Konami is announcing beta test for a new Castlevania game...

Well, unfortunately, they're not wrong with effort/reward here and the money they'll make. A game like Bloodstained is a lot of work. Something like this is much less so, and even if 95% of people hate it, there's a 5% that will continue in an addiction to play it and give them several hundred to $1k or more a month to keep up with the meta, equipment, characters, etc like how all other mobile games go.

The compulsive gameplay model here is essentially gambling, which is something Konami has already had its hand in as its mainstay for some time now. They're not hurting for money/success, gambling is something like 80% of their company. They're not really worried that much about wide reception, but as far as just plain ol' making money (and avoidance of spending money), then solely on those fronts they're not making a mistake.

Comparatively, giving us core gamer people what we want may help their image some, which does eventually equal some $ amount, but it's probably too late for that anyway and they may know it or that may not matter regardless to them. They can merely double down on the sadness model and suck out what they can from nostalgia slot machines for a whole lot better of a return ratio.

Ryngar Acia I'm really tempted to say there is nothing wrong with that. I just hesitate because it will help show Konami this is a profitable game, and there will be no reason for them to do a console game. Accepting the format that abuses gambling tactics in games is turning the game market to a bad direction.

XombieMike Sadly the game market as I see it has already accepted the whole microtransaction + lootbox / gacha formula, and to be honest we can't blame them.

We have to admit, those highest grossing games are almost all on the mobile platform, with microtransactions that feature at least some level of those gambling elements.

Game companies are companies after all. It's their main pursuit to make more profit. If they want to devote themselves to the mobile market, that's fine.
They might lose our support, but they also might make more money than ever.
It's just the way that Konami does this transform is extremely lame and heart-breaking, which didn't help at all, if they want to stay at the game market.
Now that the brand is stained (no pun intended), I doubt that anyone who loved Konami before would ever support them again financially, unless they worked really really hard on winning our trust back, which we all know at this point it seems impossible.

There's no one to blame for the transition IMHO. Gamer or not, we're all human, and it's the human nature that makes us covet shiny pretty rare items, make us love gambling.

EDIT:
Yes, there's law enforcement targeting at lootboxes, but that's more like an external factor, which might have some impact, but I do believe game companies will eventually figure out some way to deal with it, just like the formation of ESRB in the 90s.

Controversial opinion time...

I would gladly spend money on this as long as it gets controller support and has plenty of content. The fact that the gameplay is 2D makes it better than all of the Lords of Shadow stuff.
Harmony of despair was awesome! I would love it if Castlevania continued that style while I get my metroidvania fix with bloodstained.

If the music includes remixed themes instead of exact versions of old games I would spend money just for the soundtrack alone.
Also I want to see a Kojima Grant or Eric.

Nice Avatar Acia.
I don't know why that Millia gets no love, it's always the first game's version, or that god awful white and blue outfit. That one is clearly the best though.
Wish someone would make an mmd model of it qq.

edit: I guess I should at least try to nibble on the topic, sorry.

Anyway... I don't care for mobile games but until recently I tried Honkai impact 3rd and it's actually good. the combat is good, the character designs are great if you aren't phobic about anime girls, and the pay to features are actually well done. Crystals are the premium currency, and you get crystals for doing daily quests, events, etc. Paying only speeds it up, and while it's not the first game to do it, I find it's really good at making it so the speedup factor doesn't seem blatantly unfair. Plus there is no pvp as far as I know so it's doubly less unfair.

ANYWAY, I have a seemingly strange middle ground when it comes to microtransactions and paid dlc and all that with games.

I HATE pay to win just as much as anyone who complains about it, possibly even more so. But I'm not paranoid about it where it doesn't exist. If a game has payed cosmetics only, I'm not going to jump on them for it claiming it's a slippery slope and if you give them an inch they will take a mile.

If you give some people an inch, some will take a mile yes, but if you give some people an inch, some may only take an inch. Therefore I judge every game individually based on what they DO, not on what their practices supposedly LEAD to. Newsflash, pay to win has existed for several years now, and some companies still have paid dlc that isn't pay to win, so stop blanket labeling them all such.


As for the dlc that is not pay to win, but has a big price. Sometimes it can be annoying something you want is too expensive to be worth it. But I don't hate the developers for it, they do have to make money, and if the game is otherwise great, the more money they make from said game, the better and more likely they will make more like it. So why deny them the incentive to do good work? Making games isn't easy, it's hard work, I think they deserve extra cash just like delivery people, waiters, etc. I think of them as tips with benefits instead of tips for no reason.

As much as I feel burned by Konami for their oversights, I feel equally obligated to play this game simply for the fact that it's a side scrolling Castlevania title. For that reason, I signed up for this closed beta test. To those who are curious, you have until the end of this month to do the same and if you're chosen, will receive an email mid-May.

The beta runs May 9th-22nd through an app called testflight.
If you were chosen to test the game, emails were sent out about 4 hours ago.
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