Topic: I'm confused about this...

[Puwexil]

But again, the real reason Alucard appears often is that he's popular. It's not farfetched to be tired of him for that reason alone.

[Vampire Killer]

I'll Third the Simon/Trevor love.

I do think Ritcher is cool though. He's got the most moves in a 2D-vania (I mean physical moves like his power-slide and whirlwind strike move).

Also, Richter can run.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Well, Alucard is also immortal.  At least in AoS he wasn't really him and had a smaller role.  One can argue that his DoS mode as an 'extra' mode is also subdued (and even in these modes, at least he's got lines, not just right-off-the-bat-start).  He's not just thrown in, though again, in some instances, he should be.  For example, in Bloodlines and Portrait, there should have been a blurb about him when mentioning the Alucard Spear (Alcarde Spear), and the relationship between Alucard and the Lecardes.

Richter has no real reason of being in PoR, even as an extra mode.  And, as I've mentioned before, the whole "Whip's Memory" thing is rather superfluous.

I always wonder if the Lecardes are the long lost bloodline of Sonia and Alucard.  But that's fan-speculation on my behalf.  It would make the sisters becoming Vampires quite more interesting, from a historic standpoint.  But that's another thread. Ignore this last line.

[Puwexil]

Richter is the only character whose arm actually moves while brandishing the whip -- aside from Simon and the technique's original appearance in CV4 -- so I can't hate him. Details!

One can argue that his DoS mode as an 'extra' mode is also subdued (and even in these modes, at least he's got lines, not just right-off-the-bat-start)

I HAD TO TRANSFORM TO DRAW OUT MY FULL POWER

Read: we couldn't be arsed to draw an appropriate sprite, so here, have the old one with missing frames.

[赤月]

Trevor is more used than Richter too. Alucard is over-used.

Yep, who doesn't remember Trevor Mode on Curse of Darkness. It was cool, but not absolutely necessary.

[thernz]

Well, that was actually a sequel to Dracula's Curse. If anything, he got the short hand of the stick in the storyline. Not sure how Trevor is overused though, beyond an appearance in Dracula's Curse, CoD, and Judgment and if you want stretch it, a fake Trevor boss in SoTN and PoR, which at least makes sense in context to Alucard.

There's Pachislot but that hardly counts lol.

[赤月]

Well, that was actually a sequel to Dracula's Curse. If anything, he got the short hand of the stick in the storyline. Not sure how Trevor is overused though, beyond an appearance in Dracula's Curse, CoD, and Judgment and if you want stretch it, a fake Trevor boss in SoTN and PoR, which at least makes sense in context to Alucard.

There's Pachislot but that hardly counts lol.

Oh, Pachislot, what I think Curse of Darkness should of been, but without the money-eating and more platforming.

But back on topic:
In the context of overused CV characters, I would say Simon fits the bill more than Richter, since Simon (and Trevor?) made a cameo appearance on some of Konami's other games, such a Pop'n'Music.

[Flame]

I HAD TO TRANSFORM TO DRAW OUT MY FULL POWER

Read: we couldn't be arsed to draw an appropriate sprite, so here, have the old one with missing frames.

Someone needs to make the appropriate DoS sprites with the Arikado guise....

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I would say that's more because Simon is the unofficial Castlevania mascot, so in any Konami Wai Wai whatever titles (crossovers), he would usually step up as the representative of that series, much like how Solid Snake represents Metal Gear and Twinbee represents Twinbee (as opposed to Raiden or Winbee)...
...though it is weird that for Konami Krazy Racers (Karts?) they chose Dracula instead of Simon.  I guess they needed a heavyweight-class character.

I HAD TO TRANSFORM TO DRAW OUT MY FULL POWER

Read: we couldn't be arsed to draw an appropriate sprite, so here, have the old one with missing frames.

I'm not sure if you're arguing against me or arguing on my side, but yes, DoS Alucard is another example of Konami ripping the player off and not doing new spritework, and instead giving us altered, inferior versions of his Symphony of the Night sprites.

[Claimh Solais]

I'm not sure if you're arguing against me or arguing on my side, but yes, DoS Alucard is another example of Konami ripping the player off and not doing new spritework, and instead giving us altered, inferior versions of his Symphony of the Night sprites.

Maybe the spriters are like me. If they have good sprites that they can still use, why make new ones.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Because it's a new game, that's why.
The difference is, they're getting paid to work on sprites.  You're not.

However, I don't think it's them.  It's most likely the project director or lead designer, etc. who makes the decision of whether to cut time & costs by using already available material, or to spend time & resources to work on new stuff.

The clear difference in the end product, however, is that taking one route makes the product seem like a more quality work, while the other route makes it look cheap.

[Claimh Solais]

My thought is that they're doing all these other things first. Developing the gameplay system, mapping out the areas, figuring out puzzles, writing another mediocre story (well, in the case of DoS and PoR), etc. etc. And then, towards the deadline, they're all like "OH CRAP. Did anybody draw any new sprites?!" "Son of a..!" Yeah, that. Quite a stretch but it is possible.

Another question is, why draw out all these new versions of Dracula and such, who's a much bigger character, and not even bother to at least give someone like Richter a new outfit at the most. I know it's possible. A lot of people on here are doing it, and if they actually worked on it, they could finish it in a couple days. They have a team of spriters, after all.

[Flame]

You know I found a spritesheet of Alucard from SoTN with black hair? thought that was interesting.

[thernz]

I think the only hints to them running about of time was with SoTN. It had Richter's new outfit, a handful of unused moves (though I'm glad they didn't use them in actuality), and there's how Richter was supposed to have a different color palette. And despite SoTN only having at most 15 people in the development team, it still had more new graphics than any of the DS titles which had larger teams.

So it's all very uh. They're probably cutting corners with the budget most likely.

You know I found a spritesheet of Alucard from SoTN with black hair? thought that was interesting.

There was actually a preliminary design for Alucard with black hair in the Ayami Kojima artbook released last year. But it was a totally different outfit too, so I guess you probably saw a re-color. I'm betting that Jorge probably even made it lol.

[Flame]

It was an edit

http://cvimages.meeka.net/take2.php/character%20related/alucard/SotN_Alucard_black_hair_edit.png?action=big&size=original&fromthumbnail=true