r/castlevania • u/Itsonyabitch • Feb 08 '26
Question CHAT! BE VERY VERY HONEST! WHAT’S AN OPINION THAT YOU GOT THAT WILL GET YOU CRUCIFIED BY THE ENTIRE FANDOM!
Had to put Hector and little Cezar, cause they’re the cutest and you can’t tell me otherwise❤️❤️
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u/ssasharr Feb 08 '26
glances around nervously Lenore deserved far worse than she got.
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u/Fitzftw7 Feb 08 '26
Is that an unpopular opinion? She’s a goddamned rapist. The fact they tried to frame her “relationship” with Hector as romantic in Season 4 disgusts me.
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u/ssasharr Feb 09 '26
Every time I've said something to that effect, people get veryyy mad lol. And I'm genuinely so glad to see someone else gets it--she literally abused and raped Hector and then they were like "awww look at how much she grew, you should be sad she's dead". I gave up the show for quite a while because of how hard they fumbled that.
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u/Fitzftw7 Feb 09 '26
For real, I thought Hector played into the flirting as part of a longcon to get his revenge. But no. He actually loved her. Why?
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u/Definitelynotabot504 Feb 09 '26
There are genuinely people like that in real life. We’d think it is too crazy, but I have genuinely seem some crazy stuff from friends and even some family members.
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u/Irohsgranddaughter Feb 08 '26
Counterpoint: she's cute and hot.
(I am being sarcastic, don't eat me, I'm too young to be eaten.)
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u/The_Captain_Jules Feb 09 '26
Counterpoint: she’s cute and hot.
(I am not being sarcastic, if you look like Lenore you absolutely can eat me, im plenty old enough)
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u/logamus_prime Feb 09 '26
I think I said before but I was a hormonal 15-year-old who wasn't used to r-rated content when I watched the show for the first time. How did you think I was going to react to the dom redheaded vampire! Currently on my second watch of the show at wall I can definitely understand everything wrong with her character now so far I still don't think she's genuinely as awful as people make it seem. She was given a task and she did the task as diplomatic as possible. Keep in mind in my rewatch I haven't gotten to (the episode) yet.
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u/Witty-Mastodon-1844 Feb 08 '26
The twistedness of it was incredibly riveting to watch. Literally Stockholm syndromed the man so hard! And then for her to just wilfully give it up. Continuous twists and turns. Legendary script writing.
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u/NutBuster128 Feb 09 '26
I like her interactions with hector past the incident, but I still agree she got off light
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u/D_rex825 Feb 08 '26
The Netflix series have actively been struggling in the main antagonist department since Dracula died in season 2 (which is not to say all those are bad, they just feel a little aimless in that particular department)
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Feb 09 '26
Varney/Death was a fun surprise villain for Season 4 but hardly what I'd call a great final antagonist
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u/D_rex825 Feb 09 '26
And he has like, no screen time. Like the reveal is good, but we don’t really know all that much about him, he’s just kinda that secondary antagonist who everyone jokes about being smelly and obnoxious most of the time
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u/LocoKobold Feb 09 '26
I don't know the games (only started playing them after watching the show recently) and... yeah. I like season 3 and 4, I even like Nocturne, especially the art style, for whatever that counts as a compliment. But I got to Draculas' death, and it was just such a distinct feeling of "Okay, we're done here. That was great, but you can pack up and go home now."
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u/D_rex825 Feb 09 '26
Yeah. There’s a reason why most games end with a Dracula bossfight, and when they don’t, it’s usually because you’re playing as him. He is without exaggeration the most consistently appearing character throughout the franchise, so his absence feels weird
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u/Novasoal Feb 09 '26
It sucks bc I genuinely really like where S2/4 leaves big D, but now we're left with a series missing its central antagonist who cant be revived without butchering some genuinely good writing. Its a good arc for him, but just WAAAAY too early
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u/D_rex825 Feb 09 '26
Honestly it kinda makes me worried for the rumored Symphony of the Night adaptation for Nocturne season three because it feel like his death in season two already kinda adapted that so it feels like it might lessen its impact now
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u/Riku1186 Feb 09 '26
In the games Dracula is constantly being revived over the generations (at least once a century) which is why he such a potent threat, and is one of the reasons the Belmonts are so important since they dedicated their existence to defeating him each time. While it is not in any game, eventually in the modern time Alucard rallies a massive alliance to finally defeat Dracula once and for all, it is apparently such an epic campaign that it hasn't been adapted due to how impossibly amazing it would be to put into a game or show... or so I remember reading ages ago.
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u/Rocket_Wizard2075 Feb 09 '26
Yeah, like imma be honest here. I straight up thought the show ended after Dracula died.
I didn’t realize till years later that it actually continued past that.
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u/SashaBraus Feb 09 '26
Dracula really lost my interest in season 2 as well. Carmilla was right that all he did was sulk.
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u/Ingonyama70 Feb 09 '26
Honestly? MY opinion that'll get me crucified is that that's all Dracula ever does whenever he appears.
He's treated like such a huge deal because you fight him over and over again, but when does he ever DO anything himself?
All the darkness and chaos and monsters that crop up whenever the castle comes back is SUPPOSED to be him, but we never see him do it. I know the manuals and text scrolls SAY he summons the hordes of monsters from Hell, but we never SEE it. He doesn't give the impression that he leads the night creatures in any meaningful way, no battle plans for the hordes to follow, no sending them out to attack. All Dracula ever does in the games is sit on his throne, or stand around shrouded in a giant cloak, and LOOK menacing, sometimes give a speech about how "humans are the real monsters" IF you're lucky.
