First Impressions: Castlevania – Lords Of Shadow – Mirror Of Shadow (3DS) ~ It’s Just Fun!

Wikipedia entry

So, my best wishes for the holidays. I have something special to announce. I got myself a wireless controller for my PC. That means that I can now play even more games than before. In addition to that, it’s the 50th article I publish on ButtonSmashers. Yes, 50th! And I’m nearing a big number on my personal blog as well. So, I’m extremely thrilled about that. But this is totally beside the point, I told you guys that I wouldn’t write any new article in 2013. I kinda lied. This is a new article, I guess. While I’m waiting for a download to finish to use my controller on, I played a bit of this game on my 3DS. It’s surprisingly better then I expected it in the first place. That’s why I decided to write an article about it. It would be lovely if you left a comment with your thoughts on this article and or on this game. So, let’s go. 

Story

It’s going to be a shame to admit this but I know next to nothing about the story in the Castlevania series. It’s a shame really since I quite enjoy the Castlevania games. It’s actually Castlevania game I’m waiting on downloading on Steam.

The story, for as far I can understand, is pretty thrilling. The writing is pretty neat. I think it’s brilliantly written.

While I was thrown off at first by the presentation of the cutscenes, when I placed my 3D slider to the max I actually rather enjoyed the art style.

From what I have heard, this game will take place from different points of view. You don’t have to tell that to me twice to know that I’m going to play an excellent story. I have played multiple RPG’s from Konami and I was never let down by the story.

The voice acting. Wow. I mean, it just blows my mind how good it was. And actually still it. In the cutscenes, the voices add so much to the game. Yet, I’m under the impression that the game sometimes has a bit of a slowdown in the cutscenes with the 3D slider on. But that might just be me though.

“Mash”

Let me be clear on this, I hate button mashers with a passion. It broke the shoulder buttons of my original DS and I’m still kinda pissed about that. Yet, I’m glad that I learned my lesson and I don’t have to make other devices suffer the same fate.

ButtonSmashers don’t demand skill. In a sense they do, the skill to be able to tap a button very rapidly. While this game sometimes has it quick time events and it’s “mash the attack button” moments, I never really felt that they were a “mashing fest”.

Since when you aren’t careful, you’ll die. And in typical Castlevania style, the hearts don’t give back your health. You have to find fountains. And they aren’t close together. You have to react quickly and try to save your health.

In terms of controls, it’s acceptable. It’s one of the more weaker points in the game. While there is no “tutorial”, the controls are displayed briefly on the screen. So, experienced players won’t be annoyed by them.

While researching for the article, I came across an article on this game which called the combat one of the negatives. Well, here lies a problem. Since this game is a sequel to a 3D game, the combat is, of course, less bloody and such. I give them that, yet when you look at how this game works well in terms of combat as a 2D game, I think it can be excused.

Yet, something I didn’t welcome with open hands is the fact that when you die, you can get respawned in a boss fight with full health. Yeah, when you killed the boss halfway, you will respawn there.

Verdicts

Besides the weird respawning, there is something else that bothers me. The animation isn’t that great in my opinion. And before you write angry comments, let me explain.

The animation on the characters and such is great. Yet, we can’t really enjoy it that well since it’s a bit too zoomed out. It makes the game feel unfinished and that they use this technique to hide that.

While I already said that the controls aren’t the greatest, I have to talk a bit more about them. After you got used to them, they are pretty nice quality. The big issue is the fact that you need to get used to them. I wished that special powers could be done with a touch on the touchscreen.

The game is a good challenge. It isn’t too hard to be frustrating, but it isn’t too easy. This is a pureblood action adventure game. And the adventuring is really present. While you can easily see where to go next, exploring around gives you additional content. And more monsters to fight.

Defeated monsters give you XP. And when you level up, when you have enough XP of course, you unlock new moves. You can quickly check the moves list in your inventory so you have no excuse that you forgot the controls when you didn’t play the game for a while.

