>>741903786
Play 1
If you like 1, play 3

Play 4
If you like 4, play Rondo of Blood

Play Symphony of the Night
If you like Symphony of the Night, play the GBA games and the DS games

>>741903786
Play 1, skip 2 and 3, play the SNES games, Rondo, Chronicles, SotN and Bloodstained.

>>741904098
This is great advice

>>741903786
1 2 3 x68k rondo and sotn

>>741903786
I feel like it's necessary to start with 1 and 3 for the NES.
Those two games establish the series' identity and they're what the rest of the series refers back to.

Bare essentials:
>Cv1
>Cv3 (Japanese version)
>Belmont's Revenge
>Super IV (I don't really like this one but lots of people love it for some ungodly reason)
>Rondo of Blood
>Bloodlines
>Symphony of the Night
>Aria of Sorrow
>Portrait of Ruin

Now does that mean those the only good ones? Hell no, most of the series is fantastic.
If you end up loving the series then you should (and probably will) play most of them anyway.

>>741903786
>I don't wanna play every single one out there because I'll get burned out
1, 3, 4, Rondo you can legit finish over a weekend if you're good at 2D action games. They're all hard (not 4) but kinda overhyped these days. All are legit excellent though.

after that the only 100% essential game is SotN. And if you like SotN then you know what to do. My personal favorite is Order of Ecclesia.

whatever, enjoy what is probably the greatest action series in the history of video games. See what looks cool to you. Emulated Castlevania 64 with modern controls and stuff might be awesome.

>>741903786
Do you like retro platformers? play all of the ones released before sotn except for simons quest and haunted castle.
do you like metroidvanias where you just kinda walk around with no real challenge or anything to engage with besides pretty pixel art and music? just play sotn. the rest of the metroidvanias are all just "sotn but stripped back and worse" anyways. order of ecclesia has a few decent boss fights but the majority of the game is still just a walk around and mindlessly wail on enemies that pose no threat type of game.
dont play any of the lords of shadow shit either, most of them are just low budget god of war wannabes and 1 of them is an even shittier metroidvania

>>741906595
>do you like metroidvanias where you just kinda walk around with no real challenge or anything to engage with besides pretty pixel art and music? just play sotn. the rest of the metroidvanias are all just "sotn but stripped back and worse"
LMAO biggest larp I've ever seen.

OP do not listen to this retarded fucking faggot. In reality the handheld games directly improve upon SotN in tons of different ways. Each one focuses on something different.

>>741907404
>larp
I've been playing castlevania longer than you've been alive, zoomer fag
the metroid clones are all hollow and boring, and the only way they "improve" on sotn is by being 5% harder, which makes them feel every so slightly less like a massive waste of time.
cotm and HoD are boring as shit and have some of the most blatant "upgrade is a key to a door and not an interesting ability" design possible. aria's only point of interest is the soul system, which is mostly the same 5-10 abilities reskinned in different ways. the movement and combat are even simpler and shittier than sotn. same applies to dawn and portrait. ooe at least realizes that backtracking through flat hallways isnt actually interesting and gets rid of the metroidvania crap for the first half of the game to at least attempt to provide a structured level design, but then they forgot about that halfway through and its back to boring map square collecting garbage.

I remember liking Circle a lot.

That's the one that lets you combine tarot cards to create new attacks and stuff right? Really fun gimmick. Great game.

I remember buying the collection at some point but I somehow never played it. It should hold up.

>>741903786
rondo, sotn, go from there

>>741907404
"larp" means live-action role playing.
When people type words online, that's just regular role-playing.

>>741907934
Stop posting larping retard.

>>741904098
I agree. Also play Bloodstained Curse of the Moon and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (if you like Curse of the Moon 1 then play 2, but i warn you, that game is CBT)

>>741907404
He's completely right about sotn and every metroidvania in the series
Sorry but your favorite games were made to be played by any retards while you probably would be stuck on Castlevania 1 despite that game being easy

>>741909773
You cancerous posers really need to fuck off

>>741903786
>I'll get burned out
Then don't try to marathon an entire series of games.

>>741909929
I can tell you're underage and started posting on 4chan a few years ago, I hope you will enjoy your time on twitter more
One day you will beat Castlevania 1, maybe

>>741910071
Your responses are so fucking brain damaged, for your own sake I hope that you're playing some kind of character right now.
This will be my last (You). Get in your clown car and take a hike.

>>741910762
You've never completed a hard game in y our entire life. I feel sorry for you.
Let's stop talking now.

>>741903786
Probably 4 because it still holds up and is a suped up remake. Then go to Symphony. If you liked both you can seek out other metroidvanias.

>>741910012
Well that's why I'm figuring out which to focus on, if it's less than 5 games I often marathon series but theres too many caatlevanias