If this was a Paul W.S. Andersen movie, Dracula would be luckt to be a supporting character, since Mila Jovovich will be a original vampire slayer, and being the headline star, because she's Andersen's literal waifu for decades now.
@@theliveliestcorpse2997 Either they just disappear, to never be brought up again, or they get killed off between movies, because who cares am I right?!
people always talk about how bad the stealth was but the game have at most 4 or 5 mandatory stealth areas that you can complete in like 4 minutes each... and this is a 16 hours long game!! Los2 deserved better
A) the stealth sections are terrible and frustating B) There should be no stealth sections at all C) There are a lot more than 4 or 5 D) the stealth sections are terrible and frustating (this can't be stated enough)
i loved LoS1 but my god LoS2 story was a mess.....leaving the devils corps on the side of the street was freaking hilarious though....just imagining some garbage men picking him up lol this should have just been a game where u play as Alucard in the Victorian setting
For anyone curious about the tutorial, I wrote a little skit about it back in the day that sort of lays it all out. Wanna hear it? Here you go: You've gotta love the line of reasoning those knights seem to be following. "Have faith lads, it's almost time! We're at the big doors. I certainly hope he's in there. By God it was rough hoisting this gorgeously decorated crate all over this bloody place. I lost count of how many stairs we had to drag this thing up, but it'll all be worth it to face down Dracula himself! Provided he's in the room, and not elsewhere. Lars! Don't make that face at me or I'll turn this thing around! Ha, I kid you Lars. We can't turn around. "Now lads, here's the plan! Logic dictates we send the weakest of us out to face the demon first! He may be much less deadly than his reputation suggests, and we don't want to use our strongest soldiers unless the situation really calls for it. Roderick, Yoland, Tom, Jerry, you're up boys! I think just the four of you will do. No, you can't have shields. Those are for later. But we'll be back here praying for you! Go go go, up through the battering ram into the beast's lair! Go! "Well that was disappointing. He killed them all quite well, didn't he boys? I suppose this Dracula's the real stuff! Alright, we'll send a few more new recruits out there and if they don't pass muster we'll break out the shields. Sullivan, Lars, hop to! Just the two of you. He'll be weary by now, I'm sure. What? Well yes, obviously I'd like for Roland to be here. Everybody wants the fellow with the flaming swords and the golden angel armor by their side, but we got here first and I'm in no mood to wait. After all, who are people going to talk about in the years to come? Roland the gold angel bloke with the giant mechanical colossus and the flaming swords, or us? The brave band of brothers who killed Dracula without any of that fancy dross? Us, that's who! We'll not be faceless casualties in the record, that's for true! Now show your mettle boys! Go, go! "God's grace, this isn't our day. The blackguard certainly has colorful powers, though, doesn't he? It's quite pretty, really. But nevermind, we'll put a stop to it now. Now he has to face the shields! Crokus, throw on a shield and get out there. No, just you, Crokus. The other boys have a bridge game going in the back of the ram and I'd hate to interrupt. Matter of honor. Besides, Dracula must be exhausted by this point. Just bang on your shield a bit and he'll doubtless be cowed into submission. "Bedad, he broke the shield! I didn't know he had it in him! Lit his fists on fire, he did! And look at the blood. Well, it seems to be gone now. Awfully clean room for having had so many of my good men die in it. Just went up in smoke! The Rapture, it is! But I'm through playing around with this wretch. Gibson! Get shields. TWO shields! Malloy, break out the good swords. We didn't march all this way with an unnecessarily ornate battering ram just to funnel through and die at the hands of a vampiric bastard with a wide variety of colorful abilities to choose from! We're not some trifling tutorial for him to flex his muscles with before he moves on to greater challenges! We're all of us dedicated soldiers of God who've worked long and hard to get to this point! For England, and the Queen! Or King, whichever we've got right now! Tally hooo!" And that's my bit.
I enjoyed Lord of Shadow 1 and 2, i will agree 2 didn't feel "Right" but it was a solid 6/10 for me if i were to give it a number. I was enjoyable enough for a playthrough and i enjoyed watching Gabriel evolve in each game. and Yeah its a beautiful game.
I mean the idea of a Castlevania tale in a modern setting could be cool, if they committed to a more alternate universe take; like imangine an alternate 1940s where vampires and all the crazy castlevania stuff is public knowledge.
I actually enjoyed LoS2. When you gain most of your Dracula powers back it's just a straight up power fantasy. When you fight bosses you feel like you're the last boss just whipping midbosses into shape 😆
The music was amazing in this game too. The stealth was horrendous. The game-design to have a fully powered over 9000-Dracula be rofl-stomped by 1 of those beefy guards is beyond me. The Dracula castle-world was also a level in its design, and didn't feel like an actual world that could be lived in at all. And every boss wants to help you before getting black-gooed into evilry is also cheap as hell. Having said that, I still liked this game, but it could (and should) have been so much more.
