Koji Igarashi - The Man Behind the Games Continued...

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s the Gameboy Advance was a massively popular gaming system, and with Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance being two prominent titles for the hand-held, Castlevania was once again becoming a name to be reckoned with. However, it was at this time that IGA would start to be frequently drawn within the cross fires of public opinion.

The catalyst for this began with Harmony of Dissonance's official Japanese website. Wanting to truly make something out of Castlevania's story, IGA organized a comprehensive timeline, which was displayed on the site, and precisely told when certain games in the series took place canonically.

"At the time, the series was developed in a very scattered way, by various different groups, and nobody had overarching control of it from a top level. Because of this, there were many different storylines and conflicting timelines. I tried my best to integrate them, so as not to confuse the consumer. The first Castlevania I worked on was Symphony of the Night, and there I tried to clean up the timeline.

I left Castlevania after Symphony of the Night, and that's when the N64 game was made. After that, the series came back to me, and I was able to take on a manager/producer role, overseeing all of the Castlevania projects."

Suspiciously, four Castlevania games were excluded from the timeline. They were Castlevania Legends, Castlevania 64, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.
Ironically, they were the four Castlevania games made by different studios that were released during the interim between Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance.

It came to light that IGA had purposefully removed the games from the timeline. By so doing, he was in essence erasing the events that happened in those games' storyline from the all-encompassing Castlevania story. Hence, characters like Legends' Sonia Belmont, and Circle's Hugh Baldwin, among several others, no longer existed within Castlevania's grand storyline.

As would be expected, some fans of said games took that action with great offense, feeling that IGA had overstepped his bounds, seeing as he was not the one who created those games, or their storylines and characters.

Was this merely a petty attempt to spite other development teams that had worked on the Castlevania series, or to remove games he's personally not fond of?

In their ire, some would say so, but if looked at the situation objectively, whether you agree with them or not, there are clear, rational reasons behind their expulsion.

Considering Circle of the Moon, Dracula was slain by Morris Baldwin ten years prior to that games' events, which would be the year 1820. In the beginning of the game, Dracula returned from the dead yet again, and Morris Baldwin arrived to slay him.

It must be asked, who is Morris Baldwin?

Why has he taken it upon himself to repeatedly hunt down Dracula?
Isn't that a job for the Belmonts?
If Morris Baldwin is supposed to be a Belmont, why convolute things by giving him a different name? The old fellow's job was to hunt down Dracula, and pass on a whip (which is not the Vampire Killer) to his successor, who would continue the job.

He sounds an awful lot like a Belmont, but unlike Castlevania Bloodlines' John Morris, there is nothing official anywhere that says he has anything to do with them. It is very odd (and totally unnecessary) that there is some family out there that is so closely imitating the Belmonts.

One of the biggest problems was that Circle of the Moon took place only thirty years after Symphony of the Night, which would mean that Dracula was returning almost every decade with the two resurrections that CotM introduced. This can easily be seen as ridiculous, seeing as how the legends tell of him returning every one hundred years.

Since it was only about thirty years after Dracula's last defeat, where was Richter Belmont, or his successor? Whenever Dracula resurrected from the dead, a Belmont or a relative of the Belmonts (but in almost every instance, a true blooded Belmont) had been present.

Where were they then?

Where were they when Morris first battled Dracula?

Before Circle of the Moon, there was never a Castlevania game that entirely disregarded the Belmont Clan. The strange thing was that, for some reason, they put would-be characters in their place, which only served as an uncalled for complication in the story.

The prologue to Castlevania 64 points out "he (Dracula) stirs from a century of enforced sleep."

The year of Castlevania 64 is 1852. Circle of the Moon had a resurrection in 1820 and 1830. That is hardly a century's difference.

This suggests that K.C.E.K. really did not care about Castlevania's broad story, but was only interested in writing scenarios to fit one individual game, while not considering what repercussions they may have on other games.

But perhaps it meant that Dracula's last centennial resurrection was a century ago. Even if that was the meaning, it's still wrong, because Dracula's prior one hundred year rising was during Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, which took place in 1792.

