Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[DrBloodmoney]

Holy Cross, that's a lot of Castlevania! You've been busy ?

 

Be interested to see what you think of the Lords of Shadow game - I dug it, but not sure if my own lack of deep Castlevania knowledge of these older games helped or hurt that, so will be interesting to see your opinion playing them so quickly after some of these classic ones!

[Copanele]

Just now, DrBloodmoney said:

Holy Cross, that's a lot of Castlevania! You've been busy 

 

Be interested to see what you think of the Lords of Shadow game - I dug it, but not sure if my own lack of deep Castlevania knowledge of these older games helped or hurt that, so will be interesting to see your opinion playing them so quickly after some of these classic ones!

Yep, after I get one trophy in Persona 4 Arena (my own weakness towards milestones, I admit ) I will IMMEDIATELY AND UNDOUBTEDLY start Lords of Shadow. I wanted a DMC /God of War game and this looks like the perfect opportunity.

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Yep, after I get one trophy in Persona 4 Arena (my own weakness towards milestones, I admit ) I will IMMEDIATELY AND UNDOUBTEDLY start Lords of Shadow. I wanted a DMC /God of War game and this looks like the perfect opportunity.

 

I look forward to the inevitable conclusion to this awesome endeavour: The Definitive Ranking of Belmonts! ?

[PooPooBlast]

6 hours ago, Copanele said:

No. 42: Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Awesome read as usual ?. 

 

Idk if you've played the god of war series (the ones from the ps2 and PS3 era) but is it correct to say that castlvania is similar to those games? Well some are side scrollers (?) (Not sure if that's the right term to use lol) but I mean the ones that are in 3rd person. 

 

Anyway, just curious. Probably won't play the Castlevania games though

[Copanele]

15 minutes ago, PooPooBlast said:

Awesome read as usual . 

 

Idk if you've played the god of war series (the ones from the ps2 and PS3 era) but is it correct to say that castlvania is similar to those games? Well some are side scrollers (?) (Not sure if that's the right term to use lol) but I mean the ones that are in 3rd person. 

 

Anyway, just curious. Probably won't play the Castlevania games though

Yeah, I played just abit of God of War before, to justify a PS3 purchase. Only tested the greek waters however, nothing serious really.

 

Sorry, I had to ? Puzzle Quest FTW

 

Anyway, the main Castlevania games are sidescrollers, I think like 90% of the titles are like that. The new 3D ones however, yeah, they are like God of War from what I've seen. I really hope they have some form of identity and they are not like Dante's Inferno (aka bootleg christian Kratos)

Edited October 29, 2021 by Copanele

[Joe Dubz]

Glad to hear you had a (mostly) good time with the Castlevania series!! Man those games take me back... I def played the hell out of them as a kid! I actually have a pretty soft spot for C2, but it's totally understandable why you just passworded your way through... It's kind of a doozy! I don't know that I'd have the wherewithal nowadays to give that a legit go anyway  ?  I can't honestly say I even did it legit the whole way through back then ?

 

BTW, WTF is Kid Dracula?!! I'm gonna have to look that one up, never heard of it before... But with a name like that, it just sounds atrocious ??

 

 

[Copanele]

16 minutes ago, Joe Dubz said:

Glad to hear you had a (mostly) good time with the Castlevania series!! Man those games take me back... I def played the hell out of them as a kid! I actually have a pretty soft spot for C2, but it's totally understandable why you just passworded your way through... It's kind of a doozy! I don't know that I'd have the wherewithal nowadays to give that a legit go anyway  ?  I can't honestly say I even did it legit the whole way through back then ?

 

BTW, WTF is Kid Dracula?!! I'm gonna have to look that one up, never heard of it before... But with a name like that, it just sounds atrocious ??

 

 

Wow loving C2, interesting I mean that game would have looked awesome as a kid, but now...nope. That purple ain't doing it for me.

 

As for Kid Dracula...this is my experience with it.....

 

 

[Joe Dubz]

? What in the actual fuck did I just watch?!! I'm seriously in tears right now dude ???

 

Not even sure why that qualifies as any sort of Castlevania game, I'll just say I'm glad I never came across that back in the day ?

[starcrunch061]

Kid Dracula isn't that bad, except that your character moves so slowly that it makes some of the bosses total hell.

