7:46 I hate how it goes from aria of sorrow’s beautiful box art to the most simple and unimaginative anime art style you can imagine for Dawn of sorrow
@@hamachibeans4471 dawn of sorrow mainly utilizes it being the first installment for the ds games, which is really disappointing because it adds an unecessary layer for finishing boss fights 😭
Aria of sorrow is the best. The gothic architecture, the beautiful corridors in the castle, the paintings and statues, and the music, no other game has such beautiful gothic melodies in the castlevania franchise or the vast number of clone games to date.
my favorite one in the series. the soul system is so much fun. my only complain would be the levels. there are way too many dead ends which end up forcing the players to backtrack a lot. dawn of sorrow definitely improved on that.
it's so weird and interesting how seeing 3:16 genuinely wowed me from what I've seen here, the use of 3d and warping effects are just so tastefully done. between that clock tower and the coffin I kind of can't help but be impressed, even if 2023 is the first time I've laid eyes on it
Great analysis! The IGAvanias are some of my favourite games not just in gameplay but aesthetically as well. It's also interesting to see how each iteration is unique.
Sotn is one of the best games ever made. Atmosphere / innovation / gameplay / music / everything about it. After that aria of sorrow is my next favorite.
What I like about Harmony's random inconsistent world design is how it plays into the story: the castles a creation of Maxim's positive and negative mind energy. Basically a big trippy thought put into physical form. Even the soundtrack plays into it, giving the game a bit of a psychological horror feel. When it comes to Kojima her art is a perfect continuation. Rondo, and later Dawn&Portrait, kinda feel wrong in the series. Rondo at least has good character designs (besides Drac who looks terrible) but Dawn and Portrait's character designs look flat out awful and lazy, very amateur drawings. Order of Ecclesia really flipped the switch and looks fantastic.
Rondo looks great, the style works well with the tone and world, and I’m actually partial to Drac’s younger look. Portrait and dawn’s artsyle doesn’t really complement the games.
@@Multienderguy37 There is a good way and a bad way to depict younger Dracula. The picture shown at section 6:20 of this video is a good way. How it is depicted in cutscenes of Rondo of Blood is not.
@@Anakunus Chronicles Drac does look rad tho, but X68000 looks horrible. I just finished the boss fight, (in arrange mode) and I think it is a bit easy for a game of that difficulty, but still fun.
Lmao when Lords of Shadows came on the video, I thought "wait that was a Castlevania game???". I watched a couple gameplays of it years back and completely didn't catch that it was supposed to be a Castlevania game lol. Anyway, super loved the video!!!!! Amazing job! Ecclesia, Symphony and Lament forever 💙💙💚💚
solid video until the lords of shadow section, that game deserves a much larger look than you gave it. It took castlevania to its roots in a way by looking back to what inspired castlevania in the first place. Hollywood Horror. Sure, it takes a lot of visuals from lord of the rings, but its heavily influenced by bram stoker's dracula, pans labyrinth, as well as other films. There is a lot of tradition that is carried over as well considering they still used a TON of the names and characters from the original timeline, albeit their own versions. Most of the other creatures were inspired by folklore as well, no counting the demons from LOS2 which more looked like Legacy of Kain's Hylden. Then if you look at Mirror of Fate, that game, artistically merged the old and the new IMO. The most glaring example would be the caves under castle dracula. When exploring those caves, the darkness all has sort of a shade of blue, and the torches and lights illuminate the platforms making them look orange. That is 100% a call back to the complimentary colors used in the very first castlevania where the rocks are orange and the backgrounds are blue. It was awesome and is always overlooked. Edit: Hell, even the armor used by the brotherhood of light is HEAVILY influenced by the promo art from Simon's Quest
I agree, like I said in the video they deserve a thorough judgement of their own. But it's precisely because of the density and depth of their stylistic influence that I chose not to cover them. The LoS games really _go places_ unprecedented for the series, and like I said they just descend from a fundamentally different artistic tradition. And so if I wanted to do them justice I'd have to have made an entirely separate video on them or added an extra 8-10 mins to this one and ruined it's pacing. If I had infinite time I'd have included Dracula X Chronicles, Rebirth and Belmont's Revenge in the discussion too, as well as talk at length about the Netflix series. But infinite time I do not have.
@@Ryan-Petre fair! I'm just so tired of those games getting shit on and described as "not castlevania" because they most definitely are Castlevania to their core
@Gianni Cage Yeah, I do regret the "they're not castlevania" line, but the truth is it was a convenience thing. It's a lot easier to say something dismissive about them in one sentence and get them out of the way then it would have been to include a full paragraphs outlining exactly why I wasn't going to cover them due to pacing and production concerns. I should have said something better than "they're not Castlevania" tho. Though I will say that I have genuinely considered returning to them at a later point and giving them their own dedicated episode in this little mini series. But we'll see.
