A Cursed Review of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Series
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- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- perfectly balanced between light and shadow
So I'm not an enormous Castlevania fan - I've played the original, Circle of the Moon, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Judgement, and Order of Ecclesia. These were easily less enjoyable than MOST of those games, but there was something that pulled me forward. Find out if it was "the light," satan calling me towards hell, or the chain of capital pulling me towards making my bottom line. In any case, here's Lords of Shadow in critique.
In this video, we take an extremely brief look at the history of Castlevania and the circumstances in which the Lords of Shadow series was developed, analyze the gameplay patterns with respect to other action games from a similar lineage, highlight unique issues and successes, and helpheplp help help hel lp help
These were played on PC and on Normal mode. Both my computer and my recording software worked together to make the footage as vile as possible, genuinely sorry for that - I'll try to upgrade my visuals when I finally get another workstation -_-"
If you'd like to support the show, you can find me here: www.patreon.com/kbash?fan_lan...
Here's my latest vide: • A Chaotic God of War T...
0:00 Intro
1:17 Lords of Shadow
14:52 Mirror of Fate
19:21 LoS 2
#castlevania #lordsofshadow #kbash #retrospective - Hry
Imo this is the best GoW “clone” out there. The voice acting was amazing and the areas were beautiful. 13 year old me was very happy
Imo, as edgy as it is, I think that honor goes to Dante's Inferno. Lords of Shadow is a close second for me, though.
Lamont of innocence came out 2 years before god of war and has almost the same combat style. If anything god of war is a castlevania style but people don’t give it credit for it.
Dante's Inferno is the one for me
GoW is a DMC clone. And now its a Dark Souls clone.
@@darrylreid8145 People for a long time thought devil may cry was a god of war clone, the mass is stupid in general.
It’s funny that Mercury Steam has worked on Castlevania and Metroid and it’s clear which IP holder actually cared about their property.
Their work on Metroid do make me wish for them to do another Castlevania game. Just to see what they can do now.
@@nachoolo I like to think their experience on Lord's of Shadow 1 and Mirror of Fate helped them hone their skills to make Samus Returns and Dread. That and with Nintendo's oversight and care really shines through in what this studio is capable of! Would love to see them do another Castlevania!
@@kbbkkbbk9999 Exactly, it was diet God of War with none of the charm of either series
@@kbbkkbbk9999 suuuuuure it was the “anime” part that westerners loved and complained about LOS for not having. not like DS and judgment were bashed for being recognizably anime
Now only Mercury Steam needs to actually care about their employees
According to the interviews, Kojima involvement on the series was to protect MercurySteam from Konami, by put his name on the project.
I believe it look what happened to LoS2 Konami murdered it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Lords of Shadow series. I love the plot, I had fun with the games.
Yeah, for a game by itself, it's amazing.
@@painasura1403 nah not even that, game is generic and derivative af, glad that awful reboot trilogy flopped hard
@@wallacesousuke1433NAH its great.
@@wallacesousuke1433Cheer up chuckles
I have a soft spot for the Lords of Shadows series. They’re not my ideal Castlevania games, but I do enjoy GOW/DMC type games, and these were, for the most part, solid. Glad that MercurySteam is finding more success in their Metroid titles though.
I played all three of those games and was lukewarm on all of them. For a while, I blamed MercurySteam for the death of Castlevania, but that was when I had no idea what was really going on at Konami and how they were treating their other franchises. When I discovered that Konami's interests had shifted exclusively to wallet-sucking mobile trash and pachislot garbage, I realized that MercurySteam weren't to blame at all. All they did was their best.😔
For a company with low experience doing these action games, they did pretty well imo, and the games have some charm and a vision, somewhat cohesive even if mediocre
And they went on to make Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, so I'd say they've improved since then too.
The First Lords of Shadow was excellent in all aspects,easily one of the best games of that generation,.from the rich atmosphere,lore and enemy variety the large varied levels and deep rewarding combat.The story and narration are also very well done ....My personally favorite Castlevania and much better then the 2d crap in my opinion..,
@@frankbasile3662 The 2D crap is real Castlevania lol. Lords of Shadow is just an GOW ripoff.
