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

[Dark Nemesis]

Thanks for posting links to the trailer!! This trailer is very nice, but still not what i was expecting to see. As i said before, i'll have my last word on this game when i get it in my hands and played it and see it for my self. But what i really like is the castle!! It looks so fucking epic!!!!

[The Silverlord]

Fair points Thernz, and well constructed.  There's a level of eye-candy and gloss at this stage which, when one cuts to the heart of the gameplay, one wonders just what it will deliver as a finished product.  It looks very linear and on-rails, the combat looks like it could be laborious, the quick time events tiresome.  I agree that there may not be segments which combime real-time combat and platforming, not sure you could put the whip away and just nip' off over some rocks.  Of its puzzles, we haven't seen anything to be fair.  Given the butcher example it may not be so bad, you have to lure him out to get behind him (IIRC) so there may be some more things in store.

I do have a slight niggling fear that sections like the combat shown, or platforming and the like will become common place—or complacent—and that any immersion in the storyline may be lost.  The one saving grace may be that Cox and Mercurysteam steam are willing to mix gameplay up and offer it in small doses.  They're obviously aware of this potential shortcoming, so the level of cut-scenes will maybe attempt to keep the game moving.  I do also remember that they talked about having open spaces and periods of solitude ala Metroid.  The campfire scene looked good (cut scene admittedly), running in the snow up to the castle.  In my opinion those periods will do so much more to help get the player connected and in the game world.

The graphics have improved immeasurably since the last trailer.  The countryside looks amazing, the rain and snow effects tremendous.  I like the characters they've shown, I like that the demons are imperfect and rugged and there's a feral instinct and intelligence in them: they're and not pissing around, they mean to tear Gabriel apart.  Of the behemoths, I don't know about this: they seem least Castelvania in this game to me (although I respect some of the enemies in the series), but they are in.

I'm hopeful the musical score will be epic (can't wait for the Castlevania IV material).  And hey, Slogra is in, Death is in . . . there are good things to come.  I'm hoping they'll show some platforming section and whip swinging, but who knows . . .

[Kingshango]

.

Also, Gabriel would never try to escape by jumping over a log, so any player who tries to do that will only sorta get the message "You're not doing this the way Gabriel would've. Go back and kill those monsters, you know you want to!" lol.

Exactly, never ever dis obey a tutorial.

[e105beta]

What I've noticed about the one QTE I saw, though, is that it can barely be called a QTE in the traditional sense. They're not like the big long movie sequences that essentially become a "Choose Your Adventure: Die or Not Die". At the very least, the one with the Warg actually put you back in game control for a few seconds to get to the log and hit R. Theoretically the guy playing could have (or so it looked) ran the opposite direction of the log, and the Warg would have jumped back down and the battle would have continued (as I did notice the Warg's health went back up). I'd rather have this quick little log raise to finish off the boss instead of whipping him one more time and watching him disappear. It's much more fun to see the boss flail, skewered on a log than it is to just see him burn away and die like any random enemy. But that's just my two cents.

I'd argue THAT'S what QTE (if that's what we're calling it) is supposed to be. An enhancement to the gameplay instead of becoming the gameplay itself, ala GoW or Force Unleashed. You're essentially in complete control until one final blow. It's like pressing A at the end of Ocarina of Time to watch link slice and dice Ganon's face. I really wouldn't call that a QTE.

[shelverton.]

It looks very linear and on-rails

I think Cox said somewhere that the game will have some very linear stages, and some that are much more open with alternate paths and secrets to find. I'm guessing linearity is good at the very start of the game to keep players from getting too confused or something, especially in the tutorial. Maybe the game opens up directly after the horse riding, but I'm sure we'll see many linear paths in the game too. If executed well, it could be a really nice mix.

[Kingshango]

You know if they were smart they should have included the ice Titan boss fight to show off the platforming. We now know the combat is solid, but what about the platforming?

[The Silverlord]

I think Cox said somewhere that the game will have some very linear stages, and some that are much more open with alternate paths and secrets to find. I'm guessing linearity is good at the very start of the game to keep players from getting too confused or something, especially in the tutorial. Maybe the game opens up directly after the horse riding, but I'm sure we'll see many linear paths in the game too. If executed well, it could be a really nice mix.

Aye, it could and that makes sense.  We need to give the game more time yet, this is just the first game play footage we've seen.  It looks polished and it's running very smoothly.  I also kind of have to ask, what more can they do?  They've put so many different gameplay elements in, if they all work off one-another (even to the best they can), it'll be quite a staggering feat.

[shelverton.]

I think the demo should've been different. They should've showed the combat, and then at least let people try 3 minutes of that PoP-style patforming Cox was talking about. They could finish it off by just having Gabriel pull a lever, or push a statue or something. Just to get a more complete sense of how these very different gameplay styles will work. I understand they don't wanna spoil too many things, so they went for the very beginning of the game.. but still. Maybe we'll see something at the press conference, which should start... well... now? or very soon at least.

[DragonSlayr81]

I think Cox said somewhere that the game will have some very linear stages, and some that are much more open with alternate paths and secrets to find. I'm guessing linearity is good at the very start of the game to keep players from getting too confused or something, especially in the tutorial. Maybe the game opens up directly after the horse riding, but I'm sure we'll see many linear paths in the game too. If executed well, it could be a really nice mix.

