I actually think the post credits reveal was foreshadowed well. Remember when Cornell explains how the Lords Of Shadow came to be, visited the 3 locations and essentially split their soul into halves of pure good and pure evil? Remember how Gabriel essentially retraces exactly those steps as he hunts them down, and how at the very climax of the final battle there's that flash of holy light that envelops him with a beam shooting into the heavens from his mouth as he repents? That's Gabriel's pure soul leaving his earthly body leaving only the pure evil and accumulated despair left which is how he becomes the one true Lord of Shadow, The Dragon! There's even more hints that this is what's happening too since if you happen to die during the final battle the hint in the continue screen says "While Gabriel *is an angel* he has unlimited magic" you have unlimited magic that whole fight meaning he is in the process of ascending. Also notice how it's almost like a switch is flipped after winning the fight and all that unbreakable hope and will that he had while fighting Satan just vanishes and his wife can't console him, that's because all that good in him had just left his earthly body. Of course the DLC then kinda sorta retcons this at least partly, but as you covered in the video the devs said it was both rushed and considered a mistake in hindsight.
I was on board with the idea of Gabriel ascending but yeah the DLC messes with that. It's not deal breaking by any means but I still think there were better ways to handle it.
This is one of my favorite Castlevania games, the soundtrack, the graphic design, the art of the game, the lore, the scrolls of the dead knights and the introduction of Satan. The story and the plot were very interesting to me, far more interesting than in many Castlevania games, but the plot holes, the end and the DLC left me with a bittersweet feeling
Thing that sold me on trying this game was Gabriel's voice actor Robert Carlyle, for me he sold the game hook line and sinker. Also enjoyed interactions with Pan.
Great video review! This game to this day holds such a high place in my heart for me. I don't think I ever got emotional over a game's ending before this game. One point that actually did get me is the fact that Satan is hinted at when you first meet Baba Yaga. Gabriel asks her how she knew he was coming, to which she replies " The King of the Angels told me..." When I first read that comment I had chills and such a sinking feeling of what was to come. Again. Great video!
To this day, nothing hits as hard as the QTE where Satan stabs Gabriel with his staff thing; but then Gabriel, still impaled, uses the staff to body slam Satan and then snap the staff off like it was nothing.
Looks like I'll give this game another playthrough, beat it on PC over a decade ago and liked it a lot, especially its colossal bosses. Also looking forward to your Sekiro video, it's my favorite From Soft title and it has been criminally overlooked as far as discussions go, and the ones we have mostly focus on combat and difficulty, ignoring the narrative and other interesting aspects of the game. The OST is amazing, too, and doesn't get much love!
A lot of games from the seventh gen are amazing. The last great console generation. So many all timers like this one, deus ex human revolution, crysis 2, Dao. Before the industry pretty much standardized everything so everything plays like dark souls or call of duty.
legit one of my favorite games ever. really enjoying your presentation so far. interesting, I think you're the only person I know that likes 2 better. 2 was one of the few games I reviewed before I started my channel and I HATED it XD congrats on this videos fast start!
nice vid, as for the Satan villain reveal, they hint at it a bit through the story with the Abbot rambling about him being taunted in his dreams (prob the only time the guy has clarity) and Baba Yaga mentioning 'King of the Angels'. while i get the dlc seeming like a mistake, i like that it goes more into how Gabriel becomes Dracula and gets so much power from an old god/demon. also really love Gabriel's story across the trilogy
I gave up on Sekiro when I got to a ghost monk in a courtyard and suffered final death at the hands of the camera after nearly suffering the same during the sky pagoda boss fight.
A feature that is often missed from this game is on the PS3 version of Lords of Shadow, is it allowed you to save the art from the art gallery to the system before screenshots were a thing. I still have the entire art gallery on my computer that I saved from the PS3.
