So fun fact: In Japan Simon always had red hair! Even in the first Castlevania title, seen in the Japanese instruction booklet. This explains the other two redesigns giving him that, but Konami also still used the American barbarian design quite a bit (It was still used in the boxart for the Japanese version of CV1), including the original X68000 version of Chronicles (Before Ayami Kojima's redesign in the PS port). Now Konami has settled that the mainline Simon is the barbarian version, which does make it a little funny that he's the only Belmont to get super jacked up lmao.
I remember this game being slandered so much back in the day. Thanks for giving it a fair review. Judgement's soundtrack indeed contains one of the best official remixes of the classic tracks.
Grant was cursed to be the monster haunting the clock tower as far as I remember. Anyway, this is Takeshi Obata's take on his cursed form. Completely fair. It's still overdesigned of course.
I think the designs are kinda neat!! If i were to pretend that they AREN'T redesigns of some really iconic characters, I'd be pretty on board for the looks of most of them. I don't find myself particularly moved by any of the castlevania designs that aren't done by Ayami Kojima (although I kinda also love the goofy 80's anime thing going on with the Rondo designs) so I don't think I'm TOTALLY offended by most of these interpretations. I've never been super huge on Simon's generic barbarian thing (and think he kinda stands out like a sore thumb compared to nearly every other character in the series), so I definitely like whenever he gets to do his funny red hair gothic strong man thing, but his Judgement design is definitely the weakest outta this roster. I think the open shirt and short shorts combo is just kinda weak, and I DEFINITELY don't like how young and twunkish he looks! Definitely a bit too Light Yagami for my taste. I fully admit the blond barbarian is his most ICONIC look, but I think my ideal Simon would be the Ayami Kojima red hair Simon design, but with barbarian Simon's headband. Lovely video!
I've always considered this a game that really needs a sequel to refine, polish, and expand on the ideas here. I'd prefer if it had Dissidia's gameplay and RPG elements, but I also feel that Dissidia's gameplay would work with any license, including Castlevania, most Shonen anime franchises, or even if Nintendo wanted a spin-off Smash Bros game.
To be fair, there's just enough space for two Belmonts before they get repetitive. With Simon being the default Belmont to include since he's the most popular/important to the franchise, that only leaves space for one more. I feel the only two obvious choises would go to Trevor or Richter. The former because that way we get the reunion of playable characters in Dracula's Curse, and the latter because of the importance of Rondo of Blood. Being one or the other was not going to affect the game too much imo. It's possible they could have gone with someone like Juste, a Belmont who doesn't need a whip to fight, but I think even for his time he wasn't that popular. Part of me would have liked to see Julius in the game instead of Simon/Trevor to give a sense of finality to the series. It'd be like having the first Belmont against the last Belmont. It's possible the Golem was in reality "the creature" from Frankenstein during development. It would explain why it runs on electricity and its search for humanity. Why they ended up calling him golem is anybody's guess. Carmilla also had an appearance in Circle of the Moon, but she looks less than a dominatrix and more as a generic vampire woman. Still, se wasn't only known as a floating mask by the time Judgement arrived. The biggest insult in this game were not necessarily the new designs for the characters. Some of them work, and some of them don't, but that could have been ironed out with better direction and maybe a better budget. No, I believe the worst insult were the changes to the personality of certain characters. Maria comes to mind. She got the worst one by far, with her being obsessed over the other characters' breast size. One interesting topic to discuss when Judgement is thrown to the Castlevania mythos is the appearance of Cornell. Back in the day, Koji Igarashi kicked many titles out of the canon, including Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness. With Cornell appearing in Judgement, these two games were reintroduced to the canon apparently. It's funny to think about this considering Cornell was included because the game needed a werewolf and he was the top choice to include. Had Simon kept his scrapped werewolf form from back when the first Castlevania was in development, this would have been different. On the topic of the cross on the Belmont's back, it might be a catholic reference, which is a neat piece of storytelling. I'm not catholic myself, but my grandma is, and I remember that she used to tell me that "just like Jesus carried a cross on his back, so do we must carry ours", and "the size and weight of one's cross depends on how big and heavy God believes you're capable of carrying". There's even a legend of how donkeys (or asses, it's difficult to see the difference) got their own cross marking on their backs after Jesus rode one to enter a city. Even if it's unlikely, I wish this concept could get a sequel. It could be better implemented as a traditional 2D fighter. There were some characters I'd have loved to see in the game but didn't make it to the final roster, like Soma and Charlotte. If a new Castlevania fighting game were to be released, I'd love to see also some representation from the Lords of Shadow continuity. Gabriel definitely would be the top choice to add to the roster, alongside maybe that continuity's version of Cornell or the Daemon Lord.
