Alucard (Castlevania)

A female promotional model dressed as Alucard from Castlevania: Harmony of Despair at E3 2010

Alucard debuted in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the Nintendo Entertainment System, where he was designed by T. Fujimoto and I. Urata.[1][5] 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.[6] 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]

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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[8][9] The anime style would also serve as a litmus test as to whether future Castlevania games would incorporate the style.[10] Alucard has a long coat, a vampire cape, and tall boots, which can increase his height in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He has long blonde hair, yellow eyes, and occasionally is depicted with sharp vampire fangs.

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.[17] 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][17]

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.[6] 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.[11] 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.[18] 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.[19][20] 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.[21] Despite this, Lisa admonished Alucard to respect humans and not hate them as his father did.[22] 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.[23] Symphony of the Night would later be re-released as part of the Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360,[24] on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3,[25] and part of Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles, a compilation that contained Symphony of the Night alongside Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo.[13] Aside from the changing of the script and Alucard's English voice actor to Yuri Lowenthal, his role in the Symphony of the Night portion of The Dracula X Chronicles remains the same.[13]

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.[26][27] 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.[28][29]

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.[30][31][32] 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.[33] He instructs him to seek out the castle's throne room, where Soma realizes that he is Dracula's reincarnation.[34] Arikado subsequently advises Soma to destroy the flow of chaos in the castle to free himself from his fate, which Soma succeeds in doing.[35]

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.[36] 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.[37] 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.[38][39] He confronts him, but is stopped when Dmitrii uses Celia as a sacrifice to seal his powers.[40] 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.[41] In the game's Julius Mode, Arikado is playable as Alucard after he is found in the castle.[42]

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

Alucard makes a minor appearance in Captain N: The Game Master. Here, he is depicted as a rebellious teenager who enjoys skateboarding and music, much to his father's chagrin. He appears in the Season 3 episode "Return to Castlevania", initially posing as an ally to the heroes before revealing himself to be in league with the Count.

Alucard appears as a major character in the 2017 Castlevania animated series based on the 1989 video game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, voiced by James Callis.[43] While grieving over his mother's death at the hands of the Church for condemning her as a witch, Alucard attempts to stop his father from taking revenge on humanity for her sake. But Dracula mortally injures Alucard, forcing him to spend a year recovering within the underground levels of Gresit. He is eventually reawakened by Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, and after a brief battle, he agrees to aid them in stopping his father. After Sypha discovers a way to force Castlevania to appear at the Belmont home and stay there, they storm the castle and defeat Dracula's forces before engaging Dracula himself. When the fight takes them into Alucard's childhood bedroom, enough of Dracula's sanity returns for him to be horrified that he's killing his son, and Alucard drives a wooden stake into his heart, followed by Trevor decapitating him and Sypha burning what remains. Trevor gives the Belmont estate to Alucard, who undertakes to preserve the knowledge accumulated by both his father and the Belmonts.

Alucard makes a cameo appearance as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[44] He also cameos in the Palutena's Guidance conversation for Richter Belmont, wherein he recalls the events of Symphony of the Night before telling Pit not to underestimate Richter.

In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the character Orlok Dracule, nicknamed "O.D.", is designed as a homage to Alucard. He is voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu and Robert Belgrade, Alucard's respective Japanese and English actors from the original dub of Symphony of the Night.

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".[45] 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.[23] RPGamer disagreed with this assessment, noting that the plot and Alucard's role "isn't very deep" and secondary to the concentration on gameplay.[46] GameSpot called Alucard's sprite and running animation "easily some of the most impressive visuals in the entire Castlevania library."[11] James Paul Gee noted that "even though Alucard is a vampire hunter, he has no distinctive skills associated with this profession".[47] In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 91st best hero in video games.[48] Empire also included Alucard on their list of the 50 greatest video game characters, ranking him as 34th.[49]

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.[50] 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.[51] 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."[52][53]

His 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.[54] GameSpot agreed that the trio's appearances in the first episodes were underwhelming as the cast spends their time interacting in a library, adding that their relationship gets uninteresting quickly.[55] On the other hand, Blasting News felt that the second season of Castlevania gave more screentime to developed the chemistry between Alucard and his friends in contrast to his brief role in the first season.[56] Destructoid agreed mostly due to the way Alucard and Trevor push aside their differences to defeat Dracula yet they keep insulting each other across the story leaving good comic relief in the process.[57] IGN felt that the relationship between Alucard and his father was one of the best aspects of the second season thanks to the well performance of their voice actors.[58]

• List of fictional dhampirs