God Of War Ragnarok Director Would Love A Shot At Castlevania.

I find all people do is bitch about everything. You have all the From software Souls/borne haters who say all the games are the same. You have people bitch and moan about any game that has a cutscene and production values as being a " movie game". You have the people bitch about open world games.

As a fan of all the God of War's and the OG castlevanias I would love a new Castlevania. It couldn't be worse then what's become of the series now as it's only being used to promote pachiko machines in Japan.

Something tells me you're a Sony fanboy who denies it takes 2 hours for GoW 2018 to get going, and is slow even after that, and everyone who says that didn't play it.

They are the same. If you hated a souls game, you're not gonna like the series.

No, people bitch about games having too much of it. Very valid complaint.

Yeah, because they suck 99% of the time.

1. Oh no, people are unhappy with the status quo among AAA games.

2. They ****ing recycled the same animations, assets and even enemies from past Souls games in Elden Ring. Elden Ring barely felt like a new game, let alone a new IP.

3. I do agree Movie Game criticism is lazy. But the point is there. Too many games are too invested in spectacle over controls, they wrest player agency away from the player. Uncharted's climbing sections come to mind.

4. Open World Games mostly suck, especially Themeparks.

5. As a fan of the OG castlevanias, NOTHING about the GoW director tells me he would make a good director for Castlevania. Castlevania were tight platformers. Which tested the player's resource management and ability to plan ahead. Nothing in GoW suggests me that he would be a good match for CastleVania, he is good at making cinematic, narrative driven mindless action games. And his habits and experiences might make him a really poor match for a game like CastleVania.

@Maroxad:

1. Could you even tell me what the status quo for triple A games is?

2. It certainly was built upon their past games but it did enough different and did much if it well thst I would consider it a great game.

3. None of those games would be critical acclaimed if they didn't get the gameplay right. The combat in GoW is outstanding.

4. Those that follow the Ubisoft formula do but plenty are still great.

5. Depends on what your looking for. A high budget 2d castlevania would be great but that's not happening. Not to mention that genre is oversatutsted with trash. I don't think I'd classify it as a mindless action game especially when there's so many different builds and playstyles involved in GoW.

1. The status quo for AAA game design could be summed up as targetting the lowest common denominator, and design by committee. Resulting in a lack of vision in most titles.

2. If I were to give ER the Dark Souls 3 UI and recorded footage of it and no one would be at fault if they thought it was Dark Sousl 3 rather than Elden Ring. Elden Ring was incredibly stagnant. Especially for a new IP. We are still fighting the same reanimating skeletons, basilisks, the general encoutner design philosophy has barely evolved since Demons Souls. And we are still dealing with the same tropes and cliches.

3. I think you completely missed the point. When people are talking about Movie Game Design, they are talking about those walking sections, ultra linear climbing/platforming sections and so on.

4. Themepark Open World games being good is the exceptoin, not the norm. And that is a big problem.

5. Compared to most action games that I play, GoW does come across a bit on the shallow side. RPG elements do not add depth to the moment to moment gameplay. More often than not they add a lot of jank to the core mechanics. Since tuning is impossible, tuning that CastleVania often rely on. There is a reason the series went downhill when they added RPG elements to the mix.

1. Interesting. I always thought games such as Fortnite and pokemon appeal to the lowest common denominator. I don't really think GoW or most single player action adventure games fit that category.

2. I understand you wish it to feel more different but despite that it has some of the best encounters in gaming even with that old formula.

3. But would those small sections ruin an other wise great game? Those things were added in the past specifically for technical limitations. I expect to see less of that as games are actually made for current hardware

4. What do you consider theme park open world games?

5. What are you comparing it to? GoW hits the perfect mix of Action game and RPG to me. GoW has far superior combat to any action RPG's I can think of with only pure action ganes like DMC5 exceeding it . I thought " Symphony of the night " was the first Castlevania to add RPG elements and it did it incredibly well. It's widely regarded as the best in the series. It fell off when it decides to go 3D.

Again I'm just looking over the options. A Castlevania game in the style of Lords of shadow would be great in the hands of SSM. But if I had my first choice I'd rather have someone like " Moon studios" handle one in the old 2d style.

I find the thought of a FromSoftware developed Castlevania game to be much more appealing myself.

1. Pokemon and Fortnite never compromised their vision to shoehorn in random elements from other genres. Even today Pokemon's puzzles may be easy. But at least they have the decency to not tell you how to do them even before you have a chance to try to solve them yourself. Like Ragnarok does.

