Notwithstanding anything else you're talking about, this idea needs to die an immediate death. There is no video game reviews arbitration board defining what a low score means. If you as a reviewer have the best time with a game you've ever had in your life but find the subject matter to be disgustingly abhorrent, you're well within your right to give it as low a score as you want. There is no "A for effort" in the critical evaluation of art or media.
So I'm now confused every time I see a score without the max value behind it. Did you like it and give it a 4.7/10 or did you like it and give it a 4.7/5?
Wait, is that out of 5 or 10, because according to some reviewers, a reviewer could...I'll just post this from Brad Shoemaker of Giantbomb:
So I'm now confused every time I see a score without the max value behind it. Did you like it and give it a 4.7/10 or did you like it and give it a 4.7/5?
It was a joke based on the IGN review where they gave the game an unjustly low score. At the very beginning of my review, in bold, I state that I liked the game but didn't love it. I gave it the joke score assuming that people would actually read my review.
If I had to give it a legit score, it'd probably be in the 7 range, but I don't care a lot for numbers.
I love the setting and am constantly amazed by the art. I love going outside and seeing the grey sky, or going to some deep underwater lake and seeing the blue/green glow on the walls.
I am trying my hardest to make it feel like castlevania. I am being subborn and am only using the Y button to attack (The X button moves feel too much like GOW). I also like using the side weapons but get frustrated when bosses ignore them.
Negatives:
There is no excitement to the chests and secrets. I love the NES castlevanias and even moreso, the SNES ones, but I feel like handheld gaming is more interesting with a full metroidvania system. Crafting, soul hunting, transformations, cash, furniture, etc.
I haven't bothered to try to understand the overall map system. I constantly feel unfamiliar with where I am, and am just staring at the red dot. Hopefully the game opens up more.
It was a joke based on the IGN review where they gave the game an unjustly low score. At the very beginning of my review, in bold, I state that I liked the game but didn't love it. I gave it the joke score assuming that people would actually read my review.
If I had to give it a legit score, it'd probably be in the 7 range, but I don't care a lot for numbers.
Ah, I see. I feel silly now, but you understand how confusing this whole score thing is. You need a base and a standard to go by or it's a meaningless number. I always assumed there was a standard.
Ah, I see. I feel silly now, but you understand how confusing this whole score thing is. You need a base and a standard to go by or it's a meaningless number. I always assumed there was a standard.
Don't feel silly, I didn't mind explaining it at all. Not everyone was going to get it and that's to be expected. I agree about scores and numbers, for what it's worth, which is why I didn't actually give it one.
I love the setting and am constantly amazed by the art. I love going outside and seeing the grey sky, or going to some deep underwater lake and seeing the blue/green glow on the walls.
I'm a 25 year CV freak/player. Very impressed with this outting so far. Just started Act 2.
Act 1 was great. Didn't expect that last boss, and the transition to Act 2 was kind of odd.
I didn't expect the dark, eerie mood, so that is a nice suprise. The music too.. I can feel that they were trying to capture Super CVIV and ofcourse some of Dracula's Curse.
Some of the 3D scrolling is just magnificent and I'm only 1/3 through. I would like to see more enemies though. At the same time, I like the little details like slightly different zombie types, mermen and animated puppets as different colors. It just shows the detail and work Mercury Steam puts in.
I like the Scottish accents, actually. Nice consistency.
So is the character in Act 2's voice, the voice of Rob Stark from Game of Thrones???
Some moments just made me smile and say 'Holy Shit'. I won't spoil.
Anyway, I recommend this game, must be the most mature/best game on 3DS right now. Yes that's an opinion
Something I haven't seen anyone touched upon is the fact that the cartoon cutscenes are rendered in real time. The style would have looked cool if it was the main art style I think. Maybe it was too demanding.
Just finished up Act 3 a few minutes ago. It feels like an "8" to me if I had to put a number on it.
I enjoyed the story probably the most and liked the animated cutscenes (I enjoyed Lords of Shadow and was interested to see where they went with it.)
