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Director of God of War wants to work on a Castlevania game next

Comandr

Member
Castlevania is an IP that is so rich in characters and lore. GoW2018 and GoWR already feature quite a few metroidvania elements with secret areas unlocked with new abilities, incentivizing revisitation of old areas. Lords of Shadow 1 was magnificent and I’m not even going to talk about its sequel.

I’m all for it. It’s not like the IP is doing anyone other than pachinko parlor owners any good anyway.
 
Didn't we just have a thread where he said he wanted to work on God of War forever?

Would much prefer they worked on a Castlevania game though.
 
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Bit iffy on that but if they did I hope they would make it action-adventure style and not try to do Metroidvania in a 3d space.
 
A prestigious studio like SSM working on Castlevania should be a no brainer for Konami. If they’re willing to work with Bloober of all studios, the ink should be drying as we speak.
Sony should not spend money on an IP they don't own by wasting their current best developer on it.
 

CamHostage

Member
As somebody who never really became enamored with the hack-and-slash stylish character action of the 3D Ninja Gaiden trilogy, I'm personally not in favor of Castlevania continuing in this direction.

I like platforming and structured enemy encounters. I like knowing when to duck and when to jump in order to avoid attacks. I like crawling around on the walls as Grant, or flying around as Alucard. (C3=best Castlevania IMO.) I actually like falling into pits, and then learning how not to fall into those pits next time.

1f3MKxi.png

(Not my favorite Castlevania, but this is what pops into my head when I imagine how one of these games should play.)

And although I can see why these 2D mechanics are incredibly difficult to make a modern game out of without limiting a game to 2.5D (or just straight 2D), I don't need another game with 100-hit combos and juggling. If somebody can conceive of a game that does something other than that, then great, but if not, I don't personally need a game called "Castlevania" for the lore or the characters or whatever else some people see as value in the brand name. Enjoy it if it does it for you, but it'd be filling no hole in the market other than there being no new games under "C" with a Belmont or Drac descendent in it. There's no mainstream game out that's like Ninja Gaiden 1-3 NES, and there's not yet a mainstream game which plays like the Castlevania I would want most.
 
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stn

Member
I would very much be down for a Castlevania game that plays like GoW 2018. That reminds me that I still need to finish the Lords of Shadow games.
 

marquimvfs

Member
Well, Castlevania is dead anyway... LOS1 was a great game but with simplistic combat and puzze, while LOS2 improved those aspects but managed to make the game more boring. Having said that, I don't believe anything good could come from it, just another attempt to make the franchise more "modern" that will completely destroy the original tone. Better have someone else trying to ruin the IP rather than someone we will know will underdeliver.
 

SafeOrAlone

Banned
He may be better suited for that. I’d be down to soak in some gothic vampire atmosphere. I may actually be willing to endlessly walk around for that.

I really don’t want him on the next God of War. I’d like that series to be about bombast again. Let another series tell plodding, personal stories.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
What’s the point of the franchise?

So what would a modern castlevania look like that understands the point of the franchise? What's a good example of something in the last 20 years?

I was just about to write the obvious answer when someone beat me:

Honestly? Bloodborne is already the perfect Castlevania game

Yes, Bloodborne. There have even been countless threads on NeoGAF alone where we ended up discussing the strong Castlevania feeling that Bloodborne gives off.

There are many reasons for this comparison being so prevalent, and why so many classic Castlevania fans immediately thought of it when Bloodborne arrived. It's not just the aesthetics, it's the intertwined layouts of the areas, which keep the feeling of dread and narrow, linear confines but combine that with a Metroidvania element of opening different cross passages and doors to traverse more quickly as you progress.

So is that the point of Castlevania? I think bloodborne works well too, but he has an idea that there is a point to it. Seems like a good game with Victorian aesthetics and a "Caslevania" paint job would work for most people if that's the case.

No need to be so picky with the term, I meant it very informally like "selling point" or its unique proposition in the market, its distinct feeling to the games.

I absolutely hated the Lords game, and it's not just the absolutely awful, plodding Western-fantasy aesthetics (site note: yes, Castlevania has European fantasy as its theme but has always had a distinctly Japapese take of that genre, and you can't remove the latter without completely botching the style). Which by the way is the same kind of boring fantasy crap that the GoW franchise gives us, but I digress.

One major problem with Lords is that your character isn't supposed to be nimbly bouncing around in an arena-style area fight. And absolutely shouldn't have combos or any kind of combat system resembling that. Castlevania's protagonists are weighty above all else. A single strike with your whip or spear is a risk, where you lose a second and are open to attack. Even in SOTN this feeling mostly persists due to the cramped spaces and the feeling of the tighter sidescrolling design. Bloodborne gets that feeling right, when you walk up a staircase and find yourself pushed back by an enemy, or surrounded by dogs in a narrow street. The intense gameplay there, where one false move is death, matches Castlevania extremely well.
 
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Yoboman

Member
He may be better suited for that. I’d be down to soak in some gothic vampire atmosphere. I may actually be willing to endlessly walk around for that.

I really don’t want him on the next God of War. I’d like that series to be about bombast again. Let another series tell plodding, personal stories.
Pretty sure he's worked on every GOW game
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Ehh maybe if he takes the castlevania formula and builds off it like they took the Zelda oot formula for the new GOW and built off that.
 
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Ol'Scratch

Member
I love how just straight up stupid things have become where people will be like "Nah" and let the series rot even longer than to have something made that could be great or could not be great but they can make that decision themselves whether to buy it or not.
So fucking tired of it.
"I don't like it so it shouldn't exist"
 
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The one that had Kojima help was pretty good, after it was downhill:

So why not .

Or what we do in the shadows spin-off
 
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I love how just straight up stupid things have become where people will be like "Nah" and let the series rot even longer than to have something made that could be great or could not be great but they can make that decision themselves whether to buy it or not.
So fucking tired of it.
"I don't like it so it shouldn't exist"

Peopel are just in their feelings about Ragnarok
 

Romulus

Member
No need to be so picky with the term, I meant it very informally like "selling point" or its unique proposition in the market, its distinct feeling to the games.

I absolutely hated the Lords game, and it's not just the absolutely awful, plodding Western-fantasy aesthetics (site note: yes, Castlevania has European fantasy as its theme but has always had a distinctly Japapese take of that genre, and you can't remove the latter without completely botching the style). Which by the way is the same kind of boring fantasy crap that the GoW franchise gives us, but I digress.

One major problem with Lords is that your character isn't supposed to be nimbly bouncing around in an arena-style area fight. And absolutely shouldn't have combos or any kind of combat system resembling that. Castlevania's protagonists are weighty above all else. A single strike with your whip or spear is a risk, where you lose a second and are open to attack. Even in SOTN this feeling mostly persists due to the cramped spaces and the feeling of the tighter sidescrolling design. Bloodborne gets that feeling right, when you walk up a staircase and find yourself pushed back by an enemy, or surrounded by dogs in a narrow street. The intense gameplay there, where one false move is death, matches Castlevania extremely well.

I'm being picky because I was supposed to know you meant "selling point" instead of "the point?" I hadn't played all the Castlevania games and I know they are very different, even the NES games with Simon's Quest.. I was curious if that was one of the first games to miss the point or something. Fair play.
 
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