Topic: Mercury steam is working on TWO unannounced games....

[Munchy]

I have a good reason to.
Because most of the time, when people say what they want in new CV game it's usually "SOTN in 3D with Alucard".

I have to say, as much as parts of LoS irked me, it was cool to at least gave a Belmont with a whip a shot once more. It kinda sucked that they immediately killed off all the cool NPCs, but I'm sort of growing to appreciate bits of the story.

MercurySteam does have talent, and as long as they iron out a lot of the kinks and give something more for fans of the original series to be excited about, the sequel could be pretty cool.

[shelverton.]

Let not forget that Konami told Araujo to make the music sound like a movie and ditch the melodic, or in his words "feminine" sounds that Castlevania has been known for

It's really funny that Konami wanted to change the musical style for LoS. The music was ALWAYS the one part of the Castlevania franchise that absolutely NO ONE has ever complained about. It was pretty much flawless in 95% of the games. It's so stupid it's just... unheard of!

EDIT: Hey Crisis, nice signature. Lulz.

[Inccubus]

Agreed, there was no reason to make LoS have a generic Hollywood soundtrack. There's nothing wrong or any less epic about the music in Judgement, for example. And that says a lot because pretty much everything else in that game sucked IMO.

[Rugal]

It's really funny that Konami wanted to change the musical style for LoS. The music was ALWAYS the one part of the Castlevania franchise that absolutely NO ONE has ever complained about. It was pretty much flawless in 95% of the games. It's so stupid it's just... unheard of!

Thank you.

No really.. Thank you.

I think we should all spam Cox's Twitter account until he realizes this.

[Flame]

At least the 3 or so tracks the game had were pretty nice. Waterfalls of Agharta being my favorite track. I like it best when it plays in the clockwork tower.

[Renonsgoods]

Agreed, there was no reason to make LoS have a generic Hollywood soundtrack. There's nothing wrong or any less epic about the music in Judgement, for example. And that says a lot because pretty much everything else in that game sucked IMO.

Ok, I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making here, but it really does irk me when you people continuously refer to a classical musical score as "generic Hollywood" fare.  Seriously...WTF does Hollywood have to do with orchestral music???  Some of you people have been around the internet too long.  Everything that isn't a trippy, jazzy, or quirky Japanese composed piece is "generic Hollywood garbage"? Help me out here...

Look, I love traditional CV style music as much as any of the rest of you, but I fail to see what Hollywood had to do with LoS' style of musical score.  Last time I checked, orchestral musical pieces had been around way before the first motion picture ever got filmed.

/rant 

[Sumac]

The attempts to copy other games really killed it...

Well, copying always was essential part of the series since SOTN. Be it copying of the other games or just copying itself over and over. 

SOTN did do it best so far imo

It flame was killed by multiple copies that ranged from OK games to bad and silly ones. If SOTN was the only game in the series with full flehed "metroidvania" style, then it would be far more greater. As of now it's more "root of the sorrow" for the franchise and fandom. 
And SOTN have it's fair share of faults beside the difficulty.

The music was ALWAYS the one part of the Castlevania franchise that absolutely NO ONE has ever complained about.

I remember I've heard not so many good things about HOD soundtrack. But it was more the matter of arrangement, rather than bad compositions themselves. Thougn it's hard to say for sure.

There's nothing wrong or any less epic about the music in Judgement, for example.

Oh boy...

[uzo]

Ok, I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making here, but it really does irk me when you people continuously refer to a classical musical score as "generic Hollywood" fare.  Seriously...WTF does Hollywood have to do with orchestral music???  Some of you people have been around the internet too long.  Everything that isn't a trippy, jazzy, or quirky Japanese composed piece is "generic Hollywood garbage"? Help me out here...

Look, I love traditional CV style music as much as any of the rest of you, but I fail to see what Hollywood had to do with LoS' style of musical score.  Last time I checked, orchestral musical pieces had been around way before the first motion picture ever got filmed.

/rant 

The difference between Hollywood and 'other orchestra' is the way it's written for the scenes and melds into the experience.

The problem is that LoS's soundtrack doesn't fit together with the gameplay in the way a game typically does. It tries to emulate movie style music flow, without the accompanying properly linked on screen visuals, because the visuals are controlled by the player.

LoS's soundtrack is written in a way that would work best as music closely knit with on screen visuals in a non interactive format. It tries to capture the Lord of the Rings feel in a different media without changing the flow to match the new media.

The tracks contain too many emotions in one for the most part. In movies this is exactly what you want, as emotions, reactions, scenes change in a scripted manner as the scene progresses. You want to have the soundtrack follow the visuals every second, changing as things happen. In a game, a track needs to help craft the overall mood of the area it is played in at all times. LoS failed to do this for most tracks, and that is why it falls short. You have instances in a stage where it is very soft, calm, and in some cases so soft you can't even hear it, while on screen you're jumping and escaping a collapsing platform and whip swinging to safety. Then later in the stage you're slowly shimmying along some wall segment. Slow and boring in the moment, but the music is playing this epic booming section. Again, a complete mismatch.

This idea is not impossible to obtain in a game though, and it has been done many times. Even as far back as Super Mario World on the SNES. Yes, an SNES game beat out a PS3 game at it's own musical mechanics.

