Alucard (Castlevania)

Alucard debuted in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the Nintendo Entertainment System, where he was designed by T. Fujimoto and I. Urata.[1][6] He was intended to be a mirror image of his father, as evidenced by his name, his father's name spelled backwards.[1] Much of the original artwork for the game was lost during the Great Hanshin earthquake.[7] Alucard's subsequent appearances would largely be designed by Ayami Kojima, who managed the character designs for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.[2]

The idea of using Alucard as a protagonist came from increased the size of the player character; Konami had to think about how that balance would work with the traditional whip. They also wanted a character whose abilities could grow and change, and to that end we thought using a character who could transform into other things would be more interesting. Given those two points, and the need to connect the protagonist to the history of Castlevania, they chose Alucard. The original design was not found appealing by the staff so they remade him. While the game does not explain it, Alucard can use holy weapons thanks to his human heritage. The ending of Symphony of the Night where Maria chases after Alucard was left to the player's interpretation. Though the idea about a romantic interaction was planned, the team did not want Alucard to turn Maria into another vampire. Another idea Igarashi had, and this is also from the setting of Bloodlines, is that it was supposed to be Quincy Morris who defeated Dracula, but it was actually Alucard who defeated him. I had even thought how this would work with the ending visuals. Also, the decision to make this a more exploratory action game was to extend the short life of normal action games a bit, and this was something we decided from the beginning.[8]

Kojima's work in Symphony of the Night was her first breakthrough into the gaming industry, and her dark, gothic style borrows heavily from bishōnen-style art.[2] In Aria of Sorrow, Kojima's designs followed the "different route" theme that producer Koji Igarashi was attempting to pursue with Aria of Sorrow by placing it in a futuristic setting.[9] Following this theme, Alucard's appearance as Genya Arikado was made much more contemporary, featuring modern attire as versus the medieval appearance of previous Castlevania characters.[9] Kojima was not present in the design team for Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, and Arikado, along with the rest of the cast, were drawn in an anime style. Igarashi, also the producer of Dawn of Sorrow, wished to utilize the anime style as a marketing technique due to his belief that the Nintendo DS targeted a younger audience than previous Castlevania games had.[10][11] The anime style would also serve as a litmus test as to whether future Castlevania games would incorporate the style.[12]

When it came to the reboot Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mercury tricked the audience by saying that the spin-off Mirror of Fate will include Trevor Belmont and Alucard as different playable characters when they are later revealed to be the same one but transformed. With Mirror of Fate, Mercury wanted to explain the story that connects the Belmont Clan with Dracula.[13] Alcuard plays a major in the sequel due to his connection with Dracula, but he stands out as a Belmont who is not trying to kill him. However, the staff refrained from explaining this idea due to spoilers.[14] For the DLC of the next game, Alucard became playable with the plot being focused more on his relationship with Dracula before the events of Lords of Shadow 2.[15]

For the Netflix series of Castlevania, the art team were given directions from Konami staff members. One of those factors was Alucard's ambidextrous talents, or lack thereof. In the original animation for the show's fourth and final episode of its first season, animation director Spencer Wan had drawn Alucard holding a sword in his left hand. It was only after revisiting notes from Konami that Wan remembered the video game publisher had reminded the art team at Powerhouse Animation that Alucard had to be drawn as right-handed. This led to several changes in the making of the series in order to make Netflix's Alucard fit Konami's ideas.[16] For the fourth season, the team promised the emotionally destroyed Alucard would recover his humanity in this new arc.[17]

The writers always planned to bring back Alucard for Nocturne even if he only appeared in the last scene from its first season. They wanted to make it a surprise return as well as make it as beautiful as possible.[18] In retrospective, Producer Adi Shankar said that Symphony of the Night stood out for deviating from the franchise's common narrative elements of the Belmont clan and instead focused on Alucard who is too different from previous protagonists. He further went to compared the story with how different are the Marvel Universe movies as they go from Captain America: First Avenger to Captain America: Civil War which has a much different setting. While acknowledging the popularity of Alucard thanks to Symphony of the Night, Shankar also showed interest in the Netflix series also adapting the games centered around Soma Cruz whom he finds underrated when compared to Alucard.[19]

In the 1989 Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the NES, Alucard is initially a boss encountered by the primary protagonist, Trevor Belmont. If the player defeats Alucard, he can be utilized as a playable character in the game.[26] This was a significant departure from the first two Castlevania games for the NES, and the fourth installment on the Super NES, which only featured Simon Belmont as the primary playable character, and Alucard's abilities, a fireball attack and the ability to transform into a bat, were unique elements introduced into the series.[1][26] This is the first instance of Alucard with light colored hair.

