10 Best Castlevania Games Ranked in Order

Castlevania is a long and successful series of video games. With entries across almost every mainstream console, it continues the constant battle of the Belmont’s family against Count Dracula generating over 25 games. The games have varied widely in their approach, jumping between classic side-scrolling adventures, exploration-based 2D releases, and even 3D action games. Unfortunately, there are far too many Castlevania games to rank coherently, therefore the following list comprises ten of them that can’t be overlooked.

10. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

 9. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

 8. Castlevania: Bloodlines 

 7. Castlevania

 6. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

 5. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

 4. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

 3. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

 2. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 

 1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Not all of the above Castlevania games are classics though, but the list will help sort out what is the very best about them.

10. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

The game is the sixth installment in the Castlevania series and the third released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It introduced multiple characters including Alucard and innovated by allowing players to swap between unlocked characters as they played.

It is also one of the most important Castlevania games since some characters and elements introduced for the first time in Castlevania III will appear in the animated series later on.

A key feature in the game is the possibility given to the players to choose the paths to follow after completing the first level and at several other points throughout the game. These choices can have a profound impact on how the game unfolds. 

9. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Portrait of Ruin is a solid entry in the Castlevania games franchise. Being a continuation of the story from Bloodlines, the game features a cooperative multiplayer gameplay mode, in which players can control two characters. Players are able to switch freely between the two heroes to best utilize their abilities in battles.

Each character handles differently but mastering both of their abilities is crucial to the game’s progression. Another particularity of the game is that Portrait of Ruin is the first handheld installment to have English voiceovers, besides its original Japanese release.

8. Castlevania: Bloodlines

Bloodlines delivers the classic 2D action platforming of old Castlevania titles and is faithful to the premise of the original game but with some remarkable additions. The players need to make their way through six stages, facing enemies and obstacles. At the end of each level, there is a boss although you will have to encounter minibosses when reaching midpoints.

Unlike most other Castlevania games that came before, the setting in Bloodlines is not limited to inside and around Dracula’s Castle but is spread out over several other locations in Europe as well. It should be noted that the game was released as a Sega Genesis exclusive, and it was in 2019 that this game finally became available for other systems.

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7. Castlevania (NES)

Castlevania (NES) cover image, nintendo.co.uk

This is the original Castlevania, the game that started it all, in terms of release order. The game launches Simon Belmont’s quest to rid the world of the terror of Dracula, fighting death and mythological creatures before you ever take on Dracula.

However, the original Castlevania was also a frustrating game because of its stiff controls, which didn’t let you perform correct jumps as you could in other games at that time. Nevertheless, it offers solid platforming, interesting weapons, and challenging enemies and still remains a classic amongst the Castlevania games.

 6. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Curse of Darkness cover, glitchwave.com

The game is an enjoyable entry and permits you to play with Hector the Devil Forgemaster, who had formerly worked under Dracula’s employ but betrayed him sometime during the events of Dracula’s Curse.

Players here have to navigate through the forests and villages of Eastern Europe battling another Forgemaster, Issac, who orchestrated Hector’s wife’s death by accusing her of witchcraft. Seeking revenge, Hector chases his former colleague back to an abandoned castle.

As Hector is not a member of the Belmont clan, he will not be limited to the traditional Vampire Killer whip and will have the ability to equip a variety of different weapons. However, there is an extra gameplay mode after finishing the game that allows players to play as Trevor Belmont, equipped with the “Vampire Killer” and the classic sub-weapons knives, holy water, or axes.

 5. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Rondo of Blood was one of the most important Castlevania games for solidifying what future releases would look like. Many of its sprites would be reused in future games, setting the stage for future Castlevania entries.

However there are two different versions of the game; Rondo of Blood, the one released in Japan in 1993, and the second one, ‘Castlevania: Dracula X’ which came to the Super Nintendo in 1995. The first game was originally released exclusively in Japan for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM.

The game has beautiful 16-bit graphics and features some of our favorite levels in the entire series.

Dracula X is almost identical to Rondo of Blood but features a few minor differences. The most notorious is that there is only one player character to play, the vampire hunter Richter Belmont, with Maria just appearing as a character in distress that must be rescued in one of the levels.

Instead of four alternate levels, as in Rondo of Blood, Dracula X features only two and the difficulty is increased. It is also said to be one of the toughest and most frustrating Castlevania games produced.

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 4. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

The game takes place a few years after Symphony of the Night and introduces Shanoa, a strong female warrior taking up vampire-hunting duties. She represents the Order of Ecclesia, the only group that seems to be able to defeat Dracula in the Belmonts’ absence.

She is able to absorb Glyphs, which provide her with magical weapon abilities. It innovated the Castlevania games with the Glyph system that allows players to alter their abilities in addition to armor and weapons. These glyphs allow Shanoa access to magical weapons and special abilities.

Order of Ecclesia was praised by critics for its high level of difficulty, as the gameplay contains few monsters per area which are sometimes hard to kill and deal a lot of damage. The game has a few Save Points (a safe area where players can rest and heal their wounds) as well as secret items. The growth of Shanoa’s health is low and she requires MP to perform even the most basic attacks.

 3. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

The game released in 2005 immediately knew success as it came up being a modern game. It possesses good graphics, a fascinating story, good tunes, and gameplay available on the Gameboy Advance. The game features the same protagonist, Soma Cruz, in a distant future tasked with stopping the reincarnation of Dracula.

Dawn of Sorrow continued the soul system introduced in Aria of Sorrow in which players have to capture defeated enemies’ souls that would give Soma additional combat powers. Konami, the multinational video game company was the company that introduced this fantastic system.

The game also presents the Magic Seal System which involves the player using the touchscreen of the Nintendo DS to draw a symbol and with it, he can defeat an enemy.

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 2. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Aria of Sorrow is the last of the Castlevania games released for Gameboy Advance and stands out to be the best Metroidvania Castlevania title. What truly makes this game stand out is its soul-catching system and the availability of a bunch of different weapons to eliminate enemies.

After defeating an enemy, you can even use his abilities to further improve your power. The game also features a stellar castle and a memorable soundtrack.

Aria of Sorrow introduces the Tactical Soul System. When Soma Cruz defeats enemies, he can absorb their souls and equip them in order to gain the enemy’s abilities. Another particular feature is the trading of souls with the use of two Game Boy Advances, two cartridges, and a link cable.

After ending the game, a new game starts in Normal or Hard mode, with the option of keeping all gathered items and souls, except souls that are necessary to keep the game’s storyline in order. Completing the game will also unlock three different modes. 

JULIUS: Play the game as Julius Belmont.

NOUSE: Play the game with item restriction.

NOSOUL: Play the game with soul restriction.

 1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

If Symphony of the Night is at the top of the Castlevania games is for a good reason; it was a PlayStation One exclusive and led to a new whole sub-genre of games, Metroidvania. The Metroidvania style of gameplay focuses on the free exploration of one large 2D open world.

In this game, take control of Alucard and battle monsters all the way long. Symphony of the Night worked perfectly on Sony’s console too and delivered one of the best stories and protagonists the series has ever seen. 

Symphony of the Night is the first Castlevania title since Simon’s Quest to use RPG elements. Alucard can progress in levels, after obtaining a certain amount of experience points. Every time he levels up, some statistics such as attack power, defensive strength, and luck increase too.

Alucard will be able to enlist the help of Familiars, which include the Faerie, Demon, Ghost, Bat, and Sword. All Familiars have the ability to level up as well, and become increasingly intelligent as their levels increase, making them attack or heal faster. Some may gain new abilities or even new appearances.

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Image credit: GameSpot

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