 

Good luck on that one.

[Grotz99]

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

Wow loving C2, interesting I mean that game would have looked awesome as a kid, but now...nope. That purple ain't doing it for me.

 

As for Kid Dracula...this is my experience with it.....

 

Had to pause it to see what that bird actually throws and it's actually other little birds, thought for a sec that they were already cooked too...

[Copanele]

5 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

Had to pause it to see what that bird actually throws and it's actually other little birds, thought for a sec that they were already cooked too...

There's one regret about Kid Dracula. There's a cabaret minigame, but the minigame order is random and I could never manage to see what the hell it is about

This game has NOTHING to do with Castlevania.

[PooPooBlast]

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

There's a cabaret minigame

AYO I have experience managing hostesses, interpreting hand signals and de-escalating encounters with rowdy customers. Sounds like the perfect game for me

[FreshFromThaDeli]

I grew up playing Castlevania so I'm loving all this Castlevania talk ?. I'm amazed and disappointed at myself for not playing a single one on my PSN profile...yet. That will change very soon. 

 

Anyways is it just me but does anyone else think of that AVGN episode when I see someone mention Castlevania II? I highly recommend that episode if you haven't seen it already. It's one of his earliest reviews and he still references himself to this day. One of my favourites!

 

 

I also highly recommend the Netflix series. It's a banger! 

 

I would love to see Castlevania 64 make it's way to modern consoles one day. I was a N64 kid growing up so I played Castlevania 64 instead of SOTN growing up. I obviously corrected that mistake when I bought SOTN off the PSN store when it got re released on PS3 and played it to death. I don't think Castlevania 64 is as bad as people make it out to be but I admit it's a bit of nostalgia that's giving me the feels. 

[Copanele]

Oh damn an AVGN video! I haven't watched it, thanks for sharing
I saw his old Ghosts and Goblins video and my goodness it was hilarious!

[SnowxSakura]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Oh damn an AVGN video! I haven't watched it, thanks for sharing
I saw his old Ghosts and Goblins video and my goodness it was hilarious!

They're going to lock him up in a padded room with him repeating "GET THE KNIFE, GET THE KNIFE"

 

Love that episode

[Destructor-8]

16 hours ago, Copanele said:

No. 42: Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Hardest trophy: Heir of the Belmont Clan - complete all games

Difficulty: 2/10 - you have save states

Personal impression: 7.5/10

 

THE GOOD:

- truly a classic in terms of old games

- music is a banger

- save states actually improve the experience

- Castlevania III and Super Castlevania IV are probably the best out there

- you'll feel like a 1400 Romanian peasant chasing away ghouls

 

THE BAD:

- fkin medusa heads JESUS

- Castlevania II is ass

- GBA games and Kid Dracula are meh

 

Recommendation: Castlevania the Netflix series - a rare instance where a Netflix production is close to a 10/10, watch this even if you don't like Castlevania. The writing, the cast, everything is amazing about this show. Also Isaac is the best character ever.

 

Nice review! It was interesting to read this & I found that video pretty funny wondering what it was lol. I haven't thought about it but maybe might check this show out since I haven't seen it & it could be cool. The only game I've played is Castlevania: Harmony of Despair & it was nice of @SnowxSakura to help out on the more difficult trophies on the game. I still remember not being able to do much except spam whatever magic I had from afar hoping to contribute lol. It's been great to be able to play the game since it's really fun & I'm glad I finally played one of these.

 

2 hours ago, FreshFromThaDeli said:

I grew up playing Castlevania so I'm loving all this Castlevania talk ?. I'm amazed and disappointed at myself for not playing a single one on my PSN profile...yet. That will change very soon. 

 

Anyways is it just me but does anyone else think of that AVGN episode when I see someone mention Castlevania II? I highly recommend that episode if you haven't seen it already. It's one of his earliest reviews and he still references himself to this day. One of my favourites!

 

I also highly recommend the Netflix series. It's a banger! 

 

I would love to see Castlevania 64 make it's way to modern consoles one day. I was a N64 kid growing up so I played Castlevania 64 instead of SOTN growing up. I obviously corrected that mistake when I bought SOTN off the PSN store when it got re released on PS3 and played it to death. I don't think Castlevania 64 is as bad as people make it out to be but I admit it's a bit of nostalgia that's giving me the feels. 

