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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 23, 2006 19:23:49 GMT -5
Hope you don't mind if I make a thread for this game. I can't wait for it! I'm looking forward to it about as much as all those Wii games! Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is one of the best GBA games out there, and this one looks to be shaping up even better! I've tried to stay away from too many spoilers; but what I do know is that it somewhat breaks the mold of the typical Metroid-style Castlevania games, it's supposed to be about 50% larger than DoS, includes several unlockable characters, and for the first time on a handheld CV game, it includes full English voice work with the ability to switch to Japanese using a code (the Konami code, perhaps?). And how can you not want this pre-order bonus? I was down at the EB Games today that I pre-ordered it at to ask if they knew for sure whether or not they would receive it, and the guy seemed pretty confident. I've gotten a bonus there before, so I guess I'll stick with them, but I'll sure be disappointed if I don't get it. Konami has yet to crank out a true Symphony of the Night killer, but this looks like a very sincere attempt.
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Post by Fryguy64 on Oct 24, 2006 3:23:24 GMT -5
Haha, I just got the NES Classics Castlevania. Beats Symphony any day I love Simon's cocky strut.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 24, 2006 12:42:31 GMT -5
Actually, I've always wanted to play Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. I'm sure it'll pop up on the VC at some point. I was a little disappointed to learn that the VC would be region locked, tho, so I guess I won't be playing the PC Engine's Dracula X: Rondo of Blood any time soon.
I oughta track down that NES Classics Castlevania. It's the only GBA Castlevania I don't own.
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Post by Sqrt2 on Oct 25, 2006 3:07:38 GMT -5
I was a little disappointed to learn that the VC would be region locked Great, now I'll never get to play Earthbound or SMRPG:LotSS!
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Post by Fryguy64 on Oct 25, 2006 3:28:57 GMT -5
Nothing is stopping them from "localizing" games that were never released before. We can still get those games if Nintendo wants to share.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 25, 2006 14:00:16 GMT -5
In this case, I want Konami to share! I read part of an interview where Koji Igarishi was asked about porting Rondo of Blood to a North American console, and he just said it would take a lot of time and money that he thought would be better spent creating entirely new games.
Seeing as how the Wii will simply emulate it, all Konami would need to do is translate some Japanese text, of which I hear there is very little. On the other hand, if there's any truth to the rumor that Konami has actually lost the source code to the game, then it may not be possible.
Moving on, since Symphony of the Night will be available to download on the 360, Igarishi seemed open to the idea of making it available on the Wii as well. I just wonder how he'll deal with the issue of emulating a PS1 (or Saturn) game on the Wii.
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Post by Wildcat on Oct 26, 2006 18:45:02 GMT -5
Now I'd be all over that. I've been debating buying Symphony of the Night on ebay, but if Iga is open to providing it on the Wii, then that would be perfect. If Capcom can bring Mega Man 8 and MMX3-6 to the Gamecube, I don't see why Konami couldn't bring SotN to the Wii.
GBA NES Castlevania rocks due to being able to save the bloody game. I'm still in the middle of it, though.
I reserved PoR Tuesday mainly for the sweet bonus package. And I also really want it. It ought to be fantastic.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 26, 2006 19:19:02 GMT -5
All right, I went back to find the direct quote from the interview. I guess Igarashi isn't actually in charge of the Live Arcade version of Symphony, Konami US is. The interviewer also really presses the issue of doing a 2D Castlevania on next-gen systems... Source: www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153842&did=1I've been misspelling Igarashi's name, but I still didn't muck it up as bad as 1up.com.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 27, 2006 21:05:39 GMT -5
Here's another interview with Igarashi. He touches on the Live Arcade version of Symphony of the Night a bit more, as well as Rondo of Blood. Source: blog.wired.com/games/2006/10/koji_igarashi_i.htmlLet's hope this spreads to the Wii, especially since Igarashi thinks it'll be the most successful of the next gen consoles.
