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

[superDioplus]

Seems like Japanese developers favor XBLA a lot regarding those exclusive titles. Argh I want KOF98UM and 2K2UM to arrive on PSN too but that sux, well just a side story.

[Nazrath]

the 360 controller is horribly shitty

.

[angevil]

Argh I want KOF98UM and 2K2UM to arrive on PSN too but that sux

lolwut

[Alukard]

There remains a possibility for the game to be on PSN. But who knows.

The game looks pretty fun, might be an interesting distraction.

Although certainly not the next greatest 2D Castlevania I was hoping for. I mean - it looks so CUT and PASTE. Just taking music and sprites from the previous titles, stuffin' them in there, and adding some multiplayer. I honestly wish they would do away with all this recycling because I'm quite sick of it.

[affinity]

there is no room to complain, Alukard, since Lords of Shadow is as different as Castlevania can get this year.   If Harmony of Despair is not your cup of tea, you have that other option.    


anyways
new gameplay video!  

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-castlevania-harmony/700525

Jonathan teams up with Shanoa.  Or rather, they start together... but then go off doing their own thing.   They must be shy.  ^^;  

But all the same, lots of fun!  Normally this dream team would only be possible in fanfics and maybe some hack, but Konami and IGA really brings this to reality!    

Now just imagine good friends playing this together with teamwork, knowledge and skill!  The fun is multiplied several times!  

To me the best gaming moments are shared with others.  And Castlevania finally takes the time to explore this concept with its fascinating flavor.   A new golden age of Castlevania is upon us.

I'm so glad it supports 6 players.  Most co-op games, even with 4 slots, is too few for bigger groups that wanna co-op together. And the stages look big enough to fit 8 players if they wanted to!    But yes 6 players is a nice balance.  And if people think that's too much, no one is forcing them to play with 6 players.  They can play with 5 or less or by themselves.  More options = more fun for more kinds of players. 

[X]

I believe HoD can still yet pull it off. But only if all the graphics were made unique and give all the characters different looks to freshen things up. Also the bosses could all be different as well. Cut 'n paste is cheap however if IGA were to put more effort into this project then I think it would succeed on many more levels.

-X

[affinity]

I believe HoD can still yet pull it off. But only if all the graphics were made unique and give all the characters different looks to freshen things up. Also the bosses could all be different as well. Cut 'n paste is cheap however if IGA were to put more effort into this project then I think it would succeed on many more levels.

-X

if the graphics were made more "unique" it would risk looking worse to some people.  
To this day many argue 2.5DTurtles in Time doesn't look or move as cool as it did with the original sprites.

And many didn't like Double Dragon's remix sprites compared to the classic sprites. Many argued the new sprites made it look like a cheap Flash game despite the higher detail and smoothness in the art.  

There's really nothing wrong with recycling sprites. People grew up with those classic sprites and people
can relate to the characters better that way than "is that really Alucard?"  

From an artistic and nostalgic point of view, these sprites are perfectly fine and very Castlevania.  


Megaman 9 and 10 recycle Sprites used since Megaman 1 and people enjoy them just fine and the game still sells a whole lot despite the 8-bit graphics.

[Danial]

This is an interesting time for Castlevania.  We have two games in front of us.  LoS represents a change in direction, style, and an expansion of the fanbase.  Possibly even a return to the popularity Castlevania has held in the past.  Meanwhile HoD represents an embrace of everything that's come before.  It  brings very little innovation to the table, no real story that I can tell, and nothing new besides the ability to view the entire castle on one screen.  

Harmony of Despair looks like it will be fun to play, but so does the Pachi Slot, the Arcade game, and the Puzzle fighter.  There's nothing wrong with buying these games and enjoying them.  But, at the end of the day, none of these games are going to keep the franchise going.  Sure, they may expand it a little, but they aren't what will draw in new players and put Castlevania back in league with games like Mario and Metroid.

Ultimately, Konami is a company.  Companies don't care about anything but profit, that's why they exist.  LoS is the future of Castlevania as far as Konami is concerned.  If it fails, we might as well say goodnight to the majority of the series for another decade, until Konami feels brave enough to try again.  That's not something I want to happen.  Some of you are still waiting for Iga to save the day, but it's pretty obvious he can't.  I enjoy the games he makes.  OoE was probably one of my favorites.  But in general, the games he makes don't appeal to the mass market.  This is why Konami keeps cutting his budget, and why they are looking for a new direction.  Even if the future of CV isn't LoS, Iga is still the past.

Also, Harmony of Despair and LoS are not comparable games.  So it's a waste of time to argue about it.  Some people may like one over the other, which is fine, but they aren't comparable just because they share the Castlevania name. That would be like trying to compare billiards with water polo just because they are both consideres "sports".

[X]

Oh I agree since I grew up in that era too. But it wouldn't hurt to freshen things up after all nostalgia can only take you so far before repedativeness sets in. I love the feeling of nostalgia when playing games but I also expect to see new things added into the mix as well. It was like that when we got SCV4. It was nostalgic however it brought about new elements that made it into the "Bad Ass" title that we all loved. Oh, and before I forget; welcome to the forums affinity

-X

[Dark Nemesis]

I don't know, to me it looks fine. I don't have an x-box 360 though.........and don't forget that fans have always asked IGA for a co up Castlevania mode. Instead of that, he's giving us a stand alone co up game. So i don't underestand why all that bitching?

[superDioplus]

To me I guess IGA never got the essence of 2D Castlevania design that much, just by looking at this "cut and paste castle" and I can tell. Rooms X rooms X rooms, if only it has a cave stage or something, yeah caves. It would be much more complicated to design compare to these similar sized rooms.

[Abnormal Freak]

I believe HoD can still . . .

Oh, no. :( Why "Harmony of Despair"? We already have an "HOD," ha. Maybe this new game could be "HODes." :o Or "HODp" (though that has the whole "donkey punch" correlation).

[crisis]

Oh, no. Why "Harmony of Despair"? We already have an "HOD," ha. Maybe this new game could be "HODes." Or "HODp" (though that has the whole "donkey punch" correlation).

I was JUST gonna post that. Why the hell did they have to reuse Harmony?? There's plenty of other words they haven't used yet!! 

[Abnormal Freak]

Even with using "harmony," they could have used some other word that doesn't start with D, ha. Like "anguish," or "melancholy," or "tribulation"...

Or maybe instead of "harmony" something like "synchroneity."

Blah.

Synchroneity of Melancholy :p

Or maybe drop the prepositions for once and call it "Melancholic Synchroneity."

Or just a name that doesn't suck and isn't too similar to another game's title and initialism.

[angevil]

They wanted it to have title with HD, I suppose, because of many pixels on the screen. Let′s not call it HOD, please. It confuses everyone with our dear HOD on GBA. Maybe just HD for this? Despair?

New entry on Kotaku about zoom levels:
http://kotaku.com/5566677/the-excellent-castlevania-zoom

Harmony of Despair allows gamers to play at three levels of zoom: close, medium and far. The far view lets you see an entire level of the game. There are at least a half-dozen of them. The game supports multiple players, so at max zoom you could see someone else's hero in the castle as well.