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

[Flame]

EXACTLY. The kind of thinking where the "elite" fraction themselves from the whole, with their, "Uh-huh", finger snapping, smug attitudes. The kind that could look at paint splatter on canvas and see the depth of the artist's souls, and how it's a representation for childhood neglect and lack of a mother figure, finger snaps in unison, "oh-ho-ho, la-dee-dah", it's so wonderful to be in such a neat little club. An exclusive little club, where people can act like the little things THEY all "get" are their own little inside jokes. Jokes that peons of the world, "everymen", "laymen", are too unrefined to get. Because, the unrefined, undefined, just don't get "it". And because they don't get it, they are inferior. Inferior to the point that their taste doesn't matter. Their taste is of less worth.  Puh-LEASE!!! 

Um, what?

[A-Yty]

fucking In the Castle

[Flame]

That made my day.

[Sindra]

Goddammit, I saw that and changed it because I knew one of you asshats would catch it and be all "Durr Hurr...." 

[Inccubus]

You guys r funny.

[KaZudra]

I agree, but that's only because they have been remixed to death. Mentioning those two in the context that person did really doesn't do anything to prove that the reason LoS's "epic" cookie-cutter soundtrack has been ill received is nostalgia.

That article..eh. I could comment on lots of things, but I'm sure all has been said already. I think it's pretty much as off as this:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2011/08/classic_games_that_modernized_well.php

Both make  the same lazy "you fans just don't get it with your nostalgia" claim. I'd almost label it as troll logic. Makes me wonder if those guys have actually ever even played a Castlevania (excluding LoS).

Pretty good list, one problem though...

Metal Gear at no. 1? I'm gonna have to play the blullshit card on that one.

[Vampire Killer]

Or Dracula's fate? I mean, if hearing Dracula's fate during the AoS bad ending didnt stir up emotions, then theres something wrong.

It's great, it just doesn't do it for me. No idea why.

Bunch of stuff I agree with.

I agree

The Clockwork Tower would be nowhere as interesting to me as it is, without the empty isolationist feeling provided by the mist at the bottom of the tower, with the only real sounds being the turning of the cogs and the occasional spark of electricity between them, with Waterfalls of Agharta playing in the background,providing a melancholy, almost sad, feeling for the experience. In fact without those elements, I would probably consider it pretty damn bland.

Exactly. LoS really pulled at me atmospherically. I felt drawn in like almost no other game before, sans maybe Shadow of the Colossus or Zelda: OoT.  In the Crow Which stage, the area with the huge chandelier in the foreground is a perfect example of what you're saying. Walking (NOT running) across that balcony and taking everything in, the size and scale, the detail (in the stone work, the railings, the carpet, furniture, pretty much everything), the feeling of isolation because of where you are (the ancient stronghold of a cranky and malevolent witch) and yet the music pulling you in an almost majestic direction, it's breath taking. And while many videogames are indeed pretty, an extremely small number of them really take the time out to practically shout at the player "HEY! Stop running head-first towards your goal, and take a few moments to really let this all soak in!"

I guess that's what kinda irk's me about some of the LoS hate. It seems like some people just don't get how incredibly rare it is to see something so well fine tuned on a moment by moment basis. Or maybe it's just that LoS is incredibly melancholy, and I'm just a very melancholy person, so LoS fits me like a glove, while others aren't particularly enthralled with it.

For me, the first Cv game to do that was Cv4, then SotN, and finally LoS.

[The Silverlord]

Musical programs on the computer offer a lot of freedom to people who otherwise would not be able to express themselves musically. programs such as Fruity Loops, FL Studios, or even Vocaloid. You shouldnt be so quick to judge people who use them. They are an advancement in music that should be appreciated for what it is and what it allows, rather than decried because someone who uses it "is not a real composer".

Hear hear.

I’m a long-time user of FL Studio (which has free lifetime updates!), my fellow band mate uses Ardour.  We can play a few instruments between us, but these tools really allow us to pull together recordings and pieces of music, tinker and cement much of a song’s structure and apply post-production effects.  Even the ability to loop around a piece of music continuously until vocals are finalised or a guitar solo recorded on top is fantastic.

