Its time to play the blame game!

So, once upon a time, three games released at different time periods: Harmony of Dissonance, Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. The fanbase widely considers these three games to be the weakest of the entire series, and all blame falls on our man Koji Igarashi.

But was it deserved?

No. It wasn't. But Semi, you say, IGA was the producer! Of course he can be blamed. Well, no. He was not the director, he did not make the decisions in the process of the game development. The director for all three of these games is a man by the name of Takeshi Takeda. 

This man is at full blame for these weak showings. He actually stated that they crammed as much as possible into HoD, with little regard for how the quality would be. He made the choices to not have platforms in LoI/CoD, he could have easily had the level design fixed in the 3D's but failed to. IGA has made some bad choices in the end, but in this case, he is fully innocent. Next time you berate those games (and for good measure, Contra Hard Corps and Bloodlines, as he directed those as well), don't blame Koji. Blame Takeshi Takeda.

Spread the word, IGA is slightly more innocent.

Well i'm not of the people who consider those titles to be weak in any sense. LOI was certainly plain but it did bring alot of memorable moments to the series. COD was very innovative, and in a way it made me think about what would happen if pokemon appered in castlevania. so i thougt it was very fun to play, even if the levels did seem s bit repetitive gameplay wise it is the nest in the PS2. HODis also a great title, certainly not better than AOS or as hard as COM but i did enjoy it, of the three probably this is the only title i wuld consider a bit weak the only minor faliure for igarashi and his team, specially the other guy who i'm too lazy to write his name. 

It ultimately comes down to getting the facts straight. I've been saying for years that IGA doesn't do more than come up with the basic story idea and gameplay mechanics, pitches the idea and advertises it, and yet, people who hate him seem to think he's an extremely talented man, having been blamed for music, character design, art style, level design, enemy design, games he had no part in, dialogue, voice acting and manuals.

This alone does a fine job of shutting them up. Most of the IGA haters love to point out the 3D failures, well guess what? LoI and CoD were sound in concept, strong in story and unique in gameplay, and that is exactly what IGA did. Don't like the levels, enemies, etc etc? Blame Takeda.

I should also mention that this whole thing is rather a sore point for me. There are some people I would love to slap for the pure ignorance and stupid that comes out of their mouths.

wow...he's falling under harsh criticism? and for those games? like deijko said, they werent bad. HoD was a game that followed the classic pattern. then LoI and CoD were pioneers into trying to make the game more into a bigger adventure by making it 3D. they werent spectacular but they were pretty fun and worth at least one run through.

but blaming him for everything...some people are crazy and just one to single out a scapegoat

So, whose fault is Judgment?GreggD

Thanks for volunteering to ask that first. :P

HOD's castle format personally didn't seem well thought out to me at all, LOI was OK, and COD is....*raises shield* one of my favorite CV games. The unashamed fangirl in me isn't afraid to make her blatant opinion on the so-called "failed" game. :P Go ahead and come with your pitchforks!

IGA has played the representative role for the franchise for years, despite what he's had his hands in for each project. As with most jobs that involve collaboration, there's always an upper who takes the responsibility and punches. I admire him for putting up with it.

So, whose fault is Judgment?GreggD

Not sure. IGA produced it, but he didn't direct it (I think), and its fairly obvious that he wasn't all to fond of it to begin with. For the record, IGA only actually directed SotN, so thats the only game he can really take full fall for. Every other game in the series had a different director. IGA isn't nearly as powerful as people like to think, he's actually relatively powerless, but he's the face of the series, and when it comes down to it, he can pull some tricky stuff and redefine a series

of what, judgment?

No idea, I haven't found an OST yet, just rips

Judgement is simply a fighting game, nothing more. I have known of no fighting game, except for mortal combat perhaps, that has a very deep and elaborate story. That is what fighting games are made for, a quick play with a friend and maybe clear up the story mode which will usually take around 10 minutes. It is not a bad game at all it is just a fighting game but for some reason people seem to think that this game was supposed to be the next big thing in 3D Castlevania. So if you don't like fighting games like me who loves them, simply don't touch this one, besides who DOESN'T like fighting games, pretty much every person i know does, which is saying ALOT!!! 

I think someone never played the world ends with you. *hands semi 30 e-moneys*D3j1k0

I did play it.

Semi were not impressed...perhaps I'll return to it some time

I didn't bash Juste. I pointed out the fact that HoD is often considered the weakest 2D, a spot I feel is exclusively reserved for PoR. Things have changed as of late, but go hang out on the Dungeon, or hell, go make a thread about it on any CV Gspot board, and odds are, it'll attract tons of haters, more than any other game in the series.

Now, I happen to not like HoD, and had to drag myself through it, but thats irrelevant to the opinions of others.

How about this; We drop this crappy argument, or I bring out my ten-ton banhammer*?

*Obviously I'm not going to ban anyone, but come on, this is pointless.

right you are. Back to bashing Takeshi, then?semianonymous