(via Castlevania Anniversary Collection on PS4)

I've never played through the original NES trilogy of these games so I figure why not get started. It's a great game, but when dealing with games as old as this one, I try my best to view it through the lens of what it must have been like to play this on your home console back in the day, as well as a modern sense. It plays very similarly to the other pre-Symphony of the Night entries that I've played, which was very welcome. It's not quite like Mega Man where the first entry is forgettable and the second entry is where it becomes great. This series was great from the very beginning.

But holy hell is it fucking hard. I'll be straight up, if I didn't play this via the Anniversary Collection with saves I would not have beat it in just a day. Stage five was brutal. The final boss fight took a good few tries too. I got it, but I definitely felt the anger and sheer determination necessary to make it through. (I watched some videos of no damage runs and I'm just like...I'll never be that good at video games).

Anyways, great game! Love all the names in the credits.