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Forums - Gaming - Castlevania Feeling The Pressure From The Great Hideo Kojima

D-FENS on 04 September 2009
Khuutra said:
D-FENS said:

SOTN "threw that crap out the window?"

Let's see: 4 different forms (Wolf, Bat, Mist, & Alucard); 2 jump power-ups; various other power-ups enhancing Alucard and his forms; an enormous castle requiring jumping/flying to navigate; stairs, ledges, and PLATFORMS to jump up and down; secret areas to unlock; huge number of items to collect; hearts, money, and item drops from enemies/candles/bricks; 2-D, special weapons with various firing arcs; and probably more that I'm not thinking about right now.  That's not a platform style game huh?

Yep, I sure am mad that SOTN was nothing at all like a platform game, I mean, it wasn't like it was some great evolutionary step in 2-D Castlevanias, taking the best of I (Series Genesis, so sub-weapons, many bosses & enemy types, map divided by "levels"), II (RPG sensibilities, Drac's body parts, and relics), III (various spirit forms and an overarching story beyond Simon Belmont), IV (kick ass music and animated backgrounds), whatever the "canon" name of the game that introduced Richter (kick ass art style).  Wow, SOTN was nothing at all like the series of platform games from which it was born.

You make a good argument, but the focus and challenge of Symphony of the Night leaned more toward adventure than platforming - there's a reason it's usually cited as the first Metroidvania. It had platforming, of course it did, but it was an adventure game with different focuses than its predecessors. That's not bad. It's just different.

I call that an evolution of the genre.  We had that way back with Simon's Quest.  I'm confused, what makes a game platform?  Three lives, a high score, and shallow depth?



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Khuutra on 04 September 2009
D-FENS said:
Khuutra said:

You make a good argument, but the focus and challenge of Symphony of the Night leaned more toward adventure than platforming - there's a reason it's usually cited as the first Metroidvania. It had platforming, of course it did, but it was an adventure game with different focuses than its predecessors. That's not bad. It's just different.

I call that an evolution of the genre.  We had that way back with Simon's Quest.  I'm confused, what makes a game platform?  Three lives, a high score, and shallow depth?

The bizarre part of this is that the quote I originally made was arguing that Castlevania could evolve as a series, branching into different genres, and still be Castlevanias. We do not disagree on that point.

It's a focus on the platforming and the platforming being the primary source of challenge in the game: a focus on replayability over once-through depth is part of that too, yes. Symphony of the Night as a wonderful evolution of the series, no doubt, but it was also a very different animal from its predecessors.



theprof00 on 04 September 2009

It still stupefies me that the a cable provider in many states is called Cox



elmerion on 04 September 2009

Evolution ad diversification are different things, Symphony of the Night was almost an Spin-off, something like Metroid Prime to the Metroid series, you can also say that Metroid Prime is a 3D plataformer it has lots of jumping actually but.. it is a first person shooter

Evolution would be... Fire Emblem 3 > Fire Emblem 4 its pretty much the same, but a hundred times better because it includes many new elements like the skill system

Link to the past > Ocarina of Time The gameplay is almost the same, of course the 3D graphics made some new things possible but it was still Zelda



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Kenryoku_Maxis on 04 September 2009

So basically Kojima is working with them like Miyamoto did with Metroid Prime.

Which is exactly how it should be. Because as the last 12 years has proven, IGA can't make a good 3D Castlevania. And the series needs a solid reboot since the only thing IGA can do anymore is make SOTN 'lite' games with Anime Soap Opera like stories. The only way to do this is to take the time (3-5 years) and energy (making a solid reboot with a powerful AAA title) to turn Castlevania around after what IGA has done with it.



Six upcoming games you should look into:

 

  

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Zizzla_Rachet on 04 September 2009

the trailers on XBL have me pretty stoked!..and no...it's not a Kratos clone...if your game was always meant to play how this looks so far...



 



Zizzla_Rachet on 04 September 2009
D-FENS said:
Khuutra said:
D-FENS said:

SOTN "threw that crap out the window?"

Let's see: 4 different forms (Wolf, Bat, Mist, & Alucard); 2 jump power-ups; various other power-ups enhancing Alucard and his forms; an enormous castle requiring jumping/flying to navigate; stairs, ledges, and PLATFORMS to jump up and down; secret areas to unlock; huge number of items to collect; hearts, money, and item drops from enemies/candles/bricks; 2-D, special weapons with various firing arcs; and probably more that I'm not thinking about right now.  That's not a platform style game huh?

Yep, I sure am mad that SOTN was nothing at all like a platform game, I mean, it wasn't like it was some great evolutionary step in 2-D Castlevanias, taking the best of I (Series Genesis, so sub-weapons, many bosses & enemy types, map divided by "levels"), II (RPG sensibilities, Drac's body parts, and relics), III (various spirit forms and an overarching story beyond Simon Belmont), IV (kick ass music and animated backgrounds), whatever the "canon" name of the game that introduced Richter (kick ass art style).  Wow, SOTN was nothing at all like the series of platform games from which it was born.

You make a good argument, but the focus and challenge of Symphony of the Night leaned more toward adventure than platforming - there's a reason it's usually cited as the first Metroidvania. It had platforming, of course it did, but it was an adventure game with different focuses than its predecessors. That's not bad. It's just different.

I call that an evolution of the genre.  We had that way back with Simon's Quest.  I'm confused, what makes a game platform?  Three lives, a high score, and shallow depth?

I don't mean to sound like a retard..but was the character in SoTN not Dracula own son?...you expect a Human to do all those things?...I do see what your trying to say....Perhaps your thoughts on Order of Ecclessia?