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

[crisis]

But I can' argue with the notion that the epilogue showed him too pussy for my tastes

lol what
you loved everything about LoS, months after it was released you were praising everything about it including the epilogue

now you're flipflopping your opinions Ahashasversus?  
what happened? wanna talk about it?

[thernz]

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He seems disappointed in himself in the epilogue, that Gabe Dracula. I think it's more reasonable to think that he stopped drinking blood out of choice, realizing how nagger he has become. And now he is just grumpy and insecure.

[Renonsgoods]

There's absolutely no value in creating a "sympathetic" Dracula that won't stand up as a great villain in future games.  I'm not saying that MS WON'T eff up and go that route, but they'd really be cutting all ties to this series' roots by doing so (and no, I'm not opening up a debate on how they've already done this in a number of ways with LoS).  Dracula should be an absolute monster, and past games that tried to show him having "feelings" [I'm looking at you SotN] only weakened his overall persona IMO.  I'm hoping that what MS is trying to do here with LoS is show us the bookends of Dracula: the good pure intentioned man he started off as...and the broken down, tired old villain at the end of his reign who's just had enough of it all.  He calls himself "the Devil" when Zobek mentions his former name in the epilogue, and Zobek agrees with him to a point, saying "Indeed, once you were".  This, to me, implies that Drac was at some point quite the evil bastard....worthy of such a title.  But as someone who has spent nearly a millenium trying to defy God, it's obvious that he's grown exhausted of the eternal fight...and is looking for a way out.  

As much as I concur that Drac should remain an evil SOB at the height of his evil reign, I also couldn't blame him for wanting to give it up after all those centuries.  Continuously being resurrected, only to be put back in your grave.....again and again.  Who the hell wouldn't be sick and tired of being sick and tired by then?

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In the end, my biggest fear is that MS' final rationale for Gabe falling completely into the darkness will be overly contrived or outright weak (ala Revenge of the Sith).  I want him to have a believable deterioration into becoming the Dark Lord.  I'm not really worried about them creating some sort of a "wussified emo" version of Dracula.  I think that that's something that people who already don't like this game want to believe....so as to further discredit this as a Castlevania game.  I just don't want him turning into the Prince of Darkness for something silly.........like because TFO tells him that he can bring Gabe's dead wife back if agrees to burn humanity to the ground.

Either way, I'm looking forward to Resurrection so I can see how this all turns out...and perhaps get a glimpse of where a possible sequel might be headed.  The fact that this game has managed to generate that level interest in many players is a testament to the fact that MS has apparently done something right with LoS.  Otherwise, no one would care and no one would be discussing its story, at length, on boards like this one.

[Ahasverus]

lol what
you loved everything about LoS, months after it was released you were praising everything about it including the epilogue

now you're flipflopping your opinions Ahashasversus?  
what happened? wanna talk about it?

xD
I can't give enough priase LoS for what it meant to the saga and what it tried (and almost got to) to accomplish (being and ambituous epic carefuly constructed reboot) but if I said the things I didn't like. it would be a huge list, there are lots of weak elements in the game but I think most of you already know them and are vocal about them so mentioning them wouldn't add anything new to the discussion 

[Vampire Killer]

xD
I can't give enough priase LoS for what it meant to the saga and what it tried (and almost got to) to accomplish (being and ambituous epic carefuly constructed reboot) but if I would say the thing I didn't like it wuold be a huge list, there are lots of weak elements in the game but I think most of you already say that so I wouldn't add anything new to the discussion 

Completely agree. LoS is my personal GotY for 2010, but I am well aware it's problems and failings. For me, what was great about LoS by far outshone it's failings. Perhaps our love and enjoyment of LoS comes from being able to take the meat and throw away the bone as they say. Perhaps in our situation, the bone becomes more malleable due to our enjoyment of the meat? Darn, now I'm hungry.

Or perhaps were just less picky, and some things that really bothered some hardcore CV fans, just simply didn't bother us?  The titan battles, while being obvious SotC knock-offs, were still really enjoyable to me. I didn't go into them thinking "oh man, what bullshit is this!!1!!?? Way to rip off SotC MS!!!!!!!!!". Instead I just took each gameplay element as it came, enjoying or disliking them due to their own merits, not whether or not I had seen a similar element in a different game (especially if said game released several years ago). For instance, as I've mentioned before, I found the (at times) abundance of plank walking annoying, but I didn't allow that one element to ruin my enjoyment of everything else.

