Posts Tagged ‘metroidvania’
Koji Igarashi is Making the Spiritual Successor to Symphony of the Night
As Konami continues to sink into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the United States, its famous creators are coming out of the woodwork with new games. Enter Koji Igarashi – or “Iga” as we’ve come to call him – who is the man responsible not only for Symphony of the Night, but also the man who created the MetroidVanaia (or IgaVania) sub genre. Quite possibly the best Playstation game to release (we shall see when that Top 10 comes around), it’s no shock that fans were overjoyed when his newest creation, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, popped up on Kickstarter yesterday and fully funded the title in a handful of hours. Touted as the spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night, Bloodstained puts you in the role of Miriam, an orphan who has been cursed by an evil alchemist and is slowly becoming a crystal being. The first to receive this curse, Gebel (voiced by David Hayter thanks to stretch goals), set out to make Miriam a castle of her own to live in, but as his curse progressed he’s gone mad and filled the castle with demons and trapped her inside. As Miriam (and potential other protagonists that could become a co-op partner if the stretch goal is met) you fight through the castle in that classic style we’ve all come to love from Iga. While Fred does not participate in Kickstarter, the funding having reached triple its original request means that hopefully within the next two years we’ll all be able to get our hands on this game that is coming for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux. If you want a more tangible reward, head on over to the Kickstarter to secure your digital copy for $28 and your tangible disc copy for $60 plus plenty of other rewards for different backer amounts.
Retro Game Night: Super Metroid
In honor of the April game club, Fred’s giving Super Metroid a try for the first time ever. Regarded as easily one of the strongest titles on the SNES, if not of all time, I get started to see what all the fuss is about with the title that is responsible for the “Metroid” in “MetroidVania“.
Genre Study: Roguelikes and MetroidVania Games
Lately many games that embrace former genres that had fallen to the wayside are making a comeback. As a result lots of games press and developer media contacts like to coin phrases that are based on gameplay styles not many are familiar with. When someone tells you that Tokyo Jungle is a “roguelike” or that Guacamelee is a “MetroidVania” title, it’s entirely possible you have no idea what that means. After this article, you will no longer have that problem.
Roguelikes
Original Rogue on IBM compatible
You may or may not know that the roots of the roguelike come from a 1980 computer game called Rogue, which established the dungeon crawler. This game was considered genre-changing when compared to the slower paced text adventures such as Zork and Dungeons & Dragons video game ports like Wizardry and Ultima. Developers Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, Ken Arnold, and Jon Lane site a hybrid between both types with influences from D&D as well as the text adventure Colossal Cave Adventure, which featured a detailed description of a cave system in Kentucky that was so precise it was used by a tourist to navigate parts of the actual caves it was based on. The result was a game where an adventurer explored a multi-floored dungeon, collecting items and facing enemies, in search of a final artifact (in this case the “Amulet of Yendor”) to complete the game. Each floor was more difficult than the last, you could not backtrack to a previous floor, and if you died you got a game over, simple as that. Additionally the layout of the dungeon, items, and enemies were all randomly generated, which meant you would ideally never play the same game twice. Despite the fact that you would have to start over, the experience of playing the game assisted you in handling enemies, utilizing items, and preparing for future encounters as such that you could eventually beat the game. Needless to say the game had a tough barrier for entry and popularized itself mostly on Unix systems in colleges across the country, but the public found it too complex and difficult.
Review: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
Console: Sony Playstation (also released on Sega Saturn in Japan only)
Released: 1997
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Japan? Yes (as Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku Translation: Devil’s Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight)
Instruction Manual: Not necessary – Link
Difficulty: Moderate
Played it as a child? No
Value: $22.87 (used) $64.45 (new) (pricecharting.com) – NOTE: There are two versions: original and greatest hits. Original is much more rare and expensive, so adjust your buying habits appropriately.
Price: $15-25 (used GH) $35-$60 (used original) $90-$130 (new GH) $400 (new original) on eBay
Digital Release? Yes – released as PSOne title on PS3/PSP and on XBLA – $10.00 for all versions. Also available with Rondo of Blood in the Dracula X Collection for PSP – $15 digital, varies on UMD.
***We also did a podcast on this and other Castlevania titles like it here.***
While Rondo of Blood may be the hidden gem of the Castlevania series, Symphony of the Night is anything but. There wasn’t a Playstation gamer around that didn’t see this release back in 1997, bringing a much-needed change to the traditional formula. Every Castlevania game that released on consoles seemed to push the hardware to do things it was never intended to do and usually had amazing results, so it was interesting that in a world consumed by 3D polygonal graphics Symphony of the Night was a 2D side scroller. In Japan, the series has a much easier way to identify the games that go together – main campaign titles often wore Akumajo in the title and in this case Dracula X – but in America we had not received (and most of us had not played) Rondo of Blood. The game starts out with you climbing the stairs to Dracula’s chamber at the end of Rondo and you re-create the final fight with Dracula (of which you cannot die). Then a long bit of lore scrolls the screen and next thing you know you’re playing as Alucard, Dracula’s son, and you’re rushing to Castlevania to rescue Richter from its curse. It was like being dropped into the middle of an epic you had not previously learned the story of. Frankly, it didn’t matter, and even today playing Rondo of Blood only assists in giving you background detail because like all other Castlevania games it’s the gameplay and level design that keeps you hooked.
Gaming History 101 