I really hope we don't see many of those box battle arenas. I recall someone mentioning that IGA did that with LoI and CoD. Yeah, IGA did that, and most people HATED it(myself included). I hate when you're boxed in a specific area or room and you're told to defeat all the monsters before the gates open and you can progress. I kinda saw this game as being more like a 3D Simon's Quest, free roaming the countryside and encountering monsters on the way. I still think the only rooms you should be boxed in are the boss rooms. Other than that, try to encorporate the classic CV way of pregression: progressive adventure where you encounter monsters ON YOUR WAY, rather than being boxed in every couple of rooms later and being told to kill all the enemies so you can go. Though yeah, I do hope this was for the intro purposes and we don't see many box battles in the game.

Of course, box battles and linearity are different things. Old CV games were linear without box battles. IGA's 3D CVs were somewhat linear/somewhat free roaming, but with box battles.

[shelverton.]

I hate when you're boxed in a specific area or room and you're told to defeat all the monsters before the gates open and you can progress.

This is why I felt CoD and especially LoI felt like medieval Final Fight. Or even Smash TV. Great games, but it's definitely not for Castlevania.

[The Silverlord]

Box battles are a nuisance.  Just about all the action games do it nowadays don't they?  Your Devil May Cry's and Bayonetta's.  It's pretty lame.  Darksiders did it well though, was a breath of fresh air, you could mostly just keep going if you wanted to, but you'd obviously lose out on experience (weapon points mostly).

[Beowulf]

why is everyone so upset with the game? I am absolutely in love with this game coming out! I think David Cox actually has the right mind of what a Castlevania game should be! He is picking up from the very roots of where Castlevania really did start off with, im happy with it because we dont have characters in dressing in drag anymore lol, the game is actually medieval/fantasy type (the game reminds me of old tradition dungeons and dragons and lord of the rings for some reason lol but cool as hell though!) I dont know, I always thought thats how the Castlevania world should have been, so yeah lol im on the same page as Cox, my first game i ever played was as well Castlevania for NES and that game was the one i grew up with so I definitely see where he coming from with his vision of a Castlevania game. I think everyone has become too in touch with the "now" traditional castlevania with its victorian clothed characters, japanese touched game instead of what a castlevania world is actually supposed to be like ever since is NES games (along with Super Castlevania IV, amazing game lol i see where he gets his ideas from big time with that lol)

[DingusBelmondo]

why is everyone so upset with the game? I am absolutely in love with this game coming out! I think David Cox actually has the right mind of what a Castlevania game should be! He is picking up from the very roots of where Castlevania really did start off with, im happy with it because we dont have characters in dressing in drag anymore lol, the game is actually medieval/fantasy type (the game reminds me of old tradition dungeons and dragons and lord of the rings for some reason lol but cool as hell though!) I dont know, I always thought thats how the Castlevania world should have been, so yeah lol im on the same page as Cox, my first game i ever played was as well Castlevania for NES and that game was the one i grew up with so I definitely see where he coming from with his vision of a Castlevania game. I think everyone has become too in touch with the "now" traditional castlevania with its victorian clothed characters, japanese touched game instead of what a castlevania world is actually supposed to be like ever since is NES games (along with Super Castlevania IV, amazing game lol i see where he gets his ideas from big time with that lol)

I don't think we are upset. Most of us are for the game at this point. But we are still being critical because it's important to discuss what it does well what it doesn't.

[shelverton.]

Box battles are a nuisance.  Just about all the action games do it nowadays don't they?  Your Devil May Cry's and Bayonetta's.  It's pretty lame.  Darksiders did it well though, was a breath of fresh air, you could mostly just keep going if you wanted to, but you'd obviously lose out on experience (weapon points mostly).

There is a quite simple way to get rid of these arena type battles; Don't give the enemies too much health. In the old classics like Ninja Gaiden and NES Castlevania, you could kill most enemies with 1-2 hits. You were always moving forward. Action games of today are OBSESSED with combos. The only way to have combos in a game is to give the enemies more health. Also, I think that the box battles are there to make sure you're not moving past enemies and having HORDES of them following you to the end of a level. In old games enemies simply disappeared when they left the screen.

I don't have a sollution to this problem, but I think there should be modern 3D action games with enemies that take less hits so that you're never forced to be boxed in a room. Some may think that this would make the games too easy, but I think the PS2 Shinobi would like a word with them. You could kill enemies with one or two hits, but the game was very challenging anyway. I know most people didn't like that game, but there are things it did really well. Such as the lack of box battles.

[jimmay17]

why is everyone so upset with the game? I am absolutely in love with this game coming out! I think David Cox actually has the right mind of what a Castlevania game should be! He is picking up from the very roots of where Castlevania really did start off with, im happy with it because we dont have characters in dressing in drag anymore lol, the game is actually medieval/fantasy type (the game reminds me of old tradition dungeons and dragons and lord of the rings for some reason lol but cool as hell though!) I dont know, I always thought thats how the Castlevania world should have been, so yeah lol im on the same page as Cox, my first game i ever played was as well Castlevania for NES and that game was the one i grew up with so I definitely see where he coming from with his vision of a Castlevania game. I think everyone has become too in touch with the "now" traditional castlevania with its victorian clothed characters, japanese touched game instead of what a castlevania world is actually supposed to be like ever since is NES games (along with Super Castlevania IV, amazing game lol i see where he gets his ideas from big time with that lol)

People, well most of them, aren't bashing the look. The perceived effeminacy of the Iga era is bashed on average fifteen times a day around here. The downturn in mood in the last few comments is due to the fact the gameplay vids are reinforcing early skepticism the game was too much of a hack n slasher, box 'rooms', Quick Time elements and all. . ..
At any rate, don't worry, soon there will be at least 10 simultaneously gushing about LoS and unnecessarily bashing of Iga comments here just watch.