Originally developed for use by the Symphony of the Night team but later refined for public distribution, the Castlevania timeline has a number of omissions. Circle of the Moon (a GBA launch title), Castlevania on N64 (originally intended to be the next flagship game in the series), and Castlevania Legends (next title after Symphony) are all absent. There’s a number of explanations for this. Publicly, Igarashi--who oversaw the Castlevania series after Symphony--has stated that they were excluded at the request of the development teams as they were side-stories that were never intended to be canon. Circumstances suggest otherwise though, as the excluded games were by rival teams within Konami that were later absorbed under Igarashi’s oversight. The team that created Castlevania Legends, KCEN, also created the technically inferior port of Igarashi’s magnum opus Symphony of the Night to Sega Saturn, adding new apocryphal content without his consent.
Beyond company politics, another reason was suggested in an EGM Interview before the release of Lament of Innocence. Igarashi was asked directly about creating a Castlevania with a female protagonist, to which he said this:
EGM: Would you make a Castlevania with a female main character?
IGA: Hm, there are difficult problems with that. As a gamer, I think that you become one with the character, and since Castlevania has a lot of male players, it's natural to have male characters. In Rondo of Blood, Maria was a silly, cute aside, but you still had Richter to make it serious. [...]
EGM: After Tomb Raider, don't you think a female character is more acceptable?
IGA: It's possible I guess. Although, I purposefully left the Sonia Belmont character (from Castlevania: Legends for GBC) out of the official Castlevania chronology. (laughs) Usually, the vampire storyline motifs, females tend to be sacrificed. It's easier to come up with weak, feminine characters. I'll think about it more in the future, though. It's tough to fit a female hero into the early history of Castlevania, but as you move into the modern day, females can then more easily become a hero.
Deceptively impressive sprite art (left); attacking a flopping sausage thing (right).
Sonia has no abilities to deal with situations like this, which is frustrating rather than challenging
Sonia being attacked by penises that rise out of the floor (left); a "trap" room with constantly spawning enemies (middle); Dracula dressed as David S. Pumpkins (right)
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Community review by dagoss (October 07, 2021)
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