Castlevania is back. But in Paris during the French Revolution
Castlevania: Nocturne Review
When Warren Ellis’s Castlevania ended back in 2021, I was sad it ended but if felt like we have a good story and ending for our protagonists and it doesn’t need a sequel. Who wants to see Trevor and Sypha raising a baby anyway?
Then Castlevania Nocturne happened 2 years later. Now created by Clive Bradley instead. It had a lot of similar vibes as its predecessor. But somehow, I still kinda miss Trevor’s banters.
Our new heroes are Richter Belmont and Maria Renard from the Rondo of Blood game but their designs are from the PSP remake Dracula X Chronicles especially Maria’s pink ensemble, while Richter kept his shorter hairstyle from the original.
I like the backstories for a new character, Anette, who was a minor character from the original, into a former slave girl turned revolutionary with the power of earth and steel. Olrox, another character from Symphony of the Night, was changed from a typical vampire to a vampire with Aztec origins from the New World (the first series was set in Europe so mostly vampires then were pale and white with some Asian looking vampires mixed in so the change to Olrox is welcome). We also have a speaker (mage) and a demon forger character and a paladin type character. They add flavor to the story, I’ll just say that heheh.
For the villains, Dracula is no more, stuck in the corridors of hell from last we saw in the origseries. We have vampire/succubus type character. Morrigan and Demitri from Darkstalkers can never char. Then the new big bad is Erzsebet Bathory, a fusion of the historical countess/serial killer and Sekhmet, Egyptian goddess of war. Idk how that works, does vampirism make your bronze skin pale? Idk.
The combat scenes are ok, they’re good. I like how Richter can fuse magic with his whip, that kinda feels like something Nathan Graves from Circle of the Moon does but who cares. Maria retained her powers summoning cute versions of the shijin (Suzaku, Seiryu, Byakko, Genbu) and idk how she learned that, was she secretly Asian? Well the original game is made in Japan, so that’s the reason probably. There isn’t a fight scene that’s epic like from the original series, like that fight of Isaac vs the Magician and Legion, and the fight with Trevor vs Death. Maybe, they’re reserving the epic ones next season? If we have another one heheh.
Also, I audibly gasped after the final scene. That scene alone warrants a next season.
Overall, i liked it. Has a lot of potential.