History YMMV / CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler:The reunion between [[MyGreatestSecondChance Alucard]] and [[GoodParents Dracula]] is fondly remembered by being a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} and being a great case of ILoveYouVampireSon]].

*** as [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] even at the end of the game where Dracula has regained his full power (upto being able to kill {{Satan}} himself), you are still sneaking past the Golgoth Guards, when logically Dracula should be able to tear them apart with no difficulty.

* EightPointEight: ''Lords of Shadow 2'' got mixed reviews from critics, but one of the most infamous was Edge's review that'd given it the score of 4.0 / 10. And the worst part is that they scored ''[[VideoGame/{{Rambo}} Rambo: The Video Game]]'' with a 5.0/10.[[labelnote:Explanation]] The latter being a three-hour low-budget rail shooter with poor optimization, non-existent storyline and tons of bugs. To put it in [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow layman's terms]], "take a serious look at all the ratings outlets give this game. If it's a fraction higher than three, then they are babbling morons! It's not an average game, it's a piece of shit!"[[/labelnote]]

** Shirt Allergy. [[labelnote:Explanation]]Evidently, ''[[AbsoluteCleavage all]]'' [[NoShirtLongJacket vampires]] in the ''Lords of Shadow'' universe are ''duty-bound'' to dispose of everything that involves covering their upper bodies. Laura from the first game is the only exception.[[/labelnote]]

* CompleteMonster: Besides the return of [[YMMV/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow Satan and Zobek]], there are these 2 Acolytes of Satan:
** [[DarkActionGirl Raisa Volkova]] is an Acolyte of Satan who [[DaddysLittleVillain inherits her father's penchant for cruelty]]. The [[CorruptCorporateExecutive head of the Bioquimek Corporation]] which aims to pave the way for Satan's return by [[PlayingWithSyringes performing amoral experiments]] on kidnapped innocents with the intention of creating a toxin that will mutate any human who comes in contact with it into a demonic soldier for Hell's army. When Dracula infiltrates Bioquimek, Raisa releases the toxin, which infects her own scientists, and later spreads across the city causing mass chaos and death. Captured by Dracula and Zobek, Raisa unleashes her true form to kill them both, gloating that her father will return and bring unending agony upon the world.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Nergal Meslamstea]] is a child of Satan who, just like his sister, aims to bring his father to Earth to "free" the world from good. The [[ArmsDealer head of a weapons manufacturer]], Nergal supplies weapons that [[TheCorrupter each contain a piece of his corrupting essence]] that influences the city's police into a homicidal frenzy, shooting anyone on sight regardless of whether or not they're infected. After impaling Dracula's last surviving descendant Victor Belmont, Nergal sadistically electrocutes Dracula with the intent on sending him to his father in Hell.

* CultClassic: Didn't do really well in sales, and got mixed reviews by critics, but got very positive user reviews, spawned a small, yet devoted fanbase, and is generally considered an improvement over the first game by ''Castlevania'' fans. Gabriel, and his portrayal of Dracula as a character, is also very endearing to people who played the game.

* CrazyAwesome: The Chupacabra. Originally TheScrappy of the first game, it's revealed to be an all-powerful god-like trickster, that nearly drove the Prince of Darkness to madness, forcing him to lock him in the deepest, darkest dungeon in his castle.

* CompleteMonster: {{Satan}} returns. See [[YMMV/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow here]] for details.

* RonTheDeathEater: The Brotherhood of Light – the Light Grey to Dracula's Dark Grey and Satan's Black – gets the short end of the stick. Amidst so many fans, the Brotherhood's nothing more but a throng of [[ManipulativeBastard scheming zealots]] and indoctrinated henchmen, who abuse the BecauseDestinySaysSo trope to justify their morally ambiguous actions.

* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2 Has a page.]]

* TearJerker: [[TearJerker/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2 Has a page.]]

