Castlevania Dungeon Forums

The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Nagumo on November 28, 2015, 06:28:54 AM

Title: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on November 28, 2015, 06:28:54 AM
This is a project I recently thought up which made me useful and interesting for anyone who is interested in the history of Castlevania. Occasionally, I stumble upon some obscure interview or article from website deleted long ago or in an obscure magazine, and find some infromation that is definitely useful but unfortunately forgotten. That's why I thought it would be interesting to make a thread that organises all these sources for quick and easy reference. For the sake of the project, I was also thinking of collecting Japanese magazines which contain CV info, and put them here for later analysis by me. Who knows what we might discover?

First of all, I wanted to ask a question. What do you guys think would be the best way to organise this stuff? Should I do it by title or by year? Input would be appreciated.

If you have an old magazine which contains an obscure interview with IGA or something, you can scan it and post it here, or you can link to it. From any period of Castlevania is fine, so also more recent stuff like LoS. You can post reviews if they contain interesting facts, but I was thinking about making this a database about objective information, so I'm personally the most interested in interviews, previews, that kind of thing.

I'll update this post with sources accordingly.   
Castlevania

Vampire Killer

Castlevania: The Adventure

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Super Castlevania IV

Akumajou Dracula X68000

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Castlevania: Bloodlines

Castlevania: Dracula X

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania Legends

Castlevania 64

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Castlevania: Resurrection

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania Chronicles

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow


Castlevania: Lament of Innocence


Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Castlevania: Order of Shadows

Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Castlevania Judgment

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Miscellaneous
[/list][/list]
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: X on November 28, 2015, 10:29:34 AM
Rather then a thread this would be a good opportunity to put such obscure info/articles/interviews in the actual CV Dungeon with it's own section. But if that can't be done then sure, why not make a thread for it?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on November 28, 2015, 10:40:40 AM
I agree so much with this. There's crucial info out there being lost to the ages because no one is bothering to save them, or to properly organize them.

Quote
What do you guys think would be the best way to organise this stuff? Should I do it by title or by year? Input would be appreciated.

Per title would be best, as the year, most of times, is irrelevant. There are very few cases where the "year" factor is important.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: PFG9000 on November 28, 2015, 03:54:10 PM
I've got a pretty good collection of magazines featuring Castlevania articles.  I have magazines from the NES years to Lords of Shadow, but mostly focusing on the GBA and DS years.  Only a small percentage of the CV articles have actual interviews, but I could share them eventually.  The problem is that this is a very time-intensive project, and I don't have anywhere near that kind of free time.  But hopefully I can do it at some point.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on November 28, 2015, 09:38:07 PM
This is an excellent idea. I agree with plot to organize things by title.
I don't know if the Dungeon website can still be manipulated/edited so, let's just keep it in the forums for now. Then, sticky the thread.
My CV related magazines were all buried under tons of random stuff and I have no patience to uncover them.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on November 29, 2015, 05:47:18 AM
I added a whole bunch of scans from the Dungeon's magazine scan library, including a gazillion ones for CV64. Mostly previews which show early versions of the games. Also, an interview the producer the producer of CV64, a bunch of interviews with IGA, and a small one with Yamane. There's still plenty of interviews to be found on the internet, and that's just the English material. Also, feel free to discuss anything that is written in those articles in this thread.     
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: X on November 29, 2015, 11:07:34 AM
Interesting how Carmilla was a boss for CV64 but never made it into the final game. Well she does get her 3D makeover anyways in DXC.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Castle34hk on November 29, 2015, 12:32:15 PM
THANK YOU!
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: beingthehero on November 29, 2015, 02:08:34 PM
May not happen, but could this thread be stickied in lieu of the site itself being updated?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on November 29, 2015, 04:32:21 PM
Somewhere in the depths of my house I have the EGM article with POR where Iga is interviewed and speaks about "SOTN 2" which was later to be known as the Alucard origins game, which sadly was ditched in favour of LOS.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on November 30, 2015, 12:48:39 AM
Stickied this.

