Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Guide by Colin Moriarty
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Guide by Colin Moriarty Spanning nearly twenty-five years, Castlevania is one of Konami’s oldest franchises. It’s also one of the best-selling and more popular series in Konami’s arsenal, well-loved and remembered by old-school and new-school gamers alike. But if there’s a single negative stigma associated with Castlevania, it’s that it hasn’t made the jump from 2d to 3d very well. Games like Castlevania 64 and Lament of Innocence weren ’t necessarily critically panned, but they weren’t nearly as loved as, say, Dracula’s Curse or Symphony of the Night. Can good Castlevania games only be experienced in 2d? After several years at the drawing board, Konami decided to try something new. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a God of War/Ninja Gaiden-like 3d Castlevania experience. It’s a bit of a reboot, and its story isn’t considered canon with the rest of the Castlevania franchise. With such freedom in gameplay and story-telling, Konami has delivered a full-featured, lengthy game that draws inspiration from outside of the series. And it’s wildly successful in doing so. Our complete guide will help you through this meaty experience, full of all of the goodness explained below. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Guide Contents » Basics, from fighting enemies to developing Gabriel Belmont. Walkthrough, holding your hand through Castlevania's twelve chapters. Skills, outlining Gabriel Belmont's many upgrades. Bestiary, because no Castlevania game is complete without ridiculous enemies. Trophies/Achievements, as you're either a Trophy Whore or an Achievement Hunter. Q & A, answering the most common Castlevania: Lords of Shadow questions. © 2010, IGN Entertainment, Inc. May not be sold, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, in whole or part, without IGN’s express permission. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. All rights reserved. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 1 of 373 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Basics The Fundamentals Advanced Tactics Ten Tips Slaying Vampires Ain’t Easy Welcome to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Konami’s much-anticipated foray into the 3D realm with one of their most famous franchises. It’s not to say that Castlevania hasn’t jumped into 3D with Castlevania before, but it is to say that their several attempts, from Castlevania 64 onwards, provided for some subpar experiences that left a bad taste in the mouth of critics and the gaming masses alike. Well, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a game that goes in a decidedly different direction, and the results it produces are, in a word, excellent. Lords of Shadow isn’t a canon Castlevania game, meaning that the story, events and characters have no ties to the Castlevania timeline. It’s true that the main character is a Belmont -- Gabriel -- but that’s about as far as the overt connections go. Castlevania nerds will notice little odes apart from that (for instance, a Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest fan will note that one of the stages in chapter five is called Veros Woods, a destination from that game), but it ’s important that you go into this experience expecting something fresh, that doesn’t tie itself to Castlevania games of the past. Indeed, this game is barely an ode to its namesake, so it may surprise you that it’s a very good, very rewarding game. And yet, it’s just that. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 2 of 373 Hacking and Slashing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a 3D game in the same vein as God of War, and even the 3D Ninja Gaiden titles. But for most people, the God of War reference will let you know what you’re getting into here. The difference between this game and the God of War titles, however, is the depth of the experience. God of War is a button-masher, and so too is Lords of Shadow, but the skill tree system, the length and difficulty of the game, and the emphasis on revisiting old areas and solving complicated puzzles puts it on a completely different plane. If you’re going to delve into Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, get ready for a lengthy story-driven adventure. But with all of that said, the game is still very much a hack-and-slash affair. Gabriel Belmont, the game’s main character, has a great many attacks at his disposal, including the use of purchased combos and skills, and even special weapons (like daggers). But his whip, called the Combat Cross in Lords of Shadow, is his primary weapon. The whip is used with a standard attack (X on Xbox360/Square on PS3) and a heavy attack (Y on Xbox360/Triangle on PS3). Gabriel can also jump (A on Xbox360/X on PS3) and parry/dodge (left trigger on Xbox360/L2 on PS3). Special weapons, like those aforementioned daggers, can also be utilized (B on Xbox360/Circle on PS3). These are the primary control functions you need to know to begin getting through the game from the outset. But you’ll learn much, much more as you begin to work your way through Eastern Europe. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 3 of 373 The Light and the Dark Gabriel Belmont isn’t only beholden to conventional weapons, like a whip or a dagger, however. Eventually, Gabriel will learn how to use magical attacks as well. First, he’ll be able to use Light Magic, and later on in the game, he’ll learn Shadow Magic. Light Magic and Shadow Magic have very, very different uses in the game, but you’ll need to balance them both out in such a way that benefits you greatest. For starters, it’s important to know that you can’t use either magic indefinitely. A blue meter on the lower left side of the screen indicates how much Light Magic you have left, while a red meter on the lower right side of the screen indicates how much Shadow Magic you have left. If one meter or the other (or neither of them) are on your screen, it simply means you haven’t learned the magic in question yet. So what can these magic types be used for? Well, Light Magic is simple to explain. When you activate Light Magic (left bumper on Xbox 360/L1 on PS3), Gabriel will glow blue. Every successful hit you score on an enemy with your Combat Cross with Light Magic activated will give Gabriel some of his lost health back. It will also decrease his Light Magic meter, so you can’t overly-exploit this magic. Shadow Magic, on the other hand, has more varied uses. Activating it (right bumper on Xbox 360/R1 on PS3) and attacking with your Combat Cross will allow you to deal more damage to your enemies as Gabriel glows with an evil red color. But if you activate Shadow Magic and begin to use one of the many combos and skills you can use in unison with the magic, you’ll find that Shadow Magic has many, many more uses beyond standard Combat Cross attacks. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 4 of 373 The Fundamentals Advanced Tactics Ten Tips Skills, Special Weapons and Combos One of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’s most interesting features is its experience system. By killing enemies and completing puzzles, you can earn experience that can then be segued into learning new combos and skills. Each enemy in the game is worth a different amount of experience points, and you can kill endless amounts of them by replaying stages over and over again to earn the amount of experience you may need to purchase better and better skills and combos. Puzzles, too, will give you loads of experience points once completed, but keep in mind that if you opt out of completing a puzzle on your own (by using scrolls to bypass the puzzle completely), you will permanently lose your opportunity to earn experience from said puzzle. So be careful! Special Weapons, on the other hand, aren’t tied to experience, but rather to how far in the game you’ve progressed. If you keep an eye on the upper left part of the screen, you’ll see a d-pad like graphic that represents Gabriel’s different weapons. You can use the directional pad to select which weapon you want to utilize, which varies from daggers and fairies to dark crystals and more. Just like various combos and skills unlock as you move further and further through the game, so too do new special weapons. So while you’ll unlock daggers early on, you won’t get access to other goodies like fairies or dark crystals until much later in the game. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 5 of 373 Trials and Tribulations As we mentioned earlier, it ’s easy (and obvious) to compare Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to games like God of War. After all, everything from Castlevania ’s beautiful 3D landscapes and static camera to its combat and emphasis on upgrading echoes that influence. But comparing the two from there doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially in terms of the game’s scope, and what you can do within the game. God of War is linear. You move through the game, you are rarely able to backtrack, and there’s no reason to expect that if you missed something that you may actually need it. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the exact opposite of the God of War franchise in this respect.