I'm just now working on a fanfiction called "A Dusty Whip" where an archaeologist loosely descended from the Belmont family is investigating the long-abandoned ruins of Castlevania, which seems like a brilliant start for a disconnected-from-canon game.
My game idea would involve that basic premise, where the conflict between the Belmonts and Dracula really ARE myths and never happened as told in the main series, and as you investigate the ruins of the Castle, you find objects connected to the real events that went down and you have playable flashbacks like in Assassin's Creed. These would be historically accurate but mundane versions of the important Castlevania games like Rondo -- Werewolves are elite soldiers of Vlad Tepes who wear wolf pelts and use berserker techniques, vampires are instead the top lieutenants who drain bodies of blood and leave them behind as warnings, and there would be almost nothing supernatural.
Every time you find an artifact, you get a mini-reimagining of an iconic Castlevania game, like Lament of Innocence, Dracula's Curse, the original Castlevania, Rondo of Blood, and ending with Symphony of the Night, with all the fantasy elements reimagined into a reasonable mundane real world explanation that could logically be exaggerated into what we saw play out in the original games. Like a "truth behind the myths" take on the whole saga.
The end game twist would be that Dracula actually WAS a vampire (after calling that into serious question throughout the body of the narrative), and your character ends up waking him up through their excavations and having to be the one who finally conclusively puts him down for good.
I'd play the SHIT out of that game. Screw my earlier vote for Resurrection.
Oooohhh, I love this idea!
I look forward to seeing results.
A final plot-weasel that's been playing a merry dance around my brain for a long while now is a what if a Castlevania film was being made, namely of SotN. The lead actor for Alucard, Alex, is generally an okay guy, but a bit moody and prone to violent outbursts of temper. His co-stars are Cate as Maria, Richard as Richter, and Matthew as Dracula. While filming the initial entering the castle via the rising drawbridge scene, Alex has an accident, crashes to the ground, and gets knocked up. When he wakes up, he somehow finds himself alone, without any sign of filmcrew. Everything is real, including his costume now, and he's having to run Castlevania. He's having to take Alucard's place, and when he encounters Death, Death is al too real, addressing him as Alucard. He's confuse as all hell initially, but, being an actor, he tries to stay in character as much as he can, including when he meets Maria, and the Librarian, etc. But there's something freaking him out... as he's going along, he really is learning all of Alucard's abilities and powers, and those prosthetic fangs are all too real. When he reaches the Nightmare area, it gets even weirder. He starts remembering things which aren't his own memories. They're Alucard's. The lines betwene him and his character seem to be bleeding over, and by the time that he confronts Dracula, he's forgotten of himself as playing a role. As the castle crumbles, and he parts ways with Maria and Richter, he turns around and finds himself face to face with St Germaine, who's here to take him home.
At this point, Alex wakes up, a bit woozey, back on the filmset, where he'd fallen. He goes back to his trailer, for a break, filming having been called to a halt. He goes to divest himself of his costume, not initially noticing that everything is still as it was when he was in Castlevania. That is, until he goes to remove his wig. Which won't budge. And in fact hurts when he tries to pull it off - teh wig isn't a wig. Freaking out slightly, he runs to his mirror, and sees that the costume isn't a costume, the fangs are still real. He rummages through his costume, and finds on a chain his relics, with the Bat Familiar waking up and tangling herself in his hair. While trying to work out what to do, a knock on his trailer door sounds. It's the film's director, who, upon coming in, turns out to be none other than St Germaine himself, who'd sent Alex to Castlevania. Angry, wanting to be turned back to his normal self, Alex grabs hold of St Germaine, who says he hadn't palnned this. Alex's soul had merely found its true self, and his body had shifted accordingly. Thus why he'd stayed dhampir upon arriving back in this reality. Alex IS this reality's version of Alucard.