 

It's interesting as I never played any of these before until recently & as I mentioned above I was able to try out Castlevania: Harmony of Despair with the help of @SnowxSakura awhile ago so it's been pretty cool to try one out. I'm actually currently playing through it now to finish it off. It also looks like you recommend the show as well so it sounds like a must. 

Edited October 29, 2021 by Destructor-8

[Copanele]

12 hours ago, Destructor-8 said:

It's interesting as I never played any of these before until recently & as I mentioned above I was able to try out Castlevania: Harmony of Despair with the help of @SnowxSakura awhile ago so it's been pretty cool to try one out. I'm actually currently playing through it now to finish it off. It also looks like you recommend the show as well so it sounds like a must. 

Man, you definitely need to watch the netflix show. I mean, you don't have to know anything about Castlevania even, just enjoy one of the best shows released in late years!

I'd personally give it a 9.5/10, and only because Season 3 has some minor hiccups and is not as great as the other seasons.

 

[Copanele]

💯 No. 43 - Scrabble

 

Hardest Trophy: Float like a butterfly  - beat the AI on hard

Difficulty: 2/10 if you use an online word dictionary, 4-5/10 if you play legit, 10/10 if No Habla Ingles and you stumbled across this game and thought it's a shooter or idk

Personal impression: 9/10 because I love Scrabble IRL.

 

So...yeah this is a Scrabble PS4 game. You got a board, you link letters with various points and try to make the juiciest words ever while also getting the sick multipliers that are on the board. I like stuff like crosswords and word plays and this game was perfect to practice my English knowledge (since I kinda got sick of the Romanian version). Plus, I needed a relaxing game between Persona 4 Arena sessions so this one was a no-brainer (while also requiring alot of brain lol).

 

Believe me or not, I actually 100%d this game legit. With an online dictionary you can complete all the trophies in a matter of minutes, since you can just generate the best words with the letters that you have. But...where's the fun in this? So I attempted this game on myself with my average knowledge of English words like "rat", "dog" , "house", "philodendron".

As expected, the AI was mad easy to beat on Very Easy difficulty, the true challenge was beating it on Hard. And I have to say, it WAS hard because the AI used some wtf words like "FUZEE" or "UTA", words I have never heard of. But after several tries and saving the big points for the "Triple Letter" tiles, I managed to win the match by one point difference. Quite the proud moment not gonna lie

 

Another tricky trophy was writing the word "SCRABBLE" on the board. It involved abit of RNG but it wasn't too bad.

 

And...that's it. As mentioned, it's a Scrabble game, it doesn't get any fancier than that!

 

THE GOOD:

- quite fun if you want to relax your brain

THE BAD:

- nobody plays online

- game sucks if you don't know English

 

Recommendation: Letter Quest Remastered Same principle, but now you use words to defeat monsters with your cute grim reapers. I recommend it for a quick enjoyment

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

No. 158 : Castlevania Lords of Shadow

+💯  completion

Platinum Name: Platinum

Hardest Trophy: Epic Victory - chapter XIV - DLC2 in Paladin Difficulty

Difficulty: 5.5/10

Personal impression: 5/10

 

WARNING - This post contains Castlevania Lords of Shadow spoilers!

and salt. Lots of salt.

 

In an age long past, when the industry didn't dream of "games as a service" and "microtransaction", there was a simple genre of games called Action Adventure. This genre usually had a rather straightforward premise: protagonist of few words and lots of past, a simple yet to the point story and sick gameplay: action heavy, millions of way to beat up the poor enemies, weapons and weapon upgrades, puzzles and platforming (the adventure part) and overall a great time.

One of the great pioneers of this genre was God of War, launched in 2005. Well, technically it was Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver but that's besides the point let's not ruin the narrative with actual history here. God of War had an angry bald dude with chain blades strapped on his Greek forearms which he used to slaughter the entire Greek mythology in the most stylish and brutal way possible. Story was dumb, game was glorious, people loved it, me included.

 

Of course, other studios saw that Kratos is godlike (heh) so they decided to make their own version of "God of War". Some good, other bad, the most notable one being Dante's Inferno, where you take the Christian version of Kratos, a holy templar called Dante (Alighieri, don't mistake him for the Wacky Woohoo Pizza Man, that's Capcom) who went to demolish all hellspawn available in order to save his beloved BEATRICE. Game was rather decent, not too inspired but at least it had sick combat. This happened in February 2010.

 

And now we arrive in 5 october 2010. Castlevania was a well beloved series before, so why not take our favorite vampire killer Belmont and put it in a God of War-esque style of play while fighting all kind of Eastern and Central European monsters? Belmont uses a whip, Kratos used chain blades who are technically whips, we can't go wrong no ? Easy money!! Besides, it's the PS3 era, so it means we can go full creative. What could go wrong?

 

Everything. Everything went wrong.

 

To best describe Castlevania Lords of Shadow, it's like that not-too-bright kid from highschool who tries to ace his exams by copying the answers from his colleagues. But him being dumb, not only he copies the wrong answers, but he even copies the name of the other kid when trying to sign his paper, he is this dumb. Analogies aside, Castlevania is a mash of all previously created mechanics and tropes seemingly added without much thought.

This game has it all: Crappy controls, brooding dark and menacing main character with a tragic past, lots of bloody enemies who are bloody and out for blood, your blood. Dead wife. Ultimate villain who is so villainous you would never see it coming (except you will. As Grand Master @AihaLoveleaf once said: this shit should be called Lords of Foreshadow.) Random ass plot devices. Random choirs that start "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" whenever you combo/pick up an item/jump/take a dumb/cry because wife dead. And a camera so crazy you'd say it's a wild stallion. Every time I tried to correctly angle a jump or roll out of an attack OR do a puzzle involving floor tiles I had to put on my imaginary cowboy hat and yell WOA THERE BUCKAROO! This game is so wild it converted me from Romanian to Texan. GG game.

 

Jokes aside, what is ACTUALLY happening in the game. You are Gabriel Belmont, the very first of your name, part of an ancient order called The Brotherhood, dead set on killing the spawns of evil. Your background is narrated between levels by the voice of one and only Patrick Stewart, one of the few high notes of the game in my opinion, where you find out why he is so angry and what are his thoughts. This is the only moment where you will get a glimpse of who Gabriel is, because the game doesn't show you at any point that Gabriel is actually angry or sad or depressed. At most, he is mildly irritated mid-game.

Anyway you arrive in a village who is assaulted by werewolves. This is where you are introduced to the wonderful controls of this game. You attack with your whip, either a single target (square) or multiple targets around you (triangle). Here's the fundamental flaw in the gameplay that will plague the rest of your gameplay: YOU CANNOT CANCEL YOUR MOVES BY ANY MEAN!

It sounds like a weird fact, something that you wouldn't even consider in a regular Action game, but let me tell you that I took this for granted in games like God of War. I expected that when an enemy dodges my attack, I could simply roll and reposition myself. Not in this game! You have to finish your entire winded stupid attack in order to be able to input other action and by that time the enemies are all up on your ass munching and adding ketchup. The lack of this seemingly easy mechanic kinda ruins combat big time. I can deal with not having intricate combos and abusing guillotine only (jumping mid air then crashing down with your chain), but missing this kind of stuff...ruins the fun. Especially when going on Paladin mode, the game's hardest difficulty, you will have to just abuse certain overpowered skills in order to quickly dispatch the room of enemies.

 

Anyway Gabriel is a man with a mission, his target is to destroy the 3 lords of shadow: Werewolf lord, Vampire lord and Undead lord. And sadly, they decided that you should start your quest with a swamp. A goddamn swamp.

The first thing you have to deal with is being bogged down by a stupid swamp.

If you ever played Demon's Souls, imagine you starting the game with 5-2 instead of 1-1. Or Dark Souls, imagine the very first level is Blighttown. How did they expect me to enjoy this game if the very first level that I have to deal with (other than tutorial which is just an arena) is a fkin BOG! Also paired with bomb throwing goblins who are just a nuisance when you have virtually no upgrades. And from these first levels you are taught how to "platform"...if you can call that a thing. Every time you move on a ledge, hop on a chain, balance on a wooden beam, the camera goes 360 no scope better get the Mountain Dew level of crazy, like WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SWITCH THE CAMERA SO MANY TIMES? Not even Devil May Cry 1, an ancient game with notoriously bad camera had these issues. If they kept the camera STEADY for the entirety of a section it would have been much better.

