Kojima stared in shock at Lin Lixin's instructions to the person on the other end of the phone.
This development model is simply unbelievable.
In his understanding, game development should be about making the most efficient use of existing resources to achieve the best results with limited resources.
Lin Lixin's actions proved that his supposed financial difficulties were "completely unnecessary."
If there's a lack of composers with the corresponding style, then just hire one.
It's that simple.
"We need a formal game music composition team, Satoshi."
Lin Lixin thought for a moment, and realized that Game Freak already had several outstanding composers.
As audio chips continue to evolve, higher capacity will inevitably allow them to use more exaggerated sound effects.
The music composition team at GAMENOVA will only continue to grow and improve in the future.
Instead of doing this, why not take this opportunity to spin them off and establish a separate studio?
Throughout history, an excellent game development team has always had an equally excellent music team.
As the ultimate medium that integrates all art forms in the world, music has never been an insignificant element in video games.
More often than not, music and games complement each other.
The moment C418 and his original soundtrack begin to play, the unique sense of loneliness and ethereal beauty inherent in Minecraft will overwhelm the player's thoughts.
When the distinctive vibrato of the plucked string instrument begins the prelude, even with your eyes closed, you know it's time to go to San Andreas to promote Morality and Rule of Law;
The ethereal quality of LowRoar's unique digital futuristic music in Death Stranding;
Shoji Meguro's unparalleled jazz in Persona;
The synthesizer music with a strong personal style created by Masafumi Takada in Danganronpa ----
Music has always been an integral part of the soul of video games.
"Let Koshiro lead the team for now. The studio will be called NMB, NovaMusicBAND."
"Learn."
"Lin, the musical style of Koshiro masters also has some reference value."
After Lin Lixin hung up the phone, Kojima began to explain his thoughts, "Gothic and punk are not opposing styles. We can try using gothic rock as the main melody for the background music."
This is the answer Kojima received after reading the proposal.
"Okay, you can oversee it. The selection of music and adjustments to other artistic elements will be your responsibility for now."
With Kojima's help, Lin Lixin was able to focus all his energy on developing the game mechanics itself.
"Oh right, why aren't you off work yet, it's so late?"
"I have nowhere to stay."
The Kojima traveled wearily from Japan to California, and before it even had a chance to catch its breath, it was already on duty.
"Well, come stay at my place for the night, and I'll have Sam get you a new outfit tomorrow."
For Lin Lixin, developing the mechanics of Castlevania was actually the easiest task he had dealt with recently.
In some ways, it was even easier to design than Momotaro Dentetsu.
Because it is actually a WYSIWYG action RPG.
There are no complex algorithms hidden behind it like in Richman.
However, beyond the programming, the game design itself requires much more Kung-Fu Master.
Castlevania is not a very Volkswagen work.
It leans more towards a hardcore, deep-dive player base, similar to Fire Emblem.
Extremely high difficulty and stiff controls are hallmarks of the Castlevania series.
In a sense, Soulslike games can even be seen as a 3D spiritual successor to Castlevania.
This doesn't mean that their high level of difficulty is inherited from each other, but rather refers to their strikingly similar core design.
A complex topological maze.
The map appears to be interconnected, but it is actually locked in place at every turn, with each branch containing seemingly impassable areas.
As you explore and progress through the layers to finally see the whole map, you'll eventually find yourself back where you started, unlocking a new shortcut.
Their unique map design and equally fragmented narrative are what they truly have in common.
If we really need to find a more academic term to summarize it...
According to Koji Igarashi, the Legend producer of the Castlevania series, it can be called non-linear map loop exploration.
Lin Lixin is not a super brain, so it is obviously unrealistic for him to create a 1:1 complete replica of the Castlevania map.
However, he can follow the design principles of Castlevania and create maps of the same quality.
The maze itself can be seen as a huge educational challenge.
Every item and monster placement is a hidden tutorial.
Just like the map design in the classic Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
As abilities are unlocked step by step and equipment is acquired one by one, monsters that were previously insurmountable and impassable side paths will become manageable.
In this process, the player's own abilities also continue to grow.
Based on this theory, Lin Lixin can gradually build a complete game map around the growth curve.
By simply setting a location that is normally inaccessible by jumping, players will automatically realize that this place is passable once they gain the ability to glide.
"Jump----"
Lin Lixin's hand holding the pen suddenly stopped.
As a game primarily focused on platforming, Castlevania's experience with the concept of platforming is bafflingly poor.
The stiff jumping feel, the fixed jump trajectory, and the lack of control in the air are all problems that have been widely criticized in Castlevania.
This makes it more like a pure hardcore action game than an exploration-based RPG action game.
This extremely difficult design concept was not abandoned until Koji Igarashi, the true soul of Castlevania, took over with Symphony of the Night.
Lin Lixin finds it difficult to objectively evaluate whether Koji Igarashi's improvements to Castlevania were truly a "Ship of Theseus" for the series.
For true fans of the hardcore action style of the original Castlevania, Koji Igarashi is a despicable blond guy.
But without the improvements made to Symphony of the Night, there would have been no Castlevania IP to achieve its later glory, and there would have been no talk of a " Castlevania -like" game.
How should I choose?
Now this problem has fallen on Lin Lixin's shoulders once again.
To find the answer to this question, there seems to be a better approach than focusing solely on Castlevania itself.
Trust in the wisdom of future generations!
The name of a 2D action game that would later become famous flashed through Lin Lixin's mind.
Dead Cells
Its designer, Benard Sebastian, shared this topic in a speech at the Game Developers Conference.
He called it "Control Tricks".