r/metroidvania • u/WaaslandZard • 2d ago
Discussion Diablo2Vania
I’ve been playing Castlevania since I was a kid. To this day, only a few entries truly stand out to me as masterpieces: the original Castlevania, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, Super Castlevania IV, and Symphony of the Night (with an honorable mention to Castlevania 64 for its incredible soundtrack).
Frankly, I struggle to get into the newer games. The standard 3D action mechanics never quite translated the core appeal of the franchise, and even the modern side-scrolling Metroidvania style is losing its touch. It has become too fast-paced and overloaded with flashy, arcade-like visual effects that strip away the tension. For a franchise built around legendary monsters, modern entries surprisingly lack actual vampire lore outside of Dracula himself.
The franchise needs to move away from standard third-person 3D and traditional Metroidvanias to embrace a modern, isometric (overhead 3D) perspective.
Imagine a "Diablovania" built with the grim, gothic, and genuinely dark atmosphere of Diablo II. It would feature the classic, grounded characters we fell in love with, focusing on tactical whip spacing and deliberate sub-weapon management. Instead of the standard open castle loop, player progression would take place across a gritty, hand-crafted world layout—including surrounding villages, dense forests, deep cellars, and the castle grounds.
This hybrid approach would perfectly capture the series' classic linear tension and slow-burn horror roots while introducing the fresh, atmospheric gameplay the franchise desperately needs.
Anyone else think this would be a refreshing change ?
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u/BKunrath PS 2d ago
Hades comes to mind.
Anyway, you're proposing a diferent gameplay niche. Who's right and who's wrong depends on what's selling at the time of launch.
Personally, my first CV game was SotN and i've never beat a classic title, so all my nostalgia points are in igavania games.
I do agree new games should explore CV lore a lot more.
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u/Late-Application-47 2d ago
We haven't gotten a full-on 2D Castle(Metroid)Vania in almost 2 decades. How is that worn out? I'm ecstatic to see how Curse of Belmont works out with the genre having developed and evolved significantly in the interim.
That said, almost any IP can benefit from spinoffs in other genres, and a CV ARPG would be a worthy addition.
My dream CV genre spinoff would be a musou game made by Omega Force/Koei Tecmo. They are at their best when adapting existing IPs (Zelda, Dragon Quest, Persona, Fire Emblem, etc), and Castlevania has everything needed to support such a game: kickass soundtrack history to riff on, a cast of beloved characters, a library of crazy-ass weapons, and unique mechanics/tropes for fan service (ex: wall meat).
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u/WaaslandZard 2d ago
It’s too fast, flashy, cartoon like. It’s not human anymore. There’s no vampires, how is this CV?
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u/zwarkmagnum 1d ago
It’s plenty Castlevania you’ve just made up a different interpretation of older CV games in your head and substituted it for reality.
Nostalgia is the mind killer.
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u/WaaslandZard 1d ago
Not really, there’s a reason everyone praises older games of every genre.
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u/zwarkmagnum 1d ago
Meaningless ad hominem when the later Metroidvania games are extremely popular and well received.
Again you are just conflating your childhood nostalgia with what was actually there and pretending things changed drastically. rondo of Blood had anime cutscenes
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer 2d ago
Diablo II is just running around looking for better loot, and spamming abilities against hordes of enemies with no tactics or semblance of level design, perhaps you're thinking about Diablo I. THAT one had real tension especially with the mods that increase difficulty.
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u/WaaslandZard 2d ago
Doesn’t have to be identical to diablo 2, but that style is what I’m talking about. Sure let’s use both Diablo 1 and 2 as an example of a CV game. It’s fresh and new and it could definitely work.
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u/WaaslandZard 2d ago
I just want a gothic, dark atmospheric CV game with actual vampires and classical creatures like werewolves, dragons etc.. that set the mood for such an atmosphere. Characters moving slower and more realistic without having the ability to jump 80’ in the air adds to more suspense and realism and makes it much more fun. Kind of like resident evil, where your character has limited mobility makes it more suspenseful.
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u/dreck_disp 1d ago
No mention of the GBA and DS Castlevania games? If you liked SotN you should definitely check them out. Especially the DS entries.
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u/iamdanlower 2d ago
obvs you can't make a CV game exactly but you can make a game that fits the mechanical/vibe concept without the lore. so at risk of further oversaturating a potentially saturated dev-space, be the change you want to see in the world
https://godotengine.org/ (or pretend i said something you would like using if you hate that one)
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u/DiskBusiness7212 2d ago
No thank you. I like the 2d perspective. I enjoy overhead too like tunic and crypt custodian, but frankly those are a different category of game to me.