(Oh boy, that old fight LoS-being-a-GoW-clone again... But I will be strong and should not participate... Or maybe yes???)
Dudes, c´mon. That argument against the originality of LoS is really old. I defend the saga as a game, but not as a part of Castlevania. But I am with the God of War "similar" (instead of clone) gameplay (because LoS takes gameplay from SoTC, Prince of Persia, and others too). I always said that its have similar gameplay but not only for the hack n´slash genre, but if only the lots of QTE were inexistent, then we might be speaking of other things of LoS.
As for the original question (if Castlevania is dead?) well, I agree with all of those that think is only a matter of time when we hear of another game. LoS 2 came last year, and maybe is because we have nearly a game per year, (DS and PS2 games, and LoS trilogy). So, for me the saga will never be dead, just in stand by.