Topic: Why does IGA keep writing checks he never cashes?

[DingusBelmondo]

 To me, it seems like IGA would have rather had each game be an entirely different episode, having nothing to do with the previous games. However, up to IGA, Castlevania was going strong with an interesting history and bloodline. Because of this IGA became worried that he needed to connect the games, and instead of doing so, he continued to distract himself with new ideas, making a fat mess. Storyline wise, that is.

[Giz]

It's only a mess to those who don't understand it.

[A n t r a x x]

It's also hard to develop any real story when characters on average talk about 5 times per game, and about once every 2 hours of play.

The 2D Castlevanias just don't have a solid, practical structure for more complex storytelling.

I'm glad in some ways that at least it's not as overblown and overused like in Kojima's games.

[crisis]

PoR and OoE take place in almost the same time period. Instead of giving us answers he created more questions.

Not really. Ecclesia takes place in mid 1800's whereas portrait takes place in 1944.

It seems most of your posts in every topic is constant "FUCK IGA AGGHHH". It's starting to get redundant.

[A n t r a x x]

One would think a book with many pages could tell a better story than what amounts to scribbled text on a napkin.


There was not enough opportunity to flesh out the characters in those games as interrupting the action too much destroys the already unstable pace. I care more about solid gameplay anyway, so I'm glad IGA didn't interrupt it even more.

I'm not defending the sometimes underwhelming plotlines (I'll be the first to point out that IGA isn't the best storyteller actually), but I am defending that it's not easy to write a story for this type of game (action-adventure) and have it play out in an involving fashion without halting the progress of the gameplay too much.

Metroid Fusion needed a sentient computer to regulate the pace and narration of the plot; Odin Sphere stopped the action after each level to offer up a complex combination of catered sprite animations and emotive portraits; Simon's Quest relied on the cryptic messages of the villagers and a few scattered books.

And Super Metroid didn't even give a shit: the game itself played out as the actual story -- it needed nothing more.

IGA tried to tell a more complex tale without the required space to do it. And though he had a lot more cutscene opportunities in his 3D games -- and you can tell the stories and characters in them are fleshed out better as a result -- the 2D games have nothing but a couple of portraits and a few lines of text to tell the tale. There are no specific animation sets for a cutscene or anything to convey complex emotions-- everything is taken from the main game engine. There's also no voice acting in these scenes.

So these IGA-troids are very limited in getting the player into story and relating them to the characters before the final curtain call. IGA had tried to do more with less.

That's not saying that he and his team couldn't have implemented some better way to tell it.

One of the smartest ways I've seen a story presented in an action-adventure game is the Metroid Prime series. Everything about the world, the creatures and the plot is revealed through what Samus scans through her visor and downloads from the various computer terminals scattered throughout the game. These scans can be anything from short warning messages of impending doom to pages-length recantations of past events other individuals went through. What's brilliant though is that they're entirely OPTIONAL, and so the player chooses exactly how much of the story they want or care to know. The plot's pace then, is controlled by the player, and any halt of the action thereof is self-afflicted not forced.

If Castlevania thinks it needs a story, integrating storytelling systems like that could give it much more freedom to relate its plot. Instead of terminals, players can find old books and notes that serve a similar purpose as the scans in Metroid Prime.

[MarquisX]

In Reply To #103

"So these IGA-troids are very limited in getting the player into story and relating them to the characters before the final curtain call. IGA had tried to do more with less.

That's not saying that he and his team couldn't have implemented some better way to tell it."

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I am not normally expecting a epic told story in a 2D castlevania- maybe because I yet to see one. I think OoE start going in the right direction using a few cut scenes instead of relying on text. (Going into Castlevania, showing her smile) but they need to do more with that.

But at the same time, someone mentioned in another post showing a article of IGA stating that the DS Castlevania games are expensive to make and he has to push Konomi for the budget. Maybe it is not in his budget to do something more than what we want. Or maybe he doesn't budget his money well.  I feel OoE was finally taking the series on a more serious and challeging level that his earlier titles. Let's hope he gets another chance...

