Topic: The keys to Castlevania

[cecil-kain]

Awhile back IGA said that he was looking to Zelda series to inspire him for the next Castlevania.  And while that could be a mixed bag of possibilities.  I recently occurred to me that he could be talking about dungeon puzzle-solviong elements.  And as we know Zelda is very key-centric when it comes to design.

While Castlevania has used keys to advance gameplay before --very few of IGA's games have had any keys at all.  IGA uses character abilities/accomplishments as the primary tool to advance gameplay --you know things like "relics" "souls" "beat this boss to unlock the door" a couple of "switch puzzles" etc...

I do not favor generic keys like those seen in Zelda however.  Lament of Innocence had specific keys for specific doors and I like that approach.

[Lord Moe]

I guess I should've given it some thought before I voted.

I voted "No", but that's because I was thinking about Castlevania in it's 2D form.

3D Castlevania, on the other hand, I think could work well with keys.

[Oralox]

3D Castlevania, on the other hand, I think could work well with keys.

Then comes puzzles, Right?

[Lord Moe]

In Reply To #3

Puzzles I'm not so sure about. I think Castlevania should stick with action. Maybe get keys from defeating boss enemies.

[uzo]

No keys as they appear in Zelda. Castlevania = Action, or so he says.

One or two specific keys is fine though. Like HoD's skull key.

[darkwzrd4]

I say we need keys.  While, keys in the traditional stage by stage games simply complicated the stages, I think that they would be a nice addition to the "metroidvanias".  After all, if we are exploring the castle, it stands to reason that there would be a few locked doors.

[Xadion]

any keys we need, we get from the librarian- we all know that duuhh :-)

[PFG9000]

I don't see any reason to assume Iga's referring to keys.  We already assume the newer games have drawn from Metroid's influence, but it's perfectly possible Iga is getting his ideas from Zelda.  The whole "find a new item to unlock a new area" isn't just from Metroid.  It's just that Metroid does it in a sidescrolling world with the ability to backtrack.  There's actually quite a lot in common between Zelda and Metroid, and therefore Castlevania too.

[Xadion]

Zelda II yo- it was the shiznite :-) it had someoen the best castles in the series...

hate on me, for I love Zelda 2

[Ahasverus]

Yes please, 3D castlevania lacks of jumps and puzzles.

[X]

I don't see anything wrong with using keys to progress in castlevania. After all it was done in the PC game Vampire Killer. I've also been toying with the idea of using keys in a CV game idea way back in 2001 or so. I had drewn up about six or seven different keys and each would unlock a unique-looking door. The final key would open the way to castlevania's entranceway. This was to be done in a one level and in a 2-D environment.

-X

[gravekeeper]

I think keys could work in a 3D castlevania. Depends on how many keys we're talking about though xP If we assume the next-gen Castlevania would be like Simon's Quest but in 3D (which would kick ass, by the way) it could work, if the key-finding phase was only in mansions, for example.

Another oppinion of mine for the next-gen Castlevania is to get rid of the whole leveling-up system. Almost every game as a leveling system these days and it's getting tiring. Plus it's starting to feel kinda useless and unessesairy. Instead you can get stronger only by finding new weapons, equipments and skills (like the Metroid series).