Heya buds. How are things going? I'm doing good here as well. Hope you're not feeling bloodthirsty today, but with a funny joke asise, because for this review is something of a series that I haven't checked out a long time since Castlevania 64(which I admit, it sucked). So for this one, I'm reviewing not one, but two games, which both of them are known as Castlevania: Mirror of Fate and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.

In Castlevania: Mirror of Fate, you take the roles of Gabriel Belmont, Simon Belmont, Alucard, and Trevor Belmont as you explore through the story of the events, which it was a sequel of Lords of Shadow, but a prequel of Lords of Shadow 2. Not only you can attack with a whip, but you can use other combos of the whip, even counter along with plenty of secondary items and abilities that can help you throughout in exploring Dracula's castle. Of course as a surprise, it has a Super Metroid Map style, which you can use it as a guide to look around or not as you travel to face bosses along with certain items to help you prepare. Meanwhile, there are plenty of secrets that you can find that will not only improve your health, but also your magic and your ammunition. Meanwhile, for beating enemies and bosses, you gain experience until once you leveled up, you'll be able to unlock abilities that can help. Of course if there are some secrets you haven't found and missed the acts, you can return back to which chapter you're in so that way you can head to a certain area where you missed so you can use the abilities to find the secrets. As for the controls, it was very easy to handle while for the replay which as I explained that you can choose certain chapters of which you wish to try again at finding what you seek.

In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, this time you take the role as Gabriel Belmont of which he's now as Dracula as you're on a mission to put an stop and destroy Satan from destroying the world. Of course this time, this is a 3D world of Castlevania, but fortunately, it's a lot easier than Castlevania N64 since you can turn the camera around at any will except for the walls. Anyways, not only you can attack with a whip(yes, even Dracula has a whip), but you can also with a Void Sword which you can freeze enemies along with Chaos Claws which you can burn the enemies' armor to give you a better chance to hit them harder. While at times, there are missions that would require you to sneak around, so you have the bats to distract them or you could just sneak by them while passing through the gate with a mist. Anyways, there are plenty of skills that you can learn by instead of gaining experience, you gain blood points, which just like God of War series, if you have enough, you can purchase skills and upgrades of your whip, sword, or claws of anywhere you wish to buy while speaking of which, you can use the Blood Points to purchase items from the item shop. Of course the items you collect can help heal your health, let you use the Void and Chaos power, which speaking of which, there is a Chaos and Void meter that will drain while you use it, but you can get it from gaining momentum and if you gain enough, there are blood drops which you can absorb if you wish to refill your Void Sword or Chaos Claws, while there is another item that can help you find secrets which you can find gems to increase your health, Void Power, or even Chaos Power as well. The control is once again, easy, even with the counter, although at times, trying to counter can be tricky when the enemies are fast, which at times their attacks are blockable or it's best to dodge, but when you get the hang of it, it won't be a problem. As for the replay, after you beat the game, but if there are some secrets that you missed completely, you can start a new game, which it may be unfortunate, however fortunately, as you start a new game, you carry the skills along with increased stats where you last left off while the Blood Points are gone, however, it wouldn't stop you from getting all the blood points to get the rest of the skills. So the replay is worth it if you wish to get the rest of the skills. Although the difficulty can be tricky at times, including how you aim the Shadow Daggers or if there is a certain boss that can give out trouble.

So overall, both of the games are fun to play and I would highly recommend people who are either fans of Castlevania games or the players that played Super Metroid or God of War games. So for Castlevania: Mirror of Fate, I give it 8.5 out of 10, while for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, I give it a 9 out of 10. Although it would've gone a little bit higher if they toned down the difficulty on one area for just a little bit to help make the players easier without having a hard time. So if you like to give it a try, feel free to. ^^

So until then, I hope you all have an awesome time and may the "Fourth" be with you. ^^