And once again, Dracula comes back. So, if we count Legacy of Darkness, Castlevania 64, and Circle of the Moon…

…Dracula was resurrected in the 1820's, 1830's, 1840's, 1850's, and with Bram Stoker's Dracula novel considered Castlevania canon, the 1890's.

That is a bit much, seeing as how he's said to return once every century.

In their defense, some would say that the storyline to Castlevania is not that important. But, of course, this is subjective and varies from person to person, but it also says that the games' removal is not important.

The only thing that has happened is the deletion of their stories. IGA cannot, and doesn't attempt to erase the games from existence. When asked if IGA faced any opposition from Konami, he simply pointed out, "Konami gives me complete freedom for my storylines."

More controversy surrounding IGA stemmed from fans of the older games that rebuked the direction he took with the series. To them, IGA stated, "I really am sorry to those who loved the type of game that was released before Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That's not the direction I'm targeting and this type of game [speaking of HoD] is something most gamers want. The fact that Symphony of the Night was so well received by many, many people makes me very positive in what I'm doing."

Aside from those who were disgruntled over the direction the series had taken or the timeline, 2003's Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow left gamers open-mouthed with its splendor. Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance brought the series back to glory, but Aria was the clincher that secured Castlevania as one of the foremost highlights of the Gameboy Advance's lifespan.

The series took an exciting turn with Aria.

"You might see some different features in the game that will make people say, "Oh, this isn't Castlevania." I would like to maintain what we have with the series, but at the same time, I want to challenge that and present a different type of Castlevania."

Once again, IGA defied what had become custom by presenting what the first Castlevania game to take place in the future, 2035. That, however, did not betray the aesthetics that fans had come to appreciate from the series.

Casting Soma Cruz, a teenage high school student in the role of protagonist was another risk that would be had. IGA was aware of the chances he was taking. When asked what the hardest part of working on the series was, the producer responded, "Well, usually the hardest part is knowing in advance if something I'm doing will be fun, or interesting. Once I can surmount that fear, it's all just doing my job."

The confused teenager caught on with gamers, and became one of the series' most memorable characters. Playing as Soma allowed IGA to tell the story from a more modern and relatable point of view, where people do not believe in vampires, curses, or magical castles. The dramatic sense of marvel about being unexpectedly thrown into a supernatural setting where those things suddenly do exist was something the series had never seen before.

With arguably the best story the series had known, an innovative new game play system that boosted the hours to be had while playing, and detailed graphics, as well as superior sound, Aria was judged by some as the finest the GBA had to offer.

The series on the Gameboy Advance had been a success, and elevated IGA to a higher level of respect. He became known as the most faithful practitioner of 2-D game play, and one of the leading developers in the industry. It was inevitable that he would be called to make a 3-D Castlevania on a home console.

By 2003, many series that were at a time only 2-D had successfully made the transition into the third dimension. Zelda, Metroid, and Mario were huge success stories. Castlevania, however, was not. IGA set out to right the wrong.

"For some reason, I was not involved with the N64 version. I think when making 3-D games, there are many techniques and ways on how the system and perspective can be done. From all these ways, we will choose the appropriate one. The N64 version will not have much influence on future games."

Everyone was eager to see what IGA and his team would put forward. As for the team, the small group he had working on Symphony and the GBA games grew to a thirty-man squad to tackle the project. IGA opted to have this Playstation 2 title, Lament of Innocence, be the very first chapter in the Castlevania story, explaining the origin of Dracula and the Belmont family's vampire hunting traditions.

"In past Castlevania titles, there has always been the Belmont Clan and Dracula already established in the game --you just kind of accept that reality and fight against him without really knowing why.

I wanted to take a different approach with my games. Both Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow didn't simply repeat the standard Castlevania story. With Lament of Innocence, I wanted to go back to the beginning, the origin of Castlevania, to explain "What is Dracula?" because when it comes to Dracula in books or movies, the myth is totally different from what we present in the Castlevania games. I wanted to explain where my Dracula came from and why the Belmonts became vampire hunters."

With Lament of Innocence, IGA focused primarily on action, and in so doing, created a very tight and competent battle system in 3-D, something the N64 games had trouble with. A fixed camera resolved the issues that Castlevania 64 had with its camera, and the graphics were greatly heightened, of course due to hardware, but the awareness and appreciation of creative design within the settings was much more apparent. The animations were also incredibly smooth.

