Topic: The new games make me want to cry

[Marto]

I'm sorry, but lets face it. Castlevania for the DS is as the DS provides: Children's entertainment. And now Iga will probably yet again create another atrocity that will make all the castlevania fans pitchfork their eyes.

Anything from heroes with cliche catchphrases like "No problem!", down to sixteen year olds striking "sexy poses" saying "Not, bad, huh?" Portrait of Ruin was in many ways a disaster. Outside of Nation of Fools, that game made me very disappointed in the twentieth anniversary game. Huge downgrade.
Dawn of Sorrow was no better. Sure perhaps a little better at retaining the Castlevania feel with it's gothic, wintery environment ( I guess even the mood changed seasons, since castlevania's always been very fall inspired), but its music was a laughing stock. Playful melodies that sounded like they spouted form the saturday morning cartoons only made those looking forward to the gothic game mourn even more. Blushing Soma, moronic Hammer acting like a prepubescent school girl whenever Yoko's mentioned, it all just seemed like one bad dream, alas it was not.

Currently, even Harmony of Dissonance, which despite my personal bias, I'm aware wasn't a fan favourite, seems like a remedy in comparison to the DS titles. Now, with the announcement of a new DS game, I think I'm discouraged enough to simply dig into Symphony of the Night, the soon to be released DXC, and the gameboy advance installments for comfort and to remember the beautiful days when Kojima graced the art department of the game, and Michiru Yamane provided the dark gloomy tunes we all love.

People complain about his Playstation 2 games, which have giant fanbases non-the-less (Specifically LoI), yet it makes me wonder, are the any others that realize how much more horrifying and terrible the DS installments were?

  Poor, poor Castlevania. You now have attained the face of a generic saturday morning cartoon with melodies that make you feel like two Pokemon are battling it out, while anime-faced heroes walk proudly in cliche outfits with appropriately terrible catchphrases...

Marto

[ringo]

Well, it's only the last two that have been really bad. And there's been much worse. Aside from Haunted Castle and the computer clones of the original, we did go through a spell of Legends,64, and LoD. Fortunately the GBA titles got the series back on track.

Besides, not everyone thinks these are terrible games. PoR, the 64 games, and even Legends and CoD(!) have their followers. It's not like these people are stupid, these games have something appealing about them that some enjoy while most don't.

While I agree with you on your sentiments about PoR, I think you are being a bit too much of a drama queen.

[Marto]

In Reply To #2

I'm personally a fan of the Playstation2 games, along with the other games that Kojima illustrated. I like her designs, and to me, she has the true taste of what the game stands for. Obviously, Yamane's music is tied along with the art, but maybe that's just my bias since I myself am an artist.

Legends, I can see why people like the main character, since she's the only female protagonist of castlevania that's had the spotlight to herself.

And you're right, Castlevania has been through worse, but you'd expect that the last two installments would have been more than simply testing things, instead of developing a solid game. Dawn of Sorrow was a 'been there, done that' type of game, with prettier graphics, while Portrait of Ruin promised so much exotic flavour to it, yet not only did it feel bland, but I can't even remember most of the game due to the lacking design and monotonous gameplay. Too many things in the DS installments felt incomplete. The characters felt like their development was from child-like, to adult in a matter of the game's events, which felt unrealistic.

What I mean by that is, in HoD, LoI, CoD, even LoD, when you met the characters, they allready had depth, and established character. Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow felt bland in that sense, and characters seemed like empty slates when first introduced.

I think ever since Curse of Darkness, Iga's been quite flaky of developing stages that actually have flavour. It's almost as if though his team lost inspiration to give vitality to the environment, and that's a major mistake considering that the surroundings have always been the one of the most important things in maintaining the game's mood. The main character/villain, and the music are probably right up there with it. Curse of Darkness had the music  (save from the Infinite Corridor, and Dracula's castle which sucked, bluntly put), and the character designs were fantastic, which is expected from Ayami Kojima. But the stage designs were unoriginal and kind of even repetitive, except for the Eneomaos Machine Tower and Garibaldi Temple, which wre interesting in their design. Also, one thing I didn't like about that game, that I think LoI did a lot better, was that the game almost never took place inside of ...well...Castlevania! Except for the Abandoned Castle, and that shitty boxed-up excuse that was Dracula's Castle, the rest was all outdoorsy crap. Again, with the exception of the beautiful Clock Tower, and the elaborate Garibaldi Temple.

  Castlevania, Castlevania, where is thy gothickness, Castlevania.

[olroxshade]

Well...in first place CV is CV...
second, I hate the anime style, and those "pseudo side story" of PoR
In third place..I'm a CoD fan >.<

[Marto]

In Reply To #4

I like Curse of Darkness too. Kojima's designs were top-notch. I loved Isaac. He simply had the coolest weapons, and Abel, his Devil, was phenomenal!

If only the stages were more creative.

That, and the game had Iytei, the abominable snow-devil. Okay, so the second part is my own addition, but so what?

[Donvermicelli]

Basicly I like all of the games. POR and DOS were a bit of a downside I agree, While I like anime in general it's not a theme you should add to Castlevania. IF you want castlevania you need dark,shady themes with gothic music.

