Konami blew quite a few minds at E3 when they announced that Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima would be involved in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, their upcoming reboot of the Castlevania franchise.

It has since come to light that the game is actually being made by Mercury Steam with Konami Europe producing. It wasn't even really a Castlevania game in the beginning. So just what does Kojima's involvement entail, then? The man himself answered that question in a recent Famitsu interview.

Apparently, Kojima Productions is playing more of a supporting role, with Kojima acting more as an advisor than anything else. He offers the developers his "objective viewpoint", pointing out things that need fixing such as reworking the hero's face to make him more "heroic".

Kojima also mentioned that one of their goals is to convince Western audiences to fully embrace the Castlevania franchise, something that hasn't quite happened yet with past titles in the series.

"People like Dave [Cox of Konami Europe] were influenced by Castlevania to become game designers, and now they're making titles like God of War. This has become a big project, one with the idea that we needed to make a Castlevania which had that same kind of feverish Western support, and that's why Kojima Productions came in to help."

Now that Kojima's had his say, I'm really looking forward to hearing what Koji Igarashi thinks. Casltevania: Lords of Shadow is slated for a 2010 release on PS3 and Xbox 360.

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• E3 2009: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow details, screenshots, and trailer