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

[Harrycombs]

The DS games recycled sprites from SOTN and each other and they still are some of the best and most fun games around.  

A true fan would see the sprites as an art instead of simply dwelling on the recycled aspect of its use.

What? That doesn't even make since. No one would think Picasso was a great artist if he just drew a 100 versions of the exact same picture and never did anything else. They need to draw new sprites, it doesn't matter how masterfully the were made. They need to explore new art styles and new enemies. Recycling is an offense, it should never be done by a company like Konami. They should be trying something new rather than just recycling a game they made 13 years ago. We should point out the flaws of the series we love. Konami is not perfect and we should not hold them as perfect. It is fine to criticize them for reusing art (which is great art) from games as old as Rondo of Blood. RoB was made in 1993! That skeleton is 17 years old! This is terrible. No company should get away with this much recycling.


Harmony of Despair appears to be one of the worst Castlevania games ever created. I like the idea of a multiplayer Castlevania. But do we need to fight Gergoth FOR THE THIRD TIME? Draw some new main characters, Create original bosses, stop reusing tiles from Symphony for god's sake, and have at least one enemy that isn't recycled, and then I'll be fine with it! This game is atrocious, don't just blindly support Konami! I can understand why people support the concept (and I do too), but this execution is terrible! What is IGA thinking?

[Alukard]

But it wouldn't hurt to freshen things up after all nostalgia can only take you so far before repedativeness sets in.

This is it right here.
I'm also in support of Harrycombs statement

I play Castlevania for its unique and interesting design, music and sprites.
And something is no longer "unique" if it's replicated 100-bloody-%.
Remembering back to the first time I played a Castlevania game; the experience was mind-blowing.

So the main reason why I play Castlevania has been taken away in this game-
the complaining and bitching in this thread ought to be expected.

I think at least this can be agreed upon:
"The prospect of this multiplayer Castlevania which brings back old franchise favorites sounds fun and exiting, but it could easily be done better.

[crisis]

Well, IGA hinted at the possibility of additional levels & characters if the game does well. I just hope they use the time to create brand-new material instead of porting DS stuff

[Nox_A15]

Welcome to the forum affinity.

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".

Well said!

What? That doesn't even make since. No one would think Picasso was a great artist if he just drew a 100 versions of the exact same picture and never did anything else. They need to draw new sprites, it doesn't matter how masterfully the were made. They need to explore new art styles and new enemies. Recycling is an offense, it should never be done by a company like Konami. They should be trying something new rather than just recycling a game they made 13 years ago. We should point out the flaws of the series we love. Konami is not perfect and we should not hold them as perfect. It is fine to criticize them for reusing art (which is great art) from games as old as Rondo of Blood. RoB was made in 1993! That skeleton is 17 years old! This is terrible. No company should get away with this much recycling.


Harmony of Despair appears to be one of the worst Castlevania games ever created. I like the idea of a multiplayer Castlevania. But do we need to fight Gergoth FOR THE THIRD TIME? Draw some new main characters, Create original bosses, stop reusing tiles from Symphony for god's sake, and have at least one enemy that isn't recycled, and then I'll be fine with it! This game is atrocious, don't just blindly support Konami! I can understand why people support the concept (and I do too), but this execution is terrible! What is IGA thinking?

Also well said... it's hard not to agree with both of you.

To be honest, I was sceptical about HD myself, but after watching some gameplay my sentiment for GBA and NDS titles done its job - now I want to try it out myself. But I don't have Xbox actually, and don't plan to buy one. I already bought PS3 waiting for LoS. You know Konami, PSN is also a nice place - hint hint -

[uzo]

What? That doesn't even make since. No one would think Picasso was a great artist if he just drew a 100 versions of the exact same picture and never did anything else. They need to draw new sprites, it doesn't matter how masterfully the were made. They need to explore new art styles and new enemies. Recycling is an offense, it should never be done by a company like Konami. They should be trying something new rather than just recycling a game they made 13 years ago. We should point out the flaws of the series we love. Konami is not perfect and we should not hold them as perfect. It is fine to criticize them for reusing art (which is great art) from games as old as Rondo of Blood. RoB was made in 1993! That skeleton is 17 years old! This is terrible. No company should get away with this much recycling.


Harmony of Despair appears to be one of the worst Castlevania games ever created. I like the idea of a multiplayer Castlevania. But do we need to fight Gergoth FOR THE THIRD TIME? Draw some new main characters, Create original bosses, stop reusing tiles from Symphony for god's sake, and have at least one enemy that isn't recycled, and then I'll be fine with it! This game is atrocious, don't just blindly support Konami! I can understand why people support the concept (and I do too), but this execution is terrible! What is IGA thinking?

The planets aligned. We are agreeing.

Though, I have to say, it's more a matter of consistency than anything else. When the enemy, party member A, and party member B all have a different art style, that looks terrible. Case in point; Dawn of Sorrow. We have Julius drawn in faded outline style, and then Alucard on the same team, reused from SotN meaning hes in SotN's style, and then they fight a skeleton who has the same color palette as he did in Rondo of Blood, that is jarring. It really is noticeable.

If you're going to reuse the same sprite, you should at least try and adjust the colors to fit the game's color style. In addition you shouldn't be changing the art style and reusing different style old sprites either. For example, Julius/Soma/Yoko are not the same style as SotN. They have cartoony outlines and are lacking in contrast. Yet they reuse SotN enemies and throw in Alucard on the same team anyway.

As a fan you must acknowledge his popularity and Alucard is the most recognizable character and appearance in Castlevania to date.

