Topic: The Legend of Castlevania

[Wallz!]

So this is what I've been doing the past month or so.

https://youtu.be/HE6lfh1jqqU

The Legend of Castlevania is a 16-bit style remake of Castlevania 3. Aside from a graphical upgrade, I have these changes in mind:
-Item Crashes
-Saving & Stage Select: You can revisit stages to fully explore all alternate paths and find each ally.
-Multiple allies: You will be able to have Sypha, Grant, and Alucard all on one save file. However, for purposes of balancing, you can only take one of them with you at a time. You can switch partners when loading a game, beating a stage, getting a game over, etc.
-Character techniques: A few additional techniques will be given to each character to make them more unique and give the player more to work with when facing challenges. The list is not finalized, but I plan for Trevor to have a backdash/backflip, Sypha to have some temporary floating spell, Grant to have a slidekick, and Alucard to utilize his wolf form to fit into tight spaces.
-New subweapons for Alucard and Grant: Almost none of these are in their final planning stages, but Grant will have subweapons centered around his ability to climb and sneak up on things. Alucard's subweapons will likely be based on his SotN spells.
-Smarter enemies: Although the game looks similar, I plan to base enemy behavior on Rondo of Blood's glorious enemy designs. Certain enemies will have more moves and smarter AI. I believe the best example of this is how RoB completely revamped the designs of the Spear Guards; they use their weapon and are aware of the player's presence.

Stay tuned for more to come!

[theplottwist]

I love how mini, almost cutesy it looks!

[VladCT]

Some thoughts on this:
- Were the scanlines in-game or the capture software's thing? If it's in-game, could you make that optional?
- Ooh, Genesis synths. Who's handling the music?
- I've always felt that the DXX bar could use better contrast, do you think it would look better with a little more contrast?
- The zombies' tall, lanky proportions seem a bit jarring when compared to Trevor. Is this intentional?

[Aridale]

Dude that looks solid as shit so far! Graphics look great! What you making it with?

[Belmontoya]

Very cool!

It's refreshing to see someone doing 16bit with the 8bit graphic style. Very cool man!

[Claimh Solais]

Very cool!

It's refreshing to see someone doing 16bit with the 8bit graphic style. Very cool man!

I agree that it looks great visually. It's like a Super Mario All-Stars version of CV3.

I do have some questions though:

-Multiple allies: You will be able to have Sypha, Grant, and Alucard all on one save file. However, for purposes of balancing, you can only take one of them with you at a time. You can switch partners when loading a game, beating a stage, getting a game over, etc.

Will it be possible to not have Trevor in your team once you have at least three characters? i.e. Grant and Alucard as your party? Not really necessary but would be kinda cool for people who've played CV3 countless times.

-Character techniques: A few additional techniques will be given to each character to make them more unique and give the player more to work with when facing challenges. The list is not finalized, but I plan for Trevor to have a backdash/backflip, Sypha to have some temporary floating spell, Grant to have a slidekick, and Alucard to utilize his wolf form to fit into tight spaces.
-New subweapons for Alucard and Grant: Almost none of these are in their final planning stages, but Grant will have subweapons centered around his ability to climb and sneak up on things. Alucard's subweapons will likely be based on his SotN spells.

Will stage and enemy design be changed to reflect these new abilities and subweapons? I know you said the enemies will have more moves and such, which answers my questions about, say, Trevor's new evasive maneuvers. But say...

-Will Sypha's ability to float come into play as a necessity ever, or will it just be an additional maneuverability option? The latter makes sense, as by adding Trevor's backdash/flip and Sypha's float on top of Grant's Spider-Man abilities and Alucard's bat form would give all four characters better maneuverability options.
-Grant having a slidekick would also double as an evasive maneuver, but are there going to be low-hanging areas that can only be accessed via his slidekick or Alucard's wolf form?
-With a bigger emphasis on Grant's stealth, is he going to have more options, like being able to move quieter or something, or is it just approaching an enemy when they're not looking?
-As Alucard's subweapons may be based on his SotN subweapons, I just wanted to know: do you plan on giving Trevor access to the Bible as a subweapon?

