I could go for that. Keep the base idea of events, weed out the 'extra' stories that don't really contribute much and also add NEW stories to enrichen the new continuity. I would say, keep Trevor(1976), Christopher(1576), Simon(1691) and Richter(1792). Quincy Morris could either be cut or kept(keeping Stoker's Dracula as a part of the CV). Stuff that would be cut, naturally, would be LoI(perhaps make CV3's events the TRUE origin and keep Dracula as Vlad III, like my pitch, perhaps work in a little bit of history by including Radu and Mircea). That would also mean no CoD, no Belmont's Revenge, no Simon's Quest, no HoD, no SotN(gasp), no OoE, no PoR(if Quincy is kept, I wouldn't mind keeping Bloodlines, or perhaps merging the two games into one story that spans two generations). Other than that, all else will be left open. Concepts like the hundred-year rule (and if the Morris clan are kept, the whole "Morris clan are inferior and die if they try to use the Vampire Killer") will be written out.
Other than that, keep the basic visual style and classic styled music. Also dip into the wide assortment of classic CV monsters. I want to see Mummies, Frankenstein Monsters, Phantom Bats, Medusa Heads, Bone Pillars/dragons and such. Also, keep it the "hero's series", keep the focus on the Belmonts. Flesh out Dracula's backstory, sure, but keep the focus on what the Belmont family goes through.
That sounds good in theory.
The negative aspect about that (and a huge one) is that we aren't getting new characters, new stages and new soundtracks. It will be the same as DXC over and over. The main reason I never really cared about DXC is exactly that. It doesn't have anything new. It's kind of like buying a Bluray re-release of an old movie that I saw in a VHS as a little girl, to see the same but in better technical quality.
Not to mention (and this is only personally speaking) that if you leave LoI, CoD, PoR, OoE, SotN, Simon's Quest, Belmont's Revenge and Bloodlines out of it you are leaving almost all of the best out (to my taste, this is only me speaking, I know most people feels differently).
That's the state of the world we are in. Reboot is modern society's magic reset button. Pretty soon, we're going to get to a state where parents are going to be upset how their kids turn out and say, "Let's reboot them!", having another child and disowning the one that didn't live up to their expectations. Reminds me of King of the Hill how Hank never lived up to Cotton's dream, so when he had the other kid decades later, he named him "Good Hank"(as original Hank was bad and a failure in his eyes). Hey, it's a slippery slope.
One thing I think makes reboots worse is the whole trilogy thing. If you reboot something and make it a trilogy, you are only fortelling your eventual end, because a trilogy is a close-ended thing. So, what happens when you end it and people want more? It's almost FORCING another reboot. I say, just don't say anything. Don't proclaim you are making a trilogy. Just fuckin' make as much as you want or CAN. If the series falters, it falters, but I'd rather have that open freedom of ideas rather than keeping within a stricted limit as that of a "trilogy".
Excellent comparation that one about parents and kids. And that was a great episode!
I think I would have died of sadness to this point if my only hope hadn't been thinking "Endure it the best you can, MS is leaving when the 3rd game is done".
Which brings me to the exact opposite...
In my humble opinion, I feel the "Final Fantasy" route where each game is it's own self-contained universe like Mai Waifuu Nagumo described is better left off as "Gaiden" style games. I like continuity, how the Belmont legacy can show repercussions centuries down the line. If the series goes the "Final Fantasy" route, then there would be none of that, no feeling of connection other than characters in name only & perhaps music. Granted that style offers more freedom for the developers to do what they want without worrying about adhering to continuity, but what I feel makes CV special is that there's been an effort to keep everything connected somehow, albeit loosely/indirectly but you know the bloodline(s) still find a way to persist.
I feel the best approach would be how OoE did it, by making games that leave the specific year ambiguous. Leave us guessing when said story takes place, yet it's not tied down & set in stone like all the other games are. And at the same time develop Gaiden games that take place outside the "main universe," like LoS and CV64.
I remember having the feeling of "eternity". I don't know other way to put it. I wasn't even a teenager when SotN came into my life and shaped everything about me. From that day, it was game after game, more of that kind of game I loved so much. Almost every year a new one. Every time I was playing a new game I had the peace in my mind the in a year, or year and a half, a new one was coming. I want that feeling back, among other things.
If they keep changing developers we would be getting always something different, and we will never feel the security that our beloved franchise will never stop coming out / will never change its core / etc..
By saying guinea pig and reboot, i mean that if every time you ditch the elements from previous games and do something that has 0-2% from what previous games they were known, then only the name remains. A good example? Alundra with Alundra 2. They are 2 different games, if you take the name out from Alundra 2, you will barely find anything to remind you Alundra. I'm not against reboots, but only if they are done correctly.
That's exactly what's been happening these last years.
If they don't return now to the old Castlevania, they will never do, unless eventually 1 or 2 times like with Megaman 9 and 10, which is sad.