History Headscratchers / Castlevania

* Related to Judgement, I just got hit in the face by some FridgeLogic. The Time Reaper is from "Ten thousand years hence," But ten thousand years from whose perspective? Aeon is a timeless being, and everyone else is from anywhere from the 1400s to the late 1800s. I know The Reaper probably wasn't being specific, but it bothered me.
** As far as we can tell, it was sent back to change the timeline in its boss' favor. This is typically done by going back to a point and doing things that will make things turn out differently. It could easily have come from approximately ten thousand years after the change point.

* The 'Nintendo 64' games with the enemies that respawn simply because you re-enter a room bugged me. In the first one, the hero sends a young boy into the woods to escape the manor. The skeleton-filled woods. At least in the remake, a plot coupon protects the boy. And the ending to the remake when [[spoiler:the bad guys win by stealing the mojo of the wolfman]] also bugged me. Last but not least, the 'carry the unstable explosives through the gears' thing. One pixel off and you are wormfood.

* So [[spoiler:the villagers in ''Order of Ecclesia'' are the direct descendants of the Belmont bloodline]]? Then why [[spoiler:do they act for the most part like normal, scared citizens under Dracula's assault?]] Shouldn't they [[spoiler:at least have some knowledge of what their ancestors did and try to fight back? It ''has'' only been around ''50 years'' or so since ''Symphony of the Night'', not long enough for the current Belmont descendants to forget their heritage]].
** I assume that [[spoiler:the villagers are all from branch families of the Belmonts. They might all have ties to the main line, but it's not like they got fighting training.]] I guess that after [[spoiler:Dracula was killed again, they decided to dedicate themselves to their ancestral duties since they can't exactly escape it all.]]
*** That doesn't make as much sense, as [[spoiler:the Belmonts are destined to remain ''out'' of the fighting against Drac until 1999, as stated in ''Portrait of Ruin'']]. In fact, [[spoiler:this is precisely why Richter vanished off the face of the planet after the events of ''Symphony of the Night'']]. It's possible that the events of ''Order of Ecclesia'' [[spoiler:inspired the villagers to start training for when they ''do'' get back in the game]], but I doubt that [[spoiler:they would actively pursue their ancestral duties before its time, especially when the Vampire Killer whip's been passed off to a branch family (specifically, the Morrises) to take over their duties until the prophesied time]].

* Why in the world does Dracula's castle have a room in it that Juste can decorate in ''Harmony of Dissonance''? And why would he ''want'' to decorate it? Doesn't he know that Drac's castle crumbles into nothingness after its lord is defeated? It's not like he can set up shop there after he's done whipping some vampire ass.

