Topic: Castlevania N64: What was Lost to History?

[Reinhart77]

thanks for all that trivia about what could have been.

i've been playing some Kid Icarus on the 3DS.  after playing a castle-like stage, couldn't help but drool over the thought of playing a Castlevania 64 remake on the system.  you've given me more stuff to imagine being incorporated in such a game.  if only...

[xscientist5000]

I would love a CV64 remake, but I'd bet my life it won't happen.

I'm sure this was posted somewhere before but there is a guy whose re-texturing the game. http://c64project.blogspot.com/

[X]

That looks pretty sweet! Although I can't agree with his comment on the soundtrack being awful, his updated interpretation of the graphics are a welcome sight. What would help make it even better is if the author were to increase the number of polygons used in the character models. I think that would also help with the game's look even more. I'm glad you brought this up vkiller86 otherwise I'd have no idea of it's existence!

[Sumac]

I believe, if KCEK were given more time, they could deliver everything, they have promised, since foundation was more or less ready, if CV64 is any indication. Sadly idiotic managers didn't gave them that time.

On note: there were a theory that initial Cornell Wolf-form was turned into midboss in the first level of CV64 and that this boss using what should have been Cornell's melee attacks from earlier stages of development.
Another theory is that Corler and Cornell shoud have benn rescued like in CV3. Corler was supposed to be found in alosed enclosure in the Garen Maze and Cornell should have been where Lizardman in the final game is. Note, Cornell's original costume has an iron manacle on his leg.
Legacy of Darkness originally was called "Castlevania: Special Edition".

According to unconfirmed rumor main heroes of the game initially should have been: Simon Belmont, Maria Renard, Cornell Reinchardt and Corler.

More info here (page mirrored from Geocities).
The same page, but with screenshots (archived with Wayback Machine).

[Kamirine]

Man. CV64 really could have been such an epic title if the team had been given a better budget and more time to actually implement everything they would have wanted. (Who knows: if they didn't have the room to fit it on the N64, maybe it could have been fine tuned for the PS One instead...)

I've always wondered 'What could have been' just with what we got CV64/LoD wise had it been done correctly/if the team had been given more time to complete it. Reading the list just makes it so much worse. It's essentially what I would want (give or take a few things of course) in a 3D Castlevania title and I always felt the 64 game had the proper atmosphere, style, theme, tone---you get the gist.

I would adore if the 64 game got a remake but I know I'd have a better chance of meeting Dracula himself, in a tutu, twirling around while drunkenly singing "It's a Small World Afterall" before getting it.

[X]

I would adore if the 64 game got a remake but I know I'd have a better chance of meeting Dracula himself, in a tutu, twirling around while drunkenly singing "It's a Small World Afterall" before getting it.

Is he drinking Captain Drac's original spiced rum? I just can't let this one go... it's too damned amusing ever since I saw the image.

[Sinful]

I believe, if KCEK were given more time, they could deliver everything, they have promised, since foundation was more or less ready, if CV64 is any indication. Sadly idiotic managers didn't gave them that time.

On note: there were a theory that initial Cornell Wolf-form was turned into midboss in the first level of CV64 and that this boss using what should have been Cornell's melee attacks from earlier stages of development.
Another theory is that Corler and Cornell shoud have benn rescued like in CV3. Corler was supposed to be found in alosed enclosure in the Garen Maze and Cornell should have been where Lizardman in the final game is. Note, Cornell's original costume has an iron manacle on his leg.
Legacy of Darkness originally was called "Castlevania: Special Edition".

According to unconfirmed rumor main heroes of the game initially should have been: Simon Belmont, Maria Renard, Cornell Reinchardt and Cooler.

More info here (page mirrored from Geocities).
The same page, but with screenshots (archived with Wayback Machine).

Them are some pretty interesting rumors you've got there. Thanks for the interesting read, Sumac. ...Got any more?... Anyone?

Hey, this made me think, you know how Grant in Castlevania III NES was a monster before you beat him and he turned back to normal and joined you? Well, Maybe that Frankenstein monster with the chainshaw was supposed to turn into that Corler characters? (Or whetever his name is/was) ... Well, I least that's an idea that hit me from reading Sumac's last post. >_>

I would love a CV64 remake, but I'd bet my life it won't happen.

I'm sure this was posted somewhere before but there is a guy whose re-texturing the game. http://c64project.blogspot.com/

Seems interesting and all. But so far to me the original graphics looks pretty good to me (I guess it helps that I also have nostalgic memories of graphics from that era. And when them graphics were done right. They really blow me away, and still do).  ... But regardless, if I end up a big fan of this game, I'd probably would love to try and play the same game again with a new set of textures and see how that would work? Better then nothing, right?... Though in the end, I'd find it hard to see myself not preferring the original...

