Topic: Konami: "Taking risks with CV prevented it from becoming another Megaman"

[Shiroi Koumori]

Eh....The drama just ended....?

[Pfil]

Eh....The drama just ended....?

Not until I feel part of it 

I still think a team-up of Cox/IGA/MercurySteam would've yielded far better results than what we got, since IGA seems to "get" Castlevania's gothic atmosphere/aesthetic & the little details we as fans love to see, moreso than the developers at MS.

Yeah!

Araujo came under fire for calling Michiru Yamane's music too "feminine."

OMFG! WTF!? I didn't know that! Now I understand a little more about his music.
How dare Michiru Yamane compose music that is too delicate?
How Iga dared to have female protagonists in his games?
Everything is coming together...
MercurySteam is MUCHO MACHO, like Eric Cartman.

Back me up on this one girls, please!

[DoctaMario]

OMFG! WTF!? I didn't know that! Now I understand a little more about his music.
How dare Michiru Yamane compose music that is too delicate?
How Iga dared to have female protagonists in his games?
Everything is coming together...
MercurySteam is MUCHO MACHO, like Eric Cartman.

Back me up on this one girls, please!

Actually I find his music a lot more "delicate": than hers is. O_o

[Abnormal Freak]

For years after playing SOTN I didn't know Yamane was a woman so D:

I don't hear any kind of gender quality to the tunes. It just sounds like awesome Japanese v-game muzak to me.

[Nagumo]

I think we can agree that Cox is thin-skinned, but Nagumo's response wasn't exactly mature, and I could see him not wanting to deal with that. 

In my defense, I was mostly joking with that tweet. I even added a smiley at the end. 

  

[A-Yty]

Araujo came under fire for calling Michiru Yamane's music too "feminine." S

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and not consider this a sexist statement (and I honestly hardly care whether it is or not), but I'd like to point out IGA has been called a male chauvinist because he had the audacity to remove Sonia from canon, because "a woman would not likely be a warrior in that era" or something along those lines. A canon - if I may add - which may or may not be gone completely by now.

If anyone feels the need to fight for portrayal of women in video games, do you think LoS is much of an improvement? Because I think it's worse. Marie is a woman in refrigerator, Claudia was this mute girl protected by a masculine metal beast that got sliced and diced and then there's Carmilla The Cleavage Priestess / Horny Evil Vampire.

Again, I don't care about that stuff, but all I'll say is that if IGA is sexist, the guys who did LoS must be humanoid pigs.

[A-Yty]

Also, what the hell is feminine music? Is this some sort of arcane lingo only musicians understand? I mean is Michelle's Theme in Onimusha 3 feminine? I do associate it with a feminine character, but I think it's because I was controlling a woman when it started playing.

[DoctaMario]

In my defense, I was mostly joking with that tweet. I even added a smiley at the end. 

 

Bluuu...I've learned the hard way that sarcasm doesn't always translate to Twitter/internet.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and not consider this a sexist statement (and I honestly hardly care whether it is or not), but I'd like to point out IGA has been called a male chauvinist because he had the audacity to remove Sonia from canon, because "a woman would not likely be a warrior in that era" or something along those lines. A canon - if I may add - which may or may not be gone completely by now.

If anyone feels the need to fight for portrayal of women in video games, do you think LoS is much of an improvement? Because I think it's worse. Marie is a woman in refrigerator, Claudia was this mute girl protected by a masculine metal beast that got sliced and diced and then there's Carmilla The Cleavage Priestess / Horny Evil Vampire.

Again, I don't care about that stuff, but all I'll say is that if IGA is sexist, the guys who did LoS must be humanoid pigs.

I don't remember what IGA said exactly, but it was something along the lines of "Well, a woman can't be a protagonist in these games." wasn't it? Of course, we're ignoring Sypha and who knows who else.

LoS just has women in more traditional gender roles. The men are men, the women are women. Video games have ALWAYS been like that, and probably always will. The DmC reboot does the same thing with Kat and Lillith where they're both captured and used as pawns. In LoS it didn't bother me, though in DmC it made me feel slightly dirty. xD

EDIT: I wish there was a way to see who gave your posts + and - rep on here.

[A-Yty]

I'd like a verified, completely accurate translation of that IGA statement before thinking one way or the other. It doesn't much matter to me even if he had an apple in his mouth while telling some woman to make him a sandwich, but that interview is so often referenced it makes a difference what he said precisely. It would be kind of weird if he said "a woman can't be a protagonist in these games", seeing as how much weight he gives to DC especially. That is why I'm inclined to believe he was talking about the era the game happened.

If he was really talking about the "protagonist", it would mean that Sypha faked being a male in the Famicom version too..? Because otherwise people knew fully well that Sypha was female. I thought it was mostly localization while in the Japanese version it's more obvious she is a woman . It's kind of silly in retrospect anyway, unless Sypha/Syfa is a gender neutral name.

[Nagumo]

Hmmm, I've hold off from saying this but is anyone else also bothered by the rather... lustful depiction of women in the LoSverse? You know, aside from Marie and Claudia, you have the Dark Crystal Demon, Carmilla, Spirit of Belnades, the Witches, about 90% of all woman characters in the games, who are either nude or have super revealing outfits.   

Now don't get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing, if it's done tastefully, and if it's not exclusively directed at one gender.  With the previous games it was balanced out a bit more because of Kojima and her artwork, and usually most of the fanservice was provided by the Succubus, which is the entire point of that character. However, it seems they have no self control at MS, and absolutely have to slip in nudity somewhere when designing a female character. It just comes off as a bit silly and childish.

Am I the only one with that sentiment?

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and not consider this a sexist statement (and I honestly hardly care whether it is or not), but I'd like to point out IGA has been called a male chauvinist because he had the audacity to remove Sonia from canon, because "a woman would not likely be a warrior in that era" or something along those lines. A canon - if I may add - which may or may not be gone completely by now.

I think he said it was difficult coming up with a female protagonist in a vampire story, period. Honestly, that attitude is the only thing that disappoints me about IGA. I always groan a bit when people defend that statement.     

[Shiroi Koumori]

MS made those women that way as a method to justify their M rating.

As for the music, I prefer Yamane's Japanese VG music over Araujo. And I don't think there is a male/female music style.

[A-Yty]

I like a lot of Yamane's work, but I can also do fine without her. Like I can do fine without Kojima (Ayami).

Yamane's music is superior to Araujo's, but she's been around continously for a long time and even her work has gotten a bit formulaic. If she returns, she would have to try something different. But if she won't, that might be for the better. New blood isn't always bad and over the years, there have been so many great works of CV music that aren't by Yamane.

Kojima has done some great works, but she's also done Pinhead Hector and Rubberneck Annette. Her character poses can get generic, as can the facial features. Pretty boys in snappy clothes  are not essential to my Castlevania experience. The art of LoS is actually one of the things that I do like about it. Also, Masaki Hirooka. In other words; she isn't essential to my Castlevania experience either.

[Successor The Cruel]

Um... IGA produced a game with a female protagonist, who was handled very respectably, and given considerably more depth than Sonia or Carrie (who I feel plays second fiddle to Reinhardt anyway), so... um, make of that what you will, I guess?

I also feel that he did certain things to make the games generally more appealing to females than they were. I don't want to make sweeping blanket statements or act like my singular experience is the strong determining factor, but when I typically run into female fans of Castlevania, both here and other places, from what I'm able to discern they tend to be more fans of his games than any of the others. There are, of course, exceptions to that, but I wouldn't be surprised if other people had similar experiences.

[Maedhros]

Other than the grab button, the combat is straight out of LoI. Gabriel and Leon have a lot of the same moves too.

I'm not saying the game should be immune from critics, I'm saying that you should expect anything classified as a reboot to be a good deal of a departure from what came before. That's why it's a reboot and not a sequel. RE: "shitty modern gameplay" Are you typing this on a typewriter? I don't think there's anything wrong with LoS' take on modern gameplay. It's well paced, challenging, and fun imo.

*I* loved the old games, and LoS is the best Castlevania imo since Dracula X Chronicles. Honestly, I've always felt like a some of the older games got a bad rap by people who came on with SoTN or the Castleroids, and didn't give the games i loved the most a chance. So I guess it depends on your perspective.

Sure, but when what you want isn't being made anymore, you still have the older games to go back to. It's why people still listen to old music. I get it, and I understand (it's partially why DXC is my favorite CV game) but you either stick with the old or get with the new.

That's silly though. What kind of claim IS that? How would they do that, and why would anyone believe that it was going to be like that? One thing i've learned is that when they liken any new game to an old game, it's usually bullshit and they're just using it to suck people in.

If you don't like it, you don't like it. That's one thing. But people act like MS/Konami have offended them personally by releasing something that isn't exactly like what's come before. I'm not shocked or surprised, it's the internet, land of hyperbole.

