Castlevania General

Arikaido wasn't the one who caused his amnesia. That was a consequence of Julius using Vampire Killer to seal Castlevania.

Edited by M84 on Nov 15th 2021 at 3:31:41 AM

I mean not telling him who he is or where he came from.

Because showing up out of nowhere to tell a confused amnesiac man an outlandish story about him being the last of a lineage of legendary vampire hunters who just killed a god of evil by sealing his castle in an eclipse is such a great idea.

"J" probably would have dismissed Arikaido as a random weirdo and left.

Edited by M84 on Nov 15th 2021 at 3:35:22 AM

Like I said, Alucard can do magic, and verify this.

There are tons of witnesses who survived the battle.

An Amnesiac would be pretty accepting of this.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Nov 14th 2021 at 2:42:56 PM

Because tossing around magic in front of a confused amnesiac man is sure to work out well.

"J" would probably have decided getting far away from the weirdo turning into mist or a bat or some shit is a good idea.

Edited by M84 on Nov 15th 2021 at 3:53:15 AM

Realistically, if Alucard had to bring him up to speed, he'd start with telling him his name and then explain who he is and what happened to him, then use a benign example of magic like summoning his familiars.

All Julius knew was that his name has a J in it.

The more you think about the amnesiac hobo plot point, the less sense it makes. I find it hard to believe no one managed to explain it to him for 3 decades.

There's no "realistic" way to treat the kind of amnesia people get in fiction like Julius' case. Because in real life amnesia does not work that way.

Edited by M84 on Nov 16th 2021 at 4:37:03 AM

I just assumed Julius was blown away to a random location at the end of the Dark Castle War and was unable to be tracked down since Arikado and co. didn't have much to go on, and finding him only became harder in the years since.

Another idea is that he was presumed dead due to a case of Never Found the Body. He was at ground zero at the whole castle sealing thing.

Maybe the Church just let Julius be after 1999. They thought they'd permanently defeated Dracula so the Belmonts had earned their rest.

Julius was clearly faking amnesia because he was sick of hanging out with Alucard.

So do I have it right that the current party line is that Simon only fought Dracula twice, and CVI, CVIV, Haunted Castle, Vampire Killer and Chronicles are all retellings of the first battle?

Also, did this originate with the controversial “Igaverse timeline” or does it predate that?

Edited by HamburgerTime on Nov 19th 2021 at 7:00:04 AM

I believe Simon being the only person to kill Dracula twice (Christopher met Drac twice before that, but only killed him the second time) has always been the case, and Iga didn't change anything on that front.

They've always been different versions of the same game. Their titles are even all the exact same in Japan. The English side kept changing them for some reason.

Thank you!

My guess about the different names was they were testing to see which localised name would be the most marketable. Or at least go with the name on whatever sold the most which was Castlevania on the NES. Vampire Killer woulda been a good substitute tho.

Also some subtitles changed. Simon's Quest in Japan is basically "Cursed Seal", Castlevania 3 was full on different and was "Akumajo Densetsu/Demon Castle Legend" and so on. By the SNES game, Castlevania was here to stay.

Although I do feel bad we lost out on some of the GBA and DS Japanese titles because "Concerto of the Midnight Sun", "Cross of the Blue Moon" and "Minuet of Dawn" are all great titles in themselves.

AND FINALLY if you wanna talk confusing, Circle of the Moon and Lament of Innocence lost their subtitles here in Europe. Figure that out.

Every classic Castlevania has an entirely different name between Japan and America/Europe (and different names between those regions as well). Except Rondo of Blood, but that came out so late that everyone was used to calling it by its Japanese name anyway. And the Japanese titles weren't consistent, you had names like Akumajou Dracula (CV1), Akumajou Densetsu (CV3), Dracula Densetsu (Adventure), and Vampire Killer (Bloodlines).

From Symphony of the Night onward to they stuck on the Japanese side to every game being Akumajou Dracula: [Subtitle] equivalent to English side being Castlevania: [Subtitle]. But then the subtitles are completely different between languages, including SotN which was Nocturne in the Moonlight (Gekka no Yasoukyoku). The only ones kept the same were Circle of the Moon and Curse of Darkness (Yami no Juin). Well except in Europe, where CotM has no subtitle for some reason.

