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XBLA - Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

As far as the graphics, I'm surprised people are surprised. $30 DS Castlevanias barely get a budget, so I'm sure it's the same deal here, given that it'll be $15 at most.

As far as the gameplay, I'm willing to hold judgment until we get actual gameplay impressions. 6-player co-op is at least interesting on paper.
 
mujun said:
So is there like a new rule on the site now where every thread of 360 related piece of news gets flooded up with shit?
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Well, this is one of the most hilariously delusional posts I've seen in a while.
 
mujun said:
So is there like a new rule on the site now where every thread of 360 related piece of news gets flooded up with shit?
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This game, no matter the system, looks like ass. The co-op idea sounds very terrible to add. Thankfully we have Lords of Shadows around the corner for a true Castlevania.
 
Decent co-op could make one of those latter day, by the numbers Castlevania titles actually palatable. But balanced around SIX players? With crazy zoom out? That's just a mess.

Lord of Shadows a true Castlevania, really?
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Dey is not a twoo fanz.
 
Reneledarker said:
Lord of Shadows a true Castlevania, really?
Your love for Kojima blinds you ppl.
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so how's the game? I'd like to know more but I can't wait for the presentation, care to elaborate on your pros and cons after playing through it?
 
CcrooK said:
This game, no matter the system, looks like ass. The co-op idea sounds very terrible to add. Thankfully we have Lords of Shadows around the corner for a true Castlevania.
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Maybe it's actually fun. It beat out some pretty solid titles to make it on the Summer of XBLA list. I don't think anyone criticizing the game in here has actually played it.
 
SapientWolf said:
Maybe it's actually fun. It beat out some pretty solid titles to make it on the Summer of XBLA list. I don't think anyone criticizing the game in here has actually played it.
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Six players is just so offputting to me. Especially if it's balanced around keeping everyone on one screen at a time. Maybe it'll turn it ok. Personally I don't care if they shit all over the single-player only weepers, but I want good co-op mechanics, not party game mechanics.

We'll see.

you should probably stop posting.
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Why? He's spot on, I think. The area design inmost of the handheld Castlevania games has been very derivative and bland. Castlevania really needs some actual care and attention put into it's design unless they just want to cater to the handful of people who want to play perpetual SOTN fanwank forever.
 
True Castlevania are 2d action/rpg hybrids whit some platforming, and while LoS looks like a decent action game you can't call it a true vania, like you said what do we know about the game?
IGA just gets too much hate here, while hes 3d game are atrocious, hes 2d are good for the budget they have, specially OoE, one of the greatest DS game.
 
Reneledarker said:
True Castlevania are 2d action/rpg hybrids whit some platforming, and while LoS looks like a decent action game you can't call it a true vania, like you said what do we know about the game?
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:lol
 
Alex said:
Why? He's spot on, I think. The area design inmost of the handheld Castlevania games has been very derivative and bland. Castlevania really needs some actual care and attention put into it's design unless they just want to cater to the handful of people who want to play perpetual SOTN fanwank forever.
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sure, i'd agree with what you say. but, not only does the statement make absolutely no sense, what he is saying is a vague statement which seems he was applying to all 2d castlevania games.
 
I don't like the fact that it's like a time attack based gameplay. In Metroidvania the fun is to explore and collect items/weapon/armors/skills. Time limit kinda kills that. It seems here they dump you in a level and you team up with 5 friends to beat it before time runs out? I hope there is some sort of leveling up system and an inventory system. I will reserve judgement until we see more but the screens and clip certainly didn't impress me.
 
andymcc said:
sure, i'd agree with what you say. but, not only does the statement make absolutely no sense, what he is saying is a vague statement which seems he was applying to all 2d castlevania games.
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I think from the context it's pretty clear he was only talking about Igavanias
 
Eh, doesn't look too bad on my TV. (But my TV is SD.) At least the stages and basic (tiny) characters.

It is an idea that rubs me the wrong way, but I'm easily ready to try it. More interesting to look at than N+, and this is in the same XBLA price bracket, most likely. While I'd love to see a 2D Castlevania with serious 2D HD of very considerable size and such... I don't totally hate this yet!

