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Castlevania Coming to Xbox
eToyChest is reporting that there are two new Castlevania titles coming to the current generation of consoles. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness will be released on the Xbox and the PS2, while Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow will see the dual lights of the DS. From the article: "While past Castlevania games have focused on the struggle between Dracula and the Belmont clan, Curse of Darkness introduces players to an entirely new storyline and main character - Hector, a Devil Forgemaster, and former Lieutenant of Dracula. Told in true Castlevania style by award winning producer Koji Igarashi, this action-packed tale of betrayal and revenge takes players on a journey through an expansive world filled with formidable foes and beautifully rendered environments to the ruins of Dracula's castle."
Those were good days, in 2 color pixelated goodness. I hope the new one holds up to the philosophy of gameplay that made castlevania great.
i haven't had a gaming system in years from lack of time, money, etc. it may almost be worth buying a ps2 to give it a go.
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
While past Castlevania games have focused on the struggle between Dracula and the Belmont clan, Curse of Darkness introduces players to an entirely new storyline:
Blackula Vs. Black Dracula
i hope the music is still great. i'm actually willing to bet ahead of time this'll be good, seeing as i can personally vouch for the series having had good games on NES, orig gameboy, saturn & dreamcast, and i know consoles i've not had got well-received versions as well.
when will it jump the shark? has it?
IMO, the new addition of AI-controlled bots in the upcoming Castlevania title seems like an rather poor decision:
Armed with the unique new abilities of Devil Forgery, gamers will be able to call upon trusty allies - "Innocent Devils" - who will help defeat a variety of powerful enemies. More than 30 evolving allies will develop unique abilities ranging from those that can open heavy doors, to those that can help Hector fly.
The mere idea of having one AI-controlled henchman/ally/bot annoys me to no end (i.e. Farah in Prince of Persia), but it seems horrendous to have *30* different bots that one *must* learn to use in order to complete game-critical tasks (i.e. opening heavy doors) -- I can't count how many times that 'helpful' bots have gotten stuck around corners, forcing a console reboot.
Like evilmousse pointed out, it's plain amazing to see how many titles the Castlevania title has spawned -- Gamespot just had a great article on the history of Castlevania, and it references the following titles:
Vampire Killer, Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Super Castlevania IV, Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood, Akumajo Dracula X68000, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania: Dracula X, Castlevania: Symphony of The Night, Castlevania 64, Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness, Akumajo Dracula: Circle of the Moon. Castlevania Adventure, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, Castlevania Legends, Haunted Castle, Vs. Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, , Castlevania: Resurrection
If that's not a killer franchise, I don't know what is :)
- dmaduram
I'm really looking forward to the DS version. Hopefully, by the time it's out, an emulator will be available, or some kind of TV output device for the DS itself so I can play it on a big screen.
The problem with the 3D Castlevania games is not that they are particularly bad (some were not), but that they just don't capture the essence of what the genera is all about.
Take arguably the best Castlevania game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Playstation. Fantastic graphics with a memorable style of their own, rather than the faily generic looking 3D visuals that try to be realistic. The controls were easy and precise, something that is pretty much impossible to achive when trying to control a character in a 3D world. Bouncing around using your special moves and attacks is fantastic fun in 2D.
Gods on the Amiga is another example of how a 2D game can still be better than every single 3D platformer ever released. I wish Konami would be brave and release a 2D game on the PS2 and XBox.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I've been looking foorward to this for some time now. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the PS2 was a very good transition from the 2D-with RPGish elements of Symphony of the Night + the GBA games to a 3D environment (I never tried the N64 games though I heard they were awful).
The artwork and the music were both top of the line. My only gripes were the repetition in the areas (lots of rooms looked exactly the same), and the amount of backtracking required to grab some of the loot (this was also an issue in the 2D games though). The camera was also a little troublesome, it could have used the L button to center the camera behind your character feature we all love from Sega games.
It also takes place before all the other games and so you learn the origin of the Belmonts feud with Dracula and how the whip gained it's vampire slaying powers.
You can see some scans from Play Magazine here, which includes an interview with the producer and composer and a really awesome piece of artwork:
http://www.classicgaming.com/castlevania/new.htm
2D platformer (well, 3D but played in a 2D style), with good reviews. Sounds like it could be what you're looking for, but I've never played it so I can't say. I'd add that the Devil May Cry games (except DMC2) remind me a lot of Castlevania SOTN - my PS2 died just after I got DMC3 (^#@^%#@^@#), so I went back to playing SOTN on PS1 for a while until I could replace it... after a while they do end up feeling fairly similar. Except that Alucard doesn't have a pair of demonic handguns. And Dante can't turn into a bat.
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
They release Castlevania games for the Nintendo portables, why not the Gamecube?
So it's Castlevania for the xbox or xbox and ps2? Fuck I hate slashdot, how much further can we crawl up microsoft's ass?
or some caffeine or something. I thought "award winning producer Koji Igarashi" said "akward whining producer Koji Igarashi" and it took a second or two to figure out i was reading it wrong. And this isn't some snide commentary about the producer in question, i don't even know who he is.
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Why is the primary "icon" for this story "Xbox"? It's about a game being released simultaneously on Xbox and PS2, and a DS game. Shouldn't the primary icon be E3 or some other miscelaneous, all purpose gaming icon?
Heheheh, you're a poser. :) The Dreamcast Castlevania game was never released, and NO leaked alpha copies exist in the pirate scene. And none of the American developers who were working on it would have spoken like you did about it.
As for your questions, Castlevania has not jumped the shark, but 3D Castlevania has been very disappointing for years now. Castlevania will lose all its relevance to me only when they stop making 2D versions. The N64 games were crap, the Dreamcast game looked like crap, the PS2 3D game was crap, and this new game looks & sounds like the same kind of crap as the PS2 game.
And who the hell gets excited over three Castlevania "versions?" It's two games, the worse of which is on two platforms. So what? Following that example, we should all be overwhelmed something is released that makes it to all the home and portable systems and PC. "seven! seven new Madden versions! ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh"
Going back to 2D Castlevanias, honestly, DS is THE system to own for modern Castlevania goodness. You get CotM (DS' backlighting helps a lot, and this is the third-best Castlevania game of them all), HoD (okay game), AoS (best Castlevania game ever), and the NES version of the first Castlevania game from the GBA, plus DoS (AoS 2) for the DS.
flattering comments aside, you're right about the dreamcast. i'm not sure what i remember now..
i chose "versions" because "two! two new games, ah ah ah" doesn't get the sesame-street count count joke accross as well, at least i thought.
i, er, bow to your superior castlevanism.