Topic: I knew it! Castlevania: Lords of Shadow!(SPOILERS HERE, PLZ USE THE SPOILER TAG)

[whitedragon_nall]

Put me in the disappointed camp. Great game, but not a great Castlevania.

[darkwzrd4]

Well, it looks like we are all agreed.  LoS is a great game, but it isn't a CV.  Now that we seem have reached a consensus, let's stop saying whether that it is or isn't a CV and discuss other aspects of the game.  If we can't do that, then this topic should be closed.

[SomaCruz90]

Watching the credits now, I can its a very solid game, but you could have just called it "Lords of Shadow" and not miss anything. This thing is Castlevania in only the most general sense(subweapons, there's a castle, you fight monsters, uh...yeah)

[Kingshango]

Well it looks like Lords of Shadow has earned a place in the "Good/great games that have little to no relation tot he series it's suppose to belong to" list.

Those game are:

Super Mario Bro's 2
Starfox Adventures
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Silent Hill Homecoming
Resident Evil 4 (debatable)

And the recently announced SSX game.

[SomaCruz90]

We don't even know anything about that SSX game.

And I would never call Star Fox Adventures "good" ('cept David Wise music anyway)

[Kingshango]

Yeah but still when your game gets mistaken for Battlefield 2 then that's a problem . But I hear gameplay will be the same as the other SSX's.(Going on what PR said about the game)

Difficulty spike's and the bait and switch final boss aside, I thought Star Fox Adventures was decent. Plus the visuals were some of the best ever seen on the Gamecube hardware till Resident Evil 4 came out.

and David Wise is just plain awesome, if anyone deserves more work it's that guy.

[corneliab]

Well, it looks like we are all agreed.  LoS is a great game, but it isn't a CV.  Now that we seem have reached a consensus, let's stop saying whether that it is or isn't a CV and discuss other aspects of the game.  If we can't do that, then this topic should be closed.

Who do you think you are to speak for everyone like that? Fuck off.

[Joachim]

Who do you think you are to speak for everyone like that? Fuck off.

Agreeing with this.
I'm still of the impression it's a miserable game anyway, so there is obviously not a true consensus.

[Ahasverus]

So It's along Simon's Quest now

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Who do you think you are to speak for everyone like that? Fuck off.

Curb with the insults.  You've been Warned.

[Wallachia]

Curb with the insults.  You've been Warned.

As a longtimer here, I'd like to second that request.. come on guys, the dungeon has been here a long time - maybe even before some of you were born. Let's keep it a respectful place, for the love of CV! Nothing wrong with opinions and passion, but speak them in a mature way.. whether in your real life or virtually. You will be a better man/woman for it, trust me

[Ahasverus]

Yeah it gets ambient heavy sometimes. Peace people may it be our new year's wish

[Innovator]

Amazing, these last posts here ! Hum hum
 :

 


Anyway, I just want to say this : if we see again the 3 Lords of Shadow in past time, when they still were humans, maybe it means there will be some explanations about them in Reverie or Resurrection ? Perhaps there will be some discovery in the Castle.

About the "famous" creature we'll meet as a Boss in Resurrection : if it's Shinigami, then it will signify all of this had a meaning for Gabriel. The plot is great, the same for Clocktower Artworks, I can't wait to face Gab's destiny. May the DLC could be long and challenging.

[Ahasverus]

Aren't two of the three pure spirits dead?

[SomaCruz90]

Is this the general "post your opinions about Lords of Shadow" thread? I didn't want to make another topic so please indulge the ranting. Warning: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD

--

The main thing I took from this game was the name "Castlevania", or more importantly, what the heck it had to do with anything. Lords of Shadow is a reboot, so I don't expect Bloody Tears and whipping candles for hearts or a red orb to drop down when you beat a boss. But geez, it still needs to be CASTLEVANIA at the end of the day, and I think its a total failure in that regard. There's a few CV name drops like Belmont, Carmilla, Brauner, etc and you get some subweapons like the good old days, but that's really about it. You could have just as easily called it "Lords of Shadow" and be done with it.

