Topic: If LoS had been last...

[Flame]

I wonder... what would the general opinion have been of the series, had LoS2 or Mirror of Fate been released first, and LoS1, the story of Gabriel, been released last, as a "prequel"..?

Many people hated LoS1 for being too different, and including more high fantasy elements in it.

MoF and LoS2 meanwhile, seem to go more for a gothic CV feel. So what if LoS1 had been last to tell the story of Dracula?

[X]

I don't think there would have been any difference. MoF plays the same way as LoS just on a side-scrolling point of view. And I have no doubt that LoS2 will play similar to LoS. IMHO there is no difference here to which order the games come in. It would still be the same results.

[Intersection]

LoS2 shares its core combat and platforming system with LoS, so it would probably have received the same initial backlash. Fans were generally more concerned with Lords' radical departure in gameplay than with its overall "feel".

As for Mirror, apart from the fact that it makes for a very unlikely first release, it's essentially a steamrolled version of LoS. If anything, we'd have seen even heavier criticisms.

[zangetsu468]

I wouldn't say MOF felt gothic, particularly not compared to the original series of games.

I think if MOF came out first it would have gotten worse reviews and worse sales, because it wouldn't have attracted the fanbase of LOS.
If LOS2 was released I assume it would have been more criticised for being too far gone from CV.

It would never happen though, MOF and LOS2's gameplay style and core combat both came from LOS, therefore if LOS came out last it would potentially be a much different game.

[Viskod]

It would have taken a major re-working of the story of the second and third games in the series for that to work, since Lords of Shadow 2 it set up by the epilogue in the first game.

But if Konami had just released a game where you play as Dracula in an alliance of necessity with Death, trying to keep Satan from coming to earth so Draculas rule could remain absolute then who knows how it would have done. I think there would have definitely been potential there, especially if Dracula used the shadow whip as his main weapon, people would be wondering why Dracula was using a whip. And I'm sure if Konami said the next couple of games will focus on who this Dracula is, then it would have been seen a mile away as that this vampire calling himself Dracula was at one point a Belmont.

But fan theories aside, they could then have had the second game, Mirror of Fate just follow Belmonts trying to kill Dracula through the ages, I think a game with more than two of them would be better and each chapter you play as the Belmont that came before you ending in Trevor who wants to kill Dracula for the murder of his parents Gabriel and Marie

And then you release Lords of Shadow 1 but switch the Necromancer and Vampire areas so the castle is last and they could try as hard as possible to keep the fact that the lord of the vampires is carmilla under wraps so the whole game you expect to be heading to Dracula, but then surprise, you're fighting Carmilla and then have some kind of proper chapter detailing Gabriels transformation and better reason for him to end up despising the Brotherhood and humanity.