Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Message Board

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Posted by IGN Feb 21 2014 19:00 GMT
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The Lords of Shadows story is completely nuts. Catch up on the Lords of Shadow Saga (LoS 1, Reverie, Resurrection, & Mirror of Fate) before Lords of Shadow 2 comes out!!

Posted by GoNintendo Sep 27 2013 18:06 GMT
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New York (September 27, 2013) – Sumthing Else Music Works, the premier record label dedicated to licensing and distributing video game soundtracks, today announced that it has entered into a multiple-title licensing agreement with Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., to release the original soundtracks from the critically acclaimed action-adventure video game series, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Featuring the original musical score from the best-selling title in Castlevania franchise history, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition Soundtrack is scheduled for a physical release on October 29, 2013 to North American and European retail outlets through Sumthing Else Music Works, and simultaneously for digital download at iTunes, Amazon MP3 and other digital music sites. An extended version of the album, the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Director's Cut, includes twenty previously unreleased tracks which will be available exclusively from www.Sumthing.com.

The partnership announced today also includes the upcoming album release for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate Original Soundtrack, available digitally on October 29 followed by a CD release in November, and the highly anticipated Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Original Soundtrack (Q1 2014).

Developed by Mercury Steam in association with Kojima Productions Studio, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010) is a dark and vivid new re-imagining of the Castlevania mythology. The epic original score, composed by Oscar Araujo and recorded with the 120-piece Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, received numerous accolades including 2011 'Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media' from the International Film Music Critics Association.

For more information on the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series, please visit: http://www.konami-castlevania.com/.

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Posted by GoNintendo Aug 15 2013 16:33 GMT
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Good news and bad news on this one, gang. The good news is, a retailer listing for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD has popped up. This seems to be an HD revamp of Mirror of Fate on 3DS, which is something Mercurysteam said was possible awhile back. The bad news is, the listing is only for PS3 and 360, as part of a Lords of Shadow collection. If we're not going to get this bundle, maybe we can hope for a Wii U eShop release.

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun Aug 02 2013 07:00 GMT
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I remain mystified as to why third-person action games called Castlevania exist. Why take one of the most inventive and interesting side-scrolling RPG platforming series, and reduce it down to the same combo-driven button mashing combat-fest that dominates so much of the console market? If this demo of the 2010 console game, Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow, finally ported to PC on the 27th August, is supposed to convince me otherwise, it’s failed.

(more…)


Posted by GoNintendo Aug 01 2013 17:12 GMT
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I found Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate to be a fantastic experience on the 3DS. It may have been a little rough around the edges, but the overall experience was a wonderful one. If you haven't picked up the title yet, maybe a price drop will help! Now you can grab the game for $30 on the 3DS eShop. Thanks to VGamer for the heads up!

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun Mar 18 2013 11:00 GMT
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It is the day after St Patrick’s Day. I am so hungover my face feels like it wants to run off down the street. All I want to do is sit here with a cup of coffee and watch Consolevania. What’s this you say? The dudes over at DSOGaming have spotted that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is coming to Steam? Oh praise The God of Games. Let’s just all sit here and have lovely Rab’s Glasgow patois talk about Lament of Innocence on Consolvania as celebration.(more…)


Posted by GoNintendo Mar 13 2013 19:29 GMT
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The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate demo is old news in the states. We've already seen the final game release! Our friends in Japan are just now getting the same demo that we received, available on the eShop. I'm actually pretty interested in seeing what the voicework is like!

Posted by GoNintendo Mar 05 2013 18:22 GMT
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – March 5, 2013 – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate is now available at retail stores in North America and South America exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS™system. Initially set 25 years after the events of its predecessor, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate reveals the story of Gabriel's descendants as they battle their own destiny in each era only to discover their true, shocking fate.

Trevor Belmont, a knight of the Brotherhood of Light sets out to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of his own father, who has now returned from years of exile to take up residence in a mysterious castle. What was once Gabriel Belmont now stands a powerful vampire called Dracula. Dracula has declared war upon the Brotherhood and thus the scene is set for a cataclysmic showdown between Father and Son.

