What a horrible night to have a curse…
It is hard to believe that I have been playing Castlevania games for almost 40 years. Some entries in the series are my favorite games of all-time. It has had its ups and downs over the years, but for the most part, the quality has sustained over time. It has been a minute since the last official entry in the series. We have gotten a couple collections and collaborations, but the moment is finally here. We have a brand new game in the Castlevania series, and it feels good to be back. The latest entry in the series comes from developer Evil Empire, who developed Brotato, a bunch of Dead Cells content, and most recently, The Rogue Prince of Persia.
Castlevania Belmont’s Curse takes place 23 years after the events of Dracula’s Curse and once again focuses on the Belmont family. The game takes place in Paris, France in 1499. The city is burning and invaded by demons and the local bishop has summoned the help of legendary vampire hunter Trevor Belmont. He arrives with his teenage daughter Rose at his side, and upon arrival they split up as players take on the role of Rose as she attempts to find the source of the outbreak.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: XBOX (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Right out of the gate, this is a Castlevania game first and foremost. Rose whips through Paris taking down familiar enemies and whipping candles. There are of course hints of Metroid in here as well as she will gain access to new abilities throughout the course of the game allowing her to explore more of the world. The game is broken into sections, with the first taking place in the streets of Paris and its surrounding areas. Later in the game new areas open up that should be familiar to players.
The game uses an interesting mechanic for sniffing out the bosses in the game. Rose carries tarot cards handed down from her mother, Sypha Belnades. As I progressed through the game there were hints scattered about that deliver cryptic messages as to the whereabouts of certain foes. What I loved is that not all bosses are required to complete the game. There are a host of optional encounters that require exploration. In fact, I finished the game the first time blowing past a lot of this. This of course leads to the bad ending, and the game encourages players to return and find all of it to get the true ending.
Combat feels good as Rose is more than capable of handling herself. There are multiple weapon types as well as a host of abilities gained throughout the game. Defeating a boss allows Rose to add them to her tarot cards, thus granting her the ability to use them in battle. These can also be upgraded by completing challenges unique to each ability. Only one can be equipped at a time though, so it is best to find the one you gel with and work on its upgrades. Each weapon also has unique stats and abilities. There are multiple levels of these weapons too that can be collected throughout the adventure. Rose can wield whips, gauntlets, swords and shields, as well as double swords and finally a spear. The variety is great, and I found myself swapping between them as each one has their own unique combos and attacks.
In addition to the weapons and abilities, there are also trinkets Rose can equip for various status effects. These are things like freezing enemies when Rose takes damage, to dealing more critical hits when Rose is below a certain amount of health. There are a bunch of these to collect throughout the game, and up to three can be equipped at any time. Rose also has a character level that increases throughout the course of the game, which increases her attack power. There are also health and magic upgrades to collect to increase the size of these bars.
As you can imagine, there is a lot to collect in the game, and the world is packed with nooks and crannies. The map system is familiar in that it fills out as you explore. I do wish it had a legend and a bit more detail as to what I was looking at. Sometimes it places things on the map, and I had no clue what they meant. Exploration is paramount in Belmont’s Curse. Rose will gain new abilities that let her access new parts of the map, but these are distributed out in a non-linear fashion. I beat the game missing some of them, and it took me a while to figure out how to even access them. I could clearly see the blocked path, but had no clue how to access them.
On the default difficulty, the game is challenging and fun, but for those that require a little help, the team at Evil Empire has added some cool accessibility settings that allow players to tweak the game. These include damage delivered and taken, invincibility, and even an XP gain slider. I love stuff like this as it allows players to be able to tailor the game how they want. I do recommend playing on the default for the first run though, as it definitely brings the systems into perspective, and leveling up and growing stronger just feels fantastic.
Visually, the game is a mix of classic Castlevania and a little bit of Dead Cells. There are bright neon colors scattered about, and the animation feels more akin to the latter series. I loved some of the updates on classic enemies, especially some of those later in the game. It took me a bit to come around on the more color-drenched settings, but after a while I grew to love them. The music is a nice mix of new and old tunes, but the classics are remixed to fit the composition. I loved hearing those melodies, even if they weren’t how I remembered them. The voice work is a mix of good and cheesy. Some of the performances are over-the-top, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It feels like a game from the 32-bit era in that respect.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a wonderful return for the series. It has been too long since we had a new entry, and I am glad to say it was worth the wait. I hope we don’t have to wait quite as long for the next one, as I am already itching for more. The sheer amount of exploration here is incredible, and I loved the tarot card system and optional bosses. This is a triumphant return for the franchise, and easily on my list for best games of the year.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.