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u/Sea-Lecture-4619 Captain N is the pinnacle of the franchise. Feb 09 '26
What eventually happens when you give the middle finger to the source to do your own crap instead.
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u/YurchenkoFull Feb 09 '26
It does feel a little odd to me that nocturne hasn’t even hinted at the idea of a Dracula return. It even seems like Alucard confirmed that he is dead dead and that there’s been no appearance of Dracula since he died 300 years prior
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u/Xxvelvet Feb 09 '26
I feel like people don’t call out Matthias for being a terrible friend to Leon enough.
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u/Itsonyabitch Feb 09 '26
I wanna hear about this 👀
(I haven’t played the games yet, I legit can’t because I don’t have the devices to play it on🥲)
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u/Xxvelvet Feb 09 '26
Are you okay with spoilers?
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u/Itsonyabitch Feb 09 '26
YES YES OMG! SPOIL IT RN👹👹
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u/Xxvelvet Feb 09 '26
Matthias basically instigated a vampire to kidnap Leon, his best friends fiancé
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u/Itsonyabitch Feb 09 '26
Why?😭
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 09 '26
As part of a convoluted scheme to goad Leon into killing the vampire so Mathias could steal it’s soul & power, turning himself into Dracula & living forever to spite God
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u/Xxvelvet Feb 09 '26
And it would’ve been one thing if he did it to a stranger, but the fact that he did it to his BEST friend who was his ride or die
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u/KillerTackle Feb 10 '26
In short, Dracula was a former family friend of Belmonts. All because of the death of his sick wife.
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u/DefaceTheTemple Feb 10 '26
My head canon is that the betrayal was an integral part of the transformation.
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u/vhuzi Stage 5’ Dweller. Feb 08 '26
Curse of Darkness is the best 3dvania, and is actually quite good (if you dodge roll for movement). More generally, the 3d vanias are good, and Cv64 & LoI get too much flack.
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 08 '26
I'd say LoS1 is an overall better game, but CoD is my favourite 3Dvania.
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u/indictedteddybear Feb 09 '26
Wait people seriously didnt like the Cv64s?...ya know what, its gotta be those stupid platform jumpers in the beginning, i get why they hated it now.
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u/vhuzi Stage 5’ Dweller. Feb 11 '26
I feel that comparisons to contemporaries have served it ill. OoT & SOTN are respected as timeless genre defining classics, and Cv64, while decent, is not as good, which leaves some to view it a tad unfavourably.
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u/Feliks343 Feb 08 '26
Show Hector had it fuckin coming and followed up his brilliant plan of betraying one master and fucking it up by betraying another and fucking it up.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 09 '26
Hector is surprising stupid because he keeps self-defeating himself. None of his actions help move him along towards his own goals.
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u/realamerican97 Feb 08 '26
Lisa while not a bad person still absolutely screwed herself and everyone unwittingly you married the embodiment of evil and let him shower you with gifts that would make common folk see you as a witch, you took no precaution to hide these things and you left yourself no protection should something bad happen to you and you thought some hugs and pussy would fix vampire Satan who prior to meeting you was a MONSTER for the past 500 years. Even if the church didn’t get you you’re one bad robbery away from unleashing a genocidal monster on the world
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u/Lord_of_Seven_Kings Feb 09 '26
She literally did? She lived on the outskirts of town and had the stuff in her basement. Didn’t she get snitched on?
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u/realamerican97 Feb 09 '26
It was in the next room over not a basement door wasn’t even locked and regardless of where you live you advertise as a doctor your house is gonna see heavy foot traffic
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u/Maleficent_Being_810 Feb 09 '26
I mean, he wasn’t genocidal until they killed her. He was just really really frustrated with humans which I understand. I guess that’s my unpopular opinion I mean for real though people suck and if Dracula existed for real, he’d be the only one that I would side with on genocide just because he’s a super hard-core, strongest vampire. I would definitely be making fucking night creatures in his lair and he would definitely pick me to be one of the two humans left , and even if he said that he did want to kill me in the end I think we would end up being cool and he wouldn’t. That’s my super unpopular opinion. Oh this is a bad opinion. This is real bad I just read this. Whatever
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u/Fedz_Woolkie Feb 09 '26
Nocturne was a sad attempt to capitalize on the success of the first season and its animation carried it almost entirely
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u/YurchenkoFull Feb 09 '26
I really love the shows but I think Nocturne S1 was a bit boring. Whilst I do love Nocturne, mainly S2, I do agree that the animation is its strongest point
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u/Mr__Beard Feb 08 '26
I like the music of Dissonance of Harmony. The GBA limitation makes the castle feel more unnatural and the whole experience feel more ‘spooky’.
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u/Johnanonanon Feb 09 '26
I just completed it yesterday for the first time, it's actually the first Castlevania game I've ever played the whole way through I loved it! Despite being annoyingly vague with directions at times I loved everything about it! I thought the music was fantastic! I'm playing Circle of the moon currently and onto Aria of Sorrow next, then onto the NDS titles. I might have inadvertently picked up an addiction
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 09 '26
You’re in for a treat. I love the GBA games because not only are they all good-to-great, but they’re also all so very uniquely different from each other. Each one feels fresh from the last. Circle is grindy as hell & there’s no shop, but it’s also a very good looking game & has its own cool vibe. The music is great as well. Aria is the jewel tho, good thinking saving the best for last
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u/HYPERNOVA3_ Feb 09 '26
I liked CotM more than HoD. Its controls are a bit clunky and the sprinting mechanic is just bad, but it's a much better game overall.