The game's orchestral score by award winning composer Oscar Araujo is also showcased, adding to the suitably gothic atmosphere in a tale that explores the bonds of family and inescapable destiny.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate includes the following key features:

• Discover the history of the Belmont bloodline – Players go through the game, learning more about the history of the Belmonts, with the game exploring the blood feud between the Belmont clan and Dracula.
• Play multiple characters – Choose from several playable characters, each with unique abilities and skills across different eras.
• Share new abilities through character lineage – Gamers pass on their characters' newfound abilities in each era and discover the true destiny of the Belmonts.
• Battle massive bosses – Players experience challenging boss fights against huge enemies in full 3D, climb, traverse and overcome these monstrous adversaries, and use secondary weapons and magical abilities to take down these foes.
• Features unrivaled Nintendo 3DS™ Visuals – High resolution and detailed 3D polygon graphics with side scrolling areas and full 3D sections combined.
• Utilize Focus & Magic – Players use magic and kill enemies to gain experience and earn new combos and abilities using the travel book.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate is available today, March 5, 2013, for the Nintendo 3DS™ system at major retail stores in North America and South America, and is rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB and is priced at $39.99.

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Posted by GoNintendo Mar 04 2013 09:22 GMT
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I guess some might consider this a spoiler. The information comes from a scroll you find on one of the many skeleton knights hidden throughout the game. Hit the jump to have a read of the message.

Read the rest of the story...


Posted by GoNintendo Feb 28 2013 19:37 GMT
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Coming from David Cox...

Oh and we never cancelled the WiiU version because we never started a WiiU version for the reasons I just gave. Stop making shit up please

Now you know that the game was never slated to hit Wii U. Looks like those rumors from awhile back were only half true.

Posted by GoNintendo Feb 27 2013 18:13 GMT
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You're looking at the 237 musicians that recorded music for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. While I do miss hearing some of the classic Castlevania tunes, I can definitely appreciate the movie-like soundtrack the Lords of Shadow series has given us.

Posted by GoNintendo Feb 25 2013 20:15 GMT
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The first review for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate has come in from Spanish gaming magazine, Hobby Consolas. They scored the game a 93%. The only detail we know is that the reviewer claims to have wrapped the game up in 9 hours. Playtests indicate a 16 hour playthrough on your first run, but doing it around 9 hours, while quite exceptional, can be done.

Posted by GoNintendo Feb 20 2013 19:06 GMT
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Want to know how Mirror of Fate came into development? MercurySteam originally started the project as a way to keep busy and avoid being shut down.

"That is the nature of game development. Look what's happened to [Darksiders developer] Vigil. Generally you do ramp up towards the end of a project and then you do let some people go. But, basically, we put everything into Lords of Shadow. The studio banked everything on it. It was, literally, if we don't have a project by the end of the month, we're finished."

That wasn't the only blip on the radar that Mirror of Fate saw. The game was originally delayed from a release last year. This was in response to some negative opinions at E3 and to improve overall quality.

"We just weren't happy with certain elements of it. The combat wasn't right. The lighting wasn't right. The framerate wasn't good. So we delayed the game. We felt we wouldn't be happy putting the game out there like that."

Link

Posted by GoNintendo Feb 15 2013 17:44 GMT
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate is looking to be a great title to add to your 3DS collection, but will it be one that provides enough challenge? A recent preview for the title revealed that boss battles actually have a checkpoint within them, letting you pick up mid boss fight if you die. I'm all for making a game accessible, but this idea seems a bit too much.

Posted by GoNintendo Feb 04 2013 18:09 GMT
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A portion of a GamerLiving interview with producer David Cox...

GL: The 3D component of the 3DS: how crucial is that to the experience of the game, as opposed to bringing the game out on the PlayStation Vita?

David Cox: I think what you can boil it down to is that we considered the Vita, we considered the 3DS; you know, the team made a prototype very, very quickly, showed us what the game looked like and their ideas for the game: ‘Here it is on the Vita,’ and ‘Yeah, fantastic, that’s really nice, amazing.’ And ‘Here it is on the 3DS, but you can do this, we can bring the camera in, we can bring it out. And the world, it’s a 3D world, it looks like a diorama and we can play with the perceptions of the user because they’re expecting it to be a 2D game but it’ll actually be 3D and the camera will go third-person.’ And, I said to Jose Luis, ‘We can only do one of these games. We haven’t got enough people; we haven’t got enough money to do both. What do you want to do?’ And he said, ‘Look, we’re really excited about the 3DS. We want to do it on the 3DS because we think there’s more possibilities.’ And I was thinking, ‘Ok, we’re all going to give up two years of our lives working on this title, and it’s the 3DS that they’re excited about.’ And that’s really the only reason why we went with 3DS. It’s not to say it won’t ever come out on the Vita or on any other system because the game itself could easily get released on another system, but that essentially is the reason why we chose it for the 3DS.

