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It’s going to be blasphemy to say this, but I hated Castlevania right up until Koji Igarashi rejigged it and made Symphony of the Night. When KONAMI released that masterpiece in 1997, that was it for me. They had me for life, and IGA made me a fan of his forever. I’d be down for any Castlevania, any time… Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse included.

Sigh… If you ask me, the years after Symphony of the Night were Castlevania’s golden age. After we got that masterpiece, we got the incredible (but not quite as good) portable entries. We even had decent 3D Castlevanias…even a fighting game! It was still the Metroidvanias that were the standouts, though. The Sorrow duology (Dawn and Aria) could even be considered worthwhile successors (in some aspects), but they didn’t capture that magical spark that Symphony of the Night had.

When IGA left KONAMI and made Bloodstained (which is also sadly inferior to Symphony of the Night), I’d given up hope of ever seeing a good Metroidvania coming from KONAMI ever again. Turns out I was half right. That’s because Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse isn’t a pure-blood KONAMI creation… but does that matter in the end?

What is Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse?

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a 2D ‘action-exploration’ game as KONAMI puts it. That’s just corporate double-talk because they can’t legally call it a Metroidvania like the rest of us plebeians. It was jointly developed by Evil Empire in collaboration with KONAMI, which also handled publishing.

Our review code was provided to us by the awesome folks at KONAMI. Thanks so much!

In Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, you’re taking on the role of Rose Belmont, the daughter of Trevor and Sypha from Castlevania III. Yup, if you’ve watched Netflix’s Castlevania animated series, you know who I’m talking about.

Trevor is beseeched by one of the Church higherups to come to Paris and help cleanse it from a demonic infestation. Trevor feels something isn’t quite right, but accepts the invite anyway. Rose tags along with her father to gain more experience in the family business…so to speak.

While the initial lore here isn’t that revelatory, it gets much more interesting for fans as you unravel the plot. It’s honestly the most surprising plot in a Castlevania game yet, so if you’re a hardcore fan, get ready for some decent twists on the series’ lore.

Also, I love that Evil Empire names every. single. one. of the map screens you enter.

No other Castlevania has done that. You usually get an area name reveal at the outset of a new location and that’s it in past games. In Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, every time you enter a new map segment, a small banner unfurls at the top of your screen to tell you what the immediate area is called.

Are these essential to gameplay?

Most of the time? Nope.

It is, however, essential to world-building, and I appreciate… nay, LOVE that Evil Empire took the damn time to name every map screen. It makes the locations feel memorable and lived-in instead of a collection of interconnected rooms you have to cross.

These named areas also fit in nicely with the clues Rose finds throughout the game. You might encounter a spirit saying that the hollow tree roots hide a secret, and then find a location marked Hollow Tree Garden or something. DING! You can literally see the lightbulb going off as you make the connection!

It’s a small touch, but it makes exploration feel like learning a place rather than simply checking another room off the map. You start recognising locations and understanding how they fit together. I wish more games put this much thought into making their worlds feel like actual places.

When Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse works, it is stellar.

Swinging around with the whip, sliding under projectiles to get close to smack somebody in the face, tossing a boomerang cross to keep up the DPS as you fight to stay alive, finding wall chicken hidden away! The game works best when it allows you to improvise in combat encounters, letting you use Rose’s repertoire without outright saying you MUST do this move here, then that move there.

There’s a flexibility to the game that’s rare in Castlevania titles. You’re not just forced into a single weapon type, as Rose gains different gear as she progresses. These fall into multiple distinct types – gloves, spear, twin blades, bastard sword, whip or sword. Each has its own style and attributes.

I found myself switching around as I played as the weapons all had areas they excelled in and sucked at. The spear family, for example, is really flexible. You get a long poking weapon that also doubles as a ranged weapon. That makes it good for hitting distant enemies and dangerous foes but it’s lacking in speed and power when you put it up against the gloves.