I thought there was a good amount of shimmying/grappling. It was nice to have some actual platforming, and the scale on which it occurred was interesting and gave the environments a good sense of size. You can experience how huge the castle is by grappling and moving around it rather than that info coming only in the form of a shot of the outside. They show you rather than tell you. Same with the 64 games.

As far as the combat goes, like I said above, it's totally reminiscent of LoI other than the grab button and the magic meters. Gabe and Leon have some of the same moves, and the layout is the same. The camera angle is different too in LoS, it's more like CoD's, which may account for any other differences you notice. I'm not saying it's NOTHING like GoW, but again, it's plenty influenced by LoI.

Except it's not, FOR ME. Like I've said, it's totally feels like I'm playing God of War. It doesn't really matters if it it haves some different moves, that's LoS trying to bring something to add it's own flavor, the characters still feels and plays like Kratos for me. Leon on the other hand was almost like a dancer, it reminds me a lot of DmC.

The second point is a bit stupid. It's impossible to completely separate your previous game experience from the new one. It HAS the name Castlevania attached to it, so it's a given that people will compare it to their previous experiences, at some point of the game. Like Crisis said, it relied on nostalgia on the PR, they said it would be like SCIV. It feels like NOTHING I've played in any Castlevania before, period (the only elements I can somewhat see from SCIV are the stages and whip swinging, even though it's automatic like in God of War).

Even when I approached the game from a perspective of an action game, it didn't do nothing for me. The name Castlevania, for me, is attached to exploration and action platforming. LoS is a pure ACTION game. The elements of "platforming" that are on the game are fucking terrible, I didn't liked that in GoW or Uncharted or other moderns games who uses it, why would I be liking them here? I also don't like the stylish combat approach.

I'm not saying that the game should be like the older entries, AT ALL. I simply didn't like what it did, just like I didn't like LoI, CoD, CV64 and other entries of the series.

@MontoyaGraphics

I never said I represent shit. BTW, I'm not a fan of IGA, I like both older and IGA Castlevanias.
I also never said that people should agree with me, at all. But I know that many, many people agree, look at discussions on other forums like NeoGAF, on the IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, etc comentaries session, on the Castlevania Facebook. There's always people saying that they dislike LoS. Of course, many of these just want IGAvanias to be made forever. While I don't agree with that (since I want innovation brought to the series just as much as any sane fan would want), it doesn't mean that their comments are invalid.

BTW, aren't you the guy who only likes the classicvanias? Must be sad for you, as I enjoyed pretty much every Castlevania out there (except the 3D entries).

Hmmm, I've hold off from saying this but is anyone else also bothered by the rather... lustful depiction of women in the LoSverse? You know, aside from Marie and Claudia, you have the Dark Crystal Demon, Carmilla, Spirit of Belnades, the Witches, about 90% of all woman characters in the games, who are either nude or have super revealing outfits.   

Now don't get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing, if it's done tastefully, and if it's not exclusively directed at one gender.  With the previous games it was balanced out a bit more because of Kojima and her artwork, and usually most of the fanservice was provided by the Succubus, which is the entire point of that character. However, it seems they have no self control at MS, and absolutely have to slip in nudity somewhere when designing a female character. It just comes off as a bit silly and childish.

Am I the only one with that sentiment?   

Probably.

[A-Yty]

Dark Crystal Demon? You mean that woman-looking thing that appears when you use the crystal?

Bit of a reach, isn't it? That's just some female creature. Sure, there are the bare breasts (why would a critter like that wear a bra..?), but I don't get much Come-here-big-boy vibes from it. Just like Succubus is a soul-sucking demon, not a woman. And just like you could see the wolfman's dong before they thought it was not suitable. You can still see those statue peckers in SotN teleport rooms. I think that never changed in either the DXC version or the XBLA/PSN version.

And I really don't see it as a recurring theme. If there has been "lustfulness", it has been rather tame or cheeky. Like those enemies in PoR that try to ride Jonathan, but call Charlotte a "filthy cow". Or those enemies in OoE that call Shanoa "cute little kitty". But again, critters, not people. And overall, veery tame compared to lots of other games.

That is, if we ignore the colossal, loud and flatulent elephant in the room. You know what I'm talking about. That thing that had a pre-teen Maria envious of breasts. Whatever we think of its sexual themes, I think we can agree that most of us wish that game never happened. But I don't think that game primarily painted women as lustful. It simply stabbled Castlevania by systematically picking characters to degrade. The only one who walked away virtually unharmed was The Big D.