Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - In Which I Kill Death

Yes! I am getting this posted in a timely manner, that makes me very happy. I was afraid that there would be another gap and I am glad to be avoiding that. Now if only my life would fix itself, then I would be truly happy,

Chapter XI is an interesting little chapter and I mean that. The first area is one of the most tedious sections of the game. The second part is one of the best platforming sections that the game has to offer. Let's call it an odd juxtaposition shall we.

The Necromancer's Abyss starts off as a very promising level. There are two interesting puzzles right off the bat. While I liked the eclipse puzzle I do have one very glaring issue with it, there is no proper setup to solve it. The symbols that are used are symbols that I do not recognize from within the game. Without prior knowledge of the symbols you will never know what they mean. I really just messed with the symbols until the moon eclipsed the sun. Puzzle solved.

The second puzzle involves moving a line of water ( I assume it's water) by inputting a predesignated path. This puzzle is pure logic and easy to figure out but I enjoyed that aspect of it. The colored floor tiles on the ground control the flow of the water. I quickly figured out that one color meant up, one meant right, one meant left and one meant down. I was also glad that I remembered the L2 + Triangle to punch the ground this time or else this would have taken forever.

That was the fun part of the level. The rest of it involved jumping through mirrors, jumping through portals, killing Necromancers and jumping onto moving platforms. Now some of these were kind of tricky and I appreciated that but the level seemed to drag. It didn't help that every time I jumped through a mirror there was this flying scene. It wasn't so much the scene as it was the shaking camera during the scene that would nauseate me. *sigh* I really hate having motion-sickness, no matter how mild.

So the rest of the level was kind of a chore overall and I was glad when it was done.

Dracolich Concept Art

The next level is actually pretty sweet. At the start of the level Gabriel converses with Death for a little while. Then Death summons this massive bone dragon, that has the name of Dracolich Titan. Like all Titans this one requires Gabriel to climb all over it. I had an absolute blast with this thing as it soared through the air. Yes the camera would annoy me at times, but my love of the battle helped me overcome it. Now, as the fight against the third Lord of Shadow it is pretty weak (and I thought battling against Carmilla was a joke). Again, hanging onto a Titan is not complicated, just make sure you press R2 at the right moment. Beyond that I enjoyed scaling this massive beast and taking him down.

Now I don't quite understand what Gabriel did at the end of this fight. What was that orb thing that he smashed in the ground? How was that linked to the Titan? Just some questions that I would like answered.

There is only one area left. Chapter XII is just the final battle and I look forward to it. I'm hoping that I finally get to fight Zobek.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Breaking Up Chapter X (Part 2)

I meant to have this up a few days ago. I've been busy. I wish it was a good busy, but unfortunately it is a bad type of busy that has kept me away. I have few moments right now so I will go ahead and finish off Chapter X.

There are two more sections to Chapter X, The Fire Cemetery and the Crematory Oven. Both are pretty short, but the second area is far more fun to play in. The Fire Cemetery has another Chupacabra in it and I believe I've made my dislike of Chupacabra's fairly well known by now. Once again this one steals your magic and relics but then he does something a little bit different. He up and locks himself in a cage, that stupid little shrimp. Unlocking the cage becomes the goal of this level.

I actually like this puzzle. It's fairly simple, but at the same time it makes you think. I just wish it didn't have to deal with a Chupacabra. Thankfully the only enemies you deal with are zombies and they are quick kills so no major worries. Just know that solving the puzzle involves aiming one pillar at the other two pillars. I thought it was crafty. I just wish that I was allowed to kill the Cupacabra but they always disappear into a puff of smoke.

There's a second puzzle right after this one, but first you have to slay a horde of Zombies. I think there is around a hundred Zombies that spawn here. Go nuts and have fun. Zombies are easy to kill so unleash some of your inner aggravation about Chupacabras. I know I did. The puzzle involves two gongs that need to be rung at the same time. Punch - Dash - Punch, do it quick enough and the door opens. Took me a few tries.

The next area is the battle against the Gravedigger. No, not the monster truck or the lame villain from the TV series Bones, but some giant squid face who digs graves or something. There's a small group of enemies that Gabriel has to clear through to get to this guy. It felt like a wasted effort to run Gabriel through a gauntlet since he can heal and restore magic right before the actual fight. I don't mind enemies before actually encountering the boss but their purpose is to weaken the player. This should make the boss fight a little harder. If the player can heal then this has failed in its purpose.

The Gravedigger himself is a simple battle overall but with a little twist. When the Gravedigger reaches the point where Gabriel can QTE-kill the guy it proves really easy to screw it up. I know, I had to retry this 4 times until I finally got it right. There are these large doors behind the Gravedigger that have to be opened before you try the QTE. I failed to notice this and if the doors aren't open then Gabriel will automatically fail the QTE and the fight will continue. If you do this right then the Gravedigger falls into a pool of lava and dies. But not until after he tries to drag Gabriel down with him.

Of course Gabriel will survive this and he will be stuck in a hole that he has to climb out of. It's simple enough to do as long as the game doesn't break on you. I had a problem where Gabriel wouldn't grab a hold of platforms. This caused Gabriel to die once because he just hit a wall and fell into the lava below. He didn't even try to save himself. Once he respawned I had no problem clearing the level. Just thought it was something worth mentioning.

Next time is Chapter XI. Hopefully I can have something up for it later tonight or early tomorrow. No promises though.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Breaking Up Chapter X (Part 1)

Chapter X is only 4 areas long, but I feel that it needs to be broken up a little bit to be properly talked about. The level has some good moments and then it has some bad moments. This seems pretty par for the course on this game.

Things start off again with a Patrick Stewart voiceover. Remember that Witch from the previous level? The one that Zobek wanted Gabriel to kill? Well Gabriel didn't kill the Witch. Instead she helped him. That right there should be a good enough reason to leave her alone. Instead Zobek decides to kill her offscreen. That's right. This feels like a boss fight was cutout of the game, so they just had Zobek kill her by narration. That was pretty pathetic thing to do.

Now when the actual level starts Gabriel is in this purple crystal room. This place looks like it has been ripped straight out of a Final Fantasy game. I was actually excited for this part at first. I loved the look of the level and I was hoping it would stay around. Sadly that is not the case, this room lasts only a few brief steps before Gabriel finds himself standing in a stereotypical wasteland. It's actually bland to look at. I had really been hoping for the color to stay around for a while.

Dragging yourself through this wasteland can be a royal pain. Especially when the camera works against you. And I mean the camera completely works against you. I got stuck in this level for 20 minutes trying to figure out where to go. I eventually had to go to Gamefaqs to get some help. Many thanks to Bkstunt_31 for his fantastic walkthrough. There is this section where the camera seems to point the wrong direction. It's almost a blind jump where you have to go. Once there, it looks like there a dead-end cave in the area (anyone who has played this probably knows what I'm talking about). The cave is not a dead-end. Instead you can actually go to the right, actually, you have to go to the right. This is a mandatory area. But the game doesn't point the way. This isn't a secret area with two fallen knights and a purple crystal. This is a normal room where you have to battle monsters for keys to continue through the level. This is very sloppy design.

The level suffers from a lot of poorly thought-out and poorly executed ideas. Jumps that look possible are not possible. Thinking that Gabriel is on an island when he is actually in the water (which is poisonous). These sorts of things just hold this level back.

The next part of Chapter X wasn't that big of a surprise. I give spoiler warnings at the top of the page so be prepared. This is a boss fight against Pan. Up to this point Pan has been a kind of adviser. He helps Gabriel get to where he needs to be and he gives Gabriel advice wrapped in riddles. A very helpful character. Here, Pan fights Gabriel to the death in an interesting boss fight.

Faun Pan and Pan looking cooler than he has any right to.

Pan normally has a very gentle look about himself. So seeing mighty armored Pan is a bit of a shock and fairly cool looking at the same time. The battle has a nice start, Pan removes Gabriel's magic and forces him to fight without it. I had hoped that this is how the battle would go. Instead over the course of the fight Pan gives Gabriel his magic back, first the Light, then the Shadow.

With the magic restored this fight almost became to easy. Pan keeps talking about how Light and Shadow magic are two sides of the same coin (no duh!). What keeps this fight interesting is that Pan will use Light and Shadow magic. Pan is trying to teach a lesson. Shadow magic is ineffective against Shadow and Light magic is ineffective against light. Surprisingly the two actually work against each other quite well (I'm kidding, it's not a surprise). The final QTE scene against Pan has one of the fastest button presses I have ever seen in a game. Make sure you're ready for it.

Turns out that Pan's death was just a sacrifice that would allow Gabriel to move on. Well go on Gabriel and kill everything else that is in your way. And smile while you do it.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - And that is Chapter IX

Lets talk a little bit about Chapter IX. It was short. Parts of it were entertaining. Many parts were odd and didn't make a lot of sense. Especially the part about the witch. First, why is Zobek following Gabriel around? And is he the jerk holding the camera? No matter how much I love Cloverfield, shaky cam always makes me nauseous. This is no better. So if Zobek is holding the camera tell him to put the dumb thing on a tripod.

