New images:
http://sylphys.ddo.jp/upld2nd/game2/src/1145960730598.jpg

New Information:

-More focus on the items, armors & accessories than in DoS-"Skill collecting" system
-Since the Morris clan are related to the Belmonts, Jonathan will wield the VK in some point of the game
-Belmonts can wield the VK by default, but a Morris needs to do "something special" to be able to do that
-Jonathan & Charlotte will have a platonic relationship only
-Brauner is a painter (Portrait of Ruin). His paintings serve as teleports to different locations, such as the deserts of egypt & the London-esque "Misty Town"
-Soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane
-PoR will be bigger than DoS, perhaps even impressively bigger.
-Comeback of some of SotN's & Rondo's enemy designs.
-Bigger dev. team for PoR than in DoS: some developers from CotM have joined PoR's dev. team
-Appearances of Bloodlines related cast? "Please look forward to it."
-No stylus functions
-Wi-Fi: either co-op mode or a versus mode. Item shops for other players.

"d.lo - 4.23.2006 at 09:55:54 AM
pixy: Not that reviews are facts, but Curse has gotten far lower scores than contemorary reviews of the N64 games got. EGM gave CV64 9,9,8,9."

Actuall the critics were quite divided on the subject. While IGN, Gamespot and EGM gave the game numbers in the 8 range. Game Informer hit it with 6.5, Game Revolution said 6/10 and Next Gen gave it 3/5.

"I don't know why people think this. The second one was a SEQUEL, NOT a 'better version'. It had entirely different level structure, new level designs, a new main character and story, a mostly new score, new camera controlls...

The only thing linking it with the CV64 was that after finishing it you could play through the same levels again with the characters from the first game, but without the story. It was just like playing Symphony in Richter mode (OMG SYMPHONY WAS A RE-RELEASED BETTER VERSION OF DRACULA X!!!)"

Actually it was a prequel with a few new bells and whistles. I'll give you that it had an all new story, but the gameplay mechanics were almost identical, ( and easier to boot, save for the fact that the lock-on didn't even work anymore). Camparing CV64 and LoD to Rondo and Symphony is ridiculous as such. Your gift for sarcasm is lacking.

"This is true, and interestingly both PS2 games have tanked (even though the first one was a decent game), as did Symphony and Chronicles. Basically Castlevania only sells on Nintendo systems. One day Konami will realise this."

Actually the kind of sales figures you're thinking of the series hasn't seen since Super Castlevania 4, if not Dracula's Curse. Symphony only took a year to make it to Greatest Hits status (and I guarantee it sold just as much as CV64)... now ask me how long it took Xenosaga? And Chronicles couldn't reach GH status in the first place because it was a limited edition. I don't even think that they released enough copies to allow for a GH version to happen.

PS2 had/has the highest user base, (several times larger than Gamecube) releasing any of the games on Gamecube would have been a huge risk. Especially since there are select CV fans who hate
CV in 3D no matter what system it comes out on.

But Konami gives IGA full reign over the series. So if you have a problem, talk to him. I understand preferring Nintendo, but it's not a very well thought out opinion to suggest that Lament or Curse would have sold better on Cube. I will venture that had CoD not been on Xbox, it would have sold better on PS2 because it wouldn't have divided the fanbase. At last count Lament was well over selling 100k copies, not quite Greatest Hits status, but it might be close enough (as Xenosaga was) for it to be given another chance.

"Fair enough - it does play well (not as well as Lament though), but it's devestatingly repetitive IMO. When you've passed the same house/rock/pillar and killed the same generic skeleton/slorga/dinasour for the 50th time, it's not fun anymore. And it's not exactly a good looking game either.

The N64 games had stiff controlls, but fantastic level designs, and were hella fun to explore IMO, and I'll take that over a repetitive combat engine any day."


Again that's your opinion, but how many skeletons did you have to fight in the first level of CV64? Now THAT'S repeditive, and Dorko Schnieder didn't even have any whip combos like Link did with his sword on Ocarina a full year before the game came out, (not even simple combos like Mario did 3 years before). So why was the game delayed for so long? Tell you what, if you watch the original beta footage on IGN I'll bet you'll be disappointed yourself to find out that over half of the planned ideas and characters for the game were scrapped... that's why half of the reviewers and most gamers were upset. In Game Informer's words, (imbellished a bit) "we were given a skeleton of the promised game".

