All Castlevania: Dominus Collection Games, Ranked from Worst to Best

The Castlevania: Dominus Collection houses five mighty Castlevania games with more bats and skeletons than is reasonable, and if you’re short on time and wondering which ones are worthy of your attention, then we’ve gone ahead and ranked them to make your life easier.

4 and 5. Haunted Castle, and Revisited

We’re not going to split hairs here – both versions of Haunted Castle are just not that great. While still enjoyable, there can be no doubts that these ageing Castlevania games simply can’t hold a candle to the later entries. That’s especially true when measured against the DS games, which may well be the best the series has ever been overall. It’s still fun, and the Revisited version is a nice upgrade all around, but they’re still at the bottom where they belong.

3. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

It cannot be overstated that, from this point onwards, these are some of the best Castlevania games that have ever been made – and honestly, some of the best in the genre overall. So, while third place may not look good, Potrait of Ruin is still a game that’s worthy of your time and attention, because it’s an absolute blast to play.

A lot of the fun comes from the fact that you take control of two characters, with Jonathan being a whippy boy and Charlotte being a powerful mage. You can switch between the two at will to overcome different puzzles and battles, and learning how to use them both, and eventually mastering them both, is a genuine joy from start to finish. It’s just a lot of fun, and it’s only lower down on this list because of how brilliant the other entries are.

2. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Real talk – on any given day Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia could swap places here and we’d never be wrong. Dawn of Sorrow is the sequel to the also excellent Aria of Sorrow and continues on with the story of the mighty Soma Cruz, who’s coming in hot, having said no to Dracula and whatnot in the previous game.

Wouldn’t you know it, though, there’s a weird cult who aren’t happy about this, and that means more soul-stealing shenanigans are needed to save the world. In our minds, there’s an argument to be made for the Sorrow series being the best mini-series in the Castlevania franchise, and a large part of that is because it’s a lot of fun stealing and upgrading the souls of your enemies, along with the excellent writing and combat.

1. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Order of Ecclesia is a stone-cold banger of a game. You take control of Shanoa, a member of a powerful organisation called the Order of Ecclesia, who can wield mighty Glyphs in order to attack and subdue monsters. You’ll gain more as you go through the game, and can mix and match them for countless playstyles as well.

You can almost view this as an older version of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, due to the themes and gameplay mechanics in general, and that’s nothing but a compliment. While it’s close, we rate Order of Ecclesia as the best of this exceptional collection, so if you’re only going to play one of the games in the Dominus Collection – and you should play all of them – then make sure it’s this one.