NXpress Nintendo Podcast 103: ‘Splatoon 2,’ ‘Castlevania,’ ‘Arms,’ ‘Hey! Pikmin’ and A Day with Charles Martinet

4 Comments

1. 

   H.D. Throh

   July 20, 2017 at 3:34 pm

   I was surprised you gentleman weren’t more enthusiastic about the Castlevania Netflix series. You weren’t negative; I just thought it would resonate with you more. Just a couple of random thoughts:

   Although it contained more Dracula’s Curse references than other installments in the series, I did perceive a significant degree of influence from other titles (I particularly liked the day-night cycle from Simon’s Quest).

   I would have loved more episodes, and recognize how little was resolved, but this looks and feels like a pilot, so I don’t see these as an artistic weakness as much as the investors hedging their bet. If anything, I’m glad they didn’t scale down the scope to fit in a more complete story arc, particularly now that a second “season” has been picked up.

   I think you collectively came off as a little defensive regarding the depiction of religion. The historical context is a late-middle-ages Wallachia in which the Romani people were still being held in (church sanctioned) slavery and heresy was punishable by death. The depiction of the treatment of the Speakers (gypsy analogues) and heretics (the Belmonts) were arguably more sanitized than over-the-top. It’s also the Eastern Orthodox (and not Roman Catholic) Church that is the probably basis for the clerical state, and the tension between it and the heretical Belmonts has origins in the game series. Even with that being said, I think it attempted to address your concerns when Trevor appealed to the crowd that the bishop’s foot soldiers couldn’t be real priests because they were armed for violence. That of course posits that the populace had previous experience with a non-authoritarian Church (which is essentially ahistorical as-of the late middle ages).

   I’ve been listening since December 2015 I believe (can’t tell for sure with the new iTunes feed limits). Thanks for the great show.

   Edit: In addition to the great podcast, I also love the visual design of your site. Great job!

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     Ricky D

     July 20, 2017 at 3:40 pm

     Thanks so much. I wanted to write about the show in detail but I’ve been swamped with work. Like Is said on the show, it is hard to judge considering it is so short. It has promise but it is hard to be more enthusiastic about it since like I said on the show, it feels like a prologue. Also, I am not religious so I wasn’t being at all defensive about it stance on religion. I just felt like the villains are all one-note. There isn’t much to define the Bishop nor the clergy … at least not yet.

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       H.D. Throh

       July 20, 2017 at 5:49 pm

       Thanks for the response. “Defensive” was a poor choice of words, particularly so ascribed “collectively”. Thanks again for all the hard work.

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         Ricky D

         July 20, 2017 at 7:15 pm

         Thanks for listening. Hoping Tim can read your itunes review on the next podcast. I will be taking some time off but connect with us on Twitter if you use that!

         Reply