Baby Steps.

Would be nice if it had a 2nd castle with all new stuff... again XD or 10 new castles, or... you know, whatever fits this game.
 
Vamphuntr said:
I don't like the fact that it's like a time attack based gameplay. In Metroidvania the fun is to explore and collect items/weapon/armors/skills. Time limit kinda kills that. It seems here they dump you in a level and you team up with 5 friends to beat it before time runs out? I hope there is some sort of leveling up system and an inventory system. I will reserve judgement until we see more but the screens and clip certainly didn't impress me.
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Time attack based gameplay? -________-

Dreams crushed. :(
 
acidspunk said:
Time attack based gameplay? -________-

Dreams crushed. :(
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You can see the time limit in the upper right corner of the screens and youtube clip. Also the leak we had here hinted at that :(
 
brandonh83 said:
so how's the game? I'd like to know more but I can't wait for the presentation, care to elaborate on your pros and cons after playing through it?
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Not quite as good as the new XBLA Castlevania game that you have all played, but still decent enough.
 
andymcc said:
sure, i'd agree with what you say. but, not only does the statement make absolutely no sense, what he is saying is a vague statement which seems he was applying to all 2d castlevania games.
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Then that would make him silly! The non-RPG titles and the early RPG ones were quite solid, I just assume he's talking about the Nostalgic Gothic Hallways series, and not so much classical Castlevania.

I still think the series needs some modernization though even if they brought back some of the better castle designs. Castlevania has so much potential to go places in the hands of a talented team, even if it's not *ahem* "TRUE CASTLEVANIA FOR TRUE FANS"
 
Alex said:
Why? He's spot on, I think. The area design in most of the handheld Castlevania games has been very derivative and bland.
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Check out Ecclesia's Training Room, yo! That little piece of absolutely golden platforming totally represents what future Castlevania games should be all about.
 
C4Lukins said:
Not quite as good as the new XBLA Castlevania game that you have all played, but still decent enough.
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:lol my fingers are crossed. I'm just expecting a fun diversion until Lords of Shadow.
 
Alex said:
Then that would make him silly! The non-RPG titles and the early RPG ones were quite solid, I just assume he's talking about the Nostalgic Gothic Hallways series, and not so much classical Castlevania.

I still think the series needs some modernization though even if they brought back some of the better castle designs. Castlevania has so much potential to go places in the hands of a talented team, even if it's not *ahem* "TRUE CASTLEVANIA FOR TRUE FANS"
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i'm not really thrilled with what i've seen of los, but, i do agree iga is the worst thing that has happened to the series, and he's the reason castlevania is now a niche series instead of a mainstream one.
 
andymcc said:
i'm not really thrilled with what i've seen of los, but, i do agree iga is the worst thing that has happened to the series, and he's the reason castlevania is now a niche series instead of a mainstream one.
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So what you're saying is that if IGA had never come along, Castlevania's brand of unforgiving platforming gameplay would have kept lighting the charts up with its impressive sales year in and year out.

Say that in your mind a few times to get the full effect.
 
Ridley327 said:
So what you're saying is that if IGA had never come along, Castlevania's brand of unforgiving platforming gameplay would have kept lighting the charts up with its impressive sales year in and year out.

Say that in your mind a few times to get the full effect.
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i'm saying that the 3D games, which he directed, wouldn't have been the abysmal failures that they are. the series is relegated to handheld games with rehashed 19 year old sprites in cut-n-paste environments because that's all he is capable of doing.

i love some of IGA's games, don't get me wrong, dracula X is one of my favorite games of all time, but he has been a detriment to the series for a long time now.
 
CcrooK said:
This game, no matter the system, looks like ass. The co-op idea sounds very terrible to add. Thankfully we have Lords of Shadows around the corner for a true Castlevania.
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I never said it didn't look like ass.

The new design of the 360 might not be very good, Kinectic or whatever it's called may suck, the conference may have been "meh", etc.

