Topic: What the hell IS Castlevania anyway?

[The Last Belmont]

But it didn't happen, so it doesn't count.

Also, that was the point of DoS, not AoS.

Uh no that's just not true, AOS was soma slowly awakening to his true self and the bad ending of the game isn't canon but it is proof as to what would have happened had soma not won the final battle. All that makes up dracula is inside soma dormant unable to awaken. I've only played through DOS once awhile back so my memory isn't the best on that game but the main goal of the game in AOS is to stop soma from transforming once soma starts to turn after you kill Graham. That much I know 100% is true.

The series is about the forces of good fighting against Dracula.  However, things change after the battle in 1999, after which Dracula is reincarnated and the series is then about the reincarnation of Dracula trying not the become the dark lord.

Agreed. Everything changes, right down to the belmonts returning to the spotlight after the 1800's tragedy, relinquishing or whatever happened.

[paletteswapmonster]

Uh no that's just not true, AOS was soma slowly awakening to his true self and the bad ending of the game isn't canon but it is proof as to what would have happened had soma not won the final battle. All that makes up dracula is inside soma dormant unable to awaken. I've only played through DOS once awhile back so my memory isn't the best on that game but the main goal of the game in AOS is to stop soma from transforming once soma starts to turn after you kill Graham. That much I know 100% is true.

The point of AoS isn't to stop Soma from "transforming". The only part it's remotely true is the ending. The point of AoS was to have Dracula die at some point, and to reveal its main character as his reincarnation in the future. DoS's point was to stop Soma from turning(a very pointless sequel, by the way).

[shelverton.]

LOL @ Castlevania storyline!

[Mobius]

In Reply To #18

Indeed. What else can you do at this point?

[ReyVGM]

Castlevania is just a mix of Castle + Transilvania. It has nothing to do with Dracula or Belmonts.

In Japan it's another story, it's called Demon Castle Dracula. So Dracula and the castle HAVE to be in there.
That's the reason the series in Japan was briefly changed to Castlevania, so they could do storylines where it didn't involve Dracula or the castle.

It didn't work though.

[The Last Belmont]

Castlevania is just a mix of Castle + Transilvania. It has nothing to do with Dracula or Belmonts.

In Japan it's another story, it's called Demon Castle Dracula. So Dracula and the castle HAVE to be in there.
That's the reason the series in Japan was briefly changed to Castlevania, so they could do storylines where it didn't involve Dracula or the castle.

It didn't work though.

I think if they had picked a better game for beginning the process it would have. LOI just wasn't the best place to start. Not that it's horrible or anything, but it pretty much is an akumajou dracula game in every sense of the words except dracula isn't complete yet.

[ReyVGM]

That naming started with Harmony of Dissonance, not LOI.

[The Last Belmont]

That naming started with Harmony of Dissonance, not LOI.

really? I didn't know those games where known as castlevania over there too. Hunh and aria is a great game. Guess they just like the way the Kanji looks better. Have to look up what happened on wikipedia or something.

[paletteswapmonster]

really? I didn't know those games where known as castlevania over there too. Hunh and aria is a great game. Guess they just like the way the Kanji looks better. Have to look up what happened on wikipedia or something.

Where did that come from?

[The Last Belmont]

Where did that come from?

If they started with HOD, aria came out after HOD and any games released before LOI which afterwards for some reason they stopped using castlevania would be castlevania over there too. I was getting at that if AOS was so well accepted and beloved over there why get rid of the name after LOI? If they had used the name several times and already had one groundbreaking fantastic game with the name why discontinue it? Just trying to financially see the reasoning behind it. Would be like changing the name to castlevania over there 2 years after symphony of the night came out and hadn't even been taken off the production lines and was still relatively easy to buy. (although pricey), you'd think they would have waited it out a bit longer before just up and switching names again. Unless it was like the new coke/coke 2 thing in the 80's and the customer backlash got too great.

[paletteswapmonster]

I have absolutely no idea where you're going with this. Are you saying that it makes no sense to have changed the name after LoI because AoS was great? I don't...

[The Last Belmont]

I have absolutely no idea where you're going with this. Are you saying that it makes no sense to have changed the name after LoI because AoS was great? I don't...

Well it's just not the best marketing strategy when you have a great product to keep changing the name around. makes it harder on the non hardcore castlevania consumers. I'm looking at it from an economical point of view. Basically all I'm saying was that it was a waste of money to just change the name if it got changed right back 2 years later. I don't know all of the facts yet but it's never a good idea to keep flip flopping product names in any industry. you have to keep it stupid simple so even the dumbest customers known what they are getting. Those 3 games may never get played by alot of people in jp who aren't hardcore castlevania fans because of the different name. There's no way for the customer to tell w/out playing the games, konami informing them when the switch happened (which won't do any good years down the line for future generations) or going to castlevania websites or informing themselves some other way. I know alot of people there are isolationist, and just going into a corner market, unless informed, it would be impossible to tell that those 3 games are in fact Akumajou Dracula games. Related to the ones from the 80's, just with the north american title. And this is just strictly theoretical I haven't done any real research yet into the switchback. For all I know those 3 games names were changed and they were rereleased with the akumajou dracula kanji.

[James Belmont]

What is Castlevania? I'd like to ask the same question, yet with different intentions. In LoI, the Castle is already there. We never learn who built it, how Walter came into possession of it, why it has such strange properties, etc etc. That'd be an interesting game, I think; showing Castlevania's construction, and perhaps the protagonist's obviously failed attempt to stop it.

[Long John Silver]

maybe the castle in loi wasn't the same castle. i mean, drac's castle is usually pretty similar structure wise, but in loi it was way different, with the castle keep almost directly above the entrance and all of the other parts far away, accessible only with teleporters.

the castle could be simply a creation of magic, created by the ruling vampire, so when he's dead the castle crumbles too without the vampire's magic, its "fuel" to be supported with.

drac could simply create his own castle after becoming a vampire lord/dark lord/etc.

tl;dr dracula's magic created castlevania

[gravekeeper]

Titles doesn't nessesarily need to be directly connected to the actual game. Like Legend of Zelda. It's not a legend that's about Zelda the princess. It's more about Link saving the world.