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The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Super Waffle on July 02, 2020, 10:42:47 AM

Title: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Super Waffle on July 02, 2020, 10:42:47 AM
How do you feel about when Castlevania abandoned all of its remaining pretensions of being gothic horror (Soma was kinda straddling the border but he still had some of those classical elements) and turned itself into a full-blown shounen anime cartoon by introducing Jonathan and Charlotte?
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: DraculaCronqvist on July 02, 2020, 12:05:46 PM
It didn't abandon the gothic horror genre, Order of Ecclesia made that very clear. PoR was made in an effort to draw in a younger crowd, but despite that, it still maintained its clear gothic horror elements. That said, I missed Kojima's art style, to be sure, and I think neither Jonathan, nor Charlotte, nor Brauner are amazing characters. Good, but not amazing. I think PoR the weakest of the three DS games, but it's still very, very good.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Gunlord on July 04, 2020, 05:44:34 AM
JONATHAN

CHARLOTTE
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Super Waffle on July 04, 2020, 04:34:52 PM
See DraculaCronqvist? Two replies in and we've already hit the anime memes.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: DraculaCronqvist on July 05, 2020, 09:24:01 AM
See DraculaCronqvist? Two replies in and we've already hit the anime memes.

Well, I mean, we don't *have* to discuss this subject with any seriousness. I just assumed you wanted to.  ;)
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: X on July 05, 2020, 10:48:57 AM
In terms of the look of the series, the horror/Gothic theme has always been there. Even during the classic series. I think it's more 'n less an issue with the writing that demonstrates whether or not CV loses its horror/Gothic theme from time to time.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: LuxKiller65 on July 06, 2020, 06:27:53 AM
I'm ready to accept any manga-styled Castlevania like Portrait of Ruin and much worse, as long as it stays away from Judgment. The former didn't burn my eyes 1% of what the latter did.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: The Puritan on July 07, 2020, 05:43:14 PM
We would probably have taken POR more seriously had it retained Ayami Kojima and dropped the animesque elements.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: DraculaCronqvist on July 08, 2020, 10:41:54 AM
We would probably have taken POR more seriously had it retained Ayami Kojima and dropped the animesque elements.

Well, I'm not quite sure that Ayami Kojima's style can be considered non-anime, as we in the west understand the term. The artstyle is still clearly based on Ozamu Tezuka's style, mixed with many other elements, sure, but all the quintessential parts are there - large eyes, soft features, flawless skin etc.. I do agree with the assessment that, if we've had Kojima working on it, it would probably have been received a lot better.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: X on July 08, 2020, 10:49:27 AM
To me the anime elements weren't an issue. The original art of Castlevania II uses anime for its official art (like Fist of the North Star art  :o) I swear I never saw a more bad@$$ Simon Belmont since then (minus his SCV4 art that is). Rondo also used anime but it is still regarded as a good game nonetheless. Maybe it has to do with the times. Anime that came out back in the day (before the mid 90's rolled around) was unique as well as some of the writing for said anime. We don't get that kind of quality anymore. Not for the art nor for the writing. PoR I feel suffers from this as well. The art for the game when first announced looked very cheap. The official art got a bit better but it was still lacking quality in certain aspects (the so-called comedic face of Charlotte). The writing also effected the product as well and did not live up to what could have been its full potential. DoS also got a taste of this too. Not necessarily the art style but definitely the writing part  :P  Ayami Kojima is not without her issues as well. While her style is very detailed and it did wonders for SotN, the series got inundated with the whole pretty boy nonsense. Simon from Chronicles is a good example of a pretty boy face not matching the body its on. Talk about destroying the most manliest man in CV history. There was also Issac from CoD. His look and outfit was as farm from CV as anyone could get. It's like he/she..? (<-a jest for those who didn't get it) was brought over from another genre and stuffed into CV. That was all getting very overused and tiresome. Other issues were that nobody, not even IGA, was monitoring her so she never caught her mistakes in (besides outfits and faces) physical proportions like small heads on large bodies or the infamous scissor-legs Trevor with his thick thighs and dainty ankles  :P  When that cat's away the mice will play. Kojima's art could have served CV better if a) it was being monitored, and b) keeping the pretty boy standards down to a very bare minimum. Don't get me wrong though she is a great artist. I did see a portfolio of her past work online and she is capable of doing great stuff without falling back on pretty boys. I kept thinking to myself while looking at those pieces 'why did she not use this style for CV?'. It would have been a good middle-ground in my opinion.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Gaawa-chan on July 09, 2020, 03:42:03 AM
Uhh... not sure if serious...
(https://www.myfconline.com/character_avatars/219309_204219.png)