Anyhoo, it's cool to see that someone else actually "gets it" if you know what I mean. Someone else who can see the epic grand tale beneath the sometimes rough but beautiful exterior.

[darkwzrd4]

Yeah, I'm with you.  I took everything as it came.  While I liked a lot of stuff, there was some stuff I didn't.  The stuff I didn't like, I didn't like because I simply didn't. The fact of whether or not something appeared in another game is irrelevant.  For example, the titan fights.  I hated them.  Not because the concept was used in other games, but because I didn't like having to climb all over and enemy while it tried to shake me off.

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Let's hope the forgotten one isn't a titan fight.  If it is, I hope that it's like the orge in chapter four and not the other titans.

[Renonsgoods]

I think that it likely will be a titan fight (though it would be a pleasant surprise if it isn't), but it will probably not feature the typical "clamber all over the giant" gameplay.  I mean, it is a demon we're talking about here.....not a giant golem.  Kinda hard to climb around on something fleshy and disgusting...plus Gabe is going to have to use his weapon to kill it at some point.  I think it may end up being like the ogre fight more than anything...except maybe this boss will actually move around instead of being nailed to a single spot.  The potential is there for a great boss fight. 

[darkwzrd4]

I think that it likely will be a titan fight (though it would be a pleasant surprise if it isn't), but it will probably not feature the typical "clamber all over the giant" gameplay.  I mean, it is a demon we're talking about here.....not a giant golem.  Kinda hard to climb around on something fleshy and disgusting...plus Gabe is going to have to use his weapon to kill it at some point.  I think it may end up being like the ogre fight more than anything...except maybe this boss will actually move around instead of being nailed to a single spot.  The potential is there for a great boss fight. 

Yeah, your right.  Now that I think about it, it may in fact be worth the $10.  It could actually be epic.  Especially if Gabriel has some vampire abilities during the battle.

[Reinhart77]

so i guess one question will be if Resurrection will "only" include the boss fights, or if there's some kind of realm he'll need to get through first

[Renonsgoods]

Well Resurrection is supposed to be a much bigger than Reverie (at least...that's what I've read), so I'd have to guess that we're going to do more than just face off against TFO and then watch the credits.

[Reinhart77]

maybe the boss chamber is just bigger than Reverie?

[darkwzrd4]

Well Resurrection is supposed to be a much bigger than Reverie (at least...that's what I've read), so I'd have to guess that we're going to do more than just face off against TFO and then watch the credits.

That would be great if it's true.

[Munchy]

Yeah, I'm with you.  I took everything as it came.  While I liked a lot of stuff, there was some stuff I didn't.  The stuff I didn't like, I didn't like because I simply didn't. The fact of whether or not something appeared in another game is irrelevant.  For example, the titan fights.  I hated them.  Not because the concept was used in other games, but because I didn't like having to climb all over and enemy while it tried to shake me off.

I agree here. The sequel should make giant boss fights more like Bayonetta - much more fighting, much less slipshod climbing and shimmying. The Titan fights irked me because they hardly did anything outside of trying to veeerrrry slowwwwly swat you off; in Bayonetta, the giant bosses were actually a huge threat and very mobile and aggressive in spite of their size. (Not to mention climbing on them wasn't a boring and tedious hassle.)

[Chernabogue]

Well Resurrection is supposed to be a much bigger than Reverie (at least...that's what I've read), so I'd have to guess that we're going to do more than just face off against TFO and then watch the credits.

I hope you're right. Or maybe TFO has a very very long fight, with different stages/phases, like in LoI.

[Ahasverus]

I agree here. The sequel should make giant boss fights more like Bayonetta - much more fighting, much less slipshod climbing and shimmying. The Titan fights irked me because they hardly did anything outside of trying to veeerrrry slowwwwly swat you off; in Bayonetta, the giant bosses were actually a huge threat and very mobile and aggressive in spite of their size. (Not to mention climbing on them wasn't a boring and tedious hassle.)

This this this this this!
I justbreplayed Bayonetta and I thought "God that's how big bosses should be made", the last one is bigger than the rock Titan I think, and it didn't involve climbing at all, that game is the epitome of absolutely great boss fights