The first question is pretty much my biggest concern. One thing I don't like about most CV3 remakes is that people try to modernize them by giving more freedom of movement and significantly more options to the player in terms of attacks and dodging capabilities, but then level, enemy, and boss design all stay exactly the same, thus making a horribly imbalanced experience. I know your video is early footage, but it shows Stage 1 almost exactly as Stage 1 from the original game, so I wanted to ask about this.

[X]

Nice vid! It does look like something done in the style of Super Mario All-Stars. I do however share Claimh Solais' concerns about the game itself. A remake shouldn't stray too far from it's roots otherwise it becomes something else entirely, and not the intended product. This would also include things like character abilities, enemies, and stage designs.

I do like the idea of stage selection like it Rondo. This would allow us players to do all the stages and collect everybody. Something I felt was lacking in the original game.

[Claimh Solais]

I do however share Claimh Solais' concerns about the game itself. A remake shouldn't stray too far from it's roots otherwise it becomes something else entirely, and not the intended product.

Not exactly what I meant. I was saying that if these new abilities and such were added, it would be better if the level and enemy designs were modified to reflect such changes. Most fan remakes do the former, but not the latter, and it makes for an extremely imbalanced experience.

[Dracula9]

Music could use a bit better mixing and some of the synths don't feel like they're used in conjunction to best effect for what the YM2612 was known to produce, but beyond that I don't have anything negative to say about this. Looks pretty sweet.

[chainsawmidget]

This is just all around awesome.  The only things I have to complain about are little nitpicky stuff.

Here's the few minor things I caught.  By no means are these deal breakers, but I just felt like mentioning them.  Everything else, just assume I'm complimenting. 

The hunched over skeletons look like they are all ribs and have no spine.

It was a little bit hard telling what the Igors/hunchbacks/flea men were supposed to be at first. 

When throwing the knives, they seem to go so fast you can't really tell what they are. 

As for the most minor or minor of minor things, the god old wall meat.  if you could adda  frame or two of nimation that makes it look like it's steaming hot.  it just looked a little left out with all the detail you put into everything else.

And if you disagree, that's cool too.  You certainly did better at this than I ever could. 

One question I have though, how are you going to do the map?  Is it going to be highly detailed and representative of the levels, or is it going to have more of an old hand drawn map quality to it?

[Wallz!]

Long post time!

Some thoughts on this:
- Were the scanlines in-game or the capture software's thing? If it's in-game, could you make that optional?
- Ooh, Genesis synths. Who's handling the music?
- I've always felt that the DXX bar could use better contrast, do you think it would look better with a little more contrast?
- The zombies' tall, lanky proportions seem a bit jarring when compared to Trevor. Is this intentional?

-The scanlines are in-game, however you can toggle it on or off. I myself prefer it on.

-I'm handling the music, but really all I'm doing is applying a mix of a few soundfonts to existing MIDIs.

-This seem any better for the HUD?

Top is recolored, bottom is original.

-Essentially all graphics are placeholders at the moment. As more of the game itself becomes finished, I will be revising sprites and backgrounds. But unfortunately for this first part of development there will be some clashing assets.

This is what I have at the moment.

Dude that looks solid as shit so far! Graphics look great! What you making it with?

Thanks dude! I'm developing this with Game Maker Studio.

Will it be possible to not have Trevor in your team once you have at least three characters? i.e. Grant and Alucard as your party? Not really necessary but would be kinda cool for people who've played CV3 countless times.

I didn't really consider this, but I don't see why not, it's actually a great idea.

Will stage and enemy design be changed to reflect these new abilities and subweapons? I know you said the enemies will have more moves and such, which answers my questions about, say, Trevor's new evasive maneuvers. But say...

-Will Sypha's ability to float come into play as a necessity ever, or will it just be an additional maneuverability option? The latter makes sense, as by adding Trevor's backdash/flip and Sypha's float on top of Grant's Spider-Man abilities and Alucard's bat form would give all four characters better maneuverability options.
-Grant having a slidekick would also double as an evasive maneuver, but are there going to be low-hanging areas that can only be accessed via his slidekick or Alucard's wolf form?
-With a bigger emphasis on Grant's stealth, is he going to have more options, like being able to move quieter or something, or is it just approaching an enemy when they're not looking?
-As Alucard's subweapons may be based on his SotN subweapons, I just wanted to know: do you plan on giving Trevor access to the Bible as a subweapon?

