The screenshots still have those borders from the PSP version.
https://twitter.com/konamieu/status/1044859119151136768 (https://twitter.com/konamieu/status/1044859119151136768)
Comes out Oct 26th, the same day as Season 2 for the Netflix series.
Honestly, quite baffling this is PS4 exclusive. What the hell Konami.
I honestly need to hear more on what this collection is going to feature, like for instance how the Mega Man X collection added minigame of taking on multiple bossses at once.
Really at this point unless this port is going to include better graphics support for todays monitors and also saturn content I'm not going to get it since I already have the Dracula X Chronicles on my PSP as well as SOTN on Xbox One and I legit am not going to shell out money for yet another port that adds nothing new even though I love these games.
Woah woah woah... is Vampire Killer on the Wii U virtual console?
https://www.konami.com/games/castlevania/eu/en/history#menu-top (https://www.konami.com/games/castlevania/eu/en/history#menu-top)
Honest question... Why should anyone buy this?
Those trophies better be awesome.
I'm a little surprised to hear this is looking more and more like it's just Rondo of Blood and SotN. (https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/24/-castlevania-requiem-official-esrb-rating-announcement-imminent/ (https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/24/-castlevania-requiem-official-esrb-rating-announcement-imminent/))
And if so, it'd make sense if they're the PSP versions, because that was the only time Rondo was translated, and both were optimized for widescreen. That'd also explain why it might be for PS4 only...
I'm not totally surprised that Konami would do this, though. This sort of feels like the Castlevania atmosphere that's been created by the most vocal fans and more casual gamers, especially outside of the community proper. I mean, yes, there are the vocal crowds who like the GBA era the best or the pre-Rondo titles, but my personal experience with reading reactions has been that the mainstream narrative about Castlevania over the last 12 or so years has become that Rondo was the best evolution of the "Classicvania" formula and Symphony of the Night was the Metroidvania to end all Metroidvanias.
Meanwhile, the consensus about the rest of the franchise has seemed to generally become:
Castlevania 1 might as well not exist and is just for the history books; Castlevania II is a living meme and broken game; the original Gameboy trilogy never happened--and if it did, the first is broken, the second is a secret gem, and the third is boring; Castlevania III is sorta great but too old and hard to be given a lot of credit; Super Castlevania IV is overrated and majorly flawed because it gives you too many options with the whip and fools around too much with Mode 7; Bloodlines never happened; Dracula XX/Vampire's Kiss was a terrible Rondo port--nothing more, nothing less; Castlevania 64 may be the worst Castlevania game (and among the worst 3D games ever)--heck, those goofy motorcycle skeletons alone are enough to pass on it; Legacy of Darkness never happened; Circle of the Moon is really dark but might just be a good Metroidvania deep down--or maybe not; Harmony of Dissonance was convoluted but felt more like Symphony of the Night than Circle of the Moon; Aria of Sorrow might be the best Metroidvania, but then again maybe not as good as Symphony of the Night; Dawn of Sorrow was a nice visual update of Aria of Sorrow but had too many touchscreen gimmicks and wasn't as good; Portrait of Ruin was too repetitive; Order of Ecclesia added some nice challenge but no one's sure whether it had enough Metroidvania in it to be great; Lament of Innocence was a pretty good 3D Castlevania game; Curse of Darkness was a pretty good 3D Castlevania game; Lords of Shadow was a pretty good 3D Castlevania game; Mirror of Fate kinda-sorta never happened; Adventure Rebirth never happened; Lords of Shadow 2 ruined Lords of Shadow with too much stealth...
I don't agree with all of those assessments by any means--I vehemently disagree with some in particular (especially the N64 hate)--but that's where Castlevania is kind of stuck at the moment in pop culture. Rondo and SotN are among the few that are seen as relevant and truly special gems that have overcome all barriers of time and critics*. So, Konami is seemingly giving the people what they want, and also trying to distill an experience they think might be accessible and intriguing to people coming in fresh from Netflix or all the new Metroidvania-style games out there.
*To insert myself for a second, just about Rondo and SotN, I think it makes a solid, basic package, particularly considering the two stories connect, but Rondo has never quite lived up to the hype for me. I knew of its existence during the mid-90s, and felt very intrigued by all of the images and stories surrounding it, but I didn't get to play it until the PSP release. Had I played it in 1993, I might feel differently. I think it has a lot of great ideas and visuals and gameplay, and is super ambitious, but the way you are always able to transition onto alternate paths, with no one correct path to save all of the maidens, and those sometimes sharp transitions for boss-preparation rooms, makes it feel sort of "uneven" or "jerky" or "noncommittal" in its stage progression. That pulls me out of the flow of the gameplay experience more than I'd like. Still a great game, and I go back and forth about how much I like or don't like it, but it's never been one of my favorites, personally.
