Mirror of Fate HD is a solid but unexceptional action game. It lacks refinements: an interesting role-playing system, better-designed backtracking, more artistically and stylistically inspired environments. There is good variety, though, and, by the end of the adventure, a fair amount of solid action moments as well. The work on the Castlevania continuity, which is very brave, challenges fan beliefs and succeeds in expanding the Lords of Shadow universe. The ups and downs of the production obviously do not change in this HD re-release, which certainly presents a more detailed look, but also denounces its portable genesis and, more generally, the not always inspired art style (cut-scenes aside). Neither the visual upgrade nor the better-designed control scheme will be a game-changer, and the advice remains the same: If you are a fan of Lords of Shadow, you will not regret it.
This game has some nice dark colors!
That, in that monster of a title, is the final officially released Metroid-like Castlevania game by Konami, and also the last one I hadn't beaten yet. After completing this (and Circle of the Moon last year), I've finally beaten all of them! And it was... not the WORST one I've played, I guess ^^;. As I understand is the case with the rest of the Lords of Shadow games, Mirror of Fate is hardly a 10/10 game, but it also isn't the worst thing ever despite being a rather unconventional Metroidvania. It was also originally a 3DS game, but it was ported to the Xbox 360 and PC with this HD release. It took me a little over 8 hours to 100% the game using an Xbox One controller on my PC on normal mode (you need to collect 100% of the collectibles to unlock the secret extra bit of the ending, which is boring and honestly not really worth it ^^;).
Mirror of Fate takes place after the original Lords of Shadow and explores the lives of Gabriel's descendants after he defeats the titular lords of shadow and becomes Dracula. His son, Trevor Belmont, and his grandson, Simon Belmont, (and even Aclucard) all make appearances in their own acts of this three act game. It certainly has an interesting core concept in how it handles this reboot: turning Castlevania into a family drama instead of some amorphous centuries old battle of good vs. evil, but it's also very boringly done. None of the character writing, dialogue, or even the flavor text is all that interesting at all despite the game clearly thinking that it's VERY interesting. It's only really noteworthy in how much potential the idea has, but even then the execution is so lackluster that it doesn't really matter.
The mechanics and design of the game are also flawed but interesting (but mostly flawed). While you CAN go back to older areas to use new abilities to hunt around for stuff, that really isn't the purpose of the game. Despite the fact that you CAN backtrack and there are some (fairly awkwardly placed) warp points, the game was clearly designed to be gone through one-way, so back tracking is quite slow and not very fun. This is also because the combat is like the combat in the proper Lords of Shadow game: it's like God of War. Enemies are way too spongey and take way too much punishment to kill, making combat a constant slog. Throw that in with just how little health you actually have, and combat is often quite frustrating rather than satisfying. The God of War spongey enemies simply don't work well in 2.5D compared to 3D.
The multiple playable characters is neat but not all that remarkable. All three characters have those Kratos-glaive-like whips (super ridiculous range) as well as two magic states you can toggle on and off on top of two sub weapons. Each character has a magic state geared towards defense, and one geared towards offense, but it's not terribly interesting. If anything, Simon's power to just simply convert his mana bar into an extra health bar trains you badly at how you should handle fights, so then when you get to Alucard's chapter things are suddenly way harder now that you don't have that anymore. The sub weapons also have very infrequent ammo at the cost of being far more powerful per hit, but I found myself barley using them until the very end of the game, and even then that was just to clear through more tanky enemies. The fighting does work fine enough, and the bosses (especially Dracula) are usually pretty good fun, but for normal enemies the combat feels boring more often than it feels satisfying or fun.
The platforming is also fine but nothing totally special. The graphics are fairly nice for what was once a 3DS game, but there are points where the visual style is too cluttered to obviously tell what is and isn't a platform, so I nearly fell into a pit once or twice because it had looked like the ground instead of like a pit. The jumping feels a bit floaty and weird, and the back-dash doesn't really feel like it goes back as far as it should, but those aren't unforgivable sins. The most annoying thing about the platforming is that about halfway into act 1 you get a hook shot sort of weapon that can grapple onto certain wall holds and ceiling tiles, but the range on that hook shot is entirely arbitrary to the particular grapple point. The grapple points tend to shine a certain way when you're close enough, but I found it often fiddly and weird, and the grapple points on walls weren't nearly well-distinguished enough from non-grapple wall holds, so there were a good few times I fell to my death (because bafflingly enough this game has fall damage) because I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to drop down instead of start rappelling off of the wall.
