Topic: Should the Old Cannon Be Finished? (Read first post before voting)

[Dark Nemesis]

Konami can keep the new timeline big-budget 3D on consoles, while the classic timeline can remain 2D on handhelds.

Why is this such a problem for anybody?

It might have to do with the fact that playing new 2D CV games on a console with a controller and seeing it on a large TV harks back to the good 'ol days of nostalgia and classic gaming in general. I miss those days 
-X

I agree with that answer and i also miss those days........

[Renonsgoods]

I agree that they should do the 1999 game....properly....on the home consoles.  And it should be done using all new resources, no more recycled sprites.  Or just do it 2.5D style, but make sure the 3D models conform to the aesthetic we've come to love from 2D Vanias. However, I hold very little faith in Iga or Konami that they can or would actually produce such a game...and do it RIGHT.

After this game is done, the timeline should be done. It's full of unnecessary characters and half baked side plots as it is.  Let it go out with a bang.  Either start a new timeline for the 2D titles, or move them into a brand new era where they aren't held back by a limited time frame. My other thread expresses my thoughts on where the 3D titles should go from here...with each future CV director bringing his/her own reboot/reimagining to the table.

[crisis]

After this game is done, the timeline should be done. It's full of unnecessary characters and half baked side plots as it is.

This line of thinking, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what the series doesn't need and is just another "let's take the easy way out, reboot!" excuse that Hollywood has a boner for and now, slowly, the gaming industry. Why should the timeline be done after 1999? As already said they can fit dozens more games without stepping on another one's toes. Or do you also think only 1 game is needed to fill that 300 year gap in the timeline? How about a game chronicling Soleiyu's adventures as an adult? Or a sequel to Lament that has Leon encountering the next vampire lord? Believe it or not, a lot of fans (not just here) still have love for these characters/stories and if I still see potential in the chronology, a hell of a lot more do as well. Bottom line is, both timelines can coexist, and I think Konami has intentions on doing that (why else would they experiment with 2D "HD" visuals using classic characters, or release Adventure ReBirth, if they are trashing everything about the old timeline & focusing solely on LoS?)

[Dark Nemesis]

This line of thinking, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what the series doesn't need and is just another "let's take the easy way out, reboot!" excuse that Hollywood has a boner for and now, slowly, the gaming industry. Why should the timeline be done after 1999? As already said they can fit dozens more games without stepping on another one's toes. Or do you also think only 1 game is needed to fill that 300 year gap in the timeline? How about a game chronicling Soleiyu's adventures as an adult? Or a sequel to Lament that has Leon encountering the next vampire lord? Believe it or not, a lot of fans (not just here) still have love for these characters/stories and if I still see potential in the chronology, a hell of a lot more do as well. Bottom line is, both timelines can coexist, and I think Konami has intentions on doing that (why else would they experiment with 2D "HD" visuals using classic characters, or release Adventure ReBirth, if they are trashing everything about the old timeline & focusing solely on LoS?)

I agree 100% with Crisis!!! Video games, they don't need haters. If you don't like something, then by all means, don't play it, because you don't like it, it doesn't mean that it must stopped!!! There are people who will like it and play the hell out of it. I'm not a big fan of LoS, but there are many others who are and if Konami is going to make 1, 2 or 3 more LoS, it doesn't matter to me, because if i don't feel like playing it, then i want, but those who are fans of LoS they will.

So, like Crisis said, both timelines can coexist!!!

[beingthehero]

Well, by OoE IGA was already taking focus off the timeline. CotM and CV64 were put back in as gaidens (he said in an interview he has a fond spot for CotM) and OoE was very ambiguous as to what happened post SotN. Frankly, I think any and all of the games can coexist. In the end, the timeline really doesn't matter.

[Renonsgoods]

This line of thinking, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what the series doesn't need and is just another "let's take the easy way out, reboot!" excuse that Hollywood has a boner for and now, slowly, the gaming industry.

You mean as opposed to the "let's make 101 sequels and milk the daylights out of every franchise that makes respectable bank" approach?  That sounds pretty "Hollywood" to me as well...maybe even moreso.

Why should the timeline be done after 1999? As already said they can fit dozens more games without stepping on another one's toes. Or do you also think only 1 game is needed to fill that 300 year gap in the timeline? How about a game chronicling Soleiyu's adventures as an adult? Or a sequel to Lament that has Leon encountering the next vampire lord? Believe it or not, a lot of fans (not just here) still have love for these characters/stories and if I still see potential in the chronology, a hell of a lot more do as well.

