Castlevania Season 1 Netflix Review

Video games have had a difficult time translating to the film medium. Complications and critiques over the style, storytelling, or characterization of famous video game icons and stories have prevented Hollywood from truly delving into the medium and delivering a rich, compelling tale featuring the legends of the video game world. I've seen Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and while I enjoyed each of them enough to walk away feeling like my time wasn't wasted, that clearly wasn't the case for the general public. Hopefully, many of the average television and Netflix viewers will check out Castlevania, because while it's not a flawless opening to a new anime-style television series, it's definitely a good series, and one of the best adaptations of a video game I've ever seen.

The first thing that grabs me is the art direction and the animation. In my time researching, I couldn't find anyone who worked on Castlevania that also worked on either Avatar: The Last Airbender  or The Legend of Korra, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there is such a case. Either that, or the showrunners were big fans of those particular series. The animation style is clean, it's sharp, and it perfectly emulates the attitude of the Castlevania franchise by mimicking the feel of old Eastern European folklore. The color is appropriately bleak, yet hauntingly beautiful, with a unique blend of reds, blacks, yellows, and oranges, reminding a viewer that they are skin-deep in a vampire story. I am in love with the art, and if a background piece from the show were to ever go on sale, I would seriously consider buying it and hanging it up in a frame. The detail and art is that good.

The second thing that holds me over is the excellent voice acting and characterization, particularly of the two leads, Trevor Belmont and Vlad Dracula. Trevor is voiced by none other than Richard Armitage, best known in the geek world as having played Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit films. His rival, Dracula, is played by Graham McTavish, who also comes from The Hobbit, having played Dwalin in the series. While there's not too much new for Armitage to do with Trevor, who ends up being somewhat of a degenerate and a jerk, McTavish can go to the dark side with a character who has truly loved and lost, and is driven mad because of it. The entire first episode focuses on this fact, actually: while I won't spoil everything, I will say that I don't think I've ever felt as sympathetic for Dracula as I have in this show. Graham brings a great gravitas to the voice of Dracula. As for Trevor Belmont, the four episodes does delve into why he's a become such a jerk, but that doesn't help to feel sympathetic for his plight. After all, there's two episodes of him being a jerk with no real inclination to get behind him and his attitude, and it's only by the fourth episode that I really got to rally behind the whipmaster. 

The several side-characters, while each not getting enough time, are clearly being prepped for the action coming in season two. In particular, the characters of Alucard and Sypha, callbacks to other playable Castlevania characters, are both introduced in interesting ways, but aren't used in any meaningful way like Trevor or Dracula. That being said, I'm still looking forward to seeing more of them, whenever that could be. The monster characters featured in this series, while not as much of a fan-service as an intimidating set of foes, are also engaging in the fact that it looks to be they have a sense of individuality. Hopefully, this could be expanded upon in the series further, but it;s something I doubt will happen. 

Speaking to the action of this series, it's great. There are times when episodes get a little busy, and the action just becomes boring, but one could pretty much define this series as having R-rated The Legend of Korra action. There's plenty of violence that's clearly graphic (there's blood galore), but in a way, a lot of it is graceful, as well. There's one particular flight scene towards the end of the series that features some of the best swordplay I've seen, either in animation or live-action. It's just such a shame that there wasn't too much more of it in the show.

And while I'm talking about critiques, that's my one true problem with this first season: it's way too short to offer more of what was good about it. All in all, this series feels like a movie that was cut up into four episodes just for the sake of calling it a TV series. But I wanted more of it all: more time to rally behind Trevor Belmont, more time to learn about Alucard, more time to see Dracula be the big bad guy, more fan service for original Castlevania fans. For me, more is the theme of Castlevania: Season One. And I am aware that within 24 hours of the series' release, a Season Two was greenlit, so I'm sure I'll get more of what I want. However, when constructing a season of television, if you're going to make it as short as four episodes, I'm not sure the best thing is to leave an audience wanting so much that you make them feel like they got so little. But yet again, it was only four episodes, so an audience doesn't necessarily feel like they had so much time wasted. 

