Castlevania: Lord of Shadows
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyzhjKVFxbI[/ame]
So who else is pumped? I've always been a fan of the series and Symphony of the Night is among one of my favourite games. Sadly, all 3d Castlevania games so far have been quite disappointing, but it seems like Konami is very serious about this one.
Art direction is delicious and though the main character creeps me out a bit (his head looks far too small for his body) the monsters look great. Environments are also looking great and are surprisingly detailed. Having Kojima involved also raises my hopes of bringing the series back to its glory.
I only hope that it won't be a straight DMC/GoW/Dante Inferno clone and will retain some RPG elements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyzhjKVFxbI[/ame]So who else is pumped? I've always been a fan of the series and Symphony of the Night is among one of my favourite games. Sadly, all 3d Castlevania games so far have been quite disappointing, but it seems like Konami is very serious about this one.
Art direction is delicious and though the main character creeps me out a bit (his head looks far too small for his body) the monsters look great. Environments are also looking great and are surprisingly detailed. Having Kojima involved also raises my hopes of bringing the series back to its glory.
I only hope that it won't be a straight DMC/GoW/Dante Inferno clone and will retain some RPG elements.
Replies
It looks pretty cool though. It's refreshing to actually see cinematic scenes with acting and stuff instead of just stiff faces with talk bubbles. Also the cast is pretty impressive(Robert Carlyle!).
If I had a console I would probably buy it.
I love Castlevania.. Symphony of the night is one of my fav games of all time, but I was afraid of this. Don't get me wrong, I love god of war, but I don't want a GoW clone.
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence came out in 2003...God of War came out in 2005. Look at gameplay from Lament of Innocence. You've got everything that was in GOW, the dodge mechanic, the swinging blades of Kratos is exactly like the whip in LOI. There's weak attacks and strong attacks that swing the whip in circles and can be combined for combos. There's magic that acts much like Kratos' spells. A fixed camera. There's even a gauntlet that Leon uses in LOI much like Kratos. It's been awhile since I played it but I want to say they even have the same control set up. LOI even got some negativity at the time for having more of an emphasis on combat instead of exploration. Yes, a lot of 3d action games share these things, but I remember playing GOW and thinking that it played a hell of a lot like LOI.
I don't know why more people don't point this out, maybe just no one played that game. But I always thought that God of War basically took Lament of Innocence and made it better.
Anyways, Castlevania was the very first video game I ever played on a home console, on my cousins NES waaaay back in the day. I've always loved the series and can't wait for this one.
To be honest, as long as it has high production values and is fun to play I couldn't care less about it being a GoW clone. Hell, the atmosphere and art alone would be enough to get me rolling.
By the way, I might be asking about the obvious but had anyone else got Shadow of The Colossus vibe from the fight with that giant?
Man, hard to find good clips of that game. I really liked Lament of Innocence, it had the same kind of tone that Super Castlevania IV had (my favorite of the series, and one of my favorite games period). It looked like it was heading in the right direction for a 3d Castlevania, just lacked the exploration or vertical-ity in the levels (I think I just made up a word) that games like GOW had. You just went from room to room, killing things. It had a pretty cool story though, and decent voice acting.
This new one looks like they took it where it needed to go. I do hope it's not a short, straightforward game, and at least has somewhat of a stronger RPG element.
Don't get me wrong..I'm still really, really looking forward to this game though.
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I wonder what ever happened with that..or did it morph into Lords of Shadow? And if so, is Alucard still in the game. I know they showed a few voice actors that were high in the billing but didn't show who they were playing.
I'm really proud to see that at least, in my country, one studio can do great things. I wish i could see a good game industry here.
But since GoW already translated Castlevania combat into 3D so well the only thing left for LoS to accomplish is exploration. If LoS doesn't have that it can join Dante's Inferno in the "why don't I just play GoW instead?" club.
Really liked the melting snowflakes in the beggining, nice and subtle touch;
environments, monsters and the main hero are absolutely great,
but ladies look so ugly :<
Gay them up a little bit, make them pretty.
Anyway, I'm excited for this game.
Definitiley excited.
