Topic: Idea on remastering Dawn of Sorrow

[suomynona]

Yeah, I know this will never happen with Konami being an asshole, but I just had some ideas some day around and now seeing it, just felt like sharing it, possibly get some ideas?

Dawn of Sorrow Remaster
- Prologue: Defeating Graham and finding out that Soma is Dracula in AoS. (Deja Vu of SotN)

- Magical seal system no longer exists (for obvious reasons).

- Hammer is more charismatic figure and has badass theme from AoS back.

- Julius is a charismatic figure just like AoS.

- Full voiceover with the original casts if possible.

- Julius' Backdash is now Omnia Vitas from AoS

- Dark side of Dracula (Was not resurrected in part of Soma but roaming around the Abyss)

- 4-Phase Final Boss

- Kojima Ayami's artwork (all based on clothing from the original DoS artwork) with different facial expressions (First for Kojima artwork Castlevania game)

- Arrangement of Ruined Castle Corridor plays in Silenced Ruins (Catacomb)

- Clamih Solais is the ultimate weapon again, having strongest power and fast motion.

- Better graphic standard to keep up with the technology.

- Zephyr Resembles Dio Brando even more (Throws Clock Pendulum(supposed to be Road Roller) if Kaiser Knuckle is used). Also Zephyr gets its own dialogue.

- The villains are redeemed (supposedly, the dark side of their soul is perished during final boss)

- The Abyss is as big as the main castle, and is separated into newly designed sectors with new bosses, new design, new
concept and new composed music. It houses Final Boss Room in the centre and the aim of the Abyss part is to enter this part.

- Yoko, Hammer, and each of the villains gets a newly composed theme. Mina's theme is arranged from Mina's theme from AoS. Hammer's theme is arrange of Hammer's theme from AoS. Yoko's theme would be remix of Mad Forest

- Change the stage names to:
Demon Guest House - Guest House
The Pinnacle - Top Floor
Cursed Clock Tower - Clock Tower
Wizadry lab - Laboratory
Garden of Madness - Castle Garden
Subterranean Hell - Underground lake
Silenced Ruins - Catacomb
The Dark Chapel - Chapel
Condemned Tower - Watchtower
Mine of Judgment - Cellar

Story

- Julius is not defeated by Dario, but Soma enters while the fight is going on Julius' lead. Then Dario is teleported by Celia, retreating.

- In the Bad route, Soma does not believe Arikado's fake Mina story and Arikado is teleported outside. Then he strikes Celia in revenge.

- In the Good route, Arikado persuades Soma by saying this kind of revenge is not Mina wants and is what she urge to prevent, telling Soma to look at the Talisman and think about her. This holds Soma off until Mina arrives in spot. And his last remains of Dracula except for his Power of Dominance. And Dario regains his Power and Dmitri is resurrected upon so. Mina remains in Yoko's room and Soma continues on.

- Julius is not exhausted from using Grand Cross. He instead claims that Soma can't do such thing as this.

- Upon Entering Abyss, Soma is informed by Arikado that Yoko and Mina is caught, and Hammer is going crazy. After this, Arikado replaces Yoko in weapon enhance job.

- At the final room (looks like another throne room with a black hole in centre instead of corpse field), Celia tries to Yoko and Mina, but Dmitri Backstabs her and sacrifices all three of them is to resurrect the true Evil Dracula. And Dracula, as soon as he is resurrected, Dracula seizes soul of Dario and Dmitri and enhances Yoko and Mina's seal.

- Soma defeats all three seal and Guardian (1st Phase: Resembles 3rd form Dracula in Dracula's Curse. 2nd Phase: Resembles Demon Dracula from Rondo of Blood. 3rd Phase: Resembles Dracula+Death in Portrait of Ruin) to fight Dracula. Dracula fights Soma, debating about human nature between their sins and their kind-heart, and Dracula is defeated and finally sealed for good.

- Better ending: Castle is destroyed, Soma looses his Power of Dominance, real this time. (Sealed together with Dracula to prevent another event like this from ever happening again) Villains redeem themselves, Hammer and Yoko hang out, and Soma and Mina is alone, Soma confess to Mina and kisses.