came here cause the title and thumbnail made me confused, the art of simon looked so death note i wasn't sure if it was the same person, the simon in the thumbnail didnt look familiar to me and thought it was just a weird light yagami, and now i've learned castlevania had a fighting game and the designer/artist is in fact obata wild stuff lmao
I dont get it. The art style today looks nothing like the nes stuff so idk why this bothers people so much. Like look at Eric Lecarde as an example. What is he even supposed to look like. I think its fine if a game does their own interpretation.
I think Shanoa’s design is the only one I actually love. Like genuinely striking gold with that idea. I would prefer it to be less busy at the edges and and have more practical shoes but the concept itself is rock solid. It’s the only one I’d love to see adapted(with a lot of tweaks) as an option in the main series. Simon, Sypha, Grant, and especially Maria make my eyes hurt though, either from being too damn busy or for mangling the characters beyond recognition. Maria is an extreme case and that goes into her portrayal too. She’s supposed to be a wrecking ball disguised as an anime child straight out of World Masterpiece Theatre. Instead it’s constant boob size jokes.
I think the character designs are fine on their own and even fit the gothic horror aesthetic of Castlevania but the problem is that they don't fit the characters they're supposed to be representing, Simon should be bigger and bulkier, Maria should be a super-girly loli, I just get the impression that Obata wasn't too familiar with the source material and Konami wasn't going to reject his designs because Death Note was massive during the late 2000's.
To this day I only really see judgment’s worth is a official game genie for order of ecclesia that somehow has a castlevania-themed button bashing waggle fest bolted on (Outside of course that the artwork was a collab with the death note auteur…also the soundtrack too)
21:12 nah, long hair wouldn't have been a problem. monster hunter 3 has plenty of hairy critters, it has no problem. zelda: twilight princess has a buddy named midna, whose most prominent ability is a GIANT hand made of hair. the judgement team just... didn't, for some reason. NNAAAAOOO wy neglect golm, hee JUST a WIDLL GUYYYYYYYY
Hey now, don't think I didn't see that shade thrown at Vampire Survivors by the end there. Even if you don't end up having interest in playing it yourself, I suggest taking a listen to the OST, all available on Poncle's RUclips channel. It's full of *very* good remixes.
I think this game would have been much better received if they had used classic Castlevania characters designs (at least for alternate skins) instead of injecting pure, uncut anime into the players' eyeballs.
So fun fact: In Japan Simon always had red hair! Even in the first Castlevania title, seen in the Japanese instruction booklet. This explains the other two redesigns giving him that, but Konami also still used the American barbarian design quite a bit (It was still used in the boxart for the Japanese version of CV1), including the original X68000 version of Chronicles (Before Ayami Kojima's redesign in the PS port). Now Konami has settled that the mainline Simon is the barbarian version, which does make it a little funny that he's the only Belmont to get super jacked up lmao.
And then in LoS, he was a red-haired barbarian.
I remember this game being slandered so much back in the day. Thanks for giving it a fair review.
Judgement's soundtrack indeed contains one of the best official remixes of the classic tracks.
Man, I actually love that Grant. He’s got like an Aba, Faust, Necro type energy. I’m also a sucker for spikes and claws
Judgment Trevor with the eyepatch and shorter hair in Curse of Darkness Trevor's clothes would go so hard as an older Trevor design, not gonna lie.
Putting in a cheat code rock paper scissors style isn’t the only way to play a fighting game.
