Richter Belmont

For fighter info, see Richter (SSBU).

Richter Belmont
Official artwork of Richter from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Universe	Castlevania
Debut	Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (2010)
Console/platform of origin	PC Engine (Super CD-ROM²)
Species	Human
Gender	Male
English voice actor	David Vincent

Richter Belmont (リヒター・ベルモンド, Richter Belmondo) is a main character in several Castlevania games. He first appeared in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood as the main protagonist along with his blood relative Maria Renard (whom is an unlockable playable character and the first girl he rescues as well as the adoptive younger sister of his fiancée, Annette). He has gone on to become an unlockable playable character in later Castlevania titles.

Character description

File:RichterDX.png

Richter's official art for the European and Japanese release of Castlevania: Dracula X.

Richter's story begins as he is away training and studying a map of Dracula's Castle, before seeing smoke rising in the direction of his hometown, Aljiba. Rushing there on horseback and briefly encountering Death, Richter finds his hometown in flames and his fiancée, Annette Renard kidnapped by the newly resurrected Dracula and his army of monsters. Entering the castle halls and avoiding a grotesque monster known as the Behemoth, Richter rescues Annette's younger sister, Maria and the two team up to stop Dracula and save Annette, rescuing Iris, the daughter of a doctor, and Tera, the village nun.

Richter then makes his way to the Castle Keep for a final showdown against Dracula, with both combatants offering differing views on humanity. With Dracula defeated, the castle begins to collapse, as Richter, Maria, Annette, and the other women watch as the sun rises over the rubble. Five years later, Richter is posessed by the Dark Priest Shaft, not long after he entered the newly resurrected castle to investigate. Maria entered the castle herself to investigate his disappearance, which in turn forces Alucard to awaken from his slumber, due to the unexpected lack of a Belmont to handle what is going on. The posessed Richter does battle with Alucard in the Castle Keep, where Alucard is able to see the enchantments controlling Richter.

Because of his unknowing use of the holy whip for evil purposes, Richter gave up the whip to other descendants of the Belmont clan, including Reinhardt Schneider and the Morris clan. However, a caveat came with those who were not a direct descendant of the Belmonts: the whip would slowly drain the life away from its wielder, a fact discovered by John Morris and his friend Eric Lecarde in the aftermath of their encounter with Dracula. John died sometime after his son, Jonathan, inherited the whip, never telling him of its secrets and how it can unlock its true strength.

Jonathan and his friend Charlotte Aulin undertook the test of unlocking the whip's full power during their mission to destroy Dracula, where the power of the whip manifested as a memory of Richter. Upon defeating the Whip's Memory, Jonathan is given a few words of encouragement from Richter's spirit: "I'm counting on you..."

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Richter's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Richter will be an Echo Fighter for Simon in Ultimate, though it is noted that Simon himself takes inspiration from Richter as well, making them both derivatives of each other. He primarily differs aesthetically, having animations referencing Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, and is otherwise functionally identical to his ancestor albeit with subtle differences.

Trivia

• Richter is the only playable third-party character to have never appeared in a fighting game outside of Smash. He was however going to appear in Konami's 1998 fighter Battle Tryst alongside Simon, but was cut from the final game.
  • Snake and Simon appear in DreamMix TV World Fighters. Additionally, the latter appears in Castlevania Judgement, which is the Castlevania franchise's only fighting game, along with other characters in the franchise, including Richter's blood relative Maria Renard.
  • Sonic appears in Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Battle.
  • Mega Man appears in Marvel Vs. Capcom, as well as one of his own games, Mega Man: The Power Battle and its sequel.
  • Pac-Man appears as DLC in the PS3 and PS Vita versions of Street Fighter X Tekken, which also features Ryu.
  • Ryu is from a fighting game, being Street Fighter.
  • Cloud appears in Ehrgeiz and Dissidia Final Fantasy.
  • Bayonetta appears in Anarchy Reigns as DLC.
• Richter is the fifth third-party character to debut on a home console that is not manufactured by Nintendo, after Snake (MSX), Sonic (Sega Genesis), Cloud (Sony PlayStation) and Bayonetta (Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3). He is also the only character to debut on the PC Engine.
• Richter and Cloud are the only characters to not appear in an M-rated game, despite their respective franchises containing at least one.
• Richter and Simon are the first third party characters to have a tether recovery.
• Richter's original design from Rondo of Blood bears a strong resemblance to Ryu, and was changed in subsequent Castlevania games by Konami presumably to avoid a lawsuit form Capcom. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was likely able to use this design again because of Capcoms involvement with the game, along with the presence of Ryu himself.

External Link

• Article on the Castlevania Wiki.