Topic: Castlevania: Classic Timeline Anthology [concept]

[JoshuaKadmon]

I touched on this idea in another thread, but as I genuinely think it would be a profitable venture for Konami, I thought I would take a moment to add some details to the whole thing.

The concept is simple -- in order to consolidate the classic games for long-time fans while allowing new players to catch up on the 26-year-old franchise, Konami should release a massive anthology of CV titles that would be easily emulated/ported on current consoles.  A retail hardcopy release could be made for 3DS and Vita, while digital distribution on Steam, PSN, and XBL would bolster overall profitability.  Because the included titles would largely be a few generations old, all of them could easily fit on an 8GB card, and only minor adjustments would need to be made on the 3D entries to port them properly.  By my estimation, such a project would cost Konami less than $1 million even with production/distribution included, take between 3 to 6 months for development/testing, and would only need to sell 83,000 hardcopies or 41,000 digital copies (or a mix of 50k retail and 17k digital) in order to be profitable.  From a business standpoint, that's as close to a sure-fire success as Konami could hope for, and while a $39.99 price point for retail ($34.99 for digital to incentivize downloads over the more limited hardcopy release) may seem low for a massive collection of classics, there's no way Konami could get that kind of money from individualized digital releases.

All that being said, these are the games/chapters I would include in such a so-called Classic Timeline Anthology:

(01)   1094 - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
    * This would just be a port of the PS2 version.  3DS and Vita should both be capable of handling the game with only minor tweaks.

(02)   1476 - Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
    * The classic NES title, now with bilinear filtering.

(03)   1479 - Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
    * As with LoI, this shouldn't be a huge problem to port from PS2.

(04)   1576 - Castlevania: The Adventure [ReBirth]
    * WiiWare's ReBirth version could be used for its enhanced aesthetics over the old GameBoy release.

(05)   1591 - Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge
    * No ReBirth version available, so this one would just be a GB port.

(06)   1600s - Castlevania: Order of Shadows
    * As the only retail release of this chapter, many players could enjoy this mobile-exclusive CV for the first time.

(07)   1691 - Castlevania / Super Castlevania IV / Vampire Killer / Haunted Castle / Castlevania Chronicles
    * Including the NES port would probably be enough, but as the central chapter of the CV saga, it might warrant packing in all five versions, especially since US players may not have had the opportunity to try VK or HC before.

(08)   1698 - Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
    * Again, this would just be the NES game refreshed with some clever filtering.

(09)   1748 - Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
    * The GBA port in all its glory.

(10)   1792 - Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
    * Since the Dracula X Chronicles are already available digitally, I think this should just be the original PC-Engine release, much like the unlockable version in DXC.  Still, I suppose the SNES Dracula X or 2.5D PSP version would be fine alternatives if Konami preferred it that way.

(11)   1797 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
    * Quite possibly the most re-released entry aside from the original, SotN never seems to get old.  Maybe throwing in the Saturn edits would make it extra interesting this go-around.

(12)   1798 - Nocturne in the Moonlight
    * Technically the same title as SotN, this is the radio drama sequel that has been released on CD in Japan.  I think this could be presented in a visual novel style, with Japanese audio and English text, utilizing recycled SotN character portraits and other backdrop art.  This would take some minimal assembly in development, along with some translation work, but ultimately, it would still be a quick production cycle since it wouldn't include any actual gameplay.

(13)   1800s - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
    * This one is still pretty recent, so other than making adjustments to a few versions that don't have a dual-screen setup or touchscreen input, OoE could be included almost as-is.

(14)   1830 - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
    * Again, this is a simple GBA port.

(15)   1844 - Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
    * This one was a rarity on N64, so including it could allow players to see what they missed (or didn't, depending on your opinion of it).  Either way, LoD wasn't highly demanding on a technical level, so only minor code changes would be necessary.

(16)   1852 - Castlevania 64
    * Pretty much the same as LoD on a technical level, but much less rare.  Love it or hate it, this would be a quintessential N64 port.

(17)   1897 - Dracula
    * This could be an interactive ebook of sorts, with the ability to swipe between pages and bookmark your progress.  But this wouldn't just be a straight-up copy of Bram Stoker's original.  No, just as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies did before it, this would infuse the public domain work with new Castlevania-related details, including some clarity on Quincey Morris' relationship to the Belmont bloodline, the age discrepancy for his son John, and backstory changes that would fit better with the events of LoI.  There would be no actual gameplay, but this could still be an especially cool fanservice inclusion.