Somewhere in the depths of my house I have the EGM article with POR where Iga is interviewed and speaks about "SOTN 2" which was later to be known as the Alucard origins game, which sadly was ditched in favour of LOS.

Yeah. I remembered reading that too.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on November 30, 2015, 02:52:10 AM
Nagumo, I feel these two are important. One of them describes why Dracula is never redeemed and where is his soul sent after he is destroyed. There are more questions answered here that I have no idea what they mean:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv-chron/manual/dengeki-scoop1.jpg (http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv-chron/manual/dengeki-scoop1.jpg)
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv-chron/manual/dengeki-scoop2.jpg (http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv-chron/manual/dengeki-scoop2.jpg)

I also feel these shmuplations-translated interviews are important. The one in the first link is evidence that the developers (at least Toshiharu Furukawa) were already planning the 1999 event ever since SotN came out:

http://shmuplations.com/symphony/ (http://shmuplations.com/symphony/)
http://shmuplations.com/chinorondo/ (http://shmuplations.com/chinorondo/)
http://shmuplations.com/akumajox68000/ (http://shmuplations.com/akumajox68000/)
http://shmuplations.com/kojiigarashi/ (http://shmuplations.com/kojiigarashi/)
http://gosokkyu.com/post/79456686343/akumajou-dracula-x-chi-no-rondo-interview-lead (http://gosokkyu.com/post/79456686343/akumajou-dracula-x-chi-no-rondo-interview-lead)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on November 30, 2015, 08:43:54 AM
Sorted them except that one link that is a collection of IGA interviews from different years. How should I categorize that one?

@Plottwist

It seems the bit about Dracula being corrupted after he got sealed is one of four things IGA explains about the overall storyline. The first one is about Dracula's origin in the 11th century, the second bit seems to be something about why there are inccidents that defiate from the 100-year rule, and the last one is about "why only Richter has a title". (I'll look into that one). edit: the kanji are too small for me. Shiroi, do you know what it says?

Interesting how Carmilla was a boss for CV64 but never made it into the final game. Well she does get her 3D makeover anyways in DXC.

Strangely enough, she is called "witch" in that magazine scan. I wonder if that enemy was just supposed to based on Carmilla. 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on November 30, 2015, 10:39:26 PM
and the last one is about "why only Richter has a title". (I'll look into that one). edit: the kanji are too small for me. Shiroi, do you know what it says?

I glanced the 4th one and it said that Richter was the last Belmont to hold the VK, thus the title.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 01, 2015, 05:09:59 AM
How should I categorize that one?

I think it going under "Miscellaneous" is good enough, with the games covered in parenthesis (this is one case where "Year" would be a better cathegorization than "Game").
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 02, 2015, 10:57:02 AM
Done.

Could anyone check if the link below works for them? I wanted to extract a couple of scans from PC Engine dedicated  magazines that covered Rondo. The website appears to be down but when I checked, I got the message it's supposedly only down for me.

http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html (http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html) 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on December 02, 2015, 04:03:22 PM
Done.

Could anyone check if the link below works for them? I wanted to extract a couple of scans from PC Engine dedicated  magazines that covered Rondo. The website appears to be down but when I checked, I got the message it's supposedly only down for me.

http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html (http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html)

Doesn't work, sorry Nagumo.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 02, 2015, 05:51:05 PM
Done.

Could anyone check if the link below works for them? I wanted to extract a couple of scans from PC Engine dedicated  magazines that covered Rondo. The website appears to be down but when I checked, I got the message it's supposedly only down for me.

http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html (http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/archives.tg-16.com.html)

Here it says it's down only for me.

Also, when I try entering the site, it says the site is temporarily unavailable but will be back shortly.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 03, 2015, 11:15:35 AM
Thank you both for checking. I'll take a look again later this month.

I added 5 more articles. I didn't check the contents, but they are all from Konami's official magazine that used to be given away for free in game stores. It includes previews for Legends and Chronicles (both include timelines as well), IGA interviews about SotN and HoD, and a feature about KCE Nagoya which features the director of Legends and the SotN Saturn Port. Also, I added better scans for the Dengeki interview that is listed under miscellaneous.         
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 03, 2015, 11:32:48 AM
Also, I added better scans for the Dengeki interview that is listed under miscellaneous.         

