Board 8 > Is Castlevania a "horror game franchise"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I purposely made the poll with only those two options. No middle ground. You'll have to answer solidly in one word based on your personal reasoning.

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yes it has draculas in it

It's definitely yes with the broadest interpretation

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The only argument that it is would be the horror icons/creatures, but several Final Fantasies have vampires and zombies and shit and no one would call them horror games.

I say no. A horror game needs to at least attempt to inspire horror.

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the horror elements are entirely superficial so I'd say no

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It's a horror game in the same sensation that Metroid can be considered a horror game. It's got the capacity to be so, but your protagonists are so OP that it doesn't come off as such.

EDIT: So, in short
No.

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LeonhartFour posted...

the horror elements are entirely superficial so I'd say no

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the horror elements are just theming and setting, not actually used for evoking any dread or terror

still fits well with halloween tho but so does the great pumpkin

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Horror-themed? JoJo is basically that too, although it comes a bit closer. I just watched its spinoff OVA, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, which leans into actual horror, even if I didn't find it that scary, and I recommend it.

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I see it as more gothic than horror. It is certainly spooky and some monsters may be creepy-looking, but as a game, its goal isn't to scare you like a survival/psychological horror game would.

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WhiteLens posted...

I see it as more gothic than horror. It is certainly spooky and some monsters may be creepy-looking, but as a game, its goal isn't to scare you like a survival/psychological horror game would.

This is exactly it.

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no it is monster movie themed

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GuessMyUserName posted...

the horror elements are just theming and setting, not actually used for evoking any dread or terror

still fits well with halloween tho but so does the great pumpkin

WhiteLens posted...

I see it as more gothic than horror. It is certainly spooky and some monsters may be creepy-looking, but as a game, its goal isn't to scare you like a survival/psychological horror game would.

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WhiteLens posted...

I see it as more gothic than horror. It is certainly spooky and some monsters may be creepy-looking, but as a game, its goal isn't to scare you like a survival/psychological horror game would.

Yeah, this is about right

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I see Medusa heads and I feel the horror so yeah

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Castlevania (/kslveni/), known in Japan as Akumaj Dracula,[a][2] is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about vampire hunters, created and developed by Konami.

According to Wikipedia it is!

I voted yes, but the posts in this topic have swayed me towards no

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"Gothic horror" feels in line with how others have described it.

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I think being horror themed is enough to call it a horror game.

Its not sci fi or fantasy, and specifying gothic doesn't make it not horror.


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it's an action-adventure game

the horror isn't really an active element in the game, it just borrows from the genre

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I don't feel like the opening post implied gameplay genre.

If Zelda can be called a fantasy game franchise, castlevania can be called a horror game franchise.

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I just think of certain things when it comes to a horror game and Castlevania doesn't have them other than having creatures associated with it

otherwise we could also call Persona a horror game

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Gothic horror is good, I'd also maybe describe it as pulp horror. It's kind of a genre melange and might be closer to adventure, but it's not NOT horror.

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I would not be against shin megami tensei being considered kinda horror.

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LeonhartFour posted...

otherwise we could also call Persona a horror game

Persona is definitely trying to do some psychological thriller type shit at some points, and that's a subgenre of horror. Not even going into the rest of the SMT franchise which absolutely draws from the genre.

Plus, what is Persona 4 if not Scooby-Doo, and what is Scooby-Doo if not mystery horror for kids???

anyways my point with this is not to say that persona 4 is definitively a horror game but that limiting things to one genre is stupid

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I mean games can be more than one thing but Castlevania doesn't really attempt to be that thing

it just likes using things from it for aesthetics

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LeonhartFour posted...

I mean games can be more than one thing but Castlevania doesn't really attempt to be that thing

it just likes using things from it for aesthetics

I feel like basing the entire conceit - you are going to go get lost in Dracula's castle to kill and be killed by a bunch of weird gruesome monsters - is more than an aesthetic! It's pulpy but it's there.

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Yeah, but I feel like it's more to look cool than to actually scare the player, which is what I mean by an aesthetic. Like yeah you fight Dracula and Death and all that but it isn't actually scary.

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I don't think Castlevania is trying to have the player be constantly scared but there's totally a lot of elements involved that are meant to unnerve the player. You can tell by the animations and sound effects they use on the enemies, or how they'll randomly put huge monsters in your way to make you go "oh shit." Stuff like Legion is legitimately creepy.

Yeah it's cheesy, but if a horror movie is cheesy is it suddenly not horror?

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The Metroid games are way closer to horror games imo. CV generally doesn't really feel spooky.
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If it fits the mood of Halloween its horror.


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More goth than horror.

