New Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer (this is the one by Kojima Productions)
 

http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/gc_2009/castlevania/

Yootoob'd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45J96HuKEUM&fmt=18

Character models are ugly (probably being done by Mercury Steam), but the gameplay seems fun and the voice acting is impeccable. Looks interesting, to say something.

Gameplay-wise, as long as it works like the PS2 games, it'll be great. Any idea where it fits in the timeline yet? And geez, I need to get a current-gen console one of these days.

In before God of War.

One of the boss fights looked kinda sorta Shadow of the Colossus -ish. Looks good. Look forward to seeing more.

I wish he had the super-curly hair his portrait has. He's no Japanese pretty boy, and I'm grateful for that (not that I have anything against Soma), but the wild hair would just put him over into the same style as Simon. Still, looks ok, though I have no idea how 3D Catslevania games play and the only game in the series I've beaten with 100% is Aria of Sorrow, so my opinion hardly counts.

Looks utterly fantastic, and being a Castlevania fan for longstanding I'm actually kind of glad Kojima got his hand in on this, because Castlevania's story has been an utter train wreck at times and this looks like it could really bring some cool elements to it.

People (who aren't Noncon) are saying God of War but if you want to play it that way, Lament of Innocence was just a really, really early version of God of War. So there.

Yeah, I'll buy it.

Decent games with decent gameplay that can get sometimes bland and godawful level design.

This looks to turn those things around.

An utter train wreck as opposed to Metal Gear Solid's totally coherent story?

I'm not against the idea of Kojima collaborating; I just find the suggestion of him somehow fixing Castlevania's plot issues to be kind of an oxymoron.

I'm definitely liking the character design, the whole fascination with overly feminine male lead characters just doesn't jive with the mainstream American audience, for what I'd think were obvious reasons, which is likely a key element to Metal Gear Solids success. We don't want some fairy princess who can magically defeat evil, we want a protagonist who can chew lead and shit bullets, so to speak.

The voice acting sounds incredible for a video game, or hell even for a sindicated television show, heh.

The gameply does seem rather reminiscent of God of War, of course that's not necessarily a bad thing considering how sweet that game was.

And while I'm sure anyone who's played an MGS game longer than fifteen minutes can attest to Kojima's propensity for, shall we say intricate plot lines, at least the random bat-shit crazy nonsense he puts together is interesting enough to keep us playing the games. I seriously can't remember any plot elements from the castlevania games I've played other than "vampires like blood"

It isn't necessarily fixing the plot, just the delivery and production and thematics. When I say it is a train-wreck, I am referring to the enjoyability of it, not necessarily it's place in the overarching history. A majority of MGS' story problems are due to the story running for four games that all try to gotcha! you to death. I liked MGS1 standing alone without three other games all retconning it over and over, and MGS3 was standalone enough in the same way.

I sincerely believe (or rather, hope) that the story isn't going to collapse upon itself trying to surprise you since that was never Castlevania's strong suit anyway. Given that it's a collaboration, I'm hoping he utilizes his fantastic storytelling (MGS3) with their clear-cut fantasy story.

I will gladly eat my own words if this is wrong, however.

I guess watching two trains collide does make for an interesting scene.

It doesn't make it any less of a disaster, but still, entertaining.

Kojima Productions is helping produce the game, but are not exactly actively involved. They're providing assistance in terms of promoting the game and giving it the attention it needs, as well as with motion capturing and probably some technical/general advice. The game itself is being developed by Mercury Steam, and it was only because of how promising it looked that it got Kojima's attention and got him involved to help push the project. Considering the high standards that Kojima has for his own development staff, for another team outside of Konami to impress him with their game so much that he wants to put him stamp on it, is a pretty impressive feat.

It also makes this thread title misleading but, oh well, I made you look.

Well slap me sideways and color me impressed. It's about time this series gets a well deserved breath of fresh air to it. I'm quite excited about this installment to the Castlevania franchise.

We are in complete agreement with this statement. Was gettin real damn sick of all the flawless prettyboys who looked like they lost their junk before puberty kicked in.