As near as I can tell, the Castlevania moniker was only slapped on recently for marketing purposes. No familiar characters or foes are featured, the setting does not look like the usual Castlevania game, and the music is most certainly not in the usual style. All of that may in fact be a good thing, as the 3D Castlevania games up until now have been pretty lame. This looks more like God of War in execution, which may be the proper route.

The part of the trailer that grabs me is the mask. “The mask is a powerful device.” “Can it really bring the dead back?” Those two lines really cut straight to the heart of this game’s story (or at least I hope so). Lost love and the mad quest to undo it, to disastrous consequences. I can see this as being a reboot for Dracula’s origin story. Because let’s face it, Lament of Innocence’s story was pretty lame.

With real voice talent (Patrick Stewart! Robert Carlyle!) behind it, Lords of Shadow may work as a story oriented game. If the script doesn’t include gems like “What is a man? A pitiful pile of secrets!” We’ll see.

And I really want a replica of that mask. Such a fantastic design.