Topic: Useless Castlevania NPC Awards

[Mobius]

 

Okay, okay. You all know the drill here. CastleVania is, insofar as I'm concerned, home to quite a few poorly thought-out, unimaginative, sometimes downright unnecessary supporting cast members. Now in my estimation, this is most evident in the titles overseen by Igarashi-sama (*grips sinuses and squeezes eyes shut, dismally shaking head*). However, I am curious to see what others here think. No need to vote if you don't want to (as an American, I happen to believe in total freedom of choice), but so share your thoughts if you have any on the non-playable characters that pepper our beloved franchise. Do tell, why are maidens in distress like Lydie and Mina just so badly executed and what, in fact, might have made them better characters?

...Even though I could probably sum up the answer to that in one word here many of you might agree on: DEPTH!

[justin312]

I agree, the Igavanias have had some very poorly executed characters.  My vote also goes to Mina Hakuba, for being a healthy mix of annoying AND pointless.

[paletteswapmonster]

I can't really say any of them are "useless". They're random NPCs; what more do you want(some others might be inexcusable, though, isn't that right, young Henry?)? Also, you only listed characters from IGA's games, and Annette's last name is unknown(she's not Maria's sister).

[Mobius]

Correction. I listed only characters from the established, official timeline. If Konami stated that Annette and Maria are not related, incidentally, I wasn't aware of it. Nor was I aware that young Henry was in any way useless since he kinda' sorta' led me through the Villa garden maze and sorta' youknow became playable wielding a nice, big boomstick too.

And I mean useless in the sense that none of them were in actuality NEEDED to advance the story in their respective games. The only exception to this is Sarah of course, but I had to add her since Konami saw fit to grant her no redeeming merits other than a big pair of blue eyes. I mean, how the heck was I supposed to feel bad for her, or for that matter even Leon, when the time for her ultimate sacrifice came?

[uzo]

Don't look into the Death Star.

But since he wasn't available, I chose Mina. Useless twit.

[Long John Silver]

If Konami stated that Annette and Maria are not related, incidentally, I wasn't aware of it.

they did, back when dxc came out and as far as i remember some guy asked that question to iga. he just said that they're unrelated strangers.

they were related only in snes dracula xx, which isn't even canon.

[Mobius]

In Reply To #6

Oh snap. I never knew. So--.... Richter just happened to save some random little magical girl... who uh... followed this strange man into Dracula's castle....

You know what? Screw it. - Now I know and knowing is half the battle.

~GEE EYE JO-O-O-OE!

[Long John Silver]

Richter just happened to save some random little magical girl

yeah, just as he saved a random nun and random doctor's daughter.

anette was the only villager that was kidnapped with a purpose, being richter's girlfriend (in dxc dracula and shaft captrure her personally), while the others were probably too slow to run away from drac's evil forces.

also in dxc, it looked like maria's powers awakened after richter saved her, so maybe she decided that since he saved her and thanks to him she got super powers, she might as well help him.

[Kale]

In Reply To #7

Actually... wasn't she already in the Castle?

[Mobius]

Right, right. I keep forgetting about Isis and what'sername.

[paletteswapmonster]

In Reply To #10

Iris and Tera.

[Baigan]

In Reply To #4

Well, the idea of having to kill your own vampire girlfriend with a whip is kinda tragic, whoever she is

[A n t r a x x]

Lydie.

[paletteswapmonster]

Lydie.

She was the entire reason Juste and Maxim went into the castle and went through all of that trouble. She wasn't useless, just a troublemaker.

[A n t r a x x]

Ok by your logic, Slippy the Toad is useful for being the motivation for both Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi to constantly save his ass.

You know Super Mario Bros. used that plot too, does that make Peach useful? (...She might be now, but she wasn't then). FUCK -- even the "other princesses" were more useful for pointing Mario in the right direction.

Lydie didn't even do THAT. She just sat there as the bait. But like I said the RoB girls aren't too far off there.