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Treasure DID NOT make Super Castlevania 4, dumbfucks

SantaC

SantaC

Member
Wow, I stumbled over a cool castlevania tidbit today that I did not know when I was reading about Super Castlevania 4.

For those of you who don't know its history, you'll be interested to know that this title was not created in-house by Konami; rather, it instead commissioned a smaller group of its independent programmers and designers to come up with a concept and make it all work. That group, which came out of nowhere to succeed big time in producing a hit, would later disassociate itself from Konami and become its own game-developing company called "Treasure." It was Konami's loss.

So this small group of programmers once again called upon the services of Simon Belmont to bring Castlevania into the 16-bit era with a bang
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Source
 
As far as I can recall, this is just a myth that should've died 10 years ago. I think one or two guys that later formed Treasure worked on it as enemy programmers or some such bullshit.

(Could be completely misremembering as well, since I'm dead tired, but there's an awesome Treasure webpage that clears a lot of these messes up. Someone else will probably hit this thread up with the link, as I don't have it.)
 
I was under the impression that most of the key Treasure employees were involved with Bucky O'Hare videogames around the time SCVIV was released.

Probably yeah, 1 or 2 treasure guys on that game. As Symphony of the night proved in 1997, a lot of that casltevania talent was still on board.
 
That explains why the series has gone down hill since Super Castlevania.
I like everything about that game the theme tune everything. Missed a couple nights sleep playing it too.
 
CV4 had some of the best music in the series-- some of the best music ever, really. Only SotN even remotely compares in that regard, though I like CV4's best tunes more than I do SotN's best tunes.
 
this is news to me. gotta say Super Castlevania IV rocks as well. seeing the 'mode7' graphics on stage 4 on Gamepro TV (haha) sold me. one of the best ending themes too
 
Wario64 said:
this is news to me. gotta say Super Castlevania IV rocks as well. seeing the 'mode7' graphics on stage 4 on Gamepro TV (haha) sold me. one of the best ending themes too
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Do you forever associate JD Roth with SCV4 as a result?

I know whenever I see Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective screens from back in the day, I think about JD Roth telling us about how these were the best graphics. Ever.
 
Say it with me now:

No. Treasure. Did. Not. Make. Super. Castlevania. 4.

Nor did they make Contra, Castlevania, Contra: Hard Corps, Contra III, Axelay, or Xexex. One programmer who would later work at Treasure worked on CV4 in a non-design manner. I've emailed the guy who maintains that site about the error and he refused to remove it, out of hope or because he feels the game is in the spirit of Treasure or something. He's a fool and his site spreads misinformation. Please let these fanboy myths die.

http://www.classicgaming.com/sfkosmo/treasure/related/cv4/cv4.html
 
Probably yeah, 1 or 2 treasure guys on that game. As Symphony of the night proved in 1997, a lot of that casltevania talent was still on board.
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I always chalked SCV4 up to being "Treasure" (well, after I first heard about it), but I never thought Konami was lacking because of it. I just thought the "Castlevania team" from the NES had given the SNES the finger and moved on (and up) to make Dracula X for the PCE CD. It's not that one game had talent and the other didn't. They just felt like they had different styles.

http://www.classicgaming.com/sfkosmo/treasure/related/cv4/cv4.html
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I think the problem is that when Americans see a list of credits their eyes glaze over and they ignore it. People have barely moved up from being able to distinguish "Capcom" from "Konami" and are now moving to a basic understanding of "teams" behind certain games.

What we need is a much deeper understanding of just about everyone involved with the creation of out favorite games.

