[DS] Akumajo Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin

[CIT Seven Force]

Seems like Ayami Kojima is doing the in-game artwork again. Very happy about this!

People are talking about the "Wii" point in the menu and what this might entail. I bet it's just another alibi-connectivity-function, like we had with GBA and GC.

[Dais]

Has this been confirmed to not be a hoax yet?

[Greatsaintlouis]

Why would it be a hoax? There's already been two rather successful installments on the DS, so it wouldn't be too weird to have yet another one.

Unless of course there's been no official announcement of the title yet lots of screenshots somehow leaking online, which could lend the title a bit of a suspicious air. Then again, I'm sure if people were going to hoax a DS title they'd choose to do something that would drive a bit more interest, like a port of Dracula X or something along those lines. Who knows.

Either eay, if it's real, I'm certainly looking forward to it--the last two DS Castlevania games were a blast!

[Dais]

Unless of course there's been no official announcement of the title yet lots of screenshots somehow leaking online, which could lend the title a bit of a suspicious air. Then again, I'm sure if people were going to hoax a DS title they'd choose to do something that would drive a bit more interest, like a port of Dracula X or something along those lines. Who knows.

Those three - the only supposed media we've seen of the third Castlevania for DS - were posted on GameFAQs as "proof" by someone who said he was involved with the localization of the game. Except his account then got banned and then he apparently came back under a new account and said he was fired and then deleted all his posts saying so.

If they are fakes, then the person(s) behind the hoax picked the perfect people to hoax, because both GameFAQs posters and the majority of the "serious" Castlevania fandom are fucked in the head. (and the latter is annoying, given that I'm actually half-interested in the fangames they struggle in vain to create)

As for the interest such a hoax generates....well, it hit Kotaku...

[JoshF]

Everything does.

[Greatsaintlouis]

Reaching the public via GameFAQS does indeed give the pictures a bit more of a suspicious provenance. I'd especially call bullshit on the claims of localization before any announcement's been made on the Japanese side of things; the past two English installments, while released not too long after their Japanese counterparts, still weren't announced until after the Japanese development was confirmed to be underway. Could be that the pictures are official but the poster was just bullshitting; unfortunately, once the unscrupulous nature of someone with access to supposed insider information has been confirmed, you can't really trust a damn thing they bring forward after that.

[Spazicon]

Those screens are extremely fake, fellas.

[CIT Seven Force]

...and of course they were not fake.

More screens here.


Spazicon & Dais: Spend less time on Gamefaqs and more time using common sense!

[Turrican]

http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula_ds3/

they seemed fake enough to me

[Greatsaintlouis]

Much better to assume it's fake and then be proven wrong than the other way around, right?

In the Eurogamer screenshots there happens to be one with English text. This wasn't so much the case with Dawn of Sorrow, but it seemed to me that the English translation of Portrait of Ruin was being worked on alongside the main game so that there was a difference of only a day or two between the releases. It's nice to see Konami stepping up to that sort of parallel localization, at least where Castlevania's concerned, rather than the usual course where it comes out in Japan and then westerners get to twiddle their thumbs for 4-10+ months waiting for the translation.

[Gaijin Punch]

The Akumajo series has traditionally been at least as popular, if not more, in the west as Japan. There's a few series that follow suit, and apparently it's better to get them out quicker in the west, despite Japanese development teams: Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, etc.

[ZebraAirforce]

Isn't it said that Metroid is more popular in the west? I'll never understand why. You'd think such great games would be popular everywhere.

[Mappy]

Well, the series you mentioned are very 'respected' as classics, but the modern Japanese market isn't certainly in love with them.

I think it's becoming a vicious circle because Japanese developer target those series to the Western market, so they become lesser popular in Japan, and so on...

But it's curious that western players regard those as the best examples of Japanese developed software.

By the way, the new Dracula was announced in the latest Famitsu with an article of about a third of a magazine page. I bet in the next issue of your generic western magazine there will be a four-page exclusive scoop..

[Mappy]

Oh, and speaking of Famitsu...

Ketsui DS will be released on October, 23

[ZebraAirforce]

Ah, I forgot about metroid prime

[CIT Seven Force]

We really need a 2D Metroid for DS, though. Hunters was no good.

[Macaw]

The 2d Metroid games for GBA were all incredibly mediocre compared to Super Metroid. Similarly, the GBA and now DS Castlevanias have been mediocre compared to Nocturne in the Moonlight.

Wouldnt have high hopes for a 2d Metroid game on DS. And yeah, Hunters is crappy.

[CIT Seven Force]

Fusion was not as good as Super, but Zero Mission - one of the best video game remakes ever! It perfectly captures the dark atmosphere of the first game. Super, while great, was just to colorful.

And all games are merely mediocre compared to SotN!

[Dais]

The 2d Metroid games for GBA were all incredibly mediocre compared to Super Metroid. Similarly, the GBA and now DS Castlevanias have been mediocre compared to Nocturne in the Moonlight.

Wouldnt have high hopes for a 2d Metroid game on DS. And yeah, Hunters is crappy.

When you copy something exactly, and it turns out mediocre, that generally indicates the original was mediocre as well.

[Greatsaintlouis]

I'm probably alone in this, but I liked the GBA Metroids far more than I liked Super Metroid. Don't get me wrong--Super Metroid had great music, amazing animation, and a lot of fun weapons and bosses. What did it for me was the total lack of mission objectives stated in a clear manner. I know the point of the early Metroid titles was to wander around a lonesome, expansive space in search of where you need to go, but for me that's just not fun, especially when many rooms look extremely similar and are without distinct landmarks that make navigation easier. I don't take any enjoyment out of being lost--to the contrary, I get bored and turn the system off to play something that rewards exploration without requiring constant backtracking to find that one door I didn't enter or the one chasm I didn't venture down when I first came to it.

[RadiantSvgun]

I didn't know that Castlevania was that popular in the states. What I really want as far as Castlevania and even Metroid, is a 2d version on a home console. When Dracula X Chronicle came out on PSP, I was ecstatic, but I hated playing on such a small screen. I really want a non-handheld 2d game, but that seems to be asking Konami and Capcom too much.

The 3d Castlevanias on ps2 weren't bad, but they weren't great either. They were better than that garbage on the N64.

[Mappy]

'Castlevania' and 'Dracula Yami no Fuuin' on PS2 where nothing more then crappy DevilMayCry wannabe crossed with super tedious corridor roaming.
If the price to pay to play more 2D Dracula is to have them on a portable screen, so be it.