Topic: Lords of Shadow Opinions (has Spoilers)

[Ahasverus]

I'm loving everything, everyting! I love how the game constantly changes color palette, it's sooo diverse, I can't imagine a new game placed only in a Castle, it will be too boring compared to this. Boss battles are great, the best part of the game IMO, and they are very common, I love them.
Reviewers are stupid, I'm chapter 10 and puzzles are easy,, all of them, no guide, no solution purchase, there are some 1 or 2 (The "pinball" one?  oh my god) but they are not "zOMG obtuse Durrhurr!!".
I love references! Zela, Portal, Stret Fighter, Metal Gear, ClassicVanias...
The game got too good after the first swamp, O think first 3 levels are bad, but since you enter Pan's level there's no turning back, the game becomes a masterpiece, I'm in love, completely in love... 10/10 for me! 
I've played it with my friends 2 days in a row, I think level based progression is great, replayability is lovely, (MULTIPLAYER!) chess mode, oh the chess! Iforgot about it.. GENIUS!  . I'm so so glad about it, perhaps my i¡biggest grip is that annoyingg aliasing, seriously MS WTF? 2X Aliasing is not thaat hard but the game looks like a permanent vector fest. It's even more admirable how it's still one o the best looking games this gen with those sharp edges.

And I'm very happy now, and now that they have, you know, more $$$, experience and recognition, they can make a KICKASS sequel to be game of all time contender IMO! 

[eternal night]

Side roll and Perfect guard are your two best friends. If you can become adept at perfect guarding, especially on some of the bosses, the battles are very easy, despite whatever mode you're playing on. However, perfect guarding is certainly not the easiest thing to do 100% of the time. You gamble on your timing and if you're wrong, you'll take free damage. Best overall advice is this, don't worry about pulling off long ground based combos. The enemies don't really have a "stun", they seem to be able to attack no matter where you are in a combo animation. Aim to get 1 to 3 solid hits off, side roll their attack, 1 to 3 hits, side roll, activate shadow magic, repeat.
Pay close attention to what enemies are weak to and use that to your advantage. It makes a *huge* difference.

Also, use Divine Shield when you can.

[ShinAkumaXX]

Thank you for the advice. I'm taking the rest of the night off from the game. I'll try to implement this next time I play. Sometimes if I'm having a rough going on a game and give it a day off and come back I do a lot better too. I think the fact that the enemies don't stun is what must make it so tough. It sort of makes combos useless. The hard part about doing 2-3 hit attacks then rolling is being so patient!

[eternal night]

Yeah I would of liked to see some kind of enemy stun implemented so that longer ground combos could be pulled off. That 9-hit heavey whip combo is very difficult to pull uninterrupted. Or perhaps have the combat engine allow for combos to be continued where they left off at after a side-roll dodge is executed.

[eternal night]

More whip upgrades ala' LoI. (Elemental upgrades such as fire, wind, ice, lightning being applied to the whip)

[ShinAkumaXX]

Upon more playing, and reflecting on yesterdays playing. I will say this game might be the biggest disappointment for me! It's just too fucking hard. Which for me removes most of the 'FUN' factor. What the hell. I had no problems beating the PS2 3D Castlevanias, but all this game does is makes me angry. It's so unfair and ridiculous, when I got it and started playing I was so excited, and was for a while, but now I look at it as a chore. I hope I can finish it, but the fact that the enemies can't be stunned and they all seem to be able to break your blocks makes this game quite lame. People can stop comparing this to God of War as it's way more frustrating that God of War ever was. I like a little challenge but fuck this.

[jediblaster]

lower the difficulty and if that doesn't do it for you (which I honestly can't see how it couldn't), then yeah, you might want to pick a different game.  Did you ever try Demons souls?  Play that, then come back to this one and you will know the many definitions of the word "hard".

BTW on a different note:

(click to show/hide)

Bernhard's family name is mentioned in a scroll just outside the castle courtyard.  So, if they didn't want this to be canon they should not have used so many names.  Now I am really confused.  If this was Walter Bernhart's castle in LOI, then what part does gabriel/dracula play?  Perhaps he changed his name to matthias cronqvist?

[ShinAkumaXX]

Yeah, I calmed down. LOL. Sorry to get so pissed! But Cornell was repeatedly raping me. I did lower the difficulty and beat him right away. I just think it's a bit absurd that I had to put it on easy. I had also neglected to use my brain... I didn't even try using fairies or a dark crystal. I don't know if those work on him, but I will sure go back in a bit and try it using them. I hear Demon Souls is a whore like that. That's too bad, as that game looks like its' quite beautiful and has a really neat style. I think it's ps3 only though, so I'll prob never play it. I'll try and get better at this game, I've finally started to use my fairies and they have proved quite useful against trolls, so AWESOME. If all goes well this might be my new favorite 360 game, I'm hoping it does. Possibly dethroning Dead Space and Oblivion. The Ogre fight was super neat by the way.

