Bungee wanted to get away from Halo initially so Microsoft bought them.
Konami isn’t in that position directly but I can see Mercury coming back in fir a cash crop game if their new stint fails. This is especially true after the developer exodus during LoS2.
With Iga gone and most people I feel coming to the same conclusion with LoS as being whatever or a GoW clone. The series is going to go by the wayside now. Like it or not Iga was CV. They are going to actually have to relaunch the series. Not a what if LoS bullshit or what have you but an actual ground up remake. Maybe something in the vein of Strider or even that remake of Adventures was pretty cool. I think they could go a long way with digital releases in that way, it would be low risk low reward at 15 a remake or what have you. I hope whoever takes over they really put some thought in to this awesome series. Otherwise there might not be another one for quite some time.
Castlevania was good before IGA and it can continue to be good without him. Even after he took over we had good Castlevanias he had no involvement in (Circle of the Moon, LoS). I enjoy his games but I don’t see him leaving as some sort of death sentence. At worst, him being gone means that Castlevania won’t be using sprites anymore.
Not really a fan of iga although i enjoyed symphony i don’t think it was that ground braking the game became too easy and lack the challenge the old games had, pretty much became metroid with rpg elements.
His 3d castlevania games on ps2 are boring as hell. i just beat the first one i couldn’t take the second one, they’re an insult to the greatness that was castlevania 64, my favorite 3d castlevania
He wasn’t at first but later ended up in charge of it. Iga was doing good in the beginning but then started fucking up big time. I’m glad he’s gone.
I hope Castlevania continues on the trilogy reboot trends. After this trilogy I want a new story with new characters. Problem with the older games was that people tried to consolidate them all into a single timeline, and that only created issues. By sandboxing each storyline into its own trilogy or whatever stops this from happening.
But thats just it with Iga gone I believe that is an indication that Konami no longer has interest in Castlevania. Its no secret that it doesn’t do well in Japan and the animification that took place in the last four handhelds was what i took to be as Konami trying to get Japan involved in the series. Needless to say in hindsight it obviously didn’t work not even with all of the anime tropes and design issues used. LoS was what I took to be Konami trying to make a more western appealed game for apparently a genre that only does well traditionally in the west. Think about the design direction and the overall GoW mechanics and aesthetics they went with. My guess is it didn’t get the desired result they were looking for in sales that GoW has traditionally enjoyed in the west. Iga leaving just seems to me that Konami really has no new interest in pursuing the series further. The fanbase for the series has been there but I guess the last for handhelds didnt get the numbers they wanted at home and the LoS series didnt get the Call of Duty/ GoW type numbers in the West.
Dont know what Rugal has to do with post or care in CV series other than maybe he has stock in the company while cruising around the Pacific in the Black Noah waiting for every fourth KOF to make an appearance. But this is just what I am taking away from the recent turn of events at Konami. I hope there is another one but I wont hold my breath.
They sunk a good chunk of money into LoS and you can tell because you don’t get games that look like that with live orchestra using a shit budget. They obviously care about Castlevania. Besides Metal Gear, what have they put that much money into this generation? Right now, LoS is all they have besides Metal Gear. Konami is a sad husk of what it used to be. Obviously, LoS has done more than well enough to warrant a PC port almost 2 years later, a port of Mirror of Fate to PC and consoles, and a sequel released on all platforms. After Mercury Steam’s contract is up, who knows what will happen, but I hope they choose another studio to do something new and refreshing and keep up the trilogy reboots every 4 or 5 years or so.
Doesn’t matter though, because they have all that pachinko and real estate stuff, which is obviously far more profitable than releasing 3 MGS games in 7 years and 3 Castlevania games.
Way too much speculation here. Konami themselves confirmed that LoS is the highest grossing game in the whole series. Didn’t know how much it sold but they are more than enough for Konami to dump big money on two sequels.
Castlevania was on handhelds for a while had nothing to do with attracting a large Japanese market. IGA wanted to develop 2D games and the portables were the best platforms for that.
Oh sorry i thought I clarified that it was my opinion when I stated in my opinion for the part I assume you are referencing. In regards to everything else let me try and clarify it below.
In regards to the first bit and given JP developers trends of expecting call of duty and GoW sales numbers IE Square and Capcom with FF and RE respectively. Inspite of them being the “highest grossing game in the whole series” means very little if they are not satisfied with the number up top.
For example: CV1-ALL handhenlds made $10, LoS by Comparison made $12. Well then it is the highest grossing of the whole series.
If the people with money were expecting $15-20, It would still be labled a flop.
To the last bit it could have been satisfying enough to chance on to sequals but there could have been only two in the works ala a trilogy to begin with and then just pull the plug.
What I meant by the handhelds was simply that everything was more inline with the Symphony Direction the games had took under Iga. The PS2 ones and all of the handheld games including the PSP up until I believe it was the second Soma game when everything went in a new direction. This was done to engage the Japanese market. It was issued through an interview in which IGA layed out all of his cards on the table regarding the handhelds after this point and the future of the series stating that they were trying to engage the Japanese in a more or less dead franchise that historically didn’t do well in JP markets. The artist story where dracula is now a sexy japanese teenage boy in a fur coat and he has to fight other teenage would be darklords to save the world! etc. It really did take it up a notch in what the Japanese find more engaging in the anime department. Also handhelds which fare very well in Japan. Which was the point, but the core audience is the west and to be honest it really didn’t do anything with the core fans. So they went another direction with LoS but as I stated earlier the feel I get off of it is they still weren’t satisfied.
