6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

[jenova_9]

[ame=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21046536&postcount=240]NeoGAF - View Single Post - Konami Trademarks Harmony of Despair[/ame]

That Multiplayer Castlevania Game Looks Pretty Real Now

GamerBytes - Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair Rated In Australia

Mew mew mew MEEEEEW! I would buy a Xbox 360 for this! Oh mew! This should go multiplatorm! Console gamers waited YEARS for something like this! Yay! Classic CV characters playable! 6 player co-op searching for a boss in the level! Lots of replay value to be sure!








The gameplay and squeeeness overflows! xD



"What is a mew? A wonderful bundle of kawaiiness!!!!" =^^=

[DakAttack]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

It's not that exciting so:

[Nandito]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

Castlevania Multiplayer!

"What is a mew? A wonderful bundle of kawaiiness!!!!" =^^=

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

Fake Castlevania still looks fake.

If its not, its still a fake Castlevania game anyway. As real as Castlevania Judgement, which was also fake.

This is just another experiment in bullshit by Konami, who doesn't exactly know what the fuck they're doing with the franchise of late. I mean, they threw Hideo Kojima on Lords of Shadow as an otaku smokescreen because they knew core fans would object otherwise. Its the team aspiring to make yet another DMC clone of the series I'm worried about.

Harmony of Despair - just by looking at the screens and the title alone - seems to have no soul. IGA didn't touch this one, they just used his characters and recycled assets from the DS games, not even bothering to update either. And "Harmony of Despair?" Why would you even reuse a similar name in the franchise? Harmony of Dissonance was a GBA game, featuring Juste Belmont. How about Castlevania: Identity of the Crisis?

And there are no Belmonts, as boring as I feel they are, why isn't Julius Belmont at least playable here? They did it for Dawn of Sorrow as a bonus. Leaving out the Belmonts in a multiplayer title is like leaving Mario and Luigi out of Super Mario Kart.

And you know they'll have to water down Soma, Alucard and Shanoa to make the game work. Its just the way of Online games. You can't keep the godly powers of the single player context and still have a balanced multiplayer title at the end of the day. And for that reason the single player side of it will suffer.

Here is where you were last going in the right direction, Konami:



This is where you need to start from and this time, fucking try to put some marketing dollars into it.

[Fliegar]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

One more 'mew' and I'm putting the cat down.

And also if I had to sit through Castlevania with one of my friends I think I'd shoot myself too. Well, except for like 1 extra person, maybe.

[Kailea]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

that looks so fake -.-

[jenova_9]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

aaaah! you don't see the art and the excitement this game deserves! Ya so what they are recycling sprites, the DS games did it all the time for the most part, majorly ripping sprites from SOTN especially, and people bought them all and loved them!

This game has lots of great potential! And I'm sure there are more playable characters! After all it's not like it's gonna be:

Shanoa
Alucard
Soma
Alucard
Soma
Shanoa

There will be at least 3 more characters and I think at least 2 of them will be Belmonts. (Richter and maybe Trevor)

As for story, it doesn't matter, CV are really about the gameplay. And 6 player co-op in open maps is gonna be so fun fun This is far better than what LoS is turning out to be, which doesn't feel Castlevania at all.

it's kind of like Megaman 9 and 10. they recycle the basic 8 bit sprites concepts but they are still wonderful games that stand apart from the previous games because they are shaped into NEW games with new stuff here and there, even though some stuff is familiar (which is a good thing otherwise too different and it would be like comparing Fighting Force with Fighting Force 2. :p

[Malacite]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

Fake Castlevania still looks fake.

Not buying any of the "screens" posted, but I thought I saw on joystiq somewhere that Konami has indeed trademarked that title so it is an upcoming game but beyond that I can't confirm anything else.

[Durahansolo]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

"What is a mew? A wonderful bundle of kawaiiness!!!!" =^^=

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

aaaah! you don't see the art and the excitement this game deserves! Ya so what they are recycling sprites, the DS games did it all the time for the most part, majorly ripping sprites from SOTN especially, and people bought them all and loved them!

