Word to My CV Homies

I rip into fanboys, but I do it because I know I could go teetering over the edge and get the distinction of being "one of them" all too easily. Having seen Castlevania and the fandom grow over the lest few years, I have seen many a discussion on the fate of the series, and used to join in all the time.

I guess that got boring really, but dammit, you can only say the same thing so many times. But, I didn't ever say everything I really thought. I didn't go out there and layout exactly what I thought should be in the "next" game... except for that time I was working on a homebrew... but that wasn't totally public knowledge.

Those of you in the studio audience that remember the link to a section of this site that doesn't exist any more, may remember Origins, that sad little homebrew that never was, that will always hold a special place in my heart. Well, some of that game is going to get integrated into here. So, let's see what I got cooking:

The Characters:

Oddly, what should be the second or third step in most games has to be the first step in creating our ideal CV game, mostly cause people will bitch if the characters aren't just right.

For starters, we need a Belmont. A whip carrying, leather skirt wearing, brown clothes and brown (or blond haired) Belmont. Can be guy or girl, but they have to work and feel like a Belmont. Sub weapons, lets give em Item Crashes, and lets say they get a cool holy power combo, kinda like the latest games have been doing. We'll have it use hearts, since hearts have been the mainstay of the series for as long as we can remember.

There should be at least one other main character to play with. They can either start off from the beginning, or be unlockable and show up as a character you run across the first time through. Either way, they have to have a fleshed out plot when you're playing as them, full of it's own twists, turns, cool power-ups you discover and all that. Let's say we get a nifty mage, a Fernandez, of course... and lets do a cool warrior type, some dude that can't use the holy powers, but has a wide range of hand to hand combos, and wields a long fuckin spear.

The Basic Play System:

Well, for starters, lets make it a hybrid of the two games in the series I loved the most, SCV4 and SotN. We're talking a fully explorable castle, lots of secrets, but balls to the walls action... CotM was like this, but we need more action even, cause lets face it, the recent Castlevania games haven't been all that difficult at all.

We'll flesh out the world even more in a sec, but we're focused on difficulty. Limiting the amount of hearts in game will help that, since people can't just sit around and wait for their magic to refill and use uber-powers to get where they wanna go. In fact, while the spell combos and powers can be strong, they can't be "I'll just sit here and destroy you without blinking" strong, if ya know what I mean.

Limit the amount of power-ups, like weapons and armor, cause while exploration is nice, key concept number one is action. Metroid has cool power-ups, but Samus only gets to upgrade her weapon 4 times or so in game, not this 100 or more different weapons, plus armor, items, spells... Too much people. Let's not lose sight of that magic Castlevania game we really wanna see.

Of course, when we think play system, we have to decide if there will be experience levels or not. I personally think instead of levels, do a more Chrono Cross inspired idea. Have it be when you kill a major enemy and get that red crystal that falls from the sky and heals you, you can assign some points to certain stats. Not too many points, so your character doesn't become uber strong, cause we don't wanna screw the challenge much, but something to take the edge off some of the monsters.

The World:

Yes, when I say world, I mean world. Classic games primarily feature the castle, pretty well every game ever in the series can be beaten in... oh, 6 hours or less, counting possible continues and screwing up at fucking evil bosses. But, really, games today are scorned if they can be beaten in anything less than 15 hours, and in fact, most prefer closer to 30 hours. Now, while I don't think a straight on, only action game can support 15 to 30 hours of game play, I do think it can be possible to achieve a fairly modest goal and more fully extend the playtime.

For starters, bring back Romania. Why should Simon be the only guy lucky enough to explore the countryside. There's more evil than just Dracula, and while I agree that Dracula should forever be the guy at the end of the game, the one we're always trying to get to, other good deeds have to be out there to perform.

In the case of Origins, we decided to put the game before Dracula was even born, and have the focus be on the countryside, having a mysterious plot line that would eventually be uncovered and the epic quest through the castle, old school CV style, would then occur once you reached the gates. Something similar I think can be done.

In this case, lets say they start out in one town, and Dracula hasn't yet risen. The goal at the start is to try and stop the rising altogether. Of course, as you play further in, you realize you can't stop it, for whatever reason, and then just have to try and weaken Dracula as much as possible before entering Castlevania.

In fact, this could make for a much more interesting play experience. Depending on what percentage of the world you have explored, the castle can be harder. Saying you skip past the whole outer-world and go for a straight run at and through the castle, obviously you would have the weakest set of weapons, armor, and powers. Dracula, not having been disturbed in his raising at all, would be fully powered, and a hard mother to kill. This would make the game, what was coined in Doom, Nightmare Mode.

But say you go out and hit each of the followers of Dracula who are trying to raise him and lend Dracula their powers. Well, then, you're cutting off his legs. When you reach the castle, it could be smaller, having less power to pull itself out of the chaos realm. As well, Dracula wouldn't be nearly as powerful, maybe only having two forms, and his attacks would be weaker, and maybe he'd have an easier pattern to follow.

Fleshing Out the World:

But the world is full of thriving citizens, not just monsters and cultists. They have things for you to do, wares to sell and so forth. Shops and towns and such are needed, but even more, possible mini-games and side quests could be undertaken.

Obviously mini-games are for the hell of it, and would lead to better powers and goods. Things like maybe a Blaster Master dungeon romp of 3 levels to find and item and fight a boss.

The side-qeusts could be more standard, Castlevania style, action, where you go to a mansion, or a cave, and explore a few SotN style levels (i.e., go back and forth through them as much as you like) to a boss or an item, which would then garner you stat points and a good item maybe.

Everything should be geared around you getting to Dracula and trying to knock him down a few pegs in strength before you get there.

But come on, what we want in the end is a good platforming experience with some action, some challenge and a good dose of fun. And that's all I'm really trying to show here.