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Konami developers reminiscing on the development of Castlevania I-III (translated by Shmupulations)

Crushed

Crushed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,715
http://shmuplations.com/castlevania/

The first set is a set of tweets from developer who worked under Hitoshi Akamatsu, the director of the first three games. There's only a handful of photos of him, he barely gave any interviews, and he practically vanished completely after 1990, with the only credit anyone can find for him being directing a Japan-only PS1 fishing game.

I once said to Akamatsu that one of the hardest things about Castlevania was how easily Simon can be knocked into a pit and die from one enemy hit. He shot back, "Yeah, but look at it this way… Simon doesn't die from one hit—Mario does!" I was like, Ah hah!
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The design of the subweapons:

Akamatsu's sense of game design was very deep. In Castlevania, the knife appears first so the player can get used to the subweapons. He made the stopwatch so you could get used to enemy attacks. Then the strongest items are the Cross and the Holy Water. And that was how he determined the order in which the items would appear to the player.

I once asked him about the fight with Death, and how insanely hard it was. He told me, "The game design idea there was to get players to understand how to use the cross and axe subweapons. If you can defeat him with only the whip, that means you're really good." I can't defeat him with the whip alone. But if you read the movements of the sickles, I understand it is possible (albeit very difficult) to beat him with just the whip. Apparently the test players were able to do it.

I think he wanted anyone to be able to clear his games, because he told me his standard for difficulty was that he should be able to clear it himself.
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An absolutely incredible part about why Dracula's head flies off and the cookie monster form appears:

In the original Castlevania, I asked Akamatsu about why Dracula's head flies off when you defeat the first phase of the boss fight. He said, "The head there? It's foreshadowing Dracula's resurrection."

Likewise, when the body parts scatter in every direction, that was also meant to show that Dracula will come back. Actually, the second monstrous form you fight was meant to be an "incarnation of the curse of man", not Dracula himself. That's why when Simon defeats him, he gets cursed. Like most people, I thought that was just a powered-up monster form of Dracula, and I joked as much in front of Akamatsu one day. He completely refuted that idea though. (laughs) "That is a monster borne from the curse of man." He added, "In a truly peaceful age, Dracula would not exist."
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Some other tidbits:

-Castlevania III's graphics and music were so advanced because Akamatsu wanted to compete with TMNT, which was given the highest priority at the time at Konami due to being their most popular title overseas. Lesser selling games like CV had to "survive on the scraps"
-There was a possibility for more CV games on Famicom/NES, but Turtles' success and subsequent games changed that
-Akamatsu was a huge movie fan and was possibly the source of so much Giger influence in Konami games, since was always talking about Alien
-Because his games never sold that well and Konami was always a profit-minded company, he was demoted to work in a game center, and left very soon after. Apparently this happened to a lot of Konami staff even back then, and many of them went to Square.
-At least by the mid-late-90s, Akamatsu had never played Rondo, and was more interested in making something like FFVII.



There's also some comments at the bottom from a developer who posted anonymously on 2ch in 2012, though they believe they know who it is. The most shocking part? The "C" in Ralph C. Belmondo stands for "Christopher."
 
Takuhi

Takuhi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,307
"Akamatsu's sequels to Castlevania sold poorly, so he was demoted to working in one of Konami's game centers, and then he quit."

This is insane. I guess Konami has always been Konami.

I don't know actual sales figures, but Castlevania II at least was an incredibly well-known game. it had to have sold well in the west.
 
Adonais

Adonais

Member
Oct 29, 2017
228
Metaverse
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Although, I kind of feel guilty about my love for TMNT as a child contributing to the death of classic Castlevania...nah, it's Konami's fault. Fuck them.
 
ghibli99

ghibli99

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,768
How about some spoiler tags?

(just kidding; this topic is taking on a pervasive life of its own around here...)

OT, awesome stuff! CV3 is still an impressive technical marvel, and now I know why so much effort was put into it.
 
Gevurztraminer

Gevurztraminer

Member
Dec 14, 2017
1,351
Early Konami history is pretty ominous considering where they are now. I still hope for more CV from Konami themselves, not just rereleases and remasters.
 
