Topic: Missed Opportunities in Castlevania games?

[SiFi270]

Here, list things that you think should've been done in a Castlevania game, or should have been done better.

• It was cool to have Richter and Maria playable in POR, but wouldn't John and Eric make so much more sense?
• Similarly, I think Hugh should have been unlockable in COTM.
• It would've been cool if the 8-Bit Dagger in Harmony of Despair upgraded to the Silver Dagger, then the Gold one.
• I'm disappointed that there's no explicit connection between Soma and Kid Dracula, despite the family resemblance.
• I seriously doubt this one would have been possible, but I would have liked to see Soleiyu and Alucard as unlockable characters in Belmont's Revenge and Legends, respectively.

[crisis]

HOHOHO i wish they would make a game or 2 set 100 years after Lament of Innocence
for the DXC Symphony port they should've not only included the Saturn areas/enemies, but IMPROVED them so it jives with the rest of the game
A game set in 1897
Port Akumajo Dracula:The Arcade for the PSMove
"Castlevania Adventure Chronicles"
Custom character mode in Judgment
"Classic NES series" CVII & III for GBA
Gave IGA & team a little more time to fix all the mistakes in CoD
Gave the team behind the N64 games a little more time to fix those mistakes

[A-Yty]

Curse of Darkness had so much more potential for a more interesting story. For starters, there's the parallel between Drac and Hector. That dialogue before the final battle could have had so much more depth. Two men who lost their wives because of the ignorance of humans. Instead, it boils down to a brief mention of Hector as a traitor. You could chalk it up to Drac's inconsistent personality resulting from his deaths messing with his head, but he has a clear memory whenever he meets someone personally significant to him (like Al).

And the game itself wouldn't have needed much to be at least "ok". But things like the slouching speed of Hector drag it down.

And yeah, I wouldn't mind a sequel to LoI, either.

[knightmere]

I think Portrait of Ruin was definitely a missed opportunity. Konami could done much more with linking the game to Bloodlines in regards to the story. Eric Lecarde should have been an unlockable character, not Richter... and certainly NOT Maria.   The Partner System was not used to it's potential. Jonathan was way more useful in combat than Charlotte, making her seem like an afterthought for much of the game. I get that she was supposed to be more Magic oriented, but most of her spells seemed weak.  This made the Partner System seem more like a chore to me, due to the lack of balance between them. 

[Neobelmont]

This is odd, but commercials. We know this series is excellent, but konami never really put money into them at all to get the word out.

[knightmere]

Only Metal Gear and DDR get the big marketing dollars from Konami.

[Neobelmont]

Only Metal Gear and DDR get the big marketing dollars from Konami.

And they wonder why castlevania does make any money also  you forgot yu-gi-oh!

[Sumac]

Gave the team behind the N64 games a little more time to fix those mistakes

More like give them some time to finish game in the first place.
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[Successor The Cruel]

Kind of a small thing, but it makes me scratch my head when DXC plays the track Former Room instead of Poison Mind when the player battles the CV1 bosses in a gauntlet before Shaft. That is just incredibly dumb, especially since Rondo of Blood -- which gets it right -- is there to use as a template. It's like the devs didn't know the significance behind playing Poison Mind at that part.

Also, it's oft mentioned around the fanbase, but I think that Maxim Kischine should have been the final boss in Harmony of Dissonance, and that Dracula Wraith should have been completely omitted. First of all, the Maxim battle is significantly better. Second, it would have been more memorable to not fight Dracula at the end. Third, it would have given the game much more depth if the canon story was that Maxim died battling Juste. I'm sure these changes would give Gamefaqs-style retards ammunition to hate on HoD, with such petty things as 'Juste never battled Dracula,' and 'Juste couldn't save his friend,' but screw that stuff. I'm more for whatever makes for a more profound experience than having cookie-cutter situations with Superman characters. Other things would have to be worked out, like what the result would be for collecting Dracula's Remains, but I'm sure those things wouldn't prove a problem with some creative brain-storming.

[Phoenix7786]

They KIND OF did what you wanted for Maxim for

(click to show/hide)

the battle against Albus. Like Maxim, Albus wanted to spare Shanoa her destiny. Just like Maxim though, Albus was consumed and turned rogue. And Shanoa unfortunately is forced to kill Albus (and Lord knows I tried to save him, even using Torpor to see if he could be imprisoned). And I now it sounds nerdy, but I always cringe or shudder when he wails out Shanoa's name in his death-throes. However he isn't the final boss (unless you count the worst ending).

As for my missed opportunity, look at how many times we have multiple allies present in a game yet there has never really been a true co-op game unless you count HoDesp. With how much they're willing to throw in Richter-modes (like Albus, Julius, and Maxim), why not just make it a co-op since it's non-canonical? Just restrict players to the same life-bar and screen if you have to (or don't want to program separate life-bars and split-screen).

