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« Last post by Lumi Kløvstad on September 05, 2025, 06:21:11 PM »
So I would love to see a Castlevania game where, no mind control involved, we genuinely see a Belmont go BAD. Maybe not "siding with Dracula" bad, but definitely "looked too long into the abyss" bad. He's spent so long fighting monsters he no longer really cares what the difference is anymore and has lost his humanity to the fight. He uses brutal tactics and even torture in the course of his hunts, genuinely convinced that his sins are worth it to protect everybody else, but aside from how that dehumanizes you no matter who your victim is, he now is willing to use the same tactics on humans he suspects are in league with the darkness, or even just those he felt got in his way -- obstructing his hunt for any reason is the same as active collaboration in his view.
He’d still carry the Belmont name — maybe a brother, uncle, or even father to the protagonist, making the conflict intensely personal. Let’s call him Gideon Belmont: a once-great hunter whose reputation was sterling until he began to go too far. And crucially: he still holds the Vampire Killer, having refused to pass it down to a "weaker" generation. Already, your path is destined to collide with his, because you will never beat Dracula without beating Gideon first and claiming the Vampire Killer for your own. All Gideon left you was a largely still effective but obviously weaker whip and whatever weapons you scavenge for your arsenal.
And he'd be a recurring Boss, effectively serving as the test of skill for your younger, still idealistic Belmont to have to pass and eventually overcome and put down, because a man who behaves as a monster IS a monster.
Like, early on, he’s a quasi-mentor-figure who ambushes you “to test if you’re strong enough.”
Later, he punishes you for “wasting time” helping villagers, declaring that their survival isn’t worth your distraction.
Finally, you face him at the height of his madness, in a ruined chapel where he has imprisoned and tortured suspected “thralls of the night” — most of them just innocent townsfolk.
The idea of killing your own blood, especially close kin, ties into Castlevania’s Gothic sensibilities. Dracula fights for family in his own twisted way (Lisa, Alucard). The Belmonts fight for humanity. But here, you’re forced to destroy your own kin because he chose monstrosity, and the tragic part is that he didn't ever realize what he was choosing; the fall just felt so logical and natural.
When he dies, he doesn’t beg or repent. He tells the player character something like: “You’ll see. One day, you’ll face the same dilemmas and make the same choices. Maybe not tomorrow or the next, but it's already coming. You’ll look into their eyes, and you’ll see the monster in them. And when you do… you’ll know I was right.”
Beating him gets you the actual Vampire Killer whip, and it feels... relieved, perhaps, to be back in better hands. From there you can venture forth and slay Dracula, because you've overcome your greatest trial, and now you're ready.
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