I... Don't think they're better. I mean, they're REALLY REALLY small.

EDIT: The others you added are also REALLY small.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 04, 2015, 05:39:05 AM
Really? I checked just now and I can zoom in and see the text very clearly. This was on PC though, when I looked at it on mobile they were indeed very small (except the Dengeki scans for some reason).   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 04, 2015, 06:15:50 AM
The heck?

When I open the same link on Chrome and on Firefox, it appears thumbnail-sized on Chrome, but big and clear on Firefox o_o
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 14, 2015, 07:29:44 AM
I'm thinking about updating this thread twice a week: on Tuesday and Friday (although this specific update is on a Monday). I'll probably add five different articles each update. The reason I'm doing that is because it would otherwise be a lot of work to add a whole bunch of articles at once, and that way people won't get overwhelmed by a massive info dump.

Anyway, I added the following: developers comments by the SotN Saturn version staff (in Japanese, I'll translate it eventually...sometime), an EGM interview with IGA mainly about LoI and other interesting bits, a Gamespot Q&A about HoD, the special IGA interview from the DoS Double Jump Guide, and a Nintendo Power preview for PoR (which is the source that confirms Charlotte as being related to the Belnades family).   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 18, 2015, 04:26:41 AM
New update. I added the staff comments from SCIV team from the Akumajo Dracula Best 2 booklet (in Japanese), another Legends preview from Konami magazine (is the source for the game's 1450 date and also says Dracula became a vampire in 1431), IGA and Yamane about Lament of Innocence, a chat with IGA about Portrait of Ruin, and Game Informer's "Castlevania Mania" (something trivial I thought was interesting was IGA's idea to go back and tweak stories of older games, the ones he didn't work on, I presume).   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on December 18, 2015, 06:51:22 AM
"Castlevania Mania" (something trivial I thought was interesting was IGA's idea to go back and tweak stories of older games, the ones he didn't work on, I presume).   
Hmmm, right after switching 'Quincy Morris' with 'Alucard' keeps Dracula at bay during the events of Stoker's novel ;P
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: The Puritan on December 18, 2015, 09:05:24 AM
a chat with IGA about Portrait of Ruin   

Is this the one where Charlotte's surname was "Orlean"? I prefer it over "Aulin," which always sounded silly.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on December 18, 2015, 05:43:23 PM
Is this the one where Charlotte's surname was "Orlean"? I prefer it over "Aulin," which always sounded silly.

I thought I saw gameplay footage of the NA Castlevania POR and when paused, Charlotte's last name was 'Orlean'. Assuming this was a translation error. At the time I thought the NA version just had a slightly different spelling for her name, as the pronunciation is very similar. 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Dark Nemesis on December 19, 2015, 09:44:24 AM
Many links are broken or dead.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 19, 2015, 10:19:09 AM
Many links are broken or dead.

Which ones? I checked many and all of them work for me.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 19, 2015, 02:17:33 PM
Many links are broken or dead.

Not many, just three. In fact, these three links are from the Castlevania Crypt, and that site won't let images be linked anywhere. This happens in Google Images too - if you look for a spritesheet on Google images, clicks on it and it takes you to the Castlevania Crypt, then it'll say "Not Found". But if you try getting on these images through the Castlevania Crypt site, then it'll work. The links with these issues are:

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Nintendo Power preview part 1
Nintendo Power preview part 2
Nintendo Power preview part 3 + IGA interview

Now, Nagumo, remember how I said certain images linked on your post are appearing very small? This is happening because the URLs you used have something like "/revision/latest?cb=20130314043855" after them. For instance:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/8/83/Dengeki-scoop1.jpg (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/8/83/Dengeki-scoop1.jpg)/revision/latest?cb=20151203044254

Removing this last part, right after the "jpg", fixes the issue, and the images appear big as their normally would. Could you please do that :| ? The links with this issue are:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Konami Magazine 2 IGA interview
Saturn version developer comments

