying. The level design has been improved and the redone soundtrack took one of the most iconic scores and gave it extra punch. Overall, this remake is a better version of the original in almost every way.
The original version of Rondo of Blood is a pretty awesome classicvania, its 2.5D remake on PlayStation Portable is the best way to play it. Dubbed Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, this was a refined 2D action platformer that enhanced some of the gameplay from the original. Some areas have been expanded and some bosses that were too easy have been given a dramatic difficulty increase and in some cases, gain an extra phase.
As if being one of the better Castlevania games isn’t enough, The Dracula X Chronicles manages to be the absolute best PSP game of all time. There is no game more jam-packed with content than this. Gamers not only get an incredible remake of a fan-favorite entry, but The Dracula X Chronicles also includes the original Rondo of Blood in English and an enhanced port of Symphony of the Night, making this a huge value for your buck.
Unfortunately, The Dracula X Chronicles is still a PSP exclusive. While the versions of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night included in this release were salvaged and sold as the Requiem Collection, the 2.5D remake is still unaccounted for, which is a terrible shame since it is the best game in the package.
3. Castlevania Chronicles (PlayStation)
Castlevania Chronicles was released very late in the PlayStation’s lifecycle. It was not given a huge run and as a result, it has become one of the more rare and expensive Castlevania games to physically acquire. The PlayStation 2 was already out when this hit shelves, so interest was at an all-time low for a “linearvania”.
The core of Castlevania Chronicles is the Sharp X68000 remake of the original 1986 game. There is also the “Arrange Mode,” which changes the experience with various tweaks and graphical updates to make it more consistent with Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.
Before Symphony of the Night changed the focus of the franchise, Castlevania was typically a straightforward action platformer. What made it so compelling was how challenging the platforming could be, the gothic hammer-horror atmosphere, and the satisfaction of the whip crack on enemies.
This remake of the original Castlevania has not just been expanded, but some areas have been remixed and moved around to enhance the flow. Original Mode is harder than the NES game just by the sheer volume of new challenges that compound each other. Average gamers today may find this kind of action too spicy or potentially “unfair”. Back in the Clinton years, this was what everyone considered getting value from your game.
There is no way to cheese a victory, all you have is your skills and wits. If the Original Mode is too demoralizing, then Arrange Mode is a worthy alternative that is designed for those accustomed to Symphony of the Night‘s balance. Differences may seem superficial, but Arrange is a very distinct experience.
This is one of the best remakes gamers can hope for. It is a better version of the original Castlevania with lots of surprises and twists for those who think they know the game and awesome pixel art and animation on PlayStation. Today, there are not many options for a new game like Castlevania Chronicles. It remains to be seen if Konami will ever include it in a future collection. Thankfully, it is available for a paltry $5.99 on PSN and is playable on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita.
2. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Nintendo DS)
Portrait of Ruin is set during World War II. Jonathan Morris, a vampire hunter and bearer of the vampire killer, and his assistant, Charlotte Aulin, a cute witch come face to face with Brauner, a demented artist in Dracula’s castle. Using his magical art, he can harness Dracula’s powers into his paintings which become worlds for Jonathan and Charlotte to explore and exorcise the evil within.
Of all the 2D Castlevania games, Portrait of Ruin has the deepest gameplay thanks to the two-character gameplay mechanics. Players will tag-team between Charlotte and Jonathan mid-battle and sometimes use both characters to solve environmental puzzles. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and can harness enemy souls, using them differently. Some boss battles will turn the tables and have players face two bosses at the same time… it’s pretty epic.
Like in Dawn of Sorrow, Jonathan and Charlotte can swap load-outs on the fly, allowing players a total of four when combining both characters. Jonathan leads with brutal melee and weapon mastery, while Charlotte can devastate the screen with insane magical powers. It’s satisfying as hell to build these heroes from nothing and become divine holy warriors.