 

By the time I defeated the Werewolf Lord, I started to question myself ... is this actually Castlevania? This is nothing what I expected. Bad controls, crappy camera, no castles, no Transylvania. WTF GAME? Luckily, you DO find the Vampires in your textbook castle on a mountain and at least visually the game really improves. But I was already sick of the game at that point, despite the game struggling to become interesting. Yep it looked cool but the gameplay and camera issues were still there.

 

When I reached the Undead lord, I personally loved the setting (others not so much from what I heard) however what also died here was the story. The foreshadowing aside, the second to final boss was an irritating piece of garbage Shadow of the Colossus style (you gotta climb a flying ...thing. YEY) and the last final boss was such a random reveal I couldn't help but be " WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE? YOU WEREN'T MENTIONED AT ANY POINT DURING THE STORY!". For who read/watched Naruto, it's exactly THAT kind of final boss. The "HAHA YOU FOOLS I was the mastermind all along despite being mentioned 5 minutes ago". Fucking hell man...

 

Also at every point in the game you witness a new mechanic. First level - basic combat. Second level - ride a horse..What? Some level later - you can push yourself with the chain and catch a bigger momentum despite the game never telling you that you could do that. Next it's poker chess. And on and on. Even in the final moment of the DLC, at the very last boss, when I expected to have a QTE I got instead a first person section where I had to aim my attacks. Not even once did I have to First Person in the entire game. I don't know what kind of crack did the devs consume but it must have been some good stuff.

 

Even as a platinum, the general consensus of this game is this: game is not hard, it's irritating. There's no real challenge in this game since the best skills Ultimate Light and Ultimate Shadow simply pulverize everything. What gives this game its "difficulty" is not an impossible boss fight, no it's that random QTE that pops up out of nowhere when you least expect it. You just chilling and then suddenly PRESS THA BUTTON out of nowhere. Cheap trick.

 

The most disappointing part is that while the game copies stuff, it does so poorly. It baffles me that a 2010 game can't properly inspire from 2004 mechanics. And my god this game DID take large chunks out of the other games shamelessly. I will note a few of these inspirations:

• God of War - whip combat
• Prince of Persia - platforming + camera switches
• Shadow of the Colossus - puzzle based bosses where you have to climb and hit weak points
• Devil May Cry - trials - destroy x amount of boxes, finish this in under x minutes etc etc

So yeah... this game was a massive letdown and other than the final boss in the DLC (which I admit, was memorable), this game is forgettable and SHOULD be forgotten.

Not sure if I want to play Mirror of Fate or Lords of Shadow 2, I heard they are considered bad compared to this one. If this one I consider bad already...don't want to see what the other games have in store for me. I will simply stick to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.

 

A heartwarming shoutout to @AihaLoveleaf, @yuber1234 and @Honor_Hand for coping with my rants without blocking me Truly great fellas and probably the only good point of this game. Ranting with friends about it is fun, not gonna lie.

 

THE GOOD:

- Gabriel's design looks good

- Vampire Castle and Undead levels look decent

- CD works as a nice frisbee

- still better than DMC2

 

THE BAD:

- on-crack camera

- what controls?

- B rate story on fast-forward

- WHERE DID THE FINAL BOSS COME FROM?

- poor implementation of game mechanics which are 6-7 years older

- you won't get your time/money back

 

Recommendation: Dante's Inferno - look, if you want to play a God of War but can't stand Kratos just play Dante's Inferno instead. You will still get good combat, demonic dongs and BEATRICE + some truly challenging trials should you go for the DLC.

-

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[AihaLoveleaf]

Congrats @Copanele on earning your freedom from Lords of Shadow! Entertaining write-up as well. I missed out on all the games that predated this one, so the history lesson was of use. ?

 

I feel kind of bad for somewhat roping you into the game, but someone with more action game experience needed to see the dumpster fire that I got burned alive in. If I pick up an action game you haven't played yet in the future, I'll try to make sure it's a good one! 

[Slava]

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

What could go wrong?

 

 

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

they decided that you should start your quest with a swamp

 

Hey, the best masterpieces start in the swamp, like Shrek. Take your words back! ?

 

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

YOU CANNOT CANCEL YOUR MOVES BY ANY MEAN!

