Topic: New Castlevania!!!???!!! (DS)

[Steve]

I doubt Konami actually makes Iga do a Castlevania every year. If they wanted to, we would be seeing Castlevanias by other teams, all of them probably doing a better job then Iga and his monkeys. Iga has every right to say "I will need a coupe of years to make a decent game". Hideo Kojima does that, doesn't he?

Igarashi doesn't have nearly the sway that Kojima does within Konami.  His games are just barely keeping the series alive, so he certainly isn't a position to tell his bosses to wait another year before they can make some more money.

[Algernon]

My lord, lay off DS Castlevania already. They were great games.

[Long John Silver]

In Reply To #364

They were great games.

For me to poop on!

j/k

Go read other posts and stop looking at everything through the fanboy glasses. You'll notice KXP has a lot of valid points, and few of those things were plaguing castlevania ever since sotn actually (with the exception of outlines, cotm started that then aos and onwards continued while outlining more and more with each game, and room copypasta (loi started that on a big scale)).

[superDioplus]

I'll back u up Serio, I really think CV should roll back to that classic darker and gothic feel. Though SOTN did great but its still a bit bright. In fact I'd like to see another CV4 style-like new CV game. With backgrounds and music that can give you creeps.

[le052383]

I am not suprised this thread morphed into an IGA bashing thread.

I predict that once this game comes out, ppl will bash IGA again for how crappy the new one is.
*sigh*

Maybe some ppl like bashing IGA and the games because it is fun in their eyes.  Also, I think some of you are living in nostalga, expecting that every castlevania game should play like the non Metrovania games with SNES graphics.

The thing is that Iga or Konami(the suits may have told Iga to try to market the game to japanese kids) probably wanted to get new blood(no pun intended) interested in CV with the use of anime and brighter colors. 

As for the brighter colors, I recall that was done because of Circle of the Moon and how hard it was to see on the original GBA.  So I guess that is why IGA is using bright colors for the portable games.

[ChibiMaddiChan]

I am not suprised this thread morphed into an IGA bashing thread.

I predict that once this game comes out, ppl will bash IGA again for how crappy the new one is.
*sigh*

Yeah, it's like tradition now. XD

[PFG9000]

In Reply To #360

I agree with just about all that.  But I think the simple enemy attacks and leveling system are part of the same problem:  your character never takes enough damage.  Play through Portrait of Ruin on the level-1 cap from scratch, no hanging onto your old equipment.  It completely changes the gameplay, because for the first half hour or so, one hit will kill you.  Eventually it just gets too ridiculously hard to be enjoyable IMO, but that's not my point.

Once the enemies actually present a real threat, their patterns become far more important...just like in CV1 and CV3.  Andras is actually kinda an annoying bitch, not a pushover like in the default game.  I'm not suggesting that this level of difficulty should be the default, but the default needs to have the main character far less powerful throughout the game.

[Long John Silver]

I am not suprised this thread morphed into an IGA bashing thread.

I predict that once this game comes out, ppl will bash IGA again for how crappy the new one is.
*sigh*

Get used to it. That's how this (and almost every online) community was, is and will be. Internet gave people the way to express themselves to a broader public so they do, voicing their displeasure at what that man does to the series.

Some are maybe hoping that the words will actually reach him and get him to get his stuff back together before he kills the series off completely.

[Sonic_Reaper]

I thought the very beginning of the Inverted Castle in SotN was a good difficulty.

[Mr Cappucino]

Obviously, Iga knows how to balance difficulty in a Castlevania with level gaining (as is evidenced by SotN in specific areas), he just doesn't seem to care.

He likes a game that everyone can complete and see the ending of to get their money's worth, according to his interview on Chronicles. Though in my opinion he takes this too far and a difficult game would be nice.

[Dark Nemesis]

Why for a change don't we stop bashing IGA and wait to see what he has for us next? Also i agree that a more hard,difficult or challenging game is what we need!

[impulse]

Ok, guess I'l be the fish that swims against the current...
IMO, the games don't need to be hard to be enjoyable.
My favourite CV games are Bloodlines and SuperCastlevania IV. Neither is particuarly hard. It's the look and feel that makes and brakes the game on my part. But I agree that they (the collective force behind the games, not Iga in particular) should go back to the darker setting. I think CotM is probably my favourite Metroidvania, yes even above SotN, and I'd enjoy seeing something more reminiscant of that (it had a suitable difficualty too imo).

[Sonic_Reaper]

When we start talking about difficult in-depth I think we should give a description of what we mean by difficulty.  In theory, no Castlevania game is difficult because there isn't ever a situation where you absolutely must take damage.  It's all a matter of memorizing patterns and dodging accordingly.  It's not like your typical RPG where it's trade and receive.  A good player is guaranteed to never get hit.

Now, the chances of someone dodging every attack are slim.  It's possible, and the chances increase with play (as you learn enemy patterns), but on average you'll be taking hits here and there.  If you ramped the difficulty by having enemies deal more damage, this doesn't benefit new players.

Experienced players are more likely to play more carefully, but otherwise, the "difficulty" doesn't necessarily increase, you're simply taking more damage, and playing the game more cautiously to compensate.

On the other hand, if you change enemy AI patterns to be more aggressive or otherwise, the same idea applies.  This simply takes a different level of memorization and perhaps more nimble fingers.  But again, it's possible to dodge every attack.

When we talk about increasing difficulty in Castlevania, I think in actuality we're saying, "increase the chances and situations wherein a player will by statistics take damage".  I don't really know what to think of that.  Do modern Castlevania games really need this?  I guess that's what we're discussing.

I should also note there was another aspect to this in the pre-RPG Castlevanias; character control and stiffness.  This added another potential variable to the equation where the player may find themselves in a position where they'll take damage in some way.

My proposal is a combination of all of these to even out the difficulty;

*Change enemy AI patterns.  Make them more aggressive and possibly have enemies attack in random patterns that can't be memorized.

*If the player is taking too little damage, increase the damage dealt by enemies.  In some ways, the RPG elements are pointless and serve only to create imbalance in the difficulty formula.

*Either restrict player movement or increase enemy nimbleness (depending on the enemy).

*My own idea, depending on how much or how little damage the player is taking, the enemies may become more/less aggressive accordingly.  That would require some competent programmers.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

*My own idea, depending on how much or how little damage the player is taking, the enemies may become more/less aggressive accordingly.  That would require some competent programmers.

That's the "Ranking" Principle.  It's similar to a system place in shmups like Gradius, where the more things you collect (thus, the more powerful you are/less likely to take a hit), the more enemies bombard you with bullets.

I think it could benefit CV to take a few lessons from Gradius with this principle... that way if a character is too armored up or whatever, they get pelted with more attacks.

I also liked how CotM placed new, more fearsome monsters (relatively speaking) as you progressed, in previously-visited areas, so that they were ramped up a bit in difficulty.

To be honest, though... I'd just like another DXC.  That game was just Win-Win for me.

[outofthegamer]

...the more things you collect (thus, the more powerful you are/less likely to take a hit), the more enemies bombard you with bullets.

I think it could benefit CV to take a few lessons from Gradius with this principle... that way if a character is too armored up or whatever, they get pelted with more attacks.

Then what's the point of getting the power-ups?

I think all post-SotN CV games had dificulty settings; what are you guys complaining about? And PoR had level-max hard modes...what more could you possibly want? Dying from just being in the same room as an enemy?

*waiting for Serio to predictably bash PoR*