Meanwhile, SotN is one of those games that I've played through about twice, maybe three times, I think. It's great, especially with how it pulls you in with its atmosphere (something most of the later Metroidvanias struggle with at times), but I've always thought of the Metroidvania formula as more of a spinoff concept than a full-on evolution for Castlevania. So, it's also not one of my favorites, and it's become so iconic and familiar and influential that it's getting harder to revisit as time goes on. (Frankly, to me, there's been so many Metroidvanias within the franchise now, that it's somehow made SotN stand out a little less in some ways--seem somewhat less special--despite the fact that I think it's probably still either at the top or right near the top of the heap for the genre)
Personally, given how inaccessible it's become since it was only released on Sega Genesis, any collection really needed to have Bloodlines for me to commit to it. In an ideal world, a basic collection, in my mind--in other words, the least I would have wanted--would have had these games at minimum: Castlevania 1-4, Bloodlines, Dracula XX, Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night. But beggars can't be choosers, and any collection is a decent sign for the IP.
So, regardless, if rumors hold going forward, here's hoping the new game is, at the least, Dracula's Curse meets Super Castlevania IV. And I hope, whatever happens, that the Netflix aesthetic doesn't become a default game aesthetic.
If the collection is just Rondo and Symphony then it's not in my concern (as well as most people, I believe)
As Symphony... maybe only tiny little port difference can attract SotN RTA players to buy it. If no difference from pre-existence ports it will be bombed.
I'm doing this one a hard pass.
I already have DXC.
SotN is on XBLA, PSN, etc.
Rondo is on Wii Virtual Console and it's awesome.
...so why?
My thoughts exactly.
This is Konami doing the bare minimum.
Add the Saturn Content! Just do it, Allow the player to experience BOTH Maria styles and choose which Richter was Stylin'
The question is, how could you update SotN with much added QA?
This one's easy.
Language Options, New/Old translation, Japanese dubs
Volume Slider for SFX/BGM/Voices
Aspect options, Choose between Native, 4:3, or 16:9; The 16:9 will draw more tiles to fill in the screen on horizontal areas (See the PC port of Chrono Trigger to see what I mean)
Quick Spells; Right Analog can be utilized to quick cast spells on the fly a la Blazblue.
Better Organization of Items/Equipment utilizing tabbed browsing, mark a favorite ect.
Map Overhaul; Add option to add markers for returns, color areas to make them distinguishable.
Better Portraits, Rondo Richter for Prologue, all higher res, ect.
Fixed Resolutions and Z-axis for all Polygonal objects; make them fit in a 2D enviornment better.
Re-touched Spritework all-around; Richter needs an upgrade, a few enemies could use more than a few key-frames.
Add the Saturn Content! Just do it, Allow the player to experience BOTH Maria styles and choose which Richter was Stylin'
Difficulty Options, Spice things up a bit, the ol' Berserk challenge is fun.
re-arranged Inverted Castle, Maybe something for those who wish for a hard mode.
Netflix Alt. Costumes, because Konami forgot how to properly fanservice.
Yeah, sure add all those Requiem "updates" too.
I'd buy that for $30.
The question is, how could you update SotN with much added QA?
This one's easy.
Language Options, New/Old translation, Japanese dubs
Volume Slider for SFX/BGM/Voices
Aspect options, Choose between Native, 4:3, or 16:9; The 16:9 will draw more tiles to fill in the screen on horizontal areas (See the PC port of Chrono Trigger to see what I mean)
Quick Spells; Right Analog can be utilized to quick cast spells on the fly a la Blazblue.
Better Organization of Items/Equipment utilizing tabbed browsing, mark a favorite ect.
Map Overhaul; Add option to add markers for returns, color areas to make them distinguishable.
Better Portraits, Rondo Richter for Prologue, all higher res, ect.
Fixed Resolutions and Z-axis for all Polygonal objects; make them fit in a 2D enviornment better.
Re-touched Spritework all-around; Richter needs an upgrade, a few enemies could use more than a few key-frames.
Add the Saturn Content! Just do it, Allow the player to experience BOTH Maria styles and choose which Richter was Stylin'
Difficulty Options, Spice things up a bit, the ol' Berserk challenge is fun.
re-arranged Inverted Castle, Maybe something for those who wish for a hard mode.
