Castlevania Coming Back in a Big Way at E3?
According to industry reporter Paul Gale of PGN, Konami fully intends on bringing the Castlevania franchise back by releasing titles on practically every next-gen console and new handheld on the market.
One big familiar name the company is dishing out is a direct sequel to MercurySteam’s sublime Lords of Shadow. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (which it very well may not be called seeing as how the series has thrown numbers out the window around the 300th release or so) will see a return on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but in what is sure to be a surprise announcement at E3’s show floor is that a Wii U version of the game is being crafted, including console-specific features. Oddly enough, PGN also goes on to list a PS Vita edition of the game – making it your only opportunity to take LoS2 on the go.
Another surprise title being tossed around in these speculative days before E3, and allegedly confirmed through PGN, is a completely new 2D entry to the franchise called Castlevania: Mirror of Fate. Built for the Nintendo 3DS, Mirror of Fate hopes to carry on the mantle of quality set forth by its original DS brethren, this time cleverly utilizing the handheld’s 3D cameras to mimic mirror effects, allowing you to complete puzzles and the like with one of two playable vampire killers. While being a “2D” successor, I’m confident the game’s visuals will play host to some form of the third dimension outside of the camera functionality.
According to the same source, Konami and team originally planned for the 3DS title to have a console counterpart on the Wii U that swaps the dual-screen format for the new system’s TV/tablet setup. This notion was scrapped in favor of porting Lords of Shadow 2 (a financially safer bet for the publisher) over to the console instead. However, Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2 will still have some degree of compatibility between one another.
Castlevania seems to be the only fertile ground Konami has left these days, the publisher having actively salted the earth around franchises like Silent Hill and new IPs such as NeverDead (yes, Metal Gear still thrives yet, but I dare you to name a game that wasn’t a re-release so far this year). For whatever reason, Castlevania has been mostly immune to the negative effects of experimentation and somehow continues to both grow new fans and root old ones. I absolutely cannot wait to see what’s next from the series.