I’d say these software apps also offer insight into many of the things which Jester has highlighted: time signatures, tempo, note volume and dynamics, envelopes, waves, and effects.  There’s nothing like having options readily available to you (or ahead of you—paths to take with your music), or indeed the fact that you can learn about these elements by directly working with them and hearing the results.   There’s creativity, learning and experimentation.

Of course it still takes a lot of patience and it doesn't teach you how to play an instrument.  But if you're creative and you like music, there's really nothing like it.  It enables an amateur to achieve frankly otherwise unachievable things; someone who maybe wouldn’t get the chance to create music to do just that.  That cannot be underestimated.  I’ve been playing guitar for about 15 years, I knew a lot of chords, progressions, a few scales.  FL Studio has really helped bring my knowledge to a new level, just be interacting with it through experimentation: and who's to say what is the right or wrong way to compose music.

[A-Yty]

Metal Gear at no. 1? I'm gonna have to play the blullshit card on that one.

Yeah that.

And I didn't mean that the rest of the list's games don't belong there. It's the reasoning of Castlevania's case that sucks ass - like a vomit-inducing pitch of LoS that also makes crazy comparisons.

[uzo]

And that Fruity Loops comment makes me want to punch you in the face, because I used that back in the day as a stepping stone to re-learning music theory and improve, and it's jackass attitudes like yours that made me stop.

I used fruity loops too before. Albeit I never made anything fantastic, I did have fun exploring the world of music and seeing, at least at it's basic form, how things worked. I would encourage you to not give up on it just because jerks like jestercolony think you're not stuck up enough to roll with them.

[JR]

Hey, did anyone notice a few tweets from Cox a day after the anniversary? I didn't see these until today:

With respect and honour -
Akihiko Nagata
Masahiro Ueno
Toru Hagihara
Koji Igarashi
H.Akamatsu
Tomikazu Kirita
Etsunobu Ebisu
Yuji Shibata

To all those who have worked on Castlevania over the years. We respectfully thank you. Too many to mention but not forgotten.

I'm wondering if this suggests that MS' take on Castlevania is the only one left now. It almost sounds like an unofficial ushering out of the old. Could be why the anniversary wasn't celebrated?? Maybe after HD dies down, Konami wants the old games to be a distant memory...

...just a thought. Or he could've simply been giving acknowledgement because of the anniversary itself, I guess. 

[C Belmont]

I'd say he just tweeted that for the Anniversary
If you ask me thanking them is the very least he can do after all LOS looks set to undo all the contributions they made to the series.

[Reinhart77]

I love how he put Iga in the very middle of the list as if to downplay his contributions and try to break the recent thought patterns of Iga=Castlevania.

[meanguyjones]

I love how he put Iga in the very middle of the list as if to downplay his contributions and try to break the recent thought patterns of Iga=Castlevania.

pretty wild imagination you have there

[DragonSlayr81]

While some might think it seems like Cox is listing those developers as a means of saying "goodbye" to the series pre-LoS(he could be just as much as he couldn't, but that's not why I'm posting), it also seems like he's the only one at Konami(Konami Europe, but Konami nonetheless) officially coming out to recognize the anniversary. Whether his tweets are smug, or are are done with sincerity, the fact that Konami, themselves, haven't OFFICIALLY officially announced anything is more sad. I mean, dude, anniversary date's gone and over with. Usually, when people hold an anniversary celebration, it's for the anniversary date. You don't go to your wife and say, "Happy 25th Anniversary, baby!" a month later, unless you want your balls stapled to your forehead. And usually, when doing the anniversary celebration thing, it takes a good deal of planning ahead of time. The fact that, only of recent, have they spoke of an "anniversary something" that hasn't even been greenlight/giving the "go ahead" makes me think that they really waited to the last minute to do this. Was there no one at Konami, last year(for instance), that said, "Hmmm, next year is Castlevania's 25th Anniversary! We should do something. Start planning NOW to get the ball rolling!"?