Topic: Konami teases ‘new developments for familiar series’ and unannounced new project

[The Puritan]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/03/konami-files-trademark-for-mysterious-project-zircon

We're so jaded that we're not even bothering to speculate what "Project Zircon" could be.

[zangetsu468]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/03/konami-files-trademark-for-mysterious-project-zircon

We're so jaded that we're not even bothering to speculate what "Project Zircon" could be.

Zircon>Duplicator>Remake>Remaster>Port>Wine>Glasses>Holy Glasses

Correct Answer = Alucard Raybans 😎 ⚰️

Wondering why Iga doesn’t just release Bloodstained ROTN II already..

[AlexCalvo]

Wondering why Iga doesn’t just release Bloodstained ROTN II already..

Last I checked, they still hadn't finished releasing Bloodstained ROTN I yet... 

[zangetsu468]

ROTN unfinished… Imagine that 😂

‘Time of Death’ was officially called with the Child of Light DLC.

Honestly, after the catastrophe that were the numerous delays, as well as the missing water boss and the abortion which was the Switch version, I don’t think Iga has it in him to another ROTN. He’d sooner release COTM3, which is a safer bet in generating revenue.

[Gunlord]

Eh...I dunno about CotM3 (though I'd be elated for it), but both RoTN and I assume RoTN2 are proceeding apace. For RoTN, yes, there have been delays, but 505 is still attending to the official Bloodstained discord and they've told us work on the remaining modes is continuing well, they've provided roadmaps, etc. Now, there could be more delays in the future, sure, but that's software development unfortunately. I think the game itself is definitely on the road to full completion, even if there were a few delays.

As for RotN2, well, I know nothing about that other than what's been publicly revealed (namely the leak lol) but if 505's still working with Artplay, and again they are judging by their updates on the discord, IMO it's safe to assume work on the sequel is proceeding at a satisfactory pace, since with 505's involvement from the very outset they'll be able to help IGA more with everything and keep development on track

[Mangoaxe5]

Maybe they're finally making that 1999 game. Right???

[Kamirine]

So we shouldn’t expect any Castlevania news from the Sony event on Wednesday, right?  Just maybe MGS and more Silent Hill 2 remake?  I don’t want to get my hopes up.

[nokundhi]

Who is even left at Konami? All their talent hightailed it out of their like a bat out of hell.

[zangetsu468]

Who is even left at Konami? All their talent hightailed it out of their like a bat out of hell.

#PachinKonami is a shadow (organisation) of its former self, currently funded by the Yakuza and run by the ‘Pachinko Elite’.

[Foffy]

So we shouldn’t expect any Castlevania news from the Sony event on Wednesday, right?  Just maybe MGS and more Silent Hill 2 remake?  I don’t want to get my hopes up.

According to VGC -- and this was back in October 2021 -- that Castlevania would get a game released before Metal Gear and Silent Hill. So one can go into this event with a few ideas...

- If this is still true, Castlevania will be there and be released before Silent Hill 2
- It is not there because it is for a Nintendo platform and will still be released before Silent Hill 2
- This is no longer true and issues occurred during development that either delayed or cancelled this game outright, explaining it not being there

Konami was supposed to have presence if there was an E3 this year, so I don't think they have just two games to show, but a good chunk of titles. The fact nothing's come out in specific about this project is interesting, because the VGC rumor alleges it's an in-house "reimagining" with support from Japanese third parties. This could explain why we haven't heard details on the who and what those involved in this game are making compared to fully outsourced projects, but we'll see.

Best case scenario: they reveal a Castlevania game this week. Worst case scenario: no Castlevania game at all, but another Bloodstained soon. Things ain't too bad.

[zangetsu468]

Best case scenario: they reveal a Castlevania game this week. Worst case scenario: no Castlevania game at all, but another Bloodstained soon. Things ain't too bad.

Glad someone can be the eternal #OptimistPrime

[Foffy]

Glad someone can be the eternal #OptimistPrime

Just hours after my post, 505 posted an announcement for the beta test for the co-op mode in Ritual of the Night. Hopefully they can do this and announce the sequel soon. I promise I didn't will this into being!

Also, very good chance Castlevania THE ARCADE will finally be playable on PC soon, so there's still something new for most of us! Grimoire of Souls was on the Steam leak when that happened, so that might pop up on other platforms this summer if it had a year exclusivity deal for Apple Arcade. Some of those deals end a year after support/updates cease for the game, and we're just about the year mark for that with this game.

Now mind you, I am an optimist we'll see something. I am not an optimist if it will be good. Depends entirely on who is helping Konami make it.

[Kamirine]

According to VGC -- and this was back in October 2021 -- that Castlevania would get a game released before Metal Gear and Silent Hill. So one can go into this event with a few ideas...

