Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (good times!)

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09-30-2006, 05:54 AM
farplaner

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (good times!)

Any other enthusiasts of this game in particular? I never really got into the earlier games, but I got this one a few years back, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. ...Also, I'm waiting for Curse of Darkness to drop below "8 million dollars" before I pick it up, so I haven't played it yet.

I just popped L.o.I. in the PS2 again the other day to run through it in attempt to quell my impatience for FFXII's release. Aside from this current file, I have beaten it in normal mode, collected all monster-dropped items, relics, and orbs. I have done the same (SPOILER)in allskill mode, crazy mode, and with pumpkin, and I've done all that can be done with Joachim.

Like I said, I wasn't big into the earlier games, so I had no strict expectations. I thought the gameplay was decent, the battle system- smooth, the graphics- very agreeable, the music- very appropriate and well-written (loops, though they are). All in all, I'd give this game something like 8.5 out of 10.

So...your thoughts? Feel very free to elaborate beyond "it was good/ bad."

*awaits post reading: "It was good/ bad."
09-30-2006, 06:03 AM
Sephex

I am a big fan of "traditional" Castlevania games and I still enjoyed this game a lot despite annoying things like bland enviroments. Hell, the soundtrack alone makes me want to play this game.
09-30-2006, 06:08 AM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

I didn't get too far with this post before I realized I have many more bad things to say about LoI than good things. But yeah, the soundtrack is pretty wonderful.
09-30-2006, 06:16 AM
RiseToFall

Played it, beat it, and I just didn't enjoy it. The game is by no means bad, it's just that this is Castlevania and after SoTN the series was never the same. I would love to see another 2d Castlevania on a console, since I don't own any handhelds I was never able to play the other 2d games.
10-01-2006, 09:58 AM
Moon Rabbits

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi

I didn't get too far with this post before I realized I have many more bad things to say about LoI than good things. But yeah, the soundtrack is pretty wonderful.

That's pretty much all the game has going for it.
10-01-2006, 10:11 AM
vorpal blade

This game was by no means great. But then, it is very far from awful. The graphics were good, the music awesome, the environments were decent (though i enjoyed the paintings in the game) and the gameplay was simple and fun for a while. Unfortunately, the gameplay is too simple, and the script is... rather lame. but it is good enough to buy and beat with no regrets. Perhaps a score of 7.5-8 of 10. Not nearly as good as the 2d games, and not quite as fun as Curse of Darkness, but an enjoyable game nontheless.
10-01-2006, 06:03 PM
Moon Rabbits

Quote:

Originally Posted by vorpal blade

This game was by no means great. But then, it is very far from awful. The graphics were good, the music awesome, the environments were decent (though i enjoyed the paintings in the game) and the gameplay was simple and fun for a while. Unfortunately, the gameplay is too simple, and the script is... rather lame. but it is good enough to buy and beat with no regrets. Perhaps a score of 7.5-8 of 10. Not nearly as good as the 2d games, and not quite as fun as Curse of Darkness, but an enjoyable game nontheless.

Environments sucked and gameplay got repetitive after 20 minutes. :(!

I wasted my 28 dollars on it just because it had the name Castlevania!
10-01-2006, 06:59 PM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

The art design on display within the environments was great, showing off the precise kind of beautifully detailed imagery that Castlevania fans have come to expect ever since Symphony of the Night. Unfortunately, the environments themselves were nothing more than a vapid series of flat, straightforward hallways, which were then copy-pasted into oblivion.
10-02-2006, 12:05 AM
farplaner

well, there goes most of the wind from my sails... :cry:

It's true, the gameplay is limited and the environments pretty straight-forward, but not totally. Palace of Waterfalls takes you on a round-about sort of course, and the Ghostly Theatre splits the route in two, in addition to some secret corridors throughout the castle.

I'm the kind of gamer who likes to complete everything to its fullest, so good graphics and artwork and an inspired soundtrack make my task more enjoyable.

Plus it's fun to (SPOILER)equip the Mobius' Brooch, enable the red orb and crystal sub-weapon, and gorge on shatter plane.

