This game was dope. Favorite of the LoS games - partly because the gameplay was closer to a Classicvania game than the other two... and partly because I REALLY like the design for Simon and Trevor. Both look so cool.
My only beef with this game is the soundtrack. It went with that dramatic environmental stuff rather than the usual bombastic jams. I miss that about the older stuff like og Castlevania and SOTN.
While I still listen to Castlevania music to this very day, wether in the car or during break at work, I think the music in Mirror fits perfectly as a sequel to a somewhat darker Castlevania story.
That's a Lord Of Shadows thing in general, not specific to this game. I barely remember any music from this triology, especially compared to anything before it.
I unironically love this game. The exploration isn't as deep as a traditional igavania but I still feel it's a damn solid action side scroller. The 3D effects on the 3DS look really nice as well. Also I prefer LoS Alucard to the traditional one. I know some feel him being a Belmont takes away his uniqueness but I like the design and I felt Richard Madden gave a damn good performance in this and LoS2.
I wonder if you played samus returns,its by the same devs and I've seen many people say the devs got even better on the metroidvania formula on that one,maybe you would enjoy it too.👍
I loved the original Castlevania but I didn't have a problem with the Mercury reboot of Castlevania and I think that this game was also pretty cool when it came out
I mean the original Simon kinda looked like a barbarian in the first game. Mirror of Fate made Simon look like an actual barbarian including the part where he was raised by a mountain tribe of barbarians.
@@bargaintuesday812 I can't stand either spinoff, on account of them taking a heroic monster hunting adventure romp and deciding the best way to adapt it is by beating the audience over the head with "MANKIND IS THE REAL MONSTER ACTUALLY" and generally flooding the script with senseless, tragic plot twists to cover for their lack of original ideas.
The game's style in the initial Simon section heavily reminded me of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which if you are looking for a Castlevania style game I would highly recommend
Simon was never cool-headed. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest happens because while Simon fights Dracula in the first game, he gets too cocky and Dracula manages to severely wound him, putting a curse on him
the lords of shadows series is a good series, I enjoyed it. Reboots are never going to be as good as the original, but if you like the inkwell of ideas, its great, worth putting the time into if you play the trilogy to get the full story.
Gameplay is tougher, but the core concepts are the same. Explore a dark and labranthine location, fight creatures with a variety of weapons that rely on your positioning and evasion. The only major differences are that one is primarily 2D, the other 3D; and the way the story is doled out.
Fun tidbit, but if I remember right when they originally made Castlevania Legends on Game Boy Color Konami left it implied that Alucard was Trevor's father by Sonia Belmont, which would have been its own interesting angle if they had decided to keep that integrated in the canon.
Farming Mats in Curse of Darkness and watching your video makes me recognizing how different the LoS Series was. What i don´t understand: There is no copyright on the whole Dracula myth anymore. So any Developer in the World could make a game with Dracula as the badass in an evil big Castle. And nobody wants that to do. Sega tried it in the 90s but since than its always "only" inspired by. Dracula is my favorite villain, i really miss him:-P.
This game's story is all that I wanted from the Lords of shadow series. I loved the new take on the Castlevania canon branching out from the LoS lore. I would have loved to see it continue with Juste, Richter, The morris', and Even Reinhardt Schneider (I like the nod to Reinhardt's dad in Simon's story in this game). There was so much opportunity set up by this, only for it to get cut short by Lords of Shadow 2.
to be fair, the Lords of Shadow story as a whole was about the story of Gabriel's descent into darkness and his redemption. While there is the Belmont clan that he is the progenitor too, they're not as big of a focus compared to Dracula himself, that and none of them would actually be able to defeat him as he's literally the most powerful within his own series as Dracula. a father falling from grace and his wife and son helping him come back from his personal hell.
@@TheSSBBfan666 certainly. I won't argue that the series itself is about Gabriel; I simply was excited at the time Mirror of Fate came out over the prospect of exploring how the timeline would further diverge from the original and be reimagined with Gabriel as Dracula. When Lords of Shadow 2 was announced and released it capped off that story and kept the focus on Gabriel. I do wonder what other stories could have been told or explored in the LoS timeline though : )
@@matthewG980 fair, also a DLC expansion story for Victor would have been nice to see what the last human Belmont was doing before he came to Wygol City upon hearing about Dracula's return amidst a demon invasion. also a lil bit of Simon and Trevor's lives before fate lined them up for a family reunion would have been cool. Like show how Trevor earned his reputation as the second best in the Brotherhood after pops and how Simon surpassed Trevor with his own reputation as a warrior.
