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

[Toilet seats vendor]

I suppose this is how we must approach the Castlevania-series! :-)

It would've been easier to treat it that way if the people behind the series didn't openly boast about how they never played the games :-) (And no, shoving in an easter egg or two doesn't mean the series respects the games, Sam Deats)
I know that anything that comes close to the "damsel in distress" trope is a grave sin in 2025 AD, but giving every female character Rondo of Blood magic powers is lazy and lame. Everyone knows how outrageous it is that they made Annette the strongest Egyptian godess negress for no reason, but for me an equally bad change is Tera. You want a catholic nun that encourages our christian protagonist on his fight against the forces of hell? Sorry, we made her be Maria's mother for no reason, and she also has magic powers just like everyone else in our diverse cast just because.

Speaking of Maria, she's probably the one character they butchered the most in Nogturne. Not only is she 16 now while they lazily potray her with the Dracula X design despite her looking completely different at 17 in SotN, not only are they gonna make her a britoid despite her surname being French (and after they radnomly changed the setting to the French revolution), they will also completely change her personality from an optimistic and naive child later (RoB) who comes to mature when she embarks on a quest to save her friend 5 years later (SotN), to a cinical, overly angsty teenager that only wants to kill her father, because writing characters that simply showcase the good in humanity is Bad Writing™, and they're mature, intelligent writers, who subvert expectations and provide, deep commentary that is totally something more than a way to manifest the writers' nihilism!

With each season it became more and more obvious the writers couldn't care less about Castlevania. They changed the personality of literally every single character that they imported from the games, not one of them acts similar to their original counterparts. Netflixvania's Alucard is by far the worst case of mischaracteriziation, I could write +10 pages on why I hope hordes of violent Pakis visit Ellis' house in his godforsaken country everyday for what he did with the character, but for this post let's just say that the concept of an undead character with probably no hopes of actual salvation still fighting alongside the Church's side, and doing his best to follow it's teachings is something I really like, and the way Powerhouse fags didn't explore that side of Alucard, and instead managed to fumble up every other part of his character launches me into sperg rage. They shouldn't have let Dracula realize his mistakes in season 2, because the whole point of Dracula is that he has no self-reflection (Get it? Because vampires can't reflect in the mirror) and him being stuck in a cycle of death and revival is a result of powerhungry lunatics seeking ultimate power that could outmatch God's, just like he desired in 1095 (Again, putting a painting of Leon Belmont in the show to get "wow what a cool referencerino!" reactions from redditors doesn't excuse your clique from completely butchering everything else from the show, Sam). And now that they've changed Dracula's story and let him go on an early retirement, they just fill it out with their messy, unorganized egyptian mythology references. Or maybe the actual reason for why they love to put egyptian gods into their project is because seeing crosses and rosaries reminds them of the christofascist regime that they cry about on twitter when they don't organize a circlejerk about how Castlevania fans are stupid and don't understand that you can't have a 1:1 adaption, so the only remaining option is to do a polar opposite adaption.

To end this off, when you go to the Internet and criticise the show for it's middle school tier atheism compared to the games' use of Christian themes, the shills will often post this picture:


In the mind of a netlfixvania shill, this scene proves that Castlevania always criticised organized religion, so Warren Ellis was right to potray the burning of Lisa as the symbol of how the Church is evil and exploits people's faith (it totally wasn't just him bitching about religion remember the zombie priest!!11!!!1). This is funny, because those people want to accusse you of how you have no media literacy etc. yet them using this specific scene just exposes that they themselves know jackshit about the games. You see, Lisa was never burned, that is just what Ellis did because Church + medieval times = witch burning in his post-anglican, british brain. No, Lisa was simply crucified and a spear went through her sides. The wounds and blood can be seen in a promotional manga Konami included in one of their magazines around the game's realease:



Combine this with her words about forgiveness:

Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm, for theirs is already a hard lot.

... And you get a not-so-subtle reference to this little know guy called Jesus Christ.

 

[Brain Power]

Still annoyed about them refusing to put Grant because "lelelel his last name dumb and land pirate lmao, and this brown bisexual kweerkee woman with a suspiciously similar name that's gonna get bleached by dhampir dick is totally pure coincidence, also WE WUZ CARTHAGINIANS N SHIT :^)".

