#castlevania bestiary

[ask-hector-and-isaac]

How do you feel about necromancy? Don't you consider this a mockery of the real undead?

Isaac: Of course it is! How can one compare a commanding creature such as a vampire with a shambling, mindless, rotting corpse?!

Hector: Some of the humans that Lord Dracula welcomed in his castle have taken to the art of necromancy. They stitch up dead bodies to create abominations. I can't say they're a pleasant sight. I would rather let the dead rest, instead of turning them into weapons.

Isaac: It's an inferior art compared to ours. We create life from nothing! And our creations are far more efficient and elegant.

[beevean]

Castlevania fans: Dawn of Sorrow sucks because it's too grindy

Also Castlevania fans: Gee whiz Circle of the Moon is so much better than all the other Metroidvanias because it actually poses a challenge! Sure you need to grind for special abilities, grind for equipment and grind for healing items because the game doesn't have a shop nor a bestiary to keep track of which enemies drop what, but it's a great game we swear!

It's interesting to me how CoTM is a fan favorite in the subreddit, while it's barely if ever talked about on Tumblr. I think I saw, like, one person even getting invested in the characters, and sometimes people bopped to the music, but that's it.

I wonder if it's because the subreddit has a higher concentration of Classic fans, to which CoTM wants to cater a bit with its physics, the whip and the bullshit difficulty. If someone loves CoTM already, for whatever reason, the DSS becomes something you tolerate.

DoS gives to me the feeling of a game that was doomed from the start. A sequel to fan favorite AoS, that was meant to be the finale of the story? With a shitty anime style that is a huge downgrade to Kojima's beloved painting style? Not bringing any radical changes, but being slightly worse than AoS, with worse drop rate and a tedious crafting system? The Magic Seal shit? yeah no I can see why DoS was, while not despised, more scrutinized than CoTM, which also had the luck of being one of the GBA launchers and therefore a lot of fans' first exposure to the series.

So the grinding in CoTM becomes part of its praised difficulty, and the grinding in DoS becomes a reason why it's bad :P

[demonfox38]

Completed - Vampire Survivors (Base + Ode to Castlevania DLC)

This game makes my brain scream at me.

Like, okay. I'm an average office worker. If I'm not in a meeting, I've got something from YouTube running in the background. Music playlists, video essays, whatever. So, in agreement, in disagreement, whatever—the terms "hauntology" and "dopamine addiction" are consistently in my short-term memory thanks to the video essay portions. The rot of culture by failure to let new ideas bloom, clinging to nostalgia and old symbols. Taxing and abusing neurotransmitters in search of instant happiness. Fun, happy things to ponder while I try to burn these hours of my life away.

Do I think either are threats? Well, unchecked nostalgia, definitely—especially when it's faux 1950s Americana influencing law to restrict the rights of others. Dopamine addiction is a bit more of a mixed bag. Like, you've got to create habits of maintenance, absolutely. Cooking, cleaning, exercise, grooming, so on. But, if you're clever, you can figure out how to use your reward system to help support these habits. Starving it or trying to obliterate it won't help, especially if it causes rebound issues. It's just…ya know. Gaining an appreciation for slower processes over instant gratification and deriving lessons from the struggles of life over bodily abuse and obliteration.

I bring these topics up because I got both "Vampire Survivors" and its "Ode to Castlevania" DLC for the cost of a goddamn cheeseburger. This pixel-exploding throwback of a game lasted me for over 100 hours. Drug dealers and fast-food restaurants would wither and die at such a nexus of cost and effectivity.

Some killjoy could do real numbers discussing hauntology and dopamine addition as the subjects apply to this game.

Should I have gotten into "Vampire Survivors" sooner? Possibly? The communal vibes I absorbed on it were nothing but praise. I don't know if I would have felt brave about trying a Rogue-like prior to playing "Baroque," but I do enjoy a good ol' fashioned bullet hell / shooter, from time to time. It might be lame that it literally took the announcement of a "Castlevania" DLC for me to give this game a try, but hey. This DLC did better about pulling me in than "Dead by Daylight" or "Dead Cells" did under similar circumstances.

What's "Vampire Survivors" about? When I figure that out, I'll get back to you. Most of the narrative I'm picking up is derived from a mix of stage names, enemy bestiary entries, and the surnames of the characters I unlock. Generally speaking, it's about Belpaese and Ladonna kin coming together to endure waves of monsters until the cold, clammy fingers of death come for them. And then, finding a way to break past their power. The powers behind them. The limitations of space and time. Research gone horribly wrong, time and time again. Creepy things hidden at the bottom of towers. Fallen civilizations. Corrupted religious sects. Milk-based magic. Ya know. Wholesome stuff!

