Which Castlevania game should I play first?
Do you know where’s a good place to start with entering the world of Castlevania? I watched one of the original games a few months back, but don’t really have a clue to actually start getting into the wider story and characters of the franchise.
Short answer is Portrait of Ruin. I can vouch for it especially. Also, while I am not a Symphony of the Night glazer, it is what comes to most people's minds when they hear Castlevania and is also a pretty solid choice. The long answer is that it depends on what you are looking for.
The most story-heavy games are the 3d games by Igarashi, Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. Curse of darkness directly connects to the new game coming this year! I've never really held Castlevania's story in particularly high regard, but you might like it.
Gameplay wise, the series is divided into two styles.
Classicvania's are the older games that are linear and lack rpg elements. As the movement is stiff, the main challenge comes from knowing when to press your buttons. Safest answer is Rondo of Blood. It's a bit hard to get access to, though. So you can play its more accesible remake, Dracula X Chronicles. I like both. It's also what Symphony of the Night is the sequel to. I also think Haunted Castle Revisited is short and sweet and Bloodlines (what Portrait of Ruin is sequel to) is quite beautiful.
Igavanias, on the other hand, are action-exploration games. They have a variety of items and weapons which you can use to play the way you want. The movement is also more "modern" so to speak. Hollow Knight and Silksong are in the same genre as them. The two games I mentioned at the start fit this category. Aria of Sorrow is also a very beloved title from this style but it is at the end of the timeline.
My favourite is none of these though. It's actually Order of Ecclesia. It's got the most decent story out of all the games, but it doesn't connect to the overall series that much. And while I don't believe it's particularly tough I heard it was difficult for some people. It would be unwise to recommend it as a first game. Still, do check it out later down the road!
Harmony Damage Glitch/Stacking Guide
Damage stacking is surprisingly rewarding to execute and looks badass as well. Here is a guide, in case you wanna spice up your next playthrough.
(The examples are done by me so they are a bit awkward. You're gonna have to bear with me.)
Why does it happen?
The damage glitch happens due to some jank concerning the invincibility timer. It makes is so that your whip/subweapon/spell etc. doesn't damage the enemy every frame its hitbox overlaps with said enemy.
According to Speedrun.com, the value checking this timer can only track two attacks at a time. If another attack hits during that window, its timer simply won't work, causing the glitch.
Unfortunately the glitch doesn't work with just any 3 attacks due to even more jank. I will mention some examples but you can try and see which combinations work yourself.
There are different ways to trigger this glitch. From most accessible to least, under the cut:
Whip Combo
This is done with an aerial whip and ground whip, which are apparently separate. You will need to backdash cancel to get the second hit on time. This is the combo:
Subweapon/Spell + Hop + Aerial Attack + dash + Attack
This is the one you'll be using the most. You can do it from the start. It's good for basically all grounded bosses.
Axe, holy water and Cross can stack this way. You also have a lot of options for spells. The most useful ones are: Wind+Cross, Fire+Cross, Ice+HolyWater, Fire+SacredFist
You can't stack against the fleshy parts so don't bother.
Divekick Combo
Combination of a divekick and an aerial whip. The combo:
Jump + axe/cross + hop + divekick + attack
This one is really annoying to do (at least for me) because you need to be far away enough to not take damage after divekick, but still close to hit them on time.
But it's still very important as it's the only way to stack against aerial enemies before you get crushing stone. Notably, you can also double stack with it if you time a ground attack as the cross is coming back.
Crushing Stone
The fully charged attack has a second hitbox close to Juste. This allows for a lot more spells that normally can't to stack. Such as: Wind+Book, Tome+Book, Bolt+Book (sometimes called Gradius). You can stack the regular book too if you have an earth ring. It's basically Wind+Book on shorther duration.
There is no trick to it, just stand very close when you release a charged attack. It's the easiest to perform.
One thing to look out for is with Tome+Book fairy familiar. The fairy does more than double the damage than charged attack does, so you wanna make sure the fairy attack happens last. Otherwise the charged attack will stack instead. It's still great damage but removes the point of using the fairy tbh.
Notes on Subweapons
Each subweapon comes with a ring that gives it an upgrade, changing how they play. The ones that matter are these:
Earth ring makes Book circle around Juste. Like I said, discount Wind+Book.
Heaven's Ring in theory is great since it slows down the Axe significantly. I found it easier to use but less applicable since the range is shrunk down a lot.
Nova ring makes cross faster with longer range. This is worse for stacking. Faster means less time to stack, more range makes it difficult to reach the opponent in time.
Maxim
You can do a damage glitch with him as well. There is only one way to do it though and that's with the shuriken.
It's pretty similar to Juste's cross + divekick combo, but harder to execute. Maxim has a third jump which you can accidentally do instead of a divekick.
You know, it's strange that Maxim can attack with his sword AND throw a shuriken, considering the shuriken is just the stellar sword unfurled. But that's none of my business.
Ranking Unique Legendary Affixes
Symmetrical Lance: +%300 damage. Also let's you ignore some of the most annoying things in the game like protectors and shield elites.
Flint: Flint is already pretty good. The charged attack is good enough to one shot majority of the enemies, and the legendary affix lets you use it without actually charging. Normally weapons that do this much damage are very slow like the oven axe but you can attack with flint thrice during the it takes for oven axe to finish its swing. Plus the flames that come our of the ground are really useful. They can get rid of rats and the like, and they will stop demons in their tracks for you. Generally, having some range is always appreciated.
