Castlevania Dungeon Forums
Off Topic => Off Topic => Topic started by: zangetsu468 on March 10, 2021, 02:20:47 PM
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I was racking my brain the other day, trying hard to remember this game I used to play on the Mega-CD(that’s what we called it in Australia, originally known as the Sega-CD) where the protagonist wields a whip, the movement is marionette-like and the tracks were memorable in an early 90’s-Casio keyboard-synth’y way, which was always self admittedly, one of my favourite. I realise the game was called Earnest Evans, which appears to take elements from Indiana Jones in terms of character design and theme(temple exploration and idol-hunting) while taking loose gameplay elements or at least inspiration from Castlevania in terms of using a whip as your main weapon. Interestingly, this game initially made me think of SCIV with the whip flailing, yet the two games were released a few months apart.
Something that crosses my mind when looking at this game I’m context was this:
- Castlevania is already an established series from the late 80’s
- Super SCIV appears to release on Halloween 1991
- Earnest evans releases shortly after, incorporating some kind of whip-flailing gameplay mechanic, with the game including a focus on narrative-driven and anime heavy cutscenes(typical early 90’s anime where boy meets girl with coloured hair and big green eyes), strangely enough with the female character being named “Annet”. Additionally the OST is more of an upbeat, anime-style vibe which is consistent with the late 80’s-early 90’s.
- 1993: Rondo of Blood releases with Anime-focused cutscenes, for the first time in CV as a series, with Richter saving “Annette”, his gf/ betrothed, s/o or whatever title you’d like to give her. The OST of this game is also significantly more upbeat when compared with its predecessors (Stage 5 - Opus 13 anyone???), even the opening stage where Richter walks into Aljiba, was pretty darn upbeat off the bat... Were big K taking inspiration, biting back #puNintended (hashtag pun-PCEngine’d doesn’t really work...) or was it neither?
Interestingly enough, prior to the 3D era, the consoles such as the Mega-CD, 32-X, Panasonic 3D0 - and I’m sure some others I’ve missed - seemed to be heading towards movie/ anime based cutscenes. So there was most likely a predisposition to reaching wider audiences by default when these design elements were manifested via Rondo, but it’s interesting, nonetheless.
I’m curious to see if anyone else played EE back in the day and what their thoughts were.
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Never heard of it till now, but I must say it seems almost non-coincidental given the evidence you gave us.
I just watched a video about the Earnest Evans game. Talk about sprite vectoring the protagonist, lol.
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I personally cannot stand Earnest Evans, El Viento on the other hand, is mucho bueno in my book.