In another world—with another particular video game company and their infamously litigious team of lawyers—"Vampire Survivors" may not have made it past its first year. It's not hard to see what game series may have inspired the creation of its lead whip-wielding fighter of the undead. Arca Ladonna may be even more egregious in the video game celebrity look-alike competition. (Don't even get me started on those Blue Venus creatures!) But, the aesthetic inspiration certainly doesn't stop at Konami properties! "Bayonetta", "Batman", "Okami", "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Mortal Kombat"—there's gonna be at least one situation you'll have where you end up snorting with laughter with how close to the copyright line this game rides.

Also, "Vampire Survivors" is the most Italian video game I've ever played. Like, yes, tee-hee on "La Borra" and "Testa di Mano" enemies. Nothing is as fucking authentically Italian as naming a character after Cristina D'Avena. Like, goddamn. How do you top that? Make a stage based on the set design for Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" films? Have playable knockoffs of "Lupin the Third" characters? How about an entire race of sentient ducks running parallel to human society? Call their main hero Duckabolik or something. Goddamn.

Although, there were those ducks in space…

So, I put an RPG's worth of hours into the game without getting much in the way of plot. Obviously, something else is keeping me around. How about that core gameplay loop? It starts simple enough. Move your dude up, down, left, and/or right as needed. Hit enemies with attacks. Pick up gems. Level up. Repeat until you die or you hit 30:00, at which point the game sends a Reaper after you to finish you off for good. Run the game again, continue grinding up weapons, unlock more people and levels, etcetera. So goes this song in a round.

You determine your own progress with this game through the Achievements screen. Look at what items remain, make your next goal, and finish off what you can in your next game. Progress will remove some tasks from this list, but it may add others as more opportunities unfold. Empty out your Achievements? Well, guess what? You'll get an extra round of tasks in a brand-new Secrets screen as well! Clearing that may not get you bonus trophies in Steam, but it may get you some additional levels and characters, too. Ditto the Adventures mode too, while you are at it!

Actually, the Adventures mode is pretty strange, if you don't have other DLC for this game. It's really only two stories? Weird. Seems underutilized. Kind of strange that Konami didn't pitch something for this mode, too…

If you're looking for a general overview of tasks to complete, this may help:

Get through the first five game maps, performing well enough to unlock their Hyper Mode options.

Trigger and kill the special boss in Moongolow.

Pick up the Yellow Sign and use that to start killing Reapers.

Kill the special boss that now spawns in Capella Magna.

Gather all base relics (including defeating the damned Sketamari.)

Harass the final boss for two more relics.

Fight the final boss.

It helps to experiment with different weapons and passive items. Leveling up different weapons unlock different characters, so that makes it an easy sell. Using the correct combination of passive items with weapons may also augment the weapon, giving it different (usually better) properties. Getting proficient with different characters may also unlock Arcana cards, which can grant your character with random bonuses while in a battle. Long story short—don't go stale, and neither will the game.

Also, "Castlevania" fans: go look at the names for those Arcana cards. Come back when you've face-palmed.

Most of the game's complexity comes from making your randomly-assigned resources count. The enemies are simplistic, just ambling towards you. The pressure comes more from managing distance from them and your own powers as the enemy's strength grows over time. (Honestly, the biggest difficulty spike may just come from not getting a Garlic weapon, of all things.) Sketamari is the most complicated creature I had to deal with, and that was more building a viable weapon stack in a short amount of time and preventing any interlopers from building it up than anything else. Everything else is…well. Dodge the shit and don't get touched. Video Game Rules 101.

While aesthetically simple, the game is a glory when it comes to CPU resource management. Lesser machines could not handle the glut of objects and particles being rendered on screen, particularly in later parts of a level. I suppose a creature doesn't need more than three frames of animation when a hundred or so of them are being rendered on screen at once. It's amazing this game is as stable as it is, for all of what it is doing. I've had it chug once, sure. Even had it lock up my computer, one time (although one of my poodles was a contributor to that mess.) But, man. Whatever is going on with managing the location, health, and appearance of all on-screen objects is nothing short of technomancy.

The music is also pretty solid, too. Loops well; doesn't get distracting. Honestly, it sometimes gets crushed by the sound effects, but you can adjust the audio and music tracks to balance it out. I appreciate the soundtrack not being above having a joke or too, as well. (Remember: this is an exceedingly Italian game.)

With this game, you need to pace yourself. If you get every run perfect, you'll be spending somewhere between 15-30 minutes in intense play. (Assume you'll be more on the longer end than shorter.) The circular motions you'll be making can be taxing on your thumbs. Make sure to get up, stretch, and rest your eyes and hands every hour. Your body will appreciate it.

Also, seriously. Take the game's flashing warning to heart. You can adjust some settings to ease up on what is being rendered, but the game is designed to burn like a comet. There's gonna be tons of debris shearing off it, and you do not want that scalding your eyeballs.

For those of you hopping in via House Dracula, the DLC "Ode to Castlevania" provides an additional map, as well as…well, the marketing says 40+ weapons and 20+ new characters, but let me tell you. That plus sign is hiding a lot. Like, 90+ pieces of music, 25 bosses, and several dozen new enemies. Damn.

