Continuing a trend started by Resident Evil Revelations earlier this year, Konami have decided to port their latest handheld entry in the Castlevania series: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate to home consoles and give it the ol’ HD spit and polish in the snappily titled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD, or as it shall henceforth be known, in order to considerably reduce my word count – Mirror of Fate HD.
In Mirror of Fate HD you take on the roles of Gabriel Belmont’s decedents- Trevor and Simon, as well as the vampire Alucard as they attempt to infiltrate Dracula’s Castle and kill the Dark Lord. This being a semi sequel to 2009s Lords of Shadow reboot, I guess they haven’t quite cottoned on that you can’t kill Dracula, just banish him, but that’s never stopped the Belmonts for the past twenty odd years so why would it now?
Despite the 3D models and 2.5D perspective Mirror of Fate HD is in fact a very traditional Castlevania, with most of its cues taken from the series pre Symphony of the Night. Although there are upgrades to be found and hidden chests that boost your health and magic meters, the game’s focus on combat over out and out exploration, and multiple player characters make Mirror of Fate feel more like a modern day Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines than SOTN or Dawn of Sorrow.
On the whole, the game is mostly unchanged from the original 3DS version, which, depending on how you feel about it, is either a good thing or a terrible thing; in short if you hated the game previously this version will do little to change your feelings.
That’s not to say it’s a lazy port, in fact it’s a fairly solid one. As you’d expect from being given the HD spit and polish treatment, textures look nice and crisp, the colours are bright and the lighting’s been improved slightly. There’s nothing too radical but it is well presented all the same. Curiously though there’s no option to play to play the game in 3D, this seems like an odd decision given that the game was originally built to be played in 3D and, despite some technical issues, makes some of the best use of the technology on the 3DS.
From 3D – HD.
However the best upgrade in Mirror of Fate HD is to the game’s frame rate, which had a horrible habit of going straight through the floor at times on the 3DS as soon as the screen got even remotely busy, this was usually rectified to some extent by turning the 3D off. Although this didn’t always work making the game almost unplayable at times as the latency on attacks and dodging in particular was incredibly haphazard.
I’m happy to report that the game’s frame rate is now nice and stable, which has improved the combat no end, I say no end, it still has its issues but at least now they’re not technical in nature. No, the problem with the game’s combat is that it just isn’t very entertaining, Working in a similar manner to the 3D LOS entries, combat is mainly controlled via taps of X and Y which control horizontal and vertical strikes with your combat cross. Creating combos is as simple as repeatedly tapping X or Y. As you defeat enemies you’ll slowly level up, unlocking a bigger library of more powerful moves in order to better decimate your foes.
This sounds brilliant on paper, sadly in the game itself it seems to make very little difference to the actual fighting, as half the time you don’t realise you’ve levelled up, then all you’re left with is a big long list of inputs which by and large go unused. On the plus side though if you do take the time to try out the new whip slinging techniques battles become a little more theatrical and most of the more powerful moves are easier to pull off than your standard combos, for example holding X to pull off a flurry of whip strikes instead of tapping X for the standard horizontal combo. The downside though is that most of these new moves don’t do much more additional damage than your initial combos did and often leaves you open to getting bitch slapped by an angry minion.
Not that it matters much as your combat cross never feels like it’s doing that much damage anyway, even after you’re fully levelled up your so-called legendary weapon has all the power of a noodle. Sure it makes a nice thwacking sound on impact but even the lowliest minion can take ungodly amounts of punishment before finally snuffing it.
Part Lion, Part Moth, All Bastard!
This makes boss fights all the more aggravating as you find yourself flailing away making barely a dent, chipping away at their health bar until the inevitable smack to the chops that decimates your own health bar. The only saving grace is that if you’re lucky, you might have hit a mid boss checkpoint meaning you won’t have to start the whole obnoxious chore all over again. It’s a real shame too because the actual bosses themselves are incredibly characterful and well designed. Among the undead menagerie of brutes you encounter angry succubae, hulking axe wielding beasts, a weird half lion, half insect chimera thing, and of course the dark lord himself in a three way battle to the death.
The platforming at times tended also to be a little on the dodgy side at times, especially during the early stages whilst playing as Simon. Jumping often felt floaty and looked like he was attempting to dunk a basketball rather than leaping towards a ledge. His lack of mobility was compounded by the fact that he spends most of his section without the means to grapple onto points and use his whip as leverage. So you would often attempt to dive for ledges that you simply couldn’t get to yet and end up a broken mess on the floor.
I’d have to say that of the three Acts and characters, Simon was by far the weakest of the bunch. Which is a pain because his part of the adventure is also the first act, as he bumbles his way around Dracula’s Castle getting beaten up by demonic carousels, falling in the moat, and lolloping around the place like some Glaswegian thug that’d just downed a bottle of bucky and was spoiling for a fight.
