What is the final boss of Castlevania 1 for NES?

[Anonymous No.8061276]

Dracula, right?

We're all wrong according to the director of the game, Hitoshi Akamatsu. Dracula is only the first boss in the final stage, then the creature that appears after Dracula is blown apart is an entirely different being which serves as the final boss, which curses Simon, eventually leading to Castlevania II.

It is meant to be an "incarnation of the curse of man," not a demon form of Dracula. The Japanese term is "hito no noroi." It implies Dracula's existence is linked to the innately evil nature of mankind itself.

>http://shmuplations.com/castlevania/

[Anonymous No.8061302]

>>8061276
I reject his reality and substitute my own: The one in which that very monster is in fact Dracula. And that Dracula himself is who cursed Simon.

[Anonymous No.8061305]

The New Generation had the best Dracula final form. Super Castlevania Bros' was pathetic.

[Anonymous No.8061309]

>>8061305
There ain't no Castlevania named New Generation.

[Anonymous No.8061310]

>>8061276
I heard this before too, I think the name I read was "the incarnation of evil" or something

[Anonymous No.8061317]

>>8061305
>Super Castlevania Bros' was pathetic.
IIRC, he dropped meat during that fight, right?

Pretty fucking sad. Super 4 was a piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.8061319]

>>8061309
Bloodlines, anon.

[Anonymous No.8061338]

>>8061305
The extra form in the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood was the best one because it wasn't a huge spoopy monster but rather Drac taking the kid gloves off, even if the battle itself kinda sucked. If we're talking spoopy monsters though the exclusive fight in Legacy of Darkness wins hands down, you could feel that thing was brimming with power in how relentless its attacks are unlike all the other ones.

[Anonymous No.8061339]

Someone's gotta tell the Death Battle guys they fucked up then.

[Anonymous No.8061343]

>>8061338
I'll love the fight in Order of Not Retro Ecclessia because Drac's second form is "he's actually walking".

[Anonymous No.8061352]

>>8061339
Death is fine here. What I want to hear is what happened to Death in Circle of the Moon. I swear they just slapped his name on an unrelated boss design to say that Death was in the game.

[Anonymous No.8061353]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Anonymous No.8061363]

>>8061353
>"Let's put bottomless pits in the final boss arena!"
>"...Why?"
>"ITS FUN!"
>"O-okay"

[Anonymous No.8061369]

>>8061363
I didn't know crouching cancelled knockback either

[Anonymous No.8061375]

Would've been cool if the final boss of Aria of Sorrow's name was Curse of Man rather than just Chaos then. But everyone who worked on CV1 was gone by then and their ideas with them.

[Anonymous No.8061378]

>>8061276
It is still a form of Dracula, without him the demon wouldn’t exist

[Anonymous No.8061380]

>>8061276
That sounds dumb. The second form is a giant monster-bat thing. Which is what I would expect an entity like Dracula to turn into since he is tied to bloodsucking vampire bats.

[Anonymous No.8061384]

>>8061378
Or without the evil nature of man, Dracula would not exist. "In a truly peaceful age, Dracula would not exist." Seems the opposite of the director's ethos. Dracula is a product of the evil of man.

[Anonymous No.8061393]

Westerners tend to blame the individual for their actions. Easterners take a different view, that the collective sins of many people have led the individual to behave the way they do.

[Anonymous No.8061402]

>>8061384
Sounds like a bit of wank mate

[Anonymous No.8061409]

>>8061402
Can't be a fan-wank at least given its the director stating the age of violence and horror man created led Dracula to exist.

[Anonymous No.8061410]

Damn, the Curse of Man looks like THAT?

[Anonymous No.8061424]

>>8061410
"Ooga-Booga bloo Bloo, Simon!"

