@@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 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
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.
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.
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?)
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.
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.
"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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'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)
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.
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.
They were commercially successful games with the first one being critically very well praised. They are some of my own personal favourote games that have one of the best soundtracks from a criminally underrated composer. Most criticism is unfounded and comes from sad die hard fans who cannot appreciate the concept of an adaptation and want carbon copy repeats of games for ever
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
Makes me wonder what kind of games KBash actually DOES enjoy playing. Lords of Shadow wasn't nearly as bad as he's trying to make it out by dragging it.
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
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.
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.
One thing I think needs to be touched on about the first game's combat is how superfluous and downright risky air combing can be. Half the enemies can't be launched and out of the the ones that can half of those are not worth it cause they die in a couple hits. This goes into the next problem of the game which is enemies are regulated to segments of the game. Unlike something like GOW, MGR or DMC were enemies are introduced then put into group of other enemies to create variety of situations, most enemies are introduced fought for a segment of the game then never appear again. This is pretty bad and makes a whole 40% of your moveset being useless against 70% of the enemies which ud really apparent as there will be stretches of the game were you should never use air combat. This gets to the next problem which is that unlike DMC were part of going airborne is that it can help you avoid a lot of attacks while safely dispatching a enemy which makes extending air time beneficial, being in the air leaves you locked out of most of your defensive options which is really apparent in the dlc boss fight as you have to quick descent first to block or dodge but be in the air to hit his weak point. Last thing is the double jump which is the ability that breaks open the juggle system of the game is gotten after the last area where air combos are even a viable part of combat, WTF. Thankful the sequel fixed all these problems
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
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
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.
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
I never thought in a million years a videogame youtuber would insert a balloonshop clip. If i wasnt already subscribed, that wouldve convinced me to do so. YOU BOYS QUIT THAT WHIPPIN
Dude, always the same stuff. Oh, in this game you have to fight 3 super giant dudes and search for their weak points? "Well that was already made by shadow of the colossus" so what? No else can put giant boss battles in games anymore because that gane did it before? The only thing that matters is if it's a well made fight, and by what I see on this video it looks like it is.
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?
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?
It's important to make the distinction that the first game in the Lords of Shadow series was not meant to be a Castlevania game at all. It ws a 2008 trailer with the title "Lords of Shadow". It was Konami that saw the similarities to their own series and decided to buy and fund this project to make it a reboot of Castlevania. I remember this because I'm a big Castlevania fan and I spent my tennage years in the 00s in Castlevania forums. I got bombasted when I suggested "this trailer, this is what Castlevania should become" and was proven right 2 years later. Kojima was brought to give it some flair to the story and that's how it became what it became, with Kojima on a support producer role. The game was good at everything it attempted... good platforming (on the level of Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed/Uncharted back then), good story (much better than most things back then), and above avarage combat. The combat is actually decent enough to ahve spawned Style Tournament videos on youtube more than a decade ago. MercurySteam took the feedback from the the first game and worked on creating a more traditional "Castlevania" experience that people were expecting (basically a continuation of GBA and DS IGAvanias) which later became Mirror of Fate. Then, after FURTHER backlash from the diehard fans and the massive success of the first LoS they were tasked to add the IGAvania stuff to the LoS formula, hence why it was more open and had more exploration than the former. MercurySteam was always tied with ropes. I really didn't like all of this when it first came out but I saw it as a natural evolution from the Classicvania formula... the only issue is that the Souls games became everything I wanted Castlevania to be, and Lord of Shadow was everything that my Catlevania experience from yesteryears wasn't. I don't blame them though, they did a good enough job to be given reign over Metroid, and they've done real well with that.
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.
