I was tired too, but now it's been a few years and I would really like another one! Not made by IGA, not made by Cox... someone else should make it. I'm sure there's a new generation of developers who have fresh ideas for this - stuff we haven't seen before. All this talk about making Castlevania "mainstream" is so depressing I don't know what to say. I completely understand it from a business point of view, but the whole appeal of the series (for me) was that Castlevania was never like every other game out there.
It may have grown stale but it was always a very special series for me. I enjoy the LoS series for what it is, but it's not the same. And this has nothing to do with me being an IGA fanboy, because like I said - as much as I loved his games, I want someone else to have a shot. And I want it to be more japanese again. But whatever. I'm fine with whatever happens, but I'll never think of Castlevania in the same way again if "mainstream" is the future...
I'd argue that Castlevania was in the mainstream conversation in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, and reached the tail end of its mainstream appeal somewhere around or between Legacy of Darkness and Circle of the Moon. (Judging by magazine coverage). By Harmony of Dissonance, it was pretty much a niche title. I'm not sure whether the effort by Cox/MS has nudged the needle very far one way or another, except in the sense that it's conformed more to modern trends. But I don't think that automatically means mainstream. You can be different and mainstream, I think. LoS experiment is admirable in its own way, but I wonder if it was in vain somewhat, and this blanket statement of "Western" has caused Castlevania to lose some of its uniqueness for no real brand benefit or definite overall improvement in its gameplay evolution.
the funny thing is that after sotn, iga tried to bring back old vania, or at least test the waters for its potential in the new market, and it was seen as mediocre, while the n64 guys deliberately continued the legacy of sotn with cotm.
if anything, why did people have to be terrible and hate chronicles
You have a point, to an extent. When IGA tried to "bring back old vania" he decided to pick old titles and refurbish them (
Chronicles and
Dracula X Chronicles). I think that was a problem. They didn't come off as new entries, they came off as nostalgic collectors games in a lot of ways. Even the titles, "Chronicles," and how they contained different versions of the games in a "collection" format confused things.
Regarding the N64 guys, I think they were very self-conscious that the overall fan reaction had predisposed people to want SotN more so than what they had done. I think they wanted to cash in on that feeling. CotM is sort of their response to mixing more classic challenge and whip-cracking action to what IGA started. Ironically, this led IGA to come back and say that they were not doing it right, and he'd show them with Harmony of Dissonance. And after that, the marketing identity was snowballing faster than anyone could control it.