Eric D.

What level changed your mind? I'm still halfway through Chapter 2 so I have a looong way to go before I finish the game.

MoviePage

3 and 4.

fujishig

Whoever thought that including the in this game was a good idea should be shot.

Gizmo

This game...not so good. I've only beate the first boss (or whatever it was inside that courtyard), but so far, it feels like a generic title. The fighting gets pretty meh. How long till it get goods? My patience is wearing thin and I must just dump this. Between this game and Dead Rising 2, I think I'm about done. I'll stick to L4D2.

pinata242

Look, literally, 2 posts above yours.

Anubis2005X

Courtyard? At last play a couple of Chapters before throwing in the towel...

slop101

I can't beat the boss at the end of Chapter 3 (his second form, and I'm playing on 'easy'). Tried at least 10 times, it stopped being fun. So unless there's an easier way around him I don't know of, I think I'm done. I haven't gotten stuck on boss in about a decade.

Gizmo

Im going to try, but the hour or so I did play felt like a generic $20 title releases by an unknown studio. Ill try and stick with it.

Superman07

I started this last night as well. I'm at the courtyard battle after you jump through the crypt and it's very frustrating. The control aren't intuitive and I keep dying because of it. How are you supposed to know what buttons to push when? You happen to get a hint in the tips screen, but that's still very weak. Some circles converge and unless you hit any other button at the correct time you die?

I'll try and push on to Chapters 3 and 4 to see how it goes, but as others said it's very much go down path A, don't explore too much and keep pushing forward. I'm okay with the perspective, but I would have been happier with something along the lines of Gears of War where you can roam around and interact more freely.

fujishig

Took me a while. Do you have full health and magic going into the fight (if not, go into one of the early levels, fill up, then finish the level)? That can make a huge difference. The other thing I would recommend is learning which moves of his are blockable, because doing a block/parry and then wailing on him fills up your rune meter, or whatever it's called, quickly and you can refill your magic pretty handily that way. I used a ton of light magic, blocking, and rolling away to collect the orbs. It also helps to check which side weapons he's weak to, though I don't remember offhand if it's the dark daggers or the fairies.

Later on in the game, when I started facing multiple swordsmen BEFORE the next boss fight I had to actually change the difficulty from Hard because I kept on dying...

As for the circles thing... just hit any face button when the moving circle goes into the static circle. It's actually pretty easy, the only thing that messes me up on those is when I'm not expecting them and I'm already frantically hitting buttons. You can basically button mash the first few chapters on a normal setting, before you unlock some of the other combos and face enemies that force you to block and roll away strategically.

MoviePage

Finished the game yesterday, and I'm now halfway through my second playthrough on the hardest difficulty.

It's a shame that the first couple of chapters of the game are the worst, since it's turning a lot of people off. Very, very glad I stuck it out. This game has more "holy....shit" moments of true epic grandeur than any game in recent memory. The environments and graphics are just stunning to behold.

And the post-credits ending cinematic is a true OMGWTF story-changer in more ways than one, and will surely lead to a lot of debate.

I encourage everyone to stick with the game. I almost gave up in the early stages, and yes it definitely does have control/camera issues in some sections. But after playing the game all the way through, it's now one of my favorites of the year.

Liver&Onions

how long was the first playthrough?

MoviePage

What problem are you having, exactly? He's very fast, as are most of the bosses in the game, and you really have to use an old-fashioned, take your time, hit-and-dodge, hit-and-dodge approach to many of them, because they'll destroy you otherwise.

In other words, the game is a worthy successor to the old Castlevania games.

MoviePage

I would honestly have a hard time saying, since there's no time counter in the game and I played it over several days. Also, the world map allows you to freely replay any levels once you've beaten them. It's not RPG-long but longer than the average action game, so it feels just about right. How's that?

Also, major props to the developers for adding individual trials to each level after they've been finished once. It adds a lot more fun to a second playthrough and makes it much deeper than the usual "rush through as fast as possible for the Hard difficulty achievement."

OldBoy

is LoS comparable (better or worse) to any of the other so-called God of War clones and fantasy action titles to come out this past year (Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, Darksiders)?

slop101

My problem was that I used up all my magic on his first form and had nothing to use against his second form; mo magic to heal myself and none to inflict extra damage - and he wasn't dropping any orbs. I did constantly get him down to just 25% of his health, but even though I'd avoid a great majority of his attacks, it only took a few to kill me. I think if I try it again, I'll save all my magic for his 2nd form, that is, if I can survive his first form without using any. I read that his second form is greatly damaged by your daggers (silver, duh), much more than his first, so I should round up a full batch of those too.

