Castlevania Judgment



''Right on time. Welcome to the time rift.''

Castlevania Judgment is widely considered the oddball in the Castlevania series. Released in 2008, it was announced as exactly what it was: a 3D Castlevania Fighting Game.

It boasted a cast of thirteen familiar faces from the entirety of the Castlevania series in addition to a new game-specific character, justified with an Excuse Plot about pulling people from various time periods to battle a future menace who sought to change history. Long-time bosses Dracula, Death and Carmilla were playable for the first time ever. (Well, Dracula is debatable...) Battles took place in 3D arenas with their share of obstacles, as well as breakable objects containing items that could be used in addition to each character's natural abilities. Despite the odd concept, it looked to be promising.

The game garnered mixed reactions. Reasons are numerous; The fighting engine was significantly different from several other fighters of the time, and many felt that the Wii-remote configuration was tiring after prolonged use (though other controller figurations are supported). Noted manga artist Takeshi Obata (of Hikaru no Go and Death Note fame) was called upon to do the artwork, resulting in drasticlly stylized character designs that the franchise had never been known to display before. Character motivation was given the spotlight, but many were of the traditional fighter variety and tended to be more annoying than interesting. On the brighter side, the soundtrack was highly praised.

Fan opinion remains split. Either it's a breath of fresh air after ten years of Metroidvania sequels that shows IGA is still open to new ideas, or it's the worst thing to happen to the franchise in decades.

Judgment provides examples of:

