[DS] Castlevania: Symphony of the Tits

All snatched from Cherrn at Highervoltage in the quotations, will also be stealing some translated info. Some more screen shots at the secondary link.

It was pretty aptly put in my eyes when a guy said "I wish Konami would make one good metroidvania, instead of 40 not bad ones." Colors, as pointed out by yet another guy look a bit more vibrant here, and in a surprise twist to me, Igarashi apparently put in a female lead. I guess since she isn't a Belmont, it's "ok."

Originally Posted by Jigsaw

The Japanese title is 悪魔城ドラキュラ　奪われた刻印 (Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin). The subtitle roughly translates to "The Stolen Seal".

The text doesn't say a whole lot. Dracula's up to no good again, that's about it as far as description of the story. The main character is a female warrior who's a member of Ecclesia, an organisation who fights Dracula. Her name is Shanoa (no clue about spelling), and she uses whips and other weapons.

Joystiq

Originally Posted by Cherrn

Someone did make a new thread, because I was short of time right then!

BUT BEHOLD





Igarashi is making it, and it looks like it has multiplayer too. The leaked name was Order of Ecclesia, but it is probably not going to be the Japanese title.

The rumor dude from EGM says that there are two other games planned; one for Wii (presumably includes DS connectivity), and a PS360 title as well.

If someone can translate all this, that'd be super swell. It doesn't look like anyone has done it yet.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Why not put it on the 360 with high def sprites and 2D artwork?

Use particle effects and all the other nifty tech for whiz bang shiney?

Have more on the screen? ZOMBIE HORDE!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

You got Ayami Kojima back, be grateful.

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That would mean something if I could view the game outside of a 2.5 inch screen.

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

Meh, I eat these Metroidvania games up, so I can't help but be somewhat excited for this. I do think they need to start taking these games to the next level, though (they've basically all been the same with different gimmicks thrown in), so let's just hope this is the one that does it.

As for multiplayer, I hope it's real multiplayer instead of another cheap boss rush mode (PoR would have been awesome if it was co-op all the way through the main story). Even if it's only local, it'd still be better than nothing.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Excited already. Hope the multiplayer aspect will be done good. Also hoping for cameos.

And lollin' at the "she's not belmont so it's ok". Man, Morris, Lecarde and those main heroes in every GBA and DS Castlevania aren't too.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Juste Belmont ring any bells?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Django!

Why not put it on the 360 with high def sprites and 2D artwork?

Use particle effects and all the other nifty tech for whiz bang shiney?

Have more on the screen? ZOMBIE HORDE!

This would be unbelievably awesome. I hope they do it someday, although I will not be holding my breath.

Anyway, I absolutely loved PoR, and honestly, I always love these games, so complaining about it seems a bit silly. As long as the music is good!

I do agree that it would be awesome to see some forward development in the series again, though. Or even backwards--I'd love to see a classic CV3-style platformer, but updated and supercharged. But I shouldn't really be singing this song every time a Castlevania-related thread comes along, so I'll leave it at that.

PS. Not related, but Sonia Belmont! <3

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by surasshu

PS. Not related, but Sonia Belmont! <3

Iga says she doesn't exist.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

He does? But I... She...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I know, man. I know. That's what I made the comment I did about it being "ok" that this female lead isn't a Belmont. That's right, I'm ! Not :glad:, !

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

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

Juste Belmont ring any bells?

Harmony of Dissonance is a disappointment.

Not really. The guy just eluded me. My bad.

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

Originally Posted by Terminus

Harmony of Dissonance is a disappointment.

Not really. The guy just eluded me. My bad.

heh. He was always my favorite Belmont =3. I only wish the music was up'd a little more and not having it sound like an 8-bit nightmare. Chapel of Dissonance was always heaven.

As for this... I'm kinda surprised that we finally get to see a female character take an independant role in a castlevania game since Sonia Belmont. Looking forward to it and the music <3.

I was speaking idiomatically.

They've all been solid games for the most part, but I know a lot of us feel that we want to see some kind of movement forward. Hell, that's been said already in this thread as well. I just get tired of playing damn near the same game over and over.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

At least we can all agree that the ditching of that shitty generic-anime artwork is a smart move. I'm looking forward to seeing the box for this game, just because Kojima usually comes up with awesome cover art.

FELIPE NO

I love those Metroid-vanias, although I've actually only played three of them (CotN, PoR and SotN). I wanted to play more but they're pretty hard now in stores.

That said, I'm looking forward to this new one. I am glad they're ditching the generic anime artwork as well. Gah. The older artwork was cooler.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Wasn't really "older", they claim she was just busy doing the art for those half-assed PS2 titles is why she wasn't able to do the DS games. Either way, I'm glad she's doing the art for this game.

Sure, this is the third game they've made for the DS but I can't help but get excited for the same reason as most anybody else I suppose; I love me some Metroidvania gameplays, it just never seems to get tiresome.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Garr

Fuck Harmony of Dissonance.

Of all the "Metroidvanias" they've done, that one is easily the worst of the bunch. I should have known something was wrong when the first area's theme was total garbage. I guess they were going for the whole Symphony of the Night thing by revisiting the two castles, but at least SOTN made it interesting by flipping the castle upside down, providing a different geometry to the game. Words cannot even begin to describe how bored I got playing through the BLACK AND WHITE castle in HoD.

