It's a good game. It's not really a Castlevania game, more like a derivative of God of War. And most reviewers are looking for something new in game.

Vinny on the other hand, is the guy who really likes Sleeping Dogs, which is arguably quite derivative. Lords of Shadow is similar to Sleeping Dogs in that way. It's derivative, but it does its job really good.

Saw this on sale the other day but didn't pull the trigger. Still kinda want it since there's a new one coming but it looked like the type of game where I'd have to have a guide open the whole time after seeing Vinny get stuck in the first level.

@JZ said:

I think is one of the best castlevaina games.

Yep. It's the best thing to happen to the franchise since SotN.

I thought it was well made, but nothing about it is what I wanted from a Castlevania game. The combat felt like God of War in that animation priority takes precedence over inputs. So the combat looks fluid but feels bad. Which isn't even necessarily a non-castlevania thing. There's animation priority in the 2d castlevanias as well, but something about the 2d perspective just makes it more enjoyable to me.

@aquamarin said:

Saw this on sale the other day but didn't pull the trigger. Still kinda want it since there's a new one coming but it looked like the type of game where I'd have to have a guide open the whole time after seeing Vinny get stuck in the first level.

It's not the first level. Unfortunately, Vinny jumped into the fifth (or so) chapter while having forgotten how the controls work and what moves he has available, how to activate them etc. It was a rather painful showing of the game. Pulling down those statues is actually not difficult at all.

You definitely don't need a guide for this game. Well, maybe for one or two of the optional challenges if you are a completionist. S-ranking this game was tons of fun for me.

@hollitz said:

but something about the 2d perspective just makes it more enjoyable to me.

That's a general 2D/3D thing though. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for 2D graphics and gameplay. In my opinion it's less stressful than 3D somehow.

I really enjoyed what I've played of it. Should prob finish it up. Got to just after battling the Vampires.

I got distracted and (regretfully) never finished it but I also really enjoyed what I played of it.

It might not be very castlevania, but that doesn't make it a bad game. It's a perfectly fine action-adventure with some really great boss fights and terrible terrible DLC. Sorta funny how Brad could be down on this game when he just gave DmC 5 stars, considering they both use pretty similar combat mechanics. Guess story and setting is everything....

"This game is not good it's a God of War/Shadow of the Colossus clone"

"Symphony of the Night is one of the best Castlevania games ever, it's a Metroid clone"

A lot of fucking hypocrites in here, or maybe everyone forgot before SotN Castlevania was a 2D hack n slash/platformer with splitting paths.

I can't say that I had any issue with it be an unconventional Castlevania game. Rather, I thought it brought a fresh setting to the series. The it was probably the best video game ending that I have ever witnessed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It looks great and plays well, and I loved the atmosphere and story. I was just something very compelling about following Gabriel on a solitary journey towards something horrible, yet seemingly inevitable.

This is one of my favorite games of this generation, it's great!

This game was dope man! Good music too! But this is diffrent times for games man.its starting to be more like movies with all the diversity in tastes. And that is a great thing! Long live diversity!

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

I understand why they didn't like the game but I thought it was a lot of fun.

i actually really liked at as well, and the story was pretty good as well. felt bad for gabriel at the end. but LOVED the end of this game

if this game had an editor, and it lost about 5-10 hrs from its 20 hour game, it would get a lot more love from people

It's ironic that many people are calling it a derivative God of War clone when at the end of the day Lords of Shadow had such a robust and complex combat system that it made God of War look like a derivative Lords of Shadow clone instead.

@SlashDance said:

I remember it being fairly slow paced, which sounds like something that would turn off everyone at Giant Bomb except Vinny.

I thought it was great.

I think Vinny and Drew being video producers tend to have a different experiences then the review staff since I think the time pressure of being able to meet a deadline to review a game does affect how one can enjoy it. Vinny doesn't have that pressure being placed on him and he is able to enjoy the game the way he would want to play it. An example is how Vinny plays Sleeping Dogs. Even watching him play the game is awesome and you can really see why he enjoys it so much.