I still consider this game worth playing. It really feels like the devs couldn't make the game as big as they intended it to be, for whatever reason, but there is some really interesting stuff in the narrative. The art direction is obviously amazing, as it is with all of the LoS games. And the set-pieces are down right masterful.
I think this could really use a DmC style rerelease, make the stealth easier (so that it's at least quick) and sprinkle in some updates to the combat. The potential is there.
I think the saddest thing for me about this game was just how ugly the modern world was and how it felt like such a missed opportunity. I was psyched when in LOS 1 you see Dracula get knocked out into modern day and thought it would be like a gothic castle-esque cityscape. Instead, it was standard western designed ugly industrial factory land.
I'm currently playing it for the first time and I gotta say, combat wise I'm having a ton of fun. Glad I picked it up when it was on sale though. Also I do want to see more of you covering this game. Hell maybe a what happened? It wouldn't surprise me if there was and interesting story there!
This video convinced me that I need to explore this in my Steam library and give it a shot... And yes to more gameplay (and for a What Happened) on this entry!
I'd love to see more of this just cause I'd also love to see more gushing over the environments and also laughing at the stupid bits. I've never played this one but I actually choked laughing at Drac vomiting on the whatever.
To me, nothing about this game was disappointing, I mean yeah the stealth sections are kind of weird, now I don't want to trigger anyone, but is there anyone who though motorcycle sections in Bayonetta were actually fun? The point is it's a very minor thing and I think music, art and gameplay (i.e. the rest of the game, and especially the music) more than makes up for it. But I kind of agree with your points, the castle segments were way more interesting than the city ones, and the ones in the city would have made a nice dlc along with revalations
I played through the whole LoS trilogy about a year ago, and it's so bizzare to see this game make so many improvements to the first while also throwing in some of the worst stealth sections I've ever played. A solid 7.8/10 "too much future"
I like LoS2. Yes they made some dumb decisions but they made two large beautiful areas for you two explore, filled it with interesting enemies and lore and most important (for me) let you play as an insanely op, fun as hell Dracula.
The game was alright, but the third act and last boss felt so rushed and underwhelming, it was not the epic conclusion it should have been. Also weird that it felt more like being a vampire with the Alucard DLC, since you could mist warp rather than do the Uncharted style platforming to get everywhere. I just don't get why they made Dracul feel so weak, the mist form being a prime example: Laura in LoS1 DLC could ZOOM with it, Alucard has a nice dash in MoF, but Dracul? Slower than snails unless you're using one of the combat versions of it.
The Mercury Steam game you were thinking of was Raiders of a Broken Planet that changed its name to Spacelords. It's actually pretty fun. I really liked what I played of it.
I was so annoyed with Lords of Shadow 2. It's not a BAD game, since it still functions VERY well, but you can tell there was some issues going on when Dracula's Fury can be bested by a common mook holding a piece of wood up as a shield. Edit: I do think the future/modern day stuff is REALLY interesting. But they handled it very poorly, which is the main issue. I like the design of the city, and I like the enemy variety within it. (I don't like that every grunt can wrestle Dracula) but I do want to see more of Dracula/Castlevania in a modern setting, with more stuff. Also, kind of just a personal thing, but the game gives you the choice of if you want QTEs or not, and then there are almost no QTEs at all. The only QTEs in the game are for opening doors. It's such a waste.
I honestly love the lords of shadow trilogy it’s so underrated all 3 games are great and I really enjoyed them. I understand they have their flaws but for me it was great.
This game is one of big highs and low lows. The castle segments IMO are great, with excellent art direction, atmosphere, cool bosses, music, etc. However the city segments are trash, with a bland city environment, trash stealth segments, and other garbage stuff that this game didn't need. If the whole game was in the castle, this game would be so much better. The story is also really bad IMO, not that the story in LoS1 was a masterpiece but at least it was easy to follow. LoS2's is needlessly confusing and unsatisfying.
As much as I disliked the gameplay, they NAILED the cinematics. Dracula grabbing the guys cross and chanting with him is one of the greatest twists I’ve ever seen
i actually prefer this game over the first one, this game did have some unnecessary elements but when i played LOS1 I was bored basically the entire time, this game kept my attention
The first third or half of LOS1 feels like a boring generic fantasy game with magic forests and goblins and trolls. But around a vampire castle it starts to get good.
I wanted to like this game. I am a huge Symphony of the Night fan and often call it my favorite game. I even liked its 3D successors on the PS2 and Xbox. I enjoyed the original Lords of Shadow, minus a few tedious sections, but I could not get in to this one. This was Konami's last real game in the series and it just seemed like they were ready to be done with it. The modern era elements were not my favorites. The "scientist" was the final boss I fought before saying; this is enough. Maybe this should be another "What Happened?"
I am one of those guilty enough to love Lords of Shadows. It is so hard to get into the Castlevania saga especially if you are a Playstation gamer, so I really enjoyed playing the 3 lords of shadows, especially Mirror of Fate (luckily I had a 3DS) because it simplified like 4 older castlevania games. And besides that I just have Dracula X chronicles on PSP to play Rondo of blood and Symphony of the night.
