For fighter info, seeRichter (SSBU).

Richter Belmont
Official artwork of Richter fromCastlevania: Harmony of Despair andCastlevania: 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
Englishvoice actor	David Vincent
Japanesevoice 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 theCastlevania 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. Since debuting as the main protagonist ofCastlevania: Rondo of Blood, Richter has reappeared as an unlockable playable character in laterCastlevania games.

Richter made hisSuper Smash Bros. series debut inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside his ancestor,Simon.

Origin[edit]

Born inWallachia in 1773, Richter Belmont is a descendant of the Belmont Clan, succeeding his grandfather Juste Belmont and preceding Julius Belmont. The Clan was founded in 1094 by Leon Belmont, who swore that he and his descendants would always "hunt the night" in the wake of his betrayal by Mathias Cronqvist, his once-best friend who willingly transformed into a vampire and would later become known as the infamousDracula.

Unlike a typical vampire hunter, Richter boasts peak human physiology, thanks to the Belmont Clan's centuries-old training regimen and the magical blood of Sypha Belnades, a powerful witch who married Richter's distant ancestor, Trevor Belmont, after they defeated Dracula. Like Juste, Richter is also able to utilize the magical capabilities he inherited from Sypha. In Richter's case, he is able to use an Item Crash, which unleashes the hidden power of a sub-weapon, such as the Hydro Storm ofHoly Water and theGrand Cross of aCross. Unlike Juste, he is able to do it naturally instead of having to rely on a combination of spellbooks and sub-weapons.

In 1792 during the events ofCastlevania: Rondo of Blood, Richter's story begins as he is training with the Belmont Clan's heirloom, a holy whip known as the Vampire Killer, and studying a map of Dracula's Castle. However, his training is interrupted when he sees smoke rising in the direction of Aljiba, the hometown of his fiancée Annette. Rushing there on horseback and fighting briefly against Death, Richter finds Aljiba in flames and Annette among other women kidnapped by the newly resurrected Dracula and his army of monsters.

Entering the castle's halls and avoiding a grotesque monster known as the Behemoth, Richter rescues Maria Renard, a 12-year-old vampire huntress and distant relative of the Belmont Clan. Although Richter chuckles dismissively at Maria's claims of being a vampire huntress, he later accepts her enthusiastic help upon being impressed by her mastery of magic and dominion over animals. En route to stopping Dracula and saving Annette, they rescue Iris, the daughter of a doctor, and Tera, one of Aljiba's nuns.

Richter then makes his way to the Castle Keep for a final showdown against Dracula, with both combatants offering differing views on humanity. After a fierce battle against the fully powered Dark Lord, Richter succeeded his great-great grandfatherSimon Belmont as the fourth Belmont to kill Dracula. With Dracula defeated, Richter, Maria, Annette and the other women escape in time to watch the sun rise over the castle's rubble.

Five years later in 1797, Richter is brainwashed by the dark priest Shaft not long after he entered Dracula's newly reconstructed castle to investigate its reappearance. Maria entered the castle herself to investigate his disappearance, which in turn forcesAlucard to awaken from his centuries-long slumber because of the unexpected lack of a Belmont to handle the situation. These events lead toCastlevania: Symphony of the Night, which culminates with the brainwashed Richter doing battle with Alucard in the Castle Keep. Alucard is able to see Shaft's enchantments controlling Richter before he ultimately saves Richter.

Richter and the Belmont Clan seemingly vanish soon after, fading into obscurity and leaving future generations to wonder if they ever existed in the first place. This caused a major problem when Dracula returned sometime in the 1800s, and unrelated vampire hunter Shanoa was chosen to defeat him during the events ofCastlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

Because of the prophecy originally stated by Nostradamus about the end of the world and the return of Dracula in 1999, the Belmont Clan bequeathed the Vampire Killer to other descendants of the their family, those being that of the Morris Clan. The Morris Clan was given official guardianship over the Vampire Killer sometime before 1917, holding onto it until the time came for the Belmont Clan to reclaim it.

However, a caveat came with those who were not a direct descendant of the Belmonts: the Vampire Killer 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. During the events ofCastlevania: Bloodlines, John was wounded during the battle against the Count and his niece, Elizabeth Bartley; however, his wounds were not healing, similarly to the curse that Simon Belmont endured centuries before. Some time before the beginning ofCastlevania: Portrait of Ruin, John's wounds ultimately claimed his life; his son, Jonathan, inherited the whip without learning of its secrets, which John had done because of his desire for his son to rely on his own strength instead of the whip's.

In 1944 during the events ofCastlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Jonathan and his childhood friend Charlotte Aulin (a distant relative of the Belnades Clan) can undertake the test of unlocking the Vampire Killer's full power during their mission to destroy Dracula. Due to Richter being the last full-blooded Belmont to wield the Vampire Killer, the whip's power manifests as an ethereal memory of him that wields a fully powered version of itself, several of Richter's sub-weapons, and his Grand Cross Item Crash. Upon defeating the Whip's Memory, Jonathan is given a few words of encouragement from Richter's spirit: "I'm counting on you..."

InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

As a playable character[edit]

Richter, as he appears inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Richter appears as anewcomer inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, and was formally announced alongsideChrom,Dark Samus,King K. Rool, and his ancestorSimon during theSuper Smash Bros.Direct on August 8th, 2018.^[1] According to information published by Nintendo Dream in early 2019,Super Smash Bros. series creatorMasahiro Sakurai confirmed that Richter and Simon's inclusions were facilitated by the combination of them being popular requests on theSuper Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot and the small number of third-party series to represent in theSuper Smash Bros. series.^[2]

In an interview with Famitsu on December 12, 2018, Sakurai mentioned that he and the development team sought to make Richter and Simon function as similarly to theirCastlevania appearances as possible. To reflect this, their designs are based on their appearances inCastlevania: Harmony of Despair;^[3] in the case of Richter, he also wears his glove and wrist tape fromCastlevania: Rondo of Blood, while his hairstyle is a combination of hisRondo of Blood andHarmony of Despair designs.

Richter and Simon's whip-based tilt attacks also have ranges similar to the Vampire Killer's standard attack inCastlevania's NES installments, whereas their smash attacks have even longer ranges.^[4] 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 likeChain.^[1] 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.^[1][4]

Although Richter is anEcho Fighter of Simon, Sakurai noted that Simon's moveset takes inspiration from Richter'sCastlevania techniques to a greater extent as well, making them derivatives of each other.^[1] On a related note, there is only one mechanical difference between them: Richter'sHoly Water possesses theaura effect, whereas Simon's possesses theflame effect. This gives him situational differences in certain matchups: unlike Simon, he can harm RedPikmin, but he cannot remotely detonate explosives (such asBombs). Otherwise, their moves are identical. Aesthetically, Richter has his own taunts and victory poses in reference toRondo of Blood andSymphony of the Night, while his Holy Water's flame is blue compared to Simon's red flame.^[1]

Spirit[edit]

Names in other languages[edit]

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[edit]

• 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, theannouncer 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/.

References[edit]

External link[edit]

• Article on theCastlevania Wiki.

v • d • e Castlevania universe
Fighters	Simon (SSBU) ·Richter (SSBU)
Assist Trophy	Alucard
Boss	Dracula
Stage	Dracula's Castle
Item	Death's Scythe
Other	Dracula's Castle
Spirits	Spirits
Music	Ultimate

• Characters
• Castlevania universe
• Richter
• Third-party characters
• Konami
• Spirits