I really wanted to like it, but I can't. Its just so boring. I finally got around to seeing the twist and... really? Is it that surprising that

I loved the game, it really took me by surprise. It was in my top 5 the year it came out. When Patrick called the music "generic orchestration" last night I felt myself twitching in my seat. LoS had a fucking beautiful score, easily one of the best in a game that year. Lengthy, challenging and full of some really creative levels all the way up to the very end.(music box, pumpkin fields, electric castle) I even thought it was pretty well acted by Robert Carlyle although Patrick Stewart is a little too much at times. It's a strange game in that it gets better about ten hours in, although I don't think it opens bad, there's just a little too much emphasis on the Colossus battles.

It was 2010's DmC.

A chain weapon attack taking up a large percentage of the screen, orbs flying out of enemies, button prompt executions and huge bosses, came out in 2010.

God of War 3, Dante's Inferno, Lords of Shadow. Which game did I describe? All three.

I think they don't like that type of game in the first place and by that point it felt over saturated.

I had a copy lying around and decided to pop it in after watching the stream and I can totally see why most of the staff don't like. Not even taking into account how derivative it's mechanics are, it has a lot of useless frustrating mechanics that shouldn't be in there. I am about two levels into chapter II and I have encountered two areas, the swamp and the spider web "planks", that are solely designed to slow me down and make the level take longer. They aren't fun or interesting to trudge through and you have to move through them quite a bit in the levels that they appear in. At least with the swamps I could jump from dry land to skip some of the path (not all though!) and just let the obstacles within catch me so that I could move through faster but with the spider webs jumping was tricky because it was hard to line the character up with the plank (precise 3D platforming with a fixed camera that is not behind me) and failing would cost me life so I stopped doing that quickly. I'll also hope that this game doesn't continue to use bull shit mechanics like sawing through objects with the spike chain. It's not fun and just slows me down.

I also find there to be way to much going on screen at once, mostly in terms of what is in the environment. I have a decently sized TV, a 32-inch HDTV and I sit roughly 6-feet away and it is the only game I feel lost in while looking at it. Not all the time but for instance in the forest level where you have to find 5 glyphs to open a path blocked by a fairy. It was really hard to parse what I was looking at and I don't even really know why, it was just so dense and the camera was pulled so far away. Also the game decided it was a good idea to pull the camera far away in another level (the above mentioned spider web "plank" level) when I needed to pick up tiny little grenades that were being thrown at me to destroy a stone door while also fighting off the creatures who were throwing them. Combine barely being able to see the grenades with the button to pick up grenades also pulling in enemies from a distance and putting me into a throw animation if I couldn't quite line myself up with the tiny little grenade and also getting hit by tiny little grenades being thrown at me that I can't see because the camera is too far out created a frustrating time.

One last thing I noticed was the fluidity of combat. It was mentioned on a previous page and to an extent I agree. The cross goes through enemies and never gets caught up on things making it always moving when I tell it to and always goes in the direction I tell it to but it also loses any other "feel". I never feel like I am connecting with the enemies and as such it often doesn't feel like I am even damaging them, If I didn't have the health bars on then I wouldn't even be able to tell through animation that I am hurting some of the bigger guys. It just doesn't feel good and does a good job at reminding me why I never like God of War and it's chain blades. Though it wasn't nearly as bad in that game as it is in Lords of Shadows.

Hooboy. Not a whole lot of good said through that. Let's see what I can come up with... Voice acting by Patrick Stewart is quite nice... it doesn't use a button for most quick time events making them a little harder to fail, so that's nice... it's segmented much like a handheld game would be so it's easy to put down and stop playing...

I looked at this for 10 minutes trying to think of more positive things and I couldn't. I think I may be a person who tends to remember negative things more easily so that may be why I am having such a hard time but, yeah, if you think I didn't mention something and want to let me know, then do so. Just remember that I am not far into the game so I may have not been able to experience some more positive things yet and by all means don't worry about spoiling cool things, it may make me more interested.

Hearing them complain about the game upset me even though I haven't actually played it myself yet. It seems like they had just completely written it off due to it having the Castlevania name in front of it. They were saying it's a shitty game and I see nothing but a pretty okay looking third person action game.

