"Join you? Look at me! You've made me a monster, Father! You've made me like you: a creature that thirsts for blood, filled with hatred. You should have let me die that night."
--Alucard, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow--Mirror of Fate
". . . your fate has already been sealed and there is nothing you can do to change it. I am sorry to say that you will not achieve your objective, and your wife and your son will suffer the consequences of your failure."
--The Lost Soul, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow--Mirror of Fate
My first Castlevania game was exciting to play, an epic and dark side-scrolling adventure through the rebooted Castlevania franchises' castle of Dracula. The combat was fun. The story arc was complex. For specifics, see the usual categories below.
Production Values
The usually impressive graphics are aided by smooth movements and clear textures, but occasionally some pixelation occurs. Some of the close-ups on enemy character models, especially bosses, are quite splendid, and the game's bestiary allows you to look at enemy models, some of them very detailed. A few moments, like in Act III when an Executioner boss throws a hunchback towards the screen, even seem designed just for those who play the game with the 3D slider turned on. Complimenting the visuals, a fitting soundtrack accompanies the player through the castle. This may be tied with the voice acting as the aspect of the audio with the greatest quality.
Gameplay
Imagine a 2.5D God of War game. That is Mirror of Fate. Complete with chain-whips as weapons, quick time events, finishing moves, experience orbs, and magic attacks, Mirror of Fate is basically a marriage of the classic format and exploration of the side-scrolling Metroid games with the combat system from the God of War series. The boss battles in particular benefit from the God of War-like gameplay, as some of them, like the fights with the Lady of the Crypt, Daemon Lord, and Dracula, culminate in quick-time events that resemble those in the renowned series about Greek mythology that helped popularize such game mechanics years ago.
Overall you get to control four characters from the Belmont family. All of them use the same type of whip although they sometimes call them different names, meaning that the primary weapons have no true variation other than several limited additional powers you can obtain for them. Killing enemies earns experience orbs and collecting the scrolls of dead knights provides additional experience, used to unlock more moves and combos. Each of the three acts allows the newest character to retain the experience level and ammunition count of the previous one. It's a nice touch, as weapons and abilities do not often transfer.
The touch screen is utilized well. You can take written notes on the map or just place a dot on a particular area to mark something, though your quantity of notes is limited and the map for each room tells you how many items remain to be found in that particular area already, just not necessarily where.
Oh, I wanted to say that there's a part where a corpse with a note is found in a pipe, the note saying that even the dead man's brother Mario would be anxious because of the pipes, then saying the now-deceased man wanted to eat some mushrooms. I guess Konami wanted to make Nintendo fans smile?
Story
Gabriel Belmont visits the external area around a castle to vanquish an evil presence there in the prologue, which really serves as a short tutorial. The game skips around after this in a non-chronological manner.
Near the onset, a group called the Brotherhood of Light takes Trevor Belmont from his mother because the baby will become the only person who can stop Gabriel, who will become the infamous Dracula. Trevor has a son named Simon who is the first playable character after Gabriel. He wants to avenge his father's seeming death. And thus he travels to Dracula's castle, a structure once inhabited by the Bernhard family, later to become a place where a vampire named Carmilla tortured a captive and malevolent sorcery took place.
The brief prologue centers on Gabriel Belmont as he seeks to vanquish the evil of the castle before becoming Dracula; Act I focuses on Simon trying to enter the castle and kill Dracula; Act II is about Alucard (SPOILER--a resurrected Trevor Belmont) resurrecting and seeking revenge on Dracula and helping his son Simon, an alternate take on the same period of time from Act I; Act III opens many years before Act I with Trevor going underneath a corrupted church in order to reach and investigate the castle.
Intellectual Content
Part of the intellectual content in Mirror of Fate consists of the occasional puzzle and the thinking skills of some players who backtrack to use new items to access more areas and collectibles in past rooms. Some of the collectibles require some thought to reach even when the player clearly sees where they are on the screen or map, but many of them are not difficult to obtain.