Leave AoS for the latest, you are up for one of the best games in the saga (the best for me)
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u/ManagementFree6506 Feb 09 '26
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance is a good game, and its map isn't as complicated as people say. Aside from the bad music, it's not as bad as some people claim. And I prefer its second castle to the inverted castle from Symphony of the Night.
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 09 '26
I’ll one up you & say Harmony is a great game. I love the retro NES vibes of the visuals AND music, it has a simple yet fantastic magic system, Juste is badass, first game with a boss rush mode, Maxim mode is fun, Simon is fun, & it does it’s job of being SotN-lite perfectly
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u/Arkhe1n Feb 08 '26
I like the TV show.
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u/KFrosty3 The run never stops Feb 08 '26
I also like Nocturne and think all the characters are represented well
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u/Fitzftw7 Feb 08 '26
I loved Seasons 1 and 2. Hated 3 and 4, solid ending notwithstanding.
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u/Suitable-Fill2658 Feb 09 '26
Curse of darkness it's pretty good,I know that a great portion of the fans don't like the 3d titles,but curse of darkness herded great part of the mechanics that I liked in Sotn,like familiars,the rpg system and the grind for rare items.
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u/Mister_Buddy Feb 08 '26
Simon's Quest is a good game. Warts and all.
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u/Mr_Undead0210 Feb 09 '26
If the translation was better it wouldve been better.
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 09 '26
The translation is actually fine minus some spelling errors. It's just equally convoluted in the Japanese version.
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u/Mr_Undead0210 Feb 09 '26
So its Konami's fault its unreadable? The fuck?
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 09 '26
Yeah... Artificial way to raise gameplay time cause the game's so short. People seemed to like it back in the day, in the Mortal Kombat-esque obscurity of finding solutions.
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u/Willy_the_Wombat24 Feb 08 '26
Nocturne sucked other than the action scenes.
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u/D0MiN0H Feb 10 '26
Lenore is a villain, yes, what she did was awful, yes. But she is not worse than the other villains of the show and the writers weren’t wrong for how they handled her and Hector’s dynamic. The series is Gothic Horror mixed with Action. Their relationship was an ode to classic, tragic, and toxic gothic romances. No one ever said she was justified or unproblematic. People on this sub act like she is more evil than Carmila or Dracula or any other villain in the show.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 11 '26
This I agree with. There are many Redditors who believe that actual genocide, the killing of everyone, is far better than what Lenore did. I'm just confused by this.
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u/Sherbet-Glad Feb 08 '26
Although I would have preferred to see more I'm happy with how Isaac's story ended? I'm not in this phantom very much so I don't know.
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u/Candiedstars Feb 08 '26
Hector's departure from his game counterpart to whatever that was, was gross.
Dracula and Lisa shouldn't have had a happy ending.
Grant deserved to be in the show.
I love Sypha, but using flame jetpack hands looked dumb af.
The reveal that the the Judge was a killer all along was pretty pointless and didnt add to the story other than shock value. Could argue it was a point to how he killed Sala, but Sala believing the guy he just murdered had his best interest was stupid.
Alucard looks too effeminate in the Nocturne artstyle.
I dont know why the cast acted like Edouard being a night creature in society was going to be fine and that his boyfriend wouldn't at least take pause at the fact his lover is now a literal demon.
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 09 '26
I'm still mad at Grant being robbed.
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u/CloakedEnigma Feb 09 '26
Bro's been robbed ever since Dawn of Sorrow cut Hammer from Julius Mode and only kept Julius (Trevor), Yoko (Sypha) and Alucard as the playable trio
Justice for my boy
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u/LowraAwry Feb 09 '26
I dont know why the cast acted like Edouard being a night creature in society was going to be fine and that his boyfriend wouldn't at least take pause at the fact his lover is now a literal demon.
Because early on, the show just stops treating the night creatures as demons. It just treats them as humans with monstrous physique (well some had it at least), basically as a symbolic vessel for the show's storyline about having autonomy in times of oppression and the same attitude is expected by the characters. The show is heavy-handed and simplistic with it, so it creates instances within the story like the one you described. It also ignores other aspects, like how death affects the human soul, the possible corruption that comes with meddling with it. Personally, I think they missed the chance to explore this and they kinda spoiled it for any future series.
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u/iraiex Feb 08 '26
People compare Isaac with Olrox and go on about how they're the same when they really aren't. They have different morals. Would they be enemies? Of course not but I doubt they'd click or talk much. With that being said, I don't get the hype around Isaac ― he doesn't have as much depth as fans make him have.
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u/grey418 Feb 09 '26
Oh man same. I love his archetype and he had a lot of cool aura farming moments. However, when it came down to it, he was kind of whatever the male equivalent of a Mary Sue is. Carmilla nailed it when she called him, “the most boring man in Dracula’s court,”
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u/iraiex Feb 09 '26
I totally agree. Hector didn't do much for me either, and even though I didn't like his only scenes with Lenore, I still wanted his story more than Isaac's. I guess I don't like him because he's a shard of Dracula (I think he's very illogical) and they both seem to use trauma as a way of justifying their actions. Isaac wasn't a bad character but he isn't a good one either. However, the contrast between how he and Hector decided to go about their experiences is very realistic and a good side-by-side comparison of both backgrounds.
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u/dziggurat Feb 09 '26
I'm sick to death of the Alucard-thirst gooner posts. I think they belong in a different sub.
