Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror or Fate Review for the Nintendo 3DS

       So, Mirror of Fate is the next entry in the Lords of Shadow trilogy for Castlevania, and a faithful sequel at that. From what I've experienced, the purpose of Mirror of Fate is to set up the ensuing drama for Lords of Shadow 2 coming out later this year. Dracula's traditionally been the main villain in the Castlevania franchise and now we're being shown how the Belmonts enter the fray as the vanquishers of the night in the new Lords of Shadow lore. But how well does the game transition onto a portable console? Astonishingly well actually!

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review for the Xbox 360

    When it comes to this new release in the Castlevania family, I've never been more disappointed with gamers' reactions to it. A lot of it actually seems to stem from playing the game like a ****ing noob. I'm extremely opinionated on this topic thanks to things like previews and reviews from "gamers" on Youtube, the majority of which only played the demo or chose to play this as their first Castlevania game. Mainstream reviews haven't helped it along either as they slashed the game's score to bits. In fact, it seems hard to get a true opinion from someone who actually TRIED the game. Well here we go, I played the game for 40 hours strong, and I'm still going. I got both the Castlevania noobie and fan in mind, so here we go!

+ Tell me how it feels! - Imagine an arcade version of Castlevania and that's just what Harmony of Despair is. It's Castlevania without the story and giant castle maps. It introduces you to the boss at the beginning of each level and it's up to you to discover how to reach the boss and figure out the other nuances inbetween. 

     Compared to the other games in the series, the gameplay is a bit more sluggish. It's similar to going from Devil May Cry 3 to Ninja Gaiden; You feel sort of cemented in your animations compared to what feels like a free-flowing ballet of attacks. Attacks feel slower as does just walking around the castle. You get used to it pretty quick though and there's never even a second thought about the sluggish feel after that. For the new player, it helps them focus on the smaller details of battle and platforming, introducing complicated mechanics that have been series staples in a slower, simpler fashion. It's a good idea since it doesn't pull down the vets and helps the new ones move along together.

     And finally just some odds and ends: You don't gain levels, you obtain new equipment and perform actions with each respectable character to make them stronger. How to do that exactly, you'll need to play each one and find out for yourself. In Multiplayer, Loot is given to every player (given that they haven't died and been turned into a skeleton) and every character is given equipment specific to the item set of that character i.e. If Charlotte and Jonathan are working together and they open a chest, Charlotte will get an item belonging to her and Jonathan will get an item belonging to him. 

+ Our heroes come together to battle evil! - Jonathan! Charlotte! Soma! Shanoa! Alucard! They're working together and combining their skills in ways that, surprisingly, work! Honestly, you gotta wonder if they had this game in the works since the release of Dawn of Sorrow. All of the characters work so differently from one another yet work together in perfect harmony. Also, breaking down one character and their specific set of mechanics to build them up to an unstoppable force can take hours upon hours! It's a bit more addictive and fun than it sounds, I promise. Every character gains potential in a different way and playing with others online will make you want to burn the midnight oil to get them all performing at 100% perfection. There's talks of DLC to bring Maria Renard and Julius Belmont which tickles my desire to master more characters. Be warned: You will be addicted.

+ Six heads are better than one - In multiplayer, up to 6 players can traverse through the castle maps at a time. The difficulty of those maps are scaled depending on the number of players present in the map. I gotta say, when you have a full party and the character selection is diverse between you, the game feels like the ultimate crossover of heroes pulling together to destroy evil. There's a constant desire to pull through for the rest of the group and make your hero shine and become their best. And no worries about lag, it's basically non-existent.

- The noobs... - Noobs are annoying. Noobs approach every situation with a mindless solution regardless of whether there's a more useful one right in front of them. Unfortunately, this generation of gamers have not grown up on platformers and they have NO idea what they're doing and they chose a rather difficult game as their first platformer/Castlevania game. Unfortunately, there are troves of these noobs on the game and you can tell that the reviewers of the game are noobs as well, reporting some bosses as difficult asses. Here are some tips to avoid being a noob:

• Choose a simple character: Too many people use a character that's no good for their skill level. This is mostly true for girls since they want to choose Charlotte and Shanoa since they're girls. This is a dumb notion and should be snuffed. Charlotte and Shanoa are for advanced players. If you're not doing well with a character or you can't figure out their growth, switch to another. There are five to choose from. Here's a list of the players so you know who to go for when starting out:

1. Alucard: Simple use. Good for beginners. Medium growth over time, maybe a bit too slow for most.
2. Soma: Easy use. Also good for beginners. Medium growth over time, introduces different powers and feels rewarding right at the get-go and beyond.
3. Jonathan: Good for understanding the way the game works. Super slow growth so I wouldn't recommend sticking with him for too long unless you get attached to his style. Making him stronger is for the determined and patient, though.
4. Charlotte: Advanced. Unless you work on her strength in single player, she will never be worth a dime in a group. Grind, grind, grind.
5. Shanoa: Advanced. She gets nothing to work with until the later stages. Before then, she's not worth it unless you know what you're doing. If you do, you'll be rewarded early on but there isn't a whole lot of variation with her play, so she'll get stale soon after use.

