Gaming Report: Ranking my 9 Castlevania titles Part 2

Previously on Inukami's Gaming Report...
Part 1
Here's a short recap of Part 1:
9. Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate
8. Circle of the Moon
7. The Dracula X Chronicles
6. Harmony of Dissonance
5. Order of Ecclesia

Ranking the ninth to fifth Castlevania games on my library didn't take me long as most of those games I never really finished and fully enjoyed (save for HoD and OoE). This time it gets a little harder because the games on the four spots left on the ranking aren't just my favorite among the Castlevania titles but they're also my favorites in my whole gaming library (or suit case...it's not that big). As I said on the previous post all the games in this ranking are limited to the titles released on handheld consoles, so I suppose you guys have a good idea as to what these top four games are.

Here we go:

4. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Platform: Nintendo DS
Difficulty: 2/5
Fav. Character: Genya Arikado
Fav. Boss: Aguni
Fav. Bullet Soul: Killer Clown
Fav. Guardian Soul: Werewolf
Fav. Enchant Soul: Iron Golem
Fav. Weapon: Valmanway
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Dawn of Sorrow is one of the Nintendo DS's landmark titles and defining games during its generation. It was a good transition of a Castlevania game from one system (GBA) to another (DS),but in some aspects of the game, I think the transition might have been a little too much.
Alucard in Dawn (left) and Aria (right)...just what the hell happened to Ayami Kojima?
DoS is the direct sequel of Aria of Sorrow picking up a year after Soma's victory over Chaos. It was hard to think that a follow up Castlevania Sorrow title would be possible after all the great things in Castlevania were melded into one game, and while DoS lived up to the excellent gameplay of Aria of Sorrow, the story felt like it was just a repetition of Aria with some twist and turns but ultimately not as great nor was it even close to the original, it didn't even try to at least cover some more grounds on the events of 1999 even if Grandpa J was there still managing to kick a** at the age of 56. It was a little disappointing to me how the Sorrow series started with the final defeat of Dracula (hinted in AoS), continued towards his redemption (during AoS), but ended in such a self-contained story (DoS). Though the plot wasn't all that bad, it could have been a lot better if it continued the tale that Aria of Sorrow has built and not just use the premise of Soma being Dracula and accepting his fate.
All of the supporting characters from the previous game returned and were used for additional features in this game - features that I enjoyed/got extremely frustrated with. Hammer was back to fulfill his usual purpose as the series' merchant but this time he has a proper SHOP!
apparently he even cut off the good weapons
It's such an achievement for a character sprite! Yoko Belnades now has her own shop opposite Hammer specializing in the synthesis of many powerful weapons through the use of Soma's collected souls - this part of the game I liked better than just randomly finding weapons in hard to reach places in the castle. Julius and Arikado were more involved in the story this time compared to Aria of Sorrow but based from their overall participation in "helping" Soma, it seems as if their powers have been nuked during the one year absence of action. Julius couldn't defeat Dario because of Magic Seals, and Arikado's power was sealed during the latter half of the game...just lovely. What, he couldn't use his Alucard shield and sword during Soma's campaign but suddenly their available in Julius mode? Oh yeah, speaking of Julius mode instead of playing as Julius alone we get two other characters in the party with Yoko and Alucard joining in the fray. This team up might have been intentional serving as a tribute to the characters of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse with Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Alucard, and Grant Danasty (whose pair in DoS could be Hammer who was busy with his shop). The trio of characters used in Julius mode must have been the test run for Portrait of Ruin's Dual Combat system, and it was a perfect hit.
Alucard in JULIUS mode
The Soul System makes a return in Dawn of Sorrow with some enemies granting better souls. Some souls can be leveled up depending on the quantity of souls Soma has absorbed (max. is 9) but thanks to this level up system collecting souls got more diffiult. And oh did I mention you could use souls to create/upgrade surprisingly powerful weapons, because that's another factor that comes into play in the rarity of souls. Due to some damn reason Hammer just had to sell low tier weapons when he finally had a shop, I was left to farm some souls in order to get the top tier weapons - and it took me hours, H-O-U-R-S to get the right souls especially with the, oh I don't know, the Iron Golem perhaps? 
this.damn.enemy
I don't know why but for some reason the game has less than 1% probability of acquiring the Iron Golem soul, could it be because it's one of the crucial souls needed to synthesize the top-tier sword Valmanway - my favorite sword - well we'll never know, but really? I spent almost half of my total game time trying to get that one damn piece of soul out. However, aside from the grandeur appearance and strength of those difficult to obtain weapons they're not required to breeze through the game as the game itself was pretty easy. In the end, those eye-candy weapons are there just to symbolize such a great achievement (especially acquiring the Iron Golem soul).
I do note the interesting boss fights thanks to the added Magic Seals - but in reality Castlevania just took advantage of the DS's touchscreen just to draw some lines and expect us to call it awesome...it was awesome, well partially.
Despite all the good things in Dawn of Sorrow - and there are plenty - I would have liked it more if it took Aria of Sorrow and built on it further, what DoS did was rebuilt it and it didn't even match up to the greatness of AoS.

3. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Platform: Sony PSP (port included in The Dracula X Chronicles)
Difficulty: 2.5/5
Fav. Character: Maria Renard
Fav. Boss: Galamoth
Fav. Weapon: Crissaegrim
Symphony of the Night is a timeless classic that defined a new era in the Castlevania franchise. It established the "Metroidvania" style of gameplay found in latter games, and it employed some RPG elements with Alucard being able to equip weapons, use items and store them in an inventory. Most people regard this as the greatest Castlevania game of all time, and based from the direction the series has taken I'm pretty sure that it will take a hella while longer before SotN is dethroned. So why is it not my number 1 exactly? It's because this was the standard and the two other games at number 2 and number 1 utilized the core mechanic of SotN -especially combat, exploration and story- well enough to surpass SotN, well at least in my opinion (which could be complete bullsh*t to other people).
In Symphony of the Night players assume the role of Alucard, the son of Dracula. But despite his relationship with the Count, Alucard has opposite beliefs and chose to side with the good thanks to his love for his human mother, Lisa. Due to the absence of a Belmont, Alucard is forced to awaken and take matters into his own hands - to banish, yet again, the demon castle.
Lisa
Alucard is one of the best and most compelling characters in the franchise. Torn between the struggle of being a vampire with opposite ideals, Alucard is not only strong physically but he has surpassed the challenge of time to endure all possible kinds of pain he may feel as an immortal, especially the emotional pain of losing a loved one. 
Though he is the main character, the story of SotN isn't specifically centered at him. To be honest, Alucard was more of a supporting character in the first half of the game since the premise of the story before the Inverted Castle appeared was to search for Richter Belmont, and already doing that before Alucard even entered the castle was a grownup Maria Renard. At least Alucard managed to get the focus back to him once the game moved on to the second part of the story which is more personal - it's Alucard against his father.
Maria and Alucard
Playing as Alucard was also extremely badass. He is only one of two characters in the whole franchise to be able to equip weapons/shields on both hands (the other is Shanoa with her Glyphs), what's more he can summon familiars, cast spells, and transform into a bat, wolf or mist. SotN's combat system is made up of those, but what makes this combat system special is that they're not in their full potential at first prompting the player to cover every nook and cranny of the castle to make sure that everything has been properly upgraded and properly utilized.
The castle design was also well made having areas locked up for specific reasons, and the areas that can be freely explored often got me lost in progressing with the story. The Inverted Castle was also a nice touch to the story expanding the gameplay for a few more hours but (yes there's a 'but') the Inverted Castle, for the most part, was literally just the regular castle flipped upside-down. And forgive me if I'm wrong but I think there weren't any special reasons why the second castle was inverted at all. Was it just for the heck of it?
The enemies found in SotN also established most of the contents of the Bestiary of the titles that followed. I enjoyed fighting through most enemies and bosses but most of these were really easy, they're not even mid-boss hard. The low HP of enemies plays a significant role in their difficulty level, and to make the game more of a walk in the park than a sprint to the farthest toilet, it has thee incredibly easy to obtain weapons that practically simplifies the whole game. The first one is my favorite weapon in the game, the Crissaegrim, known as Valmanway in the games that followed. Only this time the Crissaegrim is an item drop of a common enemy and the drop rate isn't even that low.
Crissaegrim in action (that wave in front of Alucard)

