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The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: AlexCalvo on April 23, 2016, 07:45:45 PM

Title: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: AlexCalvo on April 23, 2016, 07:45:45 PM
Given the pastiche horror nature of the series let's exclude the obvious monsters like Drcula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man.  But what other franchises have you noticed Castlevania try to emulate?

There is the dead pan obvious Conan situation, where the makers of Cv1 didn't even really try to hid on the cover.  The less obvious, but still obvious Harry Potter-ness of Charlotte.  And any Dr. Who fans must have at least raised an eye brow whenever Saint Germaine appeared.  Any others you guys can think of?
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Dracula9 on April 23, 2016, 08:14:29 PM
Does Zacchino from PoR being a dead ringer to Henry VIII count?
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Jazz Paladin Productions on April 23, 2016, 09:18:52 PM
The whip-swing from cv iv seems to evoke an Indiana Jones type of feel...

In general, there are some parts of castlevania iv that mildly feel like splatterhouse to me terms of design...

The control scheme of SOTN was perfect, but the inclusion of Street Fighter type special moves...perfect! Even though everyone uses quarter circle forward motions now...

Wizard of Oz in SOTN....Scarecrow, Tin man, Lion...
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: The Puritan on April 23, 2016, 11:31:54 PM
-Rondo of Blood came during the fighting game boom, so Richter was very Ryu-esque. His unused low-kick and hurricane kick frames suggest that too, and maybe even the bonus 1-Up for getting a perfect boss fight.

-Stella and Loretta seemed to evoke Rozen Maiden with their mismatched eyes.

-Jojo's references in DOS (Zephyr) and KOF and Fist of the North Star in OOE

-LOI in general was their attempt to make a CV that was like DMC
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on April 23, 2016, 11:53:30 PM
I don't know about anyone else, this is an obscure one at the lighthouse stage in OoE, Rhapsody of the Forsaken sounds very Mega Man X to me. It still has that gothic'ish undertone but it's very "hype" to me and makes me want to wall jump to acquire hadoken. 8)

The fact Richter got an uppercut (superjump) in SotN is even more Ryu. Again in PoR he has a hurricane kick.

Blackmoore's shadow always looked like Ganon to me.

Is Albus a reference to Harry Potter too?

(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spriters-resource.com%2Fresources%2Fsheet_icons%2F18%2F19184.png&hash=8f1b8c412bd396fc105303d2cc9726c28444d124)

This guy looks like Cracker-Jack from Street Fighter EX, mixed with Q from 3rd Strike and dare I say the undertaker from WWF.

Some say CV has borrowed from Rygar but I've never played it myself.
However https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuqr_aZZC8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuqr_aZZC8) at 1:03 I picked up a very obscure detail. Some of the rooms in CotM which are blocked off by statues and need to be unlocked looks oddly similar to these ones in the original Rygar. Not to mention the main character uses a chain whip of sorts.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Aceearly1993 on April 24, 2016, 01:23:31 AM
Geese's Reppu Ken/Raging Storm - Wind Glyph skills in OoE (It can even combine two normal attacks rapidly and the two wind slashes mixed together just like Double Reppu Ken)


Rugal's Genocide Cutter - a round kick used by OoE Dracula during the 2nd phase but Dracula's is a downward round kick
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on April 24, 2016, 01:44:18 AM
Geese's Reppu Ken/Raging Storm - Wind Glyph skills in OoE (It can even combine two normal attacks rapidly and the two wind slashes mixed together just like Double Reppu Ken)


Rugal's Genocide Cutter - a round kick used by OoE Dracula during the 2nd phase but Dracula's is a downward round kick

Completely agree. 2nd phase Drac even kind of reminds me of Rugal.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on April 24, 2016, 03:03:26 AM
That "Kamen Rider" Kicker Skeleton
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Dracula9 on April 24, 2016, 09:39:36 AM
Quote from: zangetsu468
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spriters-resource.com%2Fresources%2Fsheet_icons%2F18%2F19184.png&hash=8f1b8c412bd396fc105303d2cc9726c28444d124)

This guy looks like Cracker-Jack from Street Fighter EX, mixed with Q from 3rd Strike and dare I say the undertaker from WWF.
Yeah, OoE's Grave Digger is a 'Taker reference--the outfit and physical build fit Undertaker in his prime, and Gravedigger was one of his nicknames.

Also, I don't believe Albus to be a Harry Potter reference, since the name Albus predates the novels.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Crying Freeman on April 24, 2016, 11:17:20 AM

In general, there are some parts of castlevania iv that mildly feel like splatterhouse to me terms of design...

I can definitely see that, especially in the castle stages, such as the tables and coffin enemies, the ghost dancers seem like something in Splatterhouse, and stage 8 could've been a Splatterhouse stage of made a little more gruesome. And more cinematic parts like Drac's buildup are very Splatterhouse

The Adventure- Lose power ups after taking damage, similar to Mario games, Belmont's Revenge- Megaman like stage select, Legends- take and store boss power ups after defeating them, for use whenever player sees fit, like Megaman again.

