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Post by Esco on Feb 8, 2019 9:54:45 GMT -5
So, assuming I can get the funding to have SOTN's version of Richter sprited, something I have been thinking about long and hard is what kind of story could be implemented for Richter's playthrough of the castle. And right now, the big one I'm leaning towards is it all being an illusion. A spell devised by Shaft to get him to the castle and little by little gain control over him by making him believe he is fighting the forces of evil while he has time to let his magic take over him. But this honestly seems like a very basic idea that could be fleshed out a bit more.
So what do you guys think would make for a good story behind Richter going thru the game instead of Alucard?
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Post by h00t on Feb 8, 2019 17:24:42 GMT -5
That would make the most sense if it's still just before Alucard's story.
I'd suggest maybe Shaft uses demons disguised as the women he rescues from Rondo - to convince him that he failed to rescue them, they got captured/possessed/spirits damned, or what have you. This would be a method to gradually, over the course of his campaign, break him down emotionally and be susceptible to possession. I imagine the demonic Annette clone would be the chief recurring antagonist that lures him deeper into the castle, and at the end (somehow) convinces him he's meant to resurrect Dracula.
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.... nuff said!
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Post by Esco on Feb 8, 2019 19:56:08 GMT -5
Using the succubus version of Annette as bait idea is brilliant! Especially since we already have a succubus. I could easily have a head swap and color edit done on it and viola!
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Post by h00t on Feb 8, 2019 20:38:54 GMT -5
NOTE: Even more edits, just guessing at directions the story could end
This is true. Or it could even be the same succubus we see in Alucard's story for continuity. I guess the main problem is how Richter would fall for something like this - going from "Why's the castle back, I just broke this shit five years ago" to "Well it's mine now". Maybe if he picks up Dracula's parts like Alucard does, they slowly corrupt him? Just as a tentative plotline: 1. Castle reappears 2. Richter, curious as to why, goes to investigate 3. Is warned, possibly by Not-Annette, that Dracula is on his way back 4. Richter, being seasoned at his job, sees through this. But there are two problems - the castle IS back, and he sees the imitation of Annette as a direct threat against his family. To stop the resurrection before anything gets worse, he wants to perform the same ritual Simon did to prevent it in Castlevania 2. So he seeks Dracula's relics... 5. ...But it's a trap; the relics combined with evil Annette's continuing antics begin to warp his mind as he progresses further... 6. Spirit of Shaft appears (?); fight ensues.* 7. Aided by the dark powers in Dracula's accumulated remains, Shaft completes the ritual; Richter is possessed, and claims the castle as his own.** 8. Real Annette at home wonders where Richter wandered off to 9. Maria, having done this rodeo before, goes to investigate 10. The magical fuckery that would cause a Belmont to choose to live in the castle disturbs and awakens Alucard, setting up start of SotN
I feel this organization lends some explanation as to why Dracula's parts were there to pick up in SotN. It's also established by Harmony of Dissonance and Order of Ecclesia that any magic or relics related to Dracula do crazy things to people's minds.
*I'm not sure how to think of the steps involving Shaft though. I think the player could guess that Shaft was brought back to life along with the castle somehow. But how do you do the last boss fight without falling in the trap of "Battle the player is meant to lose"? The only way I can think of it is maybe, rather than Shaft, Richter fights an illusory doppelganger version of himself as some kind of struggle with inner demons. This is putting the cart waaaaay ahead of the horse though.
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Post by hydrostorm on Feb 26, 2019 23:05:52 GMT -5
I second the succubus idea. I like it a lot.
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Post by h00t on Feb 27, 2019 15:04:48 GMT -5
I fully admit the idea came from playing Resident Evil 7 recently and pining for more Evil Dead-adjacent experiences in games.
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Post by Phantasmos on Mar 26, 2019 21:28:43 GMT -5
Tricky one, specially because it clearly states the castle appeared for Maria when she went on her search for Richter, Shaft used Richter to create another castle after a year of Richter being under a spell. Anything that doesnt involve alot of extra work only for Richters story to be valid seems very hard to come up with. And what Esco said about illusion seems to be one of the only solutions. Will give it alot of thinking and hope I manage to help.
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Post by h00t on Mar 27, 2019 12:10:26 GMT -5
Oh shit, you're right. The intro does say that, huh... I always zone out at the text crawl when replaying it and it's been quite a while.
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.... nuff said!
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Post by Esco on Mar 27, 2019 17:30:46 GMT -5
Who says that richer has to have the same intro text?
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Post by Phantasmos on Mar 28, 2019 20:16:14 GMT -5
Idea:
Shaft came into a Richters dream and corrupted it. Richter dreamed about castle appearing again and he went to take it down again. Some bosses could be different in that playthrough, final boss too, being Shaft maybe. After player wins the final boss, a cutscene shows he looses the battle and wakes up controlled by Shaft and goes to raise a castle. OR maybe the final fight is impossible to beat and after you loose, it still shows as you beat the game and plays a final cutscene about Richter waking up being possessed.