The criticisms of this game are very fair and accurate, but I really do love this game. Even as a long time hyper fan of the original series, having played just about all of them multiple times, including the bonus characters like Richter and Julius. Even then, I actually really love this game. I don’t think they needed to reboot it to make an amazing 3d Castlevania, but as is, I think it’s a really cool reinterpretation of the series lore and characters with some great gameplay and puzzles, great bosses, fantastic visuals, and superb music. Compared to other imitators of Devil May Cry and God of War, I actually think this game has some pretty great combat. I certainly find it more fast and technical than games like Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders. I would have liked more weapons, but the physics and combos of the Combat Cross are really great, the relics are really cool in combat, and the light and shadow magic mechanic is really unique and interesting in this game. I feel like this game took a lot of the best parts of Lament of Innocence’s combat and mixed that with some sensibilities of God of War and even Zelda. The enemy AI was my biggest complaint honestly, it was a little over the top sometimes and the telegraphs kinda sucked. But overall, I think this game was a really amazing attempt to reinterpret Castlevania. I wish the sequel would have been as good as this first one. This game gets a lot right and feels like a really earnest effort to make something great.
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.
I like the first LoS for the most part (until the completely obvious example of Patrick Stewart's betrayal, and the transparent revelation of who killed Garbriel's life and then we end up fighting Satan which is a huge shark jumping moment). The Shadow of the colossus elements were nice. Some characters like Laura and Carmilla were somewhat interesting. I don't like Quick Time events but these weren't the worst I've seen. The best aspects of the game I thought were how big and immersive the world was. The graphics of the world were pretty good at the time. LoS2 was absolutely freaking awful. I have nothing nice to say about it. Even at the end of the game a guy with a big gun can one shot the Lord of Darkness. My favorite part of LoS2 is where Dracula rides the exploding gas tank. That told me we had crossed the line into full goddamn parody....
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
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
Despite the story being utter nonsense, despite Gabriel being a pathetic Dracula and despite all the other things, LoS2 is my favorite of the rebooted saga. Why ? Probably because of the non linearity that was lacking in LoS1, I was so disappointed it was a linear set of stages after playing all the metroidvanias before, including SotN at its launch. Also the whole dialogue between the Paladin and Gabriel is one the most badass things I've ever seen in a video game.
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 🙂
as someone who loves this trilogy with its flaws, i do want a remaster/port to modern consoles that could smooth out some wrinkles. And in LoS2, trim some of the Stealth and make the Golgoth guards killable, even if its through a QTE. Gabriel is my personal favorite Belmont amongst the entire cast of the series.
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.
People say god of war like but lament of innocence released 2 years before god of war and is in a similar combat style. So I think it should get more recognition as an original idea rather then a knock off.
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
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.
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
@@wallacesousuke1433Maybe cry more that might fix it!
Who ever Gabriel's VA was needed a fuckin award...
He's Robert Carlyle, veteran actor who was once a Bond Villain.
The music composed for Lords of Shadows is BALLER
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.
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
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.
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.
"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 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.
LOS 2 and Mirror of Fate are really good too
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
@@wallacesousuke1433Cry some more
@@twinzzlers lmao you're the only one crying and coping hard here
@@wallacesousuke1433 Cry some more
waa waa dont talk trash about my mediocre low effort God of War clones which all flopped hard waa waa
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 really loved this game growing up, im glad to see that you appreciate it so much!
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Thank you for the Bloonshop clip at around 7 mins! I loved them back in the day! Also, love your videos!
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.
This game gets so much Undeserved hate. These games are awesome, don't care what anyone says!
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.
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
They were commercially successful games with the first one being critically very well praised. They are some of my own personal favourote games that have one of the best soundtracks from a criminally underrated composer.
Most criticism is unfounded and comes from sad die hard fans who cannot appreciate the concept of an adaptation and want carbon copy repeats of games for ever
Holy shit that BalloonShop whip clip 😂 god I miss 2005 TH-cam
That collection of Castlevania melodies playing in the background 😎
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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.
"It was rough" yeah we only got like 1 amazing vania every 2 years :((((
Bruh... I loved the first one, I keep restarting the second one I need to finish it some day.
