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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate |OT|

Vinny finishing Lords of Shadow on Giant Bomb's Unprofessional Fridays today made me want to play more of the series, so I went ahead and bought the game today.

It's great so far! Not liking this game's 3D, personally. I get lots of ghosting, particularly during cutscenes and if I accidentally move the system just very slightly during gameplay (which happens often) I get even more of it. When the 3D looks as intended though it does indeed look fantastic and significantly nicer than the game does in 2D.

As for best 3D/use of 3D on the system, my two favourites are Super Mario 3D Land and Paper Mario Sticker Star.



I think you can change the game's brightness (not the console one) in the game options, to make it more clear, in order to reduce ghosting.
 

Moff

Member
I played the first 30 minutes yesterday, the rest will be saved for a flight later this month.

the first 30 minutes are much much better than the demo in pretty much every way. even the framerate is better, although still not perfect. looking forward to this.
 
Well beat the whole thing this morning with 100%, just 10 hours. The game it's amazing from start to finish, some reviewers are out of his mind if they think this game deserves an score of 4 to 6. The only "bad" thing with this game it's there is no much to do after you finish the game, you can go for 100% but the castle is so small, that it takes very little to get all the items, after that the only thing you can do it's play in higher difficulties, they should have added some kind of challenge mode, but I guess they have a very limited resources to work in the game.

Can wait for LOS2, Gabriel it's such an awesome character.
 
I think you can change the game's brightness (not the console one) in the game options, to make it more clear, in order to reduce ghosting.

Cool, I'll be sure to have a fiddle with it.

I've played about 3 and a half hours so far, got the combat cross and have been backtracking to grapple points I had to pass by earlier. Absolutely loving the game, the only real problems I have with it so far are the load times and the framerate, and those aren't enough to spoil the experience for me. I'm finding it super satisfying to play.
 
Well beat the whole thing this morning with 100%, just 10 hours. The game it's amazing from start to finish, some reviewers are out of his mind if they think this game deserves an score of 4 to 6. The only "bad" thing with this game it's there is no much to do after you finish the game, you can go for 100% but the castle is so small, that it takes very little to get all the items, after that the only thing you can do it's play in higher difficulties, they should have added some kind of challenge mode, but I guess they have a very limited resources to work in the game.

Can wait for LOS2, Gabriel it's such an awesome character.

I really hope LOS.2 is long, I mean LOS.1 was around 20hrs for me, I don't want LOS.2 to be 10hrs, I want it to be 22hrs or something, my highly anticipated game this year.
 

Bedlam

Member
I really hope LOS.2 is long, I mean LOS.1 was around 20hrs for me, I don't want LOS.2 to be 10hrs, I want it to be 22hrs or something, my highly anticipated game this year.
Agreed. Despite the pacing problems at the very beginning (chapter 2 drags on way too long) I ultimately I enjoyed the length of LoS. Unfortunately the sequel will most likely be a lot shorter because LoS got hammered for its length - especially by reviewers which are in general even more impatient to finish games than regular gamers.
 
This game really awesome .

Really enjoy Boss fight, but why they didn't add Boss mode.

Only missing thing.

-More weapon & combo & Magic.
-Extra secret & content.


Yeah, I guess the resources and the budget were small, they are working on LOS2 and they are not a big team.
 

Comet

Member
Well I'm on Act III now and I've been enjoying the hell out of this. The story, characters, atmosphere, level design, and bosses are all really really good. There's still a sense of exploration here. The only thing I don't care much for is the shallow fighting and the slow movement with jumping and walking.
 

Ragus

Banned
Wow, some nice impressions.

I really liked the demo, so it sounds like I'll have a great time with retail version.
 
Agreed. Despite the pacing problems at the very beginning (chapter 2 drags on way too long) I ultimately I enjoyed the length of LoS. Unfortunately the sequel will most likely be a lot shorter because LoS got hammered for its length - especially by reviewers which are in general even more impatient to finish games than regular gamers.

yeah I know, but to me those filler chapters were good, I don't want a God of War roller coaster, I love God of War, but to me LOS is different, every filler was alive due to the scrolls of the fallen knights, making it cool to look around.

Also remember Pan's early chapter, that was simple and short, but was pretty cool to me, and the visuals were impressive there.


and I am afraid you are right, Dave Cox even said on twitter that LOS.2 will be a tighter experience than LOS.1 which is a great thing, but also means it will be shorter, and my fear is rising cause he argued alot that MoF is 15hrs long and 20hrs for completion, and now people are finishing it pretty quickly, One of the reasons I loved LOS.1 was it's length, and how awesome it was, I ended up replaying it right after I finished it to get the Platinum Trophy, it was the first time I do that, and it was my first Platinum.
 