That could be an explanation why Richter doesnt fight Succubus in his playthrough since hes already in a dream. Or maybe the Succubus battle could be accessed differently than Alucards way of going to sleep to fight her. And why his playthrough feels so empty, like no talking or npcs ,just running and fighting bosses with no concept. All weird like a dream.
Also maybe the final cutscene could be a plot twist and explanation of Richters playthrough.
Any potential in something along these lines?
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Post by bman on Mar 29, 2019 0:53:55 GMT -5
Shaft creates an illusory Castlevania that Richter returns to (4? years after Rondo of Blood) to investigate, and after being manipulated and tricked into thinking he failed to rescue the women in RoB (see posts above), his morale is broken allowing possession to take place, making him into Lord of The Castle and allowing Dracula's resurrection to begin.
Obviously, since it's lame to end like that, Richter is instead sent to his "Mind World/Plane" (think Sheogorath's quest in TESV or Silent Hill) and regains control of his body after defeating his sense of grief/failure. The run continues normally and Richter goes on to stop Dracula in the reverse castle. This "mind world" stage would replace what happens in Dracula's throneroom in the normal castle (Richter boss fight) with Shaft creating an illusion of Dracula mocking him for his failure and explaining that he was too late and showing him how the women are already dead/turned to vampires/whatever, the mind world stage begins after this.
Alternatively, you could just have Maria rescue Richter with the holy glasses herself in the throneroom stage instead of that mind world stage.
The illusory castle could hint at this by the illusion "failing" at some points, e.g some walls seem to turn into natural cave stone walls instead of Castlevania's brick wall, the "librarian" is in the castle but sometimes when you enter his room it's just a skeleton in his chair, until you leave and re-enter.
But hey, that's my take on it.
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Post by h00t on Mar 29, 2019 20:42:04 GMT -5
I kind of like that Illusory Dracula idea, as well as the dream world idea... It sounds a lot like Dracula's Wraith in HoD. And areas with surreal backgrounds are always neat. Dawn of Sorrow tried to do that with the last area, but... well, I'm sure that kind of imagery is probably utter hell to sprite out.
My other question is how to explain that Shaft is back. After all, he was killed TWICE in Rondo alone. I could buy Richter collecting all of Dracula's Relics is enough to make Shaft (somewhat) corporeal again. For example - and this would probably be too disgusting to sprite out - the "Tequila Worm" scene in Poltergeist II.
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Post by Esco on May 4, 2019 16:10:07 GMT -5
There are some really good ideas in this thread. Keep em coming, folks!
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Post by Morell on May 18, 2019 1:12:44 GMT -5
Shaft didn't just reappear in the castle. We can make it that Doppleganger of him was killed last time and Shaft was trapped in the castle. Either that or his soul was trapped and he became undead. The priest had time for planning anyway. I think that he is more servant of the Satan, than Dracula, but the count serves the purpose of his master in ending the rule of men. Multiple attacks of Belmont on the caste do not bother Shaft much. They can defeat him, but cannot destroy him or his planned purpose. Shaft fears Alucard. Dracula has still some love for him, which might drive him away from his path. Shaft has no idea where Alucard is sleeping so his only choice is to defeat him while awake. But to get rid of such powerful warrior Shaft needs someone, who can beat him, so Belmont is excellent choice as he can defeat even more powerful Dracula. But to convince Belmont to fight Aulcard is not that easy as they are allies. So, Shaft is a priest and remembers his holly days too. So he redresses as a normal holy priest and visits Richter as a poor traveling priest monk.Richter doesn't recognize danger and offers him a place to rest. As they are alone, Shaft makes small liturgy and Richter as a christian of course joins. Everything is alright, but the wafer Shaft gives him to eat. That remains unnoticed and Shaft leaves him, warning him about Dracula's castle reappearing. Richter then goes to investigate. The curse on him takes days to start working, so he feels something is wrong, when he reaches the castle and cannot connect it with the priest. As he enters the castle, he starts loosing powers and with every boss he defeats he gets weaker. The last before the end he has to defeat with whip alone. But then he looses the last of his strength and submits to Shaft completely and bows to his new master. Shaft is amused but needs a proof that he controls his new puppet completely, so he puts him at fight with final boss of this game mode: Alucard! In this case it is a very tough doppleganger, Richter fights him with his all powers as he is completely brainwashed now. That would be nice fight for the throne room. Everything is ready then. Shaft didn't had hard time to find some possession of Alucard in the castle, which allows him to send spell to force Alucard to wake up and to be aware that Castle is back. The trap is set. Shaft is very content so while Richter awaits for his enemy, Shaft starts his work on awakening Dracula...
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Post by Esco on May 19, 2019 3:24:57 GMT -5
That sounds amazing!
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