With its monster-fighting action, punishing difficulty and boppy soundtrack, 1986’s Castlevania was a standout title on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
In the nearly 40 years since, the series has spawned dozens of sequels, spinoffs and crossover media. But the publisher, Japan’s Konami, has let it slumber like a vampire in a coffin; its last new instalment came out in 2014.
Now, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse aims to bring in new and old fans alike by taking inspiration from the wildly different chapters of the series’ history as well as independent games it’s inspired over the years.
The result is mostly a roaring resurrection for the series blending old-school 2D exploration with breathtaking artistic direction — but its punishing difficulty could make it hard to recommend to newcomers to the genre.
Back to the Belmonts
Belmont’s Curse puts players in control of Rose Belmont, monster hunter and daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, two of the main characters from 1989’s Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse.
It’s 1499 and Paris is burning, under attack from monsters of unknown origin. Trevor shuffles offscreen to look for the local bishop, while Rose looks for clues in the Paris streets.
Dracula’s castle rises from the ground, surrounded by Paris in 1499. (All screenshots were captured from a build still in development.) (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
She’s also inherited a curse — a blood-red mark creeping up her right arm — from her mother who succumbed to it after a battle with Dracula over 20 years prior. Losing control of her emotions and giving into hate risks turning Rose into a mindless monster not unlike her enemies.
Things quickly go from bad to worse. Only a few hours into the adventure, Trevor is captured and Dracula’s castle rises from underneath Paris, seemingly destroying Notre Dame Cathedral in the process.
Various members of the Belmont family tree have been the main characters of most Castlevania games, and centring it back on them makes sense — not the least because Trevor and Sypha recently starred in the Netflix Castlevania animated series. Through the game’s roughly 15- to 20-hour runtime, however, the story will plumb both obvious and surprising corners of the series’ decades-long history.
Dynamic combat and movement
Belmont’s Curse roughly follows the same format as the fan-favourite 1997 entry Symphony of the Night. Taking cues from Nintendo’s Metroid and Zelda series, Rose can explore Paris and Dracula’s castle with its labyrinthine and interlocking locations, from an eerie cemetery where ghosts haunt visitors freely, or a clock tower full of giant metal gears and deadly machinery.
Rather than completing linear levels in sequence, players will run into dead ends or impassable hazards, eventually returning to them after discovering a new ability or equipment.
Dangerous traps and obstacles litter Paris and Dracula’s castle. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
Early on, for example, Rose gets a whip that she can use to swing over spike traps or lasso enemies, opening them up for an exhilarating powerful attack with her weapons including swords, lances and yes, more whips.
The so-called “Metroidvania” formula is a proven one, and it feels like coming back home seeing it here after years of indie games imitating and iterating upon it — such as the mega-popular Hollow Knight: Silksong from last year.
Rose uses a whip made of magical light as a grappling hook. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
It’s hard. Maybe too hard?
Players should use caution, however — while familiar monster types rear their heads again such as zombies, skeletons and floating medusa heads, everyone moves faster and hits much harder than in past entries.
You’ll have to use all your wits and reflexes to get Rose through some pitched battles, especially early on as her health and magic resources start small unless she finds upgrades hidden throughout the map.
Rose battles Medusa in an early boss fight. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
Even more punishing are the trap rooms — spinning razor blades, spiky pits and more arranged in devilish gauntlets that require timing just a little too precise, or jumping through gaps just a little too narrow to do reliably. Every new ability you find that theoretically makes them easier to navigate, only allows the level designers to add new ways to torment you.
Retracing your steps
This can make the need to backtrack and explore previously-seen areas all the more grating. Most older Castlevania games in this mold were fairly generous with rooms where you can save your progress and heal up, or warp rooms to zip back to relative safety.
Such sanctuaries are relatively rare in Belmont’s Curse. Too often you’ll need to backtrack for minutes at a time before reaching anything new, or even a place to breathe before planning your next route.
A section of the map in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, showing the interconnected parts of Paris the player must explore. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
There are difficulty settings that, for example, let you adjust how much damage enemies’ strikes inflict on Rose; but they don’t ease the trap rooms’ demands or make backtracking less tiresome.
Striking art and soundtrack
Despite the occasional frustrations navigating the maze that is Belmont’s Curse, the package is elevated by exceptional presentation and art direction.
Paris is swathed in brilliant colour palettes from the pitch-black catacombs with flickering orange or eerie green flames puncturing the darkness; to the relatively serene cemetery’s verdant greens and yellows getting gradually more poisonous as you delve deeper into its dangerous sewers.
Players can find items to upgrade their health and magic levels in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
Perhaps the height of it is the first approach to Dracula’s castle, an impossibly huge and baroque structure set atop the ruins of Paris, supporting chain links the size of buildings anchoring it to the ground, as Rose whips and slashes her way through stone gargoyles haunted suits of armour — all set to a booming remix of the series classic song Bloody Tears.
Special mention goes to the soundtrack in general, a mostly brand-new group of tracks effortlessly mixing the series’ usual classical foundation of choral chants and organ pipes with lo-fi beats and even the occasional dubstep reverberations.
A giant skull looms over Rose in the catacombs below Paris. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)
The story is also anchored by surprisingly poignant performances by voice actors, particularly Abby Trott as Rose and JB Blanc as a remorseful creature initially known only as The Fallen.
Switch version seriously falters
A word of caution, however: the Nintendo Switch version suffered from serious performance flaws in the review period as it was released on the original hardware and not the newer Switch 2 (though it can be played on either).
We experienced grainy, low-res visuals and longer load times on that platform, but worst was significant input delay between pressing a button and Rose moving or jumping on the screen. In a game that requires near-instant reaction times, this made the experience nearly unplayable.
The visuals and responsiveness were much better on the Xbox Series X version we played to completion. Konami says a Day 1 update will improve these issues on all platforms, but it wasn’t available by the time this review was filed.