-Sypha's floating ability will never be a necessity as much as an additional maneuver for her to utilize. It is currently planned to be a simple 1-second horizontal float.
-I felt the original game lacked design in the stages that challenged Alucard and Grant's abilities. Their abilities only seemed useful as a shortcut around the paths Trevor and Sypha had to take. I want to incorporate alternate paths in stages that are accessible through small areas and unlock special rewards and new areas within the stages.
-Grant will have a sneak ability; this mainly will help him get a step ahead from smarter enemies and bosses. This will help him sneak up on enemies with a wide range (cyclops, spear guards) in order to more easily hit them with short range weapons.
-I do plan on giving Trevor the bible, but it would function more like the RoB variant.

The first question is pretty much my biggest concern. One thing I don't like about most CV3 remakes is that people try to modernize them by giving more freedom of movement and significantly more options to the player in terms of attacks and dodging capabilities, but then level, enemy, and boss design all stay exactly the same, thus making a horribly imbalanced experience. I know your video is early footage, but it shows Stage 1 almost exactly as Stage 1 from the original game, so I wanted to ask about this.

Yes. All stages will be most overhauled to consider all of the new abilities; stage 1 has most remained the same as not all of those maneuvers are in the game yet. It will be facing heavy revision in the near future. I want to expand the stages, especially on the amount of space they have, in order to iron out some of the unnecessary platform challenges in the original.

This is just all around awesome.  The only things I have to complain about are little nitpicky stuff.

Here's the few minor things I caught.  By no means are these deal breakers, but I just felt like mentioning them.  Everything else, just assume I'm complimenting. 

The hunched over skeletons look like they are all ribs and have no spine.

It was a little bit hard telling what the Igors/hunchbacks/flea men were supposed to be at first. 

When throwing the knives, they seem to go so fast you can't really tell what they are. 

As for the most minor or minor of minor things, the god old wall meat.  if you could adda  frame or two of nimation that makes it look like it's steaming hot.  it just looked a little left out with all the detail you put into everything else.

And if you disagree, that's cool too.  You certainly did better at this than I ever could. 

One question I have though, how are you going to do the map?  Is it going to be highly detailed and representative of the levels, or is it going to have more of an old hand drawn map quality to it?

-The hunched skeletons are recolors of HoD's blood skeletons. I plan to revise essentially all graphics as development continues.
-The fleamen are from AoS, same comment as above.
-I wanted to make the knives more useful instead of the basic subweapon. With inspiration from RoB, they are much faster than the boomerang. Trevor throws 3 knives at once which spread apart and cover a wider range.
-I never considered animating the wall meat, but I like the idea!
-I'm not pixel artist, but in the end I kinda want to have a vibrant and detailed map, along the lines of the one you see between stages in Dracula X.

Music could use a bit better mixing and some of the synths don't feel like they're used in conjunction to best effect for what the YM2612 was known to produce, but beyond that I don't have anything negative to say about this. Looks pretty sweet.

I don't have the best producer's ear quite yet. I feel that the rendition of Beginning I have right now sounds a little crowded, and I need to get a better feel for the instruments I have at my disposal. But hey, nothing's final yet.

Thanks for all of your comments guys! Once stage 1 is complete, expect a demo!

[VladCT]

-This seem any better for the HUD?

Top is recolored, bottom is original.

While it is better for the most part, I thought the highlights on the yellow part were too bright, and after checking it in an image editing software, using pure white (or pure black) is a pretty big no-no on sprites from what I know. I tried revising it a little myself:

Would this suit your game?

[Wallz!]

Looks great dude, thanks! I'll be using it.

[Wallz!]

I decided to put the soundtrack I currently have for the game in this video:
https://youtu.be/87PEpQ3a4OQ

I'm not yet done with these tracks, and would actually appreciate some criticism on them. I think the ones that need the most work are Beginning, Deja Vu, The Sinking Old Sanctuary, and Big Battle.

[Dracula9]

*listens*

These use the Ultimate Megadrive Soundfont, don't they?