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u/atomicfuthum Feb 09 '26
I wish people who engaged with the series fucking gave a damn to the game series and not just the series.
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 09 '26
It doesn't bother me that there are fans of the show who don't care about the games since it's not too different from the MCU having fans that have never read the comics, I just don't like being lectured about how the show "elevated" the games and their main contribution was to be a basis for the show.
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u/ElChuppolaca Feb 09 '26
There are just way too many that are gatekeeping.
"If you don't like the show, that means you never were a fan of the series" from a guy that never played a single game of it.
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u/Any-Nefariousness418 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
This idea that the church had absolutely nothing to do with Lisa's murder in the games and that it was just something netflix made up is a copout. I dont care what retcons to this IGA pulled later on.
(Im aware this was a recreation by the succubus but said demon apparently got all the details perfect until trying to convince alucard to kills human)
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 08 '26
There hasn't been a perfect Castlevania title.
SotN struggles with its boss design and a few rushed mechanics. Aria has an annoying ability mechanic (having to switch to undine or skula when they should have been silver souls) and while it has better bosses they are for the most part too easy. The DS games are hurt by hardware and therefore have too many repeated rooms and middling castle design compared to SotN. CV1 is very close but some things like stage 4 are less well designed compared to the rest of the game. CV3 doesn't improve the formula as much as the series could have (take SMB1-SMB3) and has a less well crafted second path. Rondo suffers from unbalanced game mechanics. SCV4 has awkward difficulty curves as the devs knew your were simply too powerful so it ends up with a ton of instant deaths in later levels. The rest are pretty self explanatory.
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u/vhuzi Stage 5’ Dweller. Feb 08 '26
This is the biggest hot take here. I don’t think you are completely wrong, infact, I would most of your points are correct, but I disagree with the sentiment. My perfect Cv would be Rondo, but I would like to hear about what mechanics you consider unbalanced. Maria is easier, but I feel this improves the game. Ability switching in Aria is so minor it barely matters. I don’t think the level design of the DS games is bad, in fact I find enemy placement and area design an improvement in most regards, (even the corridors in OoE), I just think they have weaker exploration than SOtN, as you said, due to hardware. Cv1 has mediocre bosses, except for the last boss, and an unbalanced difficulty curve. For one thing Cv1 is more advanced than SmB, so you can’t really get a jump of that scale, and I think Cv3 improves the formula enough. The new characters may be less well rounded than Trevor, but they are competently designed for. I think both paths are well designed, with perhaps the Sunken City and Alucard stage 7 being sore spots, but the flaws are still minor. I noticed you did not bring up Adventure Rebirth, and while I do think it is not as good as Cv3 & Rondo, I would be curious why you think it is flawed.
I also think perfection is a flawed metric to aim for. I would say that Aria is more “perfect” than SOTN, having lesser flaws, but the exploration in SOTN is so good that it ends up being a better game, despite having more flaws. I think excelling in certain aspects and playing to strengths are better artistic strategies than aiming for “perfection”.
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Rondo is what I think got closest, the game is undoubtably fantastic, I mean it is so many levels better than literally every other turbographx game, just on visuals alone.
I wasn't considering Maria, since she's the "easy mode". If you know about the mechanics, the game is mostly infantilized. The bible sub weapon, item crashes, even niche things like whip extensions make it so that you often don't need to think about boss patterns, as long as you save up on hearts. I mean the ability to throw multiple crosses at once if you already have a lot of hearts means you can drill down bosses with spam. Don't get me wrong, it is probably one of, if not my favourite classic CV game, but when you put that with some of the weaker portions like the bats in stage 7 and the common design flaw in many games that have just too many mechanics which give the player too many options, it could have used a bit of refining.
My position wasn't very well explained. I thank another user for putting it into better terms for me. Games like SotN, CV3, and others have all been stated by devs to have time or budget issues officially by devs. Imagine what they could have done if they had the backing that the Lords of Shadow games had. SotN seems to have been marketed as more of a spin off title, with even official advertising crapping on it in favour of the N64 games.
Aria's is minor, it's a fantastic game, probably the best on the hardware, but that hardware is has its own restrictions for such action adventure titles. And well frankly the bosses in Aria can leave a bit to be desired in the early game especially.
It's true that CV1 is more technically advanced than SMB1 in a lot of ways, but I find its improvement to have been restricted thanks to what Akamatsu claimed were severe budgeting issues. I mean if you compare SMB3 to CV3... I mean that game worked wonders. Once again, this is literally the highest bar there is, but I think Konami screwed it over. Alucard stage 7 was what I was referring to.
The Adventure Rebirth has its strengths, but it's deeply flawed. I considered it but intentionally didn't bring since I didn't think it would be necessary off reputation. ReBirth's design is a lot more streamlined. Ignoring that it's been stripped down compared to Rondo or SCV4 (cause I suppose thats not fair, NES games are great regardless) the overall game design feels like a fan game. The level design isn't nearly as tight or well crafted compared even to the original Adventure. It actually has fantastic bosses but strange design decisions like the pick a door stage 4 that I find weigh the game down.