A great episode on a very undervalued game and series. LoS is probably my favorite Castlevania saga* because it's a complete story that I very much enjoy. It has its problems, of course, particularly in story pacing, but they're gorgeous games that are fun to play and deliver memorable characters and stories. As for your episode(s) on the rest of the series, I hope you don't gloss over Mirror of Fate, as I think it's an overlooked entry in a franchise that is itself overlooked by the general gaming populace. I'm also looking forward to what seems like will be a defense of LoS2, which is my personal favorite in the series. It felt so fresh and different and improved on the first game in nearly every way, and it was incredibly disappointing to see a large swatch of the fandom basically say, "Not my Castlevania" and bash or ignore it outright. Take your time, take care of yourself and keep up the great work! *While LoS is my favorite group of Castlevania games, Rondo of Blood is my favorite individual game in the series. What can I say? I prefer more action and less RPG in my Castlevania.
I love the lords of shadow games even with there flaws. I never questioned why he became dracula. The theory that you mention for me it was the first time I heard it and made scence. I would say the dlc mostly explain why he is a vampire and why he is so powerful. I don't want to spoil you on mirror of fate but you did play LoS2 and the intro there and the dlc gave me an idea, yet its a shame it wast explored. So SPOILERS: In the dlc for LoS2 its mention that aftet the Forgotten one Gabriel reclused himself in one wing in the castle. Here I belive is were his faith was shaken. The whole thing with the Forgotten one was just so he could take his mind off everything but that done everything came back. During this time I belive the order started to hunt him because of the prophecy and at the end of mirror of fate Gabriel leans the truth, in the LoS2 intro it mentions here is were he lashes at humanity and all of gods creation.
Not long ago I was humming a melody I couldn't figure out where it's from and it took me a while to remember it's from this game's awesome soundtrack. ^^ I liked this game just fine when it came out and have fond memories of it,..."when" I remember it. It's that kind of state that game is in, you all know: "Oh yeah, I remember,...that was good, was it?" This is also one of the many games that is fine almost the whole way through but ruins the ending and in this case they made the same cliffhanger mistake as The Dark Knight Rises did, only without beeing that cr*ppy before the ending. Since this is the last impression of a game afterwards it can get it into an overall undeserved memory limbo for a long time. The soundtrack is amazing, the voice actors great, the art- and overall world design very good, the gameplay- and combat mechanics can't compete with the likes Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, it's drawing comparissions with, but still is ahead of Soulslikes, if someone comes from these kind of games. Nowadays when this game is cheap, this is an easy recommendation. You'll probably only remember the soundtrack for a long time but it's entertaining and worth checking out. The sequel, while fixing the camera, which usually is very important to me, couldn't keep my interest further than the mid-point. There are clear improvements but the steam ran out a bit faster. Maybe the overall steam and the sequel just had the disadvantage to come second.
I always feel inadequate talking about music. I've never taken up an instrument so aside from saying "it's good" I can't add much to the conversation. But yeah this music fucks.
@@arkham666 It's the same for me, I don't play an instrument and don't even listen to music at home or in the car, I've audio books there. However I come from editing and there the symbiosis of sound and picture are very important to me and it's something I'm always emphasizing to my students. Music for me is something supplementary that can't stand on it's own but it's important as an incredience, like spices. And since it's the same in games,...that means it's important there for me as well. Metal Gear Rising and DMC5 are great examples of that symbiosis and it's awesome.
I played this game when it first came out. One of the few protagonists to share my name, which is probably why I finished it. The game was nothing special, but it wasn't awful- didn't really play like a usual Castlevania, but for a character action game it's aight.
Loved the video and your whole analysis. Especially when you mocked the lame 2010s and 20202s forms of „like… but“ criticism. Chapeu! Liked and subscribed.
I loved this game. Never did the DLC, but I got Mirror of Fate on 3DS (which was… ok… I don’t remember the story making much sense in the end) and I have LoS2 on my PS3 but never finished it. Should fix that one of these days.
