Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (PlayStation 3)

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Description

Initially set 25 years after the events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate will reveal the story of Simon, a self-made warrior risen by the barbaric tribes of the forest who is set on a dangerous quest to kill the one who ordered the dark hordes to devastate his hometown and kill his parents; Alucard, a mysterious vampire with no memories who awakes from stagnation just to know the true of his origins and swears revenge on the one responsible; and Trevor, a honorable knight of the Brotherhood who leaves his family to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of Dracula. They will battle their own destiny in different eras only to discover their true, shocking fate.

Mirror of Fate, in its 3DS version, is the first title of the saga to benefit from the stereoscopic 3D. However, the movement is the classic 2D side-scrolling, as seen in the classic Castlevania games. The combat system is extensive, similar to its predecessor, with lots of combos, several secondary weapons and magic. Each encounter is important and has to be fought with care. In addition, the exploration side of the game is now more "metroidvania", where you have to revisit past maps with new powers to access blocked areas.

As the game is a series' reboot, popular characters, enemies and locations from previous titles are present. At all times, the player has access to the "Bestiary" where he can find info on all the enemies he encounter, the "Inventory" where he can check all his acquired powers, weapons and items, the "Skills" where he can learn how to execute his new abilities learned, and the "Map" where the player can check where he must go and write notes to remember unreachable areas or fonts to recover his life or mana.

For its HD version, almost a year later, the game received a major upgrade: enhanced visuals (better framerate, HD textures, improved lighting, depth of field, bloom, bevel, etc.), enhanced sound (remastered soundtrack, voices and sfx), a new game mode: the classic Boss Rush, tuned difficulty (no checkpoints for the hardcore difficulty!), QTEs removed almost completely, a new GUI (with improved map screen and enemies' weaknesses), a polished HUD (with minimap), loading screens (with never seen before concept art) with tips, leaderboards and achievements/trophies, rich presence, pad vibration, and tons of bugfixes.

Screenshots

There are no PlayStation 3 screenshots for this game.

There are 17 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "キャッスルヴァニア ロード オブ シャドウ 宿命の魔鏡" -- Japanese spelling
• "キャッスルヴァニア Lords of Shadow 宿命の魔鏡 HD EDITION" -- XBox 360 / PS3 HD Edition - Japanese spelling
• "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Sadame no Makyō (HD Edition)" -- Xbox 360 / PS3 Japanese title
• "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD" -- Xbox 360 / PS3 title

Part of the Following Groups

• Castlevania / Akumajō Dracula series
• Fictional character: Count Dracula
• Gameplay feature: Auto-mapping
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Automatic leveling
• Gameplay feature: Journal
• Gameplay feature: Quick Time Events / QTEs
• Genre: Explorable platformer / Metroidvania
• Scripting language: Lua
• Theme: Hunchbacks
• Theme: Vampires

User Reviews

There are no reviews for this game.

The Press Says

Vandal Online	Nov 06, 2013	8 out of 10	80
3D Juegos	Nov 01, 2013	8 out of 10	80
Esperino	Nov 14, 2013	8 out of 10	80
RealGamerNewz	Dec 11, 2013	7.5 out of 10	75
Multiplayer.it	Nov 09, 2013	7.5 out of 10	75
Aussie-Gamer.com	Nov 06, 2013	7.4 out of 10	74
Everyeye.it	Oct 25, 2013	7 out of 10	70
Playstation Universe	Nov 27, 2013	6.5 out of 10	65
Jeuxvideo.com	Nov 08, 2013	12 out of 20	60

Forums

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Trivia

Controversy

The game generated some controversy, because the die-hard "metroidvania" fans were expecting another IGA-esque release, but that wasn't the case because Mercury Steam wanted to port the Lords of Shadow gaming experience to the Nintendo 3DS. This anger was reflected in some of the magazine reviews: it's one of the few games who has ratings from 25 (Games Beat) to 100 (GAMING truth). However, the general critical reception was positive overall.

Awards

E3 2012: The game was nominated to 14 media awards, winning 9 of them: Game Informer (Best of Show), Game Trailers (Best 3DS Game), EGN (Excellence E3), Electric Playground (Best of E3), Nintendo Power (Most Valuable Game), Pure Nintendo (Best Adventure Game), Original Gamer (Best 3DS exclusive), Paul Gale Network (Best 3DS Game) and Gamer Theory Media (Best Handheld Game).

Gamelab 2013: The game was nominated to 3 awards from the Spanish Academy of Arts and Interactive Sciences (similar to the BAFTA), winning 2 of them: Best Console Game and Best Music & Sound.

Related Web Sites

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (Official game website)
• Castlevania Wiki (Article entry for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate with a lot of info from the game.)
• Wikipedia (Article in the open encyclopedia about the game)