Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Lumi Kløvstad on February 13, 2017, 03:37:04 PM
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I am on a topic making roll, apparently. Score one for general forum traffic, I guess.
As I continue my run into the festering heart of the Lords of Shadow saga, I notice something which has slowly happened to the later games in the series: the tongue-firmly-in-cheek humor kind of disappears. It actually triggered a twinge of sadness in my heart. I mean, Order of Ecclesia is one of the best games of the series, and one of the best stories, but it's a very joyless affair. Now, the tale is admittedly a grim one, but that's not something which has stopped Castlevania in the past.
I can't help but speculate as to why. For roughly the first half of the franchise's history, things weren't all that grim and serious. It was definitely present (the subjects of vampires and the undead in general kind of have a grimness inherent to them) but you also had a sense of parody: the first game had 1930's era Universal Studios inspired designs and the mudmen of Rondo looked more like they were crafted out of delicious toffee than killer animated mud. Granted, Super Castlevania 4 was a VERY dark gothic presentation, so clearly there's room for that needle to wiggle around the gauge. Symphony of the Night definitely marked a turning point towards more serious stuff, but to call it the CAUSE of the darker tone is it once shortsighted and inappropriate. These darker entries take place all around the timeline as well (where they occur on the timeline at all. RIP Legacy of Darkness, where it was all in the freaking title), so it's not as though the in-series history was getting progressively grimmer either.
I think it falls to a meta explanation, and we are probably best served by looking at the circumstances under which these later, darker games were written. Konami was itself becoming a less joyful, more serious company around the time of the later games. Iga and his team were probably feeling quite a lot of pressure from higher up to meet increasingly ridiculous sales quotas; victims of their own prior successes. In time, Konami began to warp and pervert itself into the bloated slimy undead creature we love to hate today and routinely flog in Facebook and Youtube comments. Maybe this is why the humor in Dawn and Portrait feels so forced -- surely we can't blame all of it on a (well meaning but misguided) attempt to market Castlevania to tweens and pre-teens. I think it's symptomatic of something which I suspect was going around the office: a lot of forced cheer, invocations of "smile and the world smiles with you". But that false good cheer, that forced smile, filtered through to the games being developed just as the more morose attitudes it was meant to cover up did.
By Order of Ecclesia, it feels like they stopped trying the fake smile altogether. Maybe it was for the best at the time -- forced humor is often inherently unfunny unless it's gallows humor, and that's not something I think anyone wants to see in Castlevania.
Hopefully, Ellis and Shankar can find it in their hearts to return just a little of the silliness to the franchise. I don't need a Castlevania sitcom, but maybe some leaning on the fourth wall as Trevor misses a strike a pot roast falls out of the wall unnoticed by all but the audience.
A fan can dream.
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At one point it stopped being about making great games, but it started about making sales figures.
I mean, it was always about sales, but it became blatant later on.
Say what you will about Nintendo, but that's a company that tries to keep the joy with its game development. You feel the love and care that goes into each game.
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I do agree with it. See how serious Bloodlines is and why its so good. Castlevania is supposed to be serious and dark. Like the good old days without forced humor and Sexualization like Classic Castlevanias until RoB and GBA CVs. Look how SC4 is so grim and dark but has better mood then DS games or Judgment.
I think DS games are ruined opportunity and a good example of how not to make sequels. DoS turned something as good as AoS and mocked it up (Kojima art, graphic quality and quality original music). Also PoR fixed graphic and music, but keeping cheap anime art (at least have CV64 art)and its light mood is not like Castlevania, more like a mediocre anime game. Well, I like them, but it's not what I wanted from Castlevania.
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"Order of Ecclesia is too serious"
Most of the villagers/quests are played for laughs: Marcel photos, Irina's insomnia, Daniela's alzeheimer, Monica's crush, George ARSTISTRY!, Abram lack of trust, Aeon cooking "skills", Anna playing the exorcist girl and Eugene dead-seriousness.
You chase and talk with cats, play hide and seek and take pics of the yeti. So no, OoE is not-not as cheeky as the others CV
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Like the good old days without forced humor and Sexualization like Classic Castlevanias until RoB and GBA CVs.
(https://moviesreview101.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/here-we-go-again.jpg?w=400)
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(https://moviesreview101.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/here-we-go-again.jpg?w=400)
Been through, done that. Don't start anything more. Otherwise we would ruin another thread.
Besides, it's my damn opinion. Why make so much fuss about it?
