Is this the best way to play them?

[Green Skeleton]

Take into account I thought the previous collections were incredibly pointless, so be brutally honest.

[Firebrand]

Yes, legally anyways, assuming you don't have an actual DS.

If you don't care, emulation offers you a bunch of options this doesn't such as making the play screen centered & full-screen. And you can toggle through the screens with a button which is much better than this. This has some screen options, but none to make it a main centered screen or have the ability to toggle the map & play screen, which, like I said, is leagues better than this.

Another option is a flashcart on an actual DS or 3DS would be as good as it gets sans the smaller screen. No emulation at all.

This is emulation, mind you, albeit very good emulation, with the issues regarding the screen layout & control.

I own every CV (physical carts & discs. The whole series. Yes, I’m obsessed) & this collection, & I usually opt to play on EmuDeck as I have the options mentioned. As a fallback, I also have a DSi XL, DS Lite, 3DS hacked (which can run DS games). Even with all those options I still choose to play with EmuDeck. Make of that what you will.

One caveat is that the new Haunted Castle is exclusive to this collection & drastically better than the original. Again, if you care.

[Green Skeleton]

Originally posted by Firebrand:

Yes, legally anyways, assuming you don't have an actual DS.

If you don't care, emulation offers you a bunch of options this doesn't such as making the play screen centered & full-screen. And you can toggle through the screens with a button which is much better than this. This has some screen options, but none to make it a main centered screen or have the ability to toggle the map & play screen, which, like I said, is leagues better than this.

Another option is a flashcart on an actual DS or 3DS would be as good as it gets sans the smaller screen. No emulation at all.

This is emulation, mind you, albeit very good emulation, with the issues regarding the screen layout & control.

I own every CV (physical carts & discs. The whole series. Yes, I’m obsessed) & this collection, & I usually opt to play on EmuDeck as I have the options mentioned. As a fallback, I also have a DSi XL, DS Lite, 3DS hacked (which can run DS games). Even with all those options I still choose to play with EmuDeck. Make of that what you will.

One caveat is that the new Haunted Castle is exclusive to this collection & drastically better than the original. Again, if you care.

You're not being brutally honest.

[Turdis L'Sezchuan]

Yeah

[Arthandas]

Originally posted by Firebrand:

If you don't care, emulation offers you a bunch of options this doesn't such as making the play screen centered & full-screen. And you can toggle through the screens with a button which is much better than this. This has some screen options, but none to make it a main centered screen or have the ability to toggle the map & play screen, which, like I said, is leagues better than this.

Another option is a flashcart on an actual DS or 3DS would be as good as it gets sans the smaller screen. No emulation at all.

This is emulation, mind you, albeit very good emulation, with the issues regarding the screen layout & control.

Anything's better than playing it on a DS.
Usually emulation is the way to go, but this collection uses uncompressed audio and videos and overhauls the stylus controls, none of this is available on an emulator.
Unless someone figures out a way to make a functioning rom with the uncompressed stuff, playing the collection as provided is the definitive way to experience the games. You can also use ReShade to emulate DS screen or other filters.

[Dark Einherjar X]

I can't say for PoR and OoE because I haven't gotten to them yet, but despite the improvements on this version of Dawn of Sorrow, the Definitive Edition+ hack is still the best way to play DoS.

DE+ removes the seal minigame entirely and fixes the Luck stat, among other improvements.

[Soundwave GI]

Legally, this is the only way besides a DS. But I can't get over playing it on xbox or PS with the off-center main screen. Why they didn't have a fullscreen with select button to toggle as an option is beyond me. Like another person said before, this can be achieved in emulation, and it works great in emudeck. Also, there are no filters or adjustments other than the orientation and they all suck. Plus, if you are playing on an OLED TV via SD dock, XB, PS, Switch Dock, you have the static map and status image sitting on your screen the whole time...an unfortunate and a very moronic decision. How anyone thought people would want to play an uncentered game all day is just weird. And we know it'll never get patched or fixed to have a center screen. Maybe I'm the only one that cares.