Equipping two Crissaegrims grant Alucard god-like strength where he can rush three attacks in a row and spam it even more when he alternates between arms. The hit range of the Crissaegrim is also the farthest than any weapon (as far as I know) and there's no recoil when using the sword, heck Alucard can even move while raping the attack button spamming the attack. The second and third weapons go as the famous pair that everyone should know by now - the Shield Rod + Alucard Shield combo. With the shield and rod equipped, you just have to press X and O at the same time to activate the power of the shield rod which grants the Alucard Shield a dangerously offensive power. Yes, you can nuke enemies using a damn SHIELD, Captain America would be proud. This combo is so effective and strong that the enemies might as well nuke themselves before coming into contact with the Alucard Shield.
Shield Rod + Alucard Shield vs. Galamoth
To compensate for this incredibly easy gameplay, at least some of the enemies were genuinely difficult especially Beelzebub and Galamoth - I had plenty of trouble going up against those two, and I mean it literally. Thanks to Beelzebub's flying, erm, flies hitting me every time I do a jump attack or even get close using a near platform, I always end up getting thrown out upon contact...with FLIES! Galamoth was another annoying enemy that was both a hard hitter and a hard to hit boss. Damn, I hate those lightning bolts.
Symphony of the Night is also the only Castlevania game that I've played without any obvious journey markings that implies where you should go next after acquiring a new ability further increasing in the already long gameplay. It's possible to collect most things on the first go but it doesn't mean that SotN doesn't have a good replay value. The adventure itself was fun in its own and just repeating it over and over never felt old.

2. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Platform: Nintendo DS
Difficulty: 3/5
Fav. Character: Charlotte Aulin
Fav. Boss: Stella and Loretta
Fav. Weapon: Vampire Killer (activated), Tome of Arms X
Fav. Ability: Stonewall
Fav. Magic: Sanctuary
Fav. Dual Crush: Meteor
Fav. Painting: 13th Street
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Here's another game that has been continuously criticized over and over for being the weakest Castlevania title released for the Nintendo DS - NO. Calling Harmony of Dissonance weak, that I can accept but calling Portrait of Ruin weak then you got another thing coming. Portrait of Ruin has a special place in my heart and all my other functional organs because it is the only Castlevania game that I've completed with 1000% map coverage, all weapons acquired, all quests finished, and all abilities mastered, and despite that it's still one of the most enjoyable games that I keep replaying over and over.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is set during the aftermath of World War II where through the despair of the land one man caused the demon castle to appear but this one man, though a vampire, isn't Dracula - this vampire who took on the throne as master of the castle is Brauner, a man who seeks to wreck havoc in humanity to satiate his grief and hatred over the loss of his daughters during World War I. Due to the absence of any Belmonts at the time, a member of the Morris clan, and  descendant of the Belnades bloodline came to the front lines to banish the castle, these two are Jonathan Morris and a child (not really) Charlotte Aulin.
Charlotte Aulin
Portrait of Ruin has a ton of features that keeps the game from being dull. From the main story, to side-quests in between there's plenty to love in this feature-rich title. The game uses the Dual Combat system introduced in Dawn of Sorrow (in JULIUS mode) where the player can alternate between characters, but the Dual Combat in Portrait of Ruin allows both characters in the party to to fight in co-op gameplay with the other character being controlled by the CPU and their health is the MP bar. This is one Castlevania game to fully take advantage of its new combat system. From area progression to boss fights, the dual system plays an integral role requiring strategic use of the two characters. There are also plenty of customization options for both Jonathan and Charlotte having a specific set of weapons and equipment as well as plenty of abilities for Jonathan, and spell casting for Charlotte. Combat also includes the Dual Crush which plays similar to the Item Crush in previous games, only this time Dual Crush is a joint spell cast by the two characters that deal massive damage.
Holy Lightning Dual Crush
Most of the Dual Crush-es are unique to the series but there are some which are tributes to the previous titles such as the Grand Cruz and Divine Storm. The Greatest Five Dual Crush found in the optional Nest of Evil is the strongest of all the Dual Crush-es and the biggest tribute to the past titles in the game featuring Leon, Simon, Trevor, Juste and Richter to deal a hella strong Holy attack to all enemies on-screen.
The castle design is one of the best I've played through in the nine games I've played. Each area have their distinct and appealing design - something I find quite unusual for the usual creepy design of Castlevania, but considering Brauner is an artist then that would be reason enough. The castle is pretty large but easy to explore in PoR so as an added element to exploration we get Portraits (thus the title) where Charlotte and Jonathan must enter and free of the evil inside to progress further in the main castle. There are a total of nine paintings four of which are required to at least get the bad ending, the other four to get the true ending, and the last one is an optional painting called the Nest of Evil where Jonathan and Charlotte fight a gauntlet of strong enemies to collect the pieces of Tome of Arms X and the Greatest Five Dual Crush.
While the idea of paintings as a way to get out of exploring the castle without actually leaving the castle was brilliant. It provides a different perspective in Castlevania exploration but this concept suddenly takes a downturn during the second half where all of the last four paintings are just copies of the previous four paintings only with different enemies and more powerful bosses. At least, thanks to the side-quests exploring these other paintings becomes a little more fun especially when searching for a specific enemy, area, or item.
There are other modes in the game such as Sisters mode, Richter mode and even Axe Armor mode. Sisters mode is the best extra mode in my opinion since it actually has a story pretty much like JULIUS mode in Dawn of Sorrow. In Sisters mode, you play as Stella and Loretta (still human) who comes to the castle in search of their father, Eric Lecarde. This serves as the prologue to the main story, and while I did enjoy playing with the Sisters (why does that sound so wrong?!) their control scheme was pretty lousy.
Sisters Mode
The story of Portrait of Ruin has a good premise with characters that aren't entirely new to the series as their roles are pretty much understandable on the get go since most of them have strong connections to previous games. I just can't help but see this game as a crucial part of the legendary Battle of 1999 that serves as the prologue of Aria of Sorrow. Overall, I think Jonathan and Charlotte, and even Stella and Loretta have unfinished roles in the story because they have so much potential in the (still far off) final defeat of Dracula.

1. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Difficulty: 2/5
Fav. Character: Genya Arikado
Fav. Boss: Julius Belmont
Fav. Bullet Soul: Valkyrie
Fav. Guardian Soul: Devil/Manticore/Curly
Fav. Enchant Soul: Iron Golem
Fav. Weapon: Ascalon
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Aria of Sorrow is the second Castlevania game that I owned, and I had to cry in front of my parents (spoiled kid much? yeah, you can all hate me now) just so they'd agree to add a few more bucks to my the allowance they gave me to buy the game. Anyway, from the start of the game I already knew that Aria of Sorrow was definitely going to be a huge leap from Harmony of Dissonance, with the whole futuristic setting and the fact that the castle was sealed in an eclipse. The design of the game was a great departure from the two previous GBA Castlevania titles almost returning to the gorgeous and appealing design of Symphony of the Night. The trade off here is that the castle is smaller and easier to explore. Adding in the Chaotic realm doesn't really help with the overall exploration factor since the realm is pretty straightforward.
Soma Cruz
The story behind Aria of Sorrow is definitely one of the biggest turning points in the series because you.are.DRACULA - and in the form of a teenage bishounen no less. One could really wonder just what Julius Belmont did to Dracula to make him incarnate as Soma Cruz. Did Julius introduce manga, anime and cosplay to Dracula when they fought? Well, we're far away from knowing, that's for sure.
The reason why I was drawn to the story so much was because this is technically Castlevania told in Dracula's perspective as a person trying to achieve redemption. It's not about the Belmonts vs. Count Dracula anymore, it's Dracula against his inner demons. And I shit you not, the last part of the game where Soma had to traverse through the Chaotic Realm to destroy the hatred that lasted for generations is one of the best parts of any game I have ever played, and the final boss fight was amazing even without any detailed explanation as to why and how Chaos is represented the way it was in the game.