* Why did they feel the need to make ''Aria of Sorrow'' and ''Dawn of Sorrow'' take place in Japan, of all places? It's friggin' Dracula! Based off Vlad the Impaler, who reigned in Wallachia, which is located in modern day Romania? And yet somehow Dracula's castle decides to beam up a dude hanging out in a temple on the other side of the planet. It's blatantly ethnocentric, and it would have made a lot more sense and been a lot more unique and interesting for Soma to have been actually a person living near where Dracula lived, instead of being predictably Japanese.
** The Japanese had no presence in the storyline until 1999, and when they did, it was because the usual heroes sent for the Hakubas in order to seal the castle. (It's pretty much the Japanese equivalent of how an American family became vital to the storyline after Quincey Morris managed to defeat Dracula in 1897.) As a result, Japan is the location of the seal, and thus the central locale of ''Aria''. The easiest way for Alucard to guard it was to pose as a Japanese agent. As for Soma, it probably helps Dracula to be reborn close to his castle. Yet this does absolutely nothing to explain Yoko.
*** Yoko's last name is Belnades. If that sounds familiar to anyone, it's because it's the surname of Sypha Belnades, one of the heroes from the third Castlevania game, and chronologically the first fight with Drac. Yoko is a descendant of one of the original slayers of Dracula, and an inheritor of her ancestor's witchcraft, and her lineage probably has something to do with her getting involved in all this vampire business.
*** That is common knowledge among fans. I was referring to how Yoko is a Japanese name.
*** Incidentally, there is no evidence that ''Dawn of Sorrow'' takes place in Japan. There's the returning cast, but that's it. It does not take place in Dracula's castle, and the antagonists have names that appear to be German, Italian, and Russian in origin.
*** Not to mention that the design of the outdoor sections is very European. Also, the castle wasn't sealed in Japan, it was sealed behind/inside a solar eclipse. The eclipse next appeared in Japan.
** Circa ''Lament of Innocence'', Dracula in Castlevania ''isn't actually Dracula'' and so all bets are more or less off. Most likely, Igarashi decanonised ''Castlevania 64'' because Malus explicitly gives his full name as Dracula Vlad Tepes rather than [[spoiler:Matthias Cronqvist]].
*** There's plenty of time after ''Lament'' for him to impersonate, possess, or otherwise somehow become Vlad. Hell, a fairly easy [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic Tree]] for that would be that the inexperienced Drac got himself [[KilledOffForReal fully sealed]] once before, and Vlad was his first reincarnation.
*** Vlad Teped the Drakul was at one point held prisoner in Turkey, and when he returned, he was all violent and torture-y. I always assumed that in the ''Castlania''-verse, Vlad died in the Turkish prison, and Mathias Cronqvist the Vampire, desiring a home base and in Turkey at the time, decided to assume his name and throne. Hence the whole violence-when-he-got-home thing. Mathias must have liked being Vlad so much, he decided to keep the name Dracula, despite only ''pretending'' to be the Son of the Dragon.
*** Also, ''[=CV64=]'' has been officially re-instated into canon. In addition, ''Symphony of the Night'' refers to Dracula as Count Vlad Tepes Dracula, and that game is also canon, so it's clear that Igarashi isn't trying to retcon Dracula from ever being called Vlad Tepes.
** It's also worth noting that Soma wasn't the ''ONLY'' reincarnation of Dracula -- Graham, Dmitri, and Dario all got significant portions of Dracula as well, and it's implied that there are others.
** It should be pointed out that [[ShownTheirWork there's actually going to be a solar eclipse in Tokyo in 2035]]. Granted, all it probably took was IGA googling "future solar eclipses in Japan."
** Igarashi has stated in an interview that he wanted a character that was an everyday person (originally going to be a salaryman). So who else can a Japanese teenager (their chief demographic) relate to other than a Japanese teenager?
*** That also explains why Genya's got the salaryman look. It kinda works for him.

* Can anyone at all explain the origins of the Lecarde clan? And yes, I've heard of the old "Fanon" that Alucard and Maria founded the clan, but are there other theories about them?
* The name of the next game's protagonist bugs me. Shanoa? It makes her sound like a singer.
** Shanoa is a punk rocker? Probably not, despite the tattoos. But seriously, I can also think of singers named Julia, Maria, Charlotte, and Yoko. ([[YokoOhNo That last one]] is debatable...)
** M-m-m-myyyy Shanoa!

* In ''Aria of Sorrow'', Soma Cruz is the childhood friend of Mina Hakuba who lived in a Japanese shrine all her life... and a foreign exchange student. Is this one of those [[ButNotTooForeign "born in Japan but grew up somewhere else"]] deals? Oh, Japan.
** I'm not sure if you should blame Japan. I've heard it said that the whole "foreign exchange student" bit is purely an invention of the localization.
*** Which is weird, because he still ''talks'' in Japanese, even in the localization.
*** His name is Kurusu Soma in the original with kanji, suggesting that he is indeed native.
*** Mmm, it's been awhile since I checked, but aren't the furigana there katakana? Which would imply he's foreign and they gave him the kanji to match the sounds, which sometimes happens. Either way he probably grew up in Japan. Maybe his parents moved there when he was a kid or something. (And yes, the 'exchange student' thing was made up for the American version.)
*** No, the furigana for [[http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/CV02/chara_main/c_s.html Soma Kurusu's name]] are in hiragana.
** I suspect he's either full Japanese or a Japanese/Spanish ButNotTooForeign guy--I prefer the latter, as it makes his MeaningfulName less forced.
*** Which does explain some of his facial features in Aria (if you ignore some of the sameness in Ayami Kojima's art), he does have Asiatic eyes, but otherwise western features.