The platforming I thought felt pretty good as well and the combat was solid. Having played Rondo and the Igavania games I think the combat in this game was my least favorite of the titles. That being said I didn't think it was horrible just not as good it was in the others. The only thing I can really knock it for is the shoddy framerate.
I kinda wish they would have used the cel shaded style of the cutscenes for the in-game graphics. It probably would have looked cleaner than the more sophisticated 3d look they were going for and might have ran better too.
Overall I enjoyed the game though and don't regret buying it. I would say it's an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoyed LOS on consoles, but if your a fan of the older games you may want to try the demo first.
I am six hours into the game and I still can't understand the whip.
"Press R to attach to first anchor.
Okay remember to only press R once to get to the next anchor. You don't need to press R to unlatch
Okay, got it... Wait I want to stop for that Bestiary piece.
Okay, no momentum, press B to start swinging right?
Okay I'm swinging, press R once to get to the ne...."
Why did I just fall straight down? What did I do wrong? You would think after playing Metroid, Indiana Jones, Spider Man, etc I would feel natural doing this.
Finished. Quite a nice handheld experience clocking in at 11 or so hours, 100% completion.
I liked the game. It didn't completely floor me like I was hoping it would but it's definitely a good entry into the 3DS's lineup. Fantastic 3D and Mercury Steam seemed to have a lot of fun showing it off. Their art style translated pretty nicely to the small screen and I felt like the castle was appropriately moody. The score, while not impressive at first, grew to be pretty awesome near the end (love the credits song).
On the gameplay front I had one or two issues. I liked the beat-um up combat and the combo stuff was nice along with LOS's shadow and light magic deal. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough enemies to fight and they didn't encourage you to experiment. It would have been nice to say, fight a monster who is light magic based with the shadow magic or vice versa. Anything really to spice up the general encounters.
However, this was not an issue with the bosses who are clearly the stars of the show. A lot of them felt old school in nature and I had a lot of fun dodging their wild attacks and trying to get the most of my hits in. They provided the best moments in the game and it gives me great hope to see what MS will pull off in the upcoming Lords of Shadow 2.
One other small complaint is that the monster design, while paying homage to classic creatures from CV, still felt a little too generic which was a problem I had with the original LOS. The bosses didn't really suffer from this aspect and they were definitely most welcomed.
Lastly, the story wasn't quite as deep as I hoped it would be and instead of serving as a true second act it more or less felt like filler. Sure, we do learn some key points and I understand the need for short cutscenes on the handheld but overall I was left feeling a bit wanting.
So yeah, I enjoyed the game a lot. The second act introduced some nice puzzles while the last act relied on good old fashioned platforming to get the job done (I wanted more of it). On a last note the game was a bit too easy due to the excessive checkpointing. On the other hand though I never felt completely frustrated at having to do a boss section over or cursing my lack of seer-vision saving abilities.
Ah, so it is indeed the 'wolf pup from the north'. That's awesome.
It's funny to me how obvious it is, in starting Act2, who will be in Act3 and who he is. Maybe they meant to make it that obvious. Act2's main character has an awesome dash move. Wish he wielded a sword though.
Still, fun romp, and really explains the bond of the Belmonts to Dracula over the centuries.
It's funny, I bring the 3DS to work, it's 2 feet from me all day.. hoping I can sneak in and play for a bit.. hasn't happened yet. Plus, its been better playing this one at home in the dark with headphones.
Ah, so it is indeed the 'wolf pup from the north'. That's awesome.
It's funny to me how obvious it is, in starting Act2, who will be in Act3 and who he is. Maybe they meant to make it that obvious. Act2's main character has an awesome dash move. Wish he wielded a sword though.
Still, fun romp, and really explains the bond of the Belmonts to Dracula over the centuries.
It's funny, I bring the 3DS to work, it's 2 feet from me all day.. hoping I can sneak in and play for a bit.. hasn't happened yet. Plus, its been better playing this one at home in the dark with headphones.
From the LoS2 trailers, it looks like he will. Though yeah, I do wished he did have one here. I was actually expecting it. I played this game with headphones as well to get all the goodness of the music. It's just soo good, though some of the sound effects sound kinda bad.
