Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate

Initially set 25 years after the events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate will reveal the story of Simon, a self-made warrior risen by the barbaric tribes of the forest who is set on a dangerous quest to kill the one who ordered the dark hordes to devastate his hometown and kill his parents; Alucard, a mysterious vampire with no memories who awakes from stagnation just to know the true of his origins and swears revenge on the one responsible; and Trevor, a honorable knight of the Brotherhood who leaves his family to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of Dracula. They will battle their own destiny in different eras only to discover their true, shocking fate.

Mirror of Fate, in its 3DS version, is the first title of the saga to benefit from the stereoscopic 3D. However, the movement is the classic 2D side-scrolling, as seen in the classic Castlevania games. The combat system is extensive, similar to its predecessor, with lots of combos, several secondary weapons and magic. Each encounter is important and has to be fought with care. In addition, the exploration side of the game is now more "metroidvania", where you have to revisit past maps with new powers to access blocked areas.

As the game is a series' reboot, popular characters, enemies and locations from previous titles are present. At all times, the player has access to the "Bestiary" where he can find info on all the enemies he encounter, the "Inventory" where he can check all his acquired powers, weapons and items, the "Skills" where he can learn how to execute his new abilities learned, and the "Map" where the player can check where he must go and write notes to remember unreachable areas or fonts to recover his life or mana.

For its HD version, almost a year later, the game received a major upgrade: enhanced visuals (better framerate, HD textures, improved lighting, depth of field, bloom, bevel, etc.), enhanced sound (remastered soundtrack, voices and sfx), a new game mode: the classic Boss Rush, tuned difficulty (no checkpoints for the hardcore difficulty!), QTEs removed almost completely, a new GUI (with improved map screen and enemies' weaknesses), a polished HUD (with minimap), loading screens (with never seen before concept art) with tips, leaderboards and achievements/trophies, rich presence, pad vibration, and tons of bugfixes.