Order of Ecclesia alone had 50 new monster sprites. They've been ripping sprites as of SOTN, they pulled quite a few from Dracula X: Rondo of Blood because SOTN's story was directly linked to it.

As for story, it doesn't matter, CV are really about the gameplay. And 6 player co-op in open maps is gonna be so fun fun. This is far better than what LoS is turning out to be, which doesn't feel Castlevania at all.

People value the characters more than they do the stories themselves, even so, why would you take these characters and bastardize what makes them cool? Shanoa is all about the dual wield, Soma takes enemies souls, Alucard has magic. Johnathan and Charlotte work together as a single unit. Richter is the peak of the Belmont bloodline.

Some of these traits will have to fall to the wayside. And they'll probably shred the RPG and exploration elements as well. This is co-op with a time limit, but its not like they're going to make a Monster Hunter out of it.

Also, XBL exclusivity secures its failure.

it's kind of like Megaman 9 and 10. they recycle the basic 8 bit sprites concepts but they are still wonderful games that stand apart from the previous games because they are shaped into NEW games with new stuff here and there, even though some stuff is familiar (which is a good thing otherwise too different and it would be like comparing Fighting Force with Fighting Force 2. :p

This is nothing like Megaman 9 and 10 because those games didn't sacrifice their single player experiences to make a "just cuz" multiplayer game. This is more like Metroid Prime Hunters - in order to make it multiplayer what it was will have to change dramatically. In MPH's case, it moved in a direction that more strongly resembled Quake with some light Metroid elements. The boss fights were a damn embarassment for the series, too.

C'mon you're on an FFXI forum, you can't tell me FFXI plays or that FFXIV will play like the offline games. There are jobs in FFXI that can't function like they normally would because that would make a handful of jobs gods and all the rest would seem gimped beyond belief. That's why some of the jobs are toned down. Other jobs have to have value or there's just no point in playing them.

[Malacite]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

Like RDM SMN & Mysitc Knight . _ . (were it added)

[jenova_9]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

Order of Ecclesia alone had 50 new monster sprites. They've been ripping sprites as of SOTN, they pulled quite a few from Dracula X: Rondo of Blood because SOTN's story was directly linked to it.


no they didn't pull a few because Rondo was the prequel, they pulled a few, because it was easier than making
the bestiary completely from scratch, and I don't blame them, they are nice sprites.

People value the characters more than they do the stories themselves, even so, why would you take these characters and bastardize what makes them cool? Shanoa is all about the dual wield, Soma takes enemies souls, Alucard has magic. Johnathan and Charlotte work together as a single unit. Richter is the peak of the Belmont bloodline.

what are you saying? their gameplay style might still be in this game. Or at least their basic equipment/attacks.

Some of these traits will have to fall to the wayside. And they'll probably shred the RPG and exploration elements as well. This is co-op with a time limit, but its not like they're going to make a Monster Hunter out of it.

I havent read anything about a time limit, but given the example of the map and screenshots, each stage looks to be
big enough for 6 payers to explore and fight enemies along the way, maybe even uncover secrets.

Also, XBL exclusivity secures its failure.

not at all. TMNT arcade game was a success. So was Street FIghter II HF before HD Remix was announced, as
well as other XBL exclusive games. It will be a success. I might buy a 360 for it, but of course have to learn more about it.

This is nothing like Megaman 9 and 10 because those games didn't sacrifice their single player experiences to make a "just cuz" multiplayer game. This is more like Metroid Prime Hunters - in order to make it multiplayer what it was will have to change dramatically. In MPH's case, it moved in a direction that more strongly resembled Quake with some light Metroid elements. The boss fights were a damn embarassment for the series, too.

this game doesn't need to provide a "single player experience". It's designed for the multiplayer. There are more than
enough single player only Castlevanias out there. If they want their single player story fix, they should wait for Lords of
Shadow or whatever story driven CV they release in the future.