 

Yeah, it's fascinating how a very small but very important thing can ruin a game, isn't it. I could see this bothering me throughout the game too.

 

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

You just chilling and then suddenly PRESS THA BUTTON out of nowhere. Cheap trick.

 

I also hate quick time events in the middle of cutscenes. The entire history of videogames taught us to separate cutscenes from gameplay. But this has changed somewhere in the middle of the PS3 generation where in-engine cutscenes and quick-time events became the norm. I think RE5 had a little bit of that as well, maybe not as sudden though. 

 

Welp, looks like 2D Castlevania are much better in quality. Because as far as I know, the other 3D Castlevania games weren't very good either. The N64 and PS2 titles have scores around 70/100. And I've hear a lot of praise for Symphony of the Night and some GBA and DS titles. 

 

Ashamed to say I've never played any Castlevania games except one on the NES for a few minutes, but if I were to change that, I'd play the NES ones and Symphony of the Night.

 

But anyway, Castlevania is dead now, like all other Konami franchizes. No new games since 2014.

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Slava

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, AihaLoveleaf said:

Congrats @Copanele on earning your freedom from Lords of Shadow! Entertaining write-up as well. I missed out on all the games that predated this one, so the history lesson was of use. 

 

I feel kind of bad for somewhat roping you into the game, but someone with more action game experience needed to see the dumpster fire that I got burned alive in. If I pick up an action game you haven't played yet in the future, I'll try to make sure it's a good one! 

Don't feel bad, because this counts as an experience Plus I HAD TO see for myself.

Let me know what you pick next, I will take some painkillers beforehand ?

24 minutes ago, Slava said:

Hey, the best masterpieces start in the swamp, like Shrek. Take your words back! ?

My apologies! THAT IS TRUE! FORGIVE ME MY LORD SHREK! I was just ogrewhelmed by this bad game!

 

 

26 minutes ago, Slava said:

I also hate quick time events in the middle of cutscenes. The entire history of videogames taught us to separate cutscenes from gameplay. But this has changed somewhere in the middle of the PS3 generation where in-engine cutscenes and quick-time events became the norm. I think RE5 had a little bit of that as well, maybe not as sudden though. 

 

Welp, looks like 2D Castlevania are much better in quality. Because as far as I know, the other 3D Castlevania games weren't very good either. The N64 and PS2 titles have scores around 70/100. And I've hear a lot of praise for Symphony of the Night and some GBA and DS titles. 

 

Ashamed to say I've never played any Castlevania games except one on the NES for a few minutes, but if I were to change that, I'd play the NES ones and Symphony of the Night.

 

But anyway, Castlevania is dead now, like all other Konami franchizes. No new games since 2014.

Konami really sold its soul to the Pachinko devils. But yeah, I do recommend playing the Collection. I will venture to say that Symphony of the Night is also criminally good, only from the stuff that I saw on youtube. Should have played that one instead.

 

Other than that...yeah to hell with Konami. Burying good franchises just like that....

[Yuber6969]

Congrats on the plat! Not being able to cancel your attacks is retarded. The rest of it doesn't sound too bad but if I can't cancel attacks, that's a hard pass.

[Cassylvania]

I used to want to complete the entire Castlevania collection (for obvious reasons), but past reviews of Lords of Shadow changed my mind. Your review just solidified it. What a hot mess.

[Copanele]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:51 PM, yuber1234 said:

Congrats on the plat! Not being able to cancel your attacks is retarded. The rest of it doesn't sound too bad but if I can't cancel attacks, that's a hard pass.

You never knew how much you needed a vital mechanic until they take it from you

 

21 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I used to want to complete the entire Castlevania collection (for obvious reasons), but past reviews of Lords of Shadow changed my mind. Your review just solidified it. What a hot mess.

Yeah it's not worth the hassle I would say, there's better games to spend your time with. Had exactly the same plan, even wanted to see if I can find Harmony of Despair on PS3 but after this game...nah I will be fine with the 2D ones that I already own.

To add insult to injury, I had a look on the Mirrors of Fate story. Gameplay aside...plot looks actually good this time around. Damn these games. But the gameplay is still a hot mess, only in 2D format. And no you can't skip it to just play Lords of Shadow 2 else you won't understand a thing.