Topic: I knew it! Castlevania: Lords of Shadow!(SPOILERS HERE, PLZ USE THE SPOILER TAG)

[DragonSlayr81]

In Reply To #912

Well, the presence of a vampire, most notably at a lead position of evil. And all the games had at least one vampire present(be it just Dracula, Alucard in the Sorrow games, or Gilles de Rais, Carmilla, Elizabeth Bartley, Olrox, Walter Bernhard, Joachim Armster, Brauner or Stella and Loretta).

At least if they are going to purge this game of a lot of the traditional CV elements, split it from the traditional CV series(er, the Japanese CV series) and just call this one Castlevania, and keep the Akumajou Dracula series going as a separate one, because face it, this one ISN'T Akumajou Dracula if it doesn't have Dracula, nor any sort of vampire, yet the original series shouldn't "die" for something like this.

Of course, this is all only if the article is true(worst case scenario). It's like, have you ever heard the one where 3dfx Interactive were interested in rebooting the Splatterhouse series? This was before Namco Bandai opted to reboot it themselves. Well, 3dfx Interactive wanted it to be a sorta-reboot/sequel, taking place after Splatterhouse 3, in a futuristic world. Here's what the rep wrote:

"This is set in the future and has no ties to the originals other than the fact that the main character is still alive."

"The game takes place years after the third, in a futuristic, post-modern world, similar to Shadowcaster. The game, although based upon Splatterhouse and variants, will not feature any extreme gore or the monsters from the first three games, but rather its own storyline about a personal quest for revenge and anguish. The developers are wishing to bring the game to a FPS perspective but this has also been debated as whether to make it a FPS (Doom) or a Third-Person Shooter (FAKK2)."

"The game will contain hand-to-hand combat as well as shooter sequences with a small amount of puzzle-solving. Imagine smooth transitions between shooting and fighting and you will have Splatterhouse's combat system."

"As to keep up with modern times, Rick will no longer be featured in the muscle-bound, Jason-Voorhees clothing, but in more traditional, futuristic clothing. It has not been decided what he will look like, but it is confirmed he will have shoes and will not feature the same hockey-mask."

"So, the Terror Mask returns, and I suggested that it be fused with technology for the future. I've heard people tell me that it's not a good idea to have it stray so far from what Splatterhouse was made for but I think it's neccesary...you tend to run out of ideas once people have already done them. I just went to watch Saw III and that completely blew any chance I had out of the water of suprising people, so a modern approach was voted to be taken. The gore will still be featured in flashbacks but people have told me that we're going to kill it if we do that."

"I personally think that moving the story away from a horror theme would allow us more creative freedom to do more modern things with the plot. I've already had a few people tell me that setting it in the future would not be a good idea and would lose a lot of its core popularity, but I believe that it's neccesary to show people something new in terms of what we could do with Splatterhouse."

 

The final sentence says it all. It's what companies say to justify major change whenever they decide to reboot something and turn their back on the original source material.

[crisis]

I dunno. The fact that the producer has said "forget everything we know and love about castlevania", the clich

[cecil-kain]

Good Grief...  The LoS news is actually getting WORSE...    I mean really...  Why bother calling this "Castlevania" at all?  I might have given this game a chance if it WASN'T trying to pass itself off as Castlevania, but now it seems like more of a "nail in the coffin" to me.  I don't own a current gen console, and it looks like I have no reason to invest anytime in the near future either...  No Twix for this Snickers fan.

[DragonSlayr81]

I'll still buy it because I love action games, but it just irks the hell out of me (and many others) the way this project seems to be going.

That's another one. I can't say I'm a big action game player. The only other one I got into was Devil May Cry. I'm not a GoW fan, nor Ninja Gaiden fan(nor any other action game out there).

[Munchy]

In Reply To #913

Splatterhouse in a futuristic setting? And not horror-themed? ABSOLUTE FAIL. That's like a Mega Man game without robots.

[DragonSlayr81]

In Reply To #917

I wonder, when that idea was pitched, if the guy said, "Forget everything you THINK you know about Splatterhouse!". 

