[dongle]

[Judge Ito]

[Predator Goose]

[Moogs]

[showka]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

Honestly, this is just about the worst thing that could happen to the series at this point, and I'm simply disgusted with it (and anyone accepting it). Konami has seriously fucked this up and I am not pleased at all.

Here, let me count the sins:

1. Betrayal of userbase: This is a pretty big one to start off, but it's probably the worst offense Konami has committed. By sticking this on the PSP, they're basically spitting in the face of everyone who bought the GBA & DS Castlevanias. Why they did this when sales for those titles are so good is mind boggling, and it's a pretty huge insult to all their fans. I can only conclude that they seriously want to screw people who don't buy every system as soon as it comes out. To tell the truth, I wouldn't be surpised if that was the case - Konami has been making some crazy stupid decisions lately.

2. Poor choice of platform: In addition to being a huge slap in the face to the people who have been loyal to the series, the PSP is just about the worst choice possible for this project. Konami needs to stop making half-assed plays for attention like this and put the game where people will actually notice it and appreciate, like on the Wii's Virtual Console. On the PSP, it's just going to be ignored and forgotten - although given what it's shaping up to be, that's probably what it deserves.

3. Defilement of a classic: I can't even begin to describe how wretched the "upgraded" version of Chi no Rondo looks. It's like a Newgrounds flash game with a homebrew 3D engine that will never get out of alpha. I've tried to stand up for IGA, but it's obvious he's more than a few baskets short of a picnic if he thinks this is an acceptable way of honoring the games he couldn't even hope to rip off. The sheer number of errors and inconsistences seen in that video is shocking, and I wouldn't be surprised if the final game looks no better.

4. Neglection of content: It goes without saying that the focus on "remaking" Dracula X will supersede the actual effort of porting either of the real games - the former SOTN staff will be working on the Live Arcade port, and I doubt Konami even knows where the people who made Chi no Rondo are and what projectst they can be removed from - if they're even still around. And it's unlikely any newbie programmers are going to be able to handle a port from a system as arcane as the Turbo Grafx. I hope you guys like game breaking glitches!

I can only think of two reasons why this mess is coming out: either Konami is actively trying to sabotage the Castlevania series, or IGA has finally blown it like everyone's always expected him to. I think I'm about done with both of them at this point, and I now look forward to the cries of dismay that come when people actually see this farce for what it really is.

Ugh.
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[Shapermc]

[firenze]

[chompers po pable]

[Baines]

[Shapermc]

Frenzy, I have a few examples of Sony strong arming people to release games with 3D graphical interfaces for their 2D games, and to sell them as packages, and to sell them for cheap, or they weren't going to be allowed to release them at all.

The main argument about the lack of 2D games and SOA is because of how many there were in Japan.

Give it a rest.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[BotageL]

[Judge Ito]

And then DAIS goes and proves my point, or the point I wanted to make about the internet being having a bitchfest over this when they should be giddy.

They could have chosen to release this WITHOUT the PCE original. Just ignore the 3D shit, bite the bullet, rock out to the remixes, and be happy we're getting anything at all.

[Moogs]

[Toups]

I... actually kind of agree with DAIS.

If nothing else, the remixed music is fucking TERRIBLE. I mean honestly why would you put that song in swing time. Why. And then put those fucking terrible synthesizers for the lead? Why?

Why :(



Seriously, this does excite me as it seems to be my first chance to play rondo of blood without having to completely reconfigure my computer to emulate TG16-CD games. (I've seriously never gotten it to work right and the one time I came close it still controlled like shit). I might even buy a PSP for this but that's only assuming they don't botch the port job (which, as DAIS points out, is actually somewhat likely). To my mind this would be worth it just for a portable symphony of the night, but I would have much rather seen this on the VC or xbox live arcade. Or even the DS, despite whatever downsampling that would entail.
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[diplo]

[Sklabah]

I can see the argument that Chi no Rondo should be released on the Wii VC or X-Box Live, and maybe it will. Hell, they're finally doing SOMETHING with it, and that's a good sign.

Believe me, I'm sure they'll do more, but you get the obscure one out of the way, the one that will sell less, but still sell. Then you take it to the other places where people want it. I mean, they're porting Symphony to X-Box Live...they'll put Rondo somewhere else, too.

Me...again, I'm VERY pleased with this. People can wish it would come to other consoles or services..I bet it will...but the HATE is inane. I wonder why these folks aren't executives...they obviuosly know better than the people in charge who are actually MAKING the games.
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Old man thread killer.

[showka]

[BotageL]

[Toups]

[BotageL]

Because I suspect they felt actually showing SOMETHING would be better than showing nothing at all. But hell, everyone was going to bitch no matter what they did.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[diplo]

uh. what music are we talking about? the rendition of beginning on the trailer sounds fine to me. or not???

