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Yeah, yeah, I know: Lords of Shadow 2’s debut trailer didn’t give us a look at the title’s actual gameplay, but one can’t deny how exciting and downright amazing it was. I stayed up late last night to see this trailer and it was definitely worth all the head-slams-on-keyboard moments I endured as I was trying to stay up (I don’t drink coffee!).
So, after seeing the trailer over and over like a madman, it’s time to break it down for you guys and share some of my theories! As always, be sure to share your very own analysis of the trailer in the comments below and stay tuned because all of next week, DailyVania will be a blog-like series of articles detailing my time with both Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2’s demos at E3. And if you want to get a bit more personal, feel free to follow me on Twitter where I’ll be posting loads of pics and constantly tweeting like a newborn Pidgey!
Warning: Spoilers for Lords of Shadow follow!
A constant reminder
This is quite awesome. Gabriel seems to have a statue in his castle of what looks like Satan being hung and held up by snakes. Or it could be a messed up version of Jesus Christ on the cross which Gabriel customized to show his feelings of betrayal by God.
Once a holy man and warrior of God, Gabriel’s tragic fate drove him to the dark side, and the vampiric powers he obtained helped the transition, too. Regardless, this serves as a constant reminder of the past for Gabriel. He doesn’t want to forget, so he has this statue in his own castle to fuel his anger.
Is that…Marie?
Is that a body on the altar? Sure looks like it, and it could be somebody very important, evident by Gabriel lightly caressing it as he walks by to see what all that noise is outside (stupid neighbors!).
I think that could be Marie’s (headless) body. Yeah, it’s pretty creepy to have that lying around, but hey, the man loves her and he still feels the wrath of guilt’s grasp on his very soul. Damn you, Patrick Stewart (Zobek)! Or it may be someone else’s body, but it would make sense to have it be Marie’s. Or maybe this body is linked to all the angry people outside Gabriel’s chamber.
Maybe Gabriel has taken an innocent woman as his very own to help him feel loved again, in the company of someone to fill the void left by the loss of Marie. And perhaps he’s killed this woman, who may be of great significance (a king’s daughter maybe?). Hence the angry knights outside. I would prefer if the body was Marie’s but this is also a possibility.
I hope that’s the pizza delivery…oh
Gabriel has visitors! No wait…Damn, that’s a lot of angry people. Not only is there an army waiting to break into Gabriel’s castle here, but we also get to see the huge expanse of the land Gabriel has claimed as his own. One thing’s for sure, this game’s going to be huge in terms of the castle and its exterior areas.
Check out the outfit
Here we get our first full look at Gabriel as Dracula. Aside from being allergic to nail clippers, he looks very awesome. I love how he has an outfit that’s similar to the original game, and once again paying homage to Simon’s outfit from Castlevania II with the colors.
The Dracula (G-Drac) we see here is a very menacing and intimidating one, which we’ll see more of when he starts kicking ass in the trailer. It’s a completely different Prince of Darkness from the one we see in the original game’s epilogue, which makes it even more sad to see him in that frail and “just kill me now, oh wait I’m immortal…damn” state. And yes, like one of our commenters pointed out, G-Drac looks a little like Undertaker!
Knock, knock
People are apparently quite angry with G-Drac. No surprise, I guess. These soldiers could be sent by the Belmont family to aid them in their fight to put an end to the Prince of Darkness who’s given the clan a bad name with his actions. Regardless, they’re pissed, but hey, G-Drac is about to whip all of their asses!
I’m the goddamn Prince of Darkness!
After the events of Dracula Begins (I mean…Lords of Shadow), Gabriel is now embracing his powers as the Prince of Darkness and kicking a whole lot of ass. Here we see him vamping out in glorious fashion as he goes on to transform into mist, flying around the battlefield the army of rude soldiers have created in his backyard. It’s pay-back time.
Axe Armor!
Nuff’ said.
Whip it!
This shot is just beautiful. Here we see G-Drac whipping the holy hell out of the knights with a flame whip created by his own dark energy/magic. Who needs a combat cross when you’re Dracula, right?
While this isn’t exactly gameplay footage, we can bet our collective asses that this is pretty much how awesome it’s going to look using this new whip against foes in the final game. I’m going to be spamming that, yo.
Like a pro
Gabriel is now teleporting around like a pro. Thanks, Laura! I’m sure this is going to be part of the game’s combat, too, making combos more satisfying to pull off as you zip around an area full of enemies. Again, G-Drac looks very bad-ass here and I love how his outfit looks similar to the one he wore in the original game.
Come at me, bro!
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, titan boss battles will be back, as indicated by this particular scene. Knowing their numbers are shrinking, the soldiers opt to summon a mechanical titan against the Dark Lord. Little do they know he’s already conquered a few titans in his previous adventure…
Personally, I loved the titan battles in the first game. They were quite epic and got better which each one. The Dracolich is one of my favorite bosses in the series. I’m excited to see what type of giants monsters we’ll fight here, though it would make sense to just restrict them to exterior areas. I mean, unless they do something like the Behemoth chase sequence from Rondo of Blood, which I think would be very awesome and intense. Bring on more titans!
“The Dragon Returns”
So how will Gabriel take on this mechanical titan summoned against him? Well, by transforming into a giant dragon made of mist, of course!
After sucking the life out of a poor soldier, Gabriel gains enough power to transform into said dragon, and it’s quite a breathtaking sight. The dragon has returned indeed. And it’ll be beyond crazy to see this come into play during boss battles against towering monsters.
ALUCARD!!!
Now here’s the most memorable part of the trailer. Alu-fucking-card, baby! Yeah, yeah, it hasn’t been officially confirmed that this white-haired warrior is Alucard, but still, just look at him. Don’t be trolling us, Mercury Steam!
And tying in with my theory about Mirror of Fate’s ending, this could actually be Trevor. You could even see some green in his outfit, as well as some similar pieces of equipment.
Father versus son? Or will they actually be working together somehow (we do see Gabriel holding that sword Alucard’s holding in the game’s poster after all)? I’ll be diving into this in a future article, so stay tuned!
