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

[crisis]

Honestly I could care less about stealth in this game. just give me excellent platforming from beginning to end and I'll be happy.

I can't understand how it seems some people would prefer stealth sections over platforming in a Castlevania game

With any luck we will also get a long escort mission with a suicidal person that likes to run into crowds of enemies.

Prolly Dracula escorting chibi Trevor calling it now

[Zetheraxza]

I don't think any of us are having X sections over Y sections. I for one want the "DRACULA" experience in this... which I know will not be satiated. I want to sneak up in the city behind a civilian and drink their blood. I want a low level knight hearing footsteps and wind caused by superhuman speed and get feared for what he is about to get into as he backs away and Dracula teleports right behind him and drinks the brotherhood scum's blood with the victim's life flashing before his eyes. I wanna eavesdrop on the guards and hear their plans like he did with Alucard and Simon in MoF. Its these EXTRA things that would make the game fun. Castlevania is an Action/Platformer but if I wanna play it like a stealth game, why is it a bad thing? That is the point of the open world approach. OPTIONS. Link to the Past is action, but you can go stealth if you want to. Nobody complains why it has a stealth mechanic there, because it was only a mechanic. It didn't change the game into a stealth genre. It was an Action RPG, but you could go stealth if you wanted to.

Although, the 2D games had poor AI, AoS had Nemesis soul which would render you invisible for a while. And if I do recall correctly, some enemies would be idle if you weren't in front of them. In DoS, the dead pirates were positioned only to one direction depending where you were. If the pirate was facing right and you intially entered the room from the left, you could attack them from behind. You even got a soul from them which caused grater damage if you attacked an enemy from behind. Stealth were unintentionally there in those games so yeah... INB4 LoS2.

[Kingshango]

I think most of the concern regarding the stealth mission (hell might as well throw in the inevitable escort mission with little Trevor or whoever else) is not that it's a stealth segment in an action game but rather that it's a stealth segment in a action game made by Mercurysteam. Who to a lot of people, don't really know how to implement game mechanics well, which is why hearing that there's  stealth segments in a Castlevania game starring Dracula has some people looking like .

[Zetheraxza]

Yeah, I suppose that's understandable. But I have a dream...

[Maedhros]

*reads Zetheraxza post*

BWAHAHAHAHAAH

[uzo]

I think I'll be sitting this release out too, like Mirror of Fate, given the recent info thats come out.

See you guys when Castlevania is interesting again.

[Chernabogue]

See you guys when Castlevania is interesting again.

Isn't that like now? 

[Zetheraxza]

*reads Zetheraxza post*

BWAHAHAHAHAAH

Not sure whether lovin' or hatin'

Anyways, they've rather been slow with updates. Last thing we got was the gameplay presentation narrated by AluStark himself. Changing skin for the original sub weapons is kind of a low blow in my opinion. I hope we get more than faeries, daggers, holy water and Crystal just being Draculified. To be honest I don't really care about time watch... Unless you can't teleport. I'll just pretend that I'm teleporting in front of my enemies. Those brotherhood snacks won't know what hit 'em! I do HOPE that we can have Dark Inferno of some sort. Mercurysteam, give us immersion!

[Kingshango]

Konami can ease some concerns (or raise concerns even further) if they showed more footage of the game.

Maybe Konami should you know, show more footage of the game. Did they forget that the game comes out in 2 months? I wouldn't be surprised if the game already went gold by now.

[e105beta]

Geez, you guys complain about absolutely everything that doesn't fit your exacting specifications.

[crisis]

To clarify, while adding stealth in a Castlevania isn't a 100% dealbreaker for me, it certainly on paper seems jarring and totally out-of-place, especially in an action/platformer, and I don't see the need for anyone of us to make excuses for it such as "dracula needs to avoid sunlight ((despite according to cox the game taking place in 1 night))" or "why not add other gameplay genres to the mix the more the merrier guys." I don't want to have to worry about being in an annoyingly long puzzle segment (which I'm sure there'll be an abundance of) while at the same time adding stealth elements to it, only because "why not?" I'm not entirely convinced that just because an enemy doesn't see you or waits to attack you right away, that constitutes as proof of stealth in previous CV games. As of right now, I don't see how adding stealth gives any more layers of depth to the game, not anymore than adding QTE's or clumsy Collosus fights to LoS1 made it a better experience instead of just shamelessly tacking it on because it worked for that ps2 game so why not here. I could see the same logic being used, "it worked for MGS so why not here?"

Still, no gameplay videos yet, so it's just too early to make a definite decision. And considering the game is only 2 months away, that's kinda worrying. If we're lucky then we'll only see Dracula for whatever reason sneaking behind a few ledges for only a small small portion of the game. Otherwise I really don't see the point [other than obvious Kojima/MGS homage, which there'll no doubt be bucket loads of anyway]

[darkwzrd4]

I could understand adding a stealth option if it wasn't mandatory and had some sort of benefit such as extra damage to the enemy or a one hit kill. Or, if the game is truly open world and you want to explore an optional area where the enemies are much stronger, then a stealth option/mode would work. I could also see a short stealth segment at near the beginning of the game when we are weak and are without our powers.

The deal breaker for me would be forced stealth sections just because the developer thought it would be cool when in reality we could just go in guns blazing without changing the story.

And, don't get me started on escort missions where the person you are protecting can die and has suicidal AI (which is practically all escort missions)!!!!

[Ahasverus]

We're forgetting Ecclesia's stealth sections now for convenience?

[Zetheraxza]

Thank you, Darkwzrd4. That's exactly how I feel about stealth. Optional, not manditory.

We're forgetting Ecclesia's stealth sections now for convenience?

Whaaaaaaa?

[DoctaMario]

I REEEEAAAAAAALLY think you guys are overthinking the stealth thing. I bet at most, it'll be a couple 5-second sections of the game if that. That doesn't turn the game into a stealth game any more than the sections in LoS1 where you have to throw the spears at the Forgotten One turned that game into an FPS.