Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD

I don’t think the title of this game is quite long enough. Perhaps Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, Simon’s Quest for Redemption, Concerto of Twilight EX HD would be more ambitious. So it’s probably a good thing I’m not in charge of naming video games. Seriously though, long title, but an excellent addition to the long lineage of Castlevania games. It’s possible that I’m simply happy every time a Castlevania game returns to the side-scrolling roots of its predecessors, but I found Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD (I’ll just call it Mirror of Fate for the sake of simplicity) to be exceptionally enjoyable.

Mirror of Fate was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS back in March of 2013 with this new HD hitting PS3 and Xbox in October 2013 and finally on Steam in March of 2014. It takes place in the rebooted Castlevania universe between Lords of Shadow 1 and 2. So Rumpelstiltskin is still Dracula and nothing from previous games (except Lords of Shadow, of course) is canon and is summarily tossed out the window and picked apart by Dracula’s hideous lawn gnomes.

It took me a while to get around to playing this one because at first I thought it was some kind of DLC. (Look, I don’t always read everything thoroughly.) When I found out I was completely mistaken and that Mirror of Fate was, in fact, a side-scrolling action platformer it went straight on my Steam wishlist. The timing actually worked out really well because there seems to be a bit of lull in the game market at the moment and this is a perfect title to spend time with as I brace for the industry’s Q4 onslaught.

Simon has a bit of a barbarian thing going on.

The combat is the main focus of the game and it’s pretty well handled. Skills are automatically unlocked as levels are gained. Combos aren’t exactly complex as most of them are either mashing a single button several times or holding a button. It feels a lot like God of War trapped in an ant farm. Magic and subweapons add to the variety, though I rarely found that I needed to use them on normal difficulty. Each of the three characters (Alucard, Simon, and Trevor) uses the same basic whip attacks and levels carry over from one chapter to the next. I felt as if that was a bit unimaginative, but the other powers and weapons change from one to the next so it’s not a huge problem.

The world in Mirror of Fate is as dark and gritty as I’ve come to expect from the Castlevania series and the aesthetic and character design are solid. Tons of traditional enemies make appearances as well as a number that I’m not familiar with. (Possibly due to having not played every game in the series.) I am, however, very thankful that there are no areas with endless streams of bobbing bats or gorgon heads. Don’t worry, there’s still a clock tower and plenty of platforms to jump on.

The thing that bugged me the most was the level design and the need to backtrack. What they’ve done here is attempt to emulate the best game in the series, Symphony of the Night. (If you don’t like SotN, you’re a crazy person and you’re not invited to dinner.) The problem is that areas requiring powers that characters don’t yet possess are presented at the beginning of what essentially works out to be a very long hallway. Alternate pathways and a system of interconnected teleporters are what enabled this to work well in SotN. While there are teleporters in Mirror of Fate, they’re largely useless and provide only minimal time saving.

What’s a Castlevania story without a succubus fight?

Of course, one of the most important parts of a modern single player game is possibly the story. I love a game with a good story. This one has an okay story. Firstly, I have a hard time with the completely discarded canon that I spoke of earlier. Secondly, the writing doesn’t really foreshadow so much as it paints a giant fucking billboard in neon colors while a grinning vampire points at it and winks. I really shouldn’t have been able to easily see a twist that completely breaks old canon hours of game time before it actually gets revealed. Frankly, I groaned and immediately thought “is this what we’re doing now?” as soon as it was even remotely hinted. However, it does fall in line with the new story continuity, so it’s hard to hold that against them. It is, after all, good to see them breathing new life into one of the most classic video game franchises.

Despite my issues with the story and level design, I still enjoyed the experience of playing through Mirror of Fate. I found myself wanting to get back to it as soon as I could until I had completed it. After that, there’s always higher difficulties as well as Boss Rush mode to play and compare scores on the leaderboards. And let’s not forget the all important Steam achievements that cause many a player to go insane in pursuit of. If you’re a fan of classic Castlevania games and you’re not super obsessed with the previous lore of the Belmont clan, then Mirror of Fate is absolutely worth picking up and playing.