Alucard's following appearance in the series is in the 1997 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, where he is featured as the game's protagonist and primary playable character.[7] He is described as a man of great strength and inhuman beauty. Due to the brainwashing of the current member of the Belmont clan, Richter Belmont, Alucard heads to his father's castle to find Richter and ensure that Dracula does not return into the world.[20] He encounters Richter, who has been controlled by the dark priest Shaft into believing he is the lord of Dracula's castle, and Alucard manages to free him from the spell controlling him.[27] In response, Shaft creates an inverted version of Dracula's castle for Alucard to travel through, and Alucard defeats Shaft, and ultimately, Dracula as well.[28][29] Symphony of the Night also expands on Alucard's background, revealing how his human mother, Lisa, was hunted down and executed by humans who believed her to be a witch.[30] Despite this, Lisa admonished Alucard to respect humans and not hate them as his father did.[31] Alucard's placement as a protagonist was unusual for the series up to that point, as previous Castlevania games had featured often members of the Belmont clan as the protagonists.[32] Symphony of the Night would later be re-released as part of the Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360,[33] on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3,[34] and part of Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles, a compilation that contained Symphony of the Night alongside Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo.[22]

The 1997 Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy was Alucard's third appearance in the series. Similar to his initial appearance in Dracula's Curse, he is a boss challenging the skills of the game's protagonist, Sonia Belmont. After she defeats him, he accepts her strength and decides to submerge his powers by sleeping, believing that she will defeat Dracula in his stead.[35][36] Koji Igarashi later removed Castlevania Legends from the official canon of the series, meaning that the plot of the game never occurred in the series' continuity.[37][38]

In the 2003 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance, Alucard is present in disguise as the enigmatic Japanese government agent Genya Arikado in order to prevent the powers of his father, who was finally killed by Julius Belmont, from ending up in the wrong hands.[39][40][41] He meets the game's protagonist, Soma Cruz, and explains his "power of dominance," or his ability to absorb the souls of the monsters he defeats and use their abilities.[42] He instructs him to seek out the castle's throne room, where Soma realizes that he is Dracula's reincarnation.[43] Arikado subsequently advises Soma to destroy the flow of chaos in the castle to free himself from his fate, which Soma succeeds in doing.[44]

Alucard reprises his role as Arikado in the sequel to Aria of Sorrow, the 2005 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS, where he works to stop the machinations of a cult headed by Celia Fortner to create a new dark lord by killing Soma.[45] Arikado initially requests that Soma does not become involved, but gives him a letter and talisman from Mina when he encounters him later in the game.[46] After both of Celia's "dark lord's candidates," Dmitrii Blinov and Dario Bossi, are defeated, Arikado stops Celia's attempt to force Soma to awaken into the new dark lord, but inadvertently allows Dmitrii to revive himself.[47][48] He confronts him, but is stopped when Dmitrii uses Celia as a sacrifice to seal his powers.[49] Following Soma's battle with Menace, a giant demon that sprouts from Dmitrii, Arikado explains to Soma that he is not destined to become the dark lord, nor does he need to.[50] In the game's Julius Mode, Arikado is playable as Alucard after he is found in the castle.[51]

Alucard was one of the playable characters in Castlevania Judgment for the Nintendo Wii, a fighting game based on the series.[52]

A reimagined Alucard appears in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, the second installment in the Lords of Shadow reboot series, which follows a different continuity from the original. It is revealed that this version of Alucard was originally Trevor Belmont, the son of Gabriel and Marie Belmont, conceived before Gabriel was turned into a vampire and became the dark lord Dracula.[53] Alucard later appears in the sequel Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 as a supporting character. Since the game takes place centuries later, Alucard's personality and standing towards his father have drastically changed. He believes that Dracula can still be redeemed and makes it his goal to free the world from tyranny and vanquish the evil that had corrupted him and his father.[54]