* FridgeBrilliance:
** Dracula's dialog at times implies that he still thinks of himself as a sort of hero. Even when he's massacring villages, he still acts like he's doing good, saying that he's sending them all to a better place. So, if Dracula isn't a monster, then why are there all these scrolls and memorials around describing him horrifically torturing people for fun? Simple. In the case of the memorials you find around the city in the present day, those are all propaganda written by Satan's acolytes, intended to make Dracula out to be worse than he actually was. In the case of the Brotherhood's scrolls that litter the castle, almost all of them describe tortures being inflicted not by Dracula, but by his minions, who (as this game repeatedly shows) are all only barely controlled by Dracula if at all. While Dracula was definitely a villain prior to the events of this game, he was never as bad as people thought.
** Dracula's use of the memetic "[[MythologyGag What is a man...]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight but a miserable pile of secrets!]]" during the tutorial may seem like PanderingToTheBase without context at first glance. However, when you look at Roland and the army of Brotherhood knights from his perspective, Dracula could be musing at how the upper echelons of the Brotherhood had most likely created a cover story for [[spoiler:Gabriel's "death"]] after the defeat of the Lords of Shadow ([[spoiler:Trevor being the exception in ''[=MoF=]'']]). Even if Roland is a high-ranking commander, he might not had been privy to the truth on Dracula [[spoiler:still being {{God}}'s [[TheChosenOne chosen one]], given his [[OhCrap reaction]] when Dracula grabs the cross with no ill-effect, or the prophecy that Gabriel becomes Dracula]]. Given that official chronology places the tutorial stage in the year AD 1547, 500 years after the first game, and the low life-expectancy back then, the Brotherhood would've had ample time to create and hide their new "pile of secrets" -- they ''are'' mortal men.
** On that subject, of course the giant army failed. No one present was a Belmont, the Vampire Killer was missing, and none of the other tools capable of beating Dracula were created in this timeline. The entire invasion was a doomed idea from the start!

* EightPointEight: ''Lords of Shadow 2'' got mixed reviews from critics, but one of the most infamous was Edge's review that'd given it the score of 4.0 / 10. And the worst part is that they scored ''[[VideoGame/Rambo Rambo: The Video Game]]'' with a 5.0/10.[[labelnote:Explanation]] The latter being a three-hour low-budget rail shooter with poor optimization, non-existent storyline and tons of bugs. To put it in [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow layman's terms]], "take a serious look at all the ratings outlets give this game. If it's a fraction higher than three, then they are babbling morons! It's not an average game, it's a piece of shit!"[[/labelnote]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Oscar Araujo returns for the sequel with an arguably even better score than the first game's, with amazing pieces such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-l4kHhbGCE Titanic Struggle]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtAsQ1dY1g&index=34&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb Castlevania]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAbmUck8rI&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb&index=4 Chaotic Battle]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DF9Q2_9KPQ Return to the Castle]].

* FoeYayShipping:
** The Carmilla/Dracula ship started out strong, spawning several one-shot fanfics, but with time lost most of its influence.

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Marie's looks. Granted, it's most likely due to possibly having new artists and improved techniques, but compare Marie as she appears in ''[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/los1_marie.png LoS]]'' to her appearance in ''[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5995742cdabcc73ff66aad1a37973fbc.jpg LoS 2]]''.

* EightPointEight: ''Lords of Shadow 2'' got mixed reviews from critics, but one of the most infamous was Edge's review that'd given it the score of 4.0 / 10. And the worst part is that they scored Rambo: The Video Game with a 5.0/10.[[labelnote:Explanation]] The latter being a three-hour low-budget rail shooter with poor optimization, non-existent storyline and tons of bugs. To put it in [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow layman's terms]], "take a serious look at all the ratings outlets give this game. If it's a fraction higher than three, then they are babbling morons! It's not an average game, it's a piece of shit!"[[/labelnote]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Oscar Araujo returns for the sequel with an arguably even better score than the first game's, with amazing pieces such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-l4kHhbGCE Titanic Struggle]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtAsQ1dY1g&index=34&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb Castlevania]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAbmUck8rI&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb&index=4 Chaotic Battle]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DF9Q2_9KPQ Return to the Castle]].

* MagnificentBastard: This incarnation of Alucard. [[spoiler:He manipulated the events of the entire second game, and succeeded in all of his plans.]]

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler:The reunion between [[MyGreatestSecondChance Alucard]] and [[GoodParents Dracula]] is fondly remembered by being a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s and being a great case of ILoveYouVampireSon]].

* AwesomeMusic: Oscar Araujo returns for the sequel with an arguably even better score than the first game's, with amazing pieces such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-l4kHhbGCE Titanic Struggle]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtAsQ1dY1g&index=34&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb Castlevania]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAbmUck8rI&list=PLODHP06Af9Hd5YxxWE48Q6iWl7-jegmrb&index=4 Chaotic Battle]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DF9Q2_9KPQ Return to the Castle]].

* MostWonderfulSound: The sound of transferring a skill mastery unto your weapon. It is a moist squelch.

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler:The reunion between [[MyGreatestSecondChance Alucard]] and [[GoodParents Dracula]] is fondly remembered by being a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming and being a great case of ILoveYouVampireSon]].