@@frankbasile3662 Yeah they were solid yet they came out at the WORSE time. Since people were not happy with it, then they were really not happy when they found this was the best they're gonna get since Konami doesn't care anymore.
Dracula killing holy knights with holy magic is a wonderful thing. This isn't your movie dracula he crucifixes you
Honestly, most of your critics about this series make a lot of sense to me given the context of my own playthroughs. I have played all the Darksiders games and all the Lords of Shadow games and I really couldn't understand the hate that the games got when they came out. Each time I started playing each game I became entranced by how much fun I was having with them in spite of all the negativity that I found surrounding them. It seems that it really boils down to the kind of gamer I am, but I really find that odd.
My bread and butter games are RPGs and story driven games; really the direct antithesis of these kinds of games. I've also played through the entire God of War franchise and much of the Devil May Cry series, which I think most would say are the better iterations of these games. Yet, in spite of that, I prefer these games to those. Maybe I'm just really weird, but I think that all these games are much better than people give them credit for and I would love to see more entries in them.
Take away the name "Castlevania" and people complain will be almost none for the series, they just Castlevania fanboys, I liked both games and even if they have some issues (like the stealth parts on 2), they are overall good games that mocks games released today (would anyone rather forspoken over this?)
Forspoken is trash
It just struck me that this games story is so close to Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. Ghostly spirit around some pillars tasks a morally dubious gentleman to save the world only for him to go “Fuck the world” and become the most powerful Vampire to live.
Damn, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Yeah, you do have a point. Sheesh tho, didn't expect to hear about legacy of kain, those games dummy underrated.
To be fair in LoS dude became a Vampire to go kill extra dangerous demon - exactly opposite of "Fuck the world", then resisted "curse" for a while until going mad (also those whom he tried to protect going Holy Crusade on his ass didn't help the matter at all).
So similar in end result but different starting point. Kain never was a nice person and his choice to become Vampire Lord and screw over 9 pillars was out of pure selfishness (he got wiser with years but still).
@@Ghostel3591 you hit the nail on the head dude 👍
Only it hides deeper motives and a puppet master behind the scenes who creates an unbeatable plan by normal means.
Aiming for a legacy of Kain storyline is not a bad thing in my book.
Such a good video. I'm glad you took it easy on the shit parts of Lords of Shadow 2 since people at launch and even now blow them out if proportion, when they're at worst 5 minutes at a time. You don't see people ditching Dark Souls over New Izalith Ruins or Bed of Chaos, they accept those parts and enjoy the rest so I'm puzzled as to why this wasn't the case here. The game has a whole lot to offer, gameplay wise and I hope people come to understand it with time. The sequel also improved on the gameplay a huge deal.
The first LoS was a great action adventure title, up there with the best of the older God of War titles in its epicness, I do understand why people were alienated because of its non Castlevania feel.
WTF? This cr*p is nowhere near as good as the og GoW games, or DMC, it's about as mediocre and forgettable as Dante's Inferno
The music composed for Lords of Shadows is BALLER
Who ever Gabriel's VA was needed a fuckin award...
I only played LoS 1 but I honestly had a blast with it. Loved the Shadow of the Colossus style bosses. I've had a nearly lifelong habit of highly enjoying the Castlevania games that get critically panned. Castlevania 64, Lament of Innocence, etc. The series has rarely missed in terms of solid gameplay, it's larger crimes seem to be refusing to conform to gameplay expectations outside of the handheld metroidvania entries.
Dude, in terms of gameplay 2 is far, far superior and the story while a little odd and unfinished feeling it's serviceable enough for a video game.
But the gameplay improvements make the first game almost obsolete, also Dracula Gabriel just looks badass on top of the game visually holding up on pc.
I disagree with the last thing you said. I'm not a fan of Metroidvania either(they're okay, better than this style wise). And I played lament too. And I can't agree that that's the issue here.
Everyone has always known of CV's action background.
Mirror of Fate is super cheesy and fun. Never understood why it got so much hate. Great video (as always)! 💜
Yoshio Sakamoto said the reason Mercury Steam was chosen to make a Metroid game was because of Mirror of Fate on the 3ds. Proving that Konami is to blame.
