The Future of Chronicles?

Alec · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:06 am Post subject: The Future of Chronicles?

I wouldn't exactly call Chronicles a "series" (I would need more than two remakes for that), but given that there's two titles under the belt of Chronicles, I can only assume there's going to be more.

I'm torn.

On one hand, it shows Konami (and IGA) respect the old releases enough to give them additional attention, but on the other hand, Konami could very well fall into the trap of wallowing in past glory and forget the future of Castlevania.

So, what should be done with Chronicles?

Do the awesome games NEED to be tinkered with? Okay. I'll admit it. A Dracula's Curse remake would be great.

But why mess first with the great titles, and neglect those that were more poorly made?

Personally, I think "Dawn of Sorrow Chronicles" would be almost REQUIRED in order to make the game less horrible. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent game. But it's so sub-par compared to what came before it that it gives the impression of a bad game, especially if you just finished a play through of Harmony of Dissonance or Aria of Sorrow.

Couple of reasons for this:

Too many sprites were re-used/palette swapped (Soma looks almost the same, same goes for Yoko and Julius).
Weapon enhancement was pointless.
The dialogue was SHAMEFULLY BAD.
Much of the game's color seemed bleached out to me.
Artwork was AWFUL (although Alucard's honestly didn't offend me that much).
the villains, as terrific an idea as it was to put humans in as the ultimate villains, were AWFUL.
Any and all stylus functions were completely unecesarry, and merely thrown in because the feature could be used.

A Chronicles release in 2.5D would fix the reused sprites/palette swaps, would offer the opportunity to remove weapon enhancement or give it a reason to be used in the first place, fix the terribly broken dialogue, and re-do the artwork, and maybe make the villains less stupid somehow (like giving Celia hair that would actually HAPPEN). Also, the stupid stylus functions would be GONE.

Castlevania Legends, and this is an academic statement at best given the non-canon staus of the game, could have REALLY used a Chronicles touch up. The art was horrible, the story poorly explained (try not at all), the dialogue was crap, the sprites unoriginal, and the music less than acceptable (save the Opening stage theme and the menu theme). A Chronicles release would have benefited this release immensely.

My point is, I think Chronicles is a fantastic opportunity for Konami to cover their tracks and fix some of the low points in the series. Many of the problems we gripe about in a respective release might never be fixed because that's the only version we'll ever get. Instead of remaking titles that don't need to be remade like Rondo of Blood, games like The Castlevania Adventure and Circle of the Moon should be remade, to fix what should have been fixed YEARS ago.

That's not to say Chronicles couldn't remake some of the good titles, but why fix what isn't broken? I think the priority should be doctoring up the poorer titles and remaking the obscure ones first, so that these forgotten and often disliked games have the chance to finally shine with the brilliance they should have had at the outset.
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