Alucard makes a cameo appearance as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[55] He will also debut as a playable fighter in Brawlhalla on October 19, 2022.[56]

Alucard has received praise and criticism from several video game publications, primarily concentrating on his role in Symphony of the Night. GameSpot featured him in their article "All Time Greatest Game Hero".[59] Magazines have also described him as one of the best and greatest video game character.[60][61] In a review of Symphony of the Night, RPGFan celebrated the fact that Alucard was not a member of the Belmont clan, the protagonists of most Castlevania games, and that the fact he was Dracula's son added "an element of depth to the plot" due to the varied reactions he would receive from the inhabitants of Dracula's castle.[32] RPGamer disagreed with this assessment, noting that the plot and Alucard's role "isn't very deep" and secondary to the concentration on gameplay.[62] GameSpot called Alucard's sprite and running animation "easily some of the most impressive visuals in the entire Castlevania library."[20] James Paul Gee noted that "even though Alucard is a vampire hunter, he has no distinctive skills associated with this profession".[63]

Alucard's appearance in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow as Genya Arikado was also noted by reviewers. RPGamer celebrated how the greater concentration on supporting characters, including Arikado, were a welcome change from previous Castlevania games.[64] RPGFan derided Arikado's "cool and impassive personality" as stereotypical, but praised the game's character development as setting him apart from previous supporting characters in the series.[65] The switch to an anime style for the character designs in Dawn of Sorrow was notably criticized, as many reviewers preferred the designs made by Ayami Kojima. GameSpy deplored the "shallow, lifeless anime images" and IGN called the images "down to the level of 'generic Saturday morning Anime' quality."[66][67] While noting his role in Symphony, James Paul Gee praised the handling of Alucard for coming across as one unique character due to how different he was from previous playable characters.[68] In the book A New Literacies Sampler, the writer expressed a favoritism in Alucard though he did not find his skills and moves were unique for a vampire hunter or soldier when compared with Full Spectrum Warrior and instead his moves feel more similar to Mario.[69] In contrast to Ritcher, Alucard's encounter with the villain was seen as more personal as the game explores the father and son relationship with heavy emphasis on Alucard's mental state as the dialogue he shares with Dracula embodies the theme of grief and identity. Another major area the two vampires share is the fate of Lisa, Alucard's mother and Dracula's wife, who none of the characters managed to surpass.[70] Comic Book Resources praised the handling of Alucard's characterization in the Lords of Shadow series for how he handles his relationship with his father even if the ending might come across as too tragic as both father and son appeared to hate their own nature and wanted to end the Belmont bloodline with their own lives.[71]

The animated version of Alucard's characterization in Netflix's Castlevania series earned mixed responses, as he and his allies were overshadowed by Dracula's underlings, who were seen as more fleshed out cast members than Alucard.[72] GameSpot agreed that the trio's appearances in the first episodes were underwhelming and that their relationship gets uninteresting quickly, as the cast spends most of their time interacting in a library.[73] On the other hand, Blasting News felt that the second season of Castlevania gave more screen time to develop the chemistry between Alucard and his friends, in contrast to his brief role in the first season.[74] A review from Destructoid expressed similar sentiments, largely due to the way Alucard and Trevor push aside their differences to defeat Dracula while insulting each other across the story, leaving good comic relief in the process.[75] IGN felt that the relationship between Alucard and his father was one of the best aspects of the second season due to the performance of their voice actors.[76] In an analysis from the franchise, E. Charlotte Stevens from Birmingham City University claimed that Alucard's gaming appearance make him noticeably androgynous, stylish and glammorised. Paul Martin noticed the character often shows signs of humanity despite the idea that he is a monster whereas the Netflix anime makes him look more sympathetic and lonely as a result of his father's death.[77] GameRant said that Alucard was more complex in the Netflix series than in the games due to how his screentimes explores humanity as he deals with depression in a comical fashion, while still giving a hopeless ending when dealing with the Belmont Hold.[78] In another article, GameRant found Alucard to be the saddest character in the series due to how much guilty he feels about the idea of being rejected by his father and then finding himself fighting to kill him; Though GameRant noted that Alucard was friendly with Trevor and Sypha, he is left behind by them which causes his depression to be more noticeable.[79]

• List of fictional dhampirs