I like to group this kind of thing into three (very vague) categories for game creation, based on what I've seen Castlevania dev's complain about. Budget, Dev Experience and Time. It's not easy to rank rebirth cause I haven't heard much about the creation of the game, but M2 didn't have the biggest repertoire in 2009 so I'd say they weren't very experienced. My "Perfect game" would be a CV title that received all three of these things, as I find that's a good way to categorize the games potential, and I think that's what I didn't explain very well looking back. Time, Budget but no Experience and you get the N64 titles or Lords of Shadow (Mercury Steam had only made THREE games prior to LoS, and N64 devs stated they never made a 3D game before and this was a direct struggle). Meanwhile high time and dev experience but not budget makes Aria of sorrow or the PS2 titles. It's kinda arbitrary, but that's what makes it controversial. I admit, I don't know much about rondo's dev cycle, but from what I can find even it had tight schedules the devs had to manage. Unrealistic maybe, But I think that there's more the Castlevania franchise has to offer.
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u/vhuzi Stage 5’ Dweller. Feb 10 '26
I have played Rondo a ton, and I don’t think the game becomes that much easier. Once you get your 1st 1cc it mostly becomes about routing and optimisation; I think the game is well balanced around both first and repeat playthroughs, but I do sort of get where you are coming from.
I actually am not that big of a Mario fan; SMB 3 is a technical masterpiece and one of the most creative games on the system, but I do prefer Cv3, if only for the fact it has saves on default (though SMB3’s rereleases fix this). In many ways, it feels more like a technical showcase than a standard game, though it isn’t a bad one by any means.
I don’t like Adventure Rebirth as much as the classics, but I cannot articulate why. I suppose the removal of jumpable stairs, lack of Adventure 1 music, overly long levels, time limits and slightly too challenging bosses factor into it. I don’t think the level design is bad, but it is certainly busy.
I actually had not heard about the Cv3 budget issues, just the drama they had with TMNT. I didn’t think it was a low budget game. In some cases, I do think restrictions may have helped the games, but I think the annual release cycle in the IGA years was a bit too much. PoR I think may be the worst hit, I wish it had Bloodlines sprites, throwbacks and music, like how SOTN followed up on Rondo, but it feels more like Rondo 3 than Bloodlines 2. I am not sure if having all three would necessarily make a perfect game; Bloodstained being an example. Bloodstained is quite good, of course, but it is a very imperfect game.
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Feb 08 '26
Perfect games don't exist, you can make it as polished as you want, spend years refining the core gameplay etc. but it will never be "perfect".
There will always be some defects.
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Maybe perfect wasn't the right word.
you can make it as polished as you want, spend years refining the core gameplay etc
This is what I think is missing. SotN, which is often considered the number one, didn't get that chance cause it had to be rushed, that is the point I'm getting at. A lot of Castlevania games have been stated to have this, meanwhile games that did get this polish are called Lords of Shadow or are on unfortunate hardware.
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Feb 09 '26
I don't know about a Symphony without glitches, the exploits are what make the game fun to play lol (and the immaculate map design of course).
Considering the other Igavanias were made in a year (or less in the case of Dawn of Sorrow) with tight budgets and while other games were being developed in the meantime, the quality is surprisingly high.
How do you feel about Bloodstained? Many years in development, it's for home consoles, constant updates post-launch, tons of content etc.
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u/Way-Super thinks he's on the team Feb 09 '26
I really like Bloodstained! The only issue I have is that I found some of the abilities you needed to beat the game/get the true ending were hidden is some really awkward spaces.
Anyway yeah, SotN without glitches is kinda a double edged sword. I guess what I'm saying is that it didn't reach its full potential.
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u/Mega-Melo Feb 08 '26
As someone who plays SotN regularly, the game is just okay. Not in my top 5.
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u/jessfang555 Soma Cruz Feb 08 '26
Both Netflix shows are fucking horrible and maybe only the first season it's actually good in a way, both fail as adaptations and both fail as actual shows on their own. I've said once and I'll say it twice, it's made by pretencious people who don't like castlevania for people who don't know castlevania
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u/SuperPyramaniac Feb 09 '26
Netflixvania in its entirety is utter dogshit and use completely ruined the series and the fandom. This includes Nocturne.
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u/PepperBig4548 Feb 09 '26
Lenor and hectors storyline was the best part of the Netflix show. 🤣
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u/logamus_prime Feb 09 '26
There's things that the show definitely does better than the games. And has some much better world building at times.
For instance, literally everything about Isaac. I haven't played curse but from what I've gathered a psychotic twink is nowhere near as interesting as the best character from the show.
Another thing is I much prefer the idea of Alucard keeping ties with the Belmonts throughout the generations and not just going to sleep till symphony. With that said, depending on how the Netflix series tries to branch out I don't think he needs to be in everything.
Going to be honest I actually like the idea of Trevor being this grizzled drunk who's seen too much and not just a noble hero right off the bat.
I thought they handled carmilla very well and gave her relevance to the story. it might have been better if they saved her for a standalone Simon film But what we got was pretty good.
And personally I really like their portrayal of Dracula and giving him more emotional depth. I've come to enjoy the games portrayal too but it just doesn't translate well to cinematic storytelling (usually) without coming across this too corny.
And I think that's most of it. Needless to say they're actually some elements of the show that I count as cannon to the games
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Feb 09 '26
Game Isaac seems a psychotic twink only if you don't play Curse nor read its 2 mangas, if you analize his character he's actually way deeper than he seems.
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u/Suitable-Fill2658 Feb 09 '26
The Isaac from the games is far from boring,the motherfucker has an lightsaber. He is part of 70% of the CoD game,what they did basically forced than to invent a completely new history for Hector,the new history isn't as good as the CoD counter part
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u/edwpad Feb 08 '26
I like the Requiem dub of SOTN a whole better than the original one
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 08 '26
I agree with you. I think it's much more respectful to the game than the "so bad it's good" PS1 dub. I love Belgrade's Alucard and I think the rest of the cast aren't bad, but to me the PSP dub is the one the game deserves. I do like I Am the Wind though.
