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Konami Trademarks Harmony of Despair

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Ridley327 said:
I'm not sure I quite understand the upscaling issue since SotN is already available on XBLA and PSN and it looks just like this game does (SotN and the DS games are almost identical when it comes to resolution). I mean, I get the argument about the game not being redrawn and reusing assets, but upscaling them doesn't strike me as being one of the bigger problems the game has as of right now.

It just boils down to it being DoS's Arrange Mode being repackaged and slightly repurposed; that's worth getting angry about.
Yes, I don't get the hate either. If it was a fully fledged new game with reused sprites, I wouldn't care. DS, PSP, PS3 or 360, a good igavania is always a blessing.

However, if it's just "boss rush" mode, i'd be a little disapointed. If it's PSO style gameplay (get a group, go to a stage, farm the boss for items)... then I could be a little more into it.

What strikes me the most is that everybody is bitching at those screens, but nobody notices that they have the wrong aspect ratio. They're 1.25 AR (960px × 768px), and that's just wrong. Whoever uploaded these screenshots to tinypic should resize them to their proper AR of 1.77 (1366px x 768px), and they'll look a little better (specially the character selection screen).

Edit:
Soma's picture in the gameplay screen is Stretched out. Whoever made up the menu's probably didn't get a Graphic Design degree. It looks too fake for me.
It's stretched because whoever captured the screenshots used a wrong resolution on them.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
It looks real to me.

But the problem is that it feels like a glorified Boss Rush mode with almost entirely reused sprites.

I only have a PS3 so even if it comes to the PS3, I'd pass on it since I don't play multiplayer much and I expect a new kind of Igivania game even though it being a DS port something.
 

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Sorry about the double post, but while I was resizing the images to get the proper aspect ratio on them, I noticed something strange.

On the menu options (where all the art is "new"), putting it on the proper aspect ratio makes the pictures look better and correct:



However, in the pictures where there are sprites, putting them in the correct ratio makes the sprites appear stretched, while the new assets (health and magic meters, timer, portrait of character) appear correct:



In this particular pic, you can see really notice the difference: In the original resolution the pictures were posted, the sprites look OK but the moon is oval - a clear sight that it's in the wrong aspect ratio.



However, if you correct it, both the moon (which is now round) and the "RT Open Book" text at the bottom are displayed at the correct aspect ratio, but all the sprites are stretched horribly:



Which I believe means that the code this version is running on is kinda screwed. All the new assets are made with 16:9 in mind (menu selection, portrait, health/magic bars), while all the sprite work is made for 4:3 aspect (since they're coming from the DS games), but the code displaying the assets is not making that distinction. (either that or I'm hallucinating that the sprites look stretched when the aspect ratio is corrected).

If that's the case, somebody has to fix this before this comes out, but I'm sure it's pretty early in the development cycle and that will be taken care of. (at least I hope so).
 
I'd definitely love to believe this, but after really thinking about it, ... nah. It sounds kinda lame. And on top of that, this doesn't look HD. At ALL. I'd rather they spend the time and money to make a traditional Castlevania for the next gen consoles that some weird ass game like this.
 

Dascu

Member
RoninChaos said:
I'd definitely love to believe this, but after really thinking about it, ... nah. It sounds kinda lame. And on top of that, this doesn't look HD. At ALL. I'd rather they spend the time and money to make a traditional Castlevania for the next gen consoles that some weird ass game like this.
Yeah, a new CV would make a lot of sense for the 3DS.
 

TxdoHawk

Member
Let me put it this way. If the only way we're going to get 2d Metroidvanias on XBLA is by using upscaled DS graphics, then so be it. Konami obviously does not want to throw a lot of money at a project like this, so I'd rather they do this, instead of blow 90% of the budget on what would probably be an ugly 3d remake anyway. Give me excellent gameplay, and I'm in.
 

Foffy

Banned
TxdoHawk said:
Let me put it this way. If the only way we're going to get 2d Metroidvanias on XBLA is by using upscaled DS graphics, then so be it. Konami obviously does not want to throw a lot of money at a project like this, so I'd rather they do this, instead of blow 90% of the budget on what would probably be an ugly 3d remake anyway. Give me excellent gameplay, and I'm in.


