Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PS3/360)
Possibly the biggest announcement Konami made in their pre-E3 conference stream, we now have officiated confirmation of a sequel to Mercurysteam’s superb Lords of Shadow. Even though the new trailer parades one of the original game’s hugest plot twists, and even though the first Lords of Shadow has been around long enough for you to know what said twist is, I’ll still kindly warn ye of spoilers ahead.
The narrative seems to fit somewhere between the recently outed Mirror of Fate tie-in and the modern day epilogue found after credits in the first game. Throughout this period, our hero and holy avenger Gabriel Belmont has fallen from grace, turned into the figure history would fear as Dracula. And in this Castlevania-redux universe, Dracula is fucking awesome.
The whole trailer is Gabriel ripping into an army of knights, whipping them senseless with his unholy might. The preview may display Gabriel harnessing hell’s fury on a horde (and then on a medieval mech), but the trailer calls into question just who the protagonist is and how many. Right after the title reveal, an armored individual with oddly familiar, flowing white hair steps onto the battlefield fully meaning to challenge Gabriel (which, like an immortal BAMF, Gabriel simply smirks at in acceptance).
Mercurysteam has already shown they intend on revisiting – and revising – the mythos of the main series by utilizing both Trevor and Simon Belmont in their handheld LoS. So, are they hinting that we’ll see, and maybe even play as, their version of Alucard? Well, that’d be cool.
[Oh, by the by, Wii U fans, I understand initial reports/rumors suggested a LoS2 counterpart on the new Nintendo console is also dropping. While the trailer doesn’t confirm it, we still have a full week of surprises.]