New Castlevania

[RuneSage]

So, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow...

The cinematics look amazing, not sure about the gameplay though.

Any thoughts?

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14275421/lords-of-shadow/videos/e310_castlelords_trl_061610.html

-gah  should have posted in Castle Keep...my bad

[Mao]

Moved it for you.  Welcome to the forums.  Read and follow the rules.  Enjoy your stay.

[Darkmoon]

Castlevania discussion? Here? Holy crap.

Yeah, there's a couple of new games on the horizon, although details are still murky about both of them.

Castlevania HD looks to be a 2d-style Castleroid with reused sprites from all the various GBA and DS games. Dunno how it's going to play, but I did see multiple heroes on screen at once in the screen shots, so presumably it'll be some kind of online multiplayer games.

Lord of Shadows could be interesting. Metal Gear guy is in charge, so if nothing else it'll be cinematic.

[Mao]

Cinematic and confusing as fuck.

[Lisky]

Not as convuluted as the Resident Evil series


Back on topic, looks to be pretty interesting thus far... hopefully more details will become available in the near future.

[Drayco84]

Cinematic and confusing as fuck.

No, "fuck" is remarkably simple.
"Mind-screw happy" is a better term. Or, failing that, "confusing as Amber's comics when she insists on drawing while she has a fever".
It might be one of the few Castlevania games I'm looking forward to. I can handle the 2d ones fine, but I've always been leery about the 3d ones. (My reflexes suck, okay?)

EDIT: I omitted one damn "T"... I think I'm losing it...

[Darkmoon]

The ones for the N64 are under appreciated. They're a different kind of CV from the traditional action games, but they are fun if you give them a chance.

[Keleth]

For someone like me who hasn't played a castlevania game before, where is a good place to start?

I don't know squat about the series beyond what Darkmoon presents to us in comic form.

[Drayco84]

It depends on what system(s) you have, really. If all you have is a PC, then... Erm... Are we allowed to talk about Emmys? (The quasi-legal players, not the rigged awards.)

[Darkmoon]

No.

Depending on your skill level and what systems you have, I would either start with:

Symphony of the Night (if you have XBox Live) or the Original Castlevania and Castlevania II (if you have a Wii). Symphony will be much easier. There's also the Castlevania Adventure ReBirth, which I think is on most systems. It's a remake of the Game Boy Game, The Castlevania Adventure. Supposed to be good, if hard like the classics.

If you have older systems, though, I'd recommend Super Castlevania IV (for the SNES), Circle of the Moon (for the GBA), and Castlevania 64.

[Ranzer]

For someone like me who hasn't played a castlevania game before, where is a good place to start?

Warning: longpost is long.

For what it's worth, I got my first taste of Castlevania via Aria of Sorrow for the GBA. It's a Metroidvania like Symphony of the Night, although the story comes after the other games, so you might be a tad confused by it if you don't do a little research first. Nothing major, though.

Circle of the Moon is decent, and I love the music, but it had a few things that drove me up the wall, like the DSS card system. I love special attacks. I do not love having to kill Electric Skeletons for thirty minutes to get a new card. That said, the rest of the game's pretty fun, and the remixes of old tunes are pure awesome for me.

For classic systems? Super Castlevania and Bloodlines, no contest. Super Castlevania is hard as heck in certain places, but overall it's a lot easier than the older platformers, which makes it a bit easier to sink your teeth into for someone who hasn't played Castlevania before. Plus, I don't care what you people say, Simon's still the baddest of the Belmonts.

Bloodlines has two different characters to play as--John Morris and Eric LeCarde--and it's a lot different from Super Castlevania; no full-direction whipping, no time limit, and, as Eric, an entirely different moveset since he uses a spear instead of a whip, but it's still a great game in its own right and it has some wonderful levels and bosses. Plus, "Prayer of a Tragic Queen" from Stage 5 might be one of my favorite VGMs ever.

Anyways, sorry for the ramble, but those're my views on Castlevania games. Now if I could just find Symphony of the Night somewhere to play...

EDIT: Dumb painkillers. Forgot to mention something.

While you're looking for real Castlevania games, here's a decent clone of the old sidescrollers. It's lower quality than the official games, but it's still a fun afternoon's play.

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA049213/games/dracula/dracula.html Click the first blue link, then scroll down a bit on the next page to find the big green download button.

[Lysander]

I'm interested in the story involved in Castlevania HD: characters from different time lines fighting together and stuff. A unique play style with the multiplayer that I don't recall in other Castlevania games, excluding Castlevania Judgement. Also having everyone able to leave and go their own way while all fighting concurrently.

Lords of Shadow looks very pretty.

[Valynth]

my two cents:

Frankly I've been a fan of the castlevania series for a long time now and have played or sampled many of the games and I have to say that a 3-d castlevania simply isn't going to grip me the way the 2-D cousins would because of the critical platforming element that castlevania was  built on is often removed due to difficulty in implementation or hard as the hell you're entering.

Then there's the fact that comparisons to other games are simply going to be made, for instance it seems like they're going to be using the God of War mechanics for the game (though substituting kratos' sword with a spikey cross and time will tell if similar QTE's are going to be implemented) and frankly I can't honestly berate them for using that as it's honestly as refined a whip mechanic as you're going to find, but frankly I think it's still going to smack of GOW to the point it will seem like they just gave Kratos hair and a shirt.