Castlevania Legends
Konami Magazine 3 preview and timeline
Konami Magazine 4 preview part 1
Konami Magazine 4 preview part 2

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Konami Magazine 25 IGA and MANA interview

Miscellaneous
Dengeki IGA interview part 1
Dengeki IGA interview part 2
Visit to KCE Nagoya
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 21, 2015, 10:05:16 AM
I changed it but they still appear small to me. When I click on the link on your post the image appears small, too. This may be related to my browser, though (Firefox).   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 21, 2015, 10:56:27 AM
I changed it but they still appear small to me. When I click on the link on your post the image appears small, too. This may be related to my browser, though (Firefox).

That's not cool... I'm thinking of a way to host these images only in big size, so it'll show up big in any browser. What do you say we open an IMGUR account to host these pictures forever in big size, and use the links from the uploaded images from there instead?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on December 22, 2015, 12:38:41 AM
@plot: That's a good idea or maybe open a google site?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on December 22, 2015, 06:53:08 AM
Hi Nagumo/ All, I just found something of interest while sorting out a comic collection which was more than long overdue.

There's a single page dedicated to Konami games on the last page of this issue of New Mutants #87.

Interestingly enough the advertisement is for The Castlevania Adventure for Gameboy, yet it mentions that this is "Simon Belmont's third quest". I'm not entirely certain on why this is so, but I have a feeling that it was just marketing tactics as the western audiences already knew Simon Belmont. I also note that the Castlevania manual in the US version is very basic and makes no mention whatsoever of the legend of "Christopher Belmont" as does the Japanese manual. May be there's a correlation, maybe not. The image is attached.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 22, 2015, 12:19:14 PM
That's not cool... I'm thinking of a way to host these images only in big size, so it'll show up big in any browser. What do you say we open an IMGUR account to host these pictures forever in big size, and use the links from the uploaded images from there instead?

That sounds like a great idea. I'll look into it sometime this week.

@zangetsu

Thank you for your contribution! I'll make to sure to add the image after I created the IMGUR account.

Also, it's time for another update. The first one is very interesting, I think. It's a topic for 2ch about Castlevania in which a staff member from Castlevania 3 answered a couple of questions about the game. The information he provided was consistent with the information given in an interview with the director of SCIV done a couple of years later (the fact that H. Akamatsu was also involved with the original Castlevania, which wasn't known before). Further I also added various IGA interviews from 1UP (Portrait of Ruin and one about various other topics), IGN (Order of Ecclesia), and Gamasutra (various).   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 22, 2015, 01:10:11 PM
Also, it's time for another update. The first one is very interesting, I think. It's a topic for 2ch about Castlevania in which a staff member from Castlevania 3 answered a couple of questions about the game. The information he provided was consistent with the information given in an interview with the director of SCIV done a couple of years later (the fact that H. Akamatsu was also involved with the original Castlevania, which wasn't known before).

Is that the one that pretty much confirms Trevor's middle name to be "Christopher"?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 23, 2015, 02:23:00 AM
One more interview for you Nagumo. I was writing about the candles being the souls of dead people for Umbra when I remembered where this information came from:

http://www.wired.com/2007/10/interview-iga-t/ (http://www.wired.com/2007/10/interview-iga-t/)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 23, 2015, 03:55:34 AM
Is that the one that pretty much confirms Trevor's middle name to be "Christopher"?