Fate is personified by an entity called the Lost Soul which guides all three Belmonts after Gabriel into and through the castle. The bestiary under the extras at the main menu says that "The Lost Soul is fate itself, the physical manifestation of the mirror." Since the game starts with the events near the end of the story and then leaps back decades, the Lost Soul is first shown unable to speak, but players eventually learn that he could talk before Trevor struck him/it in a manner that shattered its mask and rendered it mute. Its final words to Trevor before it never spoke again were as follows: "I know all. I am here to make sure that everything happens tonight as it is supposed to happen. I am here to guide you." Strangely, just after explaining that it seeks to guide Trevor and Trevor dismisses his need for a guide, the Lost Soul informs him "your fate has already been sealed and there is nothing you can do to change it. I am sorry to say that you will not achieve your objective, and your wife and your son will suffer the consequences of your failure." Then Trevor strikes it. Yet, although its voice was removed, fate still unfolded, inevitable and unstoppable. The theme of fate is strong throughout the game. The Brotherhood of Light takes baby Trevor from his mother because they foresee what Gabriel will become and want to shelter the child. Alucard tells Dracula before their clash that fate has "given me a second chance". The title of the game itself signals the theme of fate. The tone of the story seems at times to emphasize the tragedy of fate, especially since you play through the story in a sequence where you know the outcome before the game ends and the final act shows how the situation developed to where it was already shown to be at the chronological finale. Because of this, watching Trevor discover the castle and Dracula years before the chronological end of the game has more impact, as fate must be upheld. The fact that the Lost Soul can claim that it needs to guide Trevor to his destiny and then say that fate is set no matter what Trevor does constructs a paradox of sorts, but not necessarily a logical contradiction.
Very interestingly, notes from dead knights indicate that they at least sometimes served the Brotherhood of Light out of dedication to God, even using weapons called combat crosses to fight demonic and evil creatures. And not just a generic and undefined deity, but one with very Christian features. I googled this to see what I could learn and it turns out that according to websites I read make it seems that God is actually prominently featured in the rebooted Castlevania: Lords of Shadow universe as a personal being who does not appear to directly interfere with human affairs. This intrigues me, though this theme is probably far more developed in the other Lords of Shadow games.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the 12 hours and 21 minutes it took to complete Mirror of Fate at 100%. By the way, those who find all of the collectibles will receive a bonus cinematic upon beating the game. And this is a very atmospheric title. It portrays a dark and bleak world. One where fathers and their children are destined to combat each other because fate has deemed it. A world where evil has centralized itself around a family and a location. While I have not yet played either of the console Lords of Shadow games, playing this one was an enjoyable experience that made me wish for more such 3DS games to be made. I would recommend this to anyone who loves Castlevania, exploration, a gothic atmosphere, and memorable enemies and bosses.
Content
1. Violence: Characters are impaled; zombies sometimes hurl their heads at the player; the hands of a boss in Act III are cut off before he is split in half. The combat utilizes chain attacks, bombs, and magic used to defeat opponents. A variety of finishing moves and quick-time events magnify the camera up close to show some killings. The closest thing to gore in this game is when the boss I just referenced has his hands cut off and his body split apart.
2. Profanity: Mild profanity like "damn" is used infrequently.
3. Nudity: Harpy enemies that fly around above the player have exposed breasts. Also, a scene near the end of the game shows Trevor Belmont walk into a room where multiple witches are chanting, their breasts also uncovered.
4. Sexuality: In Act I Simon Belmont enters an area where women who appear to be prostitutes try to seduce him, with most of their bodies exposed (the body is not sexual but the context of this was), though none of their "private" parts were showing. The leader, called the Succubus, tries to kiss Simon, turning to reveal wings before she attacks him. The Succubus criticizes Simon for rejecting her before engaging in a semi-kiss with another woman, a portal between mouths with no actual lip contact, that creates a protective sphere around her. Slightly later she repeats this process with more girls offscreen. The girls make sounds of sexual excitement while creating the shields.
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