"The frame rate is a solid 60 fps (frames per second). My guys are doing a great job. That's the first thing I told them to do. It's really important in an action game. There are good games in 30 fps, but I wanted to be in 60. If the game stays on 30, we can do much more in the graphics department, but I thought the frame rate is much more important. This may be a little bit of old-timer's thinking, though."

Because Lament of Innocence took place in 1094, Michiru Yamane, the composer, thought that modern instruments, such as the electric guitar would not fit. Fans were a tad bit dismayed by this, especially since many other traces of modern music were found throughout the soundtrack. Nonetheless, Yamane managed to produce gold yet again, delivering to players a sweeping, tragic story through her music that was in stark contrast to Masahiro Kimura's work from Castlevania 64, which was generally quite restrained.

Lament hit home in many areas, such as graphics, music, storyline, and game play, but was met with lukewarm reception, due to it falling flat on its face in terms of level design and exploration.

Players found themselves continually running down corridors that looked nearly identical to the last, connected to larger rooms that looked nearly identical to the last. They were presented with striking visuals, but the effects were lessened as they kept repeating over and again. Furthermore, platforming, which had always been a key factor of the series, was used scarcely.
With platforming and exploration at a minimum, the only true focus was going from room to room fighting enemies. This gave the game a barebones beat'em up feel that was somewhat uncomfortable for the series.

Fans and critics realized that Lament was strong enough in other aspects to save it from being horrible, but most set their sights to the future, and awaited a 3-D Castlevania game that was as well designed as the 2-D counterparts.

Having conquered the second dimension, and grasping the need to get more used to making games in 3-D, IGA took a break from Castlevania in 2004 and set his attention toward another project.

"It's true that it's tough to work on only one project for such a long time, and eventually I'd like to do something else, but maybe not a simulation."

After Lament, IGA's next game was Nanobreaker, an action game for the Playstation 2.

"When developing Nanobreaker, we made it with hardcore action gamers in mind, which is one reason why the game's difficulty level is pretty high."

By 2005, IGA returned to working on Castlevania, and announced both Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS, and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the Playstation.

When Dawn of Sorrow was first revealed, everyone was taken aback. At last, the graphic quality that was available to Symphony of the Night would be bestowed upon another 2-D Castlevania game, and it was a continuation of Soma Cruz's story. Aside from it appearing on another handheld, "what could be better?" fans thought to themselves.

Much of their delight was shattered when the official art for Dawn was unveiled.

"I noticed that the audience is somewhat older than the classic GBA demographic. Just like with the PS2 Castlevania, the Castlevania demographic is getting older and older. So the Castlevania fanbase is only decreasing, not increasing. So the DS has a lot of potentially fun hardware-based gameplay elements, like the touch panel, which said to me that it would probably appeal to a younger audience. I felt that it was the right platform for the series, and wanted to change the style of the illustration to better grab that younger audience."

Fans revolted against this decision. IGA had replaced the incredibly trademark and grand gothic style of Ayami Kojima with something much more unexciting, commonplace, unremarkable, and inferior.
This particular move to appeal to a wider audience would aggravate the core Castlevania fans, since it could easily be seen as taking several steps back instead of forward.

Despite a more childish presentation, Dawn of Sorrow was an instant hit, and was chiefly considered to be the greatest game for the Nintendo DS at the time, winning awards left and right.
However, even though it received wonderful praise, critics realized there was something wrong with the game. Dawn was perhaps the most balanced and technically refined of its contemporaries, but it just did not thrill and fascinate as much. Some looked at it as being the same thing all over again, with not many surprises.

There was no new game play mechanic; the weapon synthesis system was somewhat negligible, the characters were mostly all familiar, while the few new ones fell into that Saturday morning cartoon childlike mold, and sprites from Castlevania games from as far back as 1993 were still appearing regularly in this 2005 DS game. Much of this had to do with the pressing deadline that IGA was bound by.

"I didn't have much time to get everything in. The enemies are really close to those in Symphony of the Night. We ended up having to port several of them in directly from that game."

