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Konami bundles downloadable Castlevanias with Japanese Lords of Shadow special edition
Hideo Kojima as the Chupacabra isn't the only advantage the Japanese version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has over its worldwide contemporaries. Those who purchase the special edition in Japan will also have their choice of downloadable Vanias as bonuses. The PS3 version of the game includes a code for the PSOne Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, playable on PS3 or PSP. The Xbox 360 version gets you a copy of the XBLA game Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Which means there is now another reason the PS3 version will outsell the Xbox release by a massive margin (other than there being so few Xboxes in Japan). The Japanese special edition isn't universally better: it carries a price tag of ¥9,980 ($122), and Lords of Shadow won't even be available in Japan until December 16.
Metareview: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Now that you've read our review of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- you have, haven't you? -- let's find out what other outlets thought of the series' latest stab at a 3D interpretation. Turns out, it would seem there are some issues reconciling this as a "Castlevania" game. If we had control of space and time (and, believe, we're working on it), we'd totally want to see the scores if Castlevania was completely removed from the title and the game was released just as Lords of Shadow. It may have scored just a little higher. Game Informer (90/100): "This polished, action-packed adventure has me ecstatic to see not only what's in store for the next 3D Castlevania, but also what talented developer MercurySteam does next. Don't let the deluge of fall releases or the 3D Castlevania stigma keep you from this amazing quest." Eurogamer (80/100): "In the future, we can only hope that a developer finds a way to deliver more of the core series components – of buildings that you piece together through exploration, of back-tracking that never seems like a chore. For now, though, even with a missing piece of that magnitude, MercurySteam has managed to deliver a game that's heartfelt, handsome, and quietly distinct." Gamespot (75/100): "The combat is great and the boss battles are quite memorable, but it degenerates when those core ideas clash--when Castlevania ignores what it does so well (action) for the sake of creating a more diverse experience." IGN (75/100): "Pretty much anything you would expect to find in a Castlevania game is not to be found here. But fans of combat-heavy action adventure games will have fun if they can excuse a lot of mindless button mashing and a couple technical issues." 1UP (B): "This won't replace Symphony of the Night as the oft-argued greatest Castlevania, but it should finally at least put to rest complaints that there are no good 3D Castlevania games. If Lords of Shadow sees a sequel, there are lots of important, obvious improvements that need to be made, but Mercury Steam proves that they're at least on the right track." %Gallery-102608%
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow review: Miracle whip
Perhaps you're just not as bothered by basic home security when you've harnessed sinister, otherworldly energies and have a legion of vampires at your command. Who's going to march into the Lord of Shadow's spooky castle and tell him, "Sir, leaving the key to your front door in the garden maze outside isn't the smartest thing you've ever done." And what Lord of Shadow is going to believe his advisors when they tell him, "Look, there's this pissed off vampire hunter coming and he's going to demolish every single candelabra in your house. Yes, the nice ones with holy water in them." Like some of the best video games, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow conceives its world around a hero, obfuscating illogical weirdness with empowerment and an old-fashioned sense of adventure. You might fall off a few cliffs or get trampled by a troll every now and then, but there's no doubting your eventual success. During the course of your journey, you'll get all the training, weapons and abilities you need to best the forces of evil. No jump will ever be too far and no enemy will truly be invincible.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow CE delayed in Europe
What a horrible time to have pre-ordered the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow limited edition in Europe! Eurogamer reports that the limited edition has been delayed in the region. Retailer GAME initially tweeted that the LE had been canceled altogether, though Konami has since confirmed that it is only delayed and will be released after the October 8 launch of the standard edition. A GAME spokesperson informed Eurogamer that a new release date could be announced as early as today or tomorrow. With any luck, tomorrow's morning sun will vanquish this horrible news.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow demo descends on XBLM
Copies of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will be whipped onto store shelves tomorrow, but Xbox Live Gold members can get a taste of the vampire slaying action today, thanks to a new demo on XBLM. Downloading it is easy. After all, what is a demo but a miserable little pile of kilobytes?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer lays it all out
In this Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer, you're in for 11 minutes of footage and explanation of every facet to be found in the reboot. Go make some buttered popcorn first (and avert your eyes if you despise spoilers of any kind).
David Cox on rebooting Castlevania for a new generation
With Castlevania: Lords of Shadow only two weeks from launch, we spoke with producer David Cox about rebuilding the franchise for a modern audience. How did developer MercurySteam look to overcome the failures of past 3D iterations of the franchise? And what role did Kojima Productions play in the creation of this new Castlevania? Cox reveals how Kojima urged him to redesign a once "barbarian" Gabriel and how the game was nearly canceled a year into development in our conversation below. Joystiq: How did poor critical reception of past 3D Castlevania games influence perceptions of this project? How did you pitch this game to senior Konami management? David Cox: I think there was always a desire to make the game 3D. I think people thought that in order to attract a mainstream audience, it had to be a 3D game. I personally love 2D games, but the fact is the market for 2D games is tiny. Most people want to play a 3D action adventure game with impressive visuals, etc. etc. I think for us, one of the things we found in hindsight is that the previous games tried to emulate the 2D games -- basically: turn the 2D games into 3D. We felt that wasn't the way to go. We felt the way to go was to boil down Castlevania to its core tenets, and create a 3D game from there. Sure, it's a brave decision, but we needed to be brave, and we needed to have the freedom to do what we wanted to make.