MoviePage

So after a long weekend of gaming (thank you, Mr. Columbus, for giving those of us in the financial industry an extra day off), I finished my second playthrough of the game (on hardest/Paladin difficulty) around 5:00 this morning. I did this with the full knowledge that I would be getting up for work at 7:30, and despite my original intent of being in bed by midnight, but hey, I just had to see that ending again! Talk about a game-changer; M. Night Shyamalan on his long-forgotten best day would be envious of those twists.

I also went back and found every collectible on my own, without using the internets. That's notable because I rarely have the patience for doing such a thing with games these days. I generally give it my best effort, and then use a guide where necessary to mop up. When I got down to the final collectible I needed in this game, I replayed the level in question about 6 times before I finally found the sneaky secret path that led to it. Now I just have to go back and finish the trials I didn't manage to complete on the second playthrough, a task I'm fully eager to perform without any of the usual feelings of "enough already, too much effort, on to the next game."

And you know what? After all of that, what I'd really like to do is start over from scratch and experience it all again. I can't even remember the last time I felt that way about a game. This comes from someone who gave a bit fat "meh" to the demo and deleted it immediately after playing it, expecting never to give the full game a chance. And from someone who initially regretted the purchase after playing through the first few levels. I'm really not a fan of mindless button-mashers, and that's the initial impression I had. But wow, does it open up later.

I've been with Castlevania since my 11-year-old self was allowed to choose one game to accompany the purchase of my shiny new NES and picked out Simon's Quest without much thought or research ("look, it has Dracula on the cover!"). I stuck with the series, later playing the original title and going adventuring with Grant and Sypha, all the way up to playing through Symphony of the Night at least 3 times, followed by all 3 of the DS titles. I therefore feel comfortable and assured in stating that this game IS Castlevania. That may not be evident at first, but it reveals itself gradually.

Finally defeating some of the trickier bosses on the hardest difficulty, after failing countless times and perfecting my moves and techniques little by little, gave me a feeling of true challenge and accomplishment that's very rare and valuable these days. And the replayability is really exceptional. I found myself going back to revisit some levels 2 or 3 times just for the heck of it - mainly because I wanted to experience the gorgeous visuals and music again. Have you ever stood in place in a game, or ran back and forth across a landscape, just to admire the view? I can't remember the last time a game inspired me to take the time to do that, but it happened here on numerous occasions (full disclosure: haven't played Uncharted 2 or God of War 3 yet).

I could point out some problem areas - as always, a fixed camera leads to issues and I admittedly yelled "I can't f---ing see!" at my TV more than once. And the disc-swapping on the 360 is really annoying if/when you get to the point that you want to skip around while replaying levels. Apologies for inadvertently writing a full review here, but really, I can't recommend this title enough.

Also, I found easter eggs referencing the following games:

Very curious to see if anyone spotted any others.

Michael Corvin

That's quite a turn around given your initial impressions on the last page of this thread.

slop101

I finally passed that 3rd chapter boss, breezed through the chapter 4 boss, and am a few levels into chapter 5, and yeah, this game opens up big time and gets pretty awesome from there - not just because of the levels themselves (though that's the main thing), but because you keep getting new moves and power-ups that improve the gameplay and keeps things interesting. There's also plenty of levels I've finished that I've gotten less than 50% completion on that I need to go back to - I just wish it was more obvious when to do so, and what new power up to use where on which level. Cool thing though is when you do go back to get a previously hidden power up from a previous level, you don't have to complete the level again to keep it - you can just back out into the world map and continue your quest.

fujishig

I didn't know that you could just back out of a previously-finished level and keep the upgrades... cool.

Not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but in 5-2 or 5-3 (wherever you first meet the ghouls) you can farm money pretty easily, if you're low and want to upgrade your skills... they constantly respawn and there's a fountain of magic right there for endless refills. Also probably a good place to get back to full health and magic before going to a boss level.

xmiyux

I hate that you guys are making me want this game.

Drexl

I'm trying out the demo, and I have to ask a question. Why isn't dodge mapped to the right analog stick, like the roll in GoW? It seems silly that it goes unused and you have to press two buttons together to dodge.

Michael Corvin

In the game you get light & dark powers which are, sort of(gathering orbs), assigned to each analog necessitating two buttons to dodge.

MoviePage

I'm thinking that they definitely should have mapped dodge to the right analog stick (gathering orbs only requires clicking/holding it down). I finished the trials last night, some of which require very precise movement, and I can't tell you how many times I screwed up by accidentally rolling when using LT rather than doing whatever other movement/power also required the use of LT+button. It's a persisent problem in the game.

fujishig

It is a bit weird that the right analog stick, at least in my experience, isn't used for anything (besides clicking it to refill red magic). However, I don't mind it... I like not having to take my thumbs off the face buttons just to dodge, especially because you have to dodge so much in this game.

I have to say that the juggling uppercut is a lifesaver when you're swarmed, as you can usually juggle a few enemies and at least at the level I'm playing, they don't just swarm you in the air.