The lack of Dracula

Oh I believe we'll be getting the same vibes for an Igavania game without Dracula. This I will not worry about. From all the concept art we've seen so far, a Dracula-like character existing within the environment and scenery we can imagine doesn't seem out of place, not even the slightest.

Given that I've played and enjoyed MegaTen games for some time now, as long as there are some demons to fight along the way to the true final boss, I think it really shouldn't be that difficult for Iga's teams to recreate and then refine the atmosphere and tone from any of his past titles and keep me satisfied throughout. Add in Yamane's and Yamada's music pieces, and the issue becomes pretty much completely dissolved.

To me, Dracula is not only an icon of Iga's past work, but also of Konami. In other words, I can't think of Dracula and the image of the Konami logo as being mutually exclusive of each other. And Konami have had topics of negative discussion as of late. So for all this, including the fact that Iga is currently not associated with Konami, I'm glad and somewhat relieved that Dracula has no part in Bloodstained.

Besides, he's busy trying to entice casino guests towards erotic violence and pulling the lever

This is something I was actually recently thinking about. A huge part of Castlevania's coolness was that the primary "antagonist" was always the same person. Something I think the Lords of Shadow series did wisely was to make Dracula the protagonist. This wasn't something that was unique to their alternate timeline. Dracula was arguably always the series' true main character, with each individual entry's playable character merely being a vehicle to take us back into Dracula's world. I wonder if the original developers intended to mirror the approach of the novel in this way, telling a story about Dracula through the eyes of everyone except his.

I would love for Bloodstained to have a similar over-arching anchor character, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. It doesn't have to be Dracula or even a vampire. Just a character that can be super old. It would actually be fun if Bloodstained used Death how Castlevania used Dracula. Although Dracula is public domain and free to use, Death has a much more universal scope and is equally well-known. Oh well, I can dream. haha

Most of the characterization of a Castlevania game comes from the castle and the gameplay mechanics, not really from the characters. Dracula could have been replaced by a lot of different characters and it still would have been a Castlevania game (regardless of the Japanese name). While he's iconic now, he's not really that interesting of a character.

I don't find it disturbing or lore lacking anything without Dracula around this time. It was just one point of view how Dracula was pictured in the 'vania game series and I think there should be a new leaf in this story anyway. I personally should have rioted if IGA chose to move towards some familiar way, not challenging himself at all. I know he's such a visionary and I'm confident about how this lore turns out in the end. Now that he's free from the chains of continuity of the Castlevania franchise, there's no need to think about what happened then and should it have an effect on the present. Bloodstained should remain as a base for some bigger picture for the future.. not living the shadows of the past of what it used to be. That includes the main villain. I don't want him to remind of something that has already been told.

I'd argue Dracula started to lose his coolness after SOTN. I feel like SOTN was the perfect end of that story... His son confronts him and tells him the last words of his mother as he's about to die....for good.

I think the appeal of dracula is it brings all this gothic darkness to the project. Someone who feeds on the blood of others, who hate humanity, who's wife was killed by humans... There's a lot of creepy, gothic lore behind it all.

I just hope they kinda capture all that but with a new character.

I would be kinda bummed if there isn't some sorta vampire boss. I mean even a boss like Orlox was awesome.

I'd love for Dracula to take up the "Death" role...

He's the new Grim Reaper...

I'm indifferent on whether or not Dracula is in the game, but I don't want him to be the focus at all. They have a pretty good premise that I think would be ruined if we found out "because Dracula".

Something that sounds like, "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"

I feel I might want to use the word Lackula for lack of Dracula in Bloodstained from now on... but that's a bit too silly so I think I've got it out just by writing this.

the first cv took all the old universal horror monsters (plus grim and medusa) and dumped them into a single place, if the mummy and franky had been the final bosses and dracula had been the second half to the vampire bat fight, then theyy probably wouldve gone on to be the big bad/left hand of the series, it really wasnt till rondo that he had any personality beyond grah, bad guy do bad things, fireball teleport fireball final form dead, all of his personality and badassedry came from outside the games, in game he was just a really really hard final boss

once you got to rondo and sotn, thats where he started to become fleshed out and his story takes a slight departure, from being the badguy cause the game needs one to being this guy whos really pissed off at the world cause they roasted his girlfriend (probably wasnt the nicest guy before that but i doubt he wouldve become more than a local nuisance), even though in a very roundabout way it hearkens back to bram stokers version where vlad becomes a vampire after losing his wife and cursing god for it (even though loi later used that exact reason as to why dracula exists in the first place, albeit a bit more drawn out storywise), most of the other games since sotn he doesnt show until the final 10 minutes of the game, but he does take the time to taunt you and have the i will return speech, but this lack of screentime keeps him relegated to the endgame boogeyman, everybody wants to bring him back cause reasons, he shows up and dies instantly, destroy castle roll credits

aos/dos, while for the most part not actually featuring dracula unless some specific things happen which play back into the previous reasons for dracula being pissed at the world and wanting to watch it burn, does serve to flesh out dracula and give him a personality that is pretty admirable, and make the twist of that series rather human

then you get los, which takes a gravelly mouthed belmont on a vengeance quest to kill things and take their shit because he wants the power to bring back his dead wife, and thats pretty much the extent of his personality, he just stays this angry death machine throughout the whole game, regardless of what happens, and then he magically becomes dracula for reasons you dont even get to see unless you buy the dlc (goddamn you los forgotten one, i hate your aoe happy ass so fucking much _|_|_ \>o</ _|_|_) and satan is the new big bad cause reasons, and then mof/los2 happens, and i havent finished alucards section yet and i got fed up with los2 like an hour in cause the stealth section SUCKS

so i think having the main badguy be known to the player and have a connection to the main character from the beginning of the game is a good thing, he wont have the pitfall of being a preexisting character like dracula did, hell have the whole game to show his personality instead of being confined to the final minutes, and the castle being a reflection of his will means Igas team will have plenty of chances to work in different facets of that personality throughout the game, all the way from his pure desire to keep miriam safe from harm to his rage at the world for doing this to him, to his sadness at what he probably feels is the betrayal of the 2 people he trusted who are now coming after him