Spanish-based studio, MercurySteam, is best known for developing Metroid: Samus Returns and also working on Konami's Castlevania series - including the 3DS entry, Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. Although the studio’s history has been well documented in the past, during an interview earlier this week, MercurySteam boss Enric Álvarez shared his side of the story, explaining how the company was essentially saved by a chain of fortunate events:
Back in 2005 when we were about to disappear, and we created a small demo, based on a moment from The Exorcist – the movie. Back in the days, the Epic people were showing off their new Gears of War game, and we saw a few pics from a monster and we thought, “hey we can do that as well, let’s do it” and we produced a quite impressive visual test.
This led to the studio working with Codemasters, helping to develop Clive Barker's Jericho, and eventually working with Konami and Nintendo:
The result was so impressive, that I still remember, Codemasters told us, don’t show it to anyone else, and come here, and come with a PC because we don’t believe this is real. That very day we saved the studio. We also went [and] visited Konami, and that day we met with Dave Cox, and we felt an immediate connection between us. A few years later, Dave Cox himself called us and told us “hey guys do you want to reboot Castlevania?” and that is how it all started.
And then, this has been explained many times by Nintendo people ... how they got interested - we collaborated with them doing Metroid: Samus Returns. In short, it was because of Castlevania: Mirror of Fate. [Nintendo] liked it and they thought we were up to the task of doing what we did, and the rest is history.
When asked about the differences between Japanese and Western publishers, Enric Álvarez made the following observation:
Especially with Nintendo, the biggest difference is all they care about is quality. All they care about is polish. All they care about is giving satisfaction to their players. The rest is secondary. You can’t find this working for a western publisher because there’s always time constraints, there’s always a lot of pressure. There’s also pressure working in any environment, especially when we’re talking about massive amounts of money - they’re always somewhat very worried about that money, which is normal and fair.
But I think that the biggest difference we’ve found is in our direction. It’s not saying there’s no pressure involved in both sides, but the pressure from a publisher, from a Japanese publisher comes from that aspect - quality. And the pressure in our experience, I can’t talk any other experiences, just in our experience - the pressure coming from a western publisher comes from many other directions.
As for what the future holds for MecurySteam, half the studio is currently focused on Spacelords (formerly known as Raiders of the Broken Planet), and the other half is assigned to providing more stable revenue through partnerships with major publishers and the handling of big-name IP. Enric also said Spacelords would be a great fit for the Switch library, but due to the small-sized and self-financed team, the studio didn't have the capacity to include it in development. Though, it was still open to the idea of a possible port in the future.
Did you play Samus Returns or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate on the 3DS? Do you agree Japanese publishers care more about the quality of their games? Would you like to see MercurySteam bring its latest project to the Switch? Tell us below.
[source dualshockers.com, via dualshockers.com]
Comments (77)
Though it was criticized, I loved Mirror of Fate. But I think Nintendo helped them realize their polished potential with Metroid. I hope to see big things from them going forward!
i'd like for this company to take on another Metroid game when they have the chance to. hopefully Nintendo gives them another shot at it. would be neat on Switch too. but wouldn't be surprise if Nintendo had them do it on 3DS again.
was Metroid: Samus Returns good? i may get it later next year, as this year gaming wise for me is gonna be huge.
Liked MoF and when I first heard they were working on a Metroid I had zero worries. I knew the visuals were going to be spot on and the rest was great as well. Wonder what they could do for a 3d remake of Super Metroid??
@Aozz101x
Any future 2D Metroid game will be on the Switch.
@westman98 i think you're right. there been hints of 3DS ending. and Nintendo has to end it someday.
and Switch is gonna need all of the games it can get. (please Animal Crossing!). afterall i did say "would be neat on the Switch."
I’d love to see MercurySteam handle an original Metroid project. They clearly have a solid understanding of what makes Metroid awesome, so I’d love to see them do something completely their own.
Konami should be thankful to Mercury Steam. Mirror of fate is the only good thing happened to Castlevania in ages while Lords of shadow is incredibly shallow and disappointing and as far as I know LOS2 is just crap. Imo even the DS Castlevania games were not as good as the older ones (plain bad if you ask me) and the other 3D Castlevania games were so bad that Lords of shadow is the best one.