Portrait of Ruin‘s level design takes the metroidvania elements and turns them on its head by breaking up areas into zones, connected by a hub area. This helps the game distinguish itself and fosters more variety in the level design, while also keeping exploration manageable to prevent confusion about where to go. It’s a lengthy adventure packed with content, alternate endings, and multiple unlockable playable characters.
There is no 2D Castlevania more jam-packed with content and attention to detail than Portrait of Ruin. The pixel art and animation are some of the most refined the franchise has ever seen; stuffed with unbelievable easter eggs and cute fan service. Diving into paintings like in Super Mario 64 was a stroke of genius and fostered varied level designs and theming that was never seen in the series since.
Just like Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin is included in the must-have Dominus Collection which is available on most current platforms. The only drawback to this amazing game is how it strays from the core of Castlevania which has always been about being challenging in the face of horrible evil. What is Castlevania’s sacred line, you ask? And which is the best Castlevania, that you also ask?
1. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (Nintendo 64)
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is the enhanced version of Castlevania on Nintendo 64. It improved several features like the camera system and frame rate, adjusted the level design to be less confusing for Carrie and Reinhardt, and introduced an additional storyline that served as a prequel to their stories. Cornell is unique for a Castlevania protagonist for being a werewolf and completing his quest also unlocks Henry, the armored gunman, offering five playable stories.
Legacy of Darkness is a faithful conceptualization of what classic Castlevania would be like if it were 3D. It got a bad rap for the longest time thanks to drooling and blithering YouTubers who got filtered by its learning curve. Still, lately, gamers finally realize that maybe this wasn’t that bad and the intelligent ones discovered it is the best Castlevania for multiple reasons.
Legacy of Darkness is a hard game. Back in the day, gamers were less accepting of cruel game design, but in the age of Dark Souls, something like this has become palatable, making Legacy of Darkness ahead of its time. It is also fairer than gamers may realize since money drops are common and buying healing items is viable. Don’t grind for too long since the day-and-night cycle has time passing in real-time and taking too long can result in a bad ending.
Legacy of Darkness is a technical marvel for a Nintendo 64 game. The aforementioned day-and-night cycle was nothing new; gamers saw something like that in Ocarina of Time. Yet Cornell’s game has one thing Link doesn’t: a stable 30 frames per second. Legacy of Darkness is a very fluid game when not using the Expansion Pak. The characters are very well animated for their time, and the dark, gothic imagery goes well with the N64’s low-poly signature flavor.
The tension of the platforming from the old games is accurately translated into 3D. Legacy of Darkness also takes things further by having open-ended sequences inspired by the first Resident Evil, complete with a proper gilded residence where the heroes have to search for keys and solve puzzles. It truly feels like an evolution of traditional Castlevania into the third dimension.
Castlevania should have methodical and measured gameplay. Frantic and fast action like in the Lords of Shadows games or Lament of Innocence is a mistake and makes for a generic and forgettable experience. The original games demanded players be careful since misplaced attacks could lead to getting knocked back off a platform to an early grave by a stray Medusa head. Legacy of Darkness captures this tension beautifully in 3D, but with the added ability to catch ledges.
This is the closest the franchise has ever gotten to being a full-on survival horror game with its oppressive and uncanny atmosphere and operatic, gothic music. It is the most content-packed game in the series, with two games’ worth of action and adventure spread across five characters who all play distinctly with different endings, ranking it as the most replayable Castlevania.
Legacy of Darkness is intensely moody and otherworldly, operating on a nightmarish logic that could only be dreamt up by confident early 2000s Japanese developers. It’s like Berserk meets Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Vampire Hunter D in a devilishly ornate package. It is one of the few horror games on Nintendo 64 and is also one of the best.
Sadly if you want to play it, you are shit out of luck. Legacy of Darkness has not been rereleased in any capacity and isn’t included in any compilation rerelease yet. Physical copies are around $200 minimum because gamers finally recognize its majesty as the greatest Castlevania game ever made.
