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

[DragonSlayr81]

Matthias IS Dracula. IGA has said that Matthias eventually changes his name to "Dracula Vlad Tepes". I forget where the interview is(if someone has a link, could they post it?), but IGA always intented Matthias to be Dracula. That's the very reason he keeps on saying over and over again that "Dracula" means "Son of the Devil". So, there's no OTHER Vlad Tepes, Matthias IS Vlad Tepes. It's in the same way Kathleen Soliah became Sara Jane Olson.

[Aridale]

what you talkin about in Bram Stokers Dracula? Theres only ever 1 Drac no random dude ever becomes Dracula hes the real deal

[crisis]

[Ahasverus]

what you talkin about in Bram Stokers Dracula? Theres only ever 1 Drac no random dude ever becomes Dracula hes the real deal

As said before, Dracula is a word meaning "Son of Dragon" or "Son of Devil", it's not a name, it's a word, a surname given to the fierce Tepes royal family, but it could well be applied to other guy other than Vlad, it only must be someone who could be called "son of devil"

[Abnormal Freak]

what you talkin about in Bram Stokers Dracula? Theres only ever 1 Drac no random dude ever becomes Dracula hes the real deal

If this is in reference to my post:

What I mean is, in the 1992 film Dracula (alternately Bram Stoker's Dracula) directed by Francis Ford Coppola, there's a whole prolog which, to my knowledge, is not in Bram Stoker's novel. (I've never read the book, though I own it and intend on reading it eventually.)

As far as I know, in the novel Dracula, it does not tell Dracula's origin, nor does it explicitly say or imply that he is Vlad Ţepeș Dracula (Vlad III; Vlad the Impaler; son of Vlad II a.k.a. Vlad Dracul [Dracul = dragon or devil; a = son: Son of the Dragon, his father being a member of the Order of the Dragon, and thus taking on the surname Dracul because of it)—though Vlad III was certainly an inspiration for Dracula and is indeed where his name came from.

In the 1992 film, the prolog shows Vlad Dracula and his men in battle, and upon his return he finds out that his wife had committed suicide after a false report that he had died—suicide being an unforgivable sin according to Catholicism at the time (perhaps they still believe this), and thus she was not permitted into heaven. So then Vlad renounces God, blasphemously drinks from the communion chalice (if memory serves me), and sides with darkness—I believe saying he'll return from the grave and seek vengeance for his wife's death. (I need to watch this movie again; memory's a bit sketchy.)

That whole scene, to my knowledge, isn't in the novel. That's why I say Coppola's Dracula. (Though perhaps that particular telling of Dracula's origin has been told before.) The story in Lament of Innocence was definitely inspired by that, but it did some things rather stupidly, if I recall: for one, making Dracula in his mortal form—before becoming vampirized—someone other than Vlad III, but rather a learned tactician named Mathias Cronqvist. To me, that severs the ties with Vlad III entirely. I mean, I don't expect Konami to explicitly say that Dracula in the Castlevania series is Vlad Dracula (though according to the English Symphony of the Night manual, his name is Dracula Vlad Tepes), but I think writing a story that is in conflict with that, thus shattering the speculation, is kind of a silly thing to do. So I kind of ignore IGA's Dracula origin story...even if it is very similar to the Coppola film (and the name Mathias Cronqvist is probably an allusion to Matthias Cornivus, who had Vlad as his vassal—so the ties are there, I guess, I just think it's all kind of silly and doesn't work).

[Thunderbrand]

In the Dracula novel, there is one brief mention of Dracula being the historical Vlad the Impaler. You may overlook it if you're reading too fast. The passage reads:

"He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the 'land beyond the forest'."

That's it. That's the only corellation between Stoker's Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. In fact, the ONLY reason people ever associate Dracula with vampires is because of Stoker. He simply picked the name "Dracula" out of a book on romanian history when he was doing research. He liked the name, and gave it to his vampire character, and the rest is history. Since he used a real life name for his character, he had to throw in one little historical link. Nobody would ever think of Dracula as a vampire if not for Stoker using that name.

[Abnormal Freak]

Well then. :o It sure makes for a cool story, heh. Stoker apparently knew little about Vlad Dracula, but I like how it's inspired all this "Dracula lore" ever since. I really like how Vlad Dracula is portrayed in Hellsing, for instance.

That's cool the novel does actually reference Vlad. I'm a little more excited to read it now; I ought to get on that soon.

