REVIEW -- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD

In 2010, MercurySteam and Kojima Productions created the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow as re-imagining of the classic Castlevania lore. Hardcore fans have responded this rebirth of the series with mixed results, but I am part of the token minority that loves what Hideo Kojima and MercurySteam have done with this much needed breath of fresh air for the series.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate originally released for the Nintendo 3DS on March 2013, but was recently re-released for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network in HD on October 2013. It is also currently available on Steam and is part of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Ultimate Edition, which bundles the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, both the Reverie and Resurrection downloadable content add-ons, and Mirror of Fate HD for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

Prologue: Gabriel Belmont

Gabriel Belmont spends the night with his wife, Marie. In the morning, he rides to an unknown castle with three Brotherhood knights. They fight demons, but the three knights are killed. Gabriel then confronts the Daemon Lord, a powerful monster. He is wounded by the tail of the creature but uses his blood and a magical device to trap the beast.

While Gabriel is on his mission, Marie gives birth in secret to a son, Trevor. The Brotherhood asks Marie to hide the child from Gabriel, as his dark fate already is known.

Act I: Simon Belmont

Years after the events of the prologue, Simon Belmont awakes in a forest after a terrible nightmare in which his mother, Sypha, is killed by monsters as they escaped the assault on the Brotherhood fortress in their village. He then rides his horse through a village infested by zombies and arrives at Dracula's castle. Near an underground entrance awaits the Lost Soul, which shows Simon, through the shard of the mirror that he carries, that his father Trevor's Combat Cross still lies within the castle. Simon explores the castle in order to recover it, with the guidance of the Lost Soul.

In the Theatre, Simon is trapped and forced to fight an endless stream of the enigmatic Toy Maker's Macabre Puppets. He is rescued by a mysterious figure, who vanishes before Simon can speak to him.

Simon later recovers the combat cross, which is taken from him by a Necromancer, who claims that it must recover the weapon for his master, Zobek. Simon defeats the Necromancer and claims the weapon, allowing him to progress further into the castle.

At the top of the castle's highest tower, Simon encounters the Succubus, who tries, and fails, to seduce Simon, and kills her. As her false world collapses, Simon finds himself in the Throne Room, facing Dracula himself. Before they can battle, however, Alucard enters.

Act II: Alucard

The game switches to Alucard's perspective, taking place earlier. Alucard awakens, emerging from a tomb, and, not remembering his past, is shown his fate by the Lost Soul through the Mirror of Fate. Alucard vows to destroy the one who did this to him, his father, Dracula. Along the way to the highest tower of the castle, Alucard encounters the Daemon Lord, who has been rebuilt with mechanical parts, and is defeated by him and thrown off into the tower, into the lower areas of the castle. He makes his way up the castle, and realizes, with dismay, that Simon is in the castle. He saves Simon twice, fleeing from him the first time and speaking with him the second time, unaware that an amused Dracula is watching from above.

After leaving Simon once more, Alucard faces the Daemon Lord again, and finally kills him. He goes onward to face Dracula, and encounters him in the Throne Room, interrupting the conversation between Simon and Dracula. Alucard and Simon battle Dracula, and manage to defeat and seemingly kill him, though Alucard remarks that Dracula's death was atypical of a vampire. Simon returns his piece of the Mirror of Fate to the Lost Soul, after Alucard tells him that the mirror only manipulated him, and that it did not belong to Simon or his father. Simon inquires Alucard's identity, but he refuses to tell him the truth.

Act III: Trevor Belmont

Years before the events of Simon's journey, in his house, Simon's father, Trevor looks desperate while his wife, Sypha, tries to help him. His son, Simon, plays with the Combat Cross, but his mother asks him to stop. Trevor then stand up and decide to go confront his father, who became Dracula. After hugging his wife and telling her to leave to the mountains if he was not to come back, Trevor gives Simon a necklace that is made of a piece of a magical mirror. He then arrives to Dracula's castle to kill his father and end the family shame.

He encounters the Lost Soul within the castle. The Lost Soul, claiming to know all, attempts to warn Trevor that he will not succeed in his mission, but wishing to hear no more from the Lost Soul, he attacks it, breaking a portion of its face with his combat cross and rendering it unable to speak, explaining its silence in Simon and Alucard's journeys.

In the castle's Belfry, Trevor is forced to flee from a tumbling, massive bell after it is cut from its restraints by hunchbacks. He manages to escape it, but falls into the pit created by the bell's descent. While Trevor is unconscious, the Lost Soul gives him a mysterious cube, which turns out to be the key to unlocking the door to an old temple inhabited by witches.

