Officially Impressed *Castlevania DS*

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

Like I said before in the "temp" forum...you kittens need to start playing with your claws in!
For the record, I was the one who brought up the term "CastleTriod". Yea, I've played through Symphony of the Night two times,( I own it!) and still don't care much for the style of RPG meets BACKTRACKING!
I could care less about the original Metriod either. Going back yet again, I never cared for Simons Quest (Castlevania II) which is where I think the real influence of these "CastleTroid" style games comes from.
This game looks just like the kind of Castlevania I dislike, and I have my opinions and stated as much, so respect em. There should be no debates or arguments. I also don't care too much about handhelds/portables either.
Its only MY opinion, and not my arguement or point to be proven or disproved of.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Konami doesn''t HAVE to use any of the DS features (Touch Screen, Second Screen, etc...) they are CHOOSING to, and I have doubts they wouled do it if it really was just a gimmick that would get in the way of the game.

They don't have to, but they wouldn't get away with the press by just releasing a game that does not use those features whatsoever. So they use them. I'm not so pessimistic to think they'll get in the way of the game (it takes damn a hard try to ruin a CV), but I don't think they'll be the absolute best part of the experience either. It's more likely that you'll feel the same game could have been done without 'em.

Turrican, you got my second main beef with the DS spot-on (first is the small screens). With all the talk about the DS being the revolutionary shizzzz, developers are practically forced to make use of the gimmicky touch screen/extra screen or be beaten down by the press (check games with little to no use for an extra screen) even if using them actually makes gameplay worse.

Castlevania is an action side scroller, and the inclusion of gimmicky touchy gameplay elements like breaking ice and drawing symbols with the stylus will affect the pacing of the game. The breaking ice sequences shown so far are empty rooms with no enemies whatsoever. Imo empty rooms are bad enough, making me break the ice every time I pass through is HORRIBLE. Drawing symbols could pose their own problem since the player may have to do it accurately and be forced to juggle with the controls and stylus.

I don't even want to think about cutesy little uses of the two screens for "hardcore" 2D sidescrollers like run & guns and Shmups. I'll leave that for another day because this thread is about how impressed I am with the tecnical and artistic accomplishments of CSDS. There's finally a Castlevania that will match up to CS:SoTN in those terms.

[joshschw]

Huh... despite the DS's features, such as stylus, dual screen use and touch screen.
What makes you think that I'd like it to be 3D, or maybe on PSP? Oh right, that's because I'm a DS hater, and a graphic whore. I almost forgot.

Sorry, I misunderstood you.

[jp]

*scans post*


*CTRL+F*


*looks for where I said Turrican's name*




Wow! I didn't! Maybe you're the dense one? And since I didn't even mention you (in fact, I didn't even really know who I was talking about, I just saw somebody dissing the DS and felt I should throw in my 2 cents), maybe you WERE the one hating on the DS since you obviously felt I was referring to you and you alone.

[BIG]

Well,I'm officially impressd

The game looks great,but here's my question:

Aside from the "gimmicky" use of the Stylus,couldn't this CV be done on the GBA?

BIG-

[jp]

I thought it looked a lot better than the GBA CVs graphically...

[joshschw]

Well,I'm officially impressd

The game looks great,but here's my question:

Aside from the "gimmicky" use of the Stylus,couldn't this CV be done on the GBA?

BIG-

Castlevania DS:


GBA Aria of Sorrow:

[Zhon]

For those saying it'd be fine on GBA - it'd be great on SNES too. But people begin to stop buying games for older hardware, and DS is as 2D as it gets for new hardware. I doubt SCEA will encourage 2D on the PSP, though I'm sure it'd be able to easily handle it.

[ArrogantBastard]

Castlevania DS:

Now that's hot...

[Turrican]

Wow! I didn't! Maybe you're the dense one? And since I didn't even mention you (in fact, I didn't even really know who I was talking about, I just saw somebody dissing the DS and felt I should throw in my 2 cents), maybe you WERE the one hating on the DS since you obviously felt I was referring to you and you alone.

LOL, nice try. You didn't make my name, but you did quote me. And of course you were referring to me, since I and Twitchdoctor were the only ones not drooling over the game. You exchanged my critics for trolling or hate, you were wrong. Simple as that.