As a long time Castlevania fan who’s played nearly all the games 110%… me neither. It was solid, fun, and had a great story.
it's crazy that we know for sure that MercurySteam have the skill to make an amazing metroidvania game but Konami just... didn't have them do that
Well Konami didn't lack Metroidvania games. They had dozens and they did fine..I doubt mecury at the time could have done a better one than igarashi. Could be wrong.
What they needed was a 3d CV on the big boy consoles. That's where CV had failed the last gen... And all gens. And where that DMC and GOW money was.
Unless you mean make a 3d Metroidvania.
@@DSan-kl2yc Yoshio Sakamoto said the reason Mercury Steam was chosen to make a Metroid game was because of Mirror of Fate on the 3ds. Proving that Konami is to blame.
YES! Konami are the ones to blame. They screwed IGA, then Mercury Steam, and then the whole series.
Lords of Shadow 1 is my favorite game of all time. Great story, fantastic cast, great setting and a real sense of despair.
I agree
I love this review. So, well done. But, the funny thing is, Lords of Shadow is and will forever remain one of my all time favorite trilogies. I loved Lords of Shadow 2 so much that it’s the only game that I’ve ever beaten on the ultra hard mode.
I laughed way too hard at "Ya know what, let's go drink martinis and just be giant bitches together about everyone we hate." That line fucking floored me. And that exaggerated verbal portrayal of Gabriel as Carmilla's slave had me reeling. I'd normally chime in with my own take on your commentary here, especially with me being a fairly avid Castlevania fan, but all I really want to say is this is by far one of the funniest episodes you've done in a while. Also very insightful and enlightening as always but I don't think I've laughed this hard at a game review in some time, and I generally spend my evenings eating my one square meal a day and watching a game review before I go to bed. Never stop doing what you're doing, man. Even if your opinion isn't always the popular take, your content is too entertaining not to pursue, and I'm confident you won't stop.
"the time when they went devil may cry" fun fact : Hideki kamiya the creator of devil may cry, his most favourite action game is "castlevania" thats why classic devil may cry has gothic atmosphere and the setting majority is in the castle because its reference to Castlevania
i really loved this game growing up, im glad to see that you appreciate it so much!
I've always seen the souls borne series as a true 3d castlevania when you only look at the castlevania rpgs. They gave me the feeling of playing a 3d version of those games especially when the 2d rpgs died out.
ESPECIALLY the first DS game
@@TheExFatal Lordran is amazing to move trough... At least the bits preO&S
The first DS was a true metroidvania. Less on the mobility more on the interconnected world
Absolutely. Castlevania ended in 2008 and then Demon's Souls came out a year later in 2009, and it had everything you would want out of a Metroidvania but in 3D. Most Castlevania fans moved on to the Souls series and never looked back. At least, not until Bloodstained came out. Bloodstained was a decent game, but it's meager scope and budget just can't compete with the juggernaut that is Fromsoft now.
Castlevania ≠ Souls / borne games
These are totally different beasts for me and even objectively this doesnt count as a spiritual successor . Even Bloodborne isnt really near Castlevanias identity and own brilliance . Just because both are horror-gothic in its theme doesnt mean they are alike . Bloodborne goes for eldritch horror while Castlevania goes more into the universal monster horror which later on got that romantic touch behind it ( Just look the coverart of Castlevania SotN and chronicles alone which captures Castlevania perfectly that bloodborne and Dark souls not have ) .
The souls-games have huge worlds to explore that are connected to a huge event which is connected to many important creatures and persons while Castlevania is only depending on Draculas return/ressurection/rebirth alone in his always changing castle (a creature of chaos in itsself) that make it a world-shattering impact.
Maybe the souls games are more like the NES/Snes/Megadrive games but even these games introduced different ideas that brought more possibilities on its mechanics to be more versatile instead in the Souls-game to be more reactionary in its gameplay.
And especially the Lore of castlevania is way too different next to the souls games.
