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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate Review Thread

Did you just quote a hilariously terrible IGN comment and say that it has weight. lol

I dont agree with colin on everything and he can be wrong frequently but he does not give low scores because he has a agenda to belittle the 3DS

Come on, dude. That's just a sample of some of the comments I've seen there of some commentors being disappointed with his review. Don't try to make something out of nothing.

And the review, if you read it, is just "it sucks because it's not Metrovania", which I think is a little shallow. Judging The demo wasn't 4.7 bad at all. I thought it was great.
 

ys45

Member
I played the demo yesterday night.

I'm sorry but as a fan of old Castlevania games , this is not a Castlevania game this is a platform version of the reboot on PS3/Xbox with new story new character.

So maybe people who did not play lot of old CV games will enjoy this one, but i don't .

so i guess that's it for my beloved serie :(
 
Can we stop with the accusations of fanboy agendas? Yes, Moriarty is a Sony/Vita fanboy and has written a few embarrassing things in the past, but surely that's not the only conceivable reason why he would give this particular 3DS game a harsh review.
 
Can we stop with the accusations of fanboy agendas? Yes, Moriarty is a Sony/Vita fanboy and has written a few embarrassing things in the past, but surely that's not the only conceivable reason why he would give this particular 3DS game a harsh review.
I just think people (myself included) might feel like a 4.7 was a bit harsh. I wager folks who didn't like the demo wouldn't score it that low.
 

Hiltz

Member
I expected this game would not please most Castlevania fans , but IGN's score is surprisingly low. I'll be relying on GAF to give us the real deal about this game.
 
Had a snow day from work so I went to Gamestop to pick it up. Damn is this game graphically impressive. I'm a huge Castlevania fan and don't mind the departure from the tired Metroidvania formula, as I did enjoy Castlevania: Lords of Shadows.

Will spend most of my day playing and not giving a damn about some flop and ratchet IGN review.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
Bosses all have multiple checkpoints. So you might die halfway through a boss fight and restart at the checkpoint when he was at 3/4 health. That sort of thing.

That's such an awful mechanic. If you have checkpoints in your boss battles, maybe your boss battles are too long.
 
Played about 2.5 hours last night. The IGN review is pretty terrible. Me and two other people that got review copies think this review is so off the mark, and were all enjoying it immensly. The other reviews out there are much more accurate.
 

jgmo870

Banned
I just think people (myself included) might feel like a 4.7 was a bit harsh. I wager folks who didn't like the demo wouldn't score it that low.

When Colin doesn't like a game, like it offended his manhood or something, he'll give it a low score (e.g. El Shaddai, New Little King Story, and Ragnarok Odyssey).
 

VICI0US

Member
the dodgy framerate was my only real qualm with this game and it seems to be better optimized in the final build so I'll definitely be picking this up.
 

VanWinkle

Member
This was exactly what I thought when I watched the video review (and pointed out on the first page where I linked to that same article). To his credit, he wrote a crow article about how he was wrong about that, but I think that's because no one would let it dies and was still eating him alive in the comments section a full two years later.

Others on the review comments have the same sentiments:


And apparently, the devs took to twitter and called out Colin on his review:

Oh give me a break. People try to find a conspiracy out of everything. He didn't like the game. THAT HAPPENS. He criticizes the Vita all the time. He's not a fanboy, and he's not going to review a game on another platform poorly because he doesn't like that it's not on his platform of choice. That's childish and petty, and it says something if that's the first thing that enters your head when you don't like the score it got.
 

Maedhros

Member
If you play the MercurySteam games and just don't enjoy them on their own merits, then that's perfectly fine, but to totally dump on the game because it's "not Castlevania!" or didn't ape the IGA style then it seems a little childish to me.

That makes no sense... I mean, if you don't like the gameplay or something else in these MS games, it's because they don't really resemble Castlevania series.
 

Bedlam

Member
That makes no sense... I mean, if you don't like the gameplay or something else in these MS games, it's because they don't really resemble Castlevania series.
So by that logic it's impossible to not like the combat if you haven't played any Castlevania game before?
 
Oh give me a break. People try to find a conspiracy out of everything. He didn't like the game. THAT HAPPENS. He criticizes the Vita all the time. He's not a fanboy, and he's not going to review a game on another platform poorly because he doesn't like that it's not on his platform of choice. That's childish and petty, and it says something if that's the first thing that enters your head when you don't like the score it got.
As childish and petty as his fanboy rant we linked to? Just curious.
 
FWIW, while I haven't played OoE, the Training Hall did look pretty fun. The only way I'd want to see another Igavania is if whoever designed that area handled the entirety of the game's level design.
 
Played about 2.5 hours last night. The IGN review is pretty terrible. Me and two other people that got review copies think this review is so off the mark, and were all enjoying it immensly. The other reviews out there are much more accurate.

Glad to hear. Our tastes are in-line a lot of the time.
 
Games up on the eShop im downloading it right now 11000 Blocks sheesh. Im glad I bought a 16 gig Sandisk card on sale for 7 bucks at BestBuy 2 weeks ago. These games are getting big.
 

