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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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 Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:15 am Post subject: Re: What is a fan? A miserable pile of secrets! |
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| Shapermc wrote: |
| The series, by many accounts, has gone downhill since the current curator, Koji Igarashi, took over the franchise with the Gameboy Advance title, Harmony of Dissonance. |
And by many other accounts, including most mainstream video game writers, the series has done anything BUT go downhill since SotN. I think it's largely only the elitist types that are ready to declare Iga-vania passe and no longer cool enough to be worthy of attention. A lot of the rest of the gaming world still enjoys the series, though occasional viewing of Insert Credit/Selectbutton might obscure that reality.
Let's look at the games a bit more, shall we?
At least on the handhelds. Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow are almost universally praised, and I've not seen much bad press about Portrait of Ruin. HoD gets a ho-hum reception now.
And you know, Iga was also the director of the overwhelming majority choice for best game in the series - SotN. So yes, it must be his fault the series is spiraling downward, right? He did create the most common choice for the best entry in the series. Iga not living up to his masterpiece doesn't mean the series has crumled to rubble. Mozart wrote dozens of symphonies, if you think his 15th one was the greatest does that mean the later ones that fail to live up to it aren't worthwhile any more? (and please for the love of god, I'm not implying that Iga is a genius like Mozart). Back to video games, I'd argue that Miyamoto isn't living up to his greatest successes these days either, but that doesn't mean I won't be excited to play his next Mario game.
Yes, the 3D games are bland but I don't really blame Iga so much as I blame Konami for trying to force the Castlevania brand to have a presence on the home consoles too. And frankly I'd much rather take the Iga 3D Castlevanias than the N64 3D attempts, so I'd be slow to blame one guy for any problems you have with the series. And I'd certainly not say his 3D efforts should be judged as making the series go downhill after the oh so "wonderful" N64 versions, which are really the most apt comparisons since both were clumsy efforts to drag Castlevania into 3D to appeal to the masses..
Do people really rave that much about the earlier Castlevanias anyway? The original is more beloved because of nostalgia, it's a fairly basic platformer with shitty control and nice music. Simon's Quest has its fans, and has plenty of people who dislike it. Rondo is generally beloved by fanboys, but decribed as overrated by the less zealous Castlevania lackeys. Castlevania 4 isn't really held up as a masterpiece by a whole ton of people. 3 and Bloodlines are really good, but that doesn't mean the current series is necessarily worthless. Were the blah Gameboy games the pinnacle of the series that Iga has tarnished? I don't think so.
| Shapermc wrote: |
| EGM wrote: |
| "But what other secrets is Konami hiding in its coffin? Big ones! Check back here next issue to get the exclusive scoop on the next Castlevania installment. Trust us--if you're a fan of SOTN, you'll want to sink your fangs into this killer exclusive." |
Puns aside, EGM seems to be hinting at a third game to the Rondo of Blood series (soon to be trilogy). |
Um... where do you get that from the EGM quote??? I read the same EGM and didn't get that "hint" at all. I'd say it's just as likely a port of Rondo, another SotN port (PSP?), or some other undiscussed possibility. I can't see how you could attribute that EGM is implying anything at all about the completion of the Rondo "trilogy". |
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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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| Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:23 am |
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| Broco wrote: |
| showka, you are right though that they are rushed. The release cycle is really short. This isn't likely to change, unfortunately. Working on games on a "when it's done" basis only works for huge sellers like Half-Life. |
Oh, and the above is a particularly good point. And we're not even talking Half-Life development cycle to normal comparable game on the same platform, in this case maybe Half-Life sequel vs. minorly hyped PC FPS. (about which Broco is correct, though).
What we have here is typical of GBA/DS development across all genres and third party publishers, and the Castlevania series isn't an excpetion. In the past five or so years, companies made GBA/DS games largely because they were cheap and easy. They aren't going to want the developers to labor over it like a AAA title, because to nearly every 3rd party publisher, portable titles are still thought of as a cheap way to get a title on the market. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it certainly was the prevailing philosphy among publishers (and I think it's still the current philosphy).
Comparing the loving care that went into the development of SotN (a major home console title) to the development of GBA games is simply unfair. |
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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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| Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:12 am |
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| Dark Age Iron Savior wrote: |
| firenze has convinced me to get drunk on cocoa and finish my proposal for the Battle of the Holy Perfect Selection. |
Umm.... I'm actually a little worried here. I'm not sure whether to be terrified of the wrath of DAIS or to be flattered at having inspired cocoa-intoxication. |
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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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| Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:29 am Post subject: Re: What is a fan? A miserable pile of secrets! |
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| Mister Toups wrote: |
Okay firenze, we get it, you have mainstream gaming tastes.
I know you aren't new here, so I shouldn't have to explain to you that the general viewpoint here doesn't always line up with the mainstream press's opinion. It's possible for game reviewers to be wrong, you know! Even all of them at once! |
Oh quit trying to pull the I'm a bigger artfag than you card. If you really want we can get into a pissing contest about how non-mainstream we both are. My favorite genres are stuff like 2D shooters and fighters, so yeah I'm a mainstreamer. Heaven forbid I like a commercially successful Castlevania game and not just indie stuff like Cave Story (is that what I'm supposed to say to get in the cool kids club?). Yup, I'm just like all the rest of the EGM reading, Mushihimesama playing mainstreamers. And since you like Twilight Princess you must be a dirty mainstreamer (oh heavens, what an insult!), right? But I'm going to shut up about my geek cred now. I think both of us, and actually the vast majority of the posters here, like plenty of quirky/obscure/niche/"hardcore" titles as well as plenty of "mainstream" games. We're all geeky enough to be taking our time posting here, which I would tend to believe means we all just like what we perceive as good games regardless of whether they're best sellers at Wal-Mart or hard to find imports.
I really only replied because of your quote "The series, by many accounts, has gone downhill since the current curator, Koji Igarashi, took over the franchise". I've just not really seen these "many accounts". I brought up mainstream media not to say that "the big video game magazines and websites say it, therefore it must be right!". I was just showing an example that there are a lot of people who don't whine about IGA at all. I don't hear complaints among other gamer friends, plenty of game developers I know (Dawn of Sorrow was pretty popular among most of the pepole at the last GDC I went too), magazines, major internet sites, and even the ghetto that is the Gamefaqs boards.
Who are these "many" accounts? Toups and a few other IC posters? Because honestly that's the majority of the IGA-complaining I see. And if it's pretty much a phenomenon of this forum, then aren't you just preaching to the choir anyway? Why bother with your post to begin with other than to pat yourself on the back for being so hip and on the ball with what's trendy in your hipster circle (and running counter to popular opinion)... |
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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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| Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:33 am |
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Note to self and rest of SB...
Firenze is now going to shut the hell up, because it seems the invariable result of his posting on a IC/SB Castlevania thread is angry accusations of artfaggery, reverse artfaggery, assholishness, IGA-worship, and people not understanding anything about video games. |
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firenze
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Bonus Round
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| Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:59 pm |
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| Mister Toups wrote: |
| Anyway it was still inappropriate of me to say that, so I'm sorry. I've been in a sour mood for personal reasons lately. No offense intended. |
Well, thanks. I apologize as well if I was overly hostile. It seems Castlevania threads have a magical way of doing that to me. Glad to get back to civility. |
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