[corneliab]

They're just name drops. That's it.

[whitedragon_nall]

Just beat it. Thought it was a great game, but I feel that only the last half of the game felt like Castlevania. The game seems to be missing something and I can't quite figure out what that is. I'm left with a somewhat underwhelming experience.

The combat was fun and the combos were easy to pull off. Enemies are pretty relentless and won't just stand there while you beat up their friends.

The platforming is great, just too focused on climbing. Whip swinging is fun and probably my favorite part of the platforming. Enviromental hazards and enemy placement would've made it even better.

I found the story to be lame. Never really pulled me in. There weren't any awesome, jaw-dropping moments. I found it very predictable and I wish it would've went with the older games "less is more" approach.

I am in no way a game critic, but I give it an 8/10.
 

[RegalX7]

I just beat the game, and... It really pains me to say this about a game I was anticipating so bad, but I thought it was... Not very good... Like, much at all. Forget any of that crap about it "not being Castlevania" (I don't care about that, though I never once felt like I was playing Castlevania), it was just bad. Gameplay was boring, controls were awkward, levels were chores, and the story was lame. I would've beaten it days ago, but I kept putting off playing it.
I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I think I actually disliked it more than any of the other 3D Castlevanias. Of course, I'm venting right now, but I can't believe this was supposed to be the game that "proves Castlevania can be done in 3D" (though, I personally love Legacy Of Darkness).

[Grim Fandango]

I really dug this game.  The Graphics are fantastic, even if the framerate leaves something to be desired, and the locales are remarkably varied.  controls were pretty good, though not as tight as they could have been. The platforming was okay, a little slow and easy perhaps, but not bad really.  The combat was quite enjoyable, and very challenging on the harder difficulties.  The story was a little weak, though it was better than most of the games in the franchise.  The voice acting was tremendous, and the music was good, if a little generic.  The only song I really thought was great was the one that play during the final boss battle, but the rest was fine, though there should have been more. 

To the game's credit, it's one of the few action games of this type to get better as it went along.  Most tend to front-load themselves and the latter portions suffer for it (God of War 3, I'm looking at you).  Also, I'm glad they didn't hold out on content in favor of dlc.  Yes, I know it's coming, but the game feels "complete" as is, and that too is something becoming rarer these day.

Overall, Lords of Shadow is close to being on the shortlist for my personal game of the year, though with the number of excellent games that have come out, or are coming out, it seems unlikely to earn the (meaningless) prize.

[jediblaster]

I just finished beating Lycan dark lord on Knight mode.  Had to bring it down a notch to beat him before, but tried again and while it did take me a few times, I did it.  For those who already beat the game, what would you say the most difficult boss was for you to take down?

As for those above who say they didn't like it.  I respect your opinion.  I have a love/hate relationship with the game, but today it is definitely love.  I am into ch. 6 and I must say I am really enjoying it.  Makes me want to go back and watch both Underworld II and Van Helsing.

[Thunderbrand]

Again it's a clear-cut case of people bitching about nothing. Seriously, all the complaints are over little shit. RELAX! This is NOT a Metroidvania, was never intended to be and thankfully is NOT. This is the 21st centruy and time to make a real new-gen game. End of story & bottom line.

[Reinhart77]

well i'm certainly enjoying it.  i'm going at a pretty slow pace, just one level per day, so i figure it'll last me a good couple months.  gives me plenty of time to contemplate what just happened.  if i feel like keep playing, i'll just go to one of the earlier stages and see if there's anything i missed or perform the challenge.  i'm only halfway through chapter 2, and already there's been a wide variety of environments that are recognizable from previous games.  

the platforming is enjoyable, though there's been three spots that frustrated the bejezus out of my trying to figure out where i'm supposed to go next and having no idea if jumping or dropping will plummet me to my death or whisk me away to where i'm supposed to go.  getting the strategy guide has been worth it just to get out of those situations.  

i was very worried about the Titan battles before playing the game.  they're so much different and i was half expecting to get frustrated and annoyed and for them to be a major obstacle to getting too far into the game.  but i found the ice titan battle very enjoyable and fantastic and am now looking real forward to more titan fights.  

they really solved the PS2 game's layout repetitivity problem.  the low variety of enemies, especially compared to the PS2 games, is a little disappointing (at most 3 different kinds of enemies per level so far), but forgivable.  it's not really a hack and slash game like those games were.