Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[durendal]

I heard that they will be porting this to the PS3. Is that really true? I am currently replaying the game on my PC because my PS1 already died on me and my PS2 is starting to die on me. Besides, I can't seem to play an English PS1 disc on my Japanese PS2 console.

After watching a few videos on Youtube, I learned that there are still some things that I haven't explored in the game yet, like the heart refresh glitches. I also would like to try and finish the game without the use of the cheesy Crissaegrim. And by god I just realized that there is a faster way of leveling the familiars. Not to mention a way to immediately raise the attack power of the Muramasa.

[*V Guyver]

well yeah, they had the game planned for release as a down loadable content. They already ported it over to the PSP via a Dracula X remake. I've been hearing a lot of rumers floating around, including a HD remake. No castlevania game has yet to match how great this game was.

[*Jess♥]

i'd like a remake that uses the original art and increases the resolution. thing is though.. that depends on if the original art was digitised animation frames or if it was pixel art.

but no messing around with hte game itself. i wouldn't like that.

[Guest Unito]

That wouldn't be a bad idea, an HD remix, kind of like how Street Fighter HD remix is like, cept for castlevania it would be best if they keep it original art since imo, no other castlevania art style in the later series comes close to sotn. However, i haven't heard of a port yet.

[Hellspawn28]

I used to love this game on the PSX and the game is already on Xboxlive to download. A PSP or DS remake would be a good idea.

[*V Guyver]

I agree, the art direction and potriats shouldn't be changed at all. But updated more detailed sprites and backgrounds would be lovely, I was thinking along the lines of Street Fighter II HD as well, though in reality, the sprites would probably only be about as big as Capcom VS SNK sprites ,or Guilty Gear X's. So far 2D animated sprites have only been king in Street Fighter II HD and Blazblue. Here are the examples:

SFII Turbo HD

Size comparisons to original SFII sprites, GGX, and new HD size.

[*V Guyver]

and Blazblue

Size comparison to GGX sprites

Now imagine Castlevania, any game, not just SotN in HD with sprites comparable to at least Capcom VS SNK sprites. The Results would be nice. Just compare all of the above to the original SotN sprites.

oh and new console CV game coming out. it's a 3d fighting game.

Edited October 31, 2008 by V Guyver

[Hellspawn28]

A Castlevania game like that would be awesome.

[durendal]

Would be great if they used the image art for Richter. The posters of Richter looks great, but the in game sprite makes him look like a cave man, it's just like how Alucard imagined Richter when he met Maria in the castle. I gotta say, that encounter was funny.

They never did able to duplicate the success of Symphony of the Night.

[*V Guyver]

that's because the Richter sprites in the PS1 SotN game were from the old Dracula X with a couple of new animations. They totally revamped his sprites for the Sega Saturn version, and also made Maria a playable character. Unfortunately with all the added content, the Saturn was inferior in music and graphics (odd since the Saturn was a more dedicated 2D machine.)

here are all of his sprites.

By the way, the new fighting games namei s "Castlevania Judgement" The art wrok was done by the same man who created Death Note. It's got a very different look then the beloved artist who did much of the art work for the series starting with SotN. Many of the characters resemble deathnote characters. In all honesty, I dislike some of the new redesigns, like Maria and Alucard look so odd and different from their SotN incarnations. Simon though looks pretty bad ass.

site

http://www.konami-data.com/castlevania/youtube gameplay from E3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJgyqEmtr8...feature=related

Edited November 1, 2008 by V Guyver

[*Jess♥]

dude, you hotlinking the images from somebody's site.

I have to point out that can be considered quite rude by some people.

anyway, those first 2 images have been blocked by hte host.

[*V Guyver]

yeah, I guess it was rude of me. But going through the trouble of saving them on my computer then reuploading them here or onto another image site isn't as practical as just posting them here with the coding.

[*Jess♥]

i agree. I thought about what you would have to go through to do that. perhaps you can link us to the page where the images were originally?

(i wonder if there was some way for the server to detect the link, transfer the image to this server automatically and link to that instead.. ?)

[durendal]

Is it me or does the cover of Castlevania look extremely close to Light Yagami. Didn't Obata even bother to make the designs less similar so it wouldn't be obvious? It's screaming "Death Note Artist". I like the images of Ayami Kojima better. Her artwork blends rather well with the concept.

[*V Guyver]

you should see maria, she look so freakin much like Misa.

Edited November 2, 2008 by V Guyver

[*Jess♥]

that's so ugly.

why would they go for that style, it doesn't fit with hte previous series. I think it kinda ruins it.

[*V Guyver]

I agree, I would of prefered the cooler older designs by Ayami Kojima. Yeah, the guys are girly, but they still looked cool. At least it wasn't anime designed like dawn of sorrow.

