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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow |OT| The MercurySteam has Vanquished the Horrible Night
- Thread starter brandonh83
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Tokubetsu
Member
luka said:
The big problem with RE4's QTEs though is because they're so infrequent, you don't expect them and you end up dying a lot to them (at least your first time through).
It kinda works in this thanks to it just being a circle and not specific buttons you have to hit half a second before a knife hits your throat or something. Idk, I'm still on the fence with QTEs. They don't bug me as much as they do most people.
Tokubetsu said:
True, but I think they worked because of the way they implemented them. Once you realized you could die in cutscenes, it kept you alert through the entire thing instead of dozing off when you no longer had control. The worst thing that happens when you fail is having to rewatch (read:skip) the cutscene again. I don't think there is a single time you'd have to re-fight a boss because you missed an instakill prompt during a cutscene as can happen in GoW or CV's boss-finishing QTEs. They were basically just there to keep you on edge rather be an actual barrier to progress.
It also worked because there was rarely any action during cutscenes. Nearly every single time Leon had to react quickly or do something other than stand there and spit one-liners, there was a prompt for it (with the obvious exception of the few reactions he is required to fail for the sake of plot). In these games the action in cutscenes is relentless and you're never quite sure when one will appear, making prompts with a long warning period (like in CV) a necessity. I mean look at biohazard 5 compared to 4. Chris and Sheva shoot, leap, and dodge constantly in cutscenes, but actual QTE prompts only show up in specific scenes. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it and it feels totally disconnected from the action. The problem isn't necessarily a mechanical one, but how well it's integrated into the game's design and flow.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
ooh yes, curse of darkness soundtrack was a good choice.
this feels better already.
this feels better already.
MurkyZebra2417
Member
And Platin, what an awesome game 
MightyHedgehog
Member
Halfway through this and I am certain that this isn't the reboot I wanted. Feels far too much like a ground-up mishmash of every DMC- and GoW-inspired action title of the last decade and less than anything that can stand on its own with a unique feel. But worse still, the game doesn't remind me one bit of any of the other Castlevania that has come before. It's like that shoddy Tiertex 'sequel' to Strider, but with gobsmackingly gorgeous art and environmental work. Too bad the visual flow is confusing to navigate without bumping awkwardly and uselessly into invisible walls and the game suffers from a lot of unadvertised damage and deaths (rappelling one too many levels downward and you fall into some murky mess that's supposed to be a bottomless pit...what?!) and too-similar-looking wind ups in the attack animations in many enemies. Would be fairer to just call it Lords of Shadow and drop Castlevania from the title. Will slog through to see if there's more than aesthetic excellence in the environments to this barely above average-feeling action game. Feels kinda like something released in the late 90s on the PS1 when very simplistic on-rails cameras still ruled the day in 2.5-D and fixed-perspective action games. Music is extraordinarily invisible yet serviceable...but not a remarkable factor in the experience.
john tv said:Hmm, don't want to be too negative so I'm editing.stage.Titans Graveyard
Yeah,i`m there now and this is where having no control on the camera,that give you awful point of view at times,in an area riddled with puzzles and platforming,where it`s almost instant death if you miss a jump...the last few puzzles and all are starting to drag out...I mean that Zodiac puzzle...ugh.
Dever said:
Go back to the first platform and take a right. You can jump from the hand to the other side.
Also, FUCK THIS GAME
Yeah, so I can't seem to find my memory stick anywhere so I could not back up my save file and guess what! The game decided that my save file is corrupt DURING THE FUCKING FINAL FIGHT.
I got this weird error message (Unread Error or something and I could not continue playin)is restarted the game and then it happened. Save file is corrupt blah blah, do you wish to overwrite? I jumped out of the game there, and my PS3 says the save file is fine. So now, I'll wait for that patch and hope it fixes this, even though the game told my my save file is damaged and my PS3 says it isn't.