[GuyStarwind]

While I know a lot of people really love it I felt OoE could have used more in the area of travel. What do I mean you ask? I originally thought OoE was going to be like Simon's Quest with multiple towns to visit and walking everywhere by foot. Like if you wanted to get to town c but you were in town x you would have to walk back to those locations rather than touch your screen and warp to them. It's not a huge problem but I wish they would've done it this was. I felt the one town and merely warping to locations was poorly done.

[shelverton.]

While I know a lot of people really love it I felt OoE could have used more in the area of travel. What do I mean you ask? I originally thought OoE was going to be like Simon's Quest with multiple towns to visit and walking everywhere by foot. Like if you wanted to get to town c but you were in town x you would have to walk back to those locations rather than touch your screen and warp to them. It's not a huge problem but I wish they would've done it this was. I felt the one town and merely warping to locations was poorly done.

I couldn't agree more. I guess Konami intended to make travelling easier, but having the stages interconnected like in Simon's Quest would've helped making the world feel more like a... well, world.

They could've put "warp rooms" here and there to make backtracking a bit faster, but I wish we at least had the opportunity to explore the land on foot. Also, some of the indoor areas could've been gates/doors in the backgrund where you press "up" to enter - just like how you enter mansions in Simon's Quest. It would've been a great homage.

And finally - WHY didn't they put "Silence of Daylight" as the background music in the village? Talk about missed opportunity right there.

[thernz]

The level design was also just atrocious. If they ever make another Castlevania in the style of those games, they should really avoid making linear levels. In both OoE and PoR, it just seemed incompetent.

[Johnny Alucard]

Slogra and Gaibon not being a boss fight in Portrait of Ruin stands out to me.

[Zetheraxza]

I thought of a Multiplayer Castlevania a LONG time ago before HoD. AND THEY DID EVERYTHING WRONG! Instead of that 1 room level bullshit, they could have made it as "to each as his own camera" gameplay. Even the Co-op, because I bought it for PS3, Why not just make a split screen? I hated that my friend couldn't explore his side because the camera zoomed out more when we were further. This game could've been alot better. IGA doesn't even know shit about PS3/XBOX360's capabilities. They're using 16-bit graphics and only using this game for online purposes in which you'll need to be careful on the use of RAM/Memory/FPS, but it could've been ALOT more. There was no real emphasis in the gameplay. Multiplayer Castlevania was a dream come true, but was not the way I was expecting it.

Castlevania Online

This is fan-made movie about Castlevania being multiplayer, but something like this would've been great and would have been awesome if they let you design custom palettes for your char's hair, coat, pants, boots, undershirt, cape, skin, etc.

Multiplayer Castlevania had GREAT potential, but this wasn't that great. I know IGA suffers budget cuts but still, the game could've not been a one room dungeon hunt. Sure, level based was a good thing for the sake of RAM, but I hated the one ROOM and massively zoomed out Camera for both Single and Co-op. And even the zoomed in Camera wasn't that native of SotN, SCVIV, and the DS games. And access to main menu would've been much better.

Now, for the sake of multiplayer, A Castlevania MMORPG would've been awesome and none of that crafting, weaponsmithing and trades crap. ONLY TO THE MINIMUM. Something like what OoE did, but a bit more less. These sorts of things made me hate MMO's and only slow down your sense of fun. I remember when I used to play 'RuneScape' 6-8 years ago, Out of those 2 hours, I spent only 15-30 minutes of that game because that was what the game was about! COMBAT! Not, "Selling Lobsters, 250G each!" for the rest of that time because I wanted to buy a particular gear so I could PvP or do a certain quest. These things waste your time and I don't want this in my Multiplayer CV. What I really would like is a 3D gameplay. Something like how I imagined LoS to be, an open world with Vast environments. The whole game would be about Combat, not much of Best Equipment or stats, but how well do you play? There would be different sorts of Classes, Vampire Hunter (Belmonts), Witch/Wizard (Belnades), Beast Hunter (Maria), Knights/Paladins (Alucard/Soma) and Glyph Masters (Shanoa). Each classes would be balanced out and would gain more skills as they level up. They would have something special to them that the others wouldn't have. There would be a lot of environments, forests, churches, mansions and of course, CASTLES! Dracula is there in the game... But you never fight him, because it's an MMO... If it ends, it's done. But alas, Dracula has his own sets of Monsters such as, Zombies, Ghouls, and whole sets of monsters that would be in the game. Some NPC enemies would be neutral too such as Goblins, trolls and such. But Dracula would also have his team of Acolytes, there would be Dark Knights/Dark Paladins, Necromancers, Assassins, Beast Dominator and Black Pagan. Two Teams. Both would be appealing as hell. There would be world score and challanges such as PvP to give stats about the best players. MMO's shouldn't make you feel that you're wasting time on your precious life just to play the real game because of the shitty economy and repetitive quests. Just play the game! Fight Monsters, Level UP! Dungeons! Find People! THAT'S IT! Fuck the town and shops! Only for the sakes of quests, these things should be available. Keep Item drops and farming to it's basic and minimum. Enjoy the game as it's meant to be.