I'm a fan of more LoS2. I had a great time playing the game myself, there's a lot of cool stuff there. But I do agree that some decisions for the game hurt it more than it helped and it sucks this basically re-killed Castlevania when I dont think it should have.
I really liked this game on release, played through and loved it. didn't realize people disliked it until I went online to check reviews. This happens to me often haha
i played it when it came out and it was ok. Not really good but probably a solid 7 for me. yeah it was really late into the console lifespan. actually can't quite remember but I remember my roommate already having an xbox one when this game came out.
I actually like this game and series. I didn't really hear of many people disliking it. Sure it had some bad parts like the sneaking, but overall I found this hella enjoyable. Especially coming of that final boss fight from the first game and going into this one, and finding out Alucard is in it. My favorite castlevania character. The lore in this series was great.
I'd like to think Damon Albarn traveled forwards in time to sample Matt's laughter at Dracula falling to the ground for Feel Good inc because it is dead on
The game was alright, though it would have certainly pissed me off more had I not found it in a bargain bin 3 years ago. Having played through all side challenges and difficulties, I have to say that the gameplay isn't as tight as this genre's should be. My main gripe, which also applies to most Western made action games patterned after DMC, is that the unlockable features are pretty worthless. Instead of including some mode equivalent to Super Dante that would turn subsequent replays into a fun romp, Mercury Steam gave you a God Mode that makes you invincible, whereas having infinite Void and Chaos energy would have given some replaying incentive, if only to blast everything away as Super Drac. It's like they don't understand or care about replayability anymore, since the modern day setting, the meat of the game, is pretty much a slog to go through on repeated playthroughs.
Hated that you never fought the enemies you were forced to sneak past, would've made sense if you were strong enough to actually fight them directly towards the end or something.
I describe Lords of Shadow 2 as a beautiful jigsaw puzzle, incompetently put together.There was so much artistic talent that clearly went into this game, and Mercury Steam just had no idea what to do with it.
I absolutely love LoS1 but I have a lot of problems with LoS2. Releasing it only on PS360 months after the PS4 and XB1 were in the market was just one of its many mistakes. Half the game being boring to look at (modern city) and half is stunning (flashbacks in the castle) is another one. I didnt hate this but I was very dissapointed by it. And no the LoS trilogy never came to the PS4/XB1 generation at all.
I felt this was kind of underrated to be honest. Lords of Shadow in general fits that bill, cause it doesn't fall into the typical Castlevania trappings.
Would love to see ya play another part or two of this. Always been curious about this one, I really enjoyed the first Lords of Shadow but never got around to checking out LoS2
I've never seen a full playthrough of this which tempts me to buy it because I really like the story setup of these games. I rented the first Lords of Shadow on the 360 one summer and beat it, and I really liked it but I've never played the sequel. I've also always wanted to play Mirror of Fate because I liked how it tried to tie storylines together but I only got a DS like... two years ago.... and then I moved and now I'm not sure exactly where it went lol
I personally really enjoy this game despite its flaws. I do get when you say you don't care for Dracula starting the game as underpowered and stealthy, but I have to say I do see something clever in it. At least as a general Dracula nerd, anyway. I thought it was clever how they combined a Metroidvania element of starting depowered until you ascend throughout the game with the original Dracula novel's motif of him starting weak and aged at the beginning of the story and gradually ascending in power. That might have been coincidental, but it felt deliberate to me. Again, not the best feel for more of an action game, but I think I see why they did it.
Oh yes you doing a playthrough of this would be very nice also I agree with you this was such a disappointment that initial launch trailer where Dracula fights the whole army of knight guys was completely awesome
Hey Matt, not sure if you'll see this question but I'm curious since you're really good with background research on games: Were the bad decisions mostly on Mercury Steam's side, or was it on Konami's? I could have sworn that the stealth sequences was something that was insisted on by Konami (since this was made right when it came out how badly Konami mistreated its employees), but I might be misremembering things.
I did enjoy the First LoS and thought the twist at the end was pretty good too. Shame this game was not bad but not really great either. Cause it had potential.
I was so hyped when I watched the post credits cutscene after beating the first game. I thought if they could pull that sequel off it would be one of the most memorable games and then the game came out and it became memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Definitely play more of this. Really liked LoS but never played this one. Mirror of Fate had amazing art and designs but really didn’t love the pacing or how it played.
"I don't know how long we're going to play today..." Roughly 20 minutes, which is about the same amount of time I played when I first got the game. I should give it another try.
I think stealth options in a Castlevania game are possible, but A) it shouldn't be Dracula doing the stealthing B) it should be an optional thing that gives you an advantage in combat, and C) NOT DRACULA
There were parts that were fantastic and parts I wish I never laid eyes on. I absolutely hated the modern day city and the acolytes but loved the castle. Wish they emphasized the battle with the brotherhood more.
