I took down the Stone Titan in 1:53 with 7 seconds left, I tought this was easier than the first, it only took me 10 tries lol.

Im now at Chapter 5, freakin Cornell was really hard, and the Trial for him was harder because you can't use Light Magic on hime, basically you can't heal at all.

Doing Trails in Paladin its making it alot more awesome, Im discovering new strategies and some moves I now know how to use them more than before, I counter like crazy now too :)

It will take a while to finish it, some of the Trials of later chapters are insane!

Please don't mention any more bosses names after chp6, as i have still not done any of those yet and wish to be surprised, thanks.

Oki Sorry if I spoiled some :(

Will not name any bosses now.

Cool :)

110% and 1000/1000 achievements!

Awesome game is awesome!!

Overall I give it a 8/10 because there is stuff to improve, I loved it though.

Such an awesome game!!

Hey peeps,

Has the save file issue been patched on the 360?

My thoughts on this game:

- I liked the new wider take on the castlevania universe. The way they kept the vampires more in the background.

-The Music was mostly fantastic. How it was used not always so. Seems like they liked to push afew themes half the time. Room for improvement here.

-Graphics were very nice from an artistic perspective. They kept the locations varied and feeling fresh due to no recycling. Every room and path was unique looking. The performance of the graphics engine was so-so, often leading to sub 20fps.

-Combat system was solid. Similar to Ninja Gaiden in that you had to play well to get health/magic. This also helped motivating me to mix up my tried and tested combos with other stuff so i could get those precious orbs.

-Length of the game (took me maybe 25hours to reach the endcredits on normal/default). I felt it was perhaps too long. If it wasn't for the interesting and non-recycled locations i might had lost interest before the end.

-platforming was ok. similar to Enslaved there's only 1 path, making it abit less exciting than it looks. Unlike Enslaved you can actually somehow miss in certain situations. That is, a is still fully scriptet and will always land you at the exact same/correct spot, only difference here is that you can actually fall down if you push the wrong direction or button.

-Puzzles were nice. Maybe abit disjointed from the rest of the game. I often felt like i was taken out of the game just to do some sudoko or whatnot. Other than than that i enjoyed a break from the fighting/running. Most of these puzzles were well designed and included types of logic problems i hadn't seen before.

-Story was abit hit&miss. Most of the story that's there is quite good. problem is that this being a 20-25hour game it's abit spread out thin. During the first hour you get the basic premise and get started. I think i played 6-7 hours without getting any proper progression on the main-story. After awhile you kinda lose focus on what you're actually doing here. Talking to a witch to get that item and this out of doing that. Luckily the last hour or so it did come together quite nicely, and i did really enjoy the ending (remember to stay till after the end credits for the "proper" ending). The story ended on a high note and somewhat left me inspired and wanting to see what happens next.

In the end i felt it was a game worth playing. If you're into adventure and action/fighting like God of War, you could do worse than checking it out. Mostly a quality title. A more tight and focused sequel would make for a AAA experience.

Thanks for reading and good night.

Nice impressions there.

I mostly agree, in fact I agree with everything you said!

Just afew things i missed...


-bossbattles: Amazing. This game is not affraid of kicking your arse, a quality rarely seen nowadays. And most of the time you feel like you deserved it too. Somehow the camera problems that rears it's head now and then in the game is (mostly) gone during the boss battles. What we have here are classic and well designed bosses, having 3 or more phases where they mix up their attack patterns or just turn the battle upside down for you to scratch your head. Some of the more frantic battles reminded me of certain 40-man raid bosses from lvl60 World of Warcraft. With similarities like area of effect damage/spells, polarity shifts, interupts, adds etc. Battles are also mixed up with QuickTimeEvents during cinematic moments like phase shifts or weakenings. There's even a (not so subtle) nod to Shadow of the Colossus in there.

-Art: as noted before there's little recycling here. Hats of to the art department at Mercurysteam. I have a feeling they have worked overtime to make this come together. Make sure you spend the rest of your coins to ALL the art-gallery entries after finnishing the game. Well worth browsing through.

- Vistas: Yes, this game has'em. Gabriel, being the runner he is, easily zips past one beautiful view after another without taking much notice. Quite afew times did i have to easy up on the analogue stick just to take in the view. Walking up a snowy mountain path seeing a vampire-castle stretching into the skies far away, or seeing the flora inside a huge hollow tree. Majestic.

After the whole game save crap, i'm finally getting back into the game, i'm on the last few chapters and i'm loving it again.

I am at the final Boss now. HOLY BANANAS! indeed this games is NOT afraid of kicking your a**! and it's done TOTALLY fairly unlike some other games. This is ONE hell of a game though. the Art direction is beyond impressive .... those vampire castles are Jaw-droppingly jaw dropping! Amazing just amazing.

So the saved games have been fix on the 360? I haven't got the game just for tha reason

Yes it has been :D no one replied to that same question when I asked it before... I have to say I wasnt happy about that :/

There are no framerate issues mate, not on 360 anyway.

I'll be getting this for christmas. I really like the demo, and it seens people here on gamersyde are enjoying it

I am talking about the full game Grift, not the demo. I didnt notice any framerate issues in the full game. Did anyone else??

Framerate is in the lows in this game, but it gets kinda better the further in the game you get.

If you can get pass the first 3 levels then you are good to go.

Serious? I didn't notice any.... I will check again tonight because if it's the case. I may need glasses!

You notice it when the game suddenly gets to 60fps, in that moment you kinda feel sad that is not teh whole game that runs that way.

But honestly it doesnt bother me, I noticed it but after Level 3 its gets better and you kinda adjust to it.

finally digged into it ... was sceptical to say the least as Castlevania on NES was one of the most precious experiences in my life when I was 7 years old and so I see myself as a hardcore-fan to the max and I have to admit, nice. The combat was really hard at first, the first troll took me 20 tries until I figured out the dodging system, but what can I say? It's got that combat-dancing vibe going on now and I can really "feel" the game.

I'm on chapter 5 which shapes up quite nicely in terms of epicness and slowly I'm getting that Castlevania feeling, though it's mostly absent in the form of new renditions of classic tunes in the game's soundtrack. Only when you complete a level I hear a slight variation of a beloved Castlevania-tune, but it's too short. I hope it get's better. But I have to admit as the OST buff that I am that the music is nicely composed.

On a side note, my favorite all time composer isn't Badalamenti (although he's close), it's John Barry. He accomplished so much in his scores, that I see him as an absolute genius. He can create such emotional moments, mostly in Moll ... but that's what I love and need :D

Hahaha ... insanity level three points up *lol*

More Castlevania impressions soon