New Games

 

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 2
 - Added: 1/1/05 -

In following up the announcement of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow 2 (as previewed on this page below), Konami has finally confirmed the rumor of another title for the PS2. Yes--Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is in the works. While the title is expected to closely follow the blueprint laid forth by Lament of Innocence, it is said that Curse of Darkness will feature a new graphics engine, a new camera system, and a more nonlinear quest; also (as frequent contributor Carl notes) the project has seen a boost in staff, as people who worked on Silent Hill also show their wares here. However, don't expect the formula or the overall style of play to change.

The game's placement is set in 1479, three years after Trevor Belmont and his allies (Grant, Sypha and Alucard) confronted and destroyed the Count. The story: Though destroyed, Dracula's lingering curse has begun to take its toll, and people have begun to exhibit a more deviant nature amidst the darkness, be it mob violence, pestilence or through heresy. In order to escape from such a predicament, our main hero Hector--described as a "Devil Forgemaster who had once refined his skills under Dracula"--has fled the scene to find a more peaceful life. During this journey, he crosses paths with his old friend Isaac, another Devil Forgemaster, who reveals, mysteriously, that he's implicated Hector's wife in a deadly conspiracy. Isaac hurries home only to find that his home has been "morphed" by Dracula's dark magic, with there no sign of his wife. What will follow is Hector's revenge, but his course of action against Isaac and the forces of evil has yet to be explained.

Though, details confirm that Hector will command "innocent devils," in what I assume is this game's "system," that will afford him different powers, the most intriguing of which is the ability to fly (on a winged dragon, perhaps?). There are also rumors of an Alucard appearance, fresh off the first deadly encounter with his father. And other questions arise: Will Lament's excellent fighting system carry over? Will the sword-wielding Hector approach combat in the same fashion? Will we learn more about what happened to Mathias? And will they continue to employ watered-down Symphony elements, like Lament's useless RPG system? The answers are mere months away.

All images and information were supplied by the following sources: Carl "The Gargoyle," gamesarefun.com and jeux-france.com.

 

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
 - Added: 5/14/03 -

On May 14th, the second day of E3, Konami finally ended the speculation by unveiling screenshots and video of its next Castlevania offering, a new 3D game coming to the PS2 sometime in November. The title will be called Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Lament takes us back to scarcely charted territory for the series, where it did anything but flourish the last time around. Koji Igarashi and his team look to correct the deficiencies of the N64 games and what they saw as a grave miscalculation from the previous KCEK.

The full story isn't known quite yet, but there are a few notes: In the eleventh century, we're going to meet Leon Belmont, described as the forefather of the Belmont clan (until they change this in a future title). A woman, perhaps the companion of Leon, is kidnapped and taken to Dracula's castle--it's up to the dagger-armed hero to head into the haunted estate and rescue her and discover the true origin of the castle. Leon will also be in control of the usual mystic weapons--axe, dagger, holy water, boomerang and a new crystal item; as is becoming the norm, these weapons will see an increase via a new system that lets you combine ten relics with each mystic weapon.

There's an immediate anticipation of how they're going to pull it off. For one, Dracula didn't exist in the eleventh century. They could say that in their universe, Dracula did exist back then, but they've already committed to linking him to the real-life Vlad Tepes. And wasn't Sonia supposed to be the first hero in line? Wasn't that the whole point of Legends? Not so--a lot of revisions will undoubtedly be made, and this won't be the first or last time.

(All information and images are credited to IGN.com and its network.)

 

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
 - Added: 1/6/03 -

On Thursday, January 16th, Konami confirmed yet another installment to the Castlevania series--Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (which I assume it'll be called both here and in Japan), the nineteenth entry into the series and third such game to appear on the Game Boy Advance. It's slated for a May of 2003 release.

Well, they finally went and did it: Instead of sticking another game within the 1400-1900 time-period, they've finally created one that takes place in the future--2035 to be exact. Whatever the case, it seems as though the Belmonts are out of the picture and a new set of vampire hunters, Soma Cruz and his friend Mina, will unwittingly wander into the castle of legend while attempting to get a better view of a solar eclipse. (Note that it'll probably be "revealed" that both are indeed Belmont descendants; you may recognize this trick from the Mega Man series: "Dr. Wily's really gone this time--for really real, we promise, really." What's supposed to set this game apart from the others is that your whip-less hero can instead collect "enemy souls" and use their powers as his own. You can even use the GBA's link capabilities to trade powers to your friends and vice versa

There's no surprise as far as gameplay, though: Koji Igarashi, the head of the "Dracula X" team who brought us Symphony of the Night and the recent Harmony of Dissonance, is again in charge, so you should expect more of the same, with that very same engine only slightly tweaked. Konami is also promising a better musical composition this time, since so many complained about Harmony's selection.

