Konami appears to be teasing a Castlevania 3D Collection

Konami could be lining up another Castlevania collection, this time centred on the series’ 3D games. There’s no announcement yet, and no confirmed title, release date or platform list, but recent Castlevania material has put three older games in an interesting position: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It’s a curious trio. Each game comes from a different point in Castlevania’s move into 3D, and each approached the series in its own way. Their appearance alongside newer Castlevania material has raised a fairly obvious question. Is Konami preparing a Castlevania 3D Collection? For now, the answer remains open.

Three Castlevania 3D games are getting attention

Lament of Innocence arrived on PlayStation 2 in 2003 and took Castlevania into a fully 3D action format. Players controlled Leon Belmont, with the story set early in the series chronology and focused on events surrounding the Belmont family’s conflict with Dracula.

Its structure mixed combat, exploration, upgrades and interconnected rooms. It wasn’t Castlevania trying to copy its 2D games scene for scene. Konami was working out how familiar ideas could function with free movement, a controllable camera and larger combat spaces. Curse of Darkness followed in 2005 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

This one moved away from a Belmont lead. Hector took centre stage, supported by the Innocent Devil system, which let players develop creatures with different skills and combat uses. Isaac played a major role too, linking Curse of Darkness with more recent Castlevania activity. Those two PlayStation 2 games already make sense beside each other. Lords of Shadow complicates things slightly, in an interesting way.

Lords of Shadow comes from a separate Castlevania era

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow launched in 2010, developed by MercurySteam with Konami publishing. Rather than continuing the existing chronology, it started a separate continuity and placed Gabriel Belmont at the centre of a more cinematic 3D action game.

Its design was very different from Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. Combat had a stronger focus, environments became larger and presentation moved closer to the big-budget action games appearing during the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 period.

Lords of Shadow later grew into its own series through Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2. A possible collection containing the first game raises another question: would Konami stop there, or include the complete Lords of Shadow run? There’s no answer yet. No game list has been announced, so any attempt to pin down the contents would go beyond the available information.

The Nintendo 64 games are still missing from the picture

Castlevania’s 3D history didn’t begin on PlayStation 2. Castlevania arrived on Nintendo 64 in 1999, followed by Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness later in the same year. Neither title forms part of the recent group drawing attention, leaving their place in any possible collection unclear.

Konami could group them with later 3D releases. It could handle them separately. They might have no connection to a future project at present. Nothing public settles the question. It does mean the name Castlevania 3D Collection, used here as shorthand for a possible compilation, shouldn’t be read as an official product title.

Konami already has a format for Castlevania collections

A new compilation wouldn’t come from nowhere. Konami has spent several years grouping parts of the Castlevania catalogue into themed releases. Castlevania Anniversary Collection covered much of the earlier period. Castlevania Advance Collection concentrated on portable entries from the Game Boy Advance years. Castlevania Dominus Collection moved attention to another group of games. The main 3D releases remain outside those packages.

Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness are particularly obvious gaps, since neither has appeared in Konami’s recent Castlevania collection series. Lords of Shadow comes from a newer generation, yet its inclusion would give a prospective package a wider view of how Castlevania changed once the series moved beyond 2D.

For now, this remains a case of several interesting pieces appearing in the same place rather than confirmation of a new release. Konami hasn’t announced a Castlevania 3D Collection. There’s no price, date, platform list or final selection of games.

Still, Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness and Lords of Shadow appearing together gives fans of the 3D entries something concrete to keep an eye on. If a collection does emerge, the biggest questions won’t concern whether Castlevania has enough 3D games to fill one. They’ll concern which ones make the cut.