[shelverton.]

I remember I've heard not so many good things about HOD soundtrack. But it was more the matter of arrangement, rather than bad compositions themselves. Thougn it's hard to say for sure.

Yeah, hence the "95% of the games have great music". In my opinion, HoD had a great soundtrack too. The instrumentation is questionable - even grating sometimes - but there are some truly good tunes in there. Different but good.

[Renonsgoods]

The difference between Hollywood and 'other orchestra' is the way it's written for the scenes and melds into the experience.

The problem is that LoS's soundtrack doesn't fit together with the gameplay in the way a game typically does. It tries to emulate movie style music flow, without the accompanying properly linked on screen visuals, because the visuals are controlled by the player.

LoS's soundtrack is written in a way that would work best as music closely knit with on screen visuals in a non interactive format. It tries to capture the Lord of the Rings feel in a different media without changing the flow to match the new media.

The tracks contain too many emotions in one for the most part. In movies this is exactly what you want, as emotions, reactions, scenes change in a scripted manner as the scene progresses. You want to have the soundtrack follow the visuals every second, changing as things happen. In a game, a track needs to help craft the overall mood of the area it is played in at all times. LoS failed to do this for most tracks, and that is why it falls short. You have instances in a stage where it is very soft, calm, and in some cases so soft you can't even hear it, while on screen you're jumping and escaping a collapsing platform and whip swinging to safety. Then later in the stage you're slowly shimmying along some wall segment. Slow and boring in the moment, but the music is playing this epic booming section. Again, a complete mismatch.

This idea is not impossible to obtain in a game though, and it has been done many times. Even as far back as Super Mario World on the SNES. Yes, an SNES game beat out a PS3 game at it's own musical mechanics.

Thing is, no CV score prior to LoS has ever done this either.  CV tracks have always maintained a life and presence of their own...completely independent of the action or mood onscreen.  They have no marriage to any one game or scene within the series outside of that which our own nostalgia has created.

I still disagree with calling orchestral style compostion a "Hollywood" convention.  Such arrangements have existed long before Hollywood, and are enjoyed in many mediums outside of the motion picture industry.  The fact that a piece is composed to flow with something onscreen doesn't change anything IMO.  You can just as easily turn that onscreen imagery off and still enjoy that music.

Again, I think this mudslinging at LoS' score is purely the result of it NOT being what some of you wanted.  That, in itself, does not qualify it as a bad score.  Most modern action/adventure games' musical arrangements fail to standout in anyway whatsoever.  So much, in fact, that I often can scarcely recall any of the tracks in my head after playing them.  At least LoS had a number of tracks that resonated with me well after the experience was over...which is more than I can say for the majority of games in this genre that I've played lately. 

Yea, I know...it's not CASTLEVANIA music.  I get it.  I'm with ya...I wanted more traditional tracks too.  But I can't see where what we got was in anyway sub-par.  It just wasn't what was expected.  Disappointment shouldn't be a component of objective criticism. If you dislike it, dislike it on its own merits...not because it isn't a Yamane composition.

Agree to disagree I guess.

[Munchy]

I think LoS2 would benefit hugely from having stage specific themes rather than just sets of three or so tracks that loop everywhere. That alone would make it much more bearable.

[Neobelmont]

It is possible that the next game will be accepted by all  http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-15-castlevania-devs-next-game-will-be-better and http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36576/GDC_Europe_Culture_More_Important_Than_Skills__Castlevania_LoS_Alvarez.php (this just an extra)

[Renonsgoods]

It is possible that the next game will be accepted by all  http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-15-castlevania-devs-next-game-will-be-better and http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36576/GDC_Europe_Culture_More_Important_Than_Skills__Castlevania_LoS_Alvarez.php (this just an extra)

Wow, Alvarez sure said alot in that second article...without really saying shit.  I'm guessing it was a translation issue, but I can hardly discern what he was even trying to say.  Is he telling us that Konami corporate kept their hands completely out of the process for LoS?  Is he saying that we have no one else to blame for its short comings but himself and the team?  Well then, I'd chalk up this article as a check in the negative column as far as my thoughts regarding why we didn't see more classic CV in LoS.  Maybe all the more hair-brained ideas we saw in that game WERE purely the work of the guys at MS...most likely trying to make a name for themselves by trying to "out-do" the classic franchise. 

[KaZudra]

why LoS didn't feel like a castlevania game; Kojima Productions
Kojima Productions = Trying to borderline movies and games
If you want to make a damn movie Make a movie, if you wanna make a game, MAKE A FUCKING GAME!
I've had it with video games trying to be movies, despite the game being good or not, its the cutscenes you'll remember, not the game.

[Neobelmont]

why LoS didn't feel like a castlevania game; Kojima Productions
Kojima Productions = Trying to borderline movies and games
If you want to make a damn movie Make a movie, if you wanna make a game, MAKE A FUCKING GAME!
I've had it with video games trying to be movies, despite the game being good or not, its the cutscenes you'll remember, not the game.

Odd I wonder if subconsciously I feel like that with all the graphics and wow factor of today I still find the nes,snes,n64, and even PS1 games to be just so much fun. Nothing too deep story wise just plain fun. Maybe that is why I have been playing my Fc twin lately and to an extent blazblue.