Castlevania’s Soul
August 21st, 2009Is it just me, or is Lords of Shadow looking an awful lot like God of War with a Belmont? I don’t really have a big problem with that, but it seems to me like Castlevania has somewhat lost touch with its roots of late, the SotN-style adventures overtaking the erstwhile linear style that marked the first four games in the series, but the newest iteration looking like neither.
I have liked almost all of the games to date, but it makes me wonder whether or not there’s really a core “Castlevania-style” gameplay any more, or if it simply involves a main character, Death, Dracula, and some other enemies. I think there’s a good case to be made for a remake or some other title that tries to define more clearly what a Castlevania game really means, before the brand tries to be everything to everyone.
Posted in Etc, Geoff |
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:18 am
Boy, it sure does look very god-of-war-ey. But, like you said, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. I haven’t played enough modern Castlevania to speak to its style, but I have no problem with a developer exploring a different style with an existing IP. If it works, great, you’ve successfully forked the IP and enabled more profit based on it. If it fails, you can always “get back to your roots” on the next one or try something else that’s different.