EDIT: Ok, so to add insult to injury I just found my memory stick.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
luka said:
The whole game for MMPR: The Movie on sega cd was QTE. I'm sure it was before that.
The fight at the end of chapter 2 has really annoying restart from checkpoint where sometimes they will be midattack and kill you before you can move.
QTE's were a bit annoying at some points. I remember thinking I nailed them during certain boss battles only to fail and have to try again. I think I would have enjoyed a little bit variety with them instead of having the 'tap button rapidly' and 'tap any button at the exact time' ones but they were only a minor annoyance for me.
Second complaint with this otherwise fucking awesome game....
WHY do they put the checkpoints not only before cutscenes, but far enough back you have to do stupid shit first. Such as: (slight story spoiler)
, if you die during the battle you have to start back at the beginning of the level, run down the stairs, refill your magic and health and then jump over onto the platform, and then skip the cutscene. Example two: (slight story spoiler)
, if you die during this battle it starts you back in the
. It's just a poor gameplay decision with some of these checkpoints. If I'm at a boss fight and die, it should restart me at the beginning of the boss fight.
But I digress....I just made it to Chapter VIII and I LOVE this game. The art direction is beautiful.
Does anyone know where I can find some concept art that's in 720p+ resolution? I've scoured the Google and some of the highest res art I can find is either 1024-ish in size or of art I don't want!
WHY do they put the checkpoints not only before cutscenes, but far enough back you have to do stupid shit first. Such as: (slight story spoiler)
when you fight the first Lord of Shadow
when you fight the Butcher in the Vampire Castle
crawlspace
But I digress....I just made it to Chapter VIII and I LOVE this game. The art direction is beautiful.
Does anyone know where I can find some concept art that's in 720p+ resolution? I've scoured the Google and some of the highest res art I can find is either 1024-ish in size or of art I don't want!
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
As far as the combat goes, QTE aspects aside, I have to fall in the camp that it's fun repetition. They nailed Gabriel's combat animations and the feeling of the chain whip. He feels powerful, the whip feels vicious, and I appreciate the balance of focus and crowd control the game shoots for.
My only real complaint with the combat oddly enough is how many enemies have ground stomps. It seems pretty weird after a certain point that so many unrelated monsters have the same stomp/shockwave move, as if they had trouble figuring out a variety of attacks to give enemies that allowed them to keep the player at bay and counter dodge rolling.
Overall, I remain impressed by the game as a freshman effort. I really don't think many developers could pull together something this good on their first shot, and use big money this effectively. (Let's face it, design rough edges taken into account, Mercurysteam gave Konami their money's worth in terms of length, art, content, stages, characters, voice acting, writing, and extremely well animated and directed cut scenes that don't suck.)
I actually think the story in the game and the mythology it establishes is very good. It's not a shockingly original story but it is well told and solid.
My only real complaint with the combat oddly enough is how many enemies have ground stomps. It seems pretty weird after a certain point that so many unrelated monsters have the same stomp/shockwave move, as if they had trouble figuring out a variety of attacks to give enemies that allowed them to keep the player at bay and counter dodge rolling.
Overall, I remain impressed by the game as a freshman effort. I really don't think many developers could pull together something this good on their first shot, and use big money this effectively. (Let's face it, design rough edges taken into account, Mercurysteam gave Konami their money's worth in terms of length, art, content, stages, characters, voice acting, writing, and extremely well animated and directed cut scenes that don't suck.)
I actually think the story in the game and the mythology it establishes is very good. It's not a shockingly original story but it is well told and solid.
I finished it earlier today. I'd give it a solid 8.0 on the old EGM scale. Borderline 7.5. Shit-ton of problems, but on the whole, was still quite enjoyable.
Really wish they'd just call it Castlevania Gaiden or something tho, I'm not too fond of where this story is heading. It's not just IGA's CV they're throwing away, they're basically throwing away the plot of the entire series, which is not cool IMO. (It might be cool if they were telling a genuinely interesting story, but the story was about as generic as they come until the very end, so...)