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"Order of Ecclesia is too serious"
Most of the villagers/quests are played for laughs: Marcel photos, Irina's insomnia, Daniela's alzeheimer, Monica's crush, George ARSTISTRY!, Abram lack of trust, Aeon cooking "skills", Anna playing the exorcist girl and Eugene dead-seriousness.
You chase and talk with cats, play hide and seek and take pics of the yeti. So no, OoE is not-not as cheeky as the others CV
Not to mention the side quest "Tom & Jewelry".
Also, Marcel has a #breastedinterest in Laura the Jeweler.
Right amount of serious for me. POR was slightly too jokey at times, DOS was serious but I couldn't take the character art as seriously as AOS.
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Been through, done that. Don't start anything more. Otherwise we would ruin another thread.
Besides, it's my damn opinion. Why make so much fuss about it?
Because it's a shitty opinion and posting it in this forum means we can (respectfully) drag it through the mud, as the OP experienced first hand regarding his opinions about canon :)
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Because it's a shitty opinion and posting it in this forum means we can (respectfully) drag it through the mud, as the OP experienced first hand regarding his opinions about canon :)
Just why? Why even bother if you think it is a pointless argument?
Also I said I don't what to end another thread as a mudfight of irrelevant topic.
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I do agree with it. See how serious Bloodlines is and why its so good. Castlevania is supposed to be serious and dark. Like the good old days without forced humor and Sexualization like Classic Castlevanias until RoB and GBA CVs. Look how SC4 is so grim and dark but has better mood then DS games or Judgment.
In case you missed Bloodlines also has some sort of sexualization, Elizabeth Bartley says hello and for girls was Eric Lecarde more specifically in japanese version.
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In case you missed Bloodlines also has some sort of sexualization, Elizabeth Bartley says hello and for girls was Eric Lecarde more specifically in japanese version.
You call that sexualization? No, no. Something much as Elizabeth Bartley would be fine. My mean of sexualization would be like Succubus. A deliberate sexualization just existing for the mean of sexualization, not just an character A (Bartley is important character, but classic Castlevania characters would be no more then a character A or B, except for Belmont and Dracula). Don't get me wrong.
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I think it was Shanker who said the CV show would be "satirical". When I read that I thought of the first game and it's parody credit names. Sure CV started "playflul" but every other game is serious with some humor, besides Rondo and Judgement which are both full of humor. If you wanna count Kid Dracula its obviously the complete opposite of serious lol
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I think you can have your cake and eat it too. you can have games be serious like Bloodlines, or cheesy like Cv1-4.
It all boils down to what you are going for.
The original 3 were basically classic universal horror pastiches, complete with a protagonist right out of a Frazetta poster.
then with 4, they made it more serious and atmospheric, but it was still campy. Bloodlines is serious, but there's no denying there's a certain element of camp to it. Best way to describe that camp would be to point to Hammer Horror. Hammer Horror isn't scary, but they are horror movies. They play everything about themselves completely straight without a hint of irony or anything, but the audience themselves is "in on it". it is a tribute to the classic monster movies, and the movies treat themselves with the same seriousness the originals did, while being super stylized (neon red blood, for example)
I would say the issue is that later vanias started trying to be more like anime. SotN does start this trend- but SotN was itself more about paying tribute to classicvanias. And in general, it's also campy in an unintentional way due to the voice acting, so it fits.
but later vanias tried too hard to be like animes, (the sorrow games particularly) which meant they no longer had that camp of the post NES games, nor the parody of the originals, they were just sort of... well, SotN clones.
As for Lords of Shadow, well. That's another story all together. i'd say LoS2 had the potential for good self parody and camp, and there is some present, but the development was such a mess that it just falls through.
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I think you can have your cake and eat it too. you can have games be serious like Bloodlines, or cheesy like Cv1-4.
It all boils down to what you are going for.
The original 3 were basically classic universal horror pastiches, complete with a protagonist right out of a Frazetta poster.
then with 4, they made it more serious and atmospheric, but it was still campy. Bloodlines is serious, but there's no denying there's a certain element of camp to it. Best way to describe that camp would be to point to Hammer Horror. Hammer Horror isn't scary, but they are horror movies. They play everything about themselves completely straight without a hint of irony or anything, but the audience themselves is "in on it". it is a tribute to the classic monster movies, and the movies treat themselves with the same seriousness the originals did, while being super stylized (neon red blood, for example)
I would say the issue is that later vanias started trying to be more like anime. SotN does start this trend- but SotN was itself more about paying tribute to classicvanias. And in general, it's also campy in an unintentional way due to the voice acting, so it fits.
but later vanias tried too hard to be like animes, (the sorrow games particularly) which meant they no longer had that camp of the post NES games, nor the parody of the originals, they were just sort of... well, SotN clones.