54:42 In reality he was mentioned, but once by Cornell in his exposition of the history of the brotherhood, being the reason that order exists, also all the attention was taken by the dark lords so they should have made Zobek the final boss and leave satan for a future sequel
A subscriber since ur legacy of kain videos. Love the video however. The background music is kinda sometimes loud enough to distract me from the actually information ur giving me wich kinda sucks since i love how much effort you obviously put in the videos! Love the work glad to se the last few videos u put out since ur break are really top notch!
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 is my favorite game in history today since its magnificent launch on consoles PS3, Xbox 360 and PCs, I love hacking slash with open world RPG exploration, Castlevania City and Dracula's Castle, Gabriel Belmont transformed into Dracula and Trevor Belmont as Alucard battling Both united against Satan'Lucifer and his Acolytes, as well as Zobek The Grim "Death" Reaper himself... And I don't care about the opinion of any fan critic who criticizes this masterpiece of gameplay, combat, and upgrades, the story of the trilogy concluded with a flourish, stealth sessions that I'm passionate about, a story that makes a lot of sense, yes, anyone who doesn't understand is totally imbecile crude, tacky, weird , media illiterate and stupid... It's a game Really perfect and I don't care if anyone's opinion goes against mine... Best three-dimensional game in history, not just the Castlevania saga...
This was a great watch and it makes me want to play the LoS series again. Despite the first game being a success, I think it's a stretch to say that it won over old Castlevania fans though... well I mean it did for me lol, I was totally on-board with a big, beautiful new take on the series, but I distinctly remember the attitude towards this game generally being pretty negative among Castlevania fan communities at the time (and the sequels didn't get much love either). There was a lot of resentment over the change in direction and new continuity.
@@arkham666 The game found its audience, but I don't think much of that was from existing fans of the series. The Castlevania series had a dedicated fanbase and the series consistently put out great games, but they rarely sold too much at all: like just several hundred thousand copies, generally.
I loved Lords of Shadow for the most part and it was cool to see a new spin on Castlevania, the art direction and sheer spectacle of the game is fantastic and i have played through it a few times. I was really looking forward to the sequel and remember picking it up day one. The intro to that game is also fantastic but i found it to rapidly go down hill after that. A massive shame and i often wonder just what the hell happened during development, those stealth sections and modern day boring city and warehouse environments. Just massively disappointed all around with LoS 2.
I recently tried to play this game for the first time but was completely put off by the gameplay. The environmental and creature designs were fantastic and I honestly tried to push through to see more of them but the constant QTE's and tutorials were too much. I'm thankful for this video, it provided me with enough of the experience without having to torture myself by playing it myself. 😅 Great video!
This game brings back some nice memories. I'm aware this game is a totally different game to what we had before, but I really enjoyed this one. The story is good and the artwork is just fabulous. Would pick up an upscaled version in a hearthbeat Very nice video btw.
If you're not into the English voice acting in this one, there's a Nexus mod that replaces it with the Japanese voice actors which are honestly way better. Also an all-star cast of famous actors
35:38 I agree, that is stupid, especially making that with God of War, since these games would be "Devil May Cry but..." in this case and the GoW reboots would also be God of War but...
Castlevania LoS I bought day one and dropped halfway at an irritating puzzle. Didn't come back for a year but after beating it, it has remained one of my favorites on ps3
I played the game without the DLCs and was really impressed. I was surprised by the twist at the end and thought it was really cool. I never played Lords of Shadows 2 because of the generally bad reviews the game got at the time. Maybe I should play LoS again and then catch up on LoS 2 and Mirror of Fate.🤔
Hey, I was wondering if you could do a video essay on the darksiders franchise? With your passion for the legacy of Kane and vampire the masquerade I’d really like to see a video by you about the dark siders franchise. I think it would be great to watch.
Well hopefully I can convince you to give part 2 a second look when I do my video but I get it. It's a massive departure from this one and there were clearly issues with development that need exploring.
