What is the best magic / power system of all Castlevanias?

I liked most of them but my favorites would have to be the Devil Forgery from CoD and the Soul Dominance. The first is my absolute favorite because you had so many options for fighting, exploration and variety it was insane, and it was addicting to discover all the devils. The second because of the sheer amount of powers you had and because stealing the enemies' power is cool.

I also really like DSS and Glyph system, but the first feels a bit "out of place" within the game world (what's up with all the deities?) and the second while exceptionally fluid and fun does streamline things a bit, in the sense that magics are now basically the same as weapons (which is not bad per se but it's less "woah" than other systems).

You know i'm gonna say Aria of Sorrow has the best systems in place, I love it the most as i have said before. Very fun to use "enemy skills" and finding the transformation souls is always great fun. no matter how many times i complete the game (lost count of how many times i've played that game through to the end).

I agree with BalancedHydra


Overall CotM holds a special place in my heart and the DSS system was an interesting system.
Collecting a new card for that system means multiple unlocks at the same time, so getting a card made it allot more exiting.


With DSS you basically had 12 categories and 12 modifications.
So a category could be weapon enchant, and depending on your mod, it could be a fire enchant, ice, poison, etc.
Or a familiar, fire familiar, dark, holy, etc.

Soul dominance for me too. I loved and still love the conceit of drawing power from all the enemies I kill, it makes grinding more fun to imagine that I'm slowly drawing all the monsters into myself, with each death further establishing me as the true lord of the castle ;D

Enkeria i didn't knew you never played the other ones. Well, if this helps any, here's a summarize:



Dark Magic (Symphony of the Night): fightning-game like commands to use spells. You can use all Alucard spells from the start if you know the controls and have enough MP (with the exception of some secret ones that requires familiars or Bat transformation).
Dual Setup System - DSS (Circle of the Moon): Equip two cards to enchant whip with elements and powers, summon familiars, projectiles, stats increase, among other effects. You semi-randomly obtain cards as drop from enemies.
Spell Fusion (Harmony of Dissonance): Combine one sub-weapon with a spell book to create a magical effect, such as Fire Book + Axe = Flame Dragon and such. 
Soul Dominance (Aria / Dawn of Sorrow): Exactly like Shard System from Bloodstained. Each enemy drops a Soul that you can use as a power, with different types of souls.
Effect Orb and Relic (Lament of Innocence): Kinda like Harmony. Combine one sub-weapon with a orb to create a magical effect. 
Forgemaster and I.D (Curse of Darkness): Forge weapons and armor and also, raise special familiars that can have several forms and evolution parameters. Each one can have several skills that you can use by commanding them. You can also combo attacks with your familiars.
Mastery Skills (Portrait of Ruin [Jonathan]): Obtain sub-weapons to use them and increase their power by usage. Drop from enemies and found around the game. 
Magic Spell (Portrait of Ruin [Charlotte]): Obtain spells to use them. Drop from enemies and found around the game.
Portrait of Ruin also has Fusion powers, where you can combine special powers between characters.
Bound Spell (Harmony of Despair [Charlotte]): Obtain spells by absorbing them from enemies, when enemies use them.
Glyph (Order of Ecclesia): Obtain spells from enemies and around the map, by absorbing them on Shanoa's back. You can also combine two spells for a higher power.

Enkeria
Going a bit deep on Glyphs (i enjoy talking about stuff like that haha)
Glyphs are magical symbols. You can obtain them at enemies and around the map and they have two types, Blue (Hand Glyphs) and Red (Back Glyphs).
You need to hold UP to make Shanoa lift her hair to show her arcane symbol at her back, that absorbs glyphs around the scenario as long as you can see them. You don't need to be really close to them to pick them up.

When you kill an enemy, if that enemy has a glyph, a small red or blue magic geometric form will show up after killing it. It can or cannot turn into a glyph.
Some enemies also manifest a Glyph themselves to attack you, and you have the chance to absorb it from the enemy when it does that.
Glyphs can also be around the map, floating somewhere, inside breakable statues, and also influencing the scenery (There is a wind Glyph that is really hard to obtain because it makes it's area constantly blow a heavy wind, that stops when you get it).

Blue Glyphs are equipped on Shanoa's Hands. Each one is an attack button, like Alucard Hands. Shanoa does not use weapons, she is a 100% magic character. Everything you do with her consumes MP, but her MP regeneration is ultra fast.
Red Glyphs are equipped on Shanoa's back and are used by or holding a shoulder button.

Overall, Blue Glyphs are weapons made of pure magic (such as swords, lances, spears, and such), basic projectiles (fire ball, lighting bolts), and things like that.
Red Glyphs are familiars, stats-changing powers, barriers and such.

You can do a Glyph Union by holding UP + one attack button. Shanoa does a fusion between her two attack glyphs and launches a powerful attack. You can combine two equal Glyphs, and you have several hidden combinations that you need to find out by testing combinations. If you try a combination that doesn't work, Shanoa does a generic close-range weak magic attack.

Using attacks from certain typesincreases Shanoa's attack attributes (repeatedly using cutting glyphs, increases SHanoa's cutting power). Repeatedly obtaining Glyphs gives a overall bonus to all Shanoa's attack attributes.

Most of the game's Glyphs has latin names (like Ascia for Axe and Lapiste for Rock). And the game has three Glyphs (Dominus Anger, Dominus Hatred and Dominus Agony) that are the main force behind most of it's plot.

Yes. I personally like the Glyph system, but i still believe Soul Dominance is better overall.
For me, the BEST flying magic / power / ability of all Igavanias is from Order of Ecclesia.
Some games we got bat transformation, (or Owl transformation in Portrait). Harmony gives us infinite high jumps.

Order gives us, dark crow-like wings from Volaticus Glyph (Red Glyph).
The Gif doesn't show this, but you can just press the shoulder button and you can fly around as much as you want, while still able to attack with your other Glyphs normally (but if you get hit you fall down). The most useful, elegant and beautiful way to fly in a Igavania game, in my humble opinion.
I would love to see Mirim with something close to that. Growing out Stained Glass wings, with glass petals falling down during her flight. It would be REALLY CLOSE to Shanoa, and would just make their comparison even closer (and i say all the time Bloodstained needs to be it's own game), but it would be cool haha