Topic: "The Dragon Returns" - Castlevania Lords of Shadow Sequel (HERE BE SPOILER INFO)

[knightmere]

I actually put it as a fave to show people I had put the graphic up.
I love all cv games so it's no problem.

If you wanna be weird, you can put "Encore of the Night" as your "Likes".

I've been wanting to play that game forever but I still don't have the hardware to do so.

[xscientist5000]

To my dismay, I just noticed the focus bar in one of the development screenshots.

[CastleDan]

To my dismay, I just noticed the focus bar in one of the development screenshots.

We get to turn into a wolf..who cares. lol

[A-Yty]

The "IGA route" is the "Konami route". IGA just works/worked for them.

It is almost a weird science how IGA gets shoehorned into whenever anything about the quality or the future of Castlevania is mentioned. He isn't left alone even after apparently no longer working on Castlevania. What does it take for him to be not excluded as the bringer of all things that spell Castlevania's ruin? Would getting crucified help?

If Mercurysteam calls it quits after this, you could say they were "noble" or "smart". But they would also get off easy by getting out while the going's good. Their games were compared to repetitive gameplay implementation, zany, kind-of-insulting side projects and the increasing marginalization of Castlevania. I don't know what exactly went on in Konami over those years when they didn't bother investing on Castlevania, but lots of things in LoS can't help but look better in comparison to those. It can be partly like some sort of tunnel vision effect. It sort of links into IGA; he had the misfortune/fortune of producing so many games that it was inevitable some of the praise would turn into hate. Had he produced only a trilogy, how would things be now?
 
But if they stick around longer, will the novelty of those things keep on shining as bright? They don't necessarily need to innovate anything if they jump out of the ship and the producer doesn't have to become Mr. Castlevania. Just doing three games that aren't like the Vanias whose aftertaste some of us, lots of us, have been wanting to get out of our mouth would be enough.

[ZenTzen]

Theres still the whole thing that Cox said when LoS was comming out about how he would like other developers expand on the LoS universe kinda like comic books

[Dremn]

I wonder who's going to take over the series after Mercury Steam is done. Will this be the end of the new canon, or just the end of MS's run on it?

[CastleDan]

The "IGA route" is the "Konami route". IGA just works/worked for them.

It is almost a weird science how IGA gets shoehorned into whenever anything about the quality or the future of Castlevania is mentioned. He isn't left alone even after apparently no longer working on Castlevania. What does it take for him to be not excluded as the bringer of all things that spell Castlevania's ruin? Would getting crucified help?

If Mercurysteam calls it quits after this, you could say they were "noble" or "smart". But they would also get off easy by getting out while the going's good. Their games were compared to repetitive gameplay implementation, zany, kind-of-insulting side projects and the increasing marginalization of Castlevania. I don't know what exactly went on in Konami over those years when they didn't bother investing on Castlevania, but lots of things in LoS can't help but look better in comparison to those. It can be partly like some sort of tunnel vision effect. It sort of links into IGA; he had the misfortune/fortune of producing so many games that it was inevitable some of the praise would turn into hate. Had he produced only a trilogy, how would things be now?
 
But if they stick around longer, will the novelty of those things keep on shining as bright? They don't necessarily need to innovate anything if they jump out of the ship and the producer doesn't have to become Mr. Castlevania. Just doing three games that aren't like the Vanias whose aftertaste some of us, lots of us, have been wanting to get out of our mouth would be enough.

IGA's team did lazy things. They obviously got a decent budget with their first 3D attempt and what did they give us? Lament of Innocence, sure it felt more castlevania than Los...but it was also far more repetitive and lazy looking.
Konami isn't the one MAKING the games it's the team and Iga's team are to blame.

In my opinion of course.

[crisis]

I'm also happy that it's confirmed that Gabriel's name is indeed DRACULA, not dracul like some people claimed

I wouldn't mind seeing MS create a side-game or 2 as Gaiden stories in the classic timeline, such as a Circle of the Moon prequel heh

[Neobelmont]

I wonder who's going to take over the series after Mercury Steam is done. Will this be the end of the new canon, or just the end of MS's run on it?

Who knows. But I feel that even after such a venture MS might work on something else for konami maybe a new IP perhaps. We all just have to wait till the time comes.

[CastleDan]

Way Forward 2d attempt at a metroidvania title would be sweet. Imo

[A-Yty]

IGA's team did lazy things. They obviously got a decent budget with their first 3D attempt and what did they give us? Lament of Innocence, sure it felt more castlevania than Los...but it was also far more repetitive and lazy looking.
Konami isn't the one MAKING the games it's the team and Iga's team are to blame.

In my opinion of course.

This is what's been bugging me; did they really get a LoS-sized budget? Some people are saying that, but it looks, sounds and seems likely that it was nowhere near that.

It's a bit of a mystery all around. Were the sales numbers actually dropping and were the overall reviews butchering the games? If they were, why did they keep hiring the same people? I mean, it's not uncommon these days for Japanese game houses to outsource their series to the west, so the hiring of MS might not in itself be the result of IGA and his teams not doing what Konami paid them to do.

I wish there was an interview to the people behind those games about those issues, in the spirit of the MG Revengeance documentary.

[crisis]

I might get shot for this, but, how about Platinum Games? Hideki Kamiya did say his favorite game is the original Castlevania..

[Dremn]

I might get shot for this, but, how about Platinum Games? Hideki Kamiya did say his favorite game is the original Castlevania..

That would be really fucking awesome, actually.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long"

[CastleDan]

This is what's been bugging me; did they really get a LoS-sized budget? Some people are saying that, but it looks, sounds and seems likely that it was nowhere near that.

It's a bit of a mystery all around. Were the sales numbers actually dropping and were the overall reviews butchering the games? If they were, why did they keep hiring the same people? I mean, it's not uncommon these days for Japanese game houses to outsource their series to the west, so the hiring of MS might not in itself be the result of IGA and his teams not doing what Konami paid them to do.

I wish there was an interview to the people behind those games about those issues, in the spirit of the MG Revengeance documentary.

Did it get as big of a budget? Well obviously not this is made for 360/ps3 which requires much more money.
however did LOI get a decent budget for it's console? sure... you think Iga's first 3d game wouldn't get backed, after all the hate the n64 3d games got. They wanted to make a statement they aren't gonna give him scraps.

It's one of the main reasons curse of darkness looks so bad, they probably had less money to work with. Yes people gave the games decent reviews but that's because with brand name games people tend to be more forgiving, you read these reviews and you start to see the negatives. Does anyone honestly believe Iga's team was putting out better castles each time after Symphony of the night? The castles were less and less creative, and less and less interesting. ( in terms of layout, and non-repetitiveness)....

Aria of sorrow had a decent castle though!