Is Castlevania a "Dead Game Walking"?

Alec

I look at the concern voiced in threads like "Do you think we will see any new stories with the classic gameplay?", and "Is there anything more for Castlevania in 2-D to evolve into?", and I wonder, "Is Castlevania dead?"

It seems to me that there hasn't been a great amount of new ideas in a CV game for YEARS, at least since Aria of Sorrow's Tactical Soul System, and I now believe that, no matter what IGA does, he is simply making Castlevania's death longer, more painful, and all the more inevitable.

What the series desperately needs is either a complete return to the original gameplay style and elements, or a new director who can offer up new ideas worth using. IGA is overstaying his welcome, having used up all his good ideas, which began to really show in Dawn of Sorrow, and was thrust before our collective eyes in Portrait of Ruin.

If Castlevania dies, it will most likely be buried with other long running game series such as Final Fantasy; which after 21 good years of excellent quality games is also running out of steam, with releases such as Crisis Core and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 being made up of a great deal of fanservice relating to previous popular games in the franchise, rather than experimenting with completely new ideas for characters.

Returning to Castlevania, even Dracula X Chronicles was purely fanservice. Konami dressed up the original Rondo of Blood with better graphics, higher quality sound, and throwing in a repackaged port of the original game and a (barely) enhanced port of Symphony of the Night in an attempt to sell more copies.

A game series CANNOT run on fanservice, and I can not stress that point enough. However, the difference between Final Fantasy and Castlevania in this regard is that Final Fantasy has a BACKUP PLAN: Kingdom Hearts, which faithfully carries over all the things that made Final Fantasy great, and can succeed it's great predecessor with ease if need be..

Castlevania has no such insurance policy. If Castlevania falls, it does so with out a heir to it's name. Konami has no other series, planned or already made, that can back up what some of us may consider their finest work. When Castlevania dies, and I guarantee that it will, and maybe soon, it will be finished. Done. Over with. Never to return, save in maybe a "Classic Compilation" release with other famous titles.

Castlevania can be saved, but what that calls for is more innovation and less fan service.

I ask you: "What made Symphony of the Night such a great game?"

In the end, it wasn't graphics. It wasn't music. It sure as hell wasn't fanservice (though there was a generous helping of that too). The game was DIFFEERENT. It offered gameplay almost totally unlike anything the series had ever known before then. Why? Because at that point, Castlevania was beginning to be in the same schtick it's in now, and IGA and the rest of Symphony's crew dealt with it wonderfully.

But it seems that eleven years later they expect the SAME forula to still work. the four 3D titles aside, nothing really new was done after Symphony. Sure, you had a good game like Harmony and Aria of Sorrow released here and there, but Spell Fusion and Tactical Soul System aside, what else is new about them?

This repitition is what kills a game series, when an unwillingness to take a risk and do something completely original keeps the series repeating past formulas, leading to an unimpressed, disgruntled, and somewhat less than thrilled fan base.

I cried tears of joy (in my head) when Dracula X Chronicles was released, because by returning to an old favorite, Konami broke their own mold. But it wasn't anything inspired, and I quickly grew bored with the game.

If Castlevania is to survive, I feel it needs something new, original, and more than anything, DARING about it. It's a quality that made the series last so long, but along the way, it lost that quality.

Konami needs to realize this, or Castlevania WILL die, and I know every one of us will rue that day.
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ladyice · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 1:07 am Post subject:

Eventually all things end. One day this series will end, maybe it will be resurrected again after that, but it can't last forever.

As far as it becoming stale or old hat, boring whatever term is being used... well... if there is one thing I see over and over again on forums and fandoms when the latest and greatest is released, there is a lot of hype. A few weeks after that comes all the negative and sometimes even the whining about what's wrong with a game. This goes with any title. And any series.

A year later you will find people quietly (sometimes not so quietly) posting back and forth on the good points and bad points of a game.

My point is all game series and game chapters have a backlash at some time. FFVII is now going through that. A lot of people are bashing it saying it's over rated or it's too much, ect

For me I want a new, shiny new, (graphics, cutscenes ect) Castlevania on the PS3. I want a Belmont, I want Ayami to do the artwork, I want Michiru to do the music. I want it gothic, I want a Belmont... (I said that I think) I want Dracula and I want it in the past. And I want the whip back.

People would most likely argue with that, or have their own spin on what system or style they'd like.

Do I think the series is dead? Not right now. With a game a year (on average) and a rumored 2 - 3 new ones in the works, that's not a dead series to me. If the movies ever get made.. that may spark some interest.

I love Castlevania, there are very few titles I have from the series that I can't stand. PoR being one of them. But I still have it because it's Castlevania. I've enjoyed this series for so long, and even after it's over, I will still play it.

But to be honest, as I said above all things end.

I'll stop rambling on now...
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lady ice
Playing: Crisis Core, Lament of Innocence
Systems: PS3, PSP, PS2 & Nintendo DS
Want list: Little Big Planet, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia & Castlevania: Judgement