Posted by GoNintendo Jan 24 2013 18:53 GMT
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I guess it's release date confirmation day in Japan! Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate is the latest game to get a confirmed release date in Japan, landing on March 20th. Looks like the states and Europe win out this time!

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Posted by Giant Bomb Jan 19 2013 02:45 GMT
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Things get off to a truly unprofessional start as we enjoy a casual Friday on the couch.

Posted by GoNintendo Jan 08 2013 03:28 GMT
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate producer David Cox has commented on Twitter, letting everyone know that there will indeed be a demo for the title. It will be released via eShop prior to the game's release, but won't be out this month. On top of that, we can expect more info and a trailer soon.

Posted by GoNintendo Dec 20 2012 22:15 GMT
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The following information comes from Mercurysteam's Dave Cox...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate has gone GOLD

I really thought I'd be playing this game in 2012, but that wasn't meant to be. At least it sits near the top of my most-wanted games in 2013!

Posted by GoNintendo Dec 07 2012 18:56 GMT
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This image comes from the end of yesterday's 'Trevor' trailer. Looks like we have a final confirmation on that release date. Man, I don't want to wish time away, but I really can't wait to go hands-on with this game!

Posted by GoNintendo Aug 16 2012 18:56 GMT
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Just incase you were holding out hope for a 2012 launch for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate in the states, I'm here to take that hope away. Konami has reconfirmed the delay, but they didn't state any reason as to why the title was pushed back. Well isn't that frustrating?

Posted by GoNintendo Aug 13 2012 17:56 GMT
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This information comes from Konami's PR for Gamescom...

Konami’s resurrection of the Castlevania series continues, as the breath-taking Castlevania: Lords of Shadows series heads to Nintendo 3DS in 2013 with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. Developed by Mercury Steam and acting as a prequel to the forthcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the Nintendo 3DS game follows Trevor and Simon Belmont as they enter the shadow-laden castle of series villain, Dracula.

With 2013 being the case in Europe and no mention of the game in today's press release, I fear 2013 is the new release period in the states as well. Thanks to NintenDaan for the heads up.

Posted by GoNintendo Aug 08 2012 18:28 GMT
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"We listened to feedback from the audience about what they did and didn't love about Lords Of Shadow. It's fair to say that exploration will play a bigger part in Mirror Of Fate. The game is still a combat action-adventure game, but we felt that was an area we could develop further to make it more interesting for players and give them more of a world. So in Lords Of Shadow, 90 per cent of the game takes place in the castle, the map is very reminiscent of the Metroidvania style of games. We're not trying to recreate a Metroidvania style game; what we're trying to do is expand exploration beyond the old linear style." - David Cox

I don't care what you're trying to do with the game. Just finish it up and get it into my hands!

Posted by Joystiq Jun 29 2012 17:30 GMT
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Developer MercurySteam and publisher Konami weren't expecting Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to be as successful as it was, which ultimately resulted in its poorly received downloadable content, according to producer David Cox. "The problem was that the game's success caught everyone by surprise," Cox recently told Gameranx, "It caught senior management by surprise and they wanted us to do DLC."

The team "never planned" to create DLC, and the content that they created was then "rushed" to market, Cox added, referring to the whole situation as a "mistake." If it could be done again, he said, DLC would have been planned from the get-go, and what was released would have been more of a "side story," as opposed to content that adds to the ending. This appears to be Cox's philosophy for downloadable content in general, as he noted further, "Instead of giving players a part of the story and giving them the other part as DLC, I think the DLC has to expand the universe of an already whole product."

Presumably, if Lords of Shadow 2 has any DLC - which Cox won't admit just yet - it will be handled with much more care.

Posted by GoNintendo Jun 09 2012 02:21 GMT
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"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. 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." - Dave Cox, Head of Product Planning and Development at Konami

I honestly don't care what the inspiration is behind the game. I absolutely loved what I played and can't wait for the final product!