Mirror of fate has its annoying flaws fore sure (the way that its story - a trite and predictable one - is told and the fact that the game is split up into 3 different parts because of that) but Mercury steam did a great job with it and I'm sure that Konami is to blame for that problem with the structure of the game.
@Aozz101x metroid samus returns was amazing. And this is coming from someone who isnt a big fan of metroid.
I loooooved Samus Returns. It was so great getting a new official Metroid game after so long. And a good one at that! What's even better is that AM2R is still a thing so we have two amazing remakes of the same game.
Mirror of Fate was a great game.
MercurySteam definitely deserves to be more involved in Nintendo's future plans after Samus Returns. One of the best Metroid games I've ever played. I'd love to see more Metroid from them in the future.
@westman98 proof? They may have one release on a 3ds replacement handheld launch or something, in case you're
just assuming.
I honestly wish Nintendo would buy Mercury Steam. I love them that much I adored Castlevania Lord's of shadows 1 & mirror of fate. Didn't play LoS2 beyond a demo (upgraded consoles, ps3 to ps4 IIRC, shortly thereafter). I loved Metroid Samus returns also. I never played Jericho, and have never played raiders of a broken planet (I had the beta but it was only available at certain times & I missed them all, lol. I saw the gameplay & some vids, though & it looked great, but I hear the gameplay is where it sucks, so I can't judge it really). I don't know why there is a quality difference in the games I didn't play versus the ones i did, but the half of the studio that's doing the partnerships is definitely worth owning, imho.
Samus returns switch port please. I'll probably just end up buying a new 3ds this christmas if one isnt announced by then tho.
@twztid13
The "3ds replacement handheld" released in March 2017.
It's nice to hear they liked working with Nintendo, I really hope they repeat some day, and maybe create a new 2D Metroid (and also a new 2D Castlevania?). I think they deserve it after the great Samus Returns, I enjoyed it so much.
Also, it'd be nice to see Spacelords coming to Switch, now that it has so much content, very polished, and it's a FtP. Maybe Panic Button could make it happen?
MoF was my first 3DS game. I loved it. And still play it. I must get Samus Return soon.
MoF was very fun and Samus Returns was in my top 5 games of 2017.
However, I am not a fan of Raiders/Spacelords, I think that game is just not very fun. Visually it's amazing, but I just don't like the mechanics. I wish the team that made that game would move on to another project.
@LuckyLand
WOW Im so happy to read that !
Lord of Shadow 1 and 2 are CRAP !
Anybody who plays seriously the Castlevania series knows how stupid and incoherent the LoS 1 and 2 are.
I was surprised to read over the internet how many people claimed that the lord of Shadows were so great.
For me, Lord of Shadows 1 and 2 are the worst games from the Castlevania entire serie, even the N64 games were better by far.
Mercury Steam, I don't thank you for what you did...
Funnily enough, Spacelords is not being developed for the Switch now.
That's how you thank the ones who have helped you.
Loves samus returns ,and had hoped when the new studios that Microsoft and Sony had bought were revealed Nintendo would buy some themselves.
@Cobalt You don’t like anything modern at.
Colbalt.... Meldrew more like... cheer up Victor!
I know....
You don’t believe it!!
Good for them.
Can't say I've enjoyed their work though, even Samus Returns was passable at best.
@Stocksy
I don't like anything modern ?
Zelda BOTW, Xenoblade X, God of War 4, Kingdom Battle, The Witcher 3, Bayonetta 1+2 etc...
You mix 2 different things : Crap and modern.
Modern doesn't mean crap for me. Games like LoS 1 and 2 are crap when you have played the entire Castlevania serie.
Sure, if you dunno the Castlevanias, you may like those two atrocities but I swear it's impossible for somebody who has really followed the serie from the start.
@PhilKenSebben I bought a New 2DS XL just for Samus Returns (I’ve never own a 3DS before). I never regretted it though I’ve just played Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds besides Samus Returns... Only 3 games, but 3 amazing games
Only played about 15 minutes of Samus Returns to make sure the used copy I bought worked, but if that 15 minutes is anything to go by, I'm going to seek out their 3DS Castlevania game too. Samus Returns instantly feels good.
I hope to see more from them. They are really talented. They can revive many old classic games into something great. Would love that!
@tamantayoshi good to know. thanks!
