Zelda influenced Castlevania’s famous “Metroidvania” gameplay

Koji Igarashi, a frequent producer for the gothic-styled Castlevania series, has announced his departure from Konami. In a panel following this news, he talked about how Zelda originally inspired his work on the games famous for their outlandish vampire lore and whip-lashing action.

Read more after the jump.

Igarashi games include lauded classics such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows. He is perhaps most famous for helping transform Castlevania into a free-form exploration series that encouraged backtracking and mixed RPG elements with its traditional monster-slaying action. These characteristics have given the newer Castlevania titles the fan term “Metroidvania,” due to the similarities they share with 2D Metroid games.

In his recent panel, Igarashi talked about how this term is apparently inaccurate, and that he originally took more inspiration from Zelda when working on Castlevania:

“In my heart, I really wanted to create a Legend of Zelda style game. But I suppose that when you turn Zelda into a 2D platformer, yes, it resembles Metroid.”

Sometimes it seems like every video game franchise and its mother have taken inspiration from Zelda. Seeing that the best games of a major classic franchise were developed with Zelda in mind certainly highlights the importance of the series as a gaming icon. Check USGamer for more information!

Source: USGamer