!!The games

** See the speech made in Discworld/TheFifthElephant about how an ancestral axe is still the same axe after getting parts removed. Presumably, over the years, Vampire Killer's had coverings added and removed, whip cores replaced, handles replaced, and whip sections replaced wholecloth. The magic still works anyway, because it's magic, and it is still the same whip, just with a new part. As for Simon buying whips, maybe he was buying whip sections to add on to the handle (presumably having damaged it in the last game), and the multiple choices were a matter of him not being able to decide what kind of Vampire Killer to leave to his kid(s).

*** Note that the Vampire Killer is an ''alchemy'' whip. We don't have much knowledge of how alchemy works in Castlevania. Here's another theory I've thought about - the whip can change forms magically through the wielder's power. This works with how Johnathan Morris wasn't able to use the whip's power initially, and the earlier games changed its form as power-ups, and also accomodates the flame whip. It's quite possible that Dracula's curse prevented Simon from being able to change the whip on his own.

** I assumed that those two were following the old shonen anime adventure tradition of "making it up as we go". They were cocky enough to run straight to Castlevania wielding no weapons, armor, or supplies beyond the currently-next-to-useless Vampire Killer and simply hoped that Johnathan would figure out the trick to using it after they got to work. It was stupid, but their game does run off anime cliches only slightly less than the Sorrow series.

* About Whip's Memory from ''Portrait of Ruin'', why did it still have Richter as it's recognized owner? Shouldn't that be John Morris instead? He harnessed the power of the Vampire Killer before so Lecarde and Morris must have done the same ritual years ago to unlock the whip's true power. They [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot wasted]] so much great small scene and plot. Imagine Johnathan's father testing him if he's really up to the job and responsibility of wielding the whip.

* Does the song "Bloody Tears" mean tears as in crying or tears as in "tears your arm off"? I always thought the first one but I'm not sure.

** Maybe somebody in the army knew about the whole Dracula’s castle thing and had sent a OneManArmy who also already knew in an attempt to help, but somehow Hammer was sent by accident. So in that case, either fate or luck brought him there.

*** Weapons and armor are hard to carry. If you're making a daring forest escape from the authorities after being woken up in the middle of the night, you're not going to stop to pick up anything you don't absolutely need.

*** This then raises the question of why he handled Alucard's monogrammed necklace in the manner he did. It's been planted deep in Galamoth territory, and duplicates can be found in the possession of Galamoth's most loyal and ambiguous witches.

* What was Hammer doing in the shrine and castle in Aria? He said that he was ordered to investigate the shrine and then he suddenly came to the castle. Why would the US army care so much about this shrine? If they cared a lot, then they would probably send more people. There's a bit of FridgeHorror attached, too: If Hammer was an bystander who was suddenly caught up in the mess, then who else was there? You only see him, so you can't tell if any other innocent people got caught up in Castlevania...

** Scottish. He's played by RobertCarlyle.

** Simon can be explained by the fact that, for years, no one really cared what his hair colour was. Eric's blonde-to-green is probably due to sprite colour limitations on the Genesis, though I've got nothing on [[spoiler:the dark hair in ''Portrait of Ruin''. I'm inclined to blame it on no one on the dev team actually PLAYING ''Bloodlines'' grumble grumble ''Rondo'' worshipping bastards grumble grumble.]]
*** The [[spoiler:purple hair]] can probably be explained because they're [[spoiler::vampires]]. The flashback NewGamePlus is kind of hard to explain one way or another, so you can assume a whole bunch of things to explain the hair.

