I already posted this question on SEMO but I was curious what people thought here too. Here goes,

So I can't help but be extremely disappointed in the ways of CastleVania Judgement. Say if you were to draft characters and an artist who would they be. Would you stick with Obata or move to something different.

If you feel like it post 14 characters you feel like should be in this game along with the person who you think should design the characters.

FoF CastleVania Judgement
Character Designs by Kazuma Kaneko

Simon Belmont
Olrox
Rinaldo
Slogra
Christopher Belmont
Joachim
Soma Cruz
Succubus
Shanoa
Death
Maxim Kishine
Dracula
Yoko Belnades
Skull Knight

whose in your dream lineup?

Sorry to play the part of the cranky gamer here, but personally I think they shouldn't have made this atrocity. This is truly the thing that should not be. Despite being a huge Castlevania fan for 21 years and finishing every game in the series (most of them many times), I'm definitely going to ignore this one. I know judging something beforehand is utterly ignorant and runs against everything I've said about open-mindedness, but every seasoned and experienced gamer has earned one chance when they can let their preconceptions and prejudices run amok and just doom a game as being a complete failure before even trying it. I'm invoking that right now.

I've always admired Ayami Kojima's work, but since she's done so much art for the series I do think it'd be better if they went with someone different. Masaki Hirooka's OoE art is certainly nice and fresh. I would've loved to see his take on classic characters.

Some of the actual character design from Obata are okay. However, Shanoa needs more long flowing hair and hooker boots.

I'm still a bit confused by the lineup, though. I thought Cornell was banished from the official timeline? If he's in, they better throw in Sonia Belmont as a hidden character. Also, Maria w/o Richter? Sacrilege!

The only thing I can say: they SERIOUSLY NEED Alucard in the line up.

Also, is there going to be more than one Belmont in the line up? How could they do that, by some weird glitch in the space time continuum? Also, what about the Vampire Killer? Having more than one Vampire Killer in existence at one time due to the above would create a paradox, ripping space a new hole. Will the Belmont's share the whip: "hey man, it's my turn to fight, can I use the VK?"

I know exactly what you mean. When I first heard about the concept of a CV fighting game I was completely and utterly angry. I have a very long history of CastleVania as well so the change to a fighting game was sacrilege to me. They ruined many of the characters with Obata's designs and the graphics look like early-mid generation PS2 graphics. They destroyed Simon who is my favorite protagonist. Then a thought occurred to me, maybe if I just took it like a Power Stone esque thing to have fun with when friends are around I could like it. That is only a possibility. I purchase this game out of a hopeful, idiotic, fanboy rage. The fact of the matter is that Konami decided to make a fighter (which I don't agree with) but I'm trying to make light of it by saying if things were a little nicer who would you like to see design the concept art and which characters should replace their line up.

I do respect that your dream CastleVania Judgement is the one that isn't made.

I agree with you.

Yeah Kojima did some stunning artwork but I'm glad to see the effeminate designs keeping to a low with the new artwork. Hirooka pulls off the artwork of the series really well, one could only wonder what his/her versions of the characters would look like. I completely agree with you.

Obata has some ok designs but most of them are so intrusive its hard to enjoy them. Simon is the easiest to enjoy because its clearly based on the Kojima version but Alucard lost all of his clothings elegance, Death....brrrr, Maria is some sort of goth lolita, Eric is a Spanish kid. I could go on. Shanoa is surprisingly ok.

Yeah the lineup is weird. I was wondering why Cornell was back. Maybe IGA wants to maybe make a game with him, maybe remake Legacy of Darkness *smirks* Hopefully he also has his human form. Sonia Belmont would be nice so I'll raise you a Nathan Graves, I mean they did bring back Carmilla, and CotM is the only game where she actually had bearing in the story.

The lack of Richter is confusing but I suppose he made sacrifices to get everyone from Dracula's Curse in there. His loyalty to that game is stunning.

If nothing else, at least we get another Castlevania OST out of this and, according to Pete V's GMR posting, it's actually being sold separately this time.

Hey, so have you all heard the partial game rip that the Castlevania Dungeon forum folks have put together for Judgment?  The score appears to be almost entirely arranged-driven, and the tracks so far are really quite excellent.  I'm really digging this version of Ecclesia's "An Empty Tome" in particular:

Aeon's Theme
An Empty Tome (Shanoa's Theme)
Beginning (Trevor's Theme)
Bloody Tears (Carmilla's Theme)
Clockwork (Grant's Theme)
Medley from Castlevania 64 / Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku (Cornell's Theme)
Darkness of Fear (Opening Theme)
Dracula's Castle (Alucard's Theme)
Iron Blue Intention (Eric's Theme)
Mad Forest (Sypha's Theme)
Slash (Maria's Theme)
Tower of Dolls (Golem's Theme)
Vampire Killer (Simon's Theme)

Yeah, I've been digging the music too.  Reviews around the webs seem to be unhappy with the score, but I enjoyed it while playing.  I wrote some impressions of the audio and discussed Maria's obsession with breasts over on OSV on launch day. 

Now to see how these tunes hold up outside of the game!

The music's about the only good thing to come out of this game IMO (well, that and the Queen of Hearts it bequeathed to my copy of Ecclesia). It just wasn't a very well executed game; my fighting-aficionado friends found flaws galore, and for a simple-minded button masher such as myself, it just... wasn't fun. I really wanted to like it.

