Did Dracula Just Murder an Entire Family!??! Castlevania Rant with Light Spoilers

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synobal

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Kain was always better than Dracula anyways. Lets face it in the war of the vampires Kain wins, hands down.

Also I think Dracula murdering people is pretty par for the course with a vampire.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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yeah, it really does come off as typical 90s comics shlock. The developers kept trying to excuse this as being a way to make Drac some kind of complex, tragic character but in practice all it's done is make him completely unlikable and makes the devs come off as a bunch of attention-seeking, puerile idiots. Especially when the later segments devolve further into unintentional silliness.

I think at this point LoS is finished. At worst we're probably not going to here about Castlevania for awhile, at least not until Konami get their heads dislodged from their asses.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
but then they try to have their cake and eat it by having him moan constantly about his family. They're trying to make him some sort of complex, tragic character but ultimately just make him look inconsistent and stupid. Kain from Legacy of Kain was a better version of what they're trying to do. Heck, even mainline Dracula was a more sympathetic character because they established in Lament of Innocence that the whole reason he became a vampire was to spite God due to the death of his wife. And then his hatred of humanity came from having his second wife burned at the stake for helping the very people who later killed her. There are ways to make this kind of character work, but MS just don't have the chops to do something that complex and nuanced.
 

EternallyBored

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SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
Aiddon said:
SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
but then they try to have their cake and eat it by having him moan constantly about his family. They're trying to make him some sort of complex, tragic character but ultimately just make him look inconsistent and stupid. Kain from Legacy of Kain was a better version of what they're trying to do. Heck, even mainline Dracula was a more sympathetic character because they established in Lament of Innocence that the whole reason he became a vampire was to spite God due to the death of his wife. And then his hatred of humanity came from having his second wife burned at the stake for helping the very people who later killed her. There are ways to make this kind of character work, but MS just don't have the chops to do something that complex and nuanced.
What Aiddon said, it's not just that Dracula murders the family, its that he murders them, then the game tries to paint him as a sort of justified anti-hero, and then wants us to care about his family and how hard he's had it.

This could work if the game ever actually tried to point out what a hypocritical monster he was for doing shit like that, but the more gorey stuff seems to exist in its own dimension where we are expected to believe that dracula is both a monster, and still care about his feelings and when he talks about the past.

So yeah, of course Dracula can be, and probably should be a totally amoral monster that tears the shit out of anything in his path. The problem is that the game then wants us to then step back and sympathize with the guy who killed an innocent family when he starts trying to whine about how hard he has it and how he misses how things used to be. This would be totally awesome if they used that as a character point to paint Dracula as a monster slowly losing his grip on morality and reality, but the game is too shallow to even make the attempt, so the family scene is just there for shock value, rather than to actually inform us about what this game's Dracula is actually like.
 

TheMigrantSoldier

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Does Drac actually have moment where he realizes how big of a hypocrite he's been? Does the game use his hypocrisy to show how much sanity and reasoning he's lost (Sort of like SotN Dracula)?

If no and no, then I agree. That scene comes off as an attempt to make him a "darker and grittier" protagonist for the sake of it.
 

The Crispy Tiger

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synobal said:
Kain was always better than Dracula anyways. Lets face it in the war of the vampires Kain wins, hands down.

Also I think Dracula murdering people is pretty par for the course with a vampire.
It is, but it's badly done, and doesn't need to be there...
 

The Crispy Tiger

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Johnny Novgorod said:
Isn't murdering people exactly Dracula's thing?
Again, it is, but then the game turns around and asks you for your sympathy for the character's family issues, IMMEDIATELY after brutally murdering people. It doesn't work, it's badly done, and it's never brought up again.
 

krazykidd

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Aiddon said:
SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
but then they try to have their cake and eat it by having him moan constantly about his family. They're trying to make him some sort of complex, tragic character but ultimately just make him look inconsistent and stupid. Kain from Legacy of Kain was a better version of what they're trying to do. Heck, even mainline Dracula was a more sympathetic character because they established in Lament of Innocence that the whole reason he became a vampire was to spite God due to the death of his wife. And then his hatred of humanity came from having his second wife burned at the stake for helping the very people who later killed her. There are ways to make this kind of character work, but MS just don't have the chops to do something that complex and nuanced.
I haven't played the game yet, but that actually sounds pretty interesting. Dracula has all the means to be a complex and tragic character. It all depends on how he is written. Give him an internal conflict with his humanity and his vampire instinct. Give him hatred for humanity with the fact he used to be human. Add a drop of good vs evil and dracula walking the line between the two before ultimately choosing the latter. And there you have it an interesting story.

Like i said, i haven't played it, but i wouldn't dis iss it due to some dead 1s and 0s.
 

The Crispy Tiger

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SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
NO BULLSHIT. You have to pick, is he a bad human being, or flawed. Is he a piece of shit, or does he simply have problems. You can't have him brutally murdering people and then ask me to like/care for any of issues afterwards. That's bad storytelling. If you wanted to make this thing good, all you had to do was make it look like he was second guessing it. But instead, he laughs at the end before ripping a little girl to shreds. The makers of the game have got to be out of their mind if they think that's how you make a character "Tragic".
 

The Crispy Tiger

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TheMigrantSoldier said:
Does Drac actually have moment where he realizes how big of a hypocrite he's been? Does the game use his hypocrisy to show how much sanity and reasoning he's lost (Sort of like SotN Dracula)?

