Winnie the Pimp
Member
nice!!! if the port is decent, i will buy it. The demo back in the day was pretty fun so this is an easy Steam Sale pickup!!
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Castlevania Lords Of Shadows appears on Steam Registry
- Thread starter Salsa
- Start date
LoS is almost a go-to example of what I don't want in QTE-ridden games. Originally, Dave Cox said the game had zero QTEs but the final game has two types, and I can get used to that. What I can't get by are the forced QTEs in boss fights. They're almost always done in a way that you need to do them to get to the next part of the fight AND are the method to actually kill the boss. This is unarguably disgraceful for a Castlevania game, where in nearly every other game it's been your toolset and skill to beat bosses, not if you press a button in a scene at the right time or you're insta-dead. The strange thing is that regular enemies have that QTE stuff, and it's optional there; you can just wail on them forever and they will die that way. Futhermore, having checkpoints in boss fights to me, again as a Castlevania fan, is just as absurd. There's no rush, no worry of challenge and coming up with a competent strategy as failure isn't as painful as it is in any of the older games. It makes many of the fights mindless, as there's no worry of fucking up, as the penalty is minor. Even the Metroidvanias, which were primarily super easy games to begin with, save CotM and OoE, had a bigger sense of challenge with bosses because they lacked these cushions.
They're so bad to me as a fan that I think LoS has perhaps the worst bosses in franchise history (I have not played MoF outside of the demo, but it seems to be carrying ALL of that over). Every single one of them is ruined by this design choice, some more than others. The Forgotten One is easily the worst encounter in the whole game as it focuses so heavily in phases for this sort of shit. Maybe some dedicated person in the PC community will fix this stuff.
I find it troubling that Dark Souls keeps more elements of Castlevania's original design palette than Lords of Shadow does. But that could be why as a Castlevania fan it stopped being my favorite series and I migrated over to King's Field/Demon's Souls/Dark Souls instead.
Those are mostly all finishers, sometimes there's one or two instances in the middle of the fight. The actual boss fights, however, DO require pattern reading and strategies. Perhaps more so than any other Castlevania game. Especially the human sized bosses which are numerous in this game. In my opinion the game has amazing boss fights (the two titans are not part of them but they're not nearly as bad as some people say either, I even like the second titan... the sense of scale is breathtaking). The QTEs were mostly there to keep you on your toes during cutscenes which string together the action parts and to provide some satisfaction when the final blow is delivered to a boss in cinematic fashion. It worked for me. Don't get me wrong, I also love non-QTE bosses in games like Dark Souls or Igavanias but QTE's don't bother me at all if done well (they are in LoS).
If you think there's no challenge in LoS, play it on the hardest difficulty. I did and it was a fantastic experience. You really had to learn the intricacies of the combat system and the boss patterns. The QTEs were merely a minor side-thing that didn't bother me at all.
I think you need to go back and play some of those old games. Nostalgia is clouding your memory. Even the AVGN made fun of the piss-poor bossfights in some of the Castlevania games.
I wish the game had the hardest setting open from the outset. I'm not big on new game plus elements for the series unless it's about an alternate character, and even then they have to play differently enough for me to get into it. This is an issue I have with some of the Metroidvanias as well, like Harmony of Dissonance especially. I'd love to have it presented in a way that you can start a clean file on the hardest setting and not have all of the goodies you get throughout the game carry over.
I never said the games were bathed only in great fights. For example, for the non-QTE games, Harmony of Dissonance has THE worst boss fight I think I've ever seen for the series. But I had more fun in many of the other fights than I did with LoS because I felt like I was in control, all of my hits were exclusively done by me. I wasn't watching a scene and had to tap a button in time to risk having to re-do a section over, or worse, have it instantly kill me. That's just lazy design. Fuck, the boss in MoF in the demo is literally a perfect example of this, and people who have a 3DS can try that for free to see what I mean. You can wail on the fucker but he regains health, and if you fail the one button QTE segment, you instantly die. I don't see how people can defend lazy designs like that, it feels like it's padding itself to force itself into a mold. And I feel it scrapes so much away from what I loved about with fighting bosses in the series.
Maybe the QTE's in LoS were not an annoyance for me at all because I found them to be extremely easy compared to many other games. I missed maybe a handful by accident in all of my 4 1/2 playthroughs of the game. The QTE indicator is always the same and it appears comfortably early, it doesn't even require specific button presses or combinations. You see the circle, wait for it to shrink and then press any button. Done.
The second hardest difficulty setting provided a decent challenge as well but yes, they could've at least included an option (or unlock code as in MGS:R) to start on the highest difficulty.
I can see that and I agree with your second point as well.
The second hardest difficulty setting provided a decent challenge as well but yes, they could've at least included an option (or unlock code as in MGS:R) to start on the highest difficulty.
Saint Gregory
Member
I've been holding off on finishing LoS on PS3 so I pray that this is true.
Net_Wrecker
Member
Rebought so hard if this is really happening. 60fps and a higher resolution will do wonders for this game.