In the temple, the witches use their magic to free the Daemon Lord, who had been imprisoned years earlier by Gabriel. Trevor fights the Daemon Lord, and manages to defeat him, slicing its hands off and cutting it in half. Thinking he is victorious, Trevor walks away, while an amused Toy Maker looks onwards, and soon after resurrects the Daemon Lord.

Trevor finally encounters Dracula, and uses the balance between Light Magic and Dark Magic to gain the upper hand. Despite this, Dracula still manages to defeat him, stabbing him in the chest with his own combat cross. The dying Trevor claims that he pities Dracula, who accepted his fate while Trevor fought against it, and informs him that he is Dracula's son. Startled, and with Trevor's claim confirmed by the mirror, a dismayed Dracula attempts to revive his son by turning him into a vampire, but with the effort seemingly failed, Dracula stands above his son's grave, marked "Alucard".

Ending: Separate Ways

Back in the present, after the conclusion of Simon and Alucard's journeys, Alucard searches through his grave, Carmilla and Dracula's old throne room to find something. Alucard recovers the broken stake attachment of his father's old weapon, The Vampire Killer, which broke off during his battle with Carmilla, shortly before the castle begins to collapse. Alucard transforms into a bat and manages to escape, while Simon watches the castle collapse from the forest, and bids Alucard farewell.

Gameplay:

The gameplay combines traditional elements from previous Castlevania games, elements from the first Lords of Shadow game, and new gameplay elements.

Gameplay Order

The game plays in this precise order: Gabriel (Prologue) who serves as a tutorial, Simon (Act I), Alucard (Act II), and Trevor (Act III). After being beaten, the game can be played in any order.

Controls

Left stick: Move
Left stick (double tap in one direction): Cyclone Boots (Trevor only)
Right stick/R3 button: Change Sub-Weapon
A: Jump
A (two times): Double Jump (Trevor and Alucard only)
A (hold after double jump): Glide (Alucard only)
Y/Triangle: Area attack, combos, etc.
X/Square: Direct attack, combos, etc.
B/Circle: Use Subweapon
LB/L1: Spirit of Belnades (Simon), Mist form (Alucard), Light Magic (Trevor)
LT/L2: Guard
LT/L2 + Direction: Dodge roll, Dodge glide (in the air), Stomp (in the air, down direction), Dodge with Mist (Alucard only)
RB/R1: Spirit of Schneider (Simon), Wolf form (Alucard), Shadow Magic (Trevor)
RT/R2: Actions, Grab an enemy

From left to right: Simon Belmont, Alucard, Trevor Belmont

The Verdict: 

To do this review on this game justice, I'm going to review the game according to the three Acts (Simon, Alucard, Trevor) after the Prologue (Gabriel).

Also, you can consider this review the same for whatever version of the game that you are looking to buy, whether it be the 3DS original, the stand-alone download for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, or addition that is included in all versions of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Ultimate Edition on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Act I (Simon Belmont)

This starts off immediately following the Prologue with Gabriel to introduce the game's basic controls, but quickly branches out into the game slowly forcing the player to master the controls while giving you something new once you are about to grow bored with one particular set of abilities.

I honestly enjoyed this portion of the game the most, despite Simon's bland character. The pacing was moved at an appropriate manner and got straight to the point, but anyone who knows any shred of Castlevania lore should know where it was going in the long haul before Alucard's revelation at the end of this chapter. This portion of the game gave players three enjoyable (yet fair...) boss fights, without any of the QTEs or other added nonsense that plagued Acts II and III.

Act II (Alucard)

As much as I loved playing as Alucard in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PSX/PSone, I have to admit I downright hated this portion of the game. My disgust with this portion of the game came in multiple flavors - piss, poor hit detection during boss fights, fickle controls - especially the dodges/evasions with Mist, and it seems like Alucard dies off so much easier than his other two playable counterparts. I was more frustrated during his section(s) of the game more than the pure enjoyment I had playing as either Simon or Trevor, but I credit that mainly to navigating through the Toymaker's domain and the two frustrating boss fights against the Daemon Lord and Reaver.

This portion of the game earned my respect at the conclusion of this Act, where both Alucard and Simon tag teamed against Dracula. That was a beloved treat for anyone who hoped to see Alucard and the Belmont family team up against Dracula again in the original Castlevania series.

Act III (Trevor Belmont)

Coming back to play as Trevor after the revelation that he becomes Alucard felt completely pointless and redundant since the player already knows what is going to happen. Mercury Steam could have EASILY remedied this situation by making this part of the game the first Act, followed by Simon's after Trevor's downfall, then Alucard's with possibly more gameplay tacked on following the credits. Instead, I gathered that they thought that the revelation that Trevor IS Alucard in this continuity would have been a huge plot twist, but it would have been presented better if the player was playing as Trevor first, then cut out the sequence where Dracula finds out that Trevor is his own son and tries to save him until the end of Simon's Act.

The only difference between Simon and Trevor's gameplay was that all of Trevor's abilities are enhanced versions of Simon's abilities, with only notable difference being that Shadow and Light magic replaces the Spirits of Belnades and Schneider and function exactly how they did in the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

At this point of the game, combat is completely a bore as you can alternate between Chain Shredder and Chain Barrier to whip the shit out of anything you run into at this point (given if you have taken the time to explore and earn enough EXP to unlock them), only stopping to either evade or jump cancel out of the full animation. Fortunately, the final encounter against Dracula spices things up a bit as the battle is reminiscent to Gabriel's battle with the Silver Knight in Lords of Shadow, where it demanded mastery of your usage of Shadow and Light magic to defeat him.

Closing Words

GIZORAMA shared a short, but great article on why Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD shouldn't be slept on by gamers with 3 simple bullet points that I agree with 100%. 

#3. The atmosphere, characters, and overall theme appeals to Castlevania fanatics

To say that Castlevania fans have been complaining since Mercury Steam and Konami have released the original Lords of Shadow that the series needs to return to its roots, I don't see any closer to the series' roots that this revamp can go than this. The developers have stated in interviews that they were heavily influenced by Super Castlevania IV (SNES) when they started development on this game and it shows. The environments, the character designs, and even down to the very emotional tone and atmosphere of this game, shows nothing but the utmost respect for where this series has began. If anything Mercury Steam and Konami have shown this re-imagining of the Castlevania lore with careful love and affection.

If that's not enough for you, Game of Thrones' Richard Madden (Robb Stark) lends his talents to this game by providing the voices for both Trevor Belmont and Alucard, joining Robert Carlyle (Dracula) and Alec Newman (Simon Belmont). These three men have a powerful dynamic between them in the scenes they share together in this game. Robert Carlyle's Dracula continues to impress me more and more as players are treated with more of his personal downward spiral along the path of darkness. 

#2. The combat system is actually really precise.

Even though it felt cumbersome during Alucard's portion of the game, combat in a Castlevania title haven't felt this good in a LONG time. As a player for a lot of over-the-top action games, I was impressed how simple, yet in-depth the combat was, especially for a Castlevania game. The closest thing to in-depth combat was in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) but everyone tends to have a mixed opinion on that game. 

Seriously though, if you were playing the Castlevania series expecting a Devil May Cry-style experience you really have been playing the wrong series then. It's not quite Devil May Cry-style gameplay, but there's enough depth in combat to keep things fresh. I merely brought up being bored with it by the end of the game after reaching the end of my own creativity while experimenting with it.

My only genuine gripe with the combat is the lack of variety of "worthy" foes to put those abilities to the test. 

#1. It’s closer to Symphony of the Night than they’d have you believe.

If you ask ANY Castlevania fan what was their favorite game out of the series, and ten times out of ten you're going to get Symphony of the Night without a shadow of a doubt... In terms of narrative this game isn't that much of a far cry for that. Simon Belmont is entertaining and gullible as Richter Belmont, Alucard is still a bad ass, and Dracula himself has that two sides of the coin that portray him as not entirely evil and twisted as the Brotherhood of Light makes him out to be.

To say that fans complained about Lords of Shadow lacking exploration and backtracking, there's more than enough of it to go around here. I absolutely LOVED the ability to stick notes on the in-game map and save them for your own personal reference when backtracking later in the game after acquiring new abilities. If only EVERY Metroidvania-style game had this feature, I would love replaying all of those.

Oh, how this current generation of gamers are spoiled by these new innovations...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD is much like its predecessor, Lords of Shadow. It brings a lot to the table that the Castlevania series has needed in this modern generation of gaming, while at the same time, it isn't not flawless in its execution. Regardless, that should not deter you from giving this entry in the Lords of Shadow storyline a fair chance for yourself.

I'm giving Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD a 7.75 out of 10. It's short, sweet, and straight to the point of filling that void that bridges the gap of time between Lords of Shadow and Lords of Shadow 2 together. It manages to make old school 2D Castlevania exploration fun again, whether on a small portable screen on the go, or on the big screen in your living room.