You're of course not entirely honest here, saying you didn't even know who you were talking to (how respectful for all of us)... But if that happens to be the case, learn to read carefully before writing things like "DS hate" and "graphic whores".

I don't even want to think about cutesy little uses of the two screens for "hardcore" 2D sidescrollers like run & guns and Shmups. I'll leave that for another day because this thread is about how impressed I am with the tecnical and artistic accomplishments of CSDS. There's finally a Castlevania that will match up to CS:SoTN in those terms.

Visually the game is gorgeous, a huge leap. Then again, the GBA one are alredy among the best things ever developed for that system, so I guess it's expected that Konami squeezes the DS hardware that much. Still, they're doing a great job, I'm looking forward to it in this regard.

For the record, I was the one who brought up the term "CastleTriod". Yea, I've played through Symphony of the Night two times,( I own it!) and still don't care much for the style of RPG meets BACKTRACKING!
I could care less about the original Metriod either. Going back yet again, I never cared for Simons Quest (Castlevania II) which is where I think the real influence of these "CastleTroid" style games comes from.
This game looks just like the kind of Castlevania I dislike, and I have my opinions and stated as much, so respect em. There should be no debates or arguments. I also don't care too much about handhelds/portables either.
Its only MY opinion, and not my arguement or point to be proven or disproved of.

Yeah, I have nothing against the term castleroid; I don't find it offensive, as it just underlines the debt the post-Sotn CV games have with Metroid. Being a Castlevania junkie, I'm used to talk with all sorts of fans, and while I personally don't dislike the recent formula at all, I can see where your frustration comes from. I hope for your sanity that you didn't miss Castlevania Chronicles in 2001. If so, track one down and play it. That's exactly the old school action you crave for, and to be honest I would have loved to see more "chronicles" too.

[jp]

Wow! I didn't! Maybe you're the dense one? And since I didn't even mention you (in fact, I didn't even really know who I was talking about, I just saw somebody dissing the DS and felt I should throw in my 2 cents), maybe you WERE the one hating on the DS since you obviously felt I was referring to you and you alone.

LOL, nice try. You didn't make my name, but you did quote me. And of course you were referring to me, since I and Twitchdoctor were the only ones not drooling over the game. You exchanged my critics for trolling or hate, you were wrong. Simple as that.

You're of course not entirely honest here, saying you didn't even know who you were talking to (how respectful for all of us)... But if that happens to be the case, learn to read carefully before writing things like "DS hate" and "graphic whores".

Look man, on just about every board I go to there's like, 5-10 DS haters that only come in and diss the thing. I ASSUMED that was the case here, if not, I apologize, I did not mean to get your panties all in a bunch over some internet message board comments. And no, I wasn't paying attention to who I was addressing or quoting, because I also post on IGN, and I'm just used to telling DS haters to shut the fuck up since there's a new lot every other week.

[Turrican]

Look man, on just about every board I go to there's like, 5-10 DS haters that only come in and diss the thing. I ASSUMED that was the case here, if not, I apologize, I did not mean to get your panties all in a bunch over some internet message board comments. And no, I wasn't paying attention to who I was addressing or quoting, because I also post on IGN, and I'm just used to telling DS haters to shut the fuck up since there's a new lot every other week.

LOL, it's all forgiven To say the truth, I too cannot bear guys who diss the hardware just for the sake of do it, and probably without having tried a DS at all.
Just don't go assuming too much: at least not here. I'm not into ign boards, but I ASSUME they're crowded with fanboys and haters. We're aiming to a different level of discussion here.

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

^Arguing through website forums are like the Special Olympics...
even if you win, you're still retarded.

[Turrican]

^Arguing through website forums are like the Special Olympics...
even if you win, you're still retarded.

True, true... you're a man of wise words.

[landshark]

^Arguing through website forums are like the Special Olympics...
even if you win, you're still retarded.

Now where is that pic ....

