Konami nervous about new Castlevania

By Ellie Gibson Published 27 November, 2009

"It was quite a radical departure."

The next Castlevania game is so different from previous instalments in the series it almost wasn't called Castlevania at all.

That's according to Konami exec Dave Cox. He was speaking to GameReactor (as reported by VG247) about the announcement of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow at the 2008 Games Convention.

"It was quite a radical departure from what had gone before with Castlevania and there was a little bit of nervousness that perhaps it wouldn’t be accepted as a Castlevania game," said Cox.

"As this was quite a big departure from what people knew about Castlevania, senior management took the decision that we were going to announce it as Lords of Shadow, see what the reaction is, and if it’s a good one then this would become a fully-fledged Castlevania."

At Konami's E3 2009 press conference, Cox described Lords of Shadow as "Castlevania, but not as you know it - a fresh and radical reimagining that will still feel familiar to the fans." Expect a free-roaming world, involvement from Hideo Kojima and voiceovers by Sir Ian McKellen, Robert Carlyle, Natasha McElhone and Jason Isaacs.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is in development for PS3 and Xbox 360 and will be released next year. Visit the gamepage for some screenshots and a video.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • MrFlintBlackman #1 2 years ago

    Are they nervous because this 3D outing of Castlevania might actually be good?

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    It would be cool if they can do a Metroid and actually make a good 3d Castlevania game.

  • rock27gr #3 2 years ago

    Well I'm excited, and I consider the best in the series to have been IV

  • peteb #4 2 years ago

    I guess Symphony of the Night could have also been called a radical departure. Although I'm still sceptical about this one since it supposedly didn't even start out as a Castlevania game.
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/09 @ 09:22

  • Kazzahdrane #5 2 years ago

    I believe the whole point is that this game was originally just a Konami title called Lords of Shadow - it had a teaser trailer and everything with no mention of the Castlevania name. Then they decided to brand it as part of the series and change a few details to make it fit in, IIRC.

  • Joco84 #6 2 years ago

    The trailer looks friggin awesome for this, can't wait!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 2 years ago

    Castlevania 64 was also 3D and quite good if you ask me. And as always the music was brilliant.

  • OllyJ #8 2 years ago

    Mercury Steam are definately capable of delivering a good looking very playable game.

  • zoweewowee #9 2 years ago

    Aria of Sorrow (Best Castlevania to me, with SotN and Harmony), GameBoy Advance, two buttons (A+B) and two triggers (L+R), the gameplay was absolutely brillant and far more challenging than any spectacular-3D action game like God of War (don't misunderstand, i love GoW). When I saw the first trailer of the next Castlevania that's what I thought about... God of War... :(
    I wish they did an old school Castlevania with a fast, precise and unforgiving 2D-gameplay.

  • Paulie_P #10 2 years ago

    The Castlevainia on the N64 was quite good for the time but it had a camera which almost ruined it. I'm not sure about this one, Konami were kings back in the 2d era but since games moved into the 3d era their output hasn't been as good. Don't get me wrong I loved the Silent Hill and Pro Evo series (and 2d games) but its hard to think of another example (although I'm sure I'll be corrected here). I did play the Playstation 2 3d Castlevainia game and I enjoyed that but I think I was one of a small few!

  • KDR_11k #11 2 years ago

    I wish they did an old school Castlevania with a fast, precise and unforgiving 2D-gameplay.

    They're making Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth, that's a 2D Cv in the old style.

  • ViralNinja #12 2 years ago

    That should be Patrick Stewart not Ian Mckellen :)

  • davisorle #13 2 years ago

    Its normal to be worried about this. There will be people that wont accept the choices made while transfering such a fa,ous I{ into a full 3D title. At least it wont be like the new Metallica who are missingh the metal part anymore... Shame on them and shame on YOU supporting hteir changes! :) Good lck with the new castlevania. Bad game release was never good to anyone than the fanboys that is " If i dont have it it better suck for them" thing..

  • zoweewowee #14 2 years ago

    KDR_11k > yeah but that's a remake of the GBoy game, I was more thinking about a new game with that 2D-gameplay, but also with gorgeous graphics, and why not 3D-graphics.

    2D-explorations phases with 3D-graphics in Valkyrie Profile 2 were really beautiful, looked better than FF12.

