Why 'Lords of Shadow' wasn't 'Castlevania: Lords of Shadow' at first

Being Dave Cox, head of European development for Konami, can't be an easy job. For one, he's not Hideo Kojima, so he's already got that going against him. Worse yet, he's had to tow the company line and let his upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow languish out of the spotlight while Castlevania Judgment got all the attention. It seems Konami didn't even have the confidence to allow Lords of Shadow the Castlevania license -- nor did fans. "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," Cox told GameReactor.

Though he claims the project was approved originally as a Castlevania game and was built from the get-go with the vampire-hunting series in mind, the folks in charge at Konami had cold feet going into the big reveal at Games Convention 2008. "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." It was definitely a good one.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

[Via VG247]

Reader Comments (26)

Yes, of course, Konami: this title looks gorgeous and truly gothic, while we all know your recent direction with console Castlevanias has a taken a more . . . "fluffy pink stereotypical anime fighter" approach.

After all, you've got to protect your integrity!

Why don't they just make a console sequel to SotN?

"Castlevanias has a taken a more . . . "fluffy pink stereotypical anime fighter" approach.

After all, you've got to protect your integrity!"

Seriously, what Castlevania game are your refering to?

All the DS ones, I'm presuming.

I believe he means Judgment. Haven't played Judgment myself, tho... I have enough self-respect to own a Wii.

BTW, I believe a sequel for SOTN was indeed in the works, but canned in favor of this other game. Igarashi's nowhere to be seen, as well.

A game written by a random text generator would hold together better than something by IGA. Getting Hideo Kojima was nothing short of a godsend.

I have to agree with Konami's basic worry here: Considering the metacritic review of the last batch castlevania games (Castlevania Judgement - 49, Curse of Darkness - 70, Lament of Innocence - 79, N64 - 78), it makes sense that they'd be worried about the population associating Castlevania with middling games. Of course, they should have nipped Castlevania Judgement in the butt before release. But knowing that trainwreck was coming out, I can see not wanting to do that to the name twice in two years.

To be honest the only thing that's got me excited about this one is the voice acting and the look.

The developers haven't really instilled faith with...Jericho (lol). And it is of my opinion that adding Kojima in to handle the story is such a horrible decision. I

Last I heard, there was no official knowledge that kojima was handling the games story, though if it even is the case, the fact that he worked on mgs storyline (which it wasnt that complicated to begin with, the only time I felt lost was at the ending of mgs2, and even that part was really to make you feel lost and questioning) that doesnt mean that the game's story is going to be overly difficult with a lot of cutscenes.

Official knowledge is that Kojima is working as a producer only, to Castlevania and producing as well MGS: Rising, so, technically, you wotn have that much of Kojima's finger in both of those games, unless its more about the direction of the game.

I find this rather hard to believe myself, but as long as Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears wind up on the soundtrack somewhere I can't say I really care

I'm scared for this game. I want it to be good, but the last 3D Castlevania I played doesn't bring back good memories :T

nuh uh. Konami knows how people feel about retro fitted games involving popular franchises. Lord knows I learned with Star Fox Dinosaur Planet. And now we have some stupid purple fox chick in the canon.

Yea, Bullshit, capital B mind you.
It's more like shitty developer, Mercurysteam, made a "Lords of Shadow", then Konami decided for some reason to pick it up and tack Castlevania on the title to sell it.

I'm like 99% certian that this is the case. Everything about this game seems like they made a game and kinda realized that is wasn't going to get attention and decided to retool it to be a Castlvania game. I mean, that just isn't how you go about making a game. The opposite happens every now and again, sure, but you don't start a project and say "MAAAAYBE we'll turn this into a Castlvania game...or MAAAAYBE we won't".
I know Konami is horribly mismanaged these days, but they can't be THAT dysfunctional.

Meh. I'm not convinced at all.

This is name-slapping at it's finest.

It looked good in the demo. But then again, many things do.

Say what you will, their strategy is perfect.

"Castlevania Judgment got all the attention"

... where? I don't recall reading much about it before it came out and since it's been out I hadn't so much as even thought about it until now.

this game looks great, i havn't played any of the other castlevania games , but this has my attention,

dammn when is it ebing released, between this and dantes inferno , can't wait

god of war 3 will deffo be on the list once ive played through the collection i got. i think ive just about completed part 1 lol

bring on castlevania :-)

They certainly had no qualms about putting Judgment forth, and that was a more radical departure than what they're positing now.

Though i still think this move is a mistake.

Castlevania Judgement. Just . . . take a look.

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/castlevania_judgement.jpg

Not exactly the Castlevania we all knew and love. And to top it off, terrible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_Judgement#Reception

This game looks awesome IMO, but it doesn't feel like a Castlevania game at all. Besides, the music sounds like something outta a superhero movie rather than Castlevania.

It doesn't "feel" like every post-SotN Castlevania. The vibe is perfectly in-line with the original games (and that's why I'm interested in it. I've grown sick of Iga's ways).

Nah, it doesn't feel like the old Castlevanias either. I'd say it even goes farther from the old ones than the newer ones. It feels more like... Devil May Kratos or something.

Konami's right; this game DOESN'T deserve to be profaned with the mark of death that is the Castlevania franchise's name. So much godawful crap has gone by it recently that Lords of Shadow really would have been much better if you'd let it go without.

i just want to play.

Why 'Lords of Shadow' wasn't 'Castlevania: Lords of Shadow' at first

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Reader Comments (26)

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