The presentation is also pretty "meh" at the end of the day. The in-game models look quite nice, especially for what was once a 3DS game. I'm honestly kinda interested to see how nice it looks on an actual 3DS. But there are also cutscenes done in this cell-shaded comic book style that, while not how the actual gameplay models look, looks absolutely hideous. They really should've went for 3D stills that really look like a comic book, because seeing these cell-shaded character models move and especially talk in herky jerky awkward ways is far more often unintentionally hilarious than anything else XD. The music is also just atmospheric orchestral stuff whose only meaningful quality is that it's VERY forgettable.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. It's not an outright awful game, and I wouldn't even say it's the worst Metroid-like Castlevania game (I still say that's Circle of the Moon), but it's a pretty weak entry in a genre increasingly filled with more and more all-time greats. If you MUST play every Castlevania game in this style, like me, or somehow already own it, you probably won't hate your time with the game, but it's also just so sorta average I can't recommend anyone not into Castlevania seeking it out willingly (or paying more than a couple bucks for it).
Mirror of Fate takes place after the original Lords of Shadow and explores the lives of Gabriel's descendants after he defeats the titular lords of shadow and becomes Dracula. His son, Trevor Belmont, and his grandson, Simon Belmont, (and even Aclucard) all make appearances in their own acts of this three act game. It certainly has an interesting core concept in how it handles this reboot: turning Castlevania into a family drama instead of some amorphous centuries old battle of good vs. evil, but it's also very boringly done. None of the character writing, dialogue, or even the flavor text is all that interesting at all despite the game clearly thinking that it's VERY interesting. It's only really noteworthy in how much potential the idea has, but even then the execution is so lackluster that it doesn't really matter.
The mechanics and design of the game are also flawed but interesting (but mostly flawed). While you CAN go back to older areas to use new abilities to hunt around for stuff, that really isn't the purpose of the game. Despite the fact that you CAN backtrack and there are some (fairly awkwardly placed) warp points, the game was clearly designed to be gone through one-way, so back tracking is quite slow and not very fun. This is also because the combat is like the combat in the proper Lords of Shadow game: it's like God of War. Enemies are way too spongey and take way too much punishment to kill, making combat a constant slog. Throw that in with just how little health you actually have, and combat is often quite frustrating rather than satisfying. The God of War spongey enemies simply don't work well in 2.5D compared to 3D.
The multiple playable characters is neat but not all that remarkable. All three characters have those Kratos-glaive-like whips (super ridiculous range) as well as two magic states you can toggle on and off on top of two sub weapons. Each character has a magic state geared towards defense, and one geared towards offense, but it's not terribly interesting. If anything, Simon's power to just simply convert his mana bar into an extra health bar trains you badly at how you should handle fights, so then when you get to Alucard's chapter things are suddenly way harder now that you don't have that anymore. The sub weapons also have very infrequent ammo at the cost of being far more powerful per hit, but I found myself barley using them until the very end of the game, and even then that was just to clear through more tanky enemies. The fighting does work fine enough, and the bosses (especially Dracula) are usually pretty good fun, but for normal enemies the combat feels boring more often than it feels satisfying or fun.
The platforming is also fine but nothing totally special. The graphics are fairly nice for what was once a 3DS game, but there are points where the visual style is too cluttered to obviously tell what is and isn't a platform, so I nearly fell into a pit once or twice because it had looked like the ground instead of like a pit. The jumping feels a bit floaty and weird, and the back-dash doesn't really feel like it goes back as far as it should, but those aren't unforgivable sins. The most annoying thing about the platforming is that about halfway into act 1 you get a hook shot sort of weapon that can grapple onto certain wall holds and ceiling tiles, but the range on that hook shot is entirely arbitrary to the particular grapple point. The grapple points tend to shine a certain way when you're close enough, but I found it often fiddly and weird, and the grapple points on walls weren't nearly well-distinguished enough from non-grapple wall holds, so there were a good few times I fell to my death (because bafflingly enough this game has fall damage) because I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to drop down instead of start rappelling off of the wall.
