This game is a little darker than what I usually play (in more ways than one, ha!), but I had some fun with it. This one was quite the journey!
When the story begins, we see someone seeing an image of people being impaled on pikes, then a dark black creature shows up and starts murdering everyone and sucking their blood. A man in iron armor shows up, but he is easily defeated. We also see a man get his soul transferred from a vessel of flesh and blood into a suit of armor - the same suit of armor we just saw. Interestingly, we do not get to play as either of these notable characters.
We then see someone else get murdered, followed by some pillars turning gray and cracked.
The story then begins with you playing as a nobleman in a tavern. The tavern is closing, and this nobleman - whose name is Kain - is left back to the road and the long bitter night after venturing into town from Coorhagen, as the tavern keeper refuses to leave his tavern open late at night after the happenings that have been taking place.
The D-Pad lets you move around in eight directions, while the Square button lets you swing your sword. L1 lets you zoom in and out, and L2 lets you look at the map, which you can look at with the D-Pad. Press X to get out of map mode.
Once you leave the tavern, you will be attacked by assassins. Try as you might, you won't be able to defeat all of them, and Kain will be killed.
You'll then get a cutscene where the necromancer Mortanius - the same man who damned the man from earlier to be in a suit of armor - will show up and give Kain a second chance at like. However, it will be not as a human, but as a vampire, as his armor turns from white to black, and Mortanius allows Kain a chance at vengeance.
Once you become a vampire, more of the controls will be accessible to you, and you'll see more things at the right side of the screen. You'll be able to see your current weapon and armor in your portrait, and your currently equipped spell will be below that. To the left is your health, which will get bigger as time goes on, the current time of the day and the current cycle of the moon, and the current amount of magic that you have. Like your health, you'll get more magic power as you go through the game. Also, your health will very slowly drain as you journey, as you will need to constantly be nourished by human blood in order to survive.
9:19 - Press this button that is glowing green to open a door to the west. You'll need to get used to doing things like this in order to progress through many places. To the west is the Sanctuary spell, which allows you to return back to your crypt. To equip it, press R1 to access your major spells, then press X to select Sanctuary.
10:50 - Press Square to swing your sword. Make sure the enemy does not hit you, as your health is pretty limited at this time. If an enemy is in a stunned state, you can press Circle to suck their blood and refill a little bit of your health.
11:09 - Walk into the rock to push it. The Heart of Darkness is used to refill health when equipped, but can also be used as an auto-revive if you have one in your possession. You'll be finding a lot of these, so get as many of these in your possession as you can and learn to preserve yourself so you don't have to use them all the time. To equip it, press R2, then press X to equip it.
11:48 - When in a room, look around for anything that is surrounded by light. It will usually be a switch that you can activate to open something else. In this instance, you can open up rooms where you can press Circle near the people chained to the wall to suck their blood to regain some health. If you do this, however, they will turn into ghosts and you can only refill your magic from them afterwards, so be careful. You'll also find a blood vial that will increase your maximum hit points slightly. It won't be much, but they will add up as you make your way through the game. The rune pyramids will increase your maximum magic. Your magic will slowly refill with the passage of time.
Northwest of this is the save spire. With these things, you can save your game. Just mind the slots on your memory card. Watch out for the spikes on the way; they will hurt.
14:05 - It won't take much effort to leave your mausoleum. In my particular case, it was raining when I made it outside. The rain will hurt you the longer you stand in it, and you won't be able to prevent this for a little while. There will be a smaller mausoleum to the south. Let's go inside.
14:43 - The skeletons here will die when you kill them, and you won't be able to suck their blood. They also blow up and do a good amount of damage if they run into you, so don't let that happen. Be sure to get the blood vial and rune pyramid, and avoid the spikes as you refill your health with the gravediggers that you fight here.
15:51 - Hit the switches here to open the path as you go. When you see the three switches, hit the left and centers ones to get the spike pit out of your way.
16:32 - These flays will allow you to hit your enemies from afar. You can equip them with the R2 button.
17:21 - Open the coffins here for a Heart of Darkness and a flay. Along the way, you will see two rocks on top of symbols on the floor. You won't be able to do anything with these for quite a while. Open the chests nearby for a rune pyramid and a Heart of Darkness.
18:28 - Once you're out of the smaller mausoleum, you'll be elsewhere. Here, you'll be able to get some fighting practice with the assassins who ended your life. Keep in mind that you are stronger at night than you are during the day, which means one less strike with the sword before you can stun them and suck their blood.
Once you beat them, you will get your vengeance, but you will be able to continue, as the assassins were just the instrument of your demise and not the ultimate cause. If you see any floating orbs, pick them up for magical energy.
21:02 - You'll end back up in Ziegsturhl, where the assassins murdered you. If you look inside the buildings, you can get some Hearts of Darkness as well as some flays, despite what I say in the video. You can also hit the villagers with your sword once and get some health out of them, too.
South of the town is more assassins to kill and another path to follow that leads to the Pillars of Nosgoth.
As you go through the game, there are red triangles that give your information as well as a look at signs along the way. If you ever need to hear or see this information again, go up to the red triangle and ust press Circle.
The purple assassins will throw knives from a distance, but they can only throw them in eight directions. If you can approach them from an odd angle, it will be easier to take them down.
Do not walk into water; water is fatal to vampires and will drain your health quickly.
24:09 - Further to the north is a teleporter pad that will take you to the Pillars of Nosgoth. One of the enemies is a soldier with a mace who is a little tougher, but he goes down about as easily as the assassins do. The red triangle shows just how high the Pillars of Nosgoth soar.
25:02 - At the Pillars of Nosgoth, you will meet the ghost of Ariel, who represents the Pillar of Balance. She will tell you that the Pillars of Nosgoth are cracked because all nine members have gone insane, and in order to restore them and achieve relief from his current vampirism, he must defeat the Circle of Nine, which in turn will restore the pillars. Your first objective will be to find and destroy Nupraptor.
By walking up to the pillar, you can see which one is which.
By pressing Select, you can access an in-game options menu.
The World Map shows where you are in the overworld with a yellow arrow pointing down. Any place that is lit up is a place where you have already been. If any place is glowing blue, that is where you need to go next. Use the D-Pad to move the map around.
The Dark Diary allows you to replay FMV cutscenes from the game at any time.
The Status screen allows you to see how long you've played in game time, how many kills you've made and how many secrets you've found. Secrets will be explained (and shown) later.
You can also load a previously saved game at anytime, change the controls for the face buttons, change music and sound volumes and even see the credits for the game. Exit exits the options menu.
No comments:
Post a Comment