Not that the Soulsborne-games are bad . The souls games are more ominous and are even sceptical in its design , lore and atmossphere which makes those games different and awesome.
And Castlevania with Dark souls/bloodborne gameplay sounds unfitting or even bad . I would see more a evolved gameplay approach of castlevania 64 instead playing another souls-clone disguised as one of my favourite franchises . Would be very disheartening for me and many other castlevania fans.
Honestly Lords of Shadow suffer under the same curse that DmC does, having the name of the franchise attatched to them, without that franchise name to set expectations they are just well put together if uninspired action games that offer a good time but nothing spectaculer.
Honestly Lords of Shadow and DmC are better then previous games in their series in many ways ,both are intriguing ,engaging very inspired action games that are spectacular in most aspects,..even to the people that can't handle change can't be blind to both games greatness
@@frankbasile3662 DmC is trash and when the original series came back with DMC V, Hideaki Itsuno showed us how a REAL DMC game is made.
@@wackyswacky1374 DmC is a fine game, but compared to 3 4 and 5 it just doesn't compare. And while 1 has definitely aged the worst, it revolutionized 3D action games and that legacy can't be ignored. Add on a story and a take on Dante and Vergil that the fandom absolutely loathes and for good reason, it's no surprise that DmC as a series reboot completely flopped.
@@frankbasile3662 I really like DmC, but compared to DMC1 and 3 it really comes out destroyed in terms of story and gameplay. The only thing that's better are the platforming sections
@@wackyswacky1374 jfc i'm not one to usually say shit like this but seriously.
soyjack ass comment.
I was the perfect age for this. Too young for Castlevania proper but I was all about GOW. I never beat this game back in the day, but I just beat the Lycan King. This game really holds up well honestly. Not many games are like this anymore
Lords of Shadow is pretty great, better than some other classic Castlevanias. The voice acting and areas were great, and it was a bang for your buck since it was very very long. The DLC was also good.
Then Lords of Shadow 2 attacked.
The 3DS Mirror of whatever was meh.
I do not care when anyone else says, Lords of shadows 2 will always be a masterpiece in my eyes. Stealth sections suck, but those are a small flaw. It always annoyed me whenever I saw people complaining about the fight against Pan's brother, where they completely ignored the ability they literally just received and say that the fight makes no sense.
LOS 1 is better. I love the fantastic cinematic feel of it and the Forgotten One fight is one of the coolest battles of the genre.
Also the story of LOS 2 was a great disappointment. The castle and reality sections of the story should have at least been split into separate games, so much potential lost by cramming the two into a single game.
@@vitalyklimenchuk8392 eh didn't stop me from putting three more playthroughs into it than the first game.
I wouldn't call it a "masterpiece" in the grand video game world, but it is one of my favourite Castlevania games. I bought it day one when it was released and I enjoyed it immensely. The only thing it lacked was another good Satan boss battle at the end. They bothered to give Lucifer that bulky design and they didn't do anything with it. And no, possessed Alucard doesn't count...
That’s all I heard about when this game came out. Everyone focused hard on the stealth sections when there’s probably 3 or 4 of them in the game and all together make up maybe 30 minutes of total playtime, and that’s being generous. Same thing with the first game and the Shadow of the Colossus bosses. That’s only 4 bosses out of what, 15?
There are legitimate flaws with these games and I’ll admit, the stealth sections weren’t very good, but I have no idea why everybody clung so tightly to that one complaint as if it ruined the entire game.
@@Ckoz2829 I dont mind the stealth at all,it was easy and only done a few times as you said,..those creatures were designed with armor resistance to Draculas attacks so it makes sense he can't harm them,especially at reduced strength,..it was a small change of pace in the game for only a few minutes each...,
I got the 2nd game on release and it was the coolest thing ever to me
Yuh know. Some parts ain't that bad. Plus closest thing we've had to a blood omen game in ages so I kinda had fun too.
This is good stuff, but I’ll have to make a reminder to myself not to eat while watching these. Not because of gross stuff, but because I’m actually laughing too hard and might choke. Well done KBash.
