- New Mastery system
- Unlock extra moves/combos with XP
- Each time you use an unlocked combat move, you’ll earn Mastery in that skill
- Void Sword, Chaos Claws, or Blood Whip will level up once mastered based on the alignment of the skill
- Level up these weapons to heal faster, break enemy defences quicker
- If you stick to a couple of familiar combos, you’ll struggle when you get to the tougher levels
- Action is set over two time threads
- Most of the game takes place in the modern day that has been sculpted to fit the Gothic arches of Castlevania
- The other portion of the game takes place in the castle at a different point in time
- Platforming has improved
- “In a later conversation that we weren’t recording, Cox talked of whole optional areas, a substantial percentage of the game that’s a completely optional reward for dedicated players. Return to a girl once you’ve discovered the Mist ability, and you can pass through it to discover not just a chest, but a whole hidden area.”
- Biggest than the first game
- QTEs have been cut back
- Tiatan fights are “far more expensive, and they involve full control by the player as opposed to timed button presses.
- Lords of Shadow 2 ends the story
- Less spoon-fed approach than the original
- Anchor points will be highlighted only if you ask them to be
- Anchor points won’t show up at all on harder levels
- Environment is seamless this time around
- Mission summaries have been replaced with teleporters like in Koji Igarashi’s Castlevania games
- Bosses have been changed; one is longer but more varied that what was included in the original
- Unclear if boss battle checkpoints are included
- Now have free camera control
- If you leave the camera alone, it’ll behave like it always has
- Combat Cross replaced with the Blood Whip
- The two are very much the same
- Still has extreme range attacks that fill the screen
- You’ll also still be stringing combos together from strong directed attacks, and lighter area attacks
- Magic replaced with Dracula’s blood
- Blood doesn’t regenerate
- Need to earn blood with kills and skilled fighting
- Add to your Focus gauge by evading, executing perfect blocks and counters
- When the Focus gauge is full, every hit explodes new blood into the battlefield
- If you get hit, you lose all Focus
- Channel raw blood into Void and Chaos
- Void: weapon switches to Void Sword, allowing you to regain some health with each hit
- Chaos: weapon switches to a pair of claws that can smash through enemy shields
- Dracula’s own tricks include glamouring mortals to control them and evaporating into a mist that lets him slip by unseen, or pass through grilles into secret areas
- Game has some humor
- Team debated over including a scene: “While no one’s winking at the camera, when Gabriel Belmont wrestles a crucifix out of a Golden Paladin’s grip, informing the Brotherhood that he, Dracula, has been chosen by God, what follows is an ecclesiastical nuclear blast so large that the camera cuts to a shot of the planet.”
