I met up with Dave Cox, Head of Product Planning and Development at Konami, to talk about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. The first thing I asked Cox, who helped Konami bring Castlevania: Symphony of the Night overseas, is why they wanted to make a "Metroidvania" game.
"Although, this game has a map to explore it is not really a Metroidvania. It is very much an action combat game based on the Lords of Shadow universe. One of the things people really liked about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was the combat aspect of it. Mixing up strategies, using light and shadow magic, sub weapons, and things like that. So, we beefed that up," Cox replied. "Our audience was telling us they wanted a bigger exploration element to the game, so we added a more traditional exploration side."
"I think the inspiration really comes from [Castlevania III:] Dracula’s Curse and not Metroidvania. It’s more about multi-branching pathways, the ability to go back and explore other area of the castle as other characters. It’s definitely not Metroidvania," Cox emphasized.
Each of the Belmonts will have different abilities, which will let them access different parts of the castle. Trevor Belmont, for example, can double jump and Cox revealed to Siliconera Alucard can turn into mist.
We’ll have more Castlevania discussion with Cox and Enric Alvarez, the Studio Head at MercurySteam, on Siliconera soon.
