I love just how many people just agreed to call Simon as "Buff Light Yagami" in this game.

I feel like the art design would've gotten a better rep if there were alternate outfits that did replicate the characters' more iconic looks.

I think the thing with the designs is not that they’re that crazy for castlevania, they’re not that far off ayami kojimas beloved art style, but just that if you’re playing a crossover party fighting game where all you’re favourites show up, you want them to look how you remember them.

To be even more nerd-y about this game, the Time Reaper was sent by Galamoth 10000 years in the future. This is a reference to Kid Dracula of all the Castlevania related things, which really adds to the whole timeline crossover aspect of the game.

Soma was gonna be in the game but when Obada told him he was going to redesign his jacket, he backed out.

Soma not being added is specially weird cause he could be slapped right in and fit in with the art style perfectly

Can't believe this guy just admitted to be "waggling his wiimote"

I wasn't a fan of Obata's Simon Belmont at first but I kinda talked myself into it when I described it as "a male bodybuilder Light Yagami photoshopped his head onto for ego reasons"

Glad to see you cover this one, it’s always been one of the most fascinating games in the series lol. While Judgment is certainly not perfect & has with SO MANY bizarre elements it’s one that I’ve found more and more interesting as time goes on, especially because of what made it so controversial back then making it extremely fascinating today. Castlevania has SO MUCH potential as a fighting game… it’s very unlikely but I hope to see Castlevania return to the format in a more traditional style one day in the future.

Back in 2007 I managed to save enough money for a Wii, my mom put in some of her money to help me get enough  although she didn't have much. I didn't have enough money to get many games, so I have to be selective. This one strikes me with the cover art, I was a huge fan of Bloody Roar back in the days as well, but I didn't know that it was the same developers. Gotta say I play tf out of it, it was my first castlevania game despite being a spinoff. It's my favorite game up to this day. My mom is gone, my Wii died, but I still have this game on my drive, I play it on occasion and it reminds me of how much fun and simple life was back then.

You should definitely talk about the Bloody roar series one day. Def a underrated series. More People should play and know about it!

An overhated banger from 8ing. I'm one of those 8ing fans you mentioned and even I didn't realize how good it was until somewhat recently.

Cornell's design goes hard tho.

takeshi obata's art goes SO hard

Today's Eighting was originally two companies, Eighting and Raizing, both born from the shambles of two other companies, Toaplan and Compile, and before starting the Bloody Roar series and moving full time to fighting games the mostly made shoot 'em ups like Sorcer Striker and Battle Garegga. In fact, these days they're better known for their shmup output than they are for fighting games.

I think the devs at 8ing are fans of putting high execution barrier behind their games to truly uncover how broken they are (and fun as a consequence)

They made a big mistake in not giving Dracula his Order of Ecclesia moveset. Instead of turning into a giant bat or whatever, Drac's second phase is becoming a rush down character - he's got dash cancels, command grabs, counters, Guile's somersault kick... Seriously, play OoE and tell me Drac isn't a fighting game character!

Man, this channel's not only pumping out quality FG content but it's also making me nostalgic for the exact same issue of Nintendo Power that I first ever read and became a subscriber for as a kid, getting me into retro stuff. Though I admittedly don't remember much about it, and think I've lost the copy I had... I sure don't remember buff, sexy Death Note vampire hunters being in it, but time flies!

Edit: Holy water being broken in a Castlevania game? Gosh I never heard of that one before, Holy Water has NEVER been the strongest subweapon in any Castlevania game, it truly shocks me that out of all weapons that HOLY WATER is the broken one, man imagine. (But seriously has it ever been bad in a Castlevania game?)

RIP Golem
too pure for this timeline

The characters design is one of my favorites, death note artist just made amazing redisigns specially since artstyle click in the gothic horror aspect of the castlevania series, and the game is so fun, the story is original and the soundtrack as well of the series is epic, like so many games this one was ahead of its time, i bet a re release with better control mapping would made the game so much better, or a 3v3 hahaha everyone loves 3v3