2. There were barely any memorable encounters in Elden Ring. Outside of the Legacy Boss Fights the encounter design was bland and forgettable. And most of it just had a big "been there, done that" feel.

3. Depends on the frequency of them. I know several people who abandoned Ragnarok because there were too many walking sections. I havent played Ragnarok, but this is a serious issue Sony studios in particular have.

4. Themepark Open World Games. Are Open World Games where the content is developer made stuff already preplanted in the world. This can be a dungeon in Elden Ring or Skyrim, a Shrine in BotW or a Mission in GTA. Usually with the player having a preset goal. In open world sandbox games, developers tend to create a world, with set pieces, content naturally emerging based on rulesets, personalities and behaviours. Themeparks include Elden Ring, GTA, BotW, Asscreed, Far Cry, Skyrim, RDR, Fallout, The Witcher 3, MGS5. Some of these do have some sandboxy elements in them, such as BotW, GTA and MGS5 but not enough to be truly sandbox.

5. Mostly Pure Action games like Bayonetta, DMC and earlier GoW games. ARPGs are a crap genre, being both weaksauce action adventures and weaksauce RPGs. Symphony of the Night was recieved well, but mechanically it doesnt hold a candle to earlier games. Once Alucard gained a dozen levels or so, he could reliably tank most stuff in the game. Meanwhile, most castlevania games prior to RPG elements being added, had you die after 4 hits. At that point, the game became less about pattern memorization and overcoming challenges and more about hitting the boss down before they kill you. If you get hurt you can just quaff a potion anyways. The games became much less skill based.

Eeew, why aren't you banned yet? Why is being a movie game a bad thing and what makes a movie game? Seems if it's not like Skyrim or BOTW it's a movie game to you...

Castlevania as movie game/walking simulator. here we go.

I really don't want to play a Castlevania movie game. Elden Ring is the target that any developer should shoot for if they want a reboot of the series.

lol so many clueless gamers in here. Ragnarok offers more GAMEPLAY than most of your favorite titles lmao. But because the game is made by an extremely talented studio, not only are they offering a load of varied gameplay, they also give you a story that is better than most and actor performances are as good as you will see in the gaming industry. All of this without any mtx milking. Movie game btw😁Clueless.

@Maroxad:

1. Pokemon and Fortnite never compromised their vision to shoehorn in random elements from other genres. Even today Pokemon's puzzles may be easy. But at least they have the decency to not tell you how to do them even before you have a chance to try to solve them yourself. Like Ragnarok does.

Lol what vision? Pokemon has been rehashing the same shit for over 20 years. The last game to release is virtually broken but they don't care because the mindless drones will buy it anyway.

@Maroxad

2. There were barely any memorable encounters in Elden Ring. Outside of the Legacy Boss Fights the encounter design was bland and forgettable. And most of it just had a big "been there, done that" feel.

I'd have to agree to disagree. I can think of at least 10 epic boss battles in that game many of which will go down as the greatest in gaming. My issue with " From Software " is the lack of polish.

@Maroxad

3. Depends on the frequency of them. I know several people who abandoned Ragnarok because there were too many walking sections. I havent played Ragnarok, but this is a serious issue Sony studios in particular have.

Lol there's barely any. The game mostly let's you explore and puts you in combat encounters. I can't imagine anyone enjoying the genre and disliking GoW:R

@Maroxad

4. Themepark Open World Games. Are Open World Games where the content is developer made stuff already preplanted in the world. This can be a dungeon in Elden Ring or Skyrim, a Shrine in BotW or a Mission in GTA. Usually with the player having a preset goal. In open world sandbox games, developers tend to create a world, with set pieces, content naturally emerging based on rulesets, personalities and behaviours. Themeparks include Elden Ring, GTA, BotW, Asscreed, Far Cry, Skyrim, RDR, Fallout, The Witcher 3, MGS5. Some of these do have some sandboxy elements in them, such as BotW, GTA and MGS5 but not enough to be truly sandbox.

I always find the difference between great Open World and bland ones are the side content. As long as it can make the side content engaging instead of feeling like a chore. The rest depends on the core gameplay mechanics.

@Maroxad

5. Mostly Pure Action games like Bayonetta, DMC and earlier GoW games. ARPGs are a crap genre, being both weaksauce action adventures and weaksauce RPGs. Symphony of the Night was recieved well, but mechanically it doesnt hold a candle to earlier games. Once Alucard gained a dozen levels or so, he could reliably tank most stuff in the game. Meanwhile, most castlevania games prior to RPG elements being added, had you die after 4 hits. At that point, the game became less about pattern memorization and overcoming challenges and more about hitting the boss down before they kill you. If you get hurt you can just quaff a potion anyways. The games became much less skill based.

