JBoc924
Konami and Nintendo have a very fruitful relationship when it comes to Castlevania. Not only was the series born on the NES, but Castlevania has been quite synonymous with Nintendo handhelds since then. That’s actually how I got introduced to the series as well, with the release of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the Game Boy Advance.
I clearly remember the day the GBA came out. I went to Toys R Us to pick up the new handheld, and I was met with quite a selection of launch titles to pick from. I ended up going with Circle of the Moon. Its box-art really caught my eye, and I was always a horror fan, so this definitely appealed to me, especially after checking out the back of the box. Good thing I did, because it made me into the ‘vaniac I am today.
However, whenever I play my PlayStation Vita I can’t help but wonder why Sony’s handhelds haven’t had the same ‘vania love Nintendo’s handhelds have received for years. I think it’s time to change that.
The PlayStation Portable is home to Rondo of Blood’s remake, The Dracula X Chronicles, which also houses the original game and Symphony of the Night. So what about the PlayStation Vita? The only thing us ‘vaniacs have from the series on the Vita besides the aforementioned PSP title are Symphony of the Night and Chronicles, which are available as PSOne Classics.
Nintendo’s latest handheld, the 3DS, will be getting its first Castlevania title on March 5th with the release of Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, the second part of Mercury Steam’s Castlevania trilogy. And if the series’ presence on the GBA and DS is anything to go by, there’ll be two more games after this. That leaves the Vita with no Castlevania game announced for it thus far.
I would love to see Mirror of Fate actually show up on the Vita. It would look absolutely beautiful on its OLED screen, and it wouldn’t lose any of the 3DS version’s touchscreen mechanics either. But that hasn’t been announced, and Vita owners may not end up getting a port of the latest ‘vania to grace a Nintendo handheld, so why not give them the GBA and DS entries that came before instead?
After the success of Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation, Konami opted to make more games in this “metroidvania” style. So we ended up getting Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow on the GBA, while the DS got Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. All six games followed the template set in place by the PlayStation classic, while adding new mechanics along the way. There were some issues fans had, like Dawn of Sorrow (the first DS ‘vania) adopting a more anime look as opposed to the series’ traditional gothic art style. But overall, they were each amazing games and worthy entries in the series. I would love to play them all on my Vita.
All six games would look beautiful on the Vita’s screen, especially the DS ones. Yeah, I know the GBA entries’ graphics are a little dated by now, but just look at how nice PSOne games look running on the Vita. And this is 2D we’re talking about, so I’m sure we’ll get a cleaner look for the three GBA games at least. The DS trio of games will definitely benefit the most from the Vita’s screen and its vibrant colors. And they wouldn’t lose any of the touch-screen features they originally had, only losing the second screen capability that was used for maps and the character/enemy stats.
A simple remedy for the dual-screen ability the DS ‘vanias had would be to have a little tab at the top of the screen, which can then be pulled down with a downwards swipe of your finger to reveal the map. As far as the stats screen goes, it would be neat if touching your character (heh) would bring up said screen. It would also be cool if tapping on enemies would bring up their info and stats as well. Or Konami could just end up taking the easy route and have us pause the game to access these things. I honestly wouldn’t mind at all.
As far as actual touch screen functionality goes, the DS titles didn’t really utilize them extensively. The most notable uses were in an unlockable mode in Portrait of Ruin that used touch control for attacks, and then you had the magic seals you had to draw over bosses to finish them off in Dawn of Sorrow. All of that wouldn’t be lost in the transition to the Vita.
Konami should distribute these ports digitally. Possibly spreading them out and releasing one every month. Don’t get me wrong, I would absolutely love a retail collection compiling all six games, but I think it would be more realistic to expect a digital-only release on the PlayStation Store for each title. Then, hopefully, once PlayStation handheld gamers are caught up on what they’ve been missing, Konami could give us a brand new exclusive entry on the Vita. Hey, one can hope, right?