@@MattMcMuscles Yeah, it's on it's third season right now. I find the art fascinating. Story maybe not so much? Still worth a watch for the cool art style in my opinion.
while the trilogy had highs and lows, i definitely enjoyed the Lords of Shadow series as a different retelling of the Belmont and Dracula mythos and also my favorite Belmont, Gabriel and his tragic tale. And i got fingers crossed for Dracula/Gabriel getting into Smash as DLC, Byleth got in, so why not the most depressed and bitter Belmont Vampire?
@@MattMcMuscles thats fair, im just being a hopeful bastard here. besides, Gabriel lives at the end of his story, so im sure he could be squeezed in and also be the rival to Simon and Richter. a man can dream
I wanted to like this game really badly, it's just that the combat kept getting interrupted by having to absorb ... the exp? the magic? that would be knocked out of the enemies in the middle of a battle ( which would disappear in a very small amount of time) IN TURN would cancel any combo you had going because you had to press the absorb button. Did they get the idea from Fable 2? It worked in Fable 2 because the exp wouldn't expire in 5 seconds. There was no balance of it at all, if I remember correctly. I just remember my heart breaking listening to Patrick Stewart say videogame-y things in the second game, when I had been moved by his fantastic performance in the first game. I got through maybe the first quarter of it before I couldn't stomach the combat any more. Which was sad, because I wanted to see the different kinds of relationships he had with his staff at the castle. I thought the sisters were a cool boss.
PLEASE PLEASE play more of this i havent laughed this hard at a video game in a long time i fucking lost it when he puked blood on that crystal and then set off an anti-christ nuke, this games just a well of laughs and i wanna see more please go easy on the cutscene skipping though if i miss any more golden nuggets like blowing up an entire country with anti-christ magic i would not be able to live with myself
I mostly enjoyed the game, but some parts were a bit dull or nonsensical when it comes to the use of stealth. They mostly did good, combat felt better, I don't know why but LoS1 the game would often just put me in low health as soon as possible for most of the game and never really let me finish any combos, I felt I could barely use the skills, even though combat is really similar I enjoyed LoS2 better. I can also see how the early areas of LoS2 turned people off making you really weak and the stealth sections combined. Kinda seemed like they wanted to make it all bigger and have a bit more of everything but in trying to do so, they put a lot of little things that doesn't let the better parts of the game shine.
The art style and effects in this game are so beautiful! This game deserved better. I kinda wish this would still be a series and not what happened to it. Yes they only wanted 3 games but, they could have turned this into a great side series.
If this was a Paul W.S. Andersen movie, Dracula would be luckt to be a supporting character, since Mila Jovovich will be a original vampire slayer, and being the headline star, because she's Andersen's literal waifu for decades now.
Resident Alice will return... in Monster Hunter
Dare I saw we’d also have pointless slow motion?
@@theliveliestcorpse2997 Oh you know it!
@@GenerationWest Then if there are a bunch of sequels, characters and plot details can just randomly disappear.
@@theliveliestcorpse2997 Either they just disappear, to never be brought up again, or they get killed off between movies, because who cares am I right?!
people always talk about how bad the stealth was but the game have at most 4 or 5 mandatory stealth areas that you can complete in like 4 minutes each... and this is a 16 hours long game!!
Los2 deserved better
A) the stealth sections are terrible and frustating
B) There should be no stealth sections at all
C) There are a lot more than 4 or 5
D) the stealth sections are terrible and frustating (this can't be stated enough)
I know this game has it's problems but i overall enjoyed this game. Yes let's see more.
Correction: You only play Alucard in the DLC, not the base game. He's not playable in the main campaign
And the artbook covers the entire LoS saga
He bought the Ultimate Edition on Steam which includes the DLC so he was technically right about his version at least.
Did they put that "What is a man" quote just for the meme? Seems like it comes out of nowhere.
Mainly, yea, just for SotN fanservice.
i loved LoS1 but my god LoS2 story was a mess.....leaving the devils corps on the side of the street was freaking hilarious though....just imagining some garbage men picking him up lol
this should have just been a game where u play as Alucard in the Victorian setting
For anyone curious about the tutorial, I wrote a little skit about it back in the day that sort of lays it all out. Wanna hear it? Here you go:
You've gotta love the line of reasoning those knights seem to be following.
"Have faith lads, it's almost time! We're at the big doors. I certainly hope he's in there. By God it was rough hoisting this gorgeously decorated crate all over this bloody place. I lost count of how many stairs we had to drag this thing up, but it'll all be worth it to face down Dracula himself! Provided he's in the room, and not elsewhere. Lars! Don't make that face at me or I'll turn this thing around! Ha, I kid you Lars. We can't turn around.
