14 Minutes of Castlevania: LoS, I Want to Hear Your Thoughts

Action games really aren't my forte but from a casual onlooker, I can say I like how the game rewards good combat. the more you combo without getting hit, the more the meter expands, the more you can use your magics. i see this being useful in boss fights.

I like the book thing that tells you about enemies and what they are weak to. very castlevania in feel and logical in an action game like this.
I also LOVE how subweapons feel useful. They aren't just there for extra damage but can actually take down enemies pretty quickly.
Light and Dark magic thing looks straightforward. ones for boosting attack and the others for health. I wonder if the magics will branch off into other abilities or if its just attack and health?
can't tell if you can cancel an attack or if your forced into the animation. it looked like he couldn't roll out of an attack but then again, may not have tried to.

the platforming parts looked somewhat prince of persia-esc but i couldn't help but think of god of war when he used the whip to get across platforms.

voicing doesn't sound bad. if anything, I imagine this will be one of the better acted casltevania's, though the original symphony of the night voice actors still hold a place in my heart.

overall, like i thought before, its probably gonna be the best 3D castlevania game out there, but that doesn't say much from what i've heard.

Looks beautiful, but it's the same game as God of War and Van Helsing put together....this game would be better if I could hit a candle holder and a heart drops...

My thoughts on this game now hasn't really changed much from when the first few trailers were released.

Although the combat and mechanics (dodges, etc) looks a little dull, it looks like it would have the "feel good factor" when hitting enemies. The enemies themselves however, whether it be the design or lack of variety, look a little uninspired.
Still, I wonder how the game will progess with different approaches to level design and puzzles later on.

I think the camera is shit ,though it could be the way its filmed. The voice acting is ridiculous. I like the subweapons but would prefer to find out what they're effective against rather than being told the combat looks ok but the enemy AI looks rubbish as it would be better if they tried to dodge the daggers instead of charging him all the time. I didn't belive you before Brad and was really looking forward to this but this has turned me off it

Quick rundown of things.

Liked:

-Pause Menu-
The pause menu looked nice and transitioned smoothly.

-Secondary Weapons Usefulness-
It's nice to see that the secondary weapons are being put to good use for weaknesses, etc.

-Rewarding Flawless Combat-
I enjoy being rewarded for doing great in combat.

Middle Ground:

-Purchasing Skills-
I like the idea of purchasing skills as this opens up customization of a player's play-style, but I'm hoping it's accessible without much of a grind. So, I have some small worry on the side of this.

-Bestiary-
Looks great, but this is always supposed to be included in a Castlevania game, hence why it's middle ground because I expected this to look good.

Disliked:

-Auto-Lock during Combat-
This was awful...absolutely awful watching this. At 3:29 in the video you'll see the player attempt to attack an enemy only to toss his dagger at a pillar instead. I'm dreading the frustration behind this mechanic...

-Somewhat Linear Exploration-**
I felt as if there was literally no exploration to the game while watching this video. Every path was extremely linear and felt like it didn't give the player any off-the-path exploration. Yes, I do realize that he mentioned it being Chapter 2 out of 12 Chapters, but it literally gave off a very constricting feel when it came to "Exploring".

-Awful Locked-Camera Control-**
Locked camera position while the player was moving around. Pure disappointment when I noticed this as it ties into the exploration feel of the game. How are you supposed to feel like you're exploring a map in a 3D game when you can't use your camera to look in certain directions you want to check? "Oh, you want to look over at the wall to see if there is a secret over there? Sorry, we're too busy locking the camera to face in the opposite direction because we want you to run that direction." I'll give an example incase you're confused: Go to 5:40 on the video and watch as he can't even look in the direction of the so called "Secret".

**These two almost go hand-n-hand.

These are my concerns from only what I've observed from that video. I'm still going to rent the game regardless because I'd rather give my opinion from actually playing the game, but I'm still worrying nonetheless...

Seems like a very safe game. Take a known formula and replicate it.

I think they copied the wrong game. Should have copied Zelda instead of God of War. Exploring maze-like dungeons, getting weapon and armor upgrades, defeating cool looking bosses that will bring back memories and then going to a town and hearing about vampire attacks seems more true to the direction Castlevania had been going. Stripping out a lot of the RPG elements (From what I noticed in the video) and going the "Square, Square, Square, Triangle" down long hallways isn't going to be what gets them 9/10 review scores and massive sales.

Bayonetta worked because it was very over the top, flashy and funny. It made up for linear level design. Castlevania is the opposite. The boring design is going to be noticable since it really has nothing to distract us.

Coming from a person with absolutely no Castlevania experience, this game doesn't look too bad. I, myself, probably would give this game a try, but I doubt it would be something I would personally enjoy. I guess I'm looking forward to hearing other's opinions and watching it on feed, (That is if you play it).

Action Hack and Slash games are my most favored video game genre. I'll watch this once or twice and give my thoughts on it in the next paragraph.

All right, let me start off by saying some of my positive feelings for this. The Light and Shadow thing looks like it can have really good potential in combat depth if they allowed it too, but from what I've seen, it's pretty linear. Maybe there will be specific spells or combos you could pull off while in either forms that you could unlock later in further character progression... if so, that'll be interesting switching from one to the other on the fly (if you can change on the fly.)

The Bestiary sounds like a good concept. I like the idea how the enemies will have their own weaknesses that you could research for; I hope it does not limit the different possibilities you can kill an enemy efficiently, however. The different types of subweapons might be pretty interesting, too. I also like how you can discover more lore from the dead corpses.

Now, as for my negative feelings for this game thus far, I can tell right off the bat that the controls don't look really tight- though I can only say so much about the controls for I have yet to play this. The combat looks really slow paced and boring, even more so than say Dante's Inferno.

The platforming thats been presented in the video looks like it really slows down the pace of the game and it looks really uninteresting. I have a feeling it might be even a bit unresponsive judging from slight struggle I noticed the player in the video having.

I'm not sure if it's the video quality or not (I played the video in HD) but the game looks like a PSP title graphically.

Anyway, what makes an action game for me is the combat and character progression. If the combat feels anything like a God of War or Dante's Inferno (which the combat systems in those games I loathed), I doubt I'll even bother renting this let alone buying... but I won't know how it feels until I actually get hands on with this.

K so, I've played it. It is amazing. Trust me Brad, when it comes out give it a chance. First 6 hours blow by because of all the fun.

Except the level he showed us. -.- Took me forever to find the fourth.

- The Light / Shadow magic thing worries me immensely. It looks like another stupid 'morality' system ala InFamous.

- That woman talking in your ear seems like it will get annoying fast. YOU STILL NEED 2 MORE CRYSTAL SHARDS.

- The platforming looks weak. Better than Lament of Innocence, but that's not saying much.

- Little werewolves, big werewolves, and bigger werewolves. Hooray for enemy variety!

+ That device he couldn't activate yet makes it look like they might be trying to add some Metroidvania-style elements.

The bottom line; it doesn't look like Castlevania, it looks like a God of War rippoff. A BAD God of War ripoff. I see this game getting 6's across the board from reviewers.

I'm going to share my opinions as someone who is a fan of the 2d Castlevania games, and has no experience with the 3d entries into the series aside from about ten minutes of the N64 title.

Likes

The combat in the game looks interesting and surprisingly deep. While the God of War Model of combat may not be my favorite model, Lords of Shadows seems to have broken free from that more so than other games that have attempted this style. The first thing I noticed about the combat was that it seemed the player was never stuck in an animation, especially out of a dodge. When the dodges were performed, the player was immediately able to start attacking or even jump. I would have liked to see more possibilities of dodging, jumping, and attacking at different intervals of the animations but I understand that was not the goal of the demo.

As others have already stated the usefulness of the sub-weapons is a great thing to see. Depending on how many sub-weapons are available and depending on how they damage the different opponents this system could be pretty deep and time consuming. It seems the sub-weapons are constructed by collecting pieces of those crystals (it is mentioned in the video) which I think speaks well to the amount of exploring that will be in the game. Spreading the pieces out and allowing the player to explore, and feel a sense of getting more powerful at the same time, really brings out a touch of the old school feel. This search and explore aspect also plays out with the Brotherhood Knights, the light and dark magic system, and with natural obstacles in the environment.