And there's the fact that they didn't actually stick to Akumajou Dracula in Japan. They tried to change the series name to Castlevania in Japan as well so everywhere could be the same, so LoI, HoD, and AoS are also Castlevania: [Subtitle] in Japan, but it didn't stick so they went back to Akumajou Dracula for Dawn of Sorrow onward. And in the case of Lament of Innocence it doesn't have a subtitle in Japan, it's just called Castlevania there, which for some reason was also the case in Europe.

And then there's Caslevania 64, where the 64 is just what fans add to specify. It's also just called Castlevania outside Japan. In Japan it's Akumajou Dracula: Mokushiroku (Apocalypse).

And then there's Lords of Shadow, which seemingly because it was made outside Japan were kept totally as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in Japan. But then the sequel randomly changes to Akumajou Dracula: Lords of Shadow 2.

Also the SNES Richter game was called Vampire's Kiss over here in Europe. No idea why but it makes it way easier to differentiate between it and the PC Engine original when people somehow insist on calling the latter Dracula X as well yet wonder why people are getting confused.

I never knew CV names were so confusing holy heck.

I mean at least Kingdom Hearts is consistent across the board as far as I'm aware.

Every country gets the nonsense names.

Well, Castlevania titles still at least sound like actual phrases and not random maths or stream of consciousness.

...sometimes. (looks at Gallery of Labyrinth)

EDIT: Internet dude Slowbeef has done a video of our ol' friend Castlevania Judgement with Madi. Watch if you wannasee them just ascend to the astral plane upon seeing Death and Carmilla

Edited by MightyKombat on Nov 23rd 2021 at 10:17:02 AM

Anyone else ever notice how Castlevanias are known for a.) Belmonts b.) Dracula is the bad guy and c.) the -vania half of Metroidvania, yet Castlevania titles that hit all three of those notes are an extreme minority? I think it's only like one or two titles where you play as a Belmont trying to kill Dracula in an open-ended map with locked-off areas that open up as you gain new abilities.

That one was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

Yeah...

Edited by M84 on Nov 25th 2021 at 3:37:55 AM

Speaking as someone who actually enjoys Simon's quest, yeah it's a rough game. The other one was Harmony of Dissonance.

The game that established Castlevania as a good metroidvania starred Alucard.

I'm amused that outsiders to the fanbase know about the Belmonts, Dracula and the Metroidvania, but not the star of one of the best games in the series.

Hell, in the DS games, out of 3, only 1 lets you play as a Belmont, and only in a bonus mode.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Nov 24th 2021 at 2:53:14 PM

Actually 2 DS games have playable Belmonts. Richter was in Portrait of Ruin.

Anyway, believe it or not I like Simon's Quest. It is the prototypical Metroidvania to a degree, and I think it's biggest problem aside from the actual ones is that it was just too ahead of it's time. Its like how Zelda 2 was largely side-scrolling adventure with RPG elements instead of a basic top-down explorathon, Ganon was barely a presence and Link could turn into a fairy.

Simon's Quest does a lot of things different too, like having to buy your whip upgrades, hell having to buy near everything, solving weird cryptic puzzles and only three very piss easy boss battles. I mean I know Dracula is meant to be difficult if you actually fight him and not just set him on fire but...well the whole story is that Simon needs to get Dracula's earthly remains and burn them to ashes, so the fact that spamming Sacred Flame as soon as Dracula spawns in and easy GG-ing him makes perfect sense. Simon doesn't want to take chances and neither should you.

Even the townsfolk speaking in weird riddles and straight up lies and irrelevant shit makes sense story-wise. Many of them don't wanna see Dracula back and as far as they can tell, their hero Simon Belmont wants to revive Dracula for his own purpose...I mean he does but besides that.

Legit, the premise of Simon's quest is very interesting.

Simon has to defy the sacred duty of his family and revive Dracula, while being hounded by Dracula's forces, and distrusted by the townsfolk since his actions are endangering them.