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Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 - |OT| - Dead and Loving It!

This has been my issue so far. The game is gorgeous and I was a big fan of the first. I just wish it'd let me get more into it.

One thing that bothered me was in the section that's also in the demo, it'll show you a camera shot of something you're supposed to destroy. Ok. Fine. THEN you encounter the same situation 20 seconds later and it shows you pretty much the exact same thing again. It just seems like a waste. That was a specific example, but it happens a few times.

Still, I think it'll improve, I've not really got going yet.

Do yourself a favor and turn off hints in the options, I'm still not sure exactly what all that impacts but I've played with that set so far and haven't noticed many things like what you mentioned.
 
I think this game is... pretty creepy to be honest. It only cements the fact that I would like for MS to do the next Silent Hill. The
Gorgon sisters, the way they sounded and animated, along with the evil of Castlevania not wanting Dracula to ever leave
aspects were pretty fucked up IMO.

Also just a lot of narrative things, particularly how
your visits to the castle feel very dream-like and driven by Gabriel's psychology, and the memory of Marie and Trevor
. It's all very well done and interesting stuff to me. The voice acting and writing is actually very good.
 

Shinta

Banned
I think this game is... pretty creepy to be honest. It only cements the fact that I would like for MS to do the next Silent Hill. The
Gorgon sisters, the way they sounded and animated, along with the evil of Castlevania not wanting Dracula to ever leave
aspects were pretty fucked up IMO.

Those enemies were definitely interesting. I have no doubt MS could make amazing top tier art and graphical assets for Silent Hill, as well as the technical aspects of gameplay.

The challenge is always in the story, puzzles, combat system philosophy.

They're probably as good as anyone to try it, but I'd like to see another Japanese team try it, since they seem to have a pretty solid handle on horror in games and film.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
If there's one thing MercurySteam truly does get right is boss battles. Damn are they good :p! Just got my chaos powers. Game feels pretty good so far. I don't like the modern stealth areas too much but they sometimes work fine.
 
They're probably as good as anyone to try it, but I'd like to see another Japanese team try it, since they seem to have a pretty solid handle on horror in games and film.

I don't really think that "being Japanese" makes for a better horror team. I've seen plenty of super-shit Japanese horror films, some that people even deem brilliant as The Ring or Ju-on, but they didn't really do much for me.

I think in the case of Silent Hill that they simply had the right people. Silent Hill Downpour had a lot of excellent and creative ideas, but the game was held back by some technicalities; I'm still under the belief that if Downpour were more polished that more people would have found it to be a pretty awesome game.

Lords of Shadow 2 on PS3 has some graphical issues that are trying to kill the experience for me, but I imagine that they don't exist in the PC version and are merely a product of outdated hardware. There was one moment with drop-dead art direction and music and scale, but then part of the background was pixellated as fucking hell and it just took me out of the grandeur of the scene.

I'm honestly thinking about finishing this game, and then kicking my PS3 to the damn curb. Most of the games I own a PS3 for are on PC, and I'm really sick of having the "shit" version of the game, at least visually.

...went off on a tangent there that is un-related-- and both somehow related-- to the post I quoted. :p
 
I loved LoS1, but so far this game feels like Lords of Solid May Cry. Also all the bat action gives me Batman Arkham vibes. Maybe I'm just not far enough in.
 

Wounded

Member
Can't you skip those cutscenes? I mean, I don't think you'd want to on your first playthrough, but certainly after you've seen them you should be able to skip them later on. I personally think the story cutscenes are pretty cool and interesting so I wasn't like "fuck this shit let me play!"

I do agree that the cutscenes are decent. That said the game needs to decide to either let you play or watch a cutscene, and not intersperse them too much. I remember MGS4 was awful for that at the start (I like MGS cutscenese) in that you'd get control of Snake, move him about 5ft and then another 2 minute+ cutscene would play. Just let it be all one scene, rather than teasing me.

Do yourself a favor and turn off hints in the options, I'm still not sure exactly what all that impacts but I've played with that set so far and haven't noticed many things like what you mentioned.

Ah if that's true then great. I don't mind getting a hint, but sometimes it zooms in on a glowing object, just in case you wouldn't notice it.
 
Wow. Wow. Holy. Fucking. Wow.

This
ENTIRE Toy Maker
sequence has been FUCKING PHENOMENAL. The direction, the music, writing, the puzzle, this boss fight... I'm now at the point where I'm beginning to actually feel sorry for people who don't play this game.

I'm also convinced that Mercury should take on Silent Hill at this point. This game is super creative and well done.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Just beat
Toy Maker
, and I have to agree that so far the story is complete nonsense and the pacing is terrible. Here, let me stop fighting and trying to prevent
the return of Satan so that my son can play with his toys
.