"Now lads, here's the plan! Logic dictates we send the weakest of us out to face the demon first! He may be much less deadly than his reputation suggests, and we don't want to use our strongest soldiers unless the situation really calls for it. Roderick, Yoland, Tom, Jerry, you're up boys! I think just the four of you will do. No, you can't have shields. Those are for later. But we'll be back here praying for you! Go go go, up through the battering ram into the beast's lair! Go!
"Well that was disappointing. He killed them all quite well, didn't he boys? I suppose this Dracula's the real stuff! Alright, we'll send a few more new recruits out there and if they don't pass muster we'll break out the shields. Sullivan, Lars, hop to! Just the two of you. He'll be weary by now, I'm sure. What? Well yes, obviously I'd like for Roland to be here. Everybody wants the fellow with the flaming swords and the golden angel armor by their side, but we got here first and I'm in no mood to wait. After all, who are people going to talk about in the years to come? Roland the gold angel bloke with the giant mechanical colossus and the flaming swords, or us? The brave band of brothers who killed Dracula without any of that fancy dross? Us, that's who! We'll not be faceless casualties in the record, that's for true! Now show your mettle boys! Go, go!
"God's grace, this isn't our day. The blackguard certainly has colorful powers, though, doesn't he? It's quite pretty, really. But nevermind, we'll put a stop to it now. Now he has to face the shields! Crokus, throw on a shield and get out there. No, just you, Crokus. The other boys have a bridge game going in the back of the ram and I'd hate to interrupt. Matter of honor. Besides, Dracula must be exhausted by this point. Just bang on your shield a bit and he'll doubtless be cowed into submission.
"Bedad, he broke the shield! I didn't know he had it in him! Lit his fists on fire, he did! And look at the blood. Well, it seems to be gone now. Awfully clean room for having had so many of my good men die in it. Just went up in smoke! The Rapture, it is! But I'm through playing around with this wretch. Gibson! Get shields. TWO shields! Malloy, break out the good swords. We didn't march all this way with an unnecessarily ornate battering ram just to funnel through and die at the hands of a vampiric bastard with a wide variety of colorful abilities to choose from! We're not some trifling tutorial for him to flex his muscles with before he moves on to greater challenges! We're all of us dedicated soldiers of God who've worked long and hard to get to this point! For England, and the Queen! Or King, whichever we've got right now! Tally hooo!"
And that's my bit.
Man, this feels like one of those games I might be able to enjoy based on the asthetics alone. All that crazy gothic architecture is just wonderful.
This was an underrated game, the story is well written and the actual gameplay is pretty smooth
The dialog is well-written. The story seems like a massive mess. Even moreso if someone didn't play Mirror of Fate, which many did not.
Your sarcasm was well written and pretty smooth 😉👌🏻
It wasn't a terrible game it had many faults, such as the SHITTY stealth,
I enjoyed Lord of Shadow 1 and 2, i will agree 2 didn't feel "Right" but it was a solid 6/10 for me if i were to give it a number. I was enjoyable enough for a playthrough and i enjoyed watching Gabriel evolve in each game. and Yeah its a beautiful game.
I mean the idea of a Castlevania tale in a modern setting could be cool, if they committed to a more alternate universe take; like imangine an alternate 1940s where vampires and all the crazy castlevania stuff is public knowledge.
1940s Devil May Cry?
I actually enjoyed LoS2. When you gain most of your Dracula powers back it's just a straight up power fantasy. When you fight bosses you feel like you're the last boss just whipping midbosses into shape 😆
The music was amazing in this game too. The stealth was horrendous. The game-design to have a fully powered over 9000-Dracula be rofl-stomped by 1 of those beefy guards is beyond me.
The Dracula castle-world was also a level in its design, and didn't feel like an actual world that could be lived in at all. And every boss wants to help you before getting black-gooed into evilry is also cheap as hell. Having said that, I still liked this game, but it could (and should) have been so much more.
The modern world makes Castlevania look like a Batman Arkham game.
This game's a mess, but the idea of "Dracula the murderous hobo is STILL god's chosen one, so we're kinda fucked" is pretty strong.
A bad game with a couple good moments. Dracula saying the magic prayer back is the ultimate “where is your god now?” Power move.
I still consider this game worth playing. It really feels like the devs couldn't make the game as big as they intended it to be, for whatever reason, but there is some really interesting stuff in the narrative. The art direction is obviously amazing, as it is with all of the LoS games. And the set-pieces are down right masterful.
You know, I'd really love to know WHA HAPPUN with this game
I think this could really use a DmC style rerelease, make the stealth easier (so that it's at least quick) and sprinkle in some updates to the combat. The potential is there.
I think the saddest thing for me about this game was just how ugly the modern world was and how it felt like such a missed opportunity. I was psyched when in LOS 1 you see Dracula get knocked out into modern day and thought it would be like a gothic castle-esque cityscape. Instead, it was standard western designed ugly industrial factory land.
I'll take the wonky stealth segments over the knock off Shadow of the Colossus climbing segments any day.