....ah well.
10-02-2006, 10:03 AM
vorpal blade

Quote:

Originally Posted by aisle_s

Quote:

Originally Posted by vorpal blade

This game was by no means great. But then, it is very far from awful. The graphics were good, the music awesome, the environments were decent (though i enjoyed the paintings in the game) and the gameplay was simple and fun for a while. Unfortunately, the gameplay is too simple, and the script is... rather lame. but it is good enough to buy and beat with no regrets. Perhaps a score of 7.5-8 of 10. Not nearly as good as the 2d games, and not quite as fun as Curse of Darkness, but an enjoyable game nontheless.

Environments sucked and gameplay got repetitive after 20 minutes. :(!

I wasted my 28 dollars on it just because it had the name Castlevania!

Yeah, when I said "the environments were decent...and the gameplay was simple and fun for a while" i meant that the environments were good-looking, graphically speaking and that the gameplay was fun fo a short while. I just didn't say it like that because I didn't want ot be too critical of the game.
10-05-2006, 11:11 PM
deathdealer2046

i just bought the game, and its alright, it is honestly the first Castlevania game that i have played so far, but its fun, i think im stuck right now...if i remember, i havnt played it in a couple days, im still in the beginning just searching around i guess, but ill have to wait till i beat it to give it a rating, but so far so good, i really like the graphics, and the storyline ^_^
10-06-2006, 06:00 AM
edczxcvbnm

They castle was basically a really big 1 story building. You didn't climb up stairs to get to the second floor. You went through a door. Metroid showed how to do this type of platforming world correctly...or at least better. Metroid Prime was still a bit too horizantal to me. ANYWAYS, one would have thought they would have fixed this in Curse of Darkness...WRONG! Instead they made the game so damn big it sucked even more. They really had no clue what people hated about the first game and it shows big time.
10-06-2006, 09:04 AM
vorpal blade

No, I liked the largeness of COD. Granted, it can be a real pain to go from area to area, even with the transporters, but I still liked it. But I do like the 2D sidescrolling games better. The next 3D castlevania game needs to have more platforming elements in it, more secrets (secret weapons, areas, monsters, etc) and should take place in a castle and the area just outside it. But there will never be a 3D one as good as SOTN.
10-06-2006, 06:12 PM
Ramza Beoulve

Quote:

Originally Posted by vorpal blade

But there will never be a 3D one as good as SOTN.

True, LoI is really a good game, but I like more SotN, because it was and it is the greatest of the Castlevania's games, but the sound in LoI did a good work
10-06-2006, 08:16 PM
Rinion

After playing Symphony of the Night, I had such great expectations. Sadly, this game did not live up to them. Badass soundtrack and mediocre graphics at best.

However, I found Curse of Darkness to be even worse. It was just the same thing, with little change at all. My two pieces of gold.
10-10-2006, 05:25 AM
farplaner

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rinion

After playing Symphony of the Night, I had such great expectations. Sadly, this game did not live up to them. Badass soundtrack and mediocre graphics at best.

However, I found Curse of Darkness to be even worse. It was just the same thing, with little change at all. My two pieces of gold.

Mediocre graphics? What's mediocre about them?

The details of the environment are as good, if not better, than most games out there. All of the characters and moving parts are well-animated: smooth and fluid.
Edges are crisp, colors are vivid (where appropriate), I just don't get you on this one.
10-10-2006, 05:37 AM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

The characters look like plastic dolls with facial features indicative of Down Syndrome. Not a pretty sight at all.
10-10-2006, 09:16 AM
vorpal blade

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi

The characters look like plastic dolls with facial features indicative of Down Syndrome. Not a pretty sight at all.

You're insane. Better character graphics do exist, but these were still pretty good.
10-10-2006, 09:24 AM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

http://www.gamepepper.se/img/testat/castlevania_03.jpg

This is not good.
10-10-2006, 10:46 AM
farplaner

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi

http://www.gamepepper.se/img/testat/castlevania_03.jpg

This is not good.

Actually, it is good. Not great, but good. You can't base a game's overall look on one screen.

