How did this happen? I’ve always liked Castlevania games, and was quite excited about 18 months ago when Dawn of Sorrow came out, even though I hadn’t really played a Castlevania game since the SNES one about 12 years previous. But good as it was, it didn’t propel me into buying any other, older, Castlevania games.
Last year, however, when the first details of Portrait of Ruin for the DS were filtering onto the internet, I thought I’d best pick up the three GBA Castlevanias (yes, there’s actually four, but I mean the GBA only ones). After all, it’s the sort of game that just becomes impossible to find after a time, and as a result I had difficulty finding a copy of Circle of the Moon. Thankfully, Konami had seen fit to re-release Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow together in a single cartridge, so no problems there.
But I still didn’t play them.
Then Portrait of Ruin actually came out (or at least, was reviewed and “leaked” on the internet), and at the same time, the SNES game Super Castlevania IV was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console. I bought the latter. I started playing Circle of the Moon in parallel, and in anticipation of PoR. I was hooked.
And I still am. Although the SNES title isn’t quite the same as the “Metroidvania” games, it’s still great, and I really enjoyed it despite being seemingly impossible. Eventually, I did it, however. Circle of the Moon was different, although somehow, the same. Harmony of Dissonance was great too, although it took me half the game to realise it. And now I’ve begun Aria of Sorrow, and I’m loving it already.
Yeah, so all of the modern Castlevanias are the same. Castle, map, Dracula. But they’re all so good it doesn’t matter. Clearly it doesn’t matter, as I’m playing them all consecutively.
And the future? Aside from Portrait of Ruin, there’s nothing on the horizon that’s new. However, I missed out on so much Castlevania between 1994 and 2005 that, thankfully, there’s stuff to fill the void. Not least the Xbox 360 Live Arcade version of Symphony of the Night, the first proper “modern” Castlevania. And then there’s the PSP version too, complete with a remake of Dracula X, another title I’ve not played. Then, of course, there’s the NES originals that I could go back to (I even have a GBA version of the first one, albeit Akumajou Dracula – the Japanese version), and then N64 and PS2 3D Castlevanias.
Long may I be playing this great series!
