Topic: Lords of shadow 2 is on it's way

[Maedhros]

I have a feeling they'll show up again.

Imagine one of them riding on top of a Medusa Head.

Medusa Heads?

I have some bad news for you...

EDIT: Or good... I think it depends on the perspective.

[Flame]

Oh god you guys just made me realise something:


The Chupacabra never died. Which means there's a high probability that it will show up in the sequel.

If anyone from Mercurysteam is viewing this (and I know you are) please for the sake of our sanity, omit this annoying prick from the next game PLEASE!!? Nobody liked him and im pretty damn sure no one will miss him.

especially since their only real claim to fame/purpose is being voiced by Hideo Kojima. In the JAPANESE version, not the English one. At least i dont think so.

[Munchy]

My favorite thing about the Chupacabra was the animation and sound Gabriel makes when he's zapped.

That and his voice is grating but still not as obnoxious as Claudia.

[X]

That 'THING' better not show up in LoS2 as it was nothing more then a hindrence in the first game; annoying as s**t. And to top it off it's not even a true Chupacabra.

Now this is what a Chupacabra looks like.

[Neobelmont]

That 'THING' better not show up in LoS2 as it was nothing more then a hindrence in the first game; annoying as s**t. And to top it off it's not even a true Chupacabra.

Now this is what a Chupacabra looks like.

If cv needed a little guy why not a Tikoloshe or Tokoloshe how ever it is spelt? Again I will say freaky little bastards.


http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Tikoloshe

http://tokoloshe.askdefine.com/

[Munchy]

ALSO, I hope we don't see David Cox as the PR guy this time around. Or at least, that he don't make promises that he can't maintain (no QTEs, SERIOUSLY? The first fucking fight has that! Based on CV IV? Where?)

See, the thing is, Cox did his job pretty well as I understood it - his job being to make the game look sexy so people will buy it. What really helped was that most people went in not knowing exactly what to expect (myself included), and were hyped at the prospect of a good 3D Castlevania without some awful fundamental flaws.

But there were a few things that severely deflated my hype upon spending the time with the game, that were also juxtaposed by what Cox said in various interviews-

1. The emphasis on an emotional storyline. I'm not trying to say that video games shouldn't be trying to strive for better emotional content, but that LoS was hyped so much for its emotionally powerful story just goes to show how dreadfully bad most video game plots are. The "shocking twists" are only for the sake of being some kind of surprise, sort of the narrative equivalent of a jump scare in a horror game. We are told about all of these emotional scars Gabriel has, but he doesn't show it at all save for a few scenes. The narrator keeps repeating himself over and over about how tragic the whole scenario is and how grimdark and grimspooky Gabriel's opponents are, etc etc. Every character exists only as a vehicle to give power ups or some shit to Gabriel. And for all the complaints Cox had about comparisons to God of War, they steal THE EXACT SAME PLOT TWIST from that game's story (Gabriel and Kratos are both "tricked" into killing their significant others). The trailers had so, so many bait-and-switch moments (da FUCK do you mean, Jason Isaacs doesn't actually play Dracula? Where's Slogra? Where's that rendition of the CV4 intro music?). The plot's not only barely beyond any of IGA's in terms of emotional content, but it's also a little insulting that it was assumed I'd find it "powerfully emotional". (All this being said, I tend not to enjoy Castlevania games for their stories anyway.)

2. The music. Well, there's an orchestra. That's pretty cool. What? No pipe organ? No harpsichord? Awwwwwww.... ...But in all seriousness, the enjoyment of music is pretty subjective so I'm not gonna go into the usual rants that occur about the game's music. My own expectations kind of did me in here (as with the story arguably); I was hoping the music would convey... I dunno, a sense of mystery and foreboding, especially when Cox kept mentioning CV4. What we got... wasn't necessarily bad, but was sort of one-dimensional in what it wanted to express. You got your "sad exploration " music and your "determined battle " music. There just isn't a lot of variety to it. (EDIT: Now that I think about it, nothing Cox said about music was really contradicted, so, uh, I'm not sure how much this paragraph relates to anything else.)