[Anonymous No.8061431]

I don't understand why nearly every Japanese game designer in existence feels the need to have some 2deep4u boss after you beat the one you've been chasing the whole game. It's always some esoteric cockroach or ethereal god-thing that represents something abstract that you're supposed to believe has been there all along coinciding with the game's themes, like we aren't smart enough to append those things to the main villain ourselves. Like, "Fuck, I didn't realize that Sin was supposed to represent some sort of sinister samsara bullshit, good thing they put this tedious fight with a spirit blob in here."

[Anonymous No.8061443]

>>8061431
Without Yu Yevon, Sin would not have an ability to reincarnate. Yu Yevon is a necessary part of the mechanics of how Sin works. The war behind the past events that led Yu Yevon to do what he did also adds to the depth of the story

[Anonymous No.8061453]

>>8061431
unexpected last boss makes people talk, people talking means more people buying the game

[Anonymous No.8061468]

>>8061305
super Auster. I see you're still raging about your posts getting deleted and stuff. Calm down a bit, okay?
As for Curse of Man, yeah, almost every game in the franchise misinterpreted Akamatsu's lore, except for Castlevania 4 (which kind of made a CoM reference with Gaibon, but let Dracula be the real final boss of the game).
This is because the CV4 team is the only team that kept in contact with Akamatsu's team, as CVIII and IV were developed more or less simultaneously and both teams were in contact with each other.
CV4's team helped Bloodlines' team with advice, but sadly it seems they forgot to mention the bit about Curse of Man.

[Anonymous No.8061503]

>>8061431
at least Yu Yevon makes sense story-wise, though mechanically its awful. FF9 is much worse in that regard.

[Anonymous No.8061552]

>>8061468
And then Rondo of Blood killed the whole "Curse of Man" concept and retconned all the past games' final bosses into monster forms of Dracula.

[Anonymous No.8061564]

>>8061552
Sad. Akamatsu mentioned he didn't even bother to play Rondo anyway.

[Anonymous No.8061640]

>>8061319
Vampire Killer, white piggu.

[Anonymous No.8061742]

>>8061431
Because it’s FUN, anon. REMEMBER FUN?!

[Anonymous No.8062095]

>>8061468
Idk if this board is meming but surely there is more than 1 /vr/ user from the Commonwealth

[Anonymous No.8062120]

>>8062095
There is but we have a few very persistent and obsessive faggots that constantly recycle a handful of memes every day and the jannies usually delete their shit which makes them really angry.

[Anonymous No.8062123]

>>8062095
what do you mean? the "Super castlevania bros" bit is what denotes it's australia-kun, not the use of the New Generation title.

[Anonymous No.8062135]

>>8061443
If Yu Yevon wasn't there, you wouldn't be confused. You wouldn't be like, "Damn, why does this thing keep coming back? This makes no sense," you would just take it for granted like with everything else about it like its massive size and shape, as well as every other in-universe thing like magic.

[Anonymous No.8062321]

Curse of Man would be a cool subtitle for a Castlevania game.

[Anonymous No.8062349]

>>8062123
>the "Super castlevania bros" bit is what denotes it's australia-kun,
obsessed and schizopilled

[Anonymous No.8062668]

>>8062349
Really annoyed by the recent trend of calling all pattern-recognition "schizo"

[Anonymous No.8062678]

>>8062668
Just start calling it by the amateur gaslighting that it is.

[Anonymous No.8062694]

>>8061503
The idea of Necron/Eien no Yami makes sense with the themes of the games, the problem is that nowhere in the game do they hint at a giant Dr Manhattan existing sowewhere and he has no direct link to Kuja.

[Anonymous No.8062713]

>>8061276
It's an evil deformed humanoid batlike monster

[Anonymous No.8062714]

>>8061276
This make sense I think this is the story in the Soma Cruz games

[Anonymous No.8062727]

>>8062668
It's not recognizing patterns that's schizo, it's making up some identity that only exists in your head based on random posters and memes you come across on /videoretro/ that you all believe are done by that fabricated identity and then accusing anons of being it.

