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[Wanderer5]

Second favorite Castlevania after Aria Of Sorrow.

Aria just felt more cohesive, more refined.

Hell yeah, spot on with this for me.

I guess maybe I would view SotN being a touch overrated, but in the end, it is still a excellent game and a classic. Unless the version that was with Dracula X Chronicles made some changes to the gameplay, I thought even after playing other Metroidvania games, it still hold up generally well. Still, Aria of Sorrow is the best Castlevania game to me.

 

[RoninChaos]

You're overrated, OP.

 

[Lupin3]

No.

 

[cireza]

Older games are better than the Igavania games IMHO.

 

[Cloud7]

Honestly, I'm just happy this isn't a "Final Fantasy VII is Overrated" discussion because that horse was beat to death. But then again, this game is pretty dang good. SOTN is awesome. Truthfully, most games don't hold up as well as we think but this one still plays pretty well for the most part.

 

[Blackquill]

I should respect every opinions even if they are wrong

 

[Petrae]

Controversial statement: None of the Metroid games were ever good.

FTFY

In seriousness, though, not liking games (or series of games) is fine, but that doesn't make them "overrated". It means you didn't like them as much as others did. I really didn't care at all for Super Metroid, but SotN hit the mark for me.

That doesn't mean that Super Metroid is a bad game, of course. I struggled with the play controls, and I really wasn't as much a fan of the sci-fi motif as I was with the gothic/vampire stuff from the Castlevania games. I totally get why many people hold Super Metroid in such high regard, though, and would never call it "overrated". Just "not my thing".

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

Alucard is fluid as hell.

Only Turrican can compete (not counting NeoGeo and SF3 sprites):

 

[cr0w]

SOTN killed Castlevania for me. If it were a one-off story within the series, it'd be incredible. But with every game after it basically being a carbon copy and with Iga given free reign to do...whatever he did with the series, it lost me afterwards. CV1-Rondo were damn near perfection. SOTN was almost there (though the recycling of the castle in the second half drops it down a bit). The cut and paste and Iga's control over the series in the latter entries along with the focus on handhelds just killed it. Hell, the N64 Castlevanias are better games (in my opinion) than any of the Igavanias post-SOTN.

Then Lords of Shadow (the first one) came along and reignited the old flame. Shame the next two in the trilogy weren't executed well.

 

[D.Lo]

I feel like perhaps this is best addressed by comparing it to bands / recording artists.

In that you can not really care for The Beatles or Michael Jackson or Led Zeppelin. That's fine, different strokes for different folks.

But to act like each of those artists didn't produce masterpieces that massively influenced the art form would be ridiculous.

Each of the purported flaws you mention with SOTN is handled with ease if you take the time to master that aspect of the game. That a game is hard to master doesn't make the controls bad. It makes the game challenging and interesting.

Point is, the game doesn't really click for you. That's fine. But overrated it is not. It's beloved for many valid reasons.

SoTN has only really been influential on other Castlevania games, by redefining the series as a series Metroid ripoffs instead of an evolved variation on Ghouls and Ghosts (the original Akumajou Dracula was Konami's answer to GnG).

Super Metroid is the 'Beatles' in your analogy. It's the progenitor and the truly influential one. SoTN is like The Monkees or something in that way, a nice enough take with some good stuff and another take on the idea, but clearly a straight ripoff in design.

 

[Smellycat]

Lmfao Alucard is clunky and unresponsive? Is this a joke?

 

[ScOULaris]

Nah, it's really not. It's deserving of its praise and still holds up nearly as well now as it did the day it was released. It's a timeless classic.

 

[Primethius]

Overrated is a dumb, meaningless descriptor of a word and this thread is dumb because of it.

 

[Spukc]

Lmfao Alucard is clunky and unresponsive? Is this a joke?

Well he is rather slow comparing to super metroid i guess ?

 

[Chastten]

I played it for the first time a few years ago, and while I definitely think it's a good game, especially for it's time, I don't think it's the best in the genre or the series. Not even close.

The 2nd game on GBA is far better in almost every aspect, for example.

 

[Gafito]

SOTN is one of my top 10 best games all times, the gameplay, artistic style and ost are a perfect mosaic.

I disagree in everything u said.

Alucard being a slow character is not a bad thing, is a different thing, not every character has to be super fast.

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

The 2nd game on GBA is far better in almost every aspect, for example.

Yeah Harmony of Dissonance is highly regarded as the pinnacle of Metroidvanias.

 

[Ravelle]

Overrated is a dumb word and this thread is dumb because of it.

This.

A word without meaning, it says nothing.

"I don't like a thing, everyone with a different opinion than my own is wrong in liking that thing"

When a lot of people like a video game, that means a lot of people think it's a fantastic video game, OP. Don't attack others just because you're in the minority and you're jealous everyone's enjoying it except you.

If you want people to read your opinions, don't start with " X is Overrated" and instead write " I'm not that fond of X and here's why"

 

[Kill3r7]

It is arguably the best PSX game and unquestionably the best 2D game on PSX. It is rated just right.

