Topic: What made LOS2 so incredibly bad?

[Belmont Stakes]

There seems to be a conflict in this forum about the combat style of the two 3D titles. Some have said that the game is a GOW clone but a lot of people like Victor Belmont (myself included). So is there a place to go with the combat cross wielding Kratos Belmont as well as Alucard?

[KaZudra]

Lords of Shadow 2 is strange, though it has a lot of cons it's still a good game, at least there is a potential good game in there. Let's start with the cons.

- Narrative is weak; The way Dracula redeems himself overnight is just un-buyable. There could have been more material of transitioning rather than "My wife and kid says I'm good, even though I'm the Lord of Darkness, I guess they are right."

- Poor use of side characters; Every character in LoS2 could have had a stronger role to play, especially Victor and Puppet-Maker. The inclusion of Carmilla was okay, but should have been with the pure versions of the other Brotherhood members. Also if you're gonna include Carmilla, why not Laura?

- Anti-Climatic moments; Fighting Alucard and Victor were great nods of role-reversal of the Castlevania games, but... The Alucard fight should have been used at the point before Dracula goes into hibernation instead of "possessed by Satan" and Victor dying 15 minutes after being introduced is pretty weak too. The worst offender is the Satan showdown which could have been way harder and way better considering how his fight was in LoS1.

-Stealth Sections; This was an attempt to add more variety into the game, not a bad idea. The bad idea is going through the whole game with this nonsense rather than just having these sections just at the beginning where they made sense.

-Castle Confusion; One simple philosophy, if you have to ask the writer what the deal is with the castle rather than having it explained in the game, you have done it wrong. The Castle could have been a timespace or "true form" like the chaos realm, instead we get this confusing Head Castle which is also real which is also much more confusing considering the events.

-Inconstancy with the plot; Sequels are great, but also supposed to be self contained, but most importantly it has to be compliant to the previous entries.

-Lack of The Dragon; If you're gonna do a Biblical end of the world basis, you gotta do it right. Satan should be riding the Leviathan while the Behemoth is running rampant on ground. in which there should have been at least ONE section where you get full control over dragon form, Even if it's a cinamatic QTE section it still would have been nice.

-The Shop Sucks; along with most of the items. The Potions, Hidden eggs, and Dragon Form were pretty much the only useful items. and you have the shop, which sells those items forgetting that you can pick them up rather easily. it's inclusion was not a bad idea, but it could have been much more useful.

-DLC; This could have been a strong aspect, 2 costumes, an item transmuter, and a small Alucard section. Why not add a Victor section, an option to play the main camaign as either Alucard or Victor, Optional side missions? Toy Maker themed Boss Rush? There are sooooo many ways they could have taken my money. Harmony of Despair has arguably terrible DLC as a whole but I bought every last bit.

I guess it's all said and done, I wish Konami would rework the game a bit and give us a "Definitive" edition but, the build up of a potentially amazing LoS saga ended on this.

[TatteredSeraph]

You hit the nail on the head, imo.  It was rushed, much like how MoF tried to do so much.  The suddenly son who teh last time he'd seen him he was his enemy because he sided with hsi own son against him, but this time suddenly best friends and knowing his original name?  Hmm.....  For me, the stealth sections, rushing through of various characters in tiny segments, anticlimactic final boss and mxed messages of redemption but oh, no, actually he's taken over the world contradiction...   It had some beautiful ideas, and teh castle could have been much larger.  Why not spread the series over more games?  Why not tell the story of what led Gabriel to become dissilousioned rather than vengeful.  What happened in the 500 years between his Turning and the Brotherhood seige?  What was Alucard up to?  What was Al actually up to after then until the present day?  Aldo, if the castle was as though a living entity, why wasn't it the same in the modern city bult on its ruins?  I was actually expecting that.  Also, greater enemy variety, especially in the modern city.
  I want to know.  There was so much potential.  The concept artwork was amazing, and the storyline had so much potential, which got stamped down on too much by the top.  The Alucard DLC gave such a fantastic hint towards what the game could have been.

[Belmont Stakes]

Lords of Shadow 2 is strange, though it has a lot of cons it's still a good game, at least there is a potential good game in there. Let's start with the cons.

- Narrative is weak; The way Dracula redeems himself overnight is just un-buyable. There could have been more material of transitioning rather than "My wife and kid says I'm good, even though I'm the Lord of Darkness, I guess they are right."

- Poor use of side characters; Every character in LoS2 could have had a stronger role to play, especially Victor and Puppet-Maker. The inclusion of Carmilla was okay, but should have been with the pure versions of the other Brotherhood members. Also if you're gonna include Carmilla, why not Laura?

- Anti-Climatic moments; Fighting Alucard and Victor were great nods of role-reversal of the Castlevania games, but... The Alucard fight should have been used at the point before Dracula goes into hibernation instead of "possessed by Satan" and Victor dying 15 minutes after being introduced is pretty weak too. The worst offender is the Satan showdown which could have been way harder and way better considering how his fight was in LoS1.

-Stealth Sections; This was an attempt to add more variety into the game, not a bad idea. The bad idea is going through the whole game with this nonsense rather than just having these sections just at the beginning where they made sense.

-Castle Confusion; One simple philosophy, if you have to ask the writer what the deal is with the castle rather than having it explained in the game, you have done it wrong. The Castle could have been a timespace or "true form" like the chaos realm, instead we get this confusing Head Castle which is also real which is also much more confusing considering the events.

-Inconstancy with the plot; Sequels are great, but also supposed to be self contained, but most importantly it has to be compliant to the previous entries.