(18)   1917 - Castlevania: Bloodlines
    * Finally, a true fan favorite would be ported to more platforms than just Sega Genesis.

(19)   1944 - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
    * Like OoE, it would require some tweaks to the interface for non-dual-screen formats, but PoR still feels pretty fresh by today's standards.

(20)   1997~1999 - The Demon Castle Wars
    * As we've never had an actual game for this chapter, this would be Konami's chance to include a Prologue of sorts, using interactive visual novel sequences to tell the events of 1997-98 leading up to the final showdown with Dracula during the 1999 eclipse.  This would be the first full resurrection since 1897, so the anthology's Prologue chapter could show how Julius, Alucard, and other involved parties got together before the eclipse.  Then, Konami could plan a completely new, separate retail game called Castlevania: The Demon Castle Wars to continue the events shown in this timeline collection.  This would also let the relatively inexpensive Classic Timeline Anthology build interest for the more pricey development of The Demon Castle Wars, with all of the potential fans being completely up to speed on the story before this critical new release.  Perhaps the anthology's chapter could even end with the first teaser trailer for CV:DCW, thus driving anticipation (read: preorders) for both games.

(21)   2035 - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
    * GBA port, of course.

(22)   2036 - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
    * Same as all the other DS ports.  This is a personal favorite.

(23)   2037 - Ricordanza of the God Abyss
    * Like the Dracula chapter, this could be a translated and transcribed ebook of sorts, mainly consisting of text and a bookmarking function.  Encouraging gamers to read can be a good thing sometimes, right?  Well, that's especially true when it's a Castlevania story that English players have never had access to.

(24)   11th Millennium - Castlevania: Judgment 3D
    * Ah, this could be the one and only chapter optimized for 3DS's 3D capabilities.  It's also more technically demanding than the others because it was a seventh-generation release, but at least it's only Wii that we're talking about here.  Textures and polygon count would likely need to be reduced slightly, but otherwise, its arena structure and limited 3D environments mean that it wouldn't be terribly difficult.  Fighting games have waned a bit lately, but they're still well-suited for handhelds, as they offer bite-sized gameplay sessions and a fair number of unlockables.  Of course, having OoE in the same anthology would mean having Shanoa and Aeon unlocked just by playing that chapter first.  Say what you will about Judgment; it still has enough fans' curiosity that including a fresh handheld version (or digital port) could be positive for the entire anthology.

(UNLOCKABLE / SEMI-CANON) 11797 - Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun
    * First official port of the Famicom classic outside of Japan.  Technically, Galamoth and the 11th Millenium time frame are connected to the events of Judgment, and tangentially to the rest of the series.  However, due to the comical presentation, few fans take the Kid Dracula games to be truly canonical.  It would still be cool to have them as extras, though, as they were enjoyable CV games in their own right.

(UNLOCKABLE / SEMI-CANON) 11797 - Kid Dracula
    * Sequel to Boku Dracula-kun, ported from GameBoy.

(UNLOCKABLE / NON-CANON) 1450 - Castlevania: Legends
    * This GB title is one of the most debated entries in the CV franchise, and since its story basically suggests that the entire Belmont bloodline could have been human-vampire hybrids, Igarashi retconned it from the official timeline.  However, because of Sonia's popularity, it has remained a highly sought-after collectible and a favorite among less discerning CV fans.  The anthology may also make reference to the planned and cancelled Dreamcast title Castlevania: Resurrection (also starring Sonia), for which there is an abundance of concept art, screenshots, and even a handful of videos that are quite interesting, if nothing else.

(UNLOCKABLE / NON-CANON) N/A - Castlevania: The Medal
    * Since this is essentially a series of video loops for Konami's Pachislot releases, they could be adapted to an unlockable Pachislot mini-game.  This would also be the only way players could enjoy its content in a retail release.

(UNLOCKABLE / NON-CANON) N/A - Castlevania: Encore of the Night
    * The iOS puzzle game EotN could also be adapted as an unlockable mini-game.

