- New Mastery system
- Unlock extra moves/combos with XP
- Each time you use an unlocked combat move, you’ll earn Mastery in that skill
- Void Sword, Chaos Claws, or Blood Whip will level up once mastered based on the alignment of the skill
- Level up these weapons to heal faster, break enemy defences quicker
- If you stick to a couple of familiar combos, you’ll struggle when you get to the tougher levels
- Action is set over two time threads
- Most of the game takes place in the modern day that has been sculpted to fit the Gothic arches of Castlevania
- The other portion of the game takes place in the castle at a different point in time
- Platforming has improved
- “In a later conversation that we weren’t recording, Cox talked of whole optional areas, a substantial percentage of the game that’s a completely optional reward for dedicated players. Return to a girl once you’ve discovered the Mist ability, and you can pass through it to discover not just a chest, but a whole hidden area.”
- Biggest than the first game
- QTEs have been cut back
- Tiatan fights are “far more expensive, and they involve full control by the player as opposed to timed button presses.”
The latest edition of OPM UK includes the first actual gameplay details about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. We’ve rounded up information from the magazine below. For a look at Lords of Shadow 2′s first screenshots, be sure to pick up OPM’s newest issue.
- Lords of Shadow 2 ends the story
- Less spoon-fed approach than the original
- Anchor points will be highlighted only if you ask them to be
- Anchor points won’t show up at all on harder levels
- Environment is seamless this time around
- Mission summaries have been replaced with teleporters like in Koji Igarashi’s Castlevania games
- Bosses have been changed; one is longer but more varied that what was included in the original
- Unclear if boss battle checkpoints are included
- Now have free camera control
- If you leave the camera alone, it’ll behave like it always has
- Combat Cross replaced with the Blood Whip
- The two are very much the same
- Still has extreme range attacks that fill the screen
- You’ll also still be stringing combos together from strong directed attacks, and lighter area attacks
- Magic replaced with Dracula’s blood
- Blood doesn’t regenerate
- Need to earn blood with kills and skilled fighting
- Add to your Focus gauge by evading, executing perfect blocks and counters
- When the Focus gauge is full, every hit explodes new blood into the battlefield
- If you get hit, you lose all Focus
- Channel raw blood into Void and Chaos
- Void: weapon switches to Void Sword, allowing you to regain some health with each hit
- Chaos: weapon switches to a pair of claws that can smash through enemy shields
- Dracula’s own tricks include glamouring mortals to control them and evaporating into a mist that lets him slip by unseen, or pass through grilles into secret areas
- Game has some humor
- Team debated over including a scene: “While no one’s winking at the camera, when Gabriel Belmont wrestles a crucifix out of a Golden Paladin’s grip, informing the Brotherhood that he, Dracula, has been chosen by God, what follows is an ecclesiastical nuclear blast so large that the camera cuts to a shot of the planet.”
Now I'm thinking I just might have to pick one up.
