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[N-Conf] Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (artwork, images, features)

So the only two kinds of "Classicvania" is either a straight up Metroidvania (which isn't "Classicvania" either, sorry), or a straight up 2D platformer with very basic combat? Okay. I disagree, but with those kinds of restrictions you guys are placing on yourselves, it must be really, really hard to be satisfied with anything going forward.

And again, he's saying that there are "Metroidvania" elements in it like being able to explore the castle as well as revisiting areas with new skills or characters to reach new places. Those are definitely Metroidvania elements, but that far from makes it a Metroidvania game. So him saying that it's not a Metroidvania game but has elements reminiscent of those types of games seems 100% spot on to me.

I'm not trying to defend the game, as I have not played it. It could be a complete pile of ass for all I know. But, at the risk of sounding pretentious toward your guys' opinions, it really does look like some of you are downright fishing for reasons to hate. "oh that Dave Cox, lying to us again saying it's like Metroidvania but not like Metroidvania, fuck him" even though, again, that looks pretty spot on based on the footage.

I agree with the complaints that enemy health drains far too slowly and I also mirror (lol) concerns about the technical performance, but the game I saw being demoed absolutely looked like a Castlevania game to me and it did not look like a Metroidvania outside of a couple of scant elements -- elements that were also found in Lords of Shadow to a degree. I don't think Lords of Shadow felt like Metroidvania.

...don't be mad at me I'm just saying. Peace.
 

NeoUltima

Member
Sold.

lol this guy

J8SxV.jpg

Are they suppose to be Flee Men reimagined?
 
so did symphony of the night, if you want to play that game

Hence my kind-of-smilie. I don't think he said anything about the game being like Dracula's Curse, to me it was just him namedropping that subtitle as a shoutout. Again, this is an example of you guys taking everything he says and making a mountain out of a mole hill.
 
Whoever says this is not as appealing as Kojima's art, is blind

That's a blatantly trollish comment. "Appealing" is subjective to people's opinion. What you (hopefully) MEANT to say was "The artist for this game is as technically skilled as Kojima", which from what I see here is true.

Alucard's outfit sucks, IMO.
 

Foffy

Banned
WHOAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Edit: wait a minute

He says 'I doesn't want to compare it to Metroidvania because it's not a Metroidvania game, but the layout in terms of level design is very similar to a Metroidvania'

And he talks about backtracking

WTF

That's David Cox for you..he's rather infamous to hardcore Castlevania fans for pulling this shit a lot.
 

Santar

Member
Whenever I see this game I want to try and continue trough Lords of Shadow, but no matter how many times I've tried I just can't enjoy that game.
It just seems so generic and janky to me.
Everything about the gameplay is just so non appealing.
But I so want to like it, parts of the story seem ineresting and I'm not against a new take on the series.

Mirror of Fate actually seems like a bit of a step backwards compared to the gba and ds castlevanias when you look at what we're actually getting here.
All zoomed in with huge characters, only a few on screen at the same time. Enemies only at ground level. It just sems so simple compared to the previous cvanias.
Back in the snes heyday of platforming days I don't think people would've given this a second look.

Keep in mind though that this is just my impressions on the sparse footage we've seen thus far.
I hope the full game turns out great as I'd sure like more games for my 3ds.
 

Big One

Banned
Armor makes more sense but I greatly prefer his royal look, same for Dracula
Not really considering Alucard is pretty much royalty and the armor he's wearing has no real practical use as armor.

With that being said I don't hate the design. Also it's nice to see MecurySteam actually making a Castlevania game this time.
 

Tildom

Banned
I just wrote an article with more information. In the E3 I could talk to Enric Álvarez (Cofounder of Mercury Steam), José Luis Márquez (Director of Mirror of Fate), Óscar Araújo (Compositor) and Dave Cox (Producer) and they told us very interesting things.

The article is too long to be translated, 5 whole pages (I'm spanish), but here's the briefing:

  • The core of the game is the combat system of Lords of Shadow, but with more exploration.
  • There's only one big scenario: the Castle.
  • Mirror of Fate is NOT a spin off. It's the second part of the trilogy, full integrated, and Lords of Shadow 2, the third part, goes after it.
  • 2 years in development. 40 people in the team.
  • Around 12 hours, without looking for secrets and 100%.
  • 4 playable Characters: Gabriel, Simon, Trevor and Alucard. All of them are different from each other, with different habilities, secondary weapons and magic,
  • Simon can summon creatures to help him in fights, Trevor can use light and shadow magic, Gabriel only shadow magic.
  • You can revisit zones of the Castle when you get new habilities, like the double jump (Trevor).
  • Uses of touchscreen: Bestiary, Inventory, Map, Writing notes (example: come back to this room with double jump), Magic and Special Habilities.
  • SpotPass confirmed, but not explained.
  • The game has a story but you can play it not in chronologic order

If somebody wants to read the full article is here.
The thursday we will update with an interview with José Luis Márquez with more info :)
 

rozay

Banned
aw, gabriel is the 4th character? was hoping for someone new since we get to play as him in LoS2.

Thanks for the post!
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
I just wrote an article with more information. In the E3 I could talk to Enric Álvarez (Cofounder of Mercury Steam), José Luis Márquez (Director of Mirror of Fate), Óscar Araújo (Compositor) and Dave Cox (Producer) and they told us very interesting things.

The article is too long to be translated, 5 whole pages (I'm spanish), but here's the briefing:

  • The core of the game is the combat system of Lords of Shadow, but with more exploration.
  • There's only one big scenario: the Castle.
  • Mirror of Fate is NOT a spin off. It's the second part of the trilogy, full integrated, and Lords of Shadow 2, the third part, goes after it.
  • 2 years in development. 40 people in the team.
  • Around 12 hours, without looking for secrets and 100%.
  • 4 playable Characters: Gabriel, Simon, Trevor and Alucard. All of them are different from each other, with different habilities, secondary weapons and magic,
  • Simon can summon creatures to help him in fights, Trevor can use light and shadow magic, Gabriel only shadow magic.
  • You can revisit zones of the Castle when you get new habilities, like the double jump (Trevor).
  • Uses of touchscreen: Bestiary, Inventory, Map, Writing notes (example: come back to this room with double jump), Magic and Special Habilities.
  • SpotPass confirmed, but not explained.
  • The game has a story but you can play it not in chronologic order

If somebody wants to read the full article is here.
The thursday we will update with an interview with José Luis Márquez with more info :)

Good infos, especially the one about this NOT being a spin-off. It's strange to see something like this from a Western developer on an handheld, but this makes Castlevania even nicer :p
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Is that voice actor from game of thrones? That's definitely Robb.

If Capcom puts half as much effort in this as they did RE: Revelations, it'll be a great experience. Either way, day one! Looks great. Loved LoS, etc etc.
 

Sagitario

Member
I just wrote an article with more information. In the E3 I could talk to Enric Álvarez (Cofounder of Mercury Steam), José Luis Márquez (Director of Mirror of Fate), Óscar Araújo (Compositor) and Dave Cox (Producer) and they told us very interesting things.

The article is too long to be translated, 5 whole pages (I'm spanish), but here's the briefing:

  • The core of the game is the combat system of Lords of Shadow, but with more exploration.
  • There's only one big scenario: the Castle.
  • Mirror of Fate is NOT a spin off. It's the second part of the trilogy, full integrated, and Lords of Shadow 2, the third part, goes after it.
  • 2 years in development. 40 people in the team.
  • Around 12 hours, without looking for secrets and 100%.
  • 4 playable Characters: Gabriel, Simon, Trevor and Alucard. All of them are different from each other, with different habilities, secondary weapons and magic,
  • Simon can summon creatures to help him in fights, Trevor can use light and shadow magic, Gabriel only shadow magic.
  • You can revisit zones of the Castle when you get new habilities, like the double jump (Trevor).
  • Uses of touchscreen: Bestiary, Inventory, Map, Writing notes (example: come back to this room with double jump), Magic and Special Habilities.
  • SpotPass confirmed, but not explained.
  • The game has a story but you can play it not in chronologic order

If somebody wants to read the full article is here.
The thursday we will update with an interview with José Luis Márquez with more info :)

Excellent info. Thanks. I will read the full 5-pages interview when I get home.
 

The M.O.B

Member
Everything looks fine except for putting the LOS combat system in 2d space. Slicing enemies from all the way across the screen and then having to do finishers on them is awful. Not to mention QTE Boss finishers as well.
 
is this real????

I am soooo sold on this game.

A metroidvania map, fuck yeah.

Played this at e3, map on the second screen was ripped right out of a iga-vania game.

But the game felt so slow, Frame rate was part of the problem, the other part was that the enemies took so many hits compared to previous portable games, it felt so odd. Combat needs to be improved.
 
I really wanna get into this game because I love CV but this game just looks and feels lifeless like Lords of Shadow. I'll give it a chance because its Castlevania but something feels missing.

So its pretty much safe to say IGA and Ayami Kojima are pretty much done with Castlevania. Guess the powers that be think Kojima's artwork is too "feminine" and won't sell to a global, dudebro audience.
 
I really prefer Kojima Alucard, not so much because of the outfit (although I do prefer the regal look of the original) but because of the skin tone. The new Alucard seems like he's full on vampire instead of a dhampir, and if that were the case it would take away from the character a bit IMO.

Oh, and on a extremely nitpicky sidenote, Alucard's hair in the Kojima art was a very light blonde, not full on white/silver. But white hair is close enough for me.
 
anyone else never jump on board to Castlevania until Lords of Shadow (.01% of you) besides myself? I played a bit of XBLA SOTN a few years ago but never got deep into it.

I know LOS is a bastard child to many people in the castlevania universe but its brought me into the series and im interested in the universe now...

So when I get a 3DS this game will be purchased. Big N sold me on this handheld partially due to this exclusive game.
 

RagnarokX

Member
Trevor wasn't in Symphony (technically speaking.)

2UtLP.jpg


anyone else never jump on board to Castlevania until Lords of Shadow (.01% of you) besides myself? I played a bit of XBLA SOTN a few years ago but never got deep into it.

I know LOS is a bastard child to many people in the castlevania universe but its brought me into the series and im interested in the universe now...

So when I get a 3DS this game will be purchased. Big N sold me on this handheld partially due to this exclusive game.

It's a new universe, though. Might as well been a new IP like it was originally intended.
 
Gabriel as the fourth character? Ugh.

Fuck off already with making him playable MS, you made your bed and turned a Belmont into Dracula, now lay in it and let us kill that douche.
 
∀ Narayan;38827119 said:
I like it.

This game looks pretty nice. The framerate really needs to be taken care of, though. Fix that, and I think the game will do nicely.
DC said in an interview the issue would be taken care of before release.
 

CaVaYeRo

Member
This is Enric Álvarez video presentation. Don't know if it's available in English.

More than pompous, it gets sort of personal, so it's interesting. Some quotes just in case:

"I thought Dave Cox had setup a hidden camera [when they offered Castlevania to us]"
"We had total freedom over the games, and it's something you'll notice in Mirror of Fate".
"3DS allowed us to build the game like a diorama"
"2,5D setup enhances 3D effect, things happen in the bg"
"focus in combat and a big exploration component, similar to those on classic games".
"going on with the series, adding a sequel and this intermediate chapter, is a brave move from Konami".
 
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