Topic: Lords of Shadow Opinions (has Spoilers)

[ShinAkumaXX]

Well I was glad to see a few guys that are my XBox Live buddies bought this. And I asked them what they thought and they said it was a pretty bad ass game, and they liked it. They are not 'Castlevania Fans' in general. So good to see people do like it that haven't played the others. Makes me sad though when people haven't...

[booboo]

Hellos mengs.

I am new here, and don't want to introduce myself thru topics if you have that kind of thing. What I can do is share with you my personal review of the latest castlevania game:

http://www.playfire.com/Booboo/blog/lords-of-shadow-review

[RichterB]

Continuing my quest...

Beat the music box. Clever, well-designed level with a nice Vampire Killer reference. The scarecrow stuff before it was neat (though a little more Zelda-ish with the shaking of the perches). I liked the zombies who throw their heads (one of the most Castlevania-esque things yet). I've noticed something...The levels seem to be divided into short, roundabout affairs with arena fights, boss battles, or heavy puzzle-based levels. The whole mix, or rather the balance of it, doesn't exactly scream Castlevania. It's fun more often than not, though. I really do see a more fairy-tale kind of atmosphere, however, when you take into account shrinking characters into music boxes and such. This certainly is a strange mix of a game.

[Wallachia]

I agree. What a mix in this game. I thought alot of choices were made to try and please and serve a lot of different CV fans, and yet pull in a new audience. Yes, the levels are varied, and unpredicatable once you start most of them. That, I kind of like, except for the really short ones, or the way one chapter might be 8 levels, and another just 2.

[The Silverlord]

Now completed, seen the ending, and 110%'d half the chapters.  Solid 8/10.

In some respects I think the game is too long, the story and narrative really drags on, but at the same time it's taken that long to really get into the meat of the combat and the magic system.  The atmosphere is a strange beast.  I’m trying to grasp something tangible from it, but left groping a little at thin air.  The autumnal/wintery feel of the graphics, the solemnity of the story, the brutality and rawness of the enemies, characters that really give nothing away.  The game feels bleak and crude at times.  The framerate and game play almost runs hand in hand with that, at times it was frustrating, a borderline chore, you had to persevere with much: the story, Gabriel, the combat and magic system.

I warmed to it like to a camp fire.  Slowly the heat got into the old bones of this player and it was good, the sense of occasion, to appreciate its shortcomings and simply enjoy it while it lasted.  The one Chapter that sticks with me is XI, and the Necromancer's Abyss, because it combined some excellent platforming with shimmying sections, good puzzles, and excellent enemy design.  If you fell into the abyss you’d be resurrected instantly—you didn’t become frustrated with it.  The final lord was quite special I thought.

Going back through now and looking at how much they’ve managed to pack in . . . it’s just wow.  No wonder they needed 2 discs.

[booboo]

Now completed, seen the ending, and 110%'d half the chapters.  Solid 8/10.

In some respects I think the game is too long, the story and narrative really drags on, but at the same time it's taken that long to really get into the meat of the combat and the magic system.  The atmosphere is a strange beast.  I’m trying to grasp something tangible from it, but left groping a little at thin air.  The autumnal/wintery feel of the graphics, the solemnity of the story, the brutality and rawness of the enemies, characters that really give nothing away.  The game feels bleak and crude at times.  The framerate and game play almost runs hand in hand with that, at times it was frustrating, a borderline chore, you had to persevere with much: the story, Gabriel, the combat and magic system.

I warmed to it like to a camp fire.  Slowly the heat got into the old bones of this player and it was good, the sense of occasion, to appreciate its shortcomings and simply enjoy it while it lasted.  The one Chapter that sticks with me is XI, and the Necromancer's Abyss, because it combined some excellent platforming with shimmying sections, good puzzles, and excellent enemy design.  If you fell into the abyss you’d be resurrected instantly—you didn’t become frustrated with it.  The final lord was quite special I thought.

Going back through now and looking at how much they’ve managed to pack in . . . it’s just wow.  No wonder they needed 2 discs.

Yeah, I'm at halfway thru 110%-ing everything myself but still taking it in as I go... sure the game has some flaws but those flaws are more related to Dracolich's design, choppy framerate here and there (not that much of a problem for me tho), strange enemy drops (whenever I needed a fairy they game me holy waters and vice-versa) but these are minor gripes. The game as I said a few posts upstairs, is one of the best action games I've played and can be easily put next to NG or Bayonetta IMO.

[RichterB]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

[Ahasverus]

It would become Curse of Darkness on esteroids.

[thernz]

curse of darkness is hardly a vania besides in aesthetics anyway.

[Wallachia]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

No no... there is so much more than that. Maybe being that I am an older fan, and Simons Quest and CVIV are my faves, I get ALOT out of LoS, not just the whip..

[Nagumo]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

Lol, probably.

[Alutwon]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

lol almost goes for the old games too, take the whip out and we have mario

[Valtiel]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

You also need to consider the absolute lack of innovation the series saw under IGA's rule. Every IGA game is so much similar to the one before that a single step away from the formula risks by now of making it feel a different game. If you look at series like Resident Evil or Silent Hill or Metal Gear Solid or Grand Theft Auto or Final Fantasy, every single installment brings a lot of new and different things to the table. Some things are missing, some are present, but you can easily identify episodes.

Looking at Castlevania, for the last 10+ years every game had hearts, and candles, and the same mobs, and the same tilesets, and leveling up, and the same subweapons, and the same bosses... We could argue how good or bad this is, but the point remains that the sense of familiarity the CV games evoke is stronger exactly because each installment has been, for the last years, fundamentally the same game.

Personally, I think LoS captures the spirit and themes of Castlevania quite well, even if it tackles them in a perspective that doesn't catch the full breath of what came before (for better or for worse, but SotN did it before and Aria did it again in a much more prominent way). I think the biggest issue is still the 3D. To me it feels remarkably CV despite not being 2D, but it didn't manage to make me feel that 3D is the CV future for sure.

[Wallachia]

Well put Valtiel..

Random thought - one thing I felt missing in LoS, that I want to see in the sequel.. there wasn't a true Death type character! I mean a truly creepy, skeletal one like in CV1 or CV4 (see my avatar) where you fight him in a high, dark tower.

I thought the Necromancer was cool, and Zobek being Death, the deception and all that. But I guess I prefer Death being the final right hand guard to Dracula, in a dark castle setting. Maybe next game..

[corneliab]

NEAT QUESTION: Hey, I haven't beaten the whole thing yet, but something hit me: If you take the whip (combat cross) out of this game, replacing it with a sword or staff, would LoS cease to be Castlevania? It almost seems like that whip mechanic is the one unifying (classic/iconic) thing within all the diversity of this game.

So basically, you're saying if you take out the whip, modify almost all the platforming sequences to compensate for its absence, and completely change the moveset and related upgrades it'll feel less like a Castlevania?

DERP