[Dark Nemesis]

WTF?? As much as i like GOW, i don't think that i 'll play LOS, because it looks like it. This is insane!!!! They just put the name Castlevania and they think that this is enough to make it a Castlevania game? Until i see some more info, i'll stop calling it Castlevania. Just Lords of Shadow will do fine for me.

[Ahasverus]

Still, you are SUPPOSING something. We HAVEN'T SEEN the infamous article and WE DON'T KNOW if it's a declaration or a exclamation. Stay calm kids, there's more time to play.

Edit: Read this, and stop crying. Quoted from Chang from the castlevani Ultima Union

1. lil story have being added.

2. Some rumors that we heard, seems to be also expected by GI. i say expected but they do not say that it has being said or show that is like that. This is the fact that NO health-bestowing CANDLES, nor TELEPORT rooms. I quoted GI: "CV fans can say goodbye to teleports rooms and ..candles.."

3. GI show their concern that no VAMPIRES have being shown in the game (at least they point this out, and I`m concerned  ) Also they, I quoted: "we are holding our hope that Dracula will be somewhere among the ranks of teh LoS" 

they close saying that .... "LoS is a mix of GoW with a Southern Euroopean twist. Set in the middle ages, LoS is full of Gothic architecture (  ), religousimagery and -werewolf!!....we are not sure if the tried-and-true formula is a good idea... but if the final game can live to the excitement cause by the trailer, LoS may finally give gamers a 3D action title worthy of the Castlevania name,even if some series staples are missing."

How you can see, they DOn'T KNOW ANYTHING about the game.

[DingusBelmondo]

Please please please please please calm down. When this game was made, it was intended to be a Castlevania, however, Mercury Steam had to keep in mind it may have been a stand alone game. Therefor, if they had originally put Dracula in the game from the start, it would be FAR to much like Castlevania. NOW, that Mercury Steam has the OK for Castlevania, there is plenty the team is allowed to add. THE GAME IS 40% DONE. Remeber the first videos of Resident Evil 4. Where those scenes ever in the game? NO. Calm down. Let fate unravell itself. Christ.

[Ahasverus]

Please please please please please calm down. When this game was made, it was intended to be a Castlevania, however, Mercury Steam had to keep in mind it may have been a stand alone game. Therefor, if they had originally put Dracula in the game from the start, it would be FAR to much like Castlevania. NOW, that Mercury Steam has the OK for Castlevania, there is plenty the team is allowed to add. THE GAME IS 40% DONE. Remeber the first videos of Resident Evil 4. Where those scenes ever in the game? NO. Calm down. Let fate unravell itself. Christ.

Best post ever. 

[JR]

That's a good point. Even if it's been said that LoS was intended to be a CV all along, I still highly doubt that, to be honest. It doesn't help that there's no news, but I guess they're adding to the suspense. I have a good feeling that CV staples will be added in over time, and that there will be an actual reason for making this a Castlevania, other than name recognition. And really, cashing in on an established franchise was the idea, how far can the CV name REALLY boost sales? It's always been a respectable series, but the games really haven't seen excellent sales for years.

It's just the freaking wait for more news that's driving me nuts.

[shelverton.]

LOL @ some of the posts in here.

I'm really looking forward to this game. It's GREAT that they're trying something new, be it with or without candles/vampires/whatever. In fact, Castlevania should re-invent itself more often. It's about damn time! I like developers who doesn't play it safe, who dare to go against common sense, who really wants to create something new (even though it's GoW-inspired) and who actually realizes that the Castlevania franchise never reached its full potential on the PS2. It's screaming for something else, something that feels 2010 (Not like CoD that just felt OLD compared to its competition in the genre at the time)

Removing vampires and candles may actually make perfect sense once you play the game and find out more about the storyline, have you ever thought of that? We hardly know anything about the game. The werewolf theme may very well make up for the lack of vampires. Or not. We don't know.

If LoS is successful, the series will probably expand further and have bigger budgets in the future, and we'll probably see both great and bad games... which is better than no games at all. Old-school, castleroids, GoW-clones, fighting games, rail-shooters and whatnot.

