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Took me longer than I thought it would (but not really since I went several days at a stretch without even touching it at all), but I've finally unlocked everything in Ode to Castlevania. The last character to unlock cost over 17 million gold, and I only had like 3 million at the time, but one trip to Moongolow with Sammy and weapon slots set to 1, and I had 20 million gold in less than 15 minutes, or about seven minutes in real time (had it set to Endless, too, along with Hurry and Hyper, but didn't even need that, since I exited out before I even reached what would have been the 15 minute time limit).
So, now I'm going to get into spoiler territory beyond this point (behind a cut, if you're seeing this on my main page).
Spoiler alert: there are indeed finally vampires in Vampire Survivors. I like that they let you replay the "final boss" battle again. (All you have to do is choose Richter, once he's unlocked, and then go to the iconic room at the top of the stairs that seems to be in most Castlevania games.)
So, yeah, almost every character that was ever in a Castlevania game is there, but not everyone. Among the missing are Aeon from Judgement (and, if you want to be even more nitpicky, all the alternate versions of all the traditional characters found in that game), Gabriel and any other characters from Lords of Shadow, Kid Dracula from Kid Dracula (assuming Kid Dracula counts as a Castlevania game), and some even more nitpicky ones. Like, for instance, they included Nathan Graves from Circle of the Moon, but neither Hugh nor Morris Baldwin. "But those guys weren't playable characters, so it makes sense they wouldn't be included." Well, neither were all the other non-playable background characters that were included as playable characters, like Sara Trantoul or Julia Laforeze or Mina Hakuba or Vincent Dorin or Soleil/Soleiyu Belmont or quite a few others. None of the villagers from Order of Ecclesia made an appearance, nor did the other girls from Rondo of Blood. Selena Belmont from Haunted Castle wasn't there. No mention of Mathias Cronqvist (though, technically, he is in the game as a playable character, of course). And lastly, like... okay... Quincey Morris is a playable character in the game (though they spelled his name wrong). You know, that Texan dude from the original Bram Stoker novel. And, yes, technically he does already exist in CV lore (with the same misspelled name) as the father of John Morris from Bloodlines and the grandfather of Jonathan Morris from Portrait of Ruin. However, if you're going to include him, might as well also include Jonathan Harker, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra (who actually was in a Castlevania game, or at least a character with the same name was, anyway), Abraham Van Helsing, and Renfield. And, of course, there were plenty of other Castlevania bosses and regular enemies that didn't make the cut for being playable characters. But yeah, like I said, all of that is just super nitpicky shit. The Castlevania characters that were included comprise almost literally half of the entire playable cast of Vampire Survivors now (even including all the characters from the other DLC packs).
Honestly, though, probably the coolest thing for me about it was all the specially remixed versions of Castlevania music that was included in the game. For example. (They used the Symphony of the Night bonus track at the absolute perfect spot during gameplay.) Besides that, a bunch of other non-VS-specifically-remixed tracks directly lifted from Castlevania games were included as well. And I have to say, a lot of those sound sick as hell when played with either the Hyper or Forsaken mode variants. There's also a straight up music select menu now, beyond the usual thing you get in the stage select stuff, which I'm fairly sure is new, or at least I don't recall seeing it prior to Ode to Castlevania anyway.
So, now I'm going to get into spoiler territory beyond this point (behind a cut, if you're seeing this on my main page).
Spoiler alert: there are indeed finally vampires in Vampire Survivors. I like that they let you replay the "final boss" battle again. (All you have to do is choose Richter, once he's unlocked, and then go to the iconic room at the top of the stairs that seems to be in most Castlevania games.)
So, yeah, almost every character that was ever in a Castlevania game is there, but not everyone. Among the missing are Aeon from Judgement (and, if you want to be even more nitpicky, all the alternate versions of all the traditional characters found in that game), Gabriel and any other characters from Lords of Shadow, Kid Dracula from Kid Dracula (assuming Kid Dracula counts as a Castlevania game), and some even more nitpicky ones. Like, for instance, they included Nathan Graves from Circle of the Moon, but neither Hugh nor Morris Baldwin. "But those guys weren't playable characters, so it makes sense they wouldn't be included." Well, neither were all the other non-playable background characters that were included as playable characters, like Sara Trantoul or Julia Laforeze or Mina Hakuba or Vincent Dorin or Soleil/Soleiyu Belmont or quite a few others. None of the villagers from Order of Ecclesia made an appearance, nor did the other girls from Rondo of Blood. Selena Belmont from Haunted Castle wasn't there. No mention of Mathias Cronqvist (though, technically, he is in the game as a playable character, of course). And lastly, like... okay... Quincey Morris is a playable character in the game (though they spelled his name wrong). You know, that Texan dude from the original Bram Stoker novel. And, yes, technically he does already exist in CV lore (with the same misspelled name) as the father of John Morris from Bloodlines and the grandfather of Jonathan Morris from Portrait of Ruin. However, if you're going to include him, might as well also include Jonathan Harker, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra (who actually was in a Castlevania game, or at least a character with the same name was, anyway), Abraham Van Helsing, and Renfield. And, of course, there were plenty of other Castlevania bosses and regular enemies that didn't make the cut for being playable characters. But yeah, like I said, all of that is just super nitpicky shit. The Castlevania characters that were included comprise almost literally half of the entire playable cast of Vampire Survivors now (even including all the characters from the other DLC packs).
Honestly, though, probably the coolest thing for me about it was all the specially remixed versions of Castlevania music that was included in the game. For example. (They used the Symphony of the Night bonus track at the absolute perfect spot during gameplay.) Besides that, a bunch of other non-VS-specifically-remixed tracks directly lifted from Castlevania games were included as well. And I have to say, a lot of those sound sick as hell when played with either the Hyper or Forsaken mode variants. There's also a straight up music select menu now, beyond the usual thing you get in the stage select stuff, which I'm fairly sure is new, or at least I don't recall seeing it prior to Ode to Castlevania anyway.