[Anonymous No.8062739]

>>8062727
Because it is only one person, he writes the same all the time

[Anonymous No.8062913]

>>8061276
>We're all wrong according to the director of the game, Hitoshi Akamatsu

That interview is not an interview of the director of the game though.

It is an interview of someone who recalls talking with the direction of the game some 10 years earlier.

It's basically hear says.

Also, all the remakes and sequels/prequels that re-use this pattern due to call the 2nd form Dracula. So either way, Dracula 2nd form is canon.

[Anonymous No.8062952]

>>8062727
>videoretro
kek, so that autist was also you australia.
Just how many failed meme attempts have you attempted?

[Anonymous No.8063235]

>>8062913
I'd trust that hearsay over yousay

[Anonymous No.8063578]

>>8061276
The original game basically had the idea of Chaos that Aria of Sorrow featured all along.

[Anonymous No.8063583]

>>8061552
Dracula has to beg something to give him power anyway though, and Chaos from Aria of Sorrow ultimately ends up being that power source he depends on.

[Anonymous No.8063596]

>>8062913
What's this pic from?

[Anonymous No.8063693]

>>8063578
It's similar except Chaos isn't entirely portrayed as an incarnation of the evil within mankind itself, is it?

[Anonymous No.8063958]

>>8061338
>uppercuts you
>proceeds to blast you with a pillar of light
>twice

He wasn't fucking kidding when he said to give it your all.
>>8061378
It's actually the other way around. The point of CoM in contrast to later games, at least as I understand it, is that rather than mankind being naturally good and only turning to evil when manipulated by outside forces, mankind actually is evil at heart and is what allows Dracula to keep coming back time and time again. That isn't to say that Dracula doesn't interfere in any way once he is back in the world, but he would not have a place in the world if it wasn't handed to him by the humans who ignore good and probably reinforced by the hellish forces allied with him.
>>8061402
And the funny thing is, maybe I'm just so used to the later games where there's arguably a bit of a humanistic, lets-work-together tone, but CoM really doesn't sound like something I'd expect from fans or even the developers, especially Japanese ones.

[Anonymous No.8063990]

>>8061276
>It implies Dracula's existence is linked to the innately evil nature of mankind itself.
This is something that constantly reappears in Castlevania so I'd believe it. It's kind of a strange thing, really, that Dracula's resurrection seems to be entirely dependent on the evil that humans do, but that's what they went for and to their credit they really stuck with it.
I get what they're going for, that Dracula and the evil he does is merely a reflection of man, but yeah, in typical Dracula or even vampire stories this doesn't seem to be something that's explored, at least not as overtly as Castlevania does. In later games they outright tell you that this is the case whereas in Castlevania 1 I guess it's kind of ambiguous, as a kid I always assumed that was Dracula's second form anyway.

[Anonymous No.8063997]

>>8063693
Not only that, but Curse of Man sounds more broad in what kind of evil it covers and extent. It's arguably more about wickedness in general, maybe even a sin nature rather than the amount of bad shit going on, while in AoS, Arikado explains Chaos as being humanity's desires for chaos and destruction. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but it really sounds like a matter of intent rather than the content of your actions with the latter.

Putting this into perspective, consider how in the later DS games, a big part of the plot revolves around someone not telling someone something important. Jonathan has a lot of angst and selfesteem issues because his father John of Bloodlines fame didn't tell him the truth about the whip sucking the life out of anyone not from the direct Belmont line. He eventually gets over it once he learns the truth, but not without being chewed out for not being accepting of his family's rather shit and probably very avoidable "fate", and this despite the fact that there seems to be plenty of alternatives just in PoR alone to the heirloom Vampire Killer whip. Simply put, it doesn't matter that John was kind of dick to his own son and seemingly refused to talk to him about his own fucking inheritance, it doesn't matter what problems it caused or could've caused, because he did it out of "love". It doesn't matter what route you take so long as you get the desired result.

