The Castlevania series has been bringing scares and hardcore action-platforming to gamers since 1986, but most of the 3D entries have pretty much sucked. The newest entry to the franchise, Lords of Shadow, seems to be heading in the right direction though.

The game itself was announced at E309 with some impressive trailers following in its wake, not to mention a cast of with some serious acting talent on their backs like Robert Carlyle, Patrick Stewart and Natascha McElhone.

In an interview with VG247, the game’s producer Dave Cox revealed some interesting new things about the upcoming game, one of them being the return of some very well known secondary weapons.

“The Combat Cross is the main weapon, and this can be upgraded a few times during the adventure to give you additional functionality such as gripping enemies or staking them. It’s both a cool weapon that allows the player to attack single or multiple enemies with different patterns, and you can use it in classic Castlevania style to swing across gaps or climb scenery.

You also have four secondary weapons that complement your main weapon. The two I can talk about now are Daggers and Holy Water. The Daggers can be thrown individually or in a fan, allowing multiple hits. Holy Water is, of course, an area of effect weapon that is particularly effective against vampires and other undead.”

While Lords of Shadow is, for all intents and purposes, a reboot of the Castlevania franchise, some familiar faces would appear during the game, though which characters wasn’t stated:

“We decided that this would be a reboot in every sense of the word, so that anyone could pick the game up and enjoy the story without needing to have played any other game in the series. This was very important.

However, having said that, we wanted the fan base to feel at home too. So yes, some characters from previous games will be appearing in the game, though not necessarily as they have appeared in old storylines but in an all-new, unconnected way.”

I am definitely excited about this game, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for the inclusion of the Vampire Killer theme.