I'm currently playing it for the first time and I gotta say, combat wise I'm having a ton of fun. Glad I picked it up when it was on sale though. Also I do want to see more of you covering this game. Hell maybe a what happened? It wouldn't surprise me if there was and interesting story there!
This video convinced me that I need to explore this in my Steam library and give it a shot...
And yes to more gameplay (and for a What Happened) on this entry!
I'd love to see more of this just cause I'd also love to see more gushing over the environments and also laughing at the stupid bits. I've never played this one but I actually choked laughing at Drac vomiting on the whatever.
To me, nothing about this game was disappointing, I mean yeah the stealth sections are kind of weird, now I don't want to trigger anyone, but is there anyone who though motorcycle sections in Bayonetta were actually fun? The point is it's a very minor thing and I think music, art and gameplay (i.e. the rest of the game, and especially the music) more than makes up for it. But I kind of agree with your points, the castle segments were way more interesting than the city ones, and the ones in the city would have made a nice dlc along with revalations
I'd buy the Lords of Shadow artbook, but if I'm gonna buy any Castlevania artbook, it's going to be one centered on Ayami Kojima.
I wasnt a big fan of the stealth parts but over all I enjoyed the game. I'd love to see you play more
I played through the whole LoS trilogy about a year ago, and it's so bizzare to see this game make so many improvements to the first while also throwing in some of the worst stealth sections I've ever played. A solid 7.8/10 "too much future"
I like LoS2. Yes they made some dumb decisions but they made two large beautiful areas for you two explore, filled it with interesting enemies and lore and most important (for me) let you play as an insanely op, fun as hell Dracula.
The game was alright, but the third act and last boss felt so rushed and underwhelming, it was not the epic conclusion it should have been. Also weird that it felt more like being a vampire with the Alucard DLC, since you could mist warp rather than do the Uncharted style platforming to get everywhere. I just don't get why they made Dracul feel so weak, the mist form being a prime example: Laura in LoS1 DLC could ZOOM with it, Alucard has a nice dash in MoF, but Dracul? Slower than snails unless you're using one of the combat versions of it.
More of this plz. I platinumed LoS2 last summer and I did enjoy it.
The Mercury Steam game you were thinking of was Raiders of a Broken Planet that changed its name to Spacelords. It's actually pretty fun. I really liked what I played of it.
I was so annoyed with Lords of Shadow 2. It's not a BAD game, since it still functions VERY well, but you can tell there was some issues going on when Dracula's Fury can be bested by a common mook holding a piece of wood up as a shield.
Edit: I do think the future/modern day stuff is REALLY interesting. But they handled it very poorly, which is the main issue. I like the design of the city, and I like the enemy variety within it. (I don't like that every grunt can wrestle Dracula) but I do want to see more of Dracula/Castlevania in a modern setting, with more stuff.
Also, kind of just a personal thing, but the game gives you the choice of if you want QTEs or not, and then there are almost no QTEs at all. The only QTEs in the game are for opening doors. It's such a waste.
I honestly love the lords of shadow trilogy it’s so underrated all 3 games are great and I really enjoyed them. I understand they have their flaws but for me it was great.
Id watch more of this for sure
This was exactly how far I could bring myself to play before stopping myself, so seeing more would save me from ever having to go back
This game is one of big highs and low lows.
The castle segments IMO are great, with excellent art direction, atmosphere, cool bosses, music, etc. However the city segments are trash, with a bland city environment, trash stealth segments, and other garbage stuff that this game didn't need. If the whole game was in the castle, this game would be so much better.
The story is also really bad IMO, not that the story in LoS1 was a masterpiece but at least it was easy to follow. LoS2's is needlessly confusing and unsatisfying.
As much as I disliked the gameplay, they NAILED the cinematics. Dracula grabbing the guys cross and chanting with him is one of the greatest twists I’ve ever seen
I've always wanted to see where this game took the story. Play some more!
i actually prefer this game over the first one, this game did have some unnecessary elements but when i played LOS1 I was bored basically the entire time, this game kept my attention
The first third or half of LOS1 feels like a boring generic fantasy game with magic forests and goblins and trolls. But around a vampire castle it starts to get good.
@@frankystein9370 I agree
Matt PLEASE play more. I'd even watch an entire playthrough!
I wanted to like this game. I am a huge Symphony of the Night fan and often call it my favorite game. I even liked its 3D successors on the PS2 and Xbox. I enjoyed the original Lords of Shadow, minus a few tedious sections, but I could not get in to this one. This was Konami's last real game in the series and it just seemed like they were ready to be done with it.
The modern era elements were not my favorites. The "scientist" was the final boss I fought before saying; this is enough. Maybe this should be another "What Happened?"
I am one of those guilty enough to love Lords of Shadows. It is so hard to get into the Castlevania saga especially if you are a Playstation gamer, so I really enjoyed playing the 3 lords of shadows, especially Mirror of Fate (luckily I had a 3DS) because it simplified like 4 older castlevania games. And besides that I just have Dracula X chronicles on PSP to play Rondo of blood and Symphony of the night.
