What's with the grab attacks? Am I just crazy, or didn't the beginning of the game say you could press any button when the circles line up? I had to grab one of those damn goblins, and apparently circle is the only button the ring timing thing would respond to.
What's with the grab attacks? Am I just crazy, or didn't the beginning of the game say you could press any button when the circles line up? I had to grab one of those damn goblins, and apparently circle is the only button the ring timing thing would respond to.
Damn ran into a pretty obvious graphical bug just 5 mins into the game. The time Gabriel is knocked off of the horse and is forced to fight enemies on foot... one of the enemies' jaw was really stretched to the point where it went through the floor of the level. :lol Has anyone else run into it?
Played through the first chapter and most of the second - very, very impressed with this.
Early buzz was positive, but if it keeps this quality level throughout the game, consider my mind blown.
FPS is definitely a downer at times, but the game is good looking, with some downright gorgeous backdrops at times, and I haven't had any fps issues interfere with actual combat so far.
Looks like a lot of goodies to go back and track down, if that's your thing.
Always great to see what you've got to say, Vic. I remember the great Demons Souls streams. I've been impressed with the game even with some issues I've been having.
Picked it up from Kmart this morning, and beat Chapter 1 before I went to work. I cannot even begin to express how happy I am that Castlevania was finally delivered into the competent hands of a developer that obviously loves the series as much as I do. This series and its fans have had to endure Koji Igarashi's 13 year reign of countless cookie cutter rehashes of Symphony of the Night, and a pair of embarrassingly amateur 3D console entries. But no more. Gone is the low production value. Gone is the hand holding experience system. Gone are the effeminate Hot Topic protagonists (and antagonists for that matter). Gone is the phoned in story with no world or lore building. Gone is the self fellating keeper of the franchise, whom I'm convinced never had a creative bone in his body.
Picked it up from Kmart this morning, and beat Chapter 1 before I went to work. I cannot even begin to express how happy I am that Castlevania was finally delivered into the competent hands of a developer that obviously loves the series as much as I do. This series and its fans have had to endure Koji Igarashi's 13 year reign of countless cookie cutter rehashes of Symphony of the Night, and a pair of embarrassingly amateur 3D console entries. But no more. Gone is the low production value. Gone is the hand holding experience system. Gone are the effeminate Hot Topic protagonists (and antagonists for that matter). Gone is the phoned in story with no world or lore building. Gone is the self fellating keeper of the franchise, whom I'm convinced never had a creative bone in his body.
Enter: MercurySteam. These guys got it. By taking the base components of the original action titles in the series, and infusing them with an entirely new mythology rich with detail and modern action & platformer game design, they've not only made Castlevania relevant again, they've turned it into a premier console title. And I'm loving ever second of it. The world drips with atmosphere. The lore and attention to detail makes my imagination run wild. The combat system feels similar to recent hack n slash games, but with the focus & area attacks and skill progression it feels like a total different beast. The story is filled with interesting ideas, even from the start.
The One God moving in on the old gods' territory was particularly interesting, and I hope they flesh that out moving forward.
The graphics and music speak for themselves, though it is wonderful to play a Castlevania that actually feels like a living world rather than a series of empty corridors and room cubes.
Well said. I've been saying for years that Iga was a miserable hack that was sucking the life out of a once great series. Good to see him gone for (hopefully) good.
, I have to say that THIS is the Castlevania game I imagined in 3D back when Castlevania 64 was announced.
The combat is different from the flow in GOW because you have to be on the defensive as much as the offensive and the whip behaves exactly as I thought it would in 3D, compared to the 2D classics.
Framerate and aliasing are disappointing but everything else is great so far. Just by the diary book you can see how much love was put into this product.
Segata Sanshiro said:
Seriously, I hope they actually plan for an acceptable framerate with their next Castlevania title. It's like trying to enjoy a sumptuous buffet when there's a giant plate of stinky horse shit in the middle of the table.
Well, IGA's 3D Castlevania games still made me throw up, but for entirely different reasons from Mercurysteam's.
Seriously, I hope they actually plan for an acceptable framerate with their next Castlevania title. It's like trying to enjoy a sumptuous buffet when there's a giant plate of stinky horse shit in the middle of the table.
People constantly compare this to God of War and I think that's an unfair assessment. Sure it has hack and slash type of gameplay reminiscent of those kind of games, but there's been that kind of gameplay prior to God of War coming out.
The game's style is nothing like God of War. If you want to really see something that is truly ripping off God of War then Dante's Inferno is a good example. Now that game is a blatant GOW rip off.
I just think saying that this game is like God of War is such a lazy statement to make.
I can't say I agree with this. Granted, DI is a very blatant rip off, C:LOS does its fair share of ripping off. Now I've only played the first chapter, but the combat is very similar, the uncontrollable camera, the QTEs, health stations, are all pretty much from GOW. I'm not saying it looks like GOW, as the art is quite different, but there are tons of things C:LOS "borrowed" from the GOW games.
I can't say I agree with this. Granted, DI is a very blatant rip off, C:LOS does its fair share of ripping off. Now I've only played the first chapter, but the combat is very similar, the uncontrollable camera, the QTEs, health stations, are all pretty much from GOW. I'm not saying it looks like GOW, as the art is quite different, but there are tons of things C:LOS "borrowed" from the GOW games.
I can't say I agree with this. Granted, DI is a very blatant rip off, C:LOS does its fair share of ripping off. Now I've only played the first chapter, but the combat is very similar, the uncontrollable camera, the QTEs, health stations, are all pretty much from GOW. I'm not saying it looks like GOW, as the art is quite different, but there are tons of things C:LOS "borrowed" from the GOW games.
Well, the GOW people admittedly say they ripped off tons from Devil May Cry. A later game in the same genre will use successful formulas from earlier successful games. I say that this game has its own niche in the action adventure market than say, Dante's Inferno which was a C class version of a GOW game.
The game is awesome, I just beat chapter 1 is a single sitting. I doubt I'll get to play before the weekend again, but still, I'm loving it. My only minor gripe with the PS3 version is the god awful framerate, the game is gorgeous when it's still, but move around and AGHH! slideshow.
I ma be exaggerating a bit there, but this is a really good game, it is a lot more defense oriented than god of war, and the health regen mechanic is extremely brilliant, much better than the standard "green orbs for health" in every other action game. The combat is extremely tactical so far, but I can see myself getting sick of the golem bosses, they are too trial and error.
I still can't believe how badly they fucked up Curse of Darkness. They had the bare bones mechanics in place with Lament of Innocence, all they had to do was add some decent (not even good, just decent) level design and the game would of been hot shit.
Well said. I've been saying for years that Iga was a miserable hack that was sucking the life out of a once great series. Good to see him gone for (hopefully) good.
We are so fucking lucky the Konami powers at be chose Lords of Shadow over what was sure to be a Iga's greatest steaming pile of catshit yet. Totally dodged a bullet there.
Anyone have anecdotal information on how well the game has been selling on day 1? The impressions I'm getting from Amazon sales rankings (which don't necessarily mean anything) are not good at all.
The game is awesome, I just beat chapter 1 is a single sitting. I doubt I'll get to play before the weekend again, but still, I'm loving it. My only minor gripe with the PS3 version is the god awful framerate, the game is gorgeous when it's still, but move around and AGHH! slideshow.
Anyone have anecdotal information on how well the game has been selling on day 1? The impressions I'm getting from Amazon sales rankings (which don't necessarily mean anything) are not good at all.
Not very Castlevania-y, but cool in a GoW kind of way. Not diggin these enemies much as they arent very fun to fight. Been seeing the same few over and over again as well. I like the variety in locales though. Every area has seemed brand new and completely different than the rest. Looks good too
I have to strongly disagree here, because I'm severely disappointed in that aspect thus far.
Speaking strictly of the first chapter so far, the editing and storyboarding are completely amateur (most obvious mistake are scenes cut before music ends without even fading the music out), and at other times there are long, awkward pauses where you're waiting for scenes to cut (ie. when Gabriel is walking out of the room and Pan turns around... 20 second pause of Pan wondering when the last time he washed his hands was... fade to black).
Even in game, the camera is working against you as it's often too far out from the action or at a really awkward angle. The camera during the boss fight
with the swamp troll in the bog area
obscures a lot of the QTE's animation, and then it cuts back to the wide camera angle of the boss fight right before the killing blow (whereas games like God of War will frame the shots so that you can see everything.).
There are also times in that same level where the camera cuts jarringly to a new angle on the opposite side. Reminds me of old RE games where you're walking and the camera cuts to a drastically different angle but you're still holding the original direction. Your character is then moving to the left while you're holding right. A competent director of a movie would know not to cross a stageline like that, but it's doubly compounded by the fact that I'm guiding someone in a game and you get this sudden jarring reorientation.
You also get character models popping into scenes a second or two after the camera cuts, and filters and overlays from scenes that have ended remaining for a couple seconds after it has cut back to gameplay.
Really amateur stuff in that department of the game. With Kojima on board, I assumed this was the aspect that he was going to be consulting on, but there's a shit ton of mistakes so far in Chapter 1 when it comes to the cinematics. I'm guessing he went on vacation when the cinematics went into editing.
I have to strongly disagree here, because I'm severely disappointed in that aspect thus far.
