Konami's announcement: Another PS2 Castlevania, 3D

[Ed Oscuro]

The Castlevania Dungeon has scans of the new 'play' magazine article. I wasn't initially too hopeful, but looking at some of it now - there's a lot of good points here. Indeed, I started off making fun of Dave H (I don't think I've ever read anything of his before! LOL ) sometimes quirky English, but he makes some very good requests. Here's the lowdown:

1.) It takes three years after Castlevania III; no interaction between the main character (see artwork: very similar to Juste's poster but this guy's more gaunt looking) and Alucard

2.) It's a revenge story, but not against Dracula in particular - one guy leaves his job with Dracula (that's essentially it) and his former buddies have his wife reported as a witch and killed (one quibble; why are folks burning all the witches they can find but not taking on the Demon Castle itself? Hmm). Obviously our lead man Hector takes issue with that.

3.) One friendly NPC has been confirmed; not too different from LoI here yet...

4.) Free camera system, the emphasis of the game team will be on textures

5.) There will be outdoor areas. (The screenshot with a wyvern reminds me a great deal of an early fight in Dracula X: Chi no Rondo.)

6.) The gameplay seems to borrow more from Chaos Legion than, say, Pokemon (as did AoS). It revolves around so-called "Innocent Devils" and "devil forgery;" i.e. building up these critters that follow you around like happy puppies. Instead of collecting souls to do better things, you build up your Devils - like a suit of armor - to do things like open heavy doors for you.

7.) Requests from Halverson: Put some magic into the character's step, like the classic Alucard animation from SotN; include levels from Resurrection (Hmm! The maps probably aren't too great, and in any case these seem better suited to a later date CV game as the baroque to Jacobean styles didn't exist at this date in time).

8.) With this many people able to whip Drac's ass around, why don't all his henchmen simply do it to claim his spot? Seems logical. :P

[MegaDrive20XX]

I NEEED LINKAGE MAN!!! LINKAGE!! I WANNA SEE PICS!!! *going into a heart attack*! To the Dungeon!! away!!

[Ed Oscuro]

When you're done, be sure to hit up the Castlevania Dungeon Forums and post a topic about how much it's gonna rule or how much Iga sucks.

I gotta hand it to the guy - he's kept the Castlevania tradition of exciting INTENSE emotion in regard to the series direction alive and well!

[MegaDrive20XX]

http://www.classicgaming.com/castlev...g/playcod7.jpg


*DROOL* That is the shit

This rocks my PANTS OFF!! Because it's a direct sequel to my ALL TIME favorite CastleVania EVA!!

oh ya, I cant join the CV Forum, because they dont like people with hotmail accounts for odd reasons...

[-hellvin-]

Fucking bombastic. I love every thing about castlevania, and am sure I will continue to with this game. LOI was fun, but there was too much amiss. One thing that bothered me was the stat system....you could raise certain things with items by like....FIVE awesome points and that's it. It's almost like they started to integrate a classic SOTN leveling system but just said fuck it at the end and released the game.

[GarrettCRW]

A direct sequel to CV III? I'm there. Though, if Trevor shows up, it'd be nice to also see Grant and Sypha as well (and the ending for CV III seemed to imply that Trevor might keep contact of a sort with Sypha ).

[Ed Oscuro]

Though, if Trevor shows up, it'd be nice to also see Grant and Sypha as well (and the ending for CV III seemed to imply that Trevor might keep contact of a sort with Sypha ;)).

Already confirmed that none of those characters will be there, essentially.

Interesting that Iga won't touch the characters in those games. I likes it.

[IntvGene]

What's wrong with one of these pictures?




The correct answer may vary from person to person, but to me, the bottom picture has more to do with Devil May Cry than Castlevania. I don't care if it has the same characters from an old classic, it's just not the same.

And for the Random Kojima Quote of the Day:

"Oh yes, 2D is my favorite gaming style too! I want to keep working on 2D games. However, my current goal is to make a better 3D action game, so that's taking a big part in me right now."

Memo to Mr. Kojima, go back to your day job.

[EnemyZero]

i hope this is sweet, because as much as i love castlevania the last 3D attempt left me unhappy...it wasnt horrible but could of been better

[Richter]

just hope the level layout isnt as linear as it was in LoI

[Aussie2B]

I see Ms. Kojima is just as creative as ever.

[kainemaxwell]

Wow, sounds like great news!

[Sotenga]

I think I already have an automatic candidate for Game of the Year 2005.

[TRM]

I felt that the Castlevania series hit the crapper with the SOTN style games. Hopefully this title will improve the reputation.

[Kim Possible]

Yaaaa! I love Castlevania! But I'm pretty much a blind fool for it. I loved Lament, Symphony is my fav. The only one I didn't care for was Bloodlines (too much of a stretch from the main story). Yaaaaaa! I can't wait!

Thanks for the info. No Sypha? No Grant? oh poo.

[Lord Contaminous]

I felt that the Castlevania series hit the crapper with the SOTN style games. Hopefully this title will improve the reputation.

Agreed. I prefer the linear straightforward stage to stage gameplay of Castlevania. Enough Metroidvanias.

[spider-man]

Intvgene, don't you mean Igarashi instead of kojima?

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, I was going to say -- Hideo Kojima works on the Metal Gear and some other of Konami's franchies, I never heard of him working with Castlevania.

[sharc]

i feel castlevania has just gone downhill since symphony of the night as well. it was a good game, in spite of how ridiculously overhyped it is today, and not my favorite of the whole series; but ever since then, the games have been heading in every direction except their roots. devil may cry's combat, metroid's exploration/item wrangling, pokemon's powering up familiars, and so on. i'm also getting pretty sick of the effeminate, waifish character designs. that style made sense for alucard, but freaking enough gothic prettyboys already.

i'd like to see another traditional castlevania, but it's just not gonna happen with igarashi directing the series. the guy has his own thoughts on where it should go, and "linear," "innovative" and "difficult" don't seem to be on the itinerary. maybe i'm being too harsh, but i don't respect the guy for coming into an established series and treating prior games and stories as subject to omission and rewriting as he sees fit.

-sharc

[joshnickerson]

This was Konami's big frikkin announcement? Whoopde crap.