[Anonymous No.8064023]

>>8063990
>Dracula and the evil he does is merely a reflection of man
When I first heard about the whole curse of man thing, one of my first thoughts was about whether or not the thing we're looking at is even Dracula anymore. In the later games, I think there's a thing where the reason he keeps being evil after SoTN is because, having possibly sold his soul to Chaos or something, he gets overcome with an evil intention, or "evil spirit" as it were in the games, the implication being that it IS Dracula with his soul and everything, but more or less trapped because it's constantly connected to man's evil. The CoM angle makes me wonder if Dracula is just a meat puppet for this...thing, and has been dead since Trevor killed him in 3. A kind of chilling thought, even if it's only different from what we have now by some degrees.

[Anonymous No.8064824]

It's always been surprising to me that this much thought was put into the final battle of CV1. Now I'm wondering if there are other NES/SNES/Genesis/etc nonRPG games that had a mostly silent and interpretational story which had the events near the end of the game misinterpreted by the player-base.

It's far less likely in games like Ninja Gaiden that had cutscenes and dialogue but they were fairly rare.

[Anonymous No.8064870]

>>8064824
>this much thought was put into the final battle of CV1
Something that tends to get left out in this discussion is that the clock tower of all things had a part in Dracula's longevity as well. Not sure what part it was supposed to play in the grand scheme of things, but there was a thing about how essentially, Dracula and the tower had a symbiotic relationship where so long as the gears turn, Drac would live, and so long as he lives, the gears keep turning. On top of that, only the tower collapses in the first game. I can't remember if it's ever said why this is important, maybe it processes the evil that goes into Dracula or some shit? Serves as a way for evil spirits to escape hell? I don't know.
>Now I'm wondering if there are other NES/SNES/Genesis/etc nonRPG games that had a mostly silent and interpretational story
Make a thread about it, there's maybe a lot that others would love to share.

[Anonymous No.8065065]

>>8064870
>Dracula and the tower had a symbiotic relationship where so long as the gears turn, Drac would live, and so long as he lives, the gears keep turning. On top of that, only the tower collapses in the first game. I can't remember if it's ever said why this is important, maybe it processes the evil that goes into Dracula or some shit? Serves as a way for evil spirits to escape hell? I don't know.

Isn't the only CV castle without a clocktower from the Japanese games Lament of Innocence as well since-- besides the fact that clocktowers didn't exist in the 11th century-- it wan't Dracula's castle, it was Walter's. That quite conveniently fits your interpretation of the clock tower being tied in with Dracula, but not necessarily random other vampires. Since its one of the few games in the canon where Dracula is not yet in the form we know him as, there's no reason for a clock tower.

Even if it wasn't intended in CV1, maybe it could be said in Lament of Innocence lore at least that Dracula's reincarnation cycle and being fed by the power of the mankind's evil has something to do with Mathias/Dracula's deal with Death in that game and the crimson stone.

[Anonymous No.8065248]

>>8065065
>Dracula's reincarnation cycle and being fed by the power of the mankind's evil has something to do with Mathias/Dracula's deal with Death in that game and the crimson stone
Oh I'm almost certain. Iirc, even the older games starting with 3 have something about Dracula resurrecting/being involved with an "evil deity" and while that could be Chaos, Death has at times been called a god either ingame like Judgment or that lightgun arcade game, or in official material like CV64's official website from back in the day.

On top of that, there's actually an official manga or whatever Japan only called Recordanza of gods Abyss or something. A lot of stuff finally gets spelled out here including that humanity's root is in Tranquility, the root of Chaos is humanity, and the root of chaotic beings is, well, Chaos, and that includes Death, apparently, despite what you would think since he's explicitly slated to have divine powers. Death is most likely Dracula's original middle man to Chaos and the crimson stone is their way of strengthening Dracula and in turn keeping the rest of the forces of chaos alive and coming back.
Putting aside Iga story stuff, it's still not out of the question that, while the vampirism is from a deal with the Devil/probably literally Satan, Death could still be Dracula's connection to mankind's sinful nature, what with the whole "sin is the sting of death" thing. Guy tends to have a presence in just about every game from 1 to 4, even when Dracula isn't physically present, and has strength and powers that arguably imply importance. Look at this freaking guy in 3, dude's the third to last boss before Dracula and Doppleganger and even has a resilient second form.

