Whoops—another online retailer has inadvertently revealed something they shouldn’t have. This time it’s Amazon, with what looks very much like a special edition of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This sort of thing is happening so often now, it’s almost like it’s deliberate. There’s a conspiracy theory to chew on. Enjoy.
So what is a special edition? A miserable little pile of extras? Or something more?
As can be seen from the picture above, there’s two Xbox 360 game discs, a soundtrack CD and a “The Art of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow” book. Fairly standard special edition fare, then. The box art is also different, sporting a blood red motif as opposed to the blue-tinged standard art.
Lords of Shadow producer David Cox was keen to let everyone know not to put too much faith in these images. Speaking with Joystiq earlier today, he said “the images of the special edition leaked onto the net are mock ups and NOT final.” He also noted that Amazon “jumped the gun” by publishing early images.
Question is, though, how did Amazon get their hands on images that supposedly weren’t final? Is there an Amazon content editor bored enough to mock this up? Was it leaked from someone at Konami?
Lords of Shadow is hotly anticipated by many. As yet another attempt to reboot the Castlevania franchise into 3D, though, will it enjoy any success? The series has been beaten into the ground and resurrected so many times by now it’s a wonder there are still games with the Castlevania name appearing on them.
In fact, Lords of Shadow almost didn’t have the name Castlevania attached to it. Originally announced simply as Lords of Shadow, the Castlevania connection was kept secret until later. This may have been for several reasons: firstly, to make the new game more accessible to players unfamiliar with the series’ mythology. The main character wasn’t even revealed to be a Belmont until much later into development. Konami’s official line, though, is that they wanted to keep the radical reboot of the Castlevania mythos a secret. Given critical and popular reception to past 3D reboots, this was probably a sensible thing to do. This way, gamers can get excited about the game on its own merits without pre-judging it based on what they expect a Castlevania game to be.
Regardless, though, many are looking forward to the game, Castlevania or not. And a decent-quality special edition that doesn’t come with too much gimmicky junk? That sure is a refreshing change in these days of endless “collectible statuettes” and night-vision goggles. It would have been easy for Konami to throw in an “authentic vampire-slaying whip”, but mercifully they haven’t. That one might have been tough to explain to visitors if it was left lying around. Castlevania has long been known for its excellent soundtracks, though. It’s good to see that there will likely be an audio CD in the box. Especially with “proper” soundtrack composer Oscar Araujo working on the music.
The other advantage of a relatively “low-key” special edition is that the price won’t be excessive. In some game stores, special editions like this are the same price as the regular game during release week. It’s a far cry from paying two or three times the price for some gimmick that clutters up shelves and will likely be relegated to a cupboard in a few months.
Since the vampire bat is out of the bag now, expect an official word from Konami on a special edition some time soon.