Although it makes me sad they didn't work on the main character more. Like teaandcigarettes said, His Head Is Too SMALL! What the hell? You would think they would work on proportions and stuff like that till he is absolutly perfect. If he didn't have that puffy hair his head would really look rediculously small.
I pray they fix this, because as a character artist, this is something hard to get past. Anyways, it looks like they are indeed putting a ton of effort into this game. I can't wait to see more from it. I just hope they don't give too much away next time.
first things first, this game is fucking gorgeous, approaching god of war levels of visual fidelity in some areas. the mud and rain in the 1st area looks wicked.
the only thing i noticed that is a bit annoying is the game is so crisp and lots of things are really glossy which leads to a really noisy appearance in some areas with millions of little white dots. its not too bad when you are moving around but it kinda feels like a little to much unsharp mask.
gameplay wise I'm about 1.5 hours in i think, feels pretty much like god of war. I'm loving it cause I love GoW, but to the hardcore oldschool castlevania fan I'm sure it would be kinda offputting. it seems really linear which allows for fucking amazing art.
really enjoying it so far, would recommend it. although I hear it does get repetitive in its 20 hours or so playtime.
There are a few things that really bug me with the game. But I'm having a good time so far.
Not gonna spoil anything yet for anyone who hasn't had a chance to play.
Environments are really well done. What they've shown so far reminds me a lot of the environments in Uncharted 2... but slightly more fantastic.
Voice acting is a bit too dramatic at times. It's kinda neat to have Patric Stewart narrate during the loading screens, though.
They do some cool stuff with the UI. I love how they do the pencil drawing animations of Gabriel's skills.
I loved the couple hours of it I played last night. It's a very polished game. The Art is breathtaking in parts, besides the occasional over sharpness like PixelMasher mentioned. Combat is really solid and fun. So far I've been fighting less enemies but each is tougher, rather than GoW's endlessly spawning trash mobs. I like that dynamic a lot better, never having to wonder when the battle is going to end. The titan battles are quite faithful to SotC, it's surprising it's taken so long for another game to make use of those mechanics. The animation is really good, even in the cutscenes. Lots of dynamic camera work in-game and videos. There's some simple skills and upgrades very much like God of War and the 2d castlevanias. Gives a good sense of progression and a reason for exploration.
The cutscenes and story stuff seem pretty good. About as good as you need for a game like this; to help advance you through the adventure. One downside is the terrible writing. It's really awkward listening to Partrick Stewart recite these schlocky badly written lines. It actually takes away from it for me. His performance is odd, and unfitting of the game. He reads the lines like poetry but they are really not and it falls flat.
It shouldn't be negatively compared to the 2d Castlevanias. There's no way anyone should be expecting that experience from this game if they've been paying attention. However a lot of stuff from the 2d games is still in there. Same universe, same monsters, same epic scale, same gaining of skills that let you explore more areas as you progress (double jump for instance). It takes some common elements from those games and adapts them. People see it as elements from God of War, which they are, but they're highly applicable to Castlevania.
It's exactly what I want a 3d Castlevania to be. When I first played GoW that's what I thought about it. That's what 3d Castlevania should be, and now it is.
I recommend it if you are a fan of either GoW or Castlevania.
And yeah I haven't played GoW 3 so you can imagine my excitement=)
Can't believe this is the same company that made Jericho, even though Jericho had some great enemy character art, the game wasn't that good. By god they've improved a whole lot.
It plays well too!
definitely going to pick this up.
Justin doesn't count. He doesn't play games.
and dead rising..
and metal gear rising..
I LOVE KONAMI AND CAPCOM.
I LOVE the camera shots. It makes me forgive the fact you can't control the camera.
And props to the artists who put together the many statues in the game. They have so many!
i would recommend picking this up just to look at, its worth it. by all means not a bad game, but really nice to look at.
Yet another flawed epic gem, I'm enjoying the shit outta this game, I've had a few very frustrating moments with camera angles and control mechanic responsiveness. All is forgiven when the environments induce ocular orgasms, even some of the character work like Pan. Unfortunately Pan makes Claudia and Zobek all the more jarring.
I agree whole-heartedly with Frump, also the GoW comparisons making the rounds through all the review sites are so tired and lack merit to me when I couldn't imagine a 3d Castlevania being any other way. I also question whether any of them truely played the 2d ones as many say there's nothing castlevania about this game... I couldn't agree less.
One thing I love though is the difference between species like werewolves for example. Less and moderate werewolves look nothing alike. They didn't just reskin the character and call it a day. I really wish more games would follow this trend.
Am I the only one who thinks this looks like LOK:Soul Reaver should look in 2010? Hey CD, enough with those Lara-games, make some vampire goodness! LOK: Soul Reaver remake would be more than enough
Back to Castlevania. I like it much better than GoW. I just prefer gothic style over mythology.
The game is solid. Some control issues and camera issues. But a lot of the camera work is gorgeous I'd say.
I think they also did a pretty good job with the story. Presenting only the necessary and letting people delve further into it if they feel like it. The only problem is that letters from dead soldiers aren't as neat as voiced audio tapes from random dudes (Bioshock).
There are some odd quicktime events... well, they become odd when you retry the event cause it is so specific to the moment and it shouldn't happen more than once. Haha.
So ya.. anyone who has run out of these kind of games and want some more can safely pick it up.
My first impressions after an hour and a half of play: Good, but hasn't hooked me yet.
It is definitely a gorgeous game.
The story is pretty cool, so far.
I agree with what's been said about the flat narrative and the "unsharp mask gone crazy" noise.
The camera makes me dizzy, probably due to the static camera.
Some control issues.
My big concern is that, yeah they share similar gameplay elements from God of War...but I haven't seen anything that's built upon that, so far. I'm hopeful that changes as I progress. More so, God of War, Darksiders, and Heavenly Sword all had much more 'fun' to offer up front...with different combos and combat types, seemingly, right out of the gate.
So yeah, as far as first impressions go, not overly impressed as of yet...but I shall continue!
it has some little SOTN elements, where you need certain skill to access some area.
you may start with the mostly forrest and ruins level,
but in progress the level getting bigger and more breathtaking.
man this is beyond epic for just a slot machine
So Symphony and the subsequent ones are the old ones?
Psh, kids today.
I'll take the old ones, meaning the classic original 4 games, with Super Castlevania IV being the crown jewel. Leveling up and gaining new abilities is great as long as the challenge increases as well. That was my problem with Symphony and some of the later titles, you could power yourself up so much that the game had no challenge.
Haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, but might grab it this weekend. Everything I've read about it gets me more and more psyched about it. I agree with the people that oppose the reviewers saying it isn't anything like the 2d ones. Maybe it's not like the post-Rondo of Blood releases where Castlevania took on a more anime, Metroid style; but it sure looks like it's in the same vein as far as mood and atmosphere as Castlevania IV, and gameplay wise, a definite refinement of the game God Of War took from, Castlevania Lament of Innocence.
Worth the play if anyone hasn't played it.
He ran through the game in two days, (like 3 hours of sleep), but he's a CV crack addict, and was sorely disappointed by the story.
My impressions of the game:
The first environments are B-E-A-Utiful. However, they waver in quality throughout the game (never "bad" though) and they take a serious turn for uninteresting and bland towards the end of the game. I understand why they did it, but it got seriously boring to watch then. Before I was tearing apart the environment construction, but once it got there it was like "woo...>.> (searches net for ref)."
The first couple enviros (with the exception of the very first) had more of a Legend of Zelda feel to me, don't get me wrong, beautiful, but some of it just reeked LoZ and not CV.
Story-wise patrick stewart does a great job as you might expect with his VO. Overall it had more of a lord of the rings epicness to it than say what I expect from CV and fighting legions of damned.
I hate the after credit ending, at least the last half of it. But then again thats just me
Overall it is a cool game, worth a rental or at least watching a friend play if you're an environment artist/enthusiast/wannabe or whatever. However, it just never really captured the spirit of CV for me except in a couple of key spots. Other than that, it was just a "for the most part" super pretty game with some good gameplay from what I witnessed/talked with roommate about.
Also Lament gameplay wasn't bad, imo anyway, but GoW did make it better.
/my 2 cents
It's not Castelvania. It's a God of War rip with a Castlevania nametag. Visually amazing, but overall...unimpressed.