I decided to play all the good Castlevanias

[MrPopo]

something something erotic pachinko

All pachinko is erotic. All those ballz flying around.

[Sarge]

I know of them, but I know nothing about the Pachislot junk. I only vaguely remembered the mobile game. Blech. I also remember the puzzler, which may have been the least-asked-for thing I can think of from Castlevania fans.

And yes, the "erotic violence" pachinko. Oh, Konami, what would we do without you?

To go along with this discussion, I'm feeling an overwhelming urge to...

HIT THE LEVER!!!

[marurun]

I want to second Harmony of Dissonance on the GBA. The music is well composed for the most part, though the actual audio quality is dismal. The graphics can be a little plain. But the gameplay is good. It's ironic, because Circle of the Moon had better graphics and much better audio (composition and quality) but rather stiff and stilted gameplay. It wasn't until Aria of Sorrow that Konami proved they could make a GBA Castlevania title that could look good, sound good, and play good. But then, Konami had a very mixed record with the GBA.

[Xeogred]

I want to second Harmony of Dissonance on the GBA. The music is well composed for the most part, though the actual audio quality is dismal. The graphics can be a little plain. But the gameplay is good. It's ironic, because Circle of the Moon had better graphics and much better audio (composition and quality) but rather stiff and stilted gameplay. It wasn't until Aria of Sorrow that Konami proved they could make a GBA Castlevania title that could look good, sound good, and play good. But then, Konami had a very mixed record with the GBA.

I think Circle has a cool and unique aesthetic though. Aria and the DS games are basically pulling assets from Symphony of the Night. But Circle looked very different with the main character being much smaller on screen and gave the entire thing a different vibe than the others.

Can't say anything special about Harmony in terms of visuals, I really didn't like the weird outline of the main character and the bosses were not impressive in this one. 90% of the bosses were in a hallway room. lol

[Sarge]

Harmony of Dissonance basically sounds like a little scratchier VRC6. Some of the VRC6 mixes of that game are great.

[Exhuminator]

Circle of the Moon is the best GBA Castlevania. Harmony and Aria are both way too easy, and are so bright and colorful* that they just don't nail that macabre gothic Castlevania feel. I'm not saying Harmony and Aria aren't good games, they're both great, but Circle of the Moon beats them both. Circle is dark, challenging, and still feels like Castlevania.


*Yes I know why they were made like that due to technical reasons but it still hurts the Castlevania atmosphere.

[MrPopo]

Circle is terrible and you should feel bad for ranking it the highest of the GBA titles.

[Sarge]

Yeah, they definitely didn't feel too bright on my OG GBA. It was nice to be able to see well.

I like all three of the GBA games. I played the mess out of Circle. (No, really, I beat it on all the different alternate modes!) It's solid stuff, despite what MrPopo says. But really, it's that awesome dash move from Harmony that I love. Man, it's just so fun zooming through the castle like that.

[Exhuminator]

Circle is terrible and you should feel bad for ranking it the highest of the GBA titles.

I only feel bad that you haven't even played Thief yet.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Circle is terrible and you should feel bad for ranking it the highest of the GBA titles.

I have to agree with Popo Sensei here. Nathan is like going back to Simon Belmont for how stiff and slow he controls. Not only can he not back-dash, but that CONSTANT double tapping to run just drives me so crazy. I also never really thought any of the card-spells were really of any use, but maybe that's just me.

I can't believe that you guys thing HoD was too easy though. That final boss is SO crazy hard, not to mention how hard some of the normal enemies hit at some points, and that's even with how fluid and quickly Juste moves. Even Dracula, the optional final-final boss, is super-easy compared to how insanely hard the normal-final boss is. Granted I don't think that one's the best. That has to go to Aria of Sorrow, because the warping system in HoD is pretty much non-existent and it makes getting anywhere take ages.