Topic: Exclusive: Konami confirms Castlevania 25th anniversary project

[Odile Kuronuma]

I agree. My only concern is to have 2D games in the future. I don't mind the series going the LoS route, as long as 2D games are still made.

[narkolepsi]

Seriously? CotM is better not only in gameplay, but in story too? Really?  I could somewhat understand someone being such a die-hard 2D gameplay fan that LoS held no joy for them. Though I would view this person as living a sad and limited existence (as a gamer), kinda like a friend I once had who just plain refused to enjoy any game that wasn't an RPG.  His choice, but a dumb choice.

But to say that even the story was better, says a lot more about you, than it does about LoS, or any sequel or any other game for that matter. And before you get your panties in a bunch about how entitled you are to yuor "opinion", I agree that you're entitled to have an opinion, but that doesn't mean your opinion is in any way valid. 

Just as, if someone were say that Rembrandt was a bad painter when compared to a guy who makes velvet painting of Elvis (the kind you would see hanging in a trailer park somewhere). That person, by saying something of that manner, would only be revealing themselves to, at best, have bad taste, and thus have opinions not worth listening to, just as you have done here.

And no, relativistic arguments do not apply here. There is such a thing as a account of taste, both good and bad.  There are things in which I can look back on from my youth, like music for instance, and honestly say that I had bad taste at times. Even though I enjoyed those things, my "palet" if you will, needed refinement.

I'm sorry, but I agree with affinity and Maedhros, and the notion that an opinion is not worth listening to is completely absurd. All opinions have value and the question is how much. She's only telling us what she feels and that has merit in itself. Isn't that the point of this whole operation? To pool ideas in a respectful manner? Nobody has to agree with anybody here, but they can at least be respectful of others. And it's not like all these opinions (yes, opinions, different yet equally valid), are to be taken as gospel anyway. There is no Castlevania God/dess to say yea or nay to anything a fan thinks and declare a judgment of taste from it. And if there were, it surely wouldn't be any of us here.

As for the line "it says more about you?" Huh? It tells us she likes Circle of the Moon better than Lords of Shadow. And that's her prerogative. It doesn't tell me anything else, because I'm not analyzing anything about her personality based upon the kind of Castlevania she likes.

As for random Elvis painter guy/Rembrandt, their styles are completely different and cannot be compared. The question is: how good is Elvis painter guy at painting Elvis? And how good is Rembrandt at painting Rembrandts?

But your assertion is not a conflict of tastes or even relativist arguments; it's simply one of disagreeing with an opinion that someone made because it contrasts with your personal beliefs, and that is relativism in its highest form. The kid who only decided to play RPGs made a dumb choice because he was not being open-minded to other games. But I don't think there's anyone here that has played only one Castlevania and ignored the others. Like it or not, she is entitled to her opinion and none of us, neither I nor you, nor anyone else, can pass judgment on it.

[Sumac]

If anything comes out of this Anniversary, there's a very good chance it will come across as a shallow afterthought.

They already have a shallow afterthough (literal one at that) - it's called Harmony of Despair.
They is no lower point for the series after this game, so maybe, just maybe, anniversary project will have some quality to it.

[The Silverlord]

Sometimes I think it'd be nice to go back to the days of the NES games, where fans were genuinely grateful for what they were given.

Castlevania audience is spoilt.

Including me.  KONAMI, I DEMAND SALAMANDER 3!

[DragonSlayr81]

And no, relativistic arguments do not apply here. There is such a thing as a account of taste, both good and bad.  There are things in which I can look back on from my youth, like music for instance, and honestly say that I had bad taste at times. Even though I enjoyed those things, my "palet" if you will, needed refinement.

That's exactly a problem I have with some people, though. Nobody needs refinement. A decision to change preference should be based upon lack of enjoyment, not because you just want to try something more "refined". There's nothing wrong with all tastes in the world, and because you might deem something as tacky doesn't make it so. So what if it's out of style and not in the current trend. Trend is a farce. It's a means, created by people, to fit the "ins" into a neat little box, segregating them from the "outs" who don't follow trends religiously.