I'll have more on this on the "What's New" page very soon. (All images and other information are credited to ign.com.)

 

Castlevania: White Night Concerto
 - Added: 2/20/02 -

Late last night, Castlevania: Hyakuya no Concerto (Castlevania: White Night Concerto), a new Game Boy Advance title, was announced for release in Japan sometime in late June, and it begs the question: "Is this the 'next-generation' title that they spoke of in Chronicles' interview with the producer?" It very well could be, despite much speculation of a new game for a system like PS2 or GameCube. It fits, though, as people who worked on Symphony of the Night and Rondo are working on this title. But, for all I know, this newest 2D incarnation could be something to fill time in between the release of a next-generation title.

Anyway: This title, from all accounts, will build on the same engine present in Circle of the Moon, promising another Symphony-like adventure through multiple areas of a castle. Will this newest tale butcher the storyline further? It seems so: In 1740, a true Belmont descendant by the name of Jeust must travel into Castlevania (or some new castle, as Dracula may not make an appearance) to save two friends, Maxim Quincin and Liddy Erlanger, from as ultimate evil's grasp. And that's pretty much it, so far; it seems as though the game, like Circle, will be a side-quest sandwiched between two existing titles--in this case, Castlevania and Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. So once again, the gameplay will have to carry a title that will seemingly lack in story. To do so, it'll have to take Circle of the Moon's gameplay to the next level, which is very likely considering who's behind its production.

We'll hear more about its story and gameplay mechanics soon enough. When the game is released, as always, it'll be covered in full detail on this site, including peripherals, story, sprites, weapons and every other conceivable aspect. (All images and information are credited to videogames.com and mmcafe.com.)

 

Castlevania Chronicles
 - Added: 12/22/00 -

It would seem as though your hard work--pertaining to petitioning to Konami for a Castlevania anthology--has paid off. Soon in Japan, Konami will be porting Akumajou Dracula X68000 (called Castlevania X68000 on this site), made originally for Sharp's X68000 computer system back in 1993, over to the PlayStation for re-release. It will be called Castlevania Chronicles, and the general idea is that Konami wants to reintroduce consumers to the Castlevania games that they may have missed over the 90's. Of course, that doesn't mean much to us here, unless Konami of America, often staunch against otherwise time-consuming projects like this, decides to bring it here. Does that mean that other games, like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Vampire Killer, could be repackaged and be made available for play, too? Well, ZDnet.com, in an interview with the producer of the X68000 remake, confirmed that other Castlevania titles are indeed also being remade as part of the Chronicles project. How's that for an early Christmas present?

Looking at the screenshots, you'll see that it's exactly the same game. There will be no major changes in the game play or graphics; however, its multimedia should be increased, what with the sound and movie capabilities of the PlayStation. In fact, early reviews support that notion, stating that opening and closing movies have been added. Whether it will offer any other new features or modes remains to be seen. And for all we know, this release could be part of that anthology many CV fans have hoped for.

For more information on Akumajou Dracula X68000, click here.

 

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
 - Added: 9/30/00 -

Recently, at Nintendo's annual Space World convention in Japan, these screenshots surfaced as one of the games on slate to appear on the next-generation Game Boy Advance--Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. After having failed to capture the feel or the success of the 2D franchise in two tries on the N64 (Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness), news of this game was very welcome to fans of the earlier CV platform games. Game Boy Advance will be a 32-bit system, having future compatibility with Game Cube, so the power is available to try to top past CV games.

From what I've read, the game's story will go something like this: In 1830, Camilla, also known as Vampira from earlier in the series, was successful in raising Count Dracula from his grave. Two trained vampire hunters, Nathan and Hugh, along with their teacher, vow to stop the Prince of Darkness but ultimately fail; to make matters worse, Dracula kidnaps their teacher. The two young vampire hunters grab the legendary whip and head out to Castlevania to find their teacher and destroy the Count. And that's about it--for now.

So here we go with the storyline problems again. But on the bright side, as you can tell from the screenshots, it's very apparent that this game will run on the same engine present in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, promising the same exploration and mind-teasing fun; even the graphics look the same, if not a little less detailed. Whether or not this game has anything to do with the pictures below (from the last update long ago) still hasn't been solved, so there's a chance that other 2D CV games could be on the way. If it means more games added to this legendary series, as well as tons of future images for this site, bring it on.

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