If no and no, then I agree. That scene comes off as an attempt to make him a "darker and grittier" protagonist for the sake of it.
NOPE, they don't mention it again...
 

The Crispy Tiger

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krazykidd said:
Aiddon said:
SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
but then they try to have their cake and eat it by having him moan constantly about his family. They're trying to make him some sort of complex, tragic character but ultimately just make him look inconsistent and stupid. Kain from Legacy of Kain was a better version of what they're trying to do. Heck, even mainline Dracula was a more sympathetic character because they established in Lament of Innocence that the whole reason he became a vampire was to spite God due to the death of his wife. And then his hatred of humanity came from having his second wife burned at the stake for helping the very people who later killed her. There are ways to make this kind of character work, but MS just don't have the chops to do something that complex and nuanced.
I haven't played the game yet, but that actually sounds pretty interesting. Dracula has all the means to be a complex and tragic character. It all depends on how he is written. Give him an internal conflict with his humanity and his vampire instinct. Give him hatred for humanity with the fact he used to be human. Add a drop of good vs evil and dracula walking the line between the two before ultimately choosing the latter. And there you have it an interesting story.

Like i said, i haven't played it, but i wouldn't dis iss it due to some dead 1s and 0s.
It does as this was the story in the first game. In the second game, all that complexity to the character is thrown to the side pretty quickly...
 

Johnny Novgorod

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The Crispy Tiger said:
Johnny Novgorod said:
Isn't murdering people exactly Dracula's thing?
Again, it is, but then the game turns around and asks you for your sympathy for the character's family issues, IMMEDIATELY after brutally murdering people. It doesn't work, it's badly done, and it's never brought up again.
In that case it does sound like a case of bad writing.
 

Wasted

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Kind of off topic. When did Gabriel turn into Dracula? Beating the first game left me really confused as too why in the hidden end cinema he was suddenly Dracula with no explanation as to why.
 

Alhazred

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Eh, you have to play the DLC, apparently Gabriel has his rage-against-the-heavens hissy fit during those.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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The Crispy Tiger said:
SecretNegative said:
Yeah, it's kinda like Dracula is a bad guy? Who would've thought?

Seriously, I don't get this, are villain protagonists just recently been introduced to folk suddenly? Yeah, the protagonist is a homocidal beast, it's fucking Dracula, come on!
NO BULLSHIT. You have to pick, is he a bad human being, or flawed. Is he a piece of shit, or does he simply have problems. You can't have him brutally murdering people and then ask me to like/care for any of issues afterwards. That's bad storytelling. If you wanted to make this thing good, all you had to do was make it look like he was second guessing it. But instead, he laughs at the end before ripping a little girl to shreds. The makers of the game have got to be out of their mind if they think that's how you make a character "Tragic".
People are FOOD for dracula. Having him be upset about killing them when they're his only form of sustenance seems kind of silly.

Him moaning about family problems isn't hypocritical. It's basically like a guy who works at a slaughter house coming home and then being worried about his sick dog. The fact that he kills animals for food doesn't mean he can't love animals. It's the same thing with Dracula, just because he kills people for food doesn't mean he isn't allowed to care about his family.
 

stroopwafel

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First of all LoS2 is an awesome game and I couldn't put it down when I started playing. The reviews didn't do it justice(infact it made me wonder if they even played the game). It's very similair in style and tone of the first game but the actual combat mechanics have even been improved. It's absolutely superb.

Granted I haven't completed the game yet but I don't have the feeling they tried to make Dracula this tragic and emotionally conflicted character. Infact there is a good reason why he left his humanity behind in the first game, and LoS2 picks up after those events. It's true that Dracula(for reasons I won't spoil) is haunted by images of his family but these reasons are far from sentimental.

I'm actually quite enjoying the story of LoS2 and while it won't win any awards it keeps me hooked wanting to know what happens next.
 

Post Tenebrae Morte

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Its easy to criticize something when you do not take into account the variables involved:

1. Gabriel had just gotten his behind handed to him by a demon, only being saved by zobeks bodyguard.
2. Gabriel aka Dracula hasn't fed on anyone for over nearly 1000 years, having gone into seclusion after his son defeated him 50 years after mirror of fate. As such, Dracula is essentially a mummy right now.
3. The father, upon seeing the dazed Gabriel, attacked him and Dracula regressed to his baser instincts. Essentially, it's like a male gazelle attacking a hungry lion. Gabriel reacted and fed
4. Zobek clearly did not plan on letting the family live, even if Gabriel had tried to spare them.
5. He shows clear remorse later on, passing the room and looking to the side while conversing with zobek.

The entire tale of the "Lords of shadow" series is to relay Gabriel's tale, his journey to resurrect his wife, realizing he can't, becoming a vampire, being Dracula, then trying to die but, over the course of the second game, proving what he told lucifer in the first game, true: that redemption is available to any man who truly and sincerely wishes for it.

Continue playing the game and give him a chance. Despite the iffy stealth (which are more like a simple puzzle, make sure to use mist form when in the agreus section) and somewhat rough combat (needs more invincibility frames for certain dodges and better reactions from the enemies), the story is quite well done (a tale of redemption, though nothing truly revolutionary), the atmosphere is superb, the music is fitting and ambient, the environments are wonderfully detailed (even if the modern sections are futuristic, they are technically sound, just a bit bland), and the entire game is quite good.

The combat is still solid, despite what I said, and is leagues beyond dmc: devil may cry and god of war: ascension. It just needs some polishing, but it does help with emphasizing coordinated blocks and dodges,