Topic: Question about Iga

[JR]

^^Totally agree. I personally think Konami's budgeting has led to more problems with the series than IGA himself has.

I'd like to see him make more CV games, but I'd love to see him get a bigger budget, and for someone to step in and help him make a good story.

[K.G. Morder]

I'd like to point out that IGA didnt make Symphony.

The producer and director of symphony was Toru Hagihara.

IGA was just one of the writers, along with Toshiharu Furukawa.

At BEST, he might have been assistant director, but he was not the director.

all the OTHER Metroidvanias that followed were his.

Id like to point to the games he has been producer of.

    * Castlevania Chronicles - Producer
    * Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - Producer
    * Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Producer
    * Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - Producer
    * Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Producer
    * Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - Producer
    * Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Producer
    * Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - Producer
    * Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Producer
    * Castlevania: Judgment - Producer
    * Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth - Producer
    * Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - Producer


And here is the list MINUS the bad ones and ones that had poor stories. (and remakes as well. those dont count here.)

    * Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Producer
    * Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - Producer
    * Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - Producer
    * Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Producer

That leaves us with precious few actually AMAZING games by him.

I cant vouch for order though. should it be removed? Im also going on the fact that Vampire killer is supposedly the bane of the night, and yet anyone can kill Dracula. Even non Belmonts/Morrises without the whip. which makes Dracula seem like a pushover. It weakens his significance and threat.

IGA Can be great when he wants to be. But he can also pull shit like Harmony of Despair or Judgment.

[thernz]

toru hagihara was promoted midway through sotn's development, and then iga was made the new director. that's why he was the "assistant director." plus you know, he actually was a programmer too. so, sotn was the most he's been involved. he's also the one who came up with the concept and hired ayami kojima, well an interview says that he did. after he became director, they basically restarted the game i guess.

plus all of the vanias had pretty different directors iirc even with iga as producer, even aos and dos had separate directors. though i think harmony, loi, and cod shared the same director. harmony of despair and judgment weren't even by the same cv team, but outsourced.
it's also funny how sotn had the smallest team, when ooe had way more people and took two years as well and hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

plus speaking of teams, the iga cv team itself has never been all that consistent. hod and aos are totally different. aos shares some with dos, but i think dos and por share more similar members. and ooe's team had a bunch of big changes to the member setup overall.

[K.G. Morder]

Mmm whatever then. Guess I didnt do my research properly.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Leave it to the CV community to do their homework.  Piece by piece, it all comes together.

[Viper]

Plus, he cares more about gameplay than story

Thank god for this!

Speaking about wasted potential is no more than just a twaddle, because we just don't have mysterious example of fully realised potential.

Anyway, I think that without IGA we most definitely wouldn't receive all these modern sprite-based side-scroller Castlevania games. Two or three "rebirth" titles maybe, not more.

[Hanniballistic]

I love Castlevania in general.  Which means I support IGA and his games.  This hate for him is pretty yawn-inducing at this point.  You could have found countless other threads to fill your IGA-hate meter.

[Harrycombs]

Or realised how half-assed his efforts were and hate him more

No, we realized we love him again. That is until he makes a new game and disappoints us all again.

[Dark Nemesis]

I do not hate IGA or his games. Sure they could have been a lot better in terms of story telling, but at least they have most of them, some excellent game play mechanics, great music and nice background designs.

Let's face it all, like it or not, LoS may have some interesting story telling, shiny graphics, but in terms of game play or music, it has nothing to do with Castlevania. Just take off the Castlevania from it's name and the characters, bosses names and it would be a GoW/Devil May Cry clone!!! In some places, it even looks like it has come from J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of The Rings universe. Sorry, but as an old school gamer, i'm not so interesting in graphics and a good story/scenario alone, isn't enough for me to worship a game. Another think that i hate about game fans and critic, is that for every RPG game that comes out, must look or be better than Final Fantasy. This is so stupid, but i guess you can't blame them, as human stupidity is infinity. I know that everyone has his own opinion and i'm not trying to change anyones opinion, with this post, but you can't call the perfect game, a game that takes almost everything from other games and has almost nothing original, except from it's scenario. GoW rip off game play, generic enemies designs, that most of them are looking like Lord of The Rings and generic music aren't going to win me. I have played LoS more than the half game and i haven't touch it for more than 3 months.......because i lost my interest, up to the point were i am inside the game. Maybe i was having high standars for this game that i haven't met, when i play it......