Really wish they'd just call it Castlevania Gaiden or something tho, I'm not too fond of where this story is heading. It's not just IGA's CV they're throwing away, they're basically throwing away the plot of the entire series, which is not cool IMO. (It might be cool if they were telling a genuinely interesting story, but the story was about as generic as they come until the very end, so...)
MadOdorMachine
No additional functions
I just beat the game with all items. Is it worth it to go for 100%? I'd like to know if there's an alternate ending or costumes unlocked. All in all I like the game. It has some flaws which I'll get to in a moment. The ending was a bit of a shock to me. It wasn't explained very well. Anyway, here are my impressions.
Pros:
- Beautiful environments
- Varied gameplay - the most ever scene in a 3D Castlevania game
- Great level design
- I thought the story was told well although there seem to be some plot holes. One being where Gabriel came from and the other being the ending.
Cons:
- The camera needs some work. The shaky cam needs to go and I'd like to have more control over it in general. The right analog stick isn't even usable in this game.
- The framerate is really bad in some levels. I thought Ch 1, 2 & 6 were the worst.
- Jumping or platforming in general needs some work. There seems to be a lot of cheap deaths.
- Combat is a bit sluggish, particularly blocking. I'd like to see the controls have a quicker response.
- When does the game take place? I read before it came out that it actually takes place in the future after the world has been destroyed, but you'd never know it.
- Toward the end, the color palette got kind of bland. I prefer the more vibrant colors of the earlier levels.
Like I said, I enjoyed the game overall. I'd really like to see a sequel now especially after seeing the ending. I miss some of the old character designs, but I understand why they changed them. I think MS did a good job and hopefully this does well for the series going forward. I know a guy I work with bought the game after seeing me play. It's the first Castlevania game he's played since the NES, so that's good. I still want to see the Japanese games with the familiar music and such though. Hopefully Iga will continue to handle the series on the portable systems.
Pros:
- Beautiful environments
- Varied gameplay - the most ever scene in a 3D Castlevania game
- Great level design
- I thought the story was told well although there seem to be some plot holes. One being where Gabriel came from and the other being the ending.
Cons:
- The camera needs some work. The shaky cam needs to go and I'd like to have more control over it in general. The right analog stick isn't even usable in this game.
- The framerate is really bad in some levels. I thought Ch 1, 2 & 6 were the worst.
- Jumping or platforming in general needs some work. There seems to be a lot of cheap deaths.
- Combat is a bit sluggish, particularly blocking. I'd like to see the controls have a quicker response.
- When does the game take place? I read before it came out that it actually takes place in the future after the world has been destroyed, but you'd never know it.
- Toward the end, the color palette got kind of bland. I prefer the more vibrant colors of the earlier levels.
Like I said, I enjoyed the game overall. I'd really like to see a sequel now especially after seeing the ending. I miss some of the old character designs, but I understand why they changed them. I think MS did a good job and hopefully this does well for the series going forward. I know a guy I work with bought the game after seeing me play. It's the first Castlevania game he's played since the NES, so that's good. I still want to see the Japanese games with the familiar music and such though. Hopefully Iga will continue to handle the series on the portable systems.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
john tv said:
I'm a toss-up on rebooting the story. Castlevania never had a very original story; it's basically "you hate Dracula but the f**ker comes back every 100 years." Plus the storyline of the series was fragmented and contradictory long before Iga started making his metroidvanias. Several notable games don't even have real stories that tie in to a timeline, and are a generic reiteration of the Dracula curse.
I did like the story in Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness and consider them the most coherent Castlevania stories so far. At most, I'd be sorry to lose those two games as a origin story / early days of Dracula's wars timeline. But the rest of the series? It's all pretty much random stuff. A Dracula here, a dark priest there, a spin-off vampire lord around the corner, and a fistful of supposed descendants of Belmont who often aren't really even proper descendants.