I think we all can agree that Lords of Shadow tried to tell a story. In the old games rarely they elaborated on the story, just the same ''Dracula is back, gotta whip his ass'' and that's fine.
Lords of Shadow 2 at least tried. I legit cried when Gabrielsaw his wife again, the dialogue and acting was great. But after that the story simply doesn't make sense even if you try to and the stealth sections are a buggy mess. If you have patience on the stealth parts and just turn off your brain about the story, you'll find a great game.
The graphics hold up to this day, the combat is fluid and fun, the castle is fun to explore (though it doesn't make sense it's existence) and the thing that hurts the most, it's potential.
That collection of Castlevania melodies playing in the background 😎
Lord of Shadows 2 is one of those games, you know the type: "Its really bad for the first 4 hours, but then it gets good for the remaining 20"... not really something you can recommend to someone else , but something you know is worth experiencing once you already did.
That doesn't even make sense. The tutorial level is a pretty awesome opener and the next maybe hour is some cutscenes and minor stealth. Game is great within 2 hours and amazing feeling afterwards.
@@Bourikii2992 Ok, it doesn't make sense then, I was wrong, you're right and the game is actually shit after all, my bad.
Lament of Innocence is one of my three favorite Castlevania other than Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of The Night. so of course I welcomed Lords of Shadow when it was first announced since it quenched my thirst for 3d Castlevania at the time. and I loved it. I loved the 2nd one as well but oh boy those stealth sections nearly killed the game for me.
The stealth sections aren't even bad. They also only last about 1 minute unless you're mentally handicapped.
Only one I had trouble with was the 3 guards at one door because I forgot 20 hours ago they told you that the knife can distract guards.
Thank you for the Bloonshop clip at around 7 mins! I loved them back in the day! Also, love your videos!
It's the Shadow of the Colossus-style boss fights that intrigued me the most
They not good.
They pretty good
I never played the old castlevania games, but i have played these. And I like these games, its my favorite games series,. I hope they make more.
I'm a big fan of these games, but because of the stigma that surrounds them I often dread seeing people online talk about them because it's often just yet more hate without giving them a fair shake. So I'm glad to see you actually approach them more even-handedly and give praise where its due, especially with LoS2. While it has flaws it's my favourite of the series, in part thanks to the improved combat, so I'm glad that's something you picked up on as well.
It's funny when you were talking about issues with the first game's combat, and you were showing footage of the Butcher boss, I could predict exactly what you were going to bring up with that guy. That issue of the weird hitboxes is something I noticed too, but haven't seen anyone else bring it up.
I'm a huge fan of the original CV games, so LoS made me shudder in disgust right from the start. However, I have the mindset that you mentioned, giving things their fair shake. I might hate them from a distance, but maybe playing them would give more insight and appreciation for them. Nope. I tried. I REALLY tried. I 100%ed the first and middle games and the second game is just so painful to look at that I gave up on it within a few hours. I really, REALLY tried. Even after completing the first game, it only made me loathe the game even more because it made me realize that the game would have been better as an entirely new IP. It didn't feel like CV at all. The game isn't absolutely awful. I'd venture far enough to call it decent. But. It. Is. Not. Castlevania. Attaching the name "Castlevania" to a new IP just feels like usurping the recognizability of the brand for attention. If "Lords of Shadow" was its full name and it was a new IP that had nothing to do with CV, then I'd probably like it more, but this is such a massive departure from - and what feels like a middle finger to - the original games that I can't in good faith say that Lords of Shadow, which I gave its fair shake, has any right being a Castlevania game.
Cope harder, you can't simply butcher a renowned IP and expect the fans of said IP not to be revolted by this lame reboot (and even if you disregard the Castlevania name, these games are bad on their own, being nothing but lame GoW clones)
@@wallacesousuke1433 man I've seen you in every comment section so do us all of favor and shut up if we like it we like it if you don't you don't
and funnily enough, Koji Igarashi was like "Yo Konami! You wanna revive Castlevania properly? Call me!" after Bloodstained was a success. I want to see one era in the Castlevania cannon to be covered : Demon Castle War era where the fight against Dracula is brought out worldwide a long time before Aria of Sorrow
Once again my Dude you have done a phenomenal job on this series. Thank you for your well researched and entertaining video!