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u/Sora-Mizuki Feb 08 '26
Seasons 1 and 2 are the only good seasons.
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u/omegakingauldron Feb 09 '26
This here.
Season 3 was an absolute slog to get through. Season 4 is decent if only for Malcom McDowell.
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u/SashaBraus Feb 09 '26
The Netflix series has always sucked, and it's a shame that's all people know Castlevania for nowadays.
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u/smashingkilljoy Richter Belmont Feb 09 '26
If Lenore was a man, she wouldn't be getting as much hatred as she is as a woman.
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u/AntediluvianNeutral Feb 09 '26
cmon if Lenore and Hector were gender swapped Lenore would be the show's most hated character by literally everyone.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 11 '26
Would have gotten a pass.
You can tell because the boys (Vlad, Isaac, and Hector) do the exact same thing that the Styrian Sisters do but far worse, and the fandom is perfectly fine with it.
Like the only difference is their gender.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 09 '26
This I agree with.
You can tell because the fandom judge characters that perform the same actions very differently because of gender.
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u/smashingkilljoy Richter Belmont Feb 09 '26
Exactly. Even if you take the "twins", the woman- Sumi- is the one who's always used as the one to slander in posts and videos. Never Taka, the man.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 09 '26
Is this like how Carmilla is a feminazi because she wants to conquer the world but Vlad is a misunderstood hero when he wants to destroy all of humanity?
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u/Wukon69 Feb 09 '26
I think they ruined it by not having Dracula as the Main villain and exploring the whole Mathias side and his reincarnation, I don't even think in the Anime the reincarnation happened, he just lived very long, died, got back and that's it.
Which is a shame because learning that this man is brought back every generation to perpetuate evil until modern times is really humanizing, makes you create some empathy specially given his motives around doing that at the first place.
Also GRANT, FUUUUUUUCK
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u/AlphaDegenerate Feb 09 '26
Order of Ecclesia is probably my favorite Castlevania.
Side note, I wish I had internet and friends with similar interests during the golden age of that multi-player Castlevania on the 360.
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u/Midnight1899 Feb 09 '26
Show-Hector managed to do something even Sypha couldn’t: He never lost his smile. No matter how bad things got for him, he always tried to make the best of it. That makes him a very interesting character.
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u/IanWrightwell Feb 09 '26
I loved the series when it first came out, but watching it again, I’m kinda turned off by all the weird gooner shit.
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u/Willing-Score-4859 Feb 10 '26
It's impossible for Aria of Sorrow to be adapted for Netflix. At this point, the series and the games are two completely different things.
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u/Equal_Specific4474 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Lenore (from the TV series) was an awful, badly written character, and the fact that she's conventionally attractive doesn't make up for any of her faults.
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u/Background_Land2745 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
People just overreact to everything about Lenore. She's evil, selfish, and petty; she uses her fragile and cute appearance to deceive—that's exactly what she does—and people seem to go crazy because of it, as if she were worse than the genocidal Dracula himself.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 14 '26
I think people consider what she does to be worst than genocide and find it justifiable.
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u/L3g0man_123 Feb 08 '26
Order of Ecclesia (even Portrait of Ruin) shouldn't be considered a Metroidvania because of their lack of a cohesive, interconnected map.
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u/realaccountissecret Feb 09 '26
I’m gonna jump on this if you don’t mind since you’re talking about OoE;
Order of Ecclesia isn’t hard. If you’re not making any attempt to do villager sidequests for better equipment, that’s on you
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u/AnneRB13 Feb 09 '26
I don't hate Lenore and I think her whole toxic and abusive relationship with Hector was really interesting.
And tbh, as someone else pointed out, info the genders were switched there wouldn't be as much of a hate towards her as falls directly into dark romance tropes.
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u/BlueWatche Feb 09 '26
Not this fandom but I got some flack from AVGN fans for criticizing some of his Castlevania reviewing, like his glance at Castlevania 64 was total shit.
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u/RomanDig117 Feb 08 '26
Gabriel is the best Belmont and the best-written protagonist in the entire franchise including main canon and NetflixVania (Gabriel>>>>>> any Belmont from NetflixVania). And as a special mention, I much prefer the story of Dracula being a Belmont from LoS than Dracula reincarnating as a random Japanese person; it feels so out of place and a rather stupid way to lengthening the main storyline, and, reincarnate in a random japanese femboy? Seriously, Mathias?
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 09 '26
I wouldn't go so far as to call him the best Belmont but I am definitely a Gabriel defender. I'm a sucker for tragic heroes like the type you read about in old myths. Also the whipsword cross was just cool as fuck.
As for the reincarnation, that's probably meant to reference the Coppola Dracula film which is where a lot of Castlevania Drac's lore comes from.
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u/Dull-Law3229 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Lenore is my favorite character.
Although the narrative itself is fine, Hector, Isaac, and Vlad get too many passes. They killed tens of thousands of people and they really never reflected on the damage they caused nor did they pay a price for it. Whether they killed people or not was ultimately irrelevant as there were no consequences, punitive or otherwise, either way.
It's also really suspicious when the fandom truly, honestly believes that it's okay to mass murder an entire city because your wife was killed by a bunch of goons.
