Topic: looking back at the DS era

[KaZudra]

Here's the answer for you:
One is enough(Rondo of Blood), Two is too much(Dawn of Sorrow), Three is dangerous(Portrait of Ruin)

Or

Castlevania(Rondo of Blood), What r u doin(Legends), Castlevania(Dawn of Sorrow), STAHP(Portrait of Ruin)

I'd like to add that Rondo had cutscenes which were pretty easy to animate in anime style.
Portrait and Aria had cool opening animations, but the use of anime was kinda needless unless they did more fully animated scenes like the Megaman ZX games.

Overall on a gameplay aspect, the DS games were pretty solid, although I wish the first two games, especially DoS, were less gimmicky.

[Flame]

It's also interesting to note that Rondo of Blood also has that cartoony anime style. Yet it is one of the most, if not THE most, sought after Casltevania game of all time. So why do some feel it didn't work for the DS games? *shrugs* Who knows.

Rondo is a product of the times, and for the time, it looked pretty good. It was like a 90's anime. It had some comedic moments, but overall was not much different from your standard castlevania, maybe a bit more dramatic with voiced Dracula in a cutscene.

Dawn/Portrait were practically self parodies, the plots were saturday morning children's show tier, and the designs were not particularly memorable or good. Its compounded by the fact that both are sequels. Dawn is a Sequel to Aria, which was defined by a heavy, practically dripping gothic atmosphere, compliments in no small part to Ayami Kojima's wonderful artwork and designs for the game, and PoR was a sequel to Bloodlines, another game that much like rondo, is on people's top lists as a unique entry, due to it's connection with the original novel. Then PoR tries to be a sequel, and shits all over the appealing parts of the original.

Rondo, was an original entry, so they could do what they wanted. and Richter, despite looking plenty generic shonen, was still somewhat plausible, due to a very simple design that could really be part of any "old" setting.

Also, Rondo's "comedic anime" moments were mostly kept to promotional artwork, and technically Playable Maria, though her playthrough is no different than richter's, and is still very much "little girl in horrific castle"

meanwhile, PoR gave us this gem

[DragonSlayr81]

It's also interesting to note that Rondo of Blood also has that cartoony anime style. Yet it is one of the most, if not THE most, sought after Casltevania game of all time. So why do some feel it didn't work for the DS games? *shrugs* Who knows.

Personally speaking, I think Rondo's style of anime art is just more appealing than DoS and PoR. Rondo's style was more 80s/early 90s style of anime art, which if you go back to many of the anime produced from back then, it just felt more polished. DoS and PoR seem to utilize a more modern style, which I guess is logical with the times, but feels more "mass produced" and generic. Anime style isn't bad, but in Japanese gaming where it's used over and over, you need real "stand out" style to make yourself known amongst the others. I feel similar in regards to the Shining series. Look at Yoshitaka Tamaki's unique style, then look at the modern style of the art used in the Shining series(especially Tony Taka's generic grade shit). When you want to stand out, you can't afford to be generic or garden-variety. 

[Chernabogue]

The DS games were good. /thread

[angevil]

I prefer the GBA games, but DS game were great! Looking back, I really appreciate how we got so many games from IGA in a few years. I didn`t like the anime art in DOS and POR. The art in Aria of sorrow was really amazing! I wish they had stayed with Ayami Kojima as the artist. Even though art in DOS and POR did not appeal to me, I liked playing the games, especially Dawn. Aria was a great game, so we got more of it (as a sequel) on a handheld which had better graphics. I enjoy it! Ecclesia was perfection, the game was fantastic and the art was also great. I can`t believe it is the last Castlevania game! The last game, but it was so great!

[knightmere]

I don't think the Anime style hurt the DS Series. I think what hurt them was the fact that 2D games just don't sell as well as they used to. Also the very limited marketing was probably a factor. I enjoy the games even today, with the exception of Portrait of Ruin. That game has horrendous level design and the copy-pasta of sprites from older games and repeated portraits is just so lazy. I still fire up DoS and OoE though and enjoy them very much.

[piscesdreams]

Personally, I like the DS games, but I feel Castlevania, like Zelda, has had a bit of an identity crisis on what it wants to be. Now that is just my opinion, mostly with the art styles.

I dont feel the anime style hurt it so much as just variated it. I can tell Konami wanted to reach a different audience with DoS and PoR. I think the freshest game was OoE, in terms of newness all around - the glyphs, story, art style, and Dracula walking lol.

I dont feel LoS felt like a true CV game, but it was a hit for sure. I think if anything hurt Konami, it was just maintaining the same formula for 7 games from SotN to OoE. Granted, Chronicles and DxC released in those time periods state side, as well as LoI and CoD. But I think it just got repetitive to fans and thats when Konami did LoS.

All in all, they are excellent games that I would rather see more of than Lords of Shadow anyday. Not saying LoS was bad, it just felt too different to me.