I watched part 1 this morning and I couldn't wait to get off work for part 2. the metroidvanias are my absolute favorite. I'm getting the advance collection for switch. Great content man keep it up!
Great video and I loved the slightly optimistic note you ended on. I think the IGAvania legacy also lives on in indies like Blasphemous where clearly a lot of time was spent establishing a cohesive artistic vision with impeccable pixel art and very fluid animation. Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Castlevania are some of my favorite franchises, and even if their day in the sun is over I'll always be able to revisit those games and appreciate something new about them every time. They're each such singular artistic statements that they'll no doubt inspire game developers for years to come.
Great vids. I really liked this series. Few things though, Iga didn't necessarily push forward SOTN himself, it was directed by Toru Hagihara who directed Rondo as well, Iga was heavily involved though. He would take over the series after that. You didn't mention Harmony of Despair and Grimoire of Souls. HD is simply reusing everything before, but I think It would've been worth a mention if at least to showcase Kojima's new artwork and classic Simon design painting. Grimoire of Souls also has new art from her but I would've also liked to have heard your opinion on that games art design. Great vids though. Castlevania lives on in the hearts of those who are willing to keep it alive!
I definitely enjoyed the second part of this series even more than the first. I felt like it had better flow and pacing. Great work! I really need to go back and finish Order of Ecclesia. I got to the end then got sidetracked by something else, ugh. I also really loved the first Lords of Shadow (not the 2nd, haha). I felt like it was a good reboot that had fun gameplay and an interesting plot, just wish the OST hadn’t been so boring. 😭
Thanks man, I agree. I feel part of it may have had something to do with me easing off on the montages and just firing from one game to another without as much break or pause. And yet, for the record I do really like Lords of Shadow 1, I might even do a third part at one point in the future where I cover that sub series. But we'll see.
As terrible as an adaptation the Netflix show is, I agree with the talent behind it really understanding the series aesthetic history well. It feels as a homage to the series different art direction over time, which is fitting for an adaptation of the 2nd game in the series. Redesigned characters like Trevor and Sypha look great while still recognzable as well
Imagine a new 3D Castlevania that blends the style and gameplay of the PS2 games with the world design of Dark Souls, focused less on excruciating difficulty and more on fast-paced combat, platforming and RPG elements.
I never understood why people harp on Harmony of Dissonance's music. This seems to be a very common consensus that its music is bad. I don't think the track quality of sound is too bad for a GBA game. Maybe people think it's too video-gamey? The only other reason (I could think of) would be just how the music is composed. Many of the tracks seem to almost randomly change how they ebb and flow. I don't know how to explain. Maybe the best way to explain it is to say the songs don't adhere to conventional music theory- songs don't play out like you'd expect and it's jarring. I always thought that it was a conscience effort to create songs that were more unnerving to fit the trippy setting of the castle- Dissonant harmonies or melodies. I think a good example is the boss battle music. It's a random cacophony of tunes that I think are distressing in a very appealing way. Less a soundtrack of triumphant battle and more a dangerous encounter with a monstrosity. Yeah, dunno. I really do like HoD's soundtrack. Might even be my favorite of the 'Vanias.
I like it, but I just reckon it was a bit to harsh and repetitive ingame. Felt like a regression. Again, I like it, just there are some way better Castlevania soundtracks, even on the GBA...
The difference between original Castlevania and the IGA era is just as big as the difference between the IGA era and LoS. It's wild to me someone would recognise Castlevania more in Bloodstained than LoS, unless they were specifically talking about IGA era Castlevania and not the wider series.
You're right, but the difference between Igavania and LoS is that the former is a successful branch of the series. Igavania may be very different from Classicvania, but unlike LoS it managed to legitimized itself within the franchise by sticking around for 10+ years and delivering 8 games. Aria, Ecclesia and SotN are now firmly entrenched in the series history, whether people like it or not. Lords of Shadow on the other hand, in commercial performance and longevity, cannot make that claim. And so history will always have it marked as a failed dynasty.
@@Ryan-Petre I’m not even a big LoS fan but just so you know, LoS was never intended to be a long term reboot (which is a stupid decision to make but that’s not the point). It was always meant to be a self contained trilogy with nothing else attached to it, so despite LoS2 failing hard it wasn’t the reason it stopped, it stopped because they finished it. And LoS1 far out sold any IGA title and in fact any other CV game ever. And got solid reviews as did MoF.
@@dommoore6180 Sure, but at the end of the day man, but a short lived spin off is a short off is a spin off. It's natural that a lot of people aren't going to see it as the "real" thing, the same way a lot of us don't accept Kid Dracula as "real" Castlevania games either.
@@dommoore6180 Well, yeah, it should, because at it's core it's a gut thing. No one who shares my sentiment is going to have a hard, objective reason to disqualify LoS from the series, it's just an intuitive feeling. The sense that LoS just isn't the same as the rest, the feeling that the original essence just isn't there. It's a spiritual argument.
