I’m totally loving the vibe from the latest Castlevania: Lord of Shadow trailer released at the Tokyo Game Show recently. I first watched it on Joystiq and had to post it on my blog for more people to see. As you watch the trailer, remember this is a Kojima consulted production and that man sure knows how to tell a story. Thank god the set pieces in the trailer look amazing. Continue reading for my reaction to different parts of the trailer:
The initial church interior shows didn’t make me feel like the graphics were being pushed and should have been omitted. I already knew the game is pushing the graphics and it felt unfair to bring the expectations down before jacking them through the roof.
The characters Gabriel encounters are well rendered and the translated lines show a lot of time has also gone into dialogue. I can feel a lot of inspiration from the Pan’s Labyrinth movie as well as scale from Shadow of the Colossus and God of War 3. I really liked where Gabriel told a mountain sized golem creature that it would be bowing before him soon. It would be ironic if the slow moving golem creature just moved at a normal pace and squished Gabriel between his hands = Game Over.
The trailer shows a glimpse of the generic story where humans have been shut off from God’s light and evil is tearing up the place unchecked. Gabriel’s wife is murdered by some evil in the land and I assume Gabriel will find out it’s Conner, I think it’s his best friend. Gabriel is told by Pan to get the mask fragments, assemble it and then have the power to do whatever he needs to do.
My guess for the deeper story is eventually Gabriel will obtain the powerful mask only for Death or other evil creatures to steal it away. The trailer showed Death holding the completed mask at one point before I assume doing battle with Gabriel as the almost naked human surrounded by darkness. It seems obvious the mask is going to corrupt Gabriel, backfire with a resurrected zombie wife or turn Gabriel into Dracula, the real lord of shadows.
I’ll be playing this game for sure. Either I or someone I know will be picking it up day 1. Now go back and rewatch the trailer!
