Topic: The Future of the Castlevania Series

[St.Tweeter]

Dead for several years alongside the majority of Konami's IPs. Sadly. Such wasted untapped potential with the company.

[DoctaMario]

to be fair, we are talking about the company that released 2354,65406 editions of Street Fighter 2, so maybe exploiting their fans isn't that new to them.

Maybe you don't play fighting games like I do, but each one of those, WAS a genuine upgrade. Even the ones that werent' as good pushed the genre forward.

DmC was an excellent game. It gets hate mainly because people were butthurt about the PR campaign. sk a lot of folks what they didn't like about it and most of the answers have nothing to do with the game itself.

As for Castlevania, I hope it goes to another developer. I enjoyed seeing a fresh take on the series after 10+ years of IGA.

[Maedhros]

For a Castlevania game to be sucessful on consoles, from the old series, they need to market it as the next SOTN. It does have a very large fanbase today, lots and lots of people have played it and by far it's the most popular game of the series.

That or going the LoS way.

Besides that, the games will be relegated to handhelds or online services (PSN/XBLA).

[DoctaMario]

For a Castlevania game to be sucessful on consoles, from the old series, they need to market it as the next SOTN. It does have a very large fanbase today, lots and lots of people have played it and by far it's the most popular game of the series.

That or going the LoS way.

Besides that, the games will be relegated to handhelds or online services (PSN/XBLA).

IGA was trying to recapture the "SoTN magic" for the better part of 10 years. SoTN is like a hit single, just one of those things that's good and it's difficult "remake" that if you will. LoS was a more calculated entry, so I think it would be easier for them to repeat that formula than Sotn's almost accidental status as a great game.

[theANdROId]

They may have already tried to do this, but I would doubt they were too focused on it: it seems to me that the devs need to sit down and somehow figure out what it was that made SotN so great.  Granted, probably everyone here could attest to the fact that Castlevania fans have a loooong list of reasons the game is so great, and between us there is probably a bit of variety...but surely there's some sort of core consistency too, right?  So maybe if the devs took on that perspective they could make another hit.  It seems to me I was reading somewhere recently of a series that did something like that...finally came out with another hit after considering what made their first hit so great.  I wanna say it was maybe a Sonic something, or Mario 3D Land...I dunno.

[crisis]

I just think it boils down to the fact that Konami had more talented, sufficient, passionate designers & programmers working on it back then. Which is why it's considered "lightning in a bottle"

[Intersection]

IGA was trying to recapture the "SoTN magic" for the better part of 10 years. SoTN is like a hit single, just one of those things that's good and it's difficult "remake" that if you will. LoS was a more calculated entry, so I think it would be easier for them to repeat that formula than Sotn's almost accidental status as a great game.

Every single one of IGA's Metroidvanias captured the essential SoTN magic, each in a subtly different way than the next -- that's, after all, what made them so great. And yet we all continue to crave for the proud successor of the Symphony, that inevitable masterpiece we seem to be inching ever so close to, but that we never seem to reach. Here's the truth: the modern "SoTN 2.0" can't simply be a formula remake, no matter how skillfully executed it is; it needs to carry all of Symphony's magic... and more. We're still missing that quintessential spark of energy that will push us into Castlevania's next great era, that same essential force that ushered the series into the Metroidvania age.

Listen, fellow Dungeonites, and heed the prophecy of the all-potent Intersection:
If Castlevania is to seek greatness once more, it shall find it at the forsaken crossroads between its past and its future, where none can journey alone. It shall find redemption where one road ends, and where the next begins; there, it shall step across the mighty threshold through which none can tread alone. Mark my words: only when the lonely paths of time intersect shall Castlevania at last receive its holy inspiration.

[theANdROId]

Here's the truth: the modern "SoTN 2.0" can't simply be a formula remake, no matter how skillfully executed it is; it needs to carry all of Symphony's magic... and more. We're still missing that quintessential spark of energy that will push us into Castlevania's next great era, that same essential force that ushered the series into the Metroidvania age.

But that's what I mean!  If they could find the "heart" of SotN, what made it so amazing, why we loved it, and why it was a hit -- all of it's magic -- then add more (which would hopefully be at least a tiny bit of an inevitability if they were really sitting down and thoroughly analyzing SotN) by giving us a new story, new characters, new items...whatever!  Thoroughly analyzing and thinking and searching to find that spark, and then giving us that proud successor.  I really need to go back and figure out where I read about the other series that did this...but whoever they were, if they could do it, Castlevania can!  We just may need to wait a little longer before we get to that...intersection...right Intersection? ;-)

[X]

If they could find the "heart" of SotN, what made it so amazing, why we loved it, and why it was a hit -- all of it's magic -- then add more (which would hopefully be at least a tiny bit of an inevitability if they were really sitting down and thoroughly analyzing SotN) by giving us a new story, new characters, new items...whatever!

I honestly believe that the reason why SotN was really good was because it was the first of it's kind. And it's doubtful that the same kind of magic can be recreated again. Kinda like it was with SCV4. SCV4 was the epitome of the classicvanias; the first of its kind that created a kind of magic still not seen to this day. They tried to do it with bloodlines, however I feel it wasn't as successful. Mercurysteam and Konami tried to attempt the same thing with LoS but that experiment (in my mind anyways) was not successful either. Maybe its just not the right time for us to receive the next great CV yet. We'll simply have to wait and see what develops.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I just hope the "right time" happens while we're still alive.

[crisis]

I just hope the "right time" happens while we're still alive.

Do yuo know something we don't know, Ms. Koumori...

[theANdROId]

Wait for the right time, or maybe the right idea, or maybe the right method of presentation.  Whenever some gold nugget of an idea comes to someone with the powers to make it happen, that may be our next great hit...or whenever someone comes up with a way to present the game that just perfectly fits. 
What I mean by presentation is, LoS's presentation seems very similar to God-of-War-like games (I'll admit here that I haven't actually played much GoW at all...just enough to notice what seems like similarities in presentation) and while it makes a nice game (I do really like MoF, and really hoping for a PS3 or 4 this Christmas so I can play the other two in the trilogy) but it still feels just a little off IMO.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what would be the perfect presentation or what it would take to amazing like SCV4 and SotN...but whenever someone figures it out...yay for us!

[Belmontoya]

My wish for the next Castlevania game is for it to be nothing like SOTN or LOS.

[Maedhros]

My wish for the next Castlevania game is for it to be nothing like SOTN or LOS.

Or classicavania too.

[crisis]

Akumajo Dracula Arcade Trailer 1