Filming continues, with Cate and Rich getting suspicious of the fact that Alex, and later Matthew, are acting out of sorts, spending a lot of time alone, and Matthew, normally a lovely guy, is flying off into uncharacteristic rages, and avoiding sunlight, eating very little, etc. Cate and Rich try to confront Alex at some point, bt he walks away, and Cate swears she sees a white wolf slinking off through some bushes. Eventually, it al transpires when things come all come crashing down, shortly after filming's finished. Matthew, it turns out, is the incarnation of Dracula, and has been manipulated by Shaft's spirit, who's managed to cross over when Alex returned to his reality, after working out that Alucard isn't entirely who he claims to be, and is the Alucard of a different reality. He wants to find another way to raise Dracula, and so does so through Matthew. Alex, after being persuaded by St Germaine, goes to Cate and Richard, explaining the situation. He tells them what's going on, and that he needs the Belmont's help. St Germaine presents Cate and Richard with the real counterparts to their characters' gear, including the Vampire Killer. They take down Matthew/Dracula, with Matthew coming out of it at the last moment, and Shaft's spell is broken. Matthew is human again.
After this point, Alex goes into denial, and refuses to acknowledge his dhampir nature, cuts his hair short again, etc. His powers also seem to vanish. Cate and Alex end up a couple, as do Rich and Annette's actress, Anna. The gang quit acting, with Cate going back to ventinary college, and Rich and Alex forming their own stuntwork company, VK Stunts. About a year passes. Then suddenly, Matthew's wife Beth falls ill and dies, with Matthew suddenly going missing. In the middle of the night, Alex wakes up, and knows that Castlevania's risen. In their world. He flies off, as though suddenly completely Alucard again. A worried Cate calls Rich and Anna, and Rich goes off in search of Alex, starting at Matthew's house, with Cate staying with Anna, just in case. Rich finds Alex, and they go off to face Castlevania, Rich armed with his copy of the Vampire Killer. While travelling through the castle, Alex seems to be trying to repress his vampiric side completely, all while Richard is himself gaining the memories of his counterpart Richter. That is, until Rich finds himself in mrotal peril, and Alex, stopping worrying about this, flies into action, suddenly armed with his full powers again, and his appearance has once again shifted to being that of his Alucard identity. While traversing the castle, they both step into a trap and get separated. Rich thinks that he's the master of the castle, and Alex thinks he's been turned into a full vampire. After managing to realise it's all an illusion, he suddenly finds himself in a room which is empty aside for a mirror. There's a lady there, waiting for him. Lisa. She accepts him as her son, even if he wasn't physically born to her, and she's there to give him a choice. To fully accept his dhampir nature, and have it be made concrete as a decision, or let him go back to being a completely normal human. But he already knows, and upon putting his hand on the Mirror of Fate, the illusion is shattered as he declares himself to be Alucard, also known as Alex, also known as Adrian. He finds himself clothed in a version of Alucard from Lords of Shadow's gear, except for the addition of a white shirt and a black and gold vest under the coat. Alucard goes off in search of Richard, and helps him break free of the spells on his mind. Together, they proceed to the Throne Room, after defeating Death, and they face Matthew, now completely consumed by his rage and grief, now the Lord of Darkness Dracula. Al and Rich are greatly saddened by the fact that Dracula wasn't ab;e to get his second chance, a chance of living out a life with the love of his life - Beth was the incarnation of Lisa/Elizabeta. They escape the castle, and return home to teh girls, who are both furious with them, and also saddened by the loss of Matthew and Beth.
Their continue adventures after this involve them encountering more their reality counterparts, including Carmilla and Elizabeth Bartley, and so on. Richard and Anna have a son, Trevor, who ends up with Sophia - Sypha's counterpart, and Cate and Al have a daughter Liz. The kids end up having their own adventure, whih is essentialy a retelling of CV3, as Trevor and Liz (taking her father's place and finding herself a dhampir now) venture into Castlevania to rescue Sophia, who's been kidnapped, and meet Grant along the way....