Castlevania: Nocturne (Spoiler free review)

So, this is video game adjacent so here’s an article about it.

I”m not going to talk about the first series because that would take an entire article itself, but I will say I enjoyed all the seasons of it. I liked the story of Trevor and Sypha, but I liked Dracula’s side of the story a lot more and each time we cut back to Trevor I was waiting to see what Dracula was up to. The action was good and I liked all the references to the games and where they pulled them from. The excessive swearing was a little much (Ironic I know if you listen to me talk casually) But not too overbearing.

But with Trevor and his story done, we move on to my favorite Belmont, Richter. Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night are my favorite games in the series so you bet I was excited to hear that they were using characters from those games to be in there. Also, I was glad for the Villains of the series they pulled from the one Castlevania game I had growing up, Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive). Also rounding out the villains is Count Olrox, which, in something I want to see more of, is a Vampire but from Central America, being an Aztec. I want to see more Non-European Vampires. Also this counts for Drolta Tzuentes, Who is Egyptian.

Since I’m not getting into spoilers, I will be just talking about the series, not giving an Episode by Episode breakdown of the show. I like how they do the characters and everyone is well written… until the needless cursing pops up about halfway in and multiplies after each episode. By the last episode it feels like they’re saying fuck every few minutes. And I’m not prudish, I normally don’t care about swearing but in sounds out of place in something that is taking place during the French Revolution, which was between the years 1789 and 1799. This is also taking place 300 years after the first series, as Richter is a descendant of Trevor’s and Sypha’s combined bloodline which gives him access to being a vampire hunter and also magic. Speaking of Richter, let’s talk about him a bit more.

It starts with him as a young boy with his mother, an original character named Julia Belmont sending him to France to protect him from the the vampires she hunts. Before he can leave she is ambushed by Count Olrox, who is from Symphony of the night but he was named in there as Count Orlock, the name given to Dracula in the silent movie adaptation of the novel Dracula called Nosferatu. This Olrox though is someone from the Aztec times, getting revenge for Julia killing his lover. he also transforms into a large feathered serpent, something that also calls back to his Aztec heritage. The series then skips to nine years later where Richter has been living in France with Maria and her mother, Tera. He’s quite different from Trevor, while he’s a bit aloof he’s not jaded and beaten up by the world like Trevor was. He’s dealing with the loss of his mother and protects Maria, since she is a bit older in this version than in the games, closer to her age in Symphony of the Night than in Rondo of Blood.

Maria’s character is similar to Rondo of Blood though, aged from 12 to about 16. And she mainly works to inspire revolution in people since the French Revolution is going on and all that. She still can summon creatures, Mainly her red birds and her cat. Oh, she summons the turtle once as well. She gets along with Richter and they have a sort of Brother sister thing going on since they grew up together. I can’t really talk about their character arcs since that would be spoilers and I don’t want to do that. I just want to give an overview for the series.

Tera, instead of being a nun who was captured by Dracula in Rondo of Blood, now is a Speaker, like Sypha was and is Maria’s mother. She’s a cool character, who gives guidance to the people in her care and has some magic herself but doesn’t show it too much.

Annette is in the show, and instead of being Richter’s girlfriend, she is a woman from the Caribbean who uses magic and has skill with a sword. Her magic is quite powerful and she’s a real badass, take no bullshit kind of character. So of course she is my favorite. She also has a backstory of escaping from a Sugar Cane plantation that was run by one of the lesser villains in the series.

She also has a companion, an original character named Edouard who is an opera singer who helps Annette escape and travels with her. He’s a fine character, but they don’t really give him much to do. He is very important to the story though, even though he spends most of it kind of away from the main group. Also the few times he sings is a little jarring at first because it’s very high pitched to me at least.

But enough of the good guys, you want to hear more about the villains I’d imagine.

We spend the most time with Olrox, as he’s the one who killed Richter’s mother and is the catalyst for Richter’s growth as a character. While he is an antagonist, he also spends a lot of his time just kind of going here and there, chatting with people. He kind of reminds me of Marvel’s Loki in a way, just kind of doing his own thing. He is a powerful vampire though, and shows quite a disdain for authority.

The second major antagonist we spend time with is Drolta. Drolta was just a background character is Castlevania: Bloodlines who wasn’t even shown in the game. Here she is a woman from Ancient Egypt who just loves the fact she’s an unholy creature of the night. If she had a mustache she’d twirl it after she talks about her schemes and plans. She also is very loyal to her mistress, who I haven’t mentioned yet but is also from Castlevania: Bloodlines.

In Bloodlines, Elizabeth Bartley is the niece of Dracula and seeks to resurrect him in the year 1917. Of course in the show it’s quite different. They use her Japanese name Erzebeth Bathory and she was also from ancient Egypt and seeks to become the ruler of all vampires and the world. She is very powerful, and the main villain of the show.

And that’s about as far as I can get with the plot without getting into spoilers so I’ll sum up here. I liked the show a lot. The action is really good, the characters are interesting and fun, and having jut 8 episodes keeps things nicely paced. Nothing really slows the plot down or hits the breaks on it, and unlike the first show, I feel both the heroes scenes and the villain ones are interesting. I don’t feel the need to fast forward though what Richer and the gang are doing to see what Drolta is up to, that sort of thing.

For negatives, the cursing is a little much, but I went over that already. also, I will say that the series does end on a cliffhanger, and I don’t like when Netflix shows do that since they’re so common to axe a show after a short run because they value more getting new viewers than people watching a show and getting into it, and they do that by killing shows and putting new ones on.

In conclusion, if you liked the first series, check this one out. It’s really good, and at only 8 episodes it only takes about four hours to see the whole thing. And there is a season 2 on the way, thankfully so they can resolve the story and see where it goes from there. Maybe we’ll finally get a series with Simon Belmont.