Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Taming Giant Spiders

So I’ve tried to set up a twitter feed. I have no idea if it works correctly or not, but I’m trying to get myself all setup with this social media stuff. Maybe I can get a few followers this way. It’s worth a shot.

I have to remember to dodge/block in this game. It’s highly important. I have a hard time remembering to do this though. Part of it is based on how dodging works. Since this is a fixed-camera, third-person action game I keep trying to use the right thumbstick. Currently the right thumbstick has no use. Then I try to use R2 to block/dodge. This comes from the last I played being Prototype and that is how you blocked and dodged in that game. Instead I have to learn to use the L2 button. It will take a little bit of retraining or maybe I can change it in the options menu. I don’t normally change my buttons for a game, but this might just be worth it.

I keep taking hits against these massive spiders Gabriel has to fight and these things hit hard. It doesn’t help that I haven’t found any health upgrades yet and that healing is, well, tricky. Let’s talk about that for a moment. When Gabriel and Professor Xavier parted ways, Professor X gave Gabriel a magical talisman. When enemies die they drop orbs. Gabriel absorbs these orbs into the talisman by pressing in on the left thumbstick. Doing this gives Gabriel light magic. Once he has some light magic built up pressing L1 activates the light magic and now every enemy he hits will restore his health. This means to heal, Gabriel has to remain in combat. It creates a fine balance and forces the player to become even better with the game’s combat system. I call it fairly inspired, unless you’re like me, prone to taking hits.

I’m in this area with giant spiders. Why is it always spiders? I hate spiders. They’re creepy and the way they move just seems unnatural. And that’s why spiders make for great enemies. People don’t like them so you force them to fight what they naturally fear. But that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it.

I’ll admit that this section had me fairly confused. I had found a note from a dead knight about riding certain beasts. Then later in the area I found a spiked chain upgrade for my weapon. I was hoping that it would increase Gabriel’s damage output. Instead it is used to saw through certain objects (more on that in a moment) and tame certain beasts. So I thought, “I found a letter and a got an upgrade and both of them deal with taming beasts. I guess I have to go ride a spider.” And so I tried to ride a spider. I found one left in the entire area and I could not tame him for the life of Gabriel. Poor guy tried so hard too. Once the spider was dead I went searching for more spiders, but that was apparently the last giant spider in the area. Heck, it was the last enemy in the area period and I had absolutely no idea where to go.

I actually had to go to gamefaqs to get some walkthrough help. Turns out the exit was behind the upgrade room. Who knew? And taming a beast occurs in the next area… Then why was all the info about taming one showing up now? This is fairly frustrating stuff.

And about the ‘sawing’ mechanic, that just looks dumb. Gabriel throws his whip around an object and then you pull back and forth on the left thumbstick. There’s no rhythm to the thing. You just push and pull and then you’re done. This probably could have been executed a little better.