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

[affinity]

But that isn't really new. That's just a combination of two things that have been done before.  

New Super Mario Bros Wii is basically retro Mario gameplay with 4 players co-op, Borderlands is just a shooter with rpg and looting elements. but they still count as a new experience and different kind of game.

The combination counts because combined formula makes it different from the formulas when they are separate.   Lemonade is different from lemons, sugar and water individually.

As for the other stuff they've added, yeah, it's a nice touch (except for how the characters were nerfed, like Sonic_Reaper was mentioning),

But the nerf was necessary.  Even with what they have, Hard mode still becomes a joke once you have the good equips/hunter skill levels.        There's still enough there to have fun with each one.  
If anything, the one thing Castlevania HD should get is a Very Hard difficulty that continues to challenge the best setups.

but it's mostly superficial. Besides multiplayer, they haven't really brought any new fundamental aspects to gameplay. It's essentially a multiplayer Metroidvania.

What's wrong with that?  it's some of the great reasons why it's still played to this day!  

It's better than totally reinventing the wheel and presenting a Pancake throwing Castlevania that has pancakes you can power up your whip with, which you can telepathically throw at enemies and talk to your whip like an intelligent snake friend that can move independantly and do the forbidden dance.
And the castle turns out to be a tree that absorbed the blood of Dracula,

so now the castle is a super flying castle vampire tree that spews blood and the game only supports motion controls to launch pancakes from your whip and do moonsaults and your stat upgrades only take affect when the moon is full, and with full Heart meter you can turn into a chainsaw for a few seconds.  How's that for innovative gameplay?    Well one would ask "but are my favorite characters playable, is there an option to use the classic metroidvania gameplay and can I play it with 5 friends online?"  

I know it can be a fun game (in fact, I'm still playing it)  but I think it's deserving of the criticism it's received.

Well ya it isn't for everyone and won't match everyone's tastes and preferences, but it really is one of the best things they've done in gaming history, and there really isn't anything exactly like it on consoles, even from a co-op standpoint, games like L4D, Borderlands, RE Outbreak and Guardian Heroes are completely different vegetables compared to this.

Castlevania Harmony of Despair has become the new favorite for many fans, friends and gamers out there.  It's really deserving of praise too!  

[JR]

New Super Mario Bros Wii is basically retro Mario gameplay with 4 players co-op, Borderlands is just a shooter with rpg and looting elements. but they still count as a new experience and different kind of game.

The combination counts because combined formula makes it different from the formulas when they are separate.   Lemonade is different from lemons, sugar and water individually.

I'm talking about within the series. I don't really count a Metroidvania-style game chopped into individual stages as anything new.

But the nerf was necessary.  Even with what they have, Hard mode still becomes a joke once you have the good equips/hunter skill levels.        There's still enough there to have fun with each one.  
If anything, the one thing Castlevania HD should get is a Very Hard difficulty that continues to challenge the best setups.

I dunno, Hard Mode's hard enough for me still. And I've been grinding subweapons during my pretty much all of playthroughs. Even still, I'm sure they could've spent some more time and made gameplay more balanced without resorting to nerfing characters to the degree that they did.   

What's wrong with that?  it's some of the great reasons why it's still played to this day!  

It's better than totally reinventing the wheel and presenting a Pancake throwing Castlevania that has pancakes you can power up your whip with, which you can telepathically throw at enemies and talk to your whip like an intelligent snake friend that can move independantly and do the forbidden dance.
And the castle turns out to be a tree that absorbed the blood of Dracula,

so now the castle is a super flying castle vampire tree that spews blood and the game only supports motion controls to launch pancakes from your whip and do moonsaults and your stat upgrades only take affect when the moon is full, and with full Heart meter you can turn into a chainsaw for a few seconds.  How's that for innovative gameplay?    Well one would ask "but are my favorite characters playable, is there an option to use the classic metroidvania gameplay and can I play it with 5 friends online?"  

A game doesn't have to be ridiculous to be innovative. You can put fresh ideas into a series without changing its identity completely. And it's not even the more-of-the-same aspect that bugs me so much...it's just that the game feels so cut-and-paste without regard to the end result. Like I said before: it's a fun game. But it's also an uninspired game.