The presentation is also pretty "meh" at the end of the day. The in-game models look quite nice, especially for what was once a 3DS game. I'm honestly kinda interested to see how nice it looks on an actual 3DS. But there are also cutscenes done in this cell-shaded comic book style that, while not how the actual gameplay models look, looks absolutely hideous. They really should've went for 3D stills that really look like a comic book, because seeing these cell-shaded character models move and especially talk in herky jerky awkward ways is far more often unintentionally hilarious than anything else XD. The music is also just atmospheric orchestral stuff whose only meaningful quality is that it's VERY forgettable.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. It's not an outright awful game, and I wouldn't even say it's the worst Metroid-like Castlevania game (I still say that's Circle of the Moon), but it's a pretty weak entry in a genre increasingly filled with more and more all-time greats. If you MUST play every Castlevania game in this style, like me, or somehow already own it, you probably won't hate your time with the game, but it's also just so sorta average I can't recommend anyone not into Castlevania seeking it out willingly (or paying more than a couple bucks for it).
Amazing how MercurySteam went from this to Metroid Samus Returns (serviceable remake) to a banger like Metroid Dread.
I disliked this as much as Castlevania Adventure 1 for Game Boy.
I disliked this as much as Castlevania Adventure 1 for Game Boy.
Está muy bien si nunca has jugado un Castlevania
this is literally cock and ball torture holy shit
Plusy: muzyka, design poziomów, ogromna grywalność, historia, która wyjaśnia losy LoS
Minusy: bugi
Minusy: bugi
Terrible controls and combat.
good lord man
Hay menos enemigos molestos y las mecánicas de los diferentes actos estas divertidas pero la banda sonora no es tan épica como la de la primera entrega y la historia, aunque sigue siendo buena, también esta un escalón por debajo de la de su predecesora. Aún así teniendo en cuenta que este juego está pensado para jugarse en portátil y es un Castlevania más clásico me parece un juego mas divertido que el primer Lords of Shadows.
Despite it flaws with clunky controls and inconsistent everything, I think this was a pretty alright Castlevania game. It's like the Iga-vania games but with Lord of Shadows combat and is laid out like a Metroid game. One of the most confusing things about this game is that during cutscenes this game adopts a graphic novel art style and it looks way better than the normal art style, I wish they would've went with that instead.
An alright sidescroller. Despite the appearances, the gameplay is closer to Lords of Shadows than 2D Castlevania, but with thankfully fewer QTEs.
The character designs and environments are the best part of the game for me. I like barbarian Simon Belmont.
The character designs and environments are the best part of the game for me. I like barbarian Simon Belmont.
de los lords of shadow el mas decente sin duda
solid, enjoyable 2.5D take on the Lords of Shadow subseries, with decent level design and high production values for its handheld origins. Has some significant flaws, to be sure (the LoS combat should have been reworked more for the shift to a single 2D plane, and the game should either have been strictly linear or have fully embraced a Metroidvania structure rather than the awkward hybrid on display here), but not even close to the "worst Castlevania ever" abomination that Igavania fans labeled it back in 2013
Xbox Series X Retrocompatible
Fun fact: In act II, one of the Fallen Knight scrolls found mentions a brother named "Mario" and mushroom eating.
This game is stupid, like, REALLY stupid, and is about as bland and generic as they come.
Despite that though, I still kinda had more fun with it then the first LoS, mostly just because it feels a BIT more like a CV game
Despite that though, I still kinda had more fun with it then the first LoS, mostly just because it feels a BIT more like a CV game
- Vampiro fronterizo que por las noches Volaras -
Al início me gusto y me llamo la atención, pero con el paso del tiempo se me hizo aburrido y no había diferencia grande entre el estilo de pelea de Alucard y el Belmont en turno.
Al início me gusto y me llamo la atención, pero con el paso del tiempo se me hizo aburrido y no había diferencia grande entre el estilo de pelea de Alucard y el Belmont en turno.
This game is bad.
Mandar a real msm? Lords of Shadow não é ruim assim.
Esse jogo tenta trazer mais do sentimento metroidvania e até consegue, com um backtracking mais opcional.
A gameplay é boa pra um jogo de 3DS, por mais que fique repetitiva algumas vezes.
As plataformas não respondem muito bem e o jogo tem uns problemas de save, mas no geral não é uma experiência ruim, só um tanto mediana.
Pelo preço que é vendido, eu diria que vale a pena.
Plus eu não tanko o Gabriel, edgy demais.
Esse jogo tenta trazer mais do sentimento metroidvania e até consegue, com um backtracking mais opcional.
A gameplay é boa pra um jogo de 3DS, por mais que fique repetitiva algumas vezes.
