Castlevania General

Yeah. I mean, they'd have to be.

One Strip! One Strip!

Okay, I know this sounds crazy, but... what about a new Metroidvania-style Castlevania game?

I know, I know. It's really out there but hear me out. People like those and Bloodstained did really well. And CV has a popular cartoon series. And appearances in Smash Bros.

I'm well aware I'm thinking outside the box on this one, but it might just be crazy enough to work.

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One word - Konami.

Iga really picked the perfect time to release Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night with the Castlevania show making the games remembered. I don’t suppose he plans to make a sequel any time soon? He won’t have the cartoon to work with though since the next season is probably going to be the last.

Konami can't even be bothered to put out Castlevania Collection II, which literally would just involve putting their old releases on one title with a few bells and whistles, so a brand new game seems even less likely.

So I just got a PocketGo so... I think I'm going to play through the GBA Castlevanias in order. Then prolly DOS after that.

God, I do love COTM. Kinda BS that I can't play it on my Switch or 3DS, only on the Wii U. I'd play it on that, but I lent my Wii U to a friend in quarantine.

Edited by Larkmarn on Apr 23rd 2020 at 2:03:18 PM

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I slept on COTM for a long while due to not jiving with the controls on my first impression, but once I got used to them I liked it. It's not as good as Aria but it's a damn fine first attempt for the GBA, and much better than Dissonance.

I just realized: Castlevania might lend itself well to a Beat 'em Up.

It would even allow you to pick a team of characters.

One Strip! One Strip!

I'd love to see a Castlevania beat em up pattern itself off of the Streets of Rage remake, which has multiple paths, endings, and a great weapons system built within its combat.

Was checking out the wiki on Grimoire of Souls.

Trevor is supposed to be in the game as an Assist character. I recalled reading that before so it's not a big shock. But there's another character you wouldn't expect:

Mina Hakuba.

Now that's a left field choice if there ever was one. Her connection to Soma (who is in the game, albeit as a villain) almost justifies it, but Mina has zero combat ability, and has never demonstrated any ability at all, beyond the vaguely alluded to powers of the Hakuba shrine that let them seal Dracula's Castle in the Eclipse.

It's very unexpected as far as choices go.

....shame this game seems to have died out. I want to see that.

One Strip! One Strip!

Funny you say it seems to have died out, because it's getting shut down permanently on September 9, 2020, meaning it's only been around for one measly year after its launch last year.

Then again, is anyone surprised? Konami is still pretty hated by everyone (heck, a high schooler in Tokyo threatened to bomb the Konami HQ and kill Konami employees earlier this month) and this was probably a mobile game crawling with micropayments.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jul 8th 2020 at 11:23:47 AM

It was barely advertised, if at all, and I don't think it even came to America. At least according to Googles store.

Man, it’s been a rough couple of months for the franchise. First Ellis being outed as a creep and probably dooming the cartoon, then this, and I was introduced to the worst part of Lords of Shadow 2’s stealth, the hide in the garden bit.

Yeesh. And they barely got through the story too. Wasn't Trevor himself supposed to appear? And there's the mystery of Soma and that villain chick?

Are they at least gonna release the rest of the content they never got to for those who did get it, or are they just tossing everyone under the buss?

....that being said, don't bomb places? We already had one anime studio devastated by arson not too long ago. For all the issues we have with Konami, it shouldn't need to be said that murdering people is never an option.

One Strip! One Strip!

Agreed. Konami may have become rotten to the core, but one shouldn't even entertain the idea of murder.

Having such thoughts will only make things worse and make you look like a maniac.

EDIT: Incidentally, I'm rather surprised that Jim Sterling hasn't said anything about these threats towards Konami. At least not yet.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jul 8th 2020 at 11:37:06 AM

There's been a lot going on, it's possible Jim just doesn't know about it.

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Hopefully, Ellis will be booted from the Netflix series and they can find a good replacement. A lot more people worked on this series than just him.

Ellis is listed as the concept creator, the executive producer, and the head writer. I don’t think he can be excised without cancelling the whole thing.

I'll 1-up you: what about a Metroid Prime-esque 3D Metroidvania?

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

He didn't create Castlevania, there are other writers who can take over.

"Concept Creator" is a meaningless title, anyway. Lost credited Jeffrey Lieber as a creator on every episode and he had literally nothing to do with the final show whatsoever. He didn't write a single episode. J.J. Abrams is also listed as a creator, and he had minimal involvement beyond the pilot and season 3 premiere. All it ultimately means is "was in the room during initial concept writing", it has no bearing on future plans at all.

"Executive Producer" is also a rather useless title. It can mean anything from "having final say on all decisions" to "was in the room at some point". Basically anyone can be an Executive Producer, even people that are no longer involved in the production, like "Concept Creator". Besides, he's not the only Executive Producer, there are five others listed.

Edited by Primis on Jul 8th 2020 at 12:17:55 PM

I question if you can get rid of him just because of the portrayal of his importance. He was on the project back when it was a movie trilogy, and he has made it clear in pretty much every interview he’s running the show. The NYCC panel in October 2019 was pretty blatant about it, with the other executive producers all pretty much saying “Yeah, Ellis is writing this whole thing top to bottom.” I don’t see how they continue without him. As much as I want them to, if only to move on to the other Belmont’s and dump the Ellisisms.

In an average tv show, you have a showrunner but there are still a bunch of other writers working together under their supervision writing individual episodes and contributing to the show. In Castlevania even that wasn't true, Ellis wrote all the scripts and most of the show was made in his vision.

It IS true that a bunch of other people worked on the show and contributed towards making it great, and in theory you could replace Ellis with someone who might do just as good a job, but I could easily see Netflix just canning it to wash their hands of the whole thing.

My guess is that they will still use the ideas and concepts Ellis already wrote down after he quits or is fired.

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

Those would still be his ideas. He would either get paid or have grounds to sue over payment. I believe the Writer’s Guild would offer him protection.

It’s negative, I know, but I feel like Castlevania on Netflix and Warren Ellis are a package deal. Kill it or keep him on.

If nothing else, Ellis has been taking this in stride, if him pulling one of his stories out of DC is anything to go by.

Yeah that's why i think he'll allow Castlevania to use his ideas free of charge or something.

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

So the Castlevania gacha/mobile game is about to shut down, huh. How many countries was it even released on?

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