Refa Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 We'll see if this pays off I suppose. Although I don't think Heavy Metal goes well with Castlevania much. Man, I couldn't agree more. My favorite Castlevania OST's have always featured a varied mix of musical styles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funniest Valentine Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Only Judgment and Despair are heavy on guitar. There are a few guitar tracks at most in other games. Symphony had four. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Yeah, not sure where you're getting that heavy thing from. As for the cartoon, it sounds like a seriously misguided attempt. Castlevania was never about being "adult" or "serious violence" or, well, heavy metal. His observation on how the games have always had metal vibes is really funny in how inaccurate it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funniest Valentine Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 The idea reminds me of Lords of Shadow, but with metal in place of an orchestral wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 Okay, I was off when I said mostly. I don't think the series is supposed to be an entirely faithful adaptation, and considering Castlevania III is pretty vacant of plot, I wouldn't expect it to be. This is obviously still in early planning stages, I have my doubts that it will even make it past those. Adaptations get rumoured or announced all the time, but often they fall through. I'm still wondering if Konami's doing that Metal Gear movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) Why use the Castlevania name if it's not going to be actually faithful though? They could just call it "Gothic Adventures of Ralph Beaumont and Friends" if they're not going to be faithful to the source material. They can make up all the plot they want to fill in the gaps, sure, but that's totally different than thematic relevance. It is true though, this is like what...the fourth Castlevania adaptation that's been announced? It's likely this one will get canned too. The idea reminds me of Lords of Shadow, but with metal in place of an orchestral wall. Startlingly accurate. Edited August 27, 2015 by Nightmare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magical CC Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Dudes, Castlevania already has an anime, its called Vampire Hunter D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 Why use the Castlevania name if it's not going to be actually faithful though? They could just call it "Gothic Adventures of Ralph Beaumont and Friends" if they're not going to be faithful to the source material. They can make up all the plot they want to fill in the gaps, sure, but that's totally different than thematic relevance. It is true though, this is like what...the fourth Castlevania adaptation that's been announced? It's likely this one will get canned too. Plenty of my favourite adaptations take plenty of liberties with their source material, such as Batman (1989), Lord of the Rings or pretty much anything by Disney. There's not nearly enough information to judge it yet I think, so until more information is released, I'll remain cautiously optimistic, as long as it actually stays in development. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 That's fine if you want to be optimistic about it. I'm not here to convince you that this thing is going to be shit and you shouldn't like it. But now you've mentioned things that I just have to comment on. Neither of those things actually stray very far from the source material. They take creative liberties, yes, but they don't change around the main thematic elements of what they adapt. Lord of the Rings is still an epic fantasy adventure highlighting the symbolic relevance of Frodo's quest and doesn't eschew any of Tolkien's world building in favour of other things. It interprets the books when they're vague, yes. It even leaves out a couple things, but all the important things are there. Batman, also, has gone through several incarnations in the comic books. Burton's Batman draws upon all of Batman's history and gives it his own touch. Once again, all the elements actually important to Batman are there (dark, crime-filled setting, raising moral questions, main characters' consistency with the source material, and even all the designs, etc.). There's a difference between taking creative liberties and not respecting your source material at all. I'm not saying that's how this series is going to be. It might as well become the next best thing after Avatar, but from what they say so far, it sounds like they don't really know Castlevania, they don't understand what makes Castlevania good and unique among games, and/or they don't understand how to translate those to animated format. Since when has Castlevania been a series that exclusively catered to "adults"? Since when was it the most ultra violent thing out there? And we've been over the dumb heavy metal comment too. None of these have been things that Castlevania advertised itself as, and you never hear anyone mention them as points of Castlevania's character. Thematically, Castlevania has always been about a marriage of traditional horror fiction, mythology, religion and history. Later it took on a more elegant face, but kept the same ideas intact, though it had always had elements of the gothic, romantic and baroque movements. Not gonna say that its entire identity can be summarised like that, but those are aspects that particularly stand out. A focus on adult, ultra violence and heavy metal does not sound to me like they will adapt any of those, especially because that heavy metal comment made it sound like they have no idea what they're talking about. It may well even become a pretty okay animated show, but I'm highly sceptical as to whether it will be a good show representative of Castlevania. Add that to his gritty Power Rangers reboot (and how he apparently believed that Power Rangers only lasted for a season?), I have very little faith in this, if it even manages to lift off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 The post SNES Castlevania games been T to M-rated and have had tons of gory and sexy imagery, so I wouldn't consider it a game series for a general audience. It hasn't been an ultra violent series only because the consoles it's been on haven't allowed for lots of blood and gore, except for the 3D ones where they do, including Lament of Innocence as a non-Lords of Shadow example. I very much doubt Alucard's blood splatter from SOTN or the last boss of AoS would get a PG-13 rating if put to film. Also, a large amount of the most well-known themes of Castlevania, are usually