Castlevania Thread - Vampires, Whips, and Horror's Greatest Hits Now In One Gaming Franchise

[Dom Cruise]

My "ideal" version would be in 3D but without the flaws of the Lord of Shadow games (a major one in them is that we didnt want a new timeline and we didnt want to play as Dracula, we kind of already did in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow and that worked because it wasnt the real one).

I wont go into plot since that would go into fanfiction territory (tho I really imagine its the Endgame equivalent of Castlevania with Julius Belmont leading the charge, resulting in an epic final battle with Dracula where we reference each major Belmont at least once, as if to say they are there in spirit to end this once and for all).

In terms of gameplay, I'd image it as a hack and slash with these epic set pieces. Kind of a God of War 3, just replace Kratos for Julius, Zeus for Dracula and Olympus for Castlevania. I didnt mind Lords of Shadow but I hated how generic and low effort their hack and slashing was, especially the first one. There was just so much that could have been done better. And we still could have kept a Metroidvania type progression with Julius collecting new gear to advance further into the castle (we can easily justify this as Dracula using all his tricks to stop or at least delay Julius as he would be in a rush to stop Dracula's latest and most destructive plan yet.)

Its the "end" of the series so might as well go big, epic and hold nothing back. Have Julius killing giant enemies with his now OP Vampire Killer whip, GOW styled. Show us bosses from previous games now being regular mooks because Julius is just that powerful at this point. Have Alucard appearing ocassionally to give his in sight in all of this (its supposed to be the end of his centuries long quest to stop his father once and for all, he would no doubt have a lot to say over how much the world has changed since he met Trevor Belmont and how its all finally coming to an end...almost a bittersweet feeling since this means his father will truly be gone forever...never being able to stop his crusade against humanity).

I know my ideal version is probably impossible, especially with current Konami but a man can dream. Besides, we wanted SOMETHING at least to fill the gap, especially with how important the event is in the grand context of the whole series.

Interesting ideas but I still feel like to stay true to the spirit of the series up to that point it'd have to be from a 2D perspective than a full 3D GOW type game, it just wouldn't be fitting for the final battle with Dracula not to be from the classic perspective.

I could accept Bloodstained 2.5D if it was significantly prettier than Bloodstained, I could also accept Castle Crashers/Cuphead type hand drawn 2D art as opposed to pixel art.

But I feel like 2D perspective would be the best for the end of the classic timeline, then you could reboot it as a GOW/Devil May Cry type game by going back to the beginning with Simon Belmont going after Dracula, but afterward things go in a different direction from there.

But I feel like Julius' battle with Dracula being this legendary thing left to your imagination is kind of fitting, also correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the castle you traverse in Aria literally supposed to be same castle Julius would have traversed in 1999? Hence why there's zombie soldiers left over from the battle and Julius is able to find where he hid the vampire killer whip, it wouldn't make sense for the castle to change while it was sealed away, so there'd be a bit of a story issue, not that it matters that much.

On a side note, I wonder if the Netflix series ever intended to get into Aria of Sorrow territory? Isn't it over now though?

The Ideal 3D Castlevania already exists, it's just another franchise called Dark Souls or something like that.

The Soulsborne games are absolutely the inheritor to Castlevania's throne imo.

But a "Dark Souls/Bloodborne but it's Castlevania" game would be awesome.

 

[Psyduck]

Symphony of the Night is one of those games i can pick up every couple of months and it still feels like the first time playing it, end up with hundreds of hours per playthrough, and the fact that Alucard is just so damn customizable just makes it so much more replayable

 

[Dom Cruise]

One thing that's cool about the later half of the series is in the early days you had skeletons, zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies, mermen, ghosts, Frankenstein's monster, all usually either pretty stock horror tropes or Universal Monster inspired stuff.

Later games though introduced more and more creatures from world folklore and mythology which was really cool, I think Medusa was basically the only thing like that from the start.