 * A-Cup Angst - Maria's storyline, taking place three years after Rondo of Blood, involves being jealous of the other female characters' larger breasts. Aeon tells her point-blank she'll get the figure she craves, but will also mature past the need for it.
 * Alternate Company Equivalent - Fans have noticed certain characters sporting strong similarities to members of the Soulcalibur franchise:
 * Shanoa is Necrid
 * Carmilla is Ivy
 * Grant is Voldo
 * Golem is Astaroth
 * Death is Nightmare or Abyss
 * Ancestral Weapon - Simon tries to prove himself worthy of the Vampire Killer whip to Trevor. Eric tries to prove the value of the Alucard Spear to the eponymous donor.
 * Arc Number - Aeon has thirteen. Thirteen hours on Aeon's clock, thirteen hits to his Super, thirteen characters brought to the time rift to help him...
 * Art Shift - Takeshi Obata's artwork for this game got a strong reaction from the fans. Which is ironic, considering that Castlevania has almost never maintained consistent character depictions over the 25+ years of it's existence. Simon Belmont himself has changed outfits and faces repeatedly throughout his career.
 * Perhaps the shining exception to this is Cornell, whose wolf knight redesign is almost unanimously deemed to be awesome and a good step up from his werewolf form in Legacy of Darkness.
 * BFS - Eric's spear is larger than he is. Alucard's sword is of normal size, but he uses the larger Sword Familiar as a sneak attack.
 * Big Badass Wolf - Cornell.
 * Big Breasts, Big Deal - Sypha. Only mentioned in Maria's story.
 * Blessed with Suck - Prior to his plot point in Legacy of Darkness establishing that he trained himself to harness such abilities, Cornell seeks to eliminate his beastman nature.
 * Cursed with Awesome - He's still a werewolf, so he puts those abilities to good use while hunting the other denizens of the night.
 * Blood Knight - Shanoa, who's willing to test her power on the Belmonts.
 * Dark Is Not Evil - Cornell and Golem pull this off, tearjerkingly so for the latter.
 * Deal with the Devil - Subverted. Cornell asks Death if he knows how to cure his condition. Death responds in the affirmative and offers to do it. Cornell refuses; he only wanted to confirm that there was a way.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything - Aeon has a quote for everyone when he uses his super on them (Even himself), usually talking about their attitudes, such as how Eric's arrogance with the Alucard Spear isn't justified by his jealousy of the Belmont whip.
 * Dojikko - In addition to her super move's odd outcome, Maria randomly trips during two of her moves. It's a Scrappy Mechanic, as it leaves her open to any combo or super move even if her move connects.
 * Downer Ending: The fate of characters in the time rift is unalterable, so.
 * Mixing this in with a Player Punch,
 * After his Blessed with Suck experience and resolve to solve his problem in another way, Cornell will still lose his beastman abilities at the end of Castlevania (Nintendo 64)... and in exactly the same way as if he had let Death remove them in the first place.
 * Dramatic Irony - Sypha comes from a time prior to Castlevania III, while the other three protagonists come from after it. Some of them take advantage of this.
 * Enemy Mine - Aeon's method requires help from the other thirteen, including the villains. Death in particular is quick to aid him, as he knows what's going on.
 * Exty Years From Now - "I come from ten thousand years hence."
 * Which, considering the fight prominently takes place outside of any actual timeline, doesn't make any sense at all.
 * Expy - Aeon is a composite of two time-manipulating characters from the series: St. Germain from Curse of Darkness (his organization, outfit, inability to directly act outside areas rifted from time, and Death rivalry) and the Chronomage from Aria of Sorrow (the White Rabbit motif with color, pocketwatch, and obsession with being on time, and his opposition to Galamoth).
 * Flechette Storm - Grant has a stance, meter-draining special move, and super move all devoted to filling the enemy with numerous knives.
 * Fragile Speedster - Grant and Carmilla, with honorable mention to Death.
 * The Ghost - Galamoth is the mastermind behind the plot. He never appears in the game, and only a single line from the final boss establishes his involvement.
 * Hannibal Lecture - Aeon actually incorporates these into his Hyper Attacks, with an individualized one for each character, even himself.
 * Heroic Sacrifice - Oddly, the Golem has the most heartwrenching story in the game. He becomes self-aware and strives to become human, only to sacrifice his newfound consciousness to save the rest of humanity.
 * Ineffectual Loner - Eric, here portrayed as a child prior to the events of Bloodlines, is unhappy with being The Lancer (literally) to the Morris clan, and goes out to prove he's good enough on his own. Others call him out on his arrogance, and he ends up begrudgingly accepting his fate in the end.
 * Informed Ability - One of Death's victory lines is "I decide who lives and who dies. You could not expect to win." This hasn't been supported by the series.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy - Grant's storyline resolves with this.
 * Jiggle Physics - In spades.
 * Knight Templar: Sypha comes off as this in her story. Firmly believing the forces of darkness to be ultimately responsible for the persecution of her kind, she attacks any and all who wield it without provocation, including Cornell and Shanoa.
 * Limit Break - The Hyper Attacks.
 * Cornell can use his meter to go into a faster, stronger alternate mode.
 * Grant can also use his to throw dozens of knives at his opponent, although if the first few knives don't connect then he is left wide open until he is hit or finishes. The only real use of this is against the Time Reaper, who can't get hit by standard Limit Breaks.
 * Love Triangle - Grant's storyline stems from his unrequited feelings for Sypha, who went on to marry Trevor.
 * Mighty Glacier - Golem, though a savvy player that's skilled at using evade moves can readily use him as a Lightning Bruiser since Golem's rolling evasion is quite fast and long-ranged. It's usually better to use that instead of his painfully slow walk as his primary mode of locomotion.
 * Dracula himself also fits this mold, but with more emphasis on long-range attacks than melee.
 * Ms. Fanservice - Carmilla alone jacks up the age rating of this game
 * Must Make Him Laugh - Grant's special quotes against Alucard show getting ol' Al to show any kind of emotion as one of his goals.
 * Names to Know In Anime - With some other darrins to go along with:
 * Kenichi Suzumura (Simon) (replaced Hideo Ishikawa, who was his seiyuu in the crossover title Dream Mix TV)
 * Takashi Kondo (Trevor) (replaced Yasunori Masutani)
 * Joji Nakata (Dracula) (replaced Norio Wakamoto)
 * Houko Kuwashima (Shanoa) (a reprisal)
 * Ami Koshimizu (Sypha)
 * Mamoru Miyano (Alucard) (replaced Ryotaro Okiayu)
 * Hiroshi Kamiya (Aeon)
 * Masaya Onosaka (Grant)
 * Katsuyuki Konishi (Cornell)
 * Sayaka Ohara (Carmilla)
 * No Flow in CGI - Due to technical limitations, no characters retain flowing hair or outfits. Particularly noticeable in the case of Shanoa.
 * Old Save Bonus - Linking to Order of Ecclesia unlocked some stuff automatically in both games.
 * Only Six Faces - You can make a game out of figuring out which Death Note character each character most resembles. Simon looks like Light, Maria looks like Misa, Aeon looks like Near...
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation - Each character's super move takes over ten seconds to play out, and none of them can be skipped.
 * Palette Swap - Curse of Darkness fans will recognize the Time Reaper immediately.
 * Place Beyond Time - None of the battles fought within the time rift have any effect on the timeline. Trevor takes advantage of this when fighting Sypha, and Death occasionally laments that his victories are meaningless.
 * Promoted to Unlockable - If you wish for Death, here he is. Dracula himself follows soon afterward.
 * Rewarding Vandalism - In true Castlevania fashion, items are obtained by breaking fragile objects that litter the field.
 * Ryu and Ken - Simon and Trevor--same weapons, different application.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong - One wouldn't normally think that removing Dracula from power qualifies as wrong, but those who know temporal mechanics disagree.
 * Shapeshifter Mode Lock - As long as Cornell's in the time rift, he's stuck in wolf form.
 * SNK Boss - The Time Reaper certainly qualifies. His health bar is three times as long as anyone else, and he gains new attacks as you chip away at his health bar, including the ability to fire Frickin' Laser Beams out of his hands, summon random magical explosions, and even self-destruct without taking damage. This is taken Up to Eleven on Brutal difficulty, where the number of attacks, as well as their strength, go up.
 * The Starscream - Much like in the non-canon Kid Dracula, Galamoth is once again trying to wrestle away control from the Dark Lord (this aspect of his personality was also briefly hinted at in his SotN bio). He fails yet again.
 * Stripperiffic - Carmilla's outfit. Oddly, she usually wears less than this in most of her other appearances.
 * Time Master - Ultimately the game is a duel between two of them: Aeon and the Time Reaper.
 * Title Scream - Said by a random character each time. Golem can use four-syllable words?
 * Token Mini-Moe - Eric and Maria.
 * Too Many Belts - More like Trevor BELTmont, amirite? Seriously though, his vest is made of them.
 * Van Helsing Hate Crimes - Sypha, in her effort to destroy evil, has no tolerance for cursed beings. No matter how benevolent they are. She even hates on Shanoa because of this.
 * Victory Quote - Leading to many a Cliché Storm. Some just scream Soulcalibur.
 * We Can Rule Together - Death's storyline is about attempting to convert heroes to Dracula's side.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Golem wants to know.
 * Whole-Plot Reference - If you squint hard enough, to Kid Dracula of all games. Galamoth is trying again to usurp Dracula, take his throne, and control the Netherrealm. The Time Reaper's "I come from ten thousand years hence" line refers to 10,000 A.D., the date of Kid Dracula. In Kid Dracula, Galamoth has in his service a reaper named Shinigami-San, which is Death's name in Japan, thus linking him to the Time Reaper.
 * Your Soul Is Mine - The fate of anyone hit by Death's super move. Supposedly.