Topic: Castlevania 3DS: What do you want?

[Vrakanox]

It was easier back in the day when no one knew nor cared about producers, composers and such. We just got new Castlevania games and played them, no questions asked.

At some point when I was really young I kinda thought Nintendo made ALL games btw, LOL!
"I play this game on my Nintendo console so it must be made by Nintendo. Nintendo is the best! They make games with plumbers, vampire hunters, little blue robots and even the ninja turtles!". 

I was a carefree child.

When I was real little I didn't even know the games I was playing were Japanese. Then I grew up, played Japanese games on my consoles and western games on my PC, I loved both and still do. Now all I ever hear from my fellow gamers is about east vs. west. I don't like it but oh well.

[Valtiel]

I would like to see The Castlevania Dungeon make the next Castlevania game.


Make it happen Konami!!

But would we be able to reach an agreement?

Personally, I'm unsure about what I want right now. I really, really liked LoS (it's a runner up for GOTG for me right now), but my fantasy is still an home console 2D HD Castlevania game. 1999 game. Full HD. Huge sprites, enourmous setpieces, colossal bosses and whatnot. Completely revamp the combat, keep it familiar for the traversing and "trash mobs" (CV needs to be fast) and throw in some design oddballs (combo system based on different weapons, dodge moves, heck, a PARRY manouver that works on bosses and all the magic you can think of).

I think they can keep CV on life support almost indefinitely with the handheld titles. Production cost is incredibly low, the userbase is massive and all that. However, if they want to "rebirth" the series, they need a full fledged title and while LoS is great, CV is still mostly 2D for me. My point being, they need to be bold with the next game. The PS360 equivalent of OoE, on steroids. The biggest 2D game ever or bust.



On the other hand, the anticipation for LoS' sequel is building on me. If Gabe is Dracula, that potentially opens up a lot of design freedom for the team. Yes, he won't be a boss, but that means they can use him as a connection to the CV lore and then build games that defy the serie's conventions. They could send him to victorian london (would make for such a great gothic setting) or digging in pyramids in Egipt and fighting ancient mummies or to India or Japan or almost anything you can think of. When he's a villain, you rarely stop thinking "how did Dracula spend eternity?", but imagine the possibilities.

[Ahasverus]

Where the hell did everyone read you will be layin AS Gabriel in 1999? I think's that's pretty much unlikely, I think Gab will be the bad one in the "present" MS game (Not that the NEXT one will set in modern days, more so considering that Simon and Alucard are confirmed to appear in next titles) even if it's the "wrong" bad guy according to the story.
Now, the 2Ds game, I'm hoping for a 2D MercurySteam game. I loved how combat was managed in the 2.5 D stages of LoS and mercuryEngine is  capable of Holy shit graphics so I would love them to make a 2.5/2D game

[thernz]

I would like to see The Castlevania Dungeon make the next Castlevania game.


Make it happen Konami!!

oh god no

[Munchy]

Where the hell did everyone read you will be layin AS Gabriel in 1999? I think's that's pretty much unlikely, I think Gab will be the bad one in the "present" MS game (Not that the NEXT one will set in modern days, more so considering that Simon and Alucard are confirmed to appear in next titles) even if it's the "wrong" bad guy according to the story.
Now, the 2Ds game, I'm hoping for a 2D MercurySteam game. I loved how combat was managed in the 2.5 D stages of LoS and mercuryEngine is  capable of Holy shit graphics so I would love them to make a 2.5/2D game

YES PLZ. But please, keep the QTEs out.

[whitedragon_nall]

I would like to see The Castlevania Dungeon make the next Castlevania game.


Make it happen Konami!!

That would probably start World War III.

[Dremn]

I would like to see The Castlevania Dungeon make the next Castlevania game.


Make it happen Konami!!

NOPE

[Hanniballistic]

I would rather MercurySteam stick to 3-d and stay the hell away from 2-d.  They did well in 3-d, let's not give them a chance to mess up whatever credibility they gained from LoS.

[X]

I would like to see The Castlevania Dungeon make the next Castlevania game.


Make it happen Konami!!

Why not? I think I'd be cool. we all know what we don't want to see in our games so this should be very easy to do. as everybody has their own likes for the series, everybody could do a game that fits with what they would like to see in a CV game rather then leaving it up to producers whom just can't get the message we're all sending.

-X

[Valtiel]

Where the hell did everyone read you will be layin AS Gabriel in 1999? I think's that's pretty much unlikely, I think Gab will be the bad one in the "present" MS game (Not that the NEXT one will set in modern days, more so considering that Simon and Alucard are confirmed to appear in next titles) even if it's the "wrong" bad guy according to the story.
Now, the 2Ds game, I'm hoping for a 2D MercurySteam game. I loved how combat was managed in the 2.5 D stages of LoS and mercuryEngine is  capable of Holy shit graphics so I would love them to make a 2.5/2D game

Because the potential is huuuuuge. We got a taste of playing as Dracula with Soma, but he was sort of a puss and didn't really feel like a vampire.