- If this is still true, Castlevania will be there and be released before Silent Hill 2
- It is not there because it is for a Nintendo platform and will still be released before Silent Hill 2
- This is no longer true and issues occurred during development that either delayed or cancelled this game outright, explaining it not being there

Konami was supposed to have presence if there was an E3 this year, so I don't think they have just two games to show, but a good chunk of titles. The fact nothing's come out in specific about this project is interesting, because the VGC rumor alleges it's an in-house "reimagining" with support from Japanese third parties. This could explain why we haven't heard details on the who and what those involved in this game are making compared to fully outsourced projects, but we'll see.

Thanks for the info!!  I really appreciate it!  Yeah, tbh, I wasn’t too sure because I remember the suppose rumor about a new Castlevania but I also heard rumblings that had been cancelled—then possibly uncanceled or that it being cancelled was misinformation. Then there was the SH, MGS, CV are Sony exclusives rumor and all could be revealed soon, so I wasn’t sure where we were on the gossip mill for the suppose game anymore. XD

Best case scenario: they reveal a Castlevania game this week. Worst case scenario: no Castlevania game at all, but another Bloodstained soon. Things ain't too bad.

As much as I would love a new Castlevania, I have to agree that  I’m pretty content if nothing happens.

There are a bunch of upcoming titles (well, at least classicvania wise) on the horizon that I am really looking forward to and Bloodstained and few other gems already have me covered on the Igavania front.

So we don’t get a new game rn, it’s okay. Just slap Rebirth on a collection or something so I don’t have to dig out my Wii to play it Konami. XD

Just hours after my post, 505 posted an announcement for the beta test for the co-op mode in Ritual of the Night. Hopefully they can do this and announce the sequel soon. I promise I didn't will this into being!

Also, very good chance Castlevania THE ARCADE will finally be playable on PC soon, so there's still something new for most of us! Grimoire of Souls was on the Steam leak when that happened, so that might pop up on other platforms this summer if it had a year exclusivity deal for Apple Arcade. Some of those deals end a year after support/updates cease for the game, and we're just about the year mark for that with this game.

Now mind you, I am an optimist we'll see something. I am not an optimist if it will be good. Depends entirely on who is helping Konami make it.

Also all of this! XD
The road map says they’re doing another classic mode (I think paid DLC this time) after the outfits.  I’m really interested to see how that’s going to turn out.

[Foffy]

Thanks for the info!!  I really appreciate it!  Yeah, tbh, I wasn’t too sure because I remember the suppose rumor about a new Castlevania but I also heard rumblings that had been cancelled—then possibly uncanceled or that it being cancelled was misinformation. Then there was the SH, MGS, CV are Sony exclusives rumor and all could be revealed soon, so I wasn’t sure where we were on the gossip mill for the suppose game anymore. XD

As much as I would love a new Castlevania, I have to agree that  I’m pretty content if nothing happens.

There are a bunch of upcoming titles (well, at least classicvania wise) on the horizon that I am really looking forward to and Bloodstained and few other gems already have me covered on the Igavania front.

So we don’t get a new game rn, it’s okay. Just slap Rebirth on a collection or something so I don’t have to dig out my Wii to play it Konami. XD

Also all of this! XD
The road map says they’re doing another classic mode (I think paid DLC this time) after the outfits.  I’m really interested to see how that’s going to turn out.

I hope they do just one or two more updates to Ritual of the Night. I know the roadmap said they might include the cosmetic and Classic Mode 2 content with the online modes in just update, so if they've hunkered down and did that, that would be great if it came with an official announcement of the sequel. Bloodstained is a static single player game getting updates very slowly like it's a service title, and I think the best shot in the arm to get people to play the game -- and critically, to pay for premium content because not even backers are getting it for free -- is to do it all in one go, as a sendoff for the game while they begin hyping up the sequel. If they wait until all of the planned content is out and it's being done in drops still, we probably won't see an official announcement of a sequel until next year, and I think that's far too long. We might like the game, but it's also a four year old game: people often don't finish the games they buy, let alone stay around to buy content that late in its lifecycle. We've known for two years this sequel exists in some fashion. The only "big announcement" they can have for this year is announcing it outside of an internal company report that people sniffed through and found multiple games not officially announced. How we even know this existed in the first place is they had to comment on that oopsie.

Doing a big update now can also help draw interest to the Bloodstained IP in general: the main game getting one big final update, the Curse of the Moon Chronicles bundle launching in Japan in July, and an announcement of a sequel could draw a lot of interest for people to explore multiple things at once. This could also be done as a means of brand defense: the sole reason we have this IP is because Konami stopped letting Koji Igarashi make the games he wanted to make, and if they're back on the scene with Castlevania, this "Castlevania-in-all-but-name" needs more hype around it besides the diehards. People were so starved for Castlevania that Ritual of the Night sold 1,000,000 copies, a very high bar for a crowdfunded game. It'll be interesting to see when both brands are finally coexisting at once in the same space.

[JR]

#PachinKonami is a shadow (organisation) of its former self, currently funded by the Yakuza and run by the ‘Pachinko Elite’.

Man, I wish they would get their asses burned in the pachinko market like SNK, but I think they have more savvy than that since they've been there longer. It would be nice to see them supporting their IPs in video game format again.