• Double Jump: You have two jumps. Learn to use them. You jump once, and at the height of that jump, jump again. Some situations may call for more distance than height so delay the second jump to accrue more distance.

• Bosses: DO NOT MINDLESSLY ATTACK A BOSS. This is an old-school platforming-action game. Bosses have patterns. Focus on those patterns. Only attack when you know you're out of harm's way. Most of the time, the safe spot is behind the boss. If you get demolished by an attack, learn the signal for the attack and think about how it can be dodged (Can you slide under it? Can you heel-stomp the boss to get behind them?). If you get hit by something, work on figuring it out so that you don't get slammed by the attack again. There is a way to dodge every attack and most of them very easily. If you continue to get pummeled, you're not paying attention.

• Puppet Master: ATTACK THE PUPPET, NOT THE MASTER. The Puppet Master (Master of Illusions) uses iron maidens with a summoned puppet to transport you into in the iron maiden either killing you or bringing you to the brink of death. These puppets have no health. They are destroyed by a certain number of hits that increases depending on the number of players in the party. The number of hits is based upon the attack speeds of all characters in play so 3 players cannot destroy a puppet for a 5 player team. All 5 must attack. When traversing through the level, push crates in front of iron maidens. When the Master leaves the boss room, stop attacking, look at your map (you have lots of time) and figure out what iron maiden he's headed for. Get there and wait for him. If you don't get there first, he can actually block you from reaching the puppet so really, get there first or you're all dead.

• Pay attention: Please don't go on autopilot. That's what a bad Castlevania player does. If your whole party is doing something, maybe they're doing something you should be doing too. If you know better than them, don't follow the lemmings off the cliff. By the way, attacking the Puppet Master while everyone is attacking his puppet means you're being an idiot. Play smart, not rushed. If you can't get hit, you can't die and it won't matter how long the boss is alive. 

+ Good times - There's a 30-minute timer on every run in a level. I've heard the complaints and whatnot. They're all completely unfounded. Playing solo you can take your time grabbing every chest, killing every monster, and defeat the boss with time still leftover. If you ever run out of time, it's likely that you really had no sense of how to get around the stage but that really only applies to people who have never played a game like this before, and since the levels are meant to be played again and again, it doesn't really matter if you run out of time. 

     Other than that, it's a great built-in timer for speed-runners, it keeps some form of pressure on players to keep moving, and since it subtracts 3 minutes from the clock if you die as a skeleton, it keeps people from being a hero and making stupid decisions. It's a really small addition to the game that seems like it could make the game worse or not matter at all, but it does serve a purpose to keep the game going whether you know it's there or not.

Story and Presentation

- This is not the story you are looking for... - There's really no story here. It's just an excuse for the action


- I'm so confused! - The menus can be confusing. After you get used to them, it doesn't really affect you but just jumping into the game, you could be confused about where to go to do what. Clarity on these menu options should've been present and I'd make the call to say it was lazy that it was absent.

= Skin and bones - The presentation is nothing flashy but it still manages to feel like Castlevania. More effort would've been nice.

Graphics

= Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! - All sprites and backgrounds are brought over from the DS games. They look fine on the TV though. It just would have been cool if they had remade the sprites with a little extra detail since this is an HD title and high definition is the name of the game. I still enjoy all of the visuals regardless.

Sound

+ REMIX!!! - They took many different Castlevania themes and remixed them into high-quality works of art. Music to my ears so to speak. They even let you customize the game soundtrack with over 30 remixed and reworked Castlevania tunes.
     Adding to that, all of the sound effect samples and voice work are crisp and superbly recorded. 

Should you buy?