But I am really enjoying this arrange al--I mean, soundtrack. I, too, enjoy its rendition of An Empty Tome, as well as Vampire Killer (noteworthy because *gasp* I've never really cared for the tune).

Thanks, as always, for the upload, Angela!

Thanks for sharing, Angela. Must point out though that "Cornell's Theme" is a medley from Castlevania 64, not Lament of Innocence.

I'm kinda split on the music. Half of it is pretty good, half is not so good. I was looking forward to a more hard-edged score since this is a fighting game, and was disappointed that most of the tracks sounded a bit weak. Its good music, but I'd rather see something a little more Dracula Battle-ish (or beyond), there's too much orchestral vibes here, rounding and dulling the harsh corners. Some tracks like "Vampire Killer", "Slash", "The Tower of Dolls", etc. are appropriately rockin'. Some are bad, though. The arrangement of "Beginning" was really underwhelming, and "Clockwork" was just incredibly tepid. Is this piece really featured in a fighting game? Are they whipping each other's faces with lace handkerchiefs or something?

Its nice to hear some good Castlevania music again, but I didn't find it especially exciting. Also says something about the state of the series when the best CV music the last few years have been rearrangements of older music (PSP Dracula X and Judgment).

Also: does anyone know who arranged this soundtrack?

Ah, damn.  I beat it the other day but wasn't able to write down the person's name in time.  I'm sure it'll show up.

Ah, my bad.  Lemme go and edit that up.

according to the guy who ripped the streams (CapCom):

That looks familiar.  Have we heard from these people before?

Well, they've done VGM before, but nothing that really sticks out (at least in our usual circles of interest). Sakamoto co-composed for Yazuka 2, and also did Echochrome and the latest Aquanaut's Holiday. Asada handled two arrangements for the most recent Street Fighter 2 arrange album.

Asada's homepage seems to be down, but the noisycroak site is up...

Hmm. I don't know Japanese, but it looks like there's a few more titles of interest they handled...."BGM data conversion" for Valkyrie Profile DS, which I assume means either sound engine work or arranging/downgrading VP music....apparently composing (or at least arranging and performing) for the  Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida games (neat)....general work on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2...all those Square Enix DS tour guides...SFX for Lost Odyssey and Umbrella Chronicles...honestly, I'm not seeing anything here that would have made these guys pop up on the radar before now, other than Yakuza.

Of course, it doesn't help that they apparently can't disclose the names of most of the games they worked on from 96-2004....

Man, "Darkness of Fear" is just so good.  I love that track.  Good to see a new composition that can actually stand on its own alongside the other classic CV tunes.

Thanks for that really cool news, Dais. Yasushi Asada's arrangements on Hyper Street Fighter II Remix Tracks were just awesome. If he's done just as good a job here, I'll definitely purchase the album.

Also, fantastic to finally know who did those DS Style titles that Yoshitaka Hirota didn't handle. Thanks again!

Hirota did some DS Style games?  I wasn't aware that he'd done anything since Shadow Hearts 3!

Yup! He recently scored a game called: D.Gray-Man Sousya no Shigaku

I have a rip around somewhere that I can upload for you, but here's a sample of the title theme.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/g6on1o

Hirota has been pretty active since Shadow Hearts 3. I've discussed most of his works here and listed them here. Pity nothing is really high profile apart from maybe the Paon games.

I'm really divided on what I'm hearing so far, simular to the way I eventually felt with last year's Dracula X Chronicles - not that I'm comparing them. Basically, there are aspects I like and aspects I don't like...

Screw what I said about Yasushi Asada on Hyper Street Fighter II. I got confused with Yutaka Kumada who did the amazing T. Hawk and Guile stage remixes. Asada's two were pretty generic jazz fusion tracks in comparison. Not horrible but the least creative of the bunch. I checked out the rip of Castlevania Judgment and didn't really think much either despite the nice track selection. Sort of a mix of standard rock and bombastic orchestration in the style of recent Chocobo soundtracks.

So, uhh...was there an official album release of the soundtrack?

And...the game is frustrating to play?

Check XLord007's post above. Apparently, its out January 15th.

No way am I biting on this. Considering that the music is pretty half-assed and mediocre, that I still feel the sour taste of Ecclesia in my ears, and that I just despise the game, this is going to be the first Castlevania OST they won't get my money for.

I was looking at the instruction manual for this at my local EB and wow... so not impressed by the artwork; don't care about the anime artist that did the work. Alcuard looks so feminine it isn't even funny. I know he kind of had a kind of quaint appearance in his original rendering but he was more handsome than gorgeous - this craptastic version almost reminded me of that pretty boy Ghaleon from LSSS.

Forget about Alucard - look what they did to poor Simon!  Some Harajuku "elegant goth" crap.

Even if the game did play well, I wouldn't buy it just to send a message not to f--- around with Castlevania character designs.

The thing that confuses me is that I'm kind of fond of the artist's other work... but I can't believe how terrible the designs for this game are.  Poor, poor Maria. 

I haven't heard any music from this Castlevania Judgement yet, but when I listened to Nobuo's rocking Lord of Vermillion album, I thought *THAT* is what a Castlevania Fighting game should sound like.