Julius Mode

- Add Hammer in Julius mode (Grant replacement)

- Alucard Joins after Puppet Master is defeated (Just returned to the usual Alucard), Yoko joins after Dario is Defeated (Thaws out of petrification which Dario casted after defeating her, just like Sypha), Hammer joins after Zephyr is Defeated (Just rocks in)

- Alucard can perform slide kick again and Yoko can now jump kick.

- Dario and Dmitri has its own dialogues exchanged with Julius (forced swap upon entering the room).

- Soma and the Protagonists exchange dialogues upon entry and Soma's defeat. and it differs from who enters the throne room and who strikes him down.

- Change music to arrangement of:
Heart of Fire in The Lost Village
Dracula's Castle in Demon Guest House (Guest House)
Mad Forest in Garden of Madness (Castle Garden)
Clockworks in Cursed Clock Tower (Clock Tower)
Bloody Tears in Condemned Tower (Watchtower)
Beginning in The Dark Chapel (Chapel)
Vampire Killer in Wizardry Labs (Laboratory)
Aquarius in The Pinnacle (Top Floor)
Monster Dance in Mine of Judgment (Cellar)
Stalker in Silenced Ruins (Catacomb)

- Allows to change music between arrangement and the original ver. from NES Castlevanias

- Allows to change character sprites to Julius - Trevor, Hammer - Grant, Yoko - Sypha, Alucard - CVIII Alucard

[X]

-Julius isn't nerfed as he was in DoS and has a more powerful (and better looking) Vampirekiller whip. Like what we see in PoR

- Kojima Ayami's artwork (all based on clothing from the original DoS artwork) with different facial expressions (First for Kojima artwork Castlevania game)

So long as the men aren't made pretty    lol.

[TatteredSeraph]

So long as the men aren't made pretty    lol.

Aside for Alucard, at the very least.  Allie's a dhampir, so having an edge of unnatural beauty fits in his case.

[suomynona]

-Julius isn't nerfed as he was in DoS and has a more powerful (and better looking) Vampirekiller whip. Like what we see in PoR

So long as the men aren't made pretty    lol.

Julius and Simon was all epic in AoS. Don't need to be concerned man.

Also, only character who Kojima failed is Simon in Chronicles.

[Chernabogue]

Changing the name and the music tracks would strip the game from the little originality it had.

[suomynona]

Changing the name and the music tracks would strip the game from the little originality it had.

Change of music is only for Julius Mode. The original/arranged ver of the music, except for Catacomb, is kept in the main game.

Also I wouldn't think of changing the stage names if they weren't cheesy. (srsly wtf's Subterranean Hell)

[FeRcHuLeS]

Use portraits based on Ayami Kojima's work instead of those from anime.

[suomynona]

Use portraits based on Ayami Kojima's work instead of those from anime.

Already said. 100% using Ayami version portraits when I replace artwork.
thats on my No 0 priority man.

[Claimh Solais]

I'll offer my opinion on your ideas, while kinda meshing my ideas in the middle.

- Prologue: Defeating Graham and finding out that Soma is Dracula in AoS. (Deja Vu of SotN)

Not really necessary. It's not even the same situation as SotN considering the prologue of SotN was the very end of RoB, whereas the scene you picked is like the 3/4 point. There's still plenty that happens afterward so using that as a flashback seems mostly pointless.

I think it'd be better that, if they were to do an AoS flashback, that it's just done in a cutscene that summarizes the events of AoS through Soma's narration, with remade scenes from the original in the background.

- Magical seal system no longer exists (for obvious reasons).

Yup. Keep the seals themselves in, for the sake of game pacing, but drawing them was stupid. Leave that out.

Even changing them to keys or something would be fine.

- Hammer is more charismatic figure and has badass theme from AoS back.

Only agree because I absolutely hate Hammer's portrayal in DoS. His theme song isn't necessary, though I certainly wouldn't mind if it were back.

- Julius is a charismatic figure just like AoS.

Don't really see what you're getting at here. Julius is mostly the same as he was in AoS personality-wise.

- Full voiceover with the original casts if possible.

Japanese cast, yes. If it's the English cast, then I definitely want some recasts from their voices in Harmony of Despair.

For Soma, get rid of Erik Davies. He was an alright choice in HD, but I feel like a younger-sounding voice would suit him better. Robbie Daymond immediately comes to mind. Damn talented actor that I feel could suit all sides of Soma's personality and character.