*** Death in the ''Castlevania'' verse appears to be a touch more malicious than normal. He also appears quite different from the traditional version of the Grim Reaper in that he doesn't seem integral to the process of souls passing on - just things dying. He also seems to have relatively limited powers, otherwise he would just command the hero in question to drop dead. Furthermore, while Death is defeated with impressive regularity, all those who do so are inevitably heroic individuals of great spiritual power and stature.

*** Leon states death is divine, so he probably is the anthropomorphic personification of death. On the other hand, when you kill GHOSTS, their souls pop out, which is good evidence for a "Souls are immortal" universe. So my guess is simple, When Death "Dies", that's exactly what happens, his body is destroyed and he makes himself a new one later.

*** This death, being clearly an agent of the Devil, through which Mathias make his deal with him, is therefore the Angel of Death Azrael as depicted in demonology (instead of traditional angelology and theology), making him a demon of death.

** Hammer's reaction is no evidence either way. The game takes place in 2035 and Dracula was killed in 1999; unless Hammer has been in active service for 36 years (which, combined with the 18 years of age he would have to be in order to enter the military, would make him at least 56 at the time of Aria of Sorrow), he wasn't part of the supposed strike on the castle.
* Why did they feel the need to make Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow take place in Japan, of all places? It's friggin' Dracula! Based off Vlad the Impaler, who reigned in Wallachia, which is located in modern day Romania? And yet somehow Dracula's castle decides to beam up a dude hanging out in a temple on the other side of the planet. It's blatantly ethnocentric, and it would have made a lot more sense and been a lot more unique and interesting for Soma to have been actually a person living near where Dracula lived, instead of being predictably Japanese.
** The Japanese had no presence in the storyline until 1999, and when they did, it was because the usual heroes sent for the Hakubas in order to seal the castle. (It's pretty much the Japanese equivalent of how an American family became vital to the storyline after Quincey Morris managed to defeat Dracula in 1897.) As a result, Japan is the location of the seal, and thus the central locale of Aria. The easiest way for Alucard to guard it was to pose as a Japanese agent. As for Soma, it probably helps Dracula to be reborn close to his castle. Yet this does absolutely nothing to explain Yoko.

*** Incidentally, there is no evidence that Dawn of Sorrow takes place in Japan. There's the returning cast, but that's it. It does not take place in Dracula's castle, and the antagonists have names that appear to be German, Italian and Russian in origin.

** Circa Lament of Innocence, Dracula in Castlevania ''isn't actually Dracula'' and so all bets are more or less off. Most likely, Igarashi decanonised Castlevania 64 because Malus explicitly gives his full name as Dracula Vlad Tepes rather than [[spoiler:Matthias Cronqvist]].
*** There's plenty of time after Lament for him to impersonate, possess, or otherwise somehow become Vlad. Hell, a fairly easy [[EpilepticTrees Epileptic Tree]] for that would be that the inexperienced Drac got himself [[KilledOffForReal fully sealed]] once before, and Vlad was his first reincarnation.
*** Vlad Teped the Drakul was at one point held prisoner in Turkey, and when he returned, he was all violent and torture-y. I always assumed that in the Castlania-verse, Vlad died in the Turkish prison, and Mathias Cronqvist the Vampire, desiring a home base and in Turkey at the time, decided to assume his name and throne. Hence the whole violence-when-he-got-home thing. Mathias must have liked being Vlad so much, he decided to keep the name Dracula, despite only ''pretending'' to be the Son of the Dragon.
*** Also, [=CV64=] has been officially re-instated into canon. In addition, Symphony of the Night refers to Dracula as Count Vlad Tepes Dracula, and that game is also canon, so it's clear that Igarashi isn't trying to retcon Dracula from ever being called Vlad Tepes.
** It's also worth noting that Soma wasn't the ONLY reincarnation of Dracula - Graham, Dmitri, and Dario all got significant portions of Dracula as well, and it's implied that there are others.

* Why wasn't Hammer a playable character in Dawn of Sorrow? Yoko, Julius, and Alucard were all present and resembled their counterparts from Castlevania 3 (Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard again respectively), so why wasn't Hammer playable, throwing knives and axes and climbing on walls like our favorite pirate Grant?