Having just come across your channel today, I can only commend you on your efforts and quality; well done! I realize you mentioned them here already and talked a bit about them, but I think me and quite a few others would be interested in your thoughts on some of these: - How do the Bloodstained games evoke/follow the design traditions of Castlevania and what are the major or significant differences? - A more in-depth video about the Lords of Shadow subseries and maybe the design inspirations behind those. - An addendum for this video, with all the CV games you didn’t mention. - Art design of SoulsBorne games I know this sounds like a new subscriber demanding, but I just wanted to brainstorm some ideas to you! Anyway, I look forward to what you’ll talk about next either way! Cheers from Germany
Thank you my friend. And yes, I've very seriously considered doing a designated video for all three of those CV related topics, but have held off cuz I'm still pretty young on YT I don't want to sink all my time into just being "the castlevania art guy". But at the very least I'll do a Lords of Shadows and Bonus Game episode at some point in the future, maybe soon if that rumoured new CV game gets announced. I'd also love to cover the Souls series, but considering they're such long, dense games, they'd be difficult to fit into a neat format like this video and would take a long time to record/produce (same reason I only touched upon the LoS games in this vid). But I've seriously considered doing a little mini series where I do one dedicated vid to each game over the course of a couple months or so. But we'll see. Thanks for the suggestions, anything's possible!
I would disagree slightly with curse of darkness, it was my first game of the series and i was fascinated, similar to jak and daxter, the combination of all this different inspirations felt new, specifically curse of darkness, reminds me a lot of the rogue legacy effect, where the different areas are super distinct from one another but the areas per se are very homogenous, i don't see any problem with the castle having a consistent arquitecture all throughout and use the caves, forest, and even a glimpse at the infinite corridor to change things more drastically I'm not saying one is superior, i'm just trying to point out that it has it's own merits that separate it from a symphony of the night aesthetic while preserving the general castlevania vibe
I grew up with Castlevania on NES. I thought LoS felt more like Castlevania than the PS2 games. Those two did away with the platforming thats always been part of the challenge. For me LoS was a step in the right direction even if it was a bit flawed. My main problem was not in the art, which felt "castlevania" to me, it was the inprecise and floaty feeling of the combat.
Kojima's art style is still my favorite. Kinda suck that 3D Castlevania cant live to its potential since that is where her character design can be fully shown. Curse of Darkness is my favorite one, but mostly cos of the gameplay, not the aesthetic.
It's a great video, but a heavy disagree on two things. I think Lords of Shadow IS a good Castlevania, it's just not what people expected. CV has good music, interesting lore, and mature themes under more simplistic stories. LoS does a good job at making Gabriel have good reasons to fall to darkness. For one, every person he's trusted has either betrayed him, or been betrayed by him. His journey to save the world leaves him with nothing but emptiness. The fact that Gabriel is described as God's perfect man really adds to his character, as it's his flaws that give him God's favor. And LoS very much pays attention to the previous games, almost everything in the lore is some kind of call back to the games. It's references are done with actual love instead of someone checking off a top 10 list like the Netflix show. Just because it wasn't made by the same people that doesn't mean that it can't be Castlevania, in fact going by that logic, you are making a contradiction. The Netflx show was also made by people completely unrelated to Konami or the original team, and unlike LoS, almost no one involved was familiar with CV to begin with, so it clearly can't be that. And the second thing, the Netflix show is far from universally praised by Castlevania fans, most people are either mixed about it, while others outright hate it. The show is seen as a low effort, oportunistic mess which uses the brand recognition of Castlevania to push out it's own unrelated and undeserving story. Written by someone who actively dislked the games, and games in general as storytelling "you can't adapt jumping spites". And the show is not actually popular in Japan, a friend of mine frequents those circles, and they've all but disowned the show, especially after season 3. The Netflix show may be popular among non-fans or people who irregularly play the games, but fans of the games don't like the show. Nothing Castlevania about a show written by the average reddit atheist. The most the show does to look like Castlevania is resembling a few looks, but that's about it. Even IGA didn't like the show, his comments about it were neutral, and he's the one who cancelled the project to begin with, after eight drafts where written, because the main writer refused to play the games, but kept wanting to add all his edgy anti-theist things into a story where they didn't belong. But I agree on the Dark Souls thing, pretty much every CV fans agrees that a CV styled souls/bloodborne games would be a great combination. Usually people say that a SotN remake or a CoD remake would be cool. Also, you didn't mention the fact that the anime art style was partly chosen due to the fact that Kojima was already working on the PS2 game, and as IGA put it "she's not exactly quick", you praised her detailed work, but that's not work you just make in an afternoon. I'm not saying it's completely justified, I would've prefered that they got the OoE guy a little bit earlier, but at least the anime art style fits with the kind of story DoS and PoR told.