TentPole

Member
Alright all around the internet people are losing their shit over how bad they think this game looks. One of the most common complaints is the fall damage. People are downright indignant that a Castlevania game has fall damage. I love it because it allows the to have a slightly more open castle design while still have meaningful platforming, something that is a core part of Castlevania that has been missing for a while now.

So is there anyone left reading this thread that is down on the game? It seems they all moved on after seeing the demo, but if anyone shares this criticism could you please explain why the idea of fall damage is so abhorrent. Because all I have seen is intense righteous indignation without any explanation for where it is coming from.
 

daakusedo

Member
Remembering the reactions when it was revealed, it seems it has convinced more people than expected, at least to play it.
For myself, there's nothing pushing me over it reading impressions here and having played the demo. I was not particularly reluctant to the thing not being the successor of the ds games but in the end it doesn't strike me as a really worthwile alternative.
That bother me because I'm not much into castlevania but the gba and ds games were like natural purchases, I wasn't waiting for them like crazy but when a new one released, I quickly went to get it. Even more strange is I welcome games that drop the 100% 2d graphics, so maybe it's just MOF art direction that is boring but I'm now missing the previous look.
Esthetic aside, the slow pace and moves directly coming from a 3d game is what really cut any desire to play it.
 

MarkusRJR

Member
Just finished watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look. I don't understand how they thought that frame rate was acceptable at all. With the swinging camera I felt kind of sick (I'm easily motion sick).
 

Comet

Member
And the credits are rolling.

That was a ton of fun. Here's how I would break it down:

Positives:
+ The story is simple but yet engaging enough that it made me want to continue playing and the characters' arcs cross-over pretty well.
+ The atmosphere is pretty awesome. The music and detailed backgrounds are great, in fact, they feel like they're alive unlike any of the GBA/DS Castlevania games with static images.
+ At times the graphics can look really fucking amazing, even I will crank up the 3D because sections of it look amazeballs. The last boss for Simon looked great. Best graphics I've seen the 3DS pull off.
+ There is still plenty to explore in the game; I found myself looking at every corner of the map when I could, just like in SotN.
+ Really fun bosses that continue to vary it up. Remember that armor mid-boss and that weird ogre boss from the demo? Yeah, those are by far the lamest bosses I've come across.

Negatives:
- The combat is way too simplistic, and the enemies take a lot of damage. Rather than make a deep fighting system to engage you, the developers artificially added length to battles through annoying health meters for enemies.
- The running, jumping, ledge-grabbing, etc. feels way too sluggish. It's as if the game runs at .5x speed compared to all previous Castlevania games. It's not awful, but it just feels really off. Sometimes using "R" to swing and grab on to stuff is unresponsive. I died a lot in a few segments where "R" was not responsive enough for me.
- Enough with the damn QTEs, they are awful. The 3DS's buttons are NOT made for QTE spamming either. It's such a game development cop-out. And this game has it pretty rough where a QTE appears when you least expect it and bam, you're dead.

Overall, as a fan of the series (going back to the NES trilogy), I would highly recommend this game. It's a mixture of the NES trilogy, Lords of Shadows, and a pinch of the Metroidvania games. However, the game is really short, and once you beat it and get 100%, there's nothing to do (and that doesn't take long at all). I'm very glad I played it, but I'm also glad I GameFly'd this game. $40 would have been tough to swallow for me right now.
 

mjc

Member
The bosses are really clever and I love how cinematic some of the game can be. Boss spoilers towards end of Act 1: Like when you
can control how Simon walks towards the Siren boss with that behind the back camera. Very console-esque stuff.
 
I've just beat act 1 and so far while it hasn't reached the highs of other portable CV games like my personal favourite OoE and the Sorrow Duo i'm thinking it's a lot better than say Portrait of Ruin.
Really i'm surprised by how much i'm enjoying it so far as the demo was merely okay, it has a pretty shaky start for the first 20 or so minutes but once you get going this game really improves, for all the complaints from some people about how this game doesn't feel like Castlevania it sure as hell does to me.
 

Mutt

Neo Member
I found some of the boss fights a little too difficult and i would turn the settings from normal to easy to get through boss fights. Has anyone else done this?
 

grumpy

Member
I found some of the boss fights a little too difficult and i would turn the settings from normal to easy to get through boss fights. Has anyone else done this?

I normally play the game on hard, but i've beaten every boss so far on normal and easy.
 
One thing they did capture from the past series are the boss battles. It's tough and it takes repetition to get through them.

Stage 6's boss in Dracula X Chronicles took me 4 stinking hours to finally get good enough to beat him. And that's not the hardest boss in the game! *cry*

That's Castlevania.
 

Maedhros

Member
One thing they did capture from the past series are the boss battles. It's tough and it takes repetition to get through them.

Stage 6's boss in Dracula X Chronicles took me 4 stinking hours to finally get good enough to beat him. And that's not the hardest boss in the game! *cry*

That's Castlevania.

Just wait for the Dracula fight on this game... so fucking good. @_@
 

Chatin

Member
First hour or so of the game was unbearably uninspired and painful to trod through. After that point, it really started to pick up and just kept getting better until the credits rolled. Glad I stuck with it despite the horrible intro. One of the worst intros I've played to a game in a long while.
 

skarabrae

Banned
Just trying to gauge how far I have to go but... are there only 3 Acts in this game? I just started Act 2. Enjoying it so far, with the game being evocative of the original NES trilogy and some of SOTN's exploration. 10 hours is what people are clocking this game in, eh?
 
Just finished watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look. I don't understand how they thought that frame rate was acceptable at all. With the swinging camera I felt kind of sick (I'm easily motion sick).

I do too, hence why i cant ride any roller coasters. I keep the 3D slider halfway up, full on and im in headache dizzy zone.

I dunno though the framerate while not perfect still seems ok to me, get used to it I suppose. Demo was worse than the retail product.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
The puzzle in Act 2 is driving me insane.
 
Agreed. Despite the pacing problems at the very beginning (chapter 2 drags on way too long) I ultimately I enjoyed the length of LoS. Unfortunately the sequel will most likely be a lot shorter because LoS got hammered for its length - especially by reviewers which are in general even more impatient to finish games than regular gamers.
Game had pacing problems throughout the entire game and I find it funny people complained about the length because when I beat the game it took me 10 hours. They need work on how to pace their games much better, but I try to be easy on them since it was their first shot.

Either way, I am glad people seem to be enjoying this game, I thought it looked pretty bbad from the gameplay videos. I guess they made improvements. Going to give it a shot when I pick up my 3ds this month
 

Yuterald

Member
Whoa, are all the bosses as good as the first one!? I did NOT expect the bosses fights to be this good. I put the game on Hard and the first major boss fight was an awesome experience. Love all the cut scene/enemy/boss introductions. It's the sort of shit I rarely see in non-Japanese games, but I feel like these Mercury guys get it. Lots of cool mid boss cut scenes, increasingly difficult patterns/boss phases, good shit here! I'm really digging this so far!
 
Glad to see people enjoying this. The only thing holding me back from going to the store right now is the lack of replayability.

Still gotta wait for a cheaper price but I'm glad this sounds fun while it lasts.
 

Maddness

Member
I beat the game last night with 80% complete. Took me about 8 or so hours. Absolutely loved it. Its with Fire Emblem now as my favorite 2 games on 3DS. Can't wait for LoS 2. I never use 3D other than the initial "lets try it once" flip, but I used it a lot here and consider it the best use of 3D on the system.

I'm a big fan of the old Castlevania games with my nostalgia glasses, but I think LoS and MoF are the best games in the series because of their atmosphere and story.

I hope everyone with a 3DS gives it a run past the demo. Its a good demo, but you don't get the story aspects and atmosphere like you do in the full experience.
 
I thought it was going to be impossible to enjoy this game while wanting it to be an Igavania, but it totally stands on it's own. I also wasn't this impressed of the 3DS's graphics since Kid Icarus Uprising.

Edit: Also I know the framerate is not so good, but this game was completely underrated by reviews, too bad many people will give it a pass because of that.
 

Veal

Member
Man Mercury Steam hit it out of the park visually! LoS was pretty godlike visually and they managed to make MoF just as impressive. The sense of depth and scale is just amazing! I really like the small hints at previous Castlevania memories (the carousel ride stuck out to me as a nice nod to classic enemies and the frustrations of dealing with them.)

MS really does get Castlevania.
 
Man Mercury Steam hit it out of the park visually! LoS was pretty godlike visually and they managed to make MoF just as impressive. The sense of depth and scale is just amazing! I really like the small hints at previous Castlevania memories (the carousel ride stuck out to me as a nice nod to classic enemies and the frustrations of dealing with them.)

MS really does get Castlevania.

So that wasn't just me thinking the same about those enemy heads. I didn't pay attention to them till I after my second death, which cause me to then die a third time.

These are the best 3d boobies I've ever seen
I know the 3D in the game is good, but I don't think it was that good.
 
I couldn't resist and went out today and bought a 3DS XL and downloaded the game. Dang, I am enjoying it immensely. Played for a solid 4 hours, I couldn't put it down. I think I'm in the middle of act 2. So happy with the game. I really am liking the boss battles. I had the 3D turned off right from the start thinking it would effect framerate, but seeing the good impressions I will turn it on and check it out.

What the heck was IGN thinking? The reviewer must of never played LoS and was expecting old-school Castlevania or was just shit at the game.
 
I really hope LOS.2 is long, I mean LOS.1 was around 20hrs for me, I don't want LOS.2 to be 10hrs, I want it to be 22hrs or something, my highly anticipated game this year.

Honestly the one thing I thought Lords of Shadow 1 needed the most was trimming the fat a bit and some tighter pacing.
 
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