Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Review - A Total Drain
A few great ideas with zero follow-through.
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A few great ideas with zero follow-through.
Read Full Article
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Review - A Total Drain
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
- Start date
I wish we could get a Symphony of the Night follow up with beautiful 2d graphics and a great weapon and ability combo opportunities. They could also vary the gameplay a little from the older titles, you wouldn't have to stuck just exploring the castle, you could visit various locations, find artifacts and unlock special abilities, until you finally found and went through Dracula's castle.
I'm sure it would only cost a small fraction of this game's budget and would probably be pretty successful. They could even farm it out, so they wouldn't have to waste their own development team's time on it, if "waste" is how they would view it.
This God of War clone shit I am not into.
I'm sure it would only cost a small fraction of this game's budget and would probably be pretty successful. They could even farm it out, so they wouldn't have to waste their own development team's time on it, if "waste" is how they would view it.
This God of War clone shit I am not into.
Shadow Complex, Guacamelee, Aquaria, Dust: An Elysian Tail and Strider have taught me something: everyone is doing a better metroidvania than Konami themselves (outside of the portable spinoffs).
I liked the first Lords of Shadow, but yeah, after playing Metal Gear Rising, it's hard to go back to it and if LoS 2 is more of the same for 10+ hours... then I think I'll pass on this one, or at least I'll wait for a massive discount.
I liked the first Lords of Shadow, but yeah, after playing Metal Gear Rising, it's hard to go back to it and if LoS 2 is more of the same for 10+ hours... then I think I'll pass on this one, or at least I'll wait for a massive discount.
The main problem with these two games "is" the character exploration of Gabriel/Dracula, as well as the boring story trying to explain everything. Game makers need to stop trying to explain everything, and just get on with it.
Dracula was cool back in the day because, he was an evil force that was destructive to the land, and its people. You had to destroy him. You're from a family that specializes in fighting the agents of darkness. The rest of it was challenging game-play set in beautiful, and dreadful places with pensive and anxious music.
Castlevania is dead, it died with SotN, and Dark Souls has taken its place. The only tragedy is that there are no more epic battles between the Belmont's and Dracula.
Dracula was cool back in the day because, he was an evil force that was destructive to the land, and its people. You had to destroy him. You're from a family that specializes in fighting the agents of darkness. The rest of it was challenging game-play set in beautiful, and dreadful places with pensive and anxious music.
Castlevania is dead, it died with SotN, and Dark Souls has taken its place. The only tragedy is that there are no more epic battles between the Belmont's and Dracula.
Totally agree with the review here, as it addresses all of the issues of this Whackula game. The story falls flat, and doesn't even bother to explain itself. There are so many twists and turns that, in the end, if this were a movie I'd expect Mystery Science Theater 3000 to jump in. It is very visually appealing, and that appears to be it's only saving grace. The first Lords of Shadow is superior in most regards. Not even Patrick Steward can make me engage in this.
You know, now that I think about it, I would definitely love to see a Let's Play with LoS2, with Mystery Science Theater 3000.
You know, now that I think about it, I would definitely love to see a Let's Play with LoS2, with Mystery Science Theater 3000.
it's almost a weird quirk of fate at how this game is bombing critically after Cox basically insulted the Metroidvania style. Heck, long-time producer Igarashi is also set to do a panel at GDC about Metroidvania:
http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=223200
And now a supposedly anon dev from MercurySteam posted CastlevaniaDungeon.net detailing that LoS 2's development was one, giant clusterfuck and Konami is PISSED at them:
http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,4965.msg156988.html#msg156988
Seriously, just give the damn series back to Igarashi. Not a single one of the entries he produced were ever bad (well, except for the 3D excursions, but those were more mediocre than bad. And even Iga didn't want to work on Judgment) and it would just be nice to see the Belmonts, Alucard, or even Shanoa again
http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=223200
And now a supposedly anon dev from MercurySteam posted CastlevaniaDungeon.net detailing that LoS 2's development was one, giant clusterfuck and Konami is PISSED at them:
http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,4965.msg156988.html#msg156988
Seriously, just give the damn series back to Igarashi. Not a single one of the entries he produced were ever bad (well, except for the 3D excursions, but those were more mediocre than bad. And even Iga didn't want to work on Judgment) and it would just be nice to see the Belmonts, Alucard, or even Shanoa again
Even though I like LoS 1, I think back to the recent 2d entries on the DS and wonder why we don't still have those coming down the production pipe.