I still have yet to go through the sequel or the 2.5D Mirror of Fate but I mich prefer the first LoS game to the others. Lorewise it's still in a safe place and the twist of the first Belmont becoming Dracula is nice but the sequels kinda ruined the lore. Gameplaywise, I love the first game. And it's quite brutally challenging. I think it's gameplay is even superior to that of God of War both old and definitely better than the new ones.
Game's fine, but playing it just made me think of other games I could be playing that it was obviously influenced by. Could have been better, but it's still a good game. Not gonna lie, the end game story was kind of "all according to plan" BS I've read from manga, and not in a good way. And the DLC boss, I wasn't wise enough to go for the easy difficulty as I did it legit. Hated every minute of that fight.
Wait, Sekiro is considered to be the black sheep of From Software games? By whom? That's the first time I hear from this. ^^ Dark Souls 2, yes we know about that. Even worse for me is Elden Ring, since it ditched all the improvements that came with Sekiro (...and a bit of the ones that came with Bloodborne...) and basically sets back development, of the same team no less, a few years. I'm eager to see the next episode, that was a good cliffhanger... ^^
Black sheep may not have been the best expression but it's the different one of the bunch. Maybe the black swan. Just as beautiful but in a unique way.
@@arkham666 This should have been the case where everybody should have seen the improvements to the formula of the From Software games, they really fixed a lot of small things they ignored for a while just to put them back into Elden Ring. I can see that some people can think about Sekiro the way you described, it's not that far off considering the common consumers perception, considering the audience has grown at that point these games have grown out of their niche. But for people who's hobby is gaming this game should have been as an obvious mechanical improvement and Elden Ring should have gotten flag on that front. I'm looking forward to your video, it's about time this game gets some love.
The mistake is thinking Sekiro was in any way what so ever a Souls game. Its not and was never intended to be one. It started as a Tenchu remake for example. They didn't step backward because almost nothing about Sekiro was intended to folded into Souls beyond how to design enemies and encounters.
@@aureateseigneur5317 No, the mistake is thinking that that's what we're talking about. Everybody knows that Sekiro is an homage to Tenchu. It's not about subgenre, it's about certain details were fixed. And it's also not about Sekiro beeing the greatest mechanically, it just was a step in the right direction for that team, making a functioning system, finally addressing things that stagnated for a long time.
@@marcbraun5342 To be fair to Elden Ring, it expands the gameplay of Dark Souls quite a bit mechanically and gives you lots of things to play with, the comparison with Sekiro isn't really warranted, although Sekiro did handle certain things better in that regard. Like the camera in fights against larger enemies, for instance, and its late game spikes. Same can be said of AC VI, as well. Elden Ring should be compared to DeS/DaS, foremost. But what everyone should have taken from Sekiro is that From Software wants to do original IPs and experiment with the themes they love exploring and how they design their games, instead of limiting themselves to being the studio only known for Dark Souls, which is what Miyazaki tried to communicate with Dark Souls 3 and its DLCs.
I too feel that kojima peaked at the original mgs and it's all downhill from there...with a brief bout of brilliance in mgs3. He's not a great game designer, mgs2 controls felt clunky...like it was stuck between past and present...and halo and re4 showed us how to do shooters. Mgs1 was also brief enough that it didnt have a chance to be "too kojima."
Worst section is that awful music box level , in the sequel it has to be the terrible stealth which was never ,ever mentioned in any preview ,if it had I would've saved £40
@arkham666 You explicitly blamed the "greedy shareholders" for choosing to force Arkane to produce the poorly received Redfall, leading to their closure. Shareholders had nothing to do with it. If I missed the "point," maybe it was because it was buried in so many incorrect declarations.
@@arkham666 I genuinely thought you would care about the things you said in your video being true and correct. If I was mistaken, then I stand corrected.
