Ah, Castlevania. That's one gaming franchise that never ceases to shine. It's always good getting more news about the epic game series, and when it's coming from Castlevania's Koji Igarashi himself, it's all the more better. 1up managed to sneak in an interview with Igarashi, or IGA, and they talked about their current Castlevania project Dracula X Chronicles, as well as possible futures for Castlevania in other consoles.

PSP's Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles - based on a much earlier Rondo of Blood - is just about finished, with the US version already approved while they're still waiting to get approval for the Europe and Japanese versions.

As for the Symphony of the Night added into Dracula X Chronicles, IGA said that some content was changed in the PSP version compared to the downloadable SotN from PlayStation Network and Xbox Live: voice acting was improved (yes!), and they made drastic improvements to Maria's sprite compared to the Sega Saturn version. Michiru Yamane, music composer for the Castlevania series, composed a new song for the SotN credit track.

As for future Castlevanias, one of the things that is definite is that we'll have another title for the DS, and they're also thinking about the possibility of some whip-cracking action on the Wii, but there's a small problem. According to IGA,

As for a Wii version, I still think people would be exhausted if they had to swing it as a whip the entire time, but I am coming around to the idea -- I like the concept in theory, but I'd just have to make sure it could be done without players getting all tired.

Cracking whips around all day does sound a tad tiring and painful in the long run.

The Castlevania team, in the meantime, are thinking whether to go "traditional" and release games for the Xbox 360 and PS3. As to what "traditional" means to them, it doesn't necessarily mean the old-school 2D gaming. Said IGA,

Those are two steps for us, actually. Step 1 is figuring out the gameplay and step 2 is the graphics. We are still discussing step 1, so until we have the gameplay figured out I won't be able to say whether or not it will be 2D or 3D.

Those who want new downloadable Castlevania games won't have much hope to hold on to, however. IGA said that prices of downloadable games are quite too low to support the things that they want to do in the game, and will also result in low-fidelity games.

That's definitely so much info to chew on! But you can bet we'll have more as updates come our way. Stay tuned!

The folks over at Kikizo managed to snag an interview with Konami's Koji Igarashi and composer Michiru Yamane. Interesting stuff in it, but what's most telling is Igarashi's passion for 2D gaming action. If last year's Dawn of Sorrow is to be taken as evidence, then there is still much love for all things 2D, despite this being a next-gen world. Now if we can only manage to get ourselves a copy of Portrait of Ruin....

Anyway, interesting bits here (for you curious gamer types) include portions where IGA talks about the XBL release of the PS1 classic, Symphony of the Night, and a test Castlevania developed for the PSP. Since Kikizo doesn't want people direct linking to their video file, we'll do you guys a favor and provide you a vid embed of the thing.

Journalists at San Diego's Comic-Con have been able to get a direct preview of the new Castlevania for the Nintendo DS and have spotted a number of new details. While the available demo build isn't that much different from the one shown at E3, there are still some things worth mentioning.

The Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin demo allowed players to change between characters (Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Orlean) on the fly. Morris now has an interesting sounding kick attack, while Orlean will have a number of spells on her hand. A new magical item was shown too, a kind of rock that bounces off walls when thrown.

The game's producer, Koji Igarashi, also revealed that the game will have a 2-player coop mode, available both locally and and online. But the cooperative stages will differ from the single-player stages, and the number of monsters will apparently depend on whether the game is played locally or online. A shop mode is going to complete the online features, it allows players to trade and sell items with others.

Igarashi mentioned that the soundtrack will be composed by Michiru Yamane, who has been working on the Castlevania franchise for a long time. Yuzo Koshiro of Sonic and Shenmue fame will then complete the soundtrack with a number of his own tracks.

Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin is set for a release at the end of the year.