[Vigilous]

Johnathan, Charlotte, Alucard, Shanoa, and Soma... All in one game!

The only thing that irks me is it appears that Konami has literally recycled the sprites. Alucard looks exactly like he did in SotN.

[Velhart]

It is funny how Alucard is in higher res than the others. Ohh well, if the story is good and the game is fun, I will probably like it. It is kind of weird though you zoom out and see the whole castle while you are playing, kind of takes away the feeling, but it is only an option. I would probably pick Shanoa or Soma, definitely one of my favorite main characters.

[renzuko]

for me, it depends on powers, cuz it seems like charlotte is using her magic, if soma gets to absorb enemy powers, id probly use him, otherwise, jonathan or shanoa, cuz, their powers dont arent a huge deal

[Kay]

Shanoa! Order of Ecclesia was the best damn Metroidvania ever. (Though I liked them all)

[IoriYagami]

This looks like a nice game and all but it doesnt feel like a classic Metroidvania. I was hoping the next one in the series would be another original story.

[Vigilous]

It really does just scream "fan service." My concern is the sheer laziness of this project. All sprites are stripped directly from their original games, as well as the background themselves and enemies. It's out mid-August, so we'll know within a month.

[Velhart]

If the game is cheap then I won't mind the rehashing of the character sprites and the fanservice it screams. Never thought I would be competitive in a Castlevania game.

[IoriYagami]

Its not even out for a console. XBLA only I believe

[Vigilous]

Yeah, which I'm fine with. Fifteen bucks versus a possible thirty or forty dollar price tag.

[IoriYagami]

Yea. Agreed. Which reminds me.. I need to get Raystorm HD soon

[MrReinhardt]

It can hold some over til the new Castlevania game is out.

[Velhart]

So played this last night, and I will say that I have my ups and downs about the game, but I wasn't expecting a work of art for 15 dollars.

Pros:
-Feels like a classic Metroidvania.

-Character use their skills from their respective game. I like how some characters have an advantage over another such as Shanoa can use her glyphs and project herself to the top of the room as everyone else has to jump from ledge to ledge.

-The soundtrack is just awesome. Love the rock remixes of classic tunes I loved.

-Game is challenging, especially on single player. This game does not hold back, it'll throw you into a room full of minotaurs and axe throwing knights to knock a crap load of HP off.

-Bosses are fun. It is kind of neat that bosses from past games premier in this one, kind of an advantage tool though since their strategy is exactly the same as they were in their respective game.

-Game has character progression. Despite having to level each character seperately, there are treasures for improving upon your character and I guess helps you go to higher difficulty levels in the game.

-Multiplayer is fun. It is nice to play with your friend and be strategic about bosses and who sits on the weight or not, haha.

Cons:

-Game is a major rehash. Though this is not a problem for me at all, in all fairness it is a 1200 Microsoft point game, the same character spirtes are used from the PS1 sprites to the DS sprites, think it would have been better if they up'ed the quality on the characters a bit.

-Characters feel a tad slow. This is because you are looking at the game a tad more zoomed out than previous Castlevania's, but it takes a little bit of time to get use to this, and even myself had a hard time getting into it.

-Multiplayer with 6 people is not fun and poorly executed. I loved it when I played with 2-3 people in a party, but I tried a party of 6 people and it was miserable the whole way through. You are lucky if you are able to get a hit on a few mobs. If you are in a small room with a bunch of mobs with people who decided to pick the same character as you, it is just a clusterfuck of "Where the hell am I?". Not only that, trying to keep the group together is difficult because one decides to wander in a different direction and die for it. It is at least easier to keep 2-3 people under control and cooperative.

-Takes some time to build up your character. This really isn't a con in my book, but the typical gamer who is trying to get into it may have a hard time getting into it.

-Mainly a fan service game. If you are not a Castlevania fan at all, this is not for you, this is for people who are really into the series. It does a great job though appealing to the fans.

-Voices are meh. I don't know who changed up the voice actors, but everyone sounds a little funny, especially Alucard, going from a deep vampiric voice to sounding like a young adult is just....nyeh!! I do like Shanoa's somewhat.

So overall, I like it, yes it has a lot of flaws, but like I said, that is what you are going to get out of a downloadable game. If anyone ever wants to play, let me know.

[IoriYagami]

How is Soma's voice actor? IIRC he never had an english voice actor in his two games.

[Brayker]

It shocked me when I turned the game on and it didnt have local co-op. Usually companies use "Multiplayer" or "Online Multiplayer" to describe things that are online-only. "Co-op" usually means someone in the room can pick up and controller and you can play together.

I havent played much of it due to homework but I plan to play more this weekend.