Much like the base game, you're not gonna get much more in the way of plot. It's mostly pushing as far as you can in a single go, punishing bosses as you gather the strength to tackle them and unlocking your Belmont, Belnades, or buddy of choice. However, there is a fun little treat at the map's end regarding the English opening cutscene of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" and Death being a goddamn nightmare. Like, damn, dude. I know the breakup of a bromance that lasted a millennium was rough on you, but this is not the best way to react.

Because of the map's ungodly size and number of tasks to tackle, you'd be better off making good headway into the main game before tackling this. At the very least, it will help you to get that time limit lifted with an Endless mode unlock. (You can also eventually invert the castle, if you're into that.)

The loop here is more like:

Unlock Belmonts (generally, in order of timeline, with a few exceptions.)

Use Belmonts to unlock ally characters, beat bosses, and unlock parts of the map.

Push forward until you finally get Richter.

Use Richter to fight Death.

Max out your new wave of characters.

Fight new bosses.

Find the Pile of Secrets and Wood Carving Score.

Continue until all secrets are exhausted.

That should hold you out…Oh, I don't know. A good 50 hours or more?

I can't get over how deep this DLC digs into "Castlevania" characters and songs. Finally, in 2024—after getting booted from two other games!—we have a playable Hammer. And a playable Mina Hakuba. LMAO. I know people didn't have her on their bingo card, but damn. There are all kinds of playable characters here that I never expected to see, whether in terms of capabilities, story fates, or just coming out of the wrong division of Konami Computer Entertainment. I don't know who wanted a playable Vincent, but uh…there you go. Congrats to you.

I mean, what? Am I supposed to be a shithead and ask for the merchant from "Harmony of Dissonance" or someone from Wygol Village? Fucking 80 goddamn characters, and two are the final Sorrow cast members that I was missing. And fucking Quincy Morris of all goddamn people, now that the copyright for Stoker's "Dracula" has gone to hell. Screw it. I'm take the W and leaving on this one.

With the way Quincy looks in this game, doesn't he look a bit like the North American cover of "Castlevania Bloodlines"? It's making me question some things about that box art…

The DLC takes a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to cast powers. Like, you're not gonna get soul or power absorption with Shanoa or Soma, but you are going to get unique boosts for each cast member. Every Belmont gets a unique way to use their whip, so that's neat! A great way to prevent stagnation, for sure. And, hey. Don't like the default weapon your character starts with? You can switch that out eventually, too. Just gotta prove your competence. Meet some achievements. Do the "Vampire Survivors" grind.

Most of the "Castlevania" remixes are pretty solid as well. Just take a YouTube playlist already. Enjoy. (I was particularly tickled by "Wood Carving Partita" and "The Sinking Old Sanctuary," for what that is worth.)

Now, the songs aren't exactly paired with the characters you may expect. Like, Christopher Belmont gets "Beginning", which then throws "Trevor" into "Aquarius", throwing Sypha and Yoko off, and so on. If you get the Magic Banger relic, it's no big deal to correct. It's just funny how preconceptions can make cool music otherwise seem off.

There was one major part that actively pissed me off with this DLC, and it was unlocking Camilla. The flavor text on her unlock secret implies that a Belmont needs to kill her off (either Leon, Simon, or Sonia, whomever you consider the "first" Belmont to be.) The actual method of unlocking her is hitting her with a Nightmare spell. Like…okay? I'm hoping that'll be patched out later, but man. Wasting hours on that only to find out I was being misled was annoying.

I can't say the sweat needed to unlock Brauner was worth it as well. He isn't as immediately frustrating, but he takes way more time than seems necessary. Just go toss the Blood Astronomia and some compatible weapons on Dracula, get him up to the gallery, level him to a stable point, and park him for a couple of hours.

As shit tier as 2024 has been personally, I can't help but be comforted with the "Castlevania" game releases this year. The "Dominus Collection", the "Dead by Daylight" DLC, and the cherry on top, this. I shouldn't have needed such an incentive to play "Vampire Survivors," but I was more than happy to go hog-wild on this game and its DLC. God bless the development team for this game. They may have developed the digital version of a stimulant drug that makes my hands and brain scream, but I can only hope the best for them.

Good people put their fan translators in their credits, man. And poncle's staff…them's good people, that's what.

The base "Vampire Survivors" is currently available for $4.99 USD on Steam, although that price tends to frequently dip down a dollar for seasonal sales. "Ode to Castlevania" tacks on another $3.99 USD. There are additional levels of DLC and expansions past that point, if you want more. I'm not certain if you'll find more vampires to survive, necessarily, but at least you've got, like, actual vampires to survive now. Which, apparently, is a whole ass meme I didn't know about before!

