jericho_cross

I couldn't decide if I should post this to the gaming community or movies community so I decided to split the difference and just post it here since I'm open to games, movies, or book suggestions.

I have an itch I seem to have trouble scratching. I want more pirate stories that involve dark fantasy elements (skeletons, krakens, ghosts, voodoo, etc.) yet there seem to be very few of these. The best example of what I'm looking for is of course the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but those have diminishing returns. Even though it's exactly what I want, each movie is worse than the last.

I just finished playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and that was also exactly what I wanted. And I'm unreasonably excited for DAVY x JONES to come out. And yet... that's all I can find. Those are the only properties I know of that actually scratch my itch. And I'm shocked at how few entries there are in this genre.

I don't want a straight-forward pirate adventure like Cutthroat Island or Black Sails, or... I don't know, Muppet Treasure Island; I want something with dark fantasy elements in it. I recently watched a Korean movie on Netflix called The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure and while it had the adventure/comedy feel of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, there were no fantasy elements in it at all.

Is there a name for this sub-genre that I just haven't stumbled across? Are there really so few entries in this sub-genre? I created a !weirdwest@lemmy.zip community awhile back, and I guess I'm really just looking for the pirate equivalent of the Weird West genre. I guess the Vampirates book series meets my criteria, but it's at a middle school reading level and that just isn't for me. Maybe I should just re-watch Pirates of Dark Water...

So can anyone here help me out? Is there a better term to search for than just 'pirate fantasy'? Are there any other movies, books, or games you know of that might scratch my itch?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34947983

Here's how the clan selection screen looks at the moment:

One thing I've always loved about vampire stories is that there are no hard rules. Vampires can be whatever the author wants them to be as long as they're internally consistent within the story. This makes them extremely versatile monsters that can be constantly re-invented and none of them are "wrong".

For example, sometimes all it takes to turn into a vampire is to be bitten by one. And sometimes you have to drink the vampire's blood to turn. Or, sometimes a vampire can just drain your energy without transferring any blood at all.

Of course, the rules can also get a bit ridiculous. Maybe the vampire is required to obsessively count grains of rice first. Or maybe they're required to hop around with their arms out (the chinese Jiangshi). Maybe they can turn into a wolf, a bat, or... fog.

So what's the most ridiculous rule or type of vampire you've come across?

(For the image on this post I wanted the most ridiculous picture of a Jiangshi I could find. I went with a shot from Robo Vampire which has a really fun RiffTrax. The only other Jiangshi I'm aware of is in the NES game Phantom Fighter... because I've never watched any of the Mr. Vampire movies)

I was originally going to ask: Which vampire movie is more historically inaccurate, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or... And then I realized I couldn't think of any other vampire movie that actually tries to pretend it's taking place in the "real world" like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I mean, any inclusion of vampires immediately makes a movie a fantasy, but are there any other vampire movies that attempt to include actual historical events? I know there are vampire movies set in "The West" or in "World War II" but I can't think of any that actually point to exact dates/events like this one.

Anyway, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn't that bad of a movie. For the most part, it's a fun movie about hunting vampires in the 1800s. The only real problems arise when it tries to shoe-horn aspects of Abraham Lincoln's real life into the narrative. It drags the movie to a halt. I know that's the whole gimmick behind this movie, but it's the weakest part. If this movie was just "fun vampire hunting in the 1800s" it would've been better. Instead, the movie tells a fun story about someone dedicating his life to getting revenge on vampires... and he also happens to become president. The "real life" aspects don't even intersect with the story they're trying to tell. It's weird.

Here's a trailer. You can watch it on Hulu if you haven't seen it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/42745436
(this is my first attempt at cross-posting within Lemmy, I hope I'm doing it right)

I've played a lot of Castlevania games in my life and I wanted to break down all the various eras (as I see them) for anyone who hasn't played a Castlevania game before and might be interested. I'm going to cover all of the Castlevania games. So yes, this will be an extremely long and rambling post. We're going to see if Lemmy has any content limits for its posts.

The first thing to know about Castlevania games is that (almost) all of them have the same plot: someone resurrected Dracula (or is about to) and must be stopped. That's it. If a plot is present, that's the plot. Also, there are very few actual "sequels" throughout the entire franchise. This means there's no real continuity and you can jump in wherever you want. And with the magic of emulators, truly any of these games are available to you if you're interested.

In general (with some exceptions), Castlevania games fall into two categories. One which fans refer to as "Classicvania" and one that became "Metroidvania". Classicvanias are the "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" level-based games. Metroidvanias are the "entire map available at the start but you need additional abilities to access it all" type of game. I'll get into details later, I just wanted to clarify my section headings before diving in.