Iga being gone signals that still no thankyou to 2d castlevanias and with the culmination of LoS which wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be in my opinion but overall just isn’t CV in my opinion. I can’t put my finger on it but it just seems to melodramatic story wise almost to the point of absurdity at points and a cross between GoW and poor mans DMC. It just felt like a What if game and came off abit derpy. It was fun overall but It just had me disconnect from the game too often. Strange, oh well at any rate the series is probably gone for awhile barring the LoS storyline coming to a close. The next one will have to be a remake yet again hopefully they just remake Castlevania with better graphics or perhaps with 3D or just sell the damn IP off to someone who is really interested in doing the game justice but, Im not a Konami Vp and as someone already noted they have parlor games like SNK does and it appears both companies are really good at making bad decisions with their IPs
Handhelds are also much cheaper to develop for and Iga couldn’t make a good selling 3D game on a console that had a score higher than a 5. The handheld games had obviously low budgets with a bunch of copy and paste sprite work dating back 15 years prior. You think the only reason there were so many handheld games was to capture the Japanese audience? Insanity. You’re speculating way too much.
The interview you’re talking about stated the art change and switch to handheld was to capture a younger audience because Castlevania’s main audience was aging and Konami didn’t think the money was there. They wanted new fans, not old ones. Young kids tend to not have full access to their own consoles and TV’s (yes I know this is not always the case) so what kind of games do kid’s parents buy a lot of? Handheld ones, because they don’t need to worry about mom and dad taking up the TV when they want to play their favorite game. The art went animu because of kids, it was far more cartoony for that audience, and you can’t say it was only for the Japanese market because Western kids also really like Japanese anime. Iga did say he wanted more exposure in Japan but the changes were not specifically for the Japanese market, it was specifically for the younger, more child frienldy market.
On top of that, you talk melodrama? Seriously? Have you really played the Iga games dude?
To a degree. Iga’s main gripe was that 2D was supposedly expensive and that he knew people wanted a high res 2D game on console. He said that kind of art is too expensive to pay for, so he did games on handheld because of costs. I mean, imagine if they actually had to pay people to create new art and they couldn’t use the same recycled shit from 15 years worth of sprites?
Which is a totally bullshit excuse. VanillaWare is a small studio and look at the fucking 2D art they do. Iga is just a fucking retard, is what it really boils down to, and Konami wasn’t giving him any money. However, they probably let him keep making handhelds because they probably had a budget of a few thousand and sold hundreds of thousands. It’s not like they were paying sprite artists to create new graphics or paying programmers to create a new engine from scratch.
No the Iga games had there fill of it, like I said LoS there was just something about it that caused a disconnect for me, That being said “Die monster you dont belong in this world!” “Maxim no your my friend!” “Soma hold on your friends are with you” (cue music as their powers combine he is CAPTAIN DARK LORD!) and Goth Lolita vampire girls who are your ghost mentor friends true daughters turned into vampires On the Next Maury show. duh duh duuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh! Yeah the hand helds had all the cheese and cheeze whiz canister refills in quick draw holsters all through out their person I think they got more of a pass for me because CV and Metroid, and hand held so I could play while I was out and about. Low budget you get for what you pay for and nastolgia that being said they were what they were and LoS was what it was I honestly hope we just get another crack at the IP at this rate. Seems like quality and overall interest by developers is severely diminished across the creative spectrum of games as a whole. But then again Im guilty of this as most games I play are only fighting games and these games are just used as a break from fighters. Oh well. good luck in discussion guys. Ive said my piece. I think barring squabbling we can all agree as fans we want the best Castlevania we can possibly get. As I said hopefully Konami gives us another one and we can bitch about that one next time.
Well, I don’t even know who I’d want to make the next trilogy. MS has shown to be competent and they’re great at making gorgeous Castlevania games. If they no longer have interest after they’re done here then I don’t want Konami just offering them money to milk it. That’s what went wrong the first time.
I hope that they do find someone good. I wish GRIN was still around, because they did a fantastic job on Bionic Commando: ReArmed and I would love to see them tackle the series next. Other than that, I don’t want Konami Japan getting their hands on it. I think they’d ruin it. Maybe Platinum? Imagine if they did one, considering the original DMC creators are at that studio, and everyone considered DMC1 to be what a 3D Castlevania should have been at the time the game came out. What if they could make an actual Castlevania game? LOL. Might be worth a shot.
If they didn’t get bought by Amazon I could easily see Konami hiring Double Helix for a new game. They could bring in WayForward if they want to take a back-to-basics approach. They did Contra 4 for them so there already is a pre-existing relationship.
Ugh, can you imagine how awful a Double Helix Castlevania would be? They’ve never made anything that is actually good. I really wouldn’t be surprised though if they get to make the next one. Konami and them already have a working relationship since Silent Hill: Homecoming.
Too bad Konami doesn’t make jack shit in house anymore. I still remember how beautiful the Team Silent games looked.
I just saw that Iga news you posted. I would laugh my ass off if Iga tried to pull a Mighty No. 9. It would suck so bad. 1 word, Nanobreaker.