I love this game and the trilogy in general - sure, LOS2 is clunkier storywise, but it makes up with some cool moments, like the Victor fight. What I haven't been able to grap my head around is, however, that people criticize them for not being more like Symphony of the Night or other classic Castlevanias, even though they are perfectly playable as they are and enjoyable at face value. And that soundtrack!!
That so weird it was reviewed terribly, being a huge castlevania fan, i enjoyed the shit out of this on the DS. Sure it was kinda disappointing it wasn’t similar to the previous games following the SoT exploration, “metroidvania” style, but i saw major potential in this series. I actually love this design of Simon Belmont, to be honest, its like a combination of Kojimas Version and the Barbarian(Conan) Simon
I liked most parts of the Lords of Shadow games. Though I wished we could have used Dracula at full power more in the 2nd game. The dragon being just a screen nuke that requires items is fairly underwhelming. And my main complaint with the second game is the feeling of how rushed the ending was. Was expecting a more climactic final showdown. Though the music was one of its highlights.
yeah, heard the boss overseeing the game was getting a big head during its dev cycle and wanted to be like David Cage or something, that and he kept saying no to stuff that the devs were wanting to include, like a playable Dragon Dracula, and more enemies and such.
You talked about james point and that reminded me that both order of eclesia and curse of darkness( two of my favorite castlevanias) passes most of the time outside the castle
Wow, I'm really surprised that people didn't like this game...it was the whole reason I bought the 3DS; though that was based on how much I liked Lords of Shadow. Although I have to say, I didn't really like LoS 2 that much...I just wasn't into playing Dracula, for me these games are all about playing the hunter rather than the monster. Nothing beats the first game's soundtrack though.
Please do come back for this game! This game isn’t particularly great but it’s also not at all as bad as some ppl say it was. It was so close to being amazing but I still enjoyed it overall. Agreed this Simon Belmont may not rank close to the top but I’d take this one over punk rock Kojima Simon or *vomits* Death Note Simon from Judgement.
This game has pretty good graphics, its a cool game, I bought it when it first came out for the 3Ds, Im a fan of Castlevania so ill take whatever I can get!
@@MattMcMuscles I am weak to fur on barbarian designs, what can I say? I also may be biased because they made the Belmont clan Scottish in these games.
I enjoyed this game. It wasn't anything great, but maybe it's because I played it at a time when I was needing an Igavania fix and any side scrolling Castlevania that does it decently was something I could take.
My main gripe with this game is that there were far too many puzzles to solve and not nearly enough enemies to fight. In past Castlevanias, there were very few rooms that didn't contain enemies of some sort. In this, you'll go through several rooms without seeing something to fight. Just bogus.
I played the demo for this game on the 3ds, and sadly, that 3ds broke so I can no longer play the demo. I never understood why people disliked the game, as the demo wasn't all that bad (taking place in a dirt area with no story, they teach you how to use your whip to swing across chandeliers inside a building while fighting bats, and ending with you fighting a fleaman riding a giant boss in front of some gates. If I got stuff wrong, oops. I haven't played it in 3 years.) and I never bothered to actually watch gameplay or purchase the full game myself.
You know there’s one thing I like about Simon in this game compared to Gabriel and Trevor. His whip is an actual whip. I don’t know man I can’t get behind the combat cross
This doesnt look half bad. I know I've had it trapped on my steam backlog for like... a fucking decade. I think you should keep going. Maybe you'll inspire me to dust it off. I've gotta play lords of shadow 2 first tho... Oh man..
Honestly the story for this game should have been the PS3 sequel instead of Lords of Shadow two, if they expanded on the idea of playing different generations of the same family trying to kill the guy you played as in the first game and gave it the quality of Lords of Shadow one. People would have still bitched but I would have been really happy
May be a stretch but was the "fishmen are strangely attractive" a reference to the Darkstalkers cartoon? On topic: I rather enjoyed this game. Especially the boss fights.