* CompleteMonster: {{Satan}} [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow returns]].

* CompleteMonster: {{Satan}} [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow returns]] in the modern world, casually murdering his summoner -- [[OffingTheOffspring his own son]] -- for [[YouHaveFailedMe not eliminating Dracula and Alucard quick enough]]. Deciding to simply [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the world]], Satan also possesses Alucard to [[SadisticChoice force Dracula to choose between losing his life and killing his own beloved son]].

** The [[HoYay Alucard/Satan]] one is a pretty popular one as well. The fact that the former [[spoiler:had been possessed by the latter]] only contributes to the fervor.

** Abaddon is another straightforward boss, considering that the two bosses following him [[spoiler: Victor Belmont and Inner Dracula]] are much, much tougher.
* BestBossEver: Although most of the bosses are awesome (the bosses are a highly praised feature of the game), special mentions goes to [[spoiler: Victor Belmont, for being an epic MirrorBoss, and, Inner Dracula for sheer Nightmare Fuel.]]

* CompleteMonster: {{Satan}} [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow returns]] in the modern world, casually murdering his summoner-[[OffingTheOffspring his own son]]-for [[YouHaveFailedMe not eliminating Dracula and Alucard quick enough]]. Deciding to simply [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the world]], Satan also possesses Alucard to [[SadisticChoice force Dracula to choose between losing his life and killing his own beloved son]].
* CrazyAwesome: The Chupacabra. Originally TheScrappy of the first game, it's revealed to be an all-powerful god-like trickster, that nearly drove the Prince of Darkness to madness, forcing him to lock him in the deepest, darkest, dungeon in his castle.

* CultClassic: Didn't do really well in sales, and got mixed reviews by critics, but got very positive user reviews, spawned a small, yet devoted fanbase, and is generally considered an improvement over the first game by Castlevania fans. Gabriel, and his portrayal of Dracula, as a character, is also very endearing to people who played the game.

** Dark Cultists. Cultists show up just before the game's finale for good reason; they always come in packs and all attack at once, all but one of their attacks is unblockable, they have standard health but can teleport away if they're not locked in a combo for more than three seconds in inclusion to already being able to fly, they can summon a demon portal that if you fail to close quickly will flood you with infected, and if five or more of them are present at once, they can fuse together to become a chaos demon that's hard to kill by normal means, and killing it just makes them turn back into the cultists. And during the endgame and post-game, these are just about the ''only'' enemies you'll fight in the City. Thankfully, the draw-in moves for the Void Sword and Chaos Claws (Void Kata and Fire Cover, respectively) utterly destroys them, and the Apostle they can conjure can be undone with a single Void Projectile.
** Satan's Soldiers can become this to an unseasoned player. They're light on their feet, hit in a rapid succession, can teleport, spit blobs of slime that immobilizes you on the spot, detonate upon death in a wave of green energy, normally come in packs of two-four, and can even transform into a living “turret” (with their chest-burster-esque spirit attacking anything within the vicinity.) Luckily, they become more tolerable as you progress, learn their moveset, and realize that their headbutting attack can be sync blocked. They're still more annoying than their supposedly more powerful siblings, the Horned Demons, who are laughably easy to kite and stunlock with a heavy attack.
** The Infected, of all enemies. They don't pose a threat on their own, but they ''do'' come in throngs, – twenty-five and more ''at once'' as seen in one of the Kleidos Challenges – and later into the game they start getting upgrades, such as weapons and firearms. Those can vary from simple tire iron and fire-axes (which grant them the ability to perform an unblockable), to semi-automatic rifles and ''grenade launchers.'' Suffice it to say, getting multiple rounds and several grenades to the face can be... dangerous.

** On a related note some theorized that Alucard and the young-apparition!Trevor are the same being. Both are never seen on-screen at the same time – Alucard [[spoiler: (in his disguise) even comes up with an excuse that “Zobek needs him” and walks off-screen... only for Trevor to appear minutes later.]] As further argument, Trevor's words of “use [the Wolf medallion] and ''I'' will come” make sense knowing that using the talisman spawns the White Wolf, who ''is'' Alucard (confirmed by canon material and artwork).