[showka]

I really liked the 3D version. Maybe its just because the trailer is grainy enough to make it look good.

This game has made me want a PSP. I just wish I could plug the fucker into a TV and it was half the price, and all these hardware flaws people keep mentioning didn't exist.

[Moogs]

[showka]

I was just thinking. One reason the Saturn version of SOTN isn't as pretty is because the Saturn didn't have the same resolution, so they had to stretch every graphic they displayed and this made them look blocky.

I think sometime around the turn of the century Konami forgot that it drew all of its older graphics based on pixels that were wider than they were tall. Thats why a lot of the recycled graphics in Dawn of Sorrow, especially all of those skeletons and secret playable character # 3, look slightly disjaring. Because they're skinnier than they should be, and its just not the same.

I just saw a clip of the old Dracula X on the 1-up show's preview of this game (I clicked it by mistake, ugh) and it reminded me how damn good these kind of wide pixel graphics looked on the hardware they were made for.

My point is if the ports use all of the PSP's resolution and don't use some kind of filter to stretch the image, what we're getting really won't be a direct port because the graphics will be skinnier than they should be. Kind of like playing a Super NES emulator back when emulators were new and had no advanced video modes, so everything just looked too tall. But at least they'll be no black bars on the side.

[another coma]

They'll probably just extend the viewable area horizontally for the PSP version, as stretching it would be downright criminal of them.
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[Mr Mustache]

[Hot Stott Bot]

Regarding 2D dying:

2D is dying because of 3D -- not because of Sony or HDTV.

Why would HDTV kill 2D? At the full color and resolution of good ol' SDTV, the majority of 2D graphics are either:

* Drawn on paper and scanned (very high resolution).

* Made on a computer in some kind of vector graphics format (even higher resolution).

* Drawn onto a computer via a tablet (still very high resolution).

2D graphics are already being downsampled from ginormous resolutions most of the time. Making the same game in a higher resolution does not really require significant additional work. There might be a little extra cleanup work required, but it isn't like there's any kind of non-constant growth.

I'd say 2D is dying because of 3D, not anything else. It isn't that 2D is becoming harder or anything. It is just that 3D is becoming easier and people prefer that.

If anything, the HDTV is going to make 3D harder, whereas 2D should stay similar...

[!=]

Did anyone mention that the games couldn't be ported to the DS due to its stupid pixel resolution?

It's as if nintendo intentionally chose to make screens with an uncommon one in order to avoid the ports, which might make some sense in the end. But I believe you can't port chi no rondo because of that. (Not for a market of hardcore fans)

[SplashBeats]

[v84j3gs2uc7ns4]

[chompers po pable]

stay out of this toll. the drama's getting deep, this shit's better than the OC dood.

[JamesE]

[Moogs]

[showka]

[Moogs]

I wish I could find images of the different screen formats in the Gradius Collection. Or at least the Capcom Classic Collections for PSP.

[option]

[quote="Moogs"]

[Moogs]

[BotageL]

Well, remember, 'high resolution, two-dimensional artwork" is one of those things that is very simple to do in principle but requires a lot of work in practice. For something HD-resolution, you're basically animating a cartoon entirely out of re-usable and flexible frames of character and object animation. Certainly, this is hardly an unfamiliar concept (Hanna Barbera, anyone?), but one needs to consider that for a videogame this is still a hell of a lot of work. Unlike in three-dimensional graphics, you can't adjust a camera angle or get another view of a character/object without drawing (or re-drawing) the frames involved. Depending on how high your resolution is, how fluid you want the animation to be, and how many actions a character or object can take, this can mean that you're drawing a hell of a lot of stuff. In the event that somewhere along the line the character's design gets changed (perhaps the focus of the game is shifted, or new designs make him redundant), all the work done on the animation has to be thrown out and restarted unless.

You can do all this and make an awesome-looking 2D game, that's for certain. But nobody is ever going to do this because nobody wants to spend the kind of money it would take to do it right and hope it will sell. You'd pretty much have to hire an animation studio or two to draw all of your graphics (hell, I'm pretty sure Arc System Works did for the GGXX games), and quality 2D animation isn't that cheap. There's just no way to be certain that the market would really eat up a beautiful high-definition two-dimensional videogame at this point.

The one point I am honestly curious about is how well a modern console could handle a game with high-res 2D art created in entirely in vectors. I'd imagine that the memory usage for, say, a 720p fighting game would be pretty ridiculous if you were going to keep each frame in memory as a bitmap.

Y'know, I'm not entirely sure what my point was anymore, or how much sense the above makes. I guess I'm trying to say that no, high-def does have everything to do with it, because nobody will spend the money required to do it right.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Balzac]