The first section of Chapter IX is easy and straight forward. It would be uneventful except for the fact that a designer remembered the Chupacabras. One of those annoying little guys shows up in this area. He's remarkably easy to find, you just need a troll to help smash a wall. I am just glad the whole Chupacabra section was short. I despise those things. And I might even despise the designer who came up with them.

The next section is actually a little more interesting. First Gabriel meets a Witch. This Witch reminds me of the garbage lady from Labyrinth.The Witch wants to be young again and it is up to Gabriel to help her. First he has to get to the key for her music box and some mean old Scarecrows have stolen it from her. Gabriel promises to help the Witch as long as she helps him. Sounds like a winning deal. I would like to point out that Zobek is calling for the Witch's death the entire time. Seriously, the guy is pretty adamant about it.

Gabriel has to defeat some Scarecrows and he can only do that by luring crows onto the Scarecrow. Yes that sounds counter-productive and it probably is. The puzzle isn't hard. You just have to fill up all of the posts in the area with crows and this eventually forces one murder of crows to land on the Scarecrow. The Scarecrows then get down off of their perch and attack Gabriel. Do this three times to win.

The Scarecrows can be a little tough though. They are fast and they have a pretty good reach. Thankfully Gabriel is feeling a little more powerful these days so I wasn't overly concerned. I just had to make sure I was careful. There's a neutral orb fountain in the area and that can help get health back. There are also Mandragoras in the area. They are perfect for beating down and restoring life as Gabriel needs it.

With the keys in hand Gabriel can return to the Witch for part three of Chapter IX.Gabriel really needs to pay attention. The Witch specifically said that she needed the Blue Rose from the music box and to get it she will have to shrink down Gabriel and stick him in the box. Naturally Gabriel is surprised when the Witch shrinks him down and shoves him into the box. This guy needs to pay a little more attention.

So here we are inside of the music box. This area was frustrating for me. A lot of it required pretty precise timing to get through. Gabriel had to collect these colored cylinders and use them in the main part of the music box. Depending on what color was playing certain traps were disabled. Thankfully the this would match to the floor. If the red cylinder was playing the traps at the end of the red carpet would be deactivated, or activated depending on how you look at it. The yellow cylinder doesn't shut off the flames that block Gabriel's path, but it does cause them to move. The timing of the traps was pretty specific, but they were off just enough to throw me off. I kept running into them. Eventually the whole thing comes down to memorization. Frustrating, but I felt satisfied once I beat the level.

Once Gabriel has the Blue Rose he returns to the Witch and do you know what he does? He demands that the Witch help him. So she does. That's it. Gabriel doesn't kill her. There are no big boss fights at this point. The Witch just sends Gabriel on his way to the Abyss. Maybe he'll find Kratos there, that does appear to be his summer vacation spot.

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 - Really?

Back in the day Capcom released Street Fighter IV. My understanding is that this was a last ditch effort for Street Fighter, the game was expected to fail. Street Fighter III had been a monstrous flop years before. Because of this Capcom closed out the disc. This meant that no DLC could be added later on. The game ended up being a huge success. Because of this more fighters were developed and Super Street Fighter IV game was released.

Now remember that I had said that Street Fighter IV could not be added too via DLC so this actually made sense. Of course, that all depends on if the story I read was true. You can never fully tell with the internet. The Super version was only $39.99, a $20 saving versus the initial release. Yes it could be seen as a blow to purchasers of the original. It was more content for less, but at least there was sound reasoning.

Street Fighter IV helped revitalize the lumbering fighting genre. With this new age of fighters would come a game that players had been asking for for over 10 years. Marvel vs Capcom 3. I was a fan of the second game, having purchased it for my Dreamcast (yes I own a Dreamcast). The fast pace of the game and the large variety in fighters just made the game a ton of fun. Now Marvel vs Capcom 2 had such a large cast because Capcom was easily able to reuse sprites from previous fighting games. This is where the madhouse of characters came from. The new game would not be able to reuse sprites so the cast would have to be diminished. This was expected.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 launched with only 36 (38 if you count the DLC) fighters in it. It wasn't the dream cast that I had been hoping for. Some characters felt very out of place or that a more top-tier character should've had a slot. The game was still frantic fun and that is, in the end, what matters. Now the when the game launched there was already two DLC characters announced. Shuma-Gorath and Jill Valentine. Now this set the stage for more downloadable characters in the future. I was excited about this. I wanted to grow my cast list with new and awesome characters.

Sadly all we seemed to be getting for Marvel vs Capcom 3 had been these Shadow Battles. You battled against characters that had a play style similar to Capcom employees that worked on the game. Yes, that does not sound like a ton of fun to anyone. There were some costume packs but no mention of any DLC beyond that.

It was then that rumors started to swirl of a Super version for Marvel vs Capcom 3. I was hoping that with the release of the Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition that Capcom wouldn't pull this stunt. I didn't mind paying $19.99 for a DLC pack if is was something similar to the Arcade Edition, but for Marvel vs Capcom 3 instead.

Sadly that is not the case. Instead we are getting Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. It will include 12 new characters and will retail for $39.99. Looks like Capcom is double dipping. I'm not excited about this and as I learn what characters are being release with it I am even less excited.

First we have Strider and Ghost Rider. I can happily admit to being excited about these two characters. Very nice additions. Next up is Firebrand and Hawkeye. Hawkeye is probably in so they can push the character in preparation for the Avenger movie. But Firebrand? I barely remembered Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins. I can only assume that Firebrand was the big bad guy of that game.

It looks like the rest of the cast has been leaked. I am really not impressed with the choices. I will try to make this quick.

Virgil is a completely unecessary character. We already have Dante and Trish from Devil May Cry. We don't need to bog it down with another character.Especially since Capcom is rebooting the entire series anyways.

Frank West. Not the first character I would go for. Looks like he was quickly recycled from Capcom vs Tatsunoko. That is probably how he found his way into the game.
 

Doctor Strange. I love Doctor Strange. I have no complaint about his addition.

Iron Fist? Really? Iron Fist of all characters? I would have loved to have had Ms. Marvel instead. Or maybe Psylocke or Rogue. Their were better options than this. I would have preferred Luke Cage to Iron Fist.

We do NOT need Nemesis in this game. We already have enough Resident Evil characters. This is a completely wasted slot.

Who the hell is this guy? I may not be the best comic book geek on the planet but can we at least go with a familiar character? His name appears to be Nova... is it just Nova? Yep, just plain old Nova.

This one I also blame on Capcom vs Tatsunoko. Originally Phoenix Wright had been planned for the game. He was eventually nixed but there has been a fairly vocal base of fans crying for him ever since. Well here he is. I don't mind him too much. He's just not a major selling point for me. At least he is from an original franchise.

And finally... what the hell is this thing? Rocket Raccoon? Or is it Raccoon Rocket? I don't care. I just want it gone. Talk about a massively wasted spot. Where the heck is Mega Man?!






And that appears to be them. No Venom, no Squirrel Girl. No one from Rival Schools or Onimusha. Very few characters that are actually cool and actually have you looking forward to playing them. I guess I will wait until this version is cheap used. Maybe then I will pick it up. Unless Capcom releases DLC characters for it that are actually worthwhile.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Carmilla

Boy Carmilla has come a long ways since her original creation. Carmilla was originally created by the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu in 1872, which predated Dracula by 25 years. She wasn't presented as any sort of Vampire lord at the time. In the original novel she was just a mysterious young woman who befriend other young women. She would live with them and during the night she would drain their blood. It was a fairly simple tale but captivating.

Well here we are 139 laters and Carmilla has done pretty well for herself. She is now Lord of the Vampires. This still leaves me wondering where Dracula is in the grand scheme of things. I am starting to get a suspicion, but that will have to be saved for another time. I think she's supposed to be displayed at sexy, but I found her rather unattractive looking. Maybe it was the inhuman eyes. Or that there was no subtlety to her sexuality. It was pretty blatantly obvious from the moment you met her.

Carmilla initially tries to seduce Gabriel. She offers him treasures, pleasures, power, and immortality. The things that a Vampire typically offers. Gabriel will, of course, have none of that. So Carmilla tries a different tactic. She tells Gabriel that he is on a fools errand. The God Mask cannot resurrect the dead. Surprisingly, this is the first time anyone has mentioned that the hoped for resurrection might not work or that it might even be a bad idea to try. I mean, how often does this sort of thing actually work out the way you want it to? Carmilla's is trying to destroy Gabriel's hope and since hope is pretty useless anyways (just ask Kratos) she is obviously wasting her time. So get ready for the weakest, lamest boss fight I have yet to encounter.

Round 1. Carmilla summons normal Vampires while she hides in a protective shield and occassonally throws lightning at Gabriel. I don't know when Vampires learned to be all Sith Lord-like and started throwing around lightning. But if I think about it, Dracula used lightning on a regular basis in the older games, so I will let is slide since there is precedence for it. The round is lame. Vampires are pretty easy enemies especially if you are nailing them with holy water and since Vampires drop holy water you should find yourself with a pretty nice supply of the stuff. Go nuts, this round is a cake walk.

