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

I can't for the life of me fathom how this type of game was released without a functional mapping system. I'm fine with the Metroidvania-esque design but my god the "map" it provides you in the menus is a damned joke. I'd like to go back and do some pain box hunting but I just don't care to deal with the maze of environments. Nor do I feel I should have to hop online to make up for something so fundamental/basic.

Outside of that, I'm liking the game well enough. The boss battle being a highlight. The stealth sections are garbage but at least they are relatively short.
 
So I had been playing the first game again, then got towards the final chapters. 2 was released. Finished that. Then went back to the first game to finish. Overall I still love both games, but I do have a tiny bit different views on each now that I've had some time to digest both after having played them recently.

1 is still great but imo it has a really slow start and a somewhat lackluster finish with its chapters. Also it has Castelvania feels in it at moments, but still has a different vibe.Now LoS 2 imo has a better Castlevania feel, even with the modern stuff. It feels much ore gothic overall. Also I think the pacing is better and doesn't slow down as much as part 1 does. I honestly love both of these games. I think 1 is ultimaely a better more varied game, but I feel that LoS 2 is a better Castlevania game if that makes sense.
 

JohngPR

Member
just finished and really got into the game. i dont understandthe low reviews. i kept waiting for the hard, annoying stealth section and it never came...they were easy and added variety to gameplay. if a critic gave los 1 a good scre n this a bad they need fired. i do miss the fixed camera though.

Spoilers

i hav story questions. i didnt play MOF. the intro mentions simon n alucard kill dracula...yet in los2 alucard makes the pact and kills drcula. im lost. did they kill him then he ressurected to then let alucard kill him again?
also, who is Bernhard? other than the toymaker story.

MOF spoilers:
They actually didn't kill him in Mirror of Fate. Simon Belmont stabbed him and he disappeared. Alucard says something like "That's not how vampire's usually die..." suggesting that something else happened.
 

Jut

Banned
MOF spoilers:
They actually didn't kill him in Mirror of Fate. Simon Belmont stabbed him and he disappeared. Alucard says something like "That's not how vampire's usually die..." suggesting that something else happened.

I figued that they didnt kill him, but that shouldve been clarified in the LOS 2 intro movie...dumb. They specificaly sat they killed him.
 

Ahasverus

Member
I figued that they didnt kill him, but that shouldve been clarified in the LOS 2 intro movie...dumb. They specificaly sat they killed him.
He "dies" but he returns to life in no time. That's his curse. he's always back, that's why he wants to die. So basically yes, he was "killed", then was resurrected, then Alucard did it again.
 
I love how many DMC vibes I'm getting with this game regarding the environments. Especially the first one, which had the best atmosphere and was unfortunately lost in the later games.

And has anyone noticed that when you pick up a scroll, the tone that plays sounds exactly like the one in the DMC games?
 
The game is crazy good, I am replaying it on Prince of Darkness now, I'm having a blast as much as the first time.

I have no idea how anyone can give this game anything less than 8 -I am being generous here-, The game is golden, high quality, and so much fun, It is quite addicting actually.

I love the enhanced combat system, the Void Sword and Chaos Claws are quite something, there is depth there, mixed with the free camera, the new dodge mechanics and he mist ability, the enemy encounters become so much fun.
 

Schlomo

Member
One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is how good the combat camera is. I almost never felt that it wasn't showing me what I wanted. Especially coming from Metal Gear Rising, that's a big deal for this type of game.
 

Ahasverus

Member
Unhandled error during the final boss. Don't feel like trying it again today.
The same happened to me lol. However it reloaded right to the last cinematic. I would be so pissed if it deleted the save like in LoS1.
also, who is Bernhard? other than the toymaker story.
Walter bernhard is also a nod to Lament of Innocence (Old series' origin story) when he was the master of the Castle and main villain.
 
UHG! I still havent picked this game up because I'm working on a couple of other games. Loved and still own the first LoS and I'm looking forward to the sequel.


 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
UHG! I still havent picked this game up because I'm working on a couple of other games. Loved and still own the first LoS and I'm looking forward to the sequel.



You'll be happy you did :)

But also sad, because you'll be one of few :(.

Super tanked.
The bottom fell out on previous gen faster than any of us anticipated
 
Randomly decided to buy the game on Steam and it's surprisingly good. The soundtrack is one of the better ones I've heard in a while. Runs really well, too.

I wish I knew how to remove the mini map, though. It doesn't really help and just makes the game look worse.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
Beat the game on Prince of Darkness.

This game has one of the worst final bosses of a game I've ever played. It's up there with Sonic Generations level of bad, the precision combat of all the other encounters is thrown away
making 95% of your arsenal useless, terrible camera angles, blinding dust everywhere. I'll probably never play this game again because of it, after every other boss in the game is great. If you don't have whirlwind or the item it's near impossible to heal. Getting close enough to use Chaos is a massive liability (Avalanche). Basically whip and dodge and hope he doesn't do a move when you can't see him and get hit by it. 95% unblockables, giving you no chance to parry for magic. I'd have preferred QTEs.
 

BouncyFrag

Member
PC will save us
PS4 Ultimate revised trilogy version will
images
 
One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is how good the combat camera is. I almost never felt that it wasn't showing me what I wanted. Especially coming from Metal Gear Rising, that's a big deal for this type of game.
Very true, coming from Batman Arkham Origins, I thought turning the combat camera off would be a better choice, cause it was all over the place in B:AO, and I did so, didn't really like it, so I turn it back on, and woooooh, the camera is so fluid and keeps track of the action, I never had a problem with the camera in Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2
You'll be happy you did :)

But also sad, because you'll be one of few :(.

