Topic: A GameInformer short article about Castlevania

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Nothing we haven't discussed before, but maybe you guys can drop them a line with your thoughts?

Here's the Jump

[darkwzrd4]

The article pretty much sums up everything.  And, it is true that at the start of OoE, the deck is somewhat stacked against you.  Plus, you need more than just power to beat some of the bosses.  You need some strategy.
The article also mentions how powerful Sypha was in CV3 in terms of offense and painfully weak defensively.  I really think the Belnades family deserves a spinoff.  For example, a game starring Sypha before she was turned to stone by the cyclops (and freed when Trevor/Ralph kills it).  Could be very interesting.  Hell, a game starring Yoko around to time of the Sorrow games would be nice.  We all know that the Belnades family are allies of the Belmonts, but they deserve a spinoff where they are doing there own thing independent of the Belmonts.  Sypha before she is rescued by Trevor/Ralph, and Yoko around the time of AoS and DoS are best bets for great spinoffs if done right.

[crisis]

"With the exception of the most recent entry in the series, you would never mistake a Castlevania soundtrack for a film score or anything else, and that’s the way it should always be."

"Do we really need to know anything beyond the fact that there’s an evil master vampire at the heart of an extradimensional castle overflowing with evil? No. No, we do not."

"You’re not drunk – the room is really spinning."

MAKE IT HAPPEN KONAMI, RESURRECT AKUMAJO DRACULA WITH WAYFORWARD & IGA AS CREATIVE CONSULTANT, KOJIMA CREATING BYZANTINE-STYLE ART & CASTLEVANIA WILL TRULY BE REBORN!!!!!


as for spin-offs, i would like to see games with characters like these

[Neobelmont]

"With the exception of the most recent entry in the series, you would never mistake a Castlevania soundtrack for a film score or anything else, and that’s the way it should always be."

"Do we really need to know anything beyond the fact that there’s an evil master vampire at the heart of an extradimensional castle overflowing with evil? No. No, we do not."

"You’re not drunk – the room is really spinning."

MAKE IT HAPPEN KONAMI, RESURRECT AKUMAJO DRACULA WITH WAYFORWARD & IGA AS CREATIVE CONSULTANT, KOJIMA CREATING BYZANTINE-STYLE ART & CASTLEVANIA WILL TRULY BE REBORN!!!!!

Yeah but take out IGA and Kojima.
Let's see what wayfoward could do by themselves and give iga and kojima a break make them work on something else I mean would it really be a rebirth with the same folk at the helm again? Or what about if I dunno Keiji Inafune were to lead a castlevania project. Yeah right now he is working on the new ninja gaiden from my understanding, but with what he said about japan being behind in gaming innovation I would want to see how much innovation could be pumped into the series.

[A-Yty]

I can do fine without Kojima. There's just so many other options. Masaki Hirooka for example. Or someone completely new. Or hell, track down some of the guys who did the S/NES cover art.

IGA I would keep around as an advisor. Maybe as executive producer (it's kind of an ambiguous title, but the point is I'd like to employ his experience in producing, but not hand him the responsibility of day-to-day production decisions).

[Chernabogue]

Creating the perfect Castlevania is impossible, just because everyone has a different opinion on it.

Every point described there is arguable.

However, nice article.

[crisis]

Yeah but take out IGA and Kojima.

why? IGA is great at original stories (not so much sequels to pre-existing stories) and Kojima's style is unique all its own (have you seen the work she did for Best Collections Music Box, or Santa Lilio Sangre, her artbook? Pure excellence.) Masaki is good but his art is too "generic," kinda like the CotM artist. Not bad art at all, don't get me wrong, but a new Akumajo title with brand new Kojima designs (as I said, hopefully in the Byzantine style she did for the Music Box) would be sweet and highly praised, without a doubt.

[beingthehero]

Why not just make IGA director again like in SotN, so he worries about programming and level design instead.

[sannyclause]

HO HO HO great read these guys really do know their stuff

[Neobelmont]

why? IGA is great at original stories (not so much sequels to pre-existing stories) and Kojima's style is unique all its own (have you seen the work she did for Best Collections Music Box, or Santa Lilio Sangre, her artbook? Pure excellence.) Masaki is good but his art is too "generic," kinda like the CotM artist. Not bad art at all, don't get me wrong, but a new Akumajo title with brand new Kojima designs (as I said, hopefully in the Byzantine style she did for the Music Box) would be sweet and highly praised, without a doubt.

All what I am saying is like the originals there was all most always a different team working on a cv just have someone else have a cack at it maybe have IGA produce something else like a remake on fuma or something else that is classic like yie-air kung-fu or even jackal, and as for the byzantine style it would be incredible for a gamecover that would be very unique. I do not think I can really counter that statement I have never seen a game that uses or at least incorporates a style like that. But in the end I just think both of them should do different things beyond castlevania and is that so bad?

[Sumac]

IGA is great at original stories

It's very arguable.

Creating the perfect Castlevania is impossible, just because everyone has a different opinion on it.

Definitely right.

[X]

I'd avoid Kojima for now as Castlevania has way too many pretty boys and that is leaving the series only one step closer to being like twilight. All they are missing is the sparkles    As for IGA, An assistant director role so that he can be supervised and controlled so that he doesn't go all out and mess things up. Music-wise, bring in some of the original talent that made the NES, GB and SNES games a success.

"Item drops have given vampire slayers new capabilities ever since Simon got his first lucky axe, but none have done it better than the franchise’s first Nintendo DS outing. Soma’s ability to occasionally absorb the soul of a fallen enemy opened up a whole new world of passive abilities, active attacks, summon spells, and one-off powers like a spectral vacuum cleaner that absorbs HP from opponents."

I'm assuming the author hasn't heard of Area of Sorrow for the GBA which was the first to touch on this system of soul-collecting. But as for the rest, the article is decent.

[A-Yty]

It's quite bizarre. Kojima's non-CV work often looks so much better than the majority of her CV art. And the "unofficial" CV work, like, for examples, the one of Soma with a spear and the DoS gang (sans Hammer) in a black and white portrait.

But honestly, I think her male CV protagonist illustrations are incredibly repetitive. And I can never unsee the anatomical oddities in some of her work.

[TheCruelAngel]

That was a pretty fun read with a lot of interesting ideas pointed out.

When talking about lead artist, as much as I like Kojima's work I think letting someone else have a crack at it would be incredibly beneficial for the series. Some suggestions I have are:

THORES Shibamoto:

https://yande.re/post/show?md5=0d49b4ffdfa4b42dc8f99db6b03c7278

Yoshitaka Amano:


I think they would have absolutely amazing takes on the world of Castlevania, all the while retaining that gothic/horror stance we've grown and loved with Kojima's work. I lean more toward Amano personally because I would love to see his style in fluid motion as a 1:1 interpretation...but that could just be me. 

[Maedhros]

I don't really care about who makes the game, I just hope we see the things they listed there on the next Castlevania game.

Why not a kickstarter? I'm sure they could make the money needed from it and release it in PSN/Steam/XBLA/etc.

Someone, send this idea to Konami.