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new Castlevania games coming out soon


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ARE YOU READY FOR SOME NEW CASTLEVANIA!?!

 

So I did a google news search of "Castlevania", and supposedly there are two new titles coming out. The first is a sequel to Lords of Shadow, and is rumored to be available on the Vita and upcoming Wii U. The second is a platformer for the 3DS, which was described as a platformer with two playable charecters and a co-op mode. I'm not sure if this refers to simultanious New SMB type co-op, or weird Portrait of Ruin co-op.

 

I am very excited for some new Castlevania handheld titles, as these are long overdue. Metroidvania seems to fit in with Nintendo portable like a fish to water. I'm not too sure how I feel about the LoS 2 game for Vita; my gut tells me that it will end up being a lot like the 360 release, visually stunning but not much of a game. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a platformer on the Vita either. Anyone who has played Rayman Origins can attest to the the Vita's platforming chops.

 

Comment and speculate away! :)

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I'm definitely excited about the 3DS game (I was contemplating selling my 3DS, but with news of this I will gladly be holding onto it). I just hope it isn't like Portrait of Ruin. I enjoyed that game, but I definitely could have done without the dual-character system. The game was completely designed around this and you basically had to play with both characters out at once if you wanted to make any kind of progress without it getting ridiculously repetitive. It wasn't so bad once I got used to that, but I want the option of being able to fly solo like in Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia.

 

As far as Lords of Shadow 2, I did enjoy the first one, but I felt it wasn't a Castlevania game. Not at all. The only similarities to the old games were in naming conventions, and that's basically it. There was also a small part where a familiar Castlevania tune plays (that was in the music box section), but that's just a very tiny portion in the grand scheme of things. Also, I felt there were way too many puzzles, and the game went on for far too long for its own good. Still, a good game, but hardly a Castlevania game. I will probably check out the sequel but I'm not holding my breath in terms of it being more Castlevania-like than the last one.

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Okay, after 3 Metroidvanias on GBA and another 3 on DS... alright.

Metroidvania was a great idea and I continue to enjoy them, but the games do feel a little played out. I say give the form a proper send-off with an HD console-based edition that makes us feel like its SOTN all over again.

 

And it should be set in 1999. The fans here ought to know what that would entail.

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You could sort of say that Castlevania has become a lot like Sega's Shining series over the years, in that it experiments with adapting the gameplay mechanics of popular contemorary series. When Shining in the Darkness came out, it aped the first-person dungeon crawl style that was all the rage in the late 80's and early 90's. The Shining Force games were basically Fire Emblem. Shining Wisdom was a lot like Zelda. It goes on.

 

Castlevania started off as a pretty standard platformer. Toward the late 90's it started borrowing liberally from, obviously, Metroid. Lords of Shadow on the other hand is a lot more like God of War.

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Castlevania started off as a pretty standard platformer. Toward the late 90's it started borrowing liberally from, obviously, Metroid. Lords of Shadow on the other hand is a lot more like God of War.

 

To go along with that, Lament of Innocence was a lot like Devil May Cry in some ways (as many action games of the time were trying to be).

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I wish they'd go back to the classic Castlevania formula and add what was great about Castlevania 3:

 

- action/platformer

- secondary characters (but only if you meet them)

- branching paths (which may mean giving up having the option of using certain characters)

- one special item at a time (this is important, having an inventory makes you just "collect it all" while having only one special item means making the big decisions on what to keep and what to cut)

- main weapon gets demoted when you die

 

Even something like Castlevania Bloodlines would be great. It's classic Castlevania action with great visual effects. They've pretty much run the "Metroidvania" (or Castleroid, as I call it) formula into the ground. Not sure if I could get excited about another one. And if it's a 3D Castlevania, count me out. Castlevania 64 didn't exactly win me over and all the reviews of subsequent 3D games have been lukewarm at best.

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You could sort of say that Castlevania has become a lot like Sega's Shining series over the years, in that it experiments with adapting the gameplay mechanics of popular contemorary series. When Shining in the Darkness came out, it aped the first-person dungeon crawl style that was all the rage in the late 80's and early 90's. The Shining Force games were basically Fire Emblem. Shining Wisdom was a lot like Zelda. It goes on.

 

Castlevania started off as a pretty standard platformer. Toward the late 90's it started borrowing liberally from, obviously, Metroid. Lords of Shadow on the other hand is a lot more like God of War.

 

I think that you are right, at least in the respect that the series borrowed from other tried-and-true games. However, I give SotN and it's GBA/DS successors a lot of credit for pushing platforming when 3D was all the rage.

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I would love to play some new Castlevania, but I can't get behind Nintendo anymore. It kills me, but I think they have done a fantastic job of leaving behind the people they helped get into gaming. We are all in our late 20s to mid 30s and it would be nice if the games were set for that group of people. I read this hoping to see that the game was coming to another console for a change. If it made it to another more "adult" console it could be darker, and would more then likely suit the theme of the Castlevania world better. The best we could hope for from Nintendo right now is Zelda with a different skin.

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The best we could hope for from Nintendo right now is Zelda with a different skin.