[Anonymous No.8065306]

>>8061276
And Jenova is the REAL villain of FF7 while Sephiroth is actually dead and every copy of Mario 64 is personalized, right? YAWN.

>>8061443
X-3 disagrees with you!

>>8062913
>It is an interview of someone who recalls talking with the direction of the game some 10 years earlier.
Oh so another overly reaching thread where people look too deeply into a surface level piece of media.

[Anonymous No.8065323]

>>8065248
Additionally, the DS games have interesting names and features for their clock towers.
Dawn's is named Cursed Clock Tower, and features an orange-haired Dio motherfucker with timestop powers. Also, there's a hidden enemy called Flying Humanoid in the background of the room right before the boss room whose soul power is increasing intelligence and luck stats the longer you charge it. That might just be a coincidence, but still.
Portrait's clock tower is straight fucking called the Tower of Death, and strongly features mooks like Slogra, Gaibon, and cursed dolls among others, with Death as the boss. Curiously, there's breakable sections of the walls in places where the inside looks like there's bones embedded. At least, that's what it always looked like to me, but I could honestly be seeing things.
Ecclesia's is just called Machine Tower, but is subtitled River Styx or something and also features Death as the boss. Something real fucking curious is that the background in some spots is a revolving day and night cycle. Death's boss room also features eyes carved in the stone along the top and (I think?) bottom with a really bright moon in the background.

I won't rule out the possibility that Igarashi and his fellow writers had no fucking clue about 1's story and the clock tower's import and that this is all just cool shit they threw in for different reasons, but I would say it fits incredibly well.

[Anonymous No.8065949]

>>8065306
X-3 has Tidus' head becoming a kickball bomb

[Anonymous No.8065960]

>>8065323
If I recall Dawn's castle isn't Dracula's so it probably isn't linked to the Dracula clocktower lore. It's probably just there for tradition.

[Anonymous No.8065985]

>>8065960
Oh yeah, you're right. That one's just a replica. Although, that being said, it's not out of the question that said castle can't become the base of a new dark lord. Given that the whole thing crumbles along with the Abyss that fuels it at the end, it not being the literal Castlevania (yes, it's seriously called that in universe) doesn't mean it can't be turned into one. Maybe, anyway. The way the Sorrow games go, one almost gets the impression that only Soma/Dracula/someone with Dracula's soul can be dark lord regardless of anyone's machinations. Celia's idea of killing off Soma and crowning the victor may very well be just that, an idea, and if so, that would probably extend to his castle, too. Nice catch, anon.

[Anonymous No.8066037]

>shitposter got his ass sacked and posts in this and other threads deleted
bwahaha

[Anonymous No.8066041]

>>8065985
Oh right I forgot it was indeed mentioned that it was built to be a replica. So it is possible that the clock tower is there as you said because once the new Dark Lord was crowned it would be there to take up the same function of the clock tower in Dracula's castle. It would be that replica castle that would replace the one that was tied to Dracula.

One other thing that is perhaps significant in Dawn is that Death is not in the clock tower, but instead he guards the door to the Abyss. The reason for Death being around in Dawn has always been a bit nebulous given he isn't involved in the plot and has no dialogue. With Aria it makes at least some sense since its set in Dracula's Castle. It may be Death entered the castle in Dawn through the door to the Abyss and the Abyss is intrinsically tied to him in some way. Whether the Abyss is meant to be literal hell or whatnot isn't fully spelled out in the game, but if it is tied to the afterlife it would make sense Death would be tied to it given his thematics.