It’s not entirely Simon’s fault though because it’s the combat cross that levels up and not the character, upgrades carry over to the next character and as previously stated poor Simon doesn’t spend a lot of time with the upgradeable combat cross therefore having mostly standard attacks and weak ones at that. He also only gains only one additional skill before passing the baton to the next character in Act II, this all combines to make Simon a bit of a lame duck as a character and meant the game starts at more of a crawl than a sprint.
Simon, we’re sending you to see your Grandfather and that’s the end of it.
To be honest I almost gave up on the game, the only thing that got me through the opening Act was the plot which, although relatively straight forward, provided extra insight in the world of Lords of Shadow and was presented via absolutely beautiful cel shaded cinematics, which made me wonder why the whole game didn’t use the same art style. Showcasing fantastic performances from the game’s cast which included Robert Carlise and Patrick Stewart reprising their roles as Gabriel/ Count Begby, Patrick Stewart as (bad guy), and Richard Madden (Robb Stark) as Alucard.
I’m happy I persevered though as in Act II you get to play as fan favourite – Alucard, in what is by far and away, the highlight of the whole game.
From the off Alucard feels like a much more capable character. In combat he’s lithe and furious, able to pass through enemies using his myst form and hammer the bastards into submission as a wolf. He still hits like a girl but at least he has other means to make up for it, such as the aforementioned wolf buff. Outside of combat he’s also much more manoeuvrable than Simon was, can grapple from the outset and gains the ability to double jump about half way through the Act, which makes platforming an absolute breeze.
Act II also contains some absolutely wonderful puzzles to solve such as moving around different kinds of elemental blocks to work a giant marionette and a rather tricky head scratcher in which you have to bounce light around various different sources in order to break the mechanism that is powering a familiar looking carousel. The only problem with Alucard’s section is that it’s over all too quickly and as soon as you really get to grips with him it’s all over and you’re onto Act III and controlling the game’s final protagonist: Trevor.
Here I come to save the daaaaay!
Trevor exists in a kind of middle ground between Alucard and Simon; he’s not quite as quick Alucard although he does inherit all of his upgrades, including rail riding and that ever important double jump. Trevor also feels a bit sturdier than Alucard, like a souped up Simon, Also thanks to the Combat Crosses higher level he’s an absolute beast in combat, knocking the crap out of everything that comes anywhere near him.
The only problem is that Trevor’s section is plagued with some of the weakest boss fights in the game.Repeated instances of fighting the executioner whose only attacks were to run at you, or fall on you, both doing a ton of damage if they did but also insanely easy to counter. Then there were the two instances where you were presented with a colossal opponent only for the game to rob you of any meaningful combat and replace it with an extended QTE sequence instead.
Even the final fight against Dracula is somewhat of an anticlimax as it’s as simple as activating the opposing magic to Dracula, and holding X or Y until he dies. It’s also of note that Simon’s two magical states regenerate his health with every blow landed, so there’s absolutely no challenge at all.
After you’ve finished the main campaign you could always go and give Boss Rush mode a try which works exactly as you’d expect as you fight each of the games bosses one after the other, since most of the bosses aren’t that fun to begin with, its not that great an extra. There are also leader boards to try and top as well, if that’s your thing.
What is a man?
The best unlock after you’ve finished the game though is the ability to download the demo of Lords of Shadow 2, that’s been doing the rounds since E3. As demos go it’s quite a lot of fun and a nice glimpse of what Lords of Shadow 2 will have to offer come February.
So should you bother with Mirror of Fate HD? This depends on two things – whether you’ve already slogged through the 3DS version, and how much you like Lords of Shadow.
If you already own the game on the 3DS, despite the greatly improved frame rate there simply isn’t enough additional content to justify repurchasing the game. Hoever, If you were on the fence about getting it then this is certainly the version to get as it’s much better value at only £10 and is, on the whole, a much better version of the game, even if it isn’t portable. Likewise if you’re a fan of Lords of Shadow and you want to see the whole story I’d recommend Mirror of Fate as it covers a lot of plot points which will be explored further in LOS2. There’s also that demo to help whet your appetite for the final instalment in the series.
For everyone else, Mirror of Fate HD is a good game with great production values, that just doesn’t quite come together to be greater than the sum of its parts. That being said if you’re in the market for an old school 2D adventure game or are a fan of Castlevania you can do a lot worse than Mirror of Fate HD as it manages to accurately capture the look and feel of pre SOTN Castlevania and drag it kicking and screaming out of its crypt and back into the cold light of day.
