This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

I’m roughly three hours into the idiotically named Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate, and I’m finding myself liking it. It has its problems, mostly dealing with some really suspect jumping mechanics that make me feel like I’m floating toward nothing in particular, but I’ve sort of wrapped my head as best I can around the combo-heavy battle system, even though it shouldn’t really exist in this form. If you can recall WayForward’s Bloodrayne: Betrayal then you can see the same problem; combo-intensive combat like this just isn’t supposed to exist on a 2D plane. It locks your character into place for unavoidable counter attacks from the enemy AI, and the player’s lack of mobility around an erased z-axis renders what should be agile characters very still and sometimes bizarrely inert.

Both of the above mentioned problems, along with an overall nonsensical plot that I haven’t quite made through myself, are the primary criticisms of the game. On the surface, Mirror of Fate was supposed to be a sort of marriage between Mercury Steam’s God of War-like Lords of Shadow and the traditional Symphony of the Night/ Metroidvania games of Castlevania’s more recent history (even though those aren’t even “traditional” in the true sense of the series, something I think people forget a little more than they should). So far it’s been pretty light on the world exploration, and fairly heavy on popping zombies into the air and yelling in a Scottish accent –both of which I kind of dig for the moment. But I’m not going to sit here and defend the game from its detractors. After only a little bit of time to fumble around with it, I’m not qualified yet. Instead I’m just going to say that I told you so.

Castlevania needed a reboot in the worst possible way. The games were becoming split into two very distinct but structurally similar categories: the 2D explorative sprite games a la Symphony and its lineage found on handheld systems and the 3D console games that tried to replicate the formula. The handhelds, while consistently good, were worn out. Playing them as they were released had become routine, you may as well have just bought one of them (by that I mean either Aria or Dawn of Sorrow, which were probably the best, even though Order of Ecclesia ended the subseries on a high note) and played it from scratch once a year. The console games were dry and lifeless. The locations were simply a handful of large rooms connected by corridors with a smattering of locked off areas that could be accessed if you were just a little more patient. They were confining and boring with 3D combo-driven combat that, at that point, was shown up handily by the contemporary God of War games. The stories were the worst kind of straw-grasping, basically giving any potential excuse for Dracula to be resurrected outside of the established “happens once every century” bullshit. The series didn’t need a stake in the heart, it needed to be taken behind the shed for a bullet to the head.

So we got a reboot, and a pretty good reboot. It didn’t check off all of the boxes to make it a masterpiece, but instead of going back to the exploration-equals-enjoyment chalkboard of previous games it decided to take an obvious if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em approach. It adopted the mechanics of Sony Santa Monica’s God of War. It dropped what had become very anime-inspired character traits and went for the gruff machismo of faux-realism western action games. It restarted the lore from zero, the primary focus of what makes any reboot work. Of course it couldn’t please everybody, nothing can.  Even though the franchise was finally making its way back around the Belmont family, it barely touched upon Dracula whatsoever (until the stinger ending). Exploration had taken a backseat almost completely, pushing for more of a level structure that the GoW games had established, making it feel claustrophobic for a series that had tried to identify itself with limited exploration for more than a decade. Folks lost their cool over this stuff, mostly the absolute ‘vania faithful unhappy with whatever direction the series would take if it wasn’t made by the guiding hand of Koji Igarashi, franchise overseer since post-Symphony of the Night.

So Konami and Mercury Steam relented, and what we wound up with is Mirror of Fate, a linear 2.5D platformer with a convoluted plot revolving around the old series three most beloved heroes (all according to its critics). If all of this is true, then this is exactly what we deserve, and both the publisher and developer should have stuck to their guns and left well enough alone. The point of a reboot is to start over, the wipe the slate clean. In Castlevania’s case, this meant eliminating its overbearing plot continuity, starting with new characters, and making different types –or perhaps subgenres – of games. By the simple act of greenlighting this game, Konami turned around and said “fine, if this is what you want, then this is what you get.” The team at Mercury Steam, clearly capable of making sound 3-dimensional action games, were confined into constructing something similar to Symphony’s quasi-open castle; something that the “linearity” detractors have pointed out they have no acuity for. The people that still work at Konami that have a background in this stuff have nothing to do with Mercury Steam, and even console or handheld action games at this point as they have been relegated to social game development for the Japanese market. Does this pardon the developer for making a somewhat limited framework? Not really, but if you take a step back to look at the level structure, it’s basically the same way that they handled it with Lords of Shadow; large, linear, and made to be re-explored with new equipment not because it’s necessary but because it’s worthwhile to see what’s around every corner. If it doesn’t hold up by the time I actually finish the game –and I will, it’s going to happen – then that’s fine as long as it’s not downright awful. But to poo poo on the game because it’s not built like nearly all previous handheld games since Circle of the Moon might be a little unfair given the circumstance.

The plot, though, is what’s really worth mentioning. Again, I’m not done and I haven’t seen everything. Some of the reviews I’ve read mention that there are actually four story threads instead of the three, the last of which involving another key character in the Castlevania lore. I’ve also read overwhelmingly that they, and the way they’re told, are straight up awful. To that, I say tough shit. There was no need to cram classic characters into Mercury Steam’s new continuity, but enthusiasts of the old franchise pissed and moaned about how they would be left behind and forgotten in favor of screaming meatheads. Part of me agrees with them, but not enough to justify making a video game for the sole purpose of appeasing these people. Simon, Trevor, or Alucard could have been left for further games in the proper Lords of Shadow console series and it would have worked just fine, but they weren’t even necessary for those, in my opinion. Art is both for the artist and the audience, but not beholden to either. If you wanted classic Castlevania characters in a handheld “exploration” game after a successful reboot of the franchise, then this is what you get, and if it’s bad, then this is what you deserve, because this is what you asked for.

There’s a lingering feeling within me that thinks Mercury Steam did this kitchen sink job on purpose to get it out of the way, to make room for the game they obviously want and are capable of making –this year’s Lords of Shadow console sequel. I’m not saying they intentionally made a game that’s terrible to shut people up, but I would get the fact that they wanted to be done with old characters so they could make way for the new, and therefore make this whole reboot thing actually work. So far, I even like it.