Still the best vampire game.

>>716341863 (OP)
How does this game hold up? Are the controls really aged to the point where it will filter me?

>>716341863 (OP)
>Playstation
>https://youtu.be/GeOSWLGKuaE

>>716341937
It's edgy Zelda. Combat is a little sluggish and awkward feeling sometimes--the lack of polish hurts the game--but it delivers a fun world to explore. The dungeons have a lot of secrets if you're into that. It's by far the best Legacy of Kain game.

It could use a remaster, but it would be a lot trickier to do than Soul Reaver so I don't expect it to ever happen.

>>716341937
It's pretty shit. No diagonal walking and most of the versions have abysmal load times going in and out of the menus, which is a major fucking problem since you're fucking with the menus constantly. That being said, goat VA, and it definitely feels like you're a fucking vampire

>>716341863 (OP)
vtmb is better although I do like blood omen more than any of the other LoK games

>>716341937
It’s like ALttP, except movement is sluggish and awkward since Kain has a turn radius, attacking is delayed with no feedback since Kain has a wind up to his swing and the enemies don’t flinch back when hit, the visuals are muddy and cluttered to the point you can’t even tell what’s interactable, and there’s weird and poorly implemented mechanics like the Heart of Darkness resurrection item because the game is poorly balanced and damage is difficult to consistently avoid

>>716342834
>visuals are muddy and cluttered to the point you can’t even tell what’s interactable
The game looks much better on a CRT or with a CRT shader. It's a dark game regardless, but much like with DKC it will address some of the muddiness that comes with using low-res prerendered assets.

>>716341863 (OP)
can't argue with that, it was and still is aesome
>but it's a PS1 game
so?

>>716341863 (OP)
This felt like playing Dracula from Castlevania with the variety of magic and powers you used. I felt like a god just strolling through a field while lightning passively exploded my enemies outside my safety bubble
VtM is great too but it feels more like playing Dracula from Monster Squad

>>716342451
>No diagonal walking
It's hilarious how /v/ will criticize zelda clones for this but never once, in my entire life, have I ever seen someone criticize zelda games or other japanese top down games like countless jrpgs for this
zero self awareness

>>716342834
>because the game is poorly balanced and damage is difficult to consistently avoid

i mean you can siphon so taking dmg to then regain it by drain helps the fantasy
also you get get invul before second boss so no biggie

>>716341937
It's not a BAD game (unlike BO2), but it's definitely lower on the totem pole (I just did a racism) for me than any of the other games in the series. It's an unpopular opinion, but I think Soul Reaver 2 is the best game, because it felt the most complete as far as puzzle variety, navigation, story, and so on.

>>716344360
SR2 ruined the series for me.

Block puzzles...

>>716344463
I loved every second of it. Not a single box puzzle, no weird gimmicky glitchy boss fights, sensible navigation, a bunch of mystery boxes, and so on.

>>716341937
controls dont hold up with that being said it has the best dialogue and voices

>>716344757
yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsWRy3o42-8

>>716344654
The puzzles are better, but almost everything else is just flatly worse. There's nothing to explore, the level design is just hallways connecting to the next flatly directed cutscene, human enemies are boring and unsatisfying compared to the vampire goons in SR1, the story is trash. SR1 is to blame for some of this of course, since it wasn't fucking finished. They didn't have a lot of time to make SR2 either (or Defiance for that matter) and it feels compromised everywhere. The whole series does outside of Blood Omen.

Recapturing the surprise success of SR1 was probably never going to happen, but it still baffles me how they handled the series. It's like Eidos wanted it to fail.

>>716341863 (OP)
VTMB is better

>>716341937
It's zelda but in a good setting, better story and worse gameplay

>>716341863 (OP)
i just remembered that i collected lots of healing in that game only to almost lost all of it in the damn ice castle because the enemies have no blood you could suck

>>716341937
Its Zelda but with a vampire

THE AXES

VAE VICTIS

>>716346549
LET'S BEYBLADE

God I need more vampire kino.

>>716341863 (OP)
almost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8mGXMvVyk

>>716341937
>hold up
>aged
Shut the fuck up faggot.

