{"id":696316,"date":"2026-07-17T08:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696316\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:37:11","slug":"castlevania-belmonts-curse-konami-classic-rises-again-from-paris-sewers-and-joan-of-arc-is-a-boss-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696316\/","title":{"rendered":"Castlevania: Belmont\u2019s Curse – Konami classic rises again from Paris sewers and Joan of Arc is a boss | Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the last Castlevania game hit the shelves (2014\u2019s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2<\/a>), Konami\u2019s dormant series has unexpectedly spawned a hit genre. With an entire generation raised on \u201cmetroidvanias\u201d \u2013 a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania \u2013 millions of players have only ever seen the games inspired by Konami\u2019s seminal games. Now with Belmont\u2019s Curse, launching in October, Castlevania is finally dashing back to console, where Konami hopes to reclaim its side-scroller throne.<\/p>\n

Set 23 years after the events of 1989\u2019s Castlevania 3 \u2013 the same setting as the hit Netflix show \u2013 Belmont\u2019s Curse shakes off the series\u2019 3D ambitions and takes the Belmonts back to basics. Dispatching players to the demon-infested streets of 1499 Paris, you\u2019re placed in the tattered boots of Trevor Belmont\u2019s daughter, Rose. As a bishop pleads with the Belmonts to rid Paris of the ancient evil besetting the city, Rose heads into the sewers, longsword in hand, and her demon-slaying adventure begins.<\/p>\n

Much as with last year\u2019s Silent Hill f<\/a>, Konami has partnered with an external studio to bring this long sleeping series back to life. \u201cWhen I started making this game, I felt a lot of pressure, because this is a series that I played a lot when I was a child,\u201d says Tsutomu Taniguchi, the game\u2019s producer at Konami, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of amazing titles within it, so it was an intimidating challenge \u2026 but when Evil Empire reached out about doing a Castlevania DLC for Dead Cells I thought this is perfect timing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sewer thing \u2026 Castlevania: Belmont\u2019s Curse. Photograph: Konami<\/p>\n

Thus Castlevania\u2019s corpse was reanimated by the archaic art of the cold email. As you\u2019d rightly expect from the team behind Dead Cells<\/a>, Rose immediately feels satisfying to control. Your newly versatile whip can be used to not only hoist you up to and across the ceiling, but also to propel you towards enemies, ricocheting off their chests with a deadly blow. It\u2019s an immensely satisfying retooling of a classic weapon, lending a pleasing kineticism to Rose as I slide, attack and hurtle my way across Paris\u2019s seedy underbelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long journey to find the right balance between familiarity and innovation,\u201d says B\u00e9renger Dupr\u00e9, marketing director at Evil Empire, \u201cand perfecting the whip was a key part of this. Since our team was not only Castlevania old farts like me, but also comprised of this new generation who grew up with the titles that [Castlevania] influenced, it created the right balance between adhering to the newest standards of the genre and remaining true to Castlevania.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I dispatch bats and skeletons left and right, I\u2019m feeling pretty smug initially \u2013 until the first boss I encounter absolutely wipes the floor with me. While this could be a groan-inducing ordeal in other games, Belmont\u2019s Curse ensures that growing stronger is a fairly fun and intuitive process. Here killing regular enemies earns you XP, with each level gained increasing your attack and defence stats. This means that simply killing monsters en route to re-challenge the boss ensures that you are constantly improving, making it a reasonable grind to reach each new boss battle attempt with improved stats.<\/p>\n

Fired up \u2026 Castlevania: Belmont\u2019s Curse. Photograph: Konami<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a choice that ensures Belmont\u2019s Curse feels more forgiving than Soulslikes and other harder metroidvanias. Upon death, then, you lose nothing but time \u2026 and a bit of your dignity. Once defeated, bosses are sealed into Rose\u2019s tarot cards, turning them into powerful arcana spells that you can take full advantage of. Each arcana has a challenge to compete, with doing so powering up said spell. After killing 20 enemies with the \u201ccursed flame\u201d arcana, for example, my once measly fireball transforms into a raging inferno that pushes back its target.<\/p>\n

After defeating a mythical monstrosity deep within Paris\u2019s catacombs, once I ascend to the cities\u2019 rooftops, much to my surprise, the second boss I face off against is none other than Joan of Arc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we decided to set the game in Paris, it was very important to add something linked with Paris \u2026 [so] we made almost a shonen anime version of [Joan of Arc],\u201d says Emmanuel Nouaille, creative director at Evil Empire. \u201cWe thought having something linked to history would help immerse players, so just dropped this idea as French people, maybe out of pride, and then Konami took it super seriously \u2026 They turned Joan of Arc \u2013 a saint in France \u2013 into this badass shonen warrior. It\u2019s something we wouldn\u2019t dare try as French people, but in Japan \u2026 she\u2019s just a character, so [they] went nuts! I thought it was hilarious to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

With Medusa and Death itself also testing your skills, it\u2019s refreshing to see a real-world historical figure added to the mythical mix. Castlevania has, of course, always been a Japanese love letter to European horror. A fusion of the works of Mary Shelley with a hint of anime melodrama chucked in for good measure. \u201cWorking with the French team has been really fun,\u201d says Taniguchi. \u201cIt was a challenge to really think about what we need to evolve, with Castlevania being a 40-year-old game, but as Castlevania was created out of our love of European culture it just felt right to work with a French team and push those influences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe French are really Japanese nerds,\u201d adds Dupr\u00e9, \u201cwe grew up with Japanese animation \u2026 so despite our differences, the French feel super close to [Japanese] culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a nice touch, there\u2019s an element of puzzle-solving thrown into the murderous mix. From text-based riddles to drawings on maps to decipher, locating the next boss \u2013 or hidden path forward \u2013 is a pleasingly cerebral experience. My demo, then, serves as an engrossing introduction to Konami\u2019s latest revival. Yet as remove my headphones and return to a less vampire-filled reality, I\u2019m told that this Paris prologue is just the tip of the demon-infested iceberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this intro to the game, the scope is wider and more complex,\u201d teases Nouaille, \u201cthe enemy, the territory \u2013 everything changes. The rules are different, and the danger is more urgent. It\u2019s not Paris and the master of the keys to this place is very dangerous. I can\u2019t say much more, but I\u2019m excited to see how players respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castlevania: Belmont\u2019s Curse releases 15 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the last Castlevania game hit the shelves (2014\u2019s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2), Konami\u2019s dormant series has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}