The better question is why some people get pissed off at the fact that other people don't like some game? WHO BLOODY CARES?!!??!!?

if you enjoy it, great! I've been on the fence about getting this game for a while now... maybe someday I pull the trigger

because vinchenzo has no taste'

@Rafaelfc said:

The better question is why some people get pissed off at the fact that other people don't like some game? WHO BLOODY CARES?!!??!!?

if you enjoy it, great! I've been on the fence about getting this game for a while now... maybe someday I pull the trigger

Because the people who don't enjoy the game are like Patrick and actively antagonize you for enjoying it.

The game is alright but I just haven't been compelled to continue through it.

@GrantHeaslip said:

I haven’t played LoS, but the way they’ll all arrive at a dead-set conclusion about the quality of a game that none of them have really played (or one of them played a long time ago) really bugs me. Patrick isn’t the root cause, but his tendency to label totally quality games he personally didn’t like (and often didn’t play) as indefensible horseshit has led to this happening way more often than it used to.

Obviously everyone does this kind of stuff once in a while, but when it’s your job to be a game critic, I think it’s irresponsible.

God yes. I have started to notice it more lately and it has really started to get on my nerves. I'm not saying it's only Patrick either but I notice it more when he does it, probably because he is very obnoxious about it.

@SuperWristBands said:

@GrantHeaslip said:

I haven’t played LoS, but the way they’ll all arrive at a dead-set conclusion about the quality of a game that none of them have really played (or one of them played a long time ago) really bugs me. Patrick isn’t the root cause, but his tendency to label totally quality games he personally didn’t like (and often didn’t play) as indefensible horseshit has led to this happening way more often than it used to.

Obviously everyone does this kind of stuff once in a while, but when it’s your job to be a game critic, I think it’s irresponsible.

God yes. I have started to notice it more lately and it has really started to get on my nerves. I'm not saying it's Patrick either but I notice it more when he does it, probably because he is very obnoxious about it.

I've noticed too. Not saying it's always Patrick, it's a GB thing in general, but they just seem far more set in their ways now. If they find one thing they don't like about a game, suddenly, everyone's on top of it humping the flaw into the ground until the entire game is the biggest piece of crap released that year. Love the guys, but jeez, it's getting a little tiring.

@Quarters said:

@SuperWristBands said:

@GrantHeaslip said:

I haven’t played LoS, but the way they’ll all arrive at a dead-set conclusion about the quality of a game that none of them have really played (or one of them played a long time ago) really bugs me. Patrick isn’t the root cause, but his tendency to label totally quality games he personally didn’t like (and often didn’t play) as indefensible horseshit has led to this happening way more often than it used to.

Obviously everyone does this kind of stuff once in a while, but when it’s your job to be a game critic, I think it’s irresponsible.

God yes. I have started to notice it more lately and it has really started to get on my nerves. I'm not saying it's Patrick either but I notice it more when he does it, probably because he is very obnoxious about it.

I've noticed too. Not saying it's always Patrick, it's a GB thing in general, but they just seem far more set in their ways now. If they find one thing they don't like about a game, suddenly, everyone's on top of it humping the flaw into the ground until the entire game is the biggest piece of crap released that year. Love the guys, but jeez, it's getting a little tiring.

I'm actually gonna point out Patrick was hired as a News guy and doesn't honestly work as a critic, his knowledge of video games is lacking compared to everyone else he only reviews a game when he really likes it and it's usually a 5 star review he's always trying to bring his "news and industry commentary" into quicklooks where it honestly doesn't belong.

Not that he's a great news guy with all his opinion pieces and shit but know your skills dude.

@GrantHeaslip said:

@ZHabermann said:

I'm actually gonna point out Patrick was hired as a News guy and doesn't honestly work as a critic, his knowledge of video games is lacking compared to everyone else he only reviews a game when he really likes it and it's usually a 5 star review he's always trying to bring his "news and industry commentary" into quicklooks where it honestly doesn't belong.

Not that he's a great news guy with all his opinion pieces and shit but know your skills dude.

I don’t think he’s even given a five-star review (at least on Giant Bomb).

Okay I stand corrected, "he only reviews a game when he really likes it and it's usually a 4 star review"

Point still stands

There's a song in this that brought me to tears. Aside from the frame rate, I found the audio visual piece of the game tops this generation.

Fun, tactical combat on the harder difficulty, intriguing story, excellent story beats... what's not to love? Besides the crappy first 3 hours that made me put it away for a year.

@csl316: Thanks. I almost turned of the stream when Patrick called the music generic.

@kortex said:

@csl316: Thanks. I almost turned of the stream when Patrick called the music generic.

First rule of listening to Patrick talk shit about any game on a podcast or livestream: Take it with a bucket of salt and verify independently. Continue ingesting salt as necessary until you have reached a conclusion that is satisfactory.

@Rafaelfc said:

The better question is why some people get pissed off at the fact that other people don't like some game? WHO BLOODY CARES?!!??!!?

if you enjoy it, great! I've been on the fence about getting this game for a while now... maybe someday I pull the trigger

@GrantHeaslip conveyed my thoughts, mostly. It's frustrating that they're expressing dislike for the game because viewers that may have been on the fence about playing it are going to be wrongly influenced by the staff denouncing it so quickly and so frequently. It would be fine if the game clearly merited immediate dismissal, but I don't think that LOS does. I think that it's ignorant and irresponsible for the staff to throw LOS under the bus without having played it longer. I don't think that it's a fantastic game, but it deserves more respect than it seems to have gotten from the GB staff.

If you're on the fence, I would suggest that you don't spend any more than ~$35 on it. In my opinion, the soundtrack, art and voice acting are good. The gameplay and story are hit and miss. I would give it a 3/5.

@Hailinel said:

@kortex said:

@csl316: Thanks. I almost turned of the stream when Patrick called the music generic.

First rule of listening to Patrick talk shit about any game on a podcast or livestream: Take it with a bucket of salt and verify independently. Continue ingesting salt as necessary until you have reached a conclusion that is satisfactory.

I may have to use that quote at some point. But really, all this is doing is making me want to check out LoS for myself and see which side of the fence I fall on. Of course, DmC comes out for PC next week, so that may have to wait a bit.

One of my favorite games of all time. Actually recommended to a few friends who never heard of it and everyone has came back with nothing but positive comments. Some people like good games, too many people like to whine about good games.

None of them, not even Vinny got past the boring 'opening' chapters. I really had to force myself to keep playing through all that shit, and it eventually paid off, somewhat.

@Hailinel said:

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

Also it's worth remembering we have a lot of games that do the character action game stuff probably better (I admit I should not be criticizing a game I've played very little of, though I am somewhat interested in playing it.) Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and God of War have that genre covered. Making Castlevania like God of War isn't a "fresh idea" when only 5 companies have figured out how to do Metroidvanias right and it's not like we get metoidvanias every month.

How many Metroid or Castlevania games have come out in recent years that were actually Metroidvanias? The Last 2D Metroid was Zero Mission and Prime 3 was the last Metroidvania in that series. Castlevania had Harmony of Dispair which wasn't a metroidvania, then LOS which was a character action game. The last Metroidvania in that series came out in 2008. That's insane. Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are everyones favorite games right? We need more of those games. Remember how good Shadow Complex was? How it's one of the best games on XBLA, how it had fresh ideas.

Man... Casual Friday made me want to scream with them shitting all over the game like it's a bargain bin turd.

I thought it was cool but I got bored pretty quickly. I really liked the concept and everything, but it just wasn't all that interesting to me in the end.

@Nottle said:

@Hailinel said:

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

Also it's worth remembering we have a lot of games that do the character action game stuff probably better (I admit I should not be criticizing a game I've played very little of, though I am somewhat interested in playing it.) Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and God of War have that genre covered. Making Castlevania like God of War isn't a "fresh idea" when only 5 companies have figured out how to do Metroidvanias right and it's not like we get metoidvanias every month.

How many Metroid or Castlevania games have come out in recent years that were actually Metroidvanias? The Last 2D Metroid was Zero Mission and Prime 3 was the last Metroidvania in that series. Castlevania had Harmony of Dispair which wasn't a metroidvania, then LOS which was a character action game. The last Metroidvania in that series came out in 2008. That's insane. Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are everyones favorite games right? We need more of those games. Remember how good Shadow Complex was? How it's one of the best games on XBLA, how it had fresh ideas.

