Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is an action-adventure video game developed by MercurySteam and Kojima Productions, published by Konami and released on October 5, 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PC version was released on August 27, 2013. The game is a reboot of the Castlevania series. Set in Southern Europe during the Middle Ages, the story focuses on Gabriel Belmont and his quest to defeat a malevolent order known as the Lords of Shadow and resurrect his wife. The player controls Gabriel in 3D environments as he uses melee skills to defeat enemies and solves puzzles to move through the game. The game was originally announced as Lords of Shadow with no connection to the Castlevania series mentioned. This was done to keep their plans to radically change the direction of the Castlevania mythos a secret and to prevent the announcement of the game from upstaging another series release, Castlevania Judgment. Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, helped produce the title. The music was composed by Spanish composer Óscar Araujo, who was acclaimed for his work on the game. The game sold well and received positive reviews from video game publications. It was praised for new elements it provided to the franchise, although this was also the subject of criticism as it did not retain traits from previous Castlevania games. Konami requested that the development team produce more titles related to Lords of Shadow. This includes two sequels titled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.