Spanish magazine player is now in stores and with it some new info on Kojima and Mercury Steam’s new Castlevania.
-Kojima’s role is telling them what he thinks could be improved, not just about the gameplay, but also marketing, PR, graphics… it’s not “You have to do this”, but rather “I like it but this would make it even better”. He’s been in Madrid supervising development and his team has helped with facial and battle animations.
-The game is not like God of War or Devil May Cry, the team is trying to create a different, darker - more mature atmosphere. Expect a much deeper story involving a love story.
-Think of platforming like Uncharted 2, impossible jumps and an indiscriminate use of the whip to grab stuff and to go from one place to the other. Add to that a deep combat system and complex puzzles, that’s what they are shooting for.
-Originally, the project was going to be a remake of the first Castlevania, but since Castlevania IV was already a remake, they went on to create a 3D version of this style of Castlevania whose core was action and platforming. Super Castlevania IV is their “Bible”.
-Both primary and secondary weapons can be upgraded, there are also relics which grant new abilities to Gabriel (probably the usual stuff like Double Jump).
-Battle system is not about mashing buttons but about strategy, which has been taken into account when designing enemies and backgrounds.
-The game is 70-75% complete. Currently the game is playable from beginning to end. Now it’s all about an immense amount of polish to graphics and gameplay.
-They want to create a living world which they feel is missing in other action games and it’s a part of the Castlevania series. Gabriel is strong, but also has a softer side.
-Even though the higher ups loved their tech and the Castlevania demo Mercury Steam showed them, the project took some time to get started because they felt taking the series in a new direction wouldn’t work. Which is why the game was first announced as “Lord of Shadows”. When they demoed it again with Kojima in the room, he immediately wanted to support the project, and so it was finally green-lit.
-There will be no CG in Castlevania. Everything is done in-engine, including cinemas.
-It will be shown at E3, the masks from the teaser site play a big role in the game. Expect a huge blowout at E3.