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

Yeah exactly. As you can see from the prologue recap theee is no retcon.

It's not a retcon, it just doesn't seem to make much sense.

When did that huge battle at the beginning take place? The prologue seems to tell the entire timeline, and that big battle with Alucard showing up at the end doesn't really fit in. We go from Simon and Alucard fucking up Dracula to him waking up weakened in modern times.

Wait you guys keep mentioningMOF, do I need to play MOF before this?

No, the game tells you all you need to know in the prologue.

I was confused by the timeline as well at first, but if you pay attention they mention a few times in the city markers (and some of the dialogue as well) that the prologue battle with the big explosion was about 500 years before present. We know from the first game that it takes place in the 11th century, and Mirror of Fate a few decades after that. Therefore, after Simon and Alucard defeat Dracula and the castle crumbles, 500 years later Dracula and the castle are back, the big explosion occurs and 500 years after that, LOS2.

This is what I figured it must be. Just seems odd to not explain what happened. I guess Alucard fucked him up again? DLC incoming?
 
Just beaten the game. Kinda surprised at the ending, I thought that they were (ending spoiler)
going to kill off Dracula but he lives at the end.
I liked most of the boss fights especially the last and second to last fights.
 

Jarmel

Banned
I just beat the
Toymaker
and I need either a refresher on the first game or a question answered about MoF (I have not played).

He mentions noting that a Lord of Shadow (or did he say lord of the castle) was defeated by his son in a battle which broke the Mirror of Fate. I assume this refers to the end of MoF? He also mentioned knowing a little boy back when the Castle was owned by Bernhard, who is heavily implied to be a young Gabriel

I might need to go to the wiki or something, but I'm just not sure I've got the timeline put together. Does that mean Gabriel was raised in this castle, left when he joined the brotherhood, and then the castle was taken over by the girl vampire in LoS (Laura?) and then Gabriel->Dracula took it as his own? How was the toymaker arrond for both Gabriel as a young boy and also to see the mirror break?

That's something I wasn't really sure of. I went through the lore scrolls and couldn't really find anything.
It's implied Dracula was a part in the play(other than moving the puppets) but I'm not familiar enough with LOS lore to know how.
 

Levyne

Banned
Related question:

Young Trevor must just been how Gabriel-Dracula must imagine he must have been as a boy? Since he wasn't aware of his existence until he was an adult.
 

Foffy

Banned
Related question:

Young Trevor must just been how Gabriel-Dracula must imagine he must have been as a boy? Since he wasn't aware of his existence until he was an adult.

The castle segments are fragments of Gabriel's memory, so there's a loose sense of logic too it. It's weird...
 

SargerusBR

I love Pokken!
Related question:

Young Trevor must just been how Gabriel-Dracula must imagine he must have been as a boy? Since he wasn't aware of his existence until he was an adult.

I believe at the end of MoF,
the mirror's guardian shows Dracula a vision of Marie and Trevor
 

Ahasverus

Member
That's something I wasn't really sure of. I went through the lore scrolls and couldn't really find anything.
It's implied Dracula was a part in the play(other than moving the puppets) but I'm not familiar enough with LOS lore to know how.
That boy is not Gabriel, it's one of his puppets who was so beautiful that softened his heart. Read the bestiary entry
It's not a retcon, it just doesn't seem to make much sense.

When did that huge battle at the beginning take place? The prologue seems to tell the entire timeline, and that big battle with Alucard showing up at the end doesn't really fit in. We go from Simon and Alucard fucking up Dracula to him waking up weakened in modern times.
No and no and no. The prologue battle is after MoF, it's still the middle ages, that's when the jump occurs, not after MoF. And.. Just keep playing.
 

b0uncyfr0

Member
What is the In-Game AA? Does SMAA look better? Does it need AF?

Why havent you guys been messing with the game yet? It has so much potential!!
 

Jarmel

Banned
That boy is not Gabriel, it's one of his puppets who was so beautiful that softened his heart. Read the bestiary entry

Right but
I wasn't sure of the castle the Toymaker was brought to, was Dracula's Castle or not. I also wasn't sure whether Walter was working for Dracula or not.

Edit:Nvm, I just read the wiki. Apparently this is a throwback to Mirror of Fate(the game).
 

Levyne

Banned
What is the In-Game AA? Does SMAA look better? Does it need AF?

Why havent you guys been messing with the game yet? It has so much potential!!

I dunno what the in-game AA is, but even with it on there is still a bit a shimmer when the camera pans on some wires and chains. The game is friendly to downsampling, as long you turn the DoF down to medium (or have a monster computer) for cutscenes
 

ironcreed

Banned
Yeah, I'm not too keen on the whole stealth Dracula vs Satan's evil corporation in the modern age thing. But at least it looks like it is going to have some fun boss battles.
 

Ahasverus

Member
Right but
I wasn't sure of the castle the Toymaker was brought to, was Dracula's Castle or not. I also wasn't sure whether Walter was working for Dracula or not.

Edit:Nvm, I just read the wiki. Apparently this is a throwback to Mirror of Fate(the game).
I don't know if you remember but in the first game
there was a scroll that detailed how the Bernhards inhabited the Castle before Carmilla. So no, as in the old series, Walter precceeded Dracula, but it was his castle.
 

