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It’s safe to say that there was a lot of apprehension amongst 4Player Podcast regarding Castlevania: Harmony of Despair when it was first announced. Personally speaking, my quick play-through at E3 2010 left me feeling somewhat uninspired about the title but certainly wanting more. At the time, one of my main concerns with the title was your ability to see the entire game level. Where was that sense of exploration and the feeling of the unknown? I worried that such a departure from the crux of the series would hurt the series as a whole.
I see now that I simply didn’t get it.
After a few long multiplayer nights and a bunch of time playing single player I now do get it. I find that the new Castlevania is such a refreshing change for the series while allowing it to stick to its roots much more than some of the more recent incarnations of the series. Sure there is the distinctively retro quality to it, that goes without saying. But to keep that feeling, and then add in modern components like 6-player cooperative play and also retain the RPG aspects of later titles, allows the new Castlevania to be something that none of the others have been able to achieve.
The decision for this game to be an XBLA title was probably the best thing for the Castlevania series. To put it simply, this game needed to be as accessible as possible. In terms of price point and playability it behooves the series for this game to get into as many hands as it can, especially when there are probably so many gamers who have had little to no experience with a 2D Castlevania game.
It may sound cliché’, but Castlevania HOD is very much a something for everyone title and, as Seinfeld once put it, the game about nothing...but also about everything.
-Joseph-
Comments
14 years, 9 months ago
Joseph getting on the news blog ball, rolling out all these great articles!
I look forward to buying this and recreating my Gauntlet experience with friends because that's what it felt like when I saw Brad and David casting it on the feed.
14 years, 9 months ago
Honestly, I was not excited at all for this game, it seemed like they were making a multiplayer that would be disjointed and chaotic, just for the sake of having a multiplayer. But after seeing it on broadcast it seems like a lot of fun and I was surprised to see how well it works.
When my 360 returns to me, I better splash some cash for some points, as this seems worth the purchase.
14 years, 9 months ago
I cry every night because this is not on PSN.
14 years, 9 months ago
Hopefully this will create a whole shit ton of new Castlevania fans. Fans who will demand more console Metroidvanias instead of cheap God of War knockoffs.
14 years, 9 months ago
I'm not sure that Harmony of Despair is the definitive first step to getting Castlevania back on track. This game has probably found its way into the hands of people who have never played, or perhaps even heard of, a Castlevania game (for the record this is not a bad thing). My biggest concern with that is that their views on the series are going to be skewed slightly and it could ultimately cause them not to except a full scale, Symphony of the Night Style Castlevania game in the future. I would imagine the cries of "Where's the Multiplayer?" would start immediately if one were to be announced (I think a Demon Souls approach would work very nicely).
I hope Konami takes the popularity of this game to heart though. It shows that people do want new 2d Castlevania games on consoles. I hope that they are willing to put the budget up for it. Harmony of Despair may not be the game that says Castlevania is back and here to stay, but its looking in the right direction for sure.
PS- Anyone else concerned that Lords of Shadows could squash this momentum?
14 years, 9 months ago
It depends on what defines "back". Fan response? Critical reception? Sales? Regardless of the game's quality,if it's viewed simply as a "another download game" then the series has done nothing to advance. So far it seems to be doing pretty good. I was surprised to see it #1 on the Gamefaqs 360 message boards. Will this last?
On a separate but related note,why is that Igarashi can rip-off Metroid for several of his games without a word,but Mercury Stream rips off God Of War and everyone throws a fit? The fact that SoTn,Aria Of Sorrow,etc. are called "Metroidvanias" further the point that they are rip-offs and stray from the original formula of the series. Does that speak to the quality of the games? No. Neither does Lords Of Shadow sharing a few similarities with God Of War (or just about every hack-n-slash out there,cause that's what tends to happen among games in the same genre,they have similarities).
14 years, 9 months ago
Mercury Steam doesn't have much of a track record to speak of (2 games to their name). Everyone always brings up "Jericho" but Igarashi made "Castlevania: Judgement" which everyone seems to forget while they bow to his altar. So if one developer can be forgiven for a terrible game,why can't the other?
CV never followed the Metroid formula until SoTn. It went CV1,2,3,4,Rondo Of Blood,and Bloodlines. Then came SoTn. All the previous games were action platformers which seems to be the aim of Lords Of Shadow. True,whether or not you prefer the God Of War formula is a matter of personal preference,but there seem to be some very uneducated claims thrown around as it relates to LoS. Mainly that being a God Of War-esque game is all it has going for it. I've read several developer interviews about the game listing features that seem contrary to the game being a hack-n-slash mashfest. The developers could be lying,but the naysayers could be wrong too. We won't know until we play the game. It's one thing to speculate. It's another thing to jump to conclusions.
14 years, 9 months ago
Understandable. I have more faith in this selling on a mainstream level than a 2Dvania. The general public are gonna see a burly man on the cover,the name Castlevania,and Kojima productions,and be like "oh shit,I'm sold". Most of them probably will probably see the name Mercury Steam and have no idea that it's attached to Jericho. Whether or not it's a good game remains to be seen. Considering where the CV series stands right now (download titles and portable systems),I don't think this could do anymore damage.
14 years, 9 months ago
This is a great game. What makes the game unique has to be the 6 player co-op. Very high replay
14 years, 9 months ago
I think it is a step in the right direction for getting the franchise more known to different people, reviving it I'm not too sure.
14 years, 9 months ago
You bet your balls it's coming to PSN eventually.
14 years, 9 months ago
What I'd really like to see a 2.5D Metroidvania on consoles with two-player co-op. Not this "Explore one big area" thing with multiple people, but rather a traditional Metroidvania that two people can explore on their own at once. Hell, they could probably port (heh) Portrait of Ruin to XBL and add this feature in with little to no work at all.
14 years, 9 months ago
C:HD is perfect for moving the series into the future of on-line co-op, downloady games, but I don't think it will be "bringing the franchise back."
I only mean that I don't think the franchise has done anything but get better in recent years. Protrait of Ruin was a really fun game (and I think the first with the most needed and amazing Castlevania power, the power to RUN REALLY FAST (w/ speed boost) because after you're done exploring and need to get around to grind or hunt, tha jogging pace is very cumbersome) and Order of Ecclasia was easily just a bit better than that, if only for having a better plot and bad-ass heroine.
2D Castlvania games have been amazing almost all around, its the 3D games that have always missed the mark and frankly, I consider them 2 different universes. The side-scrolling games will always be fan faves and the 3d ones will always make buyers weary. I hope the next one coming out will surprise us because I really think it looks good. If it needs to, it should just straight up steal devices from games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, not so much God of War because, we don't need any more of that - over the top violence just for the sake of being macho- without humor and style to balance.