From the LoS2 trailers, it looks like he will. Though yeah, I do wished he did have one here. I was actually expecting it. I played this game with headphones as well to get all the goodness of the music. It's just soo good, though some of the sound effects sound kinda bad.
MoF Soundtrack - is it available/going to be sold? I'd buy it just for a few tracks. I wish this was playing during the Deadly Waterfalls stage though (btw the shrieks from the green poison water, pretty cool):
I've just finished the main game at 88%, i'll probably boost that to 100% shortly.
I thought that MoF was an overall enjoyable game that falls short of being a stand out handheld CV title like Ecclesia but ends up being more fun than some of the weaker Igavania titles.
This one certainly feels more like CV than Lords of Shadow did, from the characters, the castle and the enemies yet at its core its still very much of the LoS lineage, not really surprising considering it uses the Lords of Shadow sub title alongside its own yet there seemed to be a bunch of reviews and people still not quite getting this. While yes there's a greater element of Metroidvania style exploration in play at times its really not the main angle this games going for, it's still got a strong combat focus, enemies are fun to fight and most aren't as spongy as some may fear, in fact the way most are positioned means that they don't interrupt the flow, as I said this is still LoS style so it's not like the Iga games where every corridor is full of a whole host of numerous nasties waiting to be cut down, they tend to cluster in specific "battle arenas" which when dealt with once you have the choice to bother engaging them again if backtracking through.
The combat cross retains a bunch of the moves from its console origins, it's like a simplified version of that combat and towards the end your tool kit is pretty robust and potent as well, it's a shame that the demo made things look too bare bones, effectively parrying enemies and being aware of attacks still holds a lot of weight which helps keep encounters engaging even if the enemy lineup begins to fall into the same old fellows towards the end.
Platforming also sticks to LoS style, I really hate glowing walls and ledges, it looks like arse and is pretty limiting in what you could call platforming freedom since everything is pretty automated, yet I did find it rather enjoyable most of the time even if it's too simplistic, dare I say even sticking to this style the platforming tends to be much more frequent and also stronger than in a good bunch of the Metroidvania titles, it's just a shame that so much of it is spent avoiding steam jets since Dracula's Castle apparently has some shoddy piping in damn near every location.
I did like the odd puzzle section the game sometimes threw in, it adds a little extra something to break up the combat and platforming, as such I felt Act 2 was the strongest portion of the game with the greatest variety and best character (even if they're all pretty similar). The games plot was actually pretty simple, seems to be a thing with the LoS sub series, they appear to be heavier with plot but in actuality they're pretty basic but basic doesn't mean bad, the cutscene visual style is great and it's a shame that couldn't have been the games art style in general. Though this isn't to discredit the games visuals, while the frame rate can be a bit off at times the depth added through 3D is very well done and one of the consoles strongest showcases for it, the visuals themselves are pleasing and continue the series trend of a thick atmosphere, each location looks unique which is a change from the sometimes repetitive nature of background repetition seen in previous handheld CV titles.
The music while suitable for this style does seem to consist of only a few tracks with either odd placement or implementation, randomly cutting out at times and so on, this was a problem with LoS as well, they need to work on this, but I wouldn't say the music was bad either.
Really what you've got here is a portable styled LoS title with more nods and winks to previous CV games, bosses are great fun, the game itself while getting off to a pretty slow start managed to be consistently enjoyable for me, it never blew me away but I never really felt bored or disappointed by it (aside from
QTE stuff, having those cutscene bosses was sort of like crossing my QTE line
).
It's a solid 7.5 title that borders around the 8 mark at its best, it's not the most ambitious of titles and lacks content on the whole but yeah I enjoyed this, it's a hard sell for those defiantly standing against Mercury Steam and their LoS entries and how it apparently represents the death of their once loved series but if you're not so steadfast against their take on CV it's worth looking into though perhaps wait for the price to drop a bit first.
While the LoS entries have yet to knock things out of the park or truly define themselves I do think they are capable of doing so, I look forward to how they handle LoS2.
I agree with a lot of what you've said here, it was a bit all over the place with its identity at times though I did enjoy the nods towards previous CV games myself.
Nice informative writeup.
