Question of the Month
"How should
Konami utilize the DS?"
My Answer | Answer
#1 | Answer #2 | Answer #3
| Answer #4
If you've ever read
my message board, you know my affinity for Maniac Mansion-style play.
That is, we can reinvent Symphony's open-ended style of play by allowing
the gamer to control three players at once. The DS can give life to the combining
of these ideas.
For the best explanation, we'll give
Trevor Belmont and his allies a second game. The story? Dracula returns or
something. Who cares? At the start, you, as Trevor, pick only one of his original
three allies--Alucard, Sypha or Grant--to take along for the journey into
the castle, but during the adventure, he'll gain the services of a brand new
character to act as his party's third wheel. At this point, you, as the player,
will have three characters that you can control at once. Here's how it works:
Each character has one or two special abilities that will help him or her
explore the castle in certain ways. However, this won't be enough--instead,
you'll have to oftentimes combine two characters' abilities to reach your
destination.
For instance: Let's say somewhere in
the castle is a mile-high vertical chamber with no platforms that will allow
you to reach its top, and the exit that rests atop this room is blocked by
a steel structure. Of course, if you have Alucard on your team, you can fly
all the way up there, but there'd be nothing you can do in bat form to break
through the structure. Instead, to solve the puzzle, you'd have to usher into
this room another of your characters--we'll call him "Mehmet," who's known
for releasing explosive energy; now, as Alucard, you transform into a bat,
grab Mehmet in tow, carry him all the way to the top of this room, and allow
him to destroy the structure while suspended in air.
This is where the two screens come
in: The buttons control Alucard on the top screen while the bottom screen
allows you to control Mehmet's actions, either by using other remaining buttons
or the touch screen to select a target and available actions. The actions
can appear on a list near the top of the screen, and you simply touch the
one you want to execute.
With the two-screen setup, you can
cycle between the characters to control any two of them at once using the
two screens--and you can have all three characters in different castle sections
at one time. This will help in instances where there's a switch in one castle
section that opens a secret passage in another; if the passage only opens
for, say, three seconds, it'll be important to have one character hit the
switch while another character is standing right by the passage, ready to
sneak in quickly. It would be dangerous, though, to leave two characters just
standing around while you concentrate on one, especially since they'll always
be a third not shown, so there are two solutions:
And using this method of play, you
can always explore the castle in different ways, using different combinations
of heroes, for countless hours of replayability. I'd like to see them pull
of something like this.
Answer #1
As soon as Nintendo announced it's
new DS (you know, that dual screened) handheld system, and it was announced
that Konami, among many were developing for it, it didn't take but a moment
for all the major sources to assume Castlevania was on it's way for this new
invention. After all, the series has found it's most spectacular recent success
on the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, so it seemed very likely. Sure enough, it
looks as if all assumptions were correct.
Knowing about the concept of the system
and some of it's specs help me to imagine what kind of Castlevania game we
are going to get. While the system does have 3D capabilities, I really think
they're going to stick with good ol' fashioned 2D on this one. While I think
the series works in 3D, I don't think Koji is going to try it again on this
one. He's quotes as saying it will be "Aria of Sorrow" in nature (no mention
of SOTN or HoD, his similar works in the series).
Perhaps the game will take place in
the future, and the DS will be a "medium" of sorts to work with a Castlevania
mission on a high tech mission to destroy Dracula (or something connected
to him). Story wise, this will be pretty much standard, search the castle,
look for items to advance, ect. Only now, the character exploring will be
equipped with some modern gadgets, including a supposed radio (and headset,
of course), being fed information from an outside source. The game player
will assume both roles of explorer in the castle, and intel outside.
While controlling the in game action
on screen 1, you also assume the role of a mission control expert, feeding
our hero information, and doing research on screen 2. Screen 1 will be the
traditional 2D action, going through the castle and picking up items. The
touch screen will come into play when you need to acquire something. Instead
of having to walk over it to pick it up, you can acquire it by simply touching
it. This will make the game play more smooth.
