The Official Castlevania thread

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Fixed again.

There are many notable similarities in the games, things this one got from God of War. Was also true of Dante's Inferno, really, gamers have been making these comparisons for a reason. And again, it's not a bad thing unless you want it to be.

Every little thing in the gameplay, from balancing on wooden beams, holding a button to balance yourself when climbing on a titan, the way the chained cross controls like the blades of chaos, the rolling evade, the green fire health things, overall feel. The way counters and grabs are handled and sudden prompts are more like GoW than Ninja Gaiden for example. Every aspect of the gameplay is very heavily influenced by God of War. You could say "any hack and slash game", but I personally don't think they all play the same, and GoW was pretty influential.

But yes, as a fan of God of War and Castlevania, this game hits the spot. The story is cool, the game flows well, it's got style, and like I mentioned I'm a fan of the gameplay.

*vomits blood and dies*

Excluding this game, what IS that previous best CV game for you, just out of curiosity?

Symphony of the Night. Much like this game, at the time that one decided to take influence from other games (Super Metroid), and take the series in a new direction. The DS games aren't my favs.

What happened to Castlevania kind of reminds me of the Resident Evil series. In both cases, the games got more and more convoluted and had more backtracking and became more labyrinthine. While that is a bad thing to me, add that with things like combat and controls seeming more and more stiff and outdated, and no particularly strong stories to back them up.

Then you had RE4 which a lot of the fans hate for taking away a lot of the what made the old games tick, but on the other hand it works better than what the series was doing so change is welcome. That's how I feel about this game with the Castlevania series, although its not a classic like RE4, it's a damn fine game in my view.

[Shiny]

Toys R Us is doing a buy 2 get one free deal for games this coming Sunday. Since P has given LoS a recommendation, I will get it (last CV I played was SotN). Not sure what the other 2 will be though.

[Running Wild]

gamers have been making these comparisons for a reason.

God Of War didn't invent quick-time features though, it just made them more mainstream, despite action games having used them for years.

[hybridial]

I suppose it might be presumptuious given I haven't played the actual game yet, just the demo.

I do see and acknowledge the similarities in combat to God of War, and also the similarities in the platforming to Prince of Persia. I think it's a stretch to call it similar to Shadow of the Colossus though just because it has a few giant bosses.

However, it also seems to me the game is superior to God of War in every single way. At least it has superior design, is more challenging, and doesn't have a story that is horrendous, disrespectful to it's source lore and made me want to kick puppies just watching it's cut scenes on youtube (God of War 3... I suffered playing 2 and that wasn't much better)

Well, I'll be buying it today so I can see for sure if the points I made are correct, because they are more gut feelings but, I do think I am right.

[Persona]

The game is slowly entering my top 5 CV games.

[hybridial]

Having played it a chunk, I'll say the following.

Okay, they have been playing a little too much Shadow of the Colossus. But given the game isn't nothing but titan boss fights, and the first one was pulled off pretty well, it's more like they've taken a good idea and fitted it into the game well.

It's less like God of War in practice than a lot of people seem to think. There's elements of quite a few more games in the combat, like Onimusha, Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia. All in all, I think there's so many influences that I think it manages to be more unique in the end. Certainly, with the chain whip being your only primary weapon, it's moveset has depth I've never seen before in other action games. The sub weapon and magic systems supplement it nicely, and whilst it's not hard as such yet, I like the fact I do need to think instead of just bash buttons to get through it.

[Eddie]

Damn I was already curious about this before it came, now I really want to play this. Maybe i'll see to it that a friend of mine borrows me his 360 so I play this baby.

[reV]

The game is slowly entering my top 5 CV games.

Traitor ;_;

Then again, you also liked LoI and CoD, they played like this too don't they?

[Persona]

Traitor ;_;

Then again, you also liked LoI and CoD, they played like this too don't they?

The more I play LoS, the more it's going down because I start to realize the flaws in the game (and there are quite alot in fact). I didn't like LoI much but I did enjoy CoD. This game plays quite similiar to LoI once you learn how to do air combos and shit. CoD isn't really anything like LoS and LoI because it was focused on RPG elements and the battle system in an action combo sense was totally lacking. If anything, CoD probably felt more like a farming game like Monster Farm or Pokemon. CoD was in my top 5 because it was farming heaven (or hell if you didn't like farming or understood how to breed top tier devils) and the game was dark. The main problem with the game was well, the game was average or below in almost everything other than music.

[Don Vecta]

GameTrailers' Castlevania Retrospective I: Road into Darkness

GameTrailers' Castlevania Retrospective II: Resurrection of Evil

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Beat Lords of Shadow tonight, all in all really enjoyed it, very good game.

Now, that said, from a story standpoint... all goes well until the credits roll. However, after the credits there's a scene which jumps the shark. I'd say it jumps about a hundred sharks, actually, and throws everything out the window.

(click to show/hide)

It's a sequence set in modern day, which is always a shark jumper. Gabriel, the hero of the game who won the day and got redemption, now says "No... my name es Dracul!", so somehow he became Dracula over the years. He looks like a shirtless old vagrant, and he doesn't have that cocky evil to him that would befit Dracula. Plus, it also betrays the Gabriel character and his story arc. It leaves us with... Gabodrac, a pile of dreck. And also Zobek (who is sort of Death in this game) is also alive and well.

So, aside from giving us a very lame Dracula and messing up this game's protagonist, this also establishes these characters are still around in the future and are preparing for some sort of battle with Satan maybe.

Let's hope if they make another 3D Castlevania, even if its a sequel to this, they'll just pretend that after credits scene was a joke.

[00Bear00]

Well after talking to you guys I picked LoS over Enslaved I let you know my opinion later

[Don Vecta]

Just to let you know, merged the news thread of LOS into the general CV discussion since game's out.

[Running Wild]

I downloaded the demo last night.

Jesus Christ.

Can't believe how good the in-game graphics are. Looks like a rendered cutscene all the time lol.

[RagingStormX]

I must say... the demo impressed me more than I expected it to. I will definitely be looking at this as soon as i am done with Vanquish.