As for Lords of Shadow, well. That's another story all together. i'd say LoS2 had the potential for good self parody and camp, and there is some present, but the development was such a mess that it just falls through.
This sums it up perfectly. I love Castlevania and all that... but I've never taken it seriously.
That might just be my biggest problem with Lords of Shadow games. They tried so hard to be serious. And the attempt at comic relief (Chupacabras) just fell flat.
Mirror of Fate's Toymaker and Hunchbacks were great though.
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Toymaker was one of the few things about Lords 2 I actually really enjoyed. I like his theming and development, as far as a side character goes. Plus nothing tugs at the emotions quite like an old man crying. :P
Chubacabras, though...I thought they were cute the first time in Lords 1, thought it was a neat little gimmick that I could buy into--plenty of stories and legends about mischievous but ultimately harmless prankster demons screwing with travellers, so for the lore of the world it felt like a nice little gimmick.
Then they cropped up in areas that didn't make as much sense to me (such as Malphas' tower entrance--if Pan won't even go near there, why would a non-combative lesser monster be dicking around right at the gate?), and the gimmick wore out its welcome. The Chupacabra in 2 just felt shoehorned in, and to me at least was just as annoying to listen to as Navi and Phi were.
I also think a major element of CV playfulness that phased its original form out over time was wallmeat--the idea of fully-cooked wall shank was goofy and fun, and over time it just became a standard consumable. Enemies could hang onto them now, rather than smacking a brick and suddenly finding dinner.
BRING BACK MAH BRICK CHICKEN (BRICKEN?) KONAMI!
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I would say the issue is that later vanias started trying to be more like anime. SotN does start this trend
I think you mean Rondo of Blood, the original animevania, but to be fair most of japanese games of that era and platform followed the same art formula
If SotN started something, it was the gothic/visual approach in the series' aesthetics, that was a signature of the series until the 2 first DSvanias returned to the bland anime shenanigans.
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Look how SC4 is so grim and dark but has better mood then DS games or Judgment.
I side with superc4 - didn't know there were so many people on the opposite fence who like the anime / cute / Japanese humor, which being an American, I never fully understood. The darker and more realistic art style, the better for me. LOS would have been great if better music, better game-play mechanics, and better script writing. CV64 had it all for me. You can drag me through the mud all you want on that. It looks like neither of us are getting what we want anymore anyway.
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I side with superc4 - didn't know there were so many people on the opposite fence who like the anime / cute / Japanese humor, which being an American, I never fully understood.
I can see why people aren't attracted to DOS and POR. I still think OOE, art style and all had enough darkness. The only difference being that the colours in game weren't as dark and gritty as SCVIV, instead they were bright and more vibrant, but still fitted the gothic/ horror style in a different way. it didn't have that same oldschool feel that the original games gave us, it was more like a cross between Classic and Sotn.
CV64 had it all for me. You can drag me through the mud all you want on that. It looks like neither of us are getting what we want anymore anyway.
CVLOD is the best 3d CV to date. #crossyourheart
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I also think a major element of CV playfulness that phased its original form out over time was wallmeat--the idea of fully-cooked wall shank was goofy and fun, and over time it just became a standard consumable. Enemies could hang onto them now, rather than smacking a brick and suddenly finding dinner.
BRING BACK MAH BRICK CHICKEN (BRICKEN?) KONAMI!
I remember LoS2 had an easter egg I appreciated- which was after the garden puzzle, (when you are trying to get the mirror of fate necklace back from pan's brother) if you hit the bird with a fireball at the end, it becomes a cooked chicken on a platter, which was amusing
I think you mean Rondo of Blood, the original animevania, but to be fair most of japanese games of that era and platform followed the same art formula
If SotN started something, it was the gothic/visual approach in the series' aesthetics, that was a signature of the series until the 2 first DSvanias returned to the bland anime shenanigans.
yes, yess, you are right, Rondo did start that. though there is a clear tongue in cheek camp to rondo, despite also having some japanese humor. it's less of a horror game and more an "action" game, where the main character wears a bandanna and strikes cool poses in an animated cutscene. where one of the playable characters is a little girl in a frilly dress, who is actually the strongest character.
but games like the sorrow games, for example, dont have a whole lot of humor. SotN had some subtle humor, some subtle japanese humor, and some self referential/parody humor.
but later games just sort of copy SotN. and thats the issue. because of the rampant reuse of assets, it ends up just being repeated watered down SotN elements without the novelty value that say, made them funny.
