Zero Punctuation: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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Singularity also had a once off reference to something. It was a note, like many of the other thousands of notes you could find in the game, in a locker, somewhere near the final quarter of the game and all it was a reference to was the really bad neighbour joke from Borat. By that time I felt Singularity had lost all hope in me for retaining coolness and simply decided to throw itself off a bridge.
I vaguely remember something like this a while back. So if you're crazy so am I. I also vaguely remember the original title being singular "Lord of Shadow."redbeta22 said:
[link]http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=215499[/link] - Welp, heres an article announcing Kojima working on a game called "Lord of Shadow" and no mention of Castlevania attached to it.
Presumably you have not heard of Dante's Inferno... the game, not the epic poem, of course. But to show how pointless your line of reasoning is, let's try a little reductio ad absurdum.FieryTrainwreck said:
So with very minor edits, your argument "proves" that the original Half-life is a massive rip-off of Duke Nukem 3D, which is, of course, patently absurd.
If all you do is scratch the surface with your analysis and point out a few trivial, superficial similarities, sure, Lords of Shadow looks like God of War. But that's utterly meaningless. The gameplay is extremely different.
In God of War, you slowly acquire moves that more or less replace your previous moves in usefulness until you eventually have a massive repertoire that you boil down to a couple of combos... somehow this doesn't feel repetitive, because the game is just so damn well presented. But the gameplay isn't terribly deep, unfortunately.
In Castlevania, you slowly acquire moves that enhance different playing styles, all of which are necessary to get through the game at a reasonable pace on a reasonable difficulty. Some are good against hordes of enemies, some are good for focusing on slow enemies, others are good for focusing on faster, dodging enemies, others are good for gaining life in light magic mode, others are good for heavy damage in shadow mode, others are good for building fast focus in order to regain magic. I had, at the end of the game, a few moves I wasn't using often, but there were probably 6 or 7 combos or techniques I used regularly and that's not even counting the subweapons, which also have no perfect analogy in God of War.
And that's just gameplay. You called out the "mythological monsters" as a similarity, but it's actually a vast difference. Gothic monsters like vampires and lycanthropes are inspired by a western horror tradition, while Minotaurs and Gorgons come from a more heroic mythological tradition. The literary histories of these monsters could not be more different. And besides, what *should* Gabriel Belmont fight in a Castlevania game? Aliens?
And as a protagonist, Gabriel is nothing like Kratos. He isn't out for revenge, ultimately wants to do the right thing, wrestling with what that is, and genuinely cares about the consequences of his actions.
No, they think it's lazy. It was only ever really accurate with respect to Dante's Inferno, yet it was applied to a host of games (including Bayonetta of all things). It was only used in the first place as a comedy trope he could come back to repeatedly for humorous effect. For the most part, it has never been an indictment you should take seriously for any given game. It was supposed to be taken in aggregate as a number of developers saturated the action game market.... well, that's all over with now. Castlevania is not arriving in a saturated action game market that has to compete directly with God of War. So it's no longer relevant... and since it's far from fresh, it seems lazy.
Not that the comparison isn't worth making.... it is. But more so you can take the opportunity to contrast the two. They look obviously similar on the surface, so if you're going to call them similar, you're not saying anything interesting. But luckily, you can say something interesting... because under the surface, they're completely different. Even the QTEs.... they seemed more like they were inspired by Lost Odyssey than God of War.
Hmmm Castlevania is/was (after Symphony it becamed a JRPG of sorts) a platformer and Mirror's Edge in a way was a platformer... A first person platformer... Therefore Mirror's Edge with Whips Lol but if that's confusing then yeah lets leave it at Metroid Prime with whips (Also had platforming sections)zipzod said:
Also if you leave out the First Person view, then what it's the relation with the Prime series?
that doesnt mean you shouldnt get it. One mans opinion shouldnt be a huge deciding factor. And I do like yahtzee, I agree with him like 90 oercent of the time.Azure Knight-Zeo said:
Outside of SOTN, I find all the 2D castlevanias after it boring and just trying to be another SOTN and they are not.
Yeah Lords of Shadow is a God of War knock off but it was a fun one unlike Dante's Inferno.The reference to the war between heaven and hell was around before Dante's Inferno, Castlevania had it in previous games as well but did think the Devil as the last boss was pretty lame myself.It was suppose to be a reboot for the series cause it grew stale and was telling of the coming of Dracula
I am shocked though you didn't bring up how Patrick Stewart's character looked like a young Sean Connery or maybe that is just me.
Yeah Lords of Shadow is a God of War knock off but it was a fun one unlike Dante's Inferno.The reference to the war between heaven and hell was around before Dante's Inferno, Castlevania had it in previous games as well but did think the Devil as the last boss was pretty lame myself.It was suppose to be a reboot for the series cause it grew stale and was telling of the coming of Dracula
I am shocked though you didn't bring up how Patrick Stewart's character looked like a young Sean Connery or maybe that is just me.
Having finished and really enjoyed the game (finally a kind of QTE that doesn't make me set the controller on fire), I can't really see where all the hate is supposed to come from.
Maybe those people that complain are too young to realize that Castlevania is, at its roots an homage to the classic universal horror films.