There’s even a sword that hits multiple times like the Crissaegrim but I still found myself going back to the tried and true Vampire Killer whip after I got it.

The system encourages experimentation, which I really enjoyed. You’re not told to stick with one weapon and punished for trying something else.

Different weapons encourage different approaches, and finding the right tool for a particular enemy can be satisfying. It’s a shame the equipment system isn’t deeper, because there’s a solid foundation here for something even better.

I’m a bit sad that Evil Empire took out equipment and item drops (farming enemies for their rare gear was something I personally loved) leaving only the barest gear management.

In Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse you have control of what relics you equip, what spell and what weapon. That’s it. You can change Rose’s look, but that’s by equipping different skins instead of armor management.

If nothing else, this shows that KONAMI was right in entrusting Evil Empire with Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.

They do know the essence of what makes Castlevania…Castlevania.

They’ve genuinely added in some mechanics that I would love to see return in future games and expanded upon.

I love the idea of Rose’s spells growing more powerful once you’ve accomplished some milestones. It gives you mini (but optional) challenges to aim for as you traverse the map. Don’t want to do them? Fine. Nobody’s forcing you to. If you’re good enough to pull them off though, you’re rewarded with better abilities.

That’s something that even Symphony of the Night fails at. Imagine if you could’ve improved one of Alucard’s spells if you killed 20 zombies in a row with the Crissaegrim sword, for example. Or the Alucard Sword would unlock a new form if you murdered 1,000 humanoid enemies with it or something.

All this would’ve added in another layer of enjoyability to the game…which it does for Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. Evil Empire truly has some good ideas that they’ve implemented in the game.

Another one of those is the Holy Light shield.

Once you beat a certain boss, you get this ability. It lets you block any attack IF you activate it just as you’re about to get hit. It adds another tactical element for skilled players, yet doesn’t penalize weaker ones that can’t pull it off consistently enough (or at all) for it to be useful.

Some of the stages make interesting use of your traversal abilities (particularly the whip swing) too. Some of these are real tests of skill, and even I felt challenged to beat a few of them. I did beat them, though usually with sweaty palms after some frantic platforming. You usually get rewards for them too, so you do get incentives to do them…though sometimes the rewards don’t really measure up to the hell you have to go through to get them.

I’m a bit disappointed that there weren’t more of these types of rooms to be honest. But then again, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse isn’t billed as a hardcore Castlevania title, so it makes sense to make them outlier challenges instead of primary ones.

It however, is hands-down the Castlevania with the most fan service I’ve ever seen.

It incorporates nods and winks from past Castlevania games like Curse of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, Portrait of Ruin, Circle of the Moon and that’s just for the plot points! Then you have enemies that run the gamut from pretty much every Castlevania entry…Blood Skeletons, Weretigers, Harpies, Medusa Heads, Axe Armors…I don’t have space to list them all!

Even Alucard gets a massive shoutout in the game.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the developers avoid questionable decisions.

What happened to the sub-weapons or the bestiary?

Sub-weapons like the Holy Water and Daggers are all gone, replaced by the spells you get from the Tarot cards. Why not have both in the game? It just removes combat options from players for barely any discernible reason (other than to force you to use the spells).

The worst offender, however, is the lack of a bestiary.

In past Castlevanias, one of my favourite things to do was to look up enemy entries and see what their lore descriptions were. You don’t even get enemy name pop-ups anymore! Unless you’re a fan, you won’t even know what some of the monsters you’re fighting are called.

How does a major feature like this get axed? Was the Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse gameplay design team so intimidated by legacy features that they had to cut out core mechanics to make room for theirs?

And no, this isn’t me being an old fart who wants every new Castlevania to copy Symphony of the Night wholesale. I’m fine with developers rethinking established mechanics when they have something better to offer. But removing a feature should accomplish something worthwhile. Without the bestiary, there’s less information about the monsters you fight; without traditional sub-weapons, there are fewer combat options.

