Uh.

[redcake]

Erm. I know peanuts about Castlevania. Really. Except for the fact that it has really cool artwork.

So I would appreciate it if you guys can fill me in on this series.

Thank you very much.

Pleased to meet everyone.

[Xuzaf D]

-Dracula dies and turns into an androgynous emo teen with oversized weapons.
-Simon Belmont likes to have severe surgical makeovers for every game he stars in.
-Dracula always has a follower or twenty come out of the wood work to revive him.
-Dracula almost always does "that rpg thing" where he has 2+ forms.
-Everybody in the games looks like Alucard now. He's the bastard of Dracula who stars in yaoi films.
-Old Castlevania involved running a gauntlet of traps and enemies and making it to a boss.
-New Castlevania involves getting lost and stumbling onto the next boss.
-Dante from Devil May Cry is not in any Castlevania, so don't ask.
-Same as above only Sephiroth is Dante and Devil May Cry is Final Fantasy.

[Nimrods Son]

Everybody says "Symphony of the Night" is great, but if it's price really will be long-term loss of tha whole complexity in the series, I wonder if it really is.
The world of Castlevania is ruled by IGA nowadays, the serie's current producer, who claims to have invented that stuff though he hasn't.
Once upon a time, Cv had different timelines and storystrands all forming a big whole, but now, some of these have been "decanonized" by IGA, and there's only one team left working on the series. That's why the gameplay hasn't evolved a little bit for years.
We're currently in a state where the real "main line" of the series isn't taken any further while the "Dracula X"-side series has evolved into the "Advanced IGA Castleroid", which all of the current GBA / DS titles are part of.

That's my opinion, though. I especially miss the clean simplicity and the level design of the early platformers (Cv - Super Cv IV, + "Adventure, the old Gameboy sideline).

You might perhaps not really care about these things.
Best title to start with could be Aria of Sorrow if you're a total noob to the series, or CV III for the old school glamour.