Its hard to really put into words what I mean. then there's PoR, which tries to be funny, but be funny in an anime way, (haha look at the funny anime facial expression!) and it falls flat, imo
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Personally the only funny things in Dawn I found were Hammer/Yoko meetcute interactions (might have been cliched as hell, but I got a chuckle out of 'em) and Dario/Dmitrii's fashion senses.
Wasn't much beyond those for me.
I think a part of it stems not only from asset reuse, but also just how lifeless the DSvanias feel (excluding OoE). I mean, you look at SotN (the game that started the formula they recycle) and you have dark brooding Gothic environments where every palette and color and light source has a defined and noticeable purpose in conveying the themes.
The DSvanias come along with photo-edited tiles and backgrounds, everything's very bright and washed-out looking, there's hardly any black or dark tones anywhere...none of it really felt like it had a soul and character to it, or at least not to me.
I bring this up as relevant to series playfulness because environmental feel sets up any comedic timing--for instance, SotN's Catacombs are eerie and otherworldly at times, and here's this goat skull on a pedestal and its carriers freak the fuck out and take off if you kill it before killing them. Olrox's Quarters is ominous and regal and the Chapel is really rather unsettling given the subject matter, but the Skelerangs cower in mortal fear of you if you get too close. Those same things in, say, Dawn, I probably wouldn't find as amusing since there isn't a contradictory tone in the area. The areas are dark and foreboding, but here's this goofy thing happening right in the middle of them--that's what made those little touches of humor in SotN nice, IMO.
Of course, SotN also implied that Alucard not only stood directly below where Master Librarian presumably takes his shits, but also rammed headfirst into the old fart's ass.
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Well, nothing in DoS made me laugh or something (apart of that cheesy Dario/Dmitri's death scene but that's more like: WTF was that?).
Castlevania's not a game designed for humors. They should be more like Easter egg then storyline (Like how you can stick Alucard's head into Master Librarian). DoS feels way to generic and computerized (especially with artwork. I'm fine with anime art itself, but it's just bad. Simply the worst anime art ever seen. At least have FF7, Yu-Gi-Oh or CV64 quality of art). I don't feel any living soul like in AoS (cannot describe better). PoR got a slight better, but still not good enough. Also, at the second ending division, the cheesy artwork and Arikado's very unusual appearance and dialogue ruined the scene which could be as epic as Lisa and Alucard scene at SotN. And why did Julius lose in a first place? If he kicked Soma's ass even though Julius was going easy on him, it's just illogical.
One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
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One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
Irony.
And why did Julius lose in a first place? If he kicked Soma's ass even though Julius was going easy on him, it's just illogical.
Because he was restraining himself out of faith that Soma hadn't turned evil--you can kick a dude's ass six ways from Sunday but still hold back on the finishing blow--it doesn't make the outcome illogical, only one where you refuse to kill the opponent you've already proven your point to. Julius fought just seriously enough to, well, indicate that he was serious, and also to indicate that he's fully capable and prepared to kill Soma if it came down to it.
The fight in the Gardens was nothing more than a test.
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One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that Dracula is not the original owner of the castle and that whoever owned it before him had no qualms about having a chapel. You could go even further and ask why Dracula has holy weapons lying around all over the place, which makes it even more likely there originally was no 'demon castle'. It's not something that's ever been addressed by the games but it's an interesting question that could be explored in the future.
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And why did Julius lose in a first place? If he kicked Soma's ass even though Julius was going easy on him, it's just illogical.
1. Age. One year can make a world of difference to someone who is 56.
2. The Vampire Killer lost a portion of its power after Aria.
One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
Dracula hates god and humans, not religion. He believes religion to be just another tool to control mankind, as SotN shows. A demonstration of power, only.
Dracula9 already added "irony" which, for me, explains very well. Mocking religion is one of the OG ways evil beings have used to defy gods (and here Dracula does that by having a huge-ass cathedral filled to the brim with demons).
And, before the "doesn't it hurt him?" question arises: "religion" is not what weakens Dracula. Faith is, if we are to believe his legend (and taking a page here from what IGA said about faith, and what he does to the cross at the intro of DXC). He can have as many chapels and holy symbols as he wants. If no faith is involved, nothing will happen to him.