Honestly, I agree. While I'll admit the Lords of Shadows games weren't perfect & had their flaws (namely Mirror of Fate & LoS2) I still really like them & think it's ridiculous to call them "not Castlevania games because Konami didn't work on them" or "they're just God of War clones". Konami not working on the LoS games doesn't automatically make them not Castlevania games. Hell, the creators of LoS clearly had respect for the games with all the references & callbacks found throughout the games. Calling them "God of War clones" would be like calling Bayonetta a Devil May Cry clone or Dead Space a Resident Evil 4 clone. While I liked the animated series at first when I was just starting out with the franchise as a whole, it's clear now that the series feels like it was written by the likes of Zack Snyder & Alan Moore. It tried to be adult & mature by adding in excessive amounts of gore & violence & needless swearing & sex. It's a 7th-grader's idea of what being adult & mature is. The series isn't even that interesting, it's mostly just people sitting around in one place for most of a season & talking about stuff. I wouldn't mind the religious stuff if it was a genuine critique of the church at the time while also showing that religion & faith itself isn't inherently a bad thing. But instead, we have stupid one-sided "Christianity bad, science rulz" bull. The only positive I'll give the animated series was the art/animation & the voice acting.
Aria of Sorrow is my personal favorite among the entire Castlevania canon. It didn't need a sequel. Harmony of Dissonance is my least favorite of the entire roster, largely because I could never get past that ugly blue outline surrounding Juste. And then there's one game that didn't come up for discussion in your videos, Grimoire of Souls, which I have seen gameplay videos for and which I personally believe gave the Castlevania series proper closure and a good send-off.
Thanks man. I love Rebirth, and I wanted to talk about it as well as a few others like Dracula X Chronicles and Haunted Castle, but excluded for time and pacing issues. But I've played with the idea of doing another vid, and maybe give Lord's of Shadow a fairer shake than I did. And maybe if that rumoured new Vania game comes through, maybe I'll go through with it.
I think Bloodstained has that cheap 3D look you mentioned earlier, I still enjoy it but I find it ugly the 2D games I find much better in overall look but far too colorful to give me that old school vibe. They are solid and I preferred that kind of game anyways over the Metroid like games.
5:40 Can't say I agree with that, maybe 80s american cartoon/comic aesthetics but not a break from western ones. The whole series is dripping in european aesthetics and only some of them are very anime in style like Rondo, Bloodlines and Dawn. CotM a dolled up gbc game? wtf lol
Yeah, I agree, it was hyperbole designed to fit a narrative. Obviously the series was still heavily, heavily influenced by western aesthetic. But I do think in terms of character designs Kojima's stylization was very Japanese, and in the grander scheme of things that alone did really change how a lot of people saw the series.
@@Ryan-Petre it’s hard to explain, but I like how they blended a more goth/Visual Kei look to the characters (for the most part. I dunno how Golem fits into that but not important.) as someone who dabbles in those types of looks, they look cool to me.
@@witch-of-jotunhiem That's cool, but surely you can understand how left of field it would seem for a non-fan of visual kei to suddenly see that aesthetic being integrated into the CV series?
@@Ryan-Petre oh it definitely was but that adds onto my enjoyment. I was kinda hoping that Aria/Dawn would’ve kinda drifted into that aesthetic but I love what did come out regardless. (You can make the case for Aria Soma being VKei-esc but whateves)
Harmony is painful to the eyes. Circle looks better aesthetically. And Kojima is a great artist, but her style is better suited to female characters. Aside from her Alucard and Richter, her heroes look too feminine. And how is Aria minimalist? I don't understand your reasoning. But thank you for bringing up Elessia's strengths. It's highly overlooked.
"...so talking about them, you'll have to excuse me if I rifle through them a bit quicker than usual." Okay, but you spent four and a half minutes talking about Symphony of the Night and not even a full minute talking about the next game. That is not "a bit" quicker but a LOT quicker - and I do not have to excuse _that._
7:46 I hate how it goes from aria of sorrow’s beautiful box art to the most simple and unimaginative anime art style you can imagine for Dawn of sorrow
Order of Ecclesia is by fan one of the best looking video games I’ve ever seen. Praying for a DS collection
I’m so happy I’m not the only one
I have yet to play the ds games, is there touch screen stuff that would prevent a collection from happening?
@@hamachibeans4471 dawn of sorrow mainly utilizes it being the first installment for the ds games, which is really disappointing because it adds an unecessary layer for finishing boss fights 😭
God you don’t know how happy it makes me to see somebody even talk about ecclesia. My favorite game of all time for sure
Aria of sorrow is the best. The gothic architecture, the beautiful corridors in the castle, the paintings and statues, and the music, no other game has such beautiful gothic melodies in the castlevania franchise or the vast number of clone games to date.
my favorite one in the series. the soul system is so much fun. my only complain would be the levels. there are way too many dead ends which end up forcing the players to backtrack a lot. dawn of sorrow definitely improved on that.
it's so weird and interesting how seeing 3:16 genuinely wowed me
from what I've seen here, the use of 3d and warping effects are just so tastefully done. between that clock tower and the coffin I kind of can't help but be impressed, even if 2023 is the first time I've laid eyes on it
Great analysis! The IGAvanias are some of my favourite games not just in gameplay but aesthetically as well. It's also interesting to see how each iteration is unique.
