Castlevania is one of my favorite video game franchises of all time, and for the most part, the games have always received praise. Well...that is with the 2D Castlevania games. The 3D games, however, are a whole different story, especially after the release of the infamous Castlevania 64. But as someone whose first Castlevania game was Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, I don’t think all the 3D Castlevania games deserve so much hate. In fact, I love games with similar gameplay to Lords of Shadow, so here are a few that really stand out in the action-adventure genre.
#1: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver – 1999 (Supported Platforms: PC, Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Oh yeah, me and Kain would be throwing hands too if he treated me like he did Raziel in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. In Soul Reaver, you play as Raziel, a vampire who was sentenced to death by his former master Kain. Now returning as a wraith, Raziel sets off on a quest for revenge against Kain and those he used to call brothers.
Soul Reaver is like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in a few ways, such as with its narrative and gameplay. Throughout both games, each line spoken by the characters, especially during narration, has this weight to it as if the game is telling the player “You have to listen to this!”. Soul Reaver’s hack and slash combat also mirrors Lords of Shadow in a way with the Soul Reaver replacing the whip and souls replacing Light and Shadow magic.
Although Soul Reaver is an amazing game, it makes me sad knowing there’s so much content that has been deleted from the game. One of the things I would have loved to have seen in the game was Raziel gaining the possession ability. I imagine it would have been like Dracula being able to possess beings in Lords of Shadow 2.
#2: Darksiders – 2010 (Supported Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One)
War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death. Close, but they’re not the Four Horsemen were talking about in this article. In the game Darksiders, the player takes control of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse along with Death, Fury, and Strife.
After the Apocalypse is started too early, it is up to War to find out where the other Horsemen are and how the Apocalypse came to be. The way Darksiders takes inspiration from the Bible is similar to how Castlevania uses aspects of Christianity like God and the Devil. I feel these connections to religion help draw players in, especially if religion is a central part of their lives.
Many would compare Darksiders to the Legend of Zelda games, and I guess I can see why. The dungeons, puzzles, and boss fights do give off Zelda vibes. But the brutal combat is something straight out of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, there’s no doubt about that!
#3: Code Vein – 2019 (Supported Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One)
If you imagine Dark Souls as an anime, the game Code Vein should pop up in your mind. In this action-adventure game, you play as a Revenant, a human that was brought back from the dead with the help of a parasite. As this Revenant, it is your job to uncover your missing memories and save the other Revenants of Vein from extinction.
The open-world exploration and variety of enemies are a few ways Code Vein is like Lords of Shadow. Not to mention the hack and slash gameplay and the Revenants being vampire-like creatures. Vampires are used in Castlevania too because Count Dracula’s presence in the Castlevania franchise and Dracula was the main character in Lords of Shadow 2.
To me, the Revenants’ struggle in Code Vein to keep their sanity with the parasite is also similar to Gabriel’s struggle to keep himself together in Lords of Shadow 1 and 2. They all have their own demons to fight, both figuratively and literally, and between Lords of Shadow and Code Vein, some were able to overcome the darkness while others couldn’t. Seeing both of these games explore a character’s mentality, even if briefly, along with fighting actual monsters is kind of cool!
#4: Brütal Legend – 2009 (Supported Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360)
Heavy metal, demons, and Jack Black!? Just shut up and take my money, because Brütal Legend is the game for me! Eddie Riggs, the protagonist of Brütal Legend, is sent to a fantasy world where heavy metal has been made into power, and Eddie uses this power to help free the people of Brütal Land from the rule of Doviculus.
With the two main weapons of Brütal Legend being a guitar and an axe, it reminds me of the whip and sub-weapons used in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Although now that I think about it, the guitar and axe remind me more of the Void Sword and Chaos Claws in Lords of Shadow 2. Not only that, but even Eddie and Gabriel’s stories are similar in some ways, such as Eddie discovering secrets about his family and Gabriel discovering the truth behind the Lords of Shadow.
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for anything involving Jack Black! He’s one of my favorite actors ever and he did such an awesome job bringing Eddie Riggs to life. I could say that Brütal Legend is worth playing just for the humor Jack Black brings into the game.
#5: Risen – 2009 (Supported Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One)
Being forced to stay inside a city while Titans are rampaging right outside? You would think I’m talking about Attack on Titan, but I don’t remember Eren Yeager being in the game Risen. Set in the fantasy world of Faranga, the game’s nameless hero, often called “The Castaway”, is stuck on the island because of the Inquisition, and now they have been dragged into the plans of the Inquisition's leader Mendoza.
The protagonist working for the Inquisition, a religious military-like order, is much like Gabriel Belmont working for the Brotherhood of Light in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. And finding items such as the armor pieces in Risen is like Gabriel collecting different relics in Lords of Shadow 1 and 2. The learning points in Risen and EXP in Lords of Shadow are also similar because they are used to gain different skills for the protagonist of both games.
What I really loved about Risen as well as Lords of Shadow was how open and detailed the worlds are! No matter how unimportant or small an area may seem, there is still some kind of purpose behind it. Whether the place just has some hidden treasure or a journal entry, at least you know you’ll get something in the end while exploring.
