[sub](Editor's Note: The "A Princess Worth Saving" series of reviews are designed to be looks into games, game series and gaming concepts that have either been forgotten, under-appreciated or have had a significant positive impact on the gaming world as a whole over the course of time. For a more "negative" look at games, please search for "Hey Dragon, You Can Have Her.")[/sub]
I'll start off by saying this will not be an article about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Sony PlayStation) because (hopefully) we all know and love that game; this is about the spirit of Castlevania as a whole.
Nearing nearly twenty-five years running and coming up on it's thirty-fourth game in the series... many would immediately argue that Castlevania is hardly in need of any kind of "saving" at all. Short of Mario himself, there are few games that have seen more releases over the course of videogaming history few series have seen releases on as many different platforms as Castlevania. You'd be hard pressed to find a video game platform in existence throughout history especially with classics re-surging on current generation consoles via download services. So why does this particular Princess need saving?
As good as games like Symphony of the Night (Sony PlayStation), Circle of the Moon (GameBoy Advance), and Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS) were, there were games like Castlevania: Judgement (Nintendo Wii) and Legacy of Darkness (Nintendo 64) to cast a negative shadow over the series as a whole; and with that quick list of contrasting titles, let me make one point very clear:
Castlevania is a two-dimensional game. What happens when you move a game like Castlevania game to three-dimensions? You get Castlevania 64 (Nintendo 64), Lament of Innocence (Sony PlayStation 2) and Curse of Darkness (Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox). At the most, with a three-dimensional Castlevania game, you can hope for "decent," but will most likely fall into the realm of "lackluster" border lining on "awful." Time has shown over and over that the formulaic "MetroidVania" approach to the Castlevania series of exploration, item collecting, RPG-style character/stat progression and pseudo-non-linear gameplay is what makes Castlevania enjoyable (that, and amazingly awesome monologues by Dracula himself, I mean... really, "what is a man?" when you think about it?).
Even though helmed (officially) by Hideo Kojima, the upcoming Lords of Shadow reboot seeks to take the series back into the third-dimension kicking and screaming. Being officially developed by Konami and MercurySteam (of Clive Barker's: Jericho fame), the game itself is, according to an interview, going to consist of combat against enemies who:
A lot of people might cry out (and likely will) that some of us are "living in the past" and that games need to "move forward," which is fair enough I suppose... but do we really need them to all move forward in the same direction? Why can't we have a "2D" Castlevania where all of the sprites/artwork are drawn in 1920x1080 pixels of high-definition goodness? Ayami Kojima's (no relation) concept art has been some of the most beautiful work in videogame history, why can't we see those images in motion in ultra-high resolution? I know we can get those experiences on our DS' and PSP's, but why not on our brand new shiny HD LED LCD's?[footnote]in the year 2072, we will be speaking entirely in acronyms, I promise.[/footnote] As much as some might like to see Dracula May Cry, do we really need to take a series that has its own huge fanbase and alienate those fans by moving so far away from what made the series great in the first place?
The DS-based Castlevania games have all been better than average with some dipping into fantastic because they stay true to what put the series on the map in the hearts of many gamers, which was staying true to the Symphony of the Night formula/mechanics without copying it directly. Why can't we see gameplay like that translated into current generation home-console hardware? With Symphony of the Night itself doing so well on Xbox Live! and PlayStation Network download channels, and with the WiiWare channel recently hosting a re-imaging of the original game in the series, certainly there's a market out there for a new "true" Castlevania game that doesn't parody itself or dip into God of War territory.
One other reason this princess needs saving is the two-dimensional Castlevania games are one of the last series of games to even attempt to stay true to its roots in both story, design, setting and mechanics. While other series' as old continue to reinvent the wheel (Megaman, Final Fantasy) and others going back to the well after all this time (New Super Mario Bros. Wii), the non 3D proper Castlevania games have been incremental in their mechanical advancements; and the expansion of the convoluted lore is what made the series so charming in the first place. It's almost a tongue-in-cheek spectator sport to watch how they are going to fit additional story content into the current Castlevania timeline, and those attempts have become some of the more charming, albeit in an amusing way, things to watch in videogame design today. So while the desire for a story-reboot is understandable, you'd be losing out on the amazingly complex silliness and magic of what DS Castlevania-goers and fans of the series as a whole have been appreciating-ly rolling their eyes at for decades.
This Princess is the whitewashed statue of mother Lisa standing in the courtyard on a moonlit night weeping bloody tears over the plight of her son Alucard. She's the whip, the sword, the cape and the cowl; the inevitable curse that falls upon mankind once a millennia. She's the Aria, the Symphony, the Rondo and the Dawn. She is the embodiment of the trials and tribulations of decades of videogaming and deserves to be respected, admired and loved. Time will tell if in this decade, she will be saved.
I'll start off by saying this will not be an article about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Sony PlayStation) because (hopefully) we all know and love that game; this is about the spirit of Castlevania as a whole.