Indulgence: Like the other two, this is already a pretty good item. Its legendary affix makes it trigger again if it kills an enemy. If you are not cursed, this ability works as a single target nuke, so that is easy to do. It can wipe away entire rows of enemies in your line of sight with one click. If you *are* cursed, the affix will make it a lot easier to kill enemies with, thus making removing the curse stacks easier. Being cursed is one most dangerous things in game, the faster you get rid of it the better.
Money Shooter: This weapon does almost as much dps as the cursed sword, except it doesn't make you die in one hit, and it's *ranged*. The price for that power is hefty though, quite literally, as it costs 150g to fire. It straight up won't shoot if you can't pay. Unfortunately, the gold you get from enemies and items can't make up for the amount you lose if you want to use it only. It's meant to be a support item, or something you get out of your backpack for bosses. But if you want to main it, piercing is really nice to get more value from each shot. The legendary has piercing all as its forced affix, which is plenty good, but what really pushes things over the edge (and makes it unique) is that it awards you 75g per enemy killed. If you kill 3 or more enemies with one hit you *gain* gold, gold that you can spend during boss fights. Making money shooter self-sustaining. How people always talk about legendary flint but not mention money shooter is beyond me. Give it a try.
Peril Glyphs and Frantic Sword: Lumping these two together as they work on the same risk-reward mechanic: Big damage, but you need to keep your health low. Frantic sword crits if you have less than half health. Peril glyphs adds one attack that crits into its combo for every %10 health missing, capping when at %40 health. Their legendaries focus on making the low health part less punishing. If below half health, frantic sword will heal you for %1 hp per melee attack, stopping juuust below half to let you keep your crits. It's a better version of vampirisim in a way, half health is the same as double damage taken. In this comparison frantic sword would be healing for %2 hp so it's better. Peril glyphs grants %4 overshield (basically temporary health) for a short while when critting, which is stackable. It takes a while to get going, but that's just how the base weapon works as well. So, not great if the enemy engages you first. Pretty helpful otherwise.
More damage applied uniquely refers to damage that is conditional in a way unique to that weapon. So, take barrel launcher for example. It fires 3 barrels in quick succesion instead of one. So it isn't just +50% crit damage like the category below it. If you have used barrel launcher, you know that enemies attacking can direct the barrels back to you. So the legendary version can make things more difficult for you by making a lot easier to do that. That's where the "unique" part comes from.
+ Damage tier is for simple damage buffs. Valmont's whip is ride or die for it's crits, so it gets "+%50 crit damage" for its legendary affix. Simple. Some are a tad bit more interesting though. Giantkiller's third combo hit gives a damage buff, good for its ideal use case (flailing at bosses). Meat skewer gets to utilize "+%75 for hits in the back" affix the best since the first attack of the combo put you behind the enemy.
Unique utility buff is for bonuses unrelated to the playstyle of the weapon. Mostly for thematic reasons. Morning star and Hattori's katana can deflect ranged attacks. Hattori's katana is dropped by Weirded Warriors who are known for countering range attacks so it makes sense. Legendary holy water is functionally a different item from its base form. It is a screen clear copying Richter Belmont's Hydro Storm.
More of a good thing is what it says on the tin. Item does the thing it does but more. More burn, more poison, more knockback. Whatever. Ease of use is for legendaries that give you more lenience when you use the item. Usually in the form of making the crit condition easier to achieve. There is also more ammo, more range etc. They essentially widen your margin for error. Lighting bolt keeps you stationary so its affix gives you a shield to make that easier to deal with. Serenade doesn't have a timer so you don't need to hold it in your hand all the time. They are very convenient!
Synergies is for status. "Burns enemy on hit" is a legendary only affix suprisingly enough. Same goes for "root nearby enemies on death". The more you know.
The next tier is for non-combat. Sewing scissors is completely same as its base, but makes every kill count as 3 for kill streak purposes. So you can replace it with something from the 60 kill door I guess. Alucard Sword and Shield are more thematic than useful and the extra gold from dagger of profit is always appreciated. Only one confusing me is shovel. It says on the description that it makes secrets higher quality. So they give more gold. Unfortunately I couldn't learn if it affects food as well. Maybe makes them less likely to be infected or makes big food more common. Idk.
The last tier is "context dependent". Basically everything that couldn't fit the other tiers.
Legendary cursed sword does +300% damage but you can't use any other item. There are some sickos out there doing cursed sword only runs. In that case this is great but pretty unusable otherwise. What makes the regular cursed sword somewhat viable in regular runs is ranged items and defensive items like ice armor or foresight. There is a mountain of difference between "a hit on occasion" and "no hits at all". I can't deny that this is a fitting affix though, so it goes in contex dependent tier.
Diverse deck is 4 skills in a trechcoat. How good the legendary is depends one which ones you use. Barricade and catalyst has pretty useless affixes while foresight is decent. Best one is electrodynamics. This is accurate to how good their respective characters in their own game are in a way.
Grappling Hook throws a second hook behind you. There are some weapons that would like that (symmetrical lance), but generally, grappling hook is for isolating enemies and closing distance. So potentially pulling another enemy towards your unguarded back might do more harm than good.
Each card of the killing deck applies a random debuff. How good this one is depends on which debuffs you get. Some debuffs can delay enemy attacks a bit and make you miss yout parry for example. Sometimes a random rooting effect can save you. It is not something you can rely on so it's stuck in this tier.
Bladed Tonfas entirely depends on how good at you are with the lunge attack. I hate it, so it's worse than base for me.