Topic: "The Dragon Returns" - Castlevania Lords of Shadow Sequel (HERE BE SPOILER INFO)

[Harrycombs]

I'm disappointed they are keeping the Titan battles. Those were easily the worst part of Lords of Shadow.

[Flame]

disagreed. they wete one of the most epic. gameplay and idea wasn't original, but they eere grand in atmosphere and scale

[Pfil]

Interview Stuff...

3 things stand out for me about this:
* No more QTE's! That's good!
* What's so funny about the name Trevor?
* "...When a game tries to be funny and isn't" (made me remember Banjo Kazooie, which all the time tried to be funny and all the time I disliked everything about it, with the exception of the very good level design, platforming and general gameplay).

[crisis]

Wellllll...... the article didn't say "no more QTE's," it said they've toned them down a bit. Which, imo, translates to they'll be present at points where we the players feel they aren't required.

And the "humor," I don't wanna see cringe-worthy cheesy stuff like THE CAKE IS NOT A LIE, which I'm sure LoS2 will include anyway...

Dracula: you must realize, Belmont, that all your base belong to me.. (evil laughter)

[A-Yty]

What game meme was hip about three years ago? That might be the source of LoS2 humor.

[Kingshango]

There will be a "Arrow to the knee" joke in there somewhere, I guaran-freaking-tee it.

[Dremn]

I'm disappointed they are keeping the Titan battles. Those were easily the worst part of Lords of Shadow.

Agreed. They felt really unnecessary too, what was the point of them plot-wise?

[Kingshango]

Agreed. They felt really unnecessary too, what was the point of them plot-wise?

In LOS1? Filler enemies.

In LOS2? The Brotherhood probably decided to resurrect ancient technology in case Dracula came back, so they made a walking church fortress based on the titans. My guess anyway.

Also, my favorite online enigma returned and said that a enemy from the first game make an appearance in LOS2.

(click to show/hide)

  it's the chupacabre and he works for you now.

[Munchy]

Agreed. They felt really unnecessary too, what was the point of them plot-wise?

Yeah, they weren't great. They didn't do a whole lot outside of a shuck and jive to try to shake you off.

I actually kind of appreciate the over-the-top-ness it sounds like they're putting in the game (ie, the crucifixplosion). I'm used to the idea that LoS is gonna do its own thing, so if they go more balls to the wall with ideas like that I say go for it. My main hopes in this regard are:

A) Satan should take over Dracula's castle. I appreciated the scope they were going with in the first game, but Hell/The Realm of the Dead wasn't really an interesting area. Just kinda looked like Mars. If they do take stuff back to Hell, I'd like it to look that way - tortured souls, really awful things going on in the environment, etc. rather than just being some underground shit full of lava.

B) Zobek/Death fight. Awful obnoxious scythes and all. If they could at all match the dramatic nature or at least give an homage to the Rondo Death fight, I'd be so goddamn happy.

Aside from Titans, my main worry points are these:

A) Puzzles. I thought they would be okay before LoS one, but I hate them. So much. In a game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil they're fine, because I'm already in a thinking mood to play those, but in an action game like this it grinds the pace to a screeching halt. I'm sure they'll provide the option to skip these as before, but I'd much rather do more exploration or combat than a damned puzzle.

B) Multiple characters. Of course this hasn't been confirmed yet. But in MoF all the abilities had to be stretched so thin mostly to accommodate different characters, only really for the sake of more plot points. I'd much rather they just stick with Gabriel and flesh him out fully rather than come up with a few more cool tricks and shoehorn them into Alucard or some other Belmont. (MoF reminds me of Devil May Cry 4 in this respect.)

C) Yes yes, wall shimmying. I know it's really a given the game's going to have some, but for God's sake let Gabriel move faster or... something.

[TheAcer]

There's a rumor going around that Igarashi himself requested mercurysteam to NOT use Julius Belmont (either that or for them not to name a Belmont "Julius") in LoS2.

However, take note that this rumor has NO credibility whatsoever and that I only brought it up for discussion.

[DoctaMario]

Yeah, they weren't great. They didn't do a whole lot outside of a shuck and jive to try to shake you off.



A) Puzzles. I thought they would be okay before LoS one, but I hate them. So much. In a game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil they're fine, because I'm already in a thinking mood to play those, but in an action game like this it grinds the pace to a screeching halt. I'm sure they'll provide the option to skip these as before, but I'd much rather do more exploration or combat than a damned puzzle.

C) Yes yes, wall shimmying. I know it's really a given the game's going to have some, but for God's sake let Gabriel move faster or... something.

I agree with you about the Frost and Rock titans, but the Dracolich was an awesome fight. I don't know if you guys are lumping that one in with the other two, but I thought that was well done, if not a little over the top. But from the sound of it, they've improved on these in LoS2 and hopefully they'll be a lot more fun this time around.

The puzzles keep the game from being one-dimensional. I really appreciated a lot of the puzzles in LoS and liked that they were a lot better and somewhat more thought provoking than the bullshit that passes for puzzles in a the Devil May Cry games (love them though I do.) Nothing wrong with an action game that calls for you to think once in awhile. There was a good variety to them too.

I also thought the shimmying was good. It reminded me of the 64 games somewhat, which is what LoS reminded me most of. But with that said, I can't really imagine Gabriel needing to do that much should he be able to use bat and mist forms. It would almost seem silly to make him get relics or whatever to be able to change his shape and still need to climb and shimmy.

[Nagumo]

There's a rumor going around that Igarashi himself requested mercurysteam to NOT use Julius Belmont (either that or for them not to name a Belmont "Julius") in LoS2.

However, take note that this rumor has NO credibility whatsoever and that I only brought it up for discussion.

Very interesting. Where are the rumors from?

Edit: Nevermind, it's from leak guy.

Yesyesyes

[Shiroi Koumori]

Very interesting. Where are the rumors from?

Probably from the fans.

Off topic:
Well, for those who can't wait for a little Julius action, I'm done encoding the Ricordanza translation. I will have to do a final check before I post the novel here.

[Dark Nemesis]

disagreed. they wete one of the most epic. gameplay and idea wasn't original, but they eere grand in atmosphere and scale

And i disagree, because personaly i don't find them to fit in Castlevania, since they slow you down veryyyyyy much, since if you made a mistake, you have to climb all over again, just a waste of time if you ask me. You don't gain anything. Castlevania is an action game and not press x and y button when you are prompt, even GoW Titan battles are far superior from the ones of LoS.

[crisis]

I kinda like the idea how Dracula is an enemy of both God and Satan; perhaps he believes himself to be the third major deity. Remember how Zobek(i think) described the God Mask, it's user can resurrect the dead, be invincible, destroy the universe, challenge God Himself. Maybe Gabriel believes that to be true about himself since he declares himself as the "chosen one" if that preview is to be believed.

That over-the-topness mentioned of seeing the explosion from away from the planet reminds me of those epic summons from FFVII. Of course nowadays it's nothing special but seeing that type of graphix for the first time in 1997 was impressive!