[Sonic_Reaper]

The character nerfs were not necessary.  It just comes off as lazy.  Soma is testament to this.  He's been much improved since his incarnation in DoS.  He has access to the most amount of spells and equipment, and the largest pool of ways to deal damage, move around the map, and heal.  There's really no reason why Alucard's spells needed to be weakened, Jonathan's weapons removed, and Charlotte's spell pool reduced.  Besides, you claimed the game is already easy enough as is, so why not give all the characters their original properties and attack options?

I agree the game is fun, and some of the decisions, such as not being able to pause or change equipment, makes sense from a tactical stand point.  But if there ever is a sequel, or a reworking of the concept, I would really like to at least see returning characters with all their original properties and attack options.  I don't see much point in playing your favorite hero from a past game when they don't play as they should/used to!  And I don't believe this was entirely their intention.  As mentioned, Soma is at his best.  Richter, with the addition of his kick and attack cancels, is pretty amazing too.

[Reinhart77]

as someone who collects fighter games, i never expect games that combine elements from other games to have characters play the same way they did in their original games.  but yeah, the more of a character's original arsenal that's available to them, the better.

Soma is an interesting special case, because his special skill requires that all enemies in the game give him souls that let him do stuff.  i'm so happy that they stuck with this rule for all enemies except Menace.  i sometimes think that this "rule" might have hindered the amount of enemy variety found in the game though.  maybe the DLC would have had more new enemies in it if they didn't have to come up with a Soma spell each time they added a new one.

All other characters didn't have such a rule forcing a certain variety of abilities, so they all got nerfed down to what was considered essential for that character.  oh well.

[Profbeanburrito]

http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/castlevania-harmony-of-despair/

I don't really know how accurate this site is, so don't jump down my throat if it's not, but while looking at a list of release dates for PS3 games coming out in 2011 I found Harmony of Despair on gamespy's list. I'm hoping this is correct

[cecil-kain]

http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/castlevania-harmony-of-despair/

I don't really know how accurate this site is, so don't jump down my throat if it's not, but while looking at a list of release dates for PS3 games coming out in 2011 I found Harmony of Despair on gamespy's list. I'm hoping this is correct

Leave it to Konami to release it on PS3 a year after 360... --knuckleheads....

[Renonsgoods]

Good news for PS3 owners that were interested in this game.  I wonder if they'll package it with all the add-on characters and levels...or make PSN users pay for them as DLC like they did with the Xbox Live release.

[cecil-kain]

Good news for PS3 owners that were interested in this game.  I wonder if they'll package it with all the add-on characters and levels...or make PSN users pay for them as DLC like they did with the Xbox Live release.

It SHOULD come out in one package at a bargain price...  Still can't believe they took this long to get it ported...

[Renonsgoods]

Odds are that this was an exclusivity deal Konami had with Microsoft.  There really isn't any other good reason for such a title NOT to show up on both Live and PSN at the outset.  But.  Then again.  This is Konami we're talking about here.  So who knows.

[Nagumo]

The big Castlevania reveal at E3 -- HoD for PS3!!!

[JR]

If I had known, I'd have waited for the PS3 version. I'm not a fan of 360's directional control, and using the analog stick is somehow worse for me on this game. It's a big reason why I bought Bionic Commando Rearmed and Mega Man 9 on PSN and not Xbox Live.





(ah, who am I kidding?? I wouldn't have had the self-control to wait for the PS3 version.)

[Alutwon]

The big Castlevania reveal at E3 -- HoD for PS3!!!

/dislike

I'd love to finally be able to play this but not if it's the E3 reveal. 

[Dark Nemesis]

If this is going to be E3 reveal, then i'll hate Konami for the rest of my life, on the other hand, if it's not, then i would like it on a blu-ray disc, than be a downloadable content...

[Puwexil]

oh god am i getting pulled into this again

[Chernabogue]

The big Castlevania reveal at E3 -- HoD for PS3!!!

XD

I would stop playing CV. For the rest of my life :p