Recent Posts

61

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Anyone else getting the itch for a new game?

« Last post by Abnormal Freak on August 02, 2025, 01:15:20 AM »

My butthole gets an itch sometimes.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Anyone else getting the itch for a new game?

« Last post by LuxKiller65 on July 31, 2025, 08:08:55 AM »

3 superdeluxe collections are coming out in japan, 2 already out (1 today), and the 3rd one soon.
but they are not new releases i know... (i think they came out in the west last year, not sure, didn't really care much.

63

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Anyone else getting the itch for a new game?

« Last post by crisis on July 30, 2025, 11:57:08 PM »

It would be cool if we had a mole that would leak information like we used to back in the day, wouldn’t it? When the Netflix show came out, I was almost positive that they would eventually announce a soft reboot of the series chronicling CVIII. I guess our next game we can hopefully look forward to is another collection but with the 3D games, and

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General Castlevania Discussion / Anyone else getting the itch for a new game?

« Last post by jestercolony on July 29, 2025, 09:40:59 PM »

It's been quite a while since we had a new installment to the Castlevania universe. I think it's time we all start harassing Konami for a new game already xD

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Hardcore Gaming 101 / Re: Steam Summer Sale 2025

« Last post by Highwind Dragoon on July 26, 2025, 02:14:47 AM »

Too busy buying up tickets for the various Scream parks that i'll be attending this Halloween season to spend any more money on games right now.

Maybe I'll get a couple for the Halloween, autumn and Winter sales, much later this year.

66

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Lisa's manner of death makes a tad less sense in context

« Last post by theplottwist on July 25, 2025, 12:06:06 AM »

Perhaps this is only me, however, I seem to recall believing the narrative of Lisa’s murder was largely to do with Dracula himself, rather than the public genuinely believing that Lisa was indeed a witch.

As it currently stands in the canon, Dracula was a just ruler, and Lisa was indeed killed because there were rumors she was a witch.

I'll just paraphrase the canon cuz I have little time for posting ultra-detailed sources nowadays, perhaps I come back to this later with a full writeup: Dracula is described as "full of dignity and pride" (the jp word used for "dignity" here to mean indeed someone admirable, someone majestic), as having protected the land, and as not hating humans (Hector turned on him because he abandoned this virtue upon going mad, and Hector could not forgive him for it). When people murdered Lisa, Dracula took that as the scared, supersticious populace turning on him. Not only was his wife killed, she got killed by the people he presided over, due to a stupid rumor.

67

Hardcore Gaming 101 / Re: What game(s) have you been playing lately?

« Last post by zangetsu468 on July 22, 2025, 10:48:46 PM »

I gave Solar Ash a go. It’s cool but I was expecting more of a 3d Hyper Light Drifter, which it isn’t, to be frank.

I’ve parked it for the moment and resumed playing Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. Up to what appears to be the final boss. A few more tries and I reckon I’ll get it.

I’ve picked up Deedlit alongside a Castlevania: Requiem SOTN playthrough as PSP Maria… My God she is weak, it makes me appreciate Dragonblitz’s speedruns a whole lot more.

EDIT: Completed Deedlit, highly recommend. I love that they took enough CV inspiration to give the game a levelling cap, strength cap and the option to not carry weapons item over, upon starting a second playthrough.

68

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Lisa's manner of death makes a tad less sense in context

« Last post by Lumi Kløvstad on July 22, 2025, 03:40:27 PM »

Perhaps this is only me, however, I seem to recall believing the narrative of Lisa’s murder was largely to do with Dracula himself, rather than the public genuinely believing that Lisa was indeed a witch.

This is why I was quite pleased to stumble upon the potential Ottoman angle. Especially since they had PLENTY of reason in and out of of universe to try to get revenge on him, and we already know Iga was quite a fan of the 1992 Dracula film.