[xscientist5000]

I feel the same. It'd be fun to play but I'll still prefer the original. Also, hes changing some original content like the pictures in the villa. And I love small details like those in CV games.

The one picture I'm assuming is Henry from before he escaped. Meaning they knew who Henry was as a character, hence the gravestone outside. But I like how they didn't explain the history of the Villa. It really kept me wondering.

One of the pictures looks like Actress. There's still a lot of pictures that I couldn't figure out, like one in the castle center. In the villa there's a torn one that looks like three vikings. Then there's that painting on the roof in the castle keep... It's hard to tell, but looks like women falling and or dead, a mountain, and a black creature with a trident.

Then there's the creepy "statue of a weird face" in the storage closet. WTF is that!! I love it. "why would someone make this?", I've always wondered the same thing. Could it possibly be a Shaft reference?

Also, I can definitely see how Cornell's moves got transferred to that werewolf. Those are such intricate moves for a character you only see once or twice in the game. It'd be interesting to see how those moves could work for a main character. But I'd take 1 martial arts move in my CV game over 10 dragon ball z moves!

[Sumac]

Them are some pretty interesting rumors you've got there.  Thanks for the interesting read, Sumac. ...Got any more?...

There is description of the game cast with some old info.

And some copypasta from this forum, I think:

(click to show/hide)

One thing you didn't point out is that there was originally supposed to be a CV3-style setup to getting Cornell and Coller on board; Cornell was replaced by a Lizardman in Castle Centre, and Coller was probably supposed to be trapped in the Garden Maze in the area the Thorn Key opens in Legacy, since that area is totally useless in 64.

I seem to recall reading about it in a preview, that you'd have to unlock Cornell and Coller, and Cornell was described as a 'prisoner of Dracula' which is why his original model [LoD second costume] is wearing a leg iron. I figured it was the Lizardman since it seems so completely random; I'd guess the 'device to turn people into demons' was just supposed to be Cornell's bed and the bloodstains are from a trip to the torture chamber where he pocketed the key.

Let's see now...I don't think it's a matter of Franky getting Coller's chainsaw so much as the Frank model being Coller with a retextured face and a new gun; the same thing was done to Cornell, his wolf mode was used as an enemy in CV64's Forest of Silence. I don't think the boosts refer to a stat system so much as simply providing an attack bonus; supposedly, there was a 'momentum' ability to Reinhardt's whip and that's what 'focus' refers to.
The guys who have made Castlevania64 and LoD, they should have teach Iga and his team how to make a true 3D Castlevania game. I only hope that Iga will take in mind these two games, while he is developing the new Castlevania for x360 and probably for ps3.

64 is the better of the two, with Legacy's additions, other than save points in Duel Tower, being rather uniformly terrible. Hi-res mode is barely playable, and the game's full of horribly balanced abilities, like throwing multiple subweapons at once, or giving one character a hitscan, infinite range gun with a skippable reload animation.

 The new levels are a mixed bag, but it's a mixed bag of different kinds of awful. Foggy Lake is dull, the new Forest of Silence lacks the sense of scale the old one had, and Cornell's quest redefines the concept of 'filler;' whether it's being forced to climb one of the towers in Castle Wall twice, or the unbearably boring run through Villa's garden maze backwards with no music and nothing chasing you [or the unbearably boring escort mission that follows] the majority is just focused on time-wasting and padding. Art Tower is the worst since the padding is spent listening to ticking sounds on the pause menu or falling off an impossibly narrow rope, but all the re-imagined levels are pretty poor: Tower of Sorcery has lost most of its graphical detail [the sparkles in the background and floating bubbles are AWOL], Science goes from hilariously difficult to hilariously easy, and so on. The game closes on two cheap, stupid bossfights, the last being particularly heinous in that regard.

Henry is worse, especially as a replacement for Coller. He's Reinhardt's character model with what appears to be an axe armour's head thrown on the top, given a ludicrously prefunctory quest that really adds nothing to the storyline and no enemies designed to take his unique abilities into account.
Henry sucks, incase you haven't noticed! Not only is he a whiny brat in comparison to Malus, but I can't stand using him when he's older because I was being timed the whole time! I had to

I'd have to say though, that I like the level designs in CV64 better than in LoD. There's just a bit more meat to them in the first game and levels like the Towers of Sorcery and Execution just play so much better.