Topic: What can a Castlevania fan do to fill the gap?

[olrox2]

Hum the question may look weird but i keep asking it to myself. I have played all the recent castlevanias, including the depressing Los Series, i played most of old castlevania games(those made before SoTn)....

Wait for BloodStained? Is Igarashi skilled enough to make it awesome?
Drink a cup of sour tea and remember the good old times when Konami was a thing?
I lost hope on seeing old ips resurrected and now they are gonna focus on patchinko,mobile market and fitness centers.

So Castlevania fans, what are your plans to fill the hole left by Konami's decline?Focus on other game genres?

[Belmontoya]

http://youtu.be/V0U8FYzUO0w

[SubstituteBelmont]

Hey, trust me, don't worry about it  . I know it looks bleak now but if I've realized anything over the years, its that shit eventually does make it back through the pipeline.

Gaming has only really been around for over 30 years, and in that time it seems the goes in all sorts of crazy, unexpected directions. We've entered a point where nostalgia is the driving force behind much success and reception, and it seems that may be a trend now for all of time. Companies eventually do cave into demand because, at least I feel, its inevitable.

-Crapcom gave us Megaman 9 and 10 not too long ago

-Square Enix is making an FF7 remake

-Activision is making a good G1 transformers game

-Even Sonic the bloody hedgehog has had a few decent titles in recent years (ignoring Boom)

Things will get better buddy, trust me, even if we have to get CV sold to a new company which may be for the better, since admittedly Konami is a special case.


As for games to fill the void, there's plenty of fan games out there:

- The Lecarde Chronicles 1 and 2 (shown above)
-Castlevania: The bloodletting fan revival
-Simon's Quest Revamped
-Serio's Castlevania Fighter
- Maybe some difficulty hacks?

Maybe even marathon the series, which is what I have decided to do. Its fun and daunting at the same time, and by the time you finish all of them, there might be a 5 new games out 

[X]

So Castlevania fans, what are your plans to fill the hole left by Konami's decline?Focus on other game genres?

The answer is simple my friend: Play the Castlevania fangames. The fans seem to be the only ones Who care enough about the series to make the games correctly, and are willing to do it for free. And as Belmontoya has mentioned--Lecarde chronicles II. I'm waiting for that one too.

[shelverton.]

I am completely out of new 2D action games so I've decided to revisit a few from the past that I remember liking:

Monster Tale (DS) - A metroidvania with some light pokemónesque elements. It's really good IMO and deserves another round.

Shinobi (3DS) - Man, this game is ridiculously hard and I honestly haven't finished it, ever. Maybe this time?

Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins (PSP) - Also very, very difficult but super addictive. Dunno why.

Prinny 1 & 2 (PSP) - Ugh, another couple of really hard ones. Maybe that's what I'm missing? The challenge?

Shadow Complex (XBLA) - This one is getting a re-release soon and it reminded me how great it was. It's flawed but fun!

Wonderboy in Monster World (Genesis) - Not my favorite Wonderboy by any stretch but the graphics makes me happy. It's not really a Castlevania substitute though..

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic are the best games to fill any void with. They get the "sheer immersion" part right, plus Elder Scrolls can be played as a sort of Castlevania-lite given the nature of the setting.

I made a pretty sinister Dracula in Skyrim after Dawnguard came out.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I'm waiting for Bloodstained and I'm hoping IGA will be back in his top form.

Work and Cross Stitching is filling the void.
If I need to play games, the Project Diva series is good enough for me.

[theplottwist]

I'm filling my void with my project, analysing every single inch of the Castlevania lore to build it. It's a fun task because it also forces me to replay certain games (which I have already played a billion times) with a renewed interest. Writting and drawing for my project helps, too, because I feel that something is being made to fill that missing gap. Keeps the fire burning alive, y'know?

Now, playing-games speaking, I fill the void with the fangames and indie games. There will be a flood of Castlevania-like games in the next year, and I plan to be there and play every single one of them.

[KaZudra]

They could at least get those mini-games out to kill the time, Maybe a playable alpha, maybe Slain or something.
Bah there's a ton of games on sale on steam right now maybe I just gotta pick through them and see what can fill that wait time.

[zangetsu468]

Live your life!

LC2 looks fucking bomb btw Belmontoya

[Kingshango]

Only thing you can do now is keep on trucking until Bloodstained releases.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I'd actually recommend the game "Hunted: The Demon's Forge". It's cheap to get, has a good dark-fantasy aesthete, has some witty dialog here and there, and is honestly pretty fun to play (doubly so with a friend).

[AlexCalvo]

You can also look to other media to get something of a Castlevania vibe.  The Hellboy comics, as well as Lord Baltimore both have very Castlevania-like vibes.  Or the Solomon Cane books (the movie is also pretty good).  And of course a ton of films, if you can get your hands on an 80's movie called Warlock you'll see it was heavily influenced by Castlevania, another great oldie is Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, and of course the Vampire Hunter D animes.  You can also go back and play some Castlevania-like games you might have missed.  I would recommend the Van Helsing game for Ps2 (much better than the movie, and with a sweet Castlevania reference), and the pre-reboot Devil May Cry games (Love the reboot, but it is not very Castlevania-y).  Even television has some good options, the first few seasons of Supernatural are pretty great, and give off a kind of modern day Belmonts vibe, and then of course Penny Dreadful just screams Castlevania.

[Ratty]

Hum the question may look weird but i keep asking it to myself. I have played all the recent castlevanias, including the depressing Los Series, i played most of old castlevania games(those made before SoTn)....

Wait for BloodStained? Is Igarashi skilled enough to make it awesome?
Drink a cup of sour tea and remember the good old times when Konami was a thing?
I lost hope on seeing old ips resurrected and now they are gonna focus on patchinko,mobile market and fitness centers.

So Castlevania fans, what are your plans to fill the hole left by Konami's decline?Focus on other game genres?

To set about fill the hole you have to understand exactly what it is you miss. What are the things, from most to least, that you miss about Castlevania?

If you miss the classic gothic horror vibe-

Try out some classic horror movies from Universal and Hammer, which had a great influence on the series, especially the very first games. If you've not got netflix etc., universal just re-released their "legacy collection" DVD box sets of their classic monster movies from the 1930s and 1940s (and 1950s for the Creature from the Black Lagoon) for about $20 a pop. If you're curious one of the sets might be a good way to burn through an Xmas giftcard you don't know what to do with. Hammer dvd sets can be found cheap on amazon and ebay to.
There's also tons of Dracula movies specifically, and you can see how many of them influenced the series. For example I feel the film "Bram Stoker's Dracula" had visible influence on SotN.
Speaking of Bram Stoker, you can also read the classic Dracula and Frankenstein books, and explore the entire genre of gothic horror literature from there.

If you miss the gameplay-

There are fangames as others have mentioned. There are lots of great MetroidVanias and I'm sure many could offer suggestions. It doesn't play like Castlevania controls-wise, but I found the difficulty in "Volgarr the Viking" to be similarly satisfying to the ClassicVanias. I'll second AlexCalvo's recommendation of "Van Helsing" on the PS2/GCN/OXBOX, but be aware it's a very short game, like about 4 hours or so, though there are unlocks to encourage multiple playthroughs.

[Inccubus]

What can a Castlevania fan do to fill the gap?

I see less of a gap and more of a yawning chasm.