The character models enemies and special effects in Curse were great, as I said the backgrounds were the game's main problem. I won't disagree on that, but they were a vast improvement over Lament. Lest we forget that Lament repeated the same four rooms over and over hundereds of times. If you like it better that's fine, but it arguably doesn't have as much depth and replay value as Curse of Darkness. And at the very least, now I think they're heading in the right direction.

OMGZ teh vampirez is Hitler..fjklads!!!

hehe!!

petition to ban darkage

Well...i don`t like too much the WWII Castlevania idea...but I don´t care, I will buy it any way, Castlevania Games in my DS is the ONLY REASON that i have the DS boring machine.

"Too bad they didn't offer that explanation. They put him in the same timeline and gave him the same name as the dude from Bloodlines/New Generation. For me, he's the same dude with messed-up art."

Yes, they didn't give him a backstory in THE FIRST PRESS RELEASE. Because you know, fathers NEVER name their sons after them. I guess they assumed the average intelligence of Castlevania fans was a little higher than in reality.

What we DON'T need, is another section of Castlevania with Magical Nitro. OH YOU TOUCHED ANYTHING BOOM YOU DIED

"soul4ger - 4.23.2006 at 03:30:31 PM
You are all MORONS."

And your point is?

I remember when I honestly tried playing Lament of Innocence. I stopped playing because I noticed that I suddenly became ridiculously bored. o_o

I couldn't say that the game was bad, because it wasn't... it was simply... boring...

Wow, I thought that CoD was the best 3d castlevania by far.

"d.lo - 4.22.2006 at 01:45:28 AM
At least it will be better then Curse of Darkness, which was the series low point.

And before some uninformed shlub bashes the (crinally underrated and actually very good) N64 games, Curse of Darkness was far worse then either of them in almost every way."

It's nice to see opinion stated as fact for a change :rolleyes:

I think the only thing truly wrong with Curse of Darkness was the level design. But from the moment I begin playing the 64 games I felt like I was a glutton for punishment because of how bad they were.

But regardless of what either of us think, the N64 Castlevanias actually sold fairly well in the US, so it isn't as if people never gave them game a chance and it certainly wasn't criminally underrated. But like most people, it felt like a serious rip-off to me when they re-released a better version of the game with new levels and a new character, (at full price!) seems like they were trying to compensate for reviewer and fan backlash. Perhaps even Konami realised they had screwed up.

IMO Curse of Darkness is better, and it doesn't play like someone spilled a can of coke on the controller.

If only Castlevania's timeline was less complicated...

"Guide Super Simon through the vampire-filled castle. Super Simon kills vampires. Kill ten in a row for a 1up."

Jane: Take the form of... a hawk!
Jan: Take the form of... a bucket of water!


... I only with that were a joke. :P

During WWII? Does that mean we kill Nazi vampires? Please tell me we get to kill Nazi vampires!

Is it two players? Both characters are on screen together.

" this isn't John Morris himself, is it? It's JoNATHAN. Maybe he's John's son or something?"

John, Johnny, Jonathan, it's all the same name.

The only problem I see with it, so far, is that the sprites for the characters have that same "yuck" factor that the sprites in Harmony of Dissonance had. *shudder*

Thank God they brought the Whip back. I loved DoS, but CotM was one of my favorite games of all time, and my favorite Castlevania game of all time. I LOVE THE WHIP lol...and the summon system is back (different name lol...nice Konami). This could be the best one yet.

actually, terpfen is right, you guys are being pretty unreasonable this time around.

Though I read all these comments yesterday, so I don't remember in what aspect.

I'm pretty sure you guys are overreacting to what he is saying... or something like that.

Btw, I think it's only SCEA that's really trying to almost like ban 2d games. SCEE is much more allowing, that's why we got Tales of Eternia for PSP and Americans didn't (if you don't import it).

Whoa! Two different characters! Unprecedented variety! The screens look promising though.

As of late, my biggest gripe with Castlevania games was that they were MUCH too easy, and just too short.

The only sizable Castlevania game as of late was Circle of the Moon, IMO. All the newer Castlevanias had pretty large castles and all, but you had so many powers at your disposal and the enemies were so weak, it was just too easy to breeze through them.

I have a feeling that the new game won't change that formula, but here's to hoping that we'll see some CHALLENGE for once.

At least it will be better then Curse of Darkness, which was the series low point.

And before some uninformed shlub bashes the (crinally underrated and actually very good) N64 games, Curse of Darkness was far worse then either of them in almost every way.

