Henchmen21 said:
It looks like Castlevania.
Yes, it does...the shitty post-N64 3D Castlevania...but those games were basically marrying the grind-y nature of post-SoTN DS ARPG CV design with DMC-like forced, combo-heavy fights in rooms and enclosures that came with the PS2/XBOX 3D CVs, Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, while completely eliminating actual level design in favor of a bunch identical cells or rooms to form larger locations.
This new one has seemingly ditched more of the SoTN/DS CV style to go straight toward God of War-flavored progression. The game camera is pulled back to center on the main character from a 3/4 perspective, seemingly auto-controlled, and enemies come into a temporarily enclosed area forming an arena that will only allow further progress once all enemies are defeated. And the way it's done seems more GoW than DMC (a game which GoW is inspired by) with its even lower expectation of the player. Long, strikes that form combos after multiple presses and an experience system where some form of currency is used to upgrade or buy wholly new techniques which themselves require new motions and controller invocation. The similarity is undeniable to all who would be honest with themselves and are familiar with those titles.
CcrooK said:
Ya know, that does bring about a question that I'm not understanding. Why do people think this isn't a Castlevania game? What is there that we are not seeing that makes it just that?
It's not classic Actionvania nor is it even Metroidvania, at least as far as combat. Outside of boss encounters, those games always focused on and allowed for the player to move on past enemies and not be trapped into DMC/GoW-like arena fights in order to progress. The biggest thing, however, is that platforming and fighting enemies could take place at the same time no matter what because fights were not limited to specific spots and enemies could freely travel the levels. The enemies were always part of the platforming where it was required to fight and platform at the very same time. There is no way to deny this game's direction as going further down the road of taking their already present DMC-like temporarily closed rooms and arenas while you fight into the GoW-take on things. It's not CV, but in name and reference only. And that's fine for a reboot if your standards are that a reboot should just ape something else so completely instead of trying something new or at least honoring some of the classic design beyond some iconic elements and nostalgic callbacks.
I'd love to be wrong about how completely it seems to have cut itself from its past, but I'm not hopeful.