I'm also not sure why it took the Kotaku reviewer "four hours" to complete
Agreus
, but after hitting the continue screen twice, I just said fuck it and exploited my way to the end. If what I did was considered an exploit anyway. That encounter was complete bullshit, and I can understand all of the hate for it. It's especially stupid when there's absolutely no explanation why
you can't use your powers here, but they work just fine once you exit the garden/cemetary.

Also, what's up with Dracula's ability to
travel into the past
? I know how to do it, I just don't know from a story perspective why I'm doing it. I must have been completely asleep when
Zobek
told me the reasoning behind it. And since you have that ability anyway, why not just go around slaughtering
the acolytes, or their ancestors in the past? It just seems like you can only travel back to one specific point in time.

Wow. Wow. Holy. Fucking. Wow.

This
ENTIRE Toy Maker
sequence has been FUCKING PHENOMENAL. The direction, the music, writing, the puzzle, this boss fight... I'm now at the point where I'm beginning to actually feel sorry for people who don't play this game.

I'm also convinced that Mercury should take on Silent Hill at this point. This game is super creative and well done.

So far it's the only boss that's truly interesting.
 
Just beat
Toy Maker
, and I have to agree that so far the story is complete nonsense and the pacing is terrible. Here, let me stop fighting and trying to prevent
the return of Satan so that my son can play with his toys
.

I think you have to take the story in a manner of psychology. While it's true that you're trying to prevent
the return of Satan, I think these Trevor/Castlevania bits are... who knows how much TIME they're actually taking up, and how much of it is in his head
, and so on. I'm not taking these events at face value, but simply as the story would like to flow. I don't really feel like these sequences are taking up actual time in the context of the game, but are merely part of Gabriel's psychological development.
 

Voror

Member
I'm a little stuck here. Went into some medical facility and reached a dead end and can't figure out how to get this door open and can't find another way to progress. Any hints?
 
Also, what's up with Dracula's ability to
travel into the past
? I know how to do it, I just don't know from a story perspective why I'm doing it. I must have been completely asleep when
Zobek
told me the reasoning behind it. And since you have that ability anyway, why not just go around slaughtering
the acolytes, or their ancestors in the past
?

You're not traveling into the past, you're entering Dracula's Castle which is essentially like an entirely different dimension built from Dracula's memories. Carmilla? He never met her in that form. Same for Trevor. Marie is dead. None of this stuff should be real, but they are because his mind has made them that way in the castle.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I'm a little stuck here. Went into some medical facility and reached a dead end and can't figure out how to get this door open and can't find another way to progress. Any hints?

The elevator? In one of the side rooms you can turn into rats. Need to progress as them to get the power on.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I think you have to take the story in a manner of psychology. While it's true that you're trying to prevent
the return of Satan, I think these Trevor/Castlevania bits are... who knows how much TIME they're actually taking up, and how much of it is in his head
, and so on. I'm not taking these events at face value, but simply as the story would like to flow. I don't really feel like these sequences are taking up actual time in the context of the game, but are merely part of Gabriel's psychological development.

That's kind of irrelevant.
It's the fact that Gabriel is the one deciding to take these long detours is what's unbelievable. It doesn't matter how much time has actually transpired in the real world, if it's all in his head
.

You're not traveling into the past, you're entering Dracula's Castle which is essentially like an entirely different dimension built from Dracula's memories. Carmilla? He never met her in that form. Same for Trevor. Marie is dead. None of this stuff should be real, but they are because his mind has made them that way in the castle.

When do they explain that you're only traveling through his memories? Mercury Steam also said you're traveling back into the past (which might not have been meant to be taken literally). Meeting Carmilla in that form as a simple memory doesn't make any sense if you've never actually met her in that form before, and whether or not Marie is just a figment of his imagination, she does explain why she's there. The first time he sees Trevor is in the modern city anyway. The only thing that's explained as to why he's even there in the first place is because his creations would die without him and they don't want him to leave. They never explicitly state he's imagining everything up to the point in the game where I'm at now.

Probably going to play through it at least one more time just to see if what you're saying makes any sense, because the game doesn't explain it that way.
 
You're not traveling into the past, you're entering Dracula's Castle which is essentially like an entirely different dimension built from Dracula's memories. Carmilla? He never met her in that form. Same for Trevor. Marie is dead. None of this stuff should be real, but they are because his mind has made them that way in the castle.