However, lets say a challenge arises,
such as not knowing the combination to a old chest. On the second screen,
the player assumes the fact finder, and has to search through his database
made up of old ancient sources in order to find it. Then, through the voice
activation feature, you verbally communicate the information. We may get scenario's
such as this:
SCREEN 2: Intelligence to Mr. Belmont.
That chest contains a curse. Don't open it!
SCREEN 1: Copy that, but I need the
key inside to get into the Haunted Ballroom!
SCREEN 2: Stand by...okay, the Tokra
intelligence suggests you put in the code 777 for luck, not 666.
SCREEN 1: Copy control, entering 777...it
worked! Thanks for the head up!
SCREEN 2: Good luck, Mr. Belmont. Tokra
out!
It may seem odd for a player to talk
to one's self, but that's pretty much what we'd get.
Another use for the mission control
can see things not visible to the character in the castle. Mission control
can have radar and such not visible on the action screen. That information
can also be passed on, and secret passages and such would become visible when
the player finds them on screen 2.
If this sounds like a "Matrix" scenario,
I don't mean for it too. I wouldn't want this to be "Cybervania" or anything
like that (despite my ever dying love for "The Matrix"). I'm thinking more
of a Metal Gear scenario, with someone on the radar helping out the character.
In a modern to futuristic Castlevania, a concept introduced by the referred
Aria of Sorrow, this would make perfect sense.
Perhaps we'll get the missing story
of J. Belmont from Aria, but I'm willing to bet that story is meant to never
be told (hence the characters amnesia). I'm thinking this game will take place
100 years after Soma Cruz, and will have the playable character as a member
of the the Belmont family, or Alucard (yeah! You gotta love Alucard...)
In any case, I predict it will involve
multiple characters, which is probably a theme we'll see a lot of with the
DS.
Of course, the imagination of the programmers
is only limited by their understanding of the technology. Hopefully, Koji
and his team will see this as an opportunity to think outside of the box,
not feel confined to being in a box of "one screen for the game, the other
for the map..." Faith is what we must have in our dear friends, which unlike
trust, we must have whether they've earned it or not.
Sam Mills can be reached
at sammycut1@aol.com
Answer #2
As you know, Castlevania is based around
Dracula, without him, the series wouldn't be as... appealing. I think it would
be kinda cool if you were to play as Dracula. Maybe to fill in the gap between
Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Legends.
-Shortly after Dracula becomes a vampire,
he tries to reclaim his throne, and how does he do it??? He kills Mathias!
But how might be the question. Well he summons monsters to fight, and if worse
comes to worse, like lets say a boss battle against a certain Cronqvist, his
sword is drawn. I don't know if the series would benefit from it, but with
the summoning, it could be like Ogre Battle. With the whole setting down units
and moving them yourself with the second screen as you hide in the shadows
as mist. Or even instead of fighting Mathias, pump out a new or old Belmont
classic but sit in your throne and command the monsters in the same way, and
with each hit you get in on the Belmont he sheds blood and your monsters nourish
you by gathering it, allowing you to summon more monsters, say bosses.
-As a bonus feature for beating it
in some way, you can play as the Belmont and with the second screen simply
have your menus and maps displayed though that's too unthought provoked. If
needed, I'm not saying that we need ANOTHER rpg styled one, they're all alike
with different features. But as Sam said, there is faith that Koji will stretch
their minds and use them to the fullest.
But that's my thought on the next Castlevania,
let's just hope Koji's team does 150% better than my idea.
Answer
#3
I have an idea for the future DS Castlevania.
It should be called "Castlevania: Dream of Chaos." In it, you play as
both Alucard, and a new Belmont named Vash. Each character takes a different
route through the castle of evil, each route holding 8 large areas.