Pyramid head
Banned
I this is well optimised, it will be glorious.
Please be well optimised.
Please be well optimised.
Krusenstern
Banned
check the url:
confirmed
Is this really real?
http://media.steampowered.com/steam.../027ae14276bd7eeea153c6fa3957e6efa730c8cf.jpg
Mango Positive
Member
I almost got this on the PS3 a few months ago. Never did. This news makes me happy.
That's the Egyptian-looking one, right? Simply INCREDIBLE creature design. Master-class monster, imo.
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Will buy both.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
will buy again for the texture work.
Those hairline cracks in those massive stone titan titties. <3
I'm starting to get really annoyed by the huge gaps in-between console release dates and PC release dates. Can't believe RE6 isn't out yet on PC, ended up getting it preowned on 360 for £20 around Christmas time. C:LOS is what? A 2009/2010 game? It's getting a little ridiculous now, isn't it?
Sentenza
Member
Well, that's a weird complaint, considering the game isn't "late"; it just wasn't planned at all for PC. They are porting it now for some reason (probably to drive more sales of the second one).
Krusenstern
Banned
Castlevania LOS was never planned for PC. They probably decided to make a PC version because the sequel is getting a PC release.
Edit: I'm late.
No it's not getting ridiculous. They decided to make a PC port long after the game was released on consoles. Better late than never.
I'd imagine their PC logic consists of varying degrees of the following:
1) Steam has millions of users, more and more all the time
2) Skyrim and other medieval-esque games sell well on PC
3) LoS2 is coming out, PC included, so grow the fan base
Sentenza
Member
Aaaand I'm totally fine with that.
check the url:
confirmed
Aaaaaand we're done here.
That's the Egyptian-looking one, right? Simply INCREDIBLE creature design. Master-class monster, imo.
YES
Sentenza
Member
If the game is ready and they want to make a smart thing, they should release this port concurrently with the press coverage for the sequel.
"Oh, look, what's this Castlevania Thing Part 2? Looks cool. What? The first one is just on Steam now? I could buy this".
It's not hard to imagine that this is exactly what's going to happen.
I doubt it's going to be a free pre-order gift for LoS2 though. If anything, pre-ordering LoS2 will get you LoS 5$ cheaper or something like that.
Krusenstern
Banned
Aren't there 2 DLCs for this game available? I hope they will release for PC too. (Even better if they're inlcuded in the main game.)
Saint Gregory
Member
I wonder how long before LoS2 this is going to be released. Just the idea of this game's art in 60fps+ is making me lightheaded thinking about it. So hyped 
Rush2thestart
Member
Love the Lords of Shadow series. Will pick this up Day 1 to support it. Hopefully Mirror of Fate comes as well. Great game as well.
That's precisely what I theorized earlier. It'd seem sensible to tie the new LoS2 coverage and the Steam release of LoS1 together.
That's the Egyptian-looking one, right? Simply INCREDIBLE creature design. Master-class monster, imo.
I'd love to see
the mother fucking DRACO LICH
Ooo, that's a good one, too.
I'm also looking forward to seeing the definitive version of the
tower ogre battle
Oh I know C:LOS is one of those games that wasn't originally planned for PC and got ported much later, like Trials HD and Alan Wake. I'm just getting annoyed that I can literally replicate so much of my 360 library on PC nowadays, these games I originally bought thinking they were 360 exclusives, or multi-platform console exclusives.
It makes me dread new game releases because I have to then wait for PC releases (no idea how I abstained from Binary Domain for the extra 2-3 months it took to release on PC, I was chomping at the bit to play that). In some cases it's a stupid amount of time too, like RE6 where I picked-up the game for cheap on console preowned etc, but will probably end-up double buying because of the PC extras.
I don't understand why we can't get 1:1 console & pc releases.
It makes me dread new game releases because I have to then wait for PC releases (no idea how I abstained from Binary Domain for the extra 2-3 months it took to release on PC, I was chomping at the bit to play that). In some cases it's a stupid amount of time too, like RE6 where I picked-up the game for cheap on console preowned etc, but will probably end-up double buying because of the PC extras.
I don't understand why we can't get 1:1 console & pc releases.
Vampire Castle was absolutely gorgeous. I don't have a PC capable of running this but I'm hoping that if LoS2 winds up being cross gen they'll rerelease the first for next gen consoles since it'll be easy to port from the PC version. That would be an amazing CE bonus.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
a locked 60fps LOS will be a thing of beauty
I imagine the intrepid hacker could even dick around with the hit mechanics and such if they wanted to tweak how it plays.
corrosivefrost
Member
I'd give this another shot at locked 60fps.
They might as well. If they have the gall to sell it separately, don't buy it. It was insanely overpriced on consoles.
I'd bet yes.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
With a small amount of tweaking, this game will have the most satisfying combat in a western game this side of Darksiders 2.
Angelus Errare
Banned
I'll buy, even if the port is meh, I expect Durante to fix it :3