Hideo Kojima wants to show a game of his own at TGS 2011
While a new Kojima Productions game was on display at TGS 2010 -- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- Hideo Kojima's direct involvement seems limited to providing the voice for a mischievous chupacabra. In a tweet, the game director expressed his interest in showing a true Hideo Kojima game at next year's event. Kojima said "I think it would be nice if next year I can do not just editing, but introduce my own new game (game design, script and direction)." During the Metal Gear Solid cosplay event at TGS, he also jokingly said "It's 5! Shall we make 5! With this, I won't have to quit Konami. I'll be there for 3 more years." This was in response to a prompt to "say something shocking," however, and not "say something true." A grain of salt is advised.
New Castlevania: Lords of Shadow screens: Witch you were here!
To go alongside the decidedly batty TGS trailer, Konami has released new screens of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. They show off Gabriel Belmont doing what Belmonts do best: Slaying demons, exploring castles and ... chatting with Baba Yaga? Even witches need some company now and then, right? %Gallery-102608%
New Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer is positively nuts
What's in this Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer? The more appropriate question might be what isn't? Werewolves, faeries, vampires, angels, giant chess boards, giant eagles, giant giants -- even the grim visage of Death makes an appearance. It is absolutely the nuttiest and most awesome thing you'll see today. Well, maybe not, it is TGS week ...
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow preview: The first two hours
Lords of Shadow is going to be a great game and, more importantly, a great Castlevania game. The MercurySteam and Kojima Productions collaboration offers everything you'd want from a modernized Castlevania adventure: platforming, puzzle solving, and, yes, even some backtracking and exploration, with a level of polish that catapults it all into a sublime experience. At Konami's "Boot Camp" event, I was able to spend time with a near-final version of the game and play as much of it as I wanted to. This wasn't a cleverly cut demo reel, highlighting the game's best moments. This was the full game -- all I had to do was press the Start button. Immediately, I was drawn into the world through the powerful soundtrack, beautiful graphics and the spot-on narration. As the game begins, the solemn protagonist approaches a rain-soaked town besieged by werebeasts. He's not as flamboyant as Kratos or Dante, but no less deadly. The game immediately throws you into battle against the beasts as tutorial on the basic mechanics of the game. It's no surprise that comparisons to God of War have been made: Gabriel's whip feels a lot like Kratos' Blades of Chaos. With Square, Triangle and X performing the same functions as in Sony's brawler, it's very easy to get a feel for the combat. (There's even a counterattack that works just like GoW's Golden Fleece.) But it's not just the combat that invites comparison to other games. The violence is no less graphic and gruesome than in God of War.%Gallery-100509%
How disc swapping works in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for Xbox 360
If you haven't heard, the Xbox 360 version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will ship on two discs (Limited Edition pictured above). Here's a tip: You can save yourself some precious disc-swapping time if you install at least Disc One to your hard drive. Although Lords of Shadow's story is told in an episodic, linear fashion, you'll want to revisit earlier levels to find missing collectibles and beat any additional challenges. Without installing, you'll have to swap discs every time you want to revisit earlier levels. However, if you've installed the data, you won't ever have to swap discs again; you'll be able to continue playing with just Disc Two in the drive. It's an interesting way of overcoming the DVD format's size limitation -- a clever trick that could be employed by future multi-disc releases.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow sinks teeth into North America Oct. 5, DLC planned
Konami has announced that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will be whipped onto North American shelves starting October 5. This puts the American launch just shy of the October 7 and 8 release dates for Europe and the UK, respectively. In related news, Lords of Shadow Producer David Cox informed 1UP that two DLC packs are planned for the game. Cox offered few details, though both packs will feature new areas to explore and enemies to slay. He also attempted to assuage fears that the revelation of DLC means the full game will be less than complete, saying that it "absolutely has an ending." Check out the full interview for Cox's thoughts on working with Kojima Productions and how Mercury Steam approached making a 3D Castlevania title. Update: Check out some new screens, renders and box art in the galleries below! %Gallery-99909% %Gallery-99907% %Gallery-99906%
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow whipping up Oct. 7 EU release date, Oct. 8 in UK
During a Konami press conference at Gamescom, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer David Cox took to the mic to announce European and UK release dates for the forthcoming game: October 7 in Europe and October 8 in the UK. Furthermore, Konami UK rep Richie Churchill revealed via his Twitter account that the game will be getting a distinct collector's edition for (at very least) the UK, featuring the game's original soundtrack and a "replica God Mask in awesome packaging." Wait a minute -- why don't we get a God Mask?! Anyway, given the way European and UK releases work, it's fair to guess that Lords of Shadow will land stateside on October 5 (as compared to the Halloween release date Amazon gave it), sans God Mask. That's exciting enough, we guess.
