Topic: Castlevania: Resurrection -- Unanswered Questions & Where are the Creators?

[RichterB]

Castlevania: Resurrection was cancelled for the Dreamcast due to various reasons, particularly the rise of the PS2. Fine. We know a few of the artists and music people behind it (I count 3). Fine. However, there are a host of screenshots that seem to show the game in action over a variety of levels, and the art director said it was playable (and better than most Dreamcast games), though still needed additional physics and art elements. So, why has there never been any videos put out of the game in action? Yes, we have an intro CG trailer and few seconds of Sonia running around in an empty room, but it's been well over 10 years, and you'd think that a programmer or level designer would have talked about the game more in-depth or put up some sort of video.

Now, the art director did state the game was sent back to Japan after it was cancelled to study for future 3D Castlevania entries, but someone must have had some evidence leftover, right? Depending on how you count, it's been about 15 years since this game had any traction, and there is turnover all the time in the games industry. I doubt anyone would get in trouble for coming forward at this point. After everything that's happened to Castlevania in 3D, I want to see and know more. (For instance, I want to know how much platforming would have been incorporated. I saw a few screenshots with either jumping of death pits, but not a lot). As time has gone on, it really does seem like it would have been an interesting entry to bookend the N64 games. It looks like it was using the 3D space for a variety of scenarios and the structure seemed to use vertical and horizontal space more so than the PS2 entries.

EDIT: From the CV Dungeon interview we have, we know that the Bottom of the Ninth team was behind CV: Resurrection. Here is a list of the people I could find involved in PS1's Bottom of the Ninth:

ORIGINAL STAFF Designers: Norio Takemoto, Greg Orduyan, Jason Elliott, Guy Burdick, Caiphus Moore, Bryan K. Johnson; Programmers: Ken Kano, Hiro Chiwata, Geoff Audy, Manny De La Torriente, Mark Hodges; Sound Design: Jun Funahashi, Mark Lindsey, Todd Davies; Producer: Norio Takemoto; Special Thanks: Paul Friedman, Evan Kaplan, Richie Hideshima, Makoto Ichikawa, Hironobu Kawakami, Ed Pearson, Vincent Fung, Tony Gascon, Caiphus Moore, Brian K. Johnson, House of Moves, Norio Takemoto, Greg Orduyan, Ken Kano, Tomoko Matsubayashi, Jimm Getz, Wayne Townsend, Paul Hellier, MLBPA, KCEO

The bolded is the guy CV: Dungeon interviewed. We also know that Mark Lindsey was on the music, and Jenny Ryu (formerly Jenny Chang) was on the art team (she later worked for Namco, EA, and Activision). Those names are not in the Bottom of the Ninth staff credits, though. But I imagine someone above must have been involved, since they said they were working with that team, as there were no others with the required experience to put together a 3D game.

[X]

Back then I really wasn't thrilled to learn of this game being another 3D entry, and it was shortly after the N64 release so I was still riding the 2D SotN train. But now that enough time has gone by as well as some other lackluster 3D CV titles, I would really love for this game to come to fruition. From the screenshots it's plain-as-day clear that it's a cut above the N64 titles in terms of texture graphics. Character modeling is still somewhat blocky, but once more the textures are much better with a greater pixelation count. I'm sure the engine itself also played much better then CV64/LoD as well as the camera functionality. The castle and it's surrounding landscapes are varied with lots of eye candy to keep things interesting, and to help deliver that classic CV feel the CV64/LoD had also brought to us. This could have also been the game to pull Sonia Belmont out of her current persona that we know and into a whole new light that sadly, we will never see.

[RichterB]

Back then I really wasn't thrilled to learn of this game being another 3D entry, and it was shortly after the N64 release so I was still riding the 2D SotN train. But now that enough time has gone by as well as some other lackluster 3D CV titles, I would really love for this game to come to fruition. From the screenshots it's plain-as-day clear that it's a cut above the N64 titles in terms of texture graphics. Character modeling is still somewhat blocky, but once more the textures are much better with a greater pixelation count. I'm sure the engine itself also played much better then CV64/LoD as well as the camera functionality. The castle and it's surrounding landscapes are varied with lots of eye candy to keep things interesting, and to help deliver that classic CV feel the CV64/LoD had also brought to us. This could have also been the game to pull Sonia Belmont out of her current persona that we know and into a whole new light that sadly, we will never see.

I had no issue with the idea of Castlevania moving into 3D, even after the two N64 entries, which I found more to like than dislike in. I didn't assume that would mean a bad thing for 2D Castlevania. But for whatever reason, I recall being skeptical about Resurrection at the time, even though I was looking forward to having a game like this on the Dreamcast. I always remember saying "well, we've still got Castlevania coming." ...Until we didn't.

I think I wasn't sure about the art direction or story; but looking back now, it seems perfectly acceptable as a take on Castlevania. Looking at the screenshots, I can tell it's Castlevania pretty easily, and it looks like it was going to cram a lot of variety in just 5 levels. (Interestingly enough, it had some of the hand-drawn menu scenes like we later got in LoS, too).

I wonder how it would have played. You mentioned the camera. I get the feeling this game was either set up like Guts' Rage or Crash Bandicoot. I don't see it ending up quite as dynamic or open of level design as the N64 games. But I still think it could have worked, and it would have given us another side of the 3D Castlevania riddle since it was going to focus on straight action-platforming in 3D instead of the exploration/puzzles of the N64 games or the combo-fest arenas of LoI through LoS.

It doesn't seem like it'd be impossible to get some interviews out from one of the Castlevania fan sites. Wouldn't someone want to talk by now? If I ever tried to inquire into this, could I use the Castlevania Dungeon name? Or have Jorge and others gone that route?

Anyway, I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this forum. Do people even remember Resurrection these days? (Then again, I guess a lot of people don't even remember the N64 entries). 

[K.K. Drunkinski]

I really wish we had more video footage of the game, and I really hate that it was cancelled, because Sonia is the only "no, this is who was REALLY the first Belmont to fight Drac, not Trevor" type Belmont that I like at all. If there is one major thing I would say Iga did that really irks me, it was retconning Sonia. Well, that and making Dracula not really "Dracula." But yeah, Sonia needs to totally come back now that Iga has left the building.