Classicvanias (8-bit era)

NES games:

• Castlevania (1986)
  The first one. It was released early in the life of the NES and is therefore more clunky than later games, but it sets the stage. The start screen has a film reel on it to show the major inspiration here is classic horror movie monsters. This isn't a horror game though, it's just a spooky game. As for gameplay, it's your standard "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" design. Overall, this is a tough game with knock-back (an enemy bumps into you and you fall into a pit) and some pixel-perfect jumps (I made that jump easily the first time, why can't I land it now??). With emulators and save states, it could still be fun. If you try to play it the way kids in the 80s were forced to though, you'll snap your controller in half.

• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987)
  When the first Legend of Zelda game came out, it was a huge hit. It defined the top-down dungeon-crawling style of game on the NES. So naturally, for Zelda 2 they... completely reworked the entire gameplay and gave it side-scroller combat. Simon's Quest is a bit like that. After the success of the first Castlevania game, with its "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" design, they decided to completely rework the gameplay for the second game. Simon's Quest is non-linear. You have to talk to villagers to get clues, you have to collect items and then back-track to access a new area, and there's a day/night cycle (enemies are more difficult at night and villagers aren't around). This isn't an RPG though, it's just confusing. I said some villagers will give you clues, but some of those clues were mistranslated when brought to America so they weren't helpful at all. Today, this is a game you can't play without a walkthrough. It's ridiculous. I would absolutely skip this game unless you're a completionist.

• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989)
  Castlevania 3 is more of a "return to form" to Castlevania 1's gameplay and is better for it. This game also has some improvements. For example, after beating a stage, you can choose between one of two stages to go to next. This allows you to have more of a "journey" to Dracula's castle. Also, you can unlock additional characters along the way. Between the level selection and additional playable characters, there's actually quite a bit of re-play value here. Personally, this is my favorite Castlevania of the NES era. Castlevania 1 is an interesting time capsule, Castlevania 2 is an awkward mess (in my opinion), and Castlevania 3 is what I consider NES Castlevania to be. One interesting thing to note here is the American version of this game is more difficult than the Japanese version. For whatever reason, the enemies in the American release do more damage. There's also some minor 8-bit nudity that had to be censored in the American release to protect those poor impressionable American children.

Game Boy games:

• Castlevania: The Adventure (1989)
  This was one of the first games released on the Game Boy, and it shows. It's another awkward, clunky mess. It's interesting how Castlevania games tend to be one of the initial titles on a new console... and are worse for it. It usually takes a couple years for developers to really figure out what a console can and can't do, and Castlevania games seem to be testing grounds. All that is to say, this is a terrible game. The character has slow movement, there are no sub-weapons, and you have to constantly climb ropes (which are hard to grab). This game was remastered as Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth on the Wii and was improved in every single way for that release. You can play the original Game Boy title just to see what it's like, but I would recommend playing ReBirth if you actually want to try this game. You'll need to pirate the game of course since it was a WiiWare exclusive and Nintendo shut down the WiiWare shop.

• Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991)
  There are some improvements here, like the addition of sub-weapons. Plus, it has a stage select screen like a Mega Man game where you can pick whichever level you want to complete first. Dracula's castle then unlocks after beating all the levels, like Wily's castle in Mega Man. Otherwise, it's still a game boy Castlevania game, it's pretty clunky.

• Castlevania: Legends (1997)
  The last Castlevania game on the Game Boy. This was released towards the end of the Game Boy's lifespan (the N64 was already available by this point) so it does a lot of things right. This is easily the best Castlevania game on the Game Boy but that's not saying much. The Game Boy had a small screen and limited hardware; so even when done right, these games are pretty minimal. You could skip all of the Game Boy Castlevania games and you wouldn't be missing much.

Classicvanias (32-bit era)

• Super Castlevania IV (SNES) (1991)
  The first Castlevania on SNES. This is typically regarded as the "easiest" Castlevania game, which makes it a good entrypoint for the Classicvania style of games. You can shoot your whip in 8 different directions (rather than just left or right) which really helps manage the difficulty. I don't know what else to say about this game. It's good. Unless you have nostalgia for the 8-bit era, this is where you should start with Castlevania.

• Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine Super CD-ROM) (1993)
  I'll admit I'd never heard of the PC Engine Super CD-ROM prior to digging into Castlevania's backlog. And the game never left Japan. But among fans of the franchise, this is typically considered the "best" of the Classicvanias mostly due to gameplay and level design. There isn't much here that's unique, it's just all done extremely well. There are some branching paths in each level and you can unlock another playable character if you take the correct diverting paths. There was a SNES game called Castlevania: Dracula X which was released in 1995. It re-used a lot of the sprite work from Rondo of Blood but is actually an entirely different game. You can't play Dracula X and claim you've played Rondo of Blood, even though they look similar. That isn't to say Dracula X is a bad game, it just isn't as good as Super Castlevania IV or Rondo of Blood, which were both available at this time. There was also a PSP game called Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles which was a 2.5D graphical upgrade of the original Rondo of Blood. As far as I can tell, playing that game is more similar to playing Rondo of Blood than playing Dracula X. Also, if you beat the game it unlocks the original (32-bit) version of Rondo of Blood.

• Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis) / Castlevania: The New Generation (MegaDrive) (1994)
  In America, it was called Genesis. In Europe, it was called MegaDrive. In America, it was called Bloodlines. In Europe, it was called The New Generation. Whatever. This is a fun game with some really good graphics at the time. You also get to choose one of two playable characters right at the beginning. One has a standard whip, the other has a longer-reaching spear. This is a solid Classicvania game. It isn't the "best", it isn't the "easiest", it's just a solid game. And it's better than Dracula X.

• Castlevania Chronicles (PSX) (1993/2001)
  In 1993, there was a Japan-only game called Akumajō Dracula for the X68000. It was intended to be a remake of the original Castlevania (NES) game. 8 years later, it was ported to the Playstation 1 as Castlevania Chronicles and released to the rest of the world. This game is an interesting throw-back to the Classicvania genre and is actually the last of its kind. No more Classicvania games have been made after this game. And that's because the entire Castlevania franchise was redirected thanks to:

Metroidvanias

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) (1997)
  And here it is. The masterpiece. The game that defined Castlevania for all future games. If you want to play a Classicvania, you can play Dracula III, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood... there are plenty to choose from. But if you want a Metroidvania, you start here. Metroidvanias have become an entire genre of video games, an entire category in Steam. The genre's name is based on the two defining works of the genre: Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Those two games set the standard. And here we are.

Symphony of the Night took inspiration from that failed attempt at non-linear gameplay in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and the successful non-linear exploration of Super Metroid. It also added RPG elements, with weapons and armor of differing stats that the player could equip. The beginning of the game has you playing as Richter Belmont and throws you right into a battle with Drcaula. This is actually the end of Rondo of Blood. After beating Dracula, you then play as Alucard for the rest of the game. So while Symphony of the Night is technically a sequel to Rondo of Blood, that opening sequence is the only real connection between the two. There's nothing else for me to say. This game defined a genre.

Igavanias

Koji Igarashi (known as Iga) was the assistant director on Symphony of the Night. After its success, he was given control of the Castlevania franchise and had a hand in all of the GBA and DS Castlevania games that came next. Basically, every metroidvania-style Castlevania game had Iga's involvement. All of them are good, all of them have the same level of quality, and I can barely remember the difference between any of them. They're all just "more Castlevania" to me. That isn't a bad thing, but this is where the franchise just blurs together as a non-stop barrage of metroidvanias. You really can't go wrong with any of them but I find it hard to rank them. The earlier games all had some quirk or oddity to discuss, but now we're into the meat of the franchise where they hit their stride and I don't have anything to add.

Game Boy Advance games

• Circle of the Moon (2001)
• Harmony of Dissonance (2002)
• Aria of Sorrow (2003)

Let's see... Circle of the Moon was released as a launch title for the GBA so it was of course more clunky and awkward than the games that came after. Aria of Sorrow introduces the character Soma Cruz, who is also the main character in Dawn of Sorrow, making it one of the few true "sequels" in the franchise. I remember nothing from Harmony of Dissonance. I'm sure it's fine.

Nintendo DS games

• Dawn of Sorrow (2005)
• Portrait of Ruin (2006)
• Order of Ecclesia (2008)

Again, Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow (for what it's worth). Portrait of Ruin has less of a connected map than most metroidvanias since you have to go into separate, distinct portraits that transport you to a different world. Order of Ecclesia is a great game and I don't remember anything specific.

All of the GBA games are available on steam as the Advance Collection. All of the DS games are available on steam as the Dominus Collection.

3D Games

While Classicvanias and Metroidvanias are where Castlevania shines, there have been a couple attempts to break into 3D gameplay.

• Castlevania (N64) (1999)
  The first attempt at 3D gameplay for the Castlevania franchise. It was awkward. This game isn't very good, even by N64 standards. Every N64 game at this time was trying to figure out exactly how to do 3D gameplay. How do you handle the camera? How do you actually "lock on" to an enemy so you don't miss? Also, this game was too ambitious and kept having to cut content in an attempt to hit their release date. It released in January of 1999.

• Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64) (1999)
  The same year as Castlevania N64, Legacy of Darkness was released (in December). Legacy of Darkness is what Castlevania N64 was supposed to be. This is literally the game the development team had wanted when working on Castlevania N64. So it's more polished and coherent than Castlevania N64... but it's still clunky. I really don't have much love for the N64 era of games. This was the gaming industry as a whole trying to "figure out" how to make a 3D game. It took some time to perfect it.

• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) (2003)
• Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2) (2005)
  I didn't own a PS2... I never played these games. But by the PS2 timeframe, the gaming industry as a whole had figured out 3D gaming and I believe these games are well-regarded. I don't think they were award-winners, but they succeeded where the N64 Castlevania games failed. I'm sorry I can't go into more detail with these games but I believe they're worth playing.

The Reboot

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (all consoles) (2010)
  "Castlevania has been around for over 20 years doing the same thing! We need a REBOOT! What's that? 'God of War' is a popular game? LET'S MAKE ONE OF THOSE!"

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (all consoles) (2013)
  "What's that? Castlevania fans want something called a 'metroidvania'?? MAKE ONE OF THOSE!"

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (all consoles) (2014)
  "Stealth games are popular now?? Make a Castlevania game with stealth in it!"

The Lords of Shadow series is an outlier in the franchise but are also the most recent Castlevania games to come out. It's a full reboot of the franchise and an attempt to make an actual storyline. They even hired Patrick Stewart to play the mentor character and got Hideo Kojima as a producer in the first game. They did their best to make this a AAA title.

The first Lords of Shadow game is very reminiscent of God of War (the Greek ones). Overall, it's a solid hack 'n' slash. I think the puzzles get a bit tedious and the game drags out, but it doesn't really do anything wrong.

After the first Lords of Shadow, they released Mirror of Fate, which was a 2.5D metroidvania game that followed the same storyline. While the graphics look a bit weird in this game, it was made by MercurySteam. MercurySteam later went on to make Metroid: Samus Returns and after that, Metroid Dread. So they know what they're doing. While it's strange to shove a 2.5D metroidvania in between two 3D-based hack 'n' slash games, it's a solid game in its own right.

Lords of Shadow 2 takes place in the modern day and is the first Castlevania game to let you play as Dracula. And yet, while playing as Dracula, you're forced into stealth sections where if a single human guard spots you the level restarts. As if Dracula can't handle a lone guard. If you can ignore the fact that you're Dracula doing all this, it's a perfectly serviceable action stealth game. It's also a direct sequel from Lords of Shadow 1 so you can't really jump straight into this game (If you care about the plot).

The Oddballs, Oddities, and Black Sheep

• Kid Dracula (Famicom/Game Boy) (1990)
  A parody/chibi spin-off of the Castlevania series. You play as a childish version of Dracula (or maybe Alucard?) in a standard Classicvania-style format. I always liked how in the Game Boy version, Kid Dracula's teacher (Death) asks if he's been practicing his abilities and he says no, he forgot everything. Then as you beat each level, he "remembers" something he was always able to do and it unlocks an ability (like turning into a bat). I just liked the idea that he could've always done these things, he just forgot because he's lazy.

• Haunted Castle (Arcade) (1988)
  This is such an awful arcade game. The main character's sprite is huge and so slow moving you can't even avoid most enemies. Just terrible. A Haunted Castle Revisited was included in the Castlevania: Dominus Collection but I haven't played it to know how much they improved it. Who knows, it might actually be playable now.

• Castlevania Judgment (Wii) (2008)
  A fighting game using Castlevania characters. But all the characters have been re-designed to be more anime-like so you can't even recognize them. Ridiculous sexy outfits and buckles everywhere.

• Bloodstained
  Koji Igarashi left Konami in 2014. Since his departure, Konami has not made another Castlevania game. But Iga wasn't done making Castlevania games. So he made his own. Bloodstained is basically a "spiritual successor" to the Castlevania franchise from the guy who made every metroidvania Castlevania game. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Castlevania game in all but name. It was actually the result of a successful kickstarter and one of the stretch goals was to make a Classicvania. That game is Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. If you enjoy Castlevania games, you'll want to pay attention to the Bloodstained franchise.

That's it. That's every Castlevania game. If you're interested in Classicvanias, Super Castlevania IV is a great starting point. If you can handle that style of gameplay, branch out into Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines. If you're interested in metroidvanias, you start with Symphony of the Night. After that, any of the GBA or DS games are great. I barely consider the Lords of Shadow series to even be Castlevania, but they're perfectly fine "recent' games since everything else is retro. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I wonder how many people actually read all that.

