Topic: Harmony of Despair (The next Castlevania game?)

[Ahasverus]

Mercury sTEAM guys haven't confirmed anything, only our insider at castlemaniacs said that people would really like to, but KOnami hasn't said anything yet, and if it's done it could be done on DS, however, I think it's too late for it, I mean, in the best case they have 7 months to tie the launch with LOS'. They could make a prequel-sequel, but they would be messing up the storyline (how many people will play both games?) and that's exactly the opossite of what they are searching for,

[Munchy]

If a tie in game were made, it'd be awesome if they didn't do much more story than an old Classicvania. You know, have the little film reel thing on the title screen that says stuff, and that's it.

Wouldn't be much of a "tie-in" then, but I'm sick of game protagonists avenging their loved ones/regaining lost memories.

[Inccubus]

Except for the supposed title screen everything looks completely fake.
The title is very good, but I've seen a lot of artwork on DeviantArt that emulates that style with equally professional quality.
The menus look like any shmo put them together in photoshop.
The stages don't just use the graphics from the DS titles, they are using the individual room layouts.
If I was gonna fake this in a short period of time I'd use full room screen shots instead of tiles.
It all stinks of a hastily, but well executed hoax.
Let's not forget that nothing is confirmed, and no one REALLY knows the source of the pics.
That goes double for the IGA haters were not given ANY reason to think this is his work other than the particular graphics that are presented.
I'd like to point out also that CV ReBirth is a download title and it has all original art and graphics.
The fact that the unconfirmed screens use sprites from IGA games is actually more an indicator that this was faked than otherwise.
Take into consideration that during the course of 6 IGA produced 2D CV titles there is exactly one case of using STAGE graphics recycled from an earlier game. (That forest stage that uses the trees from the SotN intro sequence.)

If I'm wrong and this is real I'm man enough to admit it.
However, it will also be the case that I will be sorely disappointed in Konami for allowing this pile of stale, dry cat shit.

[Reinhart77]

Per the article that Kotei posted about what Iga said about making 2D games for consoles:

Pixel art and backgrounds can be reused throughout multiple titles, he noted, allowing designers to spend more of their time on other aspects of the game.

Therefore, I don't think this in an indication that reused sprites and backgrounds are an indication that it is faked.  We have seen one castle map.  We don't know how many similar such maps there will be in this game.  Its possible there could be 10 more of these, which would outweigh the amount of work needed to make original backgrounds in The Adventure ReBirth.  If Order of Ecclesia had reused backgrounds from Dawn of Sorrow, that would be just terrible.  But I don't think it's that bad in this situation.  It lets them concentrate on other aspects of the game.  And in this case, with the format of the game being so different than what we're used to, I think they really need to concentrate on those other aspects in order to get it right.  Then once they have the formula right and think they can make another game like that, they can spend more time making original backgrounds and stuff.  I think this is a bit of an experiment and investing too many resources on the backgrounds and spriteworks would be too much of a risk at this stage.  Also, I think they can get away with this "once", but not twice, so I'm all for them going all out this time and hope to see almost every stage in the DS games remixed in this game.

[Kamirine]

I understand it Reinhart77, but it just sounds like an excuse to me. Now don't get me wrong, reusing a few sprites doesn't sound to bad in retrospect but reusing as much as this supposed game is and saying "it gives us more time to concentrate on other aspects of the game" just sound like a terribly lame excuse for not putting more effort into it. They could always just spend more time on the game: sure it takes longer, but at the end of the day, at least the game would be something (hopefully) polished and original.

I'm NOT saying your wrong or even that you don't make sense but...it just bugs me that they're reusing so much. There's just too much squashed potential to be had, not to mention with it being on XBox Live (and possibly PSN) network and it's suppose to be 2D HD. There's just too much they could have done and it's being squandered.

The idea doesn't bother me, it actually sounds very interesting. But calling this a HD 2D anything when it's nothing more than reused DS background and sprites isn't even humorous: it's just down right embarrassing. (And also makes me think there is a possibility, other than how bad it looks, that it may be fake.)