Posted by GoNintendo May 29 2012 16:52 GMT
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- deep combat mechanics
- involves Trevor Belmont
- Fight with Trevor's version of the Combat Cross
- strong attacks with X
- wider-reaching attacks with Y
- secondary weapons like the boomerang-like glaive and electric bomb
- use these with A
- grab enemies with R
- block and dodge with L
- involves light and shadow magic returns
- earn experience points to unlock new combos
- these include launching foes into the air, smashing enemies down to the ground and more
- includes skeletons, axe-wielding undead and more

Thanks to Alejandro for the heads up!

Posted by Giant Bomb Aug 10 2011 15:00 GMT
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The Prisoner and Twilight Zone were the first comparisons that came to mind upon seeing The Witness.

Setting expectations at the door is the most reasonable thing a person could do when walking up the dozen or so plant-riddled steps to enter Jonathan Blow's just-up-the-hill apartment in San Francisco.

Stepping inside, there's not much to take in--no clutter--but maybe he cleaned up for us. It's very, very clean, outside of the obvious flatscreen TV, a sheathed sword hanging about a fireplace (and plenty of additional firewood nearby), and a few stacks of media. I notice an opened copy of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow sitting near the top. Behind the couch Ryan and I are sitting on, there's a minimal amount furniture...except for a gigantic keyboard, naturally.

The Witness probably won't look much like this when Blow unveils the finished game next year.

Blow sat down in a chair next to us, loaded up an early version of his new game, The Witness, and spoke.

"I knew this was going to be a really ambitious project for an indie to try and do, so I didn't want to do it for a while," he said. "I prototyped some other things, but then eventually, I [said] 'yeah, this is the game I really want to make.' So, I started a new company because I have employees now!"

He laughed at the notion of having employees, but it's true; there are two, with more incoming. And even though Blow formed a company to release Braid, he started another company for The Witness, pointing towards the additional legal wrinkles of hiring pople as the primary motivator.

Blow is the brain behind the The Witness' design, but the complexities of creating a 3D video game at the scale fitting his vision required those with expertise beyond his own. He hired a 3D modeler and a 3D engine programmer. Hoping to avoid any personal conflict, he purposely didn't bring on any friends. Even with the new help, he still codes.

In terms of basic design (i.e. puzzles), The Witness is largely finished.

"I feel like now I'm already happy with the game design," he said. "It's a good game. I have a year to tune puzzles. [...] What you guys have played right now is what I finished up about a year ago. I consider it polished for prototype."

Since then, Blow has been tweaking how the player moves, how the interface feels.

Unlike virtually ever other press encounter with a game, Blow did not run us through a demo. He provided a brief introduction for context, warned what parts of the game weren't done (art, sound, story), and left the room. The idea of having him standing over our shoulder as we worked through his own puzzle logic was too stressful. Fortunately, it stressed him out, too.

This is the first puzzle in the game (right now). It looks simple--go from one end to the other--but it's just the beginning.

Ryan attempted to articulate what we played for the next two-and-a-half hours in a preview. If you want a more detailed explanation of what The Witness is from the player perspective, make sure and read that before going forward. Now, we're going to jump ahead to when our brains began to hurt, the moment most people would set the game down for the night.

In essence, The Witness is a first-person adventure with puzzles like Myst--but course corrected.

"I really enjoyed Myst when it came out, but I wasn't a professional game designer at that time," he joked.

What do I do next? I guess I'll click here. And here. And here. And here. And here. There, too.

Even without looking at Myst from a designer's perspective, the genre's had issues. What's the designer thinking? As much as I adored Sam & Max Hit the Road and countless other LucasArts adventures, I can't tell you the number of times I'd look up a solution and feel no remorse; there was no way that answer would have ever popped in my head. And don't get me started on the amount of money I may or may not have charged to my parents' phone line calling a 1-800 number for Tex Murphy hints.

There was a logic to the puzzles, sure, but the logic often wasn't apparent until you finally solved it. Some games were worse than others, but even the best of adventure games fell into the trap on occasion.

"In Myst or whatever," he said, "every frickin' lever looks different, behaves different, you don't know what it does. The gameplay is the 3D version of hunt the pixel. What part of this giant machine on the wall is interactive and what does it do? I tried to filter all that out. Once you filter all that out into an interface that's very clear, 'oh, that's a puzzle, I know that's a puzzle. I know basically what I have to do. I have to go from the beginning spot to the end spot, but there's something I have to know to know which way to go.' Once it's that clear, then you can do a lot of crazy, out of left field stuff."