As plataformas não respondem muito bem e o jogo tem uns problemas de save, mas no geral não é uma experiência ruim, só um tanto mediana.
Pelo preço que é vendido, eu diria que vale a pena.
Plus eu não tanko o Gabriel, edgy demais.
não achei ruim igual falam não, bem melhor que o 2
compared to proper Metroidvanias this one obviously falls flat
HOWEVER, compared to Lords of Shadow 1, which I had just finished prior to this? An absolute godsend, I remembered what it was like to play an actual video game.
HOWEVER, compared to Lords of Shadow 1, which I had just finished prior to this? An absolute godsend, I remembered what it was like to play an actual video game.
This review contains spoilers
Primeira vez que eu zerei, lembro de ficar jogando a demo desse jogo igual um loco no 3ds e achava demais. Só que agora jogando no pc é óbvio que as coisas mudaram.
Confesso que não lembrava do jogo ter um gameplay travado assim, mas até que flui, o problema mesmo desse jogo é a história, não da pra levar a sério o que acontece por causa dessas cutscenes, simplesmente não da, a atuação dos cara na dublagem n ajuda também n tem expressão nos personagens e quando tem é exagerado e fica engraçado.
Apesar de tudo no quesito gameplay eu até que gostei, tem uma boa variedade de qual arma usar e com cada personagem vai mudando então não senti o gameplay sendo muito repetitivo, principalmente com os incrementos de plataforma com cada personagem, seja no pulo duplo ou com o pulo correndo foi diversificando o gameplay e essa escolha no jogo foi bem vinda.
É um jogo ok de 3ds n é mil maravilhas mas também n é chato, é um 5.
Confesso que não lembrava do jogo ter um gameplay travado assim, mas até que flui, o problema mesmo desse jogo é a história, não da pra levar a sério o que acontece por causa dessas cutscenes, simplesmente não da, a atuação dos cara na dublagem n ajuda também n tem expressão nos personagens e quando tem é exagerado e fica engraçado.
Apesar de tudo no quesito gameplay eu até que gostei, tem uma boa variedade de qual arma usar e com cada personagem vai mudando então não senti o gameplay sendo muito repetitivo, principalmente com os incrementos de plataforma com cada personagem, seja no pulo duplo ou com o pulo correndo foi diversificando o gameplay e essa escolha no jogo foi bem vinda.
É um jogo ok de 3ds n é mil maravilhas mas também n é chato, é um 5.
Revisiting Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate for the first time in almost 10 years and honestly I somehow dislike it EVEN MORE then back when I first played it.
Speaking as both a huge Castlevania AND Lords of Shadow fan...I don't like this game, I wish I did, but I just don't. The game was legit a chore to play through and considering it is super short and I completed it in one 8 hour sitting that honestly says a lot. I think if your game fails at the simplest form of enjoyment it's just not a good game.
Mirror of Fate is a game that at its core has an extreme identity crisis. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a 2.5D spectacle brawler like God of War or the original Lords of Shadow or a classic metroidvania style Castlevania experience and these two things are just so vastly different from each other that the design philosophies are constantly at odds and clashing with one another and it fails miserably at both. It sucks as a Lords of Shadow game and it sucks even more as a Castlevania.
The combat is a simplistic, shallow, pale imitation of the combat in the original Lords of Shadow. You'd think since you play as 3 different characters throughout the game it wouldn't be, but all of them play the exact same minus their different side weapons so the gameplay gets extremely boring and monotonous, so much so that in the final 3rd of the game I just started running past enemies because I wasn't having fun fighting them and honestly just wanted the game to be over. To make matters worse the controls of the game are some of the most unresponsive I've dealt with in awhile and that makes platforming segments just horrendous to go through.
Shout out to the awful level design of the castle as well which just does not feel coherent making backtracking feel like a complete chore and if I don't want to backtrack on your metroidvania you're doing something VERY wrong, not like it matters though because there's such little incentive to backtrack in the first place due to the very minimal secrets to find.
Also I'll be the first to say the OST in the original Lords of Shadow is spectacular, but this game's OST is extremely lacking because there's only really a couple new tracks, most of it is rehashed from the OG Lord's of Shadow and personally the bombastic film score style does not fit this type of game, it worked so well with Lords of Shadow thanks to how adventurous and cinematic the game was, but here it just sounds out of place.