I've played a lot of Castlevania games in my life and I wanted to break down all the various eras (as I see them) for anyone who hasn't played a Castlevania game before and might be interested. I'm going to cover all of the Castlevania games. So yes, this will be an extremely long and rambling post. We're going to see if Lemmy has any content limits for its posts.

The first thing to know about Castlevania games is that (almost) all of them have the same plot: someone resurrected Dracula (or is about to) and must be stopped. That's it. If a plot is present, that's the plot. Also, there are very few actual "sequels" throughout the entire franchise. This means there's no real continuity and you can jump in wherever you want. And with the magic of emulators, truly any of these games are available to you if you're interested.

In general (with some exceptions), Castlevania games fall into two categories. One which fans refer to as "Classicvania" and one that became "Metroidvania". Classicvanias are the "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" level-based games. Metroidvanias are the "entire map available at the start but you need additional abilities to access it all" type of game. I'll get into details later, I just wanted to clarify my section headings before diving in.

Classicvanias (8-bit era)

NES games:

• Castlevania (1986)
  The first one. It was released early in the life of the NES and is therefore more clunky than later games, but it sets the stage. The start screen has a film reel on it to show the major inspiration here is classic horror movie monsters. This isn't a horror game though, it's just a spooky game. As for gameplay, it's your standard "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" design. Overall, this is a tough game with knock-back (an enemy bumps into you and you fall into a pit) and some pixel-perfect jumps (I made that jump easily the first time, why can't I land it now??). With emulators and save states, it could still be fun. If you try to play it the way kids in the 80s were forced to though, you'll snap your controller in half.

• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987)
  When the first Legend of Zelda game came out, it was a huge hit. It defined the top-down dungeon-crawling style of game on the NES. So naturally, for Zelda 2 they... completely reworked the entire gameplay and gave it side-scroller combat. Simon's Quest is a bit like that. After the success of the first Castlevania game, with its "move to the right, fight a boss at the end" design, they decided to completely rework the gameplay for the second game. Simon's Quest is non-linear. You have to talk to villagers to get clues, you have to collect items and then back-track to access a new area, and there's a day/night cycle (enemies are more difficult at night and villagers aren't around). This isn't an RPG though, it's just confusing. I said some villagers will give you clues, but some of those clues were mistranslated when brought to America so they weren't helpful at all. Today, this is a game you can't play without a walkthrough. It's ridiculous. I would absolutely skip this game unless you're a completionist.

• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989)
  Castlevania 3 is more of a "return to form" to Castlevania 1's gameplay and is better for it. This game also has some improvements. For example, after beating a stage, you can choose between one of two stages to go to next. This allows you to have more of a "journey" to Dracula's castle. Also, you can unlock additional characters along the way. Between the level selection and additional playable characters, there's actually quite a bit of re-play value here. Personally, this is my favorite Castlevania of the NES era. Castlevania 1 is an interesting time capsule, Castlevania 2 is an awkward mess (in my opinion), and Castlevania 3 is what I consider NES Castlevania to be. One interesting thing to note here is the American version of this game is more difficult than the Japanese version. For whatever reason, the enemies in the American release do more damage. There's also some minor 8-bit nudity that had to be censored in the American release to protect those poor impressionable American children.

Game Boy games:

• Castlevania: The Adventure (1989)
  This was one of the first games released on the Game Boy, and it shows. It's another awkward, clunky mess. It's interesting how Castlevania games tend to be one of the initial titles on a new console... and are worse for it. It usually takes a couple years for developers to really figure out what a console can and can't do, and Castlevania games seem to be testing grounds. All that is to say, this is a terrible game. The character has slow movement, there are no sub-weapons, and you have to constantly climb ropes (which are hard to grab). This game was remastered as Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth on the Wii and was improved in every single way for that release. You can play the original Game Boy title just to see what it's like, but I would recommend playing ReBirth if you actually want to try this game. You'll need to pirate the game of course since it was a WiiWare exclusive and Nintendo shut down the WiiWare shop.

• Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991)
  There are some improvements here, like the addition of sub-weapons. Plus, it has a stage select screen like a Mega Man game where you can pick whichever level you want to complete first. Dracula's castle then unlocks after beating all the levels, like Wily's castle in Mega Man. Otherwise, it's still a game boy Castlevania game, it's pretty clunky.

