Why is it such a stretch for you to believe that some of your fellow fans may not share your opinions that old-school Castlevanias should be replaced by Lords of Shadow? Naturally, you would hawk LoS’ sales in response, so let me take my point a step further and point out that the sales only represent the mass market, not necessarily the loyalty of the Castlevania fanbase. David Cox himself had repeatedly said that mass market appeal was the LoS’ primary objective all along...
No need to change topic.
I know that my sentiment is not shared by everyone. However, what you call "a honest feedback" as of now looks like your own opinion about series. And most likely not every single "old school fan" share your own thoughts.
As for mass market appeal - it is excatly why big corporation create games. And, yes, sells are natural showcase of the game quality and appeal. Previous CV games wasn't thta succesful, so its natural that they will be replaced by something more interesting to the people.
The same actually happened in the CV early history. CV2 tried to go into different direction rather than the first part. It wasn't that succesful and CV3 returned to CV1 formula with few twists, practically removing almost every innovation CV2 brought. Much to my disappointment, I must add.
But you need to understand that while businesses do care about their sales, their main concern is the bottom line --it’s all about PROFIT.
And it's wrong in the big businees because?
I understand that you're hurt, by Konami abandoment of the old formula(s) and 2D direction. However you need to approach this maturely and understand that in the world of big money (and video game industry is about big money, like it or not), PROFIT means much more than hurt feeling of old school fans. And no matter how you try to hide that fact, LOS sold more and this is deciding factor in the Konami politics. As it always had been.
Besides, technical advancement creates neccesity for the games (and developers) to adopt to the new rules and powers. It's only natural that games will change, sometimes radically. I bet some of the fans of TEXT RPG were enraged, when they favorite interactive books were replaced with kiddish primitive graphics. And can you imagine majority of the people playing those games today? I don't think so. The same thing happening with 2D games. There are niche market, living on the life support provided by enthusiasts, DLC and portable consoles. And even portable console nowadays grow powerful enough that many of the games step into 3D. It's only question of time, when 2D will completely disappear as a commercialy relevant product. It's evolution, and as much you can disagree with it, hate it, it couldn't be stopped. Old things will be replaced or lose they value. Its inevitable and, when we talk about big money title, it's very unlikely that big corp. decide to spent they time and efforts on something oldfashioned, that will take time and resources, but will not guarantee any positive outcome.
What we’re requesting is a “serious investment” which is wide open to *professional* interpretation.
Essentially requesting the same "big budget" title, but with roundabout words.
And just for the sake of argument, let’s suppose the market is locked at 300,000 hardcore fans. Konami should respond by asking “how much money are these fans willing to pay for a “serious investment?” And the more I think about it, the more I’m realizing that’s a question that will eventually need to be answered....
I've suspected both Rebirth and HD may be trial balloons to help Konami decide what to do with the Akumajo series. They may be far more profitable than any of us realize...
In another words you think that Konami obligated to create game for the old fans, just to know how well it would sell?
I think they already did it with Harmony of Despair. The fact that they had nothing to present on the CV 25th birthday and lack of any information about future 2D titles is kind of telling in that situation.
You know what, I think we can agree on this. We really deserve some blame for sitting on our asses for too long. Now the stakes are higher and the challenges are severe --not to mention there’s no sympathetic insider to lend a hand...
Indeed. Fans should have started some movement at the times, when CV went into the odd directions, starting with DOS. The time was lost, partially because it were "metroidvania" games and some people still were "charmed" by SOTN to eat anything that resembled that game. As of now, I think its too late too turn this locomotive to the other railroad track.
But if we’re not specific about demanding a certain level of quality, there’s a danger that Konami would think we can be pacified by inferior or mediocre products.
Once again: Quality is not limited to your desires and vision.
Just curious --how you would interpret this conversation?
That Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a different kind of Castlevania. That simple. If Cox called it just "Lords of Shadow" we had something to talk about. As he put it - LOS is still Castlevania, no matter how some people want to think that its not.
Am I biased in the sense that LoS is not a legitimate Akumajo Dracula reboot? ABSOLUTELY!
I much prefer to see LOS as something that separate from old CV canon.
Partially because I HATE reboots of the existing storylines or "retelling" of the same events with new twists, that set in the old universe (MK9).
Quality problems don’t necessarily mean you need to reinvent the wheel. There is such a thing as going too far, and that’s where the discord comes from.
While I agree with this, I also think that "metroidvania" formula was milked for all its worth and it was time to change "foundation" onto something else. Even good qality "metroidvania" would be a "metroidvania" - copy of the SOTN. That's not what I personally want to see from the series. At least not now.
Hard copy vs digistrib really shouldn't matter,
Actually it should. Digi.restribution only is a sigh that the project is pretty small scaled.