Plus, the "movies" comprise a very small amount of screen time. The in-game graphics are damn-near outstanding.
10-10-2006, 11:52 AM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

Quote:

Originally Posted by farplaner

You can't base a game's overall look on one screen.

The characters always look this awkward. This screen is just one example.

Quote:

Plus, the "movies" comprise a very small amount of screen time. The in-game graphics are damn-near outstanding.

Yes, aside from the cut scenes, the graphics are pretty good.
10-10-2006, 01:41 PM
fire_of_avalon

I agree with Kishi about the cutscenes. And the script was pretty bad, but it was a fun game. Plenty enough to distract me.
10-11-2006, 10:09 AM
vorpal blade

I don't know what's up with that picture, but the actual graphics are better than that.
10-11-2006, 12:49 PM
Bunny

Lament of Innocence was an okay game. So long as you ignore pretty much everything but the soundtrack and just play it. The game is simple, too. So meh.

Curse of Darkness is... eh. The soundtrack isn't that great and the story isn't either. But I did enjoy the Tower of Eternity/Evermore and the monster evolution factor of the game. I beat the game in less than ten hours. That includes getting lost a few times, backtracking almost to the beginning, completely the Tower of Eternity(50 levels) a few times, and pretty much just messing around.

The boss of Curse of Darkness is easy once you have a good leveled Fight-type monster. Sit back and let them use their Aura Blast attack for about 450 damage a pop. I think I hit Death once.
10-12-2006, 07:08 AM
Tulmane

I hate to bump so old a topic, but I hate even more to make redundant ones, so...

I actually first shipped over to EoFF out of nostalgia of when I was younger and went to FF boards. I primarily spend time on Castlevania message boards though, as it's one of my all time favourite series. Growing up with a wonderful action platformer, and also growing up with RPGs, when the series took a more RPG slant with Symphony of the Night, it was really a dream come true. I'm not going to wax nostalgic here, or tell how great a game it is, when there's hardly a person to even say it was mediocre, but, the more recent Castlevanias...
I actually enjoyed the N64 ones a lot, as they stayed true to a platforming root, while being rather interesting in an action depart, and thematic changes. I also love the GBA games, for continuing SotN's legacy, but the PS2 games, I cannot stand. Not only was the story so unforgivably awful, portrayed with voice acting to make the Resident Evil cast feel shame, but the gameplay was stale, room after room of beat-em-up style gaming. It was more reminiscent of a medieval Final Fight than Castlevania. Lament of Innocence was a first try to fix the foray into rocky, 3D terrain for the series, so it was understandable, but all the pitfalls of it were not only ignored in making Curse of Darkness, but intensified.
I haven't beaten Curse of Darkness to this day, simply because I am in a place where to progress, I have to climb a tower. Fifty, that is FIVE ZERO floors, each floor being one room, where to go on, I have to tediously kill every enemy in the room. What director in their right mind would give a green light on something like that?

I guess to sum up my rant, I must say that Castlevania and 3D Action are like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It simply doesn't work
10-12-2006, 07:28 AM
Kawaii Ryûkishi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tulmane

I haven't beaten Curse of Darkness to this day, simply because I am in a place where to progress, I have to climb a tower. Fifty, that is FIVE ZERO floors, each floor being one room, where to go on, I have to tediously kill every enemy in the room. What director in their right mind would give a green light on something like that?

The Tower of Eternity is an entirely optional area. You can beat the game without setting foot in it.
10-12-2006, 09:34 AM
vorpal blade

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tulmane

I haven't beaten Curse of Darkness to this day, simply because I am in a place where to progress, I have to climb a tower. Fifty, that is FIVE ZERO floors, each floor being one room, where to go on, I have to tediously kill every enemy in the room. What director in their right mind would give a green light on something like that?

Um... those towers are optional, y'know...
And I actually liked soundtracks for both games, and found the gameplay to be a bit too simple but not bad. Overall, the games have good music, great backgrounds and are good enough to play both games to the end. Of course, it isn't the best game, and if it weren't part of a great series (that should stick to 2D games) it probably wouldn't be mentioned much at all. But they weren't as bad as your post made them out to be.