Same for Grisby, I think I agree with most of that summary as well, it's fallen into that fun but flawed category that fortunately leans more towards fun for me with the flaws not really being frustrating or anything.
Ok, I took the plunge and purchased it, so far I am really enjoying it, on final act now,
I have to confess to putting the game on easy as getting my assed kicked a lot,
have played the demo section in the final game and it seems less floaty and runs smoother
combat is great once you get into it, you cannot simply button mash, you have to time attacks or string together combos.
it's not so heavy in exploration, but there is enough secrets to find, the magic works well, also the game is addictive, have had a couple of 3 hour play throughs in one sitting.
graphics for the enviroment are top notch, enemies looks good too, i am about 60% into the game, so more impressions once i am done,
over all i would give this a strong 8.5 out of Ten, maybe more once i finish my playthrough.
it's a large game for anyone wishing to download from eshop about 11K blocks
still in act2. Great. That resurrection room boss was a hoot. Fun battle and took skill.
not sure I like the wolf form in this one, and alucard should gain health on vamp bite kills. Also, I feel the chests should have heldthe weapons and skills not just plain upgradese
still in act2. Great. That resurrection room boss was a hoot. Fun battle and took skill.
not sure I like the wolf form in this one, and alucard should gain health on vamp bite kills. Also, I feel the chests should have heldthe weapons and skills not just plain upgradese
Just started act 2. I don't have much to say about the game so far, in general I like it. Movement is very slow.. but I've recently played Ecclesia with the Rapidus Fio glyph, so of course it feels too slow.
Finished it a at 94% a few days ago and I'm now on my way to the 100%. For me it's a solid 7.5. I liked it for its stereoscopic 3D visuals, combat and atmosphere. Platforming was ok overall, not good but ok. More content and enemies would have been cool though.
Also, on a side note, do you guys already talked about the Mario reference by one of the npc?
Beat the main game (around 85%) earlier this afternoon. In the end, I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected. I was really turned off by the demo and only bought it on impulse based on some of the more positive impressions.
I think the demo they provided was a really poor choice. By the time you reach that point in the game, you have a better understanding of the combat and you are generally more prepared for heavier enemies. When I reached that part in the main game, I had a much easier time and enjoyed it much more.
However, I still had a lot of issues with game: lack of enemy variety, repetitive environments, poor storytelling and some awkward feeling platforming.
Still better than expected, but I don't see myself revisiting the game.
Ugh, when is this going to be on sale? Most of the impressions here really have me wanting to buy it, but I also want Luigi's Mansion this month and I know that MoF will drop in price much faster. Sigh.
Well, couldn't resist and picked it up. Count me as a buyer with remorse. Not feeling it at all. 3D is janky , game is going through motions. Sound is awful.Just started act ii
Put on headphones, keep 3d at 1/3, and try to learn some of the more complex combat moves and put them to use. Most of your enjoyment from the game should come from its combat system and its presentation. If you're not feeling that part, then unfortunately I can't tell you it gets drastically better.
Not sure how far I'm in. Playing on hard must be at least 70 percent through. I really like it and it's a 7/10 for me. A real nice addition to the 3DS library.
I finally bit the bullet and picked this up yesterday. Played the game for maybe 2 to 3 hours last night, more or less 'til I couldn't play anymore because my 3DS' battery was dying. So far I'm pretty pleased with the game. There haven't been any surprises in terms of what I got in the demo versus what's in the final game, so that's a plus. It's still a hybrid of Iga-vania (or is Metroid-vania the new classification?) and the first Lords of Shadow. It seems like an odd mix at first, but it works. I do think it's fair to say that if you're strongly in either camp in terms of preference, it's likely to turn you off.
The main thing that I really dislike are the enemies relative indifference to being struck by your attacks, and that when you're surrounded on both sides, all bets are off when it comes to trying to time your parry of a normal attack or do a backward roll to dodge an un-blockable attack. I've adjusted my strategy a bit to be more cognizant of my surroundings because of it.
Also, I'm not particularly crazy about the insta-death QTEs when fighting bosses. It's been so long since I played Lords of Shadow that I can't remember if this is a new thing or not, but in Mirror, they're always unpredictable in terms of when you're going to be engaged. Moreover, when they have multiple phases, again, the insta-death for a miss is annoying.
But then again, most of my deaths have been from those; I don't think I've died once in normal combat thanks to plentiful life fonts and checkpoints. If I were a masochist who loved having games kick me in the junk -- i.e. Dark/Demon Souls sadists err fans -- then maybe it'd bother me more.
The soundtrack to the game is great, just as LoS' was. I usually tend to play my 3DS games on a low volume, but for this puppy, I have it cranked up. Some of the tracks are chilling, especially those with the vocal bits (opera-esque singing). Absolutely marvelous.
At any rate, I suppose I probably don't need to be trying to convince anyone whether to buy it or not. Your minds are likely made up already. Just wanted to share my two cents as a longtime 'Vania fan. If I were some review monkey, I'd probably rate this highly.
Demon's and Dark Souls don't have QTE deaths. If you die in the Souls games, it's because you 1) grew impatient, haste making waste, or 2) weren't perceptive of your surroundings.
I just finished getting 100% on the game on easy. It took 10 hours and 30 minutes. Overall I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I think the game's weakest point was the music, since it was often absent and there were no classic tracks. I'm not saying what was there wasn't good, but I think it shows a slight disrespect to the longtime fans of the series to completely leave out some of the most iconic music in gaming.
I just finished getting 100% on the game on easy. It took 10 hours and 30 minutes. Overall I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I think the game's weakest point was the music, since it was often absent and there were no classic tracks. I'm not saying what was there wasn't good, but I think it shows a slight disrespect to the longtime fans of the series to completely leave out some of the most iconic music in gaming.
I don't think there's any obligation by the composer to have "classic tracks." In fact when they did it in the first game it felt like fanservice. Forcing a composer or any artist to do something because the "fans" may want it goes against creative freedom. I'm not saying the score was great or that you can't have an opinion about it, you absolutely can and I didn't love it either, but it isn't because it didn't include any previous themes. If anything it needs to be consistent with the first game's soundtrack because that's the original canvas with the original strokes for this particular series of CV games. The first LOS game is where the themes and overall style should be borrowed.
Not that I would have complained about having any motifs from some of the older games, I'm a huge fan of them, but if the composer isn't inspired to do it, he shouldn't be obligated. Just my two cents; I just feel like saying that they're "disrespecting" the fans is a little warped IMO. That being said I did find it to be very lazy especially compared to the first one. What's there was fine, there just wasn't much of it. I hope LOS2 is a different story and closer to the breadth of the score of the first one.
I don't think there's any obligation by the composer to have "classic tracks." In fact when they did it in the first game it felt like fanservice. Forcing a composer or any artist to do something because the "fans" may want it goes against creative freedom. I'm not saying the score was great or that you can't have an opinion about it, you absolutely can and I didn't love it either, but it isn't because it didn't include any previous themes. If anything it needs to be consistent with the first game's soundtrack because that's the original canvas with the original strokes for this particular series of CV games. The first LOS game is where the themes and overall style should be borrowed.
Not that I would have complained about having any motifs from some of the older games, I'm a huge fan of them, but if the composer isn't inspired to do it, he shouldn't be obligated. Just my two cents; I just feel like saying that they're "disrespecting" the fans is a little warped IMO. That being said I did find it to be very lazy especially compared to the first one. What's there was fine, there just wasn't much of it. I hope LOS2 is a different story and closer to the breadth of the score of the first one.
Nearly every Castlevania game before has included recurring songs, enemies, characters, and themes. All of these things were staples of the series and Mercurysteam has thrown many of these things out the window. So I think the term "slight disrespect" doesn't cross the line, because as much as this is their artistic vision, it's based on a beloved franchise that many people grew up with.
Here are a couple of choice quotes from Dave Cox taken from this interview:
We have tried to screw with the player's perceptions as much as we can by making a game that on the surface looks like a classic Castlevania side-scroller but upon further investigation is in fact a thoroughly modern and new take on the series with a much heavier emphasis on combat.
