Topic: Do you think Castlevania is dead?

[shelverton.]

In retrospect, I have to say that Curse of Darkness is probably the Castlevania game in recent history that had the most promise. It could really have been the first successful "SotN in 3D". They brought back the level system, the interconnected gameworld, the "anti-hero" main character, the fantastic soundtrack (yes, I was not a big fan of LoI in the music department, sadly). And they got rid of the fixed camera.

With a foundation like that, together with the lessons learnt from Lament (and Nanobreaker), CoD had everything going for it and should have resulted in a lot of great things. But the finished product absolutely baffles me. Most of all the friggin LEVEL DESIGN. IGA already produced a flat, empty 3D Castlevania and should've stepped up his game by this point. I somehow feel that Curse turned out EVEN flatter, which is unheard of. The game is also arguably uglier than Lament.

I don't hate CoD (I adore the soundtrack from start to finish!), but thinking about what could've been definitely puts it at the very top of my personal "Most Disappointing Castlevania games ever" list.

[KaZudra]

In retrospect, I have to say that Curse of Darkness is probably the Castlevania game in recent history that had the most promise. It could really have been the first successful "SotN in 3D". They brought back the level system, the interconnected gameworld, the "anti-hero" main character, the fantastic soundtrack (yes, I was not a big fan of LoI in the music department, sadly). And they got rid of the fixed camera.

With a foundation like that, together with the lessons learnt from Lament (and Nanobreaker), CoD had everything going for it and should have resulted in a lot of great things. But the finished product absolutely baffles me. Most of all the friggin LEVEL DESIGN. IGA already produced a flat, empty 3D Castlevania and should've stepped up his game by this point. I somehow feel that Curse turned out EVEN flatter, which is unheard of. The game is also arguably uglier than Lament.

I don't hate CoD (I adore the soundtrack from start to finish!), but thinking about what could've been definitely puts it at the very top of my personal "Most Disappointing Castlevania games ever" list.

Honestly it wouldn't have taken much to make CoD a stellar hit, It succeeded in Art-style, interesting Boss battles, common combat, soundtrack, Area Concept, and the story was pretty good, If the Textures were a little better and the level layouts were more interesting, combat had a better combo system than the default Dynasty Warriors feel, the game would be considered amongst the best, the Innocent Devil System was great, I just with the game had level design to better implement some of the abilities, as well as challenge the players in some aspect in stages.

Still regardless of it's shortcomings, CoD is still great. I really wish Improved remakes were a trend in video games, it worked for Resident Evil

[Chernabogue]

If Hector had run a little faster too...

[X]

If Hector had run a little faster too...

Oh god yes. He was slower then molasses in January. Leon was faster then him and he didn't even require the flip-dodging technique (which is what I use frequently in CoD just to make the game go that much faster).

[shelverton.]

Hector being slow coupled with the fact that the levels seemed unnecessarily large was very painful indeed. Each new room/corridor you entered was way oversized. It's one of those few games were I think they should've made the game more compact. CoD is not exactly a long game, but it sure felt like I was in there for 60+ hours. The 2D Metroidvanias, on the other hand, felt really short, but the truth is I spent about as much time in them as in CoD. It's just that the Metroidvanias were fast and snappy, with no filler (IMO), but instead more to do in each place.

[beingthehero]

They listened to most of the feedback about Lament except the number one complaint - repetitive, lifeless levels. The main issue is that they tried to convert the map layouts of the 2D games too literally into the 3D plane. So instead of progression being vertical- allowing for platforming and fairly interesting enemy placement - everything was horizontal.

So basically they would take this:



And lay it flat on the ground. Because of this, everything became just long, interconnecting corridors.

I mean, here's Garibaldi Temple:



Now pretend it's a map from the handheld Castlevanias. Add platforms and ledges here and there, and it'd actually be quite fun to play, instead of trudging down hallway after hallway.

[shelverton.]

That map made me think about a top-down Castlevania. Or possibly isometric. I can't think of many games like that outside the RPG genre. Well, there are a few I guess... Most recently the DS game Lunar Knights which IS kinda like an isometric Castlevania

A kingdom to anyone who remakes Curse of Darkness as a top-down action RPG with delicious 16-bit graphics! I think it could work really well! All maps could be used as-is.

[EstebanT]

Earlier in this thread I was one of the people debating that Castlevania was not dead, but with the current news about Konami.... Im afraid Castlevania is probably done for. This sucks.

[piscesdreams]

I used to say it wasnt dead. But with the current news of Konami and underwhelming performance if LOS2, I think it is on a definite hiatus. But you never know, every major game company has that 1 trump card. Capcom = Resident Evil 2 remake, Square = Final Fantasy VII remake, Konami = SOTN remake. Maybe Konami will surprise is but I am swearing off Konami unless they totally grab me by the balls and whisper what I want to hear in my ear.