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

[Innovator]

I hate Gamestop though

Can I ask you why, please ? I have no experience with Amazon or Gamestop, so I don't know which one to choose.

[Kale]

But many Castlevania fanboys discovered the saga with SOTN, COTM or DOS... so they can't understand you, because they think to love Castlevania. But actually : it's not. It's just some Iga-vania which are very different in all points with the series' best quality offered in the past . Besides, these fanboys never played games like Dracula's Curse because "it's ugly graphics", and even if they played it, they hate it and just want remakes of earlier games with easiest difficulty, more beautiful graphics, new Alucard's design and so on. 

I'm lost at what this is supposed to mean.

As to why anyone would hate gamestop. They tried to sell me and my friend a a game without a box, without a cd case, without a manual at full price, and said it came this way. It was the cd in a stupid white cd sleeve. Also, they buy exclusive items... which may or may not be a bad thing, but it's annoying in any case.

[shelverton.]

But many Castlevania fanboys discovered the saga with SOTN, COTM or DOS... so they can't understand you, because they think to love Castlevania. But actually : it's not. It's just some Iga-vania which are very different in all points with the series' best quality offered in the past . Besides, these fanboys never played games like Dracula's Curse because "it's ugly graphics", and even if they played it, they hate it and just want remakes of earlier games with easiest difficulty, more beautiful graphics, new Alucard's design and so on. 

It is quite possible to love both the old games AND the IGA-vanias though. You seem to think that we, as fans, have to take sides or something? I grew up with Castlevania and Simon's Quest and can easily call myself a "hardcore fan", but I've played the hell out of Dawn of Sorrow and the likes too. I'm looking forward a lot to Lords of Shadow, and I'm also interested in what IGA has in store next. I absolutely hated Judgment and I won't touch Harmony of Despair, so I'm far from an IGA fanboy. But I LOVED many of his other projects. And I also LOVE Dracula's Curse. Maybe that makes me a schizofrenic, but I don't you have to be to enjoy quality games, regardless of who is producing them....

[thernz]

And since fan games seem to deliver far more then what IGA has in the past decade, then I'm not gonna complain.

I-I'm kinda interested in what fan games you're talking about. All the ones I know about tend to be pretty clunky or I don't like the level design.
N-no offense to the creators.

[uzo]

You seem to think

No. Innovator does NOT think. That is the issue here.

[e105beta]

It is quite possible to love both the old games AND the IGA-vanias though. You seem to think that we, as fans, have to take sides or something? I grew up with Castlevania and Simon's Quest and can easily call myself a "hardcore fan", but I've played the hell out of Dawn of Sorrow and the likes too. I'm looking forward a lot to Lords of Shadow, and I'm also interested in what IGA has in store next. I absolutely hated Judgment and I won't touch Harmony of Despair, so I'm far from an IGA fanboy. But I LOVED many of his other projects. And I also LOVE Dracula's Curse. Maybe that makes me a schizofrenic, but I don't you have to be to enjoy quality games, regardless of who is producing them....

Exactly. That's why we're Castlevania fans and not IGAvania fans or Classicvania fans.

[DragonSlayr81]

Yup, it's never been about "us and them", regarding liking EITHER old school CVs or IGAvanias. How people come up with that conclusion is actually funny. It's like people want us to be segregated into two groups just so they can rip the "others" apart. It's not like that at all. To those who are clamoring that they think their way is best, with an agenda against those who even whisper they enjoy IGA's games, I have only one thing for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWzDKE4zbY

[e105beta]

Yup, it's never been about "us and them", regarding liking EITHER old school CVs or IGAvanias. How people come up with that conclusion is actually funny. It's like people want us to be segregated into two groups just so they can rip the "others" apart. It's not like that at all. To those who are clamoring that they think their way is best, with an agenda against those who even whisper they enjoy IGA's games, I have only one thing for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWzDKE4zbY

It's the same psychology used in propaganda. If you believe that the person you disagree with is part of another group and "different" from you, it's easier to ragetroll.

[Innovator]

No. Innovator does NOT think. That is the issue here.

Dear Uzo, isn't that called Troll or something ? Anyway, it's an useless post full of hatred.


Hi Shelverton
No no, you're right, it might be possible to love both classics Castlevania and IGA Games. Absolutely. Some of them can be easily called good games, for sure. But definitely not "Castlevania", in my mind. For reasons many evoked including me (lack of difficulty, same and poor storylines, same sprites and games in general, no innovation between all episodes,....).