So Castlevania's world became one where all of the world's mythology and folklore was true, which gave it a very cool sense of scope and scale for what was otherwise focused on Dracula, Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow even introduced modern day cryptids like Skyfish, Bigfoot, Mothman and Flying Humanoids, which was really cool, had the series gone on I bet we would have gotten Slenderman.

This is one place where Bloodstained was sadly a downgrade with it's switch to every enemy being a type of demon.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Love the original platform style games. Dracula’s Curse remains one of my all time favorite NES titles and Super Castlevania IV deserves all the praise it gets. SotN is a classic but this is around the time my interest in the series started to wane. I’ve looked at a few of the newer titles and I don’t really care for the weeb shit it’s turned into. I’ll stay with the classics.

Castlevania 64 is a guilty pleasure of mine as well. Game sucks but for whatever reason I have a soft spot for it.

 

[White Devil]

Castlevania 64 was a terrible, terrible game but it had that 90s jank charm.

 

[Dom Cruise]

If the series had gone on, what direction would the story have taken?

The most obvious hanging plot thread was Olrox who was vaguely implied to still be alive in Aria of Sorrow and in fact in Japan there was a light novel taking place after Dawn of Sorrow where Olrox takes control of Graham's cult, somehow restores Dracula's castle and it's up to descendants of Grant Danasty and Sypha Belnades to stop stop him.

Whether that was ever considered for an actual game we don't know, I also want to say I read somewhere, though I can't remember where, something about the Antichrist possibly being a future antagonist instead of Dracula.

Another thing that's weird is while I haven't played the whole game, I have read that there's a character in Curse of Darkness who it's implied can time travel? I want to say the Wii fighting game's plot involves time travel as well, could Iga have been setting time travel up as a cheat to bring Dracula back?

This might be one reason to be glad the series is over with though because Iga is inconsistent, Aria of Sorrow tells a good story, Lament of Innocence does not, it's possible that had the series gone on with him it would have gotten dumb.

Love the original platform style games. Dracula’s Curse remains one of my all time favorite NES titles and Super Castlevania IV deserves all the praise it gets. SotN is a classic but this is around the time my interest in the series started to wane. I’ve looked at a few of the newer titles and I don’t really care for the weeb shit it’s turned into. I’ll stay with the classics.

Castlevania 64 is a guilty pleasure of mine as well. Game sucks but for whatever reason I have a soft spot for it.

I highly recommend you try the other games despite the "weebshit", all that really affects is the character portraits and nothing about the games themselves, Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin are still great games despite the "weebshit"

Unpopular opinion but I actually didn't hate the change to a more animu art style, yes it paled in comparison to Kojima's art but still... I didn't hate it.

Castlevania 64 was a terrible, terrible game but it had that 90s jank charm.

From what I've seen with footage it's absolutely got that "I rented this at Blockbuster and dammit I'm going to play it" vibe where it may not have been great, but was interesting enough to keep you going for the time in which you rented it and that is a very particular and endearing type of charm.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Has anyone noticed the amount of Disney theme park references throughout this series?

In Aria of Sorrow the most obvious one are the "ghost dancers" enemies, but the "inner quarters" area, also called the "Phantom Palace" are an obvious homage to the Haunted Mansion as well and the pirate ship you can find reminds me of Pirates of The Caribbean (but can also double as a Goonies reference)

But this goes all the way back to Super Castlevania 4 on the SNES, which also had Haunted Mansion references, the Atlantis level in Bloodlines also reminds me of the 20K Under The Sea ride at Magic Kingdom, though that could be coincidence.

The "tarot table" enemy in Dawn of Sorrow could also be a Haunted Mansion reference.

Then of course there's the obvious "white rabbit" enemy in Aria for a general Disney reference perhaps.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Has anyone noticed the amount of Disney theme park references throughout this series?

In Aria of Sorrow the most obvious one are the "ghost dancers" enemies, but the "inner quarters" area, also called the "Phantom Palace" are an obvious homage to the Haunted Mansion as well and the pirate ship you can find reminds me of Pirates of The Caribbean (but can also double as a Goonies reference)

But this goes all the way back to Super Castlevania 4 on the SNES, which also had Haunted Mansion references, the Atlantis level in Bloodlines also reminds me of the 20K Under The Sea ride at Magic Kingdom, though that could be coincidence.