It's important to know your audience and to focus on making a game for them. It's easy to get distracted by the noise of the few and forget the silence of the many. We had faith that there was an audience out there who wanted a new approach to Castlevania and felt the series had grown stale and needed fresh blood, so to speak. There were dark days I can tell you, but our faith and hard work paid off and we attracted a new, larger following to the series and broadened the appeal. Yes, we do feel vindicated and it has given us the confidence to move forward with the next instalments because we don't want to let our new fans down.
These quotes leave me feeling like as a longtime fan of the Castlevania series, I am no longer the "target audience" and he doesn't particularly care how longtime fans feel, as long as the "new fans" are happy.
So yes, I think there's some disrespect there, because if not for people like me who have been playing Castlevania since the NES days, these games would not exist today. And it would have been trivial to throw us a bone here and there instead of writing us off as "the few" and trying to pretend we don't exist.
That being said, it's worth noting that he's said LoS is a separate universe/timeline which does not affect or relate to IGA's stories, and his team has no plans for the series after LoS2, so perhaps there's a glimmer of hope for Castlevania to return to its roots again someday.
So, I've never played a Castlevania before, really liked the demo for this though. Should I get it, or start with something else if this is my first game?
The Dark Knight trilogy didn't include the classic theme from Batman '89! Nolan is such a jerk for disrespecting the fanbase and the legacy of the series like that. Not to mention the way he changed the tone to be more realistic and got rid of things like Ra's Al Ghul's supernatural immortality and Bane's venom. He totally ruined Batman. Things should always stay the same and never change.
So, I've never played a Castlevania before, really liked the demo for this though. Should I get it, or start with something else if this is my first game?
This is completely different from the other two types of 2D Castlevania, but all are worth playing. This is also completely separate from all other Castlevania games except for Lords of Shadow on consoles, so unless you want to play that first, there's no necessity to play any other game first. I'd still recommend trying out other games in the series because they're all simply great games.
The Dark Knight trilogy didn't include the classic theme from Batman '89! Nolan is such a jerk for disrespecting the fanbase and the legacy of the series like that. Not to mention the way he changed the tone to be more realistic and got rid of things like Ra's Al Ghul's supernatural immortality and Bane's venom. He totally ruined Batman. Things should always stay the same and never change.
Exactly five posts above your post I said I enjoyed this game. I also never said I was opposed to changes in the series in general. If you want to debate my points, I can respect that. If you'd rather just continue mocking me, your input has no value to the discussion at hand.
Finally got this although some horrible demon processed me and I bought it digitally. Regret! In any case I'm enjoying it so far and the environments look wonderful, especially in 3D. Looks a lot better in person than it does in video.
Although I think Maria not telling
Gabriel about the kid, even during the good bye scene in LoS
seems awfully far fetched. I do like the comic cutscenes although they feel somewhat out of place with the tone, and even sometimes the regular cutscenes just before or after them.
Are there any cool post-game unlockables? Secret dungeons, inverted corridors, etc.
I'm at about 6-7 hours. Good game, not great, but good. The combat is cool, platforming not top notch but acceptable. The framerate is a really bad point though. There are drops even in cinematics...
Biggest issue, my game crashed 3 times, rebooting the console... Does it happen often to you? never had this problem with any other game.
Thanks Ambitious.. I guess I'll hit up LoS for that portion.
Anyone know about the soundtrack? Can't even find good Youtube links. Some of the tunes in Act2, especially, are killer, moody, epic. That Reaver boss battle music is amazing.
Gabriel about the kid, even during the good bye scene in LoS
seems awfully far fetched. I do like the comic cutscenes although they feel somewhat out of place with the tone, and even sometimes the regular cutscenes just before or after them.
Up to Act 3 in this, looks like its going to be a solid 7.5 for me, combat is good for the most part, the blocking is horrible because you cant tell if a enemy is going though a motion or attacking, running around in the world is a bit clunky but you get used to it, art is nice, Im enjoying it, its not sotn but I like it. Oh and I agree with some here that this wouldve been awesome cell shaded, I love the cell shaded cut scenes.
Are you guys using 3d with this one, I feel sometimes its too strong even at low levels but I keep it on.
