Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate is a game published by Konami and created by MercurySteam for the Nintendo 3DS. The release date of the game has been pushed from Fall 2012 to early 2013 during Gamescon 2012. The release date of the game, March 5, 2013, was announced on December 6, 2012.

It will be the first Castlevania game to utilize stereographic 3D. The perspective is in 3D, but movement will be confined to 2.5D in most areas. It will utilize a combat system similar to its predecessor, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It will focus more on exploration than the original game did.

The game will feature four playable characters who will fight Dracula in his castle in different time periods. The game starts 26 years after the original Lords of Shadow game with Trevor Belmont, who is on a quest to destroy his father, Dracula, who was once Gabriel Belmont. Later parts of the game will feature his descendant Simon Belmont and Alucard. Gabriel Belmont will be playable in a short prologue set before the events of Lords of Shadow. The events of this game will lead up to the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 console game.

The game has won the 'Best 3DS Game' award from GameTrailers, during the 'Best of E3 2012 Awards'. As also the EGN "excellence E3 2012" award, the PureNintendo "Best Adventure Game", the Electric Playground "Best of E3", the IGN nomination for "Best 3ds Game" and XPLay nominations for "Best of E3" and "Best Handheld Game".

A demo was released on February 21, 2013 (Europe) and February 28, 2013 (North America), March 13, 2013 (Japan)

Story

 * Official background: Initially set 25 years after the events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate will reveal the story of Gabriel’s ancestors, 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 is now 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!

— Story Synopsis

Non-playable Characters

 * Sypha Belmont — Trevor's wife and mother of Simon.
 * The Lost Soul — An mysterious spirit found in Dracula's castle, representing the fate of all characters.
 * The Daemon Lord - A powerful monster that Gabriel was sent by the Brotherhood to capture, who confronts all of the characters throughout the game.

Plot
Note: This plot doesn't follow the gameplay of the game.

Pre-Lords of Shadow Era
Gabriel spends the night with his wife, Marie. In the morning, he rides to an unknown castle with three Brotherhood knights. They fight demons, but the three knights are killed. Gabriel then confronts the Daemon Lord, a powerful monster. He is wounded by the tail of the creature but uses his blood and a magical device to trap the beast.

While Gabriel is on his mission, Marie gives birth in secret to a son, Trevor. The Brotherhood asks Marie to hide the child from Gabriel, as his dark fate already is known.

Events of Mirror of Fate
Years later, in his house, Trevor looks desperate while his wife, Sypha, tries to help him. His son, Simon, plays with the Combat Cross, but his mother asks him to stop. Treor then stand up and decide to go confront his father, who became Dracula. After hugging his wife and telling her to leave to the mountains if he was not to come back, Trevor give Simon a necklace that is made of a piece of a mirror. He then arrives to Dracula's castle to kill Gabriel.

The two eventually fight. However, Trevor is killed by Dracula, who finally learns the truth about his son. His tentative to revive his son fails, and the vampire buries him in a coffin, with the name Alucard written on.

Years later, Simon awakes in a forest after a terrible nightmare in which his mother, Sypha, is killed by monsters near Dracula's castle. He then rides his horse through a village infested by zombies and arrives at Dracula's castle. Near an underground entrance awaits the Lost Soul.

Simon finally confronts Dracula, but before the two can fight, Alucard mades his entrance. Dracula is defeated by the alliance of the two warriors, but Alucard states this is not the way a vampire should die. Simon returns his medallion to The Lost Soul and leaves after Alucard refuses to tell him the truth about his father. Alucard takes the stake of the Combat Cross that killed him as Trevor and escapes the crumbling castle. Simon watches the castle collapsing from the forest.

Development
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate was first offically reported to be development by Nintendo Power. Producer David Cox stated in an interview they wanted to create a handheld interpretation of MercurySteam's previous game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which was released for PS3.

The developers decided to make the game 2.5D because they felt they couldn't replicate the format of their previous games without making compromises on the quality of the visuals. Another reason was that both the press and fans criticized Lords of Shadow for offering not enough exploration.

Super Castlevania IV served as an inspiration for the game, just as it did for the previous Lords of Shadow, but the nonlinear-style games were drawn from as well.