Should we hold some game series to a higher standard?

[gremcint]

I'm playing the new castlevania and it is a good game but it feels like a step back for the series. It no longer feels like the castlevanias I'm familiar with. I'm not exploring a castle and/or surrounding country side and backtracking to find stuff (look up the term metroidvania). Instead you get weird separate "levels" but there's one level that you don't fight a single enemy, you just walk, find a couple items that have no effect beyond this level and talk to someone then the level is over.

Then another level is a boss battle that is a direct ripoff of shadow of the colossus and nothing else. It feels like I'm missing entire areas because he goes from lush forest to frozen lake to ancient ruins in the middle of spring.

I like the game, I really do. But I think I'd like it better if they didn't call it castlevania.

what I'm asking is do you think it is fair to hold some series to a higher standard than others. I personally do.

Not every castlevania is perfect but I just think it should be better than this and also stick to a certain style.

I know older castlevanias were just platformers with separate levels but I like the symphony of the night style, so like I said a step back.

[mikoyan29]

I don't know it seems like many video games are a step back. I remember spending many hours (probably days) playing silent service. The graphics back then weren't great but the gameplay was. I could actually put myself into a World War II sub. The Silent Hunter series is good but sometimes it feels too complicated but I guess there is that balance. I think alot of it was that in old video games, I had to put more of my imagination into it and now the graphics do that for me......

[Hyena Dandy]

Its not holding them to a higher standard. Its holding them to, if not the quality, at least the gameplay style, of the previous games.

As you said, you'd like it better if it wasn't Castlevania. Its not that you hold Castlevania to a higher standard, its just that you expect it to be at least Castlevania-esque. It could be an amazing game, but if its not platforming/exploration, its not really CASTLEVANIA.

I've played porn games that are more Castlevania than that game... >_>

[Salted Grump]

I've played porn games that are more Castlevania than that game... >_>

Do tell.

I think a large part of it is the nostalgia goggles. If I say 'Metroid' in a room full of gamers, you'll get the older crowd smiling about the 2-d sidescrollers, the younger crowd smiling about the Prime series, And the youngest crowd asking why Other M is hated by everyone older than them. (Hint; Samus is a badass, not a grovelling blonde hausfrau with powered armour)

One thing that annoys me is how many claim that <So-and-so franchise> is a ripoff of <So-and-so franchise that's younger by far>; I've even heard come people claim that The newest iteration of Wolfenstein is a ripoff of Halo. I laughed so hard that I nearly choked, before pointing out that the original Wolfenstein had come out before they had been born, and the newest iteration is a direct sequel of the 2001 remake.

I feel old now.

[Andara Bledin]

I've even heard come people claim that The newest iteration of Wolfenstein is a ripoff of Halo.

That has me giggling and I told my boyfriend, and he got a good chuckle out of it, too.

It wasn't the first, but it's pretty much the progenitor of the genre.

^-.-^

[Hyena Dandy]

Do tell.

In a PM maybe. :P But yes, I would have accepted that game as a Castlevania game before accepting the latest one.

[gremcint]

2 more things, there real is a reference to portal in the game. and a stupid one at that.

also the game can't keep it's own characters straight. early on you meet a magical horse that tells you he will help you find the guardian of the lake who turns out to be the ancient (greek?) go Pan. later on you meet the horse again and after he saves you the narrator says pan saved you and that his arrival was fortuitous. It wasn't Pan, it was the mysterious magic horse, who is probably related to the mysterious eagle you meet.

[Salted Grump]

2 more things, there real is a reference to portal in the game. and a stupid one at that.

also the game can't keep it's own characters straight. early on you meet a magical horse that tells you he will help you find the guardian of the lake who turns out to be the ancient (greek?) go Pan. later on you meet the horse again and after he saves you the narrator says pan saved you and that his arrival was fortuitous. It wasn't Pan, it was the mysterious magic horse, who is probably related to the mysterious eagle you meet.

I know the game you speak of; In this case it's still Pan; he's just (not-greek) a primordial shapeshifter; The Horse(s), the Eagle, and the hoofed-and-horned man with the scottish accent are the same being. Oh, and he's called the Silver Warrior, too. I'll let you guess why.

[gremcint]

the horse tells you he will take you to the guardian of the lake (pan) meaning the horse is not pan