A continuation of the blog below...

I had to break up the blog because it was starting to become an overwhelming amount of information. That and the fact that where i was writing it was suddenly invaded by F.E students who started throwing food around and trying to copulate with each other on the tables so i had to leave before i became embroiled in the debauchary.

Anyway, on to number two!

2) Castlevania: I first played the Castlevania series on the NES although it didn't really win me over. Not because it was rubbish or because the game design was poor, more just because i found it difficult to be impressed with a side scrolling adventure game, no matter how many vampires were in it or how good it was.


The cover of the original. What you see is pretty much what you get. A bloke with a whip. And a vampire in a castle.

It wasn't until the release of Symphony of the Night on the PS1 that my love of Castlevania grew. Everything about that game was genius, so much so that it later became available as an unlockable on Dracula X on the PSP and is still available for download today on the Xbox Marketplace and the PS3 PSN, i downloaded it when it first became available and it's as enjoyable now as it was when it was first released. As the games main character, Alucard is an excellent protagonist although somewhat dubiously voice acted. The anime designs are excellent as well and only serve to impress on the player the amount of work that has gone into the game.


An anime montage of the Symphony of the Night cast. This picture excludes Death and the Succubus which is a shame. Simply that.

What attracted me to SOTN was the application of an RPG-lite system built into the game which added significantly to the longevity and depth. This game dynamic then continued throughout the more recent releases on the DS which were also excellent games. To the casual gamer they may seem little more than pedestrian adventure titles lasting a mere 10 hours at best but if you are a completist, like me and my brother, then you can spend hours plumbing the hidden depths of these games. Most have myriad hidden areas and items to find, often rare ones which take ages, and some even end the game prematurely if certain requirements aren't met such as SOTN when you cannot enter the upside-down castle or Order of Ecclesia when you never get to enter Draculas castle.


Order of Ecclesia is the latest Castlevania title to be released and is excellent as always but a little hard for some. Note: I'm not counting Castlevania Judgement on the Wii because it's pretty dire.

One thing that still grates to this day is that when i bought my PS2 i stupidly traded in my mint collectors edition of SOTN, with orchestral score and manga comic, for a mere £15 and now it's incredibly hard to find and worth a mint. My own stupid fault but still very annoying. Curse you Game.

Ultimately, if you're after immersive adventure games with a very rich and detailed story look no further than the Castlevania games. I personally recommend SOTN on the 360 or PS3, Aria of Sorrow on the GBA and Curse of Darkness on the PS2. The latter was an amazing game - it was more like a cross between Castlevania and Devil May Cry but it worked very well and the demons that you could summon and upgrade were a very clever addition to the genre.

For an interesting and informative history of Castlevania click on the video below, again compliments of YouTube: