Mission 0: Prologue

Note: Dracula in this game is actually Gabriel Belmont from the previous Lords of Shadow game but for reasons of simplicity and what he is called most frequently in the game, I'm just gonna call him Dracula.

 

Leave your throne of pain and torment and stride down the hall to meet the squad of knights. The game will introduce you to some of the basic controls here, such as movement and simple combat. Once your metal clad friends arrive, more tutorial messages will appear. Learning how to block and dodge are essential in higher difficulties so take the time (as you play through the early game) to work out how fast the animations are and which is more useful in specific situations. Included in this is the classic life drain attack which can be used on enemies with low health. The final thing to try is the quick recover (which allows you to recover quickly after being hit… obviously). Once Dracula hits the floor it allows you to get back up instantly, preventing pain from being kicked around on the floor.

 

 

After you complete these four maneuvers you are left to your own devices in taking apart the small party of metal clad soldiers. After the first waves are defeated, Dracula will pull out Frostmourne…. seriously. This allows you to steal life from your enemies. Oblige them and start hacking away to get some health back. The second weapon you are introduced to are the Chaos Claws, these can be used to break enemy defenses, allowing you to reach the fresh vintage behind the shields. Once the soldier's heads have been removed, a cut-scene will take you to the next area.

 

Head forwards through the rubble until a helpful swarm of bats will draw your attention to grapple points in the near vicinity. Once you have heeded the advice of the hyper intelligent bats, hold down the left trigger to reveal the grapple points available to you. Travel along this piece of architecture until it starts to bend. Keep quickly traveling along until it falls off. You will be prompted for a quick time event to avoid falling to a painful floor squishing below. Keep following the path of grapple points until you reach the floor safely at the other end. Head through the nearby door and a cut-scene will take over.

 

 

Listen to Dracula to say one of his classic quotes (anyone who has played Symphony of the Night will know what I mean) and then watch as he is confronted by a glowing golden paladin… on top of a giant iron bound mech. Riiiight. Things have changed a little since the first Lords of Shadow.

 

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Boss: Golden Paladin

 

 

Attacks – Phase 1:

 

 

Charge: The golden paladin moves both his arms behind him slightly while leaning forward. Two unblockable icons (like an orange target circle) will appear at the tip of each blade. The golden paladin will then charge directly towards you (sometimes bouncing off the edges of the area). Use your dodge ability to stay out of trouble or just out of range.

 

Slash: The golden paladin will lazily swing his swords in arcs towards Dracula while moving towards him. This attack can be blocked, or simply dodged. You can also keep away from his swing range to avoid this attack. Performing perfect blocks against this attack is one of the best ways of dealing damage to him on higher difficulties.

 

Sphere of Light: Occasionally the golden paladin will huddle down and a sphere-like aura will appear around him and then rapidly expand. This will knock Dracula back but do no actual damage. More of a nuisance than a danger. Dodge out of range or just move back to avoid the knock-back effect.

 

Blade Beam: The golden paladin will cross his blades in front of him and then shoot out a wave of light in a straight line towards you. This can take off a nasty chunk of health, so when you see this: dodge away immediately. As it is a projectile attack, it cannot be blocked.

 

The first phase of the golden paladin fight can be worrying at first, due to his speed mainly. However, his initial attacks are quite easy to work out and he can only really hurt you if you aren't paying attention and dodging properly. On medium and easy difficulty you can simply walk up to him and use the life leech blade to just beat on him until two thirds of his first bar of health is gone. For those playing on higher difficulties, you need to master both the dodge and perfect block right out of the gate.

 

Perfect block is required when he does his simple slash attack to deal significant damage (stuns him for a few seconds, allowing you to deal serious damage). Dodge is required for everything else. Watch his animations carefully, dodge if you are unsure and perfect block when you get the opportunity (you can also use the life leech blade during the stun-lock to recover health). In between, if your health is high enough you can use the whip to deal damage while staying out of range of his attacks. A combination of those strategies should see you through this first battle.

 

 

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Now it's time to deal with that pesky mech that was…. politely waiting it's turn to crush you. After making the massive jump over to it, three armour clad knights will bar your path. None of them have shields, so it is a good opportunity to keep practicing your perfect blocks. Alternatively, you can just use the life leech blade and blood drain finishers to keep topped up in the health department. When the arm of the mech starts moving to smash into the castle, time your jump so that when it connects you are in the air. This should stop you getting stunned.

 

More enemies will drop down from above and engage you, so keep up the slurp slurp life drain fest until all of them are flung unceremoniously off the side of the mech and you are holding on to a grapple point on the arm of the mech. Move along the grapple path and hold on until the mech slams it's fist into the castle. When it does this a quick time event will come up. Succeed at this to hold on. This will knock off a large iron band on the arm, revealing more grapple points that connect up the two trails.