Amazon: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow LE out in October
Amazon sent out word of a Castlevania: Lords of Shadow limited edition a bit early this week by releasing a mockup image of the package. Now the retailer has boldly tweeted (if one can do something called "tweeting" in a bold manner) release info for the limited edition, pricing it at $79.99 on PS3 and Xbox 360. The image is exactly the same as this week's mockup, meaning that we will get that nice hand-painted artwork on the box (that looks a lot like the work of longtime Castlevania artist Ayami Kojima) along with the soundtrack and artbook, that were shown before. The Amazon listings also show a Halloween release date for both the standard and limited editions, though we're hesitant to confirm any release dates from retailers as "official" without checking in with Konami -- which we're doing now.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow special edition mockup outed by Amazon
An image spotted on Amazon (and since removed) suggests that there will be a special edition release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- as if its status as a major game from a large publisher didn't already make that clear. The image shows a package comprising two Xbox 360 game discs, a soundtrack, and a "The Art of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" book. Lords of Shadow producer David Cox told Joystiq, "The images of the special edition leaked onto the net are mock ups and NOT final," before adding that the retailer "jumped the gun" by publishing early images. Though neither Cox nor Konami had anything official to announce about a special edition, someone at Konami is mocking up special edition images. Probably in advance of a real special edition. That would just be a weird hobby otherwise.
Preview: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
It's difficult to comment on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow as a product of the long-running (and now rebooted) gothic action franchise. Abandoning large-scale exploration in favor of linear action -- which was itself abandoned when Castlevania: Symphony of the Night debuted in 1997 -- Lords of Shadow invites comparison to God of War more than any other modern game. That's an admittedly tiresome shorthand as far as game previews go -- "It's like God of War but with whip-swords!" -- but it's still useful in conveying how Lords of Shadow plays. Your attacks are sweeping and imprecise, yet bolstered with enough combos and violent flourishes to make you feel in charge. Castlevania's sub-weapons return to your repertoire as well, with the first two levels of the game allowing you to quickly dispatch a flying dagger into approaching enemies. The resulting explosion of bloody mush is a fair indicator of the game's disgusting, wonderful violence. Even the most trivial battle, such as Gabriel Belmont's tutorial tussle in a rain-slick village under siege, is given a certain gravitas by the game's tight camera and atmospheric visuals. And if there's one thing that brands Lords of Shadow as a promising 3D Castlevania game, it's the effort that's gone into creating dark, imposing environments that feel like they extend far beyond the boundaries of the level. Developer MercurySteam has delivered an impressive showcase of scale and animation here, with even the lowly warg becoming a pouncing cause for concern. So yeah, it's a few steps up from recycled Game Boy Advance sprites. %Gallery-95596%
Meet the cast of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Okay! So, forget everyone from those twenty-odd Castlevanias from the past three decades. Just crumple up that whole ludicrous timeline and throw it right in the garbage. Lords of Shadow is a reboot of the franchise, and with it comes a new Belmont, a new quest (his lost love!) and ... Patrick Stewart. Get familiar with the rest of the cast in the E3 gallery below and trailer posted after the break. %Gallery-95596%
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow slays retail 'later this fall'
During its keynote press conference, Konami confirmed that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the Kojima-assisted, MercurySteam-developed 3D reboot of the classic series set to vanquish the forces of evil on the Xbox 360 and PS3, would arrive "later this fall." Word came from producer David Cox, who emerged before a new trailer was shown to attendees. We'll try to get our hands on said trailer and whip it up on the site. Get it? Whip? Anybody?
David Cox details the 'epic yet sad' score of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
In an interview conducted last summer with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer David Cox, we found out that the much loved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night music composer Michiru Yamane wouldn't be joining the team at Konami to compose the upcoming game. What was unclear at the time, however, was who exactly would be assigned the task of creating the game's score. David Cox explained to Joystiq this morning that Oscar Araujo, a Spanish symphonist, has been granted that burden. "Our composer for this game is Oscar Araujo who is a Spanish composer. He is creating a very epic yet sad and melancholy score that perfectly suits the game and emotion that we are aiming for." While Cox added that he's "a big fan of Yamane-san's work," he admitted that her music wouldn't have been a great fit for Mercury Steam's take on the Castlevania series. It certainly doesn't hurt that, according to Cox, she's no longer an employee of Konami. "Yamane-san left Konami quite some time ago as I understand it. She is currently working freelance, though I am not 100% sure. "Yamane-san has a style that fits perfectly to the previous Castlevania games but this game is very different to those more recent 'vania's in style and direction. I don't think I would be doing her any favours by including her music in the game." He also pointed out that we'll understand his point more clearly when we "eventually get to see the game." With any luck, that'll be sooner rather than later. %Gallery-65043%