The series has pretty much always been a mish-mash of hokey b-movie references, anime, and gothic horror/melodrama.  If anything the outlier games in that respect are the Lords of Shadow games, which seemed to take a hard turn towards a Peter Jackson LotR high fantasy tone.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: DraculaCronqvist on July 09, 2020, 08:35:34 AM
Uhh... not sure if serious...
(https://www.myfconline.com/character_avatars/219309_204219.png)


The series has pretty much always been a mish-mash of hokey b-movie references, anime, and gothic horror/melodrama.  If anything the outlier games in that respect are the Lords of Shadow games, which seemed to take a hard turn towards a Peter Jackson LotR high fantasy tone.

This. I'd actually say that Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadows 2 tried to pedal back a bit in regards to the gothic feel (which is, although I consider all three games to be abominations, why the first one is by far the worst).
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Super Waffle on July 15, 2020, 11:12:25 AM
If Charlotte and Jonathan made babies, what do you think they'd be like?
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Dracula9 on July 15, 2020, 02:02:23 PM
If Charlotte and Jonathan made babies, what do you think they'd be like?

(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/687fee45-64f0-4459-b5d9-7b4d82400d67/daaqrpe-a4e0f729-ca96-476a-af33-de64bd8e48ca.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_338,q_75,strp/edward_elric_600_85104_by_pikamel_daaqrpe-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0zMzgiLCJwYXRoIjoiXC9mXC82ODdmZWU0NS02NGYwLTQ0NTktYjVkOS03YjRkODI0MDBkNjdcL2RhYXFycGUtYTRlMGY3MjktY2E5Ni00NzZhLWFmMzMtZGU2NGJkOGU0OGNhLmpwZyIsIndpZHRoIjoiPD02MDAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.SpugJPkoRvvAQN_yeIAX5Qt687StlG3RmGWhJru6hr8)
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Super Waffle on July 15, 2020, 02:40:47 PM
Is that supposed to be an answer or a reaction to the question?
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Holy Diver on July 15, 2020, 06:01:38 PM
Probably both
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: X on July 15, 2020, 06:13:24 PM
LOL! It looks very convincing too. Who'd ever though the main character from Full Metal Alchemist would fit in the Johnathan+Charlotte=child role so accurately.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: Dracula9 on July 16, 2020, 06:55:46 AM
Is that supposed to be an answer or a reaction to the question?

yes
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: zangetsu468 on July 16, 2020, 08:40:31 AM
Given there's a Richter is featured and there's a Richter/ Maria mode, are any of us that surprised?

I was more surprised(and delighted) Richter was a prominent feature in POR, but slightly let down that we didn't receive a John Morris/ Wind mode.
Title: Re: Froggy Froggy Owl Girl and the Dude with Elvis Hair
Post by: X on July 16, 2020, 09:41:30 AM
Quote
I was more surprised(and delighted) Richter was a prominent feature in POR, but slightly let down that we didn't receive a John Morris/ Wind mode.

I was too when it was brought to my attention. IGA could've saved time by bringing in the original Genesis sprites, fixed some them up and added new ones for more moves. Then we could have gotten our John Morris/Eric Lecarde mode.