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

[Flame]

Cox twitter snippets:

@CastlevaniaLOS at the beginning of CLOS2 will there be a summary of previous events for people who couldn't play the other game(s)? #noDS3D
@Criz_Zone - yes!

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? My head says, uh oh....that recap might be long.

Im betting LoS1 will be mostly recap, while MoF will get the more meaty part of the whole "recap". Since it ties more into LoS2, while LoS1 really just set up the villain.

[uzo]

Cox twitter snippets:

@CastlevaniaLOS at the beginning of CLOS2 will there be a summary of previous events for people who couldn't play the other game(s)? #noDS3D
@Criz_Zone - yes!

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? My head says, uh oh....that recap might be long.

You greatly overestimate the so called depth of LoS's story.

[Shiroi Koumori]

You greatly overestimate the so called depth of LoS's story.

I know the story is simple but if I remember correctly there were mentions of several hours of cutscenes, so there is a possibility for MS to stretch it to more than what is necessary.

[Chernabogue]

Apparently, they finished the editing of the new trailer.

[Nagumo]

I wonder how they are going to recap the convoluted plot of the first LoS? When writing for the wiki it took me at least several paragraphs.

[Weiss Belmont]

I wonder how they are going to recap the convoluted plot of the first LoS? When writing for the wiki it took me at least several paragraphs.

The Prince of Darkness was not always an ignoble demon but was once a pious man. A member of the Brotherhood of Light, he dedicated his life to fighting the forces of evil. His journey through the lands of the old gods forced him to confront demons both immaterial and very real until he confronted the author of his agony, Satan himself. Although Gabriel emerged victorious, his soul could not endure the revelations that the God he served allowed a multitude of sorrows to befall him. In renouncing his faith he was like unto the demons he spent his life fighting against. Embittered with anger he battled the minions of hell, vampires, and even the Forgotten One. Though the Forgotten One was an ancient evil god of unimaginable power, he too fell to Gabriel's fury but he would not be the last.

Now known as The Dragon, Gabriel's rage would extend to even his own descendants as he would later fell Trevor Belmont, his own son. One day, a warrior emerged, whose power and faith was even more power than that of Trevor Belmont's and that man was Simon Belmont, Trevor's own son. Armed with his faith, the Vampire Killer, and assistance from an "enigmatic" vampire known as Alucard, Simon would eventually slay The Dragon.

But...

The nightmare was far from over.


See that? That took me 10 minutes. That's the entire LOS series up until LOS2. I'm not talking shit about the game because I greatly enjoyed LOS but let's cut the crap. You don't need hours of cutscenes to recap the major points. And for everyone who's going to bitch [cause that's what you people do] about the fact that I left out Gabriel's wife and the Lords of Shadow save it.

Summed up right here:

His journey through the lands of the old gods forced him to confront demons both immaterial and very real until he confronted Satan himself. And although Gabriel emerged victorious, his soul could not endure the revelations that the God he served allowed a multitude of sorrows to befall him.

[A-Yty]

God drops a mask. Three pious people achieve nirvana, which leaves their bad sides behind. One of those bad people is a necromancer. Assisted by Satan (without him knowing it) he becomes the baddest of them all. He manipulates some guy, who was abandoned as a baby on the doorsteps of his brotherhood, into killing his wife. This guy speaks in a Scottish accent while believed to be the bastard of a nobleman with a Swedish family name. Yet he chooses himself a French surname.  Anyway, he kills his wife. The wife had a kid before this, but didn't bother telling that guy, for some reason. The wife killer guy assembles the mask because he thinks he can resurrect his wife before her corpse gets stinky.

The necromancer guy and Satan are overjoyed by the assembly of the mask, which is funny since the mask turns out to be just something that makes thing look nicer. This item, believed to be incredibly powerful is pretty much never mentioned again after Satan puts it on and air-jousts with the wife killer. God exists in this world, but he was kept out of these events because the necromancer guy did a spell. Yeah..I know. Well, at least He wasn't beaten by a gang of kids with hockey sticks and trapped in a coma body.

Wife killer guy kills some horned demon, drinks vampire blood and starts calling himself a dragon, for some reason. His secret son later comes to his castle. I guess he turns him into a vampire too. I don't know. I haven't played that game. Anyway, his son doesn't have a Scottish accent, but his son does.

Fast forward to today. This is that game. Are you bad enough dude to save the president?

[Nagumo]

^That's a very rushed recap. I suppose it's good enough but a lot of important bits are missing. This was my attempt (from the article about the Belmonts):


This incarnation of the Belmont family was founded by Gabriel Belmont, a knight who belonged to an order called the Brotherhood of Light. He was raised by the order after he was left at their doorstep when he was an infant. Gabriel took the surname of Belmont, after his love of mountains and the high places of the World.

In the year 1047, Gabriel's wife Marie was was brutally murdered by supernatural forces, leaving her soul unable to pass on due to a dark spell. Gabriel is sent by the Brotherhood of Light to the Lake of Oblivion, a place where the living can converse with the deceased. There, his deceased wife, Marie, tells him that the power of the Lords of Shadow, evil overlords who each rule their own domain, can save the world. Their power is derived from a powerful device called the God Mask. Another man from the Brotherhood called Zobek, introduces himself to Gabriel and tells him that, according to a prophecy, a pure-hearted warrior will claim the Lords of Shadow's powers to save the world. The God Mask would also allow Gabriel to bring back Marie.