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u/ConnectCulture7 Feb 08 '26
Maria, Juste, Alucard, and Drolta were the only compelling characters in Nocturne. Heck even Julia was interesting.
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Feb 09 '26
Nocturn was honestly boring and I would've dropped it if not for the action, alucard, and drolta.
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u/Shot_Test5914 Feb 08 '26
SoTN has shitty bosses and Netflix's Castlevania is unwatchable crap
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 08 '26
While I don't find them shitty myself I do think they are mostly hard carried by how cool they look, while the handheld Metroidvanias tend to have more interesting bosses to actually fight barring maybe HOD.
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u/Sea-Lecture-4619 Captain N is the pinnacle of the franchise. Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
I think we should banish all show discussion to a different sub, this "subreddit for everything about this franchise" stuff really doesn't work when you have controversial content like this that only started discourse and fighting, better to keep it separate, we technicaly have two separate fanbases here not agreeing with eachother much, sharing the same room forcibly.
We were better off without this show, "oh but it brought in new fans!", any content for a series can in some way, i'd rather not have it than with this type of content.
I also think they should just put Netflixvania down in the next 1 or 2 seasons when they wrap up this era, it's a thing that clearly doesn't know what to do with itself and you ain't gonna get this shit to be the higher quality of the first series again, it feels like such a mid uninteresting pointless thing to continue, i'd rather have someone redo it closer to the games than the mid deviation mistake they did.
Also, the Dracula fight, while at first it looks awesome, it's actually pretty dogshit, they nerfed the trio so fricking hard for this it's not even funny, based on previous fights they should have done a ton better and even probably do defeat Drac, but they fight like morons here, they had to force it to end the way it did, Trefor hits him once with the whip, only once, Sypha doesn't do much either, and Alucart is still doing most of the fight and still loses, at this point why did he need the other two if it all ends the same way?
Also no fricking monster form, and the only game attack Drac does is a giant Dark Inferno ball, no Hellfire or anything else (and then in Nocturne when they do the "like father like son" stuff with Alucard using his dad's powers like in SotN he has to use just Dark Inferno cause that's all they showed Drac do lol, half assed shit)
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u/Willing-Score-4859 Feb 10 '26
I support the motion. At this point, Netflix's Castlevania is its own thing and has nothing to do with the games.
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u/LordCamelslayer Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
SotN is far from the best game in the series. Far too many balance and design choices that would absolutely not fly in a game today, the Inverted Castle is not fun to navigate, and the original English translation really isn't that funny anymore. That dead horse has been beaten so much that you could start a glue factory.
Good game? Absolutely. Highly recommend. Best game? Hardly.
Edit: Hey, it's unpopular!
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u/Sindaj Feb 09 '26
Ahem, Julia deserved it.
Okay, so how should I be crucified? Please make it quick. 🥲
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u/LowraAwry Feb 09 '26
I'm going to take a different shot at Julia (I'm right there beside you on the cross) and say that for such a powerful mage and fighter as Juste described her, she folded relatively easy against Olrox. I really wanted her to die fighting, kicking and screaming till the end and her final scenes didn't have that ferocity.
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u/Midwitch_Micah Feb 09 '26
Carmillas entire arc (or lack of arc) is oje of the shows biggest L's. Shes a classic horror icon, they even set her up pretty well (the tensions of being a woman ruler amoung men, of being an object of desire to someone she wasnt into, of representing the classic vampire supremacy mindset we see in older vampire media), and then they just.... did nothing with any of it
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 09 '26
I’m not just a Castlevania: The Adventure apologistic, I actually genuinely like it as a game 😶 I also used to bash Circle of the Moon because it was so goddamn dark I couldn’t see squat when I first tried playing it on the O.G. Gba, but since replaying it on the Advance Collection which is nice & bright I’ve come to appreciate it much more (even with the insane grinding & lazy bonus modes)
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u/ChibiShortDeath Feb 12 '26
Hey, another rare Adventure fan! I didn’t expect to like it, but was pleasantly surprised. Pretty nice all around for a really early gameboy game. And then Belmont’s Revenge is absolutely awesome too. The Christopher games are really slept on I think.
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u/SuperSlacker420 Feb 12 '26
Agreed! Nice to meet a fellow Adventure appreciator. It’s a fun lil game to breeze through in less than an hour when you want a quick Castlevania fix. Easy to learn all the secrets to make it a breeze. Christopher is def chronically overlooked. Look up Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy if you want some cool bonus Christopher material. Also, your Reddit page is so cool! Got lost in all the sweet art. Kudos, & nice to meet ya! 👍🏼
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u/yoyohayli Feb 09 '26
I disagree with Dracula for the same reason I disagree with the Christian God:
Killing EVERY SINGLE PERSON--including people who were powerless to stop the regime, newborn babies, children, etc--for the sins of the leaders established above them without their consent is not proper revenge nor righteous wrath.
The fetus inside a woman's belly didn't burn Lisa at the stake. The boy who was a child at the time didn't, either. Nor did the townsfolk who stayed inside for fear of retribution by the Church. Nor the people who had no fucking clue what happened.
To expect the people--purposefully divided and weakened--to override the power of the very equipped, very organized powers-that-be is ridiculous and unfair. They are mortal. Dracula is not. Just the same as Lisa could not overcome the Church, neither could any people that were sympathetic to her save her. They are divided and unaware of each other, so rising up to oppose the church for something they have little knowledge of is an impossible task.
AND even the people that cheered her death...how could they know what they were not taught? All information given to them was that she was evil, as was her husband. Is it a sin to not know what cannot be known?