@Cobalt I am sorry but your post is so wrong in the eyes of a true Castlevania fan!
LoS 1, MoF and LoS 2 are amazing games. They are not canon and they tell a beautiful story!
I have played almost ALL Castlevania titles and own ALL metroidvania CVs (some of them multiple copies) and I just loved the LoS saga. I started from Castlevania II Simon's Quest on my old Famicom (lost 20 years ago).
I am sorry you did not like the games. They were so fresh in my eyes!
@Zuljaras
Those 2 games are not Castlevania games. Gameplay, ambience, music etc...
Mercury Steam has made a God of Colossus May Cry with nobrainers gameplay. A great game for "Newgen players" but it's not a Castlevania. It's a game with a Castlevania skin thats all.
The musics are great as compositions but I'm sorry they are completely off topic.
Another thing absolutely unacceptable, the real explanation that you're waiting for until the end of the game (don't wanna spoil in case...) YOU GET THAT IN A DLC ! This is insane !
I could continue for hours about chronology absurdities and zillion other stuffs but I don't have time right now...
A real fan, somebody who has played seriously that amazing serie, cannot defend those 2 "Castlevania-skinned games". This is just what they are (the 2nd is even worse than the 1st one...)
LOS : 4/10
LOS2 : 2/10
Samus Returns is top-notch. It proved that this studio has real talent.
@Cobalt Ok let's agree to disagree. I am so huge Castlevania fan that I even try to make a game that is inspired from CV games like Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow and ALL other Metroidvania games.
The LoS saga gave some gritty visuals and some amazing details to the genre. I do not care if the gameplay is taken from GoW and the others. The narrative (that Patrick Steward!) was amazing. The whole journey was epic.
The only thing I did not like in the second one was how fast Victor Belmont died for nothing.
@Zuljaras
"The narrative (that Patrick Steward!) was amazing. "
What ?
I didn't know that AMAZING was a synonym of CHEEZY AS F...
@Cobalt Get over your dang self and your opinion, as it's not the only one.
Hi! True die hard fan here of Castlevania, and I have played them ALL (including the MSX Vampire Killer), with the exception of the obscure iOS game), and I can appreciate both Symphony of the Night as much as Dracula's Curse or even Legacy of Darkness and Vampire's Kiss. But you have to admit that as good as the IGA Castlevanias were, after nearly six straight handheld titles, the formulas (and even the graphics engines) were growing stale. There's just only so many ways a Metroidvania can be retuned using largely the same assets since Symphony and on those specs.
You have to understand that the reason Kojima and Mercury Steam were brought in was because the series ' sales were also stagnating at this time and Konami was already struggling trying to offset the huge budgets that Metal Gear Solid demanded. Castlevania had to go mainstream console again if it was going to remain profitable; Konami knew this and they knew it would have to go big 3D to survive at that level. So if you were in their shoes, would you then hand that development off to IGA's team who twice proved incapable of realizing the series in 3D on PS2? (Lament of Innocence is alright but it pales in comparison to what we'd come to expect from IGA games: the levels were just too repetitive). No, Castlevania needed a kick in the pants on all fronts.
Mercury Steam comes in with what I believe are some of the greatest visual artists working in the medium; with an engine so slick it bleeds all the lighting drama and detail capability a 3D Castlevania deserves in one screenshot. They rewrite the formula of what a Castlevania can aspire to be and they throw out all previous continuity and conventions to start fresh, since IGA basically completed his story with the events of Aria / Dawn anyways. They opt for a return to linearty but with large enough levels to reward exploration and the ability to take new tricks back in to replayable stages. They give the most expansive upgrade system to the whip yet seen and borrow DMC's successful light/dark dynamic for magic. And this all makes sense with the plot of a Belmont dead set on revenge only to discover a deeper meaning about his tragedy. The game's engine is equally capable of rendering lush, sunbathed jungles as well as the deep, dark castles and catacombs we've come to adore. Its meaty plot boldly mixes old world mythology and strong religious overtones with apocalyptic zeal. The bestiary is vast and formidable and the combat demands adept skill and strategy (as opposed to just another skeleton that is disposed of in 1-2 hits via IGA games); The bosses will make you cry; The music is dark and brooding without being distracting; The presentation is superb with aptly acted cutscenes and a gorgeous interface (the skill animation descriptions are so impressive). it's
The game boasts hours upon hours of: carefully planned platforming; well hidden secrets; thoughtful puzzle solving; tense, challenging combat; Shadow of the Collossus-like endurance rounds; score chasing and nuanced lore. Imo, it's one of the most realized worlds of any third person action games and by far one of the most beautiful.