I love how Lucifer went from skinny and petite to EXTRA THICCC in the sequel. I wanna know his workout routine
Probably nothing special, but he did have a millennium to bulk up. And for what? All he did was possess Alucard with a considerably slimmer physique. All those gains WASTED!
@@Ckoz2829 Yoshio Sakamoto said the reason Mercury Steam was chosen to make a Metroid game was because of Mirror of Fate on the 3ds. Proving that Konami is to blame.
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
You take a sip from your trusty vault 13 canteen
We won't go quietly, the Legion can count on that.
Bruh... I loved the first one, I keep restarting the second one I need to finish it some day.
This video got me to find your channel, love the video, love the thumbnail art!
7:05 KBash continues to impress with the deepest cuts. Only KBash could insert decades old Balloonshop material and keep it relevant. Beautiful and a masterclass in comedy. :D
I got a huge grin on my face from seeing that. I used to watch Balloonshop all day long. I still quote them once in awhile but I don’t think my sisters even remember what I’m referencing lol.
Aw. Now that.... That is a reference from the days of old. Makes me want to dance and burn up.
The fuck happened to those guys. So talented.
Gotta churn that butter.
I really liked the first one. The gameplay was fun and I was invested in the story. I just couldn't stay hooked. I would almost get there, but then I would lose interest.
I’ve never been a big fan of this series of CV games, but I will admit for what they are at least the first 2 games were fun. Not something I’ll play over the Igavania or even the classicvania games. I can understand why the series went in this direction, but man the series lost its identity trying to get those mainstream sales
What I find interesting is that Ninja Gaiden is pretty much Ninja Castlevania, yet that got praise for its change, when Castlevania did a similar change and got shit for it.
a remaster collection for ps4 and ps5 would be nice, also creating a chance for a new game
"It was rough" yeah we only got like 1 amazing vania every 2 years :((((
You won me with that Balloon Shop insert good sir
Nice Vid man, finished C: LOS 2 recently and had a blast, can't wait to get my hands on C LOS 1. :)
I agree with most of your criticisms but still loved these games. Their music and aesthetics have always appealed to me so much. Great video anyway! Hopefully this will bring these games to more people's attention again.
Perfect video for my Friday, I’ll be taking lunch early to watch this. Thanks kbash
The backflip girl part is almost literally the Jack Ending Cinematic from Tekken 3 but as a fully realized game chapter and that is all I could think about while playing that part.
Great video! Tried out the demo for the first LoS game way back when, but never picked it up afterwards. Maybe I should because all 3 games look fun!
Your channel has grown so much , i watched your golden sun reviews and back then you only had like 1000 subs
First LOS was a damn good action game , mirror of fate was meh, the second game has a good bosses and the castle sections are pretty good but all those stealth section ruin the game
Thank you for the content KBash!
I like this rebooted universe in theory. Dracula being the first Belmont and the Belmont curse of having to fight him being a series of misunderstandings is appropriately tragic and on brand. I wish the games weren't so....7th gen. Despite some of the cool things I saw in the trailers for the first game, I didn't buy it because my thought was simply "I've seen this too many times before to be invested". I had already played Lords of Shadow without touching it and I was tired of that kind of game.
I would love to see this world of Castlevania but in the Fromsoft style. In fact, I think From is the perfect studio to resurrect the series.
I liked MoF drunk Irish Simon is Simons canon personality in both continuites in my heart.
I love the atmosphere Lords of Shadow has, but it's definitely a 'play it once' kind of game. It's good, but not get-every-trophy good. I'm glad I have it in my collection, but I've been lamenting the fact I've never gone back and played Lords of Shadow 2.
Believe it or not, these were my favorite castlevania games, especially given that I got introduced to them first, at the beginning of my edgelord phase, when Robert Carlisle's dracula hit *the SPOT* for 13 year old shitlord me lol
Lord of Shadows 1 is an amazing game that people hate on unfairly .