You didn't have enough magic for the spirit to block for you at 20:40, so that's partially on you. However, I will say that not guaranteeing that the situation will line up with the tutorial prompt is definitely a developer oversight and hurts the design of the game a bit.
@@CrankyMoogle Ah I forgot Trevor was that late into the game, I seem to recall only playing as Simon for a couple hours. It's been a few years since ive completed the game though
I loved the original Lords of Shadow, that one was kind of meh, I think I lost interest about halfway through and sold my 3DS copy. Gabriel Belmont was pretty cool, even though he was kind of a dummy. Need to catch up on Lords of Shadow 2 sometime.
Simon's visual design in this game is like somebody plucked Rhonin out of World of Warcraft, dressed him in a bad cosplay outfit, gave him a whip, and said "There ya go, red... have fun."
This game was dope. Favorite of the LoS games - partly because the gameplay was closer to a Classicvania game than the other two... and partly because I REALLY like the design for Simon and Trevor. Both look so cool.
Going to be honest even though Lords of Shadow isn't canon in the greater Castlevania games, it has my favorite character in Gabriel Belmont.
It's more of an one of the multiple timelines,i mean like cv64,lod,and cotm is on different timeline compare to original timeline (LoI - DoS)
@@bargaintuesday812 oh right that's what i meant,it's already a different universe altogether right ?
Same
I just gotta remind people that Alucard in Lords of Shadow is voiced by freakin' Richard Madden, Rob Stark and ikaris of the Eternals himself.
I like alucard from lords of shadow because of his voice acting and the revelations dlc.
Don't care what anyone says, I loved the Lords of Shadows trilogy.
I’ll defend LoS1 until my deathbed but MoF and LoS2 we’re deeply flawed and I couldn’t ignore their multiple problems.
I like the lords of shadow games and it sequel lords of shadow 2 despite its flaws.
My only beef with this game is the soundtrack. It went with that dramatic environmental stuff rather than the usual bombastic jams. I miss that about the older stuff like og Castlevania and SOTN.
While I still listen to Castlevania music to this very day, wether in the car or during break at work, I think the music in Mirror fits perfectly as a sequel to a somewhat darker Castlevania story.
That's a Lord Of Shadows thing in general, not specific to this game.
I barely remember any music from this triology, especially compared to anything before it.
I unironically love this game. The exploration isn't as deep as a traditional igavania but I still feel it's a damn solid action side scroller. The 3D effects on the 3DS look really nice as well.
Also I prefer LoS Alucard to the traditional one. I know some feel him being a Belmont takes away his uniqueness but I like the design and I felt Richard Madden gave a damn good performance in this and LoS2.
Yeah,LoS has lots of solid cast.And Patrick Stewart is no doubt the best in the series.
I wonder if you played samus returns,its by the same devs and I've seen many people say the devs got even better on the metroidvania formula on that one,maybe you would enjoy it too.👍
The entire cast that appeared in LoS1 that returns in MoF and LoS2 reprise their roles including Robert Carlyle (Gabriel).
I loved the original Castlevania but I didn't have a problem with the Mercury reboot of Castlevania and I think that this game was also pretty cool when it came out
I've always loved the way he Gabriel gives the first boss of this game the low rank Pokemon treatment, put them in a ball and didn't even use them lol
He was a legendary after all.
@@Xanegoh lol facts
I'd genuinly like to see more parts to this one
"Lords of Shadow?" Yea, I saw those guys open for Motorhead back in '86.
"But I doubt Konami will ever do anything."
I mean, hey, come on, there could always be a... new pachislot...
:(
I prefer this Simon design over the kojima one. I hate the kojima redesign, This and the barbarian designs are the best to me. And yes keep playing
I mean the original Simon kinda looked like a barbarian in the first game. Mirror of Fate made Simon look like an actual barbarian including the part where he was raised by a mountain tribe of barbarians.
Even if it flopped, I really enjoyed this version of the lore, sometimes even more than the official canon
Agreed!
@@bargaintuesday812 I can't stand either spinoff, on account of them taking a heroic monster hunting adventure romp and deciding the best way to adapt it is by beating the audience over the head with "MANKIND IS THE REAL MONSTER ACTUALLY" and generally flooding the script with senseless, tragic plot twists to cover for their lack of original ideas.