Super tanked.
The bottom fell out on previous gen faster than any of us anticipated
That was my biggest worry even before the game was released, It is like DarkSiders 2 all over again.
Did it sell even less than LoS.1 ?!
 
Kleidos Challenges on Prince of Darkness are quite something, especially since I wasn't using a guide or anything, so finishing them took me alot of time, but it was so worth it and totally satisfying.

Though to be honest I'd have loved it if there was a secret boss in the end, kinda like in DarkSiders II The Crucible where if you finish all the waves in one setting you get to fight
Wicked K, though I wanted to fight The Announcer more
, non the less it was pretty cool, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 could have used something similar, heck maybe Galamoth could have been the final secret boss in Kleidos.

Anyway Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 really needs a Combat Arena DLC, The Combat is so good, deep, and flexible, encounters never get dull or boring, just imagine an Arena where you fight like 10 waves of Skeleton Warriors & Dishonored Vampires then get to fight
Carmilla
once you clear the 10 waves, fighting 10 waves of Riot Police & Riot Mech and facing
Victor Belmont
as the boss, same with other bosses, all I know is that a Combat Arena would be totally great and is kinda necessary.
 

Darkone

Member
Finished the game last week, really enjoyed it, loved the art and nice story.
My only complain is the Shitty ending!!!
I would rate it 8 no less, would love to see a Next gen sequel with Alucard as the playable character.
 
Beat the game on Prince of Darkness.

This game has one of the worst final bosses of a game I've ever played. It's up there with Sonic Generations level of bad, the precision combat of all the other encounters is thrown away
making 95% of your arsenal useless, terrible camera angles, blinding dust everywhere. I'll probably never play this game again because of it, after every other boss in the game is great. If you don't have whirlwind or the item it's near impossible to heal. Getting close enough to use Chaos is a massive liability (Avalanche). Basically whip and dodge and hope he doesn't do a move when you can't see him and get hit by it. 95% unblockables, giving you no chance to parry for magic. I'd have preferred QTEs.

yeah it was pretty annoying, but someone here posted that you can just most through the unblockables. should make the fight a tad bit easier on my next playthrough
 
Finished the game on Prince of Darkness and finally got the Platinum, The game is really great, I'd give it a 9/10 only cause of a couple of underdeveloped points
Victor Belmont and Satan Fight
, Other than that the game is my no.1 favorite game of this generation, and yeah I don't mind the ending, It was good, Dracul last words are kinda similar to Kain's in Legacy of Kain Defiance
"Hope"
, both are one of my favorite games of all time.

Now I'll wait for Alucard DLC, and as Dracul said at the end
"Who Knows what Fate has in store"
, maybe we will get another sequel, but I seriously hope NOT, Lords of Shadow Saga ended nicely, no need to dilute the story.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Been playing through the original and while I see lots of improvement ie, full camera control etc
I do prefer the original, both of fantastic but I wish they kept it more to the original LOS.
 
Did the Agreus part today...and cant really believe some reviewers(kotaku) needed 4 hours to do it. Is it idiotic, out of place, seeing you can curb stomp him after that? yeah, but nothing to make someone give the game a 4/10 or 6/10.
And the
Toymaker
part is AMAZING. loved everything about it.
 

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Finished this this past weekend. In general, I enjoyed it more than the first, which I thought was really dragged down by the awful DLC (particularly that final tedious and frustrating boss battle in the Resurrection DLC). The acting in LOS2 was great and much better than the first game (particularly
Gabriel's scene with Marie where he says she was deceived, although Carlyle's delivery is so good that you can tell Gabriel is saying that he himself was deceived
). I liked LOS2's "open world" structure more than LOS1's chapter set up (the latter just broke up the story too much) and the interaction between the
inner castle world of Gabriel's memories and the outer world
. Also the set pieces in LOS2 were really fantastic, particularly the opening battle sequences
with the titan and Gabriel's test of wills with the Paladin (that one scene was awesome) and the battle with the Toy Maker
. I do wish that Mirror of Fate had come out for PC before LOS2, as I felt I was missing a lot of the background and relationships, even with the opening cutscene in LOS2.
(I was/am a bit confused as to why Alucard is apparently friends with Dracula now, unless it's more of a "enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of thing".) In any case, it seems like they left room for a sequel there at the end, assuming the game does well enough?
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Finished it earlier tonight.

I guess it's a 7/10. Drac's Castle parts are good, but the modern parts are mostly shite. The story is also kinda blah, and I don't think the voice acting or the graphics were quite as good as in the original.

And fuck that ending.
 

Braag

Member
Am I the only one who thought Alucard
looked super goofy wearing that armor at the end of the game when he revealed himself to be to Zobek's Lieutenant? It's like the head and the body didn't fit together at all, it looked so silly I couldn't stop staring at it
 
Am I the only one who thought Alucard
looked super goofy wearing that armor at the end of the game when he revealed himself to be to Zobek's Lieutenant? It's like the head and the body didn't fit together at all, it looked so silly I couldn't stop staring at it

yeah, I really hated that design
 

Ambitious

Member
The crushed blacks thread reminded me that I forgot to ask while I was playing LoS2: Anyelse having issues with the gamma setting? My game was way too dark, almost all shadows were completely black. I gradually turned the gamma up until I even had it at the maximum setting, but the blacks were still totally crushed.

The TV settings seem to be fine. But even if they weren't, I would have noticed that issue earlier, which I didn't. Playing on the 360, by the way.
 

slade

Member
Beat this game yesterday. The combat system is good and the boss fights are all pretty great. Even the last boss which some complained about was good but not all that difficult. He falls easily to the rising whip/demon wings into rolling whip combo. Chalk me up as another one who does not understand the low reviews. This game was better then the first.
 
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