Right. I forgot to add that part to my post.  :P
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 29, 2015, 07:40:10 AM
Alright, I uploaded the images that were causing problems to IMGUR, so the scans should be readable now. I also added zangetsu and plottwist's contributions. I added three more article to round out the update. They are all for the period 2006 so lots of talk about a Castlevania on the Wii/PSP and the movie. Nothing too fancy. They are "TGS 2006: At the End with Koji Igarashi" (listed under PoR), "Koji Igarashi Interview: More Online Castlevania Coming", and "Kikizo IGA and Yamane Video Interview" (miscellaneous). As the name implies, the last one is a video interview, which brings me to another point. I think we should also try and preserve video content, but it's more difficult because I don't they they are recoverable through the Internet Archive once they the pages they appeared on are taken down. Unfortunately, that means some interviews with IGA are now lost. Does anyone know how we could try and preserve these video's? 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: beingthehero on December 29, 2015, 07:52:18 AM
Do you mean preserving the ones you already have? I'd just upload them to Youtube. I'd also keep duplicates on a private list there too as a backup, just in case they get taken down but so they're not lost forever.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 29, 2015, 01:50:50 PM
Do you mean preserving the ones you already have? I'd just upload them to Youtube. I'd also keep duplicates on a private list there too as a backup, just in case they get taken down but so they're not lost forever.

This.

We could open up an Youtube channel and have all videos listed as private so nobody could take them down. Then have then only be linked through your list.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on December 29, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Thanks for that Nagumo. :)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on January 02, 2016, 08:18:56 AM
It's a minor detail, but any suggestions for the name of the channel?

New update:


The Circle of the Moon hands-on is short but interestingly enough mentions Hugh was playable in the TGS demo. I would be interested in seeing a video of that.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on January 02, 2016, 08:51:17 AM
It's a minor detail, but any suggestions for the name of the channel?

Akumajo Dracula Xtube... Sorry I couldn't resist
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on January 06, 2016, 07:36:42 AM
New update (one day overdue!)

Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on January 12, 2016, 08:02:18 AM
For some reason I forgot to update on Saturday. Anyway, here we go again:

 

The last article is an interview with the person who did the sound effects for Vampire Killer. It actually is barely about Castlevania at all, but he mentions he is the person who composed the weird ending theme that is unique to the MSX version and is completely abscent from the NES/Famicom version. Listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5IBULcPPw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5IBULcPPw)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on January 12, 2016, 08:48:42 AM
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGTJJSrs.png&hash=c91ba19d93227a2a9bee821482463cc5)

Oh man :(
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on January 12, 2016, 03:42:20 PM
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGTJJSrs.png&hash=c91ba19d93227a2a9bee821482463cc5)

Oh man :(

I know... :-[
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on January 12, 2016, 10:31:12 PM
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGTJJSrs.png&hash=c91ba19d93227a2a9bee821482463cc5)

Oh man :(

Just go on with your story. It is still better than getting none at all.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on January 16, 2016, 07:35:12 AM
Update:


Nothing spectacular this time around. I did find something interesting, though. It's surprisingly in the German interview. It's mostly pretty standard, but at the end they ask if Castlevania would work well in another genre, and IGA revealed he had an idea for a full fledged Castlevania strategy game at one point. Later, he thought about making it real-time strategy instead. Unfortunately, he had to drop the idea. I wonder how that would have turned out? 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Belmontoya on January 16, 2016, 09:37:10 AM
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGTJJSrs.png&hash=c91ba19d93227a2a9bee821482463cc5)

Oh man :(

Why is that sad?

Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on January 16, 2016, 09:44:26 AM
Why is that sad?

Because we'll probably never know what IGA had in mind. He isn't even allowed to speak about it.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Belmontoya on January 16, 2016, 09:55:57 AM
Yeah but I thought we already all knew and accepted that.

Is there something new about that information?

Have you tried reaching out to him? Maybe he would be willing to give you a few broad details privately that you could use for your story. That way it would appear as though you coincidentally came to the same conclusions and Iga would be in the clear.

It's worth a shot Plot. I've learned that when you're putting hard work into something, you'll be surprised at who will be willing to lend a hand.

:-)

Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on January 16, 2016, 10:09:38 AM
Yeah but I thought we already all knew and accepted that.

Is there something new about that information?

Have you tried reaching out to him? Maybe he would be willing to give you a few broad details privately that you could use for your story. That way it would appear as though you coincidentally came to the same conclusions and Iga would be in the clear.

It's worth a shot Plot. I've learned that when you're putting hard work into something, you'll be surprised at who will be willing to lend a hand.

