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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by The Puritan on May 13, 2025, 01:31:51 AM »

I played them all when they launched, but the only one I like going back to is PoR, definitely my favorite of the DS lineup.

As glad as I am that OOE remains the #1 DSvania for many, I can relate to this take. If you put the three before me and ask which one I'd rather play right now, I'll probably pick POR. Maybe because it's the most "Castlevania" of the DS trilogy, in the sense that you're playing a Belmont and a Belnades as opposed to a glyph witch and Dracula reincarnate.

Portrait of Ruin, I enjoy very much, but there’s an underlying feeling of laziness behind it. Many reused enemies & assets, tiny castle, too much anime cliches. The art style was terrible, generic slop.

Most of what you mentioned didn't bother me as much this time. I may not approve of reused enemies and assets but I can understand why they happen from a developer's POV, especially when you have a deadline imposed on you from upstairs. Heartily agree on the anime art style though; I still hate it and always will. Konami really should've retained Ayami Kojima for DOS and signed on Masaki Hirooka as early as POR.

One questions whether the oldness of the gameplay perhaps shows its armour chinks more so on an upscaled screen/ port, being as aged as it now is.

You just voiced what I had been thinking about DOS when I restarted it. DOS did kinda-sorta show its age but POR and OOE, not so much for some reason. It doesn't help that Konami might not have optimized DOS in particular for modern machines. My game would slow down in the Lost Village whenever it snowed. 

Dawn of Sorrow is like... I like the aesthetic alot (the muted colors, the greyish/brown palette, I do feel a sense of isolation and mood in that game against PoR's and OoE's colorful presentation, which I think is a nice, different experience to have) but I find the gameplay the inferior of the three.

Upon reflection, I think a big factor is that DOS forces you to do a whole lot more grinding if you want to 100% everything. There's considerably less of that in POR, which means you can get down sooner to what you're really supposed to be doing: fighting your way through the map and moving on with the story.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by VladOfWallachia on May 11, 2025, 11:55:35 PM »

I played them all when they launched, but the only one I like going back to is PoR, definitely my favorite of the DS lineup.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by crisis on May 10, 2025, 10:01:10 PM »

My thoughts:

Dawn of Sorrow; I really appreciate it. Soma’s animation sprite is very detailed, down to seeing his cold breath in the winter sections. That attention to detail I appreciate very much. His animations are on par with Alucard in SotN. There are many unique things in the game not found in other Castlevanias which I appreciate it. However Julius’ sprite is just trash. Like c’mon, wtf were they thinking. The 3D parallax backgrounds especially at the end of the game were very well rendered. The Abyss final area was very creepy, but I wish it was larger. I personally believe we should’ve got a 3rd entry, titled “Eternity of Sorrow,” which sees Soma succumbing to his fate, allowing the centuries-old struggle to continue involving Julius’ descendants. The game featuring Mathias’ portrait in the Julius mode reinforces this idea, and unfortunately Konami didn’t capitalize on it.

Portrait of Ruin, I enjoy very much, but there’s an underlying feeling of laziness behind it. Many reused enemies & assets, tiny castle, too much anime cliches. The art style was terrible, generic slop. But the most egregious sin was not including John & Eric as playable characters, instead we get a bastardized version of Richiter & Maria. wtf?

Order of Ecclesia, still playing through it for the 2nd time. Competent game, although I wish the controls were a bit tighter.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by zangetsu468 on May 10, 2025, 09:00:58 PM »

Dominus Collection I've purchased but not yet played. I'm not surprised by any of these comments and I expected and always reiterated that OOE was ahead of its time.

In Fairness to DoS, it was one of the earlier games on the DS and its gameplay felt more 'stiff' than Aria's(and POR & OOE); think of it as a shot of Yamazaki 12yo as opposed to drinking a highball... One questions whether the oldness of the gameplay perhaps shows its armour chinks more so on an upscaled screen/ port, being as aged as it now is.