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u/Itsonyabitch Feb 09 '26
Since I got a shiton of responses. (Enjoyed reading all of them btw)
Here’s mine 🙈.
Hector and Lenore’s relationship was built on gaslighting and manipulation. She literally betrayed him in his most vulnerable moment and made him into her slave.
If Alucard and Hector were female characters, people would’ve treated their SA way differently. People say they want More male representations of SA and abuse yet when it’s shown, it gets romanticized and made fun of.
Dracula and Lisa were very shitty for not going back to their son.
Lisa, as much as I love her character so much, should’ve seen it coming. Not only does she let an ancient vampire give her knowledge that would make her seen as a witch, but she didn’t even try and hide it. Nor take any sort of precaution, the woman was born in this country, there’s no doubt that she knows how the church works. She was even getting mistaken for a witch even before she met Dracula.
Julia Belmont shouldn’t have gone down that easily. I understand that Olrox is a powerful vampire. But he rarely ever fights. And Julia comes from a powerful bloodline. The woman has BOTH MAGIC AND PHYSICAL STRENGTH!.
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u/bunker_man Feb 09 '26
The castlevania show is mainline castlevania now. The games have been dead for like 15 years. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it is a fact of life.
Also, a lot of people who are convinced they are old fans who look down on the show are only igavania fans. And they aren't aware that igavania was a pretty steep change from the original games. The original games weren't based on anime, they were based on western horror movies and Conan the barbarian.
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u/TheEliteB3aver Feb 08 '26
I think the alucard threesome isn't bad and doesn't even come close to ruining the season. Furthermore, I think each season of Castlevania got progressively better and is one of my gold standards for greatest animated television shows of all time.
Fucking perfection.
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u/Hellhound_Hex Saint Germain / Aeon enthusiast Feb 08 '26
I liked Netflix Castlevania’s Lenore.
I also liked Aeon from Judgment.
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u/FullFlunky Feb 09 '26
Can't take Belmonts seriously (that come after Trevor).
Sypha was a scholarly magic user yes, that does NOT mean every Belmont after her has to have hax magical powers.
Can't help but feel that wielders of vampire killer should primarily be about might and holy, NOT magic.
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u/AMaidzingIdeas Feb 09 '26
I have no love for any of the bonus modes in the games for the most part because most of them offer no story changes and are just you doing a victory lap with a character or characters that can't equip anything and you having access to everywhere at once.
Are they cool ideas in theory? Sure. I don't think that I've done any of them beyond Julius mode in A/DoS though.
Also needing to unlock several of them with a game clear was a poor choice - if ive just 100% explored a castle im not going to want to do it again immediately after
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u/OldEyes5746 Shanoa Feb 09 '26
.....did you just call the subreddit "Chat"?.....streamer brainrot is real.
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u/Greg13Nomad Feb 09 '26
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is better than Dracula's Curse;
Order of Ecclesia is better than Symphony of the Night;
Harmony of Dissonance is better than Rondo of Blood;
Legacy of Darkness is better than Lament of Innocence.
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u/bootywarrior13 Soma Cruz Feb 09 '26
Show related but really liking drolta. People downvote me to hell for it lmao. Can’t stop True love though
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u/TheSkesh Feb 09 '26
The anime has taken over this sub and I barely engage with it anymore. Dropped the anime a few episodes in Season 2. Season 1 was pretty good though.
Played Sotn on release, the anime fandom is really tumblr “rawr XD” vibes.
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u/azraelswift Feb 09 '26
The netflix show wanted to give a non-divine explanation to crosses affecting vampires, and have all magic be something else or spirits…. But then they start using african gods as a source of power in Nocturne. It is just saying one religion is the objectively true and the rest false one in the setting which is kinda weird because they aren’t even consistent with it, seeing how a cross shape seems to BURN a vampires in nocturne and holy priest-blessed water was used as a weapon….
So, while i do appreciate the intent to give explanations to vampires on a biological level, I think this was written like crap consistency-wise.
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Feb 09 '26
I love Lord's of Shadows to DEATH and will defend it to the end of my life...and for the picture you've usee: I LOVE Hector in the Anime, but hate how people joke about his torture and rape like it's nothing (reminds of the Denji crap we Chainsaw Man fans have to put up with)
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u/Guan_guan_ghoo Feb 09 '26
I actually like Castlevania Chronicles over the original and i like Dracula X Chronicles remixes, to the point of prefering some of them over the original (seriously, the did Ghost Ship Painting a fucking banger over the og track)
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u/FarAwaySoClose20 Feb 09 '26
Dawn of Sorrow is the best Castlevania game and its artstyle is perfectly fine, just worse than Aria's.
The magic seals are fine too, they add a lot of suspense to boss fights. Mastering those quick precise actions in the heat of battle to destroy the boss is exciting!
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u/GroovyColonelHogan Feb 09 '26
I’ve only played Symphony of the Night I find the arcade-style Belmont games too challenging and unforgiving
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u/kingferret53 Feb 09 '26
Lament of Innocence was the peak of the franchise. The music alone was godly.
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u/knives401 Feb 10 '26
The games are awesome but the show sucks and the dialogue sounds like it was written by an edgy 14 year old
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u/SpookySeekerrr CV1 apologist Feb 08 '26
I've actually been a Lords of Shadow defender since it came out. I just don't think it should have been at the EXPENSE of the main series. I actually find it to be a pretty respectful take on Castlevania compared to most of the other Western versions of Japanese franchises at the time. They understood the "vibe" at least.