The "tarot table" enemy in Dawn of Sorrow could also be a Haunted Mansion reference.

Then of course there's the obvious "white rabbit" enemy in Aria for a general Disney reference perhaps.

The only reference I've noticed(and I might be completely wrong) is the clock tower levels and a few other similar parts in Castle of Cagliostro.

 

[The Husbando Collector]

Has anyone noticed the amount of Disney theme park references throughout this series?

In Aria of Sorrow the most obvious one are the "ghost dancers" enemies, but the "inner quarters" area, also called the "Phantom Palace" are an obvious homage to the Haunted Mansion as well and the pirate ship you can find reminds me of Pirates of The Caribbean (but can also double as a Goonies reference)

But this goes all the way back to Super Castlevania 4 on the SNES, which also had Haunted Mansion references, the Atlantis level in Bloodlines also reminds me of the 20K Under The Sea ride at Magic Kingdom, though that could be coincidence.

The "tarot table" enemy in Dawn of Sorrow could also be a Haunted Mansion reference.

Then of course there's the obvious "white rabbit" enemy in Aria for a general Disney reference perhaps.

Funny you mention that, cause the only disney reference I caught in the series was headhunter being a reference to mombi from return to oz and I just thought that the white rabbit was a reference to the orginal alice in wonderland instead of the disney one.

 

[The handsome tard]

Eh, that's really what humanizes him though. Literature is replete with stories about people avenging loved ones because that's the dichotomy of the human condition, nothing can motivate hate like love can. Keep in mind, Dracula's lore does not start out as him being a monster or a demon, he was a man first. Sure, it's an overused cliché by 2022 but it's still a good story device when written well.

Keep in mind John Wick was/is immensely popular and it's the same trope, just over a dog instead of a woman.

Love allows people to do amazing things, sometimes good, sometimes horrible but still amazing things.

Castlevania 64 was a terrible, terrible game but it had that 90s jank charm.

I almost dont fault it for not being very good because a lot of games were doing the transition from 2D and not everyone could be Mario and Zelda.
They only began to truly understand 3D games around the PS2 era onwards

Has anyone noticed the amount of Disney theme park references throughout this series?

In Aria of Sorrow the most obvious one are the "ghost dancers" enemies, but the "inner quarters" area, also called the "Phantom Palace" are an obvious homage to the Haunted Mansion as well and the pirate ship you can find reminds me of Pirates of The Caribbean (but can also double as a Goonies reference)

But this goes all the way back to Super Castlevania 4 on the SNES, which also had Haunted Mansion references, the Atlantis level in Bloodlines also reminds me of the 20K Under The Sea ride at Magic Kingdom, though that could be coincidence.

The "tarot table" enemy in Dawn of Sorrow could also be a Haunted Mansion reference.

Then of course there's the obvious "white rabbit" enemy in Aria for a general Disney reference perhaps.

MOST of these are a coincidence to me. Especially the last one, its not like the white rabbit came from Disney, it came from the original Alice in Wonderland novel

It is in the public domain afterall

headhunter being a reference to mombi from return to oz

Yeah, THAT one was indeed a very obvious nod/reference to return to Oz.
I mean, that movie was unexpectedly horrifying, especially for a child so it makes sense its in Dracula's place.

 

[Grub]

If you haven't yet, try Bloodstained. They play like Castlevania but without the bullshit (mostly).

I tried to like bloodstained. I just couldn't get into it though. I got about halfway through the game then just got bored and stopped. I dunno, maybe I was just burnt out by metroidvanias at the time but it never grabbed me the way actual castlevania games did.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I almost dont fault it for not being very good because a lot of games were doing the transition from 2D and not everyone could be Mario and Zelda.
They only began to truly understand 3D games around the PS2 era onwards

I think they learned some things from Castlevania 64 and applied it to the PS2 Castlevanias. This includes both good and bad things. Something I thought was a bummer in Lament was that environments felt like it they took place in square rooms on one flat horizontal plane, you went from one shoebox to another fighting things. The PS2 game is more playable than the N64 one, but also much less interesting. In my opinion of course.

