Reminiscing upon the 3DS' bittersweet sunset.

[Sarge]

Mirror of Fate is an Iga-lite game. It has aspects of those games, but it isn't quite as pronounced. It is still there, though. Most of the gripes come down to the combat not being nearly as breezy, with enemies taking a lot of hits and the game being pretty combo-happy. I enjoyed it well enough, although it was disappointing compared to the "true" entries.

EDIT: I knew I'd talked about it somewhere, there's a pretty sizable discussion with my thoughts and others starting at page 10 on Talking Time: http://talking-time.net/showthread.php? ... te&page=10

[o.pwuaioc]

If you don't own a 3DS why not?
No interest. The regular DS barely held mine. And I'm not a fan of "3D" gimmicks.

I do wish to someday borrow one to see if Link Between Worlds is any good.

[Tanooki]

From what I've read, Mirror of Fate wasn't an Igavania styled Castlevania (i.e. metroidvania). I've heard it has lite metroidvania elements at best. I'd love to be wrong about that, and find out Mirror of Fate is a full blown metroidvania, even without the involvement of Iga. Are you saying that's the case?

I'd argue it's like the IGA stuff for certain, has plenty of hidden offshoot areas or walls to find stuff behind, but it's not total IGA. There's some definite God of War style elements at play. To gain your HP/MP bars and special you have those 3 chests GoW had so you need to hunt them out, some are along the way, many are hidden. There are other hidden elements to track down as well too, and some do require a good bit of backtrack and revisiting areas like IGA stuff did (GoW was more of a straight push forward.) But like GoW you have moves you can pick up that chain attacks and junk together, like Kratos would do, to really unleash hell on stuff. I'd say it's 66-75% IGA 25-33% GoW influenced, a solid blend, and it tries so hard to put that story in there of the roots of Belmont and does it pretty nicely. A good father and son element between the dead, undead, and undead Dracula too and his minions with typical classical style IGA boss fights.

[Exhuminator]

Well so far this thread has made me want to buy Alien on the Run and Mirror of Fate.

I see that Mirror of Fate's full name is:

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate

So is this a sequel to Lords of Shadow in any way (plot wise)? Should I play Lords of Shadow first? Or is Mirror of Fate standalone?

-

Also want to say I've really enjoyed reading everybody's responses to the questions so far. Lots of great opinions and personal anecdotes, I love that stuff to bits.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I bought the Mario & Luigi silver one that came with Dream Team. Really happy with the system itself (Dream Team was kind of a bore IMO). Kind of a bitch to keep clean from scratches, but I really like it. Plus I bought it about two years ago and hadn't owned a handheld since the early DS days.

Long story short I have a ton of 3DS/DS games to play eventually. I'll be playing it off and on for a long ass time. Every so often I get on a kick where it's the only system I'm playing for like a month, and it's great.

I liked Dream Team... More than Inside Story at any rate, at least by a little. Still excited to get Paper Jam eventually

I see that Mirror of Fate's full name is:

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate

So is this a sequel to Lords of Shadow in any way (plot wise)? Should I play Lords of Shadow first? Or is Mirror of Fate standalone?

I think Mirror of Fate is a prequel or something. It's actually for 360 too I think! Pretty sure you can get it physically bundled in with the first Lords of Shadow game.

Also, I checked on which game I've played the most, and it is Fire Emblem Fates (all 3 campaigns combined was 105 hours). Narrowly missing out is Animal Crossing New Leaf on my American 3DS at just over 100 hours. I had no idea I'd played it so long!

[Xeogred]

If you don't own a 3DS why not?

I'll get one someday for...

Zelda Link Between Worlds
Zelda Majora's Mask 2.0
Zelda Ocarina of Time 2.0

Then might box it up forever.

Really though, I'd love to have one and there's probably a handful of stuff I'd like to play. There's some eshop/virtual console releases that would be fun to have portable. Virtual console purchases on this probably would have been a better route than getting shafted on the Wii U. I like that most of the 3DS games, if not all (?) are digital too, that seems more ideal for a handheld to me. I'll probably get an XL for neck comfort and the biggest screen. I just find it hard to spend $60+ for something I might barely use.

[Sarge]

It is a sequel. Just remember that this is an alternative take on the Castlevania universe, so canon has no place here.

Indeed, it also has an HD remaster, so that might be the better way to experience it these days. It's on 360, PS3, and I think PC. Apparently the collection that includes it and Lords of Shadow is pretty cheap. Even the much-maligned second game is pretty solid, but expect some weird tonal whiplash and "trying too hard".

[Tanooki]

Yes it's on PC (Steam) I own it. It doesn't look remarkably better than the 3DS version though, but all they really did was use the same designs and just upped the resolution is all so no surprise there.

It can be played just fine without doing the other games. When they made it, I recall the story behind it was that it was rooted in the backstory of Castlevania III as you're dealing with Trevor and Simon Belmont with this one. I really wish it had got more respect as it's actually a very very GOOD game.


Keep this in mind if it matters or not, the 3DS is like Gameboy, it's all about not just it's library but the back library too. All those lovely DS games, they all work, including other regions as they didn't lock that system down other than DSi exclusives and the pre-Eshop games too which are all crap and/or irrelevant at this time. Even if you're not huge enough on many 3DS games, there's a heap of older DS titles that work on it too so cumulatively speaking the variety is immense.

[Xeogred]

Keep this in mind if it matters or not, the 3DS is like Gameboy, it's all about not just it's library but the back library too. All those lovely DS games, they all work, including other regions as they didn't lock that system down other than DSi exclusives and the pre-Eshop games too which are all crap and/or irrelevant at this time. Even if you're not huge enough on many 3DS games, there's a heap of older DS titles that work on it too so cumulatively speaking the variety is immense.

Doesn't it stretch and upscale everything to look kind of muddy and crappy though?

I did appreciate that about the DS, was my way of playing some GBA games. I kind of wish I had the flip case GBA though, that was a beautiful handheld. But all the second hand handhelds I ever see at local stores and stuff look disgusting. Used handhelds = no thanks. lol

[Exhuminator]

Doesn't it stretch and upscale everything to look kind of muddy and crappy though?

Yes, especially on the 3DS XL. This is the thing no one talks about when they praise the backwards compatibility. I guess it doesn't bother most people, but I can't stand the upscaling artifacts/blurriness. I simply use my DS Lite when I want to play DS games.

-

I went ahead and got Mirror of Fate for 3DS. I'd rather play that sort of game on 3DS than 360.