On the games side, I'm replaying OOE and I still mantain it's not that difficult, and none of the bosses gave me much trouble, except for Goliath. Fuck Goliath.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

In the mind of a netlfixvania shill, this scene proves that Castlevania always criticised organized religion, so Warren Ellis was right to potray the burning of Lisa as the symbol of how the Church is evil and exploits people's faith (it totally wasn't just him bitching about religion remember the zombie priest!!11!!!1). This is funny, because those people want to accusse you of how you have no media literacy etc. yet them using this specific scene just exposes that they themselves know jackshit about the games. You see, Lisa was never burned, that is just what Ellis did because Church + medieval times = witch burning in his post-anglican, british brain. No, Lisa was simply crucified and a spear went through her sides. The wounds and blood can be seen in a promotional manga Konami included in one of their magazines around the game's realease:

Didn't they make his mom some atheist super scientist? I swear modern media can't have anyone just be a regular person anymore. It's such a weird thing that the people who scream the loudest about diversity are the ones that have Asian mom mentality that if you aren't super successful then you might as well don't exist.

 

[winderson_silva]

not only are they gonna make her a britoid despite her surname being French

Shes half french half russian, but still say "wanker". Why even change stuff if you ignore your own lore?

On the magical power, a brazilian reviewer, the guy that made the 4 hour complete timeline, said on his review of season 2 that he wonders why the Vampire Killer is even there.

Vampires can just grab it, its not really that effective compared to his magic, and while yes Juste got magic and on gameplay you can be pretty op with it, the whip is still the one weapon that gives the Belmonts their unmatched skill, Alucard well say that theres no hunter on their level. If Ritcher, once awaken his power, can spawm magic without need to rest or any consequence, and the whip didnt even kill any major character (Dracula died to his own hands, Carmilla kill herself, Bartley is beaten by magic + being sucked and Drolta is cut with Alucard's sword), and clearly doesnt hold a candle to the morning star or that knife from the end of season 4, whats it for?

Also how the vampires can just walk on day as long they are on a forest, not even a jungle where indeed the sun sometimes cant reach the ground and plants are forced to be parasitic to bigger trees, no, they are on a french wood and as long they stay 2 milimiters from sunlight its fine, Tera can walk with a semi transparent block of ice over her head, fuck the eclipse, just give every vampire an umbrella

but I most especially dislike the ostensible link between African Americans and Egyptians that the series tries to establish as some sort of fact in the vein of "We Wuz Kangs".

Related to the egypt thing, doesnt the date shown in the screen show that for some reason some randon nubians were worshipping ancient egyptian deities all the way to the 1400's? Like randomly this enclave just exists in the middle of a country that been islamic for 800 years?

 

[Felis Meanis]

Edit:
This was a long post. Please be advised... :-)

To end this off, when you go to the Internet and criticise the show for it's middle school tier atheism compared to the games' use of Christian themes, the shills will often post this picture:

Well, I'm very thankful that you offered yourself to take the brunt of the unbearable shenanigans delievered by what I can only surmise to be the most insufferable of Redditors. Thank you for your service! :-)
I must say, I have no wish to expose myself to what can perhaps (?) best be described as "nu-Castlevania" fans, in lieu of "real" Castlevania fans.

It would've been easier to treat it that way if the people behind the series didn't openly boast about how they never played the games :-) (And no, shoving in an easter egg or two doesn't mean the series respects the games, Sam Deats)

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised in the slightest that they've stooped to this level of pettiness, like they always seem to do as of late (i.e. during the last decade or so, if not longer). Indeed, they are very intentional in being on the nose with their contempt of actual fans (of any given franchise of old, really) who could, apparently, in the year of 2025 be considered "nazis" and whatnot. It's all so tiresome.

I know that anything that comes close to the "damsel in distress" trope is a grave sin in 2025 AD, but giving every female character Rondo of Blood magic powers is lazy and lame. Everyone knows how outrageous it is that they made Annette the strongest Egyptian godess negress for no reason, but for me an equally bad change is Tera. You want a catholic nun that encourages our christian protagonist on his fight against the forces of hell? Sorry, we made her be Maria's mother for no reason, and she also has magic powers just like everyone else in our diverse cast just because.

You're right on the money, of course.
I must confess that I had not yet caught on much about the character of Tera in the "real" Castlevania series as of yet, but I understand she's one of the women Richter must save in both Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles.

The change they made to Annette is considerable and unconscionable, of course. It does indeed fit right in with the whole meme of "We Wuz Kangz" though, which can be perceived as an actual political stance made by the politically correct left. They are bold and unscrupulous, after all.

