Line #0 Awesome/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow


1	!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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3	* In the ''gorgeous'' [[ColdOpen first chapter]], Gabriel strides into a lightning-swept European village being assaulted by a Lycan raiding party. [[BattleInTheRain What ensues?]] Belmont dispatches dozens of werewolves, while protecting the small-folk, followed by smacking around the pack leader before impaling said ''Great Warg'' through the chest on a chunk of broken stockade as it pounces down on him. Read, he lifts a timber log the size of a tree trunk, to hold up a wolf the size of a rhino. BadAssNormal indeed.
4	* Nearly every cutscene fight in the Hunting Path chase sequence serves to solidify Gabriel's badass credentials. Including shrugging off a Lycan bite to his clavicle as if it were a mere hindrance, leaping onto Warg mounts and snapping theirs spines with one or two plunges of the combat cross's pommel spike and even nailing a Lycan between the eyes with a thrown silver dagger.
5	* The sheer amount of SceneryPorn present in Chapter One. From the aforementioned stormy hamlet, Horse!Pan's epic leap over the downed Aghartian bridge, the incredible atmosphere of the Dead Bog, the jaw-dropping beauty that went into creating the last bastion of the Forest spirits and the Lake of Oblivion. Safe to say, many new players to the series were hooked from the offset.
6	* ''Anytime'' you upgrade the Combat Cross in one of Gandolfi's crypts. The fantastically designed magitek along with accompanying EtherealChoir makes it ''so'' damn awesome!
7	* Almost all of the boss's QTE finishers have Gabriel [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] them. The first being a swamp troll who looks to be twice as strong as your average silverback gorilla. Gabriel grabs the boy by his slimy furred lapels, pulls back and gives him the mother of all ''Glasgow Kisses''! Followed up with a knee uppercut, before jamming the spiked arms of the cross into the monster's mouth and ripping up and away at the soft pallet in one almighty jerk back; either pulverizing the beast's brains or eliciting a NeckSnap.
8	* Zobek's BigDamnHeroes introduction, catching Gabriel's thrown silver dagger in a blizzard from fifty feet up is pretty damn impressive and even though the man looks to be in his ''sixties'' at the very least, he can pull off the same crazy acrobatics that Gabriel is capable of when we see him both mount and dismount the Ice Titan.
9	* [[CuteMute Claudia]] is pretty awesome, what with her backflipping lackadaisically all over the ruins of her civilization, one infested with the Dark Lord's minions as if it's her own personal playground. You first see her scaring off a troll that's about to attack Gabriel with the mere threat of a Dark Crystal before unleashing the sealed demon on the brute.
10	* Gabriel, Claudia and the Black Knight all playing their parts to take down the last of Agharta's Titans.
11	* Cornell boasts of his immortality... Gabriel shows him who the true warrior is. The Lycan Lord activates his [[OneWingedAngel true form]]. Belmont proceeds to wreck the brute with both the Dark Gauntlet's tremor punches and the Combat Cross's chain strikes to keep him off balance and destroy all of his power totems, thus rendering him vulnerable once more. The Lord of Shadow tries to up the ante with agility but Gabriel pulls him back to earth with the grapple and spiked chain upgrades in a showcase display of morningstar entrapment and control. Yanking the massive bastard off his feet multiple times. The finale is capped with Gabriel retrieving Cornell's massive fuck off war-hammer with the aid of the Dark Gauntlet then proceeding to beat the archfiend around the ears with it until the head snaps off due to a godly flying double overhead blow. Before driving the jagged broken haft up into his mouth, through his brain and clean out the other side. A PhysicalGod who annihilated the greatest nation since Atlantis [[CatharsisFactor lies crushed at your feet]].
12	* "Oblivium sempiternum daemonis." And lo, a third of the God Mask descends from on high in a pillar of light reaching into Heaven to be claimed by the pure-hearted Warrior of prophecy.
13	* Gabriel slaying one of the last Anubian Giants in existence; whipping its eyes out one after the other while in mid-leap then hooking it by the ''tongue'' to yank the ogre's throat down onto an ornamental spade-shaped stone on the fort's crenelations.
14	* The BladeBrake Gabriel pulls off when forcing Malphas the Crow Witch to crash into the roof of her own tower while he soars free from her back.
15	** Followed by yanking her entire head off with the indispensable grapple function.
16	* The view of the oncoming spires of Bernhard Castle from the blizzard-sunk Veros Forest.