The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that Dracula is not the original owner of the castle and that whoever owned it before him had no qualms about having a chapel. You could go even further and ask why Dracula has holy weapons lying around all over the place, which makes it even more likely there originally was no 'demon castle'. It's not something that's ever been addressed by the games but it's an interesting question that could be explored in the future.
I'd believe that more if The Adventure's manual hadn't said that Dracula built his castle at the outskirts of Transylvania:
"狂的な悪魔崇拝者であったドラキュラ伯爵は、トランシルバニアのはずれに暗黒の城を築き、毎夜悪魔の儀式を行っていた。"
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I already had a feeling you would bring that up twist-kun. :)
That's definitely true but I wonder how much attention IGA paid to Dracula Densetsu's manual story. It might have been one of those details that got ignored by the IGA canon later on, such as Alucard becoming a vampire because of a pact Dracula made with a demon instead of him being dhampir. There's of course also the claim that Christopher was the progenitor of the Belmont family which ended up being changed. So I personally consider any claims from that manual to be doubtful unless it information that's repeated in IGA-approved sources. That's just my take on things, of course. It's also a convenient way for me to keep entertaining the thought that Dracula's castle used to be a normal castle that later ended up being corrupted.
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I already had a feeling you would bring that up twist-kun. :)
That's definitely true but I wonder how much attention IGA paid to Dracula Densetsu's manual story. It might have been one of those details that got ignored by the IGA canon later on, such as Alucard becoming a vampire because of a pact Dracula made with a demon instead of him being dhampir. There's of course also the claim that Christopher was the progenitor of the Belmont family which ended up being changed. So I personally consider any claims from that manual to be doubtful unless it information that's repeated in IGA-approved sources. That's just my take on things, of course.
I'm a predictable goose u_u
Also, I agree that the retconed details exist. My rule is a bit different though: Whatever IGA has not contradicted stays the same. Since he didn't contradict much, then almost everything stays, which kinda follows into the next point...
It's also a convenient way for me to keep entertaining the thought that Dracula's castle used to be a normal castle that later ended up being corrupted.
And this I also agree with, mostly because on Dawn Arikado says that "the summoning of the Demon Realm" turns the structure where its summoned on into a Demon Castle (which is how Celia is making her castle into a "replica" of Dracula's castle). This would mirror exactly what Dracula was described to do on CVIII and The Adventure.
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Well, if Christianity is about god, which Dracula hates because he thinks god made his first wife die, Dracula hates Christian god = Draclua hates Christianity. At the time of Dissonance (chronologically first MetroidVanias and first one to have a chapel inside the castle), Dracula, not only hating the god, hates humans too, because they killed his second wife, which was killed by witch hunt; organized by none other then church, at least. So it's not shown in the storyline, but I assume that he hates Christianity as well. My assumption about the Chapel is that it is not Christian chapel but a chapel to practise dark magics and rituals.
Also, only thing I have to say about Julius VS Dario is nothing but a shitty storytelling.
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One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
It's the exact reason that can be applied to why he has dominion over angelic and holy beings, because he does.
The other reason is blaspheme. Which chapel have you every visited that contains knights that will stab you, or swords/ weapons that levitate and attack you of their own accord. A chapel is supposed to be a place of prayer and calm, yet in this chapel the confessional contains a priest that either blesses you or stabs you (depending on what you equip).
Dracula 9 is correct, it's irony, it's taking the house of God and giving it a twisted meaning. Given Dracula is the Satan equivalent of CV's original universe I don't see why he wouldn't have a chapel. I seem to also recall HoD and COTM also having a chapel.
Well, if Christianity is about god, which Dracula hates because he thinks god made his first wife die, Dracula hates Christian god = Draclua hates Christianity. At the time of Dissonance (chronologically first MetroidVanias and first one to have a chapel inside the castle), Dracula, not only hating the god, hates humans too, because they killed his second wife, which was killed by witch hunt; organized by none other then church, at least. So it's not shown in the storyline, but I assume that he hates Christianity as well. My assumption about the Chapel is that it is not Christian chapel but a chapel to practice dark magics and evil powers.
Your assumption is misguided imo, aside from the part about dark magic and rituals.
Dracula was once a religious man, better yet as Plottwist put it, he was a man of faith. He believe that his God had forsaken him with the death of his wife, so he curses God and finds a way to live for eternity; that's step 1.
Dracula's wife gets burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft, so he wages his war on Humanity; step 2.
Not sure regarding the Japanese version of SOTN, but in the ENG version when Richter says "Man kind ill needs a saviour such as yourself", Dracula replies "Perhaps the same could be said of all religions".