Anyway, I would like to tell Mercurysteam to experiment all they want with the Castlevania license. I'm excited to see what surprises they come up with. And even if it sucks it's still only ONE game, not "OMG TEH END OF CASTERUBANIA 4EVAH!!1". I mean, Super Mario has gone through many changes, but we still get the occasional classic 2D sidescroller. Oh, and IGA is most definitely not out of the picture yet, I can't imagine that...

[DragonSlayr81]

Removing vampires and candles may actually make perfect sense once you play the game and find out more about the storyline, have you ever thought of that? We hardly know anything about the game. The werewolf theme may very well make up for the lack of vampires. Or not. We don't know.

Yeah, I don't play CV for it's stories.

Anyway, I would like to tell Mercurysteam to experiment all they want with the Castlevania license. I'm excited to see what surprises they come up with. And even if it sucks it's still only ONE game, not "OMG TEH END OF CASTERUBANIA 4EVAH!!1". I mean, Super Mario has gone through many changes, but we still get the occasional classic 2D sidescroller. Oh, and IGA is most definitely not out of the picture yet, I can't imagine that...

That's a bad comparison, because even though the SMB franchise has expanded it's territory in different methods of play, all keeps true to the classic themes, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowzer, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Mushrooms, Fireflowers, Pipes, bright and innocent designs and whimsical music themes. It's not like, suddenly, they decided to totally reinvent Mario, make him some Mad Max-esque warrior batting rival motorcycle gangs in the middle of a wasteland. You can explore other options without purging the little things fans consider tradition. Imagine if Nintendo made the next Legend of Zelda game a futuristic turn-based RPG(like Final Fantasy), and chose Tetsuya Nomura as the character designer and Shoji Meguro as composer, then say, "Forget about the old LoZ games. This is what we're going to do now!".

I always thought, if you wanted to do something original, just bite the bullet and have the balls to say, "You know what, I'm doing an original game! I'm not taking the safe route by connecting it to an existing franchise. The safety net of falling back on the name. I'm going to just create a new title, and if it's good, it will become My franchise!".

[cecil-kain]

Yeah, I don't play CV for it's stories.

That's a bad comparison, because even though the SMB franchise has expanded it's territory in different methods of play, all keeps true to the classic themes, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowzer, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Mushrooms, Fireflowers, Pipes, bright and innocent designs and whimsical music themes. It's not like, suddenly, they decided to totally reinvent Mario, make him some Mad Max-esque warrior batting rival motorcycle gangs in the middle of a wasteland. You can explore other options without purging the little things fans consider tradition. Imagine if Nintendo made the next Legend of Zelda game a futuristic turn-based RPG(like Final Fantasy), and chose Tetsuya Nomura as the character designer and Shoji Meguro as composer, then say, "Forget about the old LoZ games. This is what we're going to do now!".

I always thought, if you wanted to do something original, just bite the bullet and have the balls to say, "You know what, I'm doing an original game! I'm not taking the safe route by connecting it to an existing franchise. The safety net of falling back on the name. I'm going to just create a new title, and if it's good, it will become My franchise!".

Amen.  An original game doesn't need to piggyback on a franchise name to get ahead.  We let this go, and we'll be playin Castlevania Battle Network in a few years.

[Ahasverus]

That's a bad comparison, because even though the SMB franchise has expanded it's territory in different methods of play, all keeps true to the classic themes, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowzer, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Mushrooms, Fireflowers, Pipes, bright and innocent designs and whimsical music themes.

And that's the most fucking annoying thing in this  world. I'm tired of the same -Mario-saves-peach-from-Browser-with-Luigi-and-rides-yoshi-through-shiny-locations-eating-murshrooms-and-firing-with-fire-flowers- shit. I just can't realize how people can buy that crap, it's nice to see Super MArio galaxy for example, it's a good spinoff with NO TOO MUCH from the original game and still is a great game. Perhaps Lords of Shadow is the Super Mario galaxy of Castlevania.

And it seems that Castlevania is the only one, Metroid and most recently Tomb Raider and RESIDENT EVIL will have a reboot.