What is there to hate about the Lords of Shadow trilogy, other than that it dared to be different? It's still a Castlevania at its heart; it's just that it's a self-involved, self contained one. It's one of the nicest surprises of the last generation and will go on to age far better than any previous 3D title in the series.
Mercury Steam is my favourite western developer (and has been for quite a few years).
I think they are one of the best developers in the world, when it comes to combat engines plus they make excellent artwork (the Spanish always made good artwork - even back in ZX Spectrum days).
Both Castlevania LOS 2 and LOS Mirror of Fate are in IMO underrated games (especially the former has a really good combat engine).
I also bought Samus Returns even though I'm not a big Metroid fan, in fact I bought it solely because it was developed by Mercury Steam.
@LuckyLand Wait what, the DS Castlevanias are fantastic. Certainly beats Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance on GBA which are bad/average respectively. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin may be worse than Aria of Sorrow (which was indeed a fantastic game), but Order of Ecclesia is phenomenal, rivaling the classic greats like Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood.
Makes perfect sense. For a long time Nintendo first party games are the ones I pre-order and know there won't be game breaking glitches. Also, this goes to show why the Platinum Games and Microsoft relationship did not work for Scalebound. Platinum Games wanted that quality and creativity and Microsoft worried more about those timelines and needing a console exclusive.
@Antraxx777
I respect your opinion even if I think totally different than you.
You talk about 3D Castlevania and you don't mention Curse of Darkness(XBOX version for the best one) ! o_O
An awesome new castlevania recipe, isn't it ?
If you know the story of what happen with Mercury Steam, you probably know that they have made a game which wasn't a Castlevania. When Konami saw what they made, they ask Mercury Steam to put a Castlevania layer on it to create Lord of shadow ! After that said, it's easy to understand why the lord of shadows don't have the inner Castlevania's vibe.
Like I said, people have the right to think whatever they want but my opinion is clear on the Lord of Shadows, they aren't Castlevania's games... just Castlevania skinned games...
@EvilLucario Dawn of sorrow and Portrait of ruin were so bad that I did not want to try Ecclesia. Super Castlevania 4, SOTN and Aria of sorrow are the best ones imho (SCV4 the absolute best), but even Circle of the moon was much better than DOS and POR for the DS. Circle of the moon is a very good game its only problem imo is that the graphics are too repetitive and simplistic. Harmony of dissonance is bad I agree.
@Cobalt Is Resident Evil 7 a RE game in your opinion?
It doesn't even feature any of the "staple horses" of the RE series (ok Chris Redfield in a short free DLC).
At least the LOS games has a lot of the characters and lore from the other Castlevania games.
@LuckyLand Hmph, I personally hated the card system and controls of Circle of the Moon. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin may feel a bit stale and bland, but what Circle of the Moon did actively annoyed me.
Anyway, I recommend you at least play Order of Ecclesia, it's my favorite Castlevania. It's harder than both of the other DS games and Aria of Sorrow/Symphony of the Night, so combat is a lot more fun as a result. The world is more linear, but it still works pretty well for exploration, and the OST is fantastic.
Honestly though, in terms of favorite Castlevanias I go Order of Ecclesia > Symphony of the Night > Rondo of Blood > Super Castlevania IV > Aria of Sorrow.
@shgamer
That's a great question buddy. ^^
Again, I talk on my name only : RE 7 is not a resident evil from my perspective. 1st person view, it's already dead !
For me, they put "Resident Evil" on the cover because they knew in advance that the R.E. logo will have a huge impact on the sells...
Again, it's my point of view only... ^^
@EvilLucario
We think almost the same : Chi no Rondo, Order of ecclesia, Aria of sorrow, SOTN, SC IV.
It’s a bit humorous about “saving Castlevania” when Konami has stopped caring now.