I'm saying they had perfectly good reasons to want to try something different. There was nothing inherently fresh about the final game, that much is obvious.

You can deconstruct the game and find a bunch of flaws, but what I remember from LoS, and what many of those who liked it have also told me, is that this it's somehow more than the sum of its parts. Yes it's very linear, it doesn't do anything groundbreaking, it's extremely slow paced, but it still manages to offers an unforgettable experience.

Also Lords of Shadow isn't completely crazy and over-the-top story wise, unlike pretty much every other game in this genre, so at least it had that going for it.

Personally, I just think a lot of the crew is slipping out of touch. They aren't regular enthusiasts, they're the gaming press, and more than ever it's starting to show in their articles, preferences and opinions.

Still, that's not inherently bad. Patrick, who I disagree with on virtually every topic, is entitled as a staff member to express whatever he wants. I actually respect his dedication to these views, even if I can't stand the views themselves. This said, I'm not afraid to single his name out in this; he's the furthest removed of everyone, so casually dismissive it makes me cringe. Take a look at his counterpart, one of the least "journalistic" guys on the crew, Vinny. He's more of a technician really. He kind of keeps my hope alive that this crew can understand or appreciate the common perspective. I mean, he's actually playing a pretty relevant multiplayer game these days; who else deigns to stoop so low to our level?

I really liked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, not as a groundbreaking game, but as a resoundingly solid one with excellent production values. I think it stood out at its time and holds up pretty good still. One person recognized it this way, three did not.

@Nottle said:

@Hailinel said:

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

Also it's worth remembering we have a lot of games that do the character action game stuff probably better (I admit I should not be criticizing a game I've played very little of, though I am somewhat interested in playing it.) Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and God of War have that genre covered. Making Castlevania like God of War isn't a "fresh idea" when only 5 companies have figured out how to do Metroidvanias right and it's not like we get metoidvanias every month.

How many Metroid or Castlevania games have come out in recent years that were actually Metroidvanias? The Last 2D Metroid was Zero Mission and Prime 3 was the last Metroidvania in that series. Castlevania had Harmony of Dispair which wasn't a metroidvania, then LOS which was a character action game. The last Metroidvania in that series came out in 2008. That's insane. Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are everyones favorite games right? We need more of those games. Remember how good Shadow Complex was? How it's one of the best games on XBLA, how it had fresh ideas.

I'm saying they had perfectly good reasons to want to try something different. There was nothing inherently fresh about the final game, that much is obvious.

You can deconstruct the game and find a bunch of flaws, but what I remember from LoS, and what many of those who liked it have also told me, is that this it's somehow more than the sum of its parts. Yes it's very linear, it doesn't do anything groundbreaking, it's extremely slow paced, but it still manages to offers an unforgettable experience.

Also Lord of Shadows isn't completely crazy and over-the-top story wise, unlike pretty much every other game in this genre, so at least it had that going for it.

@ajamafalous said:

@SlashDance said:

@Nottle said:

@Hailinel said:

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

Also it's worth remembering we have a lot of games that do the character action game stuff probably better (I admit I should not be criticizing a game I've played very little of, though I am somewhat interested in playing it.) Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and God of War have that genre covered. Making Castlevania like God of War isn't a "fresh idea" when only 5 companies have figured out how to do Metroidvanias right and it's not like we get metoidvanias every month.

How many Metroid or Castlevania games have come out in recent years that were actually Metroidvanias? The Last 2D Metroid was Zero Mission and Prime 3 was the last Metroidvania in that series. Castlevania had Harmony of Dispair which wasn't a metroidvania, then LOS which was a character action game. The last Metroidvania in that series came out in 2008. That's insane. Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are everyones favorite games right? We need more of those games. Remember how good Shadow Complex was? How it's one of the best games on XBLA, how it had fresh ideas.

I'm saying they had perfectly good reasons to want to try something different. There was nothing inherently fresh about the final game, that much is obvious.

You can deconstruct the game and find a bunch of flaws, but what I remember from LoS, and what many of those who liked it have also told me, is that this it's somehow more than the sum of its parts. Yes it's very linear, it doesn't do anything groundbreaking, it's extremely slow paced, but it still manages to offers an unforgettable experience.

Also Lord of Shadows isn't completely crazy and over-the-top story wise, unlike pretty much every other game in this genre, so at least it had that going for it.

That's kinda the problem, though. Nobody was sitting around thinking to themselves "Hey, you know what I want out of the next Castlevania? A middling character action game that doesn't do anything new." To a lot of people, whether it actually was or not, it feels like a squandered opportunity to get a new Metroidvania game.

This is pretty much the problem right here. Konami was content with letting Mercury Steam make a Castlevania game that wasn't much more than a game kind of similar to God of War, that didn't really do anything new, has a very slow start, and for some people, the sole saving grace being the twist ending. At the very least, when Igarashi made 3D Castlevanias like Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, these games played like 3D interpretations of his 2D ideas. They could have been better, sure, but all the same, I thought that Lament of Innocence was entertaining. I never did play much of Curse of Darkness, though. I should fix that at some point.

@ajamafalous said:

@SlashDance said:

@Nottle said:

@Hailinel said:

@SlashDance said:

@ajamafalous said:

It probably would've gotten less flak if it wasn't called Castlevania.

@JCGamer said:

I think people have a problem with the game because it doesn't "feel" like a Castlevania game.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I still don't get those complains but hey, that's the Internet I guess. Seriously, Igarashi spent over a decade making crappy 3D Castlevania games, and kinda cool 2D ones that never managed to top Symphony of the Night, and yet people throw a hissy fit when Konami tries something different ? If there was one franchise that needed fresh ideas, that was Castlevania.

To many, Lords of Shadow is another crappy 3D Castlevania. When Igarashi was on his game with the 2D entries, even the latter ones, those were still great experiences. Order of Ecclesia ranks among my favorites in the series.

Also it's worth remembering we have a lot of games that do the character action game stuff probably better (I admit I should not be criticizing a game I've played very little of, though I am somewhat interested in playing it.) Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, and God of War have that genre covered. Making Castlevania like God of War isn't a "fresh idea" when only 5 companies have figured out how to do Metroidvanias right and it's not like we get metoidvanias every month.

How many Metroid or Castlevania games have come out in recent years that were actually Metroidvanias? The Last 2D Metroid was Zero Mission and Prime 3 was the last Metroidvania in that series. Castlevania had Harmony of Dispair which wasn't a metroidvania, then LOS which was a character action game. The last Metroidvania in that series came out in 2008. That's insane. Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are everyones favorite games right? We need more of those games. Remember how good Shadow Complex was? How it's one of the best games on XBLA, how it had fresh ideas.

I'm saying they had perfectly good reasons to want to try something different. There was nothing inherently fresh about the final game, that much is obvious.

You can deconstruct the game and find a bunch of flaws, but what I remember from LoS, and what many of those who liked it have also told me, is that this it's somehow more than the sum of its parts. Yes it's very linear, it doesn't do anything groundbreaking, it's extremely slow paced, but it still manages to offers an unforgettable experience.

Also Lord of Shadows isn't completely crazy and over-the-top story wise, unlike pretty much every other game in this genre, so at least it had that going for it.

That's kinda the problem, though. Nobody was sitting around thinking to themselves "Hey, you know what I want out of the next Castlevania? A middling character action game that doesn't do anything new." To a lot of people, whether it actually was or not, it feels like a squandered opportunity to get a new Metroidvania game.

It's hard to know if there would've been another big budget Castlevania game had they not slapped the brand on Lords of Shadow halfway through development. Still, it's irrelevant to those who enjoyed it so much. I think people are maybe a little too attached to the brand if they can't judge a game for what it is, just because of its name. You can always be disapointed that you didn't get what you wanted, but not to the point where it's okay to call what you did get a failure because of it.

I do hope Lords of Shadow 2 is a bit less linear, though. Do we know if it is by the way ? I haven't really been following.

oh hey guyz thanks for another random patrick hate thread!!!

this is a game with a cult audience who like/appreciate what it does, but it also seems pretty heavily flawed and seems like it requires a large investment to get anything good out of it. seems like the bombcrew's opinions are pretty ot$.