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

[Sumac]

By eliminating the experience system, they actually made this game's difficulty more challenging much longer before obtaining the best stats/performance the best equipment out there can offer. Otherwise, a leveling system would just cause players to boost really fast to kill the difficulty, and that really is no better than players discovering better equipment earlier than other players. Level up bonuses combined with equipment bonuses, and multiply that with 6 player co-op, and you risk a very unbalanced and easy game like SOTN and other level based CVs.

You know...I completely agree with you on this.

Actually, level upping based only on the equipment, without experience system, is something that I wanted to see in regular "metroidvanias". Since they can't balance experience system, it better be get rid of it all together.

It's like her art changed drastically or something, because it doesn't seem like her usual, but whatever. I guess that's just me. :\

Not, it's not only you. Her art for this game, look a bit artificial I think. As if it's...lifeless, comparing for her past works for the series. I, for one, esepecially don't like Shanoa's face.

[shelverton.]

Yeah, this is probably my least favourite artwork from Kojima so far.. I didn't even think it was her at first.

[GummiCandyful]

Glad I'm not the only one. But, yes; her art is very unusual this time around. It doesn't even look like it has a trace of traditional media, as if the pictures were CGed with PhotoShop or something. And it's sad, because her artwork seemed to be improving drastically when she redesigned everyone from Rondo; the males were less girly-looking and there weren't any anatomical errors, either. But what really bugs me the most is that (in the case of Charlotte, Johnathan, and Shanoa), she didn't add an inch of her own style into their designs, so they're basically the same as before, except drawn differently. Such a shame.

[affinity]

well it's a good thing she didn't twist their appearance into  her own style too much.

Rondo Maria looked downright horrible.  And Kojima's Rondo Richter isn't as cool as original Richter.
She did a better job with SOTN Richter back then, but it's just terrible what she did to Maria in Rondo
(it's interesting her SOTN work is far better than her DXC art.)

She changed Charlotte's hair color quite a bit but still looks good,
Jonathan actually looks much better than in PoR,  
and Shanoa still looks awesome with her classic appearance,
but overall, I'm glad she choose to keep close to their original look instead of dumping a new bad look and bad clothes/hairstyles on them like what she did to Rondo Richter and Maria.

All 5 of them in Harmony of Despair never looked better.   Kojima was smart to not mess with a good thing.   She sometimes has good taste but in DXC's that was her worst Castlevania art and ruining the original style and appearance of the characters.   But of course, she always does a good job with Dracula.

[corneliab]

What are you talking about. Rondo's artsyle was shit, and Kojima's DXC art was leagues upon leagues better than the low-grade basic anime look.

[affinity]

What are you talking about. Rondo's artsyle was shit, and Kojima's DXC art was leagues upon leagues better than the low-grade basic anime look.

the DXC drawing style is better, but the differences in hairstyle, skintone, and clothes were better in original Rondo.   Maria looks like she was killed then brought back to life using Hellman's Mayonnaise and somehow her eyes have become abnormally alien-like.   She's like a ghost that never left its body. 
http://castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Scans/DXC/robchron-maria.jpg

Richter is passable, but his classic costume and headband should have never been messed with.

Kojima could have used her drawing style, but still preserved the components that defined these characters instead of making them look like completely different people.

[crisis]

Maria looks like she was killed then brought back to life using Hellman's Mayonnaise

LOL

[thernz]

At least her point on DXC Maria is true.

[X]

What are you talking about. Rondo's artsyle was shit, and Kojima's DXC art was leagues upon leagues better than the low-grade basic anime look.

That low-grade basic anime look was advanced for it's day (1993). You have to think about what was coming out during that time and realize it was the norm. Kojima's artwork was almost unheard of for us westerners (until SotN) and would've been way less polished then the stuff she's doing now. The Rondo artstyle is what I currently use for doing my art, though I've advanced much since starting in '97' I still use that basic style and it still holds up today. Especially when you take a look at all the other types of recent anime TV shows that have appeared, Rondo's art seems more mature then most of the other stuff we've been receiving as of late (Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, etc.).

-X

[affinity]

Harmony of Despair Premium Theme released!  found someone on youtube that filmed what it looks like.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bWM9-nmkDo&feature=player_embedded

Very amazing and very well done!  ^^

[corneliab]

That low-grade basic anime look was advanced for it's day (1993). You have to think about what was coming out during that time and realize it was the norm.

Uh, no it wasn't? At all? To put things into perspective, Dragonball had ended in Japan 4 years earlier. Rondo's cutscenes still looked like shit.
 

Kojima's artwork was almost unheard of for us westerners (until SotN) and would've been way less polished then the stuff she's doing now.

The game would have been better without the stupid cutscenes altogether. That's how DXC was, when it came to the dialogue.

The Rondo artstyle is what I currently use for doing my art, though I've advanced much since starting in '97' I still use that basic style and it still holds up today.

Good for you?

[Especially when you take a look at all the other types of recent anime TV shows that have appeared, Rondo's art seems more mature then most of the other stuff we've been receiving as of late (Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, etc.).

The only thing that's constituting a difference in "maturity" is the subject matter, which has nothing at all to do with the quality of the art. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, those series that you mentioned still end up looking exponentially better that Rondo's shitty scenes. So... what.

[Gecko]

The xbox theme looks pretty nice. Can't wait for that and the game. Despair looks fun, but I won't judge it at all until I've gotten the chance to play through it thoroughly. I'm still playing ReBirth and trying to beat hard mode's stage 3. Damn medusa heads! It's great that we've got so much content to tide us over for the next big game in the series (LoS). Konami's been treating us well. ReBirth is great, and hopefully this will follow suit. I wonder if it will have multiple difficulties, and if they'll change the stages around on hard mode like in ReBirth to make things more interesting. That was cool.

[X]

I'm assuming corneliab that you're not an artist, correct?

-X

[thernz]

Well, the animation is worse but that's alright considering it's a PC Engine game.

[DragonSlayr81]

I actually loved RoB's original anime style. It was soaked in the basic anime style you'd see in the 80s-early 90s. Kinda like the older Ys games, the first four Phantasy Star games, the older Fire Emblem games and the Lunar series. I prefer that, more nostalgic and softer anime look to the more sharp, extreme, "modern look" like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bleach or Naruto. A great way to contrast both styles within a game franchise is to put the styles side-by-side. Look at the characters from Phantasy Star 1-4, then look at the character design from Phantasy Star Online and on. Doesn't even look like they exist in the same universe.