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XBLA - Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Noogy

Member
Minamu said:
IGA's Metroidvanias are the fucking best DS games available, hands down. Screw the haters :) Will buy. That IGN leak confirmation makes it sound really interesting.
Respect. The more I see about this game, the more I can't wait!
 

Vamphuntr

Member
So in the Konami conference thread I said I would buy that to help save poor Iga from the loop. Hope I will play with some of you online:lol
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
I will buy this game however many times I need for IGA to give me new characters.

I will leave not one dot behind.
 

7Th

Member
TreIII said:
Or....maybe we just prefer the older style because it fits our perception of the CV world better. :lol

Kojima's androgynous males, and her overall "beautiful gothic" never did anything for me. I personally preferred CV when it was more of a "gothic horror/80s-90s manly" montage. To this day, I despise her rendition of Simon Belmont. It's right up there with Obata's design in CV: Judgement. :lol

Her art is better because it's technically better, that's all there is to it. Older Castlevania art, other than the cover of the original, is all over the place in terms of perspective, anatomy, finishing and overall quality. I don't think it would be far-fetched to say that the covers to Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse and Super are American Megaman-level of bad:

Supercastlevaniaiv_japanbox.jpg
 

Empty

Member
buying because i felt so sorry for iga during the press conference. hope the game is okay, though i think the graphics look pretty unappealing already.
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
Empty said:
buying because i felt so sorry for iga during the press conference. hope the game is okay, though i think the graphics look pretty unappealing already.
Reused assets due to ridiculously low budget. :/
 
this does not look like fun.

whats with the zooming? the castle looks like one of those shitty cut-outs cereal boxes used to have. you'd cut it out (poorly), stand it up (barely) and realize that none of your action figures were small enough to interact with it.

this game makes me feel the same way.
 
Empty said:
buying because i felt so sorry for iga during the press conference. hope the game is okay, though i think the graphics look pretty unappealing already.
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.
 

LowParry

Member
7Th said:
Her art is better because it's technically better

There's no better or worse art from older and newer Castlevania games. Some of the new stuff is shit. Portrait of Ruin. Dawn of Sarrow. But I do like Symphony of the Night, Rondo, and Order of Ecclesia.

Either way, it's all a mixed bag of good/bad art.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.
No salary, no new art, no team, I guess he had to save his $10k for flying to E3 and buying off Summer of Arcade space?

Edit: Wait, how much does ESRB cert cost? Could that be the sole expense of this game?
 

LowParry

Member
Scalemail Ted said:
If this sells well... he might get a budget to make an actual HD 2d Castlevania game. [/wishful thinking]

:lol No. If it sells well, we may get new characters and stages as DLC.
 

Empty

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.

oh my god :( :(

i love the DS castlevania's so much. it's so saddening to hear that making such fantastic games isn't enough to sustain his work.
 

Boney

Banned
ShockingAlberto said:
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.
Wow...
 

Cheerilee

Member
7Th said:
Her art is better because it's technically better, that's all there is to it. Older Castlevania art, other than the cover of the original, is all over the place in terms of perspective, anatomy, finishing and overall quality. I don't think it would be far-fetched to say that the covers to Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse and Super are American Megaman-level of bad:

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/_...a/images/e/ee/Supercastlevaniaiv_japanbox.jpg
Bad art is bad art, and there was tons of it on the NES, but I would say that this...
http://vgmdaily.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/castlevania-wall.jpg
... is technically as good or better than anything Ayami Kojima has produced, and captures the spirit and emotion of Castlevania perfectly.

Kojima's style was excellent in SotN and I think it was a perfect compliment to a character like Alucard, but I think the barbarian style is better suited for a Belmont. Soma Cruz deserves anime (and he needs a few more games).


Edit: Oh wait, you said other than the cover of the original. Still, that's a big exception.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.