I am a massive fan of what MercurySteam did with both the Metroid and Castlevania series. I loved Lords of shadow (the music, especially waterfalls of agharta, is outstanding) and Mirror of Fate but wasn’t impressed with LoS 2, although the art design is outstanding. But to have people bad mouth these games as “it’s not Castlevania” and blithely ignore that, by their own logic, symphony of the night and the games that followed are not Castlevania titles either but Super Metroid, in gothic clothing with frilly shirts and teen angst, is kind of silly.
If you don’t like the game that’s fine, it’s your opinion and you are entitled to it and I support that entitlement but think of a better argument than that please.
Simon Belmont for smash!!!!!
@fixxerjoe
This is one of the most ridiculous thing I read since a long time.
Do you know what "the essence" means ?
The lord of shadows don't have that essence at all.
Look, take God of War, put a skin of Castlevania on it, name the character "Belmondo" and that's it, you have what you call a Castlevania. Yayyy
Do you think that Simon's Quest is the same as Curse of Darkness or the same as Order of Ecclesia ? No they are all different but THEY SHARE ONE THING in common, the essence of Castlevania.
@Cobalt The essence of Castlevania, to me, is going on an adventure to destroy evil and confronting different beasts that must be overcome on that journey. Lords of Shadow delivered that for me and went for the actual devil as that evil. This adventure was varied in the environments you progressed through to show an actual epic adventure being undertaken rather than a single castle with a combat system that actually worked rather than swing and hope that you hit what you wanted to, which most of the 3D Castlevania’s were lumbered with. But that’s just me, please enlighten me with the essence you get from Castlevania.
@fixxerjoe
" The essence of Castlevania, to me, is going on an adventure to destroy evil and confronting different beasts that must be overcome on that journey."
So God of War is a Castlevania then ?
@Cobalt If you want to get into minutiae of the details of the beasts to be overcome and environments to be traversed and how they differ we can. Or we can point out that Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness are Devil May Cry with a Castlevania skin on it. Or you can answer my question of what the essence of Castlevania means to you?
@fixxerjoe
Curse of Darkness and Lament of innocence are DMC with a Castlevania skin on it ? Are you serious ? it's really the way you'd describe those two games ?
The aura of SOTN and of the GBA episodes is totally transcribed in Lament of innocence. The exploration and the action respect totally the tradition of the "rpg-vanias" but without the leveling system. Lament of innocence is a kind of genesis for the serie.
About Curse of Darkness, OH MY GOD !
I even don't wanna write something because of what you said, "a Devil May Cry with a skin of Castlevania" o_O
Or you never played Curse of Darkness or you try to joke with me... Goddddd !
Now about your question of What the essence of Castlevania means to me. Pretty simple.
_ambience
_Legendary Music Themes
_Gameplay mechanics
_No handholding
Lord of shadow fake the ambience, plays NO legendary themes at all, use the gameplay mechanics of God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, DMC and hold your hand from the start to the end.
That Lord of Shadow thingy does exactly what you need to do if you wanna screw THE ESSENCE of Castlevania.
Period !
@maruse Its a fantastic system, I just dont really want to buy it a third time.
@Cobalt Finally we get to the essence for you. I appreciate we’re youre coming from dude, I’m not trying to attack your beliefs on the subject but giving a different point of view. Those mechanics and hand holding only apply to the IGA produced Castlevania’s though. What’s your opinions of the games that preceded IGA? as they were pretty linear (except simons quest, which was a maze of stupidity that for some reason I enjoyed and the limited multi path elements of Rondo and Dracula’s curse). To give you some insight my personal favourite Castlevania title is Super Castlevania followed by Dawn of Sorrow (two very different titles) but I appreciate the change and growth brought by LoS as the combat system is great, even if it’s lifted from elsewhere. The music is beautiful and ambient without repeating tracks from earlier titles as, in this universe the games where these tracks originated don’t happen so no need for them and the art design is stellar. But I, for one was very glad of the change as if we don’t embrace change in the gaming sphere we get Call of Duty, the same thing constantly. Changing allows games to improve and Super Mario 64, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4 are some titles that prove that.
@Cobalt except the fact that Lords of Shadow is crap compared to even the worst God of war game.
Mirror of fate on the other hand for me has been more enjoyable than the worst God of war games. Of course the best God of war games are a whole different level, God of war 2 is the only game that was able to surpass Super Castlevania 4 as my favourite action game, of course Mirror of fate has no chance against it but that does not mean it's bad.