#6: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 2019 (Supported Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One)
You know, I’d be pretty mad too if I woke up and saw that my whole arm was gone! At least in Sekiro’s case, he got a cool prosthetic arm out of it. Now with his prosthesis and katana, Sekiro is on a quest to rescue the young lord he was supposed to protect and regain his honor in the process.
The gameplay in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice focuses a lot on combat and while health is there, you’ll focus more on an enemy’s posture to defeat them. Blocking an enemy’s attack is essential because it kills their posture leaving them open for attacks. Think about it like blocking in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which is very easy to get the hang of the more you play.
The stealth sections of Sekiro really reminded me of the Batman: Arkham games. Batman: Arkham Asylum was the first game I played where stealth was a major part, and I ended up loving it! In Sekiro, stealth isn’t that big of a deal, but when it’s needed, I found it alright.
#7: Bayonetta – 2009 (Supported Platforms: PC, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One)
Forget what they say about witches being mean and ugly old ladies, because Bayonetta is anything but. This powerful femme fatale is a member of the Umbra Witches, a clan that makes contracts with the forces of darkness, and five hundred years later, Bayonetta wakes up to a new world with no memory of her past life. Now along with protecting a lost girl named Cereza, Bayonetta goes on a journey to defeat the last of the Umbra’s enemy clan, the Lumen Sages.
In Bayonetta, you are able to use all kinds of weapons with Bayonetta’s four guns being the most iconic in the franchise. I will say that Bayonetta offers a lot more when it comes to combat than Lords of Shadow. But both games have a similar hack and slash battle system with Lords of Shadow being a bit simpler.
I really loved the relationship between Bayonetta and Cereza throughout the game. Cereza was just so adorable and the way Bayonetta comes to care for her as the game goes on is really sweet. But I also hate it when video games have escort missions, so sometimes the parts where I had to protect Cereza annoyed me.
#8: Dante’s Inferno – 2010 (Supported Platforms: PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One)
As someone who loves to read, imagine my excitement when I learned that Dante’s Inferno had been turned into a video game! And despite the game straying away from the book’s original plot, it’s still an interesting take on the story. Dante, who has been turned into a Templar Knight, must journey into the nine Circles of Hell and save his beloved Beatrice who was kidnapped by the Devil himself.
Dante’s Inferno does not hold back when it comes to blood and gore. And because Dante’s Inferno contains biblical elements, Dante can use enchanted weapons such as the Holy Cross and Death’s scythe. This is much like Gabriel Belmont using items such as Holy Water and the Seraph Shoulders, which are basically angel wings, in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
Now in my opinion, Dante and Gabriel are practically the same person! They both go on a dangerous journey to save their loved one from the afterlife and they both defeat Lucifer at the end of their games (in Gabriel’s case, twice!). And while they didn’t technically “save” Beatrice or Marie, Gabriel’s wife, both Dante and Gabriel succeeded in saving their souls and the women were able to enter Heaven.
#9: Devil May Cry – 2001 (Supported Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One)
What do you do when you’re half demon, your mother was killed by demons, and your brother was corrupted by a demon? In Dante’s case, you become a Devil Hunter! As the owner of the paranormal investigation business “Devil May Cry”, Dante uses his demonic powers to find those responsible for destroying his family and protects humanity from demons just as his father Sparda did in the past.
Although Devil May Cry’s combat focuses on the use of melee attacks, it also focuses more on style. The same can be said for Bayonetta, which is ironic seeing that some consider DMC and Bayonetta to be in the same universe. And like Bayonetta as well as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Devil May Cry takes on a more gothic look and it involves angels and demons.
Seeing how far Devil May Cry has come since the first game, I still find it funny that I was introduced to the DMC series through Marvel vs Capcom 3. Don’t get me wrong, I love that game, and my team was always Dante, Chun-Li, and X-23. But it’s kind of like when kids nowadays only know about Castlevania or Star Fox because of Super Smash Bros. and not because they actually played any games from those franchises.
#10: God of War – 2005 (Supported Platforms: PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3)
I don’t think there’s a gamer in the world who doesn’t know Kratos. The Ghost of Sparta, the God of War, and as of now, the Father of BOY. And to think that Kratos’ god-slaying days began shortly after he decided to make a deal with the original Greek god of war, Ares.
Kratos’ resentment towards the gods is like Dracula’s hate towards God in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Both were betrayed by higher beings whom they were always faithful to, and in the end, it put Kratos and Dracula on dark paths. Their pain and anger are clear as their stories are told in God of War and Lords of Shadow, and you can even feel it in the gameplay where each of their attacks is aimed to kill.
People look at Kratos and see this angry, bloodthirsty monster, but they’re wrong. Kratos was a loving father and husband whose family was destroyed because of the gods, more particularly his own father Zeus. And now Kratos is busy taking down a whole other pantheon of gods!
Gabriel Belmont, Bayonetta, Dante, Kratos. They’re the reasons why I love the action-adventure genre! Going around and defeating my enemies with cool weapons or even my own bare hands. Adventuring in far away, fantastical lands where danger lurks around every corner. What’s not to love about these games?