[crisis]

In Reply To #1
So basically, what you're saying is if DoS & PoR each had Kojima as the artist and got rid of the humor (which shouldn't even be taken into consideration being that it's not a big deal), the games overall would be better than they were? Interesting logic..

Personally I felt that each of the DS games were competant, well made games to the series. Don't get me confused, I'm not saying they're spectacular but they're not completely shit, because if they were nobody would've bought them. I have high hopes for the next DS game, I'm pretty sure the whole Rondo of Blood-era sprites & the like are done with.


But if it isn't, then I might have to reassess my thoughts on the matter.

[Steve]

In Reply To #1
So basically, what you're saying is if DoS & PoR each had Kojima as the artist and got rid of the humor (which shouldn't even be taken into consideration being that it's not a big deal), the games overall would be better than they were? Interesting logic..

Plot and characterization do have an effect on a game's quality, and Dawn and Portrait's childish presentation is one of their most glaring flaws.

I have high hopes for the next DS game, I'm pretty sure the whole Rondo of Blood-era sprites & the like are done with.


But if it isn't, then I might have to reassess my thoughts on the matter.

There is no reason to believe Igarashi and company won't continue to take those shortcuts as long as they possibly can.

[crisis]

In Reply To #8
So I guess my advice to you is to.. stop buying CV games? It seems like you have no hope at all.

I wonder what the next gen CV will be like.

[Esco]

I thought DOS was okay.... I LOVED POR! But honestly... I feel you on the anima thing. When they first started that Crap in Drac X I hated it... with time I've learned to appreciate it. But honestly... I think castlevania needs to go back to it's dark roots.

We are talking about monsters who go around tearing humans apart and doing HORRIBLE things to them, in the most gruesome manners here. And then we are talking about a hero who is then going forth to slaughter them all in a pretty brutal fashion all his own.

I can remember how in Castlevania (X68000) there were several particularly brutal and bloody backgrounds, and they were great. What the hell is some 16 year old girl doing running around a violent and bloody place, commenting on how she is not a child? In a skirt and heels no less? WTF is dracula's castle a nightclub now?  :

They need to stop this kiddy shit, and go back to what castlevania originally was.. a horror genre side scrolling platformer. Not some anime type, teeny bopper, high high puffy ami yumi style platformer.

P.S. If I see ONE MORE GAME by IGA with a stupid furniture collecting quest, I'm gonna buy a ticket to japan, just so I can fly down there... and then BEAT him with the furniture in his offce! lol

[Long John Silver]

For me it was the opposite. Dos's main mode was kinda annoying with those seals but J mode was pure bliss. Three characters, each different, each had skills others had to rely on to progress (unlike por where jonathan had everything you needed and charlotte was just an addon with no specific relics of her own to give her unique skills, more like a secondary attack with R), it had some storyline, relevance to the plot and a completely new final boss, who while could use some more attacks than the one he got was a great fanservice.

Por's main mode was as annoying as dos's mainly due to all the things they tried to include and wasted by just using them once then forgetting all about them or just plainly running out of imagination for the uses of it, its storyline which was as bad as dos, plus its extra modes all sucked balls.
The only one with relevance to the plot was butchered by nonexistant gameplay which should have been left for the pointless bonus enemy modes, Richter was so watered down from his sotn version he felt more like a Julius sprite swap and maria forgot most of her attacks.

Not to mention the ds games have too cherful happy color palettes. Everything's bright and neony, almost to the extent of rondo or even hod in few cases.

[efin]

Hello, my name is efin, and I... loved... the DS games. *sniff*

It's... it's okay. Just give me a moment.

[Platinum Armor]

Not to mention the ds games have too cherful happy color palettes. Everything's bright and neony, almost to the extent of rondo or even hod in few cases.

d
Yeah, those neony colors don't go well with Castlevania. They should use darker palettes instead.

[angevil]

I don`t like that anime art, when will IGA learn what fans really want? Ayami Kojima should be doing the art for the next DS game!

Also, Jonathan seemed a pretty stupid character, I didn`t like him at all..who writes that stupid dialogue, anyway?

I agree, they should make a darker Castlevania, with no humor (the humor ruins it all). And AYAMI KOJIMA ART!

I am so pissed about that. Why go with the hideous anime art and humor? So that 4-year-olds will buy them?? That`s pretty shitty reason. That concept for the game turns out to be far away from the real Castlevania.

My conclusion: we have to reach out to IGA and demand what we want. Castlevania should be castlevania and not some funny anime crap. AAAAAAAAAARGH!

[Marto]

In Reply To #1
So basically, what you're saying is if DoS & PoR each had Kojima as the artist and got rid of the humor (which shouldn't even be taken into consideration being that it's not a big deal), the games overall would be better than they were? Interesting logic..

You were listening, huh? I said that the games need Darker music, more thought-out gameplay, and much, MUCH better stage designs, and serious storylines that stay true to the humor-free adult-oriented/late teen Castlevanias that actually made the series what it is...scratch that, was.

And yes, in my eyes, no Castlevania's a true Castlevania without Kojima (surely I don't meant that, but since 1997, she's become an expectation to many many fans. She IS the gothic highlight of the series, and it's obvious that all the games that she didn't illustrate since Symphony were not as well taken.