 

[Boke1879]

This is wrong

 

[Griss]

I really enjoyed it and consider it a great game but the inverted castle was mostly garbage. If it had just stopped at the end of the first one it would have been a better game. There are other Igavanias I enjoy more but they all built on the basics of this amazing design.

Also, makes me laugh how many people get upset by the use of the word 'overrated'. If something is considered the best of its type by most people, and another guy thinks it's nowhere near the best, then 'overrated' is a perfectly fair way for that person to get his subjective opinion across.

"I found this thing to be significantly less good than the majority opinion about it would lead you to believe." That's all it means.

 

[GOOCHY]

20 years and still at the top of the genre along with Super Metroid, so no, not overrated.

 

[KlytusImBored]

Play it on a PS with a CRT and see if it still feels clunky.

 

[Heero5]

For what profit is it to man if he gains the world, and loses his own soul?

Mathew 16:26 I believe.

 

[GurgleBot20]

Comparisons with Super Metroid were always a little misguided. They may have a similar structure on a large scale, but they play very differently and have different goals.

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

This.

A word without meaning, it says nothing.

"I don't like a thing, everyone with a different opinion than my own is wrong in liking that thing"

When a lot of people like a video game, that means a lot of people think it's a fantastic video game, OP. Don't attack others just because you're in the minority and you're jealous everyone's enjoying it except you.

If you want people to read your opinions, don't start with " X is Overrated" and instead write " I'm not that fond of X and here's why"

Nope. If you look at IMDB's rating for The Force Awakens then it's definitely overrated.

SotN isn't though.

 

[pixellated_man]

Great timing op!
I recently played SOTN for the first time (via psone classics on ps3) and I also ended up feeling the game didn't quiet earn it's status as 'one of the best games ever made'.
Definitely feel the game has not aged as well as some claim. I think I would feel differently if I had played it around the time of it's release though.

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

I like it a lot, which I wasn't really expecting because I didn't like Super Metroid at all. Its not as good as Castlevania IV though.

 

[Primethius]

Nope. If you look at IMDB's rating for The Force Awakens then it's definitely overrated.

SotN isn't though.

You can't say nope to a post that makes the point that it's all subjective.

Like... what?

 

[eso76]

The game's presentation notably holds up extremely well. The graphics are great.

i'd say the game itself is pretty good even by todays' standards, but graphics were never good.
Blocky, low res, poor pixel art, recycled sprites and assets from older games... a couple nice effects and parallax but other than that there are better looking 2d games on the SNES.

 

[Stormhammer]

Overrated is a dumb, meaningless descriptor of a word and this thread is dumb because of it.

So many roster swaps for TSM and they still play so bad, so often. Amazing and their bot lane is so meh. I'm not sure which bot lane I feel is worse at this point, TSM's or Dignitas's. Speaking of Dig, somehow they are 6th and CLG 5th despite the latter not even being here in superweek.

Typical Dig though I guess. And Shiptur is so overrated, holy crap.

Damn, I missed SI yesterday. Looking at all of their predictions, mine are closest to Monte aside from a couple of picks.

I've seen too many people around underestimating NJWS. I think they're almost as good as Blue personally.

And I think the Chinese teams are a bit overrated, especial SHRC.

Generally, even games I dislike I can find value in to justify their scores (such as Skyrim).

But one recently just comes across to me as the most overrated title of sometime: Shadow of Mordor.

I find no value in it aside from one poorly implemented gameplay subsystem and it still somewhat bothers me that so many Nintendo gems were snubbed to give it GOTY.

huh :3

 

[DrArchon]

There are really only two things that knock SotN down a few pegs.

A) The map. Lots of long hallways with no platforming and only one or two enemies. Very boring and basic design, which makes sense as this was their first attempt at this style of game. The inverted castle though just doesn't really work most of the time and feels like pure filler for an already decently long game.

B) The difficulty. You're 100% right in that getting the right drop or finding the right spell completely breaks the game. With the exception of a couple of early bosses, there's no real bite to the game's enemies.

It's still one of the most important Metroidvanias though, and one of the better designed ones, but it's no Super Metroid, and I'd struggle to put it over something like Hollow Knight. Still in my top 10 games of all time list though.

 

[Neverfade]

Shit like the OP should be a bannable offense.

 

[Skulldead]

The gameplay, however, doesn't. The controls are, quite simply, clunky. Controlling Alucard isn't intuitive at all

You lost me there

Yeah you are right the game is not enough challenging in general, this is my only complain about the game. But say the control are bad... men you're so wrong.

 

[Diablohead]

another gripe I have with it -- forces you to do so much back tracking.

thinking emoji x 100

 

[Primethius]

huh :3

You might want to look at the context for those posts (two are LoL esports related).

But I doubt you will and I'm sure it was fun for you to dig them up. :3

 

[Ravelle]

Nope. If you look at IMDB's rating for The Force Awakens then it's definitely overrated.

SotN isn't though.

Something can't be overrated if those people rated it as such, those people just really liked it , you can't say that those people's liking that movie a whole lot are wrong for liking it.

 

[g.r.e.]