2 is unfairly hated as well. Seems like people read ign type reviews or watched 2bfp complain about the mildly annoying at worst stealth sections and wrote the game off.
You're honestly amazing at reviewing series critically. Keep up the amazing work man!
Real shit Castlevania Lords of Shadow 1 was a treat and I loved playing it, i highly suggest giving it a try, now number 2 I had mixed feelings about but on a side note the chess mini game after figuring out how it works is actually hella fun
LoS 2 section was really nicely written
The worst part of this series is that I played the first game to completion and still cannot remember a single damn thing about it other than the twist ending.
Holy shit that BalloonShop whip clip 😂 god I miss 2005 CZcams
Omg can you please tell me where that clip is from with demitry and that whip ?? I remember the channel vaguely something like balloon channel but I can’t find the videos but I loved them !!! Please let me know if you can remember I would greatly appreciate it
I have to appreciate the Lament of Innocence music in the background of this video. ❤️
AHHHHH A BALLOON SHOP REFERENCE! A GOD AMONG US! Thank you KBash for honoring my favorite video from childhood
whats funny is that i was looking into playing the castlevania games and just got done beating sotn. crazy
I really think you should do a kbash episodes on the God of war trilogy some day. Cause comparing the games to dmc when they are definitely more inspired by God of war is going to make so many hate comments with something like "It's not inspired by DMC. It's God of war!".
They aren't the best games, but they succeed on what they try to do, for the most part
I thought god of war was inspired by DMC
@@princeofbased5730 it is. But it's very different from DMC
Nice video, thank you. Especially since I could only stomach LoS for a couple of hours before becoming deathly bored.
Lament of Innocence was good though.
I had the complete opposite effect lol. I loved Lords of Shadow but Lament of Innocence nearly bored me to tears with its level design. The combat wasn’t half bad, the story and characters were good, and the music was great. But I always hated trudging through that barren castle where every room looks identical and are connected by mile long hallways.
I still think the LoS games are among the best Castlevania ones. I'm also glad you didn't bash on LoS2 so bad. I'm thankful it was released, given the Konami situation and all.
I wonder, Did you play the first LoS on Hard? Because when I first stared this game, I found it to be a mindless button mash with no strategy and pretty much a boring slog. But after getting the recommendation to re-start it on hard, from a podcast or something, it became one of my favorite games ever. When playing it on hard you're forced to slow down your attacks and really focus, so not to over extend and get hit. You also need to learn to use the parry system, and when done right it can really make you feel like a proper tank.
So if anything I recommend you try out the first game on hard and see if you like the game better that way.
One correction: Cornell, Camilla, and Zobek weren't 'ex' members. They were the founders, who were ascended. "Ex" implies they just went up and left the brotherhood
They were the evil halves of their ascended selves.
crazy how your experience of the game outlined around 1:50 is completely the negative image of mine - I found it to be like a mouldy old sandwich with tasty filling, maybe the most extreme example of that kind of variance of quality throughout a linear single-player adventure game with painfully dull opening stages and a late-stage that seems rushed and less than half thought-through but with a middle section I found superbly satisfying with the game finding a far better flow and balance between combat, puzzles platforming etc. I don't think it's any coincidence that the middle section of the game takes place in a castle and you has you fighting vampires (the campaign has a tripartite division between the land of werewolves, vampires, and necromancers, I'm saying the vampire section was awesome and the other two kind of sucked)
I'll have to go back to number 2 . I remember the stealth sections being terrible at launch.
Can someone PLEASE tell me the channel name of the whip video at 7:06?? That just brought back a tonne of memories…
I genuinely loved the first game.
🤢
I'm just picturing someone stumbling into a weird corpse in an alleyway one day and being like "hang on, is that Satan's dead body?"
Who did the weapon swap mid combo thing first? Devil May Cry or Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance? I wanna know.
Had this pop up on my feed since I am always looking for new Castlevania content. Been play the series since the beginning and I loved these games. Yeah Lord's of Shadow 2 isn't as good as the other two but was still fun. It was nice to see another take on Castlevania again instead of just more IGA.