Speaking of Maria, she's probably the one character they butchered the most in Nogturne. Not only is she 16 now while they lazily potray her with the Dracula X design despite her looking completely different at 17 in SotN, not only are they gonna make her a britoid despite her surname being French (and after they radnomly changed the setting to the French revolution), they will also completely change her personality from an optimistic and naive child later (RoB) who comes to mature when she embarks on a quest to save her friend 5 years later (SotN), to a cinical, overly angsty teenager that only wants to kill her father, because writing characters that simply showcase the good in humanity is Bad Writing™, and they're mature, intelligent writers, who subvert expectations and provide, deep commentary that is totally something more than a way to manifest the writers' nihilism!

The portrayal of her character in Nocturne is indeed a great disservice to her actual character. Once again, you are right on the money.

At least they made Juste Belmonst more bearable by making him being one of the characters who uphold the voice of actual reason and morality.

With each season it became more and more obvious the writers couldn't care less about Castlevania. They changed the personality of literally every single character that they imported from the games, not one of them acts similar to their original counterparts. Netflixvania's Alucard is by far the worst case of mischaracteriziation, I could write +10 pages on why I hope hordes of violent Pakis visit Ellis' house in his godforsaken country everyday for what he did with the character, but for this post let's just say that the concept of an undead character with probably no hopes of actual salvation still fighting alongside the Church's side, and doing his best to follow it's teachings is something I really like, and the way Powerhouse fags didn't explore that side of Alucard, and instead managed to fumble up every other part of his character launches me into sperg rage.

I get you, now that you mention it. I admit: before your post, I would have said that I thought that they characterized Alucard in an at least somewhat sensible manner (I've already kind of discarded season 3 of the original Netflix series...), but now that you mention it, he is indeed mischaracterized.

I will join you in your sperg rage. It's a sperging of morality, after all.

They shouldn't have let Dracula realize his mistakes in season 2, because the whole point of Dracula is that he has no self-reflection (Get it? Because vampires can't reflect in the mirror) and him being stuck in a cycle of death and revival is a result of powerhungry lunatics seeking ultimate power that could outmatch God's, just like he desired in 1095 (Again, putting a painting of Leon Belmont in the show to get "wow what a cool referencerino!" reactions from redditors doesn't excuse your clique from completely butchering everything else from the show, Sam). And now that they've changed Dracula's story and let him go on an early retirement, they just fill it out with their messy, unorganized egyptian mythology references. Or maybe the actual reason for why they love to put egyptian gods into their project is because seeing crosses and rosaries reminds them of the christofascist regime that they cry about on twitter when they don't organize a circlejerk about how Castlevania fans are stupid and don't understand that you can't have a 1:1 adaption, so the only remaining option is to do a polar opposite adaption.

Yet again, you are being very real in your critique.

I did have some misgivings about Dracula's ending in the original Netflix series. It felt a little bit too "positive", perhaps, considering what had transpired in the previous seasons, and considering his character in the "real" Castlevania-series. I had always felt that Lisa deserved far better, but the overall tone of the ending did seem to be at least somewhat too positive. The ending lacked gravitas, although it did refer to Bram Stoker's novel, which was a great touch.

I won't comment on the topic of whether or not "absolute evil" exist, but I would at least hope that evil pays for its deeds in some measure.

At any rate, I believe they put the Egyptian references in there in part due to their desire to pay unironical homage to "We Wuz Kangs", and in part due to their desire to diminish the legacy of the Belmonts. After all, even Richter Belmont (a heterosexual, white man) himself states in Nocturne that his ancestry pales in comparison to black-Annettes ancestry, considering that she's, apparently, a descendant from an Egyptian God (again, "We Wuz Kangz").

In the mind of a netlfixvania shill, this scene proves that Castlevania always criticised organized religion, so Warren Ellis was right to potray the burning of Lisa as the symbol of how the Church is evil and exploits people's faith (it totally wasn't just him bitching about religion remember the zombie priest!!11!!!1). This is funny, because those people want to accusse you of how you have no media literacy etc. yet them using this specific scene just exposes that they themselves know jackshit about the games. You see, Lisa was never burned, that is just what Ellis did because Church + medieval times = witch burning in his post-anglican, british brain. No, Lisa was simply crucified and a spear went through her sides. The wounds and blood can be seen in a promotional manga Konami included in one of their magazines around the game's realease:
*Picture*

Combine this with her words about forgiveness:

"Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm, for theirs is already a hard lot."

