maybe, maybe not. His development method leads to either a great game with an interesting gameplay gimmick, or a terrible game with a terrible gimmick or worse.
I'm betting it would've been a great game, since OoE was a step in the right direction. Despite being released about 5 years ago, it still holds up today.
It would have contained every single fan favorite tune.
Probably not every single fan favorite tune, but it would have included a few. At this point I don't think most fans would object to the idea of more traditional CV music, after the bland Hollywood-esque soundtracks of LoS & MoF. Not to mention the sound quality in MoF is borderline terrible, a fact Jorge pointed out earlier. There's never been an issue with this before, at least not to this extent.
From the review posted earlier, "Not long ago, former series composer Michiru Yamane told me that when she first came on board to work on Castlevania Bloodlines, a coworker warned her that she had a grand legacy to live up to. Clearly, things have changed."
I mean,
ouch.
I don't find grind based gameplay satisfactory, and the level up system could be done away with the way IGAVanias did it. It also depends on what gimmick he would implement. it could be a total dud gimmick.
As many reviews have pointed out, MoF would have benefitted from more RPG aspects, such as the ones in IGA's games. MoF's "gimmick" relies too much on QTE-based attacks and scripted whip-swinging; there's very little in terms of freedom in that regard and almost every review points this out. Why couldn't they just use the whip-swinging mechanics from SCIV, their "bible?"
I'll say it would. it would either be an interesting well written story, or a disastrous car wreck. Especially if he's doing a sequel.
I'm sure it would've been better or at least on par with MoF's narrative, except less-reliant on highly-predictable plot-twists. I still find it funny that people here still had doubts that Trevor was gonna turn into Alucard, it was super-obvious since almost the beginning, and Cox's
flat-out lyingcoy attitude toward this made it even funnier.
Granted, though most of it came from the collectibles aspect they had. be it weapon drops, item drops, spell/soul/glyphs, or what have you, there were tons. that's where the bulk of the re playability lies. But grinding for all that isn't to everyone's tastes.
Extra weapons/spells/etc. in MoF would have been delightful, especially with Alucard's portion and would have gave MS an excellent opportunity to flex their creative side, instead of relying solely on "whips for everybody." If it's rewarding and adds to the gameplay, then I don't see this as a bad thing. Better than no replayability at all, like MoF unfortunately has.
that works, I suppose... But I'd hate to have the classic canon relegated to handhelds. That's where part of the problem lay to begin with, IMO.
It could be digital like ReBirth, but that sucks for collectors like myself that like physical copies.
The problem with IGA is he is COMPLETELY hit or miss. Either he totally nails it, and makes an awesome game, (AoS, OoE) Or he fails spectacularly. (DoS, PoR, CoD)
I guess that could be subjective too, since even "failed games" like CoD & DoS have their own fans that place them as their favorites in the series.
And the root cause is he relies too much on gimmick driven gameplay.
So far the LoS series relies too much on QTE's and scripted gameplay elements, which is why it's always drawing comparisons to God of War, but worse. And I'm afraid LoS2 will feature the same exact stuff, albeit with a tad more "freedom" but who knows.
Also, he is WAY too reliant on asset reuse.
Perhaps, but OoE had a lot of new assetts compared to it's predecessor. Harmony of Despair was an experiment that was like "lets see what we could do with what we have already made," and according to the reports sales-wise, it was still successful.
It's not that he CAN'T make a good game, it's just that it's best not to gamble on him.
MoF was a complete gamble and they apparently lost. It would've been awesome if they had only added/fixed some things, put more meat to the bones. IGA & his team have experience at this point; I don't think they're bound to repeat the same mistakes they have made, and given the long hiatus it's been since a proper metroidvania, that's a lot of time for them to have come up with cool ideas that would have been refreshing on the 3DS.
Lets say if OoE had never been released on the DS, it was just DoS & PoR. Then they drop OoE for 3DS instead of MoF. OoE has those parallax backgrounds & stuff that would've really made use of the 3DS technology. How do you think fan reaction/reviews would have been? Better or worse than MoF's current status? Would critics complain about it's "dated graphics" and "tired music" and "terrible gameplay?" Chances are, polar opposite of MoF's reviews.
This post makes it seem like I'm bashing MoF but that's not necessarily true; I just lament that it could've been so much more than it is, it could've blown all 3 DS CV's out of the water. I hate to draw constant comparisons with MoF to OoE but being that they're both the latest portable CV games from 2 different developers, it's hard not to point out the differences on what ultimately "works for Castlevania" and what doesn't. MS could've convinced people like me that we no longer need an "igavania" or "metroidvania," but even with fans like myself that
enjoyed MoF, it's still not enough & makes me wish for more. Just a missed opportunity :/