Richter Belmont

For fighter info, see Richter (SSBU).

Richter Belmont
Official artwork of Richter from Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
Universe	Castlevania
Debut	Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Vampire Survivors (2024, via DLC)
Console/platform of origin	PC Engine (Super CD-ROM²)
Species	Human (augmented via the Belnades Clan's magic)
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Wallachia
Created by	Toru Hagihara
English voice actor	David Vincent
Japanese voice actor	Kiyoyuki Yanada
Article on Wikipedia	Richter Belmont

Richter Belmont (リヒター・ベルモンド, Richter Belmondo) is a character from the Castlevania series. A member of the legendary Belmont Clan, Richter is chronologically the seventh Belmont to assume the role of vampire hunter, and is renowned as "the greatest of all Belmont Warriors" during his tenure. The protagonist of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, he also plays a major role in its sequel, Symphony of the Night.

Richter made his Super Smash Bros. series debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside his ancestor, Simon.

Origin

Born in Wallachia in 1773, Richter Belmont is a descendant of the Belmont Clan, who hold a multigeneration-spanning bloodline feud with Dracula. As a result of the Belmont Clan's centuries-old training regimen, mixed with the distant ancestry of powerful witch Sypha Belnades, Richter possesses not only peak physiology, but magical capabilities inherited from Sypha's blood. One of Richter's signature skills is the Item Crash, which derives awesome hidden powers based on his subweapons, including the Holy Water-based Hydro Storm, and the Cross-based Grand Cross. He has the power to wield this skill innately. An archetypal hero with a heart of gold, Richter has a brave, albeit brash, personality and heroic instincts.

In 1792, during the events of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Richter's training with the Belmont Clan's legendary whip, the Vampire Killer, is interrupted when he learns his fiancée Annette has been kidnapped by a newly-resurrected Dracula, her hometown in flames. Richter sets out on a journey to rescue the women who have been captured by Dracula to serve as ritualistic sacrifices. Along the way, he rescues the 12-year-old vampire huntress Maria Renard, whose mastery of magic and dominion over animals makes her a vital ally. During his final showdown with Dracula, both combatants offer their opposing views on humanity. Richter ultimately emerges victorious, becoming the fourth Belmont to kill Dracula for good, and he escapes together with Maria, Annette, and the other freed women.

Richter returns in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, taking place five years later. Richter is brainwashed by the dark priest Shaft following a thwarted investigation into the sudden reappearance of Dracula's Castle. His disappearance calls forth not only Maria, but the awakening of Alucard, who takes up arms in the absence of the Belmonts. The possessed Richter is found by Alucard within the castle as its new lord, boasting of his plans to resurrect Dracula and maintain their rivalry for eternity. Thanks to a set of Holy Glasses bestowed to him by Maria, Alucard learns of Shaft's influence upon Richter and frees him after a dramatic showdown in the Castle Keep. After completing the game as Alucard, a bonus Richter Mode can be accessed by entering Richter's name in the entry screen, allowing him to be playable in Alucard's stead.

Richter, and the Belmont clan as a whole, disappears from the historical record in the centuries after Symphony of the Night. As the last full-blooded Belmont to wield the Vampire Killer for many years, Richter's spirit appears as the Whip's Memory in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. His manifestation is faced by the whip's current wielder, Jonathan Morris, in order to unlock its true power. Richter himself is playable in the game's bonus Richter Mode.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Richter, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Richter appears as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and was formally announced alongside Chrom, Dark Samus, King K. Rool, and his ancestor Simon during the Super Smash Bros. Direct on August 8th, 2018. Richter and Simon were chosen due to significant demand for Castlevania characters on the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, and a desire for viable new content for the base game; the series was among the most feasible and globally-popular third-party options.

Richter's appearance and fighting style are based not only on his classic appearance in Rondo of Blood, but Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, where he fights with a wide range of close combat moves expanded from his arsenal in Symphony of the Night and Portrait of Ruin. Although Richter is officially Simon's Echo Fighter, the two of them were designed simultaneously to borrow moves from each other's source games, remaining as functionally-faithful to the Castlevania series as possible. This cross-design process technically makes them both derivatives of each other.

Richter and Simon's whip-based tilt attacks also have ranges similar to the Vampire Killer's standard attack in Castlevania's NES installments, whereas their smash attacks have even longer ranges. Overall, the Vampire Killer grants both Richter and Simon the overall longest ranges out of the cast, while the Vampire Killer itself can be swung freely like Chain. In order to compensate, however, Richter and Simon's movesets are sluggish and their whip-based attacks are reliant on precision in order to be fully effective.

The sole mechanical difference between Simon and Richter is that Richter's Holy Water possesses the aura effect, whereas Simon's possesses the flame effect. This gives him situational differences in certain matchups: unlike Simon, he can harm Red Pikmin, but he cannot remotely detonate explosives (such as Bombs). Otherwise, their moves are identical. Aesthetically, Richter has his own taunts and victory poses in reference to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, while his Holy Water's flame is blue compared to Simon's red flame.

Spirit

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  1,051. Richter Belmont

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	リヒター, Richter
English	Richter
French	Richter
German	Richter
Spanish	Richter
Italian	Richter
Chinese	Richter
Korean	릭터, Richter
Dutch	Richter
Russian	Рихтер

Trivia

• Richter is the only playable character whose debut console was the TurboGrafx-16, known as the PC Engine in Japan.
• Although Richter's name is the same between English and Japanese, the announcer pronounces it differently between regions. The English version pronounces it as /ˈrɪk-tər-/ ("rick-ter"), whereas the Japanese version pronounces it /ˈriː-tɑː/ ("ree-tah"). The latter reflects the German pronunciation of the name /ˈʁɪçtɐ/.

External link

• Article on the Castlevania Wiki.