For example, if only one of those guys who worked on SCV4 would later join Treasure, what about the other guys? Were they all Konami regulars? Or were they some sub-group that only worked on games where future Treasure-people were working? If that were the case, then I would say that SCV4 was made by the group that would later become Treasure, but that the group downsized sometime before it took on it's official new name (of course, I don't know enough about the people involved to know if that's true).
 
ruby_onix said:
For example, if only one of those guys who worked on SCV4 would later join Treasure, what about the other guys? Were they all Konami regulars? Or were they some sub-group that only worked on games where future Treasure-people were working? If that were the case, then I would say that SCV4 was made by the group that would later become Treasure, but that the group downsized sometime before it took on it's official new name (of course, I don't know enough about the people involved to know if that's true).
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Why are you posting this 25 minutes after my links? They do pretty much what you're asking for.
 
ruby_onix said:
For example, if only one of those guys who worked on SCV4 would later join Treasure, what about the other guys? Were they all Konami regulars? Or were they some sub-group that only worked on games where future Treasure-people were working? If that were the case, then I would say that SCV4 was made by the group that would later become Treasure, but that the group downsized sometime before it took on it's official new name (of course, I don't know enough about the people involved to know if that's true).
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There are Konami games on which future core Treasure members worked together (Bucky O'Hare on NES and Arcade - both with different Treasure members; Castlevania Adventure for GB), so it's easy to see where these guys first got to know each other and got their feet wet. However, these games must be separated from games on which a single member worked at some time or another, otherwise we'll end up calling NiGHTS a Treasure game just because a future Treasure member worked on it.

Treasure was not a single cohesive Konami superteam that staged a mass exodus. The original members of Treasure were just a bunch of Konami employees who knew each other and who may or may not have worked together. If you shook circa-1992 Konami like a salt shaker, Treasure members would have fallen out.
 
Why are you posting this 25 minutes after my links? They do pretty much what you're asking for.
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Your post wasn't there when I started writing (yeah, I took too long figuring out what I wanted to say). Then I refreshed and read your post (because I knew I had taken a while). I still posted it because I don't think your post covered what I was thinking (unless I missed something).

I think Jiji more got what I was thinking. Was there a kind of "team" within Konami, partially held onto by Konami, so it wouldn't get illuminated by links to Treasure? But that Treasure later made up a significant piece of that team (especially if Konami dissolved and reassigned what they had remaining), and maintained it's "spirit"?

In that way, I could sort of see it that "Konami's team, which would later (not entirely) become Treasure" made game-X, even if zero members of Treasure actually worked on a particular title.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
this is like saying Zoonami or Free Radical made Goldeneye.
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Well didn't Free Radical make Goldeneye? It sure wasn't whoever is left at Rare I'll tell you that right now.
 
:lol

this thread was ready to run riot before jiji entered.

shoulda let it go. Treasure wouldve had quite a back catalog by the time people were done making shit up.
 
Daigoro said:
shoulda let it go. Treasure wouldve had quite a back catalog by the time people were done making shit up.
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:lol No kidding. I joke about the fanboys eventually attributing Konami's entire catalog to Treasure before they're done - and wouldn't be far from the truth, actually!
 
CV4 doesnt play like a treasure game.


head programmer on sin and punishment worked on nights?!?!
 
What the hell is it about CV4 that everyone loves? It's a good game, but hardly the pinnacle of the series. CV-Rondo of Blood, for example, is a much better game as was SotN (though it was quite different).
 
I think its a matter of SOTN playing differently from a traditional Castlevania, and the fact that not many people have played Rondo of Blood. I've played them all, and I think SC 4 might slightly edge out Rondo of Blood as my favorite.
 
and I think SC 4 might slightly edge out Rondo of Blood as my favorite.
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...but why? The controls in Rondo just seem much snappier and more enjoyable to use, the level design is more interesting, the music is vastly superior, and the game just seems to offer more variety. I like CV4, but I would really like to understand why people are placing it at the top of the series.
 
dark10x said:
What the hell is it about CV4 that everyone loves? It's a good game, but hardly the pinnacle of the series. CV-Rondo of Blood, for example, is a much better game as was SotN (though it was quite different).
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I dunno, I actually think it's one of the weaker entries (and it gets by mainly on presentation). CV1 (all versions), CV3, Dracula X and Bloodlines are all better games imo.
 
dark10x said:
...but why? The controls in Rondo just seem much snappier and more enjoyable to use, the level design is more interesting, the music is vastly superior, and the game just seems to offer more variety. I like CV4, but I would really like to understand why people are placing it at the top of the series.
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The music in CV4 is no slouch, it's up there with the best. I think CV4 is so memorable because it took the action formula from the first castlevania and enchanced with better artwork, graphics and for the first time Mode7 effects. The boss battles were great as well. CV4 is definitley my 2nd fav Castlevania game with SotN as 1st.

