Topic: A Little Rant

[GuyStarwind]

So, I've been replaying the DS games due to the recent re-release of them and while they are fun gameplay wise, I feel they do the Belmonts dirty. You might disagree and that's fine but to me the Castlevania series is the Belmont family's generational struggle against Count Dracula. They wield the ultimate evil destroying weapon, the Vampire Killer. However, the DS games kind of make them sideline characters. Even in Portrait of Ruin the Vampire Killer gets outshined by other various weapons. Like isn't this the ultimate undead and demon slaying tool? Didn't Leon Belmont sacrifice his fiancé soul to make it? Then why is the Alucard Spear or Final Sword a stronger weapon? Also why the "Belmonts can't touch the whip until 1999" rule? I know about the Demon Castle Wars, but it seems like a cheap excuse to bring in other characters. My issue really is that the heroes of the series don't feel like the heroes. To quote The Incredibles "When everyone is super, no one will be." What's the point if everyone else can do the same things?

Also, people might hate me, but I find the plot of Sorrow games to be super goofy. You might frown on this, but it's mostly from the added Japanese elements. Obviously the Castlevania series is a Japanese made series, but the story itself is European. I just find things like Alucard is working with Japanese government or Dracula was sealed because of the help of Japanese shrine to be silly. Castlevania has always been silly but this is too silly. I don't have issues with Dracula was killed in 1999 and he's trying to be reincarnated but again the Japanese elements are goofy. Finally, Julius mode in DoS is the real cannon ending.

Look I know some of these things are for gameplay reasons and that's fine but the Vampire Killer and Belmonts should still be like top dog spot.

Ok end rant.

[theplottwist]

This rant reminds me I should bring here my research about Aria/Graham stuff one of these days.

[zangetsu468]

Lore and gameplay(with the exception of DoS’ gameplay re: Julius) state otherwise.

Facts:

Sorrow games:
• Aria Julius (playable) is well effing OP (Julius being old and not even in his prime here. One can make the argument he’s been powered up to his prime 1999 form, given the players never got to play that event, given that event is directly referenced as J’s backstory and lastly, given that his mode is non-canon)
• Aria Julius (Boss) is arguably one of the hardest(definitely ‘superhuman’)
• Aria Julius has the full powered VK, with its rage ‘fading’ / being quelled in the true Aria ending(from a lore perspective, partially explaining his power-down in Dawn).
• Dawn Julius is able to jump over the draw bridge in the prologue, which Soma was not able to . (Despite the power-down since Aria)
• Dawn Julius is able to destroy the demons in the castle beyond the point of regeneration, without the use of the sealing glyph (lore is up to interpretation here, however, lore vs gameplay to myself was interpreted that in Dawn’s universe, ALL the lesser / higher demons
needed sealing glyphs to be permanently destroyed - whereas, gameplay only makes Soma enact that action for the bosses)
• Dawn Julius’ gameplay is heavily nerfed and doesn’t correlate with the above with the exception that the ‘de-raged VK’ reduces Julius’ optimum battle prowess and overall combat abilities (most notably his typical jump height and teleport). This point in particular is telling that Julius was specifically nerfed in gameplay, as opposed to Yoko and Alucard.

POR:
The fully powered VK, while not the most powerful weapon is very close, easily the most well-rounded(best reach, highest damage, fastest special attack which consumes the least MP) and defeating Death and Dracula with a slower weapon (particularly on level 1 max cap) is barely worth switching. If memory serves, final form Drac can eat about 4 x special VK attacks if combo’d correctly(following a jump attack)in sequence, causing massive damage.

Ecclesia:
Shanoa gets a pass, because DominuS requires the sacrifice of a human soul(use it anywhere else but Drac and she’s dead, in-game) meaning that level of power, requires beyond a human’s capability. Additionally, the entire notion of collecting ‘glyphs’ (DominuS being Dracula’s innate traits) is the equivalent of sitting on ‘the chair’(singular) which exists in Plato’s realm of ‘The Idea’.. Some next level meta[critical/]physical-tier-ish…

My two cents worth. 🪙 🪙

[JR]

I don't really like the lack of Belmonts, either. It was fun playing through those games, but the plots were just...bleh.

[crisis]

Wasn’t there an entire village full of Belmont relatives in OoE


If I recall that was a point of contention here back in 2008, a lot of fans were saying how it was “unrealistic” that a gang of Belmonts just so happen to be living amongst each other

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I'd be okay if moving forward they forgot anything after SotN happened. Or just forgot about having a consistent timeline in general. IGA's timeline is far too rigid and cares too much for sacrificing gameplay and characters to connect inconsequential story elements. In my mind the Belmonts had been fighting Dracula, or incarnations of him, since time immemorial. There should be an infinitely possible number of Castlevania stories, instead of like 20. Dracula only reigns for 1000 years tops? That's BS.
 I honestly feel like the timeline is one of the reasons why Konami seems to be approaching a new Castlevania with more caution than like any of their other series. Look at what happened the last time they tried to go against it (LoS)

[zangetsu468]

If I recall that was a point of contention here back in 2008, a lot of fans were saying how it was “unrealistic” that a gang of Belmonts just so happen to be living amongst each other

No less realistic than Juste, Maxime and Lydie sharing aesthetic parallels with Leon, Mathias and Sara.

I recall vaguely back in the day Shiroi Kumori and/ or Nagumo noting the translation in Japanese for the Wygol Villagers being “distant relatives” rather than all directly descended. This would make sense if it was the descendants of extended family members, given it’s unlikely Richter had 13 descendants himself.
It’s also worth noting that the journalist Belmont, Marcel looks similar enough to Richter(perhaps a direct relation here) and Daniela specifically mentions tales her grandfather and her being a vampire hunter(presumably she is not the direct branch of Richter’s bloodline)…
Odds while improbable =/= impossible. There needed to be a way to incorporate the Belmonts, in a more clever way than was done previously in PoR, imo. Don’t get me wrong, the Morris bloodline added some thing with self-sacrifice element and the Richter fight was killer, but by now Richter has to be one of the most featured, playable Belmonts . (Playable Richter/ Maria should have been John Morris/ Wind instead.)

[theplottwist]

Wasn’t there an entire village full of Belmont relatives in OoE

If I recall that was a point of contention here back in 2008, a lot of fans were saying how it was “unrealistic” that a gang of Belmonts just so happen to be living amongst each other

They're distant relatives, not full on descendants. And the game explains they gathered in the same place because "it's the land where Dracula sleeps". Their blood seeks to crush Dracula, and it eventually leads to Shanoa doing exactly that. It's a literal miracle, not an "unrealistic coincidence".

[GuyStarwind]

A lot of good points have been made. Unfortunately, I'm still not in favor for the lack of Belmont power. I'm just a simple guy and just like Belmonts as my main focus.

It was mentioned to erase everything after SotN. I'd be all for it. *as I look around for extreme fans* heck erase SotN too (I like it but don't love it. I mostly don't care for Alucard). I like the idea that the Belmonts have always been around and there isn't a set time-frame all this happens in. There really is a lot to work with here. And that's not to say they can use characters and themes from the Iga games but yeah a new approach is needed.

Finally. I've been playing OoE, and I wish it was more Simon's Quest in terms of exportation or even Infernax. The world on OoE isn't one big world, it's a bunch of little areas pretending to be one big world. In games like Simon's Quest, you had to actually travel to point A to B to C and not just teleport to them.