:-)

Yeah, I tried reaching for him before, but he doesn't even respond. Not being proficient in japanese also doesn't help. He doesn't even allow things we post on his timeline to appear publicitly.

And well, there are a bunch of "new" things we don't know. We know how '99 happens conceptually, but we don't know the details. We don't know how Julius lost his memory, for instance.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Belmontoya on January 16, 2016, 11:11:33 AM
I am correct to assume that means you tried contacting him through his twitter or facebook? Was it something like that?

Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on January 16, 2016, 03:12:51 PM
I am correct to assume that means you tried contacting him through his twitter or facebook? Was it something like that?

Yes, exactly.

I'm also aware he's aware of my existence amongst his hundreds of friends. He just won't talk to me in any way - even though I managed to squeeze one or two likes from him.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Belmontoya on January 16, 2016, 06:10:55 PM
Yes, exactly.

I'm also aware he's aware of my existence amongst his hundreds of friends. He just won't talk to me in any way - even though I managed to squeeze one or two likes from him.

That's what I thought. You might have better luck trying to contact him through Ben Judd.

But considering that any info on 1999 will not be released, it doesn't really make a difference at this point. I'm fairly confident that your story is superior to whatever Iga had in mind anyways. Just based off his past creations and what I've read of yours.


Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on January 19, 2016, 07:10:29 AM
I just wanted to say that I think I ran out of English material already. Of course I could add a gazillion interviews with Cox, but frankly, I'm not interested in doing that right now. There's plenty more to discover, but the more easily findable/accessible stuff has been uncovered for the most part. So I think I will stop doing updates twice a week, and do more inregular, spontaneous single article updates. 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Shiroi Koumori on January 19, 2016, 10:38:30 PM
Thanks dear!
Ignore the Cox interviews, I don't have any interest in those.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Lelygax on February 15, 2016, 09:41:36 PM
Thanks Nagumo, you have a golden heart by taking your time to do that.

Thanks dear!
Ignore the Cox interviews, I don't have any interest in those.
While I ain't interested in Cox interviews too, some users can be... right? (for real or for the giggles)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on March 22, 2016, 12:14:29 AM
Found one interview I'm not sure if it's linked here. It's about Harmony of Dissonance. IGA confirms two things:

1. The change of titles happened in tandem with the idea that Dracula is not present in the game.
2. The Wraith in Harmony of Dissonance is not Dracula.

Both confirmed to death before through dialogue and another IGA interview, but I thought this would be useful.

He also raises the possibility that the castle itself is not Dracula's Castle.

I'm fairly sure this might be a translation of one "dengeki" interview Nagumo linked. Though I'm unable to tell which one.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/7076/dengeki-interview-with-castlevania-producer (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/7076/dengeki-interview-with-castlevania-producer)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on March 22, 2016, 03:07:24 AM

He also raises the possibility that the castle itself is not Dracula's Castle.


Isn't this basically confirmed in game and the fact that it's not called Devil Castle Dracula though?

The only thing would be if they're Dracula's remains does that explain why the enemies are essentially Dracula's minions? Because otherwise they'd technically be manifestations of Maxim's darkest desires unless the remains/ their power had significant influence on those desires.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on March 22, 2016, 05:08:55 AM
Isn't this basically confirmed in game and the fact that it's not called Devil Castle Dracula though?

In-game I'm still a little troubled about that. Because, if neither is Dracula's Castle, how can Death summon the true one from two fake ones?

He also says that "[Maxim] brought this castle into existence once again." If this is not Dracula's Castle, then it's not "once again."
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: zangetsu468 on March 22, 2016, 06:53:37 AM
In-game I'm still a little troubled about that. Because, if neither is Dracula's Castle, how can Death summon the true one from two fake ones?

He also says that "[Maxim] brought this castle into existence once again." If this is not Dracula's Castle, then it's not "once again."

How can Death summon the true castle from 2 fake ones? The way I see it is more like this in a nutshell:

- Castle A; brought about by Maxim (A) who is the regular Maxim and also this castle's final boss. Fighting and killing him delivers the bad ending.
- Castle B; brought about by Maxim (B) who is the dark Maxim* and also this castle's final boss. Fighting and defeating him delivers the preferable ending. Prior to this ending Death informed Juste the Castles were already merging.