Mirror of fate is a game that could have been great but some idiot decided to severely damage it to make its stupid and trivial plot stand out like it was something to write home about.
Never played the console Lord of Shadow games because of how God of War-like they are and didn't feel at all like real Castlevania. Played and beat Mirror of Fate, but bought it only because it gave me the impression it was a metroidvania, when in reality, it felt like it was still in the "proof of concept" phase concerning its metroidvania elements and completely butchered anything creative in storytelling and character design (everyone felt like palette swaps and stat changes; very, very lazy). Ultimately, I'm sorry I bought it because I didn't want to show support for MercurySteam anymore.
As for SR, I mostly loved the game. Absolutely abhorred the true final boss, as well as the Diggernaut, which felt totally out of place in a Metroid. The ludicrously fast enemy respawn mechanic (you can go off screen by around a full screen's length or so and return to find the enemies respawned in the same room) almost made me stop playing the game. And yet, the base Metroid mechanics that make Metroid what it's known for are pretty fantastic. I didn't like the counter ability at all, but fortunately, it isn't required to fight, so I was able to play through the entire game jumping around to avoid enemies and enjoy myself like I should be in a Metroid.
Music was also meh and some of it was very out of place (playing Red Soil Brinstar music in a green jungle-like area, for example, when it should've been the Green Soil, if not something actually new or remixed from RoS). Music also felt incredibly lazy with all the remixes present.
All in all, what MercurySteam has shown me is that they don't appear to have any real creative talent and just focus their efforts on piggybacking already popular franchises.
@fixxerjoe
I understand what you explain but I don't have a lot of time to write a massive text, so excuse me for the really short answer. ^^
I'm not surprised that Super Castlevania is your favorite. It fits better what you like in a Castlevania game. Personally Super Castlevania IV is just a "nice" game manner of speaking.
Don't get me wrong, I like it but there are too much problems in this game to be placed on the top from my perspective.
@LuckyLand
"except the fact that Lords of Shadow is crap compared to even the worst God of war game."
WE TOTALLY AGREE on that !
@Cobalt No worries dude. To each their own but hopefully we can both agree that we are looking forward to Bloodstained.
@fixxerjoe
GODD NOOOOOO !
I don't look forward to Bloodstained AT ALL !
Mighty Number 9 same effect spotted ! :/
@Cobalt it can’t possibly be as bad as mighty no9......I hope
@Cobalt @fixxerjoe I'm guessing neither of you have seen or played the beta backer demo, because from what I've read and played myself, it is very good and basically a spiritual sequel to Dawn of Sorrow, which is a very good thing.
@Kilroy wasn’t able to back it so haven’t got to touch the demo although I have seen the game play vids which seem good but sometimes you don’t know until you go hands on yourself but thanks for the heads up. Love Dawn of Sorrow so this should be right up my street.
@Kilroy
Veni vedi vici !
Played it. Hated it. Vomit ! LOL
@fixxerjoe
As bad, I don't think so.
Not good, I truly believe it's possible.
@Cobalt I'm well aware it started as a different project (that 's why the engine was so good already), but the thing you mention about it not feeling like Castlevania only affects like the first 4 stages, where the game was setting up the old world mythology and gods (all important to the plot later); once the game enters the spider pits it's all Castlevania from there on out. That level might has well been a recreation of the spider mines from Cv64. From there on the game gets really dark, gothic and awesome. I mean did you play the: Abby Library; the Ice Castle; the harpy's tower; the chupacabra swamp; the Dragon Courtyard or the fascinating Music Box? I mean if those don't define a Castlevania level to you, then I 'd like to hear your definition of one. So many interesting ideas, enemies and wonderful ambience in each. A lot of love, money and talent went in to making Lords of Shadow. The grand scale of some of the settings is mind blowing.
Also, I disagree about Curse of Darkness: the game starts out well enough but it drags by the halfway point and the latter half just feels like never ending bloat. However it does have one of Michiru Yamane's greatest soundtracks ever and the ID system was pretty cool. But the game has the same repetitive level structures of LoI and so a longer game of that does not a good game make. Imo, Lament was definitely the better of the two, but I also think LoS trilogy is true 3D Castlevania. CV64, bless it's heart, tried, and Legacy of Darkness fared a lot better because of Cornell and Henry, but the tech wasn't there at the time; there was something too empty about those games.