What's the official count on that now, anyway? You don't fight Dracula, so I don't think you can count him. But, there's Walter, Joachim, Carmilla, Orlox, a Jiang Chi, Stella & Loretta…actually, do you count them? I mean, I know the Sanctuary spell works on them, so I'd say yes, but…Or, wait. Shit. Does "Vampire Survivors" mean the vampires you survive, or the vampires that are also surviving alongside you? Maybe I didn't think this through…

Man, counting vampires shouldn't be as hard as surviving them. Ah ah ah!

[markrosewater]

If we're doing UB wishlists today:

Starcraft - Blizzard's Sci-Fi RTS series conveniently has three extremely evocative and distinct factions and one Universe-ending antagonist

Megaman - It's a series built off of fighting a chain of unique characters, plus it has its own deck-building spinoff series (Battle Network)

Castlevania - A series with a long history and massive bestiary of monsters, characters, and toolss (and hit currently-running Netflix show)

Fire Emblem - Tons of unique characters and stories

Star Trek - It's Star Trek

Thanks for the suggestions.

[ariaofsorrows]

FINALLY!! FINALLY SOMETHING FROM THE ACTUAL CASTLEVANIA BESTIARY I WAITED 5000 YEARS FOR THIS

[buriedyou]

𝐄𝐃𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍.

previously found at: masocholyism, brandofhercin, etc.

I have been writing Edward for a long time. I have a very specific interpretation of him and I often draw on many other media when it comes to his characterization. I often compare him to both Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, as well as the Horatio Alger myth, among other stories and legends. Additionally, I draw on a variety of sources when it comes to vampire lore, including Stoker’s Dracula, the Blade comics, Anne Rice’s vampire compendium, the Castlevania animated series and video game, and others. This portrayal does not see Edward as a misogynistic ass, nor is he a virgin or entirely inexperienced when it comes to relationships. In fact, he dated several celebrities prior to Bella, who he will not namedrop, and had a boyfriend for a brief time in the 90s. Also, he doesn’t fucking sparkle.

FULL NAME: Edward Anthony Masen Cullen NICKNAME: None that he approves of GENDER: Cis-male SPECIES: Vampire HEIGHT: 6’4” AGE: Old BIRTHDAY: June 2, 1901 SPOKEN LANGUAGES: Many, including several dialects of sign language

HAIR: Light auburn, almost bronze in appearance. Styled well EYES: Dependent on hunger and diet. Gold when satiated. Black when ravenous. Red when dining on human blood. SKIN TONE: Pale, nearly ghastly white in some instances. No signs of flush. Any visible veins appear grey. BODY TYPE: Tall and long-limbed. Not at all brawny, but there is strength to his stature in subtle ways. Broad shoulders. Large hands. ACCENT: Chicago (x and x, singing voice x) VOICE: Soft and lilting. In some ways seductive. Enticing. You want to hear more of it. You’re drawn in. Vulnerable. DOMINANT HAND: Ambidextrous SCARS: All healed after his transformation NOTABLE FEATURE(S): His striking eyes. The Hair™. His height.

HOBBIES: Music: listening to it, writing it, playing it, performing it. Flying, planes, and jets. Cars and bikes. His family. Education. Baseball. MENTAL ILLNESSES: Depression. PHYSICAL ILLNESSES: None (vampirism) ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good VULNERABILITIES: His hatred for himself. Direct sunlight.

CURRENTLY.

Professor at Dartmouth. PRESENT DAY. Edward begins research on vampire history and folklore. He pursues this information via personal and academic routes, as well as via Carlisle and various other covens and vampires he meets over the years. Edward is compiling a bestiary of sorts and traveling to obtain information with which to fill it.

QUICK FACTS

he still loves bella 

he is not presently living with his family members 

carlisle and esme remain in washington, but have relocated to seattle 

he is in regular contact with everyone except bella, who he has agreed to let dictate their communication (which is at least monthly, though sometimes less) 

i write chronologically, so my edward is set present day as in this year. currently, he is a history professor at dartmouth. however, i am not opposed to writing previous years; i only require some plotting beforehand. 

no sparkles. your muse CAN’T know he’s a vampire unless they themselves are of supernatural origins or ability, or if edward has told them (which he most likely would not have prior to plotting or interactions). your muse CAN be suspicious of any characteristics or actions of him though.

MISC HCS:

Edward is very much so an empathetic man. This is most certainly due to his telepathy, but he is also incredibly emotionally driven. Though he mercifully remembers very little of his human life prior to being turned, his biological father had fostered toxic masculinity and aggression in the Masen household. However, what was driven into him as a boy growing up human very quickly was replaced by the gentle and sensitive nature that Carlisle exuded and passed onto Edward as he grew as both a vampire and man. So much of who Edward is, is thanks to Carlisle and, later, Esme.

He is a certified pilot. He has his private pilot license, which he obtained in the 90s. He owns a Cessna 172 in a privately owned hangar. He doesn’t talk about this too much, but if one were to find out and ask about it, he could talk about flying for hours.

