I've gone back and forth on the new 'Vania game. I'm not the type of person who's upset because it's not a 2D game, or that it was made by a Western team. I love SotN, but that formula has worn a little thin. I'd pick up a new HD side scrolling 'Vania if one came out, but I'm in no hurry to pick up the iterative DS sequels that Konami keeps shitting out. That said, I wasn't a huge fan of Lords of Shadow when I first started playing it. It's pretty and it has some good ideas, but it just didn't click. The game doesn't do a great job of showing you how it wants you to use their combat mechanics, which is especially frustrating in the early game when you haven't found many collectibles and your life bar is tiny. Plus, the game sometimes chugs, which does not help at all when you're struggling with a boss. 
 
But then the game started to click for me. The land of the vampires is far, far more interesting than that of the lycans. There's absolutely gorgeous gothic castles that you're shown in these sweeping establishing shots, and run down, Germanic looking villages that you creep through in the middle of a blizzard. It's beautiful and subtly creepy, and it just feels right. Castlevania isn't a series about jungle ruins. It's about exploring dark and dusty castles with grotesque monsters around every corner. 
 
Once I bought more combos, the combat clicked as well. It reminds me more of Devil May Cry or something similar than God of War. At the default difficulty in GoW, you can button mash and generally do okay. Here, there's a constant back and forth with you balancing your damage (shadow magic) with healing (light magic), while trying to mix up your moves so as to get focus to keep your magic up. It can be punishing, especially in the early game when you don't have many moves and it's hard to keep focus. Now that I've got a handle on what's going on though, I'm feeling much better about it. 
 
So the game is flawed, but I'd still recommend it. It's a shame that it's such a slow burn, because I have a feeling that it's going to turn a lot of people off initially. It's a long game, almost shockingly so, and it seems like they reward people who stick with it with the best of their art. It's absolutely stunning, and should have been in the beginning of the game. 
 
Also, fuck those platforming sections. Seriously, what the hell. I just finished the clockwork tower, which is great for it's 'Vania flavor, but jesus christ guys. Your character has a fair amount of inertia and weight when he moves, but you're going to make me jump from tiny moving platform to tiny moving platform with garbage camera angles? Ugh.  
 
What a weirdly inconsistent game.

I loved this game. It was pretty fantastic from beginning to end.  
A lot of people were turned off from it because the demo didn't give the players the light and shadow magic. So they were stuck in a chapter before chapter 4, where the game really starts to pick up and require more strategic uses of your inventory. 
My game only chugged at one part, and that was when you were riding on Pandora in the second level of the first chapter.

I guess chug isn't quite the right word maybe. I'm used to my action games being pretty silky smooth, and the frame rate can be fairly variable. It doesn't chug, but it can get choppy, especially when there's weather effects, more than 3 or 4 enemies on screen and lots of particle effects and such. My first thought on booting the game up was that it looked choppy as hell. It's just not terribly fluid. 
 
I didn't try the demo, so I can't really comment on that. I just felt like the game was unnecessarily difficult in its first few hours. I had to try the lycan lord at least 8 times, just because I didn't quite have a handle on things and because my life bar was tiny. It was a huge pain in the ass. 
 
Don't get me wrong, I think it's rapidly becoming pretty fantastic, but like I said, it's pretty inconsistent. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through and really enjoying it so far. Also, the combat cross? Really guys? Really? What a terrible name.

"My game only chugged at one part, and that was when you were riding on Pandora in the second level of the first chapter. "

The only area where my game chugged was once - right before Pan appeared and a little after Gabriel awakes from his first dream. That was literally the only time I noticed a framerate issue. This game is my second favorite game of the year behind Alan Wake. It was absolutely beautiful, had wicked characters, an awesome story, and addicting gameplay. I loved it so much I S-Ranked it too. Plus, it has the best ending of probably any game I've played. Just awesome. 
 
@GloomyTangent said:

" Also, the combat cross? Really guys? Really? What a terrible name. "

I keep going back and forth on whether I want to play this or not... maybe if I can get it for cheapsies. Good to know that it gets better, though. They should really put "slow burn" warning stickers on games, it'd save people a lot of trouble.

I just finished the game and thought the entire experience was mediocre. It is basically Dante's Inferno. Lots of shimmying on ledges and not so great combat. The framerate is pretty awful. It runs well below 30 FPS most of the time.

I can't work this game out. Sometimes I'll get on it for a few hours and really enjoy it, other times I logon for 20minutes before getting fed up. I guess it's that some areas just drive me crazy, stuff like the Vampire garden maze, the camera in that place was infuriating.
 
As for technical issues I havn't noticed any, from what I understand the PS3 was the lead platform so that might be why.

It's a strange complaint to have, but I must say, this game is simply too long. Even though I'm enjoying it, I just want it to be over with. Some of the puzzle and platforming levels need to be stripped out completely. The part in the clockwork tower where you have to wait for the middle section to contract to an exact position before turning the handle was simply terrible, terrible game design. I honestly thought my game had glitched and was stuck for at least 15 minutes just trying to figure out what was going on.

" It's a strange complaint to have, but I must say, this game is simply too long. Even though I'm enjoying it, I just want it to be over with. Some of the puzzle and platforming levels need to be stripped out completely. The part in the clockwork tower where you have to wait for the middle section to contract to an exact position before turning the handle was simply terrible, terrible game design. I honestly thought my game had glitched and was stuck for at least 15 minutes just trying to figure out what was going on. "

Reading all these comments makes me wonder if I was actually playing the same game as you guys. Like I don't understand any of these complaints. I guess maybe I'm too much of a Castlevania fan.