Who thinks it was the best Castlevania?
I think that poster quoted it wrong. It’s ‘A Miserable LITTLE Pile of Secrets!’
But it was really good. I haven’t played every Castlevania ever so I can’t say if it’s the best, but I think the only other game of the series that’s better is Super Metroid.
Oh wait.
Seriously though, if only the localization came at a time where they took dubbing games more seriously (how early was this in the PSX lifespan?). Then again, the hilariously bad acting is part of the charm. See above.
I’ve heard the original japanese voice acting (the SEGA Saturn version) and I can’t take that seriously either.
Mostly because the first time I heard the guy doing Dracula’s voice was when he did the voice for Onsokomaru. Okay, he’s awesome in his own way… But thinking of, what is basically, a perverted pac-man with wings doesn’t really help you take the Lord of the Night seriously.
That said, I still think SotN is among the best Castlevania games I’ve played.
Not sure if I can rank it as THE best, because I suck at picking favorites.
But it, Circle of the Moon and (for nostalgic reasons) Simon’s Quest are probably my top 3 in varying order depending on when you ask me.
(Also, if you want “What is a man?”-jokes, I find this one to be the best ever. 
)
I know, I saw that a few weeks ago and almost fell out of my chair. 8p
I think I enjoyed Aria of Sorrow better than SotN, but it’s definitely one of the top two IMO.
This post has inspired me to put my copy back into the PS2 and to work on finishing it again. I definitely preferred the Metroidvania-style games.
Btw, the PSP version that comes with Dracula X is quite nice. I now have every single Metroidvania on either my DS or PSP (with the exception of CotM, which I never liked).
I recently -strike that, yesterday- started playing CotM and I rather like how the main character is fast (it’s a pity you have to hunt for Mercury boots nowadays instead of having a dash move) and still has to go through all these loong vertical corridors (ahem, Metroid). A bestiary would have helped, but the lack of items makes boss battles harder. But I’m an items hoarder anyway, so…
The whole “tap forward twice to dash” thing didn’t work well for me; it toggles, and I could never figure out if I was running or walking.
I found Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow to be superior. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had played it at the time of it’s release? But, I played it in like 2005 and was like “What’s the big deal?” It’s good, but I think by the time I had played it, Konami had already done better than SotN, so I was less impressed than I should have been.
Gameplay-wise, I agree… but Alucard was just plain cool, and cool points are a boost.
For me, it’s in my top 3 of Castlevania games. And I liked CotM. One of the few GBA games I’ve actually mastered. However, there’s no denying that SotN is a friggin awesome game. (Shield Rod + Alucard Shield and twin Crissaegrim are crazy.)
The best castlevania i think is
Super Castlevania IV, to me it was by far the best
Except that even with Alucard, SotN still can’t stand up against the awesomeness of AoS’s & DoS’s protagonist Dracula himself (even if he was reduced to a nerfed bishe).
I think SotN is the best Castlevania, but I enjoyed playing Dawn of Sorrow more
He wasn’t quite Dracula, since Dracula died permanently in 1999. But he had what was left of Dracula’s essence inside him. …Or something like that. I don’t remember the plot exactly, but that’s close enough.