>>716341937
I played it during covid on a hacked 3ds xl and had an amazing and unforgettable time. The atmosphere alone and the Kain's voice actor are enough to play it

Gothickino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-DKX6hFv8&list=PL3B36792A6F9E15D4&index=10

>>716350991
that being said, does anyone have any recommendations of something that vaguely captures the same gothic atmosphere? ty

>>716351205
Diablo 1

>>716341937
It's probably the only LoK game I'd recommend actually playing. The complaints about its controls and combat are all valid, but it's not atrociously bad, and none of the LoK games have engaging gameplay anyway. The series is essentially a bunch of interactive stories, and while the later games delivered most of their best lines in cutscenes and can be basically experienced in a YouTube compliation, Blood Omen packs so much lore into all of its environments that you can't really get the full experience without playing it. Dungeons are littered with little lore tiles, all with fully-voiced dialogue. The game, qua game, is extremely mediocre, but the game, qua LoK entry, is fantastic.

>>716351606
>The game, qua game, is extremely mediocre
I think you're underselling some of the level design here. It's a genuinely fun game to explore in a way most Zelda clones are not, despite how awkward getting around the overworld can be.

THE HEART THE HEART THE HEART

>>716342451
These games were always shit.
I tried to play them when they originally came out but they were just fucking awful and I ended up returning them.

>>716349143
Same. Nothing hits like vampires done right. I want something with the grimy mysticism of Blood Omen, the existential melodrama of Soul Reaver, and the storytelling ambition of VTMB. Gothic cathedrals, blood rituals, baroque voice acting, the whole decadent curse. Everything today feels like Hot Topic trash or sanitized Twilight nonsense. Just give me one game where a vampire reflects on his immortal damnation while ripping someone's spine out through their ribcage.

>>716362003
I remember when people were optimistic about Lords of Shadow 2 providing something like that. Then the game came out.

>>716341937
imagine 2d castlevania isometric but you get symphony of the night powers and permanent power ups

>>716363431
lets see what happen with that not the witcher 3 vampire game

>>716344360
>It's not a BAD game (unlike BO2)
BO2 is infinitely more playable than 1 which is better experienced as a highlight reel of the cutscenes and important in game dialogs on youtube.

>>716363431
>people were optimistic about Lords of Shadow 2
They must not have played the first game to have been optimistic about its sequel.

>>716363838
LoS1 isn't a bad game. It's way too fucking long and derivative, but it's a more solid action-adventure game than any Legacy of Kain game after Blood Omen. It's better than the PS2vanias or Dante's Inferno or whatever else too.

>>716363953
>its more
>its better
Only if you have an insanely high tolerance for extremely generic fantasy elements combined with bare bones god of war 3 clone gameplay and uncharted's cinematic climbing. That or having never been exposed to the 7th gen's mainstream games it copies is the only way I could see how one could view it as better than anything else you listed desu.

>>716341863 (OP)
Vae victus, mother fucker.

>>716364980
Because it is. Have you played Devil May Cry: Meg Ryan's Hallway Adventure? I have. It sucks. Have you played Lok: Defiance? It's as unoriginal as Lords of Shadow is, but without the budget or polish.

>>716365364
>Defiance
>It's as unoriginal as Lords of Shadow
I can't say I've seen any game that has a similar art style or story which is two things that not only can't be said about LOS but such a comparison fails to capture just how aggressively generic those aspects of the game are. Personally I view the gameplay as much worse because I cannot stand the nonstop QTEs, if that wasn't there I could probably agree that the gameplay is better. Haven't played a DMC since 4 so I can't compare but I coincidentally I have a similar level of disdain for that game as I do for LOS but for different reasons.

>>716365015
dont spoil the remake

Why do all the games except Blood Omen run like shit or are straight up unplayable on PC?

>>716344360
It's the only actual game in the series with gameplay, for what it's worth, still somehow not the best one

>>716350991
I played it years ago for the first time, when I finally figured out how to do all the custom firmware shit on the PSP (I had that model where you had to remove one of the battery pins to do some nutty hack), for some reason camping in a shitty tent out my back garden in the pissing rain.

I finished it in one sitting, and if I looked back, I'm sure a huge amount of the "fun" was the novel atmosphere and "charm" but I do remember the gameplay being addictive enough (if again on hindsight not necessarily anything special, but it was actually probably the first "Zelda rippoff (?)" I'd played, so the gameplay was novel and interesting to me)

If I had to try guess, discounting "aesthetic" considerations, I'd say the actual gameplay is a solid 6-7 if I'm trying to be impartial.

>>716351606
The heart the heart the hea- the he- the hea- the hear- the heart of darkness

>>716341937
Phenomenally. Just make sure you play the recent GOG version, not the PSX.

>>716365783
>I can't say I've seen any game that has a similar art style or story
SR2 and Defiance aren't that interesting to look at most of the time either, to be honest. Neither game has the moodiness of BO1 or SR1. I'm also not really fond of their stories, but LoS is more standard (albeit much better presented).