Topic: Let the Americans take over Castlevania?

[Reinhart77]

Sorry, after I read Kurt's conclusion in his update page that "Japanese Gaming is Doomed", I couldn't help but wonder if it really was doomed, would they ever let us Americans take over Castlevania?  We've had two cracks at it, the cancelled Resurrection and the cell phone game Order of Shadows that nobody seems to have any kind words for.  And then there's the non-gaming part of Castlevania including the Belmont's Legacy comics, Hollywood movie, and Dracula's Curse animation (with Europe). 

Anyways, Castlevania by Americans, for Americans.  Kinda has a nice ring to it.  We wouldn't get any weird Obata designs and we won't get any effeminate males for a while.  The stories would read like fan fiction, but, whatever, I like fan fiction. 

Anyways, just a random thought. 

[Abnormal Freak]

Considering Contra 4 is such a success, sure, why not?

[adam]

with all due respect to kurt, Japanese gaming is not doomed. The games he mentioned (No more heroes, the world ends with you) were nothing more than mediocre, I wouldn't give them outstanding reviews either. Castlevania should be left to those konami folks over in japan. If americans got their hands on it, it might end up like that Van Helsing movie..

[Abnormal Freak]

NMH nothing more than mediocre? I kindly disagree vehemently. :P Thankfully, it did fairly well over here, but it tanked in Japan, unfortunately.

Thank goodness it did good enough that a sequel's being made.

[Reinhart77]

Oh, and I forgot to mention the great American made NECA figures.  That was a great Simon Belmont.

[Soma Cruz]

I also vehemently disagree with your NMH and TWEWY accusations.

The World Ends With You was one of the most fantastic RPG's I have ever played, and by far my most favorite game on DS (even more than the CV's).

Soma

[Gunlord]

I think Castlevania should be handed over to Serio, Bloodreign, and Jorge. They know what makes Castlevania games gr8, I'm sure they'd be able to carry on the legacy of the series, unyuu!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

In Reply To #7

Too bad none of us know how to program.

[cecil-kain]

In Reply To #1

The only American Group I've seen take over a Japanese property--and do it well--was Retro Studios' treatment of Metroid Prime.

Castlevania would certainly benefit from some "western" treatment.  Hardcore gamers are well aware of Japanese stylistic and cultural cliches and the influence on Castlevania is unmistakable.

Storytelling has massively improved under IGA, but like the Castleroid stage designs --all of his stories have taken on a cookie cutter sort of feeling where the stories have far too much predictability.  AoS was the highlight of IGA's storytelling IMO --but even that game was wrought with your typical japanese cliches --the hero with amnesia cliche --the helpless women cliches --the hero must overcome the darkness within him cliche --the cliche of rivalry etc...  AoS just had an unusual balance and execution the series had not seen before.

That said, I would like to see a good western treatment for a Castlevania story, just to see what might happen.  But I'd worry that the gameplay might suffer in the hands of western development --I just don't trust my countrymen yet to make good adventure game yet.

[Xadion]

In Reply To #1

The only American Group I've seen take over a Japanese property--and do it well--was Retro Studios' treatment of Metroid Prime.

Prime was awsome- they wanted to keep the platforming, the exploration but make it 1st person- I feel they /knew/ they just could not do it- that their orig team etc would want to hold on to too many little things that would kill the game- metroid prime was 100% goodness in visuals, controll, gameplay, story etc- now 2 I skipped- playing 3 on my Wii now...sad to say visuals are = to GC- they could have done alittle bump- the controlls are okay..I just wish I could look L/R/U/D w/o moveing my target pointer from one extream to another- the plot...is seemingly a little convaluted...

CV I think could benifet from this type of idea- moveing to a whole new set of people for a different PoV- yet guided by the core, in core elements that must stay in the game.

[le052383]

I honestly wouldn't believe that if an american studio took over, it would be good, if not better than what we were gettin already.

With the exception of Metroid Prime, Maximo n Contra 4, a lot of sequels made in the US turn out to be crap.

[Abnormal Freak]

In Reply To #9

Storytelling has massively improved in the Iga-produced games? Really? 'Cos all I ever see and read are lame plots and atrocious dialog. Iga's never once cranked out anything good, story-wise.

At least with the old games we didn't have to sit through shitty dialog to enjoy the game, and while the plots were very simple with barely anything to them, at least they were cool.

[cecil-kain]

In Reply To #12

Right off the top of my head, I'd have to say CoD has the weakest story --and that's mostly because of what's left unexplained --like wasn't Dracula's Castle the Abandoned Castle, where's Sypha and Grant, what's up with Trevor's Blood opening up the corridor shit and WTF ever happened to Trevor anyway etc-- But I still think CoD's story is a bit more intrguing than the whole "Dracula's back go kill him" stories of VK, HC, CV1, CV2 CVIV, CVA, CV Chonicles, SNES CVX, etc...

[discoalucard]

Sorry, after I read Kurt's conclusion in his update page that "Japanese Gaming is Doomed", I couldn't help but wonder if it really was doomed, would they ever let us Americans take over Castlevania?

[Kale]

They should collaborate and come up with something together. Why just one when you can have both working on it?