[Mpl90]

I think it looks good too, and that maybe bosses / enemies wouldn't take that long knowing well the combat system. Interested in seeing much more footage.

[brandonh83]

Honestly the lack of RPG elements makes this one look more like a traditional Castlevania than any of the Metroidvanias, IMO. But then again I also never really considered any of the Metroidvanias to be "like Castlevania" either as I grew up with and started out with the originals, the "real" ones-- stage based, no RPG elements, platforming, unforgivable difficulty, etc. I can't really use any of those to describe any of the Metroidvanias.

btw this is not me trying to spread this as gospel, just merely how I feel about it.

[Bedlam]

Once again, not too fond of the artstyle. The only thing they get right are the boxarts, but other than that it really doesn't feel like Castlevania. The gnomes at the end? uugh

Much closer to the first few Castlevanias and way better than white haired Anime kids.

[Omegasquash]

Give this back to IGA, Capcom, please.

It's a mistake, but I could see how you made it :)

[Spieler Eins]

Much closer to the first few Castlevanias and way better than white haired Anime kids.

I don't remember the first few Castlevanias looking like Overlord or World of Warcraft.

[Dascu]

Honestly the lack of RPG elements makes this one look more like a traditional Castlevania than any of the Metroidvanias, IMO. But then again I also never really considered any of the Metroidvanias to be "like Castlevania" either as I grew up with and started out with the originals, the "real" ones-- stage based, no RPG elements, platforming, unforgivable difficulty, etc. I can't really use any of those to describe any of the Metroidvanias. btw this is not me trying to spread this as gospel, just merely my take on it.

And you can't any of those to describe MoF either. Just sayin'.

[GDGF]

I just wish the enemies didn't take a million hits to kill.

[duckroll]

Honestly the lack of RPG elements makes this one look more like a traditional Castlevania than any of the Metroidvanias, IMO. But then again I also never really considered any of the Metroidvanias to be "like Castlevania" either as I grew up with and started out with the originals, the "real" ones-- stage based, no RPG elements, platforming, unforgivable difficulty, etc. I can't really use any of those to describe any of the Metroidvanias. btw this is not me trying to spread this as gospel, just merely how I feel about it.

I dislike the Igavanias too. Unfortunately this game just doesn't look very fun, and while it's not an Igavania, it doesn't really feel much like classic Castlevania either. It's more like it's own thing, and it just doesn't look very enjoyable to me. Grinding away at an enemy is the worst sort of action game imo. :(

[DynamicG]

Upon further review I'm OK with most of this, but the amount of hits the small enemies take seems ridiculous.

[Bedlam]

I don't remember the first few Castlevanias looking like Overlord or World of Warcraft.

And this game doesn't look like WoW or Overlord either, not at all.

[Nosgoroth]

Preorder actually cancelled.

That looks slow and, uh, unentertaining. I'm certainly not a fan of this heavy-feeling type of platforming. Enemies seem to break the flow of traversal instead of being a part of it, too, which is bugging me a lot.

Please bring back Iga.

[Sid]

Looks quite bad,like a heavily stripped down version of lords of shadow and doesn't look like a true 2d castlevania.

[nordique]

Hm. I think it looks fine.

But I fear the pace is going to be out of synch...look at how long it takes to kill some of those enemies! If they mess that up, the game will feel mundane.

[brandonh83]

And you can't any of those to describe MoF either. Just sayin'.

I don't know, I haven't played it yet. I doubt that you're wrong, but the thing is, I loved the Metroidvanias and I don't really see them as not "being like Castlevania" as some kind of negative. I've grown up with the series and have watched it change radically. Lords of Shadow certainly is not the first time the series has seen major changes and it's certainly not the first time the series has almost completely shifted away from traditional Castlevania.

Symphony of the Night greatly changed the formula and was not traditional CV to me, but people are acting like the Metroidvanias, the Igarashi titles are traditional Castlevania and the way that Castlevania has been and should always be. Personally I prefer the actual traditional platformers over the Metroidvania games, but I still enjoy them a lot, as I enjoyed LOS.

[7threst]

I like what I see! If enemies went down faster it would be better, but it's not as dramatic for me as for some others in this thread.

[Yuterald]

Yeah, I'm not too hot on the "enemies taking a million hits" thing either, but I wouldn't say this game has a COMPLETE Euro-jank look to it. I'm an old school Castlevania fan at heart too, but I loved all of the IGA-vania games. I still think Lords of Shadow was really fucking cool so I'm pretty excited for this game (and LoS2). As long as their intentions are pure with this game then I'm all for it.

[GWX]

Dat circle pad mark.

Well, the game looks okay, I guess. Pretty, but the gameplay doesn't look very interesting or exciting. Combat looks slow and the enemies take too much hits to kill. I would love to be proven wrong, though.