17	* In Zobek's narration for Act Five Chapter Two; he reveals that Gabriel has not slept since Claudia's death. This was ''days'' ago! Gabriel defeated the Black Knight, made a cairn for the girl, forged his way through Agharta's near-sunken ruins; at one point fighting three Greater Lycanthropes simultaneously. Slaughtered Cornell, took flight on Pan's eagle form, climbed a mountain fortress, dispatched Malphas and her gargantuan servant, rode through the passes. Trudged through snowy woods, then battled all new horrors for another twelve hours before repulsing the vampire's attack on the region's last inhabitants. All without a wink of sleep. [[MilesToGoBeforeISleep The man is God's Chosen]].
18	* Gabriel and Zobek working together to foil the abbey's many traps and dangers.
19	* When you first use the vastly expensive combo upgrade holy cross and watch five ghoul or vampire minions burn to ash all at once under blinding waves of IncorruptiblePurePureness issuing forth from the symbol of Christ.
20	* Saving Wygol Village from the archdemon Brauner and his vampire raiding party with your new holy water grenades.
21	** Also, the fantastic finisher Gabriel foists the Nosferatu with: [[RasputinianDeath tearing off his wings with his bare hands, slicing off his forearm with one of his own blades before burying said sword in his skull and reverse back-spin double-tap stabbing him through the heart and out of his chest with the Vampire Killer's stake upgrade for good measure.]]
22	*** The clincher is that Gabriel [[UnflinchingWalk doesn't even look back]] after landing the mortal blow, leaving Brauner dead amid his victims.
23	* The battle in the castle refectory, against the grotesque cook known as the Evil Butcher. He looks like the gluttonous brother of Nemesis and will hurl all manner of fillet knives and cleavers at you from his magnetic racks. Chew on fabled "pork chops" (probably a beef or even a human thigh drumstick) to restore his health. And even drink down a purple potion from his cauldron that makes him invincible to all non-aerial attacks before using it as a... [[{{Pun}} pot helm]]!
24	* Encountering Olrox begins with Gabriel arriving in his domain. The elder sibling of the slain Brauner then swoops down, the two stand back-to-back and the demon vampire tells Gabriel in no uncertain terms that he is not welcome here. Gabriel responds [[YouAreAlreadyDead without even sparing his adversary a glance]]. Pretty badass.
25	-->'''Olrox:''' You shall not pass!
26	-->'''Gabriel:''' You will not stand in my way.
27	* Gabriel versus Carmilla. Although not as difficult as Cornell, it ups the spectacle by a country mile, taking place atop the tallest spires of Bernhard Castle, with the Vampire Queen ripping up the arena with bolts of lightning from her fingertips; leaving you less and less room to manoeuver away from her unblockable moveset.
28	* Pan taking the form of an owl/ram/angel silver knight with swords for wings and submitting Gabriel to the challenge of arms in order to prepare you for the final battle. He effortlessly nullifies your light and shadow magic abilities and wastes no time in schooling your ass if you don't use all the relics and skills you've spent the game collecting to their fullest.
29	* The final battle between Gabriel and Satan. Good. ''God''. That's easily one of the most epic boss battles ''ever''.
30	** [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Topped]] with the heavenly choral [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvzhoq2SHuk&list=PL21791DA20B55E7E9&index=18 epic soundtrack]].
31	** An especially awesome moment happens when the player has nearly defeated him and he retreats behind his magical shields for the second time: Satan is shocked that a mere man can fight him and asks with [[HorrifyingTheHorror fear]] and [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter awe]], "[[ThisCannotBe Impossible]]... is this the power of [[GodIsGood God]]?"
32	* Gabriel snatching the Forgotten One's power for himself right in front of the Demon Lord and cementing his place as the Prince of Darkness, Dracula, by obliterating the invincible, extra-dimensional ''God of the Elemental Plain of Darkness'' with a ''single gesture''.
33	--> '''The Forgotten One:''' [[OhCrap I...yield to you!]] [[AintTooProudToBeg Mercy, my liege...]]''[[CallBack mercy!]]''
34	* "EU SUNT ''DRACUL!''"
35	* Each of the three Lords of Shadow had their own nightmarish off-screen moments of awesome:
36	** Cornell, Lord of the Lycans and his kind overthrew an ancient but advanced nation that had psychic powers and Magitek Golems, some the size of ''skyscrapers'' with apparent ease.
37	** Carmilla took over the Castle Bernhardt and somehow managed to convince two actual demons to join her and ''vampirized'' them, along with her one EvenEvilHasStandards moment, this creature of pure darkness and evil was disgusted with the experiments Friedrich von Frankenstein was doing, and so tortured him to death (we think).
38	** The Lord of the Dead Zobek took a lush and verdant land and turned it into a walking wasteland, so powerful he made a undead Leviathan, but his biggest accomplishment was to actually somehow ''cut Heaven off from the world'' trapping the innocent souls on earth, something that Satan himself needed the Lords' help/brainwashing to do.

Context Awesome / CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow