DS Daily: Whip it good

As long as the quality remains as high as its been, they can't put them out fast enough for me.

There are a few franchises out there that never get dull, no matter how may times you play throught them. Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Madden, and Castlevania. We love these games because we're never disappointed by their quality, and as long as they keep making new castles, new weapons and skillz, and new mosters to slay, I couldn't be happier.

Of course, that's not to say that updates aren't needed...

The dual-character setup of Portrait of Ruin seems like a great thing to explore more fully, like oh, I don't know; online co-op throughout the entire quest? Even local wireless would be awesome, especially if they could get it working so that you can independently search the castle, but then team up in the same room to take out a particularly challenging boss.

Mister, I likes my Castlevania like I likes my Pokemans - frequently and more addictive than crack.

What I'm trying to say is: The future of classic rock will be forever changed! Or... Something needs to tide us over, as far as this genre goes, 'til Nintendo realizes that they seriously need to make a new 2D Metroid that is as deep, or deeper than Super Metroid.

As long as they keep making them this way, I'll always play them. Don't get me wrong, I've played every Castlevania game out there, but none of those 3d incarnations, like the n64 versions or the ps2 versions can match their 2d counterparts. What I'm waiting for is another SoTN type one where I get to play Alucard again, Ah.. the good old days.

To be honest they really need to put more effort
into adding innovations to the franchise to keep it fresh, because for me at least it's getting slightly old.

I didn't find any of the new things they added to PoR to be that significant or add that much fun to the gaming experience. Those features and the story (which wasn't very good) aside, the game was nothing but rehash of the same formula we've played, what, five times before?

Don't get me wrong, I love the franchise and I enjoy every single [2D] game, but with DoS and PoR, I didn't get the sense that they really improved anything from the previous incarnation.

I recently played through Super Castlevania on the VC and was amazed that it contained a lot of things the franchise seems to have foorgotten - the versatility of the whip and various environmental challenges for example - that it really shouldn't have. I think the series needs to re-explore what made it great instead of just rehashing SotN with a few tweaks year after year.

I'm sure they'll be forced to add new elements eventually, but I personally can't get enough of them.
Also Portrait of Ruin is the best DS game released thusfar and I refuse to be told different.

I can't get enough Metroidvania style games. I don't care if I'm killing the undead or space pirates, as long as I get my fix. Since Nintendo doesn't seem to be releasing Metroid Dread any time soon(ever?) I require lots of Castlevania.

The Dracula X Chronicles is on my wishlist for sure. Castlevania is pretty much guaranteed to be good, and if they can match Portrait of Ruin with their next edition, then I'll probably love it just the same. I would love, however, if they were to compile the first three Castlevania games into a remake/remix package, similar to Castlevania Chronicles. Castlevania 2 was rather flawed, but if they were to add the modern Metroid-vania elements into it (the map, gold instead of hearts, change the dumb crouch-for-ten-seconds puzzles), it could be a great game.

The GBA Castlevania games should be compiled with updated graphics on the DS.
And there are plenty of other games that come out on a yearly basis and have high sales. Only difference is that the Castlevania games are fresh every time.
Until they start naming the games like "Castlevania '07" I am buying every game that is released.

To me, the Castlevania installments have always been of awesome quality. All I need is a new game mechanic and a fresh castle map to keep things interesting. If they were to switch to a LoZ or Mario sequel frequency, sure, we might get a better game, but that would ruin our appreciation for such a simple, yet still great, game? I don't need a brand new game each time. I just want another castle to go through.

At the risk of repeating my comments five posts back...

I just finished Dawn Of Sorrow, my first Castlevania game since the NES original, and I can say that as a gamer coming to the series fresh... I wasn't all that impressed. The commentors above who have cautiously criticized the series for becoming slightly stale have confirmed what I suspected having played just this one sequel.

