lördag 23 mars 2013

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate

 Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate.jpg

Since there will be no DnD this weekend, how about some other games? Like, say, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate? Got it this Thursday and finished it yesterday. Played for around 11 hours to 100 %, so a bit short, but while it last it gives you a cinematic epic experience. It start with a short basic level with Gabriel Belmont, main character from the first game in the reboot series. Then you continue to play the game with Simon Belmont, Alucard and finally Trevor Belmont. The story takes place mostly over a 30 year period (excluding the Gabriel Belmont section that would take the game over a 60 years period). All character have the same basic attacks, but differs in special attacks and abilities. For example the sub-weapons, Simon has some kind of Molotov cocktails (replacing the usual holy water sub-weapon) and axes while Trevor has a boomerang shuriken (instead of the cross or is it still called the cross?) and electric bomb (which I can't recall if it has some counterpart in Castlevania, but they remind me of a special attack from the Mystical Ninja 64 game, coincidentally another Konami game) and Alucard has flying bats and the stop-hourglass (instead of the stop-watch, but that's just pointing at words). To be frank, I hardly used them when not necessary, except the electric bomb since it was pretty useful against aquatic enemies and especially in groups of them. The reason for this is that they are much slower to use than in the original games, there you could just throw them, here it is recommended to charge them first, but if the enemy hits you, you have to restart and the combat is to fast for it to work and the enemies requires much more damage than in the old games.

Anyway, each character explore different parts of the castle, some may overlap, but due to the different abilities of the characters (Alucard and Trevor's double jump ability mostly) they need special ways around the same room, at least compared to Simon who can't double jump and must rely on the whip much more (although, since the other characters have the same ability it feels like he's just the weakest of them, especially if you go back to his chapter to find the last percent of hidden chests after playing through the others), but since he's mostly the first character he's a good introduction. A pity that the demo they released started with Trevor who is the last character you play through the game. Combat is fairly easy with button mashing working most of the time (should probably mention that I'm not that into these kind of action games), but you need to use combos with certain enemies that prefer to block (as I side note, I HATE the vampires with swords and wings in this game). Blocking and shield crashing is the most useful and should be mastered if you even want to attempt to fight certain enemies or any boss at all. You also have certain attack combos, limited to the 18 level cap you have. Here is also the reason why I'm not that interested in these kind of games, I end only be able to perform the most basic attacks. Either I can't remember the combo or my fingers can't act correctly. Doesn't need it here since blocking and dodging goes a long way. Although that was on normal and easy setting.

Graphically? Looks great. It looks dark, evokes the gothic setting perfectly and you can see backgrounds and enemies without problem (compare it to Castlevania: Circle of the Moon where the limited light of the Game Boy Advance made it really hard to see anything). Musically it's alright, it works for the setting and changes if you are in combat or not, BUT... it doesn't feel like Castlevania music. None of the old tunes are there. This soundtrack evokes an epic cinematic experience, but where is the catchy tunes from the old games? Where is Simon's Theme? Trevor's or even Alucard's? Why not use them as battle themes if they don't fit the mood of the castle? It's the same thing in movies when they remake old movies or revive franchises that have iconic music and they just throw it out. Transformers, Conan and I have great fear the same goes for Robocop. Just a small tune over the credits maybe or you can do like Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by playing the song backwards. Or they might have done it and I don't know about it, but since no one has mentioned it I assume no.

All in all, it does a great job evoking that cinematic experience battling hordes of undead, clinging for your life riding the back of several creatures and the combat works perfect for it and when you pull of combos, blocks and dodges it feels amazing and the music ties it all together. Well worth to play, but it feels a bit short and the only re-playability value is a hardcore mode. Nothing like switching characters for the different chapters or combining your own vampire hunter (or even play as Dracula himself). Oh, and before I forget, does the 3DS offer something special for this game? Yes, besides the 3D effects (which works fine) you can now leave notes on the map for places you can't access and need to come back for. Makes it so much easier than roaming the halls until you stumble upon a passage that needed the double jump for example. You can probably use it to write down the hints the dead knights gives you as well since you have 50 notes and I at most used 12 or so for the different parts. Only wished I had finished the original Lords of Shadow, but I don't have TV at the moment and the game is packed down at my parents home. 

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