The problem is not with the idea you propose, but rather with Konami's current handling of that timeline.  I'd be all for a telling of tales that we as Castlevania fans WANT to see (Sonia, Soleiyu, Christopher, Trevor, the Belnades, etc), but Konami insists on dragging in more fringe characters with fringe storylines that often just barely thread themselves into the intrigue of the CV history.  Saying "we want more of the original timeline" to Konami is just going to be-gat us another Dawn sequel, or some tale about a guy from a long line of Jacksons and some sorted nonsense about how the VK was reborn through the roots of a sacred flower and handed down to his ancestors by the mightly Pain Elemental to keep the peace until a long lost band of Belmont ninjas could make nice enough with God to be granted the right to use it again.

In short, Konami isn't answering the really interesting questions of the original continuity, they just keep posing more (most of them we don't care enough to inquire too deeply about).  They're flooding this timeline with new characters when, as you said, there are already a bunch of interesting, well established ones they could further develop.  If they just can't get this whole concept, then they should just start over.  Hell, they don't need to trash everything that's been built...they could just start at the beginning and redo it all bigger and better, leaving out all the convoluted stuff.  Most of us on these boards really are doing nothing but pining for those older games from back in the day that made us fall in love with this series in the first place...I doubt that revisiting these favorites in a whole new light would be against our sensibilities
.

Bottom line is, both timelines can coexist, and I think Konami has intentions on doing that (why else would they experiment with 2D "HD" visuals using classic characters, or release Adventure ReBirth, if they are trashing everything about the old timeline & focusing solely on LoS?)

I don't think I ever said that the 2D titles needed to go away so that the LoS continuity could reign supreme.  In fact, just the opposite. I'm a firm supporter in the idea of this franchise maintaining two separate courses as time moves forward.......a 2D one and a 3D one.  I want the 2D series to continue, but I want them to stop making games that sidestep the core legend in order to tell inane sidestories about characters that have no previous basis in the canon. And as I said in the other thread: I don't believe that a stringent new timeline for the 3D titles should even be pursued.  Those games should serve as a way to retell or reimagine the events of various classic CV games instead (and not necessarily in the form of flat-out remakes).

[Mike Belmont]

At first, I was going to vote to end the old canon. But, after reading all the comments, I would like to the old (and true) canon must never end.

I think that the question in this poll is related to the existence of Lords of Shadow as a wannabe Castlevania game. And Cox words are the trigger to think in end the old canon: "Forget everything you know about Castlevania" (and then we have too many things referencing to old canon... ).

The old canon still have stories to be tell. As the first post said, the 1999 game, the post SoTN game, and a LoI - CV3. I see the main problem that the old canon have is the 100 years "rule" in Dracula´s revivals. It´s like make a game with only 100 years of interval between each one. But, as I said before, the old canon still has much to tell.

In the other hand, with the "reboot" effort, like some of you said, I don´t see the necessity of such a thing. Were Judgment was the main reason to make the reboot? With LoS I only see what the reality are: the decadency of japanese gaming, and the intentions of it to appeal to more western audience, an audience that enjoys needless reboots, movies music, crazy plot twists, famous Hollywood voices, etc. Will Castlevania are going to walk the same path as Bomberman (with Act Zero) or Devil May Cry (with DmC)?

[Renonsgoods]

With LoS I only see what the reality are: the decadency of japanese gaming, and the intentions of it to appeal to more western audience, an audience that enjoys needless reboots, movies music, crazy plot twists, famous Hollywood voices, etc. Will Castlevania are going to walk the same path as Bomberman (with Act Zero) or Devil May Cry (with DmC)?

Ummm what?  Sorry, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what you were trying to say here.  That LoS (a game made BY a western studio BTW) is a shining example of how Japanese games these days suck because they make games to appeal to western audiences because all western audiences like things that suck?

[darkwzrd4]

At first, I was going to vote to end the old canon. But, after reading all the comments, I would like to the old (and true) canon must never end.

I think that the question in this poll is related to the existence of Lords of Shadow as a wannabe Castlevania game. And Cox words are the trigger to think in end the old canon: "Forget everything you know about Castlevania" (and then we have too many things referencing to old canon... ).

The old canon still have stories to be tell. As the first post said, the 1999 game, the post SoTN game, and a LoI - CV3. I see the main problem that the old canon have is the 100 years "rule" in Dracula´s revivals. It´s like make a game with only 100 years of interval between each one. But, as I said before, the old canon still has much to tell.