For Julius, get rid of David Lodge. Not a bad actor by any means, but he sounds way too young. Julius is in his mid-50s, but he makes Julius sound like he's in his early 30s. I think Michael McConnohie or Jamieson Price would suit him much better. They've got a more natural older voice, and could definitely portray Julius has that veteran warrior he's supposed to be.

As for Yoko and Arikado, I'm fine with Karen Strassman and Yuri Lowenthal staying on the characters. They're very talented actors. Yuri Lowenthal was pretty perfect as Alucard in Judgment, and is capable of being much better, if the games had better voice directors.

For people like Abaddon or the Puppet Master, they could probably be lazy and just reuse the Portrait of Ruin and Harmony of Despair voices for them.

As for the characters without English voices, I'd say these actors would be good:
Mina - Stephanie Sheh. Stephanie plays a lot of these characters for good reason. She works.
Hammer - Phil LaMarr. Phil is an excellent voice for the calm and cool soldier type, easily.
Celia - Cindy Robinson. Cindy does really well as the villainess type of character.
Dario - Roger Craig Smith. Taking into account his performances as Tales' Zagi or Naruto's Deidara, he could work really well as the off-the-hook "burn everything" Dario.
Dmitrii - Matt Mercer. Matt could really deliver that smug demeanor that Dmitrii has, all the while giving that evil edge he'd need to be a major villain.

- Julius' Backdash is now Omnia Vitas from AoS

Why not both? Omnia Vanitas is primarily an evasive maneuver. The backdash actually comes into play when attacking, since you can use it to cancel out of an attack for an immediate follow-up.

- Dark side of Dracula (Was not resurrected in part of Soma but roaming around the Abyss)

Dunno what you really mean by this. It's really vague.

- 4-Phase Final Boss

Absolutely not. A good final boss should be great but not overstay its welcome. Two phases are good, as both Menace (I believe?) and Somacula have. What would be good is actually designing a unique second form for Somacula, since just copying RoB Dracula was really lazy.

As for Menace... eh, just redesign his battle completely. That was pretty lame.

I thought the new form of DXC Dracula was cool and all, but I felt it made the battle go on for too long. Granted, one long boss fight is still better than two boss fights consecutively (a major problem I had with both LoI and CoD), but that's besides the point.

- Kojima Ayami's artwork (all based on clothing from the original DoS artwork) with different facial expressions (First for Kojima artwork Castlevania game)

As long as it ain't the generic anime art, I'll take anything. Though I'd personally prefer the artist from Order of Ecclesia.

- Arrangement of Ruined Castle Corridor plays in Silenced Ruins (Catacomb)

Not really necessary. The game's soundtrack is fine as is.

- Clamih Solais is the ultimate weapon again, having strongest power and fast motion.

I don't think I'd care one way or the other about this one.

- Better graphic standard to keep up with the technology.

This one should be obvious. I'd prefer a 2.5D game though, simply because it allows for alternate costumes in a much more efficient way.

- Zephyr Resembles Dio Brando even more (Throws Clock Pendulum(supposed to be Road Roller) if Kaiser Knuckle is used). Also Zephyr gets its own dialogue.

Please don't. Zephyr is just meant as a nod to Dio Brando, not as a complete copy. He's not an important character, either, so adding dialogue for him is entirely unnecessary.

- The villains are redeemed (supposedly, the dark side of their soul is perished during final boss)

I'd prefer not on this, but it could go either way.

- The Abyss is as big as the main castle, and is separated into newly designed sectors with new bosses, new design, new
concept and new composed music. It houses Final Boss Room in the centre and the aim of the Abyss part is to enter this part.

I dunno. That'd make it unnecessarily long. The abyss wasn't meant as a "second half", just as a final area. Making the abyss that large would just, in the end, feel like padding.

Sure, the 'vania games are short, but that's kind of the point. They're short and sweet, and that's why they're easy to jump in and replay.

- Yoko, Hammer, and each of the villains gets a newly composed theme. Mina's theme is arranged from Mina's theme from AoS. Hammer's theme is arrange of Hammer's theme from AoS. Yoko's theme would be remix of Mad Forest

The characters really don't need theme songs. While it'd be cool for say, Dario and Dmitrii and maybe Death to have their own boss themes, theme songs are really unnecessary for this kind of game.