Poor poor Iga, think I'm going to need to buy it. He might not be able to evolve from his SotN concept, but I think his 2D efforts since have all been pretty damn good. I'll buy mostly due to Konami playing with him like this, tell the guy that he can't provide the company with anything else or give him a proper budget.
 
My God it's worse than I imagined.
Konami feeds Iga right? Or at least I dunno let's him sleep on the couch cause he can no longer afford rent?
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
ShockingAlberto said:
It looks like he genuinely tried to make due with the hand he was dealt.

He implied in one of the interviews after the conference (that took place during a damn concert) that he hasn't been taking a salary during the game.

Konami doesn't even pay IGA while funneling $INFINITY to the Traitorvania they make him introduce onstage.

I will buy all of IGA's dots until he gives us new characters and stages. Never shall I forgive Konami for their crimes.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
ixix said:
Konami doesn't even pay IGA while funneling $INFINITY to the Traitorvania they make him introduce onstage.

I will buy all of IGA's dots until he gives us new characters and stages. Never shall I forgive Konami for their crimes.

If we buy enough copies, IGA might be saved from the loop and not be forced to present the Traitorvania again and again
 
TheJollyCorner said:
what in the hell is this mess? o_O
:lol I'm not sure what people are tearing their eyes out about. It's a bit gaudy and a bit mixed up with some different stylings that clash a little as it's all thrown into a semi-random pile of work, but somehow it's mostly unified in that way I find some of the post-NES Castlevania games, like Super IV and Bloodlines. I think this has a good chance to be fun even if it isn't a classic Castlevania. Certainly, it seems like it'll be more interesting than Lords of Shadow (and Castlevania-like), at least from what has been shown of that title so far.
 
It really does show how Japanese companies work when a man who has produced five games with a metacritic of 85 or higher, all of them selling quite respectably, now finds himself scrambling to keep his job.

Hey Konami, you know you could probably just keep him on those nicely profitable portable Vanias while giving the console work to someone else, right? It's not fucking Highlander.
 

MechaX

Member
PepsimanVsJoe said:
My God it's worse than I imagined.
Konami feeds Iga right? Or at least I dunno let's him sleep on the couch cause he can no longer afford rent?

Well, in an interview today, he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing in the Konami conference if that says anything.

Jeez, this is actually sounding pretty bad. Given that the guy provided me with two excellent games in the form of Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia, I'll put down the $10 to help him out, SotN rehasing, low-budget-ness be damned.

Segata Sanshiro said:
It really does show how Japanese companies work when a man who has produced five games with a metacritic of 85 or higher, all of them selling quite respectably, now finds himself scrambling to keep his job.

On one hand, his entries sell like absolute shit in Japan.

On the other hand, his titles do well over 10 times that amount in North America alone, which is most likely far beyond worldwide totals for any non-Metal Gear Konami game.

Maybe this is all revenge for Judgment.

Draft said:
Maybe if this Iga character gets fired we'll get some genuine advancement of Casltevania.

This shit is repulsive.

Better hope that Lord of Shadows does pretty well. If not, we're probably not going to see much of Castlevania 2D-wise or 3D-wise for a long time.
 

Draft

Member
Maybe if this Iga character gets fired we'll get some genuine advancement of Casltevania.

This shit is repulsive.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
Segata Sanshiro said:
It really does show how Japanese companies work when a man who has produced five games with a metacritic of 85 or higher, all of them selling quite respectably, now finds himself scrambling to keep his job.

Hey Konami, you know you could probably just keep him on those nicely profitable portable Vanias while giving the console work to someone else, right? It's not fucking Highlander.[/QUOTE]


Don't know how many people are serious in here, I do plan to support the game as I have Iga all along but I couldn't help but laugh when I read this.

Maybe it was because how sadly accurate it seems to be. Well long live Iga-Vania, just please Iga, no more Judgement, of if there is get as far away from it as you can.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
MechaX said:
Well, in an interview today, he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing in the Konami conference if that says anything.