FirstInHell
Banned
MadOdorMachine said:
The nice thing about the jumping is that it lets you try again right away with only a small health penalty. If I had to reload after every jumping/platforming death I would have gone insane.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
Was so hyped for this game.
Now playing it and all I can think about is how this must have been ANOTHER game, re-skinned to be Castlevania.
This is not traditional castlevania. It doesn't reward exploration and some of the level design is HORRIFYINGLY BAD.
So disappointed. No idea why the scores are so high. I'm about 10 levels in and too invested to leave it.
Now playing it and all I can think about is how this must have been ANOTHER game, re-skinned to be Castlevania.
This is not traditional castlevania. It doesn't reward exploration and some of the level design is HORRIFYINGLY BAD.
So disappointed. No idea why the scores are so high. I'm about 10 levels in and too invested to leave it.
Square Triangle
Member
I read Game Informer's reviews on it and surprisingly agree on everything that's said.
I did get a kick out of their tag line to it "sucking Sony blood" as they compare this as a mix of God of War's combat, Uncharted's platforming and Shadow of the Colussus' fight.
I did get a kick out of their tag line to it "sucking Sony blood" as they compare this as a mix of God of War's combat, Uncharted's platforming and Shadow of the Colussus' fight.
brandonh83
Banned
boutrosinit said:
It's too early to get drunk, but.
brandonh83
Banned
Dascu said:
Not this time.
boutrosinit said:Was so hyped for this game.
Now playing it and all I can think about is how this must have been ANOTHER game, re-skinned to be Castlevania.
This is not traditional castlevania. It doesn't reward exploration and some of the level design is HORRIFYINGLY BAD.
So disappointed. No idea why the scores are so high. I'm about 10 levels in and too invested to leave it.
The beginning (first two chapters) is by far the worst part.
Erdrick
Member
boutrosinit said:
Of course it does. It rewards looking through the levels with gems and item upgrades just like in old CV games when you'd whip blocks or areas looking for item multipliers, weapons or health items. Also it rewards coming back to stages with new powers with better upgrades and such when you use said new abilities to get into areas you could not get to before.
Which is very similar to SotN and that particular branch of CV games.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
Ledsen said:
Good to know.
And for the guy about to let rip on whining about my exploration comment, the majority of Castlevania games in existence are the Metroidvania ones. To me, aside form the purist control scheme and other staples, that's a dominant trait for the Castlevanias I know.
And yeah, the setup scheme for navigational stuff (pretty much Simon says) is not what I would expect either.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
Erdrick said:
Sorry - my comment was too vague. The environment, which lacks a great deal of visual consistency, does not *encourage* exploration, because you get conditioned to look for very blatant cues, rather than trying to grab anything that looks like a ledge, or jump down any hole that the camera appears to be tilted / leading your focus toward.
THAT is what I mean. Apologies.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
I'll push forward with it, as I already feel invested. Hope I end up agreeing with you guys on its quality. Pretty down on it thus far.
Just lacks the polish and finesse of the in-house 2D games.
Just lacks the polish and finesse of the in-house 2D games.
boutrosinit said:
If the blatant clues weren't there people would be bitching about trial and error mechanics imo. I agree there could be more consistency in interactive surfaces which would omit the need for glowing ledges etc. But sometimes that in itself alters environment design outside of "natural". That being said, it's not impossible to implement with careful planning and crafting. I do feel that MecurySteam has a done a pretty damn good job considering this is there freshman effort with a large cash backed AAA title.
I found myself exploring regardless of whether or not I was encouraged.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
nacire said:
Completely agree on the 'planning' side of things and how the cues are the best they could do if it was not built in from the start. If they sincerely are doing a sequel, I really hope they plan it in.
I disagree that it's their first shot at a big game. The Clive Barker game must've had some significant cash for the quality of tech and art they pumped into it.
The game's picking up a little for me. Hope this increase in play quality continues. Bad Castlevania games should not exist and I'm hoping this isn't one.
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