And your own comment:

"... And you get a not-so-subtle reference to this little know guy called Jesus Christ."

"A little known guy" indeed... :-)

Your sarcasm is much appreciated in the face of these ghouls.

Regardless of your beliefs, one should at the very least respect and cherish the core message that is being conveyed through the scene with Alucard and his mother, Lisa. The fact that these showrunners seemingly can't do that speaks volumes to the current cultural climate of media in general these days.

Related to the egypt thing, doesnt the date shown in the screen show that for some reason some randon nubians were worshipping ancient egyptian deities all the way to the 1400's? Like randomly this enclave just exists in the middle of a country that been islamic for 800 years?

You pose an interesting question.

It's all very strange.

 

[Love Is Blue]

View attachment 6928090

 

[TheClorax]

Been getting into Castlevania so I can more accurately hate the Netflix Slop, so I picked up the Advance Collection and am working through Circle of the Moon.
I like my Metroidvanias, so I'm a bit surprised I hadn't played a Castlevania before, but I'm having a good time with Circle of the Moon so far. But the Crucifix is probably the ONLY subweapon worth keeping in my inventory. These boss fights are a pain in the ass without it.
Any tips or other recommendations for a newcomer to the series?

 

[huesofmercury]

Been getting into Castlevania so I can more accurately hate the Netflix Slop, so I picked up the Advance Collection and am working through Circle of the Moon.
I like my Metroidvanias, so I'm a bit surprised I hadn't played a Castlevania before, but I'm having a good time with Circle of the Moon so far. But the Crucifix is probably the ONLY subweapon worth keeping in my inventory. These boss fights are a pain in the ass without it.
Any tips or other recommendations for a newcomer to the series?

Just keep grinding it out and you'll be fine.

 

[Calandrino]

Been getting into Castlevania so I can more accurately hate the Netflix Slop, so I picked up the Advance Collection and am working through Circle of the Moon.
I like my Metroidvanias, so I'm a bit surprised I hadn't played a Castlevania before, but I'm having a good time with Circle of the Moon so far. But the Crucifix is probably the ONLY subweapon worth keeping in my inventory. These boss fights are a pain in the ass without it.
Any tips or other recommendations for a newcomer to the series?

You already figured out the most important part

 

[Brain Power]

Been getting into Castlevania so I can more accurately hate the Netflix Slop, so I picked up the Advance Collection and am working through Circle of the Moon.
I like my Metroidvanias, so I'm a bit surprised I hadn't played a Castlevania before, but I'm having a good time with Circle of the Moon so far. But the Crucifix is probably the ONLY subweapon worth keeping in my inventory. These boss fights are a pain in the ass without it.
Any tips or other recommendations for a newcomer to the series?

Should have started with one of the games that were actually (vaguely) used as the basis for Netflixvania (3/Curse of Darkness/Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night). Symphony is the easiest (and the only "metroidvania" of those 4, 3 is hard as shit (play the japanese version), I never managed to get Rondo to emulate but practically all 2d Castlevanias released after it recycle sprites from there, and Curse of Darkness is worth it for the music, especially the absolute gigachad theme Trevor has.

 

[Gravemind]

I never managed to get Rondo to emulate

Couldn't you just emulate Dracula X Chronicles and unlock Rondo from there?

 

[Brain Power]

Couldn't you just emulate Dracula X Chronicles and unlock Rondo from there?

I did try that even before trying to emulate regular Rondo, but the game kept freezing and crashing after the first two stages. I should give it another try at some point, I know emulators have improved a lot as of lately.

 

[Cringestorian X]

I did try that even before trying to emulate regular Rondo, but the game kept freezing and crashing after the first two stages. I should give it another try at some point, I know emulators have improved a lot as of lately.

Just beat Rondo of Blood recently using Mednafen, it works perfectly for me.

 

[Hyper Vigilant Dumbass]

I did try that even before trying to emulate regular Rondo, but the game kept freezing and crashing after the first two stages. I should give it another try at some point, I know emulators have improved a lot as of lately.

Retro-Arch runs Rondo pretty good. Easy to setup.

 

[Coldgrip]

(Again, putting a painting of Leon Belmont in the show to get "wow what a cool referencerino!" reactions from redditors doesn't excuse your clique from completely butchering everything else from the show, Sam).