I still believe OOE is the last true Castlevania and the best blend of old and new imho.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by theplottwist on May 10, 2025, 03:00:43 PM »

Time last played aside, I have a similar experience, almost exactly the same. Order of Ecclesia was always my favorite and that didn't change in all the times I played it over the years, but I noticed PoR is actually much better than I had thought the more I played it.

Dawn of Sorrow is like... I like the aesthetic alot (the muted colors, the greyish/brown palette, I do feel a sense of isolation and mood in that game against PoR's and OoE's colorful presentation, which I think is a nice, different experience to have) but I find the gameplay the inferior of the three.

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General Castlevania Discussion / What do you think now of the DS games?

« Last post by The Puritan on May 10, 2025, 12:18:09 AM »

So I just spent the last four months playing the the Dominus Collection. And after about 15 years since I last played the DS outings, I feel like:

-Dawn of Sorrow isn't as good as I remember
-Portrait of Ruin is actually better than I remember
-Order of Ecclesia is exactly as good as (and a little harder than) I remember

POR is especially interesting to me because I recall hating significant parts of it back in '06 i.e. the anime art style, ho-hum level design, and a general sense of overstuffing. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed it this time and I'm not sure why.

Did anyone else have a similar experience? Do you still regard the DS games exactly as you did all those years ago or have your views changed?

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Akumajo Dracula PS3/360–still a mystery 17 years later

« Last post by Foffy on May 09, 2025, 07:21:00 PM »

As others have said, this was the pitch from the Japanese side for Konami for Castlevania. It lost to Lords of Shadow and the pitch from the European side of the company. IGA has previously stated showing that trailer publicly was a "mistake", likely because it was a pitch and not a promised upcoming work. At the time, as fans didn't know there were three pitches for a new Castlevania game (one from each major branch) fans presumed this was a 3D adaptation of the radio drama which was being broadcast at the time, as that also starred Alucard.

In the end it was more or less a concept video. IGA went on to help with The ARCADE, Adventure Rebirth, and Harmony of Despair as the European pitch went forward as the next mainline console game. The Lords of Shadow pitch they showed around this time hid all of its "Castlevania" elements by name but many people, some even on this forum, found it weird it was a whip wielding game with a character who wore armor very similarly to the artwork of Simon's Quest. Their original pitch, released after the release of LoS1, show a redesigned Simon Belmont wearing white, looking more like an Assassin's Creed character.

I remember when at E3 2009 people thought the press got misprinted information about Konami's upcoming presentation, as it had a game named "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" when previously it wasn't known as a title in the series. Looking back at it, they really didn't do a good job showcasing this game as the next major entry when so much time was put into the mess that was Metal Gear Rising, a title that never came out as originally envisioned.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Akumajo Dracula PS3/360–still a mystery 17 years later

« Last post by LuxKiller65 on May 09, 2025, 12:12:01 PM »

I've heard it's not true that LoS started as something else than Castlevania. It was apparently always going to be Castlevania, but in order to not disrupt Judgment, it was initially announced simply as a new game.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: participate in the Castlevania series

« Last post by zangetsu468 on May 08, 2025, 06:26:25 AM »

If you want Castlevania immersion and introduction, I wouldn’t start with a 3D entry. I’d start with the OG NES Castlevania or Super CVIV(as previous posters have suggested)…

LoS is fine, but please leave its sequels unplayed..

Starting with LoS1 would be like discovering Mario and starting with SMB2..(in 3D…)

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Akumajo Dracula PS3/360–still a mystery 17 years later

« Last post by zangetsu468 on May 08, 2025, 06:21:37 AM »

It was a massive missed opportunity, at least in my mind.  We got Lords of Shadow instead of this.  I really like a lot about Lords of Shadow, but I hate that it has the Castlevania name attached to it.  It just doesn't respect Castlevania, and much of it doesn't feel like Castlevania.  Lords of Shadow effectively took the place of this SotN follow-up.  Even if this canceled project ended up mediocre, it would have been infinitely more respectful to the Castlevania lore than LoS was.  And LoS would likely still have been made, but not under the Castlevania name.  It would have been the best of both worlds.

Seconded.. Remember when LoS was its own franchise… PachinKonami remembers…