I've been getting into old horror magazines from the 70s lately, and a ton of them evoke so much CV, like a lot of these:
http://www.gwthomas.org/ssrgcomics1972.htm (http://www.gwthomas.org/ssrgcomics1972.htm)

Especially the Dax and Daggar ones (one of the Daggar ones he's using a chain whip lol, and one of the Dax ones has Drac, Wolfman, Mummy, and warrior hero Dax front and center while a castle sits in the background)
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Jeepy on April 24, 2016, 03:46:55 PM
In many CV games (Akumajou Densetsu, Dracula XX, etc), the castle design is inspired by Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: JR on April 25, 2016, 07:06:24 AM

(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spriters-resource.com%2Fresources%2Fsheet_icons%2F18%2F19184.png&hash=8f1b8c412bd396fc105303d2cc9726c28444d124)

This guy looks like Cracker-Jack from Street Fighter EX, mixed with Q from 3rd Strike and dare I say the undertaker from WWF.


Hah, never noticed this...definitely reminds me of old-school Undertaker. Maybe I didn't catch it because that guy has sleeves?  :P


Rugal's Genocide Cutter - a round kick used by OoE Dracula during the 2nd phase but Dracula's is a downward round kick

Whoa, that's...awesome. Loved Rugal. Brb, running off to play OoE again
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Shinobi on April 25, 2016, 04:53:37 PM
Death's second form in Harmony od Dissonance is a shameless copy of Stage 1 boss from Strider Hiryu
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on April 25, 2016, 09:09:54 PM
Death's second form in Harmony od Dissonance is a shameless copy of Stage 1 boss from Strider Hiryu

You mean his second form is a copy of SOTN Death's second form which is a copy of the boss from Strider.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Mystic Myotis on May 08, 2016, 10:07:29 AM
Quite a few weapons in the series reference Tolkien's LotR works.  The Crissaegrim is probably the one best known for that.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: KaZudra on May 08, 2016, 10:19:40 AM
Quite a few weapons in the series reference Tolkien's LotR works.  The Crissaegrim is probably the one best known for that.

Sword of Dawn should have been Andúril, given how you summon an army of undead when you use it.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: VladCT on May 08, 2016, 10:43:32 AM
From what I know the LotR references were only in the translated version though.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: Nagumo on May 08, 2016, 03:36:51 PM
There's at least one reference in the Japanese version as well. Crissaegrim is Valmanway, which is supposedly derived from Elvish language and means "Blessed Wind".   
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: chainsawmidget on May 08, 2016, 07:06:33 PM
I always felt the chainsaw Frankenstein (or as I like to call him Frankensaw) was an obvious Evil Dead reference. 

and while there have been many movie Dracula's I've always thought that the design used by Kojima very stroingly resembled the one seen at the beginning of Blacula. 
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: PFG9000 on May 08, 2016, 08:07:35 PM
The most obvious are probably SotN stealing Super Metroid's map system and basic gameplay, and Lords of Shadow combining God of War and Shadow of the Colossus.  Or am I missing the point of this thread?
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: TheTextGuy on May 09, 2016, 12:56:08 PM
I always felt the chainsaw Frankenstein (or as I like to call him Frankensaw) was an obvious Evil Dead reference. 

and while there have been many movie Dracula's I've always thought that the design used by Kojima very stroingly resembled the one seen at the beginning of Blacula.

Funny thing since Coller (the scrapped Frankenstein character in CV64) was supposed to have a gun as well, thus furthering the Evil Dead reference.  Also Dracula's design in SoTN seems to be based off the book depiction of Dracula.

Shifting the topic back to fighting game references, Albus' flame kick thingy is an obvious ripoff homage to Fei Long's flame kick thingy.  It's even got invincibility frames, making it a reversal of sorts (although iirc, Albus' version works more like the Shoryuken in SSFIIT and some other Street Fighter games, where you're invulnerable until you land, at which point you're defenseless due to recovery frames.)  It's a very obvious ripoff reference, but I'm kind of fond of it (love thsoe invincibility frames) and I'm surprised no one mentioned it.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on May 09, 2016, 08:49:43 PM
Albus has Street fighter'ish moves, aside from the flame kick he has optical shot which is a bit like Guile's sonic boom, and Max shot which his more like a Ryu/Ken projectile, lastly his teleport which would be more like Bison's.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: theplottwist on May 09, 2016, 08:55:06 PM
And I'm fairly sure Julius learned some moves from Akuma.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on May 10, 2016, 04:31:31 AM
And I'm fairly sure Julius learned some moves from Akuma.
Teleport and ponytail
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: TheTextGuy on May 10, 2016, 10:48:40 AM
Now that I think about it, Maria's marionette punch (in Rondo, it was UP QCF attack.  It sent out a stand that did rapid punches) may have been a homage of sorts to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Title: Re: Castlevania "borrowing from" (ripping off) other franchises.
Post by: zangetsu468 on May 10, 2016, 10:51:08 AM
Now that I think about it, Maria's marionette punch (in Rondo, it was UP QCF attack.  It sent out a stand that did rapid punches) may have been a homage of sorts to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Jojo's and Hokuto no Ken