Could any of the villains be a Dracula like villain and return for more games?

[WanderingSilver]

Castlevania has always had Dracula as its main antagonist. There have been other villains too of course. But Dracula has constantly been resurrected throughout the series, and is usually the mastermind behind things. Could/should Bloodstained do something similar?

Would any of the big villains in Ritual of the Night be able to grow into a Dracula like role, and come back for more games? And if so, who? Gremory? Dominique? Or even Bael? How would people feel if one of them was resurrected in a sequel and you had to fight them again? Would you be excited or disappointed? Or would people prefer just having a brand new villain instead?

[Myrryr]

Dominique maybe, but Bael had as much of a personality as the door you stub your toe on, which is to say, none at all.

[AnemoneMeer]

Bloodless is a good candidate for recurring in the same way Death is for Castlevania as a whole. She's already in both games, fits the franchise name well, has an immediately striking design (The whole bleeding from the neck thing and the blood dress), is the 'vampire' of the franchise like Dracula is for Castlevania, and is a robust boss fight designed for later in the game.

Honestly, I'd be more surprised if she DIDN'T show up in future games.

[BelphegorATS]

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Bloodless is a good candidate for recurring in the same way Death is for Castlevania as a whole. She's already in both games, fits the franchise name well, has an immediately striking design (The whole bleeding from the neck thing and the blood dress), is the 'vampire' of the franchise like Dracula is for Castlevania, and is a robust boss fight designed for later in the game.

Honestly, I'd be more surprised if she DIDN'T show up in future games.

I couldn't agree more. Bloodless certainly gives the impression of being a recurring antagonist in Bloodstained for all of the reasons you just mentioned. That being said, it would be amazing if the developers gave her more character development than just being an Elizabeth Bathory-like boss. Maybe she could have a more prominent role in a main antagonist's plans or become the main antagonist herself. In fact, thinking about this has given me a thought that she could become the protagonist in a side story/spin-off of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night with the kind of gameplay from the boss fight against her and a story comparable to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night that takes place either before or after the game. She is one of the bosses included in Boss Revenge, so that could be a first step towards improving her as both a character and a boss.

[riscdesign]

Another vote for Bloodless, but I would also like to see the Orlok Dracule make a return.
I like him and think he made a pretty cool character.

[BelphegorATS]

Originally posted by riscdesign:

Another vote for Bloodless, but I would also like to see the Orlok Dracule make a return.
I like him and think he made a pretty cool character.

O.D., though being a relatively minor character, did provide two useful services by letting Miriam use his credentials for the train pass and giving her permission to borrow books from his library to augment her stats. One of which was an unlockable optional book that enabled us to fight him, which was an awesome boss fight by the way with two rewards that were empowering. The first being the Timestop Shard that can freeze time for several moments, and the second being the privilege of taking all of the books from the library instead of one or two at a time.

If O.D. was to make a reappearance, I imagine he'd serve the same function in the sequel and maybe expand upon it if the developers assign more functions to him. Like selling items/Shards if he has acquired some, similar to how the Master Librarian in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a merchant. But unlike the Master Librarian who did not offer books, O.D. does and would be in a good position to expand upon the services he provides in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

[AnemoneMeer]

Originally posted by BelphegorATS:

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Bloodless is a good candidate for recurring in the same way Death is for Castlevania as a whole. She's already in both games, fits the franchise name well, has an immediately striking design (The whole bleeding from the neck thing and the blood dress), is the 'vampire' of the franchise like Dracula is for Castlevania, and is a robust boss fight designed for later in the game.

Honestly, I'd be more surprised if she DIDN'T show up in future games.

I couldn't agree more. Bloodless certainly gives the impression of being a recurring antagonist in Bloodstained for all of the reasons you just mentioned. That being said, it would be amazing if the developers gave her more character development than just being an Elizabeth Bathory-like boss. Maybe she could have a more prominent role in a main antagonist's plans or become the main antagonist herself. In fact, thinking about this has given me a thought that she could become the protagonist in a side story/spin-off of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night with the kind of gameplay from the boss fight against her and a story comparable to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night that takes place either before or after the game. She is one of the bosses included in Boss Revenge, so that could be a first step towards improving her as both a character and a boss.

Honestly, I'd settle for just a mode. It wouldn't even be hard to design. Make her not level up and instead gain stats via spilling an enemies blood and drinking it with Blood Steal to turn it into her version of food items. Could even expand upon this with special methods of extracting better quality blood from enemies with conditional kills performed with abilities gained from bosses.

Since you never level up, you're entirely reliant on killing enemies in special and diverse ways and exploring the castle to find more food. The stat boosts wouldn't even need to be just core stats, as you could also get things like resistances, levelling up various abilities, or even a few new ones. But since each blood item only provided its stats once like food items do for Miriam, there's still no grinding for strength.

[BelphegorATS]

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Honestly, I'd settle for just a mode. It wouldn't even be hard to design. Make her not level up and instead gain stats via spilling an enemies blood and drinking it with Blood Steal to turn it into her version of food items. Could even expand upon this with special methods of extracting better quality blood from enemies with conditional kills performed with abilities gained from bosses.

Since you never level up, you're entirely reliant on killing enemies in special and diverse ways and exploring the castle to find more food. The stat boosts wouldn't even need to be just core stats, as you could also get things like resistances, levelling up various abilities, or even a few new ones. But since each blood item only provided its stats once like food items do for Miriam, there's still no grinding for strength.

That does sound like an interesting idea, actually, since it applies the concept of glory kills from Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal to how blood extraction could work. It could be fun traversing the whole castle gaining blood to not only restore Bloodless' health, but bestow her with new powers and abilities that can help her fight difficult bosses and enemies and progress through the castle. I can imagine that being a possible mode the developers can create as side content in the future. Still, it could be even better if they were to give her character development and a story like that of the base game's main campaign. I'd call that a win even if it is just a mode instead of a new game or DLC.