[df0notfound]

enough recycled internet "humour" lets get back to discussing some of the most wonderful 2D graphics ever conceived! And the game which looks to be the hardcore gamer "killer app" (ugh that term makes me cringe) for the DS

[PlasmaDancer]

That looks fabulous, and I'm interested to see what use is made of the advantages of the DS over the Advance in terms of extra buttons and the second screen. I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't played SotN, so I don't know how the PSone pad was used. Extra abilities/attacks etc?

I'm enjoying Catch! Touch! Yoshi! a lot, and it would be nice (if perhaps a tad boring) to see 'proper' side-scrollers using the top screen as an extension of the playing area. It would lessen the old 'death by unavoidable falling objects from the top of the screen' hilarities, and in something like Castlevania or Metroid it might be useful when exploring to be able to see immediately if the area above is worth investigating etc. None of which appears to be in this game, of course. *Off topic* These thoughts alerted me to the possibilities of Low G Man DS. I have fond memories of the NES original..

Of course, as Turrican says, this is a first generation DS game, so I suppose it should be expected that more subtle stuff will be relegated to the later games and instead we'll be treated (?) to some show-stoppingly obvious uses of the stylus for a while yet.

[dave4shmups]

"The DS is a great little console and probably the last console that will actually focus on 2D gaming."

Ehh?? Aren't most of the games for the DS 3D?

[Shapermc]

Turrican: Only my first paragraph was aimed at you. I was just expanding on what you said were the use of the stylus. The other paragraphs were either aimed at Twitch or just the general hate of the DS, not directly at you. Sorry to get you worked up.

Anyways, AT FIRST I thought that the stylus was a gimick that was stupid, but hey, who cares. Then I saw that you can draw the restraining spell anywhere not just bosses. That seems like an added level of gameplay to me, similar to (ahem, excuse the nerd in me) using real wand movements to cast spells. Also you can break ice (which also seems gimicky).

Anyways, check out the developer interview with IGA if you are worried.
http://www.gamespot.com/ds/action/castl ... media.html

He says how he is happy that he can step up the 2D graphics with things that the GBA could never do.

[LoneSage]

The whole "draw the spell with your stylus" thing it's really a gimmick.

I don't understand your logic; just because Vania DS is trying to utilize the DS to its fullest makes it a gimmick?


It'd be incredibly interesting if there was a fog monster boss and you had to use the microphone to "blow it away" or something...

At first I wasn't impressed by the graphics, now I love them..maybe the end product will be nearly on par with SOTN.

[straight]

The whole "draw the spell with your stylus" thing it's really a gimmick.

I think this has great potential. Especially if you could just use your finger instead of having to use the stylus.

Imagine having 30 different spells, each with its own graffitti symbol. You could cast any spell at any time (assuming you had the mana) if you could draw it fast enough. That would be much cooler than having to pick one spell at a time to set to your "spell" button. You'd be much more likely to use a wider variety of spells and the gameplay could take advantage of it, doing all sorts of things with spell "combos" (Cast a "Gasseous Form then a Gust of Wind to pass a grate, or fight two monsters at once, one only vulnerable to heat the other only vulnerable to cold)

OK, those are not the greatest examples, but I'm sure they could come up with more creative stuff using lots of spells that would be too tedious if you had to constantly go through a couple menus to switch which spell you could use.

[straight]

Another really cool thing that could be done with the touch screen in a bunch of games are context-sensitive menus.

Sorta like in Zelda where the "A" button does all sorts of different things depending on whether you're carrying something or swimming or having a conversation.

Except with the DS, you could have a whole menu of icons to quickly tap instead of just one button. This creates the possibility of more complex and deeper spell-systems, combo moves, inventory, all kinds of stuff that would be too tedious if you had to do it through menus all the time.

I'd also like to see some games where there is never any text or HUD or lifebars in the main window, just beautiful graphics. And then have all the data stuff on the touch screen.

[dave4shmups]

Impressive video of the first stage! At least Konami gives you a nice long sword, unlike the ridiculously short swords you get in SOTN.

[Neon]

kind of funny how this thread has become "which of the next-generation handhelds do you best connect with on an emotional level?" rather than "castlevania for ds."

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Hey, it's the Shmups board, home of the hardest core gamerz on teh erth. You have to be one sided or you'll get run over by a truckload of rabid bootlicking fanboys. You either a "graphics whore" or whatever a whore Sony fanboys call Nintendo fanboys.