[toughnails]

There's not much difference between this and an emulator. In fact, if I recorded some footage, you wouldn't be able to tell which is which. Touchscreen wise, they give you a virtual pointer (right stick + right trigger), which is convenient, but the same can be done on an emulator as well. The only new thing is being able to use buttons to complete the boss seals in Dawn of Sorrow, but most people play with a rom hack that skips this awful gimmick entirely.

Bottom line, if you want convenience, this already comes pre-configured and good to go. No need to tinker with it yourself. However, there aren't as many options in regards to screen layouts and such. Apparently, you can't even rebind the mouse/keyboard controls, which is rather lame.

Also, there are a bunch of technical issues, e.g. the game might stutter if your screen's refresh rate is set to above 60Hz. Some people also report frequent crashes and/or slowdown.

[Documancer]

This is the best place to play for the sound by far. Visually you can get the same if not better with emulation, but man the reworked sound from Konami source files is just a joy compared to even work done by emulators to help remove to low quality noise from the compressed game files.

I know some have had glitches and crashes, my experience has been smooth though. Only glitch I found so far was background stuttering of objects when pushing things in portrait of ruin, oddly specific I know, but still annoying, I didn't see this with emulators, I haven't busted out a DS to verify. It happens both here and on switch so I assume it has something to do how their graphics emulation is running within their own game engine. Super minor nitpick, overall an incredibly cool package.

[0wnz0r]

great way to play OoE. i mite say its the definitive way. haunted castle is great too.

dawn n portrait tho? not unless some modders make some mods for these games. especially dawn.

[MarkedMarkyMark]

Legally and without the headache of emulation and odd performances? Yeah, but i kinda hope people can make some of the great romhacks that these games have work here.

[1337Dude]

This might be the first instance of a collection attempting to be worth owning over the usual ROM + emulator. It's not perfect, but they at least tried this time (unlike the previous 2 CV collections).

Is it worth it? I mean, for as cheap as you can get it. It had a sale on GMG for $18 at launch, I'm not sure if that or a similar sale is floating around.

As for the previous 2 collections, keys are floating around for just a dollar or two. I don't mind having an inferior version easily accessible on Steam for a couple bucks.

The benefit for me is that there is cloud sync between the Steam Deck and PC. I don't often play my Steam Deck, but there are special occasions when I can and it would be cool to have progression that I can pick up now & then on the go, and then pick it back up at home.

I went with my brother the other day to the mechanic while he got his car worked on, and had 2.5 hours to sit around. Castlevania games, particularly the portable ones, are great for casually killing a couple hours.

[CYSGG]

I feel like I'm playing on an emulator; they didn’t put much effort into this. I only bought it for Haunted Castle. The rest I have the original versions, and they are much more recommended.

[Deathscare]

It's a really nice way to play, the other best way to play with them is the original DS from 2004 which won't hurt your hands from using it.

[Melodia]

Originally posted by CYSGG:

I feel like I'm playing on an emulator;

And what's wrong with an emulator?

[The Ultimate Despair]

Originally posted by Arthandas:

Originally posted by Firebrand:

If you don't care, emulation offers you a bunch of options this doesn't such as making the play screen centered & full-screen. And you can toggle through the screens with a button which is much better than this. This has some screen options, but none to make it a main centered screen or have the ability to toggle the map & play screen, which, like I said, is leagues better than this.

Another option is a flashcart on an actual DS or 3DS would be as good as it gets sans the smaller screen. No emulation at all.

This is emulation, mind you, albeit very good emulation, with the issues regarding the screen layout & control.

Anything's better than playing it on a DS.
Usually emulation is the way to go, but this collection uses uncompressed audio and videos and overhauls the stylus controls, none of this is available on an emulator.
Unless someone figures out a way to make a functioning rom with the uncompressed stuff, playing the collection as provided is the definitive way to experience the games. You can also use ReShade to emulate DS screen or other filters.

What do you have against the DS? It's a great platform.