fact of the matter is that Iga was basically manipulated by his bosses into churning out Castlevanias year after year regardless of how burnt out the team was. He tried to mitigate it for consumers by also doing titles like LoI and CoD, but there's only so much that can do which of course led to his superiors short-sightedly taking resources away from him which led to lesser performance. Judgment was a game Iga didn't really want to do anyway and Harmony of Despair was again something that was out of his control due to his bosses screwing him over on team and budget. Heck, Konami's marginalization of him seems to have come at around the time their President's brain calcified and their gaming output plummeted.
And then LoS, which was really only made because Kojima was in an awkward self-xenophobic phase as well as being desperate to prove he wasn't just the Metal Gear guy. LoS had exactly two things over the Igavanias: pretentiousness and flash. It had pomp regardless of its lack of substance. That's the only real reason MercurySteam (a dev with zero pedigree and a mediocre track record) got to have Castlevania slapped on their middling God of War clone. And predictably the undeserved praise they got went to their heads and they churned out two titles that were hated by the fanbase and critics.
At the end of the day, Iga has the last laugh. Konami is a terribly managed company that is plagued by money trouble and is struggling to maintain status quo let alone grow or expand which goes against their president's idea for the company. MercurySteam has been exposed as a hack developer that had one success before fumbling big time and costing themselves their little-earned pedigree. The Igavanias are lauded to this day as classic of the genre and will be remembered for years to come while Lords of Shadow will be remembered as lazy, exploitative games that had no identity and had no business using the Castlevania name when it had nothing in common with the series. Meanwhile Iga just had $5 million fired at him from a cannon and shows that there will always be a significant market for games like this if that wasn't obvious enough due to the legion of titles that lift directly from the Igavania template.
Yup, any true Castlevania fan knows mercurysteam are just money hungry opportunists, just like ninja theory are
just leeches that exploited and abused and messed up DMC for a quick profit, they didn't care about the fanbase, and they don't have respect for the franchise's style and formula.
Though I will say despite Konami not funding Castlevania Harmony of Despair as much as they should have,
it is still a masterpiece of IGA and the most brilliant hybrid of classic, IGAvania and multiplayer innovation for the series
that makes it one of the greatest videogames ever designed. Even with the mere 11 Chapters it's developed,
Castlevania HD went on to be played by fans for years, across Xbox 360 and PS3, and the greatest selection of
playable characters outside of Serio's Castlevania Fighter game (Serio's game including the perfect version of Sonia Belmont, even Stella!)
but yes, IGA's 6 players co-op masterpiece, Castlevania Harmony of Despair deserves more praise, and it is a shame
this site still doesn't dedicate a section for it (and yet the disgraceful and unworthy Judgment fighter get a section).
That being said. Bloodstained Ritual of the Night could be in decent hands. IGA just has to make sure to trust the
right people and stay in control over all decisions and have the final say in the development and design. Insiders
confirm if IGA has solid contracts in place so people making Bloodstained don't try to weasel some kind of scheme
and try to get away with it?
All the funded money is going directly to IGA, right? because Bloodstained ROTN really is IGA's project.
the one that controls the money, controls the decisions and influence in the project.