(UNLOCKABLE / NON-CANON) N/A - Castlevania: The Arcade ~Travel Guide~
    * This would be an in-depth, interactive guide to the recent arcade game, which could likely be ported to the Wii U (or maybe Kinect) in the near future.  Including such a guide would potentially tease the release of a console port, spurring profitability for the franchise's later titles and encouraginf fans to embrace their... unique take on Castlevania.

...

Additional content for the Classic Timeline Anthology may include a music player, a gallery of Ayami Kojima artwork (and others), interactive character models, a beastiary, and of course a visual timeline to show character connections, resurrection cycles/resets, and other story nuances.  I toyed with the idea of including Harmony of Despair's multiplayer features or a Castle Editor for shareable user-generated challenges, but that might be asking too much.  Even my aforementioned UNLOCKABLEs might be unnecessary.  Frankly, I would just be happy to see all of the primary games included in a single collection, even without the bonus stuff.

But if it were up to me, this is the format that such an anthology would follow.  How do you feel about it?  Have I missed something critical?  Do you think Konami's missing the boat by not putting out an anthology?  Or do you think they might actually do something like this in the not-so-distant future?

--------------------------

TL;DPR




(* too long; didn't proofread)

[crisis]

you forgot Akumajo Special/Kid Dracula, which takes place in 11797 (when Galamoth is the big bad)

[JoshuaKadmon]

you forgot Akumajo Special/Kid Dracula, which takes place in 11797 (when Galamoth is the big bad)

Good call.  I edited the original post to include both games.

[Hypocrates]

While I love the idea, and I'd buy it in a heartbeat, I can't see it ever happening.

The size alone could be a problem.  How big is the largest 3DS card?  8GB? While all the cartridge based games won't be an issue, LoI and CoD are over 2GB each, and I think Judgment is more like 4.

As I said about the cartridge ones, though, that's probably, what, a few hundred MB for the games alone?  I don't think a cartridge based Castlevania game has been larger than 64MB.

Cut out Judgment and it's more feasible, though still probably not likely they'd ever actually do it.  It seems more likely they'd split them up into packs for smaller games like Castlevania 1-3, IV and Bloodlines, maybe release Rondo of Blood on its own.  All downloads for PSN, XBLA, etc, similar to what Sega has been doing with the Streets of Rage and Golden Axe 3 packs, Wonder Boy in Monster World games, and so on.  I don't know if there is enough interest outside of die hard fans for them to pay $30+ for the games, so buying them in smaller packs for more like $10 might be more appealing to those who aren't sure.  They can make a bundle of all the packs for a slight discount for those who want all of them, like a season pass sort of deal.

I would be interested to see how they'd alter the DS games for consoles to account for the lack of a touch screen, though.  I could see Sisters Mode in PoR being turned into a twin stick shooter of sorts for Loretta, but I'm not sure how Stella would work.  And I think I'd actually enjoy Dawn of Sorrow even more without magic seals.  Could probably just attack those white blocks that are only in a handful of areas anyway, similar to in Julius Mode.

[JoshuaKadmon]

While I love the idea, and I'd buy it in a heartbeat, I can't see it ever happening.

The size alone could be a problem.  How big is the largest 3DS card?  8GB? While all the cartridge based games won't be an issue, LoI and CoD are over 2GB each, and I think Judgment is more like 4.

As I said about the cartridge ones, though, that's probably, what, a few hundred MB for the games alone?  I don't think a cartridge based Castlevania game has been larger than 64MB.

Cut out Judgment and it's more feasible, though still probably not likely they'd ever actually do it.  It seems more likely they'd split them up into packs for smaller games like Castlevania 1-3, IV and Bloodlines, maybe release Rondo of Blood on its own.  All downloads for PSN, XBLA, etc, similar to what Sega has been doing with the Streets of Rage and Golden Axe 3 packs, Wonder Boy in Monster World games, and so on.  I don't know if there is enough interest outside of die hard fans for them to pay $30+ for the games, so buying them in smaller packs for more like $10 might be more appealing to those who aren't sure.  They can make a bundle of all the packs for a slight discount for those who want all of them, like a season pass sort of deal.

I would be interested to see how they'd alter the DS games for consoles to account for the lack of a touch screen, though.  I could see Sisters Mode in PoR being turned into a twin stick shooter of sorts for Loretta, but I'm not sure how Stella would work.  And I think I'd actually enjoy Dawn of Sorrow even more without magic seals.  Could probably just attack those white blocks that are only in a handful of areas anyway, similar to in Julius Mode.