     Buy it if you've been a lasting fan of the franchise. Please, if this is your first Castlevania title, don't play this game. At least not yet. Purchase Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Marketplace and use that as your first romp through the franchise.
     There's LOTS of replay value and even some future DLC in the works so it goes way beyond it's $15 asking price. Unless you're a spoiled gamer, it's hard to be disappointed with what Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has to offer.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was developed and published by Konami for the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Played over 40 hours and generally mastered each character available aside from Alucard.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Maybe you've heard of a little series that goes by the name of Castlevania? Despite it's following and the great record of it's titles, I'm always surprised to find that there are so many gamers that don't know a thing about it! Well now there should be no reason to know nothing of this great series! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is on the PSN (PlayStation Network) and XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) marketplaces. This game was so well loved that all of the Castlevania games today use the same formula established in this 1997 PlayStation title.
     You see, Castlevania used to be a side-scrolling adventure game, pretty straight-forward. Symphony, however, changed up the game by using the exploration gameplay found in the beloved Metroid series, thus creating a new style of games dubbed, Metroidvania. It's a timeless game and in my opinion, it takes what Metroid does and does it even better. Here's the review for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Gameplay

+ Simple, yet intricate - There's a jump button, a right and left attack button, and a back-dash button. That's it. and the game merely requires the use of only those four buttons. You can always go head-first at an enemy and succeed. It may be a little harder than observing all of your abilities at hand but you certainly don't need them which gives it appeal to those who aren't good with complicated controls. But there's another layer to it.

     Depending on the weapon you're using to attack, there's a certain amount of recovery before you can attack again. You're also stuck to the ground during that recovery. If you can be ingenious enough, there's a way around the recovery. If you attack while jumping, the recovery of the attack is reset when you hit the ground allowing you to jump and attack again or immediately attack when you hit the ground for a quick two hit combo. Eventually a flow is gained (YES!! FLOW!!!) and you'll find yourself hopping forward, slashing monsters out of the way as you speed on through. Even battles with tougher enemies become fast paced as you time your jumps and attacks to dodge their attacks and counter them quickly. 

     There are a lot more examples I could go through but figuring it all out is part of the fun and strategy of Castlevania. That tip up there is a key one to learn that's applicable to the rest of the Castlevania series.

+ How did I do that!? - One thing about certain games that I'm in love with is when they keep certain aspects a secret from you. You got frustrated with the game or got bored and just started mashing buttons and you accidentally did something you didn't know was even possible! There's a plethora of different commands you can perform with different weapons for secret attacks, secret magic spells you can perform, there are even different ways of getting around the environment if you can figure it all out. 

+ Left or right? - Alright, I love Metroid. It's fun, addictive, different. The only thing I don't like about it is that I never felt as compelled to explore the world as I would like to be. Symphony of the Night delivers on exploration and rewards curiosity in spades. It is rare to play a game that is so unbelievably rewarding and wrapped up in secrets. Break holes in walls to find secret weapons and rooms, find special switches that only appear to do nothing unless you have the spark of curiosity to investigate them, the surprises are never-ending. I mean, as scary as Dracula's castle is, it's so imaginative and exciting that you can't help but feel like you wish you could be there. It's hard to stop until you've uncovered every unexplored area in the game.

+ A pinch of RPG - Alucard (who you play as) is built up of various stats. These aren't stats you choose or influence the rise of but they are made up of numerical values and they affect certain aspects of the game. You can use items and equipment to raise specific stats for the duration of their use allowing you to work with stats that you personally find important. You also gain better stats as you level up from killing monsters. It's not a huge element to the game but it has just enough to make a difference in the way you go through the game.

+ How would you like to play? - There's a weapon for just about everyone's preference when it comes to dispatching the monstrosities within the castle, and being able to have a weapon assigned to one of two different attack buttons, you're free to customize the way you want to play. If you want to go through weak hordes at a fast pace, there are gauntlets. If you'd rather stay away from enemies, there's a spear. There are tonfas, wands, flails, maces, broadswords, ninja stars, it's all up to you! They all have different properties and work in different ways with their own secret attacks and everything! You'd be hard pressed to not find a weapon you can be happy with.

+ There's so much! - When you begin playing, you're gonna be sad when you realize you're close to the end. Luckily, the game has a few ways to extend the life of it's duration. When you've gone through the entire castle and you get to the first ending, I don't think you'll be satisfied with the results, and you shouldn't be. To get the real ending, you need to go through the inverted castle!!!! Not only is it just flipped upside down but there are new enemies, bosses, items, weapons, abilities, it's like a whole new game! And after that, you can go through the whole game as Richter Belmont, an older protagonist of the series, who utilizes the trusty Belmont whip and a completely new move-set. Believe me when I say playing with Richter is so different, it's like playing a new game. There's some amazing content and replayability here!

= Medusa Heads - I personally don't think it's a negative against the game but I gotta call out the Medusa Heads for being so irritating in the Clock Tower. They're such bitches that I guarantee everyone will have their own anger-filled rage-story the first time you run into them at a low level and get ripped apart by harpies. I'm not gonna be specific about why they're so irritating, I'm going to let you have the fun of finding out why. Enjoy!

