Topic: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate 3DS (Discussion Thread)

[Maedhros]

Wow... the framerate still looks like ASS. I think the 3DS just can't do this game run smooth with this level of graphics...

[Kingshango]

I just love Simon Belmont's overall design, the scarred face too.

Since Sypha doesn't seem to be shown being killed I suspect there might be more tragic implications for Simon.

Ergo, boss fight.

Mere speculation however.

Also

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/389154/castlevania-dev-would-absolutely-consider-mirror-of-fate-hd/

Looks like they have a backup plan in case it bombs. If this is the case then I'll wait for the HD release then.

Oh and the swimming sections are news to me, no idea that was in the game.

[Akuma]

Oh and the swimming sections are news to me, no idea that was in the game.

Well Simon is a human being.  I think it's a good addition.

[The Silverlord]

Haven't listened to the video commentary or music/sfx—is it any good?

Loving the artwork and that gorgeous 3D parallax scrolling.  They’re also switching up the sub-locales very nicely indeed.  Over a stone bridge we go and up into a wooden building.  Through an outer gate, down a ravine into caves and even a spot of swimming.  Beautiful and all (relatively) seamless.  Environments don’t look at all out of place compared to any other Castlevania.

Liking that the zombies take 3 rather than 10+ hits to fell.  The platforming also looks better than initially expected.  The jury may still be out, but there are gradients, bridges, boxes, stairways, ducking, grappling, and the swimming is a pleasant surprise.  Fingers crossed there is much more besides, given this run seems to be a tutorial stage.

I'm not especially keen though on all these cut-scenes and prompts though (did Dave reveal if they were skippable?).  I understand they’re helping present more information and enriching the story for the player, but I mean, zooming in when a zombie pops out of the ground?  That’s quite a spectacle.  Similarly with the barrel part: we know we’re going to have to destroy those barrels, and we can guess what the hearts do.  Is the target audience going to struggle with these basics?  You've got a clutter of near-redundant messages like: 'You just earned some experience!', 'Press R to use' (incidentally also doesn’t seem very appropriate when you come upon a dead soldier?).

Still, it's the way it's done these days . . .

It also appears they're still using that silvery glow on objects and bodies making platforms and secrets (and alternate routes probably) too easy to identify.  I think that may take away a bit of the challenge.  Maybe that can be turned off though.

Looking good though, and looking forward to the next two parts.

[DragonSlayr81]

Haven't listened to the video commentary or music/sfx—is it any good?

Loving the artwork and that gorgeous 3D parallax scrolling.  They’re also switching up the sub-locales very nicely indeed.  Over a stone bridge we go and up into a wooden building.  Through an outer gate, down a ravine into caves and even a spot of swimming.  Beautiful and all (relatively) seamless.  Environments don’t look at all out of place compared to any other Castlevania.

Liking that the zombies take 3 rather than 10+ hits to fell.  The platforming also looks better than initially expected.  The jury may still be out, but there are gradients, bridges, boxes, stairways, ducking, grappling, and the swimming is a pleasant surprise.  Fingers crossed there is much more besides, given this run seems to be a tutorial stage.

I'm not especially keen though on all these cut-scenes and prompts though (did Dave reveal if they were skippable?).  I understand they’re helping present more information and enriching the story for the player, but I mean, zooming in when a zombie pops out of the ground?  That’s quite a spectacle.  Similarly with the barrel part: we know we’re going to have to destroy those barrels, and we can guess what the hearts do.  Is the target audience going to struggle with these basics?  You've got a clutter of near-redundant messages like: 'You just earned some experience!', 'Press R to use' (incidentally also doesn’t seem very appropriate when you come upon a dead soldier?).

Still, it's the way it's done these days . . .

It also appears they're still using that silvery glow on objects and bodies making platforms and secrets (and alternate routes probably) too easy to identify.  I think that may take away a bit of the challenge.  Maybe that can be turned off though.