done by guitar in a variety of rock or metal styles, such as the various remixes of Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears done in metal, that's why I considered metal a pretty big aspect of Castlevania, and most films and shows that advertise metal soundtracks may only have it as 30% of the soundtrack anyways. I agree with you that the horror and mythological influences are a big part of Castlevania as well, but nothing in the announcement said they wouldn't be a large part either. If I was head of PR and knew anything about the series, I'd figure people would think it's a given. As for the examples I used as distant from source material, I admit they weren't good, I even thought so myself when I made them. As for something else, I'll use Shrek, which was in a similar scenario, a large adaptation with little source material to work with (it was a kid's short story with 3 characters). Of course, a lot changed, such as the references to Disney being added, the tone, and the comedy. I didn't know about that Power Rangers thing though, that gives me some doubts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 The post SNES Castlevania games been T to M-rated and have had tons of gory and sexy imagery, so I wouldn't consider it a game series for a general audience. It hasn't been an ultra violent series only because the consoles it's been on haven't allowed for lots of blood and gore, except for the 3D ones where they do, including Lament of Innocence as a non-Lords of Shadow example. I very much doubt Alucard's blood splatter from SOTN or the last boss of AoS would get a PG-13 rating if put to film. It's not that there is absolutely no violence, gore or sexuality in the games, because as you pointed out, there are quite a few examples. It was, however, never the actual point of the games to be violent and sexual. While it's true that when translated to another medium, it will have to necessarily be violent, it's just this focus on violence and being "adult" that's putting me off. It's just raising red flags everywhere in my head, because when people try to go for those things, they inevitably make horrible and ironically juvenile things (see: Lords of Shadow). Because who else but a juvenile would be obsessed with violence and being "adult"? Also, a large amount of the most well-known themes of Castlevania, are usually done by guitar in a variety of rock or metal styles, such as the various remixes of Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears done in metal, that's why I considered metal a pretty big aspect of Castlevania, and most films and shows that advertise metal soundtracks may only have it as 30% of the soundtrack anyways. Pretty much all of those (Saturn Nocturne in the Moonlight notwithstanding) are either in remix albums or fan remixes, though, and don't appear in the actual games. Now, the most metal game is Curse of Darkness, and even that had a large variety of other styles, and its metal was often gothic metal or some such. Needless to say, it's going to be very jarring to watch Trevor beat up zombies to the tune of Slipknot or Mastodon (for an example, not saying they will definitely use songs from those bands or anything). I had the same reactions when they announced that the new Splatterhouse game is going to have pants-shittingly SERIOUS metal songs in it. That just doesn't jive with its image, you know? So even if they go for it, they better go for lighter, gothic metal and other similar fusions. I agree with you that the horror and mythological influences are a big part of Castlevania as well, but nothing in the announcement said they wouldn't be a large part either. If I was head of PR and knew anything about the series, I'd figure people would think it's a given. This is true, and I did consider it, but it's just that if they realised that they probably should have mentioned it, especially with the state Castlevania has been in. From the way this guy talks, and from his resume, I can't really trust him until I see the thing for myself. The bolded part is a concern as well, since it doesn't sound like they actually know a lot about the series, and are just trying to hook in people with vague nostalgia of the old NES days. As for the examples I used as distant from source material, I admit they weren't good, I even thought so myself when I made them. As for something else, I'll use Shrek, which was in a similar scenario, a large adaptation with little source material to work with (it was a kid's short story with 3 characters). Of course, a lot changed, such as the references to Disney being added, the tone, and the comedy. Of course, when you have little to work with and work in new things while keeping to the spirit of the source material, it's going to turn out good, or otherwise keep in with the spirit of the original when adapting something. That's what every good adaptation is, like the first Mortal Kombat, Blade Runner and Jurassic Park, all of which improve substantially upon their source material even. That's what has me concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ein Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 CV games also tend to be rather silly in general with the gothic and sometimes tragic story going with it. Just look at SotN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) Yeah, I understand your complaints, it makes sense why you have your doubts. You do point out some good points, but personally there hasn't yet been anything revealed that puts up a big red flag for me. The director doesn't look like he has the best track record, but the animation studio is great. I get where you're coming from though, there are plenty of games and shows that do promote their violence and adult themes while having no substance behind it, but in my mind, the ideal for this kind of production is something like Berserk, which is very violent and gritty but has a lot of good action and plot to add to that, not saying that I expect something as good as Berserk to come out of this, I doubt it, but potentially that'd be the best outcome. It could go down the dumb action and gory route easily, but even then, dumb action can still be entertaining on its own if done well and you turn your brain off. Edited August 28, 2015 by Knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 I see where you're coming from. That's a pretty fair stance to take as well. CV games also tend to be rather silly in general with the gothic and sometimes tragic story going with it. Just look at SotN Oh yeah, that's a good point I forgot to mention. They never really took themselves seriously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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