Maedhros

Member
So by that logic it's impossible to not like the combat if you haven't played any Castlevania game before?

Only when people compare it to the past Castlevanias. And any Castlevania fan will compare, because these are the games they played. It's not unreasonable, it's obvious.
 
Glad to hear. Our tastes are in-line a lot of the time.

What really threw me back on the IGN review is the mention that the levels are drab. I thought the levels and some of the background were pretty awesome from theaters, to kitchens, etc. I'll admit its a different beast then the other side scrolling Castlevanias for sure. I think it feels like a 2D cinematic action game would be my best way of putting it. It feels more Castlevania then Lords of Shadows first half, thats for sure.
 
Finished the game, wasn't satisfied. End boss feels like any other boss and the ending left me empty like I wasted hours to lead up to a scene the game already showed you half way through the game. I don't know why this is full retail price honestly.

Just my opinion.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Games up on the eShop im downloading it right now 11000 Blocks sheesh. Im glad I bought a 16 gig Sandisk card on sale for 7 bucks at BestBuy 2 weeks ago. These games are getting big.

Almost 1.4 GB, then.
 

VanWinkle

Member
I'd think the part when he talks about 3DS ?

Wow, dude... lol! Try reading it, then you won't have to ask.

have you actually read the article?

I just read it. Was his opinion really that off-base or the time he wrote it? 3DS's outlook was pretty dreadful back in 2011, and the biggest claims to fame WERE N64 ports. He mistakenly thought that the fact that the Vita had more original games lined up and higher tech would make it sell better. It proves he wouldn't be a good market analyst, not that he's a fanboy. The guy criticizes Vita all the time. He had a bit of blind optimism pre-launch like a lot of people did.

A lot of people thought the Wii would fail horribly, not because they hated Nintendo, but because they thought it wasn't a good idea. It just proves that nobody really knows for sure how it's going to play out. A lot of us can try and make predictions about something and not immediately be called fanboys if those predictions turn out wrong or are different than your predictions.
 
I just read it. Was his opinion really that off-base or the time he wrote it? 3DS's outlook was pretty dreadful back in 2011, and the biggest claims to fame WERE N64 ports. He mistakenly thought that the fact that the Vita had more original games lined up and higher tech would make it sell better. It proves he wouldn't be a good market analyst, not that he's a fanboy. The guy criticizes Vita all the time. He had a bit of blind optimism pre-launch like a lot of people did.




Just to help you:

For better or for worse, Vita will be pitted against the Nintendo 3DS. But the comparison doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and even if you were to pit them against each other, Vita is still destined to sell better.

Nintendo isn't the primary competition for Sony this time around. The major complaint against something like Vita is that its space is being encroached upon by the phone and tablet market, and hence the real competition for Vita will come from Apple and Android devices.

Should Sony feel threatened by its competition? Sure. But Nintendo is the least of Sony's concerns these days

Nintendo 3DS is certainly not going to take the Vita out with N64 ports and tired, worn series



So yes, that article was kinda biased, and cocky.
 

LTWood12

Member
Disclaimer: I haven't played the game, but I want to.

People don't see the larger picture with the IGN review. I'd like to take a moment to defend Colin here. First off, Colin did not review the original Lords of Shadow for IGN (which scored a 7). He has stated numerous times on podcasts that Lords of Shadow is one of his top games of this generation. He thinks it did a phenomenal job at harkening back to the old NES & SNES Castlevanias. It brought the tight gameplay and platforming of the old, along with beautiful and interesting environments. The story was also interesting, with one hell of an ending.

Colin is also an expert when it comes to Castlevania. Just take a look at all the FAQs he wrote in his teenage years:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/users/CMoqwerty/contributions/faqs

So if you're saying he doesn't understand what Castlevania was before SOTN, you're flat out wrong. His comparisons to the IGA titles are merely to show the high expectations of quality in gameplay and environments that come with the Castlevania name.

Is he being too hard on it? Don't know because I haven't played it. But I certainly respect this guy's opinion when it comes to Castlevania. I'm sure he went into it with excitement and expected to like it given his affection for LOS.
 

Takao

Banned
As childish and petty as his fanboy rant we linked to? Just curious.

You guys are worse. You're ranting and raving about some IGN reviewer's opinion of a game you haven't played. At least Colin got paid to write that trash Vita is superior, 3DS is inferior post.
 

Necrovex

Member
Guess I'll be paying attention to Gaf for this particular games. The reviews are all over the place. Depending on the majority's reaction (on Gaf) will have a direct affect if I buy this game or not.
 
I've got no problem with being critical about this game, but Colin has a bit of bias to him. During the Beyond podcast after the PS4 unveiling he kept trying to position Sony against Nintendo (and coincidentally how Nintendo will be destroyed by them) while the other editors were pretty optimistic about Nintendo despite their excitement for the PS4 reveal.

He was really channelling his Return of the Third Reich speech.
 
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