Once again my Dude you have done a phenomenal job on this series. Thank you for your well researched and entertaining video!
a remaster collection for ps4 and ps5 would be nice, also creating a chance for a new game
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I liked MoF drunk Irish Simon is Simons canon personality in both continuites in my heart.
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
AHHHHH A BALLOON SHOP REFERENCE! A GOD AMONG US! Thank you KBash for honoring my favorite video from childhood
This video got me to find your channel, love the video, love the thumbnail art!
Makes me wonder what kind of games KBash actually DOES enjoy playing. Lords of Shadow wasn't nearly as bad as he's trying to make it out by dragging it.
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.
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.
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.
LoS 2 section was really nicely written
whats funny is that i was looking into playing the castlevania games and just got done beating sotn. crazy
I'll have to go back to number 2 . I remember the stealth sections being terrible at launch.
Really not gonna talk about how if you wanted to find out how he became drac, then you better by the dlc on the first one
The final boss in that DLC is named The Forgotten one which is fitting because they literally forgot to put him in the game.
One thing I think needs to be touched on about the first game's combat is how superfluous and downright risky air combing can be. Half the enemies can't be launched and out of the the ones that can half of those are not worth it cause they die in a couple hits.
This goes into the next problem of the game which is enemies are regulated to segments of the game. Unlike something like GOW, MGR or DMC were enemies are introduced then put into group of other enemies to create variety of situations, most enemies are introduced fought for a segment of the game then never appear again. This is pretty bad and makes a whole 40% of your moveset being useless against 70% of the enemies which ud really apparent as there will be stretches of the game were you should never use air combat.
This gets to the next problem which is that unlike DMC were part of going airborne is that it can help you avoid a lot of attacks while safely dispatching a enemy which makes extending air time beneficial, being in the air leaves you locked out of most of your defensive options which is really apparent in the dlc boss fight as you have to quick descent first to block or dodge but be in the air to hit his weak point.
Last thing is the double jump which is the ability that breaks open the juggle system of the game is gotten after the last area where air combos are even a viable part of combat, WTF.
Thankful the sequel fixed all these problems
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
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.
Complaining about Satan being in the game tells me he has never played any of the other Castlevania games.
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.
Your channel has grown so much , i watched your golden sun reviews and back then you only had like 1000 subs
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
I never thought in a million years a videogame youtuber would insert a balloonshop clip. If i wasnt already subscribed, that wouldve convinced me to do so.
YOU BOYS QUIT THAT WHIPPIN
Dude, always the same stuff. Oh, in this game you have to fight 3 super giant dudes and search for their weak points? "Well that was already made by shadow of the colossus" so what? No else can put giant boss battles in games anymore because that gane did it before? The only thing that matters is if it's a well made fight, and by what I see on this video it looks like it is.
Can someone PLEASE tell me the channel name of the whip video at 7:06?? That just brought back a tonne of memories…
Thank you for the content KBash!
Absolutely BASED BalloonShop reference
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?
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?
Nice Vid man, finished C: LOS 2 recently and had a blast, can't wait to get my hands on C LOS 1. :)
It's so wild whenever I encounter someone that is even aware of Jericho.
I genuinely loved the first game.
🤢
You're honestly amazing at reviewing series critically. Keep up the amazing work man!
It's important to make the distinction that the first game in the Lords of Shadow series was not meant to be a Castlevania game at all. It ws a 2008 trailer with the title "Lords of Shadow". It was Konami that saw the similarities to their own series and decided to buy and fund this project to make it a reboot of Castlevania. I remember this because I'm a big Castlevania fan and I spent my tennage years in the 00s in Castlevania forums. I got bombasted when I suggested "this trailer, this is what Castlevania should become" and was proven right 2 years later. Kojima was brought to give it some flair to the story and that's how it became what it became, with Kojima on a support producer role. The game was good at everything it attempted... good platforming (on the level of Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed/Uncharted back then), good story (much better than most things back then), and above avarage combat. The combat is actually decent enough to ahve spawned Style Tournament videos on youtube more than a decade ago.