Jeez, this is actually sounding pretty bad. Given that the guy provided me with two excellent games in the form of Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia, I'll put down the $10 to help him out, SotN rehasing, low-budget-ness be damned.



On one hand, his entries sell like absolute shit in Japan.

On the other hand, his titles do well over 10 times that amount in North America alone, which is most likely far beyond worldwide totals for any non-Metal Gear Konami game.

Maybe this is all revenge for Judgment.



Better hope that Lord of Shadows does pretty well. If not, we're probably not going to see much of Castlevania 2D-wise or 3D-wise for a long time.

Maybe they don't sell well, but do they really expect Lords of Shadows to? I mean christ, look at DMC, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, and God Of War none of these titles light up the charts in Japan.

I can't believe that Japan is factoring anyway to the decision to shit can Iga for Lords, and if it is well I guess they would need to be that fucking crazy after the show they put on yesterday.
 

Skilletor

Member
CcrooK said:
Someone give me a run down of the DS games. Best to worse.

I like:

Order of Ecclesia
Dawn of Sorrow
Portrait of Ruin

In that order.

Portrait of Ruin is the only Metroidvania I haven't finished. I got about halfway through before giving up. It almost made me skip OoE. Glad I didn't.
 
Draft said:
Maybe if this Iga character gets fired we'll get some genuine advancement of Casltevania.

This shit is repulsive.

Somebody with a Itagaki avatar should be ashamed to push a GoW clone in any way shape or form.
 

Draft

Member
Vamphuntr said:
Patrick Stewart is genuine advancement?
It's a start.

I don't like this 3D Castlevania one bit, but goddamn it, it's been like 10 years since SOTN. The series hasn't topped itself in over a decade. Shameful.

We're in a 2D renaissance and this clown is stripping DS assets to make boss rush XBLA games. Fuck him.
 
Draft said:
Maybe if this Iga character gets fired we'll get some genuine advancement of Casltevania.

This shit is repulsive.
I'm so conflicted I can't see. On one hand, this is the obvious culmination of repititionvania and deserves to be the punctuation mark Iga goes out on. On the other, it actually looks five hundred times more appealing than Movie-License-Vania and I'm probably going to buy it.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Draft said:
It's a start.

I don't like this 3D Castlevania one bit, but goddamn it, it's been like 10 years since SOTN. The series hasn't topped itself in over a decade. Shameful.

We're in a 2D renaissance and this clown is stripping DS assets to make boss rush XBLA games. Fuck him.

Yeah but Konami isn't giving him budget to make games. Like other have said in the thread, Harmony Of Despair was probably ultra cheap to make. He reused everything from the past Metroidvania. He made a game with the budget he had. I suppose they said no for a full fleded DS metroidvania (which themselves reused most of the ennemy sprites) so he submited this online thing :lol .
 

Draft

Member
Vamphuntr said:
Yeah but Konami isn't giving him budget to make games. Like other have said in the thread, Harmony Of Despair was probably ultra cheap to make. He reused everything from the past Metroidvania. He made a game with the budget he had. I suppose they said no for a full fleded DS metroidvania (which themselves reused most of the ennemy sprites) so he submited this online thing :lol .
You know, if that's the case, then god bless him for carrying the torch, but it's time to step aside and let someone else take a crack at running the franchise. Someone who can actually get Konami to put money into it.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
CcrooK said:
So in other words, release shovelware and pay a high price? Fuck that.

Shovelware would only be the case if the game wasn't fun. From all we have heard it plays well and is fun during the game, that alone puts it above most shovel ware.

What the fuck do you want the guy to do when he has a budget of 10k, no real staff to speak of and isn't even getting fucking paid? It is amazing he was able to pull off as much as he did.
 

TreIII

Member
CcrooK said:
We are getting that from Mercury. :D

Mercury is presenting us with the first real bit of "a now, something a bit different" for the franchise for over a decade. That's enough to get me honestly excited for the franchise in practically just as long. :D

TruePrime said:
Maybe they don't sell well, but do they really expect Lords of Shadows to? I mean christ, look at DMC, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, and God Of War none of these titles light up the charts in Japan.