I'm a fan of more LoS2. I had a great time playing the game myself, there's a lot of cool stuff there. But I do agree that some decisions for the game hurt it more than it helped and it sucks this basically re-killed Castlevania when I dont think it should have.
I really liked this game on release, played through and loved it. didn't realize people disliked it until I went online to check reviews. This happens to me often haha
i played it when it came out and it was ok. Not really good but probably a solid 7 for me. yeah it was really late into the console lifespan. actually can't quite remember but I remember my roommate already having an xbox one when this game came out.
I actually like this game and series. I didn't really hear of many people disliking it. Sure it had some bad parts like the sneaking, but overall I found this hella enjoyable. Especially coming of that final boss fight from the first game and going into this one, and finding out Alucard is in it. My favorite castlevania character. The lore in this series was great.
I'd like to think Damon Albarn traveled forwards in time to sample Matt's laughter at Dracula falling to the ground for Feel Good inc because it is dead on
Loved the intro cinematic
That C.O.P.S reference in the title though
The game was alright, though it would have certainly pissed me off more had I not found it in a bargain bin 3 years ago. Having played through all side challenges and difficulties, I have to say that the gameplay isn't as tight as this genre's should be. My main gripe, which also applies to most Western made action games patterned after DMC, is that the unlockable features are pretty worthless. Instead of including some mode equivalent to Super Dante that would turn subsequent replays into a fun romp, Mercury Steam gave you a God Mode that makes you invincible, whereas having infinite Void and Chaos energy would have given some replaying incentive, if only to blast everything away as Super Drac. It's like they don't understand or care about replayability anymore, since the modern day setting, the meat of the game, is pretty much a slog to go through on repeated playthroughs.
2:51 ha, it’s a battering Ram. I get it
Hated that you never fought the enemies you were forced to sneak past, would've made sense if you were strong enough to actually fight them directly towards the end or something.
At one point, you fought a train boss that could literally kill them. The player should've been able to kill them too by then
I like this game's combat so much and I want the LoS to continue
Demo tricked me to buy this game.
Same, I thought the modern setting would've been alot more interesting, not just fighting D-Virus mutant's as I called them.
I describe Lords of Shadow 2 as a beautiful jigsaw puzzle, incompetently put together.There was so much artistic talent that clearly went into this game, and Mercury Steam just had no idea what to do with it.
I absolutely love LoS1 but I have a lot of problems with LoS2. Releasing it only on PS360 months after the PS4 and XB1 were in the market was just one of its many mistakes. Half the game being boring to look at (modern city) and half is stunning (flashbacks in the castle) is another one. I didnt hate this but I was very dissapointed by it. And no the LoS trilogy never came to the PS4/XB1 generation at all.
Play on, mate. That way I can enjoy some of it and use my time to play the first one.
I felt this was kind of underrated to be honest. Lords of Shadow in general fits that bill, cause it doesn't fall into the typical Castlevania trappings.
Bro, the toy master part of the game, where you make there scenes. I thought that was a really cool part, did not expect the change of gameplay.
Would love to see ya play another part or two of this. Always been curious about this one, I really enjoyed the first Lords of Shadow but never got around to checking out LoS2
I’d love to see more! I never got around to LoS2 or Mirror of Fate but love the first one.
I've never seen a full playthrough of this which tempts me to buy it because I really like the story setup of these games. I rented the first Lords of Shadow on the 360 one summer and beat it, and I really liked it but I've never played the sequel. I've also always wanted to play Mirror of Fate because I liked how it tried to tie storylines together but I only got a DS like... two years ago.... and then I moved and now I'm not sure exactly where it went lol
Hearing more of the game and you playing it, it's something I'd like to see more of!
Good or bad, this game and it’s weird decisions are too interesting for you to not continue.
I personally really enjoy this game despite its flaws. I do get when you say you don't care for Dracula starting the game as underpowered and stealthy, but I have to say I do see something clever in it. At least as a general Dracula nerd, anyway. I thought it was clever how they combined a Metroidvania element of starting depowered until you ascend throughout the game with the original Dracula novel's motif of him starting weak and aged at the beginning of the story and gradually ascending in power. That might have been coincidental, but it felt deliberate to me. Again, not the best feel for more of an action game, but I think I see why they did it.
Would this be good material for a What Happun? In my opinion, I believe so.
Oh yes you doing a playthrough of this would be very nice also I agree with you this was such a disappointment that initial launch trailer where Dracula fights the whole army of knight guys was completely awesome
Hope for more playthroughs like these
Sadly after you finish this game, your mind automatically erase any trace of it
Hey Matt, not sure if you'll see this question but I'm curious since you're really good with background research on games: Were the bad decisions mostly on Mercury Steam's side, or was it on Konami's? I could have sworn that the stealth sequences was something that was insisted on by Konami (since this was made right when it came out how badly Konami mistreated its employees), but I might be misremembering things.
I did enjoy the First LoS and thought the twist at the end was pretty good too. Shame this game was not bad but not really great either. Cause it had potential.
I was so hyped when I watched the post credits cutscene after beating the first game. I thought if they could pull that sequel off it would be one of the most memorable games and then the game came out and it became memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Definitely play more of this. Really liked LoS but never played this one. Mirror of Fate had amazing art and designs but really didn’t love the pacing or how it played.
"I don't know how long we're going to play today..."
Roughly 20 minutes, which is about the same amount of time I played when I first got the game. I should give it another try.
I actually played for like an hour and 20 mins. I think I'll give it another shot soon!
I think stealth options in a Castlevania game are possible, but A) it shouldn't be Dracula doing the stealthing B) it should be an optional thing that gives you an advantage in combat, and C) NOT DRACULA
There were parts that were fantastic and parts I wish I never laid eyes on. I absolutely hated the modern day city and the acolytes but loved the castle. Wish they emphasized the battle with the brotherhood more.
I’ve been waiting for a new Castlevania game since this one. Lords of Shadow was pretty damn good.
C.O.P.S. - It's crime fighting time!
I'm sad because on paper this is the one of the sickest games ever. Playing as Dracula? HELL YES! But sadly there were too many bad design choices :/
😮 Dracula's power is stronger than "god's?"... COOL BEANS! 🤘🏼😎🔥🔥🔥💯
I'd like to see more from this game. Keep playing.
I’m shocked that we even got the Netflix Castlevania adaptation after this game, and Konami being inept, ran the franchise into the ground.
We did get a Netflix CV show?
@@MattMcMuscles Yeah, it's on it's third season right now. I find the art fascinating. Story maybe not so much? Still worth a watch for the cool art style in my opinion.
I played this twice, still think it's pretty good game up until the ending
COPS! Bulletproof: It's Crime Fighting Time!
play more of this. I love los 2, I know stealth part is suck (especialy when u confront pan brother) but other than that its a fun game.
"Now you are the last Belmont" Me: WHAT
I really wish you make a Wha Happun of this. There's a whole can of worms that this game has.
See, I don't think there's a can of worms. There's very little publicly known about this game's behind the scenes development.
I’d be interested to see more
I would love to see more.
while the trilogy had highs and lows, i definitely enjoyed the Lords of Shadow series as a different retelling of the Belmont and Dracula mythos and also my favorite Belmont, Gabriel and his tragic tale. And i got fingers crossed for Dracula/Gabriel getting into Smash as DLC, Byleth got in, so why not the most depressed and bitter Belmont Vampire?
Byleth got in because they are owned by Nintendo. Gabriel was only playable on a nintendo system for 5 minutes.
@@MattMcMuscles thats fair, im just being a hopeful bastard here. besides, Gabriel lives at the end of his story, so im sure he could be squeezed in and also be the rival to Simon and Richter.
a man can dream
yes, subscribed just for this, been waiting
Yes PLEASE, more.
C.O.P.S !!!
I wanted to like this game really badly, it's just that the combat kept getting interrupted by having to absorb ... the exp? the magic? that would be knocked out of the enemies in the middle of a battle ( which would disappear in a very small amount of time) IN TURN would cancel any combo you had going because you had to press the absorb button. Did they get the idea from Fable 2? It worked in Fable 2 because the exp wouldn't expire in 5 seconds. There was no balance of it at all, if I remember correctly. I just remember my heart breaking listening to Patrick Stewart say videogame-y things in the second game, when I had been moved by his fantastic performance in the first game. I got through maybe the first quarter of it before I couldn't stomach the combat any more. Which was sad, because I wanted to see the different kinds of relationships he had with his staff at the castle. I thought the sisters were a cool boss.
PLEASE PLEASE play more of this
i havent laughed this hard at a video game in a long time i fucking lost it when he puked blood on that crystal and then set off an anti-christ nuke, this games just a well of laughs and i wanna see more
please go easy on the cutscene skipping though if i miss any more golden nuggets like blowing up an entire country with anti-christ magic i would not be able to live with myself
I mostly enjoyed the game, but some parts were a bit dull or nonsensical when it comes to the use of stealth. They mostly did good, combat felt better, I don't know why but LoS1 the game would often just put me in low health as soon as possible for most of the game and never really let me finish any combos, I felt I could barely use the skills, even though combat is really similar I enjoyed LoS2 better.
I can also see how the early areas of LoS2 turned people off making you really weak and the stealth sections combined. Kinda seemed like they wanted to make it all bigger and have a bit more of everything but in trying to do so, they put a lot of little things that doesn't let the better parts of the game shine.
Aight im at the front of my building.
Yes please play more!!!
The art style and effects in this game are so beautiful! This game deserved better. I kinda wish this would still be a series and not what happened to it. Yes they only wanted 3 games but, they could have turned this into a great side series.