How can you abandon religious overtones a game where you're a former servant of God fighting Satan himself
I know religious context makes some people skittish but I honestly find it very interesting when people go whole hog on these kinds of stories, rather than making lazy references here and there as not to offend anyone's sensibilities.
Religious context doesn't make me squeamish, I'm agnostic (poor man's atheist) myself, I just found it very cheesy in Lords of Shadow and groan inducing when it gets to the point where
you're literally fighting the frickin devil who is thrown in at the very last minute.
I prefer the religious elements as background noise/lore, that kind of thing. Castelvania is more about creepy old horror movie blends and classic literary/gothic horror to me.
That's my point though.
A lot of old gothic horror had very heavy religious ties back in the day.
It was just that as society changes so does the stories and they were slowly separated from one another.
But I won't lie. I've studied religions quite a bit(not as much as I would like though) and seeing how beliefs change with culture is really interesting to me.
i must have missed something in the dlc, because theres nothing in that, that would contradict with what's going on in los2 regarding the castle.
wait, are you guys confusing
the dlc super demon boss with the demon that has always possessed castlevania? there are completely different creatures. having played the dlc recently there is nothing to suggest they are the same thing.
the castle demon was summoned by the bernards and the super annoying boss fight demon was locked away in a dimension by the lords of shadow before they became lords of shadow and the portal to that dimension was located in the castle.
completely different demons, all backed up through in-game logs and cutscenes.
Deaderinred on
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
I just God doesn't show up as a kindly old man to Gabriel.
Complete with zeus beard.
i'm honestly hoping for them to be like super advanced beings from way back when that just looks like magic to current time period, i kinda got that hint with pan, the silver suit and the residents of agartha (which is a whole other mythological/cryptoolgy or whatever the phrase is, thing.) and the way alot of the "tech" seemed to work within the land of the dead.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Well...God never makes an appearance in the game.
Also, Satan has had a lot of different interpretations over time. Some more literal where he is physically embodied and some more metaphorical.
Satan's presence is hinted at several times over the course of the game, particularly in Zobek's narrative, and you fight literal demons from the bowels of Hell on more than one occasion. The Gravedigger is probably the most obvious of those. You are fighting forces that only exist specifically because some good people transubstantiated into Heaven and left their evil behind them.
The game is filled with classical Biblical elements as viewed through a Catholic lens. Of course Satan is behind it all. Who the Hell else is going to be?
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
For anyone who has played Mirror of Fate, is Dracula's castle actually called Castlevania now or just Dracula's castle?
I just God doesn't show up as a kindly old man to Gabriel.
Complete with zeus beard.
i'm honestly hoping for them to be like super advanced beings from way back when that just looks like magic to current time period, i kinda got that hint with pan, the silver suit and the residents of agartha (which is a whole other mythological/cryptoolgy or whatever the phrase is, thing.) and the way alot of the "tech" seemed to work within the land of the dead.
Would you mind if I asked how you got that impression? I can't see it.
Satan's presence is hinted at several times over the course of the game, particularly in Zobek's narrative, and you fight literal demons from the bowels of Hell on more than one occasion. The Gravedigger is probably the most obvious of those. You are fighting forces that only exist specifically because some good people transubstantiated into Heaven and left their evil behind them.
The game is filled with classical Biblical elements as viewed through a Catholic lens. Of course Satan is behind it all. Who the Hell else is going to be?
Like I said, the final boss should have been
Zobek.
Theres a nice moment in the combat cross information where Mercury Steam imply that the nails in Vampire KIller were the ones used on Jesus Christ but they used "martyr" instead of just being overly direct.
The monsters in Lords of Shadow can have demonic origins in their background but it didn't make sense for me to fight the fucking devil who seemingly had no stake in any of this until the last minute and burned the guy that was actually Gabriel's real nemesis and enemy who corrupted him forever.
It was unnecessary and the whole sudden turn of events just felt hammy as hell.
Not at all. Wrestling with the devil is intrinsic to a Christian understanding of the world, and Gabriel's arc of redemption could only be capped by contending with the force that is actually vying for his soul - that being Satan.
The fight with Satan is an important thematic endcap to the game, and serves as a perfect summary to Gabriel's relationship with God and the idea of providence.
+1
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Satan's presence is hinted at several times over the course of the game, particularly in Zobek's narrative, and you fight literal demons from the bowels of Hell on more than one occasion. The Gravedigger is probably the most obvious of those. You are fighting forces that only exist specifically because some good people transubstantiated into Heaven and left their evil behind them.
