I Really Like Classic Castlevania and Have Beef With the Metroid Style Ones Even Though I Still Enjoy Them:

Got through the Dominus Collection recently and while Im mostly gonna pick on Dawn of Sorrows for examples here, im gonna stick to things that apply to all of the Metroid Style Castlevanias to different degrees. I've beaten every 2D castlevania that is reasonable to beat (so no haunted castle and never played the Gameboy ones) been a huge fan for over 20 years and replay a handful every October.

So first off, why I love the classic style:

I think what I enjoy about them is what other people get out of Dark Souls. It's a very methodical game, your jumps are committed, there is a decent amount of wind up on the whip attack and you're a sitting duck on stairs not to mention the knock back. This is because you shouldn't treat it like other action platformers. Its not reflex based so much as planning based. There is old school trial and error but its less in executing something difficult mechanically but managing your limitations by being prepared. Knowing when to pick up what subweapon or more specific when to not use holy water or the cross depending on the game. There is a designed way to go about each room and theyre all sorta puzzles in that regard. Once you've got it figured out you can blast through places you've been before no problem as well because it is very deterministic. Don't want Medusa heads coming at you from behind? Don't turn around cause the side of the screen you're facing is where they spawn from. They're also not super complex but you gotta execute really well over like a half hour to beat the games once you've gotten to know the levels. At its best classicvania is a fantastically designed blend of level design and character limitations. The first game on the NES shows this super well. It seems like its really hard but if you approach it how its meant to be played, slowly and methodically, its not that hard. Nothing else was or is really like that.

For noobs start with super castlevania 4 cause its easy af and then try the first one on NES. 3, Bloodlines and Rondo are my other faves.

Igavania: I love Metroid, I love the Metroidvania genre. Castlevania sucks at that genre imo and here's why:

Level design: big open rooms and long hallways! If you go through a specific door you get a setting change whether it makes any sense or not. It feels often like the randomly generated a map and then added enemies and graphics. The backtrack is absolutely absurd. Which is made even more frustrating because the map is bare bones. In metroid you at least could see the color coding of the doors so you knew after missiles to maybe check out all the red doors. Castlevania you go all over the entire fucking castle to all the dead ends on your map as you try to recall which ones had the obstacle you can now pass. 2/3 or so of those options will be a dead e d with an item that is maybe useful but probably isn't. You can kinda tell where you'll need a double jump or flying cause the upper part of a large area isn't filled but thats it. This results in a lot of aimless wandering to try to find where you need to go, which is a massive pain in the ass because of...

The RPG mechanics:

This makes all this backtracking and whatnot hard to tolerate. Unless youre over leveled enemies take either wayyy too ma y hits or you've been through that room and fought those enemies so often that the 3-4 they take gets old fucking fast. Metroid's beam upgrades and missiles mean very early on you can easily clear enemies in places youre backtracking through so you dont have to stop amd fight an Iron Knight or Golem in a hallway that they clip through the ceiling so there is no choice but to grind through that shit all the time. Once again, it feels borderline procedurally generated. And cause you now have an expandable health bar and healing items, youre expected to get hit. And that will gradually wear you down when you are just trying to rush through enemy hallways so you can find where the fuck to go next. Playing DoS recently had me explore, get worn down, get to the nearest warp, go back to the start, restock potions there, go back to the warp and then go back through the gauntlet of enemies to where I was before. It sucked.

In conclusion, classic castlevania is tightly designed around a character with intentional limitations that lead to a unique and challenging but fair game experience you cant get anywhere else. Igavania throws fucking everything at the wall and fails to notice they dont blend well.

@AernaLingus@hexbear.net you expressed interest in this rant