[Nagumo]

What mess did Bloodlines create?

If there was a game about Quincy Morris, wouldn't that be contradictory to the original Dracula novel, which IGA claims is part of the canon?

Could be, but the thing is that IGA would contradict himself even more by not removing it since it's just one big plothole that hasn't anything to with Castlevania aside from Dracula and the Morris surname.

There is no need for a Quincy Morris game, just read/watch Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I disagree:

since it's just one big plothole that hasn't anything to with Castlevania aside from Dracula and the Morris surname.

[A-Yty]

In Reply To #95

- John Morris was vampirekilling with his dad as a toddler
- Bathory is related to Drac who is really Mathias.
- "And Quincey must be a widow, since he tried to court Lucy early in the novel."

I think there's more. It was an attempt to merge the CV story with Stoker's book which was kind of cool, but damaged the continuity.

[Giz]

No, belmont, it isn't. You literally don't know what you're talking about.

the Metroidvania set-up is hardly designed for plot embracement and it is not easy to write up, expound upon and deal with a cut-scene based storyline which is almost required in this day and age due to it's design. Have you ever noticed that in AoS and PoR, etc., practically all the cutscenes consist of randomly finding a character and interacting with them for a few minutes before running along on your way?

Christ. It has little to do with IGA, and everything to do with the medium. Curse of Darkness's storyline was much better and was actually executed well, and this is mostly due to its medium.

Order of ecclesia, which by far had the best story and plot presentation thus far, was only able to do so because of the fact that they broke away from the strictly metroidvania mold.

I have no issues stating that in my experience out of all the genres i've worked with, the metroidvania genre as utilized by Super Metroid and a majority of the Castlevania games is by far the hardest to implement a good story in. It simply is not designed for it.

[Giz]

stfu

If you don't want people to respond to you, then stop posting.

It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

stop acting like you know from experience.

I do, by the way. You're doing nothing but proving yourself an ignorant fool in this discussion.

[Profbeanburrito]

The Belmont Legacy, do you even like Castlevania games? I don't think I've seen anything you've said that's positive towards the series. I guarantee you couldn't make anything half as good as IGA. As a fan I'm just happy to be getting Castlevania games, even if they do lack a little, maybe you should just start accepting the series for what it is

[Giz]

Dude, if anybody here is acting like a moron, it's you. Saying that you can't have a good story because it's on the DS or because the game is part of the Castlevania series. That's absurd.

that's not even what i'm saying, at all

forgive me but you are literally retarded, try again

(kk guys goin on a few day vacation i guess, probably. seeya ): )

[Profbeanburrito]

In Reply To #114

How is that funny? I do like IGA a lot, I think he's done a lot for the series, however, I don't care for Harmony of Dissonance, and I think there could have been a few things better done in Lament of Innocence. That doesn't mean he does a bad job. I think Kojima, Miyamoto and just about every other developer does great things for their series, but theres always going to be things that not everyone will like. So, to ask again, do you even like the Castlevania series? All you do is bitch about it and everyone else who likes it

[A n t r a x x]

I disagree on one point...

I really don't have any complaints about what Shigeru Miyamoto's done.

I don't think it's fair to put him in the same group as IGA because he's on a whole other level of creativity, game design and innovation.

[Giz]

Where are you going? To suck Iga's dick?

I imagine I'll likely be suspended for a few days given my comment. But then, perhaps not given the context.

The point is, however, I wasn't saying that because it's a Castlevania game, or that it's on the DS it can't have a good story. The point is that the free roaming exploratory gameplay style of the metroidvanias is not always best suited for story-telling, without introducing linearity; for example, Metroid Fusion. It had a heavier emphasis on story then Super metroid did, however, it was also much less open-ended and much more linear.

i don't see how you could've even extracted the non-existant anti-DS storytelling sentiments from my post so i won't even bother commenting on it, but i think it's a given that i hold no such beliefs.