Topic: Things not explained but you'd like to know in Castlevania

[Flame]

This isnt something Id like explained exactly, just something I want to note.

It pisses me off, and always has, that Chronicles/Ayami Simon Belmont carries a sword with him as well as the whip, and he even weilds them both in his artwork, BUT YOU NEVER ACTUALLY GET TO USE A SWORD.

God damn, at least give him the sword as a secondary weapon!

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

This isnt something Id like explained exactly, just something I want to note.

It pisses me off, and always has, that Chronicles/Ayami Simon Belmont carries a sword with him as well as the whip, and he even weilds them both in his artwork, BUT YOU NEVER ACTUALLY GET TO USE A SWORD.

God damn, at least give him the sword as a secondary weapon!

Yea I have always questioned that myself.

It would be nice to have a belmont wield both a sword and whip similiar to what Reinhardt did in Castlevania 64.

[Chernabogue]

Because a whip is DAMN MORE EPIC than a sword.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Simon DOES get to use a Sword...
...in Haunted Castle.
A Mace, too.

So yeah, he does 'know' how to use a Sword.

Also, originally that sheath was for a dagger (in the original X68000 artwork).  Most/All Belmonts have a shortsword/dagger sheath.  I guess Ayami Kojima just took the idea and ran with it and turned it into a sword sheath instead.  The only proficient shortsword wielders are Simon Belmont (Haunted Castle version) and Reinhardt Schneider, who actively uses it as his short-range weapon.

[darkwzrd4]

Leon is probably proficient with a sword too.  I mean he was a knight who fought with a sword.  The only reason he didn't use it in LoI is because as he said: "I have a sword just not with me.  It belongs to the company."  At which point, Rinaldo says: "Honest to a fault."  In other words, even though Leon didn't bring the sword he normally uses with him is that it doesn't really belong to him and being he gave up being a knight to save Sara.  Since he quit the company, he had no right to take that sword and use it to save Sara.  However, I think it would have been cool if you spent the first part of the game wielding a sword.  It could have been like this:

For the first part of the game, Leon uses his sword.  However, at some point, it starts to become less and less effective.  Noticing that, Leon pays a visit to Rinaldo and tells him what is happening.  At which point, Rinaldo gives him the whip of alchemy saying that it's more powerful than any standard sword.  From this point on the game would proceed with Leon using the whip and having to sacrifice Sara in order to change the whip into the vampire killer, which is the only thing that can kill Walter.

[xscientist5000]

Long time reader, first time.. member. Don't know if this was mentioned already, but some stuff bothering me about LOS are:

- How does all that chain fit into the tiny handle of the combat cross, and also hold some mechanism to lock or pull upwards?

- How can the combat cross release its hook anytime Gabriel wants? I know he's the only one chosen to use it, but does he control it as if it was an extension of his body?

- How come it takes so many hits to kill something with it?? The other "versions" of the vampire killer whip usually lay out a skeleton in one strike. The combat cross takes 20 hits to kill a measly goblin, and it usually doesn't even stun most enemies. They just watch it hit them in the face like its a piece of string. This makes sense to me only if the combat cross doesn't have any holy power, and its just a regular metal weapon.

[Flame]

Because magnets.

because its a different style of gameplay.

Also, depends what vania you are playing. I recall LoI also requiring multiple whippings for enemies.

[X]

- How does all that chain fit into the tiny handle of the combat cross, and also hold some mechanism to lock or pull upwards?

Video game mechanics. Nothing really is supposed to make sense in such a world. However since this game is more realistic the any NES, SNES or Genesis game then yeah, it's a little screwy to try and make a sensible explanation of that.

- How can the combat cross release its hook anytime Gabriel wants? I know he's the only one chosen to use it, but does he control it as if it was an extension of his body?

There could be some for of simplistic magic involved with this. The internal workings of the combat cross could be like that of a bag of holding. A bag of holding is a pocket dimension that allows you to store much more items then your standard backpack or belt bag without the weight effecting you in the slightest. The combat cross could have a pocket dimension infused into it in order to hold vast amounts of chain. AS for the rest of the mechanism, I'm going to assume it's part of some kind of enchantment or spell.

