Which do you prefer to play as?

There a pros and cons to each character, and I guess it comes down to personal play style, but I will outline the pros and cons of both characters, below;

I prefer Maria because of her speed, and the fact that she can legitimately double jump.

I found Maria more difficult to control at first as the way she jumps is slightly different to Richter, so you have to be careful not to overcompensate when jumping.. because I missed landing on some platforms from overcompensating (i.e. pushing the direction button too hard)...

Whilst admittedly she is the weaker of the two, I have found it easier to get through most of the stages with her.

I'd say Maria.

She just seems more fun to play with.

In action titles, I'm always for agility. ^^

And of course, I've always loved Double Jumping.

Yes, the double jumping helps in getting over those big chasms, and also in jumping over those annoying Axe Knights that go all kamikaze and charge at you...

But it feels more thrilling to beat the game as the harder to play Richter... Everything was so easy using the music book subweapon and the dragon one as well

I never used the Song sub-weapon. The instruction book indicates that it's quite weak. Is it the opposite? Though admittedly the Dragon is quite powerful. I think it only took like 5-7 hits with it to take out Death, whereas playing as Richter, the Cross sub-weapon only slightly whittled away at the bosses' HP.

Funny, that a 12 year old girl is more powerful than a Belmont descendent. =\

quote Matt Addison

Which do you prefer to play as?

There a pros and cons to each character, and I guess it comes down to personal play style, but I will outline the pros and cons of both characters, below;

Richter Belmont
Uses a whip to attack enemies. Also has a backflip move that allows him to get out of hamrs way, if need be.

.:Sub-Weapons:.
Knife
Throws a single knife toward the enemy, in a straight line.

Axe
Tosses an axe in an arc toward the enemy.

Stopwatch
Halts the flow of time for a few moments, stopping enemies in their tracks.

Holy Water
Throws a bottle of holy water, shattering the glass and sending a flame racing toward the enemy across the ground.

Holy Cross
Throws a cross at the enemy like a boomerang that returns to Richter.

Maria Renard
A young girl that can shoot three doves simultaneously toward the enemy. Whilst slightly weaker than Richter, Maria can double jump as well as slide across the floor to get through narrow gaps.

.:Sub-Weapons:.
Bird
Sends two red birds flying away diagonally upward.

Tortoise
Causes Maria to become invulnerable to attack, however greatly reduces her speed.

Cat
Sends a cat racing in a straight line. It will keep rebounding off any object until it hits a wall.

Voice
Sends musical notes tumbling toward the enemy.

Dragon
Summons a small, powerful dragon that swiftly flies toward the enemy.

--

Personally, I am finding that whilst Maria succumbs more easily to attacks, she is more powerful with the Dragon sub-weapon, although she can't Item Crush (At least, I don't think she can...). She's also more agile, and I think she's more fun to play as, as she sounds funnier when she dies. =D

No, I'm certain the Knife weapon throws a single blade. However it's not limited by time, so you can continuosly press the sub-attack button to throw lots of knives.

Also, yes I did forget the Egg and also the Grimoire, I'll edit those into the first post.

And I was wrong in saying that Maria can't Item Crush, because she can. =] I'll fix that too. =]

Actually I'm sure that the knife has a spread hit (albeit small)

My bad, you are indeed correct. I was confusing it with the Knife sub-weapon from Symphony of the Night. Sorry. =[

I always loved playing as Maria. She was pretty awesome to me. That Dragon ability was totally badass, especially with it's Power attack.

I prefer playing as Maria.

I just find it funny how a small French girl can command the four Chinese Celestial Beasts as weapons >_>

The turtle: Xuanwu (Genbu) the Dark Turtle
The cat: Baihu (Byakko) the White Tiger
The dragon: Qinglong (Seiryuu) the Cerulean Dragon
The red birds: Zhuque (Suzaku) the Crimson Sparrow/Phoenix. Some say it's a phoenix, yet other's say it's a sparrow.

Just in case anyone wanted to know that