Thank you, thank you!
Sotn is one of the best games ever made. Atmosphere / innovation / gameplay / music / everything about it. After that aria of sorrow is my next favorite.
What I like about Harmony's random inconsistent world design is how it plays into the story: the castles a creation of Maxim's positive and negative mind energy. Basically a big trippy thought put into physical form. Even the soundtrack plays into it, giving the game a bit of a psychological horror feel.
When it comes to Kojima her art is a perfect continuation. Rondo, and later Dawn&Portrait, kinda feel wrong in the series. Rondo at least has good character designs (besides Drac who looks terrible) but Dawn and Portrait's character designs look flat out awful and lazy, very amateur drawings. Order of Ecclesia really flipped the switch and looks fantastic.
Interesting take on Harmony, I hadn't thought of it like that. Tho I'm never gonna give the soundtrack that kind of credit lol
Rondo looks great, the style works well with the tone and world, and I’m actually partial to Drac’s younger look. Portrait and dawn’s artsyle doesn’t really complement the games.
@@Multienderguy37 There is a good way and a bad way to depict younger Dracula. The picture shown at section 6:20 of this video is a good way. How it is depicted in cutscenes of Rondo of Blood is not.
@@Anakunus I like it. Never said it was objectively the best version, or that you had to agree with me.
@@Anakunus Chronicles Drac does look rad tho, but X68000 looks horrible. I just finished the boss fight, (in arrange mode) and I think it is a bit easy for a game of that difficulty, but still fun.
Lmao when Lords of Shadows came on the video, I thought "wait that was a Castlevania game???". I watched a couple gameplays of it years back and completely didn't catch that it was supposed to be a Castlevania game lol. Anyway, super loved the video!!!!! Amazing job! Ecclesia, Symphony and Lament forever 💙💙💚💚
I like my Simon Belmont a thick chad, stuffed in a brown skirt thank you very much
solid video until the lords of shadow section, that game deserves a much larger look than you gave it. It took castlevania to its roots in a way by looking back to what inspired castlevania in the first place. Hollywood Horror. Sure, it takes a lot of visuals from lord of the rings, but its heavily influenced by bram stoker's dracula, pans labyrinth, as well as other films. There is a lot of tradition that is carried over as well considering they still used a TON of the names and characters from the original timeline, albeit their own versions. Most of the other creatures were inspired by folklore as well, no counting the demons from LOS2 which more looked like Legacy of Kain's Hylden. Then if you look at Mirror of Fate, that game, artistically merged the old and the new IMO. The most glaring example would be the caves under castle dracula. When exploring those caves, the darkness all has sort of a shade of blue, and the torches and lights illuminate the platforms making them look orange. That is 100% a call back to the complimentary colors used in the very first castlevania where the rocks are orange and the backgrounds are blue. It was awesome and is always overlooked.
Edit: Hell, even the armor used by the brotherhood of light is HEAVILY influenced by the promo art from Simon's Quest
I agree, like I said in the video they deserve a thorough judgement of their own. But it's precisely because of the density and depth of their stylistic influence that I chose not to cover them. The LoS games really _go places_ unprecedented for the series, and like I said they just descend from a fundamentally different artistic tradition. And so if I wanted to do them justice I'd have to have made an entirely separate video on them or added an extra 8-10 mins to this one and ruined it's pacing. If I had infinite time I'd have included Dracula X Chronicles, Rebirth and Belmont's Revenge in the discussion too, as well as talk at length about the Netflix series. But infinite time I do not have.
@@Ryan-Petre fair! I'm just so tired of those games getting shit on and described as "not castlevania" because they most definitely are Castlevania to their core
@Gianni Cage Yeah, I do regret the "they're not castlevania" line, but the truth is it was a convenience thing. It's a lot easier to say something dismissive about them in one sentence and get them out of the way then it would have been to include a full paragraphs outlining exactly why I wasn't going to cover them due to pacing and production concerns. I should have said something better than "they're not Castlevania" tho.
Though I will say that I have genuinely considered returning to them at a later point and giving them their own dedicated episode in this little mini series. But we'll see.
@@Ryan-Petre it's all good, its a very accepted and common view on the internet lol
I watched part 1 this morning and I couldn't wait to get off work for part 2. the metroidvanias are my absolute favorite. I'm getting the advance collection for switch. Great content man keep it up!
Great video and I loved the slightly optimistic note you ended on. I think the IGAvania legacy also lives on in indies like Blasphemous where clearly a lot of time was spent establishing a cohesive artistic vision with impeccable pixel art and very fluid animation. Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Castlevania are some of my favorite franchises, and even if their day in the sun is over I'll always be able to revisit those games and appreciate something new about them every time. They're each such singular artistic statements that they'll no doubt inspire game developers for years to come.
