Topic: Do you miss the Horror atmosphere and barbaric characters?

[Crying Freeman]

Hang on, this'll be a long one: I grew up with SC4, so it wouldn't be a surprise its my personal favorite. What I loved about it was it's atmosphere, perfectly wound together with the graphics, artstyle, music, sound effects, it's cinematic intro, and it's grittier backstory when compared to other popular games of the time. It felt real, the danger, the horror of having to do what our hero Simon had to face. And with it not being overly story driven, it let your imagination run wild.

Go back and the the NES trilogy, more of that! The original not as much because it was the basic Castlevania game, but 2 and especially 3 had that "feel" of a barbaric hero fighting to do something so deadly and f*cking scary(3 especially with it's backstory). The last game that I believe did this was Bloodlines (Adventure and Belmont's revenge felt more fantasy over horror, but the barbaric hero edge was done well). The trilogy and 4 remind me of Beowulf a lot.

I know some will disagree, and I admit Rondo is a great game, but Rondo ruined it. Turning more towards a "super actiony" approach, the anime artstyle, just went for something different. Legends has the anime style, the 64's do (though, the original is great with it's horror elements and not over-action anime-ish like LoD was). SOTN thankfully went back to the gothic style of the originals... escept Kojima's art makes all of the characters look more soft or femenine. It works for the most part. I love Kojima's art with the exception of Simon, who she honestly ruined. She had a great run with the titles from SOTN through the 2000s.

COTM does the anime style really well I think: The game had that grittiness and danger back, and the characters didn't look as over the top cartoony other, even though Nathan comes REALLY close. I have to say, COTM has my favorite representation of Dracula. DoS though... No... NO!What did they do!? They brought back the anime style from RoB... NOOO! Look at Aria! It was perfect, but nope, the sequel had to spoil it. Then PoR... ugh! Let me say, I LOVE 80s and 90s anime and I love the Valis games and other old school games with anime cutscenes, but it doesn't really work in Castlevania IMO, but PoR's art looks horrid even for anime (RoB and DoS at least looked good for anime).

Now... We come to Judgement... and OMG, why? The artist, whose name escapes me, is the artist for Death Note. I think hes a great and talented artist, but who at Konami thought it matched a Castlevania game!? Whoever hired him should be fired, as he really ruined all of the characters. I know it's his take on them, and I'm not criticizing his ability as an artist, but common!

LOS's Lord of the Rings inspired bits annoy me, but areas like the vampire infested village, and the caslte especially, were incredibley well done IM. I haven't played LOS2 or MOF, so I can't comment on them.

Sorry to be so nitpicky and take so long, but what do you guys prefer:

Original:
Barbaric heroes on a deadly and horror filled quest.
Gothic artwork.

New:
Over the top Action, OP magical Belmonts (I know Trevor and Sypha hooked up, her powers being inherited by Belmonts, but why don't Simon or Christopher have these magic powers?).
Anime style.

I respect everyone's opinion, and nobody is really wrong with what they think. What are your stances on the matter, everyone?

[Belmontoya]

original all the way man!

It's nice to see more people around who feel the same way I do!

[Super Waffle]

I can't tell the difference. The Pachi games just keep introducing/redesigning female characters I want to do barbaric things to.

[piscesdreams]

Short answer: Yes, but only if in the vein of SCIV.

[theANdROId]

Though I didn't think it was the greatest idea, the anime style of DoS and PoR didn't really bother me at all.

But anyway, classic is definitely fantastic...CV1-4 style.  I also really enjoyed the styles of SotN, CotM, HoD, AoS, and OoE...whatever style they fit into.  I'd love to see a new CV in any of those styles, or (as long as they don't go table-flippin'-crazy) a modern interpretation of those styles.  I mean, to some degree, everything has to catch up with modern styles eventually, right?  Maybe?

[Crying Freeman]

Short answer: Yes, but only if in the vein of SCIV.

YES! PLEASE! 

[Crying Freeman]

Though I didn't think it was the greatest idea, the anime style of DoS and PoR didn't really bother me at all.

But anyway, classic is definitely fantastic...CV1-4 style.  I also really enjoyed the styles of SotN, CotM, HoD, AoS, and OoE...whatever style they fit into.  I'd love to see a new CV in any of those styles, or (as long as they don't go table-flippin'-crazy) a modern interpretation of those styles.  I mean, to some degree, everything has to catch up with modern styles eventually, right?  Maybe?

Same, I am a fan of Kojima's art as well. The only thing I don't really like is the feminine look the male characters get, but yes, a modernization would be interesting as hell to see!

[X]

I'd go with the classics for art-style. Barbarian Belmonts all the way! At least they don't look androgynous. I wish they had produced a CV game with a female Belmont lead during the NES/SNES era as I would've loved to see how she would've turned out in terms of style.

[Crying Freeman]

I'd go with the classics for art-style. Barbarian Belmonts all the way! At least they don't look androgynous. I wish they had produced a CV game with a female Belmont lead during the NES/SNES era as I would've loved to see how she would've turned out in terms of style.

Never thought of that, but that would've been extremely interesting! Too bad we got Sonia once the games started getting anime inspirations for their art direction, because she's just a generic anime woman. A female belmont with the more realistic and barbaric approach has potential!

[Mangoaxe5]

Personally(with the exception of the Lords of Shadows games)I like all of the different styles. My favorite games are the 64 games and OOE. I think that those games are the ones that truely captured the gothic atmosphere of Castlevania.

The barbarian style heroes are cool but design wise they seem kind of interchangeable with each other. Shanoa for example has a way more memorable design then the NES era Belmonts.

[Mystic Myotis]

I don't like the LoS games but I did think that Gabriel's design was a nice in-between sort of look for the series; not Conan-ish but not too feminine either.  That one issue aside, I typically favor Kojima's art.  I think it helped give the series a very unique and appropriate aesthetic (for the most part).  But I think that OoE was probably the best overall compromise of styles.  It is distinctly Castlevania, not too anime-ish or crude-looking, not 80's fantasy cover art, nicely detailed and evokes a decent mood.  I wouldn't mind if that style returned.

I generally favor SCIV in terms of palette, SotN in terms of background architecture, and mostly the classicvanias in terms of level design (Dissonance and Ruin both have some interesting level design to draw from as well, though).

[JR]

The early designs of the series will always be my favorite. The Kojima artwork was always great to look at, but for me, nothing will be as epic as the original artwork for the first game. Really liked the fantasy horror in that one. The barbarian design was great.

...although I wouldn't have been opposed to those guys wearing actual pants, either...

[Shiroi Koumori]

I'm ok with the old school stuff but I really liked Kojima's designs. I have a massive weakness towards pretty male characters.
I'm neutral with the anime look. But the art in Judgment is something I hate.

[zangetsu468]

AOS and OOE hit the nail on the head imo. AOS had the best horror atmosphere out of the most recent 2d games imo.

[Shinobi]

AOS and OOE hit the nail on the head imo. AOS had the best horror atmosphere out of the most recent 2d games imo.

IMO it still not comparable with the more haunting atmosphere of SCV4 not just graphically but also musically, AOS still has way too colorful areas while in OOE the castle areas totally sacrificed the quality as well as the overly copypasted areas.