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One thing: If Dracula hates Christianity, why does he have a damn Chapel on his own castle?
There was a sale and he didn't want to pass up a good deal.
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Your assumption is misguided imo, aside from the part about dark magic and rituals.
Dracula was once a religious man, better yet as Plottwist put it, he was a man of faith. He believe that his God had forsaken him with the death of his wife, so he curses God and finds a way to live for eternity; that's step 1.
Dracula's wife gets burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft, so he wages his war on Humanity; step 2.
Yes. I do agree. Dracula in fact hates religion itself. What I meant was that he practices his magical power inside the Chapel, like Chapel draws him more dark powers.
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Yes. I do agree. Dracula in fact hates religion itself. What I meant was that he practices his magical power inside the Chapel, like Chapel draws him more dark powers.
Hmm that wasn't what I was saying. Forget religion, from my previous post I'm saying he's indifferent to religion. He despises God and despises humans because of his past. In SOTN he mentions all religion is the same, and in the final battle he still quotes the book of Matthew.
The part about the chapel I'm pretty indifferent to, because the Castle itself is a creature of darkness which as plottwist previously stated is more than likely about the structure itself drawing from the Demon Realm. Does perverting the use of a chapel draw more negative/ demonic energy? Sure, but it's more about the link between the castle itself and the demon realm.
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I think you mean Rondo of Blood, the original animevania, but to be fair most of japanese games of that era and platform followed the same art formula
If SotN started something, it was the gothic/visual approach in the series' aesthetics, that was a signature of the series until the 2 first DSvanias returned to the bland anime shenanigans.
Even though most Metroidvanias didn't have anime art they still felt a fuck ton like anime- the action, the stories, and sometimes the music. LoI and CoD did as well. Then there's Judgement which added the titty jokes
I side with superc4 - didn't know there were so many people on the opposite fence who like the anime / cute / Japanese humor, which being an American, I never fully understood. The darker and more realistic art style, the better for me. LOS would have been great if better music, better game-play mechanics, and better script writing. CV64 had it all for me. You can drag me through the mud all you want on that. It looks like neither of us are getting what we want anymore anyway.
Pretty much my exact feelings too man. I grew up with SCV4, CV64 and COTM- each of them darker, grittier and a bit more grounded. CV games were the only ones I had that weren't so kid oriented like Mario and Sonic (not saying only kids play those franchises, hell I play them) and that's why I got so into them. Ppl say franchises need to change change change but that isn't the case. Sure add new things but don't change what made it so great- CV changing to anime was bad because the series lost it's identity. Sure they're all great games as well but they aren't what CV used to be. Then LoS went for a LOTR vibe.
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the action, the stories, and sometimes the music. LoI and CoD did as well
"Anime" music in Castlevania? I can only think of Nocturne or the joke tracks from the PS2 games (the pumpkin ones, you know)
I grew up with SCV4, CV64 and COTM- each of them darker, grittier and a bit more grounded
SotN, Legends and subsequent games up to HoD were like that, try to look less with nostalgia glasses!
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"Anime" music in Castlevania? I can only think of Nocturne or the joke tracks from the PS2 games (the pumpkin ones, you know)
SotN, Legends and subsequent games up to HoD were like that, try to look less with nostalgia glasses!
SotN was pretty animeish- it was like a Vampire Hunter D game in many regards, like Alucard's design obviously being inspired by D in the game. SotN's story also felt finda anime-like, and the voice acting felt like an early dub. Legends wasn't super dark or grounded- it had the anime artstyle like Rondo, Dawn and PoR. Will admit I looked past HoD- it is a creepy and gloomy game and that's one of the things I loved about it.
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VHD is not a proper baseline for anime style/tropes as it was purely in novella form with scant few artworks for decades before adaptation.
And I really can't say there's anything we know as "anime-ish" in VHD, insofar as it preceded pretty much every major modern anime trope/style by years. I'd call it part of what started some of the tropes, rather than simply continuing them.
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VHD is not a proper baseline for anime style/tropes as it was purely in novella form with scant few artworks for decades before adaptation.
And I really can't say there's anything we know as "anime-ish" in VHD, insofar as it preceded pretty much every major modern anime trope/style by years. I'd call it part of what started some of the tropes, rather than simply continuing them.
Actually yeah that's true, my bad. I'll admit SOTN doesn't have as strong an anime feel but the action itself, some animations etc. and again the plot feel a little more anime
'