Castlevania General

I do recall IGA mentioning that he didn't like that it connected the Belmonts to Dracula by blood.

One wonders how he reacted to Gabriel.

Edited by RedHunter543 on May 3rd 2021 at 12:06:55 PM

It's also weird because the Lecarde family is all but stated to be Alucards and Maria's descendants.

So they're in-laws at least.

That seems an odd take since it's not like vampire hunting requires a license.

Plus, we have Maria, Sophie, Charlotte, and Shanoa. It's just "women cast, men whip" as an arbitrary rule.

Edit:

I do note there is an explanation for the Belmonts giving up Vampire Killer. This is in Portrait of Ruin's backstory but the Belmonts were told that Dracula would finally be defeated in 2000 or whenever Julius did it so they gave up the whip to the Morris family until said time.

Which...honestly is a dick move.

Either one Belmont was an enormous asshole or they really misread the Prophecy.

A more typically "anime" answer would be Richter, after being brainwashed, put the whip up and didn't feel that the Belmonts should continue fighting Dracula since he'd utterly screwed the pooch and Alucard had shown himself a capable replacement.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 3rd 2021 at 9:10:55 AM

But the Lecarde family ISN"T the Belmonts so I guess that's fine?

True.

Also, way back when people were speculating that Trevor and later Belmonts would be able to beat Dracula because of being dhampyr.

Which really is a very different thing than being badass normals.

I think that the thing with Sonia (which we've discussed before) is a combination of the many explanations.

The women can't do it thing was what Iga said aloud.

There was also that he didn't make the game, hence the thing with Alucard, which he wouldn't have done because then the Belmonts are part of Dracula's family.

Things might have been different if that dreamcast game Sonia was going to be in had been a thing, or if Iga had been more involved from the start.

If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that a lot of creators definitely prefer doing their own thing than dealing with someone else' stuff. Especially when it goes against what they had planned.

Kojima acknowledging Metal Gear Portable Ops in Peacewalker with one line amounting to, "Yeah, let's forget that shit ever happened" is one particular example.

Was Portable Ops a bad game?

I don't believe it's considered bad necessarily, so much as forgettable. Calling to the Night slaps hard though.

Not particularly, in fact, Peacewalker did get a lot of mechanics from it like the Soldier recruitment, and improved on it.

But plot wise, it's just MGS but with Naked Snake and Gene. And there wasn't really much to build from it, so Kojima went with a soft reboot for Big Boss in Peacewalker.

But seriously, Ursula's " accursed snake children " still makes me laugh.

Edited by RedHunter543 on May 3rd 2021 at 8:02:28 AM

It's fine. Nothing awful but nothing spectacular either.

Oh yeah, and plot wise, it did get help set up the whole MGS 3 support squad were actually the Patriots along with Ocelot. So Kojima didn't totally discard it.

Edited by RedHunter543 on May 3rd 2021 at 8:03:44 AM

Portable Ops has an 87 on Metacritic.

I might be slightly biased because I remember having a lot of fun using Ocelot.

Anyway, it is clear that IGA tossed out anything he didn't work on himself, and that he liked.

Hence almost all the 2D games being canon.

I do have to ask, if you could take some games that weren't part of IGA's canon and put them in, which ones would you do....

....besides maybe Sonia.

....actually, leave Sonia in.

I'd put everything in. Its not like Castlevania is a game with a lot of contradictory plot.

Yeah, Lords of Shadow aside I don't see why they all can't be canon.

I hate Lament of Innocence but I have no reason to destroy it.

Just remove the idea that Alucard is Trevor's dad and Legends fits pretty well.

There's probably enough room for Circle of the Moon and 64/Legacy Of Darkness (you can have Reinhart and Carrie start at different points, representing the two different starting points of both versions), alongside Order of Ecclesia, which has no set date beyond sometime in the 1800s.

Hell, those games all take place during the era without Belmonts, so they fit pretty well.

I do think that Christopher is a problem, because if he solos Dracula twice, then what's Simon's claim to fame? That being said, they probably still fit as well (I'm not sure of the date).

There's a surprisingly amount of wiggle room about many things.

To be fair, I think the reason the N64 games got cut is because the original Castlevania 64 wasn't a good game (though that's due to Konami not giving it the time it needed), and that may be part of the reason it was cut.

But yeah, most of the games fit pretty well, and didn't need to be cut.

Yeah. Sonia and Alucard definitely had a thing but the game never states it's true anyway.

An interesting thing to contemplate, knowing Alucard and Sonia knew eachother since they where younger, is that since Dracula was trying to turn over a new leaf while he was raising Adrian is that maybe he actually teamed up with Sonia's parents at some point to take out some greater evil.

Edited by ShirowShirow on May 3rd 2021 at 4:49:52 PM

Yeah, the original Castlevania 64 was not a great game. Legacy of Darkness was better, but still flawed.

I've played both. With the original I could barely even stand to get through the first level because it was just that boring. With Legacy of Darkness I played through the entire thing with every character.

It speaks volumes about how bad the Forest of Silence was in the original game that they completely reworked the beginning for Legacy of Darkness. Foggy Lake is a better opening stage that eases you into the game, and the reworked Forest of Silence is easier to navigate and more fun overall.

Edited by M84 on May 4th 2021 at 12:51:39 AM

That being said, IGA did like Cornell enough to include him in Judgment (he was involved with Judgment wasn't he?).

I'd have thrown Carrie in there as well. The Belnades' don't get enough representations (outside of Sypha herself, and then Yoko years later).

Well, I guess Maria apparently counts. Whatever.

I feel bad for Simon, honestly, despite being the OG—he's pretty much the Generic Guy of the Belmont family.

Even Judgement notes that Trevor and he are the Ken and Ryu of warrior Belmonts.

Everyone has a different style with Juste being the flamboyant pretty boy one.

:)

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 4th 2021 at 7:03:03 AM

I'd like it if they made Simon the boring but practical Belmont.

Especially if they adapt his two games for Netflix. To contrast Trevor.

Simon's claim to fame is being the first Belmont to beat Dracula by himself. Twice.

not exactly, at least if chronology is concerned. But Simon did it the second time while he was dying from the never-healing wounds that Dracula inflicted on him during their first battle

Emphasis on "by himself". Trevor had help. And Leon never fought Dracula though he did defeat Death.