*** ''"He can climb walls and ceilings? Since when did those kinds of obstacles appear in a Metroidvania?"'' Since the release of VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus and the introduction of the spider ball. It's entirely possible for something similar to be implemented for a Grant-like character in a Castlevania game.

** I think it would have been fun. They could make him more like how Grant was in the original Japanese version, where he threw knives as his default attack (and you could have guns instead of knives, of course), and if you took away some of Julius' air superiority (some, not all, of course), you could put in Grant before you meet Alucard so you have to use wall-climbing to reach later areas of the castle before Alucard's bat form makes jumping redundant in any case. It would have just completed the connection to [=CV3=] they were making. Oh well.

** Shanoa is a punk rocker? Probably not, despite the tattoos. But seriously, I can also think of singers named Julia, Maria, Charlotte and Yoko. ([[YokoOhNo That last one]] is debatable...)

** Always regarded as a fan-theory, Portrait of Ruin finally proved that Medusa Heads are actually generated en masse by Medusa, shedding them like dandruff. After all, that'd be a lot of headless Medusa Bodies otherwise. (Hey, there's an idea for a future enemy...)

* Why, if Dracula is supposed to be the "Dark Lord" with dominion over all demons, monsters, spirits, and other evil creatures under the sun, have minions with a ''holy'' Attribute? Wouldn't that be akin to, say... Superman building a Justice League with roughly a fifth of its members having Kryptonite-based powers? Similarly, why does Castlevania have a chapel in the first place? If Dracula has officially renounced God and started a war with Him and His creations, then such a place of worship (with the spirits of actually ''good'' parishioners and priests trapped in its confessional) would be useless to him.

*** Except that in Christian mythology (and let's not kid ourselves, the Dracula myth is based largely on this), holy/light really IS good. The ultimate good, in fact. A more likely explanation is that the Konami developers, being Japanese, viewed the Dracula myth through the prism of their own cultural upbringing. Shintoism and Buddhism are the two dominant religions in Japan, and both of them embrace the LightIsNotGood / DarkIsNotEvil tropes. The Castlevania developers were brought up surrounded by those religious tropes, so they put them in the game. And now that it's become an established part of the franchise, they can't get rid of it.

** In regards to the chapel, back when I first played Symphony, I just took it in stride - Vlad Tepes was a religious man, so even after becoming the Dark Lord, it didn't seem too off - trappings from his former life. Now that he's Matthias, though, it's a bit weirder... maybe he's doing it to mock God? After all, having a church just so that all your demons can tramp through it all the time sounds like a good way to try and tweak the big guy.
*** I can see that. I also kind of wonder if Lisa didn't have a part in the one in Symphony. She was fairly religious, wasn't she? Maybe Dracula had it built as a sanctuary for her.
** I had a WMG about that... I assume Chaos controls how Castlevania manifests, and Dracula really has little control over the details. Hence why the castle has elements that don't fit or even help the heros. It is a "Creature of Chaos" after all.

** It's amazing how unnecessarily elaborate [[FanWank fan wanks]] can get when the real solution is both simple and perfectly obvious. The labels like "dark", "holy", and "hit" are not literal descriptions that are built on the world's mythology but, instead, just convenient ways to divide up the differing effects that certain attacks have on certain enemies. If you have both fallen angels and possessed vampire hunters in the same game then, unless you want to value semantics over reasonableness of design, you're going to be stuck having to call them both "holy" due to the slight overlap, for want of a better word, just like the highly ambiguous word "dark" can be equally useful to create a smaller number of categories of attack power in a castle where ''every'' enemy can in some sense or other be called "dark". In short, all "holy" means is that the enemy has something about their origin, nature, or attacks that is associated with holy things in some way.
** Or alternately it pleases Dracula to have a "sarcastic" chapel, a place filled with evil that ''looks'' like a place for servants of God to rest. It's the ultimate mockery of God. As to how he managed to fill it with creatures that are holy-elemental, he ''knows'' his son is out there and wants him destroyed. Setting a trap that will stop other vampires from coming after him would be high priority enough that he would devote a lot of time and effort to finding a way.

