The Mysteriously Frustrating Disappearance of Castlevania
I find the idea of “golden ages” within gaming quite fun to discuss. Many would argue that the golden age of survival horror games was the PS1/PS2 era. The 1990’s are often seen as the golden age of Japanese Role Playing Games. I don’t think there’s much debate that 1997-2008 was the golden age of Castlevania. Within those 11 years we received 8 truly fantastic video games, and a couple of good ones alongside them. I would go as far as to say that within those 11 years, Castlevania was one of the strongest gaming IP ever.
And yet, we all know where this story leads…
There was this small pocket of time where 2D games, pixel art, and platformers were seen as obsolete and ready to be left behind. Of course indie developers kept the spirit alive during this time, but it wasn’t really until the very early/mid 2010’s that the “throwback boom” began.
“Was it really worth continuing Castlevania as these small little 2D handheld games?”
“Look at how much these narrative-heavy 3D triple-A games sell!”
I’m sure thoughts like those were common amongst Konami higher-ups at the time. Gaming around that time was a bit strange. Japanese legends began to mess around with their classic IP in ways that were deemed sacrilegious by many longtime fans. Games like Metroid: Other M, Silent Hill Homecoming, Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII; these were all once (and some still are) considered the worst in their legendary franchises. Japanese publishers were watching as Western games were far outselling theirs in many cases. Even legends like Keiji Inafune spoke out against the current atmosphere of Japanese games at the time.
And so Konami tried to take a different route for Castlevania. They rebooted the series alongside MercurySteam as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. To their credit, the first game is often seen as a pretty good game. Ditching the 2D metroidvania legacy aside, Lords of Shadow goes for a third-person action style of gameplay. Again, I can’t blame Konami for trying out such a popular genre. But it’s the next two games in the Lords of Shadow series that completely fall apart. Lords of Shadow Mirrors of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2 are often considered two of the worst games in the long running series. Konami even blacklisted IGN US at the time for their harsh review of Lords of Shadow 2. Lords of Shadow 2 released in 2014, the same year as P.T and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. P.T is of course one of gamings most tragic cancellations. The legendary Hideo Kojima was ousted from Konami. Ground Zeroes was received well for its gameplay but despised for its short length and greedy nature. Koji Igarashi, the longtime lead producer of Castlevania left Konami in 2014.
Something happened behind the scenes within Konami in 2014. And so far we still don’t know what…
And now we are left with a vastly different gaming landscape than 11 years ago. Metroidvanias are one of the hottest genres ever; nobody on the internet can shut up about Hollow Knight: Silksong for two minutes. Konami is even seemingly attempting a Capcom-like comeback. Capcom too fell victim to that “Westernization attempt” I mentioned earlier. But they began to bounce back with high quality titles like Resident Evil 7 and Devil May Cry 5. It’s gotten to the point where people get ecstatic when they see that classic yellow logo in a gaming showcase. Can Konami do the same thing? Silent Hill 2 Remake turned out better than we thought. Silent Hill f looks pretty good. Metal Gear Solid Delta looks fantastic. They even released a long desired collection of the DS Castlevania games!
Konami is…pleasing their fans?
Well, whenever the day does come that the next Castlevania game is revealed, I’ll be extremely curious. I highly doubt we’ll ever get another 2D pixel-art metroidvania again from them. If they do go 2D I hope it’s heavily stylized like the upcoming Shinobi game. And if they decide on another 3D game, I’ll be here with hope in my heart.
Because Castlevania deserves hope. One of gaming greatest franchises shouldn’t have gone dormant for so long. And I hope somebody in Konami HQ feels the same way…