The game's style in the initial Simon section heavily reminded me of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which if you are looking for a Castlevania style game I would highly recommend
Simon was never cool-headed. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest happens because while Simon fights Dracula in the first game, he gets too cocky and Dracula manages to severely wound him, putting a curse on him
the lords of shadows series is a good series, I enjoyed it. Reboots are never going to be as good as the original, but if you like the inkwell of ideas, its great, worth putting the time into if you play the trilogy to get the full story.
I fully support a longer play through of this game and any Castlevania related content in the future
I wish Nintendo would port Samus Returns to the Switch.
and give it a slick and beautiful HD render
I've always said the Soulsborne games are the successor of Castlevania
same man, i just never said out loud till now
I can see it, but definitely only in theme and aesthetic, gameplay is soulsbornes is definitely tougher
Gameplay is tougher, but the core concepts are the same. Explore a dark and labranthine location, fight creatures with a variety of weapons that rely on your positioning and evasion. The only major differences are that one is primarily 2D, the other 3D; and the way the story is doled out.
I'm the only one on earth who likes LoS2, I mean you play as DRACULA!
Yes. And half the time hes super weak and has to stealth jobber enemies.
The castle segments in the game are great. The modern day segments on the other hand, are mid as hell.
@@MattMcMuscles I'll take what I can get
@@bargaintuesday812 I feel that LoS rushed itself as a franchise.
make it two! but I still hate stealth part of that game
I really like the whole Belmont family member becoming Dracula lore. Seems much more tragic
I enjoy that bit a lot as well.
Fun tidbit, but if I remember right when they originally made Castlevania Legends on Game Boy Color Konami left it implied that Alucard was Trevor's father by Sonia Belmont, which would have been its own interesting angle if they had decided to keep that integrated in the canon.
Good idea, eh in execution imo.
Please,return to the game when you can!
This twist on the beloved franchise,coupled with your witty banter,has me very intrigued...
Farming Mats in Curse of Darkness and watching your video makes me recognizing how different the LoS Series was. What i don´t understand: There is no copyright on the whole Dracula myth anymore. So any Developer in the World could make a game with Dracula as the badass in an evil big Castle. And nobody wants that to do. Sega tried it in the 90s but since than its always "only" inspired by. Dracula is my favorite villain, i really miss him:-P.
I bought it for my 3ds and I found it amazing.
This game's story is all that I wanted from the Lords of shadow series. I loved the new take on the Castlevania canon branching out from the LoS lore. I would have loved to see it continue with Juste, Richter, The morris', and Even Reinhardt Schneider (I like the nod to Reinhardt's dad in Simon's story in this game). There was so much opportunity set up by this, only for it to get cut short by Lords of Shadow 2.
to be fair, the Lords of Shadow story as a whole was about the story of Gabriel's descent into darkness and his redemption. While there is the Belmont clan that he is the progenitor too, they're not as big of a focus compared to Dracula himself, that and none of them would actually be able to defeat him as he's literally the most powerful within his own series as Dracula.
a father falling from grace and his wife and son helping him come back from his personal hell.
@@TheSSBBfan666 certainly. I won't argue that the series itself is about Gabriel; I simply was excited at the time Mirror of Fate came out over the prospect of exploring how the timeline would further diverge from the original and be reimagined with Gabriel as Dracula. When Lords of Shadow 2 was announced and released it capped off that story and kept the focus on Gabriel. I do wonder what other stories could have been told or explored in the LoS timeline though : )
@@matthewG980 fair, also a DLC expansion story for Victor would have been nice to see what the last human Belmont was doing before he came to Wygol City upon hearing about Dracula's return amidst a demon invasion.
also a lil bit of Simon and Trevor's lives before fate lined them up for a family reunion would have been cool. Like show how Trevor earned his reputation as the second best in the Brotherhood after pops and how Simon surpassed Trevor with his own reputation as a warrior.
wow, this looks surprisingly good. Added it to steam wishlist - will nab it on sale sometime.
I love Lords of Shadow Story man.
I love this game and the trilogy in general - sure, LOS2 is clunkier storywise, but it makes up with some cool moments, like the Victor fight. What I haven't been able to grap my head around is, however, that people criticize them for not being more like Symphony of the Night or other classic Castlevanias, even though they are perfectly playable as they are and enjoyable at face value. And that soundtrack!!