[RichterB]

IThe story in Lament of Innocence was definitely inspired by that, but it did some things rather stupidly, if I recall: for one, making Dracula in his mortal form—before becoming vampirized—someone other than Vlad III, but rather a learned tactician named Mathias Cronqvist. To me, that severs the ties with Vlad III entirely. I mean, I don't expect Konami to explicitly say that Dracula in the Castlevania series is Vlad Dracula (though according to the English Symphony of the Night manual, his name is Dracula Vlad Tepes), but I think writing a story that is in conflict with that, thus shattering the speculation, is kind of a silly thing to do. So I kind of ignore IGA's Dracula origin story...even if it is very similar to the Coppola film (and the name Mathias Cronqvist is probably an allusion to Matthias Cornivus, who had Vlad as his vassal—so the ties are there, I guess, I just think it's all kind of silly and doesn't work).

Well, it is a semi-strange approach, but then again Castlevania has done a lot of weird things with the Dracula legend, such as pairing him with Death, having him rise every 100 years, and having the Belmont family and a mystical whip that hurts him (when before Dracula needed a wooden stake through the heart, if I recall). The Matthias story was derivative in many ways of the movie you noted, as well as the medieval fantasy anime "Berserk"...and yet, I found it somewhat compelling in the way it linked the Belmont clan to Dracula and made their rivalry personal through the origins of the Vampire Killer. (Certainly better than Alucard and Sonia having a child, anyway). Moreover, LoI's Rinaldo's alchemical background helped give an upfront explanation of the Belmont's dabbling in magic. In fact, a lot of logic was put into the mythology with LoI. The whole Ebony and Crimson Stone stories in relation to the cursed night and a vampire's immortality were interesting pieces (and apparently more backed by legend than the new God Mask stuff from LoS that's rumored to be connected to Dracula in the new timeline)

According to Wikipedia, "The Crimson Stone is a reference to the final stage of the Alchemical work, the rubedo/reddening. It represents transcendence, perfection, immortality, and incorruptibility. All these associations take on a very sinister double meaning with regard to what the Crimson Stone truly does in Lament of Innocence."

"Ebony Stone: The Ebony Stone is a reference to the traditional first stage of the Alchemical work, the nigredo/blackening. This stage represents decomposition, and reduction of matter to the 'prima materia' from which it came. This stage is traditionally associated with death and rebirth, chaos, and the planet Saturn - an interesting association, given the similarity between depictions of Death and depictions of the Roman god Saturn."

[Ahasverus]

Don't know about you, but this video gave me a really good vibe about the game's general setting, and I loved it (Watch 'til the end, there's some new footage in there)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vyV9xo9m_Y

[GummiCandyful]

Preview article by PS3 Vault.

http://www.ps3vault.com/e3-2010-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-hands-on-13298

While there's nothing new, I think the best part of the article is when he explained how the game improved upon GoW's combat formula. If this is true, then maybe LoS wouldn't really be considered a ripoff by some people who are calling it such. It makes me think of SoTN. Remember how it used Super Metroid's formula and added extra stuff to it? Hopefully, we'll see the same thing with this game.

[Hydrostorm]

Quick question, I know this was stated somewhere, but I can't find it now. Not really sure how to word it, either, but here goes:

Someone said that CV:LOS was being made for PS3 then being ported across platform? I know generally games are made for 360 then ported across and have heard there is a dilution of quality the PS3 suffers from games made for 360 then ported. Well, I'm sure that would be true if the reverse was so. What I'm getting at is, should I buy a PS3? I want one, but I just haven't got around to buying one yet.

And back on topic:

I haven't actually watched much game play footage for this, mainly because I want 97% of the game to be completely new and surprising. The last time I watched game play footage religiously I was severely burned and disappointed when the game came out. I did check out the link, I'm still unsure about all of this GoW stuff. The guy said they fixed a lot of the issues with the GoW combat, not really sure what that means as I've never played GoW.

Also, I was enjoying the discussion about Stoker's Drac and LoI :[.

[thernz]

I would wait till the game's released, because you never know how the differences will end up like.
I think it would be okay to watch the gameplay clips of this game. They're really sparse.

Kinda interested in how it improves upon GoW's combat. Didn't really like GoW's combat so.

[shelverton.]

the butcher fight looks reasonably challenging. I mean, there's more to it than button mashing thank god. Also, CAMERA i that particular fight is great. Can't stress that enough. Fixed camera action (yet VERY flexible) at its very best.

[Kale]

Kinda interested in how it improves upon GoW's combat. Didn't really like GoW's combat so.

I'm glad someone agrees... GoW's fighting isn't that good.

[Sumac]

In the interview Cox said, that PS3 is the leading platform for the game development. And that for X-Box LOS will be released on two disks.
Link.

I will buy PS3 for this game. However I have some other reasons to do that (MGS4 for example =)).