Castlevania: Mirror of Fate

[Tamazoid]

I enjoyed it, though I haven't played a Castlevania game before. Probably will be my first 3DS game for 2013.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Currently playing this for the review. I will say without going into details that it is enjoyable.

With them bigging up the game length being 20 hours plus, I get that nagging feeling that it's gonna run out of steam halfway through (I hope I'm wrong!)

Lies.

[Dcubed]

Lies.

 

Of course it is. I never expected (or even wanted!) it to be that long

 

All I really want to know is whether or not it is able to keep things feeling fresh all the way throughout. I reckon that it's a good game, but I get a slight nagging feeling that it'll run out of new ideas/concepts/mechanics well before the game reaches its end...

[Captain Falcon]

After all these positive impressions, I'm probably gonna have to play the demo again as I didn't really get absorbed in it the first time this morning It may just be that I've grown tired of Castlevania..

 

What aspects do you thing you're grown tired of, the story or the gameplay? Given the LoS games mark a change in both aspects, I'd imagine this is the best way to get people back into the series and given that LoS was the best selling Castlevania to date, it seemed to do its job well. Perhaps it's more the game itself rather than it specifically being CV related... although I'd still think you crazy for thinking that way :p

[nekunando]

What aspects do you thing you're grown tired of, the story or the gameplay? Given the LoS games mark a change in both aspects, I'd imagine this is the best way to get people back into the series and given that LoS was the best selling Castlevania to date, it seemed to do its job well. Perhaps it's more the game itself rather than it specifically being CV related... although I'd still think you crazy for thinking that way :p

 

I honestly couldn't even be bothered to play the demo the whole way through, yesterday I will play it all tonight to see how I feel about it but maybe this game just isn't going in the direction that Castlevania will work for me

 

I've played quite a few over the last few years since being properly introduced to the series with the excellent Dawn of Sorrow, which remains my favourite I haven't finished Order of Ecclesia, probably due to feeling a little burnt out by the series and the punishing difficulty of some of the boss fights, but I was certainly keeping an eye on Mirror of Fate as I suspected the change of direction could be just the thing to breathe new life into Castlevania for me.

 

A recent attempt at Lords of Shadow on the PS3, however, just didn't feel right to me at all and I got a similar early impression of this. Perhaps I just haven't given either a proper chance, though, so there's partial hope yet..

[Captain Falcon]

I honestly couldn't even be bothered to play the demo the whole way through, yesterday I will play it all tonight to see how I feel about it but maybe this game just isn't going in the direction that Castlevania will work for me

 

I've played quite a few over the last few years since being properly introduced to the series with the excellent Dawn of Sorrow, which remains my favourite I haven't finished Order of Ecclesia, probably due to feeling a little burnt out by the series and the punishing difficulty of some of the boss fights, but I was certainly keeping an eye on Mirror of Fate as I suspected the change of direction could be just the thing to breathe new life into Castlevania for me.

 

A recent attempt at Lords of Shadow on the PS3, however, just didn't feel right to me at all and I got a similar early impression of this. Perhaps I just haven't given either a proper chance, though, so there's partial hope yet..

 

How far did you get? It's not that long really and you can pause the game and set it to easy if you're finding it a bit tough going. I read your few posts here about LoS and so I do wonder what this will be doing to change you mind for the series.

 

Maybe the trick is not think of it as Castlevania at all - LoS didn't start as a CV but got turned into along the development path and I'm sure there are people who wish that never happened.

 

I find OoE to be the weakest of the three DS games and there were a few difficulty spikes that didn't always make it plain sailing such as the giant horse thingy boss near the end... I'm not sure if I ever did get the "no hit" medal for that one. Did you even get "half-way", if you know what I mean?

[nekunando]

How far did you get? It's not that long really and you can pause the game and set it to easy if you're finding it a bit tough going. I read your few posts here about LoS and so I do wonder what this will be doing to change you mind for the series.

 

Maybe the trick is not think of it as Castlevania at all - LoS didn't start as a CV but got turned into along the development path and I'm sure there are people who wish that never happened.

 

I find OoE to be the weakest of the three DS games and there were a few difficulty spikes that didn't always make it plain sailing such as the giant horse thingy boss near the end... I'm not sure if I ever did get the "no hit" medal for that one. Did you even get "half-way", if you know what I mean?

 

I played through the rest of the demo this morning and my opinion remains unchanged It's OK, but it doesn't feel quite right to me..

 

As for Order of Ecclesia, I just checked and I must be pretty close to the end as I have it saved just outside a battle with Death in Dracula's Castle. That isn't going to be the easiest place to jump back in..

