I'm optimistic. The Castlevania series (particularly in recent years, on the GBA and DS) has rarely disappointed. Two games, you say? Excellent.

No, he couldn't. And no, no Castlevania game features any hero being able to attack and move at the same time, with the exception of the Valmanway. You say that you think land-canceling and all that stuff is good strategy, but I disagree. I don't mean to get into an argument, but in Castlevania, I find myself mini-jumping and attacking in the air a whole lot so I can keep moving while I'm attacking. Have you ever seen somebody in real life do mini jumps to cancel their stop-movement when attacking? No! What I'm talking about is intuitive strategy, not my ability to press buttons.

When programming enemy A.I. in a videogame, the developers have to take into account what the hero's attack limitations are. The more a hero can do, the smarter the A.I. has to be, and the less a hero can do, the less the A.I. has to do as well, so as to balance the difficulty out. What Konami has done here with Castlevania is put attack limitations on Soma so that the enemy A.I. has to do less.

Wow! I've just been back to these forums since the crash, and am now hearing lots of excellent news! Good to hear of an imminent next-cv release.. here's hoping it's 3D...

no not like the ps2 versions, but something akin to Maverick Hunter X. That would be damn nice. And a whole new system without Soma would be a nice break too.

:doggy: woof!

Well, Alucard could swing the Holbein Daggers and the Crissaegrim without stopping...but that's beside the point.

I would actually like to play an old-school Castlevania game. I hope one of them is a pretty straight forward game and the other is an adventure/rpg one. And playing as Julius. Finally.

All we need is a Grant-like Hammer and we've got ourselves CV3

Just to get this clear, i believe that "Dual Moons" was an April Fools joke. Portrait of Ruin is the only confirmed Castlevania title to be released anytime soon.

There's nothing wrong with more of the same, as long as each game lives up to the proper quality standards. The Megaman series sold on that concept for a while before Capcom stopped giving a shit and started having all their interns make the games.

Two concerns, though. There's a finite amount of space in the timeline, and eventually it's going to get to the point where someone's fighting Dracula every year, which would be a little silly. And, it would be nice if they expanded the environment past the castle for a change. It wasn't until Symphony that Drac's castle was anything other than the last level of the game. There's plenty of room for the same Metroid-style exploration in the outdoors, and it would let them vary up the environments a little more.

Vary the environments you say?

I'm willing to bet there'll be a clocktower, a ballroom, gardens and some kind of undergound sewer system.

Just a vague guess.

Good sir, I do believe you've just described a castle of some sort!

I like how Dawn of Sorrow wasn't supposed to be set in Dracula's castle at all but apart from the urban setting at the beginning might as well have been. Well down at originality Konami.

Someone buy this and scan it for me please, I will not give you a dollar if you do!

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2...475e1849we.jpg

http://img419.imageshack.us/img419/8...1bbaa376mx.jpg

I guess they're going to continue the BeybladePokemonDigimonYu-Gi-OhTotallySpies style art with DS and keep the awesome art for the 3D games that smell just a bit like poo.

Er, not quite. The ice village area inside the castle was pretty nice/unique. (unless that was what you meant by "urban" but I assume you were referring to the very beginning before entering the castle) Past that, it may as well have been Dracula's castle, though, because it definitely looked like it.

Yes the ice village was my urban setting. It's like Konami laughed at their chance to offer something new.

I'm playing through Dawn of Sorrow right now. I don't think Castlevania games are very well if they aren't centered around some castle of some sort. As for them being the same, perhaps the same could be said of all religionsgames. A proper sequel takes the original, upgrades it, changes it around and makes it better. If I wanted to play some sort of Castlevania title that didn't have it's theme based in a castle, I'd play DMC3.

Konami is huge. Pop'n Music, Metal Gear, Castlevania, all Bemani titles, Goemon, Suikoden, the list goes on. I'm sure the team that focus on Castlevania can only do so much.

source: ds-x2.com

AHA! CAUGHT!
You see Castlevania sequels don't take the orignal upgrade them and make them better. They ONLY change things around. Seriously. There's no better proof of this than the way we keep hearing ad nausem that while the new ones are good, "Symphonia of the Night was the best."

Welcome to the "Whatever I watch first is the favorite" syndrome. You see it alot with movie remakes. Whatever one you see first is always the best. I played Aria of Sorrow first and played Symphonia later. I can tell you with a straight face that I enjoyed AoS more than SoN. But hey, SoN was still a bloody good game.

For now I don't really mind Konami shuffling their 2D Castlevania card deck and calling it a new game but I'll be bored eventually.

Art looks a bit corny for my tastes, but I'll definitely be picking this one up. Dawn of Sorrow is still the best action title on the DS since it's release imo.

Games Are Fun has an update with two (tiny) gameplay screens. Neither of which are in a castle-like setting, hey.

Well, the graphics look pretty good, and the gameplay will probably be good, but so far the it sounds like the story is gonna be the worst part. At least it's not that important to enjoying the game.

Oh, come on, we're going to see canon Nazi Vampires.

Boom, best Castlevania ever right there.

It seems Castlevania's art direction has been shaken up a little, I think Dawn of Sorrow had similiar art style. Bu the game was still pretty solid. I think the game will turn out fine.

The art for Dawn looked a lot worse than this. Well, not worse than that magazine cover but worse than the piece of art for the main character. IMO anyway. The locales look nice in those two screenshots. Hopefully the rest will look good too.

What was wrong with Dawn of Sorrows' art?

Also, where are these screenshots of the newer games? I'm on 56k so I don't particulary feel like hiking off to other websites just for undersized preview shots of an upcoming game.

It was boring art. The box art was like "GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL" but everyone looked constipated. Image Shack'd!

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/5711/010gx1.jpg http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/8278/021wl1.jpg

Also for whatever reason, the purple dude reminds me of;

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5...rarcade7yx.png
This can only mean Sega are developing Castlevania, run for the hills!

Boring art, unfitting art... there are plenty of ways to describe it. I loved the game but the art felt totally out of place.

That too.

That second screenshot reminds me of the starting scene in Dawn of Sorrows.. I think? Or maybe it's just been too long since I last saw it.

Judging by the first screenshot, you can still fight as the guy while the girl is casting magic.. That will be cool.