EDWARD CULLEN’S NET WORTH ( WHICH INCLUDES : 2 homes, 5 cars, various personal investments, business interest, investment accounts, and personal property, BUT DOES NOT INCLUDE : his inheritance ): $12,212,209,782on top of this: Edward Cullen inherits the Masen family fortune every 10 years, which is approximately 620,000 USD. He donates more than half of it anonymously to various charities and whichever hospital Carlisle is working at the year he receives the money.

ALT VERSES TBD...

[sepublic]

I love the Castlevania show, but I can't help but be miffed by how much of the source material and colorful bestiary the show tends to ignore in favor of more vampires. I love characters such as Striga and Morana, but then you've got fairly generic ones like Dragan or Nikolai, who are just there to be obstacles and don't have any real personality themselves.

It's just a little confusing, because why do the writers keep trying to come up with OCs when they have plenty to pull from the actual games? In the games, vampires themselves are actually very rare; They're usually only represented by endgame bosses like Dracula, Bartley, Brauner, etc. Otherwise, the vast majority of enemies are night creatures, ghosts, haunted suits of armor, and the like.

But instead of embracing the weirder monsters like the Minotaur or Werewolves, the Castlevania show keeps defaulting to regular old vampires who are basically just humans with pointy ears and teeth. The show keeps defaulting to Vampire melodrama, like it's trying to emulate other pieces of Vampire media, instead of embracing what sets Castlevania apart from those stories. It has a concerning lack of weird castle exploration for a show called Castlevania.

Skeletons only appear in one scene, and I'm sorry but a common staple of a series should not be reduced to a mere fanservice cameo. It's like the Resident Evil live-action films making everything about zombies and reluctantly including a Licker as the ultimate monster. It's like if the Super Mario Bros. Movie barely had Goombas, they made the show too normal from the source material.

That isn't to say the source material is a perfect narrative, far from it; It can get pretty damn repetitive at times, especially with certain character roles and dynamics. I'll die on the hill that Annette's reimagining was justified, and Ortega and Hugh Baldwin are admittedly less interesting versions of Maxim Kischine.

The repetition makes sense! Castlevania's priority is gameplay, and each installment is meant to be its own thing. But when you're doing it as a TV show, a story, and having each story arc play a part in a larger narrative, you have to mix things up in terms of story and characterization, because you can't rely on different gameplay mechanics and levels to differentiate entries in an animated show.

But all that said, it's tiring how much the show will ignore aspects that wouldn't conflict with the writing at all in favor of more generic vampires. I don't want to see vampire politics and melodrama, but it's infinitely more interesting if its melodrama and politics between slimes and minotaurs!

I dunno, it feels like the show is limiting itself on an aesthetical level. What difference does it make in terms of writing if there's a flying Medusa head, or an Axe Armor? I think the writers are afraid of coming across as 'corny' as if Castlevania itself isn't crazy and anime as hell, but this just makes them come across as lacking sincerity. It's like how people complained about a bunch of 2000's movie adaptations of superheroes watering down everything to be more 'serious' and 'realistic' and 'believable', but it just made it grey and boring and cut away what made it unique.

The writers could've easily replaced characters like Dragan with, say, Sir Grakul from Super Castlevania IV, or had freakish looking night creatures be the ones to monologue (instead of treating Flyseyes as the one exception). There's acceptable departures from the source material, and then there's just straight up ignoring it, and then going out of its way to make up new things when stuff is already there to use. It's not as if the animators struggle with animating non-humanoid beings, considering how many unique night creatures they've come up with. So can we please stop being lowkey embarrassed of the source material???

It'd honestly make the show so much more memorable if we got to see Richter fighting a Skull Knight or Mummy. It's just so much wasted potential, especially when they ignore game Richter's compelling narrative of a Fallen Hero, in favor of making up something completely different. I can understand revising protagonists who barely have anything to them, like John Morris from Bloodlines, but Richter HAD a meaningful storyline to expand on, and one that deconstructs his role as a vampire hunter!

Given the show's attempts to be a grittier deconstruction and its suggestion that killing vampires isn't 100% good, I don't know why they didn't go with the idea of Knight Templar Richter whose desire to be needed in battle leaves him vulnerable to Shaft's brainwashing. The deeper, character-driven writing does not have to be mutually exclusive from fantastical and weird elements.

[beardedmrbean]

Castlevania Advance Collection has an encyclopedia for all the items and enemies in the game, for Aria of Sorrow it's based on the one included in-game

Though it includes all entries right from the beginning unlike the in-game one which requires defeating the enemy for it to be added. It also includes the unused one for the true final boss, Chaos.

Since the game ends right after defeating Chaos there's no way to view its entry, which has a glitched sprite instead of its actual appearance.

I can't be the only one that thinks it's silly to include that last one that you're not really supposed to be able to see anyhow.

That or they should make it available for viewing in a new game after beating the game, but that's a complaint I've had since the NES days.

Cinematics and bestiaries and all that good stuff should be a option that appears in the main menu after beating the game, blank spots for the stuff you missed and all that good stuff.

[monochromatictoad]

❤️,🖤,💀 for the unpopular opinions ask game

choose any fandom you'd like :)

- @aro-simp

Imma do this for Castlevania >:3c

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I could name a number of different characters, but I'll stick to the characters I know.

Gabriel Belmont. I noticed his character is hard for people to grasp, because he contradicts himself so many times. I've seen interpretations that simply state that he has no depth, there's no character there, and I challenge these notions. I could go on a whole spiel about Gabriel's character, and I have on many occasions, but it genuinely feels like people don't bother to read in game text on him, where in LoS1, the bestiary states that Gabriel named himself Belmont, because of his love for mountains. That should state everything you need to know about Gabriel. He's sturdy, ever changing, yet always a sanctuary for those who seek it.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

LoS Trevor 'Alucard' Belmont. This man influenced a million man army, just to draw Dracul out of his castle, and state that he had a plan for giving Dracul what he wanted, as well as denying fate itself.

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

Edit: I read this wrong, please forgive me.

Honestly, I can't think of one, because so many major characters die in LoS. But I hope, somewhere in the future of LoS, Dracul and Trevorcard are both able to die and be at peace. Finally able to rest from everything that was thrown at them, and reunite with their family in the afterlife.

[nocturnerpg]

𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 & 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆! 𝒇𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅!

Monsters come in all ghastly shapes and terrifying forms, but the deadliest ones are those cursed with eternal beauty, tantalizing smiles, and an insatiable thirst for blood. Three years after daysdeath, a mysterious phenomenon that plunged the whole world into perpetual darkness, vampires and all manners of creatures of the night have risen after hiding in the shadows for several centuries. Under the rule of the Undying Empire, the entire populace has no choice but to bend to the whims of their new monarch.

𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄 is a 20+, mewe-based, literate, horror-themed, OC KRP inspired by Castlevania and other vampire lore. Come hither and immerse yourself in a story-driven world of endless night, where the Undying Empire seeks to devour humankind and the latter fights for its survival. Will you be a hero? Or will you succumb to the temptations of blood and immortality? Nocturne awaits your arrival.

NAVIGATION: ABOUT / SETTING / BLOODLINES / BESTIARY / LOCALITY / GUIDELINES / MASTERLIST / FAQS / APPLY HERE

[hermitdreams]

okay Boktai 2 was good.

I put it off for so long because - I didn't even know it existed until it wasn't sold anymore - I was stubborn about emulating it because I played the first "as intended" - The subtitle wasn't as appealing as "The Sun Is In Your Hand" - even though the sun, in-game, is literally in your hand this time

I'm still doing postgame stuff (just filling out bestiary and weapons) but here's my gleeful footnotes: - Violet reminds me of @bestgirlsystem - Zazie is incredible - Trans Sabata??? - Cute easter egg on The Lovers card

anyway the Boktais are Isometric Metal Gear Solids (yes, by Kojima) set in a Spaghetti Western Solarpunk Castlevania world and were developed alongside Battle Network, so if any of that sounds interesting to you, check them out.

[bersergner-blog]

Escape from Tombstone - Art Book Structure

Now that pretty much all of the art was finished it was time to start assembling the art-book to collect all of my hard work. I'm actually quite an avid collector of Art Books so this was a great opportunity for me to leaf through them again. The following books are the ones I focused on (I started with structure so the notes will be pertaining to this):

Resident Evil 6 - Artworks Content Key Visuals Humans/Gadgets Creatures Environments

The Art of Doom (2016) Intro Content Demons Environments Characters Weapons Props and Graphics

The Art of Doom Eternal Of Earth (Characters/Humans) From Hell (Demons/Enemies) Cursed Worlds (Environments) Hurt ‘Em Plenty (Weapons) Demon vs. Slayer (Multiplayer/Props)

The Art of the Last of Us Introduction Joel and Ellie (Main Characters) The Journey (Environments/Side-Characters) The Infected (Enemies) The World (Weapons & Props) Marketing (Splash Art) American Dreams (Tie-in Comic concept art)

The Art of The Last of Us Part II (Follows the structure of the plot, revealing concepts as they are appropriate to the story) Foreword Prologue Jackson, Wyoming Seattle, Washington The Farm Santa Barbara, California Epilogue Graphic Design

The Art of Borderlands 3 Introduction Characters Environments Creatures and Enemies Weapons Vehicles Credits

The Art of Castlevania Lords of Shadows Contents Introduction Gabriel Belmont Dracula The Belmont Family Allies & Antagonists Whips & Chains Supernatural Bestiary Locations & Environments The Modern Age Acknowledgments

The Art of Darksiders Illustrations Characters Creatures Bosses Environments Weapons Artifacts Icons CG Gallery Key Visuals