Great vids. I really liked this series. Few things though, Iga didn't necessarily push forward SOTN himself, it was directed by Toru Hagihara who directed Rondo as well, Iga was heavily involved though. He would take over the series after that.
You didn't mention Harmony of Despair and Grimoire of Souls. HD is simply reusing everything before, but I think It would've been worth a mention if at least to showcase Kojima's new artwork and classic Simon design painting.
Grimoire of Souls also has new art from her but I would've also liked to have heard your opinion on that games art design.
Great vids though. Castlevania lives on in the hearts of those who are willing to keep it alive!
C-crap... He's right... Graham does look like a televangelist... Now I can't unsee it, damnit! ROFL! XD
Thank you! Still pending to complete Curse, Portrait and Ecclesia... And LOS2.
I definitely enjoyed the second part of this series even more than the first. I felt like it had better flow and pacing. Great work!
I really need to go back and finish Order of Ecclesia. I got to the end then got sidetracked by something else, ugh. I also really loved the first Lords of Shadow (not the 2nd, haha). I felt like it was a good reboot that had fun gameplay and an interesting plot, just wish the OST hadn’t been so boring. 😭
Thanks man, I agree. I feel part of it may have had something to do with me easing off on the montages and just firing from one game to another without as much break or pause.
And yet, for the record I do really like Lords of Shadow 1, I might even do a third part at one point in the future where I cover that sub series. But we'll see.
Thank you for your essay about the Castlevania series. I have looking for this type of content for a while.
Thank you my friend!
As terrible as an adaptation the Netflix show is, I agree with the talent behind it really understanding the series aesthetic history well. It feels as a homage to the series different art direction over time, which is fitting for an adaptation of the 2nd game in the series. Redesigned characters like Trevor and Sypha look great while still recognzable as well
Imagine a new 3D Castlevania that blends the style and gameplay of the PS2 games with the world design of Dark Souls, focused less on excruciating difficulty and more on fast-paced combat, platforming and RPG elements.
castlevania is one of greatest game franchise of all time
I never understood why people harp on Harmony of Dissonance's music. This seems to be a very common consensus that its music is bad. I don't think the track quality of sound is too bad for a GBA game. Maybe people think it's too video-gamey? The only other reason (I could think of) would be just how the music is composed. Many of the tracks seem to almost randomly change how they ebb and flow. I don't know how to explain. Maybe the best way to explain it is to say the songs don't adhere to conventional music theory- songs don't play out like you'd expect and it's jarring. I always thought that it was a conscience effort to create songs that were more unnerving to fit the trippy setting of the castle- Dissonant harmonies or melodies. I think a good example is the boss battle music. It's a random cacophony of tunes that I think are distressing in a very appealing way. Less a soundtrack of triumphant battle and more a dangerous encounter with a monstrosity. Yeah, dunno. I really do like HoD's soundtrack. Might even be my favorite of the 'Vanias.
I like it, but I just reckon it was a bit to harsh and repetitive ingame. Felt like a regression. Again, I like it, just there are some way better Castlevania soundtracks, even on the GBA...
SOTN definitely is one of the games ever made
The difference between original Castlevania and the IGA era is just as big as the difference between the IGA era and LoS. It's wild to me someone would recognise Castlevania more in Bloodstained than LoS, unless they were specifically talking about IGA era Castlevania and not the wider series.
You're right, but the difference between Igavania and LoS is that the former is a successful branch of the series. Igavania may be very different from Classicvania, but unlike LoS it managed to legitimized itself within the franchise by sticking around for 10+ years and delivering 8 games. Aria, Ecclesia and SotN are now firmly entrenched in the series history, whether people like it or not. Lords of Shadow on the other hand, in commercial performance and longevity, cannot make that claim. And so history will always have it marked as a failed dynasty.
@@Ryan-Petre I’m not even a big LoS fan but just so you know, LoS was never intended to be a long term reboot (which is a stupid decision to make but that’s not the point).
It was always meant to be a self contained trilogy with nothing else attached to it, so despite LoS2 failing hard it wasn’t the reason it stopped, it stopped because they finished it.
And LoS1 far out sold any IGA title and in fact any other CV game ever. And got solid reviews as did MoF.
@@dommoore6180 Sure, but at the end of the day man, but a short lived spin off is a short off is a spin off. It's natural that a lot of people aren't going to see it as the "real" thing, the same way a lot of us don't accept Kid Dracula as "real" Castlevania games either.
@@Ryan-Petre I mean look it really doesn’t matter but that reads a bit like an excuse tbh.
@@dommoore6180 Well, yeah, it should, because at it's core it's a gut thing. No one who shares my sentiment is going to have a hard, objective reason to disqualify LoS from the series, it's just an intuitive feeling. The sense that LoS just isn't the same as the rest, the feeling that the original essence just isn't there. It's a spiritual argument.
