Dante's Inferno seemed like a cheap knock off. Castlevania LoS seemed like a better game than GoW 3.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC a 'mistake' says Konami
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Company rep says it never planned DLC for game, but senior management thought it would be a good idea; content ended up being "rushed."
Developing downloadable content for 2010's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was a "mistake," publisher Konami told Gameranx recently. Head of product planning and development Dave Cox said Konami never intended to create any DLC for the action game, but ended up building the Reverie and Resurrection add-ons at the request of higher-ups.
"The problem was that the game's success caught everyone by surprise. It caught senior management by surprise and they wanted us to do DLC," Cox said. "We never planned to do DLC, so we ended up doing DLC after the fact and in hindsight that was a mistake. It was rushed. We had to rush it to market."
Cox said that despite its rushed nature, the DLC for Lords of Shadow was effective in that it "enriched the story." GameSpot's review of the Reverie add-on found it to be generally pleasing, but short, requiring about an hour to complete.
Cox did not share specific DLC plans for its upcoming sequel Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, but he did offer a tease concerning the path Konami would take with potential content for the game.
"I think if we were going to do DLC again it would have to be planned right from the get go," he said. "And it wouldn't be something that would try to build upon an ending--it would be something that's perhaps a side story that enriches the original story. If we were going to do DLC again, it would be something much more carefully considered."
For more on the recent and upcoming Castlevania games, check out GameSpot's review of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and previous coverage of 2013's Lords of Shadow 2.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
170 comments
1 Like Lords of Shadow did not need DLC. Gabriel Belmont's "character development" was effective as-is. Having DLC to step-out how he got to that point just made it less mysterious, and the way it was executed just spoiled the experience as a whole.
Each LoS DLC, priced at $9.99, consisted of still-image cutscenes with full on voice work. It looked like an incomplete, no-budget, "deleted scenes" featurette you would find on a DVD movie. The production behind it was arguably rushed and half-hearted; it made Mercury Steam look lazy and Konami greedy.
If Konami felt they needed to release DLC to capitalize on the franchise's success, they should have released extra challenge maps and added a leaderboard feature. They could have also added playable characters for the challenge maps, such as Zobek, Claudia, Cornell, and Pan. These are not original ideas, mind you, but mimicking the approaches of other games such as Ninja Gaiden and Arkham Asylum / City.
2 Like Nothing has come close to Symphony of Night. how old is that game, like two decades old now?? Just crazy... I would take an epic 2D side scroller with a 'Vanillaware' art style over a 3D Castlevania any day of the week.
@THEgodDELUSION1 Fortunately there is Mirrors of Fate, which is 2D using the Lords of Shadow art style and 3D assets.
@TruSake I think it was more intentional to not have a PC port. It's apparent that not all developers are skilled with PC porting, considering the difficult time the Dark Souls developers are having http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/6/7/3070697/dark-souls-pc-e3-preview
big fan of the series, and I really enjoyed Los. The game was fantastic, cant wait for the sequel
@mdchapel9 Same here, I absolutely loved Lords of Shadows! I felt I could relate to the character of Gabriel Belmont.
Castlevania has such interesting characters that this is the first time an entry to the series has really delved deep into its mythos, if not tweaking some key aspects of the Castlevania lore to make it a noteworthy retelling of its own.
The ending to the first game was mind blowing, and I feel the sequels are going to perpetuate that quality.
1 Like This game sucked. You want a good Castlevania game? Buy a Gameboy Advance. There's 4 awesome ones on there. Or if you have a PS3, buy Symphony of the Night on the PS Store. The 3-D Castlevanias are an insult to the series.
@ChiefFreeman I thought this game was excellent and deepened my love for Castlevania. It's always refreshing to have a retelling of a classic.
If the original Castlevania 2D games were the Batman comics, Lords of Shadow is the Dark Knight movies.
I'm not a huge fan of the series and in fact the only game I bought in the hole Castlevania series was the one that came on the N64 which for me felt like the Zelda game that was out for that system and it also felt like it some RPG elements to as well but not really. Then I Haven'e played one of these games since until Catlevania: Lords of Shadow came out I decided to pick up and I really enjoyed it and at times it felt difficult, but it was still a great game and it is probably the only way I was going to come close to playing a game like God of War and yet I was surprised at how the game sucked me right into it's world and story and the gameplay was pretty awesome and it felt just right.