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,380
Imagine how great the series could have been with Akamatsu involved in it longer than he was. Like, realize how great it is, and try to grasp it getting better than that.
 
Don Fluffles

Don Fluffles

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,060
In the original Castlevania, I asked Akamatsu about why Dracula's head flies off when you defeat the first phase of the boss fight. He said, "The head there? It's foreshadowing Dracula's resurrection."
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Nice JoJo reference. Vania did it before it was cool over here.

Even back then, though, FucKonami.
I'm surprised how well they were able to stay afloat on core games before MGSV.
 
John198X

John198X

Member
Nov 9, 2018
278
Crazy. This is like the most info we have on the making of the NES games (in English, anyway). Glad to something, anything, about the history of these.
 
Tansut

Tansut

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Dec 16, 2017
2,463
As a TMNT and Castlevania fan I feel a little conflicted learning this.
 
TreIII

TreIII

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,280
Columbia, MD
Tansut said:
As a TMNT and Castlevania fan I feel a little conflicted learning this.
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You said it.

Granted, I feel the likes of Super CV and Rondo were necessary to reinvigorate the brand and get CV to a higher standing as it was, but it really is sad to learn that the work that was done wasn't appreciated or nurtured.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,494
In the original Castlevania, I asked Akamatsu about why Dracula's head flies off when you defeat the first phase of the boss fight. He said, "The head there? It's foreshadowing Dracula's resurrection."

Likewise, when the body parts scatter in every direction, that was also meant to show that Dracula will come back. Actually, the second monstrous form you fight was meant to be an "incarnation of the curse of man", not Dracula himself. That's why when Simon defeats him, he gets cursed. Like most people, I thought that was just a powered-up monster form of Dracula, and I joked as much in front of Akamatsu one day. He completely refuted that idea though. (laughs) "That is a monster borne from the curse of man." He added, "In a truly peaceful age, Dracula would not exist."
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I absolutely love this
 
Pyro

Pyro

God help us the mods are making weekend threads
Member
Jul 30, 2018
14,505
United States
I'm always curious about what happened to early game devs who "left the industry" (it was so early/no E3 yet) and went onto other things.
 
HotHamBoy

HotHamBoy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,423
"In a truly peaceful age, Dracula would not exist."

tumblr_om8ugskpDy1w6j08yo4_250.gif
 
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Charsace

Charsace

Chicken Chaser
Member
Nov 22, 2017
2,870
That demotion sounds crazy. I am not surprised that Castlevania went in a different direction in the 16 bit era.
 
1upsuper

1upsuper

Member
Jan 30, 2018
5,489
Some interesting info there. Akamatsu has always been an elusive figure. Neat to finally get some insight on his ideas.

Also I would trade every TMNT game for more Famicom Castlevanias, no question.
 
Augemitbutter

Augemitbutter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,290
Depressing. I hope we can get some documentaries on these things some day. Seems pretty hard to get any info on these legends in japan. They didn't know what they had back then and they sure don't know today.
 
Meatwad

Meatwad

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,653
USA
The whole CV vs. TMNT thing is just classic stupidity and short sighted thinking. Sure TMNT games may have sold better than CV but Konami didn't own the TMNT IP and wasn't going to have it forever. On the other hand they did own Castlevania and would own it forever.

So instead of nurturing the IP they actually owned they starved it in favor of one they didn't own. Thankfully they seemed to realize this in the 16-bit era but not before essentially firing a key talented individual. What colossal dumbassery
 
Don Fluffles

Don Fluffles

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,060
Meatwad said:
The whole CV vs. TMNT thing is just classic stupidity and short sighted thinking. Sure TMNT games may have sold better than CV but Konami didn't own the TMNT IP and wasn't going to have it forever. On the other hand they did own Castlevania and would own it forever.

So instead of nurturing the IP they actually owned they starved it in favor of one they didn't own. Thankfully they seemed to realize this in the 16-bit era but not before essentially firing a key talented individual. What colossal dumbassery
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It's a goddamn miracle that they still had the talent to keep the franchise running the way it did.

It would be cool to find him and see what he's doing these days.
 
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