Topic: What are your current thoughts on the Dracula X Chronicles?

[Claimh Solais]

I think that DXC is the second best game remake of all time, only bested by REmake.

I approve this message.

But yeah, most people find it "Ech." Don't throw your inside jokes out on the general public. Besides, stage 5' in DXC was just as hard, it just looked nicer. And Red Dawn is waaaaaaay better than Opus 13. But Opus 13's rearrange... Like, HOLY CRAP it's amazing.

[Puwexil]

It's hilarious to behold and makes evident that people developing the game had a good sense of humour. It fits very well with Rondo's cheeky lightheartedness, so to me it's just all the better. The DXC version doesn't offer much in comparison. It's just another fancy stage with fancy music.

[Claimh Solais]

It wasn't much of a sense of humor. I liked that it was ridiculously hard. But the inconsistency in the level design was really bad.

I didn't exactly mean that people can't toss in some kinda joke. What I said earlier came out wrong, my bad.

[Dark Nemesis]

I like it, it was a very interesting idea of 2.5D. I wish that it would get a release for the PS3, but that's not going to happen.....anyway, i would like to see a new Castlevania game, using that formula, not a remake!!!

[Successor The Cruel]

I dig the additional boss fights and Dracula's third form.

The remake is also great, but I prefer the visual style, music, and overall feeling of the original Rondo of Blood.

The lack of DXX is a bit upsetting to me, but nothing I can't deal with.

The Symphony of the Night voice overs are very disappointing, and I'll turn to the Playstation version every time over what is presented in DXC.

[Claimh Solais]

As a big fan of the new voices, I have to say:

You gotta admit Richter's voice is way better than the original.
With Alucard, there are some incidents where I just prefer the original voice. "Answer me! Why is a Belmont planning to resurrect Dracula?" That line in the new version was delivered terribly, whereas the original "Answer me! Why is a Belmont planning the resurrect Count Dracula?!" sounded like he was really demanding an answer.
As cool as Dracula's original voice was, I still like the new one better. It's much easier to take it more seriously with the new voice. But I hate the removal of the Matthew 16:26 reference. :\ But in the original game Dracula by far had the best voice acting.
Maria sounds more her age. Maybe if she were in her twenties or so the original voice would match more. I just wish they made her sound a little older. But then, it's also better than her Judgment/HD voice.
Shaft sounds awesome in the new one. He sounds eviler in the original, though. I don't know which is better.
We all prefer the original Master Librarian with his "Young Master, I could never assist one who opposes the master!" talk. 

[Puwexil]

The new voice acting is wooden, charmless, and entirely forgettable. What's more irksome is the new, overly literal script that doesn't hold a candle to Blaustein's original translation in any way. The Internet has collectively decided to chortle at mere mentions of Symphony of the Night's dialogue, to an endless degree, but I always found it theatrically overblown in a pleasant manner, and a very able work altogether. Even the voices are iconic no matter how you actually think of the acting therein; at this point hearing anyone but Belgrade as Alucard feels wrong to my ears.

So yes, I would contend that I enjoy Symphony's story scenes unironically, and the attempt to improve on the original in DXC fell short in all the ways that mattered.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Stage 5' is a bored developer's joke to begin with. It's intentionally made as ridiculously tough as possible, hastily assembled from existing assets.

While I can see that, you don't know that with absolute certainty.  I would peg it as more 'we ran out of time, throw the hardest things we can into a hidden stage' rather than 'the fans will appreciate this Frankenstein'd stage, and will laugh at it'.
If someone did the same thing with a new game these days (**cough**PoR**cough**), they get lynchmobbed in this forum.  So why is it excusable with Rondo?  Because it's cool?  I don't see it.

And DraculaXX's Stage 5' is like Rondo's "area after the Clock Tower" stage, but better-looking (still has spearknights and sword lords, too).

[Puwexil]

While I can see that, you don't know that with absolute certainty.

http://www.gamesradar.com/psp/f/castlevania-the-mega-interview/a-20070312121437520086/g-2007020210261331098/p-2

KI: There was one level - so-called the Seabass Takatsuka level. The current Winning Eleven producer Seabass had been working on the [original] PC Engine version. Almost every element from the stages was combined in one specific level. We... didn't like it.

GR: This was in the original version?

KI: The original version. Takatsuka was working on one certain stage. But what he did was pull out every element from the other stages, which I didn't like. I actually created one stage from scratch.

GR: So one stage is new, to replace that level?

KI: Yes. But the spirit of Takatsuka remains over that stage.

It's not in the interview I linked, but I recall it being said around the same time in another interview with Igarashi or Ogasawara or whoever that the motivation for the creation of that stage was one developer's (Takatsuka's, evidently) dissatisfaction with the low level of difficulty in the game, to which he reportedly exclaimed "I'll show you real Castlevania!" and thus, stage 5'.

It's just interesting and funny to me. I don't know what Portrait has to do with this when that game is rubbish to the core. Rondo is brilliant, and one alternate stage isn't going to tarnish the whole even if you don't "get" or like it.

[Claimh Solais]

I honestly liked PoR more than Rondo, to be honest. Rondo these days is overly-hyped. When there are lots of bad things about the game.