• Castlevania: Legends (1997)
  The last Castlevania game on the Game Boy. This was released towards the end of the Game Boy's lifespan (the N64 was already available by this point) so it does a lot of things right. This is easily the best Castlevania game on the Game Boy but that's not saying much. The Game Boy had a small screen and limited hardware; so even when done right, these games are pretty minimal. You could skip all of the Game Boy Castlevania games and you wouldn't be missing much.

Classicvanias (32-bit era)

• Super Castlevania IV (SNES) (1991)
  The first Castlevania on SNES. This is typically regarded as the "easiest" Castlevania game, which makes it a good entrypoint for the Classicvania style of games. You can shoot your whip in 8 different directions (rather than just left or right) which really helps manage the difficulty. I don't know what else to say about this game. It's good. Unless you have nostalgia for the 8-bit era, this is where you should start with Castlevania.

• Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine Super CD-ROM) (1993)
  I'll admit I'd never heard of the PC Engine Super CD-ROM prior to digging into Castlevania's backlog. And the game never left Japan. But among fans of the franchise, this is typically considered the "best" of the Classicvanias mostly due to gameplay and level design. There isn't much here that's unique, it's just all done extremely well. There are some branching paths in each level and you can unlock another playable character if you take the correct diverting paths. There was a SNES game called Castlevania: Dracula X which was released in 1995. It re-used a lot of the sprite work from Rondo of Blood but is actually an entirely different game. You can't play Dracula X and claim you've played Rondo of Blood, even though they look similar. That isn't to say Dracula X is a bad game, it just isn't as good as Super Castlevania IV or Rondo of Blood, which were both available at this time. There was also a PSP game called Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles which was a 2.5D graphical upgrade of the original Rondo of Blood. As far as I can tell, playing that game is more similar to playing Rondo of Blood than playing Dracula X. Also, if you beat the game it unlocks the original (32-bit) version of Rondo of Blood.

• Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis) / Castlevania: The New Generation (MegaDrive) (1994)
  In America, it was called Genesis. In Europe, it was called MegaDrive. In America, it was called Bloodlines. In Europe, it was called The New Generation. Whatever. This is a fun game with some really good graphics at the time. You also get to choose one of two playable characters right at the beginning. One has a standard whip, the other has a longer-reaching spear. This is a solid Classicvania game. It isn't the "best", it isn't the "easiest", it's just a solid game. And it's better than Dracula X.

• Castlevania Chronicles (PSX) (1993/2001)
  In 1993, there was a Japan-only game called Akumajō Dracula for the X68000. It was intended to be a remake of the original Castlevania (NES) game. 8 years later, it was ported to the Playstation 1 as Castlevania Chronicles and released to the rest of the world. This game is an interesting throw-back to the Classicvania genre and is actually the last of its kind. No more Classicvania games have been made after this game. And that's because the entire Castlevania franchise was redirected thanks to:

Metroidvanias

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) (1997)
  And here it is. The masterpiece. The game that defined Castlevania for all future games. If you want to play a Classicvania, you can play Dracula III, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood... there are plenty to choose from. But if you want a Metroidvania, you start here. Metroidvanias have become an entire genre of video games, an entire category in Steam. The genre's name is based on the two defining works of the genre: Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Those two games set the standard. And here we are.

Symphony of the Night took inspiration from that failed attempt at non-linear gameplay in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and the successful non-linear exploration of Super Metroid. It also added RPG elements, with weapons and armor of differing stats that the player could equip. The beginning of the game has you playing as Richter Belmont and throws you right into a battle with Drcaula. This is actually the end of Rondo of Blood. After beating Dracula, you then play as Alucard for the rest of the game. So while Symphony of the Night is technically a sequel to Rondo of Blood, that opening sequence is the only real connection between the two. There's nothing else for me to say. This game defined a genre.

Igavanias

Koji Igarashi (known as Iga) was the assistant director on Symphony of the Night. After its success, he was given control of the Castlevania franchise and had a hand in all of the GBA and DS Castlevania games that came next. Basically, every metroidvania-style Castlevania game had Iga's involvement. All of them are good, all of them have the same level of quality, and I can barely remember the difference between any of them. They're all just "more Castlevania" to me. That isn't a bad thing, but this is where the franchise just blurs together as a non-stop barrage of metroidvanias. You really can't go wrong with any of them but I find it hard to rank them. The earlier games all had some quirk or oddity to discuss, but now we're into the meat of the franchise where they hit their stride and I don't have anything to add.

