Topic: Is Castlevania made by a bunch of lazy bums?!

[DingusBelmondo]

 Clearly the people behind recent Castlevanias (IGA) are indeed talented. They understand gameplay, theme, and have great art design. But never have I seen a series with such consistent laziness. Sprites are reused (what other notable series does this?!)  translations are silly (the enemy Kali becomes curly in aria of sorrow) and little thought is put into storyline or events. If the effort put into three Castlevanias, I have no doubt IGA would be producing masterpieces, rather than just "good games". Don't get me wrong, I've had a blast with all the recent CVs, but clearly we aren't getting our best effort.

[crisis]

I think part of the blame goes to Konami for giving IGA's team low budgets, whereas every Metal Gear game gets all the funding they need

Also I think we as fans are way too harsh towards the series we love. Maybe it's cuz we're spoiled like that.

[nsideus]

Yeah, the size of the budget is often misinterpreted as laziness.  Most recent Castlevanias have been on handhelds, so of course they are going be lower budget than a console release.  Besides Judgement (which was just a bad idea in the first place) there hasn't been a console Castlevania in the past 6-7 years. 

Also, Kojima is the prince of Konami, not IGA.  Especially after Judgement.  Why?  Can you name the last Metal Gear game that bombed?

[VGuyver]

Metal Gear Solid Ac1d came close to bombing, but just barely pulled through. But yes, IGA isn't a head huncho in Konami he's had a tough time filling in the shoes of his predecessor.

[shelverton.]

I strongly believe IGA puts as much effort into the storyline as he's capable of, but he's just not that good at it. Some people aren't meant to write stories. However, I think the storyline of Castlevania gets the job done, with little plottwists here and there. The Metroidvanias in particular had somewhat effective storytelling, albeit nothing we haven't seen before. And IGA tends to repeat himself quite a bit with the "good guy is actually bad", or "bad guy is actually good". To tell you the truth, it's only marginally more sophisticated than Mega Man (which is meant to be silly, which I doubt Castlevania is)

[nsideus]

Metal Gear Solid Ac1d came close to bombing, but just barely pulled through. But yes, IGA isn't a head huncho in Konami he's had a tough time filling in the shoes of his predecessor.

I doubt MGSA came close to bombing considering it had a sequel.

[VGuyver]

It was vastly different from the sequal. The sequal had more traditional gameplay, the first Ac1d Game was a cardgame with 3D MGS graphics and plot. It was strange and lots of fans were turned off, but the hardcore ones just had to get it... and believe me there are way more hardcore MGS fans then CV fans to support oddballed franchise games. But this is detracting from the topic at hand, no?

I personally like IGA, but the CV franchise is like a vampire, it always needs a new intake of fresh blood, either it be in the form of design or gameplay. IGA has contributed some awesome concepts, but just hasn't done enough intuitive or radical enough works.

[Raphael Belmont]

Clearly the people behind recent Castlevanias (IGA) are indeed talented. They understand gameplay, theme, and have great art design. But never have I seen a series with such consistent laziness. Sprites are reused (what other notable series does this?!)  translations are silly (the enemy Kali becomes curly in aria of sorrow) and little thought is put into storyline or events. If the effort put into three Castlevanias, I have no doubt IGA would be producing masterpieces, rather than just "good games". Don't get me wrong, I've had a blast with all the recent CVs, but clearly we aren't getting our best effort.

i totally agree...hire someone that can actually write something, i mean, look at cv3, that's the only decent cv with a good plot...SotN was only a masterpiece bc it had to be it was extremelly well made...

girl kidnapped, hero goes save....maaannnn....sounds like a movie pg-8.
how the fuck was richter controlled????how come there are no others devil forgemasters???wtf is St. Germain???How come death doesn't get involved in the plot(except CoD)???heck even Drac isn't in the plot you only see him at the end!!!!wtf is the crinsom stone???can it be stealed???so no more drac???why the "other playable" character doesn't even get a story???
so, so many other questions...

ps: don't get me wrong i love cv, but only the one that loves cares to complain. "Emily Dickinson"

[nsideus]

i totally agree...hire someone that can actually write something, i mean, look at cv3, that's the only decent cv with a good plot...SotN was only a masterpiece bc it had to be it was extremelly well made...

girl kidnapped, hero goes save....maaannnn....sounds like a movie pg-8.
how the fuck was richter controlled????how come there are no others devil forgemasters???wtf is St. Germain???How come death doesn't get involved in the plot(except CoD)???heck even Drac isn't in the plot you only see him at the end!!!!wtf is the crinsom stone???can it be stealed???so no more drac???why the "other playable" character doesn't even get a story???
so, so many other questions...

ps: don't get me wrong i love cv, but only the one that loves cares to complain. "Emily Dickinson"

I think you guys are trying to extract story from a franchise which obviously doesn't focus on story.  It's all about the gameplay.  If you want a story, go play final fantasy.

[Raphael Belmont]

If you want a story, go play final fantasy.

and next you give me N'Sync concert tickets...

sorry dude i lose a friend but i don't lose a joke! 

[Dremn]

To be honest I never took the story for Castlevania seriously, but I can't complain about anything Iga writes either. I just look for the enjoyment and addictive gameplay more than anything, but I prefer the traditional types of Castlevania more than Metroidvania anyway.

[Munchy]

I don't think the Castlevania team is entirely lazy bums. Just some of them. Specifically the level designers. The forest area in OoE speaks heavily to this.

[shelverton.]

Dunno if the level designers are lazy, or if they're told to re-use as much as possible to save time and money. They probably have LOTS of visions and ideas (why else work in the industry?), but in the end they need to do as they're told, sort of. That's what I think, anyway.

[darkwzrd4]

Yeah, the programers likely have a lot of skill.  The problem is that IGA method for coming up with a story is completely wrong when dealing with a continuing series like CV.  Plus, with the exception of OoE and SotN, IGA can't tell a story to save his life.  Also, handhelds likely have lower budgets (probably why sprites are reused). 

If IGA was actually good (or whoever is in charge of story) is was actually good and the budget wasn't low, I think the series would be a lot better.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE CV.  However, it could be better.

[thernz]

Mmm, a funny thing with the 3D 'Vanias is that they have pretty horrible jumping physics. The programmers probably weren't used to 3D. The few sequences in CoD were just so clunky. So maybe that's why the level design was so dumbed down? Nanobreaker apparently had much more platforming and it got slammed in reviews and sales. With the little budget they had, I guess IGA and team thought it only manageable to scrap platforming all together than code a new decent engine because of lack of budget.

But they also seemed to have a lot of staff dedicated to just the CG cutscenes so maybe it's mismanagement on the team's part too.
Though I pretty much doubt a better written story would help Castlevania much. Story doesn't really factor into copied and pasted hallways and enemy shelves. And it's rather irksome seeing sprites reused in the DS titles so much when the GBA titles didn't.