Ohh I see! Gotcha!

I think the story is just too bonkers to take seriously anyway, but if I’m not mistaken Lords of Shadow is a complete reboot that didn’t really “take” canonically.

So, would you say Lords of Shadow is technically not needed at all for the story and all?

And they got on 50% off sale constantly so you could probably score both combined for under $30.

Actually, never mind what I just said: what you should do Sammy is get Anniversary Collection AND Advance Collection, and between those two sets, you’ll get the grand tour of Castlevania. The only truly great Metroidvania one you’d be missing is Symphony of the Night, which is a teeny tiny bit overrated, as I feel the GBA games did the same concept more refined and polished. And, Anniversary would give you 1, 3, Super Castlevania, and Bloodlines. PLUS you’d get Castlevania parody Kid Dracula which is actually a VERY good video game in its own right. You’d be good to go and get a feel for why the franchise is a rightful legend.

I see, I’ll look into it more to decide where to start from!

There are TWO tiers of Castlevania: the ones that are linear platformer and the ones that are Metroidvanias – vast, sprawling adventures, especially making Castlevania a franchise with two types of games.

For the linear ones, 3 is the best IMO and Super Castlevania is a great spectacle.
For the Metroidvania ones, I’d get the Castlevania Advance Collection, which has four really great games, and do Circle of the Moon.