 

Repeat this process a couple of times until the camera zooms in on some spikes above you. Large chunky rivets will be holding the spikes on to the side of the arm so we need something explosive to destroy them. Cue the golden paladin! The paladin will target you with his bow every few seconds. A target will appear where he is about to fire, letting you know to move away from that spot. The first rivet take down will be automatic, showing you how to destroy them. After that, hover over the rivets until the target appears and then quickly move out of the way. The explosive will blast away the rivet and loosen the spikes. Repeat this for the remaining rivet and the spikes will fly off. The new path will take you further up the mech's arm.

 

The trip up the arm requires you to travel through some large spinning cogs. Take your time and wait for the gaps to line up before charging through. Also keep moving around to avoid the fire from the golden paladin. The third cog spins around quickly for a few seconds and then stops for a short time. Wait for it to stop before moving through. Finish pulling yourself up and back onto solid ground (or at least decking).

 

The camera will pan over three more rivets to blow up. A mixture of shield and unshielded enemies will try to stop you here. You can either attempt to explode a rivet during the short gap between waves, or just camp on the rivets and try to block and dodge enemy attacks until all three are gone. Once all three are out of the way you can actually lift and throw the wall up and off the mech. This shows up more grapple points and cogs for you to cross. Deal with any remaining enemies and then latch on. Jump between the cogs and up onto the larger one. When you are on the largest one, do not move right as the blades will instantly kill you. Instead, head left and grab onto a grapple point as the cog spins you around.

 

Once you are low enough, head left onto the wall of grapple points and travel along until you reach the golden arch shaped gate. Climb up to the flat area with the large cross symbol. Three more rivets and waves of shielded enemies will slow your progress. Use the same strategy as before (although make sure to use the chaos claws to break the shields) to break the rivets and open the door. Once the door is open, a cut-scene will take over and Dracula will stare at the power core before… well…. you'll see. Yeah I wasn't expecting that either.

 

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Boss: Golden Paladin

 

 

Note: All the attacks from the previous fight with the golden paladin will be the same until he nearly completely loses his first layer of health. The signal for the second phase is him joining the two swords together (just like in Star Wars with the light sabers).

 

Attacks – Phase 2:

 

 

Horizontal Boomersword: After joining the swords together, the golden paladin will hold the weapon behind him for a second or so, the unblockable symbols will appear at the points and he will then throw it towards you. The blade will home towards you as well. So to avoid it, follow the on screen prompt of jumping over it. Dodge doesn't work very well due to it homing on you.

 

Vertical Boomersword: A cross between the blade beam from the previous phase and the horizontal boomersword. The golden paladin will hold his weapon vertically for a second or two, flash up the unblockable symbols and then throw it very fast towards you. Due to it's speed, dodge is your best bet here as just moving will often result in pain.

 

Aerial Bombardment: The golden paladin will act like he is drawing a bow (using his weapon). Shortly afterwards a bunch of target icons will appear on the ground all around him. Move out of the way from these targets as quickly as you can.

 

Big Twirl: When you are close to him, the golden paladin will wind up. Pulling his weapon behind him and making the unblockable symbols appear before scything it in front of him and then twirling with it a couple of times. This cannot be blocked and does heavy damage, so dodge away as soon as you see the wind up.

 

Sphere of Light: Occasionally the golden paladin will huddle down and a sphere-like aura will appear around him and then rapidly expand. This will knock Dracula back but do no actual damage. More of a nuisance than a danger. Dodge out of range or just move back to avoid the knock-back effect.

 

When the fight begins, it is a continuation of phase one from when you were fighting him earlier. Use the previously explained strategies to deal the last third of his health bar in damage. When his first bar of health is depleted, he will enter stage two proper. Now begins the killing. Followed by light salad. He joins both swords together and will immediately launch a horizontal boomersword at you (look above for more info), the game will helpfully prompt you to jump over it before it connects so do it. Most of his attacks are either long or quite short range, so staying just far enough away to be out of range but still being within striking distance with your whip is a delicate dance you will have to master.

 

Using the whip can force him to block from a relatively safe position. As soon as he does (he crosses his weapon over his chest and holds it there while you attack), use a heavy attack (hold x) to stun him slightly. This lets you get off a few hits before he counterattacks. You can also hit him with the chain as he prepares his aerial bombardment attack and if you are brave, his big twirl attack. If you need health, swap to the life leech blade and use a heavy attack when he blocks to get a chunk back. Of course, this level of strategy is irrelevant if you are on medium or lower difficulty as you can run up and hack away with the leech blade constantly until he eventually falls. These chips of damage will gradually add up until you take his health down completely. Now ready yourself for a looong cut-scene as the level ends.

 

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After the initial wave of cut-scenes and back story (previously on Castlevania), you regain control stumbling out of a church in the present day (Didn't see that one coming). Follow the nearby child to advance until you run into another cut-scene. Take all that experience and timing you had from the previous boss fight and shove it down the drain as like in so many other games you have lost all your powers and have the dodging speed of the elderly man you resemble. After getting your butt handed to you, Dracula will be rescued and locked in a small room with a family of three (this can only end well). Take your lumps and then slice his neck open… bit of a waste there, really. But I suppose Dracula has a reputation to uphold. Munch on the young lady and then darkness descends and cut-scene takes over once more. Once you travel to the portal a new area awaits.

 

 

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