E3: Kojima overseeing new Castlevania

By Oli Welsh Published 3 June, 2009

Lords of Shadow, PS3 and 360, 2010.

At Konami's E3 press conference today, Hideo Kojima unveiled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a 3D Castlevania action game for PS3 and Xbox 360, due for release in 2010.

The game is a co-production between Kojima Productions, Konami Europe and Spanish developer Mercurysteam.

Kojima's role seems to be merely one of oversight. "I truly believe in Dave [Cox, Konami Europe producer] and Mercurysteam," Kojima said. "My role is to support them, I'm going to help them to give birth to Castlevania, and that's how I support this title."

A trailer showed a slick action game in the Devil May Cry style featuring the Castlevania series' signature whip attacks. A stellar voice cast has been assembled: Sir Ian McKellen, Robert Carlyle, Natasha McElhone and Jason Isaacs' names appeared on the trailer, and their voices were heard in snatches of dialogue.

"This is Castlevania, but not as you know it," said Cox. "A fresh and radical reimagining that will still feel familiar to the fans." He promised an open gameworld of mountains, Gothic castles and wastelands for players to explore.

Kojima explained the decision to develop the game in Europe and endorsed the choice of developer. "Castlevania, as you know, was created in Japan," he said. "However, we felt that in order to be more appealing in the years to come, looking at the rest of the world, this game should be produced like this.

"I've known Dave for more than 10 years working together. I believe that he is one of the most passionate producers and game-lovers in Konami. Also, Mercurysteam - I felt that this team has real potential, it's top class in the world, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the game and its features."

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Triggerhappytel #1 3 years ago

    I hope this is more successful than Capcom's collaboration with GRIN on Bionic Commando.

    Regardless, this is much more interesting for me than yet more Metal Gear spinoff nonsense. The consoles need more dark fantasy; maybe this can fill the void left by Soul Reaver.

  • OllyJ #2 3 years ago

    Mercury Steam are a great team, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

  • muscleblade #3 3 years ago

    This looks great!

    @Triggerhappytel

    I finished Bionic Commando last night and started playing it again on the hardest difficulty. The game is ace imo. Have you played it or do you go by the 7/10 wich isnt considered bad anyway. 8/10 from me. Great game.

  • Domovoi #4 3 years ago

    I don't know, I liked castlevania on the NES when it was still a fairly basic gothic horror platformer. The whole over the top japanese style with retractable whips and guys with biceps bigger than their heads just doesn't do it for me.

  • menage #5 3 years ago

    Men with big biceps? have you looked at the covers, They all look like girls:p
    Great news this. I love Castlevania, but 3D has always been shitty. Rather have 2D SOTN 2 though on my PS3/360
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/09 @ 08:38

  • jimboton #6 3 years ago

    I don't know, I quite liked Jericho and Scrapland, but Kojima's collaboration here speaks more of endless cinematics than of 'open gameworld'. I just hope this ends up more like Soul Reaver than Ps2 castlevanias or Devil may cry.

    At least between this and Darksiders we've got double chances of one of them not disappointing :D

  • Domovoi #7 3 years ago

    Men with big biceps? have you looked at the covers, They all look like girls:p

    Well, girls with massive biceps.

    Anyway, that's true, but that's another thing I just don't like about the japanese style. But if you look at the trailer for this, there's basically only the guy's left bicep in the frame, and then his head tucked somewhere in the top left corner.

    I guess Castlevania lost its charm for me when the graphics became advanced enough to notice the Japanese roots of the series.

  • muscleblade #8 3 years ago

    Whats wrong with big biceps? I like it when the character i play as actually look like myself ;-)

  • menage #9 3 years ago

    What, a girl with biceps?

  • muscleblade #10 3 years ago

    @menage

    LOL! Not exactly. :-D