* So [[spoiler: the villagers in ''Order of Ecclesia'' are the direct descendants of the Belmont bloodline]]? Then why [[spoiler: do they act for the most part like normal, scared citizens under Dracula's assault?]] Shouldn't they [[spoiler: at least have some knowledge of what their ancestors did and try to fight back? It ''has'' only been around ''50 years'' or so since ''Symphony of the Night'', not long enough for the current Belmont descendants to forget their heritage]].

*** That doesn't make as much sense, as [[spoiler: the Belmonts are destined to remain ''out'' of the fighting against Drac until 1999, as stated in ''Portrait of Ruin''.]] In fact, [[spoiler: this is precisely why Richter vanished off the face of the planet after the events of ''Symphony of the Night''.]] It's possible that the events of ''Order of Ecclesia'' [[spoiler: inspired the villagers to start training for when they ''do'' get back in the game,]] but I doubt that [[spoiler:they would actively pursue their ancestral duties before its time, especially when the Vampire Killer whip's been passed off to a branch family (specifically, the Morrises) to take over their duties until the prophesied time.]]
* Why by the storyline are the Belmont males uber, but playing as anyone else makes the game much easier? I mean, Richter is slow as hell and can hardly jump for crap (particularly stupid as, in ''Aria'', Julius Belmont is 60 years old, but MUCH faster and more agile than Ricther was during his prime!). If you have to play as an ordinary Belmont, the game is going to be much harder than, say, playing as a little girl who can cast spells, or a high school student who can use monster's souls. Which makes no ***ing sense whatsoever. Also, the Vampire Killer is supposed be a powerful legendary weapon, the best for defeating Dracula, but most of the mid-game weapons in ''Aria of Sorrow'' dramatically outclass it. The Alucard sword makes it look like a piece of crap. What gives? It's always been a pet peeve of mine how old school platform characters seem really sluggish and unathetlic.

*** At least ''Dracula's Curse'' had Trevor be (in most situations, at least) [[JackOfAllStats the most balanced, useful and tough fighter of the four playable characters despite all the others having their own individual advantages]].
* The 'Nintendo 64' games with the enemies that respawn simply because you re-enter a room bugged me. In the first one, the hero send out a young boy into the woods to escape the manor. The skeleton filled woods. At least in the remake, a plot coupon protects the boy. And the ending to the remake when [[spoiler: the bad guys win by stealing the mojo of the wolfman]] also bugged me. Last but not least, the 'carry the unstable explosives through the gears' thing. One pixel off and you are wormfood.

* And on that note, since he has no problem wielding it and it isn't going to kill him over time, why not put away the whip, use that spear and save himself some trouble later? ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation In canon, not gameplay]].)
** He's already been using the Vampire Killer for a while. It's probable too late for switching weapons to save him.

** Two other theories tossed around: The power of the Crimson Stone (I think), which grants Dracula the power of a vampire, gets more powerful the more vampire souls are in it. Thus, aside from a few noteworthy individuals, Dracula tends to destroy any vampires he meets or makes to power himself up. Secondly, early Castlevania instruction books stated that even when Dracula is gone, the Belmonts keep themselves busy hunting down other vampires, so they probably keep the vampire population in check.

* The battle against the giant enemy crab in the lighthouse in Order of Ecclesia makes me wonder: why would the builders put platforms and stone barriers in an elevator shaft with a working elevator?
** Obviously as a backup in case the elevator stopped working. That or the masonry and everything just wore down - considering that they aren't actual stairs or anything, it isn't a stretch that the lighthouse was in fairly severe disrepair from having a GIANT EVIL CRAB in it. You could even hazard that said giant crab damaged things in just such a way on purpose, to make killing intruders easier, though that borders on WMG territory.