- How come it takes so many hits to kill something with it??

They over emphasized on their game mechanics to bring about a similar style of game play as seen in GoW IMO. It was not a smart move.

P.S. Welcome to the forums 

-X

[JR]

There could be some for of simplistic magic involved with this. The internal workings of the combat cross could be like that of a bag of holding. A bag of holding is a pocket dimension that allows you to store much more items then your standard backpack or belt bag without the weight effecting you in the slightest. The combat cross could have a pocket dimension infused into it in order to hold vast amounts of chain. AS for the rest of the mechanism, I'm going to assume it's part of some kind of enchantment or spell.

I always thought this would be the simplest and most effective way to explain having many items at once, if a gamer felt an explanation was necessary. I guess I never knew there was a term attached to it until now.

[xscientist5000]

Thanks for those explanations.. One other thing that always bothers me is that views of the castle from the outside never seem to match up to what you're seeing while in them.

-In CV64 the castle out in the lake doesn't have the clock tower... I'm guessing when you enter that castle you're actually entering some castle of another dimension (kind of like silent hill). So I'm assuming the castle in the real world is kind of just a gateway... The bitten villager at the villa says "this place swarms with demons, you have entered the castle of hell!!" or something like that. Maybe he was speaking literally?

-In SOTN you can see a bridge stairway leading up to the keep, but those stairs are actually broken off by the time Alucard enters the castle, or exits to the upside down castle. I know the castle is a "creature of chaos", but that's no excuse for not taking the time to fix bloopers like these.

-In Dracula X, you can see the castle far away in the background, AS YOU'RE ENTERING THE CASTLE. I don't think the following hallways are big enough to take you all the way over to that castle in the background, and up to the keep.

I know there are prob more instances of things like these. Let me know if you can think of any or have your own explanations, because things like these keep me up at night in a cold sweat.

[Chernabogue]

They may be simple errors with background pictures and stuff.

[Ridureyu]

-In Dracula X, you can see the castle far away in the background, AS YOU'RE ENTERING THE CASTLE. I don't think the following hallways are big enough to take you all the way over to that castle in the background, and up to the keep.

If all the hallways were to the side, then you might cross enough distance. Maybe.  What's hilarious is seeing the kepe in the background of the final stage.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

To be fair, DraculaXX doesn't have a Keep.
You seem to fight Dracula in an elevated section of SotN's Colloseum Stage (some tile even seem eerily similar, which is even weirder since SotN is supposed to follow Rondo, not DXX).
The tower you climb is either an illusion or some other weird thing.  The tower itself never ends (if you keep on going through the stage, you can actually get lost and repeat areas if you're not careful where you're going).

Check it out!  Isn't it similar at least in aesthetics & layout?

and
versus



As for why you can see the Castle within the "Castle" last stage?  I think it's a design error.  The designers probably didn't want to scrap a pretty background like that so they kept it.  It was most likely supposed to go as a background for the Clock Tower stage (since the Clock tower is on the other side of the castle after a bridge, similar to the CV3 Clock Tower), but then realized they couldn't use it because all of the areas the Clock Tower stage used, had no open spots so you couldn't use it as a Vista for the castle at all.

Also, something tells me those stages weren't meant to be in that order originally, or that there was a plan to start, perhaps with Maria, on the opposite side of the stage and work your way in, or something.  We'll never know...

[X]

They could've used it in a segment of the burning town but never got around to it. IMO I think the developers were either too lazy, under a time constraint or didn't have enough budget to do things right the first time.

-X

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I'm thinking it's more of a Time Constraint.  Some of the backgrounds are very very VERY well done.

DraculaXX's Clock Tower is way better-looking and rustic than Rondo's, which looks blocky and, well, 8-bit (though I like the level design of Rondo's more, graphically DXX's is superior in the clockwork sections).