Simon Belmont would like a word with you. He is the single most recognizable character from Castlevania. Alucard is fairly recognizable, but Simon is still the most recognizable by far.

I'm a girl

Oh, and one final note; there are no girls on the internet.

[Nagumo]

;___;

[Reinhart77]

i noticed that there's an easy mode for this game.  i'm really glad it's there to fall back on in case normal mode turns out to be just too difficult with only one player.  i also wonder about the items collections.  when you collect an item, do you keep it "forever" for use in all the games that you play?  when you start a new game with buddies x, y, and z, do you start over with an empty inventory, or do you start with any items that you've ever collected before?  is it possible for one player to have played the game 100 times and have 90% of available items with a player whose never played it before?  can you select "any" chapter without beating the previous one?

[Kale]

Why XBLA only and not PSN as well? Does no one else think the 360 controller is horribly shitty for sidescrollers? That D-pad sucks so much. I'd much rather be playing this on the PS3.

Well, the 360 definitely isn't the best, but I wouldn't say it's shitty. It's something I can play with, with a few gripes. I won't go into the ps3's controller.

EDIT: play with in regards to side scrollers. It's awesome for everything else.

[Reinhart77]

i like that there's a button that can be programmed to do four things, depending on if you press up, left/right, or down with it.  a good break from switching between equipment sets.  just suit up once and your ready for anything.  i hope for once that there's a way to quickly equip a recently obtained item though, instead of fumbling through a menu or waiting until you get to a change equipment location.

oh, and Charlotte gained a new ability.  she can "bind monster energy" to her book and use it to release a spell.  too bad it sounds pretty much the same as Soma's ability.  but without her partner Jonathan around, she'd be at a bit of a disadvantage if her spells were as slow as they were in PoR, so i guess they had to change something.  wonder if she'll be able to charge her spells.

[angevil]

Hands-on
http://kotaku.com/5567240/castlevania-harmony-of-despair-hands+on

I am in a hurry, I′ll be reading it in a bus, I put it on Instapaper 

[Kale]

You know, even though this game makes me a sad panda, I have to say one thing... if all the bosses can do that thing that Gergoth does (hit through walls and get you while you're on your way up) it'll be kind of cool to have ... makes the bosses seem more powerful.

That said... I'm still horrified by the game. Atleast though, it'll introduce MP, which may make teh game fun...... for people hwo play online... which isn't me.

Edit: You know, I just noticed something that actually makes it pretty cool. Environmental stuff against the bosses. I don't know if it'll be on every boss but one of them had it. Might make it a bit more interesting.

[affinity]

 I'm so glad they didn't end up doing something like that Mario Party boardgame, or another Judgement fighting game.    Castlevania gameplay fits much better for groups to enjoy together for an authentic Castlevania experience in a super cool way!  

I can just imagine Dracula now (if he is in stage 6).  

"Hmmm, a time distortion is taking place in my castle....let me see....what's this?  
Jonathan and Charlotte are here?  Hm?  Who is that man next to them?  He looks like me when I was younger....  *spits out wine* W-what?  Shanoa is here too?! How can this be?!
*stands up and breaks glass* WHAT?!  A-ALUCARD?!?!?!?!  What is this MADNESS!!!!!!!?"    

*Dracula proceeds to barricade the door with his throne, some bats and Galamoth's corpse*  

 

[Reinhart77]

weren't there rumors that there was going to be a vs fighter mode, like in Judgment?  i don't recall them ever bringing that up at E3, so i suppose that might have been a misunderstanding.

[Kale]

^Could be they scrapped it like SotN2 (or so it seemed)

You know, Iga should've just made an SotN 2, might've actually had people cheering if he did... damn it.

[affinity]

weren't there rumors that there was going to be a vs fighter mode, like in Judgment?

It sounds like Survival will take place in one of the 6 stages, and players can attack each other, using the same gameplay and equipment system the main mode uses.     

Kind of like how Double Dragon was intended for co-op, but players can fight each other without using a completely different fighting system.  Survival mode might simply add friendly fire to the equation and there you have it!  versus mode!

I will be focusing on the co-op play myself    but I might try survival once in a while.   

Kotaku rumors possible unlockable characters (different from DLC), might there be an unlockable Belmont?     Or maybe they confused DLC for unlockables.   

It's a miracle this style of Castlevania I always imagined is becoming a reality (it's a little different from my idea, but much better than I expected IGA to design!)!
I'm just too lazy and unskilled to make my own co-op Castlevania game.  And with 6 player co-op over XBLive with 10 million dots onscreen with all the enemies, players and animations going on? 
Only pros can make that possible in a smooth way.   Max zoom is unplayable but it will be useful for planning routes and stuff (as well as timing when and where that boss is going to fire its laser.)   I will be using the single room camera the most, first playthroughs I will try to advanced as far as possible, never
zooming out.  That could be a fun challenge without peeking where leads to what.  ^.^

And this is just the surface of how amazing this will be!  Once players learn the ins and outs of how
each characters plays, there could be some very interesting equipment and team set ups!  Some groups
may even split up strategically to prepare to assault the boss from two sides, using a good combination of close and ranged methods to damage the boss while keeping safe. 

Players might even protect each other in some situations in the castle, especially if like one player gets themselves in a bad position but another player uses an ability that cancels an incoming enemy projectile from damaging and  possibly killing a player had they not intervened.   (I'm guessing some enemies have projectiles we will be able to cancel with our own attacks.)

So many possibilities!        Haven't been this hyped for an innovative style to a franchise
since Resident Evil Outbreak (which was a true masterpiece that brought in great new ways to play and share with players online.)

Harmony of Despair will really be a favorite for many fans and gamers out there.