[Anonymous No.8066118]

>>8066041
Death's there because he's motherfucking Death, but really, going off of Recordanza and just the series in general, Death would want to be involved in an incident like this where a potential new dark lord/Dracula may arise. Iirc, it's flat out his role to see to it that there is one.
>Whether the Abyss is meant to be literal hell or whatnot isn't fully spelled out in the game, but if it is tied to the afterlife it would make sense Death would be tied to it given his thematics.
It may be, but leaving it as being an afterlife is probably not as deep as the series is going for. Recordanza slates Olrox of all people as embodying the deep sea floor and thus having that sort of effect on people much in the same way that Dracula embodies evil. It's never said that this applies to Death as well, but it probably does. Personally, I suspect that he embodies the idea of judgment, because just going off of Dawn, he's the boss of the Mine of Judgment, and the gates at the start and end of the Abyss have grim reapers who are decidely not just statues flanking them. Celia goads Soma into hating her to the point of wanting her dead to trick him into becoming the lord of darkness, and in Curse of Darkness, Death's whole plot and role in the story is to encourage Hector to pursue his vengeance upon Issac because, drawing a parallel between him killing the one and only guy who deliberately got his wife and Dracula wanting to kill everybody, it's apparently a morally bad thing and would turn Hector into a vessel for Dracula.

Tying this back to the Abyss, it may indeed be an afterlife, but more than that, it's where Dracula, his minions, and all those people you forming the room you fight Menace in go when they get suckered into giving others what they think they have coming by Death.

[Anonymous No.8066125]

>>8066118
Not sure why it didn't include pic.

[Anonymous No.8066143]

>>8062913
I do declare this hadith......AU-THENTIC!
It is honestly a cool piece of lore that I am thankful you guys brought to my attention.

[Anonymous No.8066178]

>>8062913
Does anyone know what this picture is from?

[Anonymous No.8066206]

>>8066178
I think vampire hunter D? the 1985 one. it's been ages since I watched it, but I think so.
>>8066037
It's really ridiculous. This is when you realize that you actually share the board with retarded people and it's not just people pretending to be.

[Anonymous No.8066218]

How do I get past the Axe Armor + Medusa Head corridor?

[Anonymous No.8066223]

>>8066218
bring holy water, stunlock the axe armors

[Anonymous No.8066224]

>>8066218
throw holy water and walk back to make the knight walk into the flame
don't have holy water? you're not beating the boss anyway, restart

[Anonymous No.8066230]

Did you guys ever notice that SotN's clock tower is almost identical to Rondo's

[Anonymous No.8066234]

>>8066230

[Anonymous No.8066297]

>>8066230
Actually yeah, in fact something that's pretty neat about SoTN is that there's numerous references to level design from previous games. There's the merman section early on and the drop in the cavern area from 1, the cavern also has the rising water section ala 3, there's probably other things I can't remember right now.

[Anonymous No.8067679]

>>8063596
Looks like the Vampire Hunter D OVA from 1985, which is a fun watch along with the Bloodlust film released in the 2000's.

[Anonymous No.8069195]

>>8066230
>>8066234
Yeah it's a pretty obvious homage besides the improved graphics. Far prefer SotN's version though due to the added detail

[Anonymous No.8069238]

>>8066297
The five bosses you have to kill to get Dracula's remains are all the same ones from CV1: Darkwing Bat, Medusa, Akmodan II, The Creature, and Death.

[Anonymous No.8069295]

>>8062095
but he was bringing light to the few autists that roam?

[Anonymous No.8069335]

>>8069238
Deep lore

[Anonymous No.8071057]

>>8069238
I was thinking specifically level design, but yeah, that's a thing. A bunch of them also hold Dracula's remains as a reference to Simon's Quest. You also have bosses like the Fake Trio referencing the other player characters besides Alucard from 3 and Galamoth from Kid Dracula.

