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Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
The Famicom manual for the first game recalls "the legend of the hero Christopher," establishing that Simon had an important ancestor who killed Dracula a century before his time. Castlevania III was supposed to be this story of Christopher, but the Game Boy team somehow got to do it first (The Adventure ended up being released not two months before Castlevania III). So the Famicom team's Christopher became Ralph C. Belmondo, and they set his story another hundred years earlier, in 1476—the year the actual Vlad III died. And whereas Game Boy Christopher's story amounts to "He sure did kill Dracula (or not)," Castlevania III carries its weight as a prequel by establishing that the family was ostracized for their powers until Ralph killed Dracula that first time, earning them honor ever after.

Symphony of the Night, for better or worse, backs up 1476 as the beginning of Dracula's war on humanity by giving him a specific motive for kicking off their bloody history: the mob execution of his wife and Alucard's mother, Lisa.

Igarashi respected Castlevania III's role in the lore even when he produced Lament of Innocence years later. That game explores the origin of Dracula himself, including an earlier beginning to his feud with the Belmont clan. However, the story is pointedly written around any conclusive confrontation between them, to the point of having Death stand in as the game's final boss—definitely not something you do for no reason.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
So, I looked up the NES manual, and while it doesn't name Simon, it does say Drac's been "waiting 100 years for a rematch," so I guess even there, the implication was that Simon Belmondo wasn't the first.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I was so pumped for Lament of Innocence. The music was really good, at least.

With the PSN Store going through some changes, I’ve been looking to grab some games before they might end up going away for good. I had bought Castlevania Chronicles on PS3, and was hoping it would also be available on Vita, for extremely hard, club thumpin’ vampire killing on the go. It looks like it’s only available on PS3 and PSP, despite Symphony of the Night and the PSP remake of Rondo being playable on the ol’ Vita. Am I missing a store page?
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I was so pumped for Lament of Innocence. The music was really good, at least.

With the PSN Store going through some changes, I’ve been looking to grab some games before they might end up going away for good. I had bought Castlevania Chronicles on PS3, and was hoping it would also be available on Vita, for extremely hard, club thumpin’ vampire killing on the go. It looks like it’s only available on PS3 and PSP, despite Symphony of the Night and the PSP remake of Rondo being playable on the ol’ Vita. Am I missing a store page?
You can still play on Vita. I don't remember if you can directly download it, but if not you can put it on a PS3 and transfer from there.

EDIT: Yeah, looks like a transfer from PS3 is the only thing that will work.
 

Ludendorkk

(he/him)
As for the N64 games, I think the ostensible jump in quality/amount of content contained within Legacy of Darkness when compared to the initial release is frequently overstated. Yes, there's a partly public story there of all the scrapped ideas later reinstated and reshaped for the revision, but playing the original as an individual experience does not leave one feeling as if it's particularly barren of meaningful material or lacking in the concepts it explores. They're both good takes on the same overall narrative and world, and most of what they are is shared between them.

I do think the redone areas in LoD are a marked improvement of base 64 in terms of level design, especially the tower levels, with the possible exception of the Tower of Sorcery. I'd have a hard time recommending 64 over LoD if someone could only play one, but I agree that Castlevania fans can appreciate a lot by playing both.
 

muteKi

Geno Cidecity
You can still play on Vita. I don't remember if you can directly download it, but if not you can put it on a PS3 and transfer from there.

EDIT: Yeah, looks like a transfer from PS3 is the only thing that will work.

For as much as Sony's store has had a few things that are good, I don't think they deserve as much credit as they get considering that the interfaces tend to be pretty shit and you wind up with stuff like that where the game is clearly compatible but requires this kind of weird side-loading to work.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
For as much as Sony's store has had a few things that are good, I don't think they deserve as much credit as they get considering that the interfaces tend to be pretty shit and you wind up with stuff like that where the game is clearly compatible but requires this kind of weird side-loading to work.
Yeah, it's really weird all those titles that clearly do work on the system, and they just won't let you install it directly. I don't get it. I've left all my installs on my PS3 for the PS1 games I have just because of their ridiculousness.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
Even for a troupe of exceedingly beautiful men, "Ralph" is just the least tough name of all (it ain't cute either)
Are you sure about that?

"Ralph is a Germanic, Irish, and Scottish masculine given name, derived from the Old Norse Raðulfr (rað "counsel" and ulfr "wolf") through Old English Rædwulf and the longer form Radulf."
 

Felicia

Power is fleeting, love is eternal
(She/Her)
My headcanon compromise of the whole "First Belmont" dilemma is as follows: Leon was the first to fight against the supernatural forces of evil with a magic whip, Sonia was the first to actually fight and defeat Dracula but her powers made the Belmont family outcast, and Trevor/Ralph was the first who actually became famous for killing Dracula. The thing that makes Simon a particularly legendary member of the family is the fact that he first killed Dracula, then collected all his body parts to resurrect him just so he could kill him a second time.
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Look, he only did the deed to alleviate some severe back pain. It was a practical resurrection.
 
My headcanon compromise of the whole "First Belmont" dilemma is as follows: Leon was the first to fight against the supernatural forces of evil with a magic whip, Sonia was the first to actually fight and defeat Dracula but her powers made the Belmont family outcast, and Trevor/Ralph was the first who actually became famous for killing Dracula. The thing that makes Simon a particularly legendary member of the family is the fact that he first killed Dracula, then collected all his body parts to resurrect him just so he could kill him a second time.

Castlevania II:
Simon's Victory Lap
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I always believed that Simon just had the idea that separating Dracula’s pieces would keep him from regenerating, but instead doing that just Kept the Curse from dissipating like it should have.

And Draculas cult tried to replicate that success in consequent games like HOD and SotN
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
Dracula: So, human, did you bring me here so that you could pay me tribute? [It helps if you can imagine his voice dripping with smug self-satisfaction]
*Simon stakes Dracula*
Simon: No.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Anyone up for a FastROM hack of Super Castlevania IV? I know I am. I gave it a run, and it's pretty slick! The mudmen barely slow anything down at all, even whipping two at once, and there's the barest hint of slowdown in the rotating cylinder room when you whip a skeleton. It's very cool stuff, and I can't wait to see what else gets the SlowROM to FastROM treatment.

 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
SlowROM really did a number on the reputation of the SNES' CPU.
Yeah, it did. Of course, it still doesn't match the Genesis, but it's closer than most assume. Estimates from knowledgeable folks I've seen put it at about 70%. That's not bad considering everything you can do with the PPU.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
When did developers know which one they were getting, I wonder? Did they find out early on, or was it closer to release? A lot of these games seem to have a substantial amount of their missing performance back from these hacks.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
When did developers know which one they were getting, I wonder? Did they find out early on, or was it closer to release? A lot of these games seem to have a substantial amount of their missing performance back from these hacks.
Hmm... no idea, but a really good thought, especially for launch window games.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I liked Lament of Innocence, although it isn't as good as Devil May Cry. I didn't like Curse of Darkness as much, though - something about the combat felt a little weird, and areas are way too large for how slow you move.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Oh, absolutely. Both have utterly fantastic soundtracks. I used to have them in my regular rotation back in grad school.
 
Got the Vania collection on switch recently. Liking them for the convenience of any time Vlad slaying but the games founds (or more accurately, not found) within kinda boggles the mind.

While I understand not putting in Legends (since that game is butts) but where is X6800, Rondo of Blood, or even friggin Adventures Rebirth on the Wii? Those were some of the best entries in a series that contains mostly top tier games, and the latter 2 were on Nintendo systems.

(Also the less said about SNES Rondo the better even tho I did like it for whst it is.)
 
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