Nearing nearly twenty-five years running and coming up on it's thirty-fourth game in the series... many would immediately argue that Castlevania is hardly in need of any kind of "saving" at all. Short of Mario himself, there are few games that have seen more releases over the course of videogaming history few series have seen releases on as many different platforms as Castlevania. You'd be hard pressed to find a video game platform in existence throughout history especially with classics re-surging on current generation consoles via download services. So why does this particular Princess need saving?
As good as games like Symphony of the Night (Sony PlayStation), Circle of the Moon (GameBoy Advance), and Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS) were, there were games like Castlevania: Judgement (Nintendo Wii) and Legacy of Darkness (Nintendo 64) to cast a negative shadow over the series as a whole; and with that quick list of contrasting titles, let me make one point very clear:
Castlevania is a two-dimensional game. What happens when you move a game like Castlevania game to three-dimensions? You get Castlevania 64 (Nintendo 64), Lament of Innocence (Sony PlayStation 2) and Curse of Darkness (Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox). At the most, with a three-dimensional Castlevania game, you can hope for "decent," but will most likely fall into the realm of "lackluster" border lining on "awful." Time has shown over and over that the formulaic "MetroidVania" approach to the Castlevania series of exploration, item collecting, RPG-style character/stat progression and pseudo-non-linear gameplay is what makes Castlevania enjoyable (that, and amazingly awesome monologues by Dracula himself, I mean... really, "what is a man?" when you think about it?).
Even though helmed (officially) by Hideo Kojima, the upcoming Lords of Shadow reboot seeks to take the series back into the third-dimension kicking and screaming. Being officially developed by Konami and MercurySteam (of Clive Barker's: Jericho fame), the game itself is, according to an interview, going to consist of combat against enemies who:
... and while featuring a Belmont front-and-center, is going to attempt to move away from the previous games in the franchise in both story and design in order to attempt to "capture a new audience." Basically, translated, this could mean you're likely going to see yet another Devil May Cry/God of War style hack 'n slash on the shelves this holiday season. Some gamers might be excited about this, as the God of War genre has as much of a rooted fanbase as say a Halo or Modern Warfare, however, to those of us who grew up with the series, you can't help but shed a single bloody tear for what could be the final nail in the coffin for the traditional series proper.[footnote]That's TWO subtle Castlevania references in one sentence. I win.[/footnote]
A lot of people might cry out (and likely will) that some of us are "living in the past" and that games need to "move forward," which is fair enough I suppose... but do we really need them to all move forward in the same direction? Why can't we have a "2D" Castlevania where all of the sprites/artwork are drawn in 1920x1080 pixels of high-definition goodness? Ayami Kojima's (no relation) concept art has been some of the most beautiful work in videogame history, why can't we see those images in motion in ultra-high resolution? I know we can get those experiences on our DS' and PSP's, but why not on our brand new shiny HD LED LCD's?[footnote]in the year 2072, we will be speaking entirely in acronyms, I promise.[/footnote] As much as some might like to see Dracula May Cry, do we really need to take a series that has its own huge fanbase and alienate those fans by moving so far away from what made the series great in the first place?
The DS-based Castlevania games have all been better than average with some dipping into fantastic because they stay true to what put the series on the map in the hearts of many gamers, which was staying true to the Symphony of the Night formula/mechanics without copying it directly. Why can't we see gameplay like that translated into current generation home-console hardware? With Symphony of the Night itself doing so well on Xbox Live! and PlayStation Network download channels, and with the WiiWare channel recently hosting a re-imaging of the original game in the series, certainly there's a market out there for a new "true" Castlevania game that doesn't parody itself or dip into God of War territory.
One other reason this princess needs saving is the two-dimensional Castlevania games are one of the last series of games to even attempt to stay true to its roots in both story, design, setting and mechanics. While other series' as old continue to reinvent the wheel (Megaman, Final Fantasy) and others going back to the well after all this time (New Super Mario Bros. Wii), the non 3D proper Castlevania games have been incremental in their mechanical advancements; and the expansion of the convoluted lore is what made the series so charming in the first place. It's almost a tongue-in-cheek spectator sport to watch how they are going to fit additional story content into the current Castlevania timeline, and those attempts have become some of the more charming, albeit in an amusing way, things to watch in videogame design today. So while the desire for a story-reboot is understandable, you'd be losing out on the amazingly complex silliness and magic of what DS Castlevania-goers and fans of the series as a whole have been appreciating-ly rolling their eyes at for decades.
This Princess is the whitewashed statue of mother Lisa standing in the courtyard on a moonlit night weeping bloody tears over the plight of her son Alucard. She's the whip, the sword, the cape and the cowl; the inevitable curse that falls upon mankind once a millennia. She's the Aria, the Symphony, the Rondo and the Dawn. She is the embodiment of the trials and tribulations of decades of videogaming and deserves to be respected, admired and loved. Time will tell if in this decade, she will be saved.