The game is filled with classical Biblical elements as viewed through a Catholic lens. Of course Satan is behind it all. Who the Hell else is going to be?
Like I said, the final boss should have been
Zobek.
Theres a nice moment in the combat cross information where Mercury Steam imply that the nails in Vampire KIller were the ones used on Jesus Christ but they used "martyr" instead of just being overly direct.
The monsters in Lords of Shadow can have demonic origins in their background but it didn't make sense for me to fight the fucking devil who seemingly had no stake in any of this until the last minute and burned the guy that was actually Gabriel's real nemesis and enemy who corrupted him forever.
It was unnecessary and the whole sudden turn of events just felt hammy as hell.
Well...Satan does have a sake in it.
You know...being God's eternal nemesis and all.
So him wanting to fuck over his realm isn't that unbelievable.
Is the story in MOF any good? I was really turned off by the demo, but now I'm worried LOS2 is going to reference it a bit and make me feel like I missed an episode.
I just God doesn't show up as a kindly old man to Gabriel.
Complete with zeus beard.
i'm honestly hoping for them to be like super advanced beings from way back when that just looks like magic to current time period, i kinda got that hint with pan, the silver suit and the residents of agartha (which is a whole other mythological/cryptoolgy or whatever the phrase is, thing.) and the way alot of the "tech" seemed to work within the land of the dead.
Would you mind if I asked how you got that impression? I can't see it.
when pan transforms into the silver samurai, it looks very techy. i got the impression he was from the same era as when the titan's were built and the titan graveyard seems very other-wordly-electrical, mainly the first room you are in with the purple blocks (i think its inside a titan?) and then we skip to the demo of 2 which shows you that winged servant of god which reminded me a hell of a lot like pan's silver samurai suit, tech-wise. they have titan tech too, which seems to suggest they got it from their god.
looking through various trailers for los2 you see bits like
the pyramid style design that look like the time travel mechanic. the style of it seems to be suggesting they are basing the ancient tech in los on the far out there idea that ancient cultures like surmeria had more advance tech that we do today. basically the whole "ancient astronauts" thing. probably reading way too much into it since for a brief time i read up on all those theories and such while attempting to write a story and lot of the idea's they presented seem to influence abit of the design of the old world in los. agartha for example is name for one of the cities in the supposed hollow earth idea and a massive culture inside the planet (don't think caves, think ff13's sky planet thing)
again, probably just me reading too much into it.
Deaderinred on
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Is the story in MOF any good? I was really turned off by the demo, but now I'm worried LOS2 is going to reference it a bit and make me feel like I missed an episode.
Not sure but Alucard was introduced in MOF and it seems like he'll be a big player in LOS2.
Game also has Simon fucking Belmont. Buy it. Do it.
Still waiting on my copy from Amazon. God has denied me Mirror of Fate HD.
I now live a cursed existence in the shadows where I wait to die until the 3DS version gets here.
apparently there will be a short movie in los2 which details what happened in los1 and MoF for those who haven't played either.
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited February 2014
Hopefully Dracula is pissed that Marie kept Trevor a secret from him
Seems like the perfect opportunity for them to have that marital spat where she shows up to give exposition, he calls her on the secret pregnancy, they argue, she starts packing her ghost bags and threatens to go stay at God's for awhile. Gabriel yells "fine, you'll be back. You always come back", etc.
some big spoilers about the game and later sections:
stole from neogaf:
Originally Posted by LOS2 review
But for all its litany of crimes, pacing is the biggest. There might be a half-decent ten-hour game in here somewhere, but instead what we have is stretched beyond breaking point and padded with dreary filler.
Halfway through the game, with a mutant infection threatening humanity's existence and a shady group making preparations to summon Satan to conquer the planet, Dracula spends a couple of hours finding Mirror of Fate fragments because the ghost of his dead son says he needs it to play with his toys. This sojourn to the netherworld hosts the nadir of a game with copious low points: another instafail stealth section in which you must evade Agreus, the goat-headed brother of Pan, as you traverse a garden littered with dead leaves that will alert your pursuer if you step on them. If he catches you, his whirlwind attack sends you back to the start. It's tortuous stuff, but the biggest insult is that you fight him immediately afterwards and it's a cakewalk.
They also cite problems with the combat system:
- attacks feel weightless
- lack of hit-stun on enemies
- no invincibility frames on dodge move
- wonky camera
slightly worried but eh, still getting it. i didnt get that impression on the combat from the demo though so who knows.
I mean I already paid for it on Steam so it's a moot point for me
But
Hrm, it looks like I'll enjoy it. I choose to remain positive.
+2
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Reviews are abit puzzling to me.
The demo felt like a big improvement over just about everything in LOS. Style, combat, music, etc. Dracula controlled like a god among badasses and I certainly felt like one.
Hopefully it's not all downhill from the opening because it seemed promising as hell.
also stole from neogaf regarding the whole delayed pre-order and MOF on pc:
Bergaron, the MS insider on the Castlevania DUngeon Forums told us Alvarez and Cox wanted to publish the demo like 2 weeks ago and put it up with the pre orders, as you might noticed the demo got delayed, that was according to him because Cox was stubborn on offering MoF as the pre order incentive (and of course, put it on sale). Then yesterday we had this
Well, it's just one review so far. Every good game still gets a bad review or two. I'd only be worried if several more reviews come out that are just as bad. I enjoyed the demo too.
One mans padding is another mans awesome next chapter. Considering this is the last Castlevania by Mercury Steam more will always be more in my opinion.
The guy must not know what "hit stun" actually is, because it was certainly there in the demo, just youtube any playthrough of it and there you have it. I guess he's thinking that there's no hit stun because your attacks cannot override enemy attacks if the enemies attack animation has already begun, but that's not what most people think of, when they hear "hit stun".
Who needs iframes when Drac's dodge knocks people over leaving them completely helpless?
People forget that LoS is a game about parries and the dodge is just there to herd the baddies. This is Royal Guard: The Video Game and LoS 1 was no different. It's almost as if these reviewers never played the first LoS.
Well, it's just one review so far. Every good game still gets a bad review or two. I'd only be worried if several more reviews come out that are just as bad. I enjoyed the demo too.
There was a Game Informer review that tore it apart aswell.
Thankfully I don't read Edge or Game Informer so can't say their opinion means much to me at present.
Well dodge is there for attacks that can't be parried but in the case of large sweeping attacks like in that Toymaker video, I mean, jump. My take on the combat is 90% of the time you're supposed to be fighting at range, because your default weapon is a whip. You hit and run, you block what you can, but you stay far at range so if you need to dodge back or to the side, iframes don't matter.
You only get in close when you're using your magic for the sword or the claws, I would be willing to bet a lot of people that have problems with LoS combat are standing point blank in somethings face while using the whip.
honestly, no one fucking knows. there is a pc version though since dave cox had it running on its laptop when the console versions came out. he tweeted a picture of it.
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
One mans padding is another mans awesome next chapter. Considering this is the last Castlevania by Mercury Steam more will always be more in my opinion
I thought LOS was a nice epic length adventure.
Longer game is always a plus for me. When I put down sixty dollars down on a video game, I want it to last me awhile.
Posts
Victorian horror even moreso
Hell, Dracula was a very Christian story where the protagonists were set against the rapacious pagan outer world, and that worked out pretty well
That's my point though.
A lot of old gothic horror had very heavy religious ties back in the day.
It was just that as society changes so does the stories and they were slowly separated from one another.
But I won't lie. I've studied religions quite a bit(not as much as I would like though) and seeing how beliefs change with culture is really interesting to me.
wait, are you guys confusing
the castle demon was summoned by the bernards and the super annoying boss fight demon was locked away in a dimension by the lords of shadow before they became lords of shadow and the portal to that dimension was located in the castle.
completely different demons, all backed up through in-game logs and cutscenes.
i'm honestly hoping for them to be like super advanced beings from way back when that just looks like magic to current time period, i kinda got that hint with pan, the silver suit and the residents of agartha (which is a whole other mythological/cryptoolgy or whatever the phrase is, thing.) and the way alot of the "tech" seemed to work within the land of the dead.
Also, Satan has had a lot of different interpretations over time. Some more literal where he is physically embodied and some more metaphorical.
The game is filled with classical Biblical elements as viewed through a Catholic lens. Of course Satan is behind it all. Who the Hell else is going to be?
Would you mind if I asked how you got that impression? I can't see it.
It's specifically called Castle Bernhard, I believe, previously owned by the Bernhards
Though it might have been renamed
Theres a nice moment in the combat cross information where Mercury Steam imply that the nails in Vampire KIller were the ones used on Jesus Christ but they used "martyr" instead of just being overly direct.
