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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #30 on: October 21, 2014, 05:30:22 PM »
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Offline crisis

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #31 on: October 21, 2014, 06:15:11 PM »
0
did yuo guys see stan's concept art of his 2nd form? it was gonna be a large multi-headed dargon.. why that wasnt implemented is beyond me

in the 1st game his eyes were a demonic yellow.. almost wicked looking. in this they are purple, not blue
i can accept the fact of Stan being part of the Castlevania mythos.. i know thats an unpopular idea around here. but i like the idea of Dracula essentially usurping Santa for Hell's throne. that hasnt exactly been executed in the los-saga, but in a future reboot, something like that wouldnt be a bad idea. could be a story in a prequel game, just to showcase why Dracula is considered the head honcho prince of Darkness. it could be pretty phat if done right


not all of los2 was utter shit guys! the castle areas are simply breathtaking, arguably the most beautiful castle the series has seen thus far. altho some suttle nuances wouldve been greatly appreciated, such as in the library leading to Carmilla's chamber, before you enter a room you see books floating around with the pages been turned by an invisible entity, until you enter the room & they suddenly drop to the ground lifeless. altho those few moments when a swarm of bats would fly thru the screen, walking thru the castle courtyard/balcony with it literally bathed in moonlight with thousands of stars, Dracula slitting his wrists as a "blood offering" to those stone idols, the essence of the castle itself begging & pleading for Dracula to stay [as his power gives them "life" and to forget his past since they are his family now]; these moments were pure excellence & i loved every bit of it

or take a cue from our lord Symphony; por ejemplo in 1 area of the castle like the hallway you can see the shadow of a giant spider-octopus creature crawling in the distance.. altho you never actually encounter it. ya know like the giant Peeping Eye staring at you in the Marble Gallery background in Symphony. that creeped the hell outta me

also the Toy Maker's section was pretty cool. the entire "reconstruct the tragic tale" was unique & something the series hasnt done before, and i can appreciate that. his boss battle was fun too, how he's pretty much talking shit throughout the fight & also giving backstory, pretty much narrating the entire fight. that was cool & unique. shame most ppl overlook/ignore this :/

ya dig what am saying folks? its the details like that we love & prolly wont catch until our 2nd playthru. the los2 DLC had hints of it, with Gabrian's bloody scribbles in latin all over the FOrbidden Chamber of him cursing Yahweh & the Brotherhood for betraying him. the DLC despite being short was pretty good & challenging. i dunno why you guys didnt like it, prunyuu~

Offline VladCT

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #32 on: October 21, 2014, 06:31:39 PM »
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It's not that the entirety of LoS2 was shit, it's just that the shit in LoS2 stands out far too glaringly compared to the good stuff, and the fact that the fault pretty much belongs to one jackass sitting at the top instead of an entire team of jackasses makes it even worse.
It is precisely because it never cared, that people do care.  It's something which it's lacking, because that which it has, it has lackluster of.
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Then Lords of Shadow 2 just takes a big, semi-solid, smelly, pea-green dump all over everything.

Offline Anglachel

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #33 on: October 21, 2014, 06:37:01 PM »
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It bogged it down so much, you wouldn't even think this is a Castlevania game.

The 1st game had pretty good references, easter eggs, and a general Castlevania atmosphere to it so it worked pretty well. The second one feels like a game based off Castlevania, not Castlevania itself.

And I agree, crisis. The creepy stuff is something all Castlevania games need. The scrolls in Mirror of Fate worked well, like the human femur one.  :o

Other honorable mentions are the demon in HoD that you kill with the weight but never see, and the impaled corpses where Death takes your stuff.

But you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to be able to block with Dracula's cape. THAT would have been badass and we saw it in MOF. Really cool.

Also needed more Castle. Imagine Castle Pandemonium vs Castlevania. The two demon castles squared off against one another in the end of days. Their masters fighting for dominance.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2014, 06:42:43 PM by Anglachel »
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Offline theplottwist

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #34 on: October 21, 2014, 07:05:14 PM »
0
did yuo guys see stan's concept art of his 2nd form? it was gonna be a large multi-headed dargon.. why that wasnt implemented is beyond me

in the 1st game his eyes were a demonic yellow.. almost wicked looking. in this they are purple, not blue
i can accept the fact of Stan being part of the Castlevania mythos.. i know thats an unpopular idea around here. but i like the idea of Dracula essentially usurping Santa for Hell's throne. that hasnt exactly been executed in the los-saga, but in a future reboot, something like that wouldnt be a bad idea. could be a story in a prequel game, just to showcase why Dracula is considered the head honcho prince of Darkness. it could be pretty phat if done right


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« Last Edit: October 21, 2014, 07:08:11 PM by theplottwist »
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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #35 on: October 21, 2014, 08:07:30 PM »
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in the 1st game his eyes were a demonic yellow.. almost wicked looking. in this they are purple, not blue

I'm colorblind, crisis.  :-X

And while I'm inclined to agree with most of your post, I don't think Mercurysteam's problem has ever been its intent, but its execution. Yes, there was that whole "forget everything you know about Castlevania" shit, but I honestly think the plot approach to the trilogy could have been the game(s) to usurp SotN had MS done shit well. But they got lazy, used a lot of copouts, left half the trilogy unexplained or poorly explained, and still think their shit doesn't stink.


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Offline Kingshango

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #36 on: October 21, 2014, 08:16:32 PM »
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I might be alone in this but I think Satan should have been out of the picture entirely and Zobek should have been the main villain. He's more responsible for Gabriel's anguish than anyone else, Satan just felt forced in both LOS1 and 2.