-Stage 5'
-Badly animated cutscenes, but that's more of the system's problem
-Ugly backgrounds. Like, really ugly in a lot of cases.
-Backflip. Not the move itself, the way to perform it. There were plenty of other ways it could have been implemented, especially in the DXX version.

That's only some of the many things. Whereas PoR is bashed constantly, but there's a lot of cool things in the game.

And if you ask me, DXC fixed a lot of the problems with RoB. Stage 5' was completely redone. The animated cutscenes were replaced with dialog scenes in the style of Symphony (except they looked cooler in this game). The backgrounds looked much nicer, but it's a little unfair to compare a PSP in 2007 to the PC-Engine in 1992.

Oh, and the voice acting was much better. If by wooden, you mean no real emotion and practically monotone, you are completely wrong. Not charming, you are wrong. Forgettable, wrong. Well, in any case, it's the complete opposite to me.

NOT WOODEN: See the Annette battle as Richter. He realizes he has to kill her. He feels sad, and you can tell. He knows what he has to do, and then kills her. What makes it sadder? Annette screams out Richter's name upon death.
CHARMING: Alucard and Dracula don't sound like gruff beast and typical villain respectively. While Dracula may sound it in some ways, let's face it. This voice matches the regal villain of this series way more than his original voice. Richter sounds really awesome, and not like your typical PSX[ hero (serious, that guy's voice was in like EVERY PSX game).

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

@Puwexil:

I just read that interview, and I don't I'm understanding it the way you did (though you just said 'it's not in the interview I linked' sooooooo okay? but wait, you just quoted from within that interview... so is there another interview that expands upon this further?)...

You don't get that if you take pieces from other stages and put them in one stage, in today's time, it would be akin to what Portrait did with its 'extra stages' which were essentially just slightly altered versions of previous stages?  Regardless of what your opinion of PoR or Rondo is, it would be a very similar move.  My question is, why does Rondo get a pass for this?

That interview is talking about how IGA's rendition (on the PSP DXC))of the Takatsuka stage does not do that (the one with Red Dawn playing in the background music), but it retains the 'spirit of difficulty' that Takatsuka was trying to accomplish.  I think it's very cool that IGA's 2.5D DXC rendition cleans up that stage so it's not a hodgepodge stage.  That's quite commendable.

But we were talking about Rondo, here, and how one of the posters said that Rondo's Stage 5' isn't as well-resented as DraculaXX's Stage 5', which I agree with.

So my point was specifically with regards to that conversation.  Why do you handwave that level away in the conversation, when it's obvious that what is doing is what we have come to dislike Konami doing with the later titles?

[beingthehero]

Well, Rondo's stage 5 was a unlockable level. It was just a fun extra and an afterthought. PoR's dark portraits, on the other hand, make up the entire latter portion of the game. They're there to help extend the game, much like the inverted castle in SotN.

I loved DXC's stage 5, though, especially the hydra boss. It kind of a reminded me of a 2.5D God of War stage. D:

[Puwexil]

Claimh Solais, I was only addressing and comparing the voice acting and dialogue in Symphony and its redone version in DXC, not DXC itself, so you didn't really need to argue for that. I don't really have a strong opinion on it, but as it does share the same cast as the new Symphony, it's safe to say it's just as boring and droning.

Also Jorge, I linked that interview to provide context to what I already know, which I related just now. It was the best I could find, at the moment, of the subject at hand, but if you can't take me by my word then go right ahead. I thought it was a pretty clear explanation.

I don't have anything against the redone stage 5', on its own. It's a level in a Castlevania game, and it fits DXC's aesthetic. I just think it's not as memorable, for better or for worse, as the original hodgepodge. I think it adds more than it detracts.

[Claimh Solais]

Claimh Solais, I was only addressing and comparing the voice acting and dialogue in Symphony and its redone version in DXC, not DXC itself, so you didn't really need to argue for that. I don't really have a strong opinion on it, but as it does share the same cast as the new Symphony, it's safe to say it's just as boring and droning.

Oh. >.>

Well, then concerning SotN's voice acting, I'll admit some of it was delivered badly. But then, it was that way in the original game also. Save for a few lines, Alucard was not fun to listen to. He was pretty darn boring.

(BTW, to save time for typing, calling me Claimh is a shorter way to address me.) (:

I don't have anything against the redone stage 5', on its own. It's a level in a Castlevania game, and it fits DXC's aesthetic. I just think it's not as memorable, for better or for worse, as the original hodgepodge. I think it adds more than it detracts.

To be honest, I liked the original game's stage 5' also. But the biggest problem with it is that it just pulled backgrounds and tiles from elsewhere in the game and the entire stage was so inconsistent. It would've been cool if they decided to make a new tileset for it.

[Puwexil]

What I love about Robert Belgrade's Alucard is how intensely deep his voice is. I mean, yada yada, badass with a deep voice etc., but it works here because of the contrast with his fair appearance. Ryōtarō Okiayu's original Alucard has a deep voice too, but it's more like a standard baritone bishounen sound. Belgrade sounds more obviously masculine, and thus amplifies the contrast I find fitting, especially in the case of a supernatural being like Alucard.

The above probably makes it obvious why I didn't particularly care for Yuri Lowenthal's casting as Alucard in the new version.