outdoor levels?

hey there ^_^/

design review poll
castle design poll

there hasnt been any official confirmation yet on any areas being in the game really, but the blue text in those threads along with igas previous games should give you some basic idea of what to look for, it is confirmed so far that there is a rough sketch of the castle layout , some concept art here (and down there v), and everything will take place within the castle walls, so exploring the countryside is currently out (i imagine this statement was made because many areas of order of ecclesia happen outside the castle, however curtain walls can cover large areas of land so its entirely possible to have a forested area, swamp, or town still be within the castle walls)

CastleDan

They don't have to be though. Super Castlevania IV has the Transylvanian Wilds, which had plenty of platforming elements. And in Bloodstained, an outdoor area that made use of traversal mechanics for vertical maneuvering in a forest could be interesting.

Yeah, it doesn't have to be but I just hope the focus is more put into the castle itself. You can have outdoorsy environments within the actual castle.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there is some sort of garden or demonic greenhouse area of the castle. I'm thinking of various big-ass fancy pants castles in both fiction and real-life, and these types of places usually has some sort of pool house, a smaller house area/shed, or whatever the hell on the castle grounds....there could be sections where you need to walk outside the castle and go to said shed or pool house for whatever reason. Yeah, this game takes place in ye olden days and you might can wonder "wait...they had pool houses back then on their castle grounds?", but in my opinion they can totally throw stuff like that in (either that, or rich people back in the day totally had pool houses but they just never told anyone cuz' they are rich) because stuff/reasons, lol.
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is it me.. or I can see a shrine in the concept art ? but yeah there will be a few outdoor levels

I doubt there will be many outdoors areas, like maybe the entrance/drawbridge and some open courtyards, but I'd love something like a Garden or a Greenhouse so we can have some real greenery and evil plant monsters. Maybe some demon gardeners taking care of it by feeding the red roses blood, etc.

I love outdoor areas because it instills a feeling of escapism and mischief but, simultaneously, casting a lingering cloud of uncertainty no matter how one explores these areas. To put it into another context, it's similar to taking a break/lunch time at school/work that allows you to go outside and enjoy a bit of freedom before going 'back to the grindstone' so to speak. This is why the outdoor areas in Order of Ecclesia appealed to me ... traversing the spooky Tristis Pass was a challenging escape but the foreboding castle was always playing at the back of your mind.

However, the thought of being confined to an enormous hellish castle in Bloodstained is absolutely daunting and hardcore. No puny break times here (apart from a wee bit of 'me time' in Miriam's Room) ... just pure nightmarish exploration and the anticipation that death is just a corner away. Aw ... I'm already crapping myself!

There are a number of outside areas from Order of Ecclesia that could've been incorporated into the castle itself to make it far more intimidating. With a few smart tweaks here and there, Giant's Dwelling, Minera Prison, Monastery, Mystery Manor and Skeleton Cave could've been seamlessly melded into the castle design to give it extra menace and greater substance. With a title called Castlevania, one does expect everything to take place within a castle. So, from that perspective, Order of Ecclesia came across as a missed opportunity to make a really memorable castle rather than having the layout scattered around in a number of outdoor environments. Nevertheless, OoE was a very pleasurable experience but still fell way short in comparison to the supreme Symphony of the Night.

The castle of Order of Ecclesia was smaller because they spent so many resources on the outdoor levels. I think that is to be expected and if they were able to make all those outside levels AND provide a castle as large as in some previous games, it would have easily been the biggest Igavania game ever. No way Konami was ever giving Iga those sorts of resources. I dunno, I honest didn't feel the outdoor levels were substantially worse in design than most castle sections. I don't think the outdoor levels were as vertically complex as many castle sections and were prone to lots of long hallways but they still provided terrain types and design elements that would be hard to include in a normal, interconnected castle setting. I also really appreciated how much of a change of pace it was compared to previous games (and I later learned it was actually a bit of a call back to Simon's Quest). They were important in giving the narrative a different feel and the game a different sense of adventure. I think the best part about the way the map in OoE was designed was the lead up to Dracula's Castle was EPIC. When the caste rises and you make your first assault, its such an amazing feeling that can't be replicated if you don't have that long build-up. For that reason I liked it more than the first assault on Dracula's Castle in pretty much every Igavania game including Symphony of the Night.