All in all, I'm glad this series was given the go-ahead. It's a great first chapter to what a Castlevania TV show should be, and being that it accurately tells the story of the prequel game, Castlevania III, the show leaves open the possibility for even more game adaptations under the Castlevania banner. I'll be stopping by for when Season Two arrives, and I recommend you do the same. This first season can easily be finished in an evening, and with beautiful animation, stunning action, and engaging characters, it's well worth the hour and a half one would spend watching it. That being said, viewers might feel bummed about the amount that is offered, but I'd be surprised to find out that, unlike me, they wouldn't check out Season Two. Like any great story, you can see past its flaws and enjoy all that is good about it, because for both a video game television series and for a fantasy-action animation series, it's that good.

Rating: 8.5 / 10

Pokemon Sun/Moon Review

*Note: I played the Pokemon Moon version, but like past Pokemon games, the experience varies only in the species of Pokemon available to capture without trading.

Yeesh, this review is well past its worthiness date. Nevertheless, I've completed most of the major events within the seventh-generation installment to the world famous Pokemon franchise. And while this game does have significant improvements throughout, I'm not completely sold on everything yet. But overall, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon are a welcome addition to the franchise for fans both old and new.

Presentation

Man, does this game utilize all that the 3DS hardware is capable of. Now, granted, there have been much more structurally-complex games that have appeared in the 3DS library (Metal Gear Solid 3D comes to mind), but I don't think I've ever seen a 3DS game that has looked as dynamic as this. The islands which you, the player, call home, are colorful and vibrant, teeming with life from both NPCs and brand-new Pokemon to meet and capture. Each island, while relatively small when examined on their own, has somewhat of a unique style to them. One of them might be more tropical, while another is inherently more barren. This diversity in ecosystem makes exploring the islands somewhat of a more engaging adventure than exploring any past Pokemon region, since almost every ecosystem under the sun was explorable in all past games.

And as for the island theme, that's something that Pokemon Sun/Moon really digs deep into. Local lingo is inspired from the Oceanic islands that populate our own world, and the islands remain almost untouched from the societies we as players have been exposed to in past games; the characters of this new region hope to keep the islands pristine and free, and the towns and areas you travel reflect that. Granted, this can make the islands a bit of a bore to walk through as you pass the third grassy hill rather than through a bustling metropolis as in past games, but the art direction is so solid that one hardly gets bogged down by this loss.

Gameplay

Pokemon has always been described as 'baby's RPG,' and this series continues to hold that title firmly in its grasp. However, this iteration of the franchise does some different things with the exploration portion of the genre. No, the battle system hasn't changed since the original games debuted in Japan in 1996 (save for the creation of some new types to spruce up the rock-paper-scissors formula), but how and when the player navigates the world takes on some deviations from franchise standards. For example, the player is no longer hampered down with moves that are required to progress through certain areas. Instead, pre-determined Pokemon that can be called on at any time throughout the game help players navigate through certain areas. Using these Pokemon are cool, but I still would have liked to call on more at any opportunity. There are only about 12 the player can utilize, and the new fly ability isn't even manually-controlled to allow players to soar over the islands as they were in the previous games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. These are all nitpicky, but they raise some questions and answers about what the focus of the game development was - expansion and alteration of the core mechanics of exploration and battle.

As for battle, much remains the same: unlike Pokemon X/Y, there's no new types added to spice up the battle strategies. And there's only one new battle mechanic in place of the Mega Evolution to add some variety, which are the Z-moves. They are superpowered moves that deal massive damage, and only one can be used per battle. There is a set amount, barely any unique moves special to specific Pokemon (aside from about 6 or 7), and they can still miss when they are used! As a mechanic of battle and gaming, this is probably the most frustratingly annoying addition to Pokemon yet.

Final Thoughts

Pokemon Sun/Moon is a fantastic foray back into the Pokemon world, and an excellent showcase of creativity from GameFreak and Nintendo. The island location is a breath of fresh air, and the new Pokemon are just as fun to get to know as the Pokemon from Red and Blue were. Some additions and replacements detract exploration and battle slightly, but they don't ruin the experience overall. They're just as annoying, though.

Rating: 8.75/10