They don't put a lot of money into any Castlevania game for the most part. :lol

I have a feeling that if this project is really legit, it's probably being done by an outside source. I doubt IGA's team would reuse sprites and assets to this degree, after seeing a lot of subtle changes with Order of Ecclesia. IGA's also suspect to reusing the same formula, and this looks like it's really trying to change stuff up, which is uncanny if it's really his work.
 
Foffy said:
I have a feeling that if this project is really legit, it's probably being done by an outside source.

Definitely. The mismatched aspect ratios suggest to me that it must be Backbone, a developer with a proven record of sloppiness.
 

Paracelsus

Member
Since Sprsk has confirmed it I can't see why I should doubt its existence. However, both the title screen and the character select menu look an amateur attempt at photoshopping, which makes me wonder how far are they into development if they haven't proper menus yet.
 

CO_Andy

Member
Congratulations are in order for Iga for finding yet another way to lower the bar on the Castlevania franchise.
 
CO_Andy said:
Congratulations are in order for Iga for finding yet another way to lower the bar on the Castlevania franchise.

dfuah5.jpg
 
Considering IGA's last project was Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, I imagine Konami heads said something like "we need an XBLA/PSN game to help spur the old Castlevania fans while Lords of Shadow brings in new meat."

Problem is that Castlevania Rebirth was only released last Fall/Winter. This game probably doesn't has much involvement from him, if it is real, of course.

That or this is a rush-job and very early.
 

KAL2006

Banned
TxdoHawk said:
Let me put it this way. If the only way we're going to get 2d Metroidvanias on XBLA is by using upscaled DS graphics, then so be it. Konami obviously does not want to throw a lot of money at a project like this, so I'd rather they do this, instead of blow 90% of the budget on what would probably be an ugly 3d remake anyway. Give me excellent gameplay, and I'm in.

Then what would be the point of releasing on HD consoles, might aswell just release another game for the DS. The whole point of having it on HD consoles, is having HD graphics. If the game is going to look the same, it is better off on the DS where the graphics look much better on a small screen, than pixelated sprites on a big HD screen.
 

wrowa

Member
I love IGA's metroidvanias and in my opinion they are some of the best games in the series' history, but always when IGA tries something different it ends up shitty. Looking at the screens and the info about this new game this doesn't seem like it will be different.

Point is: I really hope IGA works on a new Castlevania game for the 3DS.
 

Foffy

Banned
Still wondering who the developer is, though.

I really doubt it's IGA's handheld team, largely because they don't rehash this badly.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
The highlights of the Metroidvanias are the exploration and the collect-a-thon. What is the point of having 6 players play together arcade style in a small Metroidvania map and with a time limit :( There will probably be know stuff(armor, spells) to collect, seems arcade. Like other have said, it looks amateurish. They can't really do much platforming either with 6 people playing at the same time...
 

Sectus

Member
It looks like it could be fun to me. I'm not expecting them to do re-do all the graphics in HD, and even if they did, what are the chances it'll look good? I thought SF2HDR looked extremely bad in motion.

drizzle said:
Sorry about the double post, but while I was resizing the images to get the proper aspect ratio on them, I noticed something strange.

Which I believe means that the code this version is running on is kinda screwed. All the new assets are made with 16:9 in mind (menu selection, portrait, health/magic bars), while all the sprite work is made for 4:3 aspect (since they're coming from the DS games), but the code displaying the assets is not making that distinction. (either that or I'm hallucinating that the sprites look stretched when the aspect ratio is corrected).

If that's the case, somebody has to fix this before this comes out, but I'm sure it's pretty early in the development cycle and that will be taken care of. (at least I hope so).
I have a theory whoever took the screenshots had chosen a 360 resolution the game isn't compatible with (yet). Certain old 360 games will simply look stretched if you choose a 4:3 resolution. Maybe whoever took these screenshots did the same, and the ingame graphics are coded to be rendered 1:1 no matter what but the UI stuff and certain elements are stretched to fill the screen.
 

Chemo

Member
TxdoHawk said:
Let me put it this way. If the only way we're going to get 2d Metroidvanias on XBLA is by using upscaled DS graphics, then so be it. Konami obviously does not want to throw a lot of money at a project like this, so I'd rather they do this, instead of blow 90% of the budget on what would probably be an ugly 3d remake anyway. Give me excellent gameplay, and I'm in.
You are absolutely part of the problem.
 
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