Game:

Castlevania Judgment (2008)

Duration: 19:06

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185

Just as a bit of exposition and forewarning that this story won't actually give you, the Time Rift is kinda messed up as to where and when it decides to up and yank people from their lives in progress. This can get a little complicated and convoluted, so bear with me:

-Trevor is clearly an old...er, old-ish man.
-Grant doesn't have any trouble recognizing Trevor in spite of how they'd apparently gone their separate ways for some time after beating Dracula.
-Alucard is from some point after having met Maria, long after the events of Castlevania III.

Sypha doesn't recognize any of her comrades and defaults back to a stand-offish version of herself merely hinted at in the epilogue of Castlevania III. Though it is a bit disappointing that they don't use their pre-battle lines that specifically address the fact that they know her, because I swear that this game is shy about dropping specific banter in favor of just letting loose with the most generic phrases.

She probably wouldn't even recognize Dracula, thus the reason why he doesn't figure into her story at all.

Anyway, I find much of this story to be downright unsettlingly bigoted and too internally inconsistent in terms of the logic (or lack thereof) they ascribe to Sypha's character. It's like what you get when writers who don't really know anything about feminism try to write "feminist" characters, but apparently it becomes "okay" when the targets are made acceptable, in this case the forces of darkness.

...except we know that there are characters like Alucard, Cornell, and Shanoa that have powers drawn from unseemly sources that happen to be used for the greater good. Oh, and just wait until we get to the poor Golem...

I think what sums it up best is comparing the glaring conflict between the dialogue of the arranged battles with what Sypha says in her own defense against fellow hunters: "You must learn the difference between the wicked and the righteous."

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Stage 1: Aeon

How...do you hear "time rift" and assume you've been summoned? It just means time's broken, and you happened to get caught up in it...why's this whole thing gotta be about you? next thing you'll say is that you're the only one allowed to use questionable and oft-maligned sources of power to fight evil.

Sypha's attacks are relatively slow and deliberate, so any potential chance to use her Hyper Attack will be welcomed and attempted. She's got nothing else to use that gauge for, anyway.

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Stage 4: Cornell

Oh, that's nice, you take a werewolf actually patient enough to converse with you for a trick...I don't know, I think a guy as fast and strong as Cornell would just rip you a new one before even revealing himself if he really wanted to. That is, why say anything at all if the aim was to strike without warning?

The best time to try to land an attack on Cornell is when he's recovering from his red-glowing rampage mode where he's impossible to make flinch and has pretty much any and all recovery time removed from his attacks. Just beware that the initial trigger will break guards and rob you of your Hyper Gauge if you're standing too close, thus wrecking your best potential reprisal.

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Stage 6: Zombies and Minotaur

Nothing we haven't seen before, but you may be curious to know that you can make the final zombie remains poison the bigger baddie lying in wait if you can get it to step in the green sludge before it dissipates. Try to finish off the last ones in the middle of the stage, if you can.

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Stage 7: Shanoa

It's pretty sad for your logic, Sypha, if the girl with no emotions or memories can clearly see how deranged beyond belief you are when it comes to your crusade to purge the world of darkness. Is the point to the story to make us hate Sypha? To say that all she needed was a man by her side to soften her up? I... just no, yeah... let's move along here...

Anyway, could you maybe have tried picking a fight with a less fearsome contender? Like Alucard, Shanoa is pretty great at all ranges... Fortunately, the lightning spell, as in Castlevania III, is a total game-breaker against AI players. If they can't quickly jump and hit you or throw a subweapon at you, they're in trouble. You could handily clear this whole mode with only clever execution of this one attack.

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Stage 10: Carmilla

Finally! A target that's actually deserving of Sypha's ire and prejudice, and isn't it just great that the only argument she can win is against another straw(wo)man with serious rhetoric issues? ...I mean, they've both got a point, I guess, but they're both insanely wrong because their worldviews are horribly skewed by their circumstances.

Good job staying on-message, Judgment. I actually feel more like siding with Carmilla on this one after seeing how Sypha treated Cornell and Shanoa in complete disregard for her own perspective on things.

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Clearing Story Mode as Sypha unlocks Grant Danasty's story.

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