Castlevania - Lords of Shadow

[Anybody]

Game Title:Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Genre: 3rd Person action adventure/platformer/castlevania
Developers: MercurySteam, Kojima Productions(of Metal Gear Solid fame)
Publisher: KONAMI
Composer:Óscar Araujo
Platforms: PS3, Xbox360, PC(Possibility depending on sales)
Official Website: http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mask/


PLOT:

Year 1043 After Crucifixion of The Christ. A shadow looms over europe...Prophets, Priests and madmen alike are singing the song of the end of times...Humanity's "peace" with God is almost over, as mysterious Lords of Shadow reign terror over Europe and dead walk among the living. These are the dark times...

Gabriel Belmont, A member of Brotherhood of Light, encouraged by his mentor Zobek, sets out towards the Lords of Shadow. His goal - to acquire a mysterious mask, held by the Lords of Shadow. A mask that that is said to have the power to revive teh dead.

Gabriel only wants to revive his wife, Marie, who was killed two days ago by the evil terrorizing Europe... He fails to realize that nothing is what it is said to be and that some of those around him are manipulating him for their own purposes...

He also does not know that challenging the Lords of Shadow will make him face an enemy that has hatred for Belmont bloodline so deep, that nothing will stand in his way if he decides to erase it...

Screenshots:






Videos:
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow E3 2009 Trailer
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Gamescom 2009 Trailer
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - E3 2010 Trailer
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - E3 2010 Gameplay 1
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - E3 2010 Gameplay 2
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - E3 2010 - 5min Gameplay Demo
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Gameplay Demo - The Clock Tower


Impressions: A "return to the roots" for castlevania. Gone are simplified anime designs that plagued the latter era metroidvania games, gone are androgynous bishonens and plotholes. Its back to the style and design known from Super Castlevania IV. and iI for one am happy about it and cant wait to buy this. Anyone else feel like that?

 

[khael]

It's Castlevania. I think that's reason enough seeing as it's one of my favorite titles. Well, the metroidvania ones at least. I've tried that Vania game on the PS2, same thing, 3rd person perspective setup, didn't quite like it. But I saw this one's trailer and I liked what I saw. I sincerely hope it won't be "God of War"ish, not that I liked that game [never played it].

Wasn't there a remake of that GB game the Wii? Tried it?

 

[Anybody]

QUOTE (khael @ Jul 25 2010, 07:34 AM) It's Castlevania. I think that's reason enough seeing as it's one of my favorite titles. Well, the metroidvania ones at least. I've tried that Vania game on the PS2, same thing, 3rd person perspective setup, didn't quite like it. But I saw this one's trailer and I liked what I saw. I sincerely hope it won't be "God of War"ish, not that I liked that game [never played it].

Not that big fan of metroidvanias(especially since pretty much every -vania created by IGA seems to be just a reskin of old one with some new perks)


Loved the NES games(especially SCIV) and SOTN.

Hated PS2 and Wii games(Iga, while capable of creating decent 2D games, should stay away from 3D)

Most of DS titles were decent, however, too repetitive and the story no longer made sense.

Pre-iga it was all clear - Dracula revives every 100 years, belmonts go take up whip and make sure he dies.

With DS games, the storyline became so contrived that Im sure not even IGA himself could arrange so it does not contradict itself.

As for God-of-war-ish feel. Well, tbh DMC4/Godofwar/etc had a lot of elements that I could see used in 3dvania.

This Vania, has quite a lot common with new prince-of-persia games, dmc, god of war, etc.

However its a lot more slower and is built around the actual platforming.

It mostly retains most of elements of castlevania games (you can go back to previous areas with new ability to reach places you could not before, you use whip+secondaryweapon and etc), drops a lot of metroidvania stuff(no confirmed equipment systems, no actual "exp levels" - exp now is used purelly for powers and etc) and adds a lot of what made SCIV such an awesome game( using your whip to travel through more difficult places, dragging objects, enemies, etc), which is not surprising considering originally this started as a remake of SCIV(not to mention that director of the game seems to despise a lot of metroidvanias and is in love with SCIV)


Overall its remakeRebirth of Castlevania. It goes back to the roots, to the usual concept - you have Belmont, you have Dracula, you have a whip, you go burn skeletons bats and other monsters with it.

It seems to introduce sort of multiple ending format tho - as there are two masks, God(healing, enhancing abilities) and Devil(Destructive magic, necromancy, vampire-powers, etc). And I bet that ending will differ depending onto which you relied more(or if you did not rely to neither one)

as for 2dvanias, last I tried was harmony of despair - sort of co-op time-attack castlevania. Meh I say.


I think you are talking about Castlevania ReBirth - a game for wii based on Castlevania Adventure(horribly famous for being unbeatable). Did not try it yet, but from what I looked up, it looks like SCIV with better graphics.

 

[khael]

Wait so those old Vania games aren't "metroidvania"s? Well the only ones I've played are the ones in the GB [not color] and IIRC one on Nes, Symphony of the Night on the PS, and the DS games. I've tried the earlier attempts at 3rd person Vanias and they just didn't work.

I have to agree though that the storyline got somewhat confusing in the long run.

Hopefully this'll make me forget those horrible 3rd person Vanias. Also hoping for more whip functions or moves like grabbing the leg of an enemy and making him fall down, stuff like that. [Saw the trailer, he was grabbing a giant's head or something like that. Balore?] Particularly pumped about the music and BGM since I've always loved Vania BGMs.

 

[Anybody]

QUOTE (khael @ Jul 26 2010, 07:56 AM) Wait so those old Vania games aren't "metroidvania"s? Well the only ones I've played are the ones in the GB [not color] and IIRC one on Nes, Symphony of the Night on the PS, and the DS games. I've tried the earlier attempts at 3rd person Vanias and they just didn't work.