- Change the stage names to:
Demon Guest House - Guest House
The Pinnacle - Top Floor
Cursed Clock Tower - Clock Tower
Wizadry lab - Laboratory
Garden of Madness - Castle Garden
Subterranean Hell - Underground lake
Silenced Ruins - Catacomb
The Dark Chapel - Chapel
Condemned Tower - Watchtower
Mine of Judgment - Cellar

...Why?

- Julius is not defeated by Dario, but Soma enters while the fight is going on Julius' lead. Then Dario is teleported by Celia, retreating.

Undermines Dario as a villain, and Soma as a protagonist. If Julius is that strong to begin with, then it lessens the impact that Soma and the player have on the overall game.

- In the Bad route, Soma does not believe Arikado's fake Mina story and Arikado is teleported outside. Then he strikes Celia in revenge.

- In the Good route, Arikado persuades Soma by saying this kind of revenge is not Mina wants and is what she urge to prevent, telling Soma to look at the Talisman and think about her. This holds Soma off until Mina arrives in spot. And his last remains of Dracula except for his Power of Dominance. And Dario regains his Power and Dmitri is resurrected upon so. Mina remains in Yoko's room and Soma continues on.

These changes also seem really unnecessary. The story really isn't all that great, but these seem like really minor things to change.

- Julius is not exhausted from using Grand Cross. He instead claims that Soma can't do such thing as this.

I guess? I don't really see the point of this change.

- Upon Entering Abyss, Soma is informed by Arikado that Yoko and Mina is caught, and Hammer is going crazy. After this, Arikado replaces Yoko in weapon enhance job.

- At the final room (looks like another throne room with a black hole in centre instead of corpse field), Celia tries to Yoko and Mina, but Dmitri Backstabs her and sacrifices all three of them is to resurrect the true Evil Dracula. And Dracula, as soon as he is resurrected, Dracula seizes soul of Dario and Dmitri and enhances Yoko and Mina's seal.

Killing off both Yoko and Mina so unceremoniously is a really weak change to the plot. While I think having at least one person on the heroes' side die is good since it actually adds stakes (no pun intended) to the plot, having both Yoko and Mina killed off is a bad idea. Especially since Mina "dying" is what drove Soma to the brink in the bad route anyway.

I get this is meant as a "bad ending" sort of deal, but the whole idea of bad endings in the 'vanias ever since SotN was that the bad ending doesn't happen at the end of the game. The whole point of SotN's was to make you think "...That was it?" and encourage you to explore more, to find more items that actually affect the outcome of the plot, which then opens up a whole new segment of the game. Nearly all Metroidvanias since SotN have followed this formula (CotM didn't, but that was made by a different team. I really don't remember if HoD did or not. That's the only one I haven't played more than once).

- Soma defeats all three seal and Guardian (1st Phase: Resembles 3rd form Dracula in Dracula's Curse. 2nd Phase: Resembles Demon Dracula from Rondo of Blood. 3rd Phase: Resembles Dracula+Death in Portrait of Ruin) to fight Dracula. Dracula fights Soma, debating about human nature between their sins and their kind-heart, and Dracula is defeated and finally sealed for good.

This just goes back to the whole "overstaying his welcome" on the final boss thing.

- Better ending: Castle is destroyed, Soma looses his Power of Dominance, real this time. (Sealed together with Dracula to prevent another event like this from ever happening again) Villains redeem themselves, Hammer and Yoko hang out, and Soma and Mina is alone, Soma confess to Mina and kisses.

It's pretty much implied his Dominance is gone. A romantic relationship is also implied multiple times between Soma and Mina. The game doesn't need everything spelled out for us. Implications oftentimes work better than things being explicitly shown.

- Add Hammer in Julius mode (Grant replacement)

Definitely.

- Alucard Joins after Puppet Master is defeated (Just returned to the usual Alucard), Yoko joins after Dario is Defeated (Thaws out of petrification which Dario casted after defeating her, just like Sypha), Hammer joins after Zephyr is Defeated (Just rocks in)

Just leave the positions as they are. There's no real reason to move them around.

As far as Hammer, why even have him so far into the game? The whole characters thing is based on Castlevania III, and the furthest character into the game is Alucard, and simply taking the bottom path, you find him four stages in, you still have a ton of the game left.