Having just come across your channel today, I can only commend you on your efforts and quality; well done!
I realize you mentioned them here already and talked a bit about them, but I think me and quite a few others would be interested in your thoughts on some of these:
- How do the Bloodstained games evoke/follow the design traditions of Castlevania and what are the major or significant differences?
- A more in-depth video about the Lords of Shadow subseries and maybe the design inspirations behind those.
- An addendum for this video, with all the CV games you didn’t mention.
- Art design of SoulsBorne games
I know this sounds like a new subscriber demanding, but I just wanted to brainstorm some ideas to you!
Anyway, I look forward to what you’ll talk about next either way!
Cheers from Germany
Thank you my friend. And yes, I've very seriously considered doing a designated video for all three of those CV related topics, but have held off cuz I'm still pretty young on YT I don't want to sink all my time into just being "the castlevania art guy". But at the very least I'll do a Lords of Shadows and Bonus Game episode at some point in the future, maybe soon if that rumoured new CV game gets announced.
I'd also love to cover the Souls series, but considering they're such long, dense games, they'd be difficult to fit into a neat format like this video and would take a long time to record/produce (same reason I only touched upon the LoS games in this vid). But I've seriously considered doing a little mini series where I do one dedicated vid to each game over the course of a couple months or so. But we'll see.
Thanks for the suggestions, anything's possible!
Deserves more views
I would disagree slightly with curse of darkness, it was my first game of the series and i was fascinated, similar to jak and daxter, the combination of all this different inspirations felt new, specifically curse of darkness, reminds me a lot of the rogue legacy effect, where the different areas are super distinct from one another but the areas per se are very homogenous, i don't see any problem with the castle having a consistent arquitecture all throughout and use the caves, forest, and even a glimpse at the infinite corridor to change things more drastically
I'm not saying one is superior, i'm just trying to point out that it has it's own merits that separate it from a symphony of the night aesthetic while preserving the general castlevania vibe
I grew up with Castlevania on NES. I thought LoS felt more like Castlevania than the PS2 games. Those two did away with the platforming thats always been part of the challenge.
For me LoS was a step in the right direction even if it was a bit flawed. My main problem was not in the art, which felt "castlevania" to me, it was the inprecise and floaty feeling of the combat.
I've always thought that Dark Souls did a better job at bringing Castlevania to 3d than the actual 3d Castlevanias.
Kojima's art style is still my favorite. Kinda suck that 3D Castlevania cant live to its potential since that is where her character design can be fully shown.
Curse of Darkness is my favorite one, but mostly cos of the gameplay, not the aesthetic.
It's a great video, but a heavy disagree on two things.
I think Lords of Shadow IS a good Castlevania, it's just not what people expected. CV has good music, interesting lore, and mature themes under more simplistic stories. LoS does a good job at making Gabriel have good reasons to fall to darkness. For one, every person he's trusted has either betrayed him, or been betrayed by him. His journey to save the world leaves him with nothing but emptiness. The fact that Gabriel is described as God's perfect man really adds to his character, as it's his flaws that give him God's favor. And LoS very much pays attention to the previous games, almost everything in the lore is some kind of call back to the games. It's references are done with actual love instead of someone checking off a top 10 list like the Netflix show.
Just because it wasn't made by the same people that doesn't mean that it can't be Castlevania, in fact going by that logic, you are making a contradiction. The Netflx show was also made by people completely unrelated to Konami or the original team, and unlike LoS, almost no one involved was familiar with CV to begin with, so it clearly can't be that.
And the second thing, the Netflix show is far from universally praised by Castlevania fans, most people are either mixed about it, while others outright hate it. The show is seen as a low effort, oportunistic mess which uses the brand recognition of Castlevania to push out it's own unrelated and undeserving story. Written by someone who actively dislked the games, and games in general as storytelling "you can't adapt jumping spites". And the show is not actually popular in Japan, a friend of mine frequents those circles, and they've all but disowned the show, especially after season 3.
The Netflix show may be popular among non-fans or people who irregularly play the games, but fans of the games don't like the show. Nothing Castlevania about a show written by the average reddit atheist. The most the show does to look like Castlevania is resembling a few looks, but that's about it. Even IGA didn't like the show, his comments about it were neutral, and he's the one who cancelled the project to begin with, after eight drafts where written, because the main writer refused to play the games, but kept wanting to add all his edgy anti-theist things into a story where they didn't belong.
But I agree on the Dark Souls thing, pretty much every CV fans agrees that a CV styled souls/bloodborne games would be a great combination. Usually people say that a SotN remake or a CoD remake would be cool.
Also, you didn't mention the fact that the anime art style was partly chosen due to the fact that Kojima was already working on the PS2 game, and as IGA put it "she's not exactly quick", you praised her detailed work, but that's not work you just make in an afternoon. I'm not saying it's completely justified, I would've prefered that they got the OoE guy a little bit earlier, but at least the anime art style fits with the kind of story DoS and PoR told.