Netflix Alt. Costumes, because Konami forgot how to properly fanservice.
Yeah, sure add all those Requiem "updates" too.
I'd buy that for $30.
Sad thing is while all this would be fantastic (and HIGHLY unlikely) if it had been added by Konami the thing is I honestly would have settled for far less with just proper widescreen support (no borders) and saturn content with the proper special effects and visual quality the psx version had to truly make this SOTN the definitive edition, that would have been all that needed to be done to at least show your fans your willing to give them SOMETHING different on the consoles to truly make this the new console experience your advertising. Honestly it would not be that hard to add just a few new features to make this really something worthwhile for not only older fans but new fans as well and instead Konami just once again opted for the bare minimum effort possible towards their fans which while its something I've come to expect these days it still doesn't make it any less sad as a fan of the series.
Whats even sadder is this was a prime opportunity with this collection's release aligning with the Netflix series for Konami to actually make a grand gesture towards their fans and really do something special to release alongside season 2 and instead they decided to give us a cheap emulated port to the PS4 console.
i’d take a mode that just let you play sotn by switching between zombie trevor grant and sypha.
The pessimist in me thinks Konami didn't much do a damn thing on this port other than let Sony outsource it to some starving 3rd party.It's actually worse.
It's actually worse.
http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/28/parappa-rapper-remastered-actually-emulated-heres-done/ (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/28/parappa-rapper-remastered-actually-emulated-heres-done/)
Konami just modifies a PSP rom, provides some hi-res assets, and ships it to Sony.
Sony just injects everything in, change a line of code, add a couple lines of code, and presto!
...this is looking more like a cheap cashgrab to me since Konami appears to just be porting over the PSP versions of this games while adding nothing to it at all other than possible trophies...It's nifty this slice of the "CastleVania Anthology" drops at the same time as Slogra's animated debut, but purchasing a Framemeister is seeming more and more sensible than witnessing these collections stumble about.
i probably won't buy it on account of i only care about one of the games in question, and already own that one on multiple other platforms
i never was a particular fan of OG rondo, so that does nothing for mei now await the inevitable rage from SOMEONE over the fact that my feelings toward rondo dangle between disinterest and just plain not liking it
By the way, the last update on the CVD page was regarding the LOS series. It would've been over 6 years ago.It does count as "new" product on the official page, and count as an entry in the Castlevania product timeline. Sadly this entry is not anything "new" at all and barely count as product given almost all information in question about it confirmed to be true in this very thread.
I guess I'm curious as to whether this collection merits a "new" game release, and does CVD's page get updated if so?
OG Rondo would be better if we hadn't waited for so long to get it in the west -- when you can't have a thing, you build it up in your head and what we got just... didn't actually match what most of us wanted to expect.
meanwhile the port version everyone else seems to hate corrects a lot of these problems by having more appropriate instrumentation, sfx, and overall control flow compared to everything else going on in the engine (though it's a shame there's no maria mode, as the alone made most of rondo bearable to trudge through more than once)
dxx has its own slew of issues, to be sure, but i find i enjoy playing it much more than i do rondo
coincidentally, dxc also corrects most of these by having better audiovisual direction and overall aesthetic, and also made richter handle a bit tighter as far as controls go
original rondo was just a hot mess of "let's experiment with the formula and see what happeNOPE NOPE GOTTA POLISH THIS STUFF IN THE SEQUEL BACK TO WORK FOLKS"
and thus, i don't like very much of it at all
(click to show/hide)
I see that you can switch between english and japanese audio. That might make it worth a new play through. I don’t recall that being available in Dracula X Chronicles, but I could just be forgetting it.JP/EN audio switch was available In DXC.
https://www.destructoid.com/castlevania-requiem-is-an-alright-collection-of-two-fantastic-games-527467.phtml (https://www.destructoid.com/castlevania-requiem-is-an-alright-collection-of-two-fantastic-games-527467.phtml)
It's actually worse.
http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/28/parappa-rapper-remastered-actually-emulated-heres-done/ (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/28/parappa-rapper-remastered-actually-emulated-heres-done/)
Konami just modifies a PSP rom, provides some hi-res assets, and ships it to Sony.
Sony just injects everything in, change a line of code, add a couple lines of code, and presto!
+1 for the "wish they'd have just thrown in DXC with this package" but I guess they're trying to market it as something new and normies don't seem to like DXC.
I've seen some funny glitches though, like Olrox exploding and not stopping so you either have to Library Card out and miss the life pot or reatart your game. Oh Konami, never change :rollseyes: