You did this.

https://archive.is/qgnaD

Why do they say Castlevania dev and not what they're surely more known for which is being the Metroid: Dread dev

Lords of Shadow is over a decade ago and faded into obscurity.

Steam search yields no game by this title.

>>716244815 (OP)
they put it on epic instead of steam
what the fuck did they expect

Never heard of-
>EGS
Ah. No wonder.

>>716245057
>>716245079
>>716245127
This is genuinely puzzling to me, how can a simple consumer see that EGS exclusivity is equal to making the game die in obscurity on arrival, but an entire development team, marketers, publishers and all the sort cant.

I like mercury steam game's. i would had purchased the game, i saw the trailers and i liked it. But i for sure aint getting anything from EGS

>an oversupply of new releases and increasingly selective consumers
but how many players did it reach?? would you say 10 million??

I don't, looks interesting so why have I never hear-
>EGS
oh well, deserved. They got their bag already, so fuck 'em.

It's so weird to me how video game developers somehow think that customers owe them their business. No other industry acts like this.

>do nothing
>game bombs
>dev gets shut down
Damn, I didn't know I was this powerful.

>>716244815 (OP)
>The company notes that Blades of Fire, which was launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store for PC alongside console versions, "underperformed the group's expectations despite receiving generally positive reviews from both the industry press and players."
>launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store
Yeah, no wonder it flopped. No better way to ensure your game targets the least amount of PC players as possible.

>>716244815 (OP)
>You did this.
But I didn't do anything...

yawn

>>716245283
Because the suits at the top think they can double dip on the free egs money and consumers buying it anyway

>>716244815 (OP)
I haven't even heard of the game prior to this thread. I had looked into it and saw Epic.
That's really all that needs to be said along with poor advertising for console players.

>release unoriginal game on a satured market
>GEE, WHY NOBODY BUYS MY GAME????

Was this published by Epic like Alan Wake 2? They did an awful job marketing it for console players.

>>716245283
Risk assessment.
>Epic Games pays them money
>They expect their game to do poorly (but will act as if they expect it to do well)
>So they take the EGS deal to hedge their bets more safely
>EGS means that it WILL do poorly
>Self-fulfilling prophecy.png

>>716244815 (OP)
>Castlevania dev
LOS2 came out 11 years ago lmao.

>>716245127
came here to say this.
what the hell does "selective consumers" mean even?

Karma for what they did with the dogshit that were the Lord of Shadows games, they deserve worse

>>716244815 (OP)
>Do Nothing.
>Win.

>>716244815 (OP)
the fact that I didn't even know this game existed until I clicked this thread says a lot

>>716244815 (OP)
> Players don't decide what's successful.
> Makes it Epic Games exclusive on PC.
> Nobody decides to buy it.
> YOU DID THIIIS NOOO! DEVELOPERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE IT ON ANY PLATFORM THEY WANT!
Players vote with their wallet bitch ass. Not on steam, no buy.

>>716245283
Because in their mind not taking the exclusivity deal is leaving money on the table and no soulless suit will ever allow that to pass.
The fact that they ignore the fucking field of corpses of games and studios that floundered and died in the grasp of Tim Sweeney but still take the devil's bargain shows how these people have zero situational awareness. At least a single player games has a better hope of maybe finding an audience in a years time or so. But then they have a huge disadvantage as practically no one will remember any of the promotional material or any reason to even consider buying it

>search game's name on google
>EGS page is buried beneath reviews, screenshots, videos, and common questions
what even the hell lmao this doesn't happen with games on steam

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't even know of this game's existence. Is it even on consoles?

MercurySteam could always call up Nintendo for another Metroid project.

>>716244815 (OP)
I did nothing though.
No seriously, this is the first time I've ever heard about this game.

>>716245016
Because a quick look at the game's aesthetic and gameplay would remind someone of Lords of Shadows. I think if this game was a 2D game with Metroidlike level design, they would probably bring up Metroid.

>>716244815 (OP)
looks interesting, post the steam link and I'll consider buying it

I literally never heard of this game, and looking at the trailer it looks... incredibly what I'd expect from the devs of the Lord of Shadows games, which really puts in perspective just how much Nintendo had to hold their pants up for them during Samus Returns and Dread development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U8TncLXi3A
I also spent half the trailer thinking my phone wasn't plugged properly because of incredibly poor audio mastering

>>716245016
I read Castlevania dev in the headline and thought this was something to do with the new Bloodstained game. Who the fuck actually knows MercurySteam as the Castlevania devs?

>>716244815 (OP)
>not on Steam
>not on GOG
LOL:LMAO even!

>>716244815 (OP)
Then make games gamers want to buy? How is this so hard for devs to understand?

>>716246127
The last castlevania they ever did was in 2013, that was the end of a standalone trilogy not even canon to the mainline Castlevanias.

>>716246205
In this case they made an exclusivity deal with a games platform nobody uses then wonder why it doesn't sell.

>>716246205
There's this slowly growing trend of AAA directly blaming consumers lately. Just the other day, we had Ubisoft whining that gamers are too picky (again) and now this.
It sounds like a weird doubling down of "We aren't wrong, the consumers are" argument when in reality they're just trying to appease their investors (who don't care, most don't know shit about the companies their investments are in)

>>716246404
I remember Ubisoft literally crying about the SKG movement.

>>716246265
was it the Castlevania game that looked REALLY goofy because the devs dumbfucked the size of the models compared to the sizes of stuff in the background? if this was those devs that's even funnier.

>>716244815 (OP)
First time hearing about it

They just use the money Epic pays then to add more to the game and relaunch it a year in steam.

>>716246404
The suits with MBA degrees were taught in college that
1. the tech/entertainment line will always go up forever
2. entertainment is the most resilient product in any market
3. video games in particular are recession proof
None of those old "truths" are real at this point.

Why are steamoid cultists so unhinged and aggressive? Could it be because they put all their licenses and friends on a single platform, so they can't leave the cult or they lose everything?

>>716246490
Rightfully so, they're responsible for it existing in the first place.

>>716244815 (OP)
Which Castlevania did they make? Never heard of this game.

"SELECTIVE CONSUMERS could be here" he thought to himself

>>716244815 (OP)
woke slop failing good

literally never heard of this game lol

Is this the game where you craft weapons?

>>716244815 (OP)
>Mercury Steam
>Castlevania dev

>>716244815 (OP)
I have seriously never heard of this game before now.

>>716245283
>This is genuinely puzzling to me, how can a simple consumer see that EGS exclusivity is equal to making the game die in obscurity on arrival, but an entire development team, marketers, publishers and all the sort cant.
Maybe they're not actually PC gamers. They do not play games on PC, do not buy games on PC, have no interaction in any PC gaming community to know how people feel, what they like and don't like.

Even if it was on steam no one would buy it since it wasn't marketed at all. Like not even in Castlevania threads was this game mentioned.

>>716246606
>continues to blame the consumer
Imagine being a shill that hates money.

>>716245520
>The "interesting crafting system"
>mix and match parts for superficial stat changes
>all of the alleged nuances to the weapon's balance and profile don't really play a factor besides animation speed and durability cost
>combat mostly comes down to picking a style/damage type that the enemy is weak to
As nice as it is when games let you customize the look of your weapons, it's all but certain 95% of the options are objectively less effective.

>>716244815 (OP)
This is fine, it'll just throw them deeper into the Nintendo mines making 2D Metroid games.

>>716246490
Well yeah, Ubisoft is a rigid company that can't adapt in a market that changes even a little bit and they're being threatened with a requirement to make live-service games they make playable FOREVER (which requires them to be designed from the ground-up a certain way or with a conversion contingency for when the game sundowns).

>>716246505
Yes, the one with Dracula/Belmont being a manlet in some modern-day parking lot.

>Mercury steam
the guy in charge was outed as a midwit that ruined 2 castlevania games while piggy backing on kojima besides having personality disorders
>EGS exclusive
no shit 6 people bought your game

>>716246863
>Reach: 60 inches
>Weight: 2.9 LBs
Flamberge aren't exactly super heavy, but that's a damn low number and I have my doubts about that Reach value as well. If it had said Length, sure, but not Reach.

>>716246883
>which requires them to be designed from the ground-up
Get better bait you overpaid maple leaf.

>>716247125
>or

>>716246606
you haven't even seen 10% of my unhingededness. The average arriving person can get freaked out by only a 1% deviation from social norms and are physically incapable of going 5% past social suspectations. I routinely don't utilize the seperation stick at the grocery store belt to keep our purchases seperate and I belittle anyone's intelligence when I am criticized about it.

Sometimes when they try to offer me a 2 for 1 deal at the store I leave my purchases on the counter and walk right out the door. I fantasize about using the grocery belt in sexual encounters where I spill grease all over the thing where I activate the belt and put the girl tits down on the conveyer but the grease prevents it from causing abrasions to her chest and allows her to nicely glide along and this doesn't add pleasure to the encounter for either of us but I do it anyway

does that answer your question

I never played Castlevania. Which game should I play first?

>>716245283
Japanese devs are notoriously arrogant and refuse to take an L for any reason no matter how blindingly obvious it is. some retard executive got greedy and took the bribe, instead of admitting that it was the wrong move they all have to pretend like there was no possible way to see the flop coming

>>716247159
Castlevania (1986)

>>716247159
SoTN

>>716245283
Everyone involved knows, they are just pretending not to know
When it blows up they blame something/someone else

>>716247159
Castlevania (1986)

>>716247159
the first Castlevania if you like old school action games with arcade sensibilities that are brutally hard, SOTN if you like RPGs and being able to outgrind or outthink any challenge. very different experiences but both are fun in their own ways.

>>716244815 (OP)
I have literally never heard of this game before.

>>716244815 (OP)
I never even knew this game existed, where the fu-
>Epic Game Store exclusive
Ah, I see why. Fucking retards never learn, that store is a black hole. No one ever hears about shit released on it.

>>716246505
yup

>>716244815 (OP)
wtf is "selective consumers"
do they actually believe they are entitled to my money?

>>716247159
Start where it began.

>EGS exclusive
>wtf why did nobody buy our game???????????????

>>716244815 (OP)
Never heard of this game before. The fuck?

>>716244815 (OP)
How are there devs still falling for the EGS meme?

>>716244815 (OP)
Didn't even know this shit existed.

>>716245743
EGS doesn't even pay money anymore, they swapped to not collecting a revenue share until 1 million USD in sales, which comes out to 130k which is an absolute pittance for sabotaging your game

>>716244815 (OP)
>Castlevania dev
kek, lmao even

>>716245016
Sounds like the director of the studio, after all this years, was unable to pull his head out of his own ass since lords of shadow 2.
A true shame, lords of shadow 1 and mirror of fate were pretty decent games. games.

>>716247383
I think the industry suits in general have vastly overestimated the realistic size of the industry, and are still at the point where they refuse to downscale. The industry has bloated way too big for the actual audience to support.

>>716244815 (OP)
>no marketing
>EGS exclusive
>"the consumer did this"
lol, lmao
cocksuckers

>>716247501
There's no way that anyone would take the deal at that point.

>>716245283
>EGS
I don't even take the free games anymore. I never even played one for a second

wasn't there some indie dev who released pc sales numbers and it came out to like 10k on steam and literally 7 (seven) on egs or something insane like that

>>716246036
>Be me
>Listen to gaming podcasts all day
>No a single person has mentioned this

>>716247382
Did they fix this afterward?

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective customers
How much extra did Timmy pay them to not blame EGS exclusivity?

>>716244815 (OP)
They should’ve stayed as Nintendo’s 2D Metroid dev.

>>716247632
About $4.

>>716244815 (OP)
haven't heard of this game till this thread

How Long until Mercury Steam goes bankrupt and 2d Metroid dies again?

>>716244815 (OP)
And I'll do it again.

>>716247183
these guys are spanish.

>>716247609
i want to say it was like 6k versus a whole 12 copies

>>716247068
Swords are actually much lighter than most people realize. Flamberge without a fancy grip would be believably 3ish lbs.

A claymore is about 4 lbs, a longsword is about 3, etc.

>>716247609
gegs.
>>716247347
Only games I heard that were on it were two because they did their own promo shit on youtube: Sifu and Phoenix Point (which already had rep behind it thanks to its developer.)

>>716247625
You'd have to redesign the entire game for that.
I guess what happened was that their locations weren't spacious enough for the combat so they just increased the size of everything and called it a day.

>>716244815 (OP)
Sorry but I just don't need any new games that aren't on sale for like five dollars. Why didn't this guy release for five bucks?

>>716247781
wow that makes it even worse lmao

>>716247850
Can't you just make the guy bigger instead?

>>716245283
The latter group doesn't realize consumers use EGS as a Fortnite launcher most of the time

>>716247672
This flop might actually might actually get us Metroid 6 sooner. They will definitely want to get back with Nintendo for an easy win.

Nintendo has a talent for getting gold from subpar development studios.

>>716247823
the longer the blade, the harder it is to wield upright because it will tip forward more even if the weight is similar to another shorter sword with a thicker blade instead. Welcome to physics and centre of gravity and what they call "a well balanced sword."

>>716244815 (OP)
i didnt even know this existed and i am online 24/7
every month a thousand games are released no one can keep up with that and obviously good games will suffer because of that

>>716245283
>EGS is going to pay us to put our game on their store.
>Hey, Fortnite is on EGS! That'll work! Will get so many eyes on it!

>>716247609
"Let's Build a Zoo" 's devs admitted that Epic's sales made up like 1% of their total ones.

like 95% of EGS's userbase uses it to launch fortnite and claim free games that they never play. Most of them never even look at the store

why do studios keep falling for the meme

>>716244815 (OP)
well the game also sucks

>>716247968
also would like to add that Blades of Fire is a really really generic and forgettable name for well basically anything

>>716247942
Yeah, this is why flamberge have that little chunk about 5 inches up the blade from the guard to compensate for the added length. A 5 foot reach with a flamberge would be quite short though.

>>716244815 (OP)
Blades Of Fire is about the most generic name you could have for a game, wow. Also i didn't even know this existed until now, apparently its an EGS exclusive. Devs need to know they are simply gonna have less exposure when they go that route.

>selective costumers
cry me a river
anyway was this the supposed edge of darkness spiritual sucessor?

>>716246080
>remind someone of Lords of Shadows
Such a memorable game.

>>716248201
> "Shadows of the Blades of Fire: Tales From The Whispering Woods."
There I AI'fied the shit out of the name, lol.

Oh I'm being selective alright, like when I choose to not install EGS on my computer.

I didn't even realize mercurysteam was making this game.

>Blades of Fire
no thanks
>BLADES of STEEL
hell yeah

>>716244815 (OP)
Maybe they should blame it on no marketing? I literally never heard about this game be-
>Epic exclusive
Ah, now it makes sense.

>>716245283
Next, they will release it on Steam in two years for the full price and again will be baffled that people aren't buying. Happens every single time.

>EGS exclusive
They only have themselves to blame.

>>716248401
I mean I'm grateful for pic related because it made Nintendo take interest in Mercury Steam and we saw Metroid Dread as a result.

>bros were coming off of one of our most successful releases in a while, metroid dread
>what do we do next?
>an EGS exclusive soulslop game that's on all platforms but nintendo ones
>brilliant

>>716248676
I wasn't happy at the time seeing castlevania get turned into shitty games that killed the series forever but knowing what I know now it didn't matter anyway.

>>716244815 (OP)
>These guys developed Metroid Dread
Nintendo is proven yet again to be the industry's best autism wrangler.

>>716248874
Castlevania is slowly making a comeback, give it time.

>>716245079
Well that explains why I never even heard about it until now.

>>716249081
If anything that shitty show is making certain Castlevania will never get another game.

>>716249081
Lol I thought you were serious when I first read this.

>>716249206
>>716249207
Ye of little faith.

>>716244815 (OP)
I have literally never heard of this game.

>>716244815 (OP)
>EGS
Well what the fuck did you expect?
>WOW NO ONE BOUGHT MY CARS
>THAT I'M SELLING AT THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN
>ON THE FUCKING MOON
Maybe advertise and sell it somewhere I'll actually see it next time.

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't even know this game existed before reading about it in this thread.

>>716244815 (OP)
You don't even get free money that offsets the lack of customers on EGS anymore. Completely mindless decision.

>>716249332
>bro they had m2 make remake game that takes a half hour to beat, castlevania is back
Oh you're actually retarded.

>>716248713
It's really weird that Game Freak keeps doing this too.

>>716244815 (OP)
That's a shame, Mercury Steam makes some really great games.

>>716249603
Yes.

>>716244815 (OP)
never even heard of this game

>>716245283
>>716245414
>>716245908
This take is moronic. How many games do you think launch on Steam and die without any fanfare?

If the game was going to be a success, the console launch would have shown it. Instead it died on all platforms. EGS didn't kill it, the same would have happened if it had launched on Steam.

>>716250050
Regardless the problem here was lack of advertising.
I had no idea the game existed and I imagine that is the case for most people.

>>716245834
>AI slop
fuck off

>>716244815 (OP)
Are consumers not supposed to be “selective”? What kind of comment is that

>>716244815 (OP)
>call yourself mercury steam
>doesn't release on steam

>>716249081
>IP getting whored out indiscriminately as long as Konami makes a quick buck
>"we are le back!!"
Lol. Lmao, if you will. Rofl, even.

>>716245640
Nah it's because of woke, just like concord.

>>716250235
It's a fancy way of saying nobody bought our shit while avoiding being at fault.

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't know they made one

>>716250372
OK doomie.

>>716250553
Stay delusional.

>>716250648
OK doomie.

I had no idea it existed until now.

>>716244815 (OP)
>God of War's rival

.......what?

>>716246036
Is this Rubinsky from LOGH?

>>716247921
For a long time I didn't realize that the Epic launcher that I used to boot Fortnite *was* the Epic Games Store. I thought EGS was a different download.

>>716250806
if its not on steam IDC

>>716250174
It is?

>>716250834
Castlevania Lords of Shadow
probably.

>>716244815 (OP)
Thank you for linking the archive anon.

>>716249081
Vampire Survivors deserved to get DMCA'd
I've never seen something so creatively bankrupt get so rewarded for basically nothing
Why don't more indies do this? Just steal ideas, and then reuse assets from popular games, and then make a bajillion dollars?

>>716245808
>what the hell does "selective consumers" mean even?

They're bitching that people didn't just indiscriminately buy it.

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't know about this game existence at all but sure I'll take credit for MercurySteam flopping and dying anytime.

>>716245283

Why do you losers have such an obsession with Steam anyway?
What did Steam do to you you owe it your life?

I honestly think the first Lords of Shadows game was kino. https://youtu.be/oC0H0t5KxSA

>>716247382
this game is so baffling, the first Lords of Shadow is fucking amazing, full of style and great art.

the 2nd is a complete fucking shitshow.

This thread was the first time in my life I ever heard of this game.

>>716249081
the only people who make good Castlevania games, are anyone but Konami.

they cannot.

its like a Riddle or some sort of puzzle, really.

>>716244815 (OP)
>Castlevania dev
There's your problem. MercurySteam is still such a literal who that they're apparently not worthy of being namedropped in a headline.

>>716251783
The devs at the time said the head guy got a huge ego after the success of the 1st game and acted like a massive retard

>>716251092
nigga he got the licenses to use all of that shit.

he literally "faked it" till he made it big enough to just ask Konami to use their shit.

you deserve to fucking die, how about that, nigga.

>>716244815 (OP)
>no Steam
>no Switch 2
There lies the problem, you put your games on these two platforms, maybe even PlayStation, you skip Xbox consoles and Xbox PC, you skip Epic Games Store.

>>716251718
it was a fantastic game, the best game from Castlevania in years, and the last good one Konomi ever made.

and ever will made, 2 was immediately plunge into shit.

>>716245283
>But i for sure aint getting anything from EGS
Why? Why do you allow Steam to have a monopoly

I didnt even know this niggers were working on a fucking new game maybe if it were on steam and showed up on the fucking initial page I would have known. lmao.

>>716244815 (OP)
it looked ok until i saw the gay boy character which was clearly a sign of woke grooming and decided to not play the game

>>716251092
Konami doesn't have copyright over Dracula, monsters, castles, whips, etc.

Most of castlevania is just iconography from old western horror movies.

The origin story they came up with for Dracula in Lords of Shadows is better than the one in the mainline series.

>>716252028
I remember it got a lot of hate cause people wanted classic Castlevania and not a hack and slash. I remember playing the first game and it was alright. Never got the second is it really this bad?

>>716244815 (OP)
>indie game
>not on steam
>not on switch or switch 2
>fails
I'm absolutely gobsmacked with shock at this outcome.

>>716252028
>, the best game from Castlevania in years
Boy you best not imply that lords of shadow was better than order of ecclesia, Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin

>>716245283
EGS is the fortnite launcher. Nobody really uses that for anything else.

>>716244815 (OP)
This is exactly the sort of game I would have preodered for my console if I had ever heard anything about it before it released.
Now I feel like I might as well wait for a sale.

>>716252052
Better services deserve special treatment. Where EGS should try to COMPETE with steam, they feel like they're entitled to have steam's customers despite sucking in many aspects compared to steam.

>>716244815 (OP)
>castlevania
>Wait, is this Iga new game? why didn't i hear anything about it
>lord of shadow spanish guys

fuck you vg media

>>716244815 (OP)
>blaming
Journo spin. Notice the quotations.

Mercury steam is and extremely hit or miss developer. Lords of Shadows 1 was great but the 3ds game and LOS2 were shit. Metroid Dread was pretty good but the thread this game is about is shovelware trash.

>>716245893
>DEVELOPERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE IT ON ANY PLATFORM THEY WANT!
Well, that's entirely true; however, they need to be aware of the ramifications of their decisions.

>>716251718
an oddly very religious game in the series that usually eschews outward religiosity (despite its obvious intonations on the series)

and the message is clear, repent for your sins, Gabriel repented to God, but he could not repent to himself, and thus later, he fell to darkness, he did not truly ever believe God could love him again.

>>716244815 (OP)
>mercurysteam
>their new game sucks
ALL of their games suck

>>716245016
Lords of Shadow is not even a real Castlevania l fucking mao

Journalist no more, it's all about agenda

>>716251421
>friends on steam
>game community on steam
>workshop
>family sharing
>frequent deals
>integrated media functions like screenshots and game recording
>ARMA
>literal split screen local coop over internet

Gee, I don't know. It's truly a mystery why anyone would prefer steam over EGS.

>>716252370
Steam and Switch are the most popular things on the market, why do retards skip them when these platforms alone can keep their studios afloat?

>>716247942
>what is the hilt
>what is the grip
>what is the pommel
Amazing how you use the term "center of gravity" and "well balanced sword" without actually knowing what it entails.

>>716246883
>Well yeah, Ubisoft is a rigid company
Ironically, they're not. Hell, that's what really helped kneecap the Assassin's Creed franchise: starting around AC3, they kept changing core parts of game's formula or scaling back key aspects of the story/setting in order to address whomever they thought was complaining the loudest, to the detriment of the game as a whole and its actual players.

Ubisoft isn't rigid, they're just committed to making the worst choice possible whenever prompted. They're really flexible when it comes to getting worse and worse.

>>716246676
woke??

>>716244815 (OP)
Looks pretty cool but >EGS and also I have zero faith in this dev since they were more than happy to release the unfinished POS Lord of Shadows.

>>716252332
sort of, the exploration is good, but the world looks weird, as shown in this thread.

the castle area in your mind is way better, obviously, and the story is.. well its alright, and does a somewhat passable job of semi-redeeming Gabriel.

however the final boss is just Posessed Alucard(Trevor), Posessed by Lucifer, so again final boss being Luficer.

the cinematography is good, but it just lacks the same level of polish and overall tone of adventure the first had.

the first is the best marrying of God of War to Castlevania I could imagine.

>>716252632
My guess is that before the game got changed into a Castlevania game it was instead about the Archangel Gabriel.

I dont see any game of that name

>>716252406
it isn't, however it came out way after them, so yes, "best in years".

Order of Ecclesia is much less quality than the other two you listed, though, Portrait of Ruin has like 3x the content of Order.

>>716244815 (OP)
>look at headline
>think "the fuck? iga released something aside from bloodstained updates this decade?"
>look up the blades of fire game
>literally dad of soi but with the copyright scrubbed off
>"what the fuck does this have anything to do with castlevania?"
>read thread
>lords of shadow dev
lol

I find it funny that if you google Gabriel Belmont the very first result is "Dracula".

>>716251092
based
>>716252258
also gem

>>716253024
Not that anon but more content doesn't always mean better.

Ecclesia has a better story and doesn't feel like Shonen anime and the mix up in combat forces the player to take fights seriously.

>>716253110
He is dark prince!

>>716252954
I see. I'm not particularly attached to the first one also cause it's been over a decade. I'm probably better off replaying the first one than getting the second.

>hmm. Is it our fault for taking epic money and not putting it on steam or even gog?
>no its the costumers fault!
This is a very good way of making sure nobody will ever buy your product. Go ahead. Blame us keep going ms

>>716245520
FROM truly did irreparable damage to the vidya industry as a whole.
I miss when generic AAAslop was PS2 GoW and DMC clones.

They should just make a sequel to Lords of Shadows and pretend the 3ds game and the sequel are non canon.

>>716246036
Same, it's fucking bizzare how journos and ecelebs aren't covering new games anymore.

>>716253274
sure it has a better story, however it has worse combat, and way less options.

the Glyph System was just bad Soul System from Dawn/Aria and it never does anything remotely as cool as all the wild weapons from Dawn/Aria/Portrait.

its bad when the alternate mode Albus Mode is way more fun to play than playing as Charlotte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJhva1jvWw&list=RD2uJhva1jvWw&start_radio=1

>>716253427
the story beats from 3ds and Sequel are fine, its the execution.

>>716253427
Or just continue the original timeline with proper Dracula.

I didn't mind Gabriel Belmont, I can't take him seriously as Dracula.

>>716252332
>I remember it got a lot of hate cause people wanted classic Castlevania and not a hack and slash.
which is weird because it's basically just the ps2 vanias but with more PS2 GoW shit shoved in

>making a shitty soulsclone instead of proper blade of darkness successor that your own fans have been asking for at least a decade
This is no one's fault but your own, skill issue

>>716253557
he's just as whiney, lovesick, and emo as normal timeline Drac, but more Spanish, lol.

>>716251421
>>716252052
this is always the argument, and i'm sure it's true for plenty of people. but i personally use every launcher but epic because rikki tikki tim-bo was such a sleazeball about how he tried to get people to his platform
i own games on steam, origin, gog, itch, battlenet, microsoft store, and stardock impulse which may no longer exist. i buy games where the deal is good and the features i want exist. i don't buy on epic games store because i don't like tim and his tactics. i don't even claim the free games nor do i have an account that way timmy boy can't count me on his investor reports trying to justify the existence of egs.

>>716251718
Forgettable, mediocre, generic GoW clone.

>>716252632
Because it's the only western one. The other games have a more japanese take on spirituality.

>>716253554
Such a shame too, probably had the coolest redesign of Simon.

>>716253692
His voice just doesn't have the presence.

>>716245283
devs are still hoping gamers will grow a brain at one point and will stop boycotting the opposition while shilling the webstore that is pocketing 1/3 of the pc gaming industry's RND budget just so the store's CEO can buy billion$ yacht armadas and admittedly scubadive all day

>>716253806
everyone looked great, Trevor/Alucard looked fantastic, the villains looked great, 2 just felt like shit in other ways.

the 3ds one is fine, though.

>>716252680
dread is excellent

watched a few videos, yeah, makes sense it flopped. looks pretty bad for mercury steam standards, usually their games have stellar art. this looks like some cheap cobbled together shit

This game looks like AA slop. Which is fine. It looks "ok". But $60? With my backlog?

I guess that might be a fair assessment.

Difficult market for a new IP not on steam that's not particularly good. I feel like this type of game needs to be *at least* an undisputed 8.5/10 to get any attention at all.

This is a male character in this game btw

--

I like how this game was such a flop and literally noone played it that it went under our radar also in the tranny-inclusivity department and didnt get heat for it as a result

So Nintendo was the ones holding them together. Everything before and after Metroid Dread has been fucking awful

>>716252964
Gabriel never fell, so that would be strange. Like 98% of western people are named after biblical figures.

>>716254980
I mean, I was aware of it. I've seen ads. Gamestop had it featured in a thing. Its not unknown, it just looks assy.

>>716244815 (OP)
>Epic
>Generic name you forget 5 seconds after reading it
>Company who's only good game was when Nintendo was tightening their leash
They're technically competent but they don't have the talent to make it on their own. They should just cross their fingers and hope Nintendo buys them out as a second Retro Studios.

>>716254980
Id touch his weiner

>>716249081
I'm sure Castlevania will eventually come back but Konami taking the cheap option of just licensing the IP to anyone with a heartbeat isn't a positive sign.

>>716252964
IIRC there were two pitches for a new home console CV game, one by IGA starring Alucard, the other MercurySteam. So I think it was always CV related, but this was an attempt at a reboot.
Plus Kojima of all people was in charge of keeping an eye on development and he didn't give a flying shit. He probably voted to have the project given to MercurySteam just so he had an excuse to siphon money and more staff into his own team.

>>716253414
When was that?

>>716245283
Best guess is that they hope the lack of competition will be an advantage, like early days Steam when there weren't a thousand new games a day. But the only reason to use Epic is for Fortnite.

>>716254923
its not difficult market for a new IP, fucking E33 just sold like 5 million copies.

its a difficult market for a game IVE NEVER FUCKING HEARD OF TILL THIS FUCKING MOMENT.

>>716245520
All it needs is a "vast open world to explore" for the full triple shitter.

>>716253414
it's not their fault everyone copies them

>>716254923
>>716244815 (OP)
But Expedition 33 did pretty well

>>716255892
>>716255913
Yes, E33 sold well... to overwhelming, universal acclaim. Did you guys just stop reading partway through the second line of my post

Am I the only one who wants another classicvania? I want something as good as Castlevania 3 (and just as difficult)

>>716251783
i always get shit for saying this but here it goes:
i didn like the first lord of shadow, it was boring as fuck, had to mute the music and put order of ecclesia ost in the background to not fall sleep. lord of shadows 2 was pretty fun metroidvania, i like it.

>>716255892
Get out of your vee bubble.

Go to a Gamestop.

Get back in touch with "the mainstream gamer" for awhile.

The game was known and marketed.

>>716256243
>The game was known and marketed.
NTA but are you talking about blades of fire or E33? Because I'm pretty skeptical your statement applies to the former.

the game sucks dick and the combat system was a horrible idea.

the game also has a really strange tone.

>>716252052
It's shit, the wellbeing of timmy, other jews and hacks seeking indie welfare isn't my concern.

>>716256119
I thought the general opinion was that their CV games were at best, a pastiche of random other games they liked but none of them CV. At worst, an insult to the CV name.

>>716256395
The former. Gamestop had it hanging in the window. Even my free Yahoo mail spam dump account had banner ads.

>>716244815 (OP)
Blades of Fire? Genuinely never even heard of it

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective consumers
I'm sorry, I'll make sure to play all six trillion generic slop that exists now

>>716244815 (OP)
When the entirety of a board of the most obnoxiously "informed" retards on the internet has never heard of your game, you did something incredibly wrong

>>716248515
blades of steel was amazing.

>>716244815 (OP)
I had no idea Mercury Steam was still around, let alone making a new game.

>>716256243
>Go to a Gamestop.
All of the Fucking Gamestops around here have shut down because the mainstream gamer didn't visit them anymore.
The one remaining Gamestop is nothing more than a sports game bargain bin with funko pops on the walls.

>>716257207
Wrong. It's because /v/ is stuck in its bubble

Go outside and see how the real world operates

if the first time i hear about a game is after it failed, that's the marketing department's fault

>>716257434
Gamestop should have died as the market demanded but instead was propped up with a huge infusion of cash due to the WSB debacle

Now it is a zombie of its former self with no sense in what its doing beyond spending that immense capital on nincompoopery thats has no market value

I remember hearing OX talk about this game
Seemed to have some interesting things but wasn't for me

>>716250870
Wait a minute, I'm white! Guy from Boondocks

>how could you betray me
>i don't even know who you are

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective consumers
is this a euphemism for something or are they literally saying people's taste is too good for their game

>>716249081
>not a single brown

It's beautiful

>>716257560
Bizarre post

Is /v/ really this out of touch?

>>716252052
im guessing you also buy more expensive products, with longer arrival times because you cant allow amazon to be a monopoly right anon?

>>716244815 (OP)
EGS exclusive is pretty much Timmy paying for people to NOT play your game.

Epic should invest into their platform. You know, have an actual friends functionality where you can group voice chat and stream games. Community where you can add guides and screenshots. Invest into proton/Linux gaming so people aren't tied to microcuck. It's been over 10 years of EGS exclusives and it isn't working. Just invest in your own platform.

Why didn't they just make Metroid 6 instead?

>>716253958
>>716253958
>>716253958
This
Gamers being retards with no brains is the problem

Never even heard of it before today, but
>EGS exclusive
>extremely generic name
that automatically makes it look like a failure to me, then I looked up gameplay videos and it's extraordinarily generic. Very generic fantasy aesthetics and protagonist, gameplay looks like a mix of nu God of War and a little bit of Souls with the parry and roll emphasis. Weightless combat against neon glowing enemy weapons while you get slomo every time you roll, none of this looks fun at all.

https://youtu.be/Y6t43N25wmc?t=12170

>>716244815 (OP)
>ANOTHER action rpg fails
Hmm.... Could it be that... action games are just a tough sell, and should be the exception, not the norm?
inb4 immersionfags with their
>but it's booooooriiiiiiiiiinguh
whining. It's been a year and a half and square STILL hasn't posted sales figures for rebirth besides corpo lingo like "didn't meet expectations"

>>716247382
kek

>>716246863
I will never understand this modern trend of action games having lite rpg elements where almost nothing affects stats to any meaningful degree because it's all single digit % at absolute best.

>deal 0.2% extra damage to undead enemies that are previously cursed during a full moon but only if you have the Broom of -17 Defense lodged inside your anus during a dodgeroll

Like what the fuck is the point? Half the time the games are clearly not balanced around actual RPG character building since you can run around butt ass naked and still win easily.

>Epic

Yeah no shit. I didn't even know it existed and I loved Dread.

>>716247159
original NES game if you want hardcore platformers, Symphony of the Night if you want a metroidvania, that's when the series diverged in gameplay

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't even know this game existed until now. That's a lack of marketing problem right there.
Even then, if the game was good, word of mouth would get to us eventually, and that didn't happen, so obviously the game sucks.
God damn right I'm selective, of shit that's good.

>>716251783
2 is awful, but 1 had very generic fantasy elements that didn't feel like Castlevania at all and it was a blatant God of War ripoff

I DO really like the plot concept of Dracula originally being a Belmont who fell to the darkness because he did not heed warnings from people who knew better while campaigning against it

>>716258694
Because if the numbers get bigger they either get exploited or ruins progression entirely
The game that made this big mistake was POE2 where you had BIG numbers and % and then you end up with shit like spark archmages before they walked that shit back.
And the converse problem where if you get a weapon in early game that's like +85% phys damage, guess what weapon youre still gonna be using in A2 of Cruel?

>selling games on the freegame store
When will devs learn?

>>716258694
The probably have some focus testers say they like RPG elements in everything now and then force it into the game after it's almost finished. Like 10 years ago with FPS, everything started following the halo trend of only having two guns at a time, and then Bioshock Infinite shoehorned that into it's gameplay when it was obviously designed to be like the previous Bioshocks where you carry an arsenal with you with how the upgrade and ammo systems were designed.

>>716247920
Then there would be no space for the action, anon.

>>716258961
Who the fuck are these "focus testers' and how do we make them stop ruining video games?

>>716253414
>WHAT? THOSE NIPS ARE MAKING MONEY!
>THOSE ARE OUR KIDS, THAT SHOULD BE OUR MONEY!
>QUICK, RIP OFF EVERYTHING THEY'RE DOING BUT MAKE IT LAME!

>>716259125
DSP.

No, I'm serious.

https://youtu.be/eSB29qx6sWw?t=2281

>>716249206
Luckily I feel like the show has kinda been forgotten about. Another season came out this year and no one even talked about it.

>>716244815 (OP)
this game failed because this is the first time Im hearing about it.
advertising? ever heard of it?

>>716259459
How do you advertise a game from a studio that never made a good one?

I tried pirating the game because of this thread and my antivirus found a trojan in the install files. Swear to god if my computer gets fucked up over this mediocre slop I'm gonna freak the fuck out

>>716245808
it means the consumers they selected "egs users" didnt buy it duh

>>716259125
Marketers find focus groups that are supposed to represent the target demographic, but in reality it's more incestuous in that it's just retards that don't really play games feed back bad ideas to developers that then implement bad ideas that then inform bad opinions to playerbase.

>>716259459
Yeah, I outright didn't even know the game existed, no wonder I see "Epic exclusive"

So that means ill get this game for free at some point, thanks timmy

>>716259584
There needs to be a way to eliminate this and give back gaming to real people who play video games

>>716259584
How is it that actual gamers aren't asked about this shit?
I forget, anyone with a active credit card and has looked at a tv before can be considered a "gamer" these days

>>716259701
>>716259712
Marketers are the most soulless part of game developing, and really well any industry. They are the ones that just want to reach numbers regardless of what needs to be sacrificed to get there. You can tell the ones here are extremely retarded as well as soulless in that they somehow thought going EGS would be a good idea as well.

>>716259370
It's always fascinating to me how normalfags will go from deepthroating the latest shitty tv show to forgetting it exists within a short span of time. I distinctly remember how many people made their entire personality into "I watch Game of Thrones" and how they just stopped caring instantly towards the end.

>>716245283
The extra retarded part is them "blaming selective consumers". Did they not assess that getting a bundle of money early for exclusivity would make up for this? Why else would anyone even do that?

>>716259712
Because core gamers are not the target audience, at all. They haven't been for close to 20 years now. Core gamers play a wide variety of titles, aren't heavily influenced by marketing, tend to be very pedantic in examining flaws in a game and haven't changed in substantial numbers since the hobby was born. Normalfag retards play a very limited selection of heavily advertised titles and have no critical thinking skills so they can't ascertain flaws, and even if they did they will willingly ignore them if the marketers make them think that something is popular despite those flaws. They also outnumber core gamers by an extremely large margin.

It's far, FAR easier to successfully sell a game to normalfags, and far more profitable to do so.

can you blame anyone for not wanting to buy this?
this is the cast
a normal human male
a faggot
a hag
a post wall woman

>Castlevania developers
wait, they made a game based off my favorite show???

>>716245079
reminds me of multimillion download mobile games making a paid no mtx version for pc and putting it on microsoft store instead of steam and it bombs. they always get so puzzled and refuse to sell it on steam even after fans explain the situation to them.

>>716244815 (OP)
>castlevania devs
>blades of fire
>505 Games

lol, they ain't the true Castlevani devs. The real Castlevania are working on Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement.

>>716260309
I hate how much that makes sense

>>716245016
>Why do they say Castlevania dev and not what they're surely more known for which is being the Metroid: Dread dev
cause lords of shadow games were lots more fun.

>>716245016
Because Clickbait you idiotm

not everything has to be an rpg

>>716245283
STOP BEING AN ARMCHAIR DEVELOPER.
YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MARKET. THEY DO.

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective consumers
Yeah?

>>716244815 (OP)
Hopefully they can find more work in the 2D Metroid mines, if Nintendo will let them. Get the music right this time though, faggots.

>>716244815 (OP)
>rpg
it's a beatemup

Lord of the Fallen 3's prospects definitely aren't looking good, seeing as CI's taken an exclusivity deal as well.

>>716260361
A normal human male is based and on brand for most castlevania games. But they also had a lot of hot female characters, lolis, vampires, warewovles, and other cool characters. Not sure they ever had any fags and hags before.

I love how they use "selective consumers" like it's an insult. Oh you have standards and don't buy whatever shitlog we manage to squeeze out, are you a loser or something? Fuck this shit, I'm going to keep playing old games and watch these retards go bankrupt.

>>716252052
Steam
>I'd already used it for well over a decade when EGS came around
>it just works
EGS
>Looks and feels like shit to use
>signs me out all the time so I have to track down my password/jump through 2FA hoops
>shows me a bunch of gay shit when i do log in

>>716260309
Why did we allow normalfags to take over everything?

>>716260776
Kek, with Epic? Didn't LoTF flourish on Steam?

>>716260798
there was the baba yaga

Why the don't they get that EGS exclusivity knecaps sales? This happened with the Kingdom Hearts PC ports too.

>>716244815 (OP)
I looked for it on Steam and didn't find it, ergo it doesn't exist. Fake, shill thread.

>>716244815 (OP)
Wouldn't them choosing egs over steam make the devs selective?

>>716260881
Exactly
See
>>716260309
They hate us for having brains and not throwing money at them

>>716260434
Only Dracula and Belmont, rest are homo aid

>>716244815 (OP)
BUT SELECHUDDA WHAT IF

the "selective consumer" in question

>selective consumers
this a new euphemism for white people?

>Castlevania dev
That could literally be a dozen different people.

>>716260948
Yeah. Some genius decided that because LotF 2023 wasn't an instant mega-success on Steam, they would take the Sweeneybux option for the next game.
This is, obviously, not going to work like they envisaged.

>>716260309
This post and that image hit so hard
Why can't we do anything about this? What makes this so challenging that this is the broken way things are?

>EGS exclusive
how is this even a thing in 2025?

>>716260067
>make game exclusive to specific store front
>forcing them into a limited selection of """consumers"""
>literally did what they're blaming to themselves on a level people don't even comprehend
I hate every single person even tangentially connected to a videogame. Developers, publishers, customers, skinwalking grifters, I hate them all.

>>716261574
Given that it's a studio-ending decision in some cases, not often.

>>716261539
The reason for it is that one side tries to use reason and gives the other side the benefit of the doubt, and the other implicitly believes what they are doing is correct because it's how "everyone else" around them does it.
Normies can not be reasoned with. The best solution is to be actively hostile to them.

>>716252052
I'll give a single fuck about 30% vs 12% when they start charging 18% less. Until then, it's the same price for worse services and features. If you don't benefit the customer you don't get the custom.

How is this even an EGS problem? No one has heard of this game at all. It'd be one thing if people decided not to get it because it was on EGS, but what I'm gathering from this thread is that no one knew about it in the first place, EGS or not. Is it even on consoles? I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this game. Did they advertise it at all?

>>716245520
>soulslike
gow dodge+block+parry clones are soulslikes nowadays?

>>716262006
>How is this even an EGS problem?
This definitely is way more than an EGS problem. I never was going to buy FFVII remake, but I at least knew it was an EGS timed exclusive. Maybe their marketing strategy is that just eat the EGS exclusive money for a year, and then when it comes to Steam actually advertise it? But I'd have expected them to at least advertise it on consoles

>>716262201
>Maybe their marketing strategy is that just eat the EGS exclusive money for a year, and then when it comes to Steam actually advertise it?
The strategy USED to be to release the game "finished," take Epic's money, and finish the game before you release it on Steam a year later. Now that doesn't happen anymore because Epic realized what was going on. I know people in the industry who brag about this.

>>716262006
the few of us who do know about it are avoiding EGS on principle, and the lack of knowers show that there was indeed a huge marketing problem, too!
Mercurysteam, or their publisher (perhaps both), really fucked themselves royally.

>>716261882
That's fucked up

>>716260309
Don't forget that over time games have been systematically dumbed down and sanded off to chase those normalfag bucks, which has also heavily impacted core gamers and lessened the gap considerably. Think about how many "real" gamers that even play modern hard games you've heard call a PS1, even a PS2 game "outdated" and "clunky" and "bad design" purely because it expects your attention to learn the mechanics and adapt even slightly. Even worse, how many people try their hardest to shame and shit on anyone, good or bad, for trying to have fun getting better, with zero self-awareness. Endlessly lowering the bar when the bar is entirely the point and fun becomes a spiral of mediocrity. The second most ironic thing is modern games are the outdated ones, constantly failing at reinventing wheels that were perfected decades ago and the industry's only answer is to censor and make it harder to access those games, not that they need to since problem solving instincts has been neutered.

The most ironic thing though? The absurd graphic race and the murder of depth and interaction that was entirely done to court normalfags and journos is what is crashing the industry. The combo of making games more and more expendable (no depth, no replay value, no staying power) and far more expensive (for those 8k zoom ins they put on the trailers). Anyone with any sense could see it wasn't sustainable, just like subscription services.

>>716262006
A mediocre game still has a chance of a moderate success if it gets enough publicity. An Epic exclusive that isn't GTA-tier in franchise popularity or Hades-tier in gameplay has it's publicity nuked.

>>716261882
>Normies can not be reasoned with. The best solution is to be actively hostile to them.
The invasion of the internet by normalfags with the advent of smartphones made me really realize this. You can't be polite to these faggots because they will happily invade and destroy a preexisting culture and spit in your eye while they do so. Gatekeeping isn't even so much about preserving the ethos of a hobby and community as it is about preventing violent invaders from coming in who WILL burn everything to the fucking ground and then move on to do it to the next community.

>>716260065
Because the ending was complete dogshit only worth discussing for how bad it was. I didn't watch the series myself but I know people had a very good reason to stop caring.

>>716261882
>The best solution is to be actively hostile to them.
Be careful or you'll start glowing with thoughts like this

>>716260065
Dogshit endings can wipe a series from the public eye, why do you think Attack on Titanfags so rabidly defend their garbage ending?

>>716262869
Excellent post. 9/10 times I hear some faggot call something "jank" or that it "aged poorly" it turns out that it has some degree of a learning curve and they shit their diaper in pure frustration at something not playing exactly the same as everything else.

I wanted to fucking scream when the Dead Space Remake came out and I was seeing people on here say a third person shooter from 2008 "aged like milk" to shit on the original.

>>716263232
me too, brother

>>716260309
>they choose walled garden social media instead
I don't think a lot of people realize this, normalfags do NOT want free speech at all, they WANT arenas where they have total control over others and nobody can insult them for being retarded. Every normalfag catering social media service out there is full of people kissing each other's asses and rabidly repelling anyone who doesn't fall perfectly into line BECAUSE THEY WANT IT THAT WAY.

>>716244815 (OP)
i never even heard of this game

I'd rate them as
los2 reveleation dlc > los1 >>> los mirror of fate >> los2 >>>>>>>> los 1 dlc
also loved the gameplay of all games.
you get neat weapons that dont need upgrading, just use them to get more moves. amazing system that gives you a sense of progression without robbing you of having the best weapon withuot number autism
the gameplay also rewarded not getting heat with letting you recharge cool magic that had a small pool
collectibles were also fun. I liked the artworks that unlocked as you played and hunting for health and magic upgrades and solving puzzles was lots of fun.
>but wasnt muh 2d
there were multiple 2d castlevania games that came out alongside lords of shadow on gba ds and 3ds
sorry if you are a secondary whose last 2d game was symphony of the night

>>716263232
"Jank" has been almost totally misappropriated and is misused constantly now to just mean "bad because I suck at it." The original meaning was something that was a bit unintuitive or strange but didn't necessarily drag the game down, like how the difficulty differences in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl make the highest difficulty the most fair one. It wasn't a criticism so much as a heads up that the game has something weird that takes a bit of getting used to, but once you know it, it's fun. Now it's become a synonym for "broken".

>>716244815 (OP)
The game looks like absolute shit, the combat trailer made me laugh my ass of. It's like a worse version of Fable.

>>716263164
tard wrangling retards is an age old tradition of every society that was prosperous, not glowie behavior.

>>716262310
>I know people in the industry who brag about this.
Like Hades devs and Darkest Dungeon devs?

>>716261124
>Dracula represents the male ideal of true and eternal love; but also the fall of a man who can't move past what he has lost
>Trevor's a realistic love, that accepts a person despite their flaws, because their lives are better for it
>Richter's a puppy love that probably doesn't lead anywhere, I don't know, why would I continue watching after it turned to shit after the first season?

>>716263823
Those did that but even smaller studios did

>>716259370
>get given permission to make a castlevania anime
>literal once in a lifetime opportunity to make something super cool
>you could make something like vampire hunter d, cool loner protag, gothic artstyle and with really good action scenes
>"nah lets just make it modern social commentary, make everyone swear every 5 seconds, give them all broitish accents and raceswap a bunch of people characters cus who cares, also make the cool dhampir protag get raped on screen lol"
did you rike it ?

>>716245285
no, I dont think 10 million.

>>716244815 (OP)
>never even heard of the game
>i am the reason it fails
>me right now

>>716245283
>EGS
oh shit, no wonder I've never heard of this game. I ignore any and everything that is EGS exclusive.

>>716256060
no but you'll never ever get that again.
if castlevania gets a new game it will unironically just be a dark souls clone since every AAA action game MUST be a souls-like now.

>>716247382
how the fuck do you do this? how the fuck can you be this incompetent?

>>716247159
ignore everyone else.
play haunted castle, it is beautifully balanced and very fun to play through.
i would utterly reccommend it as your first castlevania game.

>>716263232
Thanks but I brainfarted and didn't finish my sentence to say making games more expendable and more expensive are two completely opposing decisions that in any industry can and should doom you, unless normalfags, posers and hipsters alike can be corralled into ignorance and inflating the value. It doesn't matter what the truth is if you have hordes of people saying that green is yellow and if you say it's viridian you're ganged up on. The inane kneejerk binary conclusions people jump on are just ridiculous and any opportunity given to maybe mix things up a bit, even when they admit they would enjoy it more and do better is shut down.

I'm sure you've seen people playing a Souls game, any of them, and the moment they die once they immediately run past everything to get where they were, no matter how much damage they take, how much easier or more rewarding it is to fight or how little fun they're having. Even Sekiro makes stealth kills effortless and faster than running away. People don't play games to play games anymore, they play them to get to the credits, tell everyone else they did, and shit on anyone who did it worse or better than them.

Anyway the answer is to just fuckin play old games, literally grab a random acclaimed game from a few generations ago and play at least one a month or something to regain and maintain your adaptation edge.

>>716264671
>It doesn't matter what the truth is if you have hordes of people saying that green is yellow and if you say it's viridian you're ganged up on.
God damn this is the truth even on /v/ and it's so so fucking bitter and painful
Fuck this
Why did things get this bad

>>716254980
built for being a married couples boy toy.

>>716255840
Ps2 era.
Van Helsing, Ghost Rider, Batman Begins, etc had DMC stylr action games.

>>716244815 (OP)
never even heard of this until this thread
>egs
ah yeah makes sense.

>>716264847
none of that is AAA

>>716254980
Looks like Lady's face from DMC3 but with a boy body. Shit like that makes me think they made a girl character first but then someone said to make her tranny twink at the last second.

>>716244815 (OP)
i never heard of this game and i played all 3 lords of shadow games and their 2 metroids

>>716256119
>had to mute the music
The fuck? It's pretty good:
https://youtu.be/Y8Uqy9L_xtk?feature=shared

>small AA game needing positive word of mouth to sell
>epic exclusive

>>716244815 (OP)
>>716260361
>new IP
>devs have no reputation (nobody cares about 3D Castlevania)
>no marketing
>on a platform that nobody uses
>character designs will make 99.9% of gamers check out before they even look at the gameplay
How could this have flopped?!

>>716265715
Just_fuck_my_shit_up.jpg

>>716264815
It's unfortunately the nature of things. That doesn't mean you have to let it get to you though, and getting bitter ultimately leaves you even worse off than they are, many of them are just weaponizing that bitterness themselves. Optimism and excitement is still infectious and all it takes is finding out something new and interesting, it's partly why these people are the way they are, they just need to see how within their reach it is. So be willing to explore new things for yourself first and foremost in any game you play, share what makes it special for you if you wish because that will always last forever while someone somewhere will relate or be encouraged, and don't get swept up in the tide.

>>716247942
Interesting but you didn't disagree with him.

>Mid-reviews
>EGS, PS5, & Series X
>Zero advertising
>Full priced game
Sounded like a recipe for disaster.

>>716263164
Glowies suggest violence, malicious acts and nonsensical shows of militance, because such radical activity within the group is just as effective at eroding it from the inside as a lack of gatekeeping. It leads to things like "purity tests" which will create fringe elements and serve as vectors to get bad actors in anyway.

"Hostility" is not the same. Normies will not absorb a single syllable of rational discourse, they will nod their head dismissively and continue doing whatever they were doing before you tried to reason with them, so to even bother explaining to them how the shit they're doing is destructive is pointless. The only worthwhile action is to accuse them of doing harm with their behavior and shut them out.

>>716266029
its over-exposure to social media and the internet in general that causes this disillusionment.
I can enjoy a video game just fine, then i see a bunch of retarded takes online by people who were genuinely just to stupid to understand whatever the appeal of the game was and it puts me in a bad mood.
same with others asking "what should i expect" or "what order do i play these in" you just want to grab the little troglodytes through the screen, tell them to stfu and just play the game without posting on forums about it.

>>716247159
Castlevania 3, and for the love of God play the japanese version(it was translated ages ago), it is a blessing compared to the atrocious USA version.

>>716266821
>where do I start with <show>?
Like episode 1 you gay nigger retard fuck

>>716266824
>it was translated ages ago

Dracula bad, Belmont good Castlevania didn't even have a plot until Symphony.

>>716264043
Never, i hated it, whoever defends anything about those piles of garbage isn't a Castlevania fan, and if someone dares to reply "but muh animation was good" SHUT THE FUCK UP, I'VE SEEN BETTER ANIMATION FROM FUCKING THIRD WORLD EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, SHUT UP. That's my opinion.

>>716266824
Why? I used to beat the Western version regularly, and I remember it was tough. What are the differences?

>>716263181
>Dogshit endings can wipe a series from the public eye
In the case of BOTH Castlevania series and the DMC one, nah, not the ending, the WHOLE shitshows were crap since episode 1

So how was the Castlevania Dead Cells DLC? It's the only reason I'm even considering picking up that game.

>>716250050
Steam is the sole PC platform on /v/ maybe some GOG BUT nobody here had any love for EGS except the shills

>>716266992
yes exactly.
they want others to literally hold their hand through media consumption as if it isnt just a past time they can do themselves and form their own opinions on.
its genuinely infuriating but then you have to take a step back and stop exposing yourself to that retardation because you are now acting like a sperg for getting angry over other peoples laziness or inability to think critically about stuff.

>>716267329
>Steam - New games
>GOG - Old games that Steam publishers tend to be fucking lazy with
The amount of old games on Steam that lack the music due to not redirecting redbook audio calls to an OGG/FLAC file.... At least the GOG crew ensures there's a minimum standard of releases since Win10.

>I'VE SEEN BETTER ANIMATION FROM FUCKING THIRD WORLD EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
name 3

>>716267157
Basically better soundtrack(it adds two tracks because it was famicom, better than nes), removed sprites, stage design differs in some areas(believe me, it feel completely different) and Grant becomes the absolute GOAT as a companion, those little touches make it insanely good.

https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_III:_Dracula%27s_Curse/Regional_Differences

>>716267567
the animation was fine but that doesnt count for shit when your artstyle is ugly westernised anime avatar looking shit.
especially so when a large appeal of the og series was its dark atmosphere and gothic / baroque stylings.

>>716266443
Why are we so selective, bros...

>>716244815 (OP)
Mercury Steam is probably gonna get bought by Nintendo at this rate. Their non-Metroid games are failures every single time.

>>716245409
>do nothing
>game succeed
>dev gets shut down
Damn, I didn't know I was this powerful.

>>716244815 (OP)
Have not heard about the game. What is it about.

>>716244815 (OP)
Look man, i stopped buying games because it was all diversity and gay shit. If there´s a new Castlevania, dont care, you hired indian developers to shit on the corpse of existing IP just like with Street Fighter 6. As far as i´m concerned, gaming is dead. It´s so dead even complete retards know to meme about it.

>>716246871
>>716246015
>>716247929
MS has two teams: A dedicated Metroid team and another team for AAA slop projects (Lords of Shadow 2, Spacelords, Blades of Fire)

Metroid 6 is already in development and should be released soon, according to Spainard retards https://mynintendonews.com/2023/01/24/rumour-metroid-dread-leaker-claims-another-new-2d-metroid-in-development-at-mercurysteam/

They should probably just go all-in with Nintendo projects at this rate. They need a competent developer overseeing seem.

>>716245283
They expected it to flop but not that hard

>>716244815 (OP)
I didn't even know there was a new Castlevania

>>716267567
Son of the White Mare
Zerkalo Vremeni
Snow Queen by Lev Atamanov
And there's more but my head has those three vividly remembered right now.
And that's not even getting into japanese territory, i've seen ovas that just blow my mind in how good the animation is done.

>>716266821
Pretty much, the ways these things are being used amplify that effect and again create a cycle of bad faith discourse with assuming the worst of anyone you see. Some of the people asking those questions are trolls, some are bots copypasting a template, some are baiting people into discussion of the series because they've been deluded into the same thinking as the rest of social media and want to try and use it, some are unironically incapable of understanding or haven't trained the mindset of discovery but are genuinely looking to engage with that series.
Ultimately the answer to seeing retards spamming obvious bullshit is pacing. You might not change their mind directly, you definitely won't change their mind being an asshole about it, but you can always just stop, play the game yourself and have a good time. Then be that oasis of inspiration for the ones that might be interested or who can cut through the chaff.

>>716244815 (OP)
Get fucked cunts. I don't care that it's not on steam but I do care that it's epic exclusive.

>>716267674
call me a casual, but that immense list of changes to boss arenas and enemy behaviors and stats just to make the international version harder seems assholeish

>>716267727
>the animation was fine
After seeing things like Macross Plus or even Heavy Metal, basically any animation from older times, i dunno man, they can do better, animators can do better, and i will not call anything fine anymore unless they put some real backbone into making animation again.

>>716244815 (OP)
how am i even supposed to know a game is in development anymore? i mean like honestly... if you aren't marketing in ANY way how are we supposed to know?

>>716268591
Even basic things as infinite continues, you play the japanese version ninja gaiden games and not only they have that, item placement is different and there's checkpoins before the bosses, and yes that includes the final boss, the changes are just a detriment to the experience.

>>716246594
1. We've reached late stage capitalism. Now, line only goes up from manipulation. Every market is fully saturated.
2. We're on course for the worst recession in modern history, maybe even worse than the great depression. (The only reason we don't get "depressions" anymore is that they changed the definition so it's almost impossible.)
3. Old video games are not only still very enjoyable, thanks to absurd hardware costs they're far more affordable.

Thanks to this we might actually see the end of AAA games as AA and indie games dominate the market.

>>716252052
epic launcher lacks 90% of the features steam has

>>716244815 (OP)
>Castlevania dev
Like...actual Castlevania?

What the fuck is Blades of Fire lmao, did it even get a Switch release?

>>716246594
If you want to be really entertained, look up how Las Vegas has died recently

>>716245520
When in the name of fuck will this genre die? Enough already.

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective consumer
I didn't realize I had an obligation to buy their game. I did nothing, and everything at the same time.

>>716246404
>directly blaming consumers
I don't understand these people. If I walk right past Assfuck's Bakery every single day without buying anything because his bread sucks, and he leans out the window one day and calls me an asshole for not giving him money, I'm just going to tell him to go fuck himself and continue not buying his bread. Why do these retards think they are obligated to be given money because they produce horrible games?

>>716258926
>The game that made this big mistake was POE2 where you had BIG numbers and %
You know there's been game breaking stats and modifiers before PoE right.

>>716269518
>I don't understand these people.
Its most likely because the "developer is blaming the consumers" is a bullshit headline concoked by a journo

In actuality the developers words were most likely directed to investors and was explaining why the game did poorly, and he mentioned bunch of factors, including the
>selective consumer
without "blaming" anyone, just stating a market condition that led to subpar sales

>>716244815 (OP)
>blades of fire
Did they even market this shit? Not even the occasional shitposting thread on /v/?
>EGS exclusive
This had to be a tax writeoff

>>716264043
The sequel series really, really is not better.
I hate that fucking fedora tipper who turned Castlevania into a "akshually church is... LE BAD!"

>>716245016
I like to remember them as "one of the many in the long lines of Kojima's fuckups that got him fired"

>>716267824
AA-tier games used to cost a notable amount less than the AAA title, so we had lower expectations, and tend to be pleasantly surprised when they get surpassed.

>>716244815 (OP)
maybe we don't need 50 fucking brutal action RPGs every goddamn year for the rest of time

>>716269518
More accurate metaphor would be Assfuck's Bakery opened in a nearly abandoned strip mall and didn't advertise at all then got mad when no one bought the new bread he put out

>>716245808
It means that steamies don't buy on other platforms

>>716246606
I just think it's more gog, the fortnite launcher, and the rest should spend the money hiring people like you to mildly annoy people on /v/ into something more useful making people give a shit about their awful platforms.

dont care if this thread has 423 posts, im gonna say it anyway.
stop giving the rights to old japanese games to faggot western studios who just want to turn it into genrric shit or woke dei shit or both.

>>716244815 (OP)
Didn't even know it existed. Nice excuses for your shit marketing lol, maybe next time put out retarded articles like this before the game releases?

>>716244815 (OP)
>make a name for yourself on nintendo hardware with metroid dread and to a lesser extent metroid samus returns
>literally every other game you release for the last decade and a bit is a flop but they are also multiplat
>instead of leveraging the brand value you've built up on nintendo hardware to create a lower budget stylized title you choose to create a game that not a single person gave a fuck about and release it on everything but switch or steam
>game flops and you don't understand why
Someone needs to make this sort of shit make sense, how is it that literally every developer when given the chance ditches Nintendo hardware to the point of actively avoiding it? So many studios keep doing this, I've lost track, and now that Switch 2 is out there's literally no excuse.

>>716271447
Castlevania was always generic and lifting from American ideas.

>>716268326
>Ultimately the answer to seeing retards spamming obvious bullshit is pacing
This is also really important to just maintaining your enjoyment of things. You as a human being are always somewhat susceptible to what you hear no matter how much of a freethinker you consider yourself. If you listened to retards shit-talking water all day, day after day, eventually it'd start leaving a bad taste in your mouth. That's a big part of how they do psy-ops and propaganda in real life by simply repeating disinformation or opinions they favor so much that it becomes harder and harder to question it or disagree. To actually be a freethinker you can't let your perspective be too polluted with other people's opinions especially when they're as biased, insincere, and inflammatory as they typically are on here nowadays.

>>716247159
Castlevania is actually a pretty bad series. Don't waste your time.

>>716272743
This but also metroid too since it's based on Alien.

>>716244815 (OP)
But I've always been a selective consumer. What did they unironically mean by this?

>>716244815 (OP)
Granted I'm not really a Castlevania guy but this is the first time I've ever heard of this game so maybe that was part of the problem.

>>716245016
The Metroid dread defense force is going to have a collective stroke.

>>716273719
Nah. Mercury Stream's only notable games were their two Metroid titles, which had Nintendo's involvement, and the first 3d Castlevania game they did. Everything else has been completely mid.

>>716273719
>YOU DONT UNDERSTAND!
>DREAD IS GOOD CAUSE SAMUS MOVES A MILLION MILES AN HOUR AND CANT HIT THE BROAD SIDE OF A BARN WITH A MISSILE

>>716255901
This

Thoughts on the protagonist's twink slave

>>716274415
Demifiend... Are you okay? Are you safe? What have they done to you...

>>716244815 (OP)
desu they should work on a 3d metroid, a third person one

>>716260065
I just assume they never really liked it in the first place.

>>716273518
A lot of people who were passive, trusting consumers who were "open minded" (averse to noticing patterns and asking questions) and gave the benefit of the doubt 5-10 years ago have definitely woken up to the fact that modern games suck.

>>716244815 (OP)
>castlevania devs
>the devs for the game that no one considers real castlevania

>>716264268
Why? What makes Steam's DRM platform better than Epic's DRM platform?

What kind of a consumer brained retard has "store loyalty" anyway?

>>716274796
If they do well get a 3d Metroid game where you have to hold 4 buttons at once to fire an ice beam

>>716251421
Because I reject Timmy Tencent's inferior service
I do have a GOG account and even an old Desura account.

>>716261539
all you have to do is make them think that the majority of people are doing/thinking/wanting something, and most people will fall in line. Most people are followers, that's just how it is. And a lot more are just lazy and don't really give a shit and figure that if it's good enough for everyone else, then it's probably fine. It's an easier and simpler way of life, kinda, aside from having to keep up with trends all the time.

I think a lot of social media is just shills or bots for that very reason. Creating artificial trends out of thin air, making people think that a lot of other people are already thinking/doing something, and then enough real people start going along with this imaginary herd and suddenly it's a real trend and you can't tell whether it was ever fake or not. That's marketing.

>>716274415
>Androgynous twink slave
In a just world, he would be in a better game.

>>716277561
That's an extremely depressing concept and makes me wonder why the fuck I have been told humanity is so great all my life if it's true.

>>716245283
Game Pass is the new EGS.

>>716244815 (OP)
So was it woke or not?

>>716244815 (OP)
>Action RPG
Turn based or I don't give a shit

>>716280112
Worse, an EGS exclusive with zero marketing.

>>716244815 (OP)
Should have stuck to making Metroid or just Nintendo releases in general

>>716253414
there are barely any DMC clones.
I should know I collect action games.

seems more like a marketing issue

>>716244815 (OP)
This is the First TIme Im Hearing this. Did they not have enough marketing?

>>716278445
Humanity is great. Things wouldn't work very well if everyone was leader. The problem is that our "leaders" are selfish bastards and probably psychos

>>716245283
>hey, there's a chance our game flops on release
>might as well get some money out of it if it does
And thus, they take the exclusivity deal

>>716244815 (OP)
Castlevania is one of my favorite series of all time and I have literally never heard of this game. I have not seen one person shitting on it here, even.

>>716283230
Epic exclusive, nobody knows it even exists.

>>716283546
It's on PS5 also, which usually means it at least appears during one of Sony's shows, but that didn't happen either.

>>716281085
Holy shit, no fucking wonder

>>716245321
you got idiots in entertainment that do.
unsurprisingly, its the same chodes.

>>716245834
this looks like shit

>>716250050
NOOO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND RELEASING YOUR GAME ON STEAM IS HUGE EXPOSURE DUDE IGNORE THE FACT IT'S NOT 2012 ANIMORE AND 4000 GAMES RELEASE ON STEAM EVERYDAY

>>716267329
Even AIDS ridden faggots on R*ddit hate EGS.

>>716250050
I'm sure most games don't have multi-million dollar budgets or deals with store fronts.
The game's publisher claims to have lost $10 million, mainly blaming it on lack of sales of this game.

>>716250050
Most games aren't made by established developers with multi-million dollar budgets and deals with store fronts.
The game's publisher claims to have lost $10 million, mainly blaming it on lack of sales.

>>716244815 (OP)
There was a new Castlevania game?

>>716253414
Lmao, do you think shitty dev would not be making shitty game if From didn't end the shitty movie game era? No it would just be shitty movie game instead.

>Consumers don't want your product
>This is somehow their problem
I thought capitalism was always right?

>fails to meet expectations
Reminder that publigger "expectations" are "six million copies sold in the first week."

>>716244815 (OP)
>selective consumers
most people didn't even know this shit existed. try releasing it on a real platform next time

>>716244815 (OP)
>500 posts
>no game discussion
...how's the game? did no one actually play it here?

>>716252052
Nigger EGS didn't even WORK. They touted sdding a shopping cart as a crowning achievement they should be praised for instead of a basic UI element.

>>716286343
No, they just say Castlevania developer to get people's attention. They're referencing the Lords of the Shadow series. The same studio also developed Metroid Dread and Samus Returns.

>>716246863
Giants Foundrybros...

>>716262006
Random indies are steam explode in popularity all the time.
That is NEVER going to happen on EGS

>DUUUHHHH ADVERTISING!!
>DUUUHHHH EGS!!!
you are retarded
the game flopped because it sucks ass

>>716290235
Nah everyone knows making your game EGS exclusive is a death sentence,

>>716276509
timmy is not sending his best

>>716287104
Ah I see, that makes sense thanks

>>716244815 (OP)
What game?

>>716247159
The Dominus collection on steam.

>>716244815 (OP)
But I didn't even know this existed

>>716245016
Look at the name of the website. They're not going to mention a game that isn't (legally) available on the platform they're specialising in.

>>716244815 (OP)
>Castlevania dev’
Absolutely fucking insulting that they are talking about MERCURY STEAM when they say this
I genuinely thought they were talking about Bloodstained for a moment and was confused

>>716295456
Thus why this game bombed. No one has heard of this game.

>>716260901
>launch game from desktop icon without the launcher open

shit like this is why I've never spent a dime on EGS

>>716260065
>>716264043
>couldn't appreciate a man talking about his penis in lieu of his beloved hammer
>while getting teased about his impotence by a cute vam3.14re
>which then cuts to an erect penis window
kinomatique

>>716258694
>"""rpg elements"""
Unironically blame Call of Duty multiplayer. Bigger numbers and more options are what dictate progression in RPGs, and their appeal is so fundamental and simple that it will catch everybody suspectible. It's easy to "engage" such players by juggling numbers, but that can only work if numbers are at the forefront. So you put RPG-esque numbers before the player, even if damage calculation and actual impact of such numbers is nebulous at best. Also makes it easier to sell MTX when everything is quantified.
Now that such cheap extrinsic motivation is so deeply established, you'll get monetization analysts and children who actually thing that it was always this way. The world continue to get more and more fake and gay.

Oh shit, I remember watching forsen play this a couple of months ago. I love eurojank, looked for the game on steam and couldn't find it. I forgot it existed. Won't buy it on epic though.

>>716244815 (OP)
? never heard of it

>>716250050
every single egs game that makes it to steam gets massive sales

>>716245016
>Lords of Shadow
That doesn't even count as castlevania, like all the westernslop spin-offs

>>716244815 (OP)
>mercurysteam
>castlevania dev
execute this """"journo""""'s entire family

>>716251783
>the first Lords of Shadow is fucking amazing
consider suicide

>>716251092
>DMCA'd
you may not realize it, but there are disputes over intellectual property and licensing outside of youtube
might wanna read up as to what DMCA actually is

>>716300127
Seriously. I browse Castlevania threads regularly and I have never heard this game mentioned once.

>Castlevania dev

Game journos are so embarassing

I heard it was pretty good. Might pick up when it goes on sale for ps5, no way i'm buying anything off EGS

>>716245409
We all have the power to control fates.

>>716286997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvVUrod4E3c
the final boss is at 11:07:00
look how shit the combat is.
its slow as shit to show off all the "cool" animations.
nothing like the fast paced hectic and skill based gameplay of lords of shadow.

>>716253958
Put out a statement that you're prioritizing the customer instead of the publishers now, Timmy, and add policies to your store to that effect, and maybe people would.
Until then, go have your CCP overlords pound sand up your ass for you. Take-Two getting more of the cut does absolutely nothing for us, so why should we give a fuck.

>>716302451
bruh all that effort put into the environments that look varied and vast full of nooks and crannies and they forgot to make the combat fun.
what were they thinking?

>>716244815 (OP)
Never even heard of this game
>>716245283
>ESG exclusive
lol
lmao

>>716250050
It would have at least sold a thousand times better on steam, even if it still flopped.

>>716276509
I use which ever store offers me more features and convenience. EGS doensn't hold a candle to steam in that regard.

>>716245283
>>716250050
You're both right. While being an EGS exclusive indeed harmed the game, the console sales show it was going to fail no matter what.

>>716245283
It's a shame. I was genuinely intrigued by TankHead from what I saw of it, but I'll be damned if I ever buy from EGS again.

>>716244815 (OP)
Article is AI generated, that's why it's saying "Castlevania dev's" and "God of War" rival despite how Lord of Shadows is the only Castlevania that fits that definition (and even then it is a stretchy one). Shit can't into context.