Topic: Looking at Castlevania 3....

[Kale]

This proably doesn't warrantawhole topic on it but..... I just looked at the Japanese cover of Castlevania 3, and it shows Sypha and she looks like a girl. Anyone noticed that?

[CVfan13]

Why shouldn't she? After all, Sypha IS a girl.

[Kale]

yea but doesn't that kind of kill the suprise when you meet him or theother way around when you meet him? or her of course, since she appears as a man first.

[Blue Cheese]

they tend to draw their dudes to look like chicks anyway, though.

[zachier]

It's true that back then, it was surprising for us to see a female video game character(Remember Samus?). For Japanese people, however, it wasn't; the concept has long been introduced through anime and... other means.

Anyway, you get my point. 

[ryuuken]

This proably doesn't warrantawhole topic on it but..... I just looked at the Japanese cover of Castlevania 3, and it shows Sypha and she looks like a girl. Anyone noticed that?

...and...?

o.O

[Quasar]

The original US manual for the game referred to Sypha as male, much in the same way that the original manual for Metroid did this to Samus (though it also stated explicitly that his/her/its identity was unknown, leading you to suspect something from the get-go).

This was probably an invention of the English translators, inspired directly by Metroid (it's the exact same sort of pull-off-the-helmet/hood "AH-HAAAA!" thing at the end of the game). I'm going to guess that the Japanese manual didn't try to fool you in the same way, and thus there was no surprise to ruin with the concept art.

[Steve]

In the Japanese manual, Sypha's gender was also left ambiguous, if not implied to be masculine.  And if you look at the Japanese artwork, she doesn't look particularly male or female, either.

I doubt whoever wrote the American manual had any homage to Metroid in mind.  Knowing how out of it Konami's manual writers were back then, he probably didn't even play the game, just took the Japanese manual at face value, and unknowingly propagated the misleading profile.

[Successor The Cruel]

It's true that back then, it was surprising for us to see a female video game character(Remember Samus?).

You should play Renegade on the NES.  You go through a whole level doing nothing but beating up women.

[Raphael Belmont]

In Reply To #9

zombie women?

[Kale]

In Reply To #9

I think he means main character, heroines were rare if not plain non existant back in the day.

[Azmodan]

In Reply To #9

Oh my...

[DoctaMario]

In Reply To #9

Well, in the original Renegade, they were huge fat women that would pick you up and slap the shit out of you. The the sequel, Target:Renegade though they were pretty shapely. I remember that being a sore spot with a reviewer when the game came out.

[crisis]

In Reply To #12

I like your sig   

Who's the artist ?

[Azmodan]

In Reply To #14

It's Ayami Kojima's DXC Succubus design. I find it better than her normal Annette design.