In The Witness, the puzzles are front, center and clearly puzzles. They're all on clearly labeled monitors.

In addition to tackling puzzle games, Blow grumbled over the effect focus testing has had on video games. His ultimate struggle, it seems, is fine tuning the concept of difficulty in a world where challenge isn't really mainstream anymore.

"I think of this being around the time Tomb Raider came out and where, somehow, a puzzle became figure out what lever to pull and then the door opens," he said. "What I've been trying to do with this, and also with Braid, is how can I get real puzzles into a game without *crag*ing the game [up] in the old style [like Myst]? You don't prevent the player from finishing."

Braid made you feel stupid, really stupid, but only because the solutions seemed so obvious.

The Witness is as much like Braid as it is different, but what the two share in common is the sense of accomplishment when a particularly evil puzzle is solved, the mixed feelings of frustration and wonder when the solution, which seemed so distant just moments ago, becomes painfully obvious. It was there all along, you just hadn't looked at it just right. To explain those moments is to spoil what made Braid, and what may make The Witness, special experiences.

In Braid, however, there was a sense of guilt when you left a puzzle and moved on. You had given up, even if you had every intention of coming back. Leaving a screen has a certain finality to it, which Blow's attempted to solve in The Witness through the 3D environment. There are segments of puzzles across the island, each with its own particular ruleset, but if you get stumped, just walk away. There's no loading screen, nothing. If the solution magically comes to you later, just walk back over.

Puzzles in The Witness are chained together by rule sets, getting more and more complicated.

"It's an open world, you can do whatever you want, but when you get to a certain area, it's linear," said Blow. "You get a feeling of progress. If it was just a bunch of puzzles out in the middle of a flat plain it's like 'okay, I did that, but I don't know why or what's going on.' This is adding just enough context."

The Witness already looks pretty great, even if its visually primitive form. Over the next year or so, Blow will be hitting the game with a "production stick" to transform it. He's working with architects to create the buildings, developed a whole mythology to the island simply to inform its look.

There's a reason these houses, castles and other objects are here, even if the game never says why.

"The shape of the island right now is just what happened as I was designing the game, like 'oh, the castle should be up high or whatever' but it's not planned," he explained. "What we want to do is invest it with another layer of reality by making it real geology. If there's a ridge here, it happened because of some geological event."

Someone put those puzzles there, too.

Blow was eager to tell us more about the island's secrets, but we actually stopped him from saying too much more. There's only so much he could say, anyway, as the story is still being sketched out. There were some portable radios scattered throughout the island to be discovered, but the writing and voices were all temporary. Everything could change before release.

We'll all know how it turns out in a year or so, when Blow thinks the game will be ready for release.

"What I would have told people was the worst thing about adventure games, you can actually make good...somehow," he said.


Video
Posted by GameTrailers Jul 13 2011 23:04 GMT
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Imagine Simon Belmont in full 3D in this never-before-released concept footage from Lords of Shadow!

Posted by Joystiq Jun 03 2011 02:30 GMT
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The final piece of downloadable content for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will be released next week, according to Konami. Entitled "Resurrection," the new chapter follows on the previously released "Reverie" DLC and "lays bare the fate of both Gabriel and the Belmont clan." The DLC sees Gabriel facing off with a demon known as "the Forgotten One" -- he's the large fellow pictured above -- and promises a "stunning finale" to the story.

"Resurrection" is scheduled to arrive on Xbox Live on June 7, and PSN on June 8, for $10.

Posted by Joystiq Apr 16 2011 03:15 GMT
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After its impromptu delay, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's DLC, Reverie, is suited up and ready to attend the monster's ball -- er, actually, bad phrasing. The point is that it's coming next week and Xbox 360 users worldwide and PAL PS3 gamers will finally be able to get a taste of it.

Confirmation comes via game director David Cox's Twitter account, where he apologized for the delay and thanked fans for patience. Sadly, Cox didn't reveal an exact day of the week, but we'll be sure to whip out a post when it's known. See what we did there? Huh?

...

Okay, yes, we're totally sorry we did that.