Netflix Castlevania Series!?!

[X-SOLDIER]

I'm rewatching it again right now, actually!

More can't come soon enough!





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[Omega]

I haven't had the time yet ;.;

[Kionae]

I watched it over the weekend. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan in general, but I have to admit, I want to see more.

[X-SOLDIER]

This was apparently a project that got dug out of a decade of development hell: https://www.gameskinny.com/zgpdu/war...xs-castlevania





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[Dawnbreaker]

The hubby and I watched it the other day enjoyed it! I was astonished. Castlevania is really hit-and-miss, but this was a hit! Can't wait for S2!

[Sprites]

Never played the Castlevania games, always wanted to though.

Really enjoyed this myself, I'm busting already for season 2, I can't believe they made it so short but in a way I understand it, I'm sure a lot of people were scrutinising it so having it shorter would mean less pain instead of a 8-10 episode series if it fell flat but maybe they'll make season 2 longer now that it seems to be getting more positive feedback.

[X-SOLDIER]

The more I rewatch it the more I think, "Yeah... there was no way they were gonna get more than 4 episodes to test and see if people were gonna enjoy an animated series that's this full of violence and such."




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[Shademp]

I have now watched the 4 episodes. I am very pleased.

Dracula

It is genius to start the story by making us feel for Dracula and understand his motivation, instead of having him be evil only because evil. Making Dracula into a man/creature of science, using technology that is hundreds of years ahead of its time, is an excellent way to enhance the theme of how the true culprit in the story is mankind's ignorance and fear, not Dracula himself. Dracula's wrath, for a moment disregarding his full origin story and focusing only on the framing of this show, is a consequence of mankind's ignorance.

While the games have shown Dracula's castle using some advanced mechanical trinkets and some of the monsters being based on technology, I don't think the games have lifted the theme of science in the plot the way this show just did. Great move on the show's part, me thinks.


Episode 4 highlight

The way that Trevor acquired the trust of the people and then commanded them to organize an attack against the monsters has to be one of the best Belmont moments I've seen, if only for how refreshing it is. I don't think we have ever seen a Belmont act as a general on a battlefield, acting and commanding in true military fashion. Being from a (formerly) powerful house it makes sense that he can play the role of military lord but before now we had only seen Belmonts fighting alone or among the main cast.



The Belmonts

This reminds me of a frustration I had forgotten I had when it comes to the Belmonts: The fact that there is so much untapped potential and possible exploration that could be done with the clan. By the time that most Castlevania games are over, we have barely gotten to know who the Belmont character *is*. The Netflix show gives us some of that, finally.

My nitpick (or rather, nit-preference) is that because I'm partial to the Curse of Darkness version of Trevor (his design, voice and style of ultimate badassery), I'm missing that Trevor a bit in this Netflix show. But the Netflix version works too. I am glad that by episode 4, Trevor finally admits that he "cares".

[Shademp]

Just want to remind people that this piece of wonder exists.

YouTube Video

Relevant to the Netflix show!

In Symphony of the Night, Dracula says:

"It was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh. I was called here by humans who wish to pay me tribute."

In a way this ties together with the show, where human evil/ignorance is the reason for Dracula's evil coming forth. I am aware that other games in the series explore this theme further but I have not played those (yet) and I can't speak in detail.

[X-SOLDIER]

I'm really excited to see where they go with it in Season 2 and what more details they get into. (Also, thank you for sharing that bit of excellence).





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[Octo]

This was very enjoyable, lots of violence and shit and catholic priests getting their comeuppance more please!

[SeaDragon]

I was thinking that I love how they made the Alucard 'dash' with an effect like the SotN.

[Shademp]

YouTube Video

At 2:46 she says Konami made Warren do eight re-writes. She's probably referring to the quote from this Polygon article:

We’ve worked with Koji Igarashi to get the film solidly inside the Castlevania timeline, and he’s approved everything I came up with, including some new embroidering to the timeline. To make it work as a film, I had to introduce new backstory, and I went through five drafts of the premise and three of the full outline to get the material where IGA wanted it. He remains absolutely passionate about Castlevania. After eight rewrites of pre-production material, I remain absolutely passionate about beating the crap out of IGA in a dark alleyway one day.

At first I thought it was inaccurate to say that Konami gave assistance, but then I read that Koji Igarashi didn't officially leave Konami until 2014. The production they speak of in the quote above appear to deal with the time around 2007, so yes "Konami" did provide feedback.


Grant, the most agile man in Wallachia

At 2:52 Maven says that everybody agreed to cut out the fourth playable character, Grant. I have seen interviews that mention characters being cut out but not one that speaks of Grant specifically. The following interview also seems to hint at the possibility of Grant appearing in season 2:

Unfortunately, Adi Shankar would not confirm whether Grant DaNasty will be one of the major Castlevania Season 2 characters.

“I can’t spoil it, because it’s … I’m getting into major spoiler territory,” he said. “You’ll just have to wait and see. I can’t even get into it, because it will become a thing, yeah.”

Dracula's love

I have a fondness for Lament of Innocence, so I was a bit disappointed when in the show Dracula referred to Lisa as the only true love he ever knew. It pretty much removes the possibility of including Elisabetha in the lore. Though from a storytelling point-of-view I see that the emotional impact and meaning in the show is greater by highlighting Lisa as THE woman, not just the SECOND woman. So I think they made the better choice but I still mourn the loss of (at least this aspect of) Lament of Innocence.



Talking to NPCs

The scenes with Trevor Belmont hearing what the townspeople had to say felt, for me, really good to watch. It felt like I was seeing a video game in action...in a good way! Maven refers to these scenes as being to the show's detriment and perhaps they are from a more classical storytelling perspective but from a gamer's perspective it feels like appropriate fan service. I could basically hear the Simon's Quest music and text scrolling sound!

Where I will agree with Maven is that episodes 2 and 3 feel somewhat padded. It felt like events could have been sped up just a little bit.

[X-SOLDIER]

A grand interview with Adi Shankar about the series and tiny little hints about season 2: http://io9.gizmodo.com/castlevanias-...e-f-1797027492





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[Shademp]

So far Adi Shankar is only giving me reasons to like him.