While you may be right, my only point is that I would personally prefer FULL consolidation into a single anthology.  I actually think splitting up packs like Sega AGES is a mistake.  The fragmentation makes stuff like that far LESS appealing to me, but I might be in the minority.  Anyway, my thought was this -- reduced texture resolution, lower polygon count on Judgment, improved compression rates, and downsized common assets should make the games' size perfectly manageable (probably reduced by at least 25% on LoI and CoD, not really sure on Judgment).  Even if LoI and CoD combined for 3GB, and if Judgment added another 3GB, 2 GB remaining should be enough for the others.  Besides, 8GB is just the largest size that Nintendo has reportedly used thus far, but since it's modified SD technology, a 16GB card could probably be used if necessary.

Either way, I'm sure that Konami could make it work if they ever actually set out to do it.  But that's the real question, right?  We might love the concept, but it's unlike anything Konami's done in the past and may never come to fruition.

[JoshuaKadmon]

At any rate, there's no doubt that the Vita could handle the size and technical requirements, even if 3DS would require more careful edits.

[son_the_vampire]

it would be a definite profit-beneficial move for them to do this. Now as far as the titles from the other developers, do u think they would be willing to collaborate?

[JoshuaKadmon]

it would be a definite profit-beneficial move for them to do this. Now as far as the titles from the other developers, do u think they would be willing to collaborate?

Well, that's kinda part of the point... Lord of Shadows isn't in the classic timeline. Or your referring to something else? I think a collection of the Konami-developed classics is what I'd want most, thus keeping the LoS releases separate.

[Inccubus]

No bilinear filtering! Jaggies or GTFO!!! 

[JoshuaKadmon]

Well, if you want to be purist, I'm sure the option could be enabled/disabled easily enough.

[shelverton.]

That is one mammoth collection right there. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

However, size could be a problem as some of you already mentioned, at least for the 3DS. I wouldn't mind a Vol.1 and Vol.2 type of thing. Or maybe a 2D sidescroller "classic" collection and a separate 3D one (LoI, CoD, LoD, 64, Judgment). The 2D collection would arguably be the better one, but I'd get the 3D one as well. And Konami would make more money doing this. I doubt any developer are willing to put every game in on collection when there's even more money to make. Even if they technically could pull it off.

[X]

I like the idea of a "complete" anthology. But as shelverton has stated have the games released on two volumes. Volume 1 being the non-3D titles while volume 2 is all the 3D titles. This would give each cartage more space for filler content such as official art, sound test, interviews, original scripting discussions, history of the games, history of the series, acknowledgements, etc. But it would also allow for some much-needed fix-ups. Particularly for the N64 titles and to give a more cleaner and enhanced graphical layout for the two PS2 CVs.

[son_the_vampire]

I like the idea of a "complete" anthology. But as shelverton has stated have the games released on two volumes. Volume 1 being the non-3D titles while volume 2 is all the 3D titles. This would give each cartage more space for filler content such as official art, sound test, interviews, original scripting discussions, history of the games, history of the series, acknowledgements, etc. But it would also allow for some much-needed fix-ups. Particularly for the N64 titles and to give a more cleaner and enhanced graphical layout for the two PS2 CVs.

Now this is what i like to see... Konami giving us something extra besides gameplay. Castlevania Anthology sounds like it would stick... I also agree that the 3-D titles should be released separate. This not only is profitable but it will definitely make the release much less of a cluster.

[uzo]

No bilinear filtering! Jaggies or GTFO!!! 

Because your TV in the 1980's was crystal clear.

[JoshuaKadmon]

Even though I'd prefer to have everything in a single collection, if only on principle or for the sake of a complete timeline, I would concede to the idea of a 2D-3D split into two anthologies if it made the project not only more feasible but also more complete with the extras we've mentioned.

Here's the question, though...

If we can all agree on formatting for such an anthology, should we actually come together as a community (possibly the largest singular CV community online) and approach Konami about this? After all, with MercurySteam's development coming to an end, I have to imagine that Konami is actively considering the future direction of the franchise. Perhaps we could strike while the iron is hot, with an online petition or a social media campaign.

Is this something you would be interested in supporting? Or is it a waste of our time? You tell me.