Yep, precisely. You put it better than I could.

this ENTIRE game aside from the modern day stuff feels incredibly psychologically driven, as if no time is actually passing and Castlevania itself is a living entity that consumes Dracula and is not necessarily a true part of the modern time-space

That's kind of irrelevant.
It's the fact that Gabriel is the one deciding to take these long detours is what's unbelievable. It doesn't matter how much time has actually transpired in the real world, if it's all in his head
.

I think it's more like, this is what he actually cares about the most, and the forward momentum of the narrative is taking a halt to develop the character. Think of it like an episode of a TV series that doesn't move the story forward per se but rather develops a few of the characters before moving the story on. I don't consider the
Castlevania "sequences"
to move the story forward, but rather to develop the character.

Obviously, whether you like or accept that or not is entirely up to you. But I like it and treat it as very extensive interludes to the modern-day plot, which I honestly don't care much about, at least not yet.
 

Grisby

Member
I gotta hand it to MS, I am really liking the combat more than the original LOS. Feels a lot faster and tighter. The different sub weapons are going to come in handy on harder modes.

However, the loading screens are becoming really apparent. Also, I feel like the pop up text is becoming rather annoying, specifically when it reminds me to use my void sword every time I see a waterfall. Like, duh.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
For those who beat the game, how many of those Rat sequences are there? Because seeing that singlehandedly killed my interest in buying this...
 
Quick question, played the demo and loved it but I never beat part 1. I think I got half way through the game before I stopped playing it. Do I need to beat 1 including the DLC to understand part 2?

Thanks!
 

Levyne

Banned
If will give you some background but I don't think it is required. The cutscenes/artwork between the tutorial (demo) and the main game will give you enough to go with.
 

Ahasverus

Member
I gotta hand it to MS, I am really liking the combat more than the original LOS. Feels a lot faster and tighter. The different sub weapons are going to come in handy on harder modes.

However, the loading screens are becoming really apparent. Also, I feel like the pop up text is becoming rather annoying, specifically when it reminds me to use my void sword every time I see a waterfall. Like, duh.
Disable clues in the menu!
 
Soo... 2.5 hours in or so and I'm still enjoying it. Only have done a few rat/stealth sections so far so will have to see how much of these are there throughout the game. I think the game still looks pretty great and the music has been fantastic. And game plays well. One of my worries is that there won't be as much variety in the enemy types as there was in LoS1 just because I'm seeing the same enemies in this part of the game as there were in the Giant Bomb QL which was a little further in the game...

So far I think there was only one really bad gameplay moment
When the castle blood thingy first appears and the floor starts to collapse-- had to retry that a few times because it was way too hard to see where I had to go next to continue.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Wow. Wow. Holy. Fucking. Wow.

This
ENTIRE Toy Maker
sequence has been FUCKING PHENOMENAL. The direction, the music, writing, the puzzle, this boss fight... I'm now at the point where I'm beginning to actually feel sorry for people who don't play this game.

I'm also convinced that Mercury should take on Silent Hill at this point. This game is super creative and well done.

Sounding a lot like how the first one surprised people, which bodes well for me. I should have it hopefully tomorrow.
 
I think this game is... pretty creepy to be honest. It only cements the fact that I would like for MS to do the next Silent Hill. The
Gorgon sisters, the way they sounded and animated, along with the evil of Castlevania not wanting Dracula to ever leave
aspects were pretty fucked up IMO.

Also just a lot of narrative things, particularly how
your visits to the castle feel very dream-like and driven by Gabriel's psychology, and the memory of Marie and Trevor
. It's all very well done and interesting stuff to me. The voice acting and writing is actually very good.

Im going to say this again.

If Devil May Cry has to be made by a western team again, make it be Mercury steam. They are almost there with the combat, they have a an amazing grasp on art direction, they know how to design amazing bosses and they can tell a fairly interesting story.

with a little refinement and guidance, they could by fair eclipse anything Ninja theory has achieved.
 

Maedhros

Member
The music continues to suck on this game. Booooooooring, boring! And Theme of Dracula is remixed at least 10 times on the same soundtrack, holy shit.

10 hours in, still pretty average (7/10 MAX). Getting buyers remorse, should have bought this for $20 or less...

I fucking hate where the story is going...
Redemption... really? FUCK THIS SHIT! I hate bad guys that turn good guys towards the ending...
 

Foffy

Banned
The music continues to suck on this game. Booooooooring, boring! And Theme of Dracula is remixed at least 10 times on the same soundtrack, holy shit.

I think it at least has a darker, more Castlevania-esqe soundtrack than LoS1, at the very least.

I'm currently getting the last chunk of items in the game before I tackle the final act, and I have one thing to say: fuck the Sciences District.
 