[Anonymous No.8071090]

>It is meant to be an "incarnation of the curse of man,"
>It implies Dracula's existence is linked to the innately evil nature of mankind itself.
So then, it's Dracula.

[Anonymous No.8071116]

>>8071090
On the contrary, it could mean that Dracula hitches a ride back to the world of the living on the cookie monster. Why that is doesn't seem to get explained, but the implication to me seems to be because Dracula is well known, terrifying, and has connections including the Grim Reaper. Look up the full thing on Shmuplations, the two aren't the same. If they were, then the "Dracula" you're looking at would probably just be a shell, but it doesn't sound like that's what they were going for.

[Anonymous No.8071131]

The hearts coming out of candles represent the souls of Dracula's victims. According to IGA.

[Anonymous No.8071159]

>>8071131
I forget and I can't find anything about it, wasn't that from when someone asked him and he admitted he came up with that explanation himself since he wasn't sure? Not that it doesn't work as an explanation or anything, it just makes me wonder what the original intent was. Hearts as ammo instead of health was always a weird thing you just adjust to, the fact they're currency in 2 is just stranger. Sure, maybe the merchants use it to gauge how good you are and whether they should bother selling you their stuff, but still.

[Anonymous No.8071207]

>>8071159
seems to be from DX Chronicle's interview: https://www.wired.com/2007/10/interview-iga-t/..
Audio: https://web.archive.org/web/20080607120539/http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Media/Media.htm?CS_pid={A7514F7D-C21D-48AB-A3D1-F4A28DC6F1E7}

While searching for the source I also found this post listing a lot of the interviews and dev notes: https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php?topic=8305.0

[Anonymous No.8071214]

>Akamatsu also explained to me how the rotating gears in Dracula’s castle represent Dracula’s heart. They turn so long as Dracula is alive. That’s why, in the ending of Castlevania, the clock tower collapses, but the rest of the castle remains—Akamatsu said he intended that as a hint towards a sequel. It’s sort of his nod to horror movies, I think.

[Anonymous No.8071228]

It's a winged Arachnus

[Anonymous No.8071241]

>>8071207
>a whole page for CV interviews throughout time
Nice.
>they're in Japanese
Fuck. Not that this is surprising and that isn't on me to learn it or anything.

All the same, good find, anon.

[Anonymous No.8071246]

>>8066178
>>8063596
>>8067679
Vampire Hunter D (1985)

[Anonymous No.8071248]

>>8071207
>You play as either Nathan Grave or Hugh Baldwin, two vampire hunters out on a quest to stop Dracula once again
I wish, I appreciate CoTM's different modes but the only ones I ever had that much interest in were Magician and Thief.

[Anonymous No.8071268]

>>8061453
SHBROOM

[Anonymous No.8071320]

I assume that the "Curse of Man" is suppose to be the evil intent borne from the pain and suffering he causes that allows Dracula to be the Lord of The Devil's Castle. Do Westerners even know that the place isn't called "Castlevania", but is simply The Devil's Castle?

[Anonymous No.8071339]

>>8071246
>Vampires have all their classical folklore weaknesses
>Vampires take over and literally generically modify humans to have seizures and mental blocks to keep them from figuring out what those weaknesses are
>Are only in their dilapidated state because they ruined the world with their extravagance and not because humans were able to do anything about them.

The vampires in D were fucking cool as shit.

[Anonymous No.8071398]

>>8071339
all degenerates

[Anonymous No.8071416]

>>8071320
Castlevania has been its accepted Japanese name since CVIII. For a brief period, Konami tried making it the international title of the franchise, but it didn't last.

[Anonymous No.8071593]

>>8071320
interestingly the Sharp's manual calls it "Castle Vania".

[Anonymous No.8071889]

>>8071593
The Japanese seem far more in tune with facts about their series as they are known in other regions than say western devs tend to be about how things they make are perceived in other regions.