This is my first video seeing from you, and not trying to be negative or offensive or anything but, something sounds off about your voice over. Are you messing with the speed or maybe cutting out gaps of silence between words? The rhythm just sounds a little odd. The video is well put together and I am sure I will get used to it when I check out more of your stuff.
IMO LoS2 IS the best 3D Castlvania game, and i think the hate from the game IS blown out Of proportion by the fanbase, they act like the horrible stealth sections are the entire game and not a a few small sections in a mostly platforming, exploration and combat heavy Adventure
Lets appriciate for a moment that Zobek was Voiced by Patrick Stewart adding to the weird suprsingly good side of first LoS. I might actually pick up mirror of fate because of this video because I thought It was more or less like the first game but just bad.
I have a soft spot for LoS2. It was so utterly weird compared to how aesthetically bland the first game was. Rat levels, satanic space marines, Dracula vs mechs; something about it was just enduring. I certainly won’t argue that it was ‘good’, but it was definitely ‘different ’.
Still though, I can understand why fans hate the series. This marked Castlevania’s death knell before being banished to the pachinko mines. Even on its own merits, the LoS series lands somewhere underneath Darksiders. But Darksiders didn’t have Captain Picard hamming it up in the VA booth, so who can say?
Somebody at the board: "Make it 3D? what's next? Pachinko machines?"
CEO: Precisely
It's so wild whenever I encounter someone that is even aware of Jericho.
I have been waiting on this video for years. Curious to see if you'll like the second on as much as I do.
I fucking love the quality of your "let's play" microphone.
now I want to see you talk about the other castlevania games.
Apparently the 3ds lords of shadow was good enough to land mercury steam the metroid 2 remake and eventually dread so
I love these games! Just played through both games again recently. The story, plot and voice acting were excellent! I always wanted a 3rd game on next Gen.
While I agree with the majority of what was said in this video, I have to disagree about the opening to Lords of Shadow 2 being a highlight.
I loved Lords of Shadow (admitted Darksiders simp here ☺), so I was crazy hyped for LoS2, but when I played the demo, which was just the opening segment of the game, it deflated my expectations completely and I didn't even support it at launch, only playing the full game for the first time years later when I got it on deep sale on Steam.
On paper that opening is the greatest nerd shit ever imagined, but in practice it was incredibly disappointing, to the point that when I finally played through the game I was furious that the devs divorced those segments so completely from the actual gameplay, which was way more enjoyable and would have guaranteed a day 1 purchase from my had the demo included a later game segment instead of the intro.
And I'm sure you hear this all the time, but your voice is amazing and I hope you get some VO work in an RPG some day
🙂
Balloon shop reference had me rolling
This is still one of my favorite games out there, I didn't care who made the game, the story was good, the gameplay had me engaged and the boss battles were fun, there is no game like this today that can make me feel like a fucking badass like LOS2 did. With how fucking bad new games are I'm glad to have LOS2 to return to when I wanna have fun.
Yuh know. The second one. Some parts ain't that bad. Plus closest thing we've had to a blood omen game in ages so I kinda had fun.
Absolutely BASED BalloonShop reference
Really enjoyed the first LOS on xbox 360, I remember thinking how high quality it was at the time and it still looks great to this day. Never picked up the second because of the bad reviews being so unanimous. I remember being able to get the Solid Eye from MGS4 I think after you beat the game.
Screw the reviews now years later it's my 1st time playing the 2nd one and it's 🔥
Beautiful prose in the conclusion, KBash.
The main problem with these games is that they carry the Castlevania title. If they had just been called Lords of Shadow, with no connection to Castlevania, most of the players would have been a lot more lenient on them. They are decent GoW clones.
Funny enough not only is the LoS trilogy are my favourite Castlevania games but they introduced me to Castlevania as a whole way before any TV series came out XD and for a ps3/4 group the quality and visuals were awesome like the Temple of Pan alone was so beautiful and I wish the trilogy was remastered and/or bundled together on the PS Store.
The biggest problem with los 2 was the stealth in the first game nothing could phase you not even satan and you didnt have that much power back then. But the stealth sections ruined the power fantasy why should I hide from a goat if I can kill it literally 4mins later?