Game Boy Advance games

• Circle of the Moon (2001)
• Harmony of Dissonance (2002)
• Aria of Sorrow (2003)

Let's see... Circle of the Moon was released as a launch title for the GBA so it was of course more clunky and awkward than the games that came after. Aria of Sorrow introduces the character Soma Cruz, who is also the main character in Dawn of Sorrow, making it one of the few true "sequels" in the franchise. I remember nothing from Harmony of Dissonance. I'm sure it's fine.

Nintendo DS games

• Dawn of Sorrow (2005)
• Portrait of Ruin (2006)
• Order of Ecclesia (2008)

Again, Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow (for what it's worth). Portrait of Ruin has less of a connected map than most metroidvanias since you have to go into separate, distinct portraits that transport you to a different world. Order of Ecclesia is a great game and I don't remember anything specific.

All of the GBA games are available on steam as the Advance Collection. All of the DS games are available on steam as the Dominus Collection.

3D Games

While Classicvanias and Metroidvanias are where Castlevania shines, there have been a couple attempts to break into 3D gameplay.

• Castlevania (N64) (1999)
  The first attempt at 3D gameplay for the Castlevania franchise. It was awkward. This game isn't very good, even by N64 standards. Every N64 game at this time was trying to figure out exactly how to do 3D gameplay. How do you handle the camera? How do you actually "lock on" to an enemy so you don't miss? Also, this game was too ambitious and kept having to cut content in an attempt to hit their release date. It released in January of 1999.

• Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64) (1999)
  The same year as Castlevania N64, Legacy of Darkness was released (in December). Legacy of Darkness is what Castlevania N64 was supposed to be. This is literally the game the development team had wanted when working on Castlevania N64. So it's more polished and coherent than Castlevania N64... but it's still clunky. I really don't have much love for the N64 era of games. This was the gaming industry as a whole trying to "figure out" how to make a 3D game. It took some time to perfect it.

• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) (2003)
• Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2) (2005)
  I didn't own a PS2... I never played these games. But by the PS2 timeframe, the gaming industry as a whole had figured out 3D gaming and I believe these games are well-regarded. I don't think they were award-winners, but they succeeded where the N64 Castlevania games failed. I'm sorry I can't go into more detail with these games but I believe they're worth playing.

The Reboot

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (all consoles) (2010)
  "Castlevania has been around for over 20 years doing the same thing! We need a REBOOT! What's that? 'God of War' is a popular game? LET'S MAKE ONE OF THOSE!"

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (all consoles) (2013)
  "What's that? Castlevania fans want something called a 'metroidvania'?? MAKE ONE OF THOSE!"

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (all consoles) (2014)
  "Stealth games are popular now?? Make a Castlevania game with stealth in it!"

The Lords of Shadow series is an outlier in the franchise but are also the most recent Castlevania games to come out. It's a full reboot of the franchise and an attempt to make an actual storyline. They even hired Patrick Stewart to play the mentor character and got Hideo Kojima as a producer in the first game. They did their best to make this a AAA title.

The first Lords of Shadow game is very reminiscent of God of War (the Greek ones). Overall, it's a solid hack 'n' slash. I think the puzzles get a bit tedious and the game drags out, but it doesn't really do anything wrong.

After the first Lords of Shadow, they released Mirror of Fate, which was a 2.5D metroidvania game that followed the same storyline. While the graphics look a bit weird in this game, it was made by MercurySteam. MercurySteam later went on to make Metroid: Samus Returns and after that, Metroid Dread. So they know what they're doing. While it's strange to shove a 2.5D metroidvania in between two 3D-based hack 'n' slash games, it's a solid game in its own right.

Lords of Shadow 2 takes place in the modern day and is the first Castlevania game to let you play as Dracula. And yet, while playing as Dracula, you're forced into stealth sections where if a single human guard spots you the level restarts. As if Dracula can't handle a lone guard. If you can ignore the fact that you're Dracula doing all this, it's a perfectly serviceable action stealth game. It's also a direct sequel from Lords of Shadow 1 so you can't really jump straight into this game (If you care about the plot).

The Oddballs, Oddities, and Black Sheep

• Kid Dracula (Famicom/Game Boy) (1990)
  A parody/chibi spin-off of the Castlevania series. You play as a childish version of Dracula (or maybe Alucard?) in a standard Classicvania-style format. I always liked how in the Game Boy version, Kid Dracula's teacher (Death) asks if he's been practicing his abilities and he says no, he forgot everything. Then as you beat each level, he "remembers" something he was always able to do and it unlocks an ability (like turning into a bat). I just liked the idea that he could've always done these things, he just forgot because he's lazy.