* I've been playing some Portrait of Ruin lately and was playing through the boss rush with Richter and Maria, and does it strike anyone else as profoundly messed up that they sent a 12 year old girl armed only with birds and cats to fight against the forces of Dracula (which includes Werewolves, Frankensteins monsters, dragons, giants, undead dinosaurs and a ''giant balls of human corpses''). Am I the only one who imagines Maria may have needed some therapy after all that crap (or even a stay at an asylum, if I may be so bold).

** It would be ''utterly unrealistic'' to expect all the descendants of a person to share their last name. That would mean no branching out in the family tree whatsoever over the course of centuries and centuries--every child a male or an unmarried female for all that time.

*** Dracula says "Behold my true form, and despair" in SoTN in the last battle.

* Where's [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse War, Famine and Pestilence]] been this whole time? Did Death say something to piss them off?

*** That's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Corvinus "Corvinus"]], though. It seems that the original idea might have been for Lament to take place directly before Castlevania 3 with Matthias as Walter and the entirely useless Joachim as Vlad Tepes. Why they threw that out and decided to set the game four hundred years earlier is not clear, much like why they set it before the crusades had started when the crusades having started is a key plot point.
*** But in the final version of Lament, it was Cronqvist (regardless of how little sense it -- or anything else in the plotline -- made), so the Conquest link is still pretty cool.

*** True, but Soma's power is clearly identified as Drac's supreme power from which all the others come, while Dimitrii's and Dario's look more like powers of high level monsters. Beside, they (along with Graham) only inherited some powers while Soma got ''Dracula's soul''.

* What is a man?