With the help of Zobek, Gabriel travels to two Lord's domains, defeats them, and manages to retrieve their respective mask pieces. When he finally confronts the final Lord, it turns out Gabriel was manipulated by Zobek in eliminating the other Lords and collecting their mask pieces. With the power of the full God Mask, Zobek would be all powerful. In order to motivate Gabriel to do this task for him, Zobek controlled Gabriel's mind and commanded him to kill Marie. Zobek's actions are revealed to be puppeteered by Satan himself.

After being victorious in a climatic battle with Satan and saving the world, Gabriel uses the God Mask to resurrect Marie. However, the Mask only has the power to see through God's eyes. Marie lied to him so that he would save the world.

Afterwards, through a series of events, Gabriel becomes a vampire in order to save the world yet again, this time from a powerful demon called The Forgotten One. After defeating the monster, he absorbed its powers and unleashes his anger on the world himself. He becomes known as the Dark Lord Dracula and declares war on the Brotherhood of Light, who, according to him, are the reason for his suffering.

XX

Overall pretty lenghty and confusing for a Castlevania game I'd say.

[crisis]

One day, a warrior emerged, whose power and faith was even more power than over 9000

fix'd

Fast forward to today. This is that game. Are you bad enough dude to save the president?

+1

[Weiss Belmont]

Overall pretty lenghty and confusing for a Castlevania game I'd say.

To your credit nothing about your summary was confusing or lengthy. Whether intentional or accidental you summed up two games, and for fucks sake people let's get real. We're not talking about Metal Gear here. There isn't a single game in the Castlevania series that needs more than two paragraphs to summarize. I point this out because for those wondering how they're going to recap LOS and Mirror of Fate in LOS2, it is not difficult. I'm sorry people but Castlevania is not The Illiad. It doesn't take an hour long cutscene, or even one cutscene to recap the last two games. Give a paragraph to each game, two at the most and you're done. While they have the liberty to jazz it up and make it flashy, it is not "necessary".

[Maedhros]

To your credit nothing about your summary was confusing or lengthy. Whether intentional or accidental you summed up two games, and for fucks sake people let's get real. We're not talking about Metal Gear here. There isn't a single game in the Castlevania series that needs more than two paragraphs to summarize. I point this out because for those wondering how they're going to recap LOS and Mirror of Fate in LOS2, it is not difficult. I'm sorry people but Castlevania is not The Illiad. It doesn't take an hour long cutscene, or even one cutscene to recap the last two games. Give a paragraph to each game, two at the most and you're done. While they have the liberty to jazz it up and make it flashy, it is not "necessary".

Yup, people are getting out of hand with LoS bash.

They can recap the story of LoS with two paragraphs if they want. Hell, they're not obligued to tell the entire story for the people, they just want to give people the key events of the story. If they want to find out how these happenned, play the fucking game.

[Pfil]

It should be a rule that intros should be no more than 5 minutes long(that's if there's some story/background info to relay). And I mean in ALL games, even RPGs. They should let you enter control of your character as soon as possible to the player could get a good feel of the gameplay, because, esepcially in story heavy games(RPGs in particular), there is ALWAYS time for story exposition and character interaction, but let the player get the feel first of what they are going to be dealing with, THEN load on some more cutscenes after that. There's been some games I've played where the intro story and dialog drags on and it seems like you don't actually get to START playing the game until a good 30 minutes in. That's inexcusable. That, and games shouldn't "become good" late in the game. That's a problem I had with some games, Final Fantasy XIII included. People ask, "When does it get good?" and others replay, "Wait until you get into a later chapter near the end of the game!". Really? The rule should be, the game should be GOOD from square one! If it takes that long to get good or open up, the game's CRAP! C'mon developers, you don't even fuckin TRY anymore!(And I mean YOU Square Enix).

Anyways, yeah, the intro should be bare basics and to the point.

I find many games to have that problem. I'm always saying "Stop talking, I want to start playing!". Then yes, I have no problem with good stories, even if they are long, but there's a trend these days that the good stuff of the game happens at the beginning and ending, thus, middle chapters (sometimes that can be 10 hours or more) are fillers. What does this mean? It means what I've been thinking for a few years: games now are excessively and unnecessarily long. If you don't know how to add something interesting in the middle, keep it short and good, don't add boring hours.
IMO, most games should last less than 10 hours. They must be very (really) good to keep everyone's interest after that.

[RichterB]

The most intriguing thing about LoS2 so far is the addition of a 3D camera, which is something I really like/want in 3D Castlevania games. On the other hand, combining SotN design with LoS1, which is what it sounds like it's doing, is not my cup of tea--though, it could be very successful, nevertheless. I'm at least a little more curious than I was before.

New interview/info: http://www.oxm.co.uk/53950/new-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-gameplay-details-konami-talks-world-story-and-combat/

[Shiroi Koumori]

That's an interesting article.

I'll be waiting for the upcoming trailer. It will be shown at E3 right?

[Vampire Killer]

Will almost definitely be getting this. Still haven't played MoF though.