Speaking strictly of the first chapter so far, the editing and storyboarding are completely amateur (most obvious mistake are scenes cut before music ends without even fading out), and at other times there are long, awkward pauses where you're waiting for scenes to cut (ie. when Gabriel is walking out of the room and Pan turns around... 20 second pause of Pan wondering when the last time he washed his hands was... fade to black).
Even in game, the camera is working against you as it's often too far out from the action or at a really awkward angle. The camera during the boss fight
with the swamp troll in the bog area
obscures a lot of the QTE's animation, and then it cuts back to the wide camera angle of the boss fight right before the killing blow (whereas games like God of War will frame the shots so that you can see everything.).
There are also times in that same level where the camera cuts jarringly to a new angle on the opposite side. Reminds me of old RE games where you're walking and the camera cuts to a drastically different angle but you're still holding the original direction. Your character is then moving to the left while you're holding right. A competent director of a movie would know not to cross a stageline like that, but it's doubly compounded by the fact that I'm guiding someone in a game and you get this sudden jarring reorientation.
Really amateur stuff in that department of the game. With Kojima on board, I assumed this was the aspect that he was going to be consulting on, but there's a shit ton of mistakes so far in Chapter 1 when it comes to the cinematics. I'm guessing he went on vacation when the cinematics went into editing.
Anyone have anecdotal information on how well the game has been selling on day 1? The impressions I'm getting from Amazon sales rankings (which don't necessarily mean anything) are not good at all.
Anecdotal evidence? Well, all I can say is that when I bought the game from my local mom and pop shop on Saturday, there were three other people there at the same time. Two bought the 360 version, and one got the PS3 version.
Today, I picked up the PS3 CE from EB, and they had only gotten two copies. One for me and one for the manager. They didn't get any 360 CE's and they only had four preorders total.
the game is alright so far. the shaky cam is kinda odd. the game doesn't need that effect, imo. the graphics are really pretty tho. i love how everything is moving and and stuff. the music is meh. it isn't very good and it kinda fades in and out during enemy encounters. it's also way too bombastic at times.
I have to strongly disagree here, because I'm severely disappointed in that aspect thus far.
Speaking strictly of the first chapter so far, the editing and storyboarding are completely amateur (most obvious mistake are scenes cut before music ends without even fading the music out), and at other times there are long, awkward pauses where you're waiting for scenes to cut (ie. when Gabriel is walking out of the room and Pan turns around... 20 second pause of Pan wondering when the last time he washed his hands was... fade to black).
Even in game, the camera is working against you as it's often too far out from the action or at a really awkward angle. The camera during the boss fight
with the swamp troll in the bog area
obscures a lot of the QTE's animation, and then it cuts back to the wide camera angle of the boss fight right before the killing blow (whereas games like God of War will frame the shots so that you can see everything.).
There are also times in that same level where the camera cuts jarringly to a new angle on the opposite side. Reminds me of old RE games where you're walking and the camera cuts to a drastically different angle but you're still holding the original direction. Your character is then moving to the left while you're holding right. A competent director of a movie would know not to cross a stageline like that, but it's doubly compounded by the fact that I'm guiding someone in a game and you get this sudden jarring reorientation.
You also get character models popping into scenes a second or two after the camera cuts, and filters and overlays from scenes that have ended remaining for a couple seconds after it has cut back to gameplay.
Really amateur stuff in that department of the game. With Kojima on board, I assumed this was the aspect that he was going to be consulting on, but there's a shit ton of mistakes so far in Chapter 1 when it comes to the cinematics. I'm guessing he went on vacation when the cinematics went into editing.
The only thing i can agree with to a certain degree is that the in-game camera has some direction problems. Other than that, i never experienced any character pop-in or wierd filter effects, and havent really seen any awkward pauses in the cinematics. It actually kinda sounds like a loading problem from what your describing. Im impressed with how well the everything is transitioning.
Impression from like 2 chapters of play and a hardcore CV fan not really liking it but then not a GoW fan either. Ambient music and lack of really memorial themes like normal CV games is making me fall asleep especially when there's nothing going on, backtracking or getting lost. The SotC boss wasn't impressive because well SotC just did that better.
Very impressed with the game so far (almost at the end of chapter 1). It fell off my "to-buy radar" shortly after the initial announcement, but I'm glad I caught the GAF thread a week ago. Now, here's hoping I actually get to play it again before the weekend. Haha.
Anyone have anecdotal information on how well the game has been selling on day 1? The impressions I'm getting from Amazon sales rankings (which don't necessarily mean anything) are not good at all.
having only 1 weapon really starts to suck the further you get in. the combat isn't bad, just repetitive. same with the enemies, mostly just pallet swaps