 

[The handsome tard]

I think they learned some things from Castlevania 64 and applied it to the PS2 Castlevanias. This includes both good and bad things. Something I thought was a bummer in Lament was that environments felt like it they took place in square rooms on one flat horizontal plane, you went from one shoebox to another fighting things. The PS2 game is more playable than the N64 one, but also much less interesting. In my opinion of course.

They wanted to make a 3D metroidvania, I could see what they were going with it but not all of it paid off
I still wish they were ported today with some collection, I mean, thats the only way Konami is still doing money off this franchise soo...

Its all about accessability

 

[MoffAlbert]

They wanted to make a 3D metroidvania, I could see what they were going with it but not all of it paid off
I still wish they were ported today with some collection, I mean, thats the only way Konami is still doing money off this franchise soo...

Its all about accessability

I would kill if it meant we had the DS and PS2 Castlevanias in a collection or two. If they could just find a way for the DS games to work without the touch screen.

 

[The handsome tard]

I would kill if it meant we had the DS and PS2 Castlevanias in a collection or two. If they could just find a way for the DS games to work without the touch screen.

I imagine they can. I mean, for Dawn you just skip those stupid "seal drawing" sections or at least change the controls. Make it either a QTE or just use your fucking mouse.

Conceptually its easy to solve.

And the PS2 games didnt have any proper port and not everyone has a PS2 soo...feels like a simple opportunity and you would have to do even less in that collection just give it higher resolution with some prettier looking effects and there. We are not asking much, Konami.

 

[Gravemind]

The N64 games have never ever received remasters or ports and I think it's high time that they do. They have a bit of an unpolished appeal to them.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Funny you mention that, cause the only disney reference I caught in the series was headhunter being a reference to mombi from return to oz and I just thought that the white rabbit was a reference to the orginal alice in wonderland instead of the disney one.

Oh wow, how did I miss that one?

MOST of these are a coincidence to me. Especially the last one, its not like the white rabbit came from Disney, it came from the original Alice in Wonderland novel

It is in the public domain afterall

The "ghost dancers" are without a doubt Haunted Mansion references though, as for the white rabbit, given the context of other Disney references it makes seem like it could be a Disney reference instead of just an Alice In Wonderland reference.

I wonder if the pirate ship is more of a Goonies reference, didn't Konami actually publish a Goonies game on the NES?

Yeah, THAT one was indeed a very obvious nod/reference to return to Oz.
I mean, that movie was unexpectedly horrifying, especially for a child so it makes sense its in Dracula's place.

"DOROTHY GALLLLLLLLLLLE!"

I think they learned some things from Castlevania 64 and applied it to the PS2 Castlevanias. This includes both good and bad things. Something I thought was a bummer in Lament was that environments felt like it they took place in square rooms on one flat horizontal plane, you went from one shoebox to another fighting things. The PS2 game is more playable than the N64 one, but also much less interesting. In my opinion of course.

I have a real soft spot for Lament despite it's flaws, it's just got such a wonderful atmosphere what with the music and the graphics and the combat is a lot of fun.

If only the exploration and story were a bit better, it's so, so close to being a really great game, it's really quite sad.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

I'd love a DS/PS2 collection. I have a special spot in my heart for Curse of Darkness (despite it being desecrated in that TV show) because of the ID system.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

It's technically on topic I think, but I'd like another Kid Dracula game, though not brutally difficult and unfair.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Interesting ideas but I still feel like to stay true to the spirit of the series up to that point it'd have to be from a 2D perspective than a full 3D GOW type game, it just wouldn't be fitting for the final battle with Dracula not to be from the classic perspective.

Sifu is 3D but forces you into a side-scrolling beat em up camera perspective at some points. It works fairly well.

That'd probably work for, for example, a 3D SOTN remake. Just force the perspective after you beat Shaft.