Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate

Lords of Shadow is a subtitle many Castlevania fans – wary of change – have come to dread. For the first game to take that name changed the series’ direction from exploration to action and spectacle. Some of the previous games, such as Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, gave “Metroidvania” its suffix, cementing it as a genre thanks to their interconnected environments, feeling of desolation, little sense of direction, and a design that links progression to backtracking. The first Lords of Shadow, on the other hand, was more like God of War, with its protagonist using long chains to dismember his enemies during some elaborate set-pieces. Mirror of Fate, them, tries to reconcile these two approaches, merging the Lords of Shadow combat system with the exploration of a huge environment.

Mirror of Fate’s story,  following the tragic Belmont family and their eternal struggle against Dracula, revolves around the idea that revenge is a feeling – and a need – that endures for generations. Trevor Belmont wants revenge for his mother’s murder and leaves for the vampire’s gothic castle to end him once and for all. Many years later, Simon Belmont wants retribution for the death of his father, Trevor, and travels to the castle to discover his fate. And the enigmatic vampire Alucard wants revenge for the curse put on him by Dracula.

Destiny is a recurring concept in the game, with a shadowy masked figure serving as its personification, accompanying the characters throughout the dungeons of the castle, dictating their actions and pointing the way. Consequently, the characters here become tragic figures: their untimely end seems set in stone, inevitable, a product of their choices and mistakes. Even Dracula himself is humanized, haunted by how his despair seems inescapable.

The issue here is that Mirror of Fate presents a narrative structure that sabotages all the conflicts and twists of its story. Instead of following the chronological order of events, we control Simon Belmont first, then Alucard, and then we finally move to Trevor. This means that we already know that Trevor failed when we play with him and, when commanding Alucard, we may already notice the plot twist of the last act. The point is to reinforce the tragedy of events – Trevor’s demise seems inevitable because we know that it has already happened – but here the tradeoff is not worth it, as the structure also robs the game of a proper ending: the climax in Mirror of Fate – the final battle against Dracula – happens at the end of Act II, in Alucard’s story. That is, as Mirror of Fate concludes with Trevor in Act III, the game ends in the most anticlimactic way possible.

This structure also breaks the logic of character progression. Mirror of Fate is an action game with a similar system to God of War, with dead enemies releasing red energy orbs that serve as experience points, for example. While in the first Lords of Shadow, we could buy new combos with these red orbs, in Mirror of Fate progress is automatic, with new pre-determined skills unlocking when the characters level up. This new design is more strict and limiting than before, robbing us of our choice regarding which skills to unlock first, but in doing so it fits perfectly the theme of destiny, and how the characters’ future is set in stone. The problem here is that this system carries over from one character to the next (the attacks that Simon learns, Alucard will also know, and the level that Alucard is at the end of Act II will be Trevor’s level at the beginning of Act III), which doesn’t make sense within the game’s narrative structure: Trevor could never be stronger and more “experienced” than Alucard, for example. Far more effective would have been if each character had their own unique combat style, which would have ensured both cohesion to the narrative and more variety to the gameplay.

Mirror of Fate also tries to return to its Metroidvania roots, with mixed results. We can finally go back to exploring the dungeons of Dracula’s castle in search of new abilities and equipment that make reaching previously inaccessible areas possible – such as a chain that lets us jump large distances, for example. But Mirror of Fate is too afraid of letting us get lost – an important part of exploration –  and puts a floating arrow on the screen pointing us to the goal. The castle presented here is large enough, but it also lacks complexity. That is, we will cross various halls and courtyards very quickly since there is little to do in them, besides moving onward killing whatever stands in our way. Mirror of Fate has excellent puzzles, but they are few and relegated only to Alucard’s story, which gives it some personality, but to the detriment of pacing.

The game would also have benefited from having more inspired set pieces, such as the intense sequence in which Trevor must escape a huge landslide caused by the fall of a giant bell, since such moments provide the energy an action game needs. Especially since here, the combat system is a shallower version of the one found in the first Lords of Shadow: combos, based on long and medium-range attacks, are practically the same as in the previous one, but one of its most interesting mechanics is inexplicably absent. In Lords of Shadow, magic was the reward for a good fight – by hitting the enemy many times without taking damage, we were rewarded with magic orbs. In Mirror of Fate, this mechanic is entirely absent, leaving the combat less interesting.

The combat animations, essential to convey the brutality of the action, are still great, however, and the stereoscopic 3D of the 3DS further amplifies the energy of the fights thanks to the good use of camera angles that make the members of creatures fly against the screen. Boss fights also benefit from the effect, taking it into account: the Night Watchman, for example, makes great use of the increased sense of depth by leaving his torch attacking the player while he hides in the background. The 3D also enhances the beauty of the environments: the extravagant Gothic aesthetic of the previous games is still in full display, as evidenced by the huge, agonizing heads carved in stone that adorn the castle’s underground entrance.

The vibrant soundtrack of the classic Castlevania games, although fantastic, would never have fit the somber tone of these new environments. The orchestrated arrangements by composer Oscar Araujo, then, are meant to amplify the feeling of solitude with some subtle and sparse melodies that add weight to the Gothic atmosphere when a choir suddenly kicks in.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate is a much more ambitious title than its predecessor. By attempting to combine the old with the new, Mercury Steam has managed to make an intriguing game. 

December 04, 2018.

Originally published in Portuguese on March 19, 2015.