 

Damn, a frankenstein Zelda would be a little too adult for Nintendo I think.

 

On the other hand, I won't be picking up any of these Castlevanias since they're going to be landing on consoles I won't be touching.

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If it made it to another more "adult" console it could be darker, and would more then likely suit the theme of the Castlevania world better.

 

Have you even played any of the newer Castlevania games? They are plenty dark, especially once you progress through the games and allow the stories to unfold.. Don't let the cozy anime covers of the first two DS games fool you, heh.

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If it made it to another more "adult" console it could be darker, and would more then likely suit the theme of the Castlevania world better.

 

Have you even played any of the newer Castlevania games? They are plenty dark, especially once you progress through the games and allow the stories to unfold.. Don't let the cozy anime covers of the first two DS games fool you, heh.

 

To be honest the DS didn't stay in my collection too long. If you played them I'll take you word for it and pick them up when I get the chance as I have been thinking of picking a DS up recently just to have it in the collection is nothing else. (One of those things I sold and wish I had kept) Nintendo has a habbit of making things very childish and I couldn't handle that with this series so I just stayed away for fear of knowing the truth. Looks like I missed out.

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  • 7 months later...

I watched some game play vids from the up-and-coming Mirror of Fate on 3DS. Not sure how I feel about it. It looks like it may be fun, but didn't seem to have the "soul" of Castlevania. And that's really it; all of the previous incarnations of CV, be it the classic style, Metroidvania, or in between (3, Rondo) all had a lot of Spirit, and I didn't feel the same about LoS. But I'm sure I'll buy it anyway. :)

 

How about a game based on that whole 1999 thing?

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I watched some game play vids from the up-and-coming Mirror of Fate on 3DS. Not sure how I feel about it. It looks like it may be fun, but didn't seem to have the "soul" of Castlevania. And that's really it; all of the previous incarnations of CV, be it the classic style, Metroidvania, or in between (3, Rondo) all had a lot of Spirit, and I didn't feel the same about LoS. But I'm sure I'll buy it anyway. :)

 

How about a game based on that whole 1999 thing?

 

As you can tell earlier in the thread, I was excited for the 3DS Castlevania. However, that was until I actually saw gameplay footage. Now, not so much. It's nice that they are going for a two-dimensional gameplay setup (albeit with 3D visuals), but the gameplay looks to be far more reminiscent of Lords of Shadow (or God of War) than Castlevania. I'm not feeling the long combos, the whip that looks like it goes halfway across the screen, etc. It also doesn't seem to be all that polished so far.. Perhaps the 3DS's hardware is to blame there? Who knows, maybe it will be more impressive in person when it's released (and it's fully finished). I will eventually check it out, but for now I'm not holding my breath on it feeling much like a Castlevania game.

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Anyone play the blasphemous '3D' versions on the Xbox\PS2?

 

Opinions?

 

I actually kind of liked the second one where you had a familiar tag along and level up....

 

I would hardly call them blasphemous. Imperfect? Sure, but there's definitely some quality there, at least to a degree.

 

I loved the first one (Lament of Innocence), from a gameplay, visual and sound standpoint. The story was weak and the main character could be annoying, but the game at least got it right where it counts (i.e., everywhere else).

 

The second one, Curse of Darkness, I found to be absurdly repetitive with needlessly long hallway after needlessly long hallway, and the enemy designs were pretty poor (and also repetitive). However, I really enjoyed the secondary characters and the process of evolving them. That gave the game a somewhat addictive feel. It's not really enough to save it from semi-mediocrity, but I find it still worth playing because of that feature. The soundtrack is also decent at the very least, like pretty much all Castlevania games.

 

Funny enough, the XBOX version of Curse of Darkness had the disadvantage of looking more bland than the PS2 version. They smoothed out the visuals in it (anti-aliasing, I suppose), but having not improved the quality of the textures, in a way it actually looks less appealing than the PS2 one. It's a shame, because it should have been the other way around.

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I would hardly call them blasphemous. Imperfect? Sure, but there's definitely some quality there, at least to a degree.

 

I loved the first one (Lament of Innocence), from a gameplay, visual and sound standpoint. The story was weak and the main character could be annoying, but the game at least got it right where it counts (i.e., everywhere else).

 

The second one, Curse of Darkness, I found to be absurdly repetitive with needlessly long hallway after needlessly long hallway, and the enemy designs were pretty poor (and also repetitive). However, I really enjoyed the secondary characters and the process of evolving them. That gave the game a somewhat addictive feel. It's not really enough to save it from semi-mediocrity, but I find it still worth playing because of that feature. The soundtrack is also decent at the very least, like pretty much all Castlevania games.

 

Funny enough, the XBOX version of Curse of Darkness had the disadvantage of looking more bland than the PS2 version. They smoothed out the visuals in it (anti-aliasing, I suppose), but having not improved the quality of the textures, in a way it actually looks less appealing than the PS2 one. It's a shame, because it should have been the other way around.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll have to try the first game and I did play the second game on the Xbox. I'll have to dig up a PS2 copy.....

I've been meaning to play that one again someday.

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