That so weird it was reviewed terribly, being a huge castlevania fan, i enjoyed the shit out of this on the DS. Sure it was kinda disappointing it wasn’t similar to the previous games following the SoT exploration, “metroidvania” style, but i saw major potential in this series.
I actually love this design of Simon Belmont, to be honest, its like a combination of Kojimas Version and the Barbarian(Conan) Simon
Heck yeah I love the the LoS series! Glad you turned around on this game a bit by the end. :D
Definitely revisit this. Im a huge castlevania fan and it was a fun watch.
I want to still try this out, I've been addicted to Castlevania lately. Specifically the DS ones.
I really like this game, now i want to go back and replay it
I liked most parts of the Lords of Shadow games. Though I wished we could have used Dracula at full power more in the 2nd game. The dragon being just a screen nuke that requires items is fairly underwhelming.
And my main complaint with the second game is the feeling of how rushed the ending was. Was expecting a more climactic final showdown.
Though the music was one of its highlights.
yeah, heard the boss overseeing the game was getting a big head during its dev cycle and wanted to be like David Cage or something, that and he kept saying no to stuff that the devs were wanting to include, like a playable Dragon Dracula, and more enemies and such.
The story for this game should have been Lords of Shadow 2
19:00 ...well, this aged interestingly. Still not Castlevania though, but hey, Metroid's the next best thing.
Richter really is so cool! He's the coolest of the original Belmonts. It helps Rondo of Blood is the best Castlevania game!
I'd love to see more of this
I've been going back and playing the whole series this year. I'd love to see you continue it
Liking the Ayami Kojima Simon design? You ain't foolin' nobody, it's clear you love the Obata design from Judgement. 😆
I do want to see more of this, so please do more!
I’d like it if you played more of this Matt. I’m always Dow for more Castlevania, even the bad ones
You talked about james point and that reminded me that both order of eclesia and curse of darkness( two of my favorite castlevanias) passes most of the time outside the castle
Well, order is kinda heavy inspired by Simon's quest, with all side quests and city as hub.
@@Artemas_16 ikr
Mercury steam also made the rather excellent Metroid 2 remake on the 3DS a few years ago
I really liked this game, I replayed several times
Considering this was a 3DS game the graphics are pretty impressive
They were updated in the hd version but still looked pretty good on 3ds.
I love the Lords of Shadow series. Hope you play the whole series actually. 😊
This game was pretty good on the 3DS I hundred percent it years ago the 3d effect was AWESOME
WTH I was subscribed to you and watch pretty much every video with glee yet I just had to subscribe again XD TH-cam whatchudoing gorl.
Gorgeus Art Style.
Wow, I'm really surprised that people didn't like this game...it was the whole reason I bought the 3DS; though that was based on how much I liked Lords of Shadow. Although I have to say, I didn't really like LoS 2 that much...I just wasn't into playing Dracula, for me these games are all about playing the hunter rather than the monster. Nothing beats the first game's soundtrack though.
Please do come back for this game! This game isn’t particularly great but it’s also not at all as bad as some ppl say it was. It was so close to being amazing but I still enjoyed it overall.
Agreed this Simon Belmont may not rank close to the top but I’d take this one over punk rock Kojima Simon or *vomits* Death Note Simon from Judgement.
Yes, keep playing it.
Sad that this is the last one of the handheld vania,overall it's pretty fun even tho not as complex as other handheld games in the series.
I dig castlevania, I'm down to watch more
This game has pretty good graphics, its a cool game, I bought it when it first came out for the 3Ds, Im a fan of Castlevania so ill take whatever I can get!
Hey look, its the best Simon design.
:/
@@MattMcMuscles I am weak to fur on barbarian designs, what can I say? I also may be biased because they made the Belmont clan Scottish in these games.
continue please!
Hey Matt, would you consider Darksiders 3 to be the closest to a bloodborne-castlevania game for the time being?
Yeah, I'd like to see more.
Yes, I want to see more. Thanks lol
Whip it good!
I got that reference.
Symphony of the Night then Circle of the Moon. Two best Castlevania games
Circle of the Moon was underbaked. Too much RNG to get any of the cool powers in the game.