[*Jess♥]

I think that this could work, if it were based in some eighties alternate reality, like fist of the north star. that artists work has that kind of feel.

in some way it does fit with some of the earlier castlevania art.

which is ok if they were setting it in some of the earlier era with the other belmonts.. but i think around the time of richter belmont, the series felt more elegant and decorative, rather than the earlier gothic robust themes.

[*V Guyver]

that beauty and elegance gives the series such a distinct style and look. It's hard to imagine anything that can replace it or be any cooler. In all honesty, I like some of the older work. I like the current Alucards look from SotN, but I wish they retained some of the gruff look he had in Castlevania 3. He was a dhampire in turmoil, unshaven, and gritty. That look fit a character struggling with a horrible fate and evil lineage that he was born from and betrayed.

The only art style I can imagine that could work in Castlevania and still retain outright coolness is this type of art.

Edited November 2, 2008 by V Guyver

[*Jess♥]

yeah, that is very cool, and i feel it may work quite well. where did you get that?

who is the artist?

[durendal]

Oh my goodness. Is that really Maria that Obata drew? It shattered my image of Maria and makes me want to think loli. Is it intentional that he drew like that because of the similar gothicism of Deathnote and Castlevania? His work in Hikaru no Go is totally different from his designs in death note.

The second image does suit the game. Still I like Kojima's art better. Making vampires Bishonen is sorta appropriate. Why else would women fall head over heels for a vampire?

[*Jess♥]

yeah, I totally agree. vampires are supposed to be this effeminate gentle romantic figure that has this hidden vicious side.

I love how they are portrayed in bram stokers dracula, it's such a excellent symbolism for sex. it's the romance and the seduction, but when they show the creature having sex with her, it is an ugly animalistic thing..

it's a disturbing take on the actual reality of our world.

well in many cases.. but of course there is the exceptions.

I think that this could be why these designs do not seem to fit.. because the visions do not speak of romance and do not speak of hidden monstrosity. these visions speak more of gallant heroicism and strong dependable manlyness. it has a very different theme that is not befitting of the core ideals of the concept.

also the portrayal of maria suggests of lolicon in durendals view, I have to agree and it brings about ideals of depravity and wrongness.

I do think that if these changes in conceptualisation were intentional and fitting with hte story, it could mean a very different type of castlevania not following the traditional mould. a lot of the recent games have been quite stagnant and following the same formula. if the director of this game hs been adventurous and is taking this game into a new risque direction, it may be very interesting indeed. I could imagine a vry strong sublplot or even main plot that includes the themes of humanity's coruption. almost echoing the line in symphony of the night "what is a man, a miserable pille of secrets" . in this case, by exploring this figure of 'gallantry' (which in my view is an abuse of machismo and pushing to extremes) and showing how this relates to hte lolicon iconography, it can leave a very interesting message in players minds.

but what that might be, I do not know. perhaps showing how dracula is not necessarily all that bad in comparison to what goes on in the human world?

hmmm, it would be interesting to find out.

[*V Guyver]

I have to agree, it would be nice for the seires to expiriment a bit more, but there are some things that shouldn't be changed. None the less, they've reinvinted a lot of game play mechanics ever since SotN and some of them have been incredibly cool, like Aria of Sorrow's Soul System.

By the way, some of the artwork and designs from Partiot of Ruin are pretty cool, and I wouldn't mind some of them being part of a new art direction. Yeah, I dislike the anime style in that game a bit, but they had other art work related to it that didn't stink.

Such as Wind (revealed to be Eric Lecarde, who may actualy be a decendent from Alucard), Brauner, and Darcula.

[durendal]

Looks like the "Head Honcho" Ryuki is enjoying himself playing with Castlevania. What version have you guys played before?

I'm currently stuck at 200.5% of the original PSone version. Still haven't played a while because I was busy with a new acquisition. But I plan to play as Richter once I finish the game. When I got to the second castle, I immediately went to work to kill some schmoo at the reverse library. Those sock like ghosts that flies around drops the most powerful weapon, efficiency-wise, the Crissaegrim. Although using this weapon sucks the fun out of the game. I'm only using it when I go item collecting from enemy drops. On bosses, I equip the Alucart set. And I actually found a new funny way of killing Galamoth. I guess his face is very vaulable to him.

What version have you guys played?

[*Jess♥]

i have been playing the xbox live version which is actually a port of teh psx version.

vguyver was mentioning the secret garden, but I can confirm that it will not be in this game because it is ported from the psx for sure.

durendal, unless you use teh heart refresh trick or other glitches, you will only get that percentage, you cannot get higher. when you fight dracula, the percentage will jump to 200.6 but since you can't save it at that point, you can't save teh full percentage.

anyhow, I completed it fully this evening.

I got the ring that sucks in lightning.. omg is now so much easier to kill that guy!!!

so theni got full map and killed dracula and so no more point in playing. I got all hte achievements except for two.

I need to kill dracula as richter without getting hit.

also i need to play through on a "richter" save file.

I'm not sure if i will do that though since i have mirrors edge to play now