• Haunted Castle (Arcade) (1988)
  This is such an awful arcade game. The main character's sprite is huge and so slow moving you can't even avoid most enemies. Just terrible. A Haunted Castle Revisited was included in the Castlevania: Dominus Collection but I haven't played it to know how much they improved it. Who knows, it might actually be playable now.

• Castlevania Judgment (Wii) (2008)
  A fighting game using Castlevania characters. But all the characters have been re-designed to be more anime-like so you can't even recognize them. Ridiculous sexy outfits and buckles everywhere.

• Bloodstained
  Koji Igarashi left Konami in 2014. Since his departure, Konami has not made another Castlevania game. But Iga wasn't done making Castlevania games. So he made his own. Bloodstained is basically a "spiritual successor" to the Castlevania franchise from the guy who made every metroidvania Castlevania game. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Castlevania game in all but name. It was actually the result of a successful kickstarter and one of the stretch goals was to make a Classicvania. That game is Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. If you enjoy Castlevania games, you'll want to pay attention to the Bloodstained franchise.

That's it. That's every Castlevania game. If you're interested in Classicvanias, Super Castlevania IV is a great starting point. If you can handle that style of gameplay, branch out into Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines. If you're interested in metroidvanias, you start with Symphony of the Night. After that, any of the GBA or DS games are great. I barely consider the Lords of Shadow series to even be Castlevania, but they're perfectly fine "recent' games since everything else is retro. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I wonder how many people actually read all that.

I just finished this demo and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure how many people here are interested in pixel-art metroidvanias but I love that genre and wanted to share.

I saw someone describe this game as "evil goth Shantae" and yeah, I see it. While the animation style is reminiscent of Shantae, you get to play as a vampire and the vampire is actually evil. One of the first enemies you fight are villagers with pitchforks running at you. And sometimes you'll run into a regular villager who's just sweeping with a broom and runs away when she sees you. Feeding on her restores your magic points. Awesome.

I feel like typically when I get to play as a vampire in video games, I'm hunting even worse monsters and I'm therefore the "hero" (BloodRayne, Dark, Darkwatch, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Instead, the plot of this game is: a group of vampire hunters have captured your fellow vampires who prey upon the village. Your goal is to defeat those vampire hunters and free your vampire "family"... so you can resume feeding on the villagers. You really are the villain here. Yet the pixel-art is a lot more colorful and cheerful than you'd expect; this isn't a horror game.

Anyway, the demo provided a great representation of the level design, unlockable abilities, enemy variety, light platforming puzzles, and boss fights. I immediately wishlisted it. I know FPS games with ultra-realistic graphics are more popular, but I can't resist pixel-art metroidvanias.

I know there's a pinned post about what demos we found in Steam Next Fest but I wanted to make separate post about this one because I don't think anyone would've noticed it otherwise.

This game has a pirate fantasy setting kinda like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It's such a fun aesthetic, I wish there was more in this genre. Anyway, you play as Davy Jones and you're killed by Blackbeard. Your body and decapitated head are reunited in the underworld and the head is dedicated to getting revenge.

It's a first-person shooter where you have a gun and a sword. The combat is a bit clunky in this demo but the world-building is so fun I can't wait to play the full game.

Also, if anyone knows about any more "pirate fantasy" games let me know. I don't want realism, I want ghosts and kraken and ridiculous monsters. The only other game I'm aware of in this genre is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew but there's got to be more than that.

I love the idea of vampire pirates, that's such a fun premise. I just wish there was a more "mature" version of this series where there's actually blood and death, rather than a couple 12-year olds on an adventure. Of course, being interested in vampire pirates in the first place probably means I have a 12-year old's opinion of what's cool...

I'll admit I've never read this series and I should probably give it a chance anyway. Maybe borrow them from the library or something since I really don't need to be spending money on these. Here's an amazon link in case anyone else is interested though.

Also, I tried checking steam to see if there were any vampire pirate video games (since that'd probably scratch my itch just as well) but all I found was an upcoming game called Vampirates which is decidedly not what I'm looking for. It looks more like a social game like R.E.P.O. than vampire pirates hunting at night. Oh well, I guess I'm stuck reading a book series intended for 12-year olds.

Have any of you read this series? Does it still hold up if you aren't 12 years old but apparently seem to be 12 years old at heart?

I'm hoping for some good sales on vampire games.

https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Vampire/

This game might actually take place on the East coast of America and not the Wild West, I can't really tell. It's close though.

Developer Ice Code Games (Hard West II, Rogue Waters) have announced Nightmare Frontier, a tactical turn-based strategy game that's also an extraction looter. Think "XCOM meets Hunt: Showdown with a dash of Cthulhu thrown in."

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3310950/Nightmare_Frontier/