city. Development The game was announced at E3 2012. The developers' intention was to play as Dracula for the first time in the Castlevania series and conclude the storyline started in the first Lords of Shadow. Although the previous game was well-received, the designers noted it had several flaws which they wanted to fix while improving the gameplay. This includes reducing the game's over-reliance on quick time events, removing the fixed camera in favor of a 360 field, and improving the framerate. Rather than recycling elements from previous games, the team decided to redesign the game engine. The developers also felt Lords of Shadow was too linear, which introduced another change for the sequel: it will have an open world to give players a sense of exploration and avoid transitions between levels. Despite an initially linear path, players will be given multiple options as they progress. This was also intended to contrast with other action series such as Tenchu, Legacy of Kain and Devil May Cry. Designing the modern setting created difficulties for the developers. The team had previously done open world games but were disappointed with their quality and believe Lords of Shadow 2 will be an improvement over those. In a June 2012 interview with Nintendo Life regarding Mirror of Fate during E3 at the time, Lords of Shadow producer Dave Cox stated there were no plans to release Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on Nintendo's then upcoming Wii U console. Cox and Konami reaffirmed this several months later after the Wii U launched, citing lack of resources for porting the game. On February 12, 2014, a demo was made available on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam. Following the game's release, reports surfaced from anonymous sources stating to be developers at MercurySteam concerning the game's development. One source alleged that the development process had been "a degree of 'hell'", and laid the blame upon the game's director, Enric Álvarez. Álvarez, it was alleged, led the development "based on his personal criteria", while "completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists." A second source corroborated this information, bemoaning the lack of trust, leadership and communication between the teams working on the game. This source suggested that José Luis Vaello, a former art director at MercurySteam, left the studio for Tequila Works due to the conditions described. Álvarez denied the claims on Twitter stating "Is sad [to] see people giving