![]() ![]() But then the designers would have also had to put in upgraded weapons, armor, equipment, and everything else you expect and, for whatever reason, Mercury Steam elected not to do this. Then you could have a castle actually teeming with life like we expect from these games. The solution, of course, would have been to make the enemies a little easier to deal with so that, as you progressed and gained powerups and levels, the trash mobs could be dispensed with more easily. This gives the game a completely different pace, and if the halls had been packed with enemies then it would have been even more of a slog to get through this game. There's no quickly slicing your way through wave after wave of enemies because each time you decide to take on on you have to stop your forward momentum and really deal with your target. Taking a page from it's console brother, the battles in Mirror of Fate are long, multi-hit affairs, even for the most basic of skeletons. Of course that's probably because none of the fights in Mirror of Fate are quick to dispense with. All the (un)life has been sucked out of the halls and rooms, so that instead of a castle packed with danger it's mostly just a dust edifice. After that you can dodge these small pockets while the rest of the castle reamins starkly empty. Mirror though, keeps the monsters contained to very specific areas, often in single hallways where you have to clear them out the first time you fight them. Note that I mentioned the rooms in classic Metroidvania titles were packed with enemies. That's in part due to how the game doles out fights. Instead of a weird castle with rooms packed full of beasts and heroes constantly battling the undead as they collect weapons, items, tea cakes, furniture, and whatever other oddities the game has along the way, you just have a hero trudging through the same-looking hallways, maybe finding a health powerup or magic refill. The stages are too linear, too similar is style and construction without all the weird flourishes of the previous games. Yes, this is a 2.5D explorable castle, and yes you can go back and forth through the stages exploring the castle to find every nook and cranny and get all the collectables, but it does play like a proper Castlevania game. The first issue I had with the game came from it's basic design. It's close, but the beating heart and undead soul is missing from the game, keeping it from truly feeling like a proper part of the franchise. The game looks like the Castlevania when know and love when you see it in screenshots, but once you actually pick up and play the game you'll notice that something feels. While the idea of bringing Lords of Shadow back to its roots seems like a good idea - certainly I appreciate that it answers one of my biggest complaints about the first Lords of Shadow - in execution there's something missing from Mirror of Fate. Namely it would be a side-scrolling 2.5D Metroidvania-inspired title set in this new pocket continuity. Meanwhile a midquel for the sub-series, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (which is hideously long to type over and over again) would be released one year before the full-fledged sequel and would return this little pocket of the Castlevania universe back to its roots. One, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, would be a direct sequel, picking up after events alluded to at the end of the first game and would play largely like the first game in style and scope. Three years after the first game in this reboot came out, the team behind that game, Mercury Steam, announced two new sequels. It not only was a poorly made game, in my opinion, but it didn't feel like Castlevania. ![]() While that game may have had some fans, I was not one of them. It was an attempt to reboot the franchise, not only in story but also in style of play although I haven't ever touched the God of War series, the first Lords of Shadow drew heavy comparisons to that series in reviews. I will be the first to admit that I wasn't a big fan of the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. ![]()
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