But really, you are that embarressed about your youth? I can agree with, perhaps stupid ignorant teen choices, but it always bothered me that people could be so ashamed of, well, who they are. It's a piece of you, whether you want to forget it or not. That kinda of act of forsaking yourself always bothered me. It's like going back in time, seeing your younger self and throwing them under a bus. It's still you. Stupid choices in the path of life are excusable, but never regret! Even if it's not your thing now, it was still a part of you. That's a prime reason I'm also bothered by people who are too easy to toss in the "Oh, you're blinded by nostalgia!" quip. Nothing's wrong with nostalgia(memories based on possitive emotions). People gotta stop pretending like it's a bad thing.

[Nagumo]

I think it's perfectly valid to consider CotM's story better than Lords of Shadow. The game's story tries to pretend is bigger in scope than the rest of the series, but if you take away all the useless padding, the story is a bare bones as any other game in the series. I mean, does making useless narrations about Gabriel feels or thinks, which is also always described to us mind you, and can easily be summarized in one line instead of whole paragraph of something that does not add to his character or advance the plot in any way, make the story more "epic" or interesting? On top of that you also have to suffer through a very awkward and unneccesarily complicated revelation of who the real bad guy is, and an ending that is probably the dumbest and most forced in the series to date.

There a plenty of reasons for considering Lords to have a poor story.

                   

[Claimh Solais]

@Operation Akumajo topic
I'm currently an admin of OA, and I'll just say this. There are times when we're coming off as too demanding to the point where we'll not be listened to. I already talked to Cecil about some of these things, but when you look at this...

"We want Demon Castle Wars with state of the art graphics for all home consoles, Dracula's Curse remastered, etc."

That sounds a little demanding. Why?

1) It's understandable for the game to be cross-platform for PS3 and Xbox 360, and maybe PC (depending on how it would play), but then for the Wii also? Not bashing the Wii in any way, but... They'd either have to make the Wii version a downgrade, or make all other versions identical to the Wii version.

2) State of the art graphics is asking for a little much, especially with what I said right above this. I'm fine with graphics comparable to... say... maybe Resident Evil 5? I mean, hopefully the Belmont won't be as massive as Chris, but yeah.

Asking for it to be cross-platform and have state of the art graphics will most likely result in us being ignored, or Konami responding negatively.




@LoS/CotM topic

Yeah, if someone likes CotM in every way shape or form better than LoS, I say let them. You can't exactly call their opinions invalid or have no merit, simply because they like a GBA title better than an Xbox 360 one. That's kinda... rude.

[cecil-kain]

@Operation Akumajo topic
I'm currently an admin of OA, and I'll just say this. There are times when we're coming off as too demanding to the point where we'll not be listened to. I already talked to Cecil about some of these things, but when you look at this...

"We want Demon Castle Wars with state of the art graphics for all home consoles, Dracula's Curse remastered, etc."

That sounds a little demanding. Why?

1) It's understandable for the game to be cross-platform for PS3 and Xbox 360, and maybe PC (depending on how it would play), but then for the Wii also? Not bashing the Wii in any way, but... They'd either have to make the Wii version a downgrade, or make all other versions identical to the Wii version.

2) State of the art graphics is asking for a little much, especially with what I said right above this. I'm fine with graphics comparable to... say... maybe Resident Evil 5? I mean, hopefully the Belmont won't be as massive as Chris, but yeah.

Asking for it to be cross-platform and have state of the art graphics will most likely result in us being ignored, or Konami responding negatively.

About the Wii...  High definition graphics are technically impossible on the Wii.  And since the Wii era is nearly over from a development standpoint, the mindset here was more toward Nintendo's next gen.  Konami already has their hands on Wii-U development kits, but I never really made that distinction at all.  Even so, the Wii is still a large market for the here and now.  It's not unheard of to begin game development on a certain system and then to upgrade during the course of the development cycle, or even after the fact for a superior system.

Also in response to repeated requests, I am taking some time to rework and expand the mission statement for both language and context.  The idea originally was to keep it short and sweet, but it ultimately came across as more abrasive than originally intended.  Claimh and and I are currently ironing out the details before we present it to the Operation: Akumajo community for feedback.

[X]

I'm with affinity on CotM. It's a very straight-forward story that's sits solid on it's own foundations. The game itself is simplistic even though they were aiming at another SotN success. But I loved it. LoS left me hanging on a ledge...too many ledges metaphorically and literally. Only the namesake is the reason why I bought it, though I also had to play it in order to get the whole picture. A picture I wasn't fond of. While the middle of the game was interesting (the castle segments) the rest just did not hold up. Since I don't have a facebook account Cecil-kain you could simply add my vote to the numbers if you're so inclined. I'm not getting my hopes up for the 25th anniversary as I run the risk of being let down. I'll just wait and see.