3. QTEs. In Cox's defense, he NEVER said that the game would not contain QTEs. He said that the QTEs would be different from the run of the mill kind (I assume he referred to the circle-matching ones here), and that he personally can't stand QTEs. However, not only does the game have plenty of the normal "Simon says" QTEs, but Cox later said in an interview that he was proud of making a QTE-less combat system... which it most certainly isn't. Now, I'll grant that the combat is pretty well executed and fun, but I can't help but think there's some better way to dismantle an enemy than a QTE; for example, having to actually kill a werewolf with a silver dagger, or a vampire only dying by a stake weapon, or one of those wraiths being immune to all except light damage... there was some creativity in how you had to approach some of the monsters, but it needed more.

4. Titans. Actually, Cox didn't really say anything one way or the other about these that I know of, outside of "It's like SotC!" To me they were the 3D equivalent of those giant multi-segmented enemies in the GBA games - nice looking tech demos for what the engine can do, but pretty sucky and boring as a boss fight. However, IGA's team improved these segmented guys a heck of a lot in the later games, and hopefully MS will do so as well as making them look a little more fitting for a Castlevania. (EDIT: To give MS some more credit, at least you don't have to whip at these guys' ankles forever.)

I think by far the most truthful of Cox's statements about the game was to "keep an open mind". It's enjoyable in a kitschy "Castlevania: the Official Game of the Movie" sort of way, and I'm curious to see what's done with the next one.

[Neobelmont]

It is late,but heck I will put this here anyway

http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/05/kojima-productions-has-big-things-in-store-for-e3

[The Silverlord]

Agree with much of that Munchy.

Cox put himself out there, he must have been exhausted with all those interviews and keeping his twitter feed going, but he really wanted the game to succeed.  He practically did all the marketing himself (feels like that anyway).

I have faith in Mercurysteam.  They’re not a bad outfit, you’ve got to start somewhere, learn and strive for the best you can.

Can’t wait for an E3 announcement and hopefully an extended trailer!

[Chernabogue]

With the success of LoS, I'm really hoping that Konami gave more money for the production of the sequel and that more artists and people will work to make it better than the first game (and a bit more CV-ish).

[TreasuryRoom1984]

I think it's pretty well set in stone now - http://www.computerandvideogames.com/347522/cvgs-e3-2012-awards-voting-now-open/

[Chernabogue]

I hope they won't call it "LoS 2". The Lords are all dead (apparently, you know what I mean).

You know what? If they focus on Gabriel on this one, let's call it "Lord of Shadows". 

-------------------
EDIT:

I think it's pretty well set in stone now - http://www.computerandvideogames.com/347522/cvgs-e3-2012-awards-voting-now-open/

Yeah, but:

[nb. A handful of games in our long list are rumoured titles that haven't been confirmed by their publishers. Our opinion of the likelihood of an E3 showing for each will be made clear in our previews]

[Dremn]

It will probably have a different subtitle, LoS 2 just sounds dumb. I figured it was just a placeholder name for the sequel as of now.

[DragonSlayr81]

Considering the games that followed Symphony of the Night weren't called SotN2, I'm pretty sure the LoS sequel's going to have a new subtitle.

[A-Yty]

Castlevania - Not Akumajou Dracula 2: Electric Boogaloo

[shelverton.]

What if it's called "Castlevania II"? Konami probably wants people to understand that it's a sequel to the first game, given how much it sold (for a CV, that is).

Btw, a while ago I dreamt about something (film or game, don't really know) called "Testament of Sin". It had a teaser site which looked exactly like that old Lords of Shadow site, before it was revealed to be Castlevania. But then the site turned into a Tetris like game with water that slowly filled the screen. And then there was something about penguins and Titanic. But yeah, for a second it definitely was the sequel to LoS, albeit the exact same game.