Quick TakeArticle at a glance
- The best Castlevania games are led by 1997's Symphony of the Night (Metacritic 93), with the brand-new Belmont's Curse (Metacritic 86 as of October 2026) already cracking the top five less than a week after launch.
- Belmont's Curse launched October 15, 2026, and in the 3 days since has already pulled a Metacritic average high enough to crack the top five below.
- Symphony of the Night is the game that turned Castlevania from a linear action series into a map-exploring, item-hunting Metroidvania, and nearly three decades later it's still the series' highest-rated entry.
The best Castlevania games are led by 1997’s Symphony of the Night (Metacritic 93), with the brand-new Belmont’s Curse (Metacritic 86 as of October 2026) already cracking the top five less than a week after launch. Here’s how all ten stack up, using critic scores where Metacritic tracked them and documented critical consensus where it didn’t.
Belmont’s Curse launched October 15, 2026, and in the 3 days since has already pulled a Metacritic average high enough to crack the top five below.
| Rank | Game | Year | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Symphony of the Night | 1997 | 93 |
| 2 | Aria of Sorrow | 2003 | 91 |
| 3 | Dawn of Sorrow | 2005 | 89 |
| 4 | Belmont’s Curse | 2026 | 86 |
| 5 | Lords of Shadow | 2010 | 83 |
| 6 | Dracula X Chronicles (Rondo of Blood remake) | 2007 | 80 |
| 7 | Dracula’s Curse | 1989 | not rated (pre-Metacritic) |
| 8 | Super Castlevania IV | 1991 | not rated (pre-Metacritic) |
| 9 | Order of Ecclesia | 2008 | not individually ranked |
| 10 (low point) | Lords of Shadow 2 | 2014 | 63 |
1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
Metacritic score: 93. Symphony of the Night is the game that turned Castlevania from a linear action series into a map-exploring, item-hunting Metroidvania, and nearly three decades later it’s still the series’ highest-rated entry. Alucard’s castle, played forward and then inverted, remains one of the most copied structures in the genre.
2. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)
Metacritic score: 91. Aria of Sorrow is the best of the GBA trilogy, built around Soma Cruz absorbing enemy souls for new abilities — a system the series has echoed in different forms ever since.
3. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005)
Metacritic score: 89. The Nintendo DS sequel to Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow kept Soma Cruz’s soul system and added the touchscreen seal-breaking mechanic for boss fights. Until this month, it held the record as the highest-rated Castlevania release of the last 20 years.
4. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse (2026)
Metacritic score: 86 across 45 critics as of mid-October 2026. Developed by Konami with Evil Empire and advisory help from Motion Twin, Belmont’s Curse follows Rose Belmont — Trevor Belmont’s daughter — through Paris and Dracula’s castle in 1499. It’s the first new Castlevania to land this close to the GBA/DS era’s scores in over two decades, a gap GamesRadar also measured against the same three games topping this list. Read our full launch review roundup for the details.
5. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010)
Metacritic score: 83. MercurySteam’s reboot traded exploration for a God of War-style action game starring Gabriel Belmont. It’s a different kind of Castlevania entirely, but a well-reviewed one, and it’s the highest-scoring 3D entry in the series.
6. Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (2007 remake of Rondo of Blood)
Metacritic score: 80. The original Rondo of Blood (1993) never got a US Metacritic page, but its PSP remake did, bundling in a remastered Symphony of the Night. Rondo is where Richter Belmont and Maria Renard debuted, and where Dracula’s castle first got genuinely difficult.
7. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989)
Too old for Metacritic, but widely remembered by retro-game outlets as the peak of the NES trilogy. Branching paths and three recruitable partner characters (Grant, Sypha and Alucard) made it unusually replayable for 1989.
8. Super Castlevania IV (1991)
Also pre-dates Metacritic, but the SNES launch-window classic is consistently cited for its whip control — eight-directional aiming and a swinging grapple move that no other Castlevania platformer has matched since.
9. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008)
The DS era’s final entry traded Soma Cruz’s soul-absorption for glyph-based magic carved directly into Shanoa’s skin. It landed well with critics but never reached the GBA trilogy’s scores, and it was the last Castlevania release before the series went quiet for years at a time.
The Low Point: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014)
Metacritic score: 63. The sequel to 2010’s well-liked reboot is widely regarded as the series’ low point, criticized for a modern-day open Castlevania City hub padded with stealth and fetch-quest sections that broke up the combat. It’s the game most often cited when fans explain why the franchise went quiet for over a decade afterward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Castlevania game?
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) is the highest-rated entry, with a Metacritic score of 93 and a reputation as the game that invented the Metroidvania genre.
Is Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse good?
Yes — it holds a Metacritic score of 86 across 45 critics, making it the best-reviewed new Castlevania release in over two decades, behind only the Symphony of the Night/Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow era.
What is the worst Castlevania game?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014) is the most commonly cited low point, scoring 63 on Metacritic for its padded open-world structure and stealth sections.
Do I need to play the older Castlevania games before Belmont’s Curse?
No. Belmont’s Curse is set in 1499, 23 years after Castlevania III, but it’s built as a fresh entry point and doesn’t require prior series knowledge.
What’s the difference between the classic and Metroidvania Castlevania games?
Classic entries like Castlevania III and Super Castlevania IV are linear, level-based action games. Starting with Symphony of the Night, most entries switched to an explorable map you backtrack through as you gain new abilities — the format now called a Metroidvania.
If you’re new to the genre Symphony of the Night popularized, our ranking of the best Mega Man games covers Castlevania’s closest Konami sibling, and our Hollow Knight: Silksong build guide is a good next stop for the same map-exploring formula.