Those are meaningful sacrifices, and I’m not convinced the replacements justify them.

I’m also puzzled by the decision to give Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Souls-like elements. Specifically, enemies don’t respawn unless you save and replenish your HP.

If this is a pure Metroidvania like Super Metroid or the Ori games, where you don’t have offensive (and defensive) stats or XP to level, then fine. It won’t affect things in the least. In fact, it might even encourage newbies to dabble in the game because it’s not so punishing. I’m all for getting more fans into the series.

However, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse has an XP system underneath the hood. That means killing enemies gives you experience, which allows you to level up, which in turn makes you stronger. What do gamers like to do with an XP system? They grind, of course.

It’s part of the joy of the Metroidvania-style Castlevania games! You find a particularly easy and rewarding XP loop and you grind (and abuse) the hell out of it! Grinding for better gear, grinding to improve stats…grinding for grinding!

When you remove respawning enemies, that makes grinding an exercise in frustration. No longer can you do the tried and true method of running into a room, massacring everything, and running out to reset it for another go. If you feel you’re underpowered, you have to jump through hoops to level up instead of it being a seamless process. This does not spark joy!

The problem isn’t that levelling should be effortless. Games can absolutely ask you to earn your upgrades. The problem is that the progression system encourages grinding while the respawn rules actively discourage it. If I’m rewarded for killing enemies and getting stronger, why make repeating that process such a chore? Commit to a system that supports grinding, or build progression around exploration and skill. Having both systems pull in opposite directions just makes the experience unnecessarily frustrating.

There is a relic that allows you to have respawning enemies, but it’s a very late game find and by then, it pretty much is useless.

To their credit, perhaps Evil Empire (or somebody at KONAMI) foresaw this. Maybe that’s why the game has a customisation section that allows you to tweak aspects of the game before you even start. More potions at the outset, more damage and, crucially, more XP.

I strongly suggest you take this chance to raise the XP rate to its maximum. It’s either this, or suffer the consequences later. It doesn’t affect achievements, so go ahead and raise other parameters too. I also recommend raising damage to at least 2x (to make enemies less spongy), but leaving everything else untouched. Do not add extra potions. It might seem like a good idea, but it’ll make the game much too easy.

The game’s art style is decent, but it honestly is a bit derivative. It hews much too closely to the animated Castlevania entries on Netflix. That’s not a bad thing because the design itself doesn’t suck. The characters look good, monsters cool…even the UI is praiseworthy.

The stages look passable too, and while some of them aren’t set in Castlevania itself, they fit in with the theme. I would have preferred a more gothic selection of locales (or a more gothic art style in general) but that’s just my preference. You know a stage is good when you find yourself staring into the depths of the background and just envisioning the place in your head.

I find myself tending to do that on the Castlevania locations that I love (such as the Chapel and Library in Symphony of the Night) and I did find myself doing it here too. Some of the more elaborate backgrounds really spur on the imagination if you let it. The Catacombs easily leads the list for my favourite in-game location in this entry.

If there’s one thing that I need to highlight about Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse’s art style over anything else, it’d be its sense of scale. The camera regularly zooms out in locations to show how wide open some of the environments can be. I particularly love the approach to Castlevania itself, with the port and burning ships in the background and massive, monstrous chains emerging from the sea and bound to Dracula’s castle.

It boggles the mind at how huge the castle is.

Only the Lords of Shadow mainline games come close, and they were 3D games. They had it easy on portraying size.

In hindsight, it should be obvious that Castlevania would be massive.

The various parts of it that you had to traverse to even reach Dracula’s throne room wouldn’t have logically been just a few scant meters of real estate. Even the Netflix incarnation was huge if you think about it. But the scale was always obscured via indirect angles, interior rooms or shots from far away. Even Alucard’s frenzied approach to Castlevania in Symphony of the Night didn’t convey its size properly.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse finally does the cursed castle justice. You finally get a scale of how immense the structure is, how normal people would look at it and go ‘Oh shit!’. It makes the Belmonts and all those who willingly venture into it to try to vanquish Dracula even more heroic.