[Currygan]

I feel nothing wrong with how this game looks or plays

enemies could take one or two less blows to die but hey, small beans

[Ridley327]

This footage certainly isn't swaying my opinion on the game. I'm sure the delay will probably improve the framerate (maybe), but the gameplay looks incredibly dull and drawn-out.

[demidar]

This is a silly opinion but I really don't like how cinematic the game looks. By that I mean the constant panning and removing control from the player. Also I would prefer more enemies that are weaker, mashing on a single dude can get tedious.

[mjc]

I think it looks pretty great. It does kind of suck that it takes lots of hits to kill enemies, but whatever. I'm sick of Iga's Castlevanias and I believe in Mercurysteam.

[Kizer]

I'll wait on judging the game until it is as it's final version or at least the one going to be released. I can't say I feel good from the game play shown though, and that is upsetting because I love castlevania.

[-Pyromaniac-]

It just looks....boring.

[atbigelow]

I'm totally okay with the artstyle. It isn't wowing me by any means, but it's acceptable.

What looks horrible is the combat. It's so slow and boring. I am okay with having large bosses take a while to kill, but having those stupid skeletons take forever is just lame.

Happy to see whip swinging, though.

[Derrick01]

It didn't look like anything amazing but it looked decent enough and more fun than another metroidvania. It's still on my radar for next year.

[the-iek]

Visually, its kind of hard to tell because... A. It is camera footage B. The idiot playing still has the 3D turned on. Gameplay looks ehhh. I will probably rent it for the story since I like LoS so much and am super excited for the sequel.

What the hell man, of course we turned 3D off while filming the footage. But still, thanks for calling us idiots.

For clarification: the demo takes place after about two thirds in the game. Therefore, the enemies take quite a few hits, yet we didn't know any of the advanced moves because we were thrown in there just like that. Your skills should be a lot better when getting there yourself.

[Ridley327]

What the hell man, of course we turned 3D off while filming the footage. But still, thanks for calling us idiots.

I have no idea what he was talking about; it was clearly 2D footage.

It just happens to look bad in 2D.

[brandonh83]

For clarification: the demo takes place after about two thirds in the game.

Really. That's... strange. It kind of looks like the "early days" of a game if you know what I mean. I'm guessing there's a lot more to it than just the castle.

[Atmej]

Regular enemies taking forever to kill, ugly, chest opening QTEs... IGA, where are you?

EDIT: I saw the comment about this area being late in the game and the player not knowing all of the skills, so enemies probably won't take forever to die. Still, not excited though.

[Aostia]

You all are crazy. I think it looks pretty good.

Me too. it's the smae demo I 'layed during the european events, and I really enjoyed it. the camera movements are great in 3d, the map on the bottom screen is always useful, and the LoS battle system is well translated into this portable iteration

[Arla]

I didn't like the Metroidvanias. This doesn't look amazing or anything but it looks better than those. I'm optimistic. So more music wouldn't hurt.

It's been delayed so I'm sure, or at least hope, MercurySteam is taking all the feedback into consideration. Chests/basic skeletons should not take that many hits. I don't understand the complaint about long boss battles though.

[Splatt]

Looks boring.

[demidar]

What the hell man, of course we turned 3D off while filming the footage. But still, thanks for calling us idiots. For clarification: the demo takes place after about two thirds in the game. Therefore, the enemies take quite a few hits, yet we didn't know any of the advanced moves because we were thrown in there just like that. Your skills should be a lot better when getting there yourself.

Are there things like a flat strength/damage upgrade or is it just more damaging combos? If you can't say then that's fine.

[electroplankton]

Where's my 2D Castlevania? :(

[Littlegator]

I don't like hitstun anyways.

[Mpl90]

Where's my 2D Castlevania? :(

In the same place where you can find Bomberman.

[thebert1]

I don't know... i've looked to the video twice, but i'm only seeing (as already pointed out) enemies that takes A LOT of hits, so we get a very slow combat. The environments looks a bit bland IMHO.
The structure of the game seems true to the metroidvania canon, though, but what bothers me is the lack of music that sticks in your head!!!
While tracks like "vampire killer", "iron blue intentions", etc. were simple but memorable, what we have here is a mess of environmental sounds and ambient that makes everything so bland
I miss the good old days of IGAvanias, at least you could have said it was a rehash well worth playing...

BTW, this is my first post so be gentle :P

[wrowa]

To quote myself from the other thread...

Graphics are a little worse than I expected. The jaggies are very visible and the game looks pretty "unclean", still a pretty good-looking game of course. However, the gameplay? I was annoyed pretty quickly. The fights in the demo felt like your usual 2D Casltevania encounters... just 5 times longer. Even the weak skelletons and bats need way too long to be killed. It's probably going to be quite a solid title, but I hope they rethink their approach a little...

I really wanted to like it and see everything the demo has to offer, but I gave up after about 2/3rds. It just didn't feel very good, sadly.

