Castlevania series

So, im looking into getting into this. Its always good to broaden my horizons, and I like hard core difficult platformers. I watched cat play symphony of the night (aparently thats the best one) at my place a few months ago and it looked awesome, but due to wanting to complete other games I never played it.

I beat tales of xillia, and im on the last chapter of Disgaea 4, so I always try to start a new thing before finishing my last current game (so I have a little more drive to beat what im playing currently, and so I dont get into a gaming slump after beating a game and not knowing what to play) so before going on a trip with friends I bought Harmony of Despair off of PSN. Well worth the 14.99. Its aparently compared to the boss rush mode of the DS games, but with larger stages and a bit more of exploration. The selling point is the fact that its 6players. As usual, it came out on the 360 then the PS3 got the better version (has 2 of the 360's DLC characters and DLC chapters) and couch co-op too. 360 was online co-op only. Went through the first 6 chapters with 3 friends, we cant beat dracula. Fuck. Fuck that guy. hes a bitch.

I DID play a bit of Order of Eclasia a few years ago, but never beat it (i think cause advance wars days of ruin came out during my playthrough of it)

Oh, and the music for the series is outstanding. As an avid videogame soundtrack collector, I cant wait to play through the other games and get their soundtracks ( I prefer to play the games before listening to its music, only real exception is the music i hear in trailers and such fuckin nemisis' theme in Ultimate Marvel 3 is so awesome )

So far just off of looks and the slight experience ive had with the games my favorite characters are Charlotte (obvious reasons if you know who she is) and Julius (how can I you not like an irritated looking middle aged man with a beard and whip?) Soma just looks like generic hero, when I look at him I think a Castlevania version of asbel. Probably cause of the white jacket. Alucard looks like rape six ways to sunday, but i'll see how he is soon when I start up Symphony of the Night later.

So anyone else here play the series? Have input, any specific games to recommend? Also I like the artstyle and im a huge artbook collector, if anyone knows of any artbooks out there, please point me in their direction

I absolutly LOVE Castlevania, though I STILL haven't goten around to beating Portrait of ruin. >< I like both Jonathan and Charlotte. I considered cosplaying as her once..lol.
Dawn of Sorrow was my favorite. SOMA
I've played Circle of the moon and Aria of sorrow too, wasn't too interested in Ecclesia, and I played the demo for one on the 360 (forgot which one) that looked pretty cool. I know judgment was bad, but I still wanna play it. Lol.
I know there are tons of art books out there, I used to imagehunt for them on Photobucket and various Castlevania fansites, granted that was like 4 years ago...but still, I think you can find them on Ebay.

Judgement is the fighting game that looks like deathnote on the wii right? I heard it blew lol

Yeah, I heard it was really bad. lol.
I just want it for lulz. It's only like $8. Lol.

Oh im all over that. I love enjoying terrible games with friends. I want to do the same with sonic the hedgehog but the fuckers are seriously charging fifteen. Its so bad that i will not shell out more than 8. 10 if im feeling generous.

HEY ANYONE WITH A PS3 GET HAROMNY OF DESPAIR AND PLAY ONLINE WITH MEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yeah I have been into Castlevania for a while now, if you havent yet look into getting Lords of Shadow its amazing.

Out of all of them the DS ones are my favorites but Symphony of the Night has remained my top favorite.

Oh hell I haven't checked out Lord of Shadow (thats the PS3/360 one right?)

I have Symphony of the night on my ps3 VIA PSN, I need to play it. Everyone says its the best. I need to play Portrait of Ruin, mainly because it has Charlotte But then my story obsessive nature will make me play as many as possible (the same happened with Resident evil. I played 5, then 4, then all the old ones and darkside chronicles)

Lords of Shadow is the 360/PS3 one, I will argue even though the 360 has multi disc, it has better controls.

I'll Harmony and play with you, also give me your info again so I can continue in my playthrough in symphony of the night D: