Poll

How lenghtly a Castlevania game should be in your opinion?

Have 4 hours or less of content.
1 (5.9%)
Have 8 hours or more of content.
4 (23.5%)
Have 24 hours or more of content.
3 (17.6%)
Have 48 hours or more of content.
8 (47.1%)
Have 99 hours or more of content (or even be almost infinite)
1 (5.9%)

Total Members Voted: 17

Voting closed: August 25, 2017, 01:41:11 AM

Author [EN] [PL] [ES] [PT] [IT] [DE] [FR] [NL] [TR] [SR] [AR] [RU] [ID] Topic: What if CV games were longer?  (Read 10543 times)

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Offline Lelygax

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #15 on: July 28, 2017, 10:37:06 AM »
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@Lelygax I meant exactly what I wrote. Side quests and exploration(secrets) were included - for example, there were very few heart pieces I didn't acquire. If I rushed through everything I did and never paused the game, it would've been 65-70 hours, no side quests.

I don't see how you can artificially lengthen a game which you don't level up in unless you're leaving it paused to let the counter keep ticking. I personally find games always take noticeably longer on the first playthrough, but this is still considered a lengthy game.

I would recommend watching some TP reviews, I'm not the only person who believes there's enough content for more than 1 game here.

I was sleepy at the time and thought you said Skyward Sword (yeah, THAT sleepy). I've played Twilight Princess on Wii and finished it without getting all hearts too, because it was getting boring too.

Maybe its the "feel" or "aura" of this game where they tried to make it feel like a desolate world, but I really felt a lot of areas boring or as if missing things (even if they don't, it was on purpose). This feels even worse than artificial lengthening to me because its made on purpose, so its big for the sake of being big, feels empty and they know it feel empty (not all areas, but a lot of them). When I saw Breath of Wild being a complete open-world game it even worried me it would suffer from the same things, but since I didn't played it I don't know, hopefully not.

To answer it for you, to aritificially lenghten a game it doesn't need RPG elements nor be exploration based. If you get Super Mario Bros 1, double the size of the first level and doesn't adjust the enemy number and placement to it feel good (aka, its not planned from the beggining and you only wanted a bigger level) IMO you artificially expanded the game. The player will take more time to beat this level, it will feel wrong and yet not funny as if it had the original size. Now if lets say, you get a level that was thought to have the double size since the start, or if you adapt the level correctly, it won't feel artificial, there will be things to keep you interested until the end.

Only to be clear I also think that TP is really big, maybe even as big as two games, not only because of the alternate versions of most areas. But the problem is that it doesnt felt as if it had content for 2 games, but had the size, so it became a chore to me sometimes when I needed to backtrack and nothing interesting was happening.

Your post made me re-think some things and remember another, so I thank you for that. The different opinions in this thread are very interesting and enlightening.
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Offline zangetsu468

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #16 on: July 28, 2017, 07:22:31 PM »
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I'm still not agreeing with the term "artificial lengthening", because it's too subjective in my mind. Sotn had those extra halls for loading and an inverted Castle, some could call those artificial ways to lengthen the game. Super Mario 64 probably had less enemies to surface area ratio than the older games making it feel "more empty" - some could call this artificial. Then there's games that reuse or recycle areas or involve back tracking.. Etc.

I think the fact that an individual believes a game has been lengthened or vice versa by means of "being cheap" is too subjective to measure accurately. In the case of TP, one can argue that's what they believe, on the other hand the argument can be made that in terms of narrative in a Zelda game it probably easily has one of the most (if not the most) amount of narrative throughout the game in relative terms. Compared to a more traditional Zelda like ALTTP where you get story at the beginning, end and maybe a snippet in the middle.

Back onto the main topic I think there's only so long you can play a game and explore a world in through one continuous narrative without it getting stale. 
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Offline JR

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2017, 01:49:26 AM »
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i'd like something which scratches the obsessive-compulsive itch of collection/completion without bursting the balloon with too many things going on at once.  i had to put down skyward sword because there was just too much shit to collect, it began to boggle my brain and seemed like one giant fetch quest after another.  designers are always looking for ways to artificially extend play time, evident in long winding maps that lead to an otherwise simple destination, or other modes of gameplay that are essentially the same as the main game (lookin at you, hard mode, time attack, boss rush, etc...)


This happened to me with Far Cry 4 just recently. It made me feel like, "WHAT THE FU...okay, fine, I'll do all of it. YES, all of it. Goddammit."


Length of game for a CV really would depend on what kind of game it is. Like already mentioned, a side-scrolling platformer could get tedious if stretched out too long. An exploration-based game would be a different story for me, though. If something could hold my interest as well as Dark Souls does, I could play it for ages. Just depends on the amount of real depth put into the game, and whether or not it's fun.
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Offline GuyStarwind

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2017, 01:13:08 PM »
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I would love a long Classicvania style game. In a classic style, you don't return to previous areas as you would in a Metroidvania (obviously we know this) and so in order to have around 50 hours of game play you would need a lot more areas and content. Of course, you could have several branching paths and whatnot. I know I would be down for this type of game.

Offline theANdROId

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2017, 05:04:02 PM »
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I feel like LoD had some enjoyable features to draw out play time what with the four different playable characters.  CotM had 5, but they were all the same-ish.  I think that's what I generally hope for games to do (especially CV games it seems)...throw in one or a few extra characters with different play styles at the least.  Alternate paths or storylines to go along with them is icing on the cake.

I don't mind things like achievements or collectibles or whatever.  I always thought the SotN reverse castle was kinda cool and lame, depending on different parts of it.

Offline redrum

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2017, 07:44:50 PM »
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as much as i love COTM (probably the CV i've played the most of), i've gotta say that the different modes, or really builds, was kinda cheap jab at replay.  things like the homing knives were cool, but the item drop %age was so busted that the thief mode basically felt like it was just evening things out...

i like the idea of playing as previous characters in the series on a different maps (ala Harmony of Despair), but in more of a general game form...  make it like Julius mode in AOS where get stronger after beating each boss, but give us more options as far as characters (and abilities) are concerned.  it would be fun to utilize each of the different strengths each character has to progress through the maps.

Offline X

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #21 on: August 04, 2017, 11:22:49 PM »
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Quote
make it like Julius mode in AOS where get stronger after beating each boss,

SotN also did this with the Richter mode. Took me a while before I noticed that Richter's health was recovering more slower with every life-up item I collected, as well as take more damage then before.
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Offline zangetsu468

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #22 on: August 05, 2017, 12:31:40 AM »
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SotN also did this with the Richter mode. Took me a while before I noticed that Richter's health was recovering more slower with every life-up item I collected, as well as take more damage then before.

I actually noticed this on my first Richter playthrough when Sotn first came out and wondered whether anyone else would, because it doesn't exactly make it apparent.
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Offline redrum

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #23 on: August 05, 2017, 12:34:33 AM »
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SotN also did this with the Richter mode. Took me a while before I noticed that Richter's health was recovering more slower with every life-up item I collected, as well as take more damage then before.
wow, it must be a really gradual increase.  after all the times i've played it i've hardly noticed but sort of figured it was the case.

Offline Lelygax

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2017, 06:22:31 PM »
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wow, it must be a really gradual increase.  after all the times i've played it i've hardly noticed but sort of figured it was the case.

It is. If you increase your health a lot, enemies on the inverted castle wouldn't munch away almost your entire lifebar with an attack anymore.

In AoS it took some years to discover that. It was really bad to reach Graham and only do 8 damage for each hit.
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Offline BLOOD MONKEY

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #25 on: August 05, 2017, 11:03:11 PM »
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I want a CV game with a layout like Dark Souls.
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Offline redrum

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #26 on: August 11, 2017, 08:32:25 PM »
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I want a CV game with a layout like Dark Souls.
dead cells actually seems really close to that in more than one way.

Offline AdrianTepes

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #27 on: August 20, 2017, 03:37:15 AM »
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For a classicvania, I think something close to Dracula's Curse or Super Castlevania IV's length wise is perfect.
Branching paths and secret areas could be a good way to increase the lenght without making it too long
Maybe adding some RPG elements like those in Vampire Killer could work too, but always keeping them on the lighter side to avoid overdoing it or turning it into a Metroidvania.

cutscenes between stages like in Ninja Gaiden
This is something I would love to see. I know that Konami didn't take Castlevania's lore seriously on the first game, but  for Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse cutscenes like those would have been something really amazing.
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Offline X

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #28 on: August 21, 2017, 10:09:26 AM »
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Welcome to the Dungeon TOMOYA  :)
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Offline AdrianTepes

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Re: What if CV games were longer?
« Reply #29 on: August 29, 2017, 02:01:27 PM »
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Thanks, X! I just noticed I have ridiculously bad manners and jumped into the conversation without even introducing myself first, but the talk was too interesting for me to resist.
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