Timing and reflexes over inputs for me.
grant is half mummy because in castlevania 3 you have to beat a mummy to unlock him
Grant was cursed to be the monster haunting the clock tower as far as I remember. Anyway, this is Takeshi Obata's take on his cursed form. Completely fair. It's still overdesigned of course.
Wasn't a cyclops/ogre?
@@nightmaregats cipha was the cyclops
@saumench8650 you're right about Cypha, but Grant was turned into a monster in the clock tower and you had to defeat him to break the curse
no matter how hard someoe might hate this game, one thing cannot be denied:
the ost slaps hard
I think the designs are kinda neat!! If i were to pretend that they AREN'T redesigns of some really iconic characters, I'd be pretty on board for the looks of most of them. I don't find myself particularly moved by any of the castlevania designs that aren't done by Ayami Kojima (although I kinda also love the goofy 80's anime thing going on with the Rondo designs) so I don't think I'm TOTALLY offended by most of these interpretations.
I've never been super huge on Simon's generic barbarian thing (and think he kinda stands out like a sore thumb compared to nearly every other character in the series), so I definitely like whenever he gets to do his funny red hair gothic strong man thing, but his Judgement design is definitely the weakest outta this roster. I think the open shirt and short shorts combo is just kinda weak, and I DEFINITELY don't like how young and twunkish he looks! Definitely a bit too Light Yagami for my taste. I fully admit the blond barbarian is his most ICONIC look, but I think my ideal Simon would be the Ayami Kojima red hair Simon design, but with barbarian Simon's headband.
Lovely video!
Light Yagami if he grew out his hair and was buff
I've always considered this a game that really needs a sequel to refine, polish, and expand on the ideas here. I'd prefer if it had Dissidia's gameplay and RPG elements, but I also feel that Dissidia's gameplay would work with any license, including Castlevania, most Shonen anime franchises, or even if Nintendo wanted a spin-off Smash Bros game.
nah man the judgement redesigns are sick
I loved Aeon as an original character for the game as well as his super Requiem of the 13th Hour, whose unique dialogue for each cast.
Just a slight correction: when you were showing Dracula's various designs you showed "Kid Dracula" in there. That's actually Alucard, not Dracula.
Hahaha "Death is a representation of the current state of the series" got me good job on the video my guy 👍
To be fair, there's just enough space for two Belmonts before they get repetitive. With Simon being the default Belmont to include since he's the most popular/important to the franchise, that only leaves space for one more. I feel the only two obvious choises would go to Trevor or Richter. The former because that way we get the reunion of playable characters in Dracula's Curse, and the latter because of the importance of Rondo of Blood. Being one or the other was not going to affect the game too much imo.
It's possible they could have gone with someone like Juste, a Belmont who doesn't need a whip to fight, but I think even for his time he wasn't that popular.
Part of me would have liked to see Julius in the game instead of Simon/Trevor to give a sense of finality to the series. It'd be like having the first Belmont against the last Belmont.
It's possible the Golem was in reality "the creature" from Frankenstein during development. It would explain why it runs on electricity and its search for humanity. Why they ended up calling him golem is anybody's guess.
Carmilla also had an appearance in Circle of the Moon, but she looks less than a dominatrix and more as a generic vampire woman. Still, se wasn't only known as a floating mask by the time Judgement arrived.
The biggest insult in this game were not necessarily the new designs for the characters. Some of them work, and some of them don't, but that could have been ironed out with better direction and maybe a better budget. No, I believe the worst insult were the changes to the personality of certain characters. Maria comes to mind. She got the worst one by far, with her being obsessed over the other characters' breast size.
One interesting topic to discuss when Judgement is thrown to the Castlevania mythos is the appearance of Cornell. Back in the day, Koji Igarashi kicked many titles out of the canon, including Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness. With Cornell appearing in Judgement, these two games were reintroduced to the canon apparently. It's funny to think about this considering Cornell was included because the game needed a werewolf and he was the top choice to include. Had Simon kept his scrapped werewolf form from back when the first Castlevania was in development, this would have been different.
On the topic of the cross on the Belmont's back, it might be a catholic reference, which is a neat piece of storytelling. I'm not catholic myself, but my grandma is, and I remember that she used to tell me that "just like Jesus carried a cross on his back, so do we must carry ours", and "the size and weight of one's cross depends on how big and heavy God believes you're capable of carrying". There's even a legend of how donkeys (or asses, it's difficult to see the difference) got their own cross marking on their backs after Jesus rode one to enter a city.
Even if it's unlikely, I wish this concept could get a sequel. It could be better implemented as a traditional 2D fighter. There were some characters I'd have loved to see in the game but didn't make it to the final roster, like Soma and Charlotte. If a new Castlevania fighting game were to be released, I'd love to see also some representation from the Lords of Shadow continuity. Gabriel definitely would be the top choice to add to the roster, alongside maybe that continuity's version of Cornell or the Daemon Lord.
came here cause the title and thumbnail made me confused, the art of simon looked so death note i wasn't sure if it was the same person, the simon in the thumbnail didnt look familiar to me and thought it was just a weird light yagami, and now i've learned castlevania had a fighting game and the designer/artist is in fact obata
wild stuff lmao
I played this one back in the day. It became a minor hit around the smaller cons in my area, thats why I know about it. But OMG was so broken... xD
Simon Belmont is just Light Yagami in a Halloween costume.
Eric actually can do the pole vault, you just have to do a dodge without moving in any direction
Judgment's character designs are neat and they are too overhated, but I wouldn’t want them as the main Castlevania designs.
nah they are pretty wack
I dont get it. The art style today looks nothing like the nes stuff so idk why this bothers people so much. Like look at Eric Lecarde as an example. What is he even supposed to look like. I think its fine if a game does their own interpretation.
I like that they aren't technically their gaming counter part, but representative to fight in this tournament.
I Love the Judgement designs theyre just so fun to look at
Carmilla (Camilla) had another design in Circle of the Moon.
Death represents the current stage of the series 😂
I think Shanoa’s design is the only one I actually love. Like genuinely striking gold with that idea. I would prefer it to be less busy at the edges and and have more practical shoes but the concept itself is rock solid. It’s the only one I’d love to see adapted(with a lot of tweaks) as an option in the main series.
Simon, Sypha, Grant, and especially Maria make my eyes hurt though, either from being too damn busy or for mangling the characters beyond recognition. Maria is an extreme case and that goes into her portrayal too. She’s supposed to be a wrecking ball disguised as an anime child straight out of World Masterpiece Theatre. Instead it’s constant boob size jokes.
12:01 - Yeah that checks out XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
I think the character designs are fine on their own and even fit the gothic horror aesthetic of Castlevania but the problem is that they don't fit the characters they're supposed to be representing, Simon should be bigger and bulkier, Maria should be a super-girly loli, I just get the impression that Obata wasn't too familiar with the source material and Konami wasn't going to reject his designs because Death Note was massive during the late 2000's.
To this day I only really see judgment’s worth is a official game genie for order of ecclesia that somehow has a castlevania-themed button bashing waggle fest bolted on
(Outside of course that the artwork was a collab with the death note auteur…also the soundtrack too)
21:12 nah, long hair wouldn't have been a problem. monster hunter 3 has plenty of hairy critters, it has no problem. zelda: twilight princess has a buddy named midna, whose most prominent ability is a GIANT hand made of hair. the judgement team just... didn't, for some reason.
NNAAAAOOO wy neglect golm, hee JUST a WIDLL GUYYYYYYYY
Death Note art does not work for Castlevania characters outside of Cornell and Aeon.
Hey now, don't think I didn't see that shade thrown at Vampire Survivors by the end there. Even if you don't end up having interest in playing it yourself, I suggest taking a listen to the OST, all available on Poncle's RUclips channel. It's full of *very* good remixes.
I think this game would have been much better received if they had used classic Castlevania characters designs (at least for alternate skins) instead of injecting pure, uncut anime into the players' eyeballs.
Isn't Maria a magic user? I thought all her summons were magical beings?
Hot take I like Grant redesign his original design was boring. Half mummy Half man with spikes looks cooler for me
Did you use an emulator to play this game?
Algum dia eu vou fazer alguém joga esse troço comigo 👹