Keeping that in mind, compare Lords of Shadow with another more recent movie that taps into the same kind of nostalgic remake: Van Helsing.
Especially the God of War comparison does not fit at all. As pointed out prior, GoW is referring to mythological stories, while Castlevania is referring movies that refer to books that loosely based their stories on local myths (emphasize "loosely").
Actually the creative direction to deliver an action game in the sense of the big Hollywood action flicks is the only thing that GoW and Castlevania share in common.
Now, before everybody jumps at me with SotN etc., please also keep in mind that it was said very clearly that Lords of Shadow is a complete reboot that goes back to the spirit of the Castlevania series.
If you take the time to go back and look at the first titles, you will even see the film reel at the side of the screen and might realize that later titles actually departed heavily from the original.
I will exaggerate a bit and go as far as saying that comparing LoS to SotN and later titles is like comparing a hypothetical Warcraft: Orcs & Humans reboot with World of Warcraft.
Maybe not the best example, but I think it'll get my point across.
So you got a hero with a whip, pretty much all kinds of horror creatures (you may even count the collosi as a kind of golem), beautiful medieval vistas and a lot of action interspersed with platforming. Only the riddles seem a bit out of place there, but all in all, how does this not sound like Castlevania?
The better stamp would have been "It's like Castlevania, but not like Metroid".
Having said that, Yathzee pretty much hits all the flaws the game has, except maybe the camera and the loading issues (I got the PS3 version). Never had a problem with the camera and only once missed an area that was sort-of hidden on purpose just before Pan's temple.
Then again, anything I missed gave me enough reason to start again on Paladin and get the 110% completion while being forced to a bit more tactical combat (not too hard though).
Maybe those people that complain are too young to realize that Castlevania is, at its roots an homage to the classic universal horror films.
Keeping that in mind, compare Lords of Shadow with another more recent movie that taps into the same kind of nostalgic remake: Van Helsing.
Especially the God of War comparison does not fit at all. As pointed out prior, GoW is referring to mythological stories, while Castlevania is referring movies that refer to books that loosely based their stories on local myths (emphasize "loosely").
Actually the creative direction to deliver an action game in the sense of the big Hollywood action flicks is the only thing that GoW and Castlevania share in common.
Now, before everybody jumps at me with SotN etc., please also keep in mind that it was said very clearly that Lords of Shadow is a complete reboot that goes back to the spirit of the Castlevania series.
If you take the time to go back and look at the first titles, you will even see the film reel at the side of the screen and might realize that later titles actually departed heavily from the original.
I will exaggerate a bit and go as far as saying that comparing LoS to SotN and later titles is like comparing a hypothetical Warcraft: Orcs & Humans reboot with World of Warcraft.
Maybe not the best example, but I think it'll get my point across.
So you got a hero with a whip, pretty much all kinds of horror creatures (you may even count the collosi as a kind of golem), beautiful medieval vistas and a lot of action interspersed with platforming. Only the riddles seem a bit out of place there, but all in all, how does this not sound like Castlevania?
The better stamp would have been "It's like Castlevania, but not like Metroid".
Having said that, Yathzee pretty much hits all the flaws the game has, except maybe the camera and the loading issues (I got the PS3 version). Never had a problem with the camera and only once missed an area that was sort-of hidden on purpose just before Pan's temple.
Then again, anything I missed gave me enough reason to start again on Paladin and get the 110% completion while being forced to a bit more tactical combat (not too hard though).
Goddess no.I loved Symphony but the rest of these metroidvania games suck.I miss the old days and do like some of the console games like Curse of Darkness and Lament of InnocenceCrono Maniac said:
Wow, Yahtzee was in rare form on this one. I could have done without the fart bit at the end, but he really was on.
Personally, this game is a great example of how dangerous it can be to get overhyped about a game. I have been following this game eagerly ever since it was first announced about two years ago, but after having played it for a few hours it just doesn't live up to the hype. Its probably a great game though. I dont mind the quick time events or that exploration seems to take somewhat of a backseat. Also, calling this a God Of War clone, just because the main character uses a chain based weapon is just pure bullshit. I mean chain based weapons have pretty much been a trademark of the series ever since it started. But like i said the problem i have is that i got too excited about it. I think Yahtzee himself said it best. That its better to except something to be shit, so that if it turns out not to be shit or not as shitty as you expected it makes it all the more sweeter.
Oh god, I laughed my ass off at the Stamp section:
"So where would you like your stamp?"
"On the face please."
"So where would you like your stamp?"
"On the face please."
I find that Yahtzee almost always has something perceptive or interesting to say about the games he reviews (as well as usually getting a few good laughs out of me), so I find myself reliably coming back... He also takes a lot of cheap shots that are utterly unfair and throwaway, and I commonly find that I disagree with his final conclusion.blueshark217 said:
So I never really get people who base a purchasing decision purely on a ZP review. Hell, even Yahtzee doesn't mean everything in his review 100% seriously. Much of it is played up for comedic effect, and his shtick is to be exaggeratedly critical. If you only bought stuff that Yahtzee obviously liked, you'd own like 7 games....