*Dark Maxim being a manifestation/entity of regular Maxim's darkest desires which came from the influence of Dracula's remains on Maxim("Dracula's power was overwhelming"; Maximto Juste)

- Castle A+B Merge; The outcome which happens when either:
1) Lydie becomes the sacrifice and vessel for Dracula's Revival, which would have resurrected the real Dracula (not "Dracula Wraith"). It is a possibility the true Castlevania would result from the Dracula's resurgence.
Or
2) Dark Maxim merges with regular Maxim (no longer being a manifestation of his darkest desires) making Maxim the suitable vessel for Dracula's resurrection (Not "Dracula Wraith"). This is not as favourable an outcome as (1), but it's still possible for Dracula to be resurrected and the 2 castles to merge this way.

The reason why (1) and two never happened were because Juste got there in time to save Lydie, and he got to Castle B's final room after gathering all the remains in time to stop Dark Maxim/ Regular Maxim and Castles A/B from merging.

It was never the true Castle in-game, Death just assumed that Juste would never make it in time to stop outcome (2) from occurring.

If either outcomes 1 or 2 would have happened, then it would have become Dracula's castle. Perhaps this is why Iga as said something to the effect of "it may not be Dracula's Castle" or something to that effect.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on March 26, 2016, 11:16:19 AM
Thank you for posting that interview, plottwist.

I also got a contribution of my own. It's not super exciting but I found an old advertisement for Akumajou Densetsu. I don't think there were any scans of it on the internet before, so this is a world exclusive.

 Left part. (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/5/50/Akumajou_Densetsu_Famitsu_Advertisement_1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160325165959)

 Right part. (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/d/d2/Akumajou_Densetsu_Famitsu_Advertisement_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160325170046)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on December 21, 2016, 02:48:56 PM
Nagumo, the 1UP interview is gone. However I think it's been copied here:

http://nerdmentality.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11529 (http://nerdmentality.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11529)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on December 22, 2016, 12:44:05 PM
Thank you, I replaced the link. I also threw in a couple of Yamane interviews in there as well.

Also a small notification of what to expect in the future: a small interview with the director of CV: The Adventure, an interview with the director of Bloodlines, and one with one of the programmers who worked on Vampire Killer. Expect to wait several months before they appear, though. I also got permission from the author of the Untold History of Japanese Video Game Developers to post scans of the Haunted Castle interview, so I'll get on that.   
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on August 06, 2017, 11:36:50 PM
Resurrecting this thread to say that, once again, the two 1UP interview links are dead. The NerdMentality link is returning an error and, while it IS a possibility the forum will get the link fixed, i'm not betting on it.

Though I managed to locate one about Dawn of Sorrow (http://www.fourside.com/forum/topic913-castlevania-dawn-of-sorrow/page2/#10446 (http://www.fourside.com/forum/topic913-castlevania-dawn-of-sorrow/page2/#10446)), I'm not sure the PoR one exists anywhere else on the internet. I'll take a look.

Also, here is one page I found that might not be on that list: http://archive.li/ebWLH (http://archive.li/ebWLH) never mind, it is.

EDIT: Yeah. Couldn't find it anywhere. Here is a snippet of it: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4405109&postcount=74 (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4405109&postcount=74)

I think these 1UP interviews might be gone forever.

EDIT 2: The first EGM interview link about Dawn of Sorrow (the ones followed by ??) has a wrong link. The HTTP: part doesn't have the ":" so it doesn't work properly.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Lelygax on August 07, 2017, 12:43:19 PM
Just a suggetion, but someone should create a Dropbox account and save these webpages there. People can read webpages stored on Dropbox without downloading the file (read online, as a normal site) and it would be better than a printscreened image.