[Captain Falcon]

I played through the rest of the demo this morning and my opinion remains unchanged It's OK, but it doesn't feel quite right to me..

 

As for Order of Ecclesia, I just checked and I must be pretty close to the end as I have it saved just outside a battle with Death in Dracula's Castle. That isn't going to be the easiest place to jump back in..

 

If it's not for you, it's not for you but I've just finally gotten round to pre-ordering the thing and I think I'll be enjoying it enough for the both of us.

 

You really couldn't have picked a much worse time to stop playing... well you could, but not much worse. I'd be tempted to start again instead of carrying on if I were you but since I'm not and you are, I'm guessing that you also can't be bothered to do either at the moment :p

[Ike]

I wasn't a big fan of the DS games, but I liked this more than I expected. I'm just not sure if I want to play the full game though.

[nekunando]

You really couldn't have picked a much worse time to stop playing... well you could, but not much worse. I'd be tempted to start again instead of carrying on if I were you but since I'm not and you are, I'm guessing that you also can't be bothered to do either at the moment :p

 

..you got that right

 

I don't think I'd ever be bothered to go through it all again so it'll just have to be a matter of picking it up some day and keep battling until I get used to it all again and work out the attack pattern..

[Blade]

Ive played the demo and really enjoyed it. Never played a castlevania before. As im skint though i think i will wait until its fairly cheap.

[Retro_Link]

OK this is quite a surprise having read your impressions of the demo!...

 

IGN Review - 4.7

 

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/03/05/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-mirror-of-fate-review

 

Bad

 

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate isn’t the Castlevania game you’re looking for. Not even close.

[Dcubed]

Reviews are all over the place. Not surprised one little bit.

 

This game has been divisive ever since it was first announced (nay, even before that with Lords of Shadow). There is a substantial group out there who refuse to accept anything different from the foundation of the IGA Castlevanias, with them labelling the Mercurysteam games as "not real Castlevania" (which in of itself is a laughable statement when you consider that the Metroidvania titles in-of-themselves aren't actually "real" Castlevania titles either ). The fact that these games have been developed by a Spanish studio also doesn't help, as it exacerbates the situation by throwing xenophobia into the mix for good measure

 

My gut feeling tells me that this is a good game, albeit with a few rough edges and a slight petering out towards the end. My gut has never steered me wrong and I don't expect it to do so this time either

Edited March 5, 2013 by Dcubed

[liger05]

OK this is quite a surprise having read your impressions of the demo!...

 

IGN Review - 4.7

 

Plenty other reviews score it much higher. That review doesnt seem like his judging the game on it's own merits but his just pissed that its not 'castlevania'.

Edited March 5, 2013 by liger05

[flameboy]

I played the demo and hated it....The DS games were done of my favourite games on the system. Also loved the first GBA game. Games I'm proud to have finished as well due to difficulty. However something feels off about this.

[Retro_Link]

They at least say they enjoyed the music. :p

[nekunando]

OK this is quite a surprise having read your impressions of the demo!...

 

IGN Review - 4.7

 

It's not that much of a surprise to me given the demo..

 

I played the demo and hated it....The DS games were done of my favourite games on the system. Also loved the first GBA game. Games I'm proud to have finished as well due to difficulty. However something feels off about this.

 

Where were you when I was expressing my doubts about Mirror of Fate..?

[Captain Falcon]

You could tell from the opening paragraph that the game was going to get ripped apart in what reads as a heavily baised review. The reviewer clearly prefers his Castlevania's where exploration is the main focus and this doesn't seem like it's being given a fair crack of the whip. Symphony has never been labelled by the designers as a direct influence - it was always Lords of Shadow itself and Dracula's Curse. Having watched the opening 10 levels of Lords of Shadow, the demo for this suggested an incredibly faithful transition from its 3D beginnings into the 2D space. Starting to and continuing to then bash the game for not being what it was never supposed to be seems awfully strange way to go about reviewing it. Sure, you can make the comparison to give context for long time fans but there still has to be a element of objectivity.

 

The levelling system in the 2D games is greatly overshadowed by the item collection and as such is equally unrewarding as the games never tend to throw more at you than you can handle for your level - here the leveling works in tandem with unlocking skills so how is that less rewarding than simply added +3 to a bunch of base numbers that play second fiddle to the much greater numbers attributed by equipment? The review claims you can just brute force your way past boss fights here thanks to the save system but how is that different to using a load of healing spells in the exploration based games? You can either beat a boss without help or you can beat it with help - this games decision to remove the choice of a complete restart may not have been the wisest move but let's not pretend that a lot of the other games didn't offer a similar ability to fudge your way through. I'm sure if they hadn't gone that route, the reviewer would have moaned about them being too difficult and blaiming the fighting mechanics. What haqppens if your can't beat a boss in the exploration games? Go look for better items, a bunch of potions (buy them) and grind a few levels and brute force your way past them anyway with just as little skill as you were using before. You can't brute force past Classicvania bosses... except SCIV... but perhaps the todays gamer (less experienced and more time concious) isn't looking for those kind of challenges.