* ''Judgment'' - is - well... WHY? The FIGHTAN GAEMS!!!!11 plot reads like poor fanfiction, Carmilla is suddenly Elisabeth Bathory in a thong, Sypha's a stereotypical ice queen, Grant's design is a near-lift from that of Faust VIII, Maria's an airhead Pettanko, Trevor's an insecure ego-case, and Simon is Light Yagami. Was IGA drunk when he greenlighted it? It wouldn't irritate me so much if it were done WELL. However, it's not. The Zelda team's graphics run CIRCLES around ''Judgment'''s - plastic Uncanny Valley Maria, shudder.
** Baz Luhrmann attacked Simon's jacket. GLOWING CROSS GET.
*** Isaac's tattoo artist attacked him too.
** The only cool design is Aeon.
*** No love for the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Werewolf]] [[KnightInShiningArmor Knight]] Cornell?
*** Death is freakish, but not bad either.
*** He's just missing his cloak. That's the problem.
*** He had a history of losing his cloak upon reaching OneWingedAngel status in early {{Metroidvania}}s. While most of these second forms were bizarre bone-scythe things, in ''Castlevania: The Arcade'', he appears to simply ditch the cloak for his second fight.
** Alucardroth. Death to Obata, please. If one - just one more - Sephiroth design clone shows up anywhere - I will go completely bat-shit. Daddum tish.
*** His cape is the only render in cinema that isn't poor.
*** Dracula looks like Gankutsuou-via-''Film/MirrorMask'' - which would be cool if it were intentional.
*** Dracula is wearing a dress.
** Okay, let's give this a try. Most of the design decisions can be traced to a single goal. IGA wanted to sell the series to people who should have been buying it and weren't: the Japanese. These decisions were not tailored to appeal to Americans. We already bought ''Order of Ecclesia''.
*** It ''is'' an ExcusePlot; it's hard to come up with a rational reason for these people to be in the same game. This overlaps with IGA's maddening decision to make these games ''have plot at all''. (You might recall that in the early days, they managed to make ''five games'' out of "Simon kills Dracula and his monsters".)
*** Carmilla would have run into the same design problem as Death: unless you're going for particularly bizarre design, being a mask or riding around on a skull doesn't work. Thus, they had to take liberties with her character, and they jumped on the whole female vampire stereotype. (This does not excuse their massive rewrite for Cornell, who ''did'' have plot.)
*** Most of the characters were introduced in games prior to ''Symphony of the Night'', back in the days when they didn't have personalities. That doesn't fly as well today, so they had to come up with individual characterizations for everyone. And yes, that includes deliberate personality flaws. (Incidentally, Simon's the insecure one, not Trevor.)
*** As of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChronicles'', Simon had long red hair. As of ''Symphony of the Night'', Alucard is white haired. Get an anime artist to draw them and odds are that they will resemble anime characters with similar designs. Obata didn't say "let's redesign Simon so he looks exactly like Light". He was given a character with a very similar hairstyle, and the result was a similar look.
*** Robes resemble dresses when they are sufficiently formal.
** The usual remains true. Go in looking for flaws, and you will find them. And honestly, the game has no shortage of them.
** The worst part is, [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot I think a Castlevania fighting game is a good idea]], and I like powerstone-style gameplay all right, but the unrecognizable characters and sloppy gameplay make me want to cry. I halfway want IGA to do a Judgement 2 so he can attempt an AuthorsSavingThrow and put the Judgement series on the right track. (Honestly, I don't mind the story. Fighting games can have nice stories, but that's not the point.)
*** I think it would've been better if it stuck to a formula like ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' Even the Subspace Emissary could fit... Go through a couple of stages beating up monsters and when you finally reach Dracula's Castle, it switches to a Metroidvania.
** I didn't notice Judgment in Game Stop for the longest time despite it being there, because everytime I passed by it, I thought it was some Death Note title. I only recently figured out it was the long-maligned Judgment and took a look at the back... and couldn't recognize even ONE of the characters in the small portrait bubbles. And I've been playing the series since the '80s, so I should be able to recognize at least half, if not all of the characters, anime-stylization or not (fan-hate aside, when looking at Dawn of Sorrow's art, you could tell that Soma was Soma, Hammer was Hammer, etc.)
*** ''Dawn of Sorrow'' is actually one of the major exceptions in the series. Compare Alucard's appearances in ''Dracula's Curse'', ''Symphony of the Night'', ''Legends'', and ''Aria of Sorrow''. Compare Simon's appearances in ''Castlevania'', ''Simon's Quest'', ''Super Castlevania IV'', ''Haunted Castle'', and the X68000 game (especially notice that not even its ''remake'' kept him looking the same), and none of them even come close to the boxart! Judgment may have taken great liberties with the designs, but it's foolish to think this is anything different for the series, let alone a sign that something is wrong.
** Some characterization seems to be so facepalm-worthy and I don't just speak of Maria and her boobs obsession. If anything, this may make people believe that Sypha will go down in gaming history as a 'feminist hypocritical bitch', whereas having no personality felt like a blessing that her pachislot appearance seemed more loyal to the original source. Why, IGA, why...? Is this another Konami decree to ruin yet another historical (in context of the game anyway) female character?

* Are there ''any'' female fans of this series who aren't in it for the [[YaoiFangirl yaoi]]?
** That's not really a good way to make them come out.
** [[Tropers/InsanityPrelude Yes.]]
** [[Tropers/{{Shini}} I'm]] in it for the gameplay, the yaoi is just a bonus.
*** What they said. Also, Tera/Iris, please. Someone? Anyone?
*** Wait, there's yaoi in the series somewhere? I'm ''way'' too much of a yuri/shoujo-ai fangirl, apparently. Or... is this more CrackPairing Yaoi?
*** It's the CrackPairing kind. Essentially, every game from ''Symphony of the Night'' to ''Aria of Sorrow'' has contained a {{Bishounen}} main character who has [[FoeYay a strong rivalry]] [[HoYay or friendship]] with another one. See Alucard and Richter, Cornell and Ortega, Nathan and Hugh, Juste and Maxim, Leon and Mathias (and potentially Walter and Joachim, either with each other or mix-and-match with the above), Hector and Isaac...
*** Are there ''any'' male fans of this series who actually play the games instead of whine about them on certain forums?
*** Me, though I tend to whine to my few friends who like games....