A few Ottoman agents spreading gold around along with some bad rumors... people have turned on their beloved protectors for less. Suddenly you have a mob killing Dracula's wife. Unfortunately for the Ottomans, they presumably ASSUMED they were dealing with someone considerably more mundane. Instead they let Satan off his leash.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Lisa's manner of death makes a tad less sense in context

« Last post by whipsmemory on July 22, 2025, 08:09:52 AM »

In the Nightmare, she is indeed being shown crucified, and a flashback in the Symphony of the Night prequel manga has Dracula cradling Lisa's body, looking very unburnt, but stained bloody as though she's been stabbed, and there ARE two men with spears in the Nightmare, so if these two things both reflect the reality, it's likely this is how she was killed.



It's worth noting there's NO documentation of this being done at ALL in the Christian world in the post-Roman era, as executing someone by crucifixion, even partially, would have been seen as a TERRIBLE blasphemy against Christ. By Lisa's time, crucifixion was practically extinct in Europe as a means of execution.

Interestingly, while not documented, there are some historic allusions to Ottoman forces possibly executing Christians in this way as a deliberate mockery of the faith. Considering the historic Dracula's ties to the Ottoman Empire and their long term presence in the region by this point in real history, this opens up some intriguing historic possibilities in the setting. It's entirely possible the Ottomans might have killed Lisa then, especially to punish Vlad for his barbaric methods of combat -- after all, Castlevania IS clear that "The Impaler" was one of Dracula's many identities. And thanks to Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula film already linking the Ottomans with the death of Dracula's wife and therefore his ascendancy as a Vampire, this is a REALLY neat storytelling link that honestly works better than Konami's own official napkin notes on the subject.

[EDIT] It's worth noting that the Curse of Darkness manga strongly disagrees on the matter of Lisa's death. While it does not SHOW IT outright, it VERY strongly implies that Lisa was burned. (Thanks, PlotTwist!  )

And her message to Dracula is SLIGHTLY different in the Japanese script:

Personally I think Lisa comes across as kinder in the English version. "Life already sucks, so please don't make it worse." is a lot kinder than "If they ARE as bad as you want to think they are, they'll destroy themselves without any need for you to get involved."

Both the possible implication of Lisa's death being some sort of "false flag" from Ottoman's side against Vlad Tepes and the not so subtle difference in nuance in Lisa's words between english and japanese text are extremely interesting. Thank you!

70

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: My love/hate relationship with Order of Ecclesia

« Last post by zangetsu468 on July 22, 2025, 12:58:35 AM »

Replaying it on the Dominus collection, my opinion slightly shifted. I still enjoy the game, but now I sense there is still a lot of laziness & cut corners hidden throughout the game that I didn’t notice before. The map & different locations seem cool at first glance but they leave a lot to be desired, there’s only minor exploration in what’s supposed to be mansions & large caves

Game design and thematically, my understanding is this:

OOE Part one:
- Bite sized levels(this includes Mansions) more linearly driven, more reminiscent of older CV games mixed with new elements (eg traversing spiked areas, by using Magnus)
- Showcase of varied pixel graphic and 2.5d aesthetic elements; Scrolling screens and transparency e.g. Ruvas Forest, 2.5d elements (Kalidus Channel)
- Reintroduction of verticality to 'levels' (eg Lighthouse Boss level)

OOE Part two:
- Backtracking and multiple ways of traversing areas (similar to CVII, but quicker access to areas)
- Dracula's Castle; more reminiscent of what CVII should have been, mixed with SOTN elements

Other/ Misc (sprinkled throughout parts one & two):
- Central Hub(s): Wygol Village, Ecclesia
- Challenge areas

The enemies themselves, most of them look cool but they’re missing an important detail: death animations. It’s one of the many details that immersed me into SotN, every enemy has their own unique death. In OoE, you kill a lizardman and he just falls over. Same with some of the walking armors, once defeated they just hunch over on their knees & fade in color. While replaying I was wondering, why didn’t the programmers make them explode or disintegrate like in the other games?