It's time for the actual team to give up the franchise and let other people and creator to take Castlevania far beyond what they're actually able to do. Lords of Shadow may take the saga in another direction, and honestly that's a great thing for many long-date followers.

About Dracula's Curse, I read so many times people would like a remake with new Alucard art (+many other things I listed and that you can guess) so that's why I took this example, but there're many others.

[DingusBelmondo]

It's officially preordered. No more spoilers for me.

[crisis]

No no, you're right, it might be possible to love both classics Castlevania and IGA Games. Absolutely. Some of them can be easily called good games, for sure. But definitely not "Castlevania", in my mind. For reasons many evoked including me (lack of difficulty, same and poor storylines, same sprites and games in general, no innovation between all episodes,....).

In many ways, the metroidvanias have a lot more things in common with the classicvanias, than LoS.

[uzo]

Dear Uzo, isn't that called Troll or something ? Anyway, it's an useless post full of hatred.

Congratulation on your brilliant observation. Having to question it like that, says volumes. In fact, I hope you realize your posts amount to about the same thing. Useless posts full of blind hated for everything IGA has even breathed upon. Quite a double standard you have there. That is to be expected from someone like you though; someone who we cannot take seriously.


I personally like both classic and exploration styles. I do tend to enjoy the middle road though. Games like Simon's Quest and Lament, conceptually, are most enjoyable for me. To hell with levels, and mounds of useless equipment. You will definitely not see such things in my game either.

If anything, Cox was right about something. Castlevania isn't merely endless combat, or empty halls. Castlevania is best when you have segments of combat, and platforming. The mix of those gives the enriched experience we know and love. It is something that has been lost in recent incarnations. None the less, the games are still enjoyable and the IGA hate should be reserved for truly terrible, and or off beat, games such as; Harmony of Despair, Judgment, and to a lesser extent but still terrible, Portrait of Ruin.

[Ahasverus]

I also hate DOS, I hate it! It feels just too much rushed, and silly (Yeah, Celia made a Cv replica, yeah, Dracula wrote the book "Make it yourself! Your Own Castlevania! Original demon designs sold separately" how could i forget that story tidbit...) But I must to say, I loved AOS, and also COD story (before all Dracs recurrection thing, I loved the thing about the conspiracy and the curse), and I really liked Ecclesia. However there was always a sensation of "this could deliver more"

[Innovator]

In fact, I hope you realize your posts amount to about the same thing. Useless posts full of blind hated for everything IGA has even breathed upon. Quite a double standard you have there. That is to be expected from someone like you though; someone who we cannot take seriously.

So : yes I dislike IGA, but Uzo : are you IGA ? Or IGA' son ? Are you his lawyer ? He doesn't need anyone, my dear ! 

I never treated you in any ways Uzo, and I treated nobody on the forum's so don't play with me. If you think different from me, very well, so tell us ! You just have to refutate and explain yourself. 

I used to dislike Iga's productions from the beginning (Harmony of Dissonnance was a very bad entry for the saga in my view, just a little copy of SOTN without nothing new, the 2 castles etc etc.... and ugly musics.). Nobody can change this matter of fact, I dislike Iga's view about Castlevania and I explain everyone why. Everyone can have different points of view, you're not the centre of the world. Deal with it oh Great Lord, but please keeps your blood cold towards me.

Thank you !

[shelverton.]

Am I the only one who actually liked Dawn more than Aria? I mean, I think Aria was a classy game, but I felt that Dawn in many ways was what Aria should've been. I'm  not talking about the artwork now though. If Dawn had Ayami Kojima artwork I think people would've cared more for it, dunno.. it came across as a little juvenile, I agree on that. But the gameplay and the level design was top notch IMO. I'd give Dawn a whoppin 9.2/10!

Portrait was a letdown, but the soundtrack was probably the best of the DS trilogy IMO. It also sported some of my favourite boss battles on the DS. But the portrait portals and the recycled levels were t e r r i b l e. Still, it's a solid DS platformer, but it feels much longer than it really. It's the only Metroidvania that actually bored me a bit. 6.8/10

As for Ecclesia, I was kinda tired of the formula at that point but the game was much better than Portrait IMO. However, the level design in Ecclesia is at times on par with Portrait, but at least there wasn't as much backtracking involved. I also would've liked if the different areas were connected like in Simon's Quest. The map made traveling a breeze, but it felt a little disconnected. Still, good game! 7.9/10.

(I have no idea why I suddenly started reviewing DS games in the LoS thread. Sorry. It won't happen again. )