The level layout seemed simple, but interesting enough. Progressing through it just takes way too long thanks to the enemies and thus isn't really fun.


Edit: If the level is indeed supposed to be from the latter half of the game, I take back what I said about it. It was interesting enough for what is early in the game, but if that's what we see the whole time through? Boring. Though, considering what the level offered, I have a hard time imagining that it really is from later into the game...

[bounchfx]

this is not what anyone wanted. sigh.

It could have looked SO fucking pretty.

[the-iek]

Really. That's... strange. It kind of looks like the "early days" of a game if you know what I mean. I'm guessing there's a lot more to it than just the castle.

There is a German article accompanying the video: http://3ds.nintendo-online.de/artike...irror-of-fate/

Some of the aspects I still remember:

· the length of the game will be about 15 to 20 hours
· there will be three playable characters, the one you see in the video, plus Alucard, plus another one I can't seem to remember right now
· there won't be any changes in perspective, it will be 2D-gameplay only
· the game will support StreetPass, the developer couldn't tell us anything specific though
· the story will take place 25 years after the events of the first Lords of Shadow

Are there things like a flat strength/damage upgrade or is it just more damaging combos? If you can't say then that's fine.

I didn't ask and I can't seem to remember anything like this in the demo.

[duckroll]

To quote myself from the other thread... I really wanted to like it and see everything the demo has to offer, but I gave up after about 2/3rds. It just didn't feel very good, sadly. The level layout seemed simple, but interesting enough. Progressing through it just takes way too long thanks to the enemies and thus isn't really fun.

Sounds like they need to work hard on the balance. Maybe the delay will do them good.

[disco]

They really picked a tough crowd to impress. I don't think it looks that bad - but no way does it look as good as a Metroidvania title.

[brandonh83]

I dislike the Igavanias too. Unfortunately this game just doesn't look very fun, and while it's not an Igavania, it doesn't really feel much like classic Castlevania either. It's more like it's own thing, and it just doesn't look very enjoyable to me. Grinding away at an enemy is the worst sort of action game imo. :(

I really liked Iga's games, I guess I just thought that there ended up being too many of them and thus welcome almost any kind of change as long as its reasonable. I can see someone seeing the footage and thinking it looks bland, I just think it's amusing that people often champion the Metroidvanias to the point where they pretend like they're Castlevania games through and through and that we need 10 more of them and that each new game should just be the same but with different character and environment skins.

When I think about "real" or "traditional" CV, the Metroidvania games certainly do not spring to mind. Not that I'm bothered by opinions of others, especially since we're just talking about videogames here, like I said I just find it amusing and kind of weird. I realize that a good number of people got their introduction into the franchise with the Metroidvanias as Symphony of the Night was so critically acclaimed, but the franchise has such a rich history to it, full of gear-shifting and new ideas. The Metroidvanias IMO were a massive departure from what I feel should be considered traditional.

[Derrick01]

Where's my 2D Castlevania? :(

In the 18 games that came out between SoTN and the DS ones.

[jiji]

In the same place where you can find Bomberman.

[Criminal Upper]

Except for that first enemy taking way too many hits, I think it looked great. So refreshing to get out of the Iga-handheld-ghetto we've been stuck in for the last 15 years.

[quetz67]

Said it in another thread already, this sold me a 3ds.

May the gameplay be good or not, what graphics are you guys expecting from the 3ds?

To me it felt more like the old 2D ones than Lord of Shadows, just like what the original ones had looked like if they were made in 2.5D - and that suits the 3D screen perfectly (like DKCR would). Graphics have very nice attention to detail.

And it obviously has pure 2D gameplay.

Another strange NeoGAF consensus that this obviously must be bad.

[NeoUltima]

Going for 'few but powerful' enemies as opposed to 'many but weak' enemies seems like a bad choice for a sidescroller. 'Few but powerful' can work in a 3D game (like LoS1) because you have a much bigger environment to move around in; it allows more variety in enemy (and player) attacks and the player's defensive movement.

But in a 2D game like this it will become very tedious standing in front of enemies whacking them dozens of times with the occasional jumping up or back to avoid an attack.

Side scrollers should have a nice flow of movement through an environment. This does not seem to have that because of the design of enemy encounters.

But I would love to be proven wrong. Perhaps they can find a way to add variety and make every enemy encounter engaging.

[demidar]

They really picked a tough crowd to impress. I don't think it looks that bad - but no way does it look as good as a Metroidvania title.

I think it's the sprites, sprites are timeless even if they've been recycled over and over again. There's a certain charm to them and you can see the effort the artists put into them. They've been used for so long people probably associate these sprites with Castlevania quite closely. Not to mention that each entry usually has a kickass track or three.

In the 18 games that came out between SoTN and the DS ones.

18 games? Not enough in my opinion. Give me more! I haven't played most of them

[Arla]

Where's my 2D Castlevania? :(

You've had dozens.