Why Castlevania Survives

18 Nov 2009 at 00:00:00 by Tim McDonald

Castlevania has been running since 1987. Well, 1986, if you're going by Japanese releases, but either way, it's over 20 years old, and it's used its age well. Castlevania has seen releases on almost every console under the sun - games have hit NES, SNES, Game Boy, Mega Drive, PlayStation, N64, Saturn, GBA, PS2, Xbox, DS, Wii, PSP, and both the PSN and Xbox LIVE Arcade, with native PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titles in the works. There's even a film in the works.

Why?

It's an interesting question, not least because most other series that have endured that long have either had blank periods or are first-party games. Mega Man doesn't have quite the same level of enduring popularity and has a few interesting quirks, if we're being polite. Street Fighter releases were, for awhile, pretty much solely the domain of the hardcore. Final Fantasy has remained popular, but main-series releases tend to be staggered, and the games push the platforms they appear on to the limit - graphics and gameplay.

Despite this, Castlevania has appeared on every console, is usually critically acclaimed, and sells well enough. It doesn't sell spectacularly, but consistently, and enough for it to keep being made. Even when there are occasional missteps – Castlevania on the N64, say, which was a misstep off a cliff – they're normally bookended by quality titles, like Symphony of the Night and Circle of the Moon.

Nonetheless, this doesn't explain why Castlevania keeps getting made, and keeps getting made so well.

Part of it is nostalgia. Castlevania is a well-loved series – but then so are so many other titles that haven't been so good, of late, which makes this a minor boon. Part of it is that some gameplay elements are unique; there aren't many Metroidvania games out there, and when they do hit, they're usually loved. Look at how well Shadow Complex – a fairly short, “lite,” but extraordinarily well-made Metroidvania game – did on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Part of it, I think, is that it's a series which works across multipleformats. I'm shuddering slightly in anticipation of the title due to hit 360 and PS3, because I've yet to see a Castlevania game work properly in 3D, but with the DS having Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia, there'll always be solid titles around.

Part of it is that it's a series that evolved. Alright, attempts to move the series into 3D haven't really worked all that well, but the 2D series managed a huge evolution with Symphony of the Night, which turned the series from a side-scrolling platformer into what's now termed a Metroidvania game, giving players exploration, RPG elements, and a variety of weapons and tools that allow players to seriously explore and, occasionally, sequence-break.

But that was 12 years ago, and I'm starting to get worried. The DS is working for the series, it's true, but Castlevania is at serious risk of becoming stagnant. If it doesn't actually succeed in evolving soon the series is going to hit problems, and I'm not convinced the forthcoming Lords of Shadow is the game to do it. Castlevania is a series with its own strengths, but from what I can tell, Lords of Shadow is going to be a God of War/Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden title, and I honestly fear another Bionic Commando – not a bad game, but not what the series needs right now, and focusing more on attracting the mass market with big names and stylistic similarities to big games.

It's true that great games don't necessarily sell well, but since Symphony, Castlevania's biggest boon has been the Metroidvania style. Will Lords of Shadow have any of this? Nope. It's being made to – and I'm paraphrasing here - “harken back to the pre-Symphony titles.” It's going to be big-budget, it's going to be graphically impressive, and it might even be fun.

But I would be very, very surprised if it gives the franchise the spark it desperately needs. This isn't the revitalising shot that'll keep Castlevania rising from the grave, because Lords of Shadow doesn't look like an evolution – it looks like a devolution. I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong, but Konami doesn't have long left to prove that Castlevania deserves the constant releases it's getting, and I'm worried that Lords of Shadow is going to do far more harm than good. There are plenty of paths that a current-gen Castlevania game could go, and I'm really not convinced that this is the right one. Why not use this sort of combat but throw in a free-roaming style? As Lords of Shadow is about travelling the land, why not try a more Zelda-like approach, but with less focus on puzzles? How about combining this combat engine with a bit more of a non-linear environment and throwing in some Uncharted or Assassin's Creed environment traversal that gets more impressive as the game goes on? Non-linear games capture the attention of both the public and the critics, and with a big license and some big money behind it, it could do incredibly well.

Or Konami could just clone God of War, I guess. That'll work.

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