Shinta

Banned
The music continues to suck on this game. Booooooooring, boring! And Theme of Dracula is remixed at least 10 times on the same soundtrack, holy shit.

10 hours in, still pretty average (7/10 MAX). Getting buyers remorse, should have bought this for $20 or less...

I fucking hate where the story is going...
Redemption... really? FUCK THIS SHIT! I hate bad guys that turn good guys towards the ending...

I'm loving the main themes he uses, but they seem to get used a lot. Not sure how big the OST is honestly.
 
Played through another few hours and I just have to get something off my chest: The
riot police
are awesome, I don't care what anyone says.
 

Gin

Member
Full OST for LOS 2 can be found here legit -> http://www.sumthing.com/

I LOVED the LOS 1 soundtrack - one of my absolute favorites - still listen to it right now.
I have not bought LOS 2 as of yet - but definitely looking forward to this OST
 

ZeroX03

Banned
Anyone else love how the Belmont family are all voiced by native Scottish actors? Such a great touch, instead of just going for strictly English accents.
 

Maedhros

Member
I'm pretty biased towards this type of music... I don't think they are anything special, outside of fitting the game pacing. I prefer powerful, memorable melodies than this ambient type of soundtrack. Reason why I hate almost every recent modern soundtrack...

But I know I'm not really the rule.

Anyway, thank god for Dodo Eggs. Some secrets are a bitch to remember where they are, so having this item is pretty good. BTW, try to always carry some Dungeon Keys with you, as they are needed for completion.

Break everything too, as you'll find artwork pieces there now.
 

Ahasverus

Member
I'm pretty biased towards this type of music... I don't think they are anything special, outside of fitting the game pacing. I prefer powerful, memorable melodies than this ambient type of soundtrack. Reason why I hate almost every recent modern soundtrack...

But I know I'm not really the rule.

Anyway, thank god for Dodo Eggs. Some secrets are a bitch to remember where they are, so having this item is pretty good. BTW, try to always carry some Dungeon Keys with you, as they are needed for completion.

Break everything too, as you'll find artwork pieces there now.
Do I feel.. positivity? Wait, you're liking the game?
 

Volcynika

Member
Hm. I think I'm nearing the end of the game or right before the final boss stuff, because
I need to find where the third acolyte ran off to.
Problem is,
I'm not really sure where to look!
 

Ahasverus

Member
Hm. I think I'm nearing the end of the game or right before the final boss stuff, because
I need to find where the third acolyte ran off to.
Problem is,
I'm not really sure where to look!

Imagine the part you'll want to humilliate your worst enemy in if you were Satan.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The throne room. The church.
 
Hm. I think I'm nearing the end of the game or right before the final boss stuff, because
I need to find where the third acolyte ran off to.
Problem is,
I'm not really sure where to look!

Yeah, it's a super weird moment, just run around and start killing things. You'll get a waypoint eventually.
It ends by the church where you started though. Arts district I believe.
 

SargerusBR

I love Pokken!
When do they explain that you're only traveling through his memories? Mercury Steam also said you're traveling back into the past (which might not have been meant to be taken literally). Meeting Carmilla in that form as a simple memory doesn't make any sense if you've never actually met her in that form before, and whether or not Marie is just a figment of his imagination, she does explain why she's there. The first time he sees Trevor is in the modern city anyway. The only thing that's explained as to why he's even there in the first place is because his creations would die without him and they don't want him to leave. They never explicitly state he's imagining everything up to the point in the game where I'm at now.

From what i understand:

There are actually two Castles, one in the real world is in ruins and the city was created above its foundations, that's why we can see places like the map room that originally belonged to Dracula's Castle.
The other Castle is in another dimension, i assume its where Dracula's source of power is located. Marie, child Trevor and Carmilla aren't real, they were created by Dracula's power and its memories and his desire to leave the Castle once and for all.
 
When do they explain that you're only traveling through his memories? Mercury Steam also said you're traveling back into the past (which might not have been meant to be taken literally). Meeting Carmilla in that form as a simple memory doesn't make any sense if you've never actually met her in that form before, and whether or not Marie is just a figment of his imagination, she does explain why she's there. The first time he sees Trevor is in the modern city anyway. The only thing that's explained as to why he's even there in the first place is because his creations would die without him and they don't want him to leave. They never explicitly state he's imagining everything up to the point in the game where I'm at now.

Probably going to play through it at least one more time just to see if what you're saying makes any sense, because the game doesn't explain it that way.
I remember
one of the soldier's diaries made it pretty clear regarding Carmilla
, and there are other clues here and there, including a line he says right when you first arrive on the castle's balcony.
 
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