I'd have to replay it to really pick this apart, however, upon a quick examination of a youtube playthrough, within the first level/mansion, there are at least 5-6 enemies with unique death animations:
- Horse headed 'ghosts' lose their aura and crumble into bones
- Harpies let out a shriek and get sucked into the 'vortex'
- Skeletons drop into bones
- Axe armors fall apart, once disassembled, melting into the ground.   

Therefore, I simply don't believe this statement is true.

There are some areas where the music repeats itself, even in the castle itself, from the entry hall to the library it’s the same song playing on loop. What the fuck?

While some tracks are repetitive, the tracks themselves at the time sounded great on DS hardware, particularly with headphones. Perhaps I'd feel differently playing it on Dominus, but I don't recall this being an issue, personally. 

Then there’s Ecclesia itself. Apparently there’s only 3 members in the entire organization? Why have a headquarters with literally nobody else to be found inside. And Barlowe’s motivation is just way too predictable, they gave his betrayal no backstory other than “surprise surprise I’m actually a Dracula disciple & this whole thing has been a ruse all along” blah blah… come on guys, Disney villains from the 90’s had more going on for them than this.

While it's never expressly stated, there are implications to the narrative, specifically with Ecclesia itself:
- As you've mentioned, there's an entire structure and at least a training ground and library(Barlowe's quarters) dedicated to the arcane, research on Glyphs, etc. Therefore there lies an implication that at one stage, an organisation existed or was at least populated by more than 3 people,
- Secondly, Alucard, at one stage, had Dracula's remains inside a vessel(I believe this was covered in the JPN only SOTN talkee) which were later inherited by Ecclesia. Therefore, the implication is that given Alucard's lifespan, knowledge, etc, he would not have knowingly passed his father's remains to an organisation who was outrightly intending to resurrect Dracula,
- Thirdly, again while not outrightly stated, the narrative of OOE implies that Dracula's influence over Barlowe was growing over time, climaxing at the point where this w1gga self-sacrificed his olda$$ body (which possibly repulsed the Count, which in my headcanon explains him making an indrect flirtatious pass at Shanoa... I digress)

Jafar of the CVerse, perhaps.. Yet it made for a challenging fight on the hardest settings with both Shanoa & Albus.

Shanoa has no personality either. Maybe it would’ve been better if she sacrificed herself using Dracula’s power giving us a tragic but satisfying ending, cementing the fact that only a true Belmont can withstand Dracula’s might. But Albus’ ghost saves the day, how convenient.

I'm not going to comment on Japanese translations of the text dump, however, the English version does provide an explanation through various in-game quotations which explain why this has occurred:


Shanoa: I lost my emotions. An absent heart cannot stir.

Shanoa: ...Now I've lost everything... my past, my emotions, my brother, and my
purpose... I'm empty. ...there's nothing left for me.

Shanoa: Albus didn't seal my emotions at all. It was you. You used them as a
sacrifice to [Dominus]!

Albus: ...I doubt you could understand, without your memories or emotions.
Let's just say I knew what mattered to me, and what had to be done.

Albus: Accepting Dominus is likely to interfere with one's memories and
emotions.

Shanoa(character description)
Shanoa can place glyphs on her back which summon Familiars. These creatures
will fight enemies, and like Shanoa, will become stronger as they level up.
Shanoa is one of Ecclesia's female warriors. She joined the clan at a young
age, and was groomed in her training to destroy Count Dracula. An accident
during the Dominus ceremony wiped away her memories and emotions. Shanoa
possesses a unique ability, allowing her to channel power through glyphs that
are marked on her body.
 

I still feel it’s a better put-together experience than Portrait, but… I don’t know. There’s still not enough meat on the bones.

Blood Skeleton puns(Nintended) love you 'back'(or lack thereof... Because y'know... Skeledaddies)