They were excellent, especially Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow. Beautiful animation, fun exploration, and a fairly decent difficulty curve. Hell if they didn't want to spend to much money, do what Capcom did for Ace Attorney 5 and make it download only to save on physical production costs. I'd buy the shit out of that.
Also I would like another 2d iteration of the other half of the Metroidvania name. One can hope now that Retro has finished DKC:TF
They were excellent, especially Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow. Beautiful animation, fun exploration, and a fairly decent difficulty curve. Hell if they didn't want to spend to much money, do what Capcom did for Ace Attorney 5 and make it download only to save on physical production costs. I'd buy the shit out of that.
Also I would like another 2d iteration of the other half of the Metroidvania name. One can hope now that Retro has finished DKC:TF
Honestly I'd *LOVE* another Shanoa game, but when we've gotten far into the future, in relative. not past the 1999 point, but basically...she's got Dominus inside her, and since it's Dracula's power, maybe it's been keeping her alive, so she's this white haired, clearly mature/older, but still in excellent shape person who's probably secluded herself from the world. There's no need to 'depower' her since time would have already done it...the glyphs faded, and she won't use the 'forbidden power' of Dominus until of course the plot calls for it in the endgame...Aiddon said:
What the hell are the devs and publishers thinking with this crap? The 2D Castlevania games were excellent, each one building upon the last for a better and better gameplay experience. Hell, I own every single one for the GBA and DS, and if they were to release one for the 3DS that might just be the thing that finally got me to buy one of those. The series was successful, maybe not Call of Duty or even Mario successful, but successful nonetheless.
But instead one of their lead dev says they're never making another 2D Castlevania again in favor of THIS??
I don't even understand...
But instead one of their lead dev says they're never making another 2D Castlevania again in favor of THIS??
I don't even understand...
I never understood why the one thing from the Castlevania series they decided to keep, was the story of all things. To me the series has always been about the romanticed traditional horror visuals and the awesome soundtracks that mixes upbeat rock melodies and omnious organ music, the story was always a subpar excuse for yet another adventure. But here we are, yet another Mercury Steam game that ends up sabotaging itself because it relies too much on story, leading to poorly designed stealth mechanics and the like. I hope we can return to what the series was originally about now that they are preparing to move on to new things.
They made that horrible mess, Mirrors of Fate or whatever it was called. Unfortunately i think this trite and gritty shit is the new face of the series... A reboot would be very welcome at this point.The Madman said:
It was to be expected. The last one was dreadful. It started out OK, but what you were introduced with in the first hour of the game was the whole game. And it was so repetitive and desperate for identity. It tried to be so many other games at once. Why then to expect originality from this one?
No. No more Reboots. What we need here is an anti-Reboot! The opposite of a reboot, where you go back to what was working just fine before without all this new nonsense.MrBaskerville said:
Make an Order of Ecclesia 2 or Portrair of Ruin 2 or even a new game but with the same style of gameplay and aesthetics. Those were two amazing games, yet they're being tossed aside for this rubbish? Gah! What is running through these peoples minds?
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
That's basically what i meantThe Madman said:
. Actually i don't care what they do, as long as we get the classic soundtrack and art style back. I like most Castlevania games pre-LOS so i'll take whatever i can get. At the moment i think i would prefer something a bit more similar to Castlevania 1 gameplayvise, than a metroidvania game, it's been a while! Preferably the can do both and throw some experiments in on the side, like a Lament of Innocence follow up and stuff like that^^.Portrait of Ruin 2 would be amazing, i loved the whole concept with the paintings, gave it a lot of variety in style. But it might be time to draw some new sprites!