Yoko is found in The Lost Village, and Alucard is found in the Demon Guest House. If Julius Mode were altered to actually follow the progression of Soma's story, then there's still three whole areas in between those that Hammer could be placed in which would even out the spacing, leaving a huge chunk of the game left for you to experiment with all four characters.

- Alucard can perform slide kick again and Yoko can now jump kick.

Yes. Even if it's just Alucard's lazy wolf dash from Harmony of Despair.

- Dario and Dmitri has its own dialogues exchanged with Julius (forced swap upon entering the room).

Doesn't really need a forced swap. It'd be cool if they did it the same way as the Soma battle. The dialogue is just with whoever you're using. Julius Mode having a much more fleshed out story would definitely be really cool.

- Soma and the Protagonists exchange dialogues upon entry and Soma's defeat. and it differs from who enters the throne room and who strikes him down.

Slightly touched upon in DoS. Fleshed out more would be cool.

- Change music to arrangement of:
Heart of Fire in The Lost Village
Dracula's Castle in Demon Guest House (Guest House)
Mad Forest in Garden of Madness (Castle Garden)
Clockworks in Cursed Clock Tower (Clock Tower)
Bloody Tears in Condemned Tower (Watchtower)
Beginning in The Dark Chapel (Chapel)
Vampire Killer in Wizardry Labs (Laboratory)
Aquarius in The Pinnacle (Top Floor)
Monster Dance in Mine of Judgment (Cellar)
Stalker in Silenced Ruins (Catacomb)

Not really necessary to have this many rearrangements of classic songs. Just a few is cool. Too many is a bit overkill. Some of your choices are also strange choices. Bloody Tears would work better in a chapel, since it's more often arranged in that Church-esque feel that RoB put it in (where it's also played in the chapel). Beginning would feel weird there.

As for the Mine of Judgment, it's already a classic rearrangement.

- Allows to change music between arrangement and the original ver. from NES Castlevanias

I wouldn't care much for this either way.

- Allows to change character sprites to Julius - Trevor, Hammer - Grant, Yoko - Sypha, Alucard - CVIII Alucard

Pretty much why I'd prefer a 2.5D look. The whole "costumes" or "skins" thing is much easier to do with 3D models. It could even allow for more options. Like:

JULIUS: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Trevor Belmont
YOKO: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Sypha Belnades
ALUCARD: Alucard | Genya Arikado | CV3 Alucard
HAMMER: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Grant Danasty

Having it in sprites makes skins or costumes harder to do since every sprite needs to be redrawn to reflect the skin. With 3D character models, a character model could be slapped over the same animations, albeit with some tweaking (in the event, say, Grant might have a much smaller build than Hammer, so animations would have to be slightly tweaked so his body doesn't look all out of whack when moving).

------------------------------------

If there's anything I'd add to this, it's get rid of all the dumb touch-screen gimmickry. The stupid ice-blocks in particular. Dumb addition in Soma's story, and outright chore in Julius'.

[theplottwist]

You want Julius to be a badass so much that you made Soma useless in the process.

[suomynona]

You want Julius to be a badass so much that you made Soma useless in the process.

Not much. In AoS, both Julius and Soma was badass and Soma was still a epic character. If there is a badass side character doesn't means that main character is less badass.

[theplottwist]

Not much. In AoS, both Julius and Soma was badass and Soma was still a epic character. If there is a badass side character doesn't means that main character is less badass.

I might've explained myself wrong.

In AoS there is an excuse for Julius to not solve everything on his own:

1. Only Soma, who is Dracula, can go where Chaos is and do it himself.
2. Julius spends most of the plot as an amnesiac and without the Vampire Killer.

In DoS, however, all excuses are lifted. If Julius is a badass and has no drawbacks, he can literally single-handedly solve the entire plot by himself. No matter where Dario retreats to, Julius can scourge and stomp the entire castle into submission. Doesn't run out of Grand Cross power? Then you have a Terminator kiliing everything on his path and not a single barrier can stop him.

Soma is useless -- not "less badass" -- because the plot depends on Julius running out of resources for Soma to take care of everything. If Julius doesn't have a drawback, then Soma can just go home and be a family man.

On your idea up there you present no means to remove Julius from the plot, making way for Soma. What would you propose?

[suomynona]

Thx man. Appreciate ur effort here. Just my rebuttal here. Don't take it serious plz or this topic will drift off-course

Not really necessary. It's not even the same situation as SotN considering the prologue of SotN was the very end of RoB, whereas the scene you picked is like the 3/4 point. There's still plenty that happens afterward so using that as a flashback seems mostly pointless.

I think it'd be better that, if they were to do an AoS flashback, that it's just done in a cutscene that summarizes the events of AoS through Soma's narration, with remade scenes from the original in the background.

Yeah. Should have gone with Chaos battle or just recap. Was just fascinated with Dance of Illusion from SotN.

Yup. Keep the seals themselves in, for the sake of game pacing, but drawing them was stupid. Leave that out.

Even changing them to keys or something would be fine.

No need word.

Only agree because I absolutely hate Hammer's portrayal in DoS. His theme song isn't necessary, though I certainly wouldn't mind if it were back.

remix of AoS theme would be fine, but even more badass original song is cherry on top of cupcake.

Don't really see what you're getting at here. Julius is mostly the same as he was in AoS personality-wise.

Make Julius as OP as AoS, I mean.

Japanese cast, yes. If it's the English cast, then I definitely want some recasts from their voices in Harmony of Despair.

For Soma, get rid of Erik Davies. He was an alright choice in HD, but I feel like a younger-sounding voice would suit him better. Robbie Daymond immediately comes to mind. Damn talented actor that I feel could suit all sides of Soma's personality and character.

For Julius, get rid of David Lodge. Not a bad actor by any means, but he sounds way too young. Julius is in his mid-50s, but he makes Julius sound like he's in his early 30s. I think Michael McConnohie or Jamieson Price would suit him much better. They've got a more natural older voice, and could definitely portray Julius has that veteran warrior he's supposed to be.

As for Yoko and Arikado, I'm fine with Karen Strassman and Yuri Lowenthal staying on the characters. They're very talented actors. Yuri Lowenthal was pretty perfect as Alucard in Judgment, and is capable of being much better, if the games had better voice directors.

For people like Abaddon or the Puppet Master, they could probably be lazy and just reuse the Portrait of Ruin and Harmony of Despair voices for them.

As for the characters without English voices, I'd say these actors would be good:
Mina - Stephanie Sheh. Stephanie plays a lot of these characters for good reason. She works.
Hammer - Phil LaMarr. Phil is an excellent voice for the calm and cool soldier type, easily.
Celia - Cindy Robinson. Cindy does really well as the villainess type of character.
Dario - Roger Craig Smith. Taking into account his performances as Tales' Zagi or Naruto's Deidara, he could work really well as the off-the-hook "burn everything" Dario.
Dmitrii - Matt Mercer. Matt could really deliver that smug demeanor that Dmitrii has, all the while giving that evil edge he'd need to be a major villain.

dunno much on english voice actors, but would be fine if the outcome is good.

(click to show/hide)

Appreciate anything but that stupid SotN original voice.

Why not both? Omnia Vanitas is primarily an evasive maneuver. The backdash actually comes into play when attacking, since you can use it to cancel out of an attack for an immediate follow-up.

Backdash would be good, if its not as weak as DoS Julius backdash. Also OV is cool.

Dunno what you really mean by this. It's really vague.

Yeh. This was just pulled out of my mac stickies. I mean by the evil soul of Dracula is the main antagonist of game. Cuz u no. DoS villains are nowhere as good as Graham and Chaos. Just needed more epicness.

Absolutely not. A good final boss should be great but not overstay its welcome. Two phases are good, as both Menace (I believe?) and Somacula have. What would be good is actually designing a unique second form for Somacula, since just copying RoB Dracula was really lazy.

As for Menace... eh, just redesign his battle completely. That was pretty lame.

I thought the new form of DXC Dracula was cool and all, but I felt it made the battle go on for too long. Granted, one long boss fight is still better than two boss fights consecutively (a major problem I had with both LoI and CoD), but that's besides the point.

Well, CVIII and DXC was 3-phase. Also, they probably have to go down quite quick. 1500 hp on first 3-phase I guess? Well, it will be justified when is is well made (at least better then damn stupid menace!) Also  forgot to say, definitely add Dance of Illusion. That was DoS's best aspect.

As long as it ain't the generic anime art, I'll take anything. Though I'd personally prefer the artist from Order of Ecclesia.

Just anything. Just anything. Hell, even FF7 or Pokemon artist would be a good option. That damn art was just as horrible as Menace. But, u no what?

(click to show/hide)

Kojima Ayami Rulz! maybe except for Simon u no

Not really necessary. The game's soundtrack is fine as is.

Just wanted to put Soma's theme on the game where Soma is the protagonist. 

I don't think I'd care one way or the other about this one.

I just want another OP weapon for DoS, also a signature weapon for Soma. Alucard has Alucard Sword Also Crissaegrim/Valmanway, Belmont have VK and Eric has Alucard's Spear. I just want Soma's Clamih Solais.

This one should be obvious. I'd prefer a 2.5D game though, simply because it allows for alternate costumes in a much more efficient way.

Definitely. I'd prefer pixelated 2D (like SotN), but definitely improved in quality and size (actually to have facial expression). Also, if we see how Maria looked in DXC, yeh. I'd prefer full 2D.

Please don't. Zephyr is just meant as a nod to Dio Brando, not as a complete copy. He's not an important character, either, so adding dialogue for him is entirely unnecessary.

Yeh. I'm kind of JoJo maniac. But, still, if it is to imitate Dio in a slightest bit, Road Roller Reference is most basic.

I'd prefer not on this, but it could go either way.

Yeah. Sort of. I just wanted to tell the very end of Castlevania tale. "Dracula is dead. Everyone is happy and fine."

I dunno. That'd make it unnecessarily long. The abyss wasn't meant as a "second half", just as a final area. Making the abyss that large would just, in the end, feel like padding.

Sure, the 'vania games are short, but that's kind of the point. They're short and sweet, and that's why they're easy to jump in and replay.

I wanted it to act like Inverted Castle in SotN. Just to make things more interesting.

The characters really don't need theme songs. While it'd be cool for say, Dario and Dmitrii and maybe Death to have their own boss themes, theme songs are really unnecessary for this kind of game.

Well, I don't think going that deep is unnecessary, but, I think at least Mina and Yoko, also Hammer needs their own.

...Why?

Erm... Because... They were kinda STUPID? (srlsy, Subterranean Hell?)
Rather have them short and punchy.

Undermines Dario as a villain, and Soma as a protagonist. If Julius is that strong to begin with, then it lessens the impact that Soma and the player have on the overall game.

I had a quite a intense debate about it. It's called "AoS or DoS?" in classic Castlevania Thread. My arguments will say my point.

These changes also seem really unnecessary. The story really isn't all that great, but these seem like really minor things to change.

I guess? I don't really see the point of this change.

Killing off both Yoko and Mina so unceremoniously is a really weak change to the plot. While I think having at least one person on the heroes' side die is good since it actually adds stakes (no pun intended) to the plot, having both Yoko and Mina killed off is a bad idea. Especially since Mina "dying" is what drove Soma to the brink in the bad route anyway.

Need to tell you, at that point, they're not dead. I added this to first, add a bigger motivation for Soma, second, to make the story more intense, third, to get the romance cracking up. Soma's definitely enraged, but he'll be informed that he can still save her. Story short, Soma's motivation will be same with Juste in HoD.

I get this is meant as a "bad ending" sort of deal, but the whole idea of bad endings in the 'vanias ever since SotN was that the bad ending doesn't happen at the end of the game. The whole point of SotN's was to make you think "...That was it?" and encourage you to explore more, to find more items that actually affect the outcome of the plot, which then opens up a whole new segment of the game. Nearly all Metroidvanias since SotN have followed this formula (CotM didn't, but that was made by a different team. I really don't remember if HoD did or not. That's the only one I haven't played more than once).

Oh, the ending crossway is still Garden of Madness.

It's pretty much implied his Dominance is gone. A romantic relationship is also implied multiple times between Soma and Mina. The game doesn't need everything spelled out for us. Implications oftentimes work better than things being explicitly shown.

Well, it's good to see the peak of that romance. Trevor-Sypha relationship was less told in-game, but it ended in marriage. What's problem with kiss if their relationship was told throughout two games? Also, Just felt like too much of 'cliffhanging gone wrong' (they probably intended another sequel).

Just leave the positions as they are. There's no real reason to move them around.

U no, its like more reference to CVIII.

As far as Hammer, why even have him so far into the game? The whole characters thing is based on Castlevania III, and the furthest character into the game is Alucard, and simply taking the bottom path, you find him four stages in, you still have a ton of the game left.

Well, with the second part of game (bigger Abyss) left, it's only quarter from finish.

Yoko is found in The Lost Village, and Alucard is found in the Demon Guest House. If Julius Mode were altered to actually follow the progression of Soma's story, then there's still three whole areas in between those that Hammer could be placed in which would even out the spacing, leaving a huge chunk of the game left for you to experiment with all four characters.

Again, reference to CVIII. Alucard was in near halfway of the game.

Yes. Even if it's just Alucard's lazy wolf dash from Harmony of Despair.

Or just make a brand new kickass slide kick for Alucard.

Doesn't really need a forced swap. It'd be cool if they did it the same way as the Soma battle. The dialogue is just with whoever you're using. Julius Mode having a much more fleshed out story would definitely be really cool.

I c there. Can't even remember y I even put it in

Slightly touched upon in DoS. Fleshed out more would be cool.

Yeah. Can't argue with that.

Not really necessary to have this many rearrangements of classic songs. Just a few is cool. Too many is a bit overkill. Some of your choices are also strange choices. Bloody Tears would work better in a chapel, since it's more often arranged in that Church-esque feel that RoB put it in (where it's also played in the chapel). Beginning would feel weird there.

As for the Mine of Judgment, it's already a classic rearrangement.

Yeah. This instance I got bit over the top. I originally only intended Heart of Fire, Mad Forest, Clockworks, Dracula's Castle and Beginning.

Pretty much why I'd prefer a 2.5D look. The whole "costumes" or "skins" thing is much easier to do with 3D models. It could even allow for more options. Like:

JULIUS: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Trevor Belmont
YOKO: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Sypha Belnades
ALUCARD: Alucard | Genya Arikado | CV3 Alucard
HAMMER: DoS Attire | AoS Attire | Grant Danasty

Having it in sprites makes skins or costumes harder to do since every sprite needs to be redrawn to reflect the skin. With 3D character models, a character model could be slapped over the same animations, albeit with some tweaking (in the event, say, Grant might have a much smaller build than Hammer, so animations would have to be slightly tweaked so his body doesn't look all out of whack when moving).

You actually took one step further! Agreed so much.

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If there's anything I'd add to this, it's get rid of all the dumb touch-screen gimmickry. The stupid ice-blocks in particular. Dumb addition in Soma's story, and outright chore in Julius'.

Yeah it was waste of Boss Soul, to be honest. Should have gone with laser cannon.

[suomynona]

I might've explained myself wrong.

In AoS there is an excuse for Julius to not solve everything on his own:

1. Only Soma, who is Dracula, can go where Chaos is and do it himself.
2. Julius spends most of the plot as an amnesiac and without the Vampire Killer.

In DoS, however, all excuses are lifted. If Julius is a badass and has no drawbacks, he can literally single-handedly solve the entire plot by himself. No matter where Dario retreats to, Julius can scourge and stomp the entire castle into submission. Doesn't run out of Grand Cross power? Then you have a Terminator kiliing everything on his path and not a single barrier can stop him.

Soma is useless -- not "less badass" -- because the plot depends on Julius running out of resources for Soma to take care of everything. If Julius doesn't have a drawback, then Soma can just go home and be a family man.

On your idea up there you present no means to remove Julius from the plot, making way for Soma. What would you propose?

That could happen, but that doesn't means that only Julius can. Soma can still do it. I don't mean by make Soma useless, but just take out the scenes that humiliate Julius and the Belmont bloodline (like Julius VS Dario scene or Grand Cross scene).

[X]

Also, only character who Kojima failed is Simon in Chronicles.

Don't forget Trevor. I felt he was also inaccurately portrayed as much as Simon.

Aside for Alucard, at the very least.  Allie's a dhampir, so having an edge of unnatural beauty fits in his case.

No issues with Alucard as I actually liked the SotN version of him. But there's no excuse for the regular (human) gents of Castlevania, especially the Belmonts.