C'mon you're on an FFXI forum, you can't tell me FFXI plays or that FFXIV will play like the offline games. There are jobs in FFXI that can't function like they normally would because that would make a handful of jobs gods and all the rest would seem gimped beyond belief. That's why some of the jobs are toned down. Other jobs have to have value or there's just no point in playing them.

what does that have to do with HoD? lol. It's a new spin to the Castlevania formula and it could be more fun for many
people and friends who want something like this for Castlevania. It's kind of like Marvel vs Capcom 2, not played for the story, but for fun party between legends. Well that's a fighting game, bad example. But it would be foolish to relate
HoD to Judgement, because personally I feel CV doesn't work as a fighting game, but I think people who like Judgement would disagree. Anyways HoD will be great because it'll be a new way to enjoy Castlevania with friends for the first time.
Portrait of Ruin hinted at how fun co-op can be (even though it was limited to Boss Rush. But Portrait of Ruin also proved
you can have multiple playable characters that each has their own unique style. Castlevania III is another good example too.

There is already an audience that always wanted a Castlevania like this. The only thing that might mess it up is if the stages have time limits
(preferably it should allow groups to progress at their own pace like the SOTN-type Castlevanias. I don't mind separated maps instead of one massive map, technically Order of Ecclesia was designed that way too in individual maps.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

There is already an audience that always wanted a Castlevania like this.

Yes, people on Xbox Live that still believe that you can tack multiplayer on to anything and it will still be good.

Sadly, this is a group of people much smaller than the franchises fanbase - who don't even look to Xbox to provide Castlevania games - and they're they exact type of people no one wants to play with in the first place. They, in fact, remind us why some things are better off single-player.

You can't have me believe they will not strip away the Tactical Soul System, The Glyph system and Alucard's magic to make this system work. They will, they have to or it can't work as a multiplayer game. What made these games fun was exploring the castle yourself and gaining power along the way.

What makes these characters cool is what makes them very, very different. I mean, Soma's the only one that could lob grenades and shoot guns, or manifest Dracula's powers without it killing him. He even got a bullet soul that was a nod to Gradius.

[jenova_9]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

What made these games fun was exploring the castle yourself and gaining power along the way.

that's only one point of view how CV games were fun to some people.
To other fans though, another single player CV isn't going to cut it these days and they are not scared or closed minded against a different type of Castlevania that could bring something interesting to the table for those that wanted a CV game like that. IT doesn't mean all future CVs will be multiplayer. But it's better to experiment than just work with what's been done already in the franchise.

What makes these characters cool is what makes them very, very different. I mean, Soma's the only one that could lob grenades and shoot guns, or manifest Dracula's powers without it killing him. He even got a bullet soul that was a nod to Gradius.

They could still be different enough, at least as different as the 4 playables were in CVIII, and the playables in Portrait of Ruin.
The characters will have differences, maybe not their whole arsenal but just enough to fit their style.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 6 player Castlevania! Better than the best! Harmony of Despair!!

To other fans though, another single player CV isn't going to cut it these days and they are not scared or closed minded against a different type of Castlevania that could bring something interesting to the table for those that wanted a CV game like that. IT doesn't mean all future CVs will be multiplayer. But it's better to experiment than just work with what's been done already in the franchise.

Please show me where the demand for a multiplayer Castlevania was before this project even appeared. Go on, if you're so confidant about so many people wanting this, then I'm sure you can dig up the links from the last several years of frothing demand.

I highly doubt there was any. How many people even touched the multiplayer in Portrait of Ruin or Order of Ecclesia? Oh, right, barely anyone because it was tacked-on crap.

Most Castlevania fans feel like they're being ignored right now. Another DMC clone and more multiplayer "experiments" doesn't do much for people that want to see more of the classic style or the IGA-era or even a nice compromise between the two.