BTW, complete history of Castlevania here:

http://www.palgn.com.au/article.php?id=3639

http://www.palgn.com.au/article.php?id=3703

i agree with msz.
pixy, i thought DoS had great music and level design, but i haven't played the fabled SotN or the gba ones (yet), just one of the snes ones long ago.
i think the sprite size is fine but it would indeed be awesome to see another console castlevania.

You people complaining about the artwork are nuts. If anything, Dawn of Sorrow had the worst artwork to date. The screen caps look amazing on this game from what I see so far. The character design is interesting, too. It feels like everytime I look at any comments on any of these posts, its just whining and complaining. It makes me want to barf.

Wow... it looks like this Castlevania will be a break from the standard Dracula's castle adventures and instead takes on a different route (like Aria and DoS).

I can't wait!

Looks good, (hopefully it will have better level design and music than DoS) except the artwork. But I imagine that the team saw Dawn of Sorrow as a success in Japan so they continued using the anime art (probably with another anime intro) much to my dismay but I'm over it.

Bringing back old John Morris eh? To keep people up to speed, John is a descendant of Belmonts whose father was killed in the Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. He had his own bout with Dracula in Castlevania Bloodlines for Genesis, unfortunately his partner (the spear wielding Eric Lecarde) seems to be MIA. So (rhetorical question)... who's the chick?

Jekku- I've never heard of a confirmed online Castlevania, just rumors.

Pojo- I think IGA is playing it safe with the artwork since DoS "worked" to some extent in that regard. As for people who don't like Ayami Kojima's art... it's a lot better than the steroided up He-Man/Conan/WWE monsters that they used to draw. guys with large muscle mass like that are very slow and bumbling.

Zeth- IGA was the first Castlevania director/producer to give the series logical and believable continuity (not to mention removing games that destroyed the original stories before IGA even entered the picture)... as opposed to "Oops Dracula's brother's sister's cousin has resurrected Drac on Alucard's birthday! We'd better call in the local muscle bound freak." Now, thru IGA's stories, (and they are fairly good ones too) we can watch throughout the generations that Dracula has new purpose and his attitude evolves over time. And by the time Symphony's ending rolls around he realises the inevitability of his eventual downfall. I do find fault in many decisions IGA has made, but he's really opened the storyline up to reveal a quite fascinating saga.

Just fyi, the sprite scaling between SotN and this game are roughly equal...the main character is around 1/4 of the screen tall in each game, though in SotN it seems just slightly larger. Monster sizes seem pretty similar between games, too. Though in SotN, Richter seems to take up less of the screen than Alucard. Case in point -
http://www.thebuttonmasher.com/images/Richter.png
http://www.inverteddungeon.com/Images/Screenshots/sotne.jpg

A larger, fighting game-style sprite lineup might be better, or it might not, given you often have more to deal with than just one opponent onscreen. Platforming could be harder for it, too.

"rahnyc - 4.21.2006 at 06:11:01 PM
terpfen, thats why no psp castlevania for you boo hoo... "

Uh, what? Last I checked, the PSP isn't a console.

And yes, I've dealt with the little sprites on the GBA and DS. I'm getting to the point where I want Castlevania back on a console. And I'm getting crap for it?

Oh, fanboys, you always amaze me.

"darkage - 4.21.2006 at 05:49:52 PM
terpfen you do not know 2D"

What? I must've really touched a nerve, wanting a non-handheld Castlevania.

"Do you really see any sort of possibility that titles as great as the ones you've mentioned being released in 2d on the PS3?"

Yes. Why not? Symphony of the Night is hailed as the greatest Castlevania ever, and it had no special gameplay gimmicks besides pure fun. I must be one of the few people left who believe that it's the games that stand on their own, not the consoles they're played on.

"And valkyrie profile's sprites were only slightly larger than the xenogears sprites by the way. Plus, SF3 and GG are fighter games. Fighter games set the standard of how small a game can be and still be accepted, so what's the point in even mentioning those games which lack RPG elements?"

The point is scale. All the games I listed demonstrate excellent scale, though SF3 is probably the best of all three. Genre has nothing to do with this--I'm talking about design.

You'd think the idea of a Symphony-styled Castlevania game back on a console would be greeted with enthusiasm here...

Do you really see any sort of possibility that titles as great as the ones you've mentioned being released in 2d on the PS3?
And valkyrie profile's sprites were only slightly larger than the xenogears sprites by the way. Plus, SF3 and GG are fighter games. Fighter games set the standard of how small a game can be and still be accepted, so what's the point in even mentioning those games which lack RPG elements?

