Castlevania Tier List
Two things live on this page: (1) our ranking of the mainline Castlevania series while we finish the launch-day tier list for Belmont's Curse, and (2) the Belmont's Curse tier list plan — weapon, relic and boss-difficulty rankings that go live as we verify them in the released game.
The Series, Ranked
Criteria: how well each game plays today (not nostalgia), historical importance, and accessibility. This is an editorial ranking by the guide team — disagreement is half the fun of tier lists.
| Tier | Games | Why |
|---|---|---|
| S | Symphony of the Night (1997), Aria of Sorrow (2003) | The two peaks. SotN invented the modern Metroidvania; Aria refined its systems (soul collection) into the most replayable GBA entry. |
| A | Dracula's Curse (1989), Rondo of Blood (1993), Dawn of Sorrow (2005) | Dracula's Curse: branching routes and four playable characters on NES hardware. Rondo: the prettiest and best-playing classic-vania. Dawn: the DS touch gimmicks aged, the core didn't. |
| A- | Order of Ecclesia (2008), Bloodlines (1994) | Ecclesia is the hardest and most combat-forward DS game; Bloodlines did impressive things with the Genesis. |
| B | Harmony of Dissonance (2002), Portrait of Ruin (2006), Castlevania (NES, 1987), Super Castlevania IV (1991) | All good-to-great with clear caveats: Harmony's palette and music, Portrait's repeated portrait-maps, NES difficulty curves, IV's generous whip physics dividing purists. |
| C | Circle of the Moon (2001), Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) | Ahead of their time in some ways (card system, open world) and behind in others (visibility, cryptic design). |
| Legacy | 64 / Legacy of Darkness (N64), Lords of Shadow sub-series (2010–2014) | Interesting, sometimes ambitious, ultimately a different breed of game. |
Belmont's Curse Tier List — Live at Launch
Status: in preparation. We will not publish weapon/relic numbers before we can verify them in the released build. At launch (October 15, 2026), this section gets:
- Weapon tier list — every whip, sub-weapon and firearm-style tool ranked by DPS, utility and boss matchups, with tested numbers.
- Relic & charm tier list — movement and passive relics ranked by how much map access / survivability they actually buy you.
- Boss difficulty tier list — from "first-try" to "wall of the game", with the counter-strategy for each.
- Ng+ build rankings — once endgame and second-cycle content is mapped.
Why the wait? Pre-release leaks and preview builds regularly ship different balance numbers than retail. A tier list with wrong numbers is worse than no tier list. Bookmark and check back on launch day.