When you hear "Castlevania...

[Xeogred]

Definitely check out the Saturn version Xeogred, well worth your time. It's fairly expensive, but you have a modded Saturn if I'm not mistaken. You probably won't even notice the technical differences unless you're really familiar with the PSX version or just played it recently.

About POR, I really couldn't buy into the 2 character gimmick, although Charlotte is (thankfully) largely useless. I felt it was extremely easy and simple too, and yeah. I dunno. I thought it was the weakest of the DS games, but I still played through it and enjoyed it.

Order of Ecclesia just seems miles beyond any Castlevania game since SOTN to me. It's probably the last great one.

Yeah, I really wonder what's next for the series. Koji Igarashi loves his 2D gaming and sprites, but with the capabilities of the 3DS and PSP I doubt the majority of the market would want to see more 2D games. I've been kind of fearful about that and the fate of 2D CV for awhile, but I guess we'll see.

[Gamerforlife]

Definitely check out the Saturn version Xeogred, well worth your time. It's fairly expensive, but you have a modded Saturn if I'm not mistaken. You probably won't even notice the technical differences unless you're really familiar with the PSX version or just played it recently.

About POR, I really couldn't buy into the 2 character gimmick, although Charlotte is (thankfully) largely useless. I felt it was extremely easy and simple too, and yeah. I dunno. I thought it was the weakest of the DS games, but I still played through it and enjoyed it.

Order of Ecclesia just seems miles beyond any Castlevania game since SOTN to me. It's probably the last great one.

Well it's worth pointing out that I generally like any game that involves teamwork of some kind with other characters so the two character mechanic instantly won me over. Plus, it reminded me of the Marvel vs Capcom games the way they implemented it. It was fun seeing it come into play in creative ways for some of the bosses too. I love when a game gives me unconventional ways to do things and this was a new thing for a Castlevania game.

I actually found Charlotte quite powerful and mostly used her. I guess it depends on one's playing style. I didn't play POR like a traditional Castlevania game so I mostly used the magic user rather than the Belmont clone

I didn't care that the game was easy personally. I'll always take on a challenge when I'm presented with one, but these days I don't really go looking for them and generally don't care if a game isn't hard as long as it's fun.

[Xeogred]

Come to think of it I think I used Charlotte the most too. Didn't her attack animation show her like attacking with books and such? Was there some card combo equipment system in that game? It's been quite awhile obviously... lol, but yeah I think I recall using her a lot as the main.

[brunoafh]

Maybe I just thought she was too silly to use or something. I used Jonathan pretty much the entire game without a problem. It probably stems from the fact that when I'm playing Castlevania I don't want to play as some little girl attacking stuff with books, I want to melee enemies Belmont style and nothing but.

[Xeogred]

Hey man, OoE had Shanoa...

I know, huge difference actually. Haha, I really do wish there were more badass female main characters in CV games like her. And her design in general was just awesome, when I think of the handheld games I can picture her clearly but not really anyone else.

[Ziggy]

You know, I never actually beat SotN (any version) with Richter or Maria. Exactly what do you have to do with either character to beat the game? Do you have to just make your way up to Dracula's Keep?

[Ack]

Apparently Koji Igarashi also hates Circle of the Moon and had it removed from the official storyline. Which is too bad, as it was THE game I bought a GBA for at launch time. I still have it and feel it's a good game and impressive considering it was a launch title.

[irixith]

You know, I never actually beat SotN (any version) with Richter or Maria. Exactly what do you have to do with either character to beat the game? Do you have to just make your way up to Dracula's Keep?

Pretty much.

Unless you're really into some serious game breaking, neither character can access the full percentage of the castles as Alucard can.

[MidnightRider]

You know, I never actually beat SotN (any version) with Richter or Maria. Exactly what do you have to do with either character to beat the game? Do you have to just make your way up to Dracula's Keep?

If you think you could take him without all the health upgrades, you could skip quite a bit of it.

Also, is it me, or is Shonoa, while feminine enough, one of the(if not THE) least effeminate Castlevania protagonists since Igarashi took over?

[Xeogred]

Apparently Koji Igarashi also hates Circle of the Moon and had it removed from the official storyline. Which is too bad, as it was THE game I bought a GBA for at launch time. I still have it and feel it's a good game and impressive considering it was a launch title.

That sucks. Even the story in that one was a tad better than a handful of the others, I still like that one a lot.

@MidnightRider: I agree with you on that one. She's simply one of the best.