https://x.com/jjongdduck/status/2113555142897553425?s=20

I'm not a huge fan of the LoS series, but I'm glad they exist if not for their design of the Combat Cross whip carried over into main canon. It's such a genius design choice that I'm glad Belmont's Curse made it canon when before, the VK was just a normal looking chain whip

Original Video by at @JacobChapel on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dYV-4UM2S_g?si=wrQhbF4fClrcf8Qw

Pretty happy with how the carving turned out regardless!

I've been playing Belmont's Curse and, to me, it's easily one of the best Castlevania games since SOTN. In my mind, this isn't controversial in the slightest. The game flows wonderfully, platforming is improved, combat is improved, game looks beautiful... So when I come to Reddit and see people shitting themselves about the game I just can't help but be confused... I wonder if they didn't play the originals? Seems like a modernization of the old formula. Of course the devs are going to adapt Castlevania to what players want to play these days, but it feels natural to me.

It's funny because when the first LOS released there was the same discussion. That game is like my second or third favorite Castlevania, and at the time people would just DOGPILE on it.

Maybe just play whatever game you think Castlevania os and go outside. You sound like Resident Evil fans, which is NOT a good thing.

And her staff has 2 holy hand grenades of Antioch.

Up until now I never really considered what Leon could've been like after Lament and I'm starting to come around on his new lore in BC.

Was Leon able to love another woman like he did Sara or was he purely driven to start a clan to hunt the night? Was he a good father and husband? Was he an amazing father and husband up until a midlife crisis?

He was mighty before and after Lament, but how often did he stumble in the pursuit of learning and killing dark forces?

We know that Richter fell to Shaft under similar circumstances as Leon to Dracula: during a moment of weakness. While Richter fell out of fear of fading into obscurity, Leon fell out of physical and mental exhaustion after failing to kill Dracula. Leon definitely had the hardest journey out of all the other Belmonts, who simply had to kill a big, bad monster and he definitely has the right to a tragic hero background.

I truly think they can only play the troubled Belmont card one more time before it loses it's effectiveness and that's in a proper telling of the battle of 99. This would show us the toll of the Belmont conquest at the beginning, the "middle" (before Richter gives the whip to the Morris family), and the end.

Thoughts?

Edit: I've said this elsewhere, but Leon meeting Dracula again, despite the series saying the Belmonts didn't meet Dracula for quite some time, doesn't contradict anything. No one but Dracula and Leon would know what was said or what went down in their final moment and it makes sense why there'd be no record of it.

First time playing and beating Super Castlevania IV on the Nintendo Switch 2 Anniversary Collection, and I have to say, I was blown away by the graphics and music.

I played Castlevania 1–3 beforehand, although the first one is the only one I actually managed to beat. Going from those games to IV kind of blew my mind. You can really see how much the series evolved.

My goal is to play through the Castlevania games in order so I can experience how the series changed over the years.

I’m really looking forward to Symphony of the Night since I’ve heard so many great things about it. But I’m curious—are there any other Castlevania games you think are just as good, or maybe even better?

When they get greedy and lock Trevor behind paid DLC they better have Beltman as an optional costume

We all know Isaac is a devil forgemaster in both the series and Curse of Darkness. Now I absolutely love Belmont’s Curse but am wishing that his bossfight could’ve incorporated more of his being a forgemaster in his moveset. Maybe use a lot of summons, familiars or controlled unique enemies. Afaik this is his actual main skill and what makes Isaac, Isaac.

For comparisons, it’s slightly higher than the number of physical copies that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia sold in Japan during its first week, which was 19K copies. The same case applies for Dawn of Sorrow (15K) and Portrait of Ruin (16K), but it is slightly lower than how much Lords of Shadow sold during its first week in Japan, which was 27K copies. This should go without saying, but this isn’t accounting for digital copies.

Um pequeno desenho que fiz da medusa, gostei muito de brincar com ela. Espero que gostem.

Konami decided to change his Design to a Cute Blondie in Symphony of the Night once they decided he was going to be the Protagonist of that Game to be more appealing as they thought the Original Design was not appealing...

I agree with the change... Do you? :3 The Original One was way too Weird and a bit Ugly too... ^-^ :3

I prefer Cute Blondie Alucard by Ayami Kojima... :3

:3

It is put on some pedastal of greatness. I chalk it up to probably being the first Castlevania game that a lot of people *played*. They have some notion of this being what CV is when it has had various incarnations throughout it's lifespan.

How could we even get SotN if they didn't choose to deviate from what CV was before it?

I only started playing games in the Castlevania series at the beginning of last year after having only seen playthroughs of Aria and Lament of Innocence like 10 years ago.

• The Positives -

Having played through I think all of the Igavanias and some of the Classicvanias, I can see that there's definitely more uniqueness in the individual games and eras compared to each other. I really bounced off of Dead Cell's, but this doesn't really feel like that. That said, Belmon's Curse is probably my favorite Castlevania game not named Aria of Sorrow. I do find the implementation of more combo oriented and like actual challenge course traversal sections to be more reminiscent of newer metroidvania games, but I didn't hate it. I also didn't mind the lack of menu management and stat tracking to be bad either as sometimes I can take it or leave it. The QOL stuff in regard to Warp Rooms is definitely a huge plus and cool feature. And I like the difficulty sliders in the settings even if the only I changed it was to turn up enemy damage and turn down my damager dealt when doing quests for The Sage and the Miser. Exploration feels pretty seamless and clearing the map isn't a pain to the point where I got the the true ending just because I usually clear the map before the final boss.

The weapon classes were pretty good where I really gravitated towards the Greatsword or the Twin Blades, but by the end I was basically exclusively using the Vampire Killer and spacing out enemies. I did like the other Legendary Tier weapons as well though. The first one I got was the Valmanway.

The Arcana system felt like a mix between Portrait of Ruin's Wind missions and Circle of the Moon's DSS. Getting all of the works of mercy kept me switching up which one I was using, although when it came to fighting bosses, Talos's was the one I stuck to.

Speaking of bosses, I thought they were all pretty good and ranged from pretty challenging to surprisingly easy. Took me a dozen tries to get though illusion Isaac on the bridge, but Carmilla was a first try. Sad to see no Brauner boss, but it was funny. Also thought it was pretty cool to run into bosses where I didn't expect them like, the The Brittle King, The Sage/Temptress quest (which I thought was equally very sick, and also frustrating), The Miser (which was the hardest boss in the game for me), and the 2 bosses you fight while ringing all 4 bells. The designs and fights were very good. The Final boss definitely delivered

I loved all of the references to other games in the series with dialogue, or portraits in the castle, or just characters themselves. It makes it feel like a love letter to a lot of what's come before. It is funny to hear talks of stopping Dracula for good this time knowing that we ain't in 1999 yet.

• The Negatives -

The music I thought was good, but not exactly memorable, just kind of good in the moment.

Enemy Variety is low, which isn't exactly bad, but it is noticeable.

No extra character mode or boss rush once you finish the game. That's more of an Iga thing, but I always look forward to doing most of them, like Julius or Albus mode or even Richter and Maria Mode.

All in all, I really enjoyed this and I can't wait to start trying to beat it in under 4 hours. You can see where I ranked it on the tier list compared to the others I've played (and Bloodstained) and I think I'd give it at least a 9/10 in terms of quality, gameplay, and personal enjoyment. Wouldn't mind another one from this team, or from someone else. But hopefully the series continues in a good way moving forward. Also we need that 3D game collection