Castlevania Advance Collection

I just finished playing through all of these with 100% achievements. I grew up with these games, and still love them to this day, even if some have flaws. Circle of the Moon: I appreciate this title more than I used to. The card skill system is fairly fun, and some of the bosses can be a nice challenge. It's combat can feel the most janky out of all three of the GBA titles though, so it can take some getting used to. For a metroidvania, the map design isn't fantastic, but it's not bad either. There are some good segments. My only complaint is the final boss feels ridiculously jank and over tuned if you haven't gotten certain card combinations for skills. Harmony of Dissonance: I love the soundtrack and aesthetic of this one. The castle overall feels like and upgrade to the one in Circle of the Moon, but it can be easy to get lost at points in the game if you're new to the layout. There are a also a couple of weirdly basic feeling rooms. I love playing the Juste Belmont, and really like the idea of fusing magic with the belmont sub weapons... but the game is easily the easiest of all three GBA titles. General combat is easy, and the bosses are far easier than Circle of the Moon. Some spell combinations utterly devastate boss fights to the point where I could win easily without so much as taking a single hit. Aria of Sorrow: This easily has the best map out of all three GBA titles. Soma's soul system is also extremely varied, giving you a lot of tools to work with, alongside a varied amount of weapon types. It's harder than Harmony of Dissonance, but not overly difficult. If you're going for 100%, this title is easily the most grindy out of all of the games in this collection. The drop rate for some of the souls in this game are insanely low, even if you go out of your way to get the expensive late game ring that boost their drop rate. Dracula X: This is the only title in the collection that's not from the GBA. It's ok. I actually like some of the classic non metroidvania Castlevania titles, but this game is basically a more jank, vastly watered down version of the far superior Rondo of Blood. If you access to RoB, Dracula X is just a worse game in every way. ........................................... There are a couple nice extra features, like trackers for enemies that drop important collectables like the cards in CotM and the souls in AoS. These make tracking what you still need much easier. There is also a handy rewind feature. I often forgot that was there, but found it handy in a couple situations where I was grinding the same area/enemy for collectables. I recommend these still. The games are fun, if flawed experiences. But hey, most of my favorite games of all time can be described that way. These are still worth is in my opinion, and very replayable, even if, as far as the handheld entries go, I prefer most of the DS titles over these.

Circle of the moon, while certainly one of the weakest in regards to being a metroidvania, is solid. Harmony of Dissonance is actually really good, it has no massive flaws, but its not a standout from the pack. Dracula X is hard, but if you cant get Rondo its cool. Aria of Sorrow is fantastic, not beyond SoTN or the DS games but its REALLY good.

Definitely more put together than the original Castlevania Anniversary Collection. The emulation is actually perfect as opposed to sloppy and flawed like the NES/SNES/Genesis/Gameboy counterpart. It's a shame because the Anniversary Collection contains the original retro set of games before everything went all SotN clone. Honestly none of the games in this collection hold a candle to SotN, the closest one is Portrait of Ruin but that's in the Dominus Collection. I was never a fan of Soma Cruz either, the grind in his games is absolutely insufferable. If that's what you're looking for, look no further... enter a room, kill a monster, then repeat it an indefinite amount of times until you acquire all of the monsters drops... that's pretty much all you do in these games... also, have a 2nd monitor open with the Map of the entire game and locate all the hidden breakable walls / secrets.... gets a bit tiresome after awhile. The one game that does shine is Circle of the Moon, it's the most difficult one in the batch but just feels good to play as it feels like you're playing an old school Castlevania game, even though you don't play as a Belmont... kind of funny that way honestly... both games where you play as a poseur Belmont (Circle of the Moon and Portrait of Ruin) seem to be the ones that shine the most. Either way, it's a well put together collection, the built in compendium could have been a bit better, like actually stating the name of the items the enemies drop. Instead what we get is a terribly small pixelated item with a star rating for rarity next to it... but I digress... this is what the internet is for. There are plenty of resources and wikis to check out if you're missing something. If you're going for 100% these games will test your patience to the maximum limit, if you're looking to just clear them, it's not that bad of a process... it's well worth the cash if you get it on sale for like $20. The only thing I really dislike is that they tie achievements to beating the game as the alternate bonus characters. The bonus character playthroughs can be even more of a slog than the original. There's a clear difficulty spike of not having the power / utility of the main characters. Either way, nothing a trainer / cheat engine table can't fix. There's a good one for modifying your luck stat so items just rain from the sky when you kill enemies so that helped save my sanity. These games were definitely meant for children with copious amounts of time on their hands. You basically just sit there doing the same rote and monotonous task over and over again until you finally hit a jackpot. If you're looking for a trip down memory lane, this is your fix. The collection has built in save states and a rewind feature, so if you make a mistake you can easily course correct. There's also nice save editors online if you're just not getting lucky with certain drops, so you can just hack 'em all in. It's definitely a well put together collection.