I thought Symphony of the night was the pinnacle of the series. You had so much at your disposal unlike the previous games. The old school " Castlevania was great at the time but pattern memorization was the standard for every 8bit and 16 bit side scroller and it needed to evolve.

1. Rehashing or not, that is not what the criticism towards AAA banality is about. It concerns, devs adding a myriad of features that end up compromising the original vision. While also dumbing down entries, with things like... having some guy spoil every puzzle before you before you even get to attempt them.

2. I can think of maybe 4 good encountesr in the entire game. But I see that just like with the point above, you have derailed the discussion point entirely... interesting how that works.

3. I can ulatimately not comment on this, since I havent played it. But virtually everyone, in my gaming circles ended up hating this game because of too many walking sections and downtime. Hell I even know someone who sold their PS5 because of this game.

4. Hey look, once again... you what you are saying does nothing to address what is actually being said. Good Side Content can exist in non open world spaces, if anything, this way side content can also integrated with the main content, which is a huge win for the pacing and tying the whole package together.

5. Yeah... no. Tuning in Symphony of the Night was absolutely terrible. Which turned it to be pretty braindead compared to its predecessors. Once you had progressed enough, you could just walk up and facetank pretty much everything. No need to plan or think ahead. ClassicVanias are so much better, it is sad though, since ClassicVania really rewarded players for observing enemy patterns and thinking ahead, and yet, IgaVanias ended up being some of the most braindead metroidvanias out there.

Edit: The amount of weapon choices you had also was detrimental for SOTN. In a game like Rondo of Blood. The game was designed around Richter Belmont's abilities (which is why playing as Maria was nowhere near as fun). In, SOTN, the devs could not really account for anything, and thus the encounter match ups were really dull. "Challenge" came in the form of HP bloat, rather than an interesting chemistry between your abilities and theirs.

But go ahead and tell me why you think the GoW director would be a good pick for castlevania. Because quite frankly, the guy's games have been lacking in every area the Good CastleVanias excel at.

Are you saying a japanese developer who excel at difficult but fair gameplay, gothic themed visuals, level/enemy/boss/weapon designs would be a good fit for Castlevania? Nah, that's madness. We need Santa Monica.

xD

When I played Demons' Souls. Its more methodolical approach to action gameplay made me think of CastleVania. It is part of the reason I found the game so easy when most were struggling with it. I played it using the lessons I had learnt from CastleVania.

I think you can guess what my favorite weapon was in the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring :P

It's the whip

Like in castlevania, the slight windup on attacks, attacks potentially putting you in danger if you mess up, encounter design that could go awry if you just charged in, all felt right at home to me.

Asking Fromsoft to do the job is simply cheating. Any action games could be done by them, and they'd do a better job than the original team of whatever franchise. At the same time, i don't think Fromsoft's style of story telling would do very well, so they'd have to do it the way it was done in Sekiro, and in my opinion, it was shit, and i completely disliked it compared to all their previous titles.

Not really.

Fromsoft are really good at making slower more methodical action games. But if you would give them something more reactive, they would most likely be out of their element. The combat mechanics of FromSoft games is very simplistic, often rely more on positioning than a well executed offense.

@Litchie: Yeah, I really went out on a limb with that take didn’t I. LOL :P

Obviously. I want to be Simon Belmont taking care of his son while operating puzzles I was given the solution to before starting them, even though they only needed the brainpower of a cucumber. Then I want to press X to be awesome and sit and watch Dracula talk for an hour.

@Maroxad: All very good points.

Heck yah, hand them keys over!

WUT? And what is BB and Sekiro? That's not slow🥱Secondly, who said they can't do an even faster game? They don't do NG speeds because it'd be a mess for pvp, stamina magement wouldn't be a thing, and as a whole, it'd be nothing but a spam like Naraka Bladepoint. Speed is not an advantage. Stop assuming they can't do it just cuz they haven't made the fastest action game around🥴

You're arguing with a guy who thinks the old school castlevanias are better then SotN. He may literally be the first person I've heard with that " terrible take.

I am well aware with whom i am arguing with lol. He has the worst takes on this forum, so i am studying him😁

GoW:R doesn't have a win button. Do any of you clowns play the shit you criticize?

lol, so the other part of my post was correct.

I wouldn't play something I know I'd hate just to shit on it in great and accurate detail so its fans don't get butthurt by an obvious exaggeration on forums.

