Interesting podcast. Regarding Bram Stoker's Dracula, I don't know what the original intention of the developers was when Bloodlines came out, but the novel is not exactly part of the storyline. People often point to the offical timeline that contains a short blurb that mentioned Quincy Morris defeated Dracula or something, but it never actually mentions the novel anywhere. There are also some conflicts that make the novel and the games impossible to fit together. I think it's best to think they merely borrowed the Quincy Morris character and waved a Castlevania story around him. Also a little fun fact: the actual novel takes place in 1892 or 1893 while the event on the offical timeline takes place in 1897, which is the year in which the novel was first released.