Edit: plus as someone else mentioned, that this game was more widespread than Rondo of Blood.
 
Rondo of Blood is my favorite Castlevania, but Super Castlevania 4 is pretty close.


Konami desperately needs to make a Castlevania Collection for PS2/Xbox.
 
Fatghost28 said:
Rondo of Blood is my favorite Castlevania, but Super Castlevania 4 is pretty close.


Konami desperately needs to make a Castlevania Collection for PS2/Xbox.
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Might as well make it to GC where it has a fanbase.
 
dark10x said:
What the hell is it about CV4 that everyone loves? It's a good game, but hardly the pinnacle of the series. CV-Rondo of Blood, for example, is a much better game as was SotN (though it was quite different).
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Its more or less the last game with the classic CV formula. After that we got introduced to the crappy RPG elements.... I can see why CV4 is regarded as the best and I agree with them.
 
dark10x said:
...but why? The controls in Rondo just seem much snappier and more enjoyable to use, the level design is more interesting, the music is vastly superior, and the game just seems to offer more variety. I like CV4, but I would really like to understand why people are placing it at the top of the series.
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I never had any problems with SC 4's controls, and I enjoyed everything you could do with the whip. Its been awhile since I played Rondo, so the level design isn't as fresh in my mind. The music I go back and forth on. Just a matter of preference.
 
Shompola said:
Its more or less the last game with the classic CV formula. After that we got introduced to the crappy RPG elements.... I can see why CV4 is regarded as the best and I agree with them.
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Exactly. CV4's only failing is that it's too easy. I actually found the control in Rondo of Blood to be somewhat sluggish, and I missed the control over the whip that CV4 had. Music is a tossup; the CV4 soundtrack is superb. But as Shompola said since CV4 the series has been going more and more towards RPG elements and Metroid-style wanderings. Some people like that direction, others prefer the more straightforward older games.
 
PC Gaijin said:
But as Shompola said since CV4 the series has been going more and more towards RPG elements and Metroid-style wanderings. Some people like that direction, others prefer the more straightforward older games.
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Rondo came after CV4 and is very much in the spirit of CV3 - much moreso than CV4 was. It pushed the branching paths further than they'd ever gone for tons of variation and replay value without turning it into a Metroid clone or RPG. CV4 to me seems like a diversion from the rest of the series, a side trip it took before getting back on track. The sprite style and mechanics both feel weird and out of place compared with previous and future games (except for X68k Dracula, somewhat). It's just kind of too bad the series went off-track again after Bloodlines (which came out the year after Rondo).

Oh, and can we get a title change in here?
 
For those of you who don't know its history, you'll be interested to know that this title was not created in-house by Konami; rather, it instead commissioned a smaller group of its independent programmers and designers to come up with a concept and make it all work. That group, which came out of nowhere to succeed big time in producing a hit, would later disassociate itself from Konami and become its own game-developing company called "Treasure." It was Konami's loss.
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This is new to me!
 
I love that game until the part where you have to do the crouch walk under those spikes before Frankenstein. I fricken hate that part.
 
aku:jiki said:
As far as I can recall, this is just a myth that should've died 10 years ago. I think one or two guys that later formed Treasure worked on it as enemy programmers or some such bullshit.

(Could be completely misremembering as well, since I'm dead tired, but there's an awesome Treasure webpage that clears a lot of these messes up. Someone else will probably hit this thread up with the link, as I don't have it.)
Click to expand...

Yes. They also did Contra III and the Tiny Tunes games for Konami but it wasn't all of Treasure.
 
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