 

The old games are great because they focused on both the village and the castle and the new games are great because they focus on just the castle but because this game focuses on the castle, it is therefore bad? I certainly wouldn't go citing CV2 as game a master class in design either - it was a good idea but the execution was a bit lousy and the Mansions were awful. I don't really think colour is something that the the series is desperate for and both DoS and PoR got a bit of ridicule for their design asthetic that introduced more colour. OoE was pretty dull by comparison but no one complained about it's look from a design perspective - in fact, the "fans" were quite happy about it.

 

And in terms of castle layout, none of them make that much sense really so why is that suddenly an issue.

 

So it really seems odd that a castlevania fan, such as the reviewer claims to be, has put up with a lot of the same issues since the series inception but only now finds them bothersome.

 

 

I could tell playing the demo that not everyone was going to like it (even if I thoroughly enjoyed it) but that seemed like nasty review just for the sake of it. The german part of IGN have given it an 8.0.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Captain Falcon

[Retro_Link]

@Captain Falcon, did you watch the video review?

 

To me it didn't sound a biased opinion. More one based on a broken game that didn't know what it was trying to be.

 

BTW... is the 'Mirror' aspect still in the game that was supposed to use the 3DS camera's?

[Captain Falcon]

@Captain Falcon, did you watch the video review?

 

To me it didn't sound a biased opinion. More one based on a broken game that didn't know what it was trying to be.

 

BTW... is the 'Mirror' aspect still in the game that was supposed to use the 3DS camera's?

 

No, I just read the text version. Who is to say that it doesn't know what it wants to be? My understanding was it was combat first and foremost with multiple characters with different skills for a bit of diversity and a little bit of light exploration for old times sake. The bias I believe present stems from the reviewer not wanting that because the handheld 2D games are synonomous with exploration based gameplay. If I was expecting or wanting Metroidvania, I think I'd be pretty upset too and then I'd be tempted to nitpick the game to pieces over things that had never previously bothered me.

 

I don't know about the Mirror - I've not seen it mentioned in any of the reviews I've read.

 

Aren't the IGN video reviews just a guy reading the text review over gamplay footage? It's all the ever used to be.

[Retro_Link]

Well the video review said they enjoyed Lord of Shadows, that this game making you use the circle pad wasn't the best design, and in terms of the characters, by the time your comfortable using one and their move set it's on to the next one. The castle seemed oddly empty at times, enemy repetition was high which is unusual for the series and that the castle was broken up into odd parts that made navigation to previous area overly difficult.

 

To me it sounded like someone who knew a lot about all entries in the series and this wasn't a good one. But still, I'm sure there's something to be got out of the game.

[Eightbit]

The reviews are indeed all over the place. I'm still going to get this. I haven't played a Castlevania before and it sounds like the guy on the IGN review was throwing his dummy out because it didn't play like one of his favorites (obviously a problem i wont have).

 

I probably would have passed if there was anything else to keep me going until Luigi, Monster Hunter and Fire Emblem, but i think it will be the perfect game until then.

[yesteryeargames]

http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/05/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-mirror-of-fate-review-its-got-bite-3526141/

 

an review that i trust , dont even bother reading ign

[-Dem0-]

Well here's a Review from a trusty website:

"Although the 2D perspective and Metroidvania-style features call to mind past classics, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate shouldn’t be directly compared to previous games in Konami’s long-running vampire-hunting series, because it tries to do things a little differently. While elements of exploration and item collection remain, they are drastically scaled back when compared to the likes of Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow — which could be a positive or a negative, depending on your personal taste. Instead, MercurySteam’s vision of Castlevania is built around a deep combat engine which tries to make each and every enemy encounter a rewarding and challenging experience. Factor in some impressive visuals, gorgeous music and taxing boss battles — not to mention a fantastic story and more replay value than you might at first imagine — and you’ve got a game which can stand proud in the Castlevania bloodline. Sometimes, a little change is a good thing." 8/10

http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/3ds/castlevania_lords_of_shadow_mirror_of_fate

Edited March 5, 2013 by -Dem0-

[Retro_Link]

You'd take the views of Metro newspaper over IGN?