[PSP] Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for PSP

Originally Posted by chato

I thought it was originally Akumajo-something and not Castlevania.

As I recall, the franchise always used to be referred to as Akumajo Dracula: <subtitle> (Demon Castle Dracula) in Japan, which was translated to Castlevania for the American and European market. Then starting with Chi no Rondo (Rondo of Blood) the new games were called Akumajo Dracula X: <subtitle>. As Soldier pointed out though, they dropped that naming convention in favour of the Castlevania name in use in the rest of the world for Lament of Innocence on PS2. I'm assuming this was around the time that IGA became the series producer. I'm not sure which titles exactly have been called Castlevania in Japan, and I've also heard that after a while, they switched back to using the more familiar "Akumajo Dracula" naming scheme.

There are many exceptions to the standard naming conventions anyway. Castlevania II on the nes was just called Dracula II, the Gameboy titles used the name Dracula Densetsu (The Legend of Dracula) while Castlevania III on the NES was called Akumajo Densetsu (Legend of the Demon Castle) so the names have hardly ever been consistent.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by kainlightwind

Speaking of SOTN, it's the Saturn version correct?

Some sites do say so. If it is true, presumably since they will have to re-write it extensively to work on the PSP, it will finally be running at full speed, without all the slowdown that plagued the original Saturn version. That would be pretty sweet.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

Gawd, Saturn SOTN....proof positive that not even the sega saturn, the king of 2D games in that generation, could save poor coding.

The Saturn's status as the king of 2D games actually was detrimental to the port in question. The PS1 doesn't do 2D. At all. It does pseudo-2D which is actually quite bizarre. I understand that what it boils down to is 2D graphics rendered onto a 3D surface.

Naturally the Saturn wasn't able to handle this kind of thing. If they'd actually created a proper 2d graphisc engine from the ground up for the Saturn port, it would a have been nothing short of magnificent.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

Huh, then woun't it make more sence to port the PSX version and code in the extras to the PSX version? Cuz as far as localisation is concerend, the main issue was the crap acting, rather than the dialoge.

I imagine that they learned their lesson, and will code the game from scratch, according to the original design document. The PSP is more powerful than the Saturn, though, so it might be a moot point.

With regards to the localisation, I'd argue that lines such as "Die monster! You don't belong in this world!" are pretty terrible even in text, and I'd not be sorry to see them go.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?