Looking good though, and looking forward to the next two parts.

The music's still very ambient. 

And while it's nice to see zombies go down with less hits, it would've been better to see them go down with LESSER hits.

Do agree with the hand holding. It's absolutely one of the worst aspects of modern/mainstream gaming.

[Zetheraxza]

The sub-weapon is arcing, yet horizontal. That's actually isn't that bad. I like it that that the game actually does look fun and gotta love the swimming aspects, never even thought of that possibility. Even the Momento thing sounds nice, Simon was the first CV character, then Alucard? Lol, But Trevor was definitely the third and I love a good sensible plot twist. Keep surprising me like that and this game may be one if my top 5 CVs. BUT, they just don' fuck'd up.

They SHOULDN'T have released the HD information just yet. This will harm the project. I'm actually considering waiting. See the Simon and Trevor in the front cover of the game? Cox said about the HD models earlier while back on Twitter, but I thought that would be just the purpose for the cover or cutscene(s) sequence in LoS2 but a WHOLE game in those graphics are on their database? People probably were going to buy 3DS just for this game, maybe 10,000 customers? 5,000? Even a thousand? But, that thought now has passed. I was so excited for another month to get my hands on this, but with the cover graphics... I'm thinking that there will be a fall release on consoles. So I'm down to wait, I might still buy it on my abandoned 3DS collecting dusts for months but... The will for that is pretty weak right now. Wow, you guys were right. Konami's marketing is pretty shit.

[Kingshango]

Here's more Simon footage

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate Gameplay Demo 1

Also, turkeys are used as health after all, only their in a barrel this time.

Oh and loading.

[Zetheraxza]

I knew that would be a problem, not to mention the stages are divided into smaller stages, I thought that as a casual difficulty player, there would be alot of enemies to deal with. But knowing how you can plow through the enemies easily, one may face more load times. Of course this will probably be experienced later in the game as Simon upgrades his abilities.
Why does the Crossbow spirit's face seems that of... Trevor's?

[Kingshango]

The video pretty much reveals who the crossbow spirit is if you pause and read the scroll he picks up.

Someone named Michael(?) Schneider.

[flyingchai]

There are 3 more videos of Simon's gameplay from the same user. I think the game looks fantastic, and the music sounds fantastic too.
The Demo 4 video has the Succubus boss battle, and a very brief glimpse of Dracula during the last 10 seconds.

And another thing, Simon IS using the combat cross.

[Nagumo]

The video pretty much reveals who the crossbow spirit is if you pause and read the scroll he picks up.

Someone named Michael(?) Schneider.

Oh, come on. What's even the point of that reference?

[Dremn]

I've only watched the IGN demo so far, but it's really nice to see they fixed the issue with how many hits it takes to kill enemies now. Looks a lot smoother all around, but I was surprised the axe didn't actually arc when they said in previews it does. Swimming looks nice too, I didn't expect that.

I have to say, I really like Simon's new design. He just looks awesome all around.

EDIT: I watched a little bit of the youtube footage, I'm convinced this could be a pretty decent game now. Looking forward to that demo.

[TheFly22284]

Wow... the framerate still looks like ASS. I think the 3DS just can't do this game run smooth with this level of graphics...

We can still hope. The off-screen videos from Nintendo World Report don't look nearly as rough as the IGN video... which looks, more or less, like a mildly interactive slideshow.

[Akuma]

Succubus boss has red hair, just like Sypha Belmont does.  Won't be surprised if that's what remained of Sypha.  Or it could just be a Succubus demon.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to this game now.

Load times probably won't bother me too much.

Although I wonder how load times would differ if a digital version was offered.

[Zetheraxza]

Skip to 0:30. Simon CAN throw the axe in a parabola. Look at the guy's fingers, you can actually control on what angle you want to throw the axe at. That's some mothaf***in' improvement. Ugh! I might just buy both versions...