** Dracula's dialog at times implies that he still thinks of himself as a sort of hero. Even when he's massacring villages he still acts like he's doing good, saying that he's sending them all to a better place. So, if Dracula isn't a monster, then why are there all these scrolls and memorials around describing him horrifically torturing people for fun? Simple. In the case of the memorials you find around the city in the present day those are all propaganda written by Satan's acolytes, intended to make Dracula out to be worse than he actually was. In the case of the Brotherhood's scrolls that litter the castle, almost all of them describe tortures being inflicted not by Dracula but by his minions who (as this game repeatedly shows) are all only barely controlled by Dracula if at all. While Dracula was definitely a villain prior to the events of this game, he was never as bad as people thought.
** Dracula's use of the memetic "[[MythologyGag What is a man...]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight but a miserable pile of secrets!]]" during the tutorial may seem like PanderingToTheBase without context at first glance. However, when you look at Roland and the army of Brotherhood knights from his perspective, Dracula could be musing at how the upper echelons of the Brotherhood had most likely created a cover story for [[spoiler:Gabriel's "death"]] after the defeat of the Lords of Shadow ([[spoiler:Trevor being the exception in ''[=MoF=]'']]). Even if Roland is a high-ranking commander, he might not had been privy to the truth on Dracula [[spoiler: still being {{God}}'s [[TheChosenOne chosen one]], given his [[OhCrap reaction]] when Dracula grabs the cross with no ill-effect, or the prophecy that Gabriel becomes Dracula]]. Given that official chronology places the tutorial stage in the year AD 1547, 500 years after the first game, and the low life-expectancy back then, the Brotherhood would've had ample time to create and hide their new "pile of secrets" - they ''are'' mortal men.

** Expect a great deal of overlapping with the ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' fandom on social media. The fact that Dracula shares a visibly comparable design with ''Hellsing''[='=]s [[spoiler: Dracula!Alucard]] does not help.

** The Carmilla/Dracula ship started out strong, spawning several of one-shot fanfics, but with time lost most of its influence.
** The [[HoYay Alucard/Satan]] one is a pretty popular one as well. The fact that the former [[spoiler: had been possessed by the latter]] only contributes to the fervor.

** The Void Sword's Whirlwind move (Block [LT/L2] + Direct Attack [X/Square] + Move [Left Stick]). Ridiculously quick, costs a pint-sized amount of magic, easy to execute, can stunlock bigger opponents, is devastating to the majority of bosses at higher mastery levels, '''and''' cheesegrates multiple foes if they're stacked into a row. Because of the latter, it is laughably easy to recover ''your whole health bar'' in one single swipe as compared to other, less-effective moves from the same repertoire. Once you discover/master this move it is ''guaranteed'' you will not use anything else to regain health. One drawback? It is ground-based. Meaning any air (harpies, though you can force them to the ground), or otherwise armored foes (Abaddon) cannot be exploited. A must-have skill on [[HarderThanHard Prince of Darkness difficulty.]]
** To a lesser extent the Chaos Claws' “ultimate” – [[DeathOfAThousandCuts Explosive Earthquake]] (Chaos Bombs selected + Secondary Weapon [RT/R2] + Area Attack [Y/Triangle]). It can annihilate enemies from a safe distance as well as stunlocks them. It is not as practiced because of its enormous Chaos energy cost and inefficacy against clusters of mooks, but against solitary bosses it is downright ''invaluable''.
** The Relics. You can carry up to five {{healing potion}}s and {{mana potion}}s which can be used in-battle, hourglasses which make the “do-not-break-any-shields” trials ''preposterously'' easy, and seals that temporarily increase the damage you deal. They would be a DiscOneNuke, if not for some hefty drawbacks – for example, the aforementioned mana potion erodes all of your “reserves” when the timer runs out, and the seals disrupt your weapon mastery progression. Still, the fact you have them is a valid argument on itself. If used carefully, you can beat even the toughest of bosses with ease... with the exception of [[spoiler: Victor, who disables your subweapons for the first part of his fight.]]

* MagnificentBastard: This incarnation of Alucard. [[spoiler: He manipulated the events of the entire second game, and succeeded in all of his plans.]]

** Dracool. [[labelnote:Explanation]] Gabriel's [[AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle peculiar]] way of pronouncing his assumed name has led people to replacing the 'u' in 'Dracul' to a double 'o', resulting in an admittedly humorous 'Dra''cool'''. [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/10504f418e1a930ae8cb221ac2d23f42/tumblr_mwbfwmVqNT1rym2uyo1_500.png An image of him in shutter shades frequently accompany said gag.]][[/labelnote]]

** Shirt Allergy. [[labelnote:Explanation]] Evidently, ''[[AbsoluteCleavage all]]'' [[NoShirtLongJacket vampires]] in the ''Lords of Shadow'' universe are ''duty-bound'' to dispose of everything that involves covering their upper bodies. Laura from the first game is the only exception. [[/labelnote]]
** The [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/540d80bdd95461a9a1413d7526c73f52/tumblr_n1tohpur531qhso87o2_500.png Satan]] [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/1e466d555aa715cd83ac06f5f0f6aa8d/tumblr_inline_n1vpuremVi1r44gxs.jpg Expression.]] [[labelnote:Explanation]] A.k.a. the {{slasher smile}}s both Dracula and [[spoiler: Satan in the possession of Alucard]] make.[[/labelnote]]
** The Old Gentleman. [[labelnote:Explanation]] Named after the fact that Google Romanian-English Translate reads the word “Dracul” as ''“the old gentleman”''. [[https://translate.google.com/#ro/en/Dracul Go ahead, try it.]][[/labelnote]]
** Heavyweight. [[labelnote:Explanation]] The fact that nearly every catwalk ends up buckling under Gabriel's weight had led to this joke. [[/labelnote]]
** "Aw, he didn't eat it." [[labelnote:Explanation]] After a scuffle with the Riot Police, Gabriel rips out of the officer's heart and crushes it in his hand. Many thought it was a waste of a perfectly good heart. [[/labelnote]]

** There's the cutscene where [[spoiler: Dracula and Alucard come up with their plan to kill both Zobek and Satan, and Dracula agrees to be stabbed in the heart to put him to sleep.]]
--->'''Dracula:''' [[spoiler: Push... that damn sword... into my heart! Before I change my mind!]]
*** The hilarious part about that sentence: [[spoiler: He's saying it as the sword is already partway through his chest!]]
** The final cutscene in which [[spoiler: Dracula destroys Satan once and for all]] takes place in front of that very same church where he was sleeping all that time. No, they did not choose some huge, open, grandly designed venue for either of these key moments in the game, they chose the dark street with a rundown cathedral engulfed by more modern architecture on one side and a ''pizza place'' on the other. That giant pizza sign hanging on its side is one of the last things you see following [[spoiler: ''the death of Satan.'']] Also, [[spoiler: the fact that one of Dracula's neighbors has been a pizza place for who knows how long, ''and will continue to be so after Satan was destroyed right across from it.'']]
** It's pretty hard to take [[spoiler: Satan]] seriously when his choice of pants is [[spoiler: armored chicken legs.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Chupacabras was widely hated in the first game thanks to his tendency to steal your items and force you to play an annoying game of hide and seek to get them back, all the while being taunted by his annoying voice. His appearance in this game starts out with a nice bit of catharsis when you find him locked in a magical cage and you get to listen to him grovel and beg for his freedom. After he's released he opens a shop selling a variety of useful items. He also has a new voice which is far less obnoxious than it was in the first game.

** The stealth gameplay is near unanimously panned for being out of place, frustrating and just not fun or what people really want to do in a Castlevania game.
* SignatureScene: [[spoiler: The reunion between [[MyGreatestSecondChance Alucard]] and [[GoodParents Dracula]] is fondly remembered by being a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming and being a great case of ILoveYouVampireSon]].

** The Hooded Man, [[spoiler: a.k.a. Victor Belmont]]. He frequently parries your attacks, throws a flurry of projectiles that inflict a lot of damage if you get caught in the barrage, and rarely stays still long enough to hit him with a combo. If you try to jump up to evade his attacks, he will leap up and continue to strike you in mid-air, where you cannot escape his blows. However, parrying ''his'' blows and counterattacking makes him considerably easier.

** [[spoiler: Satan]] had clearly done some homework, as here he can be unbelievably challenging, particularly on higher difficulty settings. He's swift, leaps all over the arena, nearly all of his attacks cover a sizable area and are twofold, only one of his swings can be parried, and oftentimes he will retreat to bombard you with globs of black goo that hurts if you walk over it. And the fact it takes nearly double the time and effort for Dracula to concentrate and refill his magic gauges only makes things more tangled.

** The truth of the matter is, the maze is actually pretty easy when one uses the mist ability... but the game never tells you it's an option and instead try to encourage you to take the million times harder ledge-jumping, bell-distracting route...

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Ultimately, [[spoiler:Victor Belmont, a.k.a. the Hooded Man]] has a very minor appearance in the game, despite his legacy, advertisement and one hell of an awesome boss fight. He's alluded to quite a while into the game and once caught up to and fought, he's expelled from the plot barely fifteen-to-thirteen minutes afterwards.