Still the amount of shit talking that goes on in the threads seems out of control to me.
 
mujun said:
I never said it didn't look like ass.

The new design of the 360 might not be very good, Kinectic or whatever it's called may suck, the conference may have been "meh", etc.

Still the amount of shit talking that goes on in the threads seems out of control to me.
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What exactly is your complain then? That despite the fact that there might be many negative things that people might have to say about the various topics you have just pointed out, that you feel they shouldn't be allowed to be that negative because...? Please, tell us more.
 
andymcc said:
i'm saying that the 3D games, which he directed, wouldn't have been the abysmal failures that they are. the series is relegated to handheld games with rehashed 19 year old sprites in cut-n-paste environments because that's all he is capable of doing.

i love some of IGA's games, don't get me wrong, dracula X is one of my favorite games of all time, but he has been a detriment to the series for a long time now.
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I'm not going to lie; I honestly feel that Konami is far more to blame for anything that's happened to the series than IGA gets dumped on for. If they ever felt strongly that IGA was not the right guy for the job, then he should have been replaced with someone else. Call it negligence, call it stupidity, call it whatever you want; the fact is the guys who own the goddamn IP thought to never do anything about it until their breadwinner wonderboy decided to put his name on it.

To put it simply, blaming IGA ignores the fact that Konami is run by monkeys with Down syndrome.
 
Well ReBirth was good, so I'm going to appoach this as I did with Sonic 5 years ago. Hoping for the best so it doesn't die.
 
7Th said:
Check out Ecclesia's Training Room, yo! That little piece of absolutely golden platforming totally represents what future Castlevania games should be all about.
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And that's the strangest thing here. The Training Room proves that IGA's team does have the talent to make good platforming segments. Why they always opt for straight-line corridors filled with enemies is quite beyond me.
 
Sinatar said:
Quiet you, Igavania's are fucking awesome.
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You got me, I don't hate them (although I am weary of them after 6-7 verisons of the same thing). I'm more glad that Konami finally took console Castlevania away from Iga because he sent the franchise right into obscurity, and it deserves better.
 
Ridley327 said:
I'm not going to lie; I honestly feel that Konami is far more to blame for anything that's happened to the series than IGA gets dumped on for. If they ever felt strongly that IGA was not the right guy for the job, then he should have been replaced with someone else. Call it negligence, call it stupidity, call it whatever you want; the fact is the guys who own the goddamn IP thought to never do anything about it until their breadwinner wonderboy decided to put his name on it.

To put it simply, blaming IGA ignores the fact that Konami is run by monkeys with Down syndrome.
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i'm pretty vocal with the opinion that konami has had the biggest fall from grace of any of the major japanese developers. you're absolutely right in saying konami is mostly responsible, but, in the end, most people see the 3D castlevania's and some of the lesser-metroidvanias as solely being iga's mistakes.

in short: i think we should blame konami and IGA both.
 
What video or impressions are you guys basing this game's failure on? The XBLA montage with, like, seven seconds of cut up footage? I mean, yeah, the visuals look lifted straight out of the PS1, GBA, DS stuff...but what's so bad about that? I like the fact that it looks so blatantly old school and tiled. Could turn out to be pretty fun if the focus is squarely on levels with actual level design and platforming. Or is it that it's supposed to be co-op? I don't understand the immediate calls for it to be thrown onto the funeral pyre.
 
MightyHedgehog said:
What video or impressions are you guys basing this game's failure on? The XBLA montage with, like, seven seconds of cut up footage? I mean, yeah, the visuals look lifted straight out of the PS1, GBA, DS stuff...but what's so bad about that? I like the fact that it looks so blatantly old school and tiled. Could turn out to be pretty fun if the focus is squarely on levels with actual level design and platforming. Or is it that it's supposed to be co-op? I don't understand the immediate calls for it to be thrown onto the funeral pyre.
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http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=21046536#post21046536

The article in the thread was taken down though. It was leaked a while ago. Thread has some extra pictures.
 
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