Animation Netflix's Castlevania

[metaphysician]

Something like that would be neat, perhaps to provide context to whatever the new vampire threat is or show why Dracula's curse is back or continues to return. For all we know, Dracula might not be the main villain for this new show.

I very much hope not. They've given him a "happy ending", it would massively suck for them to walk it back.

 

[TheVileOne]

I very much hope not. They've given him a "happy ending", it would massively suck for them to walk it back.

Well, there's still the matter of him being an immortal vampire, his living wife being mortal, and needing his wife to keep him "good."

 

[Pennywise]

Castlevania's Powerhouse Animation Signs First-Look Deal with Netflix

 

[Pennywise]

 

[TheVileOne]

IMHO in the latter half of the show, Warren Ellis clearly became the show's weak link, not just with his public allegations, but from a creative standpoint as well.

The Adi Shankar situation sounds iffy. It did seem like he shepherded the show to Netflix and helped finally get it off the ground. However, it depends on what the contracts say about his involvement in the property. Netflix might be trying to get around it by calling it a "spinoff." That said, I am no expert in entertainment contract law.

 

[Sithborg]

Oooh, Shankar is out? Well color my interest raised.

 

[TheVileOne]

To be frank, without Ellis, I think the chances of the show's quality improving go up dramatically. But they definitely need a competent story editor in there.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Do you guys think we’ll ever get a new Castlevania game? It’s kind of weird that this show has been out there and so acclaimed and apparently successful but there’s been no movement on the game side of things.

 

[TheVileOne]

Do you guys think we’ll ever get a new Castlevania game? It’s kind of weird that this show has been out there and so acclaimed and apparently successful but there’s been no movement on the game side of things.

I think that's mainly due to Konami being a shell of its former self and the company moving primarily away from console games and AAA game releases. Konami still owns the IP. The last game was Lords of Shadow, which came out in 2014. And I think there may have been since compilations since that time.

As for a new game, I think yeah it will happen eventually, given enough time. But I think it will also take massive changes at Konami.

 

[Marvolo]

I dont understand why Konami won't license any of its properties out to other game studios. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to sit on these properties and only use them for pachinko machines.

 

[TheVileOne]

I dont understand why Konami won't license any of its properties out to other game studios. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to sit on these properties and only use them for pachinko machines.

Money and budgeting maybe? Maybe they don't trust other companies to work on them. Not that I want to defend Konami here. Their current direction makes no sense to me either.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Konami let Nintendo bastardize their Castlevania characters in the 1980s on that stupid Captain N show. They’re not that protective of their properties.

Then again, maybe that debacle is why they are protective of them now?

 

[metaphysician]

I dont understand why Konami won't license any of its properties out to other game studios. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to sit on these properties and only use them for pachinko machines.

Well, *in theory* it could make pragmatic if ruthless sense, in that an IP you sell or license could lead to other people making games that compete with your own product. Even if you decide that Castlevania isn't profitable enough to be worth your time selling a game, doesn't mean you want potential customers to be spending their time and money playing it for someone else's benefit, when they could be spending that time and money on games you are selling.

Of course, this has a big problem ( on top of the various littler problems like "the market doesn't actually work that way, games aren't 100% interchangeable and no one game can monopolize the market" ): Konami is largely not selling any other games, anyway. There is no "Konami approved" game people could theoretically be buying and playing, aside from PES I suppose. So I think its simply that Konami as a corporation is increasingly skeptical of big game development as a profit center, in general. They want to spend money on a few super reliable franchises, gambling machines, and to an extent retro rereleases. They aren't interested in investing eight figure budgets to make a new AAA game.

 

[Sithborg]

I think it is important to remember the state of consoles in Japan.

They're dead. Except the Switch. But, lets remember the last game made for Konami was Contra: Rogue Corps....

 

[metaphysician]

Consoles are only "dead" because Sony has stopped bothering trying to compete. They would rather give up on the second/third biggest market in the world than budge on their "AAA Is The Only Way" marketing paradigm. I think Microsoft has an opportunity to make some inroads in Japan, by providing consoles that are cheaper and easier to develop for than the PS5 ( but still more powerful than the Switch and able to host games that it can't ), and by being much more developer-friendly than Sony.

 

[Sithborg]

I think is more that PC gaming is growing in japan, over consoles. Which is why pretty much all japanese developers are doing PC ports.

 

[metaphysician]

If so, I certainly won't complain. I like buying stuff like JRPGs on PC. *glances at growing Falcom collection*

 

[Pennywise]

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

 

[TheVileOne]

Hope it turns out better than the last two seasons of Castlevania and Warren Ellis is not involved.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Awesome. Symphony of the Night is the best Castlevania game, and an adaptation of that and Rondo of Blood could really be epic if they do it right.

 

[Lencho01]

YouTube version….

 

[Still Wynning]

YouTube version….

Yoooooooo!

 

[Enriquespy]

Nice.

Like, how many generations is this next Belmont distanced from the ones in the past series? Oh boi, time to check my timeline.

EDIT:

So Richter stuff occurs between 300-400 years after Trevor's.

Interesting to see that they skipped OG man Simon Belmont. Perhaps his story is a bit too basic.

 

[metaphysician]

Nice.

Like, how many generations is this next Belmont distanced from the ones in the past series? Oh boi, time to check my timeline.

EDIT:

So Richter stuff occurs between 300-400 years after Trevor's.

Interesting to see that they skipped OG man Simon Belmont. Perhaps his story is a bit too basic.

I'd say the issue with Simon is less that his story is basic, and more that his *cast* is nearly non-existent. The era has essentially never been revisited outside the various remakes of the original game, so your options for creating a vibrant cast of characters are limited to. . . Castlevania 1 and Simon's Quest essentially. That's really sparse, neither of those games had identifiable characters outside of Simon and Dracula, essentially.