Story and Presentation

+ Alucard will Kill. Dracula. - Dunno if that pun really worked out or not. Anyway, the story isn't exactly at Mass Effect's level but it is indeed a step up from Mario and Kirby games. Normally you play through the Castlevania games as the Belmonts, a family tasked through the generations with the slaying of the ever-immortal, Dracula. Symphony of the Night changes this up a bit by placing you in the shoes of Alucard, son of a human mother and Dracula, and Alucard is out for blood; His father's blood! 

     The game utilizes unique devices to propel the story forward that are always intriguing and unpredictable making a supremely simple story into an addictive fare.

+ "What is a human?" - The voice-acting is so cheesy you just can't help but love it! Sometimes it gets so ridiculous that you can't help but have a giggle. This is nowhere near being taken seriously but it is absolutely meant to be enjoyed.

+ Welcome to my castle... - This is Dracula's castle and you know it. The environment combined with the monsters and the soundtrack, they mix together to make the Reese's of gaming. The choice of exploration adds a lot to this title as well because the game didn't show you this and that, you discovered them. They didn't exist until you found them! From hideous creations, to rooms filled with eerie sequences making you wonder if you really saw what you just observed, they bring Dracula's castle to the forefront of your imagination. There's nothing like it out there. It's addictive, beautiful, harrowing, and creepy all at once and you can't stop wanting more!

+ Is there no end to them all!? - I could go on for days about all the great things of this game but I did want a shorter review and that's not what I'm getting at all! Just to touch upon a couple things very quickly: The bosses are crazy awesome! Some of them are straight-up cool and some, like Beelzebub and Granfalloon, are so repulsively sickening that they will never fade from a gamer's mind. EVER. 

     The diversity in enemies and their appearances are astounding. There's always a new monster to dispatch and a new strategy to formulate. You will always be on your toes and you will love every second of it.

     Finally, the art direction. Whoever came up with the concepts of all these monsters, locations and such, who I believe is Ayami Kojima, is an imaginative genius. Everything is so beautiful to look at and so detailed too! And that's saying something for a game with 13-year-old graphics!

Sound

+ GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!! - That's you after playing this game. It's everyone after playing this game. The music is fantastic!!!! Symphony of the Night has some of the most treasured music in the history of games. So much atmosphere is added to the entire game through the soundtrack, every song becomes memorable. You'll be addicted and at times, you won't even want to leave the section of the castle you're in because it would mean the end of the song. Unfortunately, they stay with you which may cause you to lose sleep since the only way to get them out of your head is to keep playing the game.

= It's nice - The game's from 1997, what do you expect? The sound effects are what they need to be and that's that. It's not like they're blasphemous in quality.

Graphics

+ Like a fine wine... - It's a 2D game made up of pixel art. It's not really flexing much muscle but it more than makes up for it in subtle and detailed animations and it's diverse palette of colors. Every time I look at the game, I instantly gain a feel for it's moody architecture and atmosphere. I had no problem looking at this splattered across my HDTV. In fact, I think I'd feel maybe even a bit upset if the graphics were drastically updated from the original game. It's hard not to appreciate the visual detailing, the time and care that went into the way the game looks. It's a very beautiful game by my standards.

Should you buy it?

     Ok, I would say anything if it meant you purchasing and buying this game. This is a timeless masterpiece. It is by definition timeless! Really! It's on almost every top-games-of-all-time list out there and it won game-of-the-year from several different critics. I can't even think of one negative for the game. I played it back in 2007, beat it twice. I just went through it again and it is still just as good. 13 YEARS OLD AND IT IS STILL KICKING THE BUTTS OF THIS GENERATION'S GAMES!!!!

     I've recommended this game to so many people and they always blew it off because of several factors: They don't like scary-looking games, horror isn't their preferred genre, they don't like Dracula, they think it's just a dated game surrounded by false memories of nostalgia, I don't care what your reasoning is because it doesn't apply to Symphony of the Night. Any one of those people that finally caved and played it raved to me about how amazing it was. You will too but you just have to buy it first.

     One thing I do need to say though is that if you have a choice, get it for the system with the d-pad you like. If you can't, it won't make the game worse but it helps ease a little frustration that can come up from that. So buy it. NOW! BUY IT NOW! NOOWWW!!!!!1!1111!!!1!1!!!!1!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was developed and published by Konami. It is available for download on the PlayStation Network Store and the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace for $10 (It's a steal!). Played for 13+ hours or so, got the true ending with 200.6% of the map complete and finished an entire run with Richter.