Castlevania. (LONG EXPLANATION AHEAD)

After being in existence for 25 years, the series has come a long way, transitioning from 2D to 3D, from platformer, to fighting game, to hack and slash. The series is still relevant, given evidence by the recently released Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but there seems to be a problem.

Konami shipped 1 million units of Castlevania: LOS, but has only sold ~600k of that. Why would a seemingly great game underperform so much? Let me see:

To be honest, I don't think Konami promoted the game very well. I dont remember seeing any commercials or internet banners for the game prior or during its release. Konami as a company does not really advertise their games well. Metal Gear Solid is their marquee franchise, but even then Sony (MGS4 commercials) or Nintendo (Super Smash Bros. Brawl appearance) have always been involved in increasing the title's exposure---never Konami alone. As a brand, Konami is fairly average.

Also, this game is a hack-and-slash, when Castlevania is most known for being a platforming series. In a generation with other hack-and-slashes like God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, etc, Lords of Shadow kind of gets lost in the shuffle. The previously mentioned games were HNS games from the get-go, so seeing LOS go that route kind of takes the series out of its element. It seems like more of a Mr. Me Too effort rather than a progressive step forward for the Castlevania series.

By this point you are probably thinking....what does this have to with Castlevania being Nintendo exclusive? I'll get to that.

In the late-90s, when Castlevania transitioned from 2D to 3D for the N64 renditions, there was some backlash. For some reason, people did not like those N64 Castlevanias, in the same manner that some people do not like Resident Evil 4. The jump in Ds was different from the normal formula, but it DID retain elements of platforming central to the series and it had some excellent music to go along with it. Sure, C64 had camera issues, but with the advent of 3D platforming, that can be forgiven. I personally liked Castlevania 64 a lot. Another reason people may have issues with N64 Castlevanias is because Koji Igarashi was not involved in the creation of the N64 games, and only he himself only considers them "non-canon side stories".

....Well, Koji was involved in Castlevania Judgment, and that game was wack, so obviously he is not infallible in terms of which direction the series should be taking. One person alone should not decide where a whole series goes; look at what Sakamoto did to Metroid: Other M.

Castlevania Judgment, while a decent fighting game and good looking to boot, was made in a lazy attempt to avoid creating a difficult, yet fully-fledged 3D Castlevania title. Following suit of his other graphically-blinded colleagues, Igarashi probably felt it necessary to create a Castlevania game completely DIFFERENT from what the series usually plays like, or looks like, in an effort to cash out on the console and slap a known IP on it for good measure. The game could have just been called Konami Knuckle Party with some name changes and no one would know the difference.

The thing is, laziness never works. Nintendo was culprit of the same thing, forcibly avoiding making 2D Marios and Donkey Kongs in order to make other thingamajigs even though the 2D ones are the best-selling.

Konami made the same mistake Sega did with Sonic, and relegated the 2D Castlevanias to only handhelds and Downloadable games, as if 2D was ....over. But then again, maybe for Konami, it was. They never built on the Castlevania brand over the years like Ninty built Mario and Sega built Sonic. With that lack of progression, it is only right that with their 3D efforts, they could at least improve on that formula. With the PS2 efforts they tried to, but Curse of Darkness veered way to closely to the HNS style of Dynasty Warriors in terms of gameplay.

Sega has learned their mistake of not treating their Golden Goose with special attention and authentic care. Sonic Colors sticks to Sonic formula better than any of the Sonic games in the past 10 years, and it is selling well as a result.  Konami now has to learn the same thing.

In order to get the show on the road, they should stick with the crowd that understands the appeal of Castlevania best, and that is the Nintendo crowd. Certain things just work better on certain brands. Tomb Raider is a Playstation thing, along with Tales of___. 2D games and Sonic games are at home on Nintendo consoles. New Super Mario Bros, Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Sonic, Klonoa, Castlevania Rebirth, A Boy and His Blob, de Blob, Flip's Twisted World, the list goes on. The Wii, at least, is the most accepting console for games of Castlevania's true nature. If Lords of Shadow was a Wii exclusive, even in its current form, the only competition it would've ever had was the Rygar port which couldn't push 75k. Rygar was a failure on Tecmo's part, but that's for another thread.

PS3/360 numbers appear better when combined, but when looking at the sales for Lords of Shadow individually, it is evident that console owners just do not really want what the series has to offer; their interest in that genre is already occupied by other more polished games, along with blockbusters like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption taking the rest of their attention. It is the same reason Enslaved, Vanquish, and Nier failed to gain traction.

I'd say it's more that Castelvania needs to get back to its platforming roots - Order of Ecclesia was a nice step in that direction.

I also enjoyed Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness - they were some of the most pimpest games of the dya, in my carefully considered opinion. And the music!

I'll buy Lords of Shadow soon, and then place judgment on it.

Hire Team Ninja across to Konami and give Castlevania the Other M treatment. To disregard all the noxious arguments over that game's merit, we'll take for granted that the core gameplay was a superb rendition of Metroid in 3 dimensions in order to balance platforming and combat, keeping full 3D but keeping somewhat of the perspective of a 2-dimensional game

Other M's basic style could do wonders for 3D Castlevania that felt like 2D Castlevania

Mr Khan, I don't think taking Metroidvania into 3D is the appropriate idea here. We need us a platformer more than an exploration-based sort of game. If we wanted that, better to hand it over to Rocksteady, who have shown they can handle that sort of game with incredible results.

I haven't played Lords of Shadow, but

We need us some sweet music in this series

Didn't you all hear that they might release one for the 3DS?

I don't see the problem.LOS out sold more than the nes and snes titles and most of the ds ones which according to gt those titles haven't sold over a million.SOTN is the best one in terms of quality and sales(I belive so) and it was on the ps1 so no castlevania doesn't need to be on a nintendo console.

Maybe Castlevania LOS didnt sell becasue it was a 3d Castlevania that are not as well received as the 2d ones anyway??? and the 64 Castlevania games were terrible to me. it wouldnt be until the last PS2 3d game (forgot the name, where they actually made a decent 3d one. From what I heard LOS is good, all my friends rave about it, if you dont have an HD console then your missing out supposedly, but the 2d one on Ds and Advance are good anyway

Take it, but give us back MH3.

You already have it...on the PSP.

I don't and I want it in HD as it should be,