That said, I really don't have much frame of reference here. I missed Portrait of Ruin, but I guess I could still get in on it, but I did have fun with Dawn of Sorrow, even though the stylus parts were kind of lame. Just based on what's out there so far, this doesn't look any different from the others, but there also doesn't appear to be any more on it than just pictures.

All the same, I'll be watching this one.

Garr, the only lame thing about Dissonance is its soundtrack. Everything else was decent (and it's pretty fun as well).

That aside, I hope it has an interesting "combat system" (Like the cards in Circle of the Moon or Portrait of Ruin's weapon mastery or Aria and Dawn of Sorrow's Monster Soul ability etc).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Terminus

Aria and Dawn of Sorrow's Monster Soul ability

GOD IN HEAVEN, NO. PLEASE, NO. Talk about shitty, artificial ways to lengthen your game.

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Zzzzz...What's that!? NEW Castlevania! OMG!

...

Oh wait, it's just another Metrovania...Thanks Igarashi! First one was fun, second was decent, couldn't stand the third or beyond. Just too repetitive mapping and collecting. Wake me up when you build off Castlevania 3 or Super Castlevania's greatness.

Zzzzzz...

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

The only thing that bothers me about these Castlevanias (lololo, Metroidvania) is the absurd drops rates some items have on certain enemies (fuck you Alastor and your goddamn Damascus Sword). It's one thing for it to be a rare drop, but it shouldn't be like... the drop rate of rare items in an MMORPG. As stunned as I am to be saying this, they really should take a page from Square-Enix and what was done with The World Ends with You-- allow the player to fiddle with the difficulty in various ways to manipulate drop rates.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Impressions - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

Even more impressions! And god help us, Glyphs sound like the Soul Absorption from Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Well, here's hoping for the best, in any case.

Quote:

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Impressions
by Aaron Linde May 15, 2008 2:30pm CST
The previously uncovered Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (NDS) is scheduled for a fall release in North America, series producer Koji Igarashi announced at Konami's press event last night.

The developer demonstrated some of the new features in the latest installment in the long-running 2D action-adventure series. In the place of previously-seen ability and weapon systems in DS forebears Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia offers players the Glyph system, which allows the use of magic-based weapons, attacks and abilities summoned via symbols absorbed by the player.

Glyphs can be uncovered through exploration of the game's environments, recovered from fallen enemies and gained through plot development. Once attained, glyphs are then assigned to buttons and can be used in a wide variety of combinations.

Igarashi showed that a glyph granting the player a simple rapier could be bound to two buttons—the left and right hands, essentially—and used in swift succession, or combined for a stronger attack. Because the attacks are magical in nature, every strike draws from your pool of magic points, requiring a careful watch over wasting energy in a flurry of attacks. The company says that the Glyph attack system will feature over 100 combinations.

Order of Ecclesia introduces Shinoa, the series' first female protagonist since 1998's Castlevania Legends. A member of the titular Order of Ecclesia, Shinoa aspires to defeat Dracula in the absence of the recently-vanished Belmont family. Though Igarashi did not pin where the game fits in the series chronology, the game's character designs and scenery seem to indicate a 18th- to 19th-century setting.

Order of Ecclesia bails on the oft-maligned generic anime art-style adopted by previous DS outings for its character designs, boasting a much more illustrative and mature tone for its art direction.

The game looks to be built on the same engine as Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, featuring many of the conventions that fans of the series have come to expect from the DS titles such as automapping and limited touch-screen functionality. Unlike those other titles, however, the game does not limit itself to Dracula's castle; players are free to leave the confines of the legendary stronghold and travel to other locales via a world map.

As is expected from Konami, the game's 2D animation is a sight to behold, showing marked improvements over Ruin and Sorrow in terms of fluidity of motion and variety in movement. In the course of the demonstration we saw a number of new enemies and boss characters, though it is unclear whether or not Ecclesia will break the series' tradition of reusing the same friggin' monster sprites since 1993's Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.

"I'm still trying hard in 2D," said Igarashi.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia arrives on Nintendo DS this fall.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

...A world map is nice, though I know it will be painfully underutilized. Can't be worse than Dracula's Castle acting as a hub, though.

The Glyph system sounds like a combination of weapon mastery and soul absorption. All weapon attacks use MP, though? I hope that's not the case.

FELIPE NO

Probably only when Glyphs are activated, I imagine. I don't know, there are so many things I expect weapons to do in Castlevania, rather I would like weapons to do, and yet here I am swing gigantic cleavers into foes and having numbers pop up. My favorite weapon moments are when you actually do things like toss enemies across the room. A sense of somewhat visceral combat would be very refreshing, in my opinion.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Quote:

it is unclear whether or not Ecclesia will break the series' tradition of reusing the same friggin' monster sprites since 1993's Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.

They better not, that's nostalgic!

Also, over the course of this thread I began to realize just how much I hate the term "Metroidvania".

Anyway, the information is pretty limited, but I'm not so sure about the whole world map thing... It could work out really well, but it sounds a bit shady to me. Technically though I didn't feel that PoR really took place in just the one castle--every painting was its own level really, so the castle was just the central level through which you reached each sub-level.

The Glyph system sounds fun to me, I always like combining different stuff to see what happens, I can't wait to see how it's handled. I just hope that it's actually balanced, that's often an issue with this kinda thing. Bat Glyph + Door Glyph = Armageddon!

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