Nah the rest of your post was bullshit. Regardless watching the meltdowns on this forum is hillarious. There aren't many games like GoW: R other then the first one. I'm not sure what your type of game is. Maybe it's low effort Nintendo shovelware are a yearly release of Forza. Regardless I'm glad GoW:R is doing well and getting rewarded for it. It deserves it.

Areyou trying to imply they are even close to the speed of something along the lines of Ys or anything by Platinum?

Bloodborne is sped up compared to previous entries. But they are still more methodical games. They play slower than Nioh as well.

You clearly havent been in CastleVania fan communities around then. That would be the GENERAL consensus among CastleVania fans. Generally they didn't just completely miss the appeal of not only games like CastleVania 1, 3 and Rondo. But they also miss the strengths of the Metroid Franchise. The culprit for this pretty much entirely falls on the RPG elements.

In both Metroid and ClassicVania, your weapons and avatar abilities be mostly fixed. In Metroid there can be some slight permutations based on sequence breaking and how many health tanks you have. In ClassicVania you might have a different subweapon and whip power. But overall, the ammount of stuff they had to balance encounters around was fairly small. And oftentimes encounters would conveniently place recommended subweapons in a nearby candle. So overall, balancing each encoutner was easy, and made for a solid experience throughout.

Though I must say... I do find find it amusing how you call yourself a fan of the "OG CastleVanias".

@silentchief: I always wonder what meltdowns everyone are talking about all the time. Guess calling things meltdown just helps coping with people not liking your favorite games..

Not the fastest games around=/=slow. You know what else Fromsoft titles are? Better than anything from plat, Ys or Nioh.

If they wanted to make a spammy fast title, they would have. Its shit and not needed, so they don't waste their time.

Even something like bloodborne seems felt somewhat slower than average. Slow and Methodological isn't a bad thing. So no idea why you seem to be getting offended by it.

The combat of all 3 (Plat, Ys and Nioh) absolutley demolish FromSoft as far as combat goes.'

Edit: If you think Bloodborne isn't on the slower side... I really don't know what to tell you. I would say its pace and speed is at most, average. I can probably bring up 40 action games from the top of my head that are faster. But I wont, because I dont need to derail this topic. Even then, Bloodborne is the exception, not the norm.

It didn't felt slower than average. In fact, because dodging barely consumed any stamina, it was too spammy, and a slowing down of the combat system would've been better.

None of the three games mentioned demolish anything from Fromsoft. Having access to a combo list=/=better.

How many action games are coming out on yearly basis? Yea, you talk like there's plenty to choose from🤡I also like how you're pretending to never have heard me mentioning Sekiro, a game that is faster than BB. You're always trying so hard maroxad.😅

I seriously can't believe you just typed out several thigns you said in that post. To answer them all would derail the topic further. So I leave this quote here, to preserve your statements for all to see while going back to my original point. (you also kinda made my point for me, so thanks... I guess).

If there is ANYONE who is a great match for CastleVania, it is From Software. A lot of the design that made the OG CastleVanias so good, are also present in Soulsborne games, and executed really well in those games.

I don't deny Fromsoft being better for a Castlevania reboot. But there's no chances of this happening, so why are we talking about it? The story telling by Santa Monica is also MUCH better for Castlevania, because if you think that Konami wants criptic story telling we're seeing from Fromsoft, you'd be mistaken. If Konami wants to reboot the series by another developer, they want as many people getting into their game as humanly possible, and for that, Santa Monica would be much better at attracting the casual crowd.

Other than SotN, there is barely any story in CastleVania. They are purely exploration driven.

No shit, they were what? All 2d games? Secondly, this is a reboot we're talking about. Did the og GoW titles had a story? Barely. It was nothing but a generic bald dude with anger issues that killed everything. Now, now that has changed, and the story is one of the better we have seen in gaming.

@Maroxad:

You clearly havent been in CastleVania fan communities around then. That would be the GENERAL consensus among CastleVania fans. Generally they didn't just completely miss the appeal of not only games like CastleVania 1, 3 and Rondo. But they also miss the strengths of the Metroid Franchise. The culprit for this pretty much entirely falls on the RPG elements.

In both Metroid and ClassicVania, your weapons and avatar abilities be mostly fixed. In Metroid there can be some slight permutations based on sequence breaking and how many health tanks you have. In ClassicVania you might have a different subweapon and whip power. But overall, the ammount of stuff they had to balance encounters around was fairly small. And oftentimes encounters would conveniently place recommended subweapons in a nearby candle. So overall, balancing each encoutner was easy, and made for a solid experience throughout.

