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Offline KaZudra

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2019, 06:17:46 PM »
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Bram Stoker's Bizarre Adventure.

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Offline Lumi Kløvstad

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #16 on: November 15, 2019, 01:14:48 PM »
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First off: NEW TIMELINE.

In order to sell the new canon as something unconnected with what came before, there'd be only a few familiar faces from the old: there must always be a Dracula, and there must always be a Simon Belmont. The second game would probably be a competent and not-lazy-DeviantArt-fanfiction rendition of Castlevania Legends to serve as the origin story and update Sonia Belmont's character into one notable for reasons other than "being a chick" and "being non-canon". Her son would be called Trevor, but he doesn't get his own game, and his only role is that of Simon's ancestor in lore. Alucard is not in this timeline at all. One of the games would be titled Resurrection with a plot that echoes the major beats of what the original game would have had, but make it less goofy and more Mary Shelley: Victor Belmont refuses to take up his legacy, prompting the Church to do arcane rituals to summon back Sonia Belmont to mentor him back to the hero he's meant to be.

I'd probably stick with the Metroidvania style, featuring the fluid Igavania movement system, but with Lords of Shadow's flashy combos and Mirror of Fate's emphasis on blocks, counters, and dodges. No reason to fix what ain't broke, right?

Have a plan for at the very least six games, each one starring a different Belmont running from Sonia's tale (moved to 1477 to coincide with the real Vlad Tepes' historical death). That gives us three reimagined Belmonts (two of which were never prominent to begin with and are therefore RIPE for reinvention) and three new ones, and the fans would simultaneously get assurances that --heh-- the sun ain't going down on the franchise here thanks to that long term plan.

There'd be a lot less emphasis on having a definitive canon, with Dracula in particular being portrayed in broad strokes and his origins being given several contradictory theories over the course of the games with none confirmed, leaving it to players to decide on what they think happened. The Belmonts would have a much more clear-cut history though.

The art direction and character design would be done with an eye for historical accuracy, being both historically and regionally appropriate (this is one thing that has always pissed me off about the series thus far), and the environmental and monster design would take visual cues from Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

The games would be fairly easy by default for accessibility by all skill levels, but also feature adjustable difficulty that could take things up to a truly punishing level, with AI becoming more aggressive and more inclined to use group tactics against the player at higher difficulties.

The climactic game would take place in 1977, partially to give the saga a span of exactly 500 years (more than enough time to play around with), but mostly just so I can drop silly references to the rather ignoble three final Hammer Horror Dracula films. It would also finish on a definitive ending with no possibility for future stories past that point in history. After all, every great story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end.

There would definitely be a few references to Lords of Shadow and the old Classic timeline, but nothing substantial enough to encourage people to try to link the new with the old. Most would be pretty obscure references for lore hounds. Much more common and more easily found would be references to other works of Vampire fiction such as The Horla, Good Lady Ducayne, Carmilla, Varney the Vampire, The Night Stalker, Dark Shadows, and others would be in abundance. Probably a few anachronistic Buffy references as well because why the hell not.

Basically, Castlevania as a celebration of everything that the series has been so far, and a celebration of vampire fiction as a whole.

I can't think of something more appropriate to do as a rebooted series.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2019, 01:17:29 PM by Lumi Kløvstad »
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Offline Zydalc

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2019, 07:48:29 PM »
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There would definitely be a few references to Lords of Shadow and the old Classic timeline, but nothing substantial enough to encourage people to try to link the new with the old. Most would be pretty obscure references for lore hounds. Much more common and more easily found would be references to other works of Vampire fiction such as The Horla, Good Lady Ducayne, Carmilla, Varney the Vampire, The Night Stalker, Dark Shadows, and others would be in abundance. Probably a few anachronistic Buffy references as well because why the hell not.

Basically, Castlevania as a celebration of everything that the series has been so far, and a celebration of vampire fiction as a whole.

I can't think of something more appropriate to do as a rebooted series.