This isn't a "retrospective" video. He's shortening up the plot at his own convenience, missing major plot points mentioned, just to make jokes during the video& make it seem less formulated than it is. Yes the game has weird low points, jut nowhere near as many as he says there is. Thumbs down, be more fair
"I think, ever since DMC5 came out, we've all realized it (DMC: Devil May Cry) is good, and always was." I think you're out of your damn mind. Nero saying "FUCK YOU!" like he's Donte does not magically make a bad game, good, and as far as I'm aware, the DMC community at large does *not* hold the opinion Ninja Theory's disaster piece is a "good game" just because DMC5 did take some notes from it that played out very well within the context of DMC5. If you want to tell me a game where your baby murderering deuteragonist unironically wears a fedora and carries a katana around while getting baited into dick size arguments with their brother is the contents of a "good" game, under any name, I'd need a better example of it than DMC's reboot. It'd have been lambasted and ridiculed, rightfully so, for the terrible writing alone. Were you there for the launch? Where many enemies in the mid-to-late game were color coded to the kind of weapon (angel or demon) you needed to use, and if you did *not* use the correct weapon you got a *DEFLECTION STAGGER* on yourself from them that *CANCELED* any else you were doing? With *MOST* of Donte's weapons having large AoE attacks in their standard chain that could, would, and *did* catch enemies at the edge of these radius'? It'd be like if DMC 4 said "ah, shit, uhm, fuck dude, those are enemies only Lucifer can damage. Ya gottttta switch to Lucifer dude, Rebellion won't CUT it! Ha. Get it? CUT it? Like a sword? Haha anyway yeah you gotta use this SPECIFIC weapon, specifically, to do ANYTHING to this thing and if you don't, you're gonna be stunned for like, 1.6 seconds." It was a terrible decision, much like most of the decisions that game made -- to the point where the *REMASTER* of the game, which *removed* every terrible decision that *could* be removed, is the only version of the game people even remember -- but let's *not* forget the launch version of the game existed, and was the *only* version of the game that existed for several years. How about the Virgil DLC where *actual* incel Virgil gets cucked in his own damn mind so hard he has to murder the mental image of everyone he ever cared about? Or the heel-face-turn at the end of the game that immediately preceded that that makes very little sense, given that Virgil frequently admits he NEEDS Donte to get anything done, yet, imagine he can take him a fight? The *one* thing you'll hear, consistently, is that the *WEAPON* design, and the *ART DIRECTION* for the game was good. Which is plainly true. Ninja Theory did a great job bringing their concept art to life in their level design. Most of Donte's weapons were also nice, in that most of them were things the series hadn't done before. But, no one is saying "ahh all that game needed to be was NOT a devil may cry game to be a GOOD game". That game would have been mediocre but artful if it hadn't been trying to be something the developer's themselves didn't even understand.
I'm glad you spent so much time typing this out because I didn't read past the first sentence. Feel free to cry more though as i have much better things to do with my time then read this kind of unhinged drivel.
@@arkham666 Lmao that's fair, i didn't watch this video past the DMC verbal diarrhea. Good luck on breaking 10k with this kinda attitude towards engagement lmfao.
That has to be among the worst comments around here. Yes, Castlevania features gameplay inspired by God of War. And so do some Prince of Persia titles, Sonic Unleashed in night time as "werehog" and many more. Dark Souls got nothing to do with anything here, especially not in terms of gameplay. Castlevania is an action hack & slay title. Dark Souls is an RPG with a heavy focus on strategical measure in playing your build.
@@niemand7811 I'm not sure what it is but whenever the algorithm gives one of my videos a nudge there's always one or two people who show up in the comments just to tell me how much they hate the game. They clearly didn't watch the video and have nothing to add or counter to any point I've made they just want me to know that they hate this game. It's fucking weird man and I don't get it myself. I just wouldn't click on a video for a game I'm not interested in, especially from a guy with an audience as small as mine but here we are.