Not related to your Netflixvania rant, but I really hate the retconned Leon Belmont and Dracula lore. It's so damn dumb. Dracula and Leon were best friends and then Dracula becomes evil when his wife is killed and becomes a vampire because of a couple of magical rocks. I get the Legends lore is a cluster fuck too, but Lament of Innocence didn't do the series any favors either.

 

[Eddie Riggs]

 

[Brain Power]

Well that worked. Just gotta finish configuring... pretty much everything else.

Retro-Arch runs Rondo pretty good. Easy to setup.

Fuck no, Retroarch has the shittiest fucking ui I've ever seen, that's what I tried years ago because everyone recommended it, and long story short, I'm never touching that trash again.

 

[winderson_silva]

I really need to try the collections on steam, while I kinda stopped PoR on the DS emulator since the controls were a bit too clumsy, i think on pc it will be easier to put a good scheme (or use my ps4 control if needed)

 

[Eddie Riggs]

This is the closest thing we'll ever get to a proper Rondo adaptation

 

[Toilet seats vendor]

Not related to your Netflixvania rant, but I really hate the retconned Leon Belmont and Dracula lore. It's so damn dumb. Dracula and Leon were best friends and then Dracula becomes evil when his wife is killed and becomes a vampire because of a couple of magical rocks. I get the Legends lore is a cluster fuck too, but Lament of Innocence didn't do the series any favors either.

I used that example for comparsion of the games' canon V.S. netflixvania's lazy writing, but you might aswell compare it to the SotN retcon or even the first origin story presented in Dracula's Curse. For the former, you have Drac being so self-centered and vengeful that he doesn't even listen to what his only son had to say on behalf of his mother until he defeats him in a 1v1 300+ years after the death of Lisa, and for the latter you have a man so hungry for power that he gives his son's soul to satan, because sacrificing his own soul didn't give powers that would satisfy him. What matters in all of these 3 cases is that whatever Dracula does to achieve his revenge is far worse than whatever happened to him, and the power he gives to himself backfires by putting him into the cycle of: try to destroy the world -> lose and die -> get revived by powerhungry lunatics -> try to destory the world ... (and that's why the painting means nothing when you butcher this aspect of the story, Samuel)

Personally I don't think Lament of Innocence's story is bad, it's definetly corny and simple, but I like how it showcases the difference between Dracula's pride and anger compared to the Belmont's humility and patience. I understand it might be too cheesy for some, especially since IGA likes to make up stuff on the fly to explain certain elements of the lore (maybe the only reason LoI exists is because he realised Christopher Belmont's quests happened before Trevor/Ralph Nevermind, I got that completely wrong). I also liked how the ending to Reinhardt's route in Castlevania 64 shows that, yes it's true that the world will eternally be surrounded with evil and misery will spread forever, but there's still good in this world, and we should focus on spreading it. It might serve as a mere extra for the gameplay, but I still truly enjoy the optimistic outlook on life contained in Castlevania's story.

Been getting into Castlevania so I can more accurately hate the Netflix Slop, so I picked up the Advance Collection and am working through Circle of the Moon.
I like my Metroidvanias, so I'm a bit surprised I hadn't played a Castlevania before, but I'm having a good time with Circle of the Moon so far. But the Crucifix is probably the ONLY subweapon worth keeping in my inventory. These boss fights are a pain in the ass without it.
Any tips or other recommendations for a newcomer to the series?

My biggest gripe with Circle of the Moon is that they introduced the card system as a way to let players modify their playstyle (as an alternative to different weapons in SotN), but the only way you can acquire those cards is through random drops. This means that you could theoretically play through the entire game without ever recieving a single card. Mercury and Salamander both have 20% so you're likely to get them, but have fun grinding for the others! They really should've put a few of them as rewards for exploring the castle, instead of just MP/HP upgrades. There's also the fact that you don't get a description of the combination's effects until you experience them, so the player might disregard some of the set-ups as useless.

This is the closest thing we'll ever get to a proper Rondo adaptation

It's a shame that the Dracula X Chronicles version of SotN serves as the base for every new release of that game, because the re-dub sounds worse, and doesn't even fix most of the problems with Blaustein's translation except for the intro. They should just use the XBOX Live Arcade and bring the content that they added to the PSP release like the Fairy familiar and her song from later Playstation builds.