The Art of Darksiders II Key Visuals (Illustrations) Characters & Enemies Weapons Locations CG Models Storyboards The Art of Death & Darksiders 2 Key Visuals (CG)

The Art of Darksiders III Prelude Key Art Characters Bosses World Weapons Icons Storyboards CG Models

The Art of Darksiders Genesis Characters Bosses Enemies Environment Gameplay Objects Cinematics Icons Key Art

Devil May Cry Graphic Arts Introduction Devil May Cry 3 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry 4 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry 2 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Extra

The Art of Diablo Foreword Introduction Embrace the Darkness Characters Loot Creatures Environments A Return to Darkness Acknowledgments

The Art of Overwatch Volume 2 Introduction Heroes Environments Seasonal Events Challenges Skins Animated Shorts Beyond the Game A Glimpse of things to come

My research helped me immensely and I narrowed down my structure to the following:

Structure: Introduction Content Characters Enemies Environments Weapons Props Key Art

[demonfox38]

👍No problem. Other than the times this game crashed on me. And Tumblr eating my first post. Urgh.

My previous Post Game Evaluation for “Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin” is here. Additional notes for the Dominus Collection variant:

I was playing across versions 1.0 and 1.0.1. As previously mentioned, the game was crash happy on me. I think it crashed more on the 1.0.1 version, but I can’t clearly remember. Long story short, use the L-button save option liberally. I lost a lot of items and spells to whatever the heck was going on… (I honestly can’t tell you what was causing it, either. Could be related to a GPU processing error. Possibly, some overflow with luck and item drops as well.)

I did have two major augmentations from my previous playthrough. Charlotte’s Heal spell and the Vampire Killer both got way more play. The VK in particular is more powerful than its stats say. Considering a good chunk of the monsters have a weakness to holy elemental items, you’ll find it particularly effective against most of the game’s bestiary.

Also—always make sure to cast Heal by switching to Charlotte, then letting both bars charge up. Make that MP consumption worth it!

The rewind function can be useful for resetting puzzles, but I wouldn’t rely on it too much for augmenting your health or luck in battle. I had a particularly strange encounter with an Amduscias that dropped a Record 4 seven times in a row, despite my rewinding and pausing to attempt to manipulate my luck.

Man, could I have used a fast forward function for when I was waiting for my MP to come back…

I had to exercise a great deal of patience with the enemy scripting for this game. While “Castlevania” games are known for being rigid with patterns and finding openings to attack, this game felt particularly punishing for not playing its way. I joke that this is a “Fuck you; take 60 damage” game, but honestly? Sometimes, it’s “Fuck you; take 200 damage” game, too.

The economy in this game is brutal, too. Couldn’t even gold grind properly until I had Brauner in the bag…

 It feels weird that the English voice cast didn’t have credits in the end credits. Like…I realize that takes up some space and can throw off pacing, but that still seems dickish.

Also, it feels like this game should have had an achievement for clearing the Nest of Evil. Maybe (possibly) the Sisters mode as well. The former in particular feels weird to not be rewarded (although, I suppose you do get proxy achievements by playing through "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.")

They did fix that typo with the Richter mode!

[lapisamethyst]

Going to start by just eyeballing the list of Smash Bros fighters by series and listing the ones I’m pretty sure count as third party:

Metal Gear Solid

Sonic the Hedgehog

Megaman

Pac-Man

Street Fighter

Final Fantasy 7

Bayonetta

Castlevania

Persona 5

Dragon Quest XI

Banjo-Kazooie

Fatal Fury

Minecraft

Tekken

Kingdom Hearts

With the candidates outlined, we have to consider that we’re making a turn-based RPG here, full of colorful characters and locales, as well as enemies to fight. As such I feel like there’s two major criteria to consider:

Does the series have an iconic location or environment that would be fun to explore? 

Does the series have iconic enemies to draw on for fights in this area?

Under the first criteria, I know I already see people disagreeing with this, but I’d strike Minecraft off the list. Outside of the aesthetic specifically, there’s not a whole lot to work with. I’d also strike Persona 5 not because it doesn’t have iconic locations, but because its iconic locations are very heavily tied in to that game’s world and story in a way that wouldn’t feel authentic if Mario and co just wandered in.

Under criteria number 2, I’m also immediately going to strike a few of these off the list. Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, and Tekken are fighting games where the focus is more on specific, player-character class characters rather than mobs of smaller enemies that would fit for an RPG. Metal Gear Solid falls into similar problems, while Snake ends up fighting a lot of mooks, most of them are just some variety of human soldier outside of the iconic bosses. Pac-Man also doesn’t have too much to offer outside of the ghosts.

With those entries struck from consideration, I’m left with 8 to consider. Why don’t I count them down from here.