With all the love heaped upon the series, I was expecting to be blown away. I wasn't. It's still the same gameplay mechanic from the first Castlevania: Hop up ledges and hit monsters and light fixtures (scaled to modern standards, but still the same!). Don't get me wrong: if I was totally bored then I wouldn't have finished it. But original it is NOT.

I thought the variety of enemies and locales was impressive, but the puzzles, DS-capable graphics, and story (which includes atmosphere) were lacking. It all felt rather pointless. Sorry, guys. It's an okay game, possibly a good game, but not a great game.

I bought it along with Portrait Of Ruin when Amazon was having their sale. I'll give PoR a try soon and see if that's any better.

You thought there wasn't enough difference between Castlevania 1 and Dawn of Sorrow? I've never heard that one before. What did you think was stale? If you're saying that jumping and whipping was the problem, then how would you have changed it without making it a completely different type of game?

I've been wondering that myself, because I know people probably enjoy the game because the gameplay hasn't changed. If they enjoyed jumping and whipping in part 1, why not enjoy it in part 17? (Just kidding, but seriously what number is it up to now?)

My main complaints are these:

Lame plot/story. Perhaps it's better when taken as a segment within the overarching Castlevania universe, but Dawn of Sorrow makes little reference to its own plot. Monsters, while varied, were just random obstacles in my way. Killing them felt pointless. I was expecting a deep story and a ton of atmosphere for a game like this, but found almost none. Blood on the walls does not automatically equate to "atmosphere."

Uninspired architecture. The different areas of the castle were well-designed thematically (graphically), but most rooms weren't spatially interesting. Replace the foreground palette with a solid grey colour and every room would look exactly the same, with few exceptions.

Take Yoshi's Island for example: It's not just jumping and throwing eggs; those eggs are often used in puzzles. In Super Mario Bros you bop a koopa, then use his shell to smash blocks or enemies. In these games the enemies figure into the level design. There are different ways to kill enemies that don't involve merely switching weapons. In Castlevania the enemies are different, but how you deal with them is the same every time.

Outdated graphics. At one point there's an invisible/red knight who floats around hitting you with a large, 3D sword. That was the only 3D part of the game, and made me wish there had been more. It's all relative; the graphics would have been great for the SNES, but on the DS they make the designers look lazy.

I openly acknowledge that my expectations, directly influenced by the clamouring fans, were too high. It led me fine in Elite Beat Agents. Not so much for Castlevania and Super Mario Kart. Sorry.

"It's all relative; the graphics would have been great for the SNES, but on the DS they make the designers look lazy."
If you ask me, the designers ARE lazy - a good number of sprites in Portrait of Ruin date all the way back to 1993's Dracula X (the stone golems, Dogether, the skeletons, the Medusa heads, and of course Richter and Maria). That doesn't really affect my opinion on the game as a whole, but it does make me wish the designers had put a greater effort into making the enemies look more fresh.

PoR was the first castlevania game I've played in a good 5 or 10 years, so I didn't really have too much of an idea of the series.

That said, I did remember the basic platformer + whips + whipping candles concept and was pleasantly surprised by all the minor things that were added in PoR.

Like people said, it was nothing groundbreaking. The core of the series was still alive and kicking (albeit i think i used a whip for the final boss battles and nothing else in PoR), but the minor additions - while not being game-changing - did add a whole lot of gameplay and value.

That said... If the next castlevania game on DS is PoR with new maps/story/chars + a few trivial additions, I'm not sure I'd buy it...

the post symphony 2-d castlevanias are some of my favorite games, but the last did start to feel a bit stale. it kind of felt like i just played this game. i haven't even finished it yet. still fun but it needs some revitalizing. plus the painting worlds that are pretty much just variations of previous paintings felt like it was added just to make the game longer (unlike the ultra-cool upside-down dimension from symphony). i'll still keep buying and playing them, but it would be nice to see a new game from scratch with mostly new monsters. and what's with 80 percent of the bosses being ultra easy, but then throwing in like two that are waaay to difficult for the level of your character and make you want to throw your DS against the wall?