It’s easy entering a castle the size of a mansion. Assaulting one the size of a mountain takes serious cajones!

HOWEVER… like I said earlier, it’s too sanitised. Too safe. Too clean. Even my favourite locations.

For fans who’ve witnessed the glory of Ayami Kojima’s Castlevania artwork, the art style just doesn’t cut it.

It’s like getting wall chicken for most of your life and then suddenly offered a random KFC drumstick once you’re used to dining on that succulent hidden fowl. The drumstick is tasty, but we all know the wall meat is unbeatable. Castlevania fans will get what I mean.

Kojima’s art style on Symphony of the Night and in later titles redefined Castlevania as much as the Metroidvania formula did. Her effeminate, waifish androgynous heroes were outlandish, yet instantly recognizable. Death and his army of demons never looked more beautiful, while radiating menace and threat.

Alucard looked otherworldly, but profoundly sad and weary. Dracula looked regal and noble, but seemed to carry a heavy, hidden burden behind his eyes. Despite that, you had no doubt of the malice and evil in him.

Like Yoshitaka Amano’s art, Kojima’s drawings were instantly recognizable.

Her style was unmatched; her designs sublime.

It’s beautiful, gothic, romantic, grotesque and melancholic.

Her style was unmatched; her designs sublime. Beautiful, gothic, romantic, grotesque and melancholic.

Yet, in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse we have a new Castlevania but one without Kojima’s distinctive art style. It might be good enough for some people, but for the discerning hardcore Castlevania fan?

It’s just meh.

And that’s the distinction I’m struggling with. Belmont’s Curse has competent, attractive artwork, but competence isn’t the same as character. Kojima’s work had a visual language of its own; you could recognize her interpretation of Castlevania immediately. This game looks like Castlevania, certainly. What it lacks, for me, is that extra layer of identity that made the series unmistakably its own.

Likewise, that’s pretty much the same criticism I have of the game’s music.

Taken in a vacuum, without other entries in the Castlevania series, it is great.

The game even has its own version of Bloody Tears, which is pretty lame at first, until it gets to the chorus. Then you get the kickass energy the legendary song deserves.

Even the new tunes done for the game are decent enough that they don’t get on your nerves. They fit in with the game (and the overall series) well enough that most fans won’t complain. Some, I even consider good! The song that plays in Notre Dame Cathedral for example…that one’s a headbanger!

Where’s Vampire Killer though? It’s one of the most recognizable Castlevania tracks (and a classic in its own right), and it’s not in the game? That’s blasphemy of the highest order.

Of course, I’m not going to say that the game’s full of hits. It’s not. It has more than its fair share of stinkers…like whatever it is that plays during the Library area. Holy hell, does that tune not fit in with the game’s vibe at all. Thank God the good songs outweigh the bad.

Small miracles, right?

Lord Dracula is watching out for us Castlevania fans from above or something.

But…and this is a big but…the score can’t stand up to Symphony of the Night’s.

It takes something special for a game’s tunes to get added to my personal listening playlist. Some games are lucky if I find one tune to incorporate into it. Symphony of the Night has multiple – Dracula’s Castle, Dance of Gold, Marble Gallery, Wood Carving Partita, Requiem for the Gods, Crystal Teardrop, I am the Wind and the one that ranks above them all; Prayer.

Prayer is the definitive Castlevania tune for me. You boot up the Symphony of the Night, get to the title screen and press start and WHAM! That haunting, ethereal chant hits you. I still get goosebumps to this day when I hear it. It girds your loins, gets you ready to take on the forces of Shaft and Dracula!

There is nothing of the sort in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. No tune to get me ready for battle, nothing to get the blood flowing, no hymn to herald my righteous crusade. The title screen might have been playing ‘Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?’ for all the hype and excitement it gives me.

