The footage in addition his negatives seemed borderline contradictory.
For instance, he talks about the colors of Dracula's castle being too drab and full of "browns" and whatnot. First of all, the Lords of Shadow series, like it or not, paints a more rooted, less Japanese take on the Transylvania countryside and the castle and guess what, as such, yes, more natural tones make complete sense and fit perfectly well with the atmosphere that they're trying to establish which seems to be a bit closer to the actual lore of Vlad the Impaler (the emphasis on religious brotherhoods, the Order of the Dragon, etc.) and the eastern European setting than what we normally see from the franchise. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
This is also why the music is the way it is. People may not like it as much as the catchier music of Yamane, but this direction and atmosphere doesn't call for it or need it. Something that drives me fucking bonkers is the comparison to the Lord of the Rings soundtracks. Holy hell. Protip, Howard Shore did not invent that style of music, and that style of music has been linked many times to European influenced countrysides and so on-- yes, the same type that can be found in both Lord of the Rings and Castlevania and other works of both fiction and non-fiction that share similar settings and sounds.
That isn't to say that Shore's music for Lord of the Rings is generic; it most certainly is not, but neither is Oscar Araujo's music. People may not like that type of music for Castlevania, but Lords of Shadow is the first Castlevania to realize that setting in a large-scale 3D attempt that absolutely calls for that kind of music. It's fine to not be fond of it, but to say that it doesn't fit the game or that it's just "generic Lord of the Rings music" is being a bit more than simple-minded about how music is written. Not even to mention, all of these Lord of the Rings soundtrack scholars seem to be wholly unaware of the fact that Shore's music and Oscar's music use their own distinct instrumentation. I realize that some people, all they hear is "epic brass" but if you actually god forbid analyze the music you'd realize that Shore's music is just as much its own thing as Oscar's is its own thing. There are similarities, but you can find similarities between many, many different scores for different mediums.
Hell I'd love to see an even more realistic, mature, gritty take on Castlevania. Well, maybe it wouldn't be Castlevania in that it wouldn't have the over the top fantasy elements like monsters and fairies and shit but I'd like to see more films or games take a stab at the actual Vlad the Impaler lore. The Lords of Shadow style is a bit closer to it. Maybe that's why I like them and accept them as Castlevania games. I'd be fine if the series went for an even more rooted and oppressive tone.