I have to agree though that the storyline got somewhat confusing in the long run.

Hopefully this'll make me forget those horrible 3rd person Vanias. Also hoping for more whip functions or moves like grabbing the leg of an enemy and making him fall down, stuff like that. [Saw the trailer, he was grabbing a giant's head or something like that. Balore?] Particularly pumped about the music and BGM since I've always loved Vania BGMs.
Nope Old castlevanias or classicvanias did not feature any sort of bigger rpg elements - they were bassically REALLY hard action platformers.

Classicvania was all about spending multiple attempts on passing through a single level and cursing those damn medusa heads or insert-monster-name-here for foiling your genius playthrough. You were this badass roman-themed character who whips through hardest stuff possible. IT required a lot of QUICK thinking and would take multiple tries to finish.

Then metroidvania-style castlevania came and made everything ten times as easier in game. It all shifted away from horror and platforming into exploring the castle and collecting everythign to finally do a super duper quadruple jump to dracula's throne room. Latter on it even added grind and leveling up so before you get that super duper quadruple jump ability, make sure you are lvl99 so dracula does not kick your ass.


Once metrodivania era started, castlevania games became easier and easier thorough the years.

No longer we would see stuff like "rotating room" of scIV (past 02:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QPGuzGOgSA


As for the whole 3d. IGA seems to miss the point on what makes castlevania castlevania when he goes 3d. In reality, actually, a lot of 3d platformers started off ripping off castlevania - heck entire DMC4 feels like Castlevaniareskin3D and god of war(which IS kind of bad game, with millions QTE moments and zero creativity) took up a lot of things from castlevania(like main weapon)



As for bosses/characters/etc in LoS, so far:
- Death confirmed.
- Dracula obviously confirmed.
- Slogra confirmed.
- Carmilla confirmed.
- Cornell confirmed.
- Olrox confirmed.
- A MASSIVE Shadow-of-Collossus type fights against 4 titans confirmed(so far each of them seems to be themed after element).
- Three lords of shadow (who each has multiple forms) confirmed.
- Various new enemies like Lady of The Forest confirmed.

 

[khael]

QUOTE
- A MASSIVE Shadow-of-Collossus type fights against 4 titans confirmed(so far each of them seems to be themed after element).


FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

I loved SotC and Ico so I HAVE to see this.

 

[Anybody]

New Screenshots:


Gabriel vs Titan
http://pixelgordo.com/ficheros/galeria/clos_preview_1.jpg

Gabriel vs dark armor
http://pixelgordo.com/ficheros/galeria/clos_preview_6.jpg
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http://www.informativos.net/public/images/..._01_Compo_s.jpg

http://pixelgordo.com/ficheros/galeria/clos_preview_10.jpg

http://pixelgordo.com/ficheros/galeria/clos_preview_12.jpg

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...0Coffin_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...ighting_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...trosity_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...Brauner_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...CLS/Pan_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...arecrow_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...01_Compo_s.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...urrower_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...dragora_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...01_Compo_s.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...0Master_sm.html

http://www.informativos.net/public/images/...01_Compo_s.html

 

[Anybody]

Description of the first SoC style Titan fight of the game by gamespot
The by-the-numbers fantasy monsters, at least, throw the striking Titan bosses into sharp relief. These are the Shadow of the Colossus-like colossi: rocky, ancient, golem-like giants, invulnerable to Belmont's combat cross but felled with a good stabbing in their mystical glowing weak spots. We met the first of them towards the end of the first chapter on an enormous frozen lake--the Titan wading waist-high while we were on the icy surface, dodging blows from his huge stone fists. The Titans must be traversed as much as fought; we rappelled up the Titan's arm while his fist was stuck in the ice, climbed the carved ledges on his arm, and then used the combat cross's chain to swing and clamber to each of its weak points in sequence. We had to hold a button to grip when it tried to shake us off, and dodge out of the way when it tried to grab us.

 

[JCDRANZER]

I think I'll only have a chance to play this next year in the summer. I'm shocked there isn't a Halo: REACH thread over here (I'm not going to make it).......I'm looking so forward to it. I pre-ordered the Legendary Edition from GAME.

 

[elywaldoya]

Hi,
Where can I download a Play station 1 emulator and a copy of castlevania symphony of the night?I want a working Play station 1 emulator and a working castlevania symphony of the night any suggested sites of emulators?

 

[Anybody]

Newest Castlevania Lords of Shadow trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kT8fQFZIxI

(warning: the trailer is 7+ min long and contains some of the cutscenes from the game)

I felt the excitement building up through the whole trailer,...but when... the scene with Gabriel fighting in the air with someone(possibly Dracula) came.... I began to wish i had a time machine to travel to the future and get the game right now...

Then I though ti couls not get any more hyped for this and that my excitement is at maximum....but then The trailer showed gabriel fighting shadow of collosus style dragon in the air... and I had to go search the world for the jaw i dropped....

 

[Anybody]

Ok so I just finished the game (don't ask me how i got it

)and....


been staring at the wall for about a half a day now. the ending...WOW.....and then the ending after ending just completely shatters whatever is left of your mind, if the actual ending did not do that for you...



All I can say, bring on the sequel. I can't wait to play it, as it certainly will be.....unique with something that was never done in Castlevania before.

 

[numemaru]

Just finished playing too and I agree with the ending

 

[JCDRANZER]

Got it last Christmas, really good gam imo, its split into 2 discs and there's abkout 12 chapters I think, I've got up to Chapter 4 but each chapter is split into several levels I think, I just remember Chapter 3 being a BIG BOSS BATTLE, which was pretty awesome.