@LuckyLand how was the plot trivial, it turned the serie s' conventions on their head? I loved that twist because I've always felt there was a deeper, unspoken bond between the Belmont and Dracula clans, and also because it still keeps all the main characters, just explains their existence very differently.
@Antraxx777 Maybe because something like that is often overused in other franchises to the point that it feels cheap everytime I see it? It's so boring and underwhelming. Not that I wanted a Castlevania focused on the story anyway. Do you think this was a good reason to completely break the structure of the game, the meaning of the progression, the flow of the exploration? They ruined a great game because of this useless nonsense... It could even have been much much more replayable if it wasn't made like that. They ruined the replayability of the game too.
This interview really sums up the state of both the industry, Nintendo, and Japanese versus Western cultures very nicely. I still have no idea how the West got everything so screwed up. Japan mostly copied all our systems and improved upon them while we let every aspect of everything decay into what it has become.
Mirror of Fate was simply awesome. I really want to get to Metroid someday...I can't get myself to pick up 3DS instead of Switch up....but I know they made one of the best stereoscopic games on the 3DS....Mirror of Fate was already the best.
@Kilroy " The ludicrously fast enemy respawn mechanic (you can go off screen by around a full screen's length or so and return to find the enemies respawned in the same room"
....it's....Metroid, not Metroid Prime....That's now Metroid works... always has...
@NEStalgia No. Just no. I went back just now and played a little bit of what Metroids I could without digging into storage boxes. That includes:
Metroid
Return of Samus
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
The only entry to have respawning enemies in the same room is the original NES game and that almost certainly is due to the NES's technical limitations, since I don't recall any NES games that remember whether you've killed enemies that are now offscreen (or even where they are when they're offscreen if they are following a scripted path, thus, they are gone).
Zero Mission, don't recall it ever happening, but a quick Google search brings up nothing on the matter. I can technically play Other M right now to check, but I won't because it's Other M and doesn't deserve that kind of respect. But if memory serves, enemies in the same room also do not respawn once you move offscreen from their original location.
So what this goes to show is one of the many reasons of how MercurySteam is lazy.
@Cobalt I agree did not like what they did with LoS 1 & 2 and Mirror of Fate. Long live the metroidvania style, while some might say that style was getting stale, obviously there is a huge following for it still or else we wouldn't see all the games trying to replicate that formula out there, some with success some without. I'd love to see a great looking SoTN style game on modern consoles with the 2D with 3D backgrounds, but on full blown consoles. I really loved Axiom Verge it's one of the closest games I've played that got close to the style of SoTN/GBA Castlevania's/non MoF DS era.
@Kilroy It's been a while since I've played old Metroids (When Super came out on the WiiU is the last time I went through any of them), but I think I see what you're saying about same room now. On Super and onward you had to leave the room and re-enter (even that always drove me crazy considering how many times you leave the room. Though I probably put more hours in the NES one than even Super, so that's probably why it sticks out in my head more. I was glued to that thing both at home and in the (oft forgotten) arcade cabinet
@dougphisig
Yeah, Axiom Verge is absolutely great ! A tour de force that game when you know that there is only one man behind it, the awesome Tom 'Thomas' Happ !
Kinda liked Mirror of Fate, but Samus Returns was really awesome
MercurySteam, you teased Metroid 5, now do it please
THIS: "Especially with Nintendo, the biggest difference is all they care about is quality. All they care about is polish. All they care about is giving satisfaction to their players. The rest is secondary."
Is why you find Nintendo commonly score far higher in reviews, rarely have a poorly rated, stinker, or mediocre game going way back into their past. It's also why you see them get ridden the worst over delays and then loved after. And the general lack of bugs in their games, you don't often see a Nintendo game need a patch, let alone one of large size, and if it is, it's usually a touch up, not a band-aid on a released beta.
@LuckyLand I replay it just fine
Although I play the Steam version now and put it into 3D using TriDef
Samus returns isn't my favorite Metroid, and it didn't look as good as Mirror of fate (in fact, it looked a bit ugly). But in the end I enjoyed it more then expected. I think that if they get a full budget and full support from Nintendo, they could do a very good and good looking Metroid on Switch. It might be possible.
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