  • RandomTerrain #15 2 years ago

    Ian McKellen?? I think you mean Patrick Stewart.. as ViralNinja said above. Unless I missed something.

    This game looks brilliant. There are so many great third person games coming out at the moment though, so I hope this stands out, and they really put the maximum effort in. Big names alone won't pursuade me to part with my cash.
    /hopes

  • gorf #16 2 years ago

    heres hoping Kojima doesnt go OTT on CGI. will buy it anyways

  • KDR_11k #17 2 years ago

    It's a fairly loose remake though so it could probably be considered a new game that's just reusing an old story to avoid needing to bother with the timeline of the series.

  • retr0gamer #18 2 years ago

    Anybody worried about Kojimas involvement shouldn't be worried. He has nothing to do with the game and they just slapped his name on hte project like the way there's 'Quentin Tarantino presents' slapped on a load of B-movie schlock. Kind of looking forward to this but I'm pretty sure it won't feel like a castlevania game because it was never meant to be one and Konami slapped the name on it during development. It's being developed in Spain I believe.
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/09 @ 15:18

  • spekkeh #19 2 years ago

    Yes it's very God of War, with a bit of Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia. I'm afraid that 3d action adventure brawler is becoming a bit stale, with the GoW, Batman(?), Assassin's Creed, Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia series (and probably some I forgot) already doing it very well. There's little room for something else.

    However, can't fault a Castlevania game. If the protagonist would say "Have no fear, Gabriel Belmont is here" somewhere during the game, I'd buy this instantaneously.

  • HermitArcader #20 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • curtlikesmeat #21 2 years ago

    That trailer does indeed look awesomesauce - hopefully there're some RPG elements rather than a straight up God of War style game!!?

  • SpaceMonkey77 #22 2 years ago

    I can certainly understand the nervousness, as change can be a double edge sword, and fans hard to please. However, this is exactly what Konami need to be doing. The japanese 2D mindset of game development, while good in its own right, is an island where things have become stagnant over time, and not adjusting fast enough to change is why many japanese devs are still struggling to get 3D games right. The 2D Castlevania games are cool, but have followed the same template since the SNES version.

    The PS2 Castlevania games, like the N64 versions long before them, struggled with the 3D transition, so its brave of Konami to seek new eyes to reinvigorate the series. While I hadn't heard of Mercury before this game, so far I like what I see and will be buying a 360 version. I hope that they bring back som of the rpg elements, that existed in the series back on NES, but were ditched in favour of pure action.

    If this goes well, I hope Konami set Mercury loose on some of their other forgotten IP, like Sunset Riders, Ring of Red, etc.

  • Lamb #23 2 years ago

    An all star voice cast and a decent trailer, it looks good so far. I hope there are no discernible balance issues so it can be an immersive atmospheric experience.

  • andyconr #24 2 years ago

    It's strange how as soon as the Castlevania name was added and Kojima's involvement was revealed this game garnered way more attention. I hadn't even heard of this game until Kojima's involvement was revealed,

  • wez_316 #25 2 years ago

    Paulie_P: "Konami were kings back in the 2d era but since games moved into the 3d era their output hasn't been as good. Don't get me wrong I loved the Silent Hill and Pro Evo series (and 2d games) but its hard to think of another example"

    Metal Gear Solid series anyone?

    Also... Shadow of Memories, Zone of the Enders 1 & 2 and the Suikoden series were all pretty great outputs by Konami since the dawn of 3D!

  • TRUTH #26 2 years ago

    Boring I'm too getting fed up with all these hack n slash with more skill in just bashing the buttons, rather then skill. Castlevania needs more adventure, puzzle solving and rpg; also skill instead of all these over the top fighting moves too keep this becoming another dumb action hack & slash title (too many of them now!)

  • dahsif #27 2 years ago

    Castle...Vania?
    The trailer looked awesome. But the genre is overcrowded, and nanomachines won't be of any help solving all plot holes this time around.
    Edited by 1 at 30/11/09 @ 01:23

  • Gecks #28 2 years ago

    i'm all for some change to the series. love them as i do (and i really do - i think most of the post SOTN 2d castlevania output has been near-perfect), i'm pretty much burnt out by the 2d 'metroidvania' concept. it's always good but it's like listening to 'hey jude' for the 9000th time; it's genius but i'm just done with it, you know?