Now the last Lord of Shadow, Cornell, also had an easy first round. Then he transformed and things got tough. Carmilla gets half of this right. She transforms and while Cornell was a cool looking Werewolf, Carmilla is a lame looking Vampire. She has a very anorexic look and I just can't take that seriously. She's also an almost boringly easy fight. I was kind of shocked by how easy she was. Her attacks are fairly limited, easy to predict and easy to dodge. I never had to work during this fight. I was almost always getting neutral orbs so I always had full health.

I don't think I need to provide any more description of Carmilla than that. She has a third round, but it is even easier than the second. Get ready for her for death though. That is a really long, drawn out scene and very cool at the same time. Just be ready for the Quick Time moments, you don't want to repeat this event. It is way too cool to have to do it twice.

With the boring Carmilla dead Gabriel acquires the second half of the God Mask. Pan shows up and Gabriel gets to vent some steam for a moment. He's pretty peeved that the Lords of Shadow are the original founders of the Holy Order and that he has to kill them.It was nice to see some genuine emotion on Gabriel's face for a moment. It didn't last long enough however. Quickly Pan sends Gabriel on his way after the 3rd Lord of Shadow. I wonder who that will be?

And supposedly there will be some questions answered here too.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - The Clock Tower Of My Dreams?

I was so excited. I don’t think you know how excited I really was, but I was really excited. Here it was before me. A staple of the Castlevania series and one of the levels that I normally love for the challenge it provides. I speak about none other then the Clock Tower.  

Most Castlevania games have a Clock Tower of some sort. They normally involve tricky jumps and annoyingly placed enemies. This one has, well, neither I’m afraid. It’s a very straight forward level and they do try some platforming segments. But the game just isn’t designed for it. I missed so many jumps do to Gabriel’s jumping style. He lacks any real air control which is pretty crucial for platformers, especially in 3D. There are a few timing segments to overcome but nothing complicated. I felt pretty let down in the end. It didn’t really feel like a Clock Tower level. Plus, I’m missing the classic Castlevania music. I think I need to play Super Castlevania IV, such a classic game.

To top it all off, Gabriel has to fight the GMSTIPBAF again. This round is even easier than the last round. The Scorpion has picked up this new trick where it levitates items and then throws them at you. That’s fine, but it doesn’t increase the difficulty. At all. The items are easy to dodge and I found that if I was in the Scorpion’s face he couldn’t hit me with them. And he used that attack 80% of the time. He rarely tried to electrocute or even punch Gabriel. This fight lasted just over a minute and then it was done. And it felt stupid.

Next area is an even bigger boss fight against a decently difficult boss. The unfortunately named Olrox is the brother of Brauner. This means a giant Vampire is here to kill Gabriel and avenge his brother. What makes Olrox difficult is actually his basic attack. He doesn’t telegraph it. He just sprints forward and then he might turn it into a one-two combo. And he can change direction during the combo.  Olrox’s biggest mistake is when he throws out his sword. This one you can see coming a mile away making it easy to dodge. While his swords are out Olrox is defenseless, I used this time to lay some Guillotine action on him and net some nice orbs.

Olrox will also heal himself. He has two bodies (werewolves?) pinned up in iron maidens. He’ll drink the blood of the werewolves to restore his health. Now wait just a minute here! I thought that Vampires and Werewolves were natural enemies, like Pirates and Ninjas. I also thought that Werewolf blood was poisonous to Vampires. Tell me how this works out huh? Drinking Werewolf blood to heal himself that is just cheap. If it had been a couple of Knights of the Order that would have been a nice little trick to pull. Gabriel has to destroy the bodies in the Iron Maidens to prevent Olrox from healing, only then can he finally be killed. This can make the fight last a good while if you’re not fast.

I have to admit that Olrox was tricky enough to combat. His quick attacks had me on my toes, but only until I figured out his attack pattern. Once you get it down Olrox becomes easier. What makes him a little more fun is that you still need to remain on your toes. Once he goes down he fills some large plate on the ground with his blood. How convenient.

The large plate is “puzzel” and I use the term lightly. Really have to drag the blood from one hub to the next and there’s a limited amount of time to reach the next hub before you have to start over again from the last hub. I hope that makes sense. The problem I had with the “puzzle” is that there is nothing to figure out. You just have to drag the blood quickly from one spot to the next. Yes there are multiple paths, but the correct path was pretty obvious to me.

Next time is the battle against the Vampire Lord Carmilla. I think she deserves her own blog post.