[Sumac]

That's a prime reason I'm also bothered by people who are too easy to toss in the "Oh, you're blinded by nostalgia!" quip. Nothing's wrong with nostalgia(memories based on possitive emotions). People gotta stop pretending like it's a bad thing.

Nostalgia is indeed a bad thing in some cases.
When you were a kid you was easily impressed by some movies and cartoons that in reality are bad, hilarious or just not that great. When you grow you understand that. Not because you simply grow up out of them. But because you aquire more knowledge, experience, understanding of what is good and what is bad. While art sometimes is hard to judge there is little doubt that say, some movies from the 80-s will look cheesy right now, or some cartoons you thought were awesome are now more of a camp show and not that awesome really. It is reality and one should understand that.

Though sadly there are people who are literally blinded by nostalgia. They really think that some things that were awesome 10 years ago could be viewed with the high regard today by everyone. But some people already grow up, they physically couldn't view those things as cool as they were when they were children. However nostalgia blinded people couldn't understand that and bill everything new and improved as the violation of they children memories and sacrilige towards they object of passion, and people who tend to understand that things and values changes as traitors or "non-true fans".

This is have nothing to do with acceptance of your past tastes. It's growing up and maturing process. I for one was very fond of old Ninja Turtle cartoon. I thought it's the best animated show ever. When I new about new series I thought it was sacrilige because they will never-ever will do the show as awesome as old one was.
Several years forward and I watched both series and come to conclusion that old show wasn't that awesome at all. Really, there were some pretty mediocre moments and the new series was clearly supperior in practically everything, save for models, but it's just me prefering realistic style over stylized one. I love the old show to bits, but I don't want anyone to repeat it, because they will never that 80-s spirit, and I will never claim that it is really the best of the best.
So what I am? Bertrayed myself because I changed my views on what I liked? Or maybe just simply grew up and view things acordingly to the my adult mindset instead of clinging to the memories of the past?

[KaZudra]

CoTM was a pretty average story with the Cain and Abel Style Character Conflictsm which is good.
But I cannot, not even for a second, accept this miserable little pile of glitches better than LOS Gameplay
It felt more like an ametuer attempt at Metroidvania on GBA, but what did you expect from the team who brought you Castlevania 64 (LOD was better, but that's not the point)
It was rushed and there were many, many rough ends, which is a shame since the game was really creative and had alot of style.
CoTM needs to be fixed, enough said.

[Nagumo]

Nostalgia can be a sad thing, really. Not so long ago, I got my hands on a bunch of episodes from a tv show I really liked when I was little, and I was very excited because of the good memories. I ended up kind off disappointed. The weird thing was that I still liked it two years ago, but all of a sudden I don't feel that way anymore.     

[KaZudra]

Nostalgia can be a sad thing, really. Not so long ago, I got my hands on a bunch of episodes from a tv show I really liked when I was little, and I was very excited because of the good memories. I ended up kind off disappointed. The weird thing was that I still liked it two years ago, but all of a sudden I don't feel that way anymore.     

Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles (TV Show), any Cartoon based on Video Game characters in the early 90's

yet Rocko's modern life and hey Arnold got 100x better

[Sumac]

It felt more like an ametuer attempt at Metroidvania on GBA, but what did you expect from the team who brought you Castlevania 64 (LOD was better, but that's not the point)

Yet, they manage somehow combine elements of past games and "metroidvania" school together. Something that IGA wasn't able to do before OOE (which, as I heard, was developed with some of COTM team people). And this game was much better than HOD practically at everything.

COTM is my favorite "metroidvania" alongside OOE. And CV64 is one of my favorite games in the series, so KCEK was awesomes in my book.

[Pemburu Vampir]

Yet, they manage somehow combine elements of past games and "metroidvania" school together. Something that IGA wasn't able to do before OOE (which, as I heard, was developed with some of COTM team people). And this game was much better than HOD practically at everything.

COTM is my favorite "metroidvania" alongside OOE. And CV64 is one of my favorite games in the series, so KCEK was awesomes in my book.

I totally agree.