Of course I would also throw in references from White Wolf's World of Darkness games like "Vampire: the Masquerade" and "Vampire: the Requiem" regarding the Gothic punk atmosphere (like Vampires in Leather Jackets in rainy darkened graffiti allyways and nightclubs to Vamps in Suits in their Ivory Towers thinking they lord the city below) and of course other references like Paul Feval's "Vampire City" if the city of Selene and the Vampire Otto Goetzi can be fitted somehow.

Although my biggest inspiration would be this web comic by Philip Rice/Spearhafoc called "Undeath" which is part of his Apex Society series of comics which is loosely based on Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" which has Dracula recruiting Carmilla, Orlok, Ruthven, (although Clarimonde and Varney are opposite sides) to take over England or rather to finish where he left off in 1892.

Then again as for Carmilla, I would defiantly go to a anti-heroine route as in portraying her as similar to the now popular Web Series of course being that Leather Clad broody gay lesbian vampire that creampuffs know and love although she's first in Dracula's side but she slowly defects and turns against him at the end and of course possibly digging deeper into the Karnsteins as well which maybe presenting Count Karnstein based on the Hammer films (like Lust of a Vampire and Twins of Evil) as a antagonist whose one of Dracula's right hand men or lieutenants that is (since he may have a history with him or rather dealing with his Father during his Order of the Dragon days as a mortal when serving the Holy Roman Empire) and Carm's mother (whose name is Marcella Karnstein) from the Carriage wreck scene from the beginning of the book has leverage on Carmilla hence why she's on Dracula's side of things due to having no choice (and I would base Carm's mother to be similar to the Dean from the Web Series only except she's not the goddess Innanna but rather a Karnstein since the entire Karnstein noble family are vampires) and of course there's Matksa whose Carm's adoptive sister which they have a Lestat and Louis relationship dynamic between them well similar to how they're portrayed in the Web Series as well.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2020, 12:41:35 AM by Zydalc »

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #18 on: November 20, 2019, 09:43:30 AM »
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Quote
I'd probably stick with the Metroidvania style, featuring the fluid Igavania movement system, but with Lords of Shadow's flashy combos and Mirror of Fate's emphasis on blocks, counters, and dodges. No reason to fix what ain't broke, right?

The sponge enemies made that system broke. They were too tough (life-gauge-wise) and the combat cross was too weak, even when you collected more power-ups for it :P  Combos could work but only if they're handled well. GoW I feel did the best job on that front. The combat in GoW felt satisfying and the enemies were taking reasonable hits to kill. It wasn't overly excessive. But in LoS killing enemies took too damned long; dragging out the gameplay far longer then it should've. There needs to be a balance when it comes to enemies/combat/attack combos and LoS didn't exactly have that going for it.
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Offline Zydalc

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #19 on: November 20, 2019, 04:16:29 PM »
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Well for one thing I would like to see a SOTN style Metroidvania starring a Vampire protagonist while the Prequel and earlier games is a Belmont protagonist.

Since it's supposed to draw the line that games having Belmont protagonists tend to be harder since they're human while Vampire protagonists would be fun and smooth to play as signifying how powerful they actually are compared to human characters.

Basically the first game has a Belmont protagonist that has the standard "Point A to Point B" and plays and feels like Lecarde Chronicles 1 and Super Castlevania 4 regarding the atmosphere especially.

The Second game is a "Metroidvania" Simon's Quest like game starring a Belmont and plays like Lecarde Chronicles 2 with the difficulty that is.

The Third game is alot like Dracula's Curse and Bloodstained Curse of the Moon which has a Belmont going to point A to point B but you can recruit and switch between characters and the endings can vary depending if they survived or not.

And finally the "last" game is a SOTN/Ritual of the Night style metrodvania where we finally play as a Vampire as a protagonist making it a worth a wait with the previous titles.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2019, 04:26:20 PM by Zydalc »

Offline Super Waffle

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Re: How would you reboot Castlevania?
« Reply #20 on: November 22, 2019, 09:02:49 AM »
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Would Lucy Heartfilia work as a Castlevania character? She fights with a whip and stuff.

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