Topic: Castlevania Interview

[ruby_onix]

Igarashi's next big creative idea for Castlevania DS is...

...

You can use the stylus to draw a face, for use in a "personal profile" section.

...

Of more interesting note, Igarashi has apparently take the complaints about the pointlessness of the generic anime art style to heart, and it's mentioned now that there's an animated intro sequence for the game. Yay! Now I'll have to stop calling him a cheap bastard (of course, there probably won't be very much anime in the game, but I'll reserve judgement for now).

Also, the next 3D PS2 Castlevania, "Curse of Darkness", is now being made for the Xbox in addition to the PS2.

[darknight06]

"You can use the stylus to draw a face, for use in a "personal profile" section."

Yep so the person you trade souls with ONLINE will have a face as well as you.

[Blackknight131]

Hehe, I seriously dont have great issue with the "generic anime" look.
I think its just cause I'm a sucker for the anime look in general...no question tho, a Kojima-rendered portrait simply fits the overall look better...but then, her stuff is too detailed for anime scenes =p

[nemo_83]

From what I saw of the videos of this game from E3 I have to play it.  It looks way more interesting than the PS2 version.  I'm just a 2d gamer though.  I hope he makes a side scrolling 3d Castlevania for the REV, via prerendered backgrounds like RERebirth.

[jasonditz]

Quote
Originally posted by: RABicle
I'm glad he's focusing on the PS2 version. Seriously Konami proved on GBA that they hardly need to think about Castlevania to churn out quality. It's liek they just have this formula to making the games and insert some characters and a vague storyline, think of a title that somehow involved musical compositions and BAM new game. We can be pretty sure that Castlevania DS will be top qualty even with boring artwork and being more of the same.
PS2 one is still looking appaling but he might pull something off and I hope he does.

Either that or they've got some anonymous underling working at Konami for like $15k a year who really "gets" 2D castlevania.

I'm surprised the artwork controversy hasn't blown up a little more yet. I still haven't seen the equivalent of

"LOL! Castlevania, more like Cellstlevania!!!1!1!"

[Gremio]

I don't like the anime-ish art style of the DS Castlevania game. It looks tacky and I feel it doesn't fit the series. I much perfer the other art style. (I'm still going to get the game, though).

~IGA: Actually, I have been pushed by the consumer. That doesn't mean I don't love the games I'm working on. I also have to think about not only the hardcore fans, but the female Castlevania players. They are a small portion of the fan base, but that's part of the reason why I wanted to integrate an experience point system into Curse of Darkness -- to allow female gamers to enjoy powering up their characters.~

Well, regarding this... it isn't something so simple as "powering up" my characters that attracts me to RPGs or games like SotN. It was the beautiful art style, the music, the sense of exploration, the enjoyable gameplay (and in the case of many RPGs, the wide variety of interesting characters both male and female).

SoTN still stands to this day as my favorite Castlevania game. Heck, it is one of my favorite games, period. I played LoI on PS2 and I didn't like it - it felt very generic and unenjoyable: not because of the lack of a level-up system but because of the generic 3D hack and slash gameplay, poor camera angles, unmemorable music, repetitive environment, lack of varied environments and lack of a feeling of genuine exploration.

Well, I can only speak for myself...  

[jasonditz]

That's just a weird thing to say... is leveling up in an RPG a decidedly female endeavor?