-Lack of The Dragon; If you're gonna do a Biblical end of the world basis, you gotta do it right. Satan should be riding the Leviathan while the Behemoth is running rampant on ground. in which there should have been at least ONE section where you get full control over dragon form, Even if it's a cinamatic QTE section it still would have been nice.

-The Shop Sucks; along with most of the items. The Potions, Hidden eggs, and Dragon Form were pretty much the only useful items. and you have the shop, which sells those items forgetting that you can pick them up rather easily. it's inclusion was not a bad idea, but it could have been much more useful.

-DLC; This could have been a strong aspect, 2 costumes, an item transmuter, and a small Alucard section. Why not add a Victor section, an option to play the main camaign as either Alucard or Victor, Optional side missions? Toy Maker themed Boss Rush? There are sooooo many ways they could have taken my money. Harmony of Despair has arguably terrible DLC as a whole but I bought every last bit.

I guess it's all said and done, I wish Konami would rework the game a bit and give us a "Definitive" edition but, the build up of a potentially amazing LoS saga ended on this.

One thing I would like to have seen in addition to the DLC rework is simply this. Wouldn't it have been fun to play as Dracula in his decrepit no longer pierced form but power him up as you go? I think that version albeit his weak form looked better than his shorter haired, Undertaker ripoff, Frenchy mustached form. They played up that part with him attacking Zobek quite well.

The narrative is Dracula being jaded and weary of eternal life so him wanting to escape what he has been has probably weighed on him since losing his mind/humanity post Forgotten One Being's annihilation.

Would have liked seeing Cornell again. Werewolves are way better than modern day mutants with pig faces. Laura was a really cool tragic character. Seeing that in Gabula's mind eye would have been interesting.

Stealth is for non tainted Belmont's, Assassins and Snakes with Solid character.

Technically speaking you could say that the Left-tenant was the final boss in both endings.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Stealth is for non tainted Belmont's, Assassins and Snakes with Solid character.

hahahahaha! That is a quotable quote.

[Belmont Stakes]

I will give the game some due praise. At least they bothered to take care of some of those collision issues that made the first game look it had 3D Sonic Suck Syndrome.

[PFG9000]

It's been said many times already, but those obnoxious Golgoth guards had no place in the later parts of the game.  So I can murder satan himself (for real this time!), but I can't even smudge a Golgoth guard's eyeliner?

I liked the music...that played during the game loading screen.  I don't remember any other music from the game.  Pathetic for a Castlevania, though sadly expected from a Lords of Shadow game.

My favorite part of the game was actually the Agreus portion.  I'm not kidding.  It was the only part that had atmosphere reminiscient of the first LoS.  Although all the castle parts had really nice atmosphere.  But I didn't find the Agreus stealth part annoying at all, in fact I passed that part after something like 3 deaths.  I was shocked afterward to find just how much people hate that part.

Overall, I'm glad I played the game, but I don't think I'll ever play it again.  I've played through CV4 at least 25 times, and SotN more times than I can count.  It makes me sad to think this is the last CV we might ever get.

[piscesdreams]

And there I was, buying this game for $9 on Steam. I had no intentions of playing this one, but I guess I am curious to see what Castlevania's death rattle is like.

[Belmontoya]

They should have just made LOS1 a Cv1 remake and stopped there.

LOS1 was amazing, but it could have been better without the new radically different storyline.

Going to kill Dracula is enough. Any future reboot should stay true to that and not try to fix what isn't broken.

Gabriel should have been Simon.

Simon as he was in the LOS world would have fit better as a character in Pixar's Brave.

$9 sounds about right for LOS2. Knowing what I know though, I'd probably rather piss the $9 away on a Starbucks run.

[Sul_Yong]

This game was pretty bad. The stealth sections were, as already stated, garbage, and going from past to modern was rather trash. I felt comparing this to its predecessor was often like comparing Symphony of the Night to Rondo of Blood: the gameplay stayed roughly the same, yet the progression went from linear to sandbox. However, while both the first Lords of Shadow and Rondo of Blood felt satisfying from a narrative perspective end game as it had gotten harder, Lords of Shadow 2 does not satisfy like Symphony of the Night. You never feel stronger as Dracula like you do as Alucard. Playing as the Prince of Darkness, Blight of Mankind, the Big Spook, yet enemies near endgame still take roughly two to three minutes to kill.

But despite this, due to the power of Roleplay, it's one my favorite Castlevania games and my guiltiest of pleasures. I boot up the game, and say "I am Dracula, and this is my Castle. I will destroy these lame knights, and submit all who oppose me under my will. Unlike Soma, my coat is red." Then I proceed to love the game again.

[piscesdreams]

They should have just made LOS1 a Cv1 remake and stopped there.

LOS1 was amazing, but it could have been better without the new radically different storyline.

Going to kill Dracula is enough. Any future reboot should stay true to that and not try to fix what isn't broken.

Gabriel should have been Simon.

Simon as he was in the LOS world would have fit better as a character in Pixar's Brave.

$9 sounds about right for LOS2. Knowing what I know though, I'd probably rather piss the $9 away on a Starbucks run.

Nail on the head. The story was the only thing that I hated about LoS, and the final boss.

I may be better off having chosen Starbucks, I haven't booted the game up yet and probably won't for a long time. It's one of those things I'll probably have to get drunk and see what happens.

[Dracula9]

Pro wrestler Satan. With butt wings. And pretty crystal blue doe eyes.

That's all the reason you need.

[KaZudra]

Pro wrestler Satan. With butt wings. And pretty crystal blue doe eyes.

That's all the reason you need.

Beat up your possessed son to defeat him, What did he do all that lifting for?