Honestly, I agree. While I'll admit the Lords of Shadows games weren't perfect & had their flaws (namely Mirror of Fate & LoS2) I still really like them & think it's ridiculous to call them "not Castlevania games because Konami didn't work on them" or "they're just God of War clones". Konami not working on the LoS games doesn't automatically make them not Castlevania games. Hell, the creators of LoS clearly had respect for the games with all the references & callbacks found throughout the games. Calling them "God of War clones" would be like calling Bayonetta a Devil May Cry clone or Dead Space a Resident Evil 4 clone.
While I liked the animated series at first when I was just starting out with the franchise as a whole, it's clear now that the series feels like it was written by the likes of Zack Snyder & Alan Moore. It tried to be adult & mature by adding in excessive amounts of gore & violence & needless swearing & sex. It's a 7th-grader's idea of what being adult & mature is. The series isn't even that interesting, it's mostly just people sitting around in one place for most of a season & talking about stuff. I wouldn't mind the religious stuff if it was a genuine critique of the church at the time while also showing that religion & faith itself isn't inherently a bad thing. But instead, we have stupid one-sided "Christianity bad, science rulz" bull. The only positive I'll give the animated series was the art/animation & the voice acting.
Aria of Sorrow is my personal favorite among the entire Castlevania canon. It didn't need a sequel.
Harmony of Dissonance is my least favorite of the entire roster, largely because I could never get past that ugly blue outline surrounding Juste.
And then there's one game that didn't come up for discussion in your videos, Grimoire of Souls, which I have seen gameplay videos for and which I personally believe gave the Castlevania series proper closure and a good send-off.
@A Midnight Spectscle this is an awesome retrospective. No Castlevania: Rebirth WiiWare inclusion?
Thanks man. I love Rebirth, and I wanted to talk about it as well as a few others like Dracula X Chronicles and Haunted Castle, but excluded for time and pacing issues. But I've played with the idea of doing another vid, and maybe give Lord's of Shadow a fairer shake than I did. And maybe if that rumoured new Vania game comes through, maybe I'll go through with it.
I think Bloodstained has that cheap 3D look you mentioned earlier, I still enjoy it but I find it ugly the 2D games I find much better in overall look but far too colorful to give me that old school vibe. They are solid and I preferred that kind of game anyways over the Metroid like games.
music name?
At which part?
@@Ryan-Petre beginning
@@TamalPlays Dance of Pales from SotN
@@Ryan-Petrethanks
No sir bloodstained series is the chaos reborn
5:40 Can't say I agree with that, maybe 80s american cartoon/comic aesthetics but not a break from western ones. The whole series is dripping in european aesthetics and only some of them are very anime in style like Rondo, Bloodlines and Dawn.
CotM a dolled up gbc game? wtf lol
Yeah, I agree, it was hyperbole designed to fit a narrative. Obviously the series was still heavily, heavily influenced by western aesthetic. But I do think in terms of character designs Kojima's stylization was very Japanese, and in the grander scheme of things that alone did really change how a lot of people saw the series.
@@Ryan-Petre You're not entirely wrong
I dont care what anyone says, i will defend Judgment’s art style till the day i die
What's your take on the matter?
@@Ryan-Petre it’s hard to explain, but I like how they blended a more goth/Visual Kei look to the characters (for the most part. I dunno how Golem fits into that but not important.) as someone who dabbles in those types of looks, they look cool to me.
@@witch-of-jotunhiem That's cool, but surely you can understand how left of field it would seem for a non-fan of visual kei to suddenly see that aesthetic being integrated into the CV series?
@@Ryan-Petre oh it definitely was but that adds onto my enjoyment. I was kinda hoping that Aria/Dawn would’ve kinda drifted into that aesthetic but I love what did come out regardless. (You can make the case for Aria Soma being VKei-esc but whateves)
@@witch-of-jotunhiem True, it definitely has an appeal. They are very good designs.
Very brave of you to bring up Dark Souls but only show DS2. I agree with about the souls games and Castlevania
Harmony is painful to the eyes. Circle looks better aesthetically. And Kojima is a great artist, but her style is better suited to female characters. Aside from her Alucard and Richter, her heroes look too feminine.
And how is Aria minimalist? I don't understand your reasoning. But thank you for bringing up Elessia's strengths. It's highly overlooked.
Lords of shadow is not real castlevania and you won’t change my mind. Trevorcard is an abomination.
"...so talking about them, you'll have to excuse me if I rifle through them a bit quicker than usual."
Okay, but you spent four and a half minutes talking about Symphony of the Night and not even a full minute talking about the next game. That is not "a bit" quicker but a LOT quicker - and I do not have to excuse _that._
Lol
Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of Bloodstained series. Just seems like a cheap rip-off that features sex appeal...
That's fair. If nothing else, I do really enjoy the boss and enemy designs in them. Even if the level design is never as tight as the OG games.
@@Ryan-Petre You're right