Plus the fight with Zobek>>>Satancard, hell the fight with Zobek's Lieutenant>>>>>Satancard.

Offline Aiddon

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #37 on: October 22, 2014, 04:52:04 AM »
-3
I'm colorblind, crisis.  :-X

And while I'm inclined to agree with most of your post, I don't think Mercurysteam's problem has ever been its intent, but its execution. Yes, there was that whole "forget everything you know about Castlevania" shit, but I honestly think the plot approach to the trilogy could have been the game(s) to usurp SotN had MS done shit well. But they got lazy, used a lot of copouts, left half the trilogy unexplained or poorly explained, and still think their shit doesn't stink.

Thing is, even its intent was questionable. At the end of the day, LoS was NEVER supposed to be a Castlevania game until apparently MS kissed Kojima's ass or something and got the franchise's name slapped on the cover. So I question any sort of respect for the franchise as they weren't interested enough to use its gameplay, lore, characters, music, aesthetic, etc but took no shame in exploiting the name.

I do find it funny how many times this has happened as of late. Dev slaps name of famous franchise on the cover of a game that clearly has no stylistic, thematic, or other connections to franchise, people raise the painfully obvious question of why the game exists or why they're using the series' name, dev gets pissy and calls its critics a bunch of "fanboys" like it somehow negates legit arguments, game is released and proves to disappoint in one way or another, and logic and reality shine through. Though it's fascinating at despite how many times this happens that devs and publishers STILL don't have any sort of pattern recognition and refuse to learn from it.

Offline Dracula9

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #38 on: October 22, 2014, 02:57:16 PM »
+5
Quote
...Dev slaps name of famous franchise on the cover of a game that clearly has no stylistic, thematic, or other connections to franchise...

Yes, because as we all know, Lords of Shadow and Castlevania have nothing in common. There definitely aren't any warriors with whips traversing Gothic castles and magical forests and dark realms slaying vampires and other creatures of the night in Lords of Shadow. Not even a little bit.

That's because one of two things usually happens; either the whole dev team are a bunch of assholes, or specific people, usually very high on the decision-making ladder, are assholes. In the case of Lords 2, a large amount of the shitty decisions can be blamed almost exclusively on the one douchebag sitting at the top of the team. You can't blame the entire dev team or publisher of "not learning," because the dev team follows the will of the producer, and the publisher just releases it. Konami thinking this would be a solidly amazing reboot of the series was functionally no different from Capcom thinking that shit iOS game XOver would be a good 25th anniversary game for Megaman. Companies make decisions that backfire. Sometimes it's them being stupid, but more often it has to do with dozens of situational factors that most gamers have zero understanding of. You can't blame the idiocy of one particular jackass on the entire Lords 2 team or Konami. It's just not fair.


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Offline flyingchai

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #39 on: October 22, 2014, 05:17:41 PM »
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As far as LOS2 music with strings goes, Carmilla's boss battle theme has to be my favourite, and it indeed has pronounced strings. Anyone else notice (or care to) how appropriate the ascending strings beginning are starting at 3:22? As if it refers to the real Carmilla's ascension into Heaven. The subsequent descending strings at 4:42 signify how in the end, she left her dark side behind and became a Lord of Shadow before being meeting her end. Got to love the chanting of "Cometissa" at 3:42, which means "Countess" in Latin. If I only I knew what all of the Latin being chanted was. :-D

« Last Edit: October 22, 2014, 05:20:16 PM by flyingchai »
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Offline Anglachel

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #40 on: October 22, 2014, 07:20:41 PM »
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That's cool! I would have never noticed that had you not told us. And yeah, little touches like that Latin in the music definitely add to the experience.

While still on the topic of music (And even Carmilla's music), this track (not on the OST) sounds like it could be converted to 8/16 bit and feel right at home in Castlevania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRfnb3ugcD0

Sounds a little like Bloody Tears, imo.

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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #41 on: October 23, 2014, 04:11:45 AM »
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If I only I knew what all of the Latin being chanted was. :-D

I know a bit of Latin. I'll consult my various dictionaries and books and see if I can translate it. No promises, though.


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Offline Mike Belmont

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #42 on: October 23, 2014, 05:09:23 PM »
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Ok, I admit (and is not that hard) that LoS 2 improves a lot in terms of music (as always, that´s my opinion). My favorites tracks are:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-2MG52wog (Dracula´s Theme)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6a9r355vLQ (Titanic Struggle)

As for CV music, is still hard to me to admit it as part of the saga. But in this game is get really close :).

As for the thread, did anyone mention that if the game had less (if not none) stealth elements, it would be better? I always think that such elements feel so rushed in the game. The bosses were great, being the best the Zobek/Death one. I would prefer he as the final boss fight than the Satan one. Oh, and I would change the incursion of Satan as the main antagonist since the beggining of the trilogy :P...

EDITED:

I might be alone in this but I think Satan should have been out of the picture entirely and Zobek should have been the main villain. He's more responsible for Gabriel's anguish than anyone else, Satan just felt forced in both LOS1 and 2.


Plus the fight with Zobek>>>Satancard, hell the fight with Zobek's Lieutenant>>>>>Satancard.

I just saw your post, pal and no, you are not alone in that statement.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2014, 05:13:19 PM by Mike Belmont »
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Offline Flame

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Re: Something(s) I thought Lords of Shadow 2 should have had more of.
« Reply #43 on: October 23, 2014, 07:34:48 PM »
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I like how Satan's battle theme, in the LoS1 Final battle reprise, has chants of "Castlevania" in it.

http://youtu.be/9QBADjkCgiM?t=5m02s
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