Ranking the Eight Igavania-Style Metroidvania Castlevanias

 

These games came out swinging right out of the gate, with Symphony of the Night setting an extremely high bar that the rest of the 2D 'Vanias worked hard to try and top. Did any of them succeed?

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS, 2008)

Shanoa is bringing sexy back.

Wait a minute. They also brought back Ayame Kojima's classic artstyle! Yes! YES! After two games of generic anime art that could have been anything, we're back to looking like Castlevania. Pretty awesome to go out with the old artstyle returning, but it would have been really cool if they'd continued that train of thought and also brought the Belmonts back for one last hurrah. Ah well.

Vampire Killer (MSX2, 1986)

 

The MSX2 adaptation of Castlevania, this game pre-dates almost the entire series. Released in Japan, Europe, and Brazil, but not the U.S., it's pretty much a lost footnote at this point. For whatever reason, it hasn't been ported to any modern collections. They forgot about Vampire Killer, much like people once forgot about Dre.

Gameplay-wise this is much closer to the NES game than the arcade Haunted Castle was, and follows the Metroidvania formula that later games in the series would frequently adopt. Well, sort of. It still takes place within confined stages, they're just more of a maze than a simple point A to point B. Which makes this...the first Sorta-Metroidvania in this series. The Protovania.

Note: Castlevania Bloodlines on the Genesis was also called Vampire Killer in Japan, but it wasn't a remake of this game or anything.

Bloodstained - Dominique's Curse (Playstation 4, 2024)

 

The second "classic mode" DLC for Bloodstained effectively functions as its own game. The first classic mode was a short linear-style action romp with Miriam taking on foes from the base game, while this one adds a bunch of entirely new areas/foes and gives you a totally different character to play. Far as I'm concerned it's a new game. I'm impressed because they didn't have to go the extra mile with it, they could have just cranked out another regular classic mode with a new character. We even have new items, and this one is styled to be as much like Simon's Quest as possible which makes for a pretty interesting game.

Castlevania Judgment (Wii, 2008)

 

It's Castlevania: The Fighting Game. That's right, they went full Dissidia here by bringing in characters from across the series to battle each other in a 3D fighting setting. Sounds awesome, right? Well, unfortunately, it's super mid. It's so mid, they should have called it Castlevania Judg-Mid.

None of the characters look the way they should, which is something that has always driven me nuts about various IPs that did similar things. If you bring in a beloved character and totally change their look, while calling them the same thing, people just aren't going to get excited the way they would if the look was recognizable. See also Zero's redesign in Mega Man Zero.

Regardless of all of this, it's the one time when the series tried to mash all of the games together in a crossover of sorts, so I'm playing through it with some of the characters before I move on to finishing the last two 2D 'Vanias.

Final Fantasy Tactics, Finale - Come What May

The final battle of this generational game.

Originally posted April 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 8 - God of Thunder

Today on Final Fantasy Tactics: As the bounty on Ramza's head continues to grow like a Powerball jackpot, will Cloud achieve any level of usefulness any time soon? The good news: It's okay if he's useless, because now that I have Orlandu, I'll cut through the rest of the game like a hot knife through butter.

Also: Argath returns, in a PSP version exclusive!

Originally posted April 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 7 - Boco Haram

Today on Final Fantasy Tactics... a special guest star arrives: The Yellow Rooster himself, Cloud Strife, sans nose. Bawk.

Originally posted April 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 6 - Chapterhouse of Belias

Today on Final Fantasy Tactics... the hardest, most unfair, most obnoxious fight in the game. A fight that ended many playthroughs.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 5 - Backside of Ivalice

 

At the center of the map is the Imperial Capital, from which all roads - and all power - emanates.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 4 - Queklain's Tinnitus

Look at all the classes I've got unlocked now. Dragoon is a big one, but unfortunately it isn't any good until lances become a purchasable weapon type in stores. That isn't the case just yet. Went Thief to try and steal Gaffgarion's Blood Sword, but that ship has sailed. Alas.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 3 - Faithless

Chapter 2 begins now. It's a bit more serious than everything up to this point. Not from a story perspective, because the story got depressing/serious a while ago; from a gameplay perspective. This is where things get difficult.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 2 - None Shall Pass

The battle for Ivalice continues with the remainder of chapter one. In this one, I level up Ramza, murder my other party members, and deal with the bastardly Argath.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Playstation, 1998 / PSP, 2007)

 This is one of my favorite games of all time. I played it in early 1998 on the original Playstation, and it was a magical gaming experience. The great soundtrack and the unparalleled atmosphere gave it an edge over other strategy RPGs, while the gameplay and class/ability system were super-compelling and fun. Best of all, it doesn't have that stupid Judge system from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. If you've only played those games, do yourself a favor and check out the original. This one...is where it's at.

It got a PSP remake in 2007, and that's what I'm covering here. With a redone translation and some new additions like cutscenes and optional endgame stuff, this might be my favorite version of the game.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics: Five Geomancer Challenge Longplay

 

Quick post organizing playthrough videos for FFT. The Geomancer-only challenge was a neat idea, but it ended up being pretty messy. First, I take a moment to fondly look back on the awesome cover art. It made a strong impression on me when I was younger, even though it lied about the five-character party. A lot of these battles only allow four characters! Da hell, Square?

Mystic Ark, Finale - Terminus

"I'm the King" says Remeer as he looks out from the empty castle. "King of allllll the land."

Originally posted over 2013-2014, now remastered for 2025

Mystic Ark, Part 11 - Hourglass

  Fairytale World continues, as our heroes meet...Cinderella?

Originally posted over 2013-2014, now remastered for 2025

Mystic Ark, Part 10 - Darkness

Next up is the Dark World. This is the shortest world in the game by a longshot. It's basically a haunted house. When I first heard "Dark World" I had all kinds of crazy ideas bouncing around, so this is a little bit disappointing.

Originally posted over 2013-2014, now remastered for 2025

Mystic Ark, Part 9 - Colossus

 

 The next world is the "Giant World", so-named because it's home to a colossus. Other than that it looks a lot like Ticondera. Definitely the most "normal" of the worlds so far. I thought the game was finally finding its footing, but unfortunately, this world is home to the most annoying dungeons in the entire game. At least I'm doing actual dungeoneering, I guess, and not fetching kitty litter to make local 6 year olds like me or something.

Originally posted over 2013-2014, now remastered for 2025

Mystic Ark, Part 8 - Machina

Plowing through the last dungeon of the Machine World, as things take a turn for the creepy. You'll never win, Skynet!

Originally posted over 2013-2014, now remastered for 2025