I can give it 2 compliments and that's really all. It's a very pretty game especially for one that was originally a 3DS title and also I actually appreciate the story more nowadays and like how it brings Trevor, Simon and Alucard into the Lords of Shadow canon, it was an interesting take on the lore that helped to make Gabriel's character even more tragic.
However at the end of the day having pretty graphics and a solid story pale in comparison to the fundamentally flawed design of the gameplay for a game that is primarily focused on its gameplay and I could not in good faith ever recommend this game to anyone aside from hardcore Castlevania completionists who want to play every game in the series because it simply can't hold a candle to any of the classic Castlevania games on the GBA/DS or either of the 2 mainline Lords of Shadow games. This is honestly one of the worst Castlevania games ever made and I would rather play the N64 titles.
P.S. Anyone who thinks this game is the best of the Lords of Shadow trilogy simply for being a "Return to classic Castlevania formula" and "Actually taking place at a castle" is delusional because I'd much rather have a sprawling 3D adventure with well crafted linear levels than a downright awful, incoherent attempt at a metroidvania.
Speaking as both a huge Castlevania AND Lords of Shadow fan...I don't like this game, I wish I did, but I just don't. The game was legit a chore to play through and considering it is super short and I completed it in one 8 hour sitting that honestly says a lot. I think if your game fails at the simplest form of enjoyment it's just not a good game.
Mirror of Fate is a game that at its core has an extreme identity crisis. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a 2.5D spectacle brawler like God of War or the original Lords of Shadow or a classic metroidvania style Castlevania experience and these two things are just so vastly different from each other that the design philosophies are constantly at odds and clashing with one another and it fails miserably at both. It sucks as a Lords of Shadow game and it sucks even more as a Castlevania.
The combat is a simplistic, shallow, pale imitation of the combat in the original Lords of Shadow. You'd think since you play as 3 different characters throughout the game it wouldn't be, but all of them play the exact same minus their different side weapons so the gameplay gets extremely boring and monotonous, so much so that in the final 3rd of the game I just started running past enemies because I wasn't having fun fighting them and honestly just wanted the game to be over. To make matters worse the controls of the game are some of the most unresponsive I've dealt with in awhile and that makes platforming segments just horrendous to go through.
Shout out to the awful level design of the castle as well which just does not feel coherent making backtracking feel like a complete chore and if I don't want to backtrack on your metroidvania you're doing something VERY wrong, not like it matters though because there's such little incentive to backtrack in the first place due to the very minimal secrets to find.
Also I'll be the first to say the OST in the original Lords of Shadow is spectacular, but this game's OST is extremely lacking because there's only really a couple new tracks, most of it is rehashed from the OG Lord's of Shadow and personally the bombastic film score style does not fit this type of game, it worked so well with Lords of Shadow thanks to how adventurous and cinematic the game was, but here it just sounds out of place.
I can give it 2 compliments and that's really all. It's a very pretty game especially for one that was originally a 3DS title and also I actually appreciate the story more nowadays and like how it brings Trevor, Simon and Alucard into the Lords of Shadow canon, it was an interesting take on the lore that helped to make Gabriel's character even more tragic.
However at the end of the day having pretty graphics and a solid story pale in comparison to the fundamentally flawed design of the gameplay for a game that is primarily focused on its gameplay and I could not in good faith ever recommend this game to anyone aside from hardcore Castlevania completionists who want to play every game in the series because it simply can't hold a candle to any of the classic Castlevania games on the GBA/DS or either of the 2 mainline Lords of Shadow games. This is honestly one of the worst Castlevania games ever made and I would rather play the N64 titles.
P.S. Anyone who thinks this game is the best of the Lords of Shadow trilogy simply for being a "Return to classic Castlevania formula" and "Actually taking place at a castle" is delusional because I'd much rather have a sprawling 3D adventure with well crafted linear levels than a downright awful, incoherent attempt at a metroidvania.
A pretty good 2.5D Castlevania-style platformer game, which reveals and expands on the story of the previous part and perfectly connects it with Lords of Shadow 2.
Gets the buff of actually being a side scrolling game but it's just as dull as the others. What a wet fart to leave the franchise off on.
Castlevania Mirror of Fate is a game that has an identity crisis. It really wants to be a 2.5D God of War, but then someone told it that it has to appeal to the SoTN fans. So it attempts to do that by putting in lame level designs, repetitive puzzles, and an abundance of leaps of faith that have you killed often.