The deceased bodies of the knights seem to be scattered throughout the castle and tracking them down seems to be quite the task. While rewarding with scrolls of info is not that exciting, getting the power-up jewels is. From the demo there is not any indication as to how many Knights are spread throughout the game but I would find it doubtful that they contain only magic jewels and scrolls. They could carry sub-weapon pieces or maybe even full weapons and combos.

With the Light and Dark magic system being a central aspect of the combat then having the player track down the pieces and expand the length of time that these powers can be used in battle could serve well to keep the player exploring the world and forcing them to constantly look at new areas with a feeling of joy and old areas with fresh eyes as their strength and skills improve. Early on in the video there is a hint at the necessity of backtracking when the player encounters a barrier that they are not yet powerful enough to cross. It didn't seem as if much was behind that barrier but the potential of blocking off a relatively large section of castle and forcing players to come back sticks with the core idea of the Metroidvania genre, become more powerful and return to past areas and become even more so.

Final one here. Sync Blocking looks great. Its an aspect of the game, more so than

This is a poor mans God Of War. Even god of war 1 got more right than this game. How can they feel that the camera is acceptable? This is Dantes Inferno all over again. Uninspired & unimaginitive but unsuprising. The only thing that this game could have had going for it would be clever puzzles. God of war sorely got away from clever puzzles (and so did every game like it). This was ripe for it but is just a button masher.

I'll start with the negative points. Reminds me a lot of God of War which is fine for some, but I'm bored of the God of War series so it would be difficult for me to be interested in God of War lite.
It seems fairly linear which isn't what I would like from a Castlevania game.
That woman talking about the crystals really pisses me off, I would feel like developer thinks I'm an idiot. Hey don't forget you need to get 3 more crystals. Don't forget the crystals dumb-ass. CRYSTALLSS!!
The crystals to begin with seem entirely arbitrary. The door only opens to a crystal? You need to make one with crystal shards that grow around the building? Just seems like they needed any old excuse to make you run around fighting. I can also see a good lot of people using the crystal before the woman finishes telling them not to, since there was just a tutorial on how to use it before hand.

As far as positives go, the combat looks fairly solid, I hope he's dodging with a button and not the second analog stick. It's probably better than Jericho.

This looks like a cross between Rygar and God of War. From the visuals to the sound, game play, and music it's nothing like Castlevania. It's neither fast paced or dark and brooding. No care of love is placed in the architecture and its central transylvaniaish setting is nowhere to be found. The thrill of being the lone hero against the army of Dracula is diminished by the a female aid, her massive guardian, and a weapon that seems to hit absolutely anything around you. The dark gothic theme is now a high fantasy dream with beautiful colors and lush landscapes. It seems as though whatever art team worked on this game just threw landscapes together without thinking of what they were making.

This isn't Castlevania. It could be a good game, but it's definitely not something I would play. I say this because it's clearly being developed for those who play games, not those who want to play a good game. There are too many people out there who are so desperate to try something new they'll reduce their standards to find any enjoyment in it. I can see this soul less wreck becoming popular, selling many copies, and then lie sitting around like most of this gen's line-up of "quality" games.

-The "light/dark" magic system has nothing to do with morality. It's like choosing between a white mage or a black mage in any RPG. One specializes in healing,the other specializes in attacks.

-The complaint about being not being a "lone hero" isn't quite valid either when several Castlevania's had either an ally that arrive during crucial points in the game or summons/innocent devils to assist you.

-Gaius,Skrams,and MGS. The demo shown for review sites has been documented as being somewhere between 6-8 hours. It's shown up on IGN and plenty of other sites I've never even heard of,so it's possible "Anon" could've played it. I hope you're not operating on the logic that it be would impossible for someone to enjoy the game.

My only complaints.........the platforming doesn't look as fluid as I would've hoped,and blondie's "FIND THE CRYSTALS!" is annoying.

- I'll have to say, the light and dark magic thing was interesting. I never really kept up with any new info with the game, but I had assumed it was going to be just a strait up hack and slash. The whole light and dark magic thing might put an interesting spin on the combat. Though it probably won't be very interesting for the entire game.

- The telepathic nagging got old really fast. I just hope she doesn't talk to you throughout the entire game like Navi from OoT.

- I remember listening to older podcasts where Brad mentioned the game looked horrible, Nick said it was very polished looking, and David was more in the middle. I'd have to agree more with David, the game doesn't look all that great, but at the same time, it's not shit looking either. It's still got a decent amount of polish on it from what I've seen. Better looking than Dragon Age if you ask me, and I loved that game. Though, the ground textures in Castlevania looks kinda crappy though.

- Enemy variety in this demo was kinda, eh. It's probably not fair for me to say this, since it's just one level, but the 3 different monsters that showed up all looked kinda similar. It could change up later in the game though.

- I don't like the kill animations that he did when those three werewolf/lychan things popped up. I never liked the QTE kill animations.

- Interesting amount of platforming. Nothing too spectacular. I like how they implemented the whip into platforming. Again, nothing too amazing, but it's nice that it's in there. I liked how he said we had to hold the jump button longer or we'd die.

- I dunno how they're gonna do the levels and stuff (I'm assuming it's split up into levels, since they were talking about chapters in the beginning) but backtracking to open secrets in older areas looks kind of annoying. I dunno, something about it doesn't sit well with me.

- For me, it seemed pretty confusing as to where you can or can't go. For example, at the very beginning of the level, it probably would have taken me a while to find out I could go left. The camera looks mostly stationary with little control, so that could be a problem.

In the end, I will say that the game has exceeded my expectations on it's quality, but still care enough to play the game whenever it comes out. I never even bought any of the God of War games, and this seems to pretty much be the same with less polish.

Good things:
-Being rewarded for not getting hit.
-The travel book seemed ok. Really liked the art in the bestiary.
Bad things:
-Skillbased platforming in this level is almost nonexisting.
-If that girl follows you the whole game shouting things like "1+1=2", in her annoying voice, like she did in the video I think I'd mute the game.
-The level looks really uninspired, just a generic ruin that could be thrown into any game.
-Same enemies in different sizes in this level. (Hope there are some cooler and more unique enemies than just goblins spiders and the other things we get a glimps of in the bestiary page)
-Felt like I was watching a GoW clone with a few added featuers and without the sense of epic scale in the enviroment.

Perhaps this was a bad level to show as it didn't offer much variety. It's just run, kill enemies, run more, jump a few times (holding the jump button makes you jump longer/higher!!! who would've thought..), kill enemies, repeat X times, you win. Wonder how the metroidvaina-esque thing will work in a game where there are chapters and all that jazz.. If you can go back to any complited level it might work but if it really is just REPEATING the level as in doing the exact same stuff as you did the first time then it doesnt really make sense (just speculating tho as I don't know how it going to work). All in all, the game doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table and seems to have a hard time in doing what the games it borrowed from did. I still want to give this game a try but I doubt I'll buy it.

I wonder if they can do some Ikaruga style combat with the shadow and light forms, it would make the fighting more interesting. They also need to get rid of that roll.

Okay, so I actually don't think that this looks atrocious. I think that from what I saw, the main problem is that damned camera. I could feel myself being annoyed with it just by looking. I thought that we had left the age of fixed cameras in 3D games.

The combat doesn't look bad though. It may be standard fair, but some people really enjoy that type. Maybe the skill system and whatnot will make it better as you go along in the game, but I find it unfortunate that it takes time if it does start to shine.

The levels look somewhat boring and slightly difficult to see where you might be able to go. However, the character indications are a great idea, and I think that might help out some. The exploration seems very straight forward, which I suppose isn't a huge problem, since things like DMC and Bayonetta come to mind in how there are a ton of hidden items which you have to look for and have certain skills to access, even though the levels are often straight forward.

The enemies look bleh. Hopefully, they'll change of course. Combat seems a little boring at times and I'm not sure how fun it would be to use that finishing move on every large enemy like that. It's just something that can be a bit boring.

Also-the balancing beam thing was cool. I liked that.

Anyways, it looks okay, but I think it might depend on the story and how much it changes as you go along.

Did they have to make every little objective glow so brightly?

I like how 99% of the posts here contain the word "god of war" and "ripoff" very original...