[shelverton.]

The game should've been called something else. Harmony of Despair sounds like it actually tries to be a new game i the series. This is more like a remix or something. Castlevania Online: DS Remix would've been an option. At least it says right away what this is all about. That way people like me would've stopped reading about this game immediately because of the awful name.

I still hope it's fake though. If not, it certainly looks like it could very well be the worst thing to happen Castlevania since... ever.

[Nagumo]

*opens a can of worms*

No Lords of Shadow is.   

[Munchy]

Per the article that Kotei posted about what Iga said about making 2D games for consoles:
Pixel art and backgrounds can be reused throughout multiple titles, he noted, allowing designers to spend more of their time on other aspects of the game.

Yes, so the programmers can spend more time making completely uninteresting levels with nothing but enemies? Oh IGA, you card, you.

[thernz]

I imagine DoS and PoR would've been hideous if they didn't reuse assets. The new sprites in those were just horrible, excluding some like the PoR Werewolf. So reuse was probably a blessing for those too. Of course, I'm not really defending the practice. I'm just saying that his sprite artists were awful.

[Reinhart77]

yeah, calling it Castlevania ReMix would be appropriate.  makes me wonder if they really intend to charge a full game price instead of the standard $10-$15 for a download...  guess it depends how large a scope the game has.  well, it has the word "Harmony" in it, which kind of implies a coming together of different things.

[Munchy]

I imagine DoS and PoR would've been hideous if they didn't reuse assets. The new sprites in those were just horrible, excluding some like the PoR Werewolf. So reuse was probably a blessing for those too. Of course, I'm not really defending the practice. I'm just saying that his sprite artists were awful.

Yeah, that was something I never understood. Some new sprites, like OoE's Mad Butcher, make me say "holy hell, that's beautiful," and others, like the shitty shitty Mimic in DoS make me say "WTF is this?"

And the original backgrounds in those games, with some notable exceptions (the Silent Prison in PoR), were gorgeous. Like the snowy village in DoS; for its time, it was stunning on the little handheld screen.

Of course, a lot of these inconsistencies (and even the reuse of SotN-era backgrounds) wouldn't bother me so much if the level design weren't so uniformly lazy. I didn't mind the bits of reused stuff in Adventure Rebirth because - gasp - there were, like, platforms that didn't just do predictable zig zags up a vertical chamber! And traps! Imagine that. I still stand by my statement that the most interesting level in OoE was the Tower of Trials because of this.

[Inccubus]

The only reason I don't buy the idea that this is just the asset reuse IGA spoke of is that we're talking about a multinational corporation with vast resources. If it was being created by a handful of rookies I'd agree. However, the fact of the matter is that if Konami were behind it they'd easily be able to put together new graphics AND experiment with new game play with relative ease. Not to mention my earlier point of this never having been done on such a blatant and reckless scale before.

[Munchy]

The only reason I don't buy the idea that this is just the asset reuse IGA spoke of is that we're talking about a multinational corporation with vast resources. If it was being created by a handful of rookies I'd agree. However, the fact of the matter is that if Konami were behind it they'd easily be able to put together new graphics AND experiment with new game play with relative ease. Not to mention my earlier point of this never having been done on such a blatant and reckless scale before.

This is very true... My main worry is the artwork and title logo, which are remarkably detailed. Who would go to such lengths just to troll Castlevania fans? Not to mention Konami's blatant favoring of its main cash cow franchises which get buckets of funds for each game (Metal Gear, rhythm games, Fun Fun Soccer Tourney or whatever it's called, etc.) while the cult status games fade into obscurity (sadly, Silent Hill comes to mind).

At the same time, there was that mean April Fool's prank many years ago about Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and those screens looked damned good for fakes, so who knows.

[kadosho]

After seeing the promo art on Kotaku, my heart skipped a beat.
But as a multiplayer game, I really wonder how its going to work. So used to being a solo character.. but a team?
Plus a Remix, which I find interesting..

Hopefully this entry pans out, because its a very risky for Konami to make such a move this late.

[XxRichter]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179087