In spite of such drawbacks, Dawn of Sorrow was a great success, and respected as one of the series' finest entries, and will most likely always be remembered as a bold highlight of the Nintendo DS.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the Playstation 2 title, Curse of Darkness, for its respective platform.

There were many virtues.

Curse of Darkness displayed a heightened awareness to cinematic presentation. The cutscenes were very remarkable, and gave the storytelling a dynamic that Castlevania had been without. The Hero (if he could be called such), Hector, a former general in Dracula's unholy army during the Castlevania 3 era was in truth an anti-hero, with a motive that was greatly understandable, but less than noble.
Hector harbored a bloodthirsty lust for revenge that he would attain at any cost, no matter what he would have to overcome, or whom he would have to kill.

As Michiru Yamane looked to the storyboards for inspiration to her soundtracks, Curse's drove her to compose what was quite possibly the most explosive music of the series. Electric guitars and basses dominated many of the tracks, reinforced by powerful drumming. It was the most edgy soundtrack that Castlevania had, and more than made up for Lament's lack of rock influence, yet still did not overshadow the spooky sound that she had acquired.

Ayami Kojima showcased some of her finest work, justly displaying the intense theme of the game in all her pieces, and giving Trevor Belmont a design that reinvigorated the character in an astonishing way.

The atmosphere of the game was gloomy, hazy, and blood-splattered. Nonetheless, beneath all of the grit and hopelessness laid something gorgeous, exquisite, and comely. It proudly boasted creative boss fights, a good selection of various enemies, and a fun battle system. The Japanese mindset of collecting and training things made its way into the series in the form of Innocent Devils, occult companions of Hector's that he can grow and nurture different ways, making for numerous results and much game play variety.
The game had a lot going for it.

Just like its predecessor, Lament, Curse did succeed in many areas, but failed drastically at level design, arguably even more so than the first PS2 Castlevania.
Onlookers realized that this was no longer acceptable. With Lament of Innocence, it was somewhat understandable, being IGA and company's first shot at a 3-D Castlevania, but the core problem of Lament of Innocence was so glaring, that there was no redeeming quality or excuse for them to continue the trend.

Because of this, Curse of Darkness was also received unenthusiastically, though not dreadfully. Castlevania was still struggling to find its place in the third dimension, while it dominated the second dimension and the handheld market. This, of course, did not go without IGA's notice.

"I've been thinking, trying to simulate various forms of Castlevania on the next generation. I do understand that fans love 2D. I've worked on 3D platforms twice already, but I'm not really happy about my work. And, as you know, I don't want to lose. I want to be challenged. But no matter what platform it is, I will tell you that I will always continue to work on 2D games."

As I write this, IGA's next Castlevania game, Portrait of Ruin, is right around the corner. Fans' mouths are watering for what seems to be another promising 2-D game from Koji Igarashi, so much so that they go about spoiling themselves to their heart's content, as is usually the case when a new release is imminent.
The desire to play the game is so strong they cannot wait any longer. They will take whatever scraps they can get, even though the impact would be so much greater when it's all divulged as it's meant to be.

That is really something when you consider it, what good game creators are capable of. Creating worlds that people long to escape to. Koji Igarashi is certainly no exception, and he's left quite an interesting legacy that was definitely worth exploring for this amount of time.

To his fans, Koji Igarashi is a hero that prevented one of the most beloved video game series from falling into ill-fated obscurity, and continues creating gothic worlds that fascinate and beckon them to return for more.

To his protesters, he's an egotistical sexist that discards games he does not like from the timeline, and has only one really good game to his credit, after which, he ran out of ideas.

Perhaps some of his and his team's artistic accomplishments have been obscured with some, brushed aside in favor of personality profiles that focus on a pronouncement made in an interview, a game expelled from the timeline, or a certain turn the story has taken.

Is that how history will judge IGA?

A raving hack whose career went downhill after Symphony of the Night, yet manages to be lauded over the great majority of game creators as time continues?

Not likely, not after taking a close look at his work on the series, and how he continues garnering esteem, and making games people desire so strongly to play. But you can't please everybody. That proclamation rings very true.

What can be said with confidence is that Koji Igarashi has most definitely secured a place in the gaming history books as the man behind Castlevania games.