In the other hand, with the "reboot" effort, like some of you said, I don´t see the necessity of such a thing. Were Judgment was the main reason to make the reboot? With LoS I only see what the reality are: the decadency of japanese gaming, and the intentions of it to appeal to more western audience, an audience that enjoys needless reboots, movies music, crazy plot twists, famous Hollywood voices, etc. Will Castlevania are going to walk the same path as Bomberman (with Act Zero) or Devil May Cry (with DmC)?

The question is given the state of the cannon, it seems full unless you continue the story after AoS (DoS doesn't count because it didn't contribute to the overall storyline).  With that in mind, if AoS is the end point and LoI is the beginning, do you guys want the existing plotholes to be filled for a sense of closure.  I'm not saying that the story has to end.  In fact I'd love to see it continue after AoS with the rise of a new dark lord (not Soma) and the good guys fighting him (or her).  I'd also like to see Soma find away to keep all the abilities he gains without turning evil.  Plus, there's always the fate of the Belmont clan and what happens with the whip once Julius is too old to fight.

[Profbeanburrito]

It shouldn't be finished quite yet. A few more games should be in there, not including remakes. I'd be happy with 1999 and a symphony sequel/ explain the whip going from Belmont to Morris game. That would be enough for me, but I'll take anything else including a game between Lament and Dracula's Curse. Mostly though I want a remake of CV3.

As for Lords of Shadow I would be happy with a trilogy. Then we'll see where the series goes from there

[Mike Belmont]

Ummm what?  Sorry, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what you were trying to say here.  That LoS (a game made BY a western studio BTW) is a shining example of how Japanese games these days suck because they make games to appeal to western audiences because all western audiences like things that suck?

Sorry. Maybe my comment was incomplete. I refer to how a Japanese franchise like Castlevania was handled by a non-japanese (like in the last 20+ years in creating) company. The preference of LoS project over the IGA one, maybe is a evidence in the lack of confidence in a japanese project (I ignore what happen to DmC, by the way).

In western apeal I refer to how in LoS Mercury Steam use an in-game gameplay like in an western game, like God of War (QTEs, chain-swinging hack n´ slash) or Prince of Persia (platforming). Ok, they use other japanese games in gameplay reference, like Shadow of the Colossus, I accepted. Maybe they took only a few and great things among that games I mentioned (SoTN do a similar thing, with Metroid). But, in the decadency (not suckness, as you mentioned) I ask, why give a japanese franchise (like Castlevania or Devil May Cry) to a non japanese company (like Mercury Steam or Ninja Theory, I believe that is the name) to make LoS or DmC, respectively.

I hope I was not so confusing this time  .

[Mike Belmont]

The question is given the state of the cannon, it seems full unless you continue the story after AoS (DoS doesn't count because it didn't contribute to the overall storyline).  With that in mind, if AoS is the end point and LoI is the beginning, do you guys want the existing plotholes to be filled for a sense of closure.  I'm not saying that the story has to end.  In fact I'd love to see it continue after AoS with the rise of a new dark lord (not Soma) and the good guys fighting him (or her).  I'd also like to see Soma find away to keep all the abilities he gains without turning evil.  Plus, there's always the fate of the Belmont clan and what happens with the whip once Julius is too old to fight.

Thanks for the clarification. Then, I prefer to fill that infamous plotholes, but without creating other ones (maybe like in PoR). But, in the other hand, It´s interesting to start another story (not canon) beggining with AoS (or DoS ending). To me (maybe to all not, I accept) a true reboot comes with Aria of Sorrow (preserving music, ambiance and other CV stuff), with a new "hero" becoming a Dark Lord... (Mmhh, so, this is not the first time that we are playing with Dracula? Because, Soma is Dracula, isn´t? Then, Gabriel Belmont will become Dracula, too... Interesting) .

[crisis]

or some tale about a guy from a long line of Jacksons and some sorted nonsense about how the VK was reborn through the roots of a sacred flower and handed down to his ancestors by the mightly Pain Elemental to keep the peace until a long lost band of Belmont ninjas could make nice enough with God to be granted the right to use it again. 

I don't understand.

[Renonsgoods]

I was making a sarcastic exaggeration.

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

I think its pretty obvious that the old canon needs to be finished inorder to give longtime CV fans a form of "closure" so to speak.

I think that a CV game should be made that takes place 1 or 2 years after symphony which fully explains why Belmont's can not use the whip until the battle of 1999.

And obviously the 1999 Demon Castle Wars game should be made before the official canon is closed.