Topic: Ideas in Castlevania that Worked!

[xscientist5000]

Sorry for being off topic, I just mean numbers don't lie, these things clearly work in Zelda games, they worked in CV games, and I hope Konami continues to use them.

[Amduscias]

-Item Crash
-Subweapon + Orbs (only from LoI) damn i had a good time and had fun a lot with the combinations
-Extra uses of the VK (swinging, climbing and the getoverhere!)
-Insta-death traps
-quote ur idea of personal paths for characters (Legacy of Darkness)
-What if... (Dawn of Sorrow, evil Soma path)
-More vampires (the main boss is Dracula, why only few games has more than 1 vampire? SotN, LoD, OoE, LoS)
-Monsterpedia <3 (a must have)
-NPC interact
-Human bosses (the typical rivals, Soleiyu, Doppelgangers, Richter, Hugh, etc)

[DingusBelmondo]

- references to horror cinema
- references to mythology
- references to history
- scripted encounters (RoB behemoth, death stealing your gear in SotN)
- Whip upgrades
- Unexpected/hidden branching paths (RoB)
- Costume Change (SotN)
- Character transformation (Sotn)
- quirkiness (Sotn Wizard of Oz references, Schmoo)

[narkolepsi]

Pretty much everything listed above ^
Schmoo!

Also: DSS cards (CotM); I myself love combination/fusion aspects.

[Ratty]

It's the atmosphere and story on top of the excellent gameplay that drives me to play Castlevanias. But I think a list of things that didn't work would be shorter for me, since the series has way more hits than misses. With solid challenging level design in most of the classics and rewarding metroidvania exploration later.