Topic: Question about Iga

[shelverton.]

IGA is about as hated as any other video game producer in charge of any major franchise. This kind of bashing goes on everywhere, be it about Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Zelda or Call of Duty (well, maybe not Call of Duty. Its fans are after all 8-13 years old and would settle for anything with guns).

[PFG9000]

The issues you mention are addressed since Wygol

For two chapters, yes, and still the game is only vaguely Castlevania-ish during them.  And after those chapters, it goes back to generic fantasy DMC-inspired fluff.

[justin312]

toru hagihara was promoted midway through sotn's development, and then iga was made the new director...after he became director, they basically restarted the game i guess.

Is that fact, or myth/legend created from fan speculation?  There is no doubt that Iga had a great deal to do with the success of SotN, and it was an amazing game.  But he tends to get ALL the credit for it, like the idea above that they restarted the game halfway through after he became director.  Its hard to believe that they would scrap a game halfway through development, start over from scratch, but give the director credit to the guy who's version was scrapped halfway through.

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....

One of the key factors that made Symphony successful, and also all of its GBA/DS offspring that Iga is famous for, was that they "borrow" heavily from Super Metroid, ideas from another game series, that another publisher came up with...

Even the idea of breathing new life into a dying series by putting the Metroidvania format onto a handheld... Iga didn't innovate that either.  The Circle of the Moon guys came up with that idea, and then Iga very successfully copied it when he took over the series.

I would say that most of Iga's success has come from successfully incorporating great ideas from other developers into his Castlevania games.

[Maedhros]

Is that fact, or myth/legend created from fan speculation?  There is no doubt that Iga had a great deal to do with the success of SotN, and it was an amazing game.  But he tends to get ALL the credit for it, like the idea above that they restarted the game halfway through after he became director.  Its hard to believe that they would scrap a game halfway through development, start over from scratch, but give the director credit to the guy who's version was scrapped halfway through.

Why?
This happen almost every day on gaming industry that it's not even funny.

[Munchy]

Is that fact, or myth/legend created from fan speculation?  There is no doubt that Iga had a great deal to do with the success of SotN, and it was an amazing game.  But he tends to get ALL the credit for it, like the idea above that they restarted the game halfway through after he became director.  Its hard to believe that they would scrap a game halfway through development, start over from scratch, but give the director credit to the guy who's version was scrapped halfway through.

Toru Hagihara working on SotN until it got canned for the 32X (when it was still known as The Bloodletting) kinda makes sense, if what we call SotN is a result of its remains being moved to the Playstation and IGA's revisions to the game (turning it all Metroidy, making Alucard the main guy, etc). I recall hearing that The Bloodletting was meant to be another Dracula X game in the vein of Rondo, so Hagihara's working on it before being promoted sort of jives.

[Harrycombs]

One of the key factors that made Symphony successful, and also all of its GBA/DS offspring that Iga is famous for, was that they "borrow" heavily from Super Metroid, ideas from another game series, that another publisher came up with...

Keep in mind that it was still pretty different from Metroid. While it borrowed the exploration elements, keep in mind that IGA added in leveling up, vast amounts of equipment, usable RPGish items (that were kind of useless) and all sorts of stuff that you had to grind for. The exploration was ripped right out of Metroid but there was a lot of stuff to differentiate it, and of course decorates in the usually CV style. LoS on the other hand just shameless rip off of God of War and Shadow of the Colossus, and then characters and monsters are all clearly Tolkien-esque and hardly resemble traditional CV enemies.

[thernz]

it was from interviews

iiii cant recall which ones and what year though. we'll just wait until someone like nagumo pops up with a library of iga interviews under her pillow.

http://ps3.nowgamer.com/features/950/the-making-of-symphony-of-the-night
this wasn't one of the interviews i remember, but it pretty much states that sotn was the game where he had most involvement. though it leaves the whole director business uguu. i guess even if toru hagihara came up with the concept for sotn, iga still had most of his work in that game and not any of the other titles, at least.