Nimby

Banned
Does this game feature a lot of exploration (including collectibles secrets etc.) or is it mostly linear.
And would I need to play the first to understand the second.
 

burgerdog

Member
Question: why are people calling this game open world? When I think of an open world I think of GTA, skyrim, just cause, and so on. This is closer to Arkham Asylum than GTA.
 

Ahasverus

Member
^ Semantics. The OP tried to clarify that though.
Does this game feature a lot of exploration (including collectibles secrets etc.) or is it mostly linear.
And would I need to play the first to understand the second.
Yes it does. The first is ultra linear (but excellent) this one is Arkham Asylum/Darksiders type.
 
Anyone having graphical issues with this? Happening quite frequently for me (PS3 Phat)

bVdntZu.jpg
 

Ahasverus

Member
Well, couldn't someone dig through the games files and look? I mean, that outed the DLC and what it's all about.

I have and there is a value called "Dracula Skin" which might or not be included in game too. There is also lots of gibberish I fdon't understand, but certainky intriguing.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Some of the music in this game is beyond ridiculously good. I thought the first game had some pretty good tracks, but this game has a much better score, especially the battle music.

Every time this awesome track plays, I'll sometimes just hang around even after enemies are dead to let it finish. Or repeat.
 
Holy moly, some of these enemy and boss designs are stellar.
Say what you will about their place in Castlevania, but I love the flying soldiers with the extra arms/weapons. Would post a couple of cool screens I took, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. And don't get me started on that rad ass medusa.

:D
 
So you distract the patrollers with bats, sneak to the other side, distract them again, then get as close to the third stationary guard without going in his light path, then just mist up the small set of stairs and through him & the door. Should get you through.


Finished the game. All in all, pretty much a waste of my time and the developers, imo. they didn't exceed anything they did in the first game. Lots of boring mundane level design, much less impressive environments and art design by proxy. Story is pretty trash, terrible ending. You could say the combat is better, but is it when the enemies are often boring and repeatitive? So pretty much a waste of time for them, a lot of people are probably going to get laid off over this game. A waste of time for me, because it takes away from the original game by offering such a poor follow-up. There will is never likely going to be any sort of satisfying conclusion to the story. It was fine in the sense that it wasn't broken anywhere and gave me a handful of hours of play. My advice to people wondering? Ignore this game and pretend it doesn't exist. Play the first game, and if you've done that? Replay the first game again. Those 5-6/10 reviews were not unfounded. a game that is simply there, going through the motions and in the larger scheme against its predecessor, an absolute pos.
 

Sanctuary

Member
stealth section with the 3 golgoth guards. HALP

Wait, are you talking about when you're on your way to kill
the second acolyte and there's two roaming and one stationary?

If so, then:
bat the one farthest away from you, so that the one closest roams towards it with its back turned. Then run towards the stairs, and right before you're about to go up them, mist form up and through the guard and door.

Steam not tracking achievements is bullshit. I almost never care about achievements in general, but I was going to go for the 110% for this game. Yet, Steam decided to not count six of the achievements I've unlocked.

And thank you for that fantastic write-up, though I'm still early in the game so I skipped all the spoilers.

I definitely agree with you that Lord of Shadow difficulty isn't "hard" like it should be, though.

It feels about the same as playing on Knight with the first game. In many cases, it actually feels harder due to specific enemy types that love to do nothing but unblockables, or those that rush you after you've been knocked into a corner and are trying to get up. I learned late that
mist form
is what you'll want as your selected power most of the time.
Mist form
is basically their excuse to not have to implement any i-frames in the dodge (which is shit), not giving you any kind of invulnerability while recovering from a knockdown (which means you can get hit multiple times in a row while trying to get up) as well as their excuse for poor hitboxes that hit farther than they should, or even sometimes behind. Enemies that can hit you from a mile away while off screen, or those
shotgun assholes that take away 1/3 of your health per hit
that hide behind larger enemies make the game really annoying at times.
 
One thing I find odd is how vastly different the quality of the art direction and design varies between modern world and his castle. It's almost as if two separate teams made this.

that's the problem. the art design in the castle section is so good. i'd argue even better than the first game's (that moment in the first game when you are approaching the castle is bested by this one multiple times for me)

and then the modern day looks like shit. especially those giant enemies you have to sneak by.
 

Facism

Member
Wait, are you talking about when you're on your way to kill
the second acolyte and there's two roaming and one stationary?

If so, then:
bat the one farthest away from you, so that the one closest roams towards it with its back turned. Then run towards the stairs, and right before you're about to go up them, mist form up and through the guard and door.

thanks. typically, after asking, i did it no sweat. Just needed to be a bit more aware and patient :p
 

ZeroX03

Banned
or those
shotgun assholes that take away 1/3 of your health per hit
that hide behind larger enemies make the game really annoying at times.

That's a good thing,
enemies with projectiles can shoot others. The shotgun enemies are really easy to bait into killing others
. There's a strategy that's good for taking down every enemy easily, you just have to figure it out. I was dead afraid of the
ghoulish witch enemies that combine together to make that fire beast, until I realized the defensive Chaos (L2+Triangle I think) move could draw them all to you and kill them quickly, and if they did fuse you could just shoot an ice projectile to force them to split
.
 
Space Marine looks left.

Space Marine looks right.

Space Marine faces forward again. Years of gaming experience tells me that it is now OK to run up behind him and mash B.

Space Marine waits until I am out of cover, then, feet planted, cranes his neck aaaaall the way around over his shoulder in an instant to spot me and immediately shoot me to death.

JbFo0O0.gif
 
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