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I would personally say it is. Horror is as much a thematic quality as it is a genre. Castlevania is Gothic horror not only because of its aesthetic, but how it broaches the subjects of death, curses, isolation, and madness as a broad stroke, which rather than concretely trying to scare the player, it's something that lingers in the background as a constant anxiety and the reason that drives your quest. I also argue that having power does not necessarily take away horror. The games' appropriate levels of challenge consistently challenge that power making death teeter constantly on the verge against an onslaught of unholy enemies, along with often labyrinthine, eldritch locations again emphasizing a sense of isolation and feeling lost. It's not something that may "scare" you per se, but I'd argue most Gothic horror isn't really, being more purely focused on the self and emotions and that's what Castlevania gets at the most with its horror, in my view.

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Case closed

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GuessMyUserName posted...

the horror elements are just theming and setting, not actually used for evoking any dread or terror

Snake5555555555 posted...

I would personally say it is. Horror is as much a thematic quality as it is a genre. Castlevania is Gothic horror not only because of its aesthetic, but how it broaches the subjects of death, curses, isolation, and madness as a broad stroke, which rather than concretely trying to scare the player, it's something that lingers in the background as a constant anxiety and the reason that drives your quest. I also argue that having power does not necessarily take away horror. The games' appropriate levels of challenge consistently challenge that power making death teeter constantly on the verge against an onslaught of unholy enemies, along with often labyrinthine, eldritch locations again emphasizing a sense of isolation and feeling lost. It's not something that may "scare" you per se, but I'd argue most Gothic horror isn't really, being more purely focused on the self and emotions and that's what Castlevania gets at the most with its horror, in my view.

I'm back on team yes

also I imagine Castlevania is actually scary for a lot of people

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It might be a horror franchise but it's definitely not a horror game franchise.

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Snake5555555555 posted...

I would personally say it is. Horror is as much a thematic quality as it is a genre. Castlevania is Gothic horror not only because of its aesthetic, but how it broaches the subjects of death, curses, isolation, and madness as a broad stroke, which rather than concretely trying to scare the player, it's something that lingers in the background as a constant anxiety and the reason that drives your quest. I also argue that having power does not necessarily take away horror. The games' appropriate levels of challenge consistently challenge that power making death teeter constantly on the verge against an onslaught of unholy enemies, along with often labyrinthine, eldritch locations again emphasizing a sense of isolation and feeling lost. It's not something that may "scare" you per se, but I'd argue most Gothic horror isn't really, being more purely focused on the self and emotions and that's what Castlevania gets at the most with its horror, in my view.

damn, this was a good post

It started as a homage to the classic horror greats. The original Universal Frankenstein movie doesn't scare you? ok, it's still horror. You bet your ass it's horror. Maybe playing so much SotN where Alucard refuses to die has made you think otherwise or something.

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Metroid Dread feels more horror than any Castlevania game except only maybe Castlevania II.

MZero posted...

I'm back on team yes

also I imagine Castlevania is actually scary for a lot of people

I do not like playing scary games. Castlevania is not scary. I guess it might be scary for kids and the older games were designed for kids, so maybe it is Scooby-Doo.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

The Metroid games are way closer to horror games imo. CV generally doesn't really feel spooky.

this is 100% true with both Fusion & Dread

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Metroid games were based on Alien, a horror movie.

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Next thing you tell me is Haunted House on the Atari 2600 isn't horror because it doesn't scare you.

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pjbasis posted...

Metroid games were based on Alien, a horror movie.

Or is it sci-fi

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GuessMyUserName posted...

this is 100% true with both Fusion & Dread

Not just those two - people point out the quiet atmospheric horror of isolation in Super and Prime all the time. Metroid might not be primarily horror but it's not a stretch to say that specific type of horror is integral to almost every game in the series.

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Simon's Quest feels like easily the closest to horror the series has ever been.

Something about the town being overrun by zombies at night was very unsettling.

That game also laid the platform for the SotN style games even though its execution was a little sub par. I like the game though jankiness included.

Leonhart4 posted...

I guess it might be scary for kids

things that were not designed to be scary for kids are scary for kids

Not that I disagree with your point. I think Scooby Doo is an apt comparison

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For me, there's a distinct difference between something that is horror and something that is horror-themed. Horror-themed uses elements of horror like window dressing; see, Hotel Transylvania. Horror is meant to actually scare you. They're technically under the same genre but I don't consider them to be remotely similar in terms of the emotions they're trying to provoke. To me, Castlevania is horror-themed much more than it is horror.

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KamikazePotato posted...

To me, Castlevania is horror-themed much more than it is horror.

Yeah. For example, if someone was "a fan of horror games", nobody would ever say "oh then you should play Castlevania, it will be right up your alley".

'Cause when it comes to video games, when we say "Horror", we only really use that word to refer to gameplay, not theme. That's just how it is, in the world of video games.

I think the only argument that Castlevania is horror, is basically an argument of "sure, why not, I could see it". But in practice, nobody would ever use the word "horror" to explain Castlevania to someone.

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Labeling video game franchises specifically with genre labels from other mediums is really dumb.

Is Mass Effect a romance game franchise? A comedy game franchise? Hell, if Castlevania has enough horror to qualify, why not Mass Effect too?

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