"sony tried to kill off 2d"

And thus why Sony published Beyond the Beyond and Wild ARMs during the early days of the PSX, eh?

"Last time I checked, whenever titles were geared towards gameplay as opposed to graphics they almost always turned out better."

They have the gameplay down. The gameplay is fine. Keep the gameplay, give it the usual refinements, but give me a version of the game on a decent-sized screen.

"it is a simple fact that small sprites of small features lead to games of great proportion."

Guilty Gear, SF3, and Valkyrie Profile all sprung to mind as I read this.

As far as data compression goes--it's advanced quite considerably, and beyond that, there's a reason the PS3 is shipping with a Blu-Ray drive.

Terpfen, yeah we just REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need more ports for PSP, don't we. Rather they did a new Castlevania for PSP.

"terpfen - 4.21.2006 at 04:57:04 PM
I'm really getting tired of the tiny character sprites. Yeah, okay, Nintendo handhelds have small resolutions, which makes it necessary to shrink the characters so as to simulate scale between them and the monsters. But, damn, it's getting old. We need a PSP port of Symphony of the Night, or a brand-new 2D console Castlevania. Maybe on the PS3..."


the psp and sony shouldnt get anything 2d. sony tried to kill off 2d, so they dont deserve a 2d castlevania. anyway, if you cant see the sprites on a freaking ds, you must be blind. i dont know about you but the spirtes looks big and clear to me.

That looks great!!! :D

I loooooove it!!!

It seems to me the pictures look that way. I mean, if this is just a single player, how come in the first screenshot both of the characters are kicking that boss's ass. I don't know how that's possible if not because of multiplayer.

3D town backgrounds huh? Snazzy.

The characters themselves look like they'll animate very very well.

I like the character designs, mainly because it'll piss people off. I guess that's part of the reason I loved Wind Waker's look as well. Some people will dismiss the game entirely for the stupidest reason, and those of us that play the game get to laugh at them.

I can't complain. Sure, everything we look at is milking anime anymore...but at least the game itself is still 2d. I fear I will never see a 2d Metroid ever again...the Prime games are fun...but there hasn't been anything NEW(not including remade) from 2d POV of the series.

I prefer Kojima's art, but it doesn't look -awful-.

Either way, I can never get enough 2D Castlevania. Thus, I am happy.

Too bad for opinions, but the internet would be mostly empty if it weren't for them.

Nazi vampires. Awesome.

"What the hell is WRONG with that art?"

It is not aesthetically pleasing.

According to eToyChest, Konami's issued a press release giving off some of the details for PoR.
http://etoychest.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4233&Itemid=29

Main character's name is Jonathon Morris (possibly the son of Bloodlines's hero) and the game takes place during World War II.

So wait...


Did I miss something? What the hell is WRONG with that art?

I remember crying over Dawn of Sorrow's art, too. Of course, the game played beautifully.

Love the characters so far! Not everyone has to look like Alucard(White haired Bishounen) or a Yos***aka Amano zombie. I hope that girl is playable.

People care about Castlevania's story?

I am greatly amused.

Up until 1999, Dracula naturally resurrects every century if nothing else resurrects him in the meantime.

Not that it matters. Igarashi has said that, for now, all the portable games in the series are going to be set in the post-1999 era.

the whip is back!

anyway.... those pics are kind of funny

Silly Konami, cartoons are for kids! (and Castlevania shouldn't be)

Thats right guys! The dawning of the new trend of gaming in full swing. When in doubt, return an old series to its roots...and thats exactly what I see when I look at this 'portrait'.

Worked for Tomb Raider... should work here as well. Yeah, I relaize that these titles are on opposite spectrums, but I feel that this is going to be the break away from the "Symphony" style Castlevania's that we have been subjected to as of late. Not that this was, or is a bad thing.

However, I'm just hoping that this is indeed the direction that this title will be goning in. Just hold all thoughts till the game is finally revealed at E3.

you guys aren't looking at the title at the same time as you look at the art

PORTRAIT OF RUIN

I can promise you that "portrait" is going to be the most sophisticated word to come anywhere near this game, and it's only going to be in the title

It might be awesome, but it will not be PORTRAIT OF RUIN

Yes, people are going to say that art sucks... mostly because its an EXTREME scaling back of the series' previous intricacy in this regard.

But it doesn't matter. If it plays like Castlevania, it'll be a great game. Get it for that, rather than this pretty horrific artwork.

no please :(

please konami don't do this :(

please :(

oh god konami it hurts :(

please stop :(