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

[Flame]

That's right, that's right... Didn't he say you could turn it off? Neat.

[Kingshango]

Also what I did like is that it actually LOOKS like your hitting the enemy. All of the attacks have some impact, the enemies stagger after each hit and the game seems to have proper hit detection this time around which is A ok in my book. Oh and the framerate seems to hold up nicely (to me at least).

[Flame]

I like the blood effect when Gabe dodges.

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

or 3D open world in general, which really HASN'T been done before in CV.

Looks like somebody forgot Curse of Darkness.

Despite its bad reception the game did happen, and it did provide a "open world" of sorts, granted not one with a lot of depth or platforming for that matter.

[Gecko]

I think when he says open world has never been done, I THINK he means more long the lines of Arkham City style open world. He might be referring to that. or 3D open world in general, which really HASN'T been done before in CV.

Curse of Darkness? Is it not open world? You can go anywhere at any time if you have the abilities to get there. Maybe I'm not understanding the meaning of "open world". I've always called the metroidvanias open world(well, open castle, mostly).

[Kingshango]

Oh and I noticed that the void and chaos magic meters seem to regenerate.

Or maybe it's for demo purposes.

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

Curse of Darkness? Is it not open world? You can go anywhere at any time if you have the abilities to get there. Maybe I'm not understanding the meaning of "open world". I've always called the metroidvanias open world(well, open castle, mostly).

Thats what I'm saying.

You can freely traverse the ruins or the castle or head to the mountains or even the forest.

There's even a small town you can make it to.

And your still able to freely go back and explore the previous areas at your leisure.

I don't know, from what I hear from Cox LOS2 is going to have a similar type of freedom although I assume it will have much more depth and platforming than Curse of Darkness did.

[crisis]

So let me tell you all about my wild INCEPTION-like dream concerning Lords of Shadow 2.. (warning: LONG semi-descriptive post ahead)


I can't remember exactly how it all started, but I was playing a demo of the game. I assume, story-wise, it began not too long after the events of Resurrection but before MoF. I mean, it must have been before MoF and before he claims the castle, and I'll explain why later. I was controlling Gabriel/Dracula in a gray-colored, damaged environment. I was fighting several demons using nothing but bare-hand combat. Dracula looked fierce, I recall just his idle stance was VERY menacing & just looked so badass. The rain just made the mood and environment all the better (I guess, now that I think about it, it kinda mirrored the first stage of LoS1, but obviously way better). After a few minor battles there was a boss or mini-boss, a lion-like creature. I was just controlling Dracula with extreme melee combat, no weapons or magic. There was also several obstacles I had to overcome while battling/escaping this lion-demon. After a while I was at this puzzle-like corridor. The graphics were REALLY nice, almost impressive. It was like perfect 1080p resolution, it was so vivid. I really wish I could paint a better picture of what I was seeing. Anyway this puzzle corridor was confusing at first, but was simple once I figured out how to get through it. I remember it involved mirrors somehow, and some climbing. I had to do some back-tracking and double takes to figure out what was going on. If you're well-versed in action & puzzle games then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Now, before any of you punch me in the face, I will say this; Yes, there WAS shimmying, BUT it wasn't bad or annoying or out-of-place. I can tell because the constant shimmying in the first LoS really annoyed the fuck out of me. But here it was different, and somehow made sense! I recall it was a large wall structure with a clock-like design on it. I had to shimmy my way up there, but there was sliding panels so it wasn't as easy as it seemed. As I got closer to the top the camera would pan out to reveal this giant clock-looking structure. Oddly enough I don't remember falling or starting over at this part, it just took some patience & careful timing. But it wasn't long at all. At the top I encountered the lion-demon-mini-boss again, and engaged it in quick combat. I don't recall ANY QTE's, though there could've been and I just can't remember those intervals. Now that I think about it this creature could've just been the Daemon Lord seen in MoF, it had a similar design. After this part, I was suddenly at this portal-like part. This was the end of the demo, because for some odd reason, once I reached this part the game gave me the option to CHOOSE which "type" of Dracula to play the rest of the game as: the "melee combat" version, the "Draconis" version (yes, I remember it was distinctly titled Draconis, and it was Dracula with magic-like abilities as opposed to melee combat), and the third and final option was an amalgam of the first two. It was obvious to me that just about everybody was gonna choose the third "type," so I was wondering why they split it up like that. So this is the reason why I believe it took place before MoF, cuz I couldn't conjure any weapons or use magic or teleportation, yet Dracula had these abilities in MoF. After that, the demo faded to black and simply said "Coming Soon 2013."

it seems that certain parts of what I dreamt that night were somewhat-correct 

[DragonSlayr81]

Thats what I'm saying.

You can freely traverse the ruins or the castle or head to the mountains or even the forest.

There's even a small town you can make it to.

And your still able to freely go back and explore the previous areas at your leisure.

I don't know, from what I hear from Cox LOS2 is going to have a similar type of freedom although I assume it will have much more depth and platforming than Curse of Darkness did.

Who knows? Maybe the city won't be barren like the Cordova was. Maybe there's actually people there, some that actually HELP you(a "Pro-Drac" faction of sympathizers).

[Flame]

Calling it now. Shaft reference somewhere.

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

Who knows? Maybe the city won't be barren like the Cordova was. Maybe there's actually people there, some that actually HELP you(a "Pro-Drac" faction of sympathizers).

what do interactive people have to do with a "open world" castlevania game?

Sure it adds more realism, but the point I am making here is that Cox and Flame said there was not really a open world CV game that has been done before.

I'm saying what would you call Curse of Darkness?

Your able to travel a open world that ranges from castles, forests,towns,mountains, churches and so on, and you can travel them all on foot at your leisure.

Is that not a open world?

[Bergaron]

Also what I did like is that it actually LOOKS like your hitting the enemy. All of the attacks have some impact, the enemies stagger after each hit and the game seems to have proper hit detection this time around which is A ok in my book. Oh and the framerate seems to hold up nicely (to me at least).

Yes solid fps ... so do not risk even if you're buying, Swoop on PC, more quality and cheaper (with option to mods) what more could you ask for.

[Rugal]

Mash Square to win game
Press button to borrow Frostmourn from Arthas
Quick time event to drain blood?

"Awesome!!!"

Yeah.. This will be a bargain bin game really soon after release.

[VladCT]

why does the word "void" remind me of final fantasy?

Anyway, I would've preferred classic platforming compared to what was shown in the demo, and I would've preferred if they'd done away with the QTE entirely. Also, is it just me, or does the guy playing the demo not seem to be that good at the combat segments?

[Maedhros]

The worst part was, for DAMN SURE, was the QTE on the shitty "platforming". HOLY FUCKING CRAP, I was cringing looking at this.

The graphics are amazing.