The monsters in Lords of Shadow can have demonic origins in their background but it didn't make sense for me to fight the fucking devil who seemingly had no stake in any of this until the last minute and burned the guy that was actually Gabriel's real nemesis and enemy who corrupted him forever.
It was unnecessary and the whole sudden turn of events just felt hammy as hell.
The fight with Satan is an important thematic endcap to the game, and serves as a perfect summary to Gabriel's relationship with God and the idea of providence.
Well...Satan does have a sake in it.
You know...being God's eternal nemesis and all.
So him wanting to fuck over his realm isn't that unbelievable.
That's kind of what he does.
when pan transforms into the silver samurai, it looks very techy. i got the impression he was from the same era as when the titan's were built and the titan graveyard seems very other-wordly-electrical, mainly the first room you are in with the purple blocks (i think its inside a titan?) and then we skip to the demo of 2 which shows you that winged servant of god which reminded me a hell of a lot like pan's silver samurai suit, tech-wise. they have titan tech too, which seems to suggest they got it from their god.
looking through various trailers for los2 you see bits like
again, probably just me reading too much into it.
Game also has Simon fucking Belmont. Buy it. Do it.
Still waiting on my copy from Amazon. God has denied me Mirror of Fate HD.
I now live a cursed existence in the shadows where I wait to die until the 3DS version gets here.
Seems like the perfect opportunity for them to have that marital spat where she shows up to give exposition, he calls her on the secret pregnancy, they argue, she starts packing her ghost bags and threatens to go stay at God's for awhile. Gabriel yells "fine, you'll be back. You always come back", etc.
some big spoilers about the game and later sections:
Originally Posted by LOS2 review
But for all its litany of crimes, pacing is the biggest. There might be a half-decent ten-hour game in here somewhere, but instead what we have is stretched beyond breaking point and padded with dreary filler.
Halfway through the game, with a mutant infection threatening humanity's existence and a shady group making preparations to summon Satan to conquer the planet, Dracula spends a couple of hours finding Mirror of Fate fragments because the ghost of his dead son says he needs it to play with his toys. This sojourn to the netherworld hosts the nadir of a game with copious low points: another instafail stealth section in which you must evade Agreus, the goat-headed brother of Pan, as you traverse a garden littered with dead leaves that will alert your pursuer if you step on them. If he catches you, his whirlwind attack sends you back to the start. It's tortuous stuff, but the biggest insult is that you fight him immediately afterwards and it's a cakewalk.
- attacks feel weightless
- lack of hit-stun on enemies
- no invincibility frames on dodge move
- wonky camera
slightly worried but eh, still getting it. i didnt get that impression on the combat from the demo though so who knows.
That part of weightless attacks and enemies not being stunned kind of has me worried now.
new track posted: (its from the last trailer)
But
Hrm, it looks like I'll enjoy it. I choose to remain positive.
The demo felt like a big improvement over just about everything in LOS. Style, combat, music, etc. Dracula controlled like a god among badasses and I certainly felt like one.
Hopefully it's not all downhill from the opening because it seemed promising as hell.
Son of a bitch.
I figured if they didn't mention a peep about it when LOS2 was put up on Steam, I assumed it wasn't gonna happen.
Well, it's just one review so far. Every good game still gets a bad review or two. I'd only be worried if several more reviews come out that are just as bad. I enjoyed the demo too.
The guy must not know what "hit stun" actually is, because it was certainly there in the demo, just youtube any playthrough of it and there you have it. I guess he's thinking that there's no hit stun because your attacks cannot override enemy attacks if the enemies attack animation has already begun, but that's not what most people think of, when they hear "hit stun".
People forget that LoS is a game about parries and the dodge is just there to herd the baddies. This is Royal Guard: The Video Game and LoS 1 was no different. It's almost as if these reviewers never played the first LoS.
Thankfully I don't read Edge or Game Informer so can't say their opinion means much to me at present.
You only get in close when you're using your magic for the sword or the claws, I would be willing to bet a lot of people that have problems with LoS combat are standing point blank in somethings face while using the whip.
honestly, no one fucking knows. there is a pc version though since dave cox had it running on its laptop when the console versions came out. he tweeted a picture of it.
Longer game is always a plus for me. When I put down sixty dollars down on a video game, I want it to last me awhile.
It was all about careful blocking, and unblockable attacks didn't rely on invincibility frames in any way
I just dodge and guillotine until I get a full bar and then whip it good.
Hit stun is there, but interrupt or priority isn't...which is fine.
I don't know, I watched the toy maker fight and it didn't seem broken.