Correction, Bayonetta basically sold about 1.1 million units worldwide, and the PS3 version actually debuted at the top of the sales charts in Japan. DMC has pretty much always done reasonably well in Japan, as well.

But in any case, I'm pretty sure that Japan is not likely the main focus any more, thanks to a more than a decade's worth of SOTN-likes turning away almost all Japanese support. So as long as America/the West is the main audience now, that opens the doors for the suits to respond in kind, and give the "OK" for a game to be made that could stand to most cater to Western interests.
 

Skilletor

Member
Draft said:
You know, if that's the case, then god bless him for carrying the torch, but it's time to step aside and let someone else take a crack at running the franchise. Someone who can actually get Konami to put money into it.

Konami won't let Kojima make anything other than MGS. :(
 

Vamphuntr

Member
TruePrime said:
What the fuck do you want the guy to do when he has a budget of 10k, no real staff to speak of and isn't even getting fucking paid? It is amazing he was able to pull off as much as he did.

Yes indeed. I will support it. You better play online. ALL OF YOU IN THIS THREAD.
 
Draft said:
You know, if that's the case, then god bless him for carrying the torch, but it's time to step aside and let someone else take a crack at running the franchise. Someone who can actually get Konami to put money into it.
There's only one man that can get Konami to put any money into things, and he already gave the Castlevania series his blessing with Lords of Shadow.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
TreIII said:
Mercury is presenting us with the first real bit of "a now, something a bit different" for the franchise for over a decade. That's enough to get me honestly excited for the franchise in practically just as long. :D



Correction, Bayonetta basically sold about 1.1 million units worldwide, and the PS3 version actually debuted at the top of the sales charts in Japan. DMC has pretty much always done reasonably well in Japan, as well.

But in any case, I'm pretty sure that Japan is not likely the main focus any more, thanks to a more than a decade's worth of SOTN-likes turning away almost all Japanese support. So as long as America/the West is the main audience now, that opens the doors for the suits to respond in kind, and give the "OK" for a game to be made that could stand to most cater to Western interests.

Not to you but I have been asking and looking for a while now, does anyone have sales for anything before SoTN? I haven't seen anything other then a few very specific people saying that it use to be a mainsteam franchise.

Honestly I don't buy this, and until I see numbers I really think this is people making themselves believe what they want and the they would be as much a success today as something like other medium to low franchises from the 90's.

Buy that a few hundred thousand and no more and Iga's games have easily met this number in the west alone.

Edit: Also Bayonetta's world wide numbers are pointless in this discussion, I was talking strictly Japan and it didn't do to hot, and while yes DMC does well it still doesn't hit even a million in Japan and this is best one out of the bunch. most hover around a couple hundred thousand if they are lucky and that is it.
 
Draft said:
It's a start.

I don't like this 3D Castlevania one bit, but goddamn it, it's been like 10 years since SOTN. The series hasn't topped itself in over a decade. Shameful.

We're in a 2D renaissance and this clown is stripping DS assets to make boss rush XBLA games. Fuck him.

Not necessarily by his design, if Konami really is stiffing him.
 

Pein

Banned
will buy just to support iga, castlevania ooe is my favorite ds game so I gotta do it. Plus this is probably going to be pretty damn fun in co op.
 

LowParry

Member
TruePrime said:
Shovelware would only be the case if the game wasn't fun. From all we have heard it plays well and is fun during the game, that alone puts it above most shovel ware.

What the fuck do you want the guy to do when he has a budget of 10k, no real staff to speak of and isn't even getting fucking paid? It is amazing he was able to pull off as much as he did.

For one, it'll be fun the first couple times. After that, done. I'm sure the demo will be all that is needed to play.

Second, where are these 10k figures coming from?
 
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