Castlevania SUPERFANS!

[tduyduc]

I really liked the Final Fantasy fusions.

Thanks for your compliment!
By the way, have you checked out the Ainaveltsac Medley (album of Castlevania DJ Mixes) and some other individual remixes?

[williamjones]

I tried to find the Rondo of Blood soundtrack on youtube, and I found some remixes, thats all.

[tduyduc]

Let's discuss about the scaries enemies in Castlevania games!

For me, my scariest enemy is Fish Head! I don't know why, but perhaps I have been afraid of fish since I was a child.
The first time I saw the Fish Heads is the first time I played Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (mobile version). I was extremely frightened when I saw a fish head for the first time. After I beat that game once, I tried to dodge the areas including Fish Heads (if the game was beat at least once), or have a look the bestiary of the games on the net to find out what areas that have Fish Heads.
The second frightening experience is when I was playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (It is said to be the best game of the series, but when I beat it, I found that Aria of Sorrow is the best, much better than SOTN). When I was in Underground Caverns, I unintentionally jumped into the water. Suddenly, the Fish Heads appeared. Then I pressed START button immediately and have a breath (although it was afternoon, not night, even the first time). It was not until some weeks later that I could continue playing that game, because the past experience was too frightening.
The third time is Order of Ecclesia. I was forced to cross the Fish Heads (in Kalidus Channel). I was playing it in midnight! I watched a walkthrough on YouTube to check their positions and to calm myself. After watching it, I felt a bit better. When I continued the game, I crossed the Channel for a while, and then suddenly I met the Fish Heads. Then I pressed START buttion immediately. Unfortunately, I accidentally chose to display the enemy data on the top screen! So I quickly closed the game immediately, even if the progress would be lost. After that night, I continued playing with ease until I got to Somnus Reef, with only some of them covering a treasure chest. However, I was calm enough to face them and get the treasure. After that, I had no fear of the Fish Heads in that game until I beat it once.
In Circle of the Moon, the Underground Waterway is the place with Fish Heads that I must cross. I tried to dodge the Fish Heads by all means. I nearly saw no Fish Heads all the time, or perhaps I didn't notice that they were Fish Heads. Finally, I got out of the Underground Waterway safely without seeing any of them. However, when I have a look for the bestiary of this game on the net, I saw that the Fish Head enemy was still scary (although less scary than Symphony of the Night or some other games), so I quickly scrolled to another screen page immediately.
The Fish Head with the least scary appearance is in Aria of Sorrow. It consisted of a Bone Pillar and some parts of a fish. Although I was a bit scared, I could play it at ease and easily achieved 100% map exploration (for both Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance, on Castlevania Double Pack). I think Aria of Sorrow is the best of the series, and it is even far better than Symphony of the Night.
It was lucky for me to play the second installments for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS, Harmony of Dissonance and Portrait of Ruin, because these 2 have no Fish Heads.
The penalty that I have to receive for dodging this scary enemy is that I can't achieve 100% map exploration!

Please, Konami, stop adding Fish Heads into your Castlevania games, or I won't be able to play them!

Does anyone agree with me that the Fish Head is the scariest enemy in Castlevania series?
Can someone list some more Castlevania games with Fish Heads? I don't want to face them!!!

[Midnightrider]

Eh, the medusa heads in CI and III are actually really easy because all they do is... act like a dizzy goomba. But yeah, people dun' seem to realize this.

I still haven't played anything after CIV (which I, for the record, don't really like for some reason). Beat CIII a while back without dying though! So, yay me.

Yeah, III will always remain my favorite. This guy recently took a thorough look at the stage deign: http://telebunny.net/toastyblog/ he also has a post on the Retronauts blog at 1-up about it as well.

[williamjones]

Medusa Heads will always be my most hated. The fish heads in SoTN in the cathedral are annoying, but thats my least favorite part of the castle, so I like to go to other places first and level up.

[treos]

and then there was music

http://www.chapelofresonance.com/media.html - the rondo of blood OST is there amongst others

and behind door number 2, some quite rare remix albums and other castlevania music - http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/media.html

i think the dungeon has one of the rarest castlevania albums there is iirc, Dracula New Classic and its quite good i must say.

so far, between those 2 sites is some of the best quality music collections i've found for the franchise over the years.

[Ladoson]

sorry if this is sloppy because i dont have much time to type this. im 16 and i pretty much grew up with call of duty and more modern games and i find retro games fascinating but i dont like most of them because of the difficulty and other things but im always trying to expand my gaming box so about a year before i got ps1 version of SOTN on my psp and played it alot but i got lost 8 times and i wasnt even 30% done with the game and FAQs didnt help either they just confused me more but recently i decided to come back to the series and i played Aria of Sorrow and i had a FREAKING BLAST. I beat it in about one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. so why dont i like SOTN? do you guys think i should go back and try it again or is this a common thing that happens? idk i had this on my mind for a long time just thought i would get it out there and see what other ppl think.

[Midnightrider]

Symphony of the Night just has a lot more to it. It was in development for a long time; there are a lot of throwbacks to the NES trilogy; when a lot of people thought they beat the game, they were really only at the halfway point; much more items & powers to collect; etc. It's just on a much grander scale than any of the GBA/DS handheld titles.

You said you beat Aria in one sitting. That's not as likely to happen with Symphony.

Best overall advice I can give you if you try to jump into again is try to slow down(Especially if you're going to try and get into RPG's, or something with elements of, like an experience system). Don't aim so much for the ending, so much as let the ending come to you when you've enjoyed the game to it's fullest. If you're not really enjoying the game-play, then don't force yourself to keep playing. Not every highly regarded game will work for you.

[Makise Kurisu]

I played Symphony of the Night, Curse of Darkness, and Aria of Sorrow. I enjoyed them so much! Also, my favorite is Curse of Darkness.

[skullpoker]

also, iirc wasn't there supposedly a method to get death to not take your gear at the beginning or bypass that scene? can't remember how though.

You have to use X-X!V''Q to get your defense low enough, meaning Second Play-through. You get to the last wolf before Death, get to the right of it, and iirc you back-dash into it as it charges at you. This should hit you so hard you go flying past the Death encounter into the far right wall beyond. It just makes getting thru on Lucky mode a bit easier.

In the Japanese version of Symphony of The Night, in the Towers area as Maria theres that confessional room, it has a weird theme. What the point of it anyway? Is there a special purpose to the room?

If you sit and confess, the "good" priest sometimes drop grape juice. At least on the PS(US) version.