There is nothing of the sort in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. No tune to get me ready for battle, nothing to get the blood flowing, no hymn to herald my righteous crusade. The title screen might as well be playing ‘Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?’ for all the hype it generates.

That’s what the best Castlevania music does for me. It doesn’t merely accompany the action; it creates an atmosphere that sticks with you long after you put the controller down. A great track can make a location unforgettable or give a boss encounter a sense of occasion. Belmont’s Curse has music that does its job, but rarely anything that elevates the experience the way Symphony of the Night’s soundtrack does.

The frame rate is wildly inconsistent at times. In areas where there’s a lot going on (or environmental obstacles like pendulums or whatnot), it can weirdly drop as you’re jumping around. Considering that this slowdown can be replicated on all our review platforms, it’s not a hardware issue. There is something going on under the hood that’s causing these drops.

Most of the time, it’s forgivable. Grit your teeth and just blaze through. There is one particular instance though where the slowdown is a massive hindrance. I’m talking about the Notre Dame Sage Trial. Without spoiling anything, the trial is an obstacle course of moving giant buzzsaws. Hit one, and the section resets; you have to redo everything. There are a couple of different sections for the Sage trial and all of them have massive slowdown.

Slowdown = lack of responsive controls = screwed.

Even though the trials are relatively tame compared to some of the rooms, I still failed more than I cared to admit because of the damn framerate and the lagging controls! Even a millisecond can make the difference and it’s really inexcusable how unoptimized this section is!

The frame rate also drops whenever the camera zooms in for a cutscene. During that transition, you can see the slowdown for a millisecond or two as the camera comes in close to Rose or whatever was the trigger. These instances don’t matter so much as they aren’t interactive, but still are bothersome for a game that should perform flawlessly.

The frame rate also drops whenever the camera zooms in for a cutscene. You can see the slowdown for a moment as the camera closes in on Rose or whatever triggered the transition. These drops don’t matter much because the scenes aren’t interactive, but they’re still bothersome in a game that should run smoothly.

Individually, the cutscene drops are minor. The real problem is that they accompany performance issues in sections where timing and precision matter. That’s when technical shortcomings stop being cosmetic and start interfering with the game itself. I can forgive a lot in Castlevania, but a game built around precise movement needs to deliver that movement consistently.

The Bottom Line.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a good game. A genuinely good one, in fact. Evil Empire understands the fundamentals of Castlevania, and its flexible combat, clever exploration and ridiculous amount of fan service make this a welcome return. There are new ideas here I’d love to see expanded in future entries, too.

But is it a great Castlevania game? That’s where I’m less convinced.

The stripped-down equipment system, missing bestiary, removal of traditional sub-weapons and awkward enemy-respawn rules all feel like unnecessary steps backwards. The art direction lacks the distinctive identity Ayami Kojima brought to the series, the soundtrack rarely reaches the heights of Symphony of the Night, and the inconsistent frame rate is especially frustrating when it interferes with precision platforming.

None of that makes Belmont’s Curse a bad game. Far from it. I appreciate the effort Evil Empire has put into understanding and expanding the franchise’s formula. But being a good Metroidvania and being a great Castlevania game aren’t necessarily the same thing. Belmont’s Curse gets much of the gameplay right, but doesn’t quite capture the magic that made Symphony of the Night such a landmark.

I’ll happily play more Castlevania games from Evil Empire. I’d just love the next one to take the same creative risks with its atmosphere, music and world-building that this one takes with its gameplay.

TL;DR

Belmont’s Curse nails flexible combat, clever exploration and fan service, but missing features, a less distinctive art style and inconsistent performance keep it from reaching Symphony of the Night’s heights. It’s still a great game and one of the better Castlevanias, which is why you NEED to get it.

The Technoverdict: GET IT ASAP!

About Post Author

Salehuddin Husin, EIC

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.

http://www.thetechnovore.com

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Salehuddin Husin, EIC

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.