Though I must say... I do find find it amusing how you call yourself a fan of the "OG CastleVanias".

Fan communities in the mid 90's?. No I wasn't because it simply wasn't easy to find back then.

Your argument is basically SotN is bad because it evolved and tried new things. If you look at modern Metroidvania they are all heavily inspired by SotN more so then any of others.

And yes I love the OG castlevanias they were incredible for their time. But at somepoint the series needed to evolve. I couldn't imagine a modern Castlevania with such limited abilities in today's age. But at the time I was a 10 year old slaying vampires and ghouls and it was absolutely incredible.

Even in CastleVania communities back then, and today. Preferring classicvanias isnt exactly an uncommon opinion. If anything the favoritism aimed towards ClassicVanias only increases every year. This is probably due to the fact that, much better MetroidVanias are made than anything Iga could ever imagine, which further highlight the flaws of SotN and its clones. Games like Hollow Knight, Ori Duology and Metroid Dread.

IgaVanias aren't maligned mind you, but ClassicVanias were clearly the better games, and their superiority shined. They werent just good games for their time, they are even excellent games now.

And modern Metroidvanias take more inspiration from Metroid more than anything, these games are going back to actual platforming, rather than corridors and hallways with a large number of enemies. RPG elements are also mostly being phased out or minimized. Almost like RPG elements were always a bad idea.

@Maroxad: who do you think would be a better studio to handle castlevania. Santa Monica or 343i?

Imo there is no competition, 343i completely demolishes santa monica. If it was a movie game, I might agree that Santa Monica would be a good idea but it's not. Also another great studio is iD software. The art style is not far off and I'm sure they'd love to try their hand ar a 2d game.

343i hasnt really had any experience managing a melee centric game. But Santa Monica havent really left a very strong impression on me with any of their games. Quite a negative impression if anything.

343i is an excellent FPS dev. The mechanics of Halo Infinite are top notch. But I dunno if their expertise with shooters would translate well to a game like castlevania.

It's quite funny reading the "criticisms" of GoW:R from people who deliberately misrepresent aspects of it. The posts they make are a thin veil failing to cover what is essentially just some ol' butthurt.

The same thing happened to Devil May Cry 1-3 when they were only on playstation. Posters on this board (some who still post and may be ITT) insisted that the action game aspects in DEVIL MAY CRY were lacking because of things like the single attack button, rapid input moves, lack of a dodge button etc. The arguments got as hilarious as "[it's a braindead action game because of the single button combos!]"

The same history rhymes with the 'criticisms' of GoW:R's gameplay today. Some of the people really coming after GoW:R claim they only make fun of games that facilitate trends like the scourge of MTX and such. So sad for them; they would likely enjoy GoW:R very much if they could only see past their fanboyism.

Of course they would enjoy Ragnarok. Its a game that delivers the whole package. Nothing is flawed in this game, and has only seen improvements from the 2018 entry, which was goty tier as well. When a Sony exclusive comes out, it gathers a ton of attention because Sony studios put a lot of effort into their games. Fanboys of other platforms cannot stand seeing this much attention about a game they can't play, so the first thing to do is to find some ammunition to bash the game, BUT THEY CAN'T, because the game is THIS good😂so they have no choice but to spread a bunch of made up bullshit to cope with their fanboyism. Like, imagine even thinking that a game like Ragnarok is nothing but a movie game just because the presentation and actor performances demolishes everything they have on their system(s). It is funny to me lul.

What's even better is that when you say this to a lemming, some will respond to you with the "oh so just like you're bashing Halo Infinite?", as if Halo Infinite was in the same dimension. Seriously, over the last year, nothing but laughable memes came out of 343i, and the piss poor support for their Offline Service, and here they are, having the audacity to even compare a game that is guaranteed to be one of the best of this generation to a forgettable Ubisoft-like generic mess with the worst pvp support possibly ever. Desperation is all i am seeing here. But then again, be in their shoes for a second. Not only did they not have anything within the last year, but their shining light in the tunnel is a Todd Howard game. Think about that for a second lol.

Imagine if Koji Igarashi was still alive today and made a Castlevania game.

Bet can't.

Well we can agree to disagree on certain things but one thing we can hopefully agree on is it would be great for the franchise to be resurrected.

Castlevania hasn't had a big game in a long time. I say let a successful designer have a Crack at it. What's the downside?

If its made by Santa Monica, it will be a Sony exclusive. That's why some are moaning.