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Post by Wildcat on Oct 29, 2006 11:01:07 GMT -5
I just call him Iga...takes care of most spelling problems. I hope some Castlevania love hits the Virtual Console. Konami's signed up for it, so it's a good possibility.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Dec 6, 2006 22:07:21 GMT -5
Finally got this game today. I haven't played much of it yet, but so far I'm impressed! The graphics and sound are very polished and some of the best I've seen yet on the DS. The two-character swapping system seems pretty cool, too! I also managed to get the 20 th Anniversary gift pack pre-order bonus, and it's a pretty nice little package itself! It came in a black cardboard box with a red seal. The art book is pretty good and covers every game in the series except Rondo of Blood. It even has the N64 games, Legends, and Circle of the Moon, despite being retconned from the official storyline. It has an intro written by Koji "Iga" Igarashi. It also has messages from artist/character designer Ayami Kojima and composer Michiru Yamane. Those were a nice touch. I'm listening to the music collection CD right now. It has 37 tracks of music lifted directly from various games in the series (that is, it's not remixed except for a few instances where they added sound effects, and two bonus tracks at the end). It has everything from the primitive sounds of the NES and original Game Boy to the sophisticated sound systems of the PS2 and DS. It's a nostalgic trip in itself. A Castlevania timeline shows when each game in the series takes place (except for Legends since it was replaced by Lament of Innocence). It also mentions the battle of 1999 referred to in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, as well as Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. The special stylus is fairly basic. It's extendable with the outer case being clear and the inner part white. The dual-game case is similarly basic. Tho, you guys might not care about any of this since the pre-order bonus apparently sold out. I'll come back when I have more impressions of the actual game.
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Post by Dances in Undergarments on Dec 7, 2006 0:52:22 GMT -5
Preorder pack sounds sweet. Games got a January release here, so hopefully we get the preorder pack (though I doubt it).
Plan to pick this up next year, definately.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Dec 8, 2006 20:51:19 GMT -5
Okay, I've been playing this a lot the last couple of days, and I have to say, it's another winner! As I mentioned, it has great graphics and sound. The graphics in particular are very intricate and beautifully detailed. And there are some nice touches, like junk falling off a table when you jump on it. One problem with Dawn of Sorrow was that I didn't think the locations in the castle weren't particularly exciting. That is, they've been seen before in other Castlevania games. But Portrait of Ruin has locations that have never been seen in a CV game before, like an Egyptian pyramid. Story-wise, it's a follow-up to Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Genesis (aka, Castlevania: The New Generation on the Mega Drive) which, for some reason, is one of my favorite CV games. So I really like the allusions to Bloodlines (as well as the return and re-imagining of one of the characters). Bloodlines was also an attempt to tie-in the games with the Bram Stoker novel, but the coherency was shaky at best. Portrait of Ruin helps to flesh out Bloodlines' story a little better. Anyway, it's a great game. I think I like it a bit better than Dawn of Sorrow. And it's worthwhile even without the pre-order bonus. Speaking of which, all the tracks from the CD are available at The Castlevania Dungeon. All you need is a GameSpy account. Also, scans from the art book, CD listing and other stuff can be found at Vampire Killer, so you can pretty much find all the pre-order bonus stuff online.
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Post by Wildcat on Dec 9, 2006 20:35:59 GMT -5
I've been really enjoying my time with it so far. I've gotten past the bad ending and into the second half of the game, and it's pretty tough. I am enjoying the dual character mechanic a lot (it's a nice change of pace from AoS and DoS's solo affairs), and I like both characters. They're unique enough to both have great strengths (and to spite most of the reviews I've read, I've played through most of it as Charlotte without much of a problem). The game looks fantastic (a little more polished up than DoS) outside of a few recycled sprites (which usually don't feel out of place, but it'd be nice if they could redraw everything next time). The music is different and excellent. The controls are as good as ever, and the touch screen is minimized to directing your partner or Charlotte's familars around, which is great. I don't know if it'll top DoS on the whole, but it's a solid effort for sure.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Jan 19, 2007 13:39:48 GMT -5
IGN has posted a rather large retrospective of the Castlevania series for its 20 th anniversary. It's not entirely comprehensive (and suffers from surprisingly sloppy punctuation), but it's a good read and gives a good overview of the franchise. It ends with a rant on where Konami should be going with the series. Here's my favorite quote (from their list of highs and lows in the series):
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