Chaos
The first half of the game stretched on for far too long thanks to such an uninteresting ego-maniac antagonist, Graham. You could really tell how the focus of the game wasn't really directed at Graham, but neither was it focused on Soma, but still there were implications early on regarding the direction of the story. Whether that was intentional so that the plot twist would have a bigger impact or not it still played well and kept me interested as I played through the game.
Graham (2nd form)
Aria of Sorrow is also one Castlevania game where a lot of supporting characters played integral roles in the development of the story. Mina Hakuba was Soma's source of motivation and determination in persevering to find a way out of the eclipse, Hammer and Yoko acted as guardians to both Soma and Mina and they all got close as the story went forward. Julius Belmont serves as the bridge to the events of 1999 to the current events of Aria of Sorrow, but thanks to his convenient amnesia we had to wait a while longer to find out just who he really was and what was his relevance to the story. It wasn't until the latter part of the game where he becomes a crucial character to the series where, as a Belmont, he serves as Soma's last resort in the event that he's unable to defeat Chaos. But perhaps the best supporting character in the series is the mysterious and often silent Genya Arikado. I have to be honest with you guys if it wasn't for the internet I wouldn't have guessed that Arikado is ALUCARD.
Arikado and Alucard (as if I haven't labeled the image well enough)
This guy who met Soma and Mina at the very beginning of the game who used Soul Steal - a trademark of Alucard and Dracula - to protect said pair, and even swore in his beloved mother's name (Lisa) at the end of the game was Soma's silent protector. I love how Alucard's role in the game was so subtle yet also very important because, though he didn't directly interfered with any of the events in the story, he guided Soma to the right path, so in a way Alucard has helped his own father in his road to redemption.
To strengthen the fact that Soma is the incarnation of Dracula both in the story and in gameplay, Soma is given the Power of Dominance which is similar to Soul Steal. This factor in Soma's character was perfectly utilized in the game making it the core of Aria of Sorrow's combat mechanics - the Soul System. This combat system paired with being able to equip a vast array of weapons comes only second to my all time favorite Castlevania combat system found in Portrait of Ruin. In the Soul System, Soma has the ability to collect and use three types of Souls to aid him in battle. These types are Bullet, Guardian and Enchant. Bullet souls are mainly used for offense launching projectiles, firing lasers and all other offensive attacks. Guardian souls act as support and added defense for Soma pretty much like familiars (but not limited to those) are to Alucard, some other Guardian souls allow shapeshifting (most of which are my favorite). The Enchant souls have passive effects which either boost Soma's stats, or allow him to defy most restrictions in the game. There are also Silver souls which grant Soma maneuver abilities such as the High Jump and Back Dash (because Back Dash is a crucial part of the game...yeah).
There are plenty of other things to do once I was done with the main story such as starting a New Game+, playing JULIUS mode, collecting the prizes of Boss Rush Mode, and collecting all Souls in the game. Yes, I had a lot of frustration on that last bit because I missed my only chance of collecting the Legion soul, which as we all know could only be achieved if all four sides of Legion's "armor" were taken down before defeating the core. Sadly  I wasn't able to do that on my first go because how the heck could I have known? But thanks to New Game+ and a lot of patience just to re-defeat that damn boss I finally got 100%, and I got the Chaos Ring...and then my save file got corrupted.
Legion
Oh yeah, I forgot mention that the game cartridge that I cried for was bought at Toy Kingdom where all games are fake and illegally copied with such a useless internal battery.
I managed to clear all other things using an emulator and perhaps the most rewarding item that I acquired during the game was the Valmanway after literally rushing in the Boss Rush mode without using the Chaos Ring.

It took me a while to come up with this last ranking because I had to shuffle between the high and low points of these last four games to figure out which place they belong in the rankings. I had to dig in deep in my memories which game had the biggest impact to me and has a long lasting impression. Ultimately, Aria of Sorrow won me out because it has the most impact to the overall story of the franchise, and there's still a big chunk of the Sorrow series that has yet to be told...Battle of 1999 perhaps? C'mon we're all still eagerly waiting for that.

Alright, that's all for this Gaming Report! If you guys liked this post please click like and subscribe to...oh right, we're not on Youtube...awkward.
Well then, Inukami howling out!
...
awoorgh wooorghh wooorgh

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