So if we lose another one, a backup will still exist for the fans.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on September 01, 2017, 06:09:02 AM
So I (finally) created that Youtube account for preserving video interviews. Can anyone click on the link below and tell whether it works or not?

https://youtu.be/iXjts0IZoIY
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on September 01, 2017, 11:09:19 AM
So I (finally) created that Youtube account for preserving video interviews. Can anyone click on the link below and tell whether it works or not?

https://youtu.be/iXjts0IZoIY

(https://image.prntscr.com/image/Gm7Ok-TjTUyNWOz4MmkcWw.png)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: theplottwist on May 15, 2018, 03:38:13 PM
Coming here to update one of two of Nagumo's links who are dead AND to add a new one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20051103222308/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3138794 (https://web.archive.org/web/20051103222308/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3138794)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160712012220/http://www.1up.com/previews/castlevania-por_2 (https://web.archive.org/web/20160712012220/http://www.1up.com/previews/castlevania-por_2)

https://web.archive.org/web/20110604120530/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=4&cId=3152109 (https://web.archive.org/web/20110604120530/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=4&cId=3152109)

The last one is specially interesting because it's IGA squashing "HE REMOVED CIRCLE OF THE MOON BECAUSE HE DIDN'T WORK ON THEM! IGA IS ARROGANT!" myths years before they started spreading. He specifically says that the only game he removed intentionally was Legends.

EDIT: One more. Dawn of Sorrow afterthought.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060217083928/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3145119 (https://web.archive.org/web/20060217083928/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3145119)
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on May 18, 2018, 11:20:26 AM
Thanks! I really should start working on this again. Various videos still need to be preserved and I suppose I should start archiving those David Cox interviews eventually... 
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on June 15, 2018, 04:06:08 AM
I finally decided to go through the LoS thread and archive the various interviews (both text and video). I already added a few to the OP. More will follow soon. All links have been saved in the Internet Archive, so existing links can be replaced when they stop working.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Dremn on May 10, 2019, 12:08:42 PM
https://twitter.com/shmuplations/status/1126827104996212736 (https://twitter.com/shmuplations/status/1126827104996212736)

http://shmuplations.com/castlevania/ (http://shmuplations.com/castlevania/)

Here's a new one with Hitoshi Akamatsu, who was revealed? to be the series creator! It goes over the first 3 games! He mentions stuff I never knew or would have thought about!
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on May 11, 2019, 02:33:44 PM
Done. I also added the Micom BASIC interview (also with Akamatsu).
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: AlexCalvo on September 05, 2019, 12:37:57 PM
Are you aware some of the links are broken?  I tried PoR nintendo power and all 3 were down.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on September 06, 2019, 11:34:27 AM
Seems like the Castlevania Crypt website is down. Unfortunately, I didn't save the scans and they're not accessible through the internet archive either. So it seems we have to wait until someone scans Nintendo Power #204 and uploads it to the internet. For now, I'll just add "broken link" at the end of link (unless someone here does have those images saved).   

Edit: I replaced the old images with new ones. They're not the same quality but are still readable.
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: LuxKiller65 on September 12, 2019, 11:44:06 PM
I've lost yet once again the link to an article that goes in-depth on Harmony of Dissonance, with lots of screenshots and series comments like what this background reminds of and which game this enemy is also used in etc.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: Nagumo on September 13, 2019, 08:01:51 AM
You mean this one (https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.selectbutton.net%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D32040%26highlight%3D&t=ZmI0Y2Q3ZjBlMDYwOTBjYjM2NTc5YjA5OTlmMDAzNjgwYWM4MzVkNixFS0g1OFhSZQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A1dKQSWBEHcNVPw-k78VWkQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fdoshmanziari.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F95964966156%2Fan-introduction-to-brick-by-brick&m=1)?
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: LuxKiller65 on September 13, 2019, 06:02:58 PM
u the boss, yea that one, seems some special characters got garbled up but the photos are still up :)

edit: link to his homepage

https://doshmanziari.tumblr.com/post/95964966156/an-introduction-to-brick-by-brick
Title: Re: Castlevania interview/article database
Post by: OldSchoolArikado on June 29, 2022, 02:35:45 AM
Guys, someone have the Interview panel of IGA in the TGS 2008?