Contrary to popular belief, IGA was not employed as primary director on the project – that honour fell to Toru Hagihara, who was also responsible for the excellent Dracula X: Rondo Of Blood on NEC’s PC Engine Super CD-ROM system (which incidentally is the direct prequel to Symphony Of The Night). However, IGA served as assistant director as well as participating in the writing of the scenario and general programming, so it could be argued that he had the most telling influence over proceedings.

When asked which tune was his favourite, IGA playfully admits that he’s slightly biased: “My favourite is Castle Dracula which starts to play when Alucard enters the castle for the very first time. I was impressed with the way the music starts to play once Alucard enters the dark castle, and then suddenly the castle gets bright and zombies start to appear. It might be because that particular part of the game was programmed by myself.”

[Dark Nemesis]

One of the key factors that made Symphony successful, and also all of its GBA/DS offspring that Iga is famous for, was that they "borrow" heavily from Super Metroid, ideas from another game series, that another publisher came up with...

Keep in mind that it was still pretty different from Metroid. While it borrowed the exploration elements, keep in mind that IGA added in leveling up, vast amounts of equipment, usable RPGish items (that were kind of useless) and all sorts of stuff that you had to grind for. The exploration was ripped right out of Metroid but there was a lot of stuff to differentiate it, and of course decorates in the usually CV style. LoS on the other hand just shameless rip off of God of War and Shadow of the Colossus, and then characters and monsters are all clearly Tolkien-esque and hardly resemble traditional CV enemies.

Even the idea of breathing new life into a dying series by putting the Metroidvania format onto a handheld... Iga didn't innovate that either.  The Circle of the Moon guys came up with that idea, and then Iga very successfully copied it when he took over the series.

I would say that most of Iga's success has come from successfully incorporating great ideas from other developers into his Castlevania games.

Not exactly, IGA was the first one to use that formula with Symphony and KCEK was the one that copied it on the handhelds with Circle of The Moon. Also Circle of The Moon has a more interesting game play mechanism. The DSS. I would love to see an improved version of this mechanism on a new Castlevania game, with more accurate player controls, since Circle of the Moon controls where stiff.

[justin312]

Keep in mind that it was still pretty different from Metroid. While it borrowed the exploration elements, keep in mind that IGA added in leveling up, vast amounts of equipment, usable RPGish items (that were kind of useless) and all sorts of stuff that you had to grind for. The exploration was ripped right out of Metroid but there was a lot of stuff to differentiate it, and of course decorates in the usually CV style.

True, but most of that other stuff was derivative from the SNES RPGs of the day, like Link to the Past and Secret of Mana.  Grinding for levels and collecting dozens of weapons you'll almost never use was very reminiscent of Secret of Mana, actually.

What made SotN work so well is that it took the best elements from the 16-bit era-- action platforming of Castlevania, exploration of Super Metroid, RPG elements from SNES RPGs-- and combined them into one package.  Not saying that was a bad thing, not at all... but nothing there was innovative, it was all derivative of something.

[Harrycombs]

True, but most of that other stuff was derivative from the SNES RPGs of the day, like Link to the Past and Secret of Mana.  Grinding for levels and collecting dozens of weapons you'll almost never use was very reminiscent of Secret of Mana, actually.

What made SotN work so well is that it took the best elements from the 16-bit era-- action platforming of Castlevania, exploration of Super Metroid, RPG elements from SNES RPGs-- and combined them into one package.  Not saying that was a bad thing, not at all... but nothing there was innovative, it was all derivative of something.

None of those RPGs you mentioned were side scrollers. SotN was pretty different than what came before it. It wasn't derivative, it expanded on older ideas rather than just steal them.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I still say that SotN is more like a Playstation version of Ys3- Wanderers from Ys.

Roll 212
PC Engine Gaming: Ys III - Wanderers from Ys
Skip to the gameplay part.

[whitedragon_nall]

I still say that SotN is more like a Playstation version of Ys3- Wanderers from Ys.

Roll 212
PC Engine Gaming: Ys III - Wanderers from Ys
Skip to the gameplay part.

Ha! Nice to see I'm not the only one who felt that way.