8. Bayonetta

Call it personal bias here but I just don’t think the locations and enemies of Bayonetta are as iconic as the other candidates. It has locations to draw on, and it has mobs of enemies with interesting designs, so I didn’t think it would be fair to strike it entirely, but I’m not compelled in this context. If the game was going for some specific aesthetics, the angels and demons of Bayonetta might fit in nicely, but without those details I’m going to leave it here.

7. Banjo-Kazooie

Honestly this falls into a lot of the same territory as Bayonetta, it wins out over it mostly due to the aesthetic already being on the cartoony side and thus easier to picture blending in with the Nintendo properties. In my view it has a better set of locations to draw from, but its enemies are pretty forgettable, I could easily see someone with different tastes swapping order here.

6. Megaman

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. I’m not sure I’d call any Megaman location iconic short of Wiley’s Skull Fortress, and outside of a few standouts like the Mets and the Servbots a lot of the enemies are still pretty forgettable, but in both cases there’s a pretty wide swath to draw on for inspiration. Still pretty low on the list but I’d confidently say I’d consider it above the previous.

5. Dragon Quest XI

I feel bad putting Dragon Quest this low considering its multitude of memorable monsters, but once again I have to draw back to location and the fact that I’m just struggling to think of what environment I’d pull from to represent the game, I think the fact that Smash Bros itself went with “uuh, floating platform orbiting the giant tree” speaks to this concern.

4. Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 7 edges out the above with an easy answer for the location: Midgar, or some facsimile thereof. The underbelly of a big, industrial city would be an interesting environment to navigate, and while on the whole I’d say Final Fantasy’s bestiary isn’t quite as iconic as Dragon Quest, it has plenty of standouts such as Cactuars, Tonberries, Chocobos, and Bombs to draw on. It could arguably be higher on the list even.

3. Sonic

Green Hill Zone bay-bee! Hard to get more iconic than the stage the Sonic series has been referencing to death in recent entries, and it’s the kind of environment that would be pretty easy to turn into a big open field area. I fear that Sonic falls into a similar problem as Megaman when it comes to enemies in that no particular mook stands out too much, but I feel like they have a more recognizable aesthetic as a whole, and one that would be fun to represent.

2. Kingdom Hearts

I think it could be a lot of fun to explore a larger rendition of Destiny Islands or Traverse Town in this style of RPG, and the Heartless cover the enemy quota in spades, with shadows and soldiers being particularly iconic and plenty more to draw upon for variety. Checks both of my boxes with ease and doesn’t even seem too hard to fit into the overall aesthetic. This was actually going to be my number one pick initially, but the more I thought about it the more I have to give the spot up.

1. Castlevania

Whether you make the star character Richter or Simon, I think this has to be my choice for representation. The world map area is pretty easy to conceptualize, it’s Castle Dracula and the surrounding area leading up to it, with plenty of swamps, dead trees, maybe a graveyard or two to play up the classic horror aesthetics. While I don’t think the enemies of Castlevania are too much to write home about, and is the reason I initially had this ranked lower, I think the overall vibe of undead and demons and other creatures of the night fill an aesthetic niche that’s otherwise missing from the roster of Nintendo properties, and one that’s an RPG staple for a reason.

So, concept: Super Smash Bros. RPG in the style of Super Mario RPG. It's got the same ring-shaped-world-map-with-conspicuously-themed-regions deal, except each region is based on a different Nintendo property: there's the Mushroom Kingdom (of course), Kong Island, a miniature Hyrule, an orbital colony where Samus Aran hangs out (probably a late-game region, that one!), and so forth.

Now, here's the question: owing to space limitations and the need to stay on brand, the game is naturally going to have a major focus on first-party Nintendo characters and properties, but you get to include exactly one world map region based on a third-party property, the only requirement being that at least one of that property's characters must have appeared as a full-featured fighter (i.e., mirror characters are okay, but Mii Fighter costumes don't qualify – sorry, Sans!) in a Super Smash Bros. title.

For reasons what would obviously take far too long to explain here, you get to make this decision. Who do you pick, and what does their region of the world map look like?

(Note: no chaining multiple third-party franchise crossovers together. i.e., you can pick Sora, but that doesn't also get you Mickey Mouse.)

[goatondaroad]

Flame Demon v2 by Goatondaroad

[cursezone]

top 5 castlevania sotn enemies who arent technically women, but are definitely women

im not going to be including any enemies with a typically "woman" like figure, I'm also not including the axe armor because that is CANON

5. Black Panther. theres just something so womanly about how much damage this enemy does and how hard it is to deal damage to. i wonder who fills her kibble chalice

4. Grave Keeper. this feller is very protective of certain areas in the castle and i just think he's a woman. a lesbian. butch. okay? being a woman is all about protecting things

3. Sword Lord/Vandal Sword. theres nothing more #girl than your sword breaking in half upon defeat and then coming back to haunt their enemy immediately. the way this enemy sounds during the fight is especially girlish

2. Azaghal. WHAT A BADDIE THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY. I DONT EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY AZAGHAL IS A WOMAN

Richter Belmont