Now on to the abilities: Alucard will
have 'vampire tech', similar to SOTN, only FAR larger. For instance, he could
upgrade his hell-fire ability 3 times, until it becomes Hellish Inferno. And
so forth. He would gain a total of (not including relics special attributes)
21 vampire abilities. As for Vash: He'd have Belmont Arts, a total of 18--with
these devious attacks, he could nuke enemies, enshroud his whip in flame,
ice, voltage and also cure himself.
Now onto the story/castle layout: It's
1677, and a covenant of dark heretics has prematurely resurrected Dracula,
and Alucard, on his way to see if there's an end to this, runs into Vash,
who's also on his way there. They befriend, and there you go. Each character
would take half the castle, until they meet up (13 hours for each half) and
then you could go to the other character's side and get new items and abilities.
Finally, you could play it one of two ways: Single player or duo quest. In
duo, you can switch between screens and play both character scenarios at the
same time. Also, I had an idea for an entirely new area to out beloved franchise:
It would be called "the well of souls," and would be a large underground labyrinth
area, with ghosts flying about. The boss would be called "the soul keeper"
and he'd be a bad-ass.
And as for the touch screen: You could
use it to direct magic attacks. For instance: If alucard uses "fire orb,"
you could guide it into enemies using the touch screen and use it for targeting
enemies with magic, not just guiding. And as for the amazing 16-channel sound:
If they play their cards right, they could make a soundtrack like SOTN's,
now THAT would be nice. As for the multi player: You could get a bunch of
other guys and do HUGE item trades, or even trade some abilities. See, there
would be some items so rare, you'd have to trade for them.
One last prominant idea I had was item
trade: You'd come to a certain part in the castle, and if your other character
was in the other side - and say you wanted to give him some potions, or maybe
a new piece of armour - you'd find a room called 'exchange room'. In these
rooms, you could send items to your other character and then play as him with
these new items.
Answer
#4
I've had this idea for quite a while,
where KONAMI could implement an optional multi-player feature into their Castlevania
games.
As players progress through the game,
they would meet up with new characters, which then would join him/her as a
companion throughout the player's journey.
Assuming the DS has enough power to
transfer data at fast enough rates, the game could be made so that a second
(and possibly even more) player could join the game, choose his character
and aid player 1 on his quest... What happens if player 2 has to leave...?
Yep, player 1 would of course be able to control both characters by alternating
their control, much like in the DKC series...
The DS' second screen could be used
to display player 2's POV... That is, player 2's DS unit would simply stream
a succession of images which show whatever's going on in his screen... In
turn, player 1's DS unit would do the same thing... Again, assuming the DS
has enough processing power and transmission rates are fast enough, I do believe
this is possible. Also, transmitting a succession of images would be much
quicker than transmitting data to process in real time.
This could also lead to a new game
feature: Both players would be able to separate from each other and visit
entirely different rooms & areas at the same time, in hopes of completing
different tasks simultaneously! Although mixing all the SFX and BGM could
get messy... Bear with me, this is just a sketchy idea...
If a player dies, the game could either
end, or keep going (so long as the main hero is still alive), affecting the
outcome of the story! Fighting your zombified friend could prove a nice challenge...
The stylus could (of course) be used
to navigate menus, wether in real time or under pause -- this is perhaps the
simplest of functions one could think of and one that I'm sure everyone's
thought of by now... :) But it could also be used to direct your companion
(during single player mode) to perform certain actions... For example, touching
your player would command his companion to aid him in defense; touching an
enemy would command him to attack; touching an item would command him to pick
it up while you concentrate on other things; and touching his own body would
command him to lay low and retreat from incoming enemies... These are just
a few sketchy ideas... But of course, a decent AI system would be in order
for these tasks to be accomplished adequately...
Another idea that comes to mind is
that the alternate screen could be used to display special commands and menus,
which would be controlled via the stylus... For example, a list of magic spells
or healing/effect items could be dsplayed, making the execution of an action,
such as drinking a Potion in real time combat, that much more quicker and
hassle-free... An area map could also be displayed, perhaps a compass, and
other miscelaneous stuff...
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