Topic: Castlevania Advance Collection worth it?

The collection looks pretty sweet but if I must believe the internetz it's basically one great Castlevania (Aria of Sorrow) packed with 3 'meh' Castlevanias. Any thoughts, recommendations?

@Joriss it just depends on what kind of 'vania you like. I prefer the interconnected castles of the GBA games to the "classic-vania" NES and SNES games where it's levels, lives, and passwords. I will say that visually and gameplay in these games hasnt aged quite as well, I started Circle of the Moon last night and (this isnt my first time playing it) i was frustrated by how slow my dude was moving.

@Losermagnet
That's a common complaint with Circle of the Moon, your standard walking speed is too slow.
You get the ability to run nearly immediately, but it devolves to constantly double tapping to run because there is no advantage to not running.

I do enjoy CotM but it has some serious flaws such as the card drops for the card system, they're random from enemies and you don't know which has which, but there's also a major glitch that allows you to enjoy the effects of any card combination by simply opening the DSS menu during the trigger animation.

@RupeeClock i was always frustrated by the DSS system. I really like the idea of it, it's just very fidly. I was happy to see the Advance Collection has basically an encyclopedia that you can check and see what combinations do what, and which enemies drop which cards.

Almost anything concerning Castlevania is worth it!

PS: I am biased

Where are you seeing this?

Overall I enjoyed CotM when I played through it on Wii U. I did play a bit of HoD but decided to then skip to AoS i which people had raved about. Bit unsure yet whether to buy now as have plenty to play.

However I will as never got the true ending of AoS as got tired of trying to farm for one of the souls I needed.

@Losermagnet
It's important that resources like these are provided, because the DSS also doesn't tell you what the combination's effects are until you've actually triggered the active effect.

For example, if you have an effect that doubles the value of hearts, you won't know that until you pick up a heart.
And there are multiple combinations that perform a special attack when you input a button combination, it's not intuitive at all.
Things like the souls in AoS have the sense to tell you exactly what each soul does.

Circle of the moon is also great, I love the challenge. Didn't play HoD, but it's also considered a very good game.

Personally I am holding out for a Castlevania DS Collection, as I didn't play these games.

@RupeeClock i havent checked the other games yet, but i'm hoping they have similar additions.

@SwitchForce not sure if you mean the "encyclopedia" i referred to earlier, but it's in the menu containing all of the options (like borders and whatnot). It's accessed by one of the L shoulder buttons.

Aria of Sorrow is great.

The other three? Meh, I can live without.

Bought it without hesitation last night and I'm already getting some decent time in CotM..

@Losermagnet Pretty soon within the game, within the catacombs, you'll fight an earth demon which after there is a pair of boots at the end of the level that lets you run.

Wow, those people are wrong. Dracula X is considered to be meh only by the fact that its not as good as the game its a port of (Rondo of Blood), and the GBA games are all very good. Harmony of Dissonance's issues are really overstated and Circle of the Moon's biggest issue was more that the original GBA had issues more than the game itself. I think it comes from weirdos where if a game isn't as good as another game, its automatically not worth it somehow.

Can't speak to Harmony of Dissonance, but CotM is pretty much the definition of an "average" Castlevania game to me. Other than its card-combining mechanic and its ridiculous final boss fight, it's a fairly unremarkable entry in the series.

Still better than your average indie inspired by the series, though, and fully worth the $5 it costs at full price in this collection.

My input on the GBA games as I played each one to 100% many times.

1. Circle of the Moon - very atmospheric game and amazing soundtrack. It is slow at first and the DSS has many combinations.

Pros:

• Nice graphics
• Cool boss fights(little one dimensioned)
• Amazing soundtrack

Cons:

• No shop
• Some stupid difficulty spikes from time to time

Cons that are now eliminated:

• There is a bestiary now that tells you the drops of the enemies you kill. This is huge as in the old days you would need a guide to tell you what monster you have to grind for cards items.

2. Harmony of Dissonance
On the contrary to many gamers I really love that one! It tries to copy Symphony of the Night in many ways

Pros:

• Very nice Castle layouts
• Some nostalgia notes from Simon's Quest
• Cool boss designs

Cons:

• Not many memorable tracks but still serviceable
• NO new game +
• Very easy game
• I would love some flavor text in the bestiary

3. Aria of Sorrow
Absolutely amazing game! The soundtrack, the story, the soul system!

Pros:

• Soundtrack
• The castle is very atmospheric
• The soul system is very well integrated to the story

Cons:

• VERY easy game
• Some souls are so bad that they are unusable

@Zuljaras I didn't find Aria of Sorrow that easy, I remember some bosses required several tries. Also, there is a hard mode after finishing the game. And if that is not enough, you can challenge yourself by only using weak armor and weapons.

@chipia
There are also two special save files names "NOSOUL" and "NOUSE", that as they imply prohibit you from using any souls or items for that run, other than things necessary for completion like ability souls.

@chipia I did that. Also hard mode is actually not hard. They should call them "very easy" and "easy"

But nerfing yourself with weaker souls really makes the game more interesting. Also not using the Claimh Solais is the way to go it is too OP.

@Wavey84
Legends is great. There’s a reason it’s so expensive and copies are scarce. I’ve only come across it once in the wild and skipped on it, I wasn’t about to pay $40 for a Gameboy game.