But as an original game doing its own story, that shit is awful too. Patrick Stewart is a fine actor, but all thespians in the world couldn't make the incredibly melodramatic hamfest sound good. It keeps telling us about how tired, insane, and monstrous Gabriel has become, but we never actually see any change. He's still the same boring one-dimensional character we saw from the intro, slashing up monsters and wanting to bringing his wife back. The plot twists are insulting in their executions and predictability, elements of the story kinda just happen for no particular reason(where the fuck did Satan come from? What the heck was Gabriel doing with all the light and stuff flowing out of him? Why are we fighting these titans, again?), and I can't make heads or tails with that modern-day ending. Mercurysteam's interpretation of interesting characters is making them repeat the same 3-4 lines in a boss fight every 20 seconds.

Although the thrust of the game's plot has all the energy of a geriatric hooker mumbling about Lord of the Rings, the actual gameplay itself is what keeps me playing through the surprisingly lengthy 20 hours LoS takes to complete. Many have said it rips from God of War, but that's just lazy armchair critic talk. Its a 3d action-adventure game with the main character has a whip, fights monsters, does crappy "platforming", earns EXP to upgrade moves, uses magic, and redeem the actions of his dead wife. What the fuck was the game suppose to look like? Even saying that though, I think even Mercurysteam wouldn't deny the gameplay being derivative. Luckily for us, its all about the execution, and for the most part, Lords of Shadow is a success.

The first couple chapters won't let you know that though. The combat system is stuck at a pretty boring stage of mashing square with the occasional triangle for good measure(especially that horse scene), and the actual levels are tedious affairs. The platforming is hand-holdingly rudimentary as best and frustratingly stiff at worst, and holy hell those Titan boss fights are atrocious. I seriously don't even want to go into it right now they're so bad. Eventually though, the layers of the game start to open up and the fun starts flowing. The light/shadow magic strikes the perfect balance between the defensive/offensive mindset, and throw in the neutral orb meter and its functionality, and the game has an interesting strategy to every fight. It rewards careful, skillful play with more tools in the form of Light/Shadow magic, which leads to you having more fun. Throw in the HUGE list of combos for the various weapons, relics, and magic you obtain, and it makes pretty much every battle in LoS more thrilling than the opening chapters let on.

Yet even when the game is forcing you to wander around similar-looking corridors looking for dark crystals while funny-accented girls remind you every 45 seconds to look for said dark crystals, its oh-so-gorgeous. Its a testament to Mercurysteam's incredible artists that they managed all the visuals LoS throws at the player for its lengthy duration(and on a pretty modest budget, so I hear). Normally I would decry all the daylit forests and cliffsides in a Castlevania game, but A. this thing is hardly Castlevania anyway and B. its some DAMN fine looking forests and cliffsides! A shame the framerate is pretty uneven throughout, many times dipping into the 20s in the more hectic areas.

I remember Mercurysteam said something about not having QTEs interfering with the combat. I don't know what happen, because the game is chokeful of 'em. Luckily, they are all pretty easy to do, and many of them quite fun to watch. My particular favorites being Carmilla staking scene(seriously, awesome visuals there) and Gabe vs the Butcher(the sly smile Gabe gives him before letting the Butcher have did more for his characterization than all the droning Patrick Stewart could muster). I'm not personally against QTEs when they are this enjoyable and not of the "instant-death" variety.

When Gabe isn't abusing monsters with Shoryukens(L2 + X, best move!) or grappling about, he's probably doing some puzzle solving. The brain teasers in Lords of Shadow are varied and entertaining, stepping in for a change of pace from the vampire slaying to make you stop and think. They aren't Zelda quality or anything, but they are fun diversions that reward you with EXP and a welcome addition to the game.

The bosses oftentimes boil down to "dodge attacks, mash square, dodge attack, mash square", but several of them are actually pretty fun and inventive in their concepts and executions(the fight with Pan in his angelic armor form being a cool example). Even the last fight, completely out of left field and alarmingly easiness not withstanding, is an enjoyable and appropriately epic encounter. But holy fuck, those titan battles...just some of the worst boss fights I've ever experienced. At best they are chores that require very little skill and lots of memorization, and at worst they are finicky trial-and-error bullshit with some of the worst camera angles known to man.

Man, this rant came out a bit more negative then I expected, since I still probably give the game an 8/10 overall and I like it more than acclaimed CVs like SCIV or CV3, but it seems for every thing the game gets right, there's another nagging thing slapping me in the face. I'm not even sure I can say its the best 3d CV since its hardly a CV game...but I CAN say its a good game!

TL;DR version: Lords of Shadow is a good game, despite its awful opening levels, shitty Titan boss fights, dull platforming, and really bad storytelling!