Now, once again the dilemma is big. We could get more Mercury Steam games that follow the LoS 3D formula and give us Belmonts vs Dracula and all the awesome things we know - and I think nobody here would say "no" to that. It's what CV has been for 20 years, I guess some could say something new could be good, but in the end it would be the safest bet with the fans.

OR, they could play the next games with Gabe still being the star, and developing him as Dracula over the next few games, as a guy who heals drinking blood instead of using light magic and so on. It would feel sensibly different from the traditional Castlevania games, for sure, but I'm not sure it's a road unworthy of being explored.
I mean, I can totally imagine a game where you play as a Gabe on his path to becoming a vampire, where you can suck the blood of your enemies and briefly inherit their characteristics (drain a werewolf and become stronger and faster, or later on become capable of draining bloodless enemies and drain skeletons to grow a bone armor or medusa to fly around).

Heck, I'm sort of thinking of a CV game working more or less like the Assassin Creed games, with Dracula moving from Sofia to Paris to London and roamin the cities fighting other creatures of the night and feeding on the people. And doing all those sort of incredible things the "realistic" approach of most sandbox games don't let you do.
I can imagine Dracula sprinting over a rooftop before launching himself in a jump so high that he lands on one of Notre Dame's towers, smashing stones and letting debris falling on the ground. Or him fighting a summon demonic being in the middle of the London Bridge with terrified citizens running everywhere.
Yes yes I know, it's a wholly different game. It's somewhat of an heresy, but I'd be there day 1 anyways.

I think one potential advantage of still using Gabriel is that they can use a couple games to show him getting so cool and powerful and menacing and yes, even evil, that it builds up his character for the games where you're actually gonna try and bring him down as a Belmont. It worked wonders with Legacy of Kain. When you played as Kain, you knew you were gonna be the villain and when later you faced him, you could really think "he's the ruler of the Underworld and I really wouldn't want to fight him because I've seen what he's capable of".

[Pemburu Vampir]

It'd be cool to see Castlevania Resurrection gets resurrected on the 3DS.
 

I doubt it would happen though.

[Ahasverus]

OR, they could play the next games with Gabe still being the star, and developing him as Dracula over the next few games, as a guy who heals drinking blood instead of using light magic and so on. It would feel sensibly different from the traditional Castlevania games, for sure, but I'm not sure it's a road unworthy of being explored.
I mean, I can totally imagine a game where you play as a Gabe on his path to becoming a vampire, where you can suck the blood of your enemies and briefly inherit their characteristics (drain a werewolf and become stronger and faster, or later on become capable of draining bloodless enemies and drain skeletons to grow a bone armor or medusa to fly around).

A saga like that exists, and it's called Legacy of Kain. Oh, and is unbeatable BTW, no other videogame in history has/had/will have/ the kind of narrative cohesion that saga has, so CV would play in second place.

[Valtiel]

A saga like that exists, and it's called Legacy of Kain. Oh, and is unbeatable BTW, no other videogame in history has/had/will have/ the kind of narrative cohesion that saga has, so CV would play in second place.

Mmh, I'm a huge LoK fan, but I don't think it's that unbeateable. It's a very hard challenge, to be sure, but it's definitely possible to compete with Legacy of Kain (the PS1-zelda clone) in terms of narrative (I still consider it as the best game in the saga, but it's so technically limited that a simple facelift would be a huge improvement) and the Raziel episodes are built on such an extreme premise (that the world is a shell of its former self) that none of the elements I'm speaking with (vampire interaction with mortals above all) was really touched.

It's be doable, in my opinion. Heck, I'd love to try to say the least  .

[DraculaFan1981]

I've always had this Idea about a Castlevania game Maybe the 3ds game should have you playing as Mathias/Dracula Soon after the events of Lament of innocence where he is learning how to master his new powers and taking out the Rival Vampire clans it can explain most of the origins of Dracula's powers as well as how he rose to power as the king of the night I Imagine there being a power vacuum amongst the Vampire nobility after Walter's death and Mathias not being fully accepted until he shows the other lords his power the gameplay can be like a classic metroidvania but with character upgrades like the ones in harmony of despair where player stats can only be increased by equipment and health/mp max ups (like previous games) without leveling up and it could use a variant of the Tactical soul system in the sorrow series but with the freedom and functionality of the glyph system in order of ecclesia 

feel free to criticize so far I think my Idea isn't that great I just had to get it out there   

[Harrycombs]

Great post, but didn't Castlevania always have nudity? At least from SotN onward? I definately remember some bare chests.

I don't mind nudity in statues or in the succubus, but the nudity in LoS was not tasteful at all. Why the hell were the faeries of all things nude? And that demon you summon was a terrible idea (they should have replaced it with Grand Cross).