Also, Konami didn’t use any excuses in the art style. The game is pretty. Too bad that the game is a bit zoomed out. Otherwise, the art would have more detail in them and shined through a bit more.

I’ll probably go more in depth with my review but I’m liking this game so far. The music is also really nice. I like the soundtrack. Such a shame that no real good quality versions are uploaded to YouTube, so I could share it with you guys. In the sound department, this game is really well put together.

So in conclusion, this game would have been a lot better with some minor tweaks at the controls and a bit more zoomed in. But I think I’m going to leave it here. When I’m reaching that milestone on my personal blog, I’ll write a long special article. Thanks for reading and have a safe Christmas.

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(16+) First impression: Corpse Party (PSP) ~ Elementary school gone bad.

 Link to the site

!! While I do realize that the majority of people ignore age labels on games, I want to warn you that this game is a graphic game and contains elements that maybe can influence younger minds or weak hearted in the wrong way. !!

That how the legend went. Yeah, the red text is a warning. Or is it? Well, it’s true that this game isn’t for the “pussies” of gamers. This game has the potential to either make you shiver or somewhat scared. It has disturbing moments and it’s fun. In this new series I’ll talk about games you should play or you should try out. I found this game recently, sadly enough not the European box-art, and I find it sad that in so many top 10 lists of PSP games this game gets overlooked. This game is very well crafted and once I finish it I’ll put up a review for this game. So subscribe to my blog or one of my social networks to be kept up-to-date. But for now, let’s go on with my first impression. What do I think about the game? And why do I recommend it? Let’s dive into this game that’s based on an excellent manga that every horror fan should read. 

Why shouldn’t you play it?

Well, let’s switch things around like you usually would expect these articles to go. The game has some issues and why you shouldn’t play this game is simple.

The game has a terrible saving system in my opinion. This game could have gotten way better in the save department.

Also, the music glitches are a big bummer. I sometimes had the pleasure of walking in a silent area when there was supposed to be music.

And sometimes you wish there was a “skip dialogue” button. That’s all I have to say about that for now.

And that’s about all I can say for now. I’ll go more in depth in my review of course.

Why should you play this game?

This game can take adventure games of guard easily. Oh yes, because one of my major hobbies is writing, I normally see plots coming but the start blew me away. It’s one of the better starts to a game or story I have ever seen. It truly pulls you in.

The game has the feeling of a visual novel and the art style truly does this game justice. I’m quite happy that they have chosen for this style since it gives me memories of seeing people play those old NES games like Sweet Home, yet it looks modern and RPG-ish.

But it’s for the story you need to play this game. It’s a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I’m truly bad with horror since I can’t stand jump scares, and believe me, there are so few you wouldn’t even notice.

The gameplay is great. It gave me a vibe of exploring like Alone in the Dark & Broken Sword for example did. You need to find clues but the twist is, if you do sometime wrong, or take a wrong path, well; You get the wrong ending and you need to start the chapter over or from your last save point.

My advice.

I already said in the introduction that this isn’t my review yet. But for now I truly recommend this game. It isn’t flawless but the game is truly worth a play.

The start of the game I experienced at night, just before I went to sleep, with my curtains closed and my room all dark. I attached my old headset and put the volume on nearly the loudest volume it could go. And then the game truly shines.

It isn’t a game that will make you go call your mommy awake because you as teenager gamer got so scared, but it will make you feel awkward and uneasy. It also made me want to read the manga.

If you can look past a bad saving system, this game can be something for you. But for the weak of heart, I truly advice thinking twice about this game since some things can truly be scary for you. Maybe I’m overly cautious here but sometimes it’s better if you do that.

Keep out an eye for my review to know what I thought of this game and what score I’m going to give it. I like to finish the games to looked for other points I would like to mention. But yeah, this rambling isn’t doing this article any good since I wanted to talk about this game.

I’m going to leave it here. Continue my playthrough of this game. I’m currently about to beat the 2nd chapter and once I finish this hidden gem of a game, I will hunt the sequel down. That’s for sure for me. So, happy gaming guys and let me know in the comments if this game was actually a nice recommendation.