Full play through? Would love to see your take on this game when playing it fully
More!
MOAR!!!!
i loved these games even the LoS 2 idk why a lot people hated them so much, ik they are not igavanias but god damn they are still so good.
I love the lords of shadow trilogy
Mercurysteam did Metroid Sami’s returns and dread
I liked the lords of shadow series
Matt,
Try vigil the longest night
It’s blood borne and castlevania mixed.
Mirror of Fate had the best version of Simon. The Mercury Steam reboot wasnt horrible the first just being a GoW clone kinda doomed it.
I enjoyed this game. It wasn't anything great, but maybe it's because I played it at a time when I was needing an Igavania fix and any side scrolling Castlevania that does it decently was something I could take.
Yes please play more of this. I really do like this game alot.....not love it but I do really like this game alot
My main gripe with this game is that there were far too many puzzles to solve and not nearly enough enemies to fight. In past Castlevanias, there were very few rooms that didn't contain enemies of some sort. In this, you'll go through several rooms without seeing something to fight. Just bogus.
WHEN DID THIS GET A HD RE-RELEASE WHAT
I played the demo for this game on the 3ds, and sadly, that 3ds broke so I can no longer play the demo. I never understood why people disliked the game, as the demo wasn't all that bad (taking place in a dirt area with no story, they teach you how to use your whip to swing across chandeliers inside a building while fighting bats, and ending with you fighting a fleaman riding a giant boss in front of some gates. If I got stuff wrong, oops. I haven't played it in 3 years.) and I never bothered to actually watch gameplay or purchase the full game myself.
i would love for the Castlevania Lords of Shadow Trilogy to come to the Switch
This would be a great trilogy to bring to the Switch. On the go awesome action/adventure.
You know there’s one thing I like about Simon in this game compared to Gabriel and Trevor. His whip is an actual whip. I don’t know man I can’t get behind the combat cross
I never knew what to think about this game. Yes, I owned it. It existed I guess.
This doesnt look half bad. I know I've had it trapped on my steam backlog for like... a fucking decade. I think you should keep going. Maybe you'll inspire me to dust it off. I've gotta play lords of shadow 2 first tho... Oh man..
Almost got here first whoo! i love my dad
Honestly the story for this game should have been the PS3 sequel instead of Lords of Shadow two, if they expanded on the idea of playing different generations of the same family trying to kill the guy you played as in the first game and gave it the quality of Lords of Shadow one. People would have still bitched but I would have been really happy
God I forgot I have this game for my 3DS
May be a stretch but was the "fishmen are strangely attractive" a reference to the Darkstalkers cartoon?
On topic:
I rather enjoyed this game. Especially the boss fights.
You didn't have enough magic for the spirit to block for you at 20:40, so that's partially on you. However, I will say that not guaranteeing that the situation will line up with the tutorial prompt is definitely a developer oversight and hurts the design of the game a bit.
Do more parts! 😁
More pls
You gotta at least get to Trevor and play as him for a bit, it'd be a shame to not feature him
He might as well beat the game at that point, as Trevor is the last person you play as.
@@CrankyMoogle Ah I forgot Trevor was that late into the game, I seem to recall only playing as Simon for a couple hours. It's been a few years since ive completed the game though
Moar please ^w ^
Where is the "more"?
I loved the original Lords of Shadow, that one was kind of meh, I think I lost interest about halfway through and sold my 3DS copy.
Gabriel Belmont was pretty cool, even though he was kind of a dummy. Need to catch up on Lords of Shadow 2 sometime.
More
I think it's a very good combination of 2D Castleroid with God of war, too bad the story didn't delivered something more coherent.
Can you do the Lords of Shadow 2 DLC ?
Huh, what is the DLC for Lords of Shadow 2? I think I forgot what it entailed.
@@MattMcMuscles well you play as Alucard
I love the idea of a Darksouls type Castlevania
I always liked LoS games. def more hate than they deserve
moar pls
Simon's visual design in this game is like somebody plucked Rhonin out of World of Warcraft, dressed him in a bad cosplay outfit, gave him a whip, and said "There ya go, red... have fun."
Me wanna watch wha happun Freddy Vs. Jason! Reeeeeeee!
Pls