[Turrican]

I'm enjoying Catch! Touch! Yoshi! a lot, and it would be nice (if perhaps a tad boring) to see 'proper' side-scrollers using the top screen as an extension of the playing area.

Yes, I actually think that should have been the real area where to improve. While I can't help but to feel gimmicky the use of the stylus and the touch screen in a CV game, I think using both screens for showing a larger castle area would have been awesome. This could be made in lots of ways: for example, Harmony of Dissonance was centered about exploring two different castles, one being a distorted version of the other. This concept could be more effective if the action switches from a screen to another. The non sensitive screen could represent a "normal" castle, while the touch-sensitive one could show a, huh, different dimension where actually "stylus attacks" and "rub things" do happen.

Or the double screen could be triggered only in special sections, for example to cover a large hall. There were some pretty big rooms in previous games, and using super jumps for passing from the bottom screen to the upper one sounds sorta cool. So, yeah, the double screen is potentially good, they just need to be creative, and the sky's the limit. Unfortunately, it seems AoS2 will stick to cheap ideas like use a whole screen for maps, status menus etc... Which doesn't really sound exciting. Oh well... We all already know AoS2 will be the first of a bunch...

I don't understand your logic; just because Vania DS is trying to utilize the DS to its fullest makes it a gimmick?

I don't see how these features could be used to their fullest by a castlevania game without ending in a game that isn't castlevania. In other words, on one hand I'm pretty happy that the game is 90% what I know CV to be, on the other hand I hope that 10% doesn't get too much in the way and does merge with gameplay well. Why do I call those features gimmicks? Because I haven't seen anything yet that does play a central role in the game. Luckily.

Turrican: Only my first paragraph was aimed at you. I was just expanding on what you said were the use of the stylus. The other paragraphs were either aimed at Twitch or just the general hate of the DS, not directly at you. Sorry to get you worked up.

Nah... I overheated too much. But I understand that during "handhelds wars" I should have been used more caution. The last thing I wanted was badmouthing the hardware or such. Everything's ok.

[Andi]

Hey, it's the Shmups board, home of the hardest core gamerz on teh erth. You have to be one sided or you'll get run over by a truckload of rabid bootlicking fanboys. You either a "graphics whore" or whatever a whore Sony fanboys call Nintendo fanboys.

That was funny. You make me chuckle UFO. ^_^

My beef with this game is that I won't own a DS. Oh, and breaking bricks looks boring. I think they should use the second screen for something kick ass. It could play movies or something. Then you could watch Karate Kid while you do all that backtracking.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Hey, it's the Shmups board, home of the hardest core gamerz on teh erth. You have to be one sided or you'll get run over by a truckload of rabid bootlicking fanboys. You either a "graphics whore" or whatever a whore Sony fanboys call Nintendo fanboys.

That was funny. You make me chuckle UFO. ^_^

My beef with this game is that I won't own a DS. Oh, and breaking bricks looks boring. I think they should use the second screen for something kick ass. It could play movies or something. Then you could watch Karate Kid while you do all that backtracking.

I wanted to bring a light-hearted feeling into this thread. There was too much seriousness going around, with one group calling the other names and vice versa. I hope others can laugh it off. Cool point about the backtracking. heh.

[gameoverDude]

That looks fu... nominal. It makes the GBA CVs, as good as they are, seem like 8-bit NES titles. The animation looks amazing.

Breaking the ice blocks with the stylus sounds a bit gimmicky, but drawing out the symbols for the other spell is something with potential. On the other hand I think Konami needs to take a break from the Castletroid concept and make something like a sequel to the X68000 version after this one.

As for the touchscreen- using it in Mr. Driller Drill Spirits makes the game worse. However, the use of a 2-screen playfield gives this one a special spark.

[Zhon]

It's not likely that they'll break from the metroid-style exploration and adventure system, simply because if a game company finds something that works for their properties, they're loath to take the risk and change it.

An example - I've always thought that Metroid would work fine in third person 3D - but it ain't going to happen. Although I did enjoy Metroid Prime as well.