Topic: Castlevania is lacking real men nowadays.

[Sillek]

Needz moar Juste. That guy is like testosterone in a bottle.

Anyway, as much as I like Harmony of Dissonance (it was the first CV I played; I'm kinda obligated to!), we don't have as much cool guys now. Nowadays it's all emotional problems (Jonathan Morris hating his daddy) or just plain... not masculine (Soma just didn't really... hit me as a fairly manly person. Maybe it was because I played Dawn of Sorrow first, which I probably shouldn't have done.)

What do you guys think? Hopefully Gabriel will bring some ass whoopin', Belmont style. But I don't know.

[Mr.Bushido]

We will have more characters like Gabriel, bad ass with heart. But i dont think we'll see a new barbarian or something like that.

[thernz]

Yeah, we haven't had as many masculine characters because of how heavily magic-based the new ones are. I'd love to see a Castlevania that ditches those magic abilities. Actually, OoE was neat in its concept of just slamming everything together, but maybe instead of different elements, there can be different whip attacks. You can still have the whole emphasis on exploiting enemy weaknesses. And with such a character, surely, the person will look somewhat masculine.

[crisis]

Why is everyone so fixated on how manly a main char is in a game nowadays

While I was playing AoS the last thing on my mind was "lol look at Soma's pants"

[Oralox]

there will be however, a secret costume for gabriel after you have beaten LOS on hard mode. It will be his barbarian look when the developers first made him as.

[thernz]

Why is everyone so fixated on how manly a main char is in a game nowadays

While I was playing AoS the last thing on my mind was "lol look at Soma's pants"

I personally just want one again for variety. Maybe I should be concerned more with personality. Juste was a subtly smug and arrogant guy which made me love him. I'm not sure how you can be subtly smug but.

there will be however, a secret costume for gabriel after you have beaten LOS on hard mode. It will be his barbarian look when the developers first made him as.

LoS gains 100 points.

[Dremn]

there will be however, a secret costume for gabriel after you have beaten LOS on hard mode. It will be his barbarian look when the developers first made him as.

Conan Simon DLC would be freaking awesome.

[crisis]

Conan Simon DLC would be freaking awesome.

Depends on how much it'll cost ._.

[Dremn]

I would gladly shell 2 or 3 bucks for it.

[uzo]

I would gladly shell 2 or 3 bucks for it.

I hate to say it, but me too. Hell if they could even DLC a Simon mode itself, as an extra play through, that would be pretty sweet.

[thernz]

Super Castlevania IV Mode.

[bucky]

Why is everyone so fixated on how manly a main char is in a game nowadays

It can be a fairly valid criticism, although I did laugh at your example.

It's not that I *need* a super masculine protagonist, or even a masculine one at all. But I do think that the appearance and demeanor of a main character can be (and usually is) representative of a game's overall aesthetic. 'Sexy cool guys' and androgynous anime boys fall a bit far from what makes sense to me for a Castlevania game. Is it a dealbreaker on a game? It depends. Not usually, but when you feel like there's something 'uncool' about a character and it actually starts reflecting other issues you may find with the game and story, then it's totally relevant.

I do wish there was more of a middle ground between the stereotypical 'girly' Japanese characters and the muscular monstrosities that often make up Western characters, though. I feel like the reaction to feminine characters usually involves going way the fuck overboard and coming up with neckless weirdos that look like they enjoy bench-pressing your grandmother and listening to the worst heavy metal imaginable.

A common problem with most video game characters is that they lack any sort of depth. That leaves the designers little room to make them interesting, so sometimes the best they can do is make them visually dramatic. Unfortunately, once you've already found yourself in the losing battle of a character not being interesting, there's not much you can do if you're relying only on looks. This is because the extremes have already been beaten to death (for the most part), and these wind up being totally mundane and boring:




The Anime-heavy Final Fantasy is often disappointing to me, for example, because people who dress like they're in a j-pop band is not what I like to think of when I think of fantasy nor sci-fi. So, I understand the people who complain about vg characters being 'too feminine', but I feel like attempts at masculine often wind up as equally embarrassing. I just want to be like an ugly old wizard or something. Or an average sized dude but with an obvious skill set...

Anyways, what's more important than the base level of feminine or masculine is how good the character is overall. Castlevania? Sure, it could certainly use a masculine manly manly at this point in time. I just hope that there aren't cheap attempts and tricks used to establish masculinity on the most corny of levels. Perhaps I'm being unrealistic and expecting too much from video games, but it'd be nice having characters that are interesting, first and foremost...

Something tells me I'm going to be cool or ok with Gabriel at the least.

[shelverton.]

That is one awful outfit.

Anyway, I like the feminine guys in CV. But IMO they're really only feminine in appearance, not in personality nor acting IMO. And now I'm talking about stereotypical "feminine behaviour" which is a very outdated way of looking at things, cause far from all guys and girls fit in these kind of gender classifications, but I'll do it for now.

I have to agree that Gabriel is a welcome dude in the Castlevania universe at this point. Mostly because he reminds me of the series roots. But I doubt that he's more man than Soma, Leon or whoever. He's just older and has a more manly face. Other than that, Castlevania heroes are pretty much the same IMO (Jonathan Morris is the obvious exception here).

[Nagumo]

Eh I think they hit a perfect balance with Belmonts like Richter and Trevor who are both very masculine but not so much that it is ridiculious and their faces are a bit grim looking (and grim is MANLY) so they seem battle hardened wich is also further emphasized with Trevor's scars and him beling blind to one eye etc. The only difference between them and Gabriel is that he looks older, frowns all the time and has facial hair. His height and shoulder width are just stupid so I don't consider that a plus.                           

[X]

The only difference between them and Gabriel is that he looks older, frowns all the time and has facial hair. His height and shoulder width are just stupid so I don't consider that a plus.       

Actually I find this look to be far more realistic. It's medieval Romania and nobody in that time period is ever really neat & pretty. Men especially. Asside from farming, the only other main thing for the male populous to do is to serve as a soldier. Gabriel's look is just what CV needs. it's way more convincing then the pretty-boy look. IMO if there were pretty-boys in Romania then they'ed most likely be sold of as slaves to the Ottoman turks or Saxon traders.

-X