So my point is I'm looking forward to the sequel and I did not realize that the first game had DLC for it, ah well here to the sequel.
2 Like A decision by "Higher-ups" regarding making DLC led to underwhelming results.
No matter how hard I try it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to be surprised by this.
@Larouche911 The two DLCs that were released for this could have been merged into a single DLC and delayed near the announcement of Mirrors of Fate (for the 3DS) to revive the franchise when it needed it most.
Glad to see someone 'man up' on this issue. I absolutely loved the main game, but the DLCs were not worth the money. Thanks Konami.
6 Like Good DLC that is intended to maximize the life of the game is good. Betheseda do a great job with their Fallout and Elder Scrolls DLC. If the DLC for LoS was rushed then at least Konami will learn from their mistakes and improve upon it in the future. It's good to see a company admit when they did something wrong.
4 Like This is to the masses of people who donot know what they are talking about. All the people who are complaining that Lords of Shadow is a God of War ripoff and SotN is an original masterpiece. SotN is in the same boat of Lords of Shadow. It reinvented the series, while borrowing mechanics and elements from other games. It is a great game but not original. There is a reason why the genre is called Metroidvania. Simpletons, like this make us gamers look bad.
2 Like I wish more developers would have the guts to stand up and say:"We were rushed by the people upstairs." I think if that happened, we may see more forgiveness from games, and perhaps support for the developer in the form of letter bombing the publisher.
1 Like I am in love with this game, and will be the first to buy the collector's edition of the sequel, if they decide to make one.
This title was fun, if you were a Castlevania fan. But not worthy of DLC. And 10-15 dollars is way tto much for an hour of extra gaming.
2 Like The thing is, while this game wasn't perfect, it was damn fun. Classic Castlevania games are hard to match and I love the older Nes, Snes and Ps1 realm of castlevania. The only thing is, is that the most recent 2D games have not been good. They actually have kind of drifted off to a more Anime style or the story is just a mess now. This is all my opinion, but I find that LoS was actually at least something different. Not in terms of games in general, but just what has been seen in Castlevania. I enjoyed it.
@ZippyDSMLee In what ways did you feel it was rushed, and what specific things would you change to turn it into something you'd like?
@Opstinger Level design, layouts in particular was crap I did like you could go back but it was too small and too bland. Combat was solid enough but could have been a bit deeper. Story was crap but no less nonsensical than any other 3D CV game LOL.
Basically I would like to See Curse of darkness with Zeldas level design and LOS combat but with combos to 4 or 6 different weaopn types(light/heavy sword, light/heavy metal knuckle, Light/heavy whip, light/heavy glave,ect,ect ) .More sub weaopns and more sub weapon combos.Really tho The last 3D CV game I was impressed with was on the N64 sure it had issues but hell it was awesome. LOI/COD and now LOS are trying to hard to be lite action games than 3D equivalents of the flagship 2D CV portable games.
I guess at best I could call it like I pretty much call most new media its half right but missing to many things for me to be pleased with it(Bioshock comes to mind as another highly rated title I found to many holes in).
2 Like @ZippyDSMLee Listen here Troll...Lords of Shadow was an excellent game. If you did not like it, then why are you reading news about it?. This article is here explaining why the DLC was so crappy, not the main game.
1 Like @howie1926 Excellent? Who's trolling who? The game was bland for a AAA title, sure it did not suck but it was generic as fudge. Its no better than Lament of innocence or Curse of darkness no worse either. Now the combat was a bit better but that is all it had going for it. Level design and everything else was fo-bared.
@Sonic_Wolfe That's not really that impossible. I've been gaming since the start and have owned most of the home computers and consoles and I've easily played several thousand games. My 360 alone has had 470 games in it since launch - so work that figure backwards from the dawn of gaming across multiple machines - and I've still managed to have a life in between.