Play it on a PS with a CRT and see if it still feels clunky.

If only the loading times were a tad shorter..

 

[Firemind]

For what profit is it to man if he gains the world, and loses his own soul?

Mathew 16:26 I believe.

The miserable little pile of secrets line has always struck me as ridiculous. It makes Dracula seem like an insecure little bitch who got fooled by a man once.

 

[Incandenza]

When I think of SOTN I think of:

- long-ass grey hallways where you fight the same wolf enemy 4 times in a row
- long-ass grey vertical shafts with platforms on either side where you fight the same skeleton enemy 6 times in a row

 

[LukasTaves]

The biggest flaw for me is how fast you become insanely powerful just by exploring. I played for the first time when it became available on xbone BC (despite owning it on Psone and even the xbla version prior I never played it XD), and was a bit disappointed in how de touring from the main path makes you way stronger. This is specially jarring on the upside down castle. You can see it was supposed to be way more difficult, but when I came to it I had so many abilities that the platforming was easy, and so many damage that enemies would die with a few hits. And so many health that even some gigantic mistakes couldn't kill me.

Still a great game, just didn't expected it to be so broken difficulty wise just by exploring the castle, and I didn't used any guides. Just tried my best to explore as much as I could, the only two things I knew prior is that you had to explore a lot to get the upside down castle and that the spells commands were hidden. I did look up the spells though XD

 

[Bloodporne]

Yeah, it's not.

It has its faults, but it's still a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Vital Tundra]

I don't think the game is all that great, and your points are incredibly valid. The map design is bad with tons of empty hallways and the RPG elements are actually hot garbage. Most equipment is irrelevant because of how easy it is to get the good stuff.

 

[Heero5]

The miserable little pile of secrets line has always struck me as ridiculous. It makes Dracula seem like an insecure little bitch who got fooled by a man once.

Most of the English dialog is pretty ridiculous, especially Maria. Personal favorite is when you first meet her:

Wait a moment, you seem human yet, what do you here?

 

[Sky Walker]

In seriousness, though, not liking games (or series of games) is fine, but that doesn't make them "overrated".

 

[dr guildo]

It is overrated to you, because despite all of the effort you will provide to play that game, the spirit of the epoch where it comes from will be laking. And if you don't/ can't connect the spirit of its epoch, (eg comparing what was done in the competion to understand why SOTN was above all of it) with the game, you are done.
Tha't why this is non sense to make thread like this to say one game is overrated, 20 years after its release, and being completely disconnected from the spirit of its epoch.

 

[Kurt]

The music isnt the rest is. Castlevania 4 is a much more immersive world with more detailed art. Castlevania 4 comes much closer to super metroid in terms of quality art and music. Also the gameplay of castlevania 4 has more elements.

That said, its the best rpg castlevania.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Yeah Harmony of Dissonance is highly regarded as the pinnacle of Metroidvanias.

I loved Harmony of Dissonance, but it has to be the easiest of the Metroidvanias. Bosses are all pushovers.

 

[redcrayon]

'Overrated' and 'underrated' are terrible terms to start a debate with. It's basically shorthand for 'lots of other people love x- they are all wrong, they aren't able to look at x critically like me, my opinion is more insightful than all of them', with a side-serving of having already dismissed any subsequent counter-argument.

It's ok to say 'I don't like x', which doesn't also simultaneously suggest that loads of others who have been playing games for at least as long don't have a clue about something.

 

[Brandon F]

I agree with the OP.

What I look for in a Castlevania game is a high level of challenge, tightly designed levels and tough but fair boss encounters where quick reactions and recognizing attack patterns are required to be victorious.

SOTN has neither of those things. The map is large and open, but contains far too many superfluous corridors and rooms which are just mindlessly sprinkled with enemies. The constant backtracking doesn't add much challenge. It's for the most part a nuisance and results in a game that feels artificially padded. Also, the constant fiddling with items and menus messes with the pacing of an already bloated-feeling game.

Levelling up all the time and eventually becoming omnipotent means any semblance of challenge is obliterated. Observing enemy behaviour in boss encounters used to be essential to overcoming these foes, but it's hardly necessary in SOTN. Just keep levelling up and/or stock up on items and nearly all bosses can be beaten to a pulp without the player having to actually master a competent strategy.

While I eventually played SOTN to completion, I was getting bored of it even far before the halfway point because of the reasons I just mentioned.

I hope I haven't offended anyone with this post. This is just the way I feel about this game. I'm sure the things I disliked about it are exactly the things which caused other people to fall in love with this game. And that's perfectly fine.

Agreed. Despite enjoying the game enough to earn over 200% a couple times in the past two decades, I never felt the game was as masterful or deserving of its stature for largely similar reasons that you argue. Level-layout of the castle lacks meaningful design to test the player, and the combat challenge was inert.

Not that the game doesn't deserve credit for its aesthetics, visuals, exploration and secret discovery. All are to be applauded and SotN largely put the franchise back into blockbuster status for a time, but the cult-like mentality that pushes back so harshly against criticism of any kind is out of hand.