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

[Thunderbrand]

How HARD is this game? Could someone maybe compare it to something? Also, is there a big difference between easy, normal and hard? Oh, and if I play on easy, can I still see everything the game has to offer, or is it a "Congratulations! Now try a harder mode to see the final 45 stages!" kind of affair? If the game is 20 hours, I don't wanna get too frustrated on my first playthrough... (yes, I'm a wuss   )

Also, why do people complain about the titans? Is it because they rip off SotC? That can't be it, can it? I've seen gameplay videos and the ice titan looks mildly frustrating, but not too bad.. In fact, it looks rather epic!

It's challenging, even on the Squire (easiest) difficulty level, but it's not impossible. The cool thing is that you have the option to adjust the difficulty setting between each level. So you can attempt different settings to see which one your comfortable with. The catch is, if you're really worried about map completion, you cannot get 100-110% completion of the game until you find every object and relic on the top 2 hardest modes. So you can complete the game on the 2 easiest modes but you will be less than 100%.

As for the Titan battles, I'm almost to the 2nd one (This has been a busy week so I haven't had too much time to play the game), but the first one was rather epic. However, it did get tiresome. The battle itself wasn't too difficult but it was very tedious and LONG. It took me probably 20 mins to take him down. I had a couple interruptions, had to pause the game for a sec, etc...but overall it was a loonngggg fight.

[The Silverlord]

I've been refreshing the Game site mostly all day in hopes of the Limited Edition appearing.  Game must have noticed the hits, because they've popped in an "Xbox 360 250GB with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" on the same listing for £219.98 (not the LE though)!  It went out of stock.

I fear I'm going to miss out.  And I'm off on holiday tonight to Italy.  No Lords of Shadow in my hands, no copy for 2 weeks, and probably no LE unless I can get online at some stage and check from other there. e105beta posted at the wrong time too!  I was having doubts and then that comes over (compounded by the excellent Joystiq review).

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

How HARD is this game? Could someone maybe compare it to something? Also, is there a big difference between easy, normal and hard? Oh, and if I play on easy, can I still see everything the game has to offer, or is it a "Congratulations! Now try a harder mode to see the final 45 stages!" kind of affair? If the game is 20 hours, I don't wanna get too frustrated on my first playthrough... (yes, I'm a wuss   )

While you can just finish the game, if you're a person who doesn't like hard mode/mania mode/@crazy mode/mayhem mode... you might not like that unless you clear a stage in the harder modes, you will not get the 100% completion, it seems.  I've cleared stages and gotten all the items, only to receive "68%" at the end.  Thankfully you get the points for all the easier difficulties by doing a harder difficulty... but I don't like playing games on hard.  I wish the difficulty did not count.

Then again, maybe it doesn't and I just actually missed something (though I doubt it 'cuz there's a checklist for every stage).

EDIT: Thunderbrand beat me to it.

[shelverton.]

@ Zobias

Keep spoiler free for a while, please? There's another thread in which you can post such things if you want.

[CastleDan]

So i looked for the picture of alucard...and found it




Was this a legit picture?

If so maybe david cox saying .. " but Alucard? " means he might be in the DLC.

[Dremn]

That's concept art for the Dracula's Curse DVD animated movie.

[Zobias]

@ Zobias

Keep spoiler free for a while, please? There's another thread in which you can post such things if you want.

Whoops thought I posted in the other thread my mistake.

[crisis]

So i looked for the picture of alucard...and found it

Was this a legit picture?

That's the epic design of Alucard for Lords of Shadow-2.

[Ascension]

Does anybody know if this game was done in 7.1 or 5.1 surround?  I've been trying to find pics of the back of the packaging on both the PS3 and 360 versions.

[JR]

Loving this game so far! I guess it's been kind of far from my mind how "un-Castlevania" it has been. Seems like a proper reboot to me, without a doubt. I still can't get over how freakin' epic this game is so far, and I've only finished Chapter 1. The presentation is unmatched in games of this kind. The whip strikes actually look violent as opposed to just being flashy. The only thing I haven't been crazy about so far (like everyone else) was the Ice Titan. Regardless, it's still really early in the game and I'm already feeling pretty satisfied.  

I know Cox said that they didn't do their job correctly if us fans didn't get chills while playing this....so, do smiles count? 

[jimmay17]

Okay, so I'm at the music box stage, Chapter 10, and feel like I've played enough to give it a rough estimate.

There are two stories, depending on who you believe and what interview you read them in, as to how the initial design of the game came about: Either Mercury Steam and Konami started the game with the full intention of making it a castlevania, and were merely being coy by not originally identifying it as such when the first trailer debuted, or Mercury Steam set out to make a Castlevania, but weren't entirely sure they would get the greenlight from the powers that be on it, so they made the initial design generic enough it could stand as its own property if the studio got cold feet.

The way the early stages of the game play and feel, I'm inclined to believe the latter scenario. The first four chapters of the game notably lack a Castlevania feel. Some of the environs are too bright and mystical, the enemies, with few exceptions, are largely harry mammalian creatures-werewolves, wargs, and trolls, and the supporting cast are fantastic and seem regrettably superflous to the larger narrative.

Even the combat in these early levels feels different from what, mercifully, comes later on. The titan battles and the Malphas battle particularly use an annoying reliance on the quick time event to make it through. Later battles, though still requiring the QTE to finish the boss, don't use the technique as a requirement to simply engage the enemy.

Once the game hits chapter 5, however, it really feels like the point they got clearance to make the game a 'Vania. The backgrounds are suitably dark and detailed, the obligatory castle levels the best looking and designed of the 3D entries in the franchise, and the enemies start appearing more and more familiar, albeit with their own dark twists. The tedium of the original levels quickly wears off, and the perseverance of the player starts paying off in spades.

Forgiving the first four mediocre chapters, I think the game's easily one of the best in the franchise. Again, this is my consideration up to chapter 10, so we'll have to see how the last three chapters play out, but the middle five are easily the best 3D iteration of the series we've seen so far, and this is from that rare Castlefan that actually enjoyed Curse of Darkness. . .a lot.

Sure, there are other gripes, the music is forgettable, the replay value-the desire to go back and replay through previous levels, is so far pretty slim, and Patrick Stewart's voiceplay sounds like he's reading the phone book with several warm brandies in him, but overall, I'd have to say I'm sold so far. Let's hope the next one has less fantasy elements in it.

[Sir Hanksta]

@ jimmay17

Totally agree with you. Makes me wonder if IGN and Gamespot even got through the whole game before they reviewed it.

[jimmay17]

Totally agree with you. Makes me wonder if IGN and Gamespot even got through the whole game before they reviewed it.

You know, I wonder that a lot about game critics. Do they really log the 20 hours or so to see the game to completion, or do they play the first half or less and render a verdict based on knowing just enough to pass a quiz on it.

[thernz]

I don't think the GameSpot review actually ragged on LoS for not being Castlevania/dark enough.

[Kingshango]

Just finished the game!

I think I can speak for all who finished this game when I say " Bring on the sequel!

IGN, Gamespot, GT and Gamepro can take a poison combat cross and violate themselves, this game deserved more than what they gave it.

Congrat's to Mercurysteam for vanquishing the horrible night.