@Sonic_Wolfe You don't care yet you replied. How nice of you. At the end of the day they can do better and thats all I want to see them doing better qaulity wise than they are now.
1 Like @ZippyDSMLee A famous woman once said "The tighter you make your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
I have no intent to argue with you over LoS quality as I dont really care what you think, and you dont care what I think. My issue here is your blatant bullsh*t of "thousands" of games as if that makes you some type of expert. It doesnt. It makes you a liar. One who hasnt even tried to explain himself but has instead levied the argument of this topic at me instead of recounting your actions/speech.
@Sonic_Wolfe Yes because the only way to find any kind of real average is to play/watch everything.....
Aren't playing the supposed AAA titles and a few industry recognize gems to enough take a decent look at overall quality?
Also you can't argue against content shirk, levels are getting smaller less intricate, more streamlined thus more simplified as to widen their purchaser demographics.
Now I could argue that we don't have as many absolute crap games but at the same time we have fewer good to great titles that can sustain throughout the ages.
@ZippyDSMLee Youve played on average 30 games a year? For thirty years? Averaging 3 games a month? Thats assuming the very baseline 1 thousand games in 30 years and not the "thousand(s)" you are claiming? Lets also assume then that you play for 8 hours a day the maximum anyone may play if they work 8 hours and sleep 8 hours. Thats 80 hours per game in 10 days. You serah, are trollin *Cough*
@howie1926 Yes I finished the game and over all was unimpressed with it. I guess after playing thousands of games over 3 decades its rather easy to be disspointed with today's over simplified media.....
1 Like @ZippyDSMLee It's FUBAR. All it had going for it? Did you beat the game? It had one of the most amazing endings, not just in a Castlevania game, but in gaming period. The storytelling alone catapults this game into awesomeness.
5 Like That's the problem with money grubbing people, They see they products doing well, they Milk it till it can be milked no more, With that the Milk would not taste as good as it should, and people buy the milk to find out it's not good anymore, same logic to this and alot of others.
Cows are the Developers
People are the Buyers
Milk is the product
The Milker the Money grubbing people
why even mention this? I don't care from company's point of view..i care from people's point of view..just give us the full game..now that u have mentioned DLCs have been planned for LOS2 from the get-go why not include them in the original game too? any content related to LOS2 if it is being developed before the game is even out, i believe it should be part of the main game! U want us to believe that the same higher ups won't force u to slice few parts of the main game and feed us as DLCs? i borrowed first LOS from a friend..it was meh...i beat it though..i didn't even know there were DLCs for this game..n to admit that those DLCs were rushed when the main game was not even that awesome..what a joke!
Sounds like the "senior management" really knows what they're doing. I have an idea, why not ask us consumers if we want DLC and then go from there.
3 Like This game was a success? That's news to me. Only got about halfway through the original game because it was so boring and repetitive. Not to mention I didn't care for the God of War style gameplay. I usually like the Castlevania series, but whenever they go 3d they usually suck. I prefer the 2d Castlevania's.
@JBL81 Every other 2D CV game is a mess, its kinda like some of the MM games just generic trash. They get the 3D CV games half right but do not follow through. They did to do it more like a Zelda game in scope and not some action adventure hybrid.
5 Like @JBL81 It's news to you because you're in the minority. The same minority that puts their fingers into their ears whenever anyone wants to innovate one of their favorite game franchises.
@tesseract77 "Innovate" and "Shoving half-assed God of War and Shadow of the Colossus gameplay where it doesn't belong" are totally different things.
@howie1926 Innovation means taking the series in a new, fresh direction. All I saw from LoS was rehashed gameplay from other games painted over with the Castlevania name.
@Axe_Armor Man, its a good thing they went the Innovative way. Why does it not belong? Because you say so? The combat was fast and fun and kept me on my toes. Try playing it on the harder difficulty and you will see. Also, LoS has one of the best endings for a video game...EVER
1 Like Give me Back my Damn $20 dollars for both Crappy Expensive short DLC, than I'll forgive You!!!!!
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
- Publisher(s): Konami
- Developer(s): Mercury Steam
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- Classification Board: MA
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