[Ahasverus]

have played LoS more than the half game and i haven't touch it for more than 3 months.......because i lost my interest, up to the point were i am inside the game. Maybe i was having high standars for this game that i haven't met, when i play it......

The issues you mention are addressed since Wygol

Gameplay mechanics in IGA games are good, but lately additions are more like gimmicks than anything else (Oh we had soul systmes, now we have gylphs!  and they are the weapons too! Do you feel alone in your quest? then feel like a Pokemon mas--ahem, devil forger with your innocent devils!...) the formula is the same we played in SUper Metroid, and that sucks. Loations are not even varied anymore, you know, I'm really tired of  "Corridor, shiny room, library, chapel, caves, torture room, spiked clock tower, catcombs, another shiny room, castle keep" estructure he has designed (carved in stone?) all this years.

[Dark Nemesis]

As i said, i'm not trying to change anyones opinion and i'm not licking the 3D Castlevania games, made by IGA, but still they are more close to what is Castlevania than LoS and no, i don't like Pokemons games. Game play mechanics, might seem identical each one with the previous, but they still are original in comparison to LoS who doesn't have, i repeat, doesn't have anything original in game play mechanics....

If i start stealing aspects from other games and combine them into one game, it's the same as the sprite reusing that IGA is doing in most of his games. If you want to make the difference, then try and make something original and not stealing aspects and ideas from other games that other publicers have come up with....

[K.G. Morder]

Its borrowing, and Games have done it since the beginning of time.

Allow me to point out Mario and Sonic...

[Mike Belmont]

Gameplay mechanics in IGA games are good, but lately additions are more like gimmicks than anything else (Oh we had soul systmes, now we have gylphs!  and they are the weapons too! Do you feel alone in your quest? then feel like a Pokemon mas--ahem, devil forger with your innocent devils!...) the formula is the same we played in SUper Metroid, and that sucks. Loations are not even varied anymore, you know, I'm really tired of  "Corridor, shiny room, library, chapel, caves, torture room, spiked clock tower, catcombs, another shiny room, castle keep" estructure he has designed (carved in stone?) all this years.

Im agree with you that the gameplay mechanics didtnt have evolve that much since Aria of Sorrow. They are the same, only with different name. Even PoR makes some similar way to obtain abilities. The Metroidvania is a little old, its true, after SoTN. But in Order of Ecclesia, seems like IGA wants to evolve in something more classic (or old school, if you prefer). But I think that !@#$% Judgment wasnt a good test to IGA to gain fanbase and probably Konami's trust. I simply hate that Obata designs!!!

In the other hand, I will never get tired of the CORE elements of CV. All games (if not almost all) have the elements you mentioned. Even 3D IGA games have references to old games (clockwork and the entrance in CoD, castle keep in both LoI and CoD), and not to mention the portable CVs, with the same +20 years of CV elements. Its true that since SoTN the castle have the same recurrent areas, but that areas are the same in old CVs. I will never get tired of this elements, because that is the identity of a game like Castlevania (without mention the great music, but thats other theme). Simply, if a get tired of the levels structure, I play some different games. Or, what elements did you put in a Castlevania game, without lose the essence? That would be a cuestion for all, including Mercury Steam, Alvarez and Cox .

[Dark Nemesis]

Borrowing/stealing, it's the same, because this way you are not evolving the series, you are not breaking something new to the series, something that we haven't seen yet.

If you ask people who have played Castlevania for the first time, through LoS and give them one from the past, the only thing that they will find the same is the name Castlevania.

If Mario borrow elements from Sonic, it doesn't make it a new game or different from Sonic. It will be just a clone with a different character as the main protagonist. So, when you are talking about something revolutionary, then you are speaking of something that no one has ever yet seen before and when Cox was talking about revolution, he should thing it again, because i haven't seen anything revolutionary. Every aspect of the game, has been seen on other games, GoW/Devil May Cry/Lord of The Rings/Shadow of the colossus, are some.....  :

Yes, IGA's games, may have using the Metroid exploration style, but they have improved it in a new way and that's all they have in common with Metroid, because they have their own and unique game play mechanics, that no other game has. They don't borrow/stealing game play mechanics from other games. I don't like the way the magic mechanics have gone at the latest IGA's games, they are almost the same in every game. I prefer the way Alucard was executing magic. The combination of the cross with the buttons, was something cool and i would like to see it in new games.

[GuyStarwind]

I love Iga games. I just wish he would make Belmonts have more of a main lead and not some unlockable character with no story.