Topic: The official "Finding Castlevania in Lords of Shadow" thread....

[crisis]

I was assuming the God & Devil Masks were gonna be this continuity's equivalent to the Crimson & Ebony Stones of LoI.

[Flame]

Well, God Mask was taken by Marie, so that's gone. And the Devil mask was presumably given to Zobek by Lucifer, which would mean Zobek might not want anything to do with it considering he was played like a fool as well.

But we never know.

[DragonSlayr81]

I was assuming the God & Devil Masks were gonna be this continuity's equivalent to the Crimson & Ebony Stones of LoI.

In the sense that they are cheap plot devices that are easily disposed of, perhaps.

[Vampire Killer]

The Devil Mask is currently in Gabe's possession. Check to beginning of the intro for Reverie, and you can see him holding it in his hand.

[Chernabogue]

Decided to revive this with a close look at LoS' bestiary:
- Lesser/Greater Lycanthrope: Werewolves exist in several CV games. Not a surprise.
- Warg/Great Warg: First enemy seen in SotN, nice reference to make it the first miniboss in LoS.
- Small Trolls/Swamp Troll/Cave Troll: Different from the agile and deadly Cave Troll in SotN/DS games, but seems to be a little reference.
- Giant Spider: May be taken from fantasy stories like LotR, but may be a reference to the recurring enemy Arachne.
- Gremlin: Appeared in various games, most notable in AoS' Clock Tower (as far as I can remember)
- Black Knight Golem: A clear reference to most knights found in Dracula's Castle (Final Guards, Armors, etc.)
- Cornell/Lycan Dark Lords: No need to talk about him (LoD, etc.) Second form is a tribute to the Werewolf bosses.
- Chupacabras: May be a reference to little Thieves (CoD for example) as they seek magical relics. It's also the Cave Troll's Japanese name.
- Swordmaster: Reference to 3D IGAvania's flying ghosts.
- Malphas: Recurring boss/enemy.
- Ghoul: Powerful zombie, appeared in various games (PoR for example)
- Vampire Warrior: May be a reference to CV64/LoD's vampires. Plus Vampires are one of the main things of the CV series.
- Animated Armor: Clear reference to all living armors found in several games.
- Brauner: PoR's main villain.
- Skeleton Warrior: Appeared in a lot of games.
- Mandragora: Appeared in lots of IGAvanias.
- Evil Butcher: Famous enemy from AoS/OoE.
- Olrox: Famous SotN boss.
- Carmilla/Vampire Queen: No need to deal with her. Her second form is a tribute to Dracula's transformations.
- Headless Burrower/Zombie/Creeping Corpse: Classic Zombie.
- Scarecrow: Enemy in various games (HoD, OoE, etc.)
- Gravedigger: Enemy appearing in several IGA games.
- Reapers/Necromancers: Reference to Death.
- Dracolich Titan: Reference to Zombie Dragons, but bigger (SotN, PoR, etc.)
- Flaming Skeletons: Skeletons warriors (various games).
- The Forgotten One: LoI's super boss.

So, 35/48 enemies are directly taken from or a clear reference to original CV games enemies. That's a good point to LoS.

[Flame]

The Ogre might be a reference to Balore from A/DoS, and PoR. And if not, is still reminiscent of him.

I mean, he fights mostly the same way. Tries to crush you with his fists. The first part of the battle, (right after you fight the trolls with the ogre behind the wall) where his hand sticks out from the wall and attacks you, is VERY reminiscent of Balore from Aria.

And the Mechanical Monstrosity is your standard fare "Frankenstein's Monster", usually fought in places like laboratories and stuff, but with a scorpion shape instead of humanoid. (and even then it has what looks like a fetus or some shit in it's head case)

The Deadly Toys are also reminiscent of the many doll or toy themed enemies you often fight in games like Aria and Dawn of sorrow.

There's also Gabriel's sub weapons.

Silver Dagger
Holy Water Flask

And the Dark Crystals are basically like an item crash. They clear the whole screen like one too.

[Svart]

uhmmm... much of this ones are a little to pulled from straws.... i mean, titan frozen lake reminiscent of ecclesia frozen lake??? REALLY??? I the assume than the starting village is reminiscent of cordova town because both have houses with windows... or the necromancer abyss is reminiscent to some mountanish ecclesia scenes because both have reddish hue :O.

can you guys give the guy at mercury steam more geniune areas a little credit? D:

still, I concur that the whole Agartha section was really reminiscent to the sunken city face of castlevania which have been present on lots of other games, I remember saying on other forum when someone said that the Agartha section was too uncastlevanish that sunken and ruined city didn't exactly made it's debut on LOS.

there are also other "may be" reminiscensces that are subtle and worked, like the ogre/balore, other than doesn't reminiscent the original at all but are still interesting such as Cornell, and others that are just a plain fail, such as Orlox, and specially Brauner.

what i'm more interested in the sequel is on gameplay aspects. scripted plataforming should be reserved for very few ocassions, mostly on parts after heavy tension, (such as hard battles or true platforming sections) and focus big time on true paltforming, the kind when you have to calculate and measure your jumps, and there are enemies that try to kill you by droping you to the pits... IMO this is missing to make a true castlevania experience...the other things are fine, even titan battles, only 3 in such a long game is a good number, even though dracolich battle was a huge letdown (extremly easy and unispired) taking into account how the gravedigger and pan battles were a lot more memorable.

[Flame]

Gravedigger and Pyramid head should hang out some time. They could talk and mix/match head... things...

[Claimh Solais]

So... I can't believe no one pointed this out...

Aghartha from LoS
Agartha, Albus's gun

[brandonh83]

I've been trying my best, but I cannot hear the relationship between "Beginning" from CV3 and "Final Confrontation" from LOS to save my life. I think it's a case of people wanting to hear it. I kind of hear the resemblance in one small part, but I'll have to chalk that up to far-fetched coincidence. If it were Oscar's intent to create a nod to Beginning, I believe it would have been a lot more evident.

[uzo]

So... I can't believe no one pointed this out...

Aghartha from LoS
Agartha, Albus's gun

Not sure if that was intentional. The story they based the name of Albus' gun and an attack or two off of has nothing to do with any lost cities or anything. If it was an intentional reference, its an Aeon the bake and Aeon the time traveler level of pointless.

[Kingshango]

I've been trying my best, but I cannot hear the relationship between "Beginning" from CV3 and "Final Confrontation" from LOS to save my life. I think it's a case of people wanting to hear it. I kind of hear the resemblance in one small part, but I'll have to chalk that up to far-fetched coincidence. If it were Oscar's intent to create a nod to Beginning, I believe it would have been a lot more evident.

I believe you can here a small part of "The Beginning" at the last 20 seconds of "final confrontaion" it's played differently but it's there.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Music - Final Confrontation

Fast forward to 5:30, I don't think it's that far fetched.

[Ahasverus]

I knew I'd heard the "Agharta" name before, thanks! (Kinda pointless reference though )

[Claimh Solais]

Yeah, I think it's them just cracking a useless name somewhere into the game.

Course, it could be what Uzo said. Unintentional.

[D013]

I really liked the Vampire Killer track being used in the music box, just wish they added this into the soundtrack that came with the collectors edition, I was surprised that they didn't use Bloody tears at all as that I believe is probably the most popular of the music in the franchise.