in a mysterious new video (h / t Polygon), an off-camera player navigates through what appears to be a prototype of Castlevania: Resurrection, a canceled Sega Dreamcast game from the early 2000s. If legit, this is the first time that footage from the game has been made available to the public.
The short video appeared on a newly created YouTube channel and lacks a description. The disc is marked “11 ‘5 ’99” and looks like a typical rewritable GD-ROM of the kind that Sega commonly used internally for development and was distributed for the press in the Dreamcast era. It is unclear where the person in the video got the record from.
The player loads various areas from a debug menu, but only moves the character with one hand, so it is unclear if combat or other functions were implemented. And while the main character takes damage from some enemies, he also goes through a lava pit without any obvious negative effects, suggesting there is a lot left unfinished.
According to Invisible64, Castlevania: Resurrection would have followed Castlevania Legends protagonist Sonia Belmont and a new character named Victor Belmont as they traveled back in time to deal with Dracula before the events of the first game. While the game made appearances during a private presentation at E3 1999 and on the September 1999 issue from United Kingdom Dreamcast MagazineKonami quietly canceled it in March 2000.
“Castlevania: Resurrection it was a game doomed from the start. ”Former Konami artist Jason Lee Elliott write on your personal website. “The team itself had a lot of problems when I got on board. Most of the team had only worked on sports games, so they had no idea how to make a 3D action platformer. The art team was not very cohesive and could not agree on a direction. The game had been in development for almost two years and had little to show for it. “
Since its cancellation, several Castlevania: Resurrection have appeared online, including conceptual art and music—Thanks to the people who participated in the development of the game.
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I don’t think the world missed anything awesome when Konami shipped Castlevania: Resurrection graze, but that doesn’t mean archival efforts like this are no longer vital to preserving video game history. We lose much more than a few hours of play when a major studio cancels a project. Congratulations to the fans who continue to search for information; It is only through your efforts that we continue to learn about these games.