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Ssince the last Castlevania game hit the shelves (2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2), Konami’s music series has unexpectedly released another popular version. With an entire generation raised on “metroidvanias” – a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania – millions of gamers have seen the game. inspired by Konami’s classic game. Now with The Curse of Belmont, launching in October, Castlevania is finally returning to consoles, where Konami hopes to reclaim its side seat.
Set 23 years after the events of 1989’s Castlevania 3 – the same format as the Netflix show – Curse of Belmont shakes up the 3D ambitions of the series and returns the Belmonts to their roots. Sending players through the demon-infested streets of 1499 Paris, you are placed in the torn shoes of Trevor Belmont’s daughter, Rose. As the bishop pleads with the Belmonts to rid Paris of the old evil that has surrounded the city, Rose enters the sewers, longsword in hand, and her demon-slaying journey begins.
Same as last year Silent Hill fKonami teamed up with an outside studio to bring back this long-running sleeper series. “When I started making the game, I had a lot of trouble, because this is the series I played a lot when I was a kid,” says Tsutomu Taniguchi, the game’s developer at Konami, “you have a lot of amazing titles in it, so it was a terrible challenge…
So Castlevania’s corpse was repurposed with the old art of cold email. As you would expect from the team behind Dead CellsRose immediately feels the satisfaction of controlling it. Your new flexible whip can be used to not only lift you up to the ceiling, but also propel you towards enemies, removing their chests with a devastating blow. It’s a very satisfying reworking of the classic weapon, lending an interesting path to Rose as I descend, attacking and moving through the bowels of Paris.
Bérenger Dupré, director of marketing at Evil Empire, said: “It was a long journey to find the right balance between familiarity and innovation, and perfecting the whip was an important part of this.” Since our group was not an old Castlevania like me, but it was made by this new generation that grew up with the roles that (Castlevania) touched between the true connection and following the rest of the principles, it caused the correct accuracy. in Castlevania.”
As I send bats and bones left and right, I feel like I’m really dirty – until the first boss I meet wipes the floor with me. While this can be difficult in some games, Belmont’s Curse proves that growing stronger is a fun and natural way to do it. Here killing regular enemies earns you XP, and each level increases and increases your attack and defense stats. This means that simply killing the monsters that are going to re-challenge the boss ensures that you are always successful, which makes it reasonable to complete the new boss quests with good stats.
It’s a decision that ensures Belmont’s Curse feels more forgiving than Soulslikes and other complex metroidvanias. In death, then, you lose nothing but time…and a bit of your dignity. When defeated, the bosses are sealed into Rose’s tarot cards, turning them into powerful arcana spells that you can use to your full advantage. Each Arcana has a difficulty to compete with, thereby increasing the spell. After killing 20 enemies with the “cursed flame” arcana, for example, my measly fireball transforms into an eagle that pushes the target back.
After defeating the fictitious destruction inside the Paris cemetery, as soon as I ascended to the rooftops of the cities, to my surprise, the second boss I fight is none other than Joan of Arc.
“When we decided to set the game in Paris, it was very important to add something connected to Paris… (so) we created a shonen version of (Joan of Arc),” said Emmanuel Nouaille, executive director at Evil Empire.. “We thought that having something connected to history would help to immerse the players, so we will leave this idea like the French people, maybe because of pride, then Konami took it very seriously … It is something that we would not dare to try like the French people, but in Japan … it is just a person, so (they) were impressed! I thought it was interesting to see that.”
With Medusa and Death alone testing your skills, it’s refreshing to see a real historical figure added to the fictional mix. Castlevania, of course, has become Japan’s love letter to European horror. The combination of the works of Mary Shelley and the accent of anime melodrama went well. “Working with the French team has been a lot of fun,” says Taniguchi. “It was difficult to imagine what we needed to change, when Castlevania is 40 years old, but Castlevania was created because of the love of European culture, it just felt good to work with the French team and push those influences.”
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Dupré added: “The French are really Japanese intellectuals, we grew up with Japanese animation…
For a nice touch, there’s a mystery-solving element thrown into the deadly mix. From word puzzles to map drawings to translations, finding the next boss – or the hidden path to progress – is a brain-teaser. My show, then, serves as an introduction to Konami’s latest revival. Yet removing my headphones and returning to a non-vampire-infested reality, I’m told that this introduction to Paris is just the tip of the demon-infested iceberg.
“After the beginning of the game, the volume is high and difficult,” laughs Nouaille, “The enemy, the field – everything changes. The rules are different, and the danger is very fast. It’s not Paris and the master of the keys in this place is very dangerous. I can’t say much, but I’m happy to see how the players respond.”
Castlevania: Curse of Belmont releases October 15.