Of course the Japanese devs don't try to pander to westerners, but they somehow were aware enough back when the Sharp X86000 game was released to use a term in a Japanese manual that would have only been widely known to western fans to create a feel of unity and consistency across the regions.

[Anonymous No.8071903]

>>8071889
Also another example of this is Nintendo in Japan adopting SMB2USA enemies into Mario canon even though it wasn't originally a Mario game in Japan. They could've just as easily left it as a weird relic of the past and not used stuff like Bob-Ombs and Birdo in future Mario series games

[Anonymous No.8072351]

>>8061276
It's obviously not Dracula because he canonically can only transform into mist and bats and that thing is like some giant hippo.

[Anonymous No.8072361]

>>8072351
>It's obviously not Dracula because he canonically can only transform into mist and bats
He can also transform into a wolf.

[Anonymous No.8072457]

>>8072351
What does canon have to do with it? CV greatly deviated from it, as early as the first game.

[Anonymous No.8072568]

>>8072351
CV3 he transforms into a bunch of amalgamated heads

[Anonymous No.8072624]

>>8072351
>>8072361
>>8072568
Dracula in the book is implied to be able to transform into basically anything. He's scary because he has almost limitless power when he's fed.
iirc he transforms into mist, swarms of rats, wolves and bats. He also has the power of age regression and is killed by tiny knives. Book dracula is a double-hard bastard.

[Anonymous No.8072931]

>>8072624
Yeah, realistically, given that Dracula the character is ever evolving in his portrayal over the years since Bram, turning into a giant demonic hippo hardly feels like a stretch for what he can do, and in fact that's exactly what everyone including developers at Konami thought he was doing.

[Anonymous No.8073070]

>>8063693
>>8063997
Chaos is pretty similar still, and ultimately it wouldn't have the power it does if not for the sins and corruption of mankind, just like the Curse of Man.

[Anonymous No.8073096]

>>8072624
He doesn't turn into swarms of animals in the book, he just has sway over animals. He can only turn into mist (or possibly what Harker mistakes as sand in the moonlight), a hound or wolf, and a bat.

[Anonymous No.8074825]

>>8062713
fruit bats are cute though

[Anonymous No.8074832]

>>8074825
All non-vampire bats are cute

[Anonymous No.8074861]

>>8074825
Can I brush his teefs? :3

[Anonymous No.8075726]

>>8074832
>>8074825
All bats are cute, retards. Yes, even this one

[Anonymous No.8075735]

>>8075726
>we have to let the vampire bats in my fellow bathren, it's for the good of our species

[Anonymous No.8075795]

>>8061410
>I'm the massa now, Simon!

[Anonymous No.8075832]

>>8061410
>>8075795
I always thought the MSX version of Dracula was hilarious, he's a skeleton that opens his cape like a flasher to attack you. Also his second form is the painting in the back that comes to life and vomits bats at you.

[Anonymous No.8076185]

>>8075832
I really like how MSX Drac has elements of the NES version but has the creepy skeletal appearance blended with that. Partly familiar, but with a touch of difference

[Anonymous No.8076216]

>>8072931
>in fact that's exactly what everyone including developers at Konami thought he was doing.
do you have a single fact to back that up?

[Anonymous No.8076548]

>>8075726
Bat wings typed this post.

[Anonymous No.8077680]

>>8076216
Hyperbole aside, it's evident that somewhere down the line, the whole "the cookie monster is its own entity" thing got lost down the line, probably starting with Rondo of Blood if not sooner. Later games don't do anything to counter this with SoTN giving the monster form Dracula's regular voice and at least one game (PoR) describing his transformed state as being his true form, and the Kobe games don't do much, either. So yeah, the developers seemed to have bought into it at some point, and I know that most if not all fans thought it was the case. It being revealed that the cookie monster is a separate being from Dracula was a shocking swerve for a reason.

[Anonymous No.8077854]

>>8061276
That's kind of retarded.

>>8061309
IIRC that was the European name of Bloodlines.