Castlevania: Nocturne

Richter Belmont is in full control of his magical powers, which influenced his character design…

“Sam went in with the goal of making sure Richter gets elements of his old outfit from the original Castlevania: Rondo of Blood game,” states Adam. “He managed to use that as the means of showing that growth, which is the fun part.”

The video game homage was a nice visual and narrative touch. Sam adds: “Slowly throughout the series and between the two seasons, part of the goal was to reflect Richter’s character growth and confidence by building him from one of his character designs from the games into the classic one that everyone remembers from the original Rondo of Blood game.

SUITABLY DRESSED In recognition of Richter Belmont’s growth as a character, he finally gets to wear his Castlevania: Rondo of Blood outfit.

BUFFING UP Richter Belmont’s muscular but athletic build earned him the moniker ‘Chad Richter’ among the crew.

“This was actually intended to be reflected in Season 1, starting with Episode 106 through to the end, and Richter’s design was actually updated, particularly his expression sheet and hairstyle. Those were updated to reflect the change in his attitude and character growth. Everything did change little by little throughout the series, all the way down to how we were styling his hair. It’s all subtle but is there.” Katie follows up with a laugh: “It’s definitely Sam’s baby! Through the season we had to redo his main sheets, which is difficult because the main characters need to have a lot of expressions and several angles. We definitely did redo Richter and gave him funkier hair and various expressions. We called it ‘Chad Richter’ versus ‘Baby Richter’. He evolved into Chad Richter. Sam has a shot where he’s taking an energy blast and protecting Annette, and his sleeves burst off. It’s like, ‘There’s Chad Richter.’ We definitely had to do a number of sheets for that.”