MercurySteam took the feedback from the the first game and worked on creating a more traditional "Castlevania" experience that people were expecting (basically a continuation of GBA and DS IGAvanias) which later became Mirror of Fate. Then, after FURTHER backlash from the diehard fans and the massive success of the first LoS they were tasked to add the IGAvania stuff to the LoS formula, hence why it was more open and had more exploration than the former.
MercurySteam was always tied with ropes. I really didn't like all of this when it first came out but I saw it as a natural evolution from the Classicvania formula... the only issue is that the Souls games became everything I wanted Castlevania to be, and Lord of Shadow was everything that my Catlevania experience from yesteryears wasn't.
I don't blame them though, they did a good enough job to be given reign over Metroid, and they've done real well with that.
Perfect video for my Friday, I’ll be taking lunch early to watch this. Thanks 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.
The criticisms of this game are very fair and accurate, but I really do love this game. Even as a long time hyper fan of the original series, having played just about all of them multiple times, including the bonus characters like Richter and Julius. Even then, I actually really love this game. I don’t think they needed to reboot it to make an amazing 3d Castlevania, but as is, I think it’s a really cool reinterpretation of the series lore and characters with some great gameplay and puzzles, great bosses, fantastic visuals, and superb music. Compared to other imitators of Devil May Cry and God of War, I actually think this game has some pretty great combat. I certainly find it more fast and technical than games like Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders. I would have liked more weapons, but the physics and combos of the Combat Cross are really great, the relics are really cool in combat, and the light and shadow magic mechanic is really unique and interesting in this game. I feel like this game took a lot of the best parts of Lament of Innocence’s combat and mixed that with some sensibilities of God of War and even Zelda. The enemy AI was my biggest complaint honestly, it was a little over the top sometimes and the telegraphs kinda sucked. But overall, I think this game was a really amazing attempt to reinterpret Castlevania. I wish the sequel would have been as good as this first one. This game gets a lot right and feels like a really earnest effort to make something great.
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.
I have to appreciate the Lament of Innocence music in the background of this video. ❤️
I like the first LoS for the most part (until the completely obvious example of Patrick Stewart's betrayal, and the transparent revelation of who killed Garbriel's life and then we end up fighting Satan which is a huge shark jumping moment).
The Shadow of the colossus elements were nice. Some characters like Laura and Carmilla were somewhat interesting. I don't like Quick Time events but these weren't the worst I've seen. The best aspects of the game I thought were how big and immersive the world was. The graphics of the world were pretty good at the time.
LoS2 was absolutely freaking awful. I have nothing nice to say about it. Even at the end of the game a guy with a big gun can one shot the Lord of Darkness. My favorite part of LoS2 is where Dracula rides the exploding gas tank. That told me we had crossed the line into full goddamn parody....
Somebody at the board: "Make it 3D? what's next? Pachinko machines?"
CEO: Precisely
Apparently the 3ds lords of shadow was good enough to land mercury steam the metroid 2 remake and eventually dread so
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
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
Despite the story being utter nonsense, despite Gabriel being a pathetic Dracula and despite all the other things, LoS2 is my favorite of the rebooted saga. Why ? Probably because of the non linearity that was lacking in LoS1, I was so disappointed it was a linear set of stages after playing all the metroidvanias before, including SotN at its launch.
Also the whole dialogue between the Paladin and Gabriel is one the most badass things I've ever seen in a video game.
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
🙂
as someone who loves this trilogy with its flaws, i do want a remaster/port to modern consoles that could smooth out some wrinkles. And in LoS2, trim some of the Stealth and make the Golgoth guards killable, even if its through a QTE.
Gabriel is my personal favorite Belmont amongst the entire cast of the series.
Yeah, he's literally the only Belmont with any character and development.
I have been waiting on this video for years. Curious to see if you'll like the second on as much as I do.
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.
People say god of war like but lament of innocence released 2 years before god of war and is in a similar combat style. So I think it should get more recognition as an original idea rather then a knock off.