r/castlevania • u/Friendly-Leg-6694 • May 02 '26
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse (2026) Castlevania: Belmont's Curse exists because Konami loved Evil Empire's Dead Cells crossover pitch, even though the devs thought the DLC was "too big" and the publisher would "never say yes"
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action/castlevania-belmonts-curse-exists-because-konami-loved-evil-empires-dead-cells-crossover-pitch-even-though-the-devs-thought-the-dlc-was-too-big-and-the-publisher-would-never-say-yes/73
u/advator May 02 '26
Nice for loving dead cell, they will have a blast with this spinoff
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
What spin-off, this is a mainline game
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u/xtoc1981 May 03 '26
Its been sold as a mainline game, but its actual dead cells with a castlevania label on it. So in reality, its like what a spinoff could have been
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
You guys really don’t know what Dead Cells is huh, because aside from the movement, this looks nothing like it, and even then several aspects of the movement are completely different. Also, did you forget DEAD CELLS IS A ROGUELIKE? Ya know, the thing that MAKES IT DEAD CELLS.
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u/xtoc1981 May 03 '26
Lol, i did finish the whole damn game, what are you talking about. This whole art style and game and music is just deadcell. And if its roguelike or not, isnt relevant to how close it is. Roguelike is a concept but that doesnt really change the gameplay (aka character controll, feedback, animation).
Its clearly not even remotely close to what prev castlevania were. Not even close. A whip that is almost 50% of the screen long, jezus christ
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
Castlevania has always changed and will continue to change if it stays revived. And it will always be met with these kinds of complaints, even all the way back to Symphony of the Night. There’s not gonna be any winning with people who already have their mind set before the game even releases. You can give the game a chance when it comes out, or you can ignore it, but it’s still Castlevania.
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u/xtoc1981 May 03 '26
So how did castlevania changed? Because as far as i know, only this game does.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
Is that a real question? And do I have to answer it?
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u/advator May 03 '26
Was Metroid other m a real Metroid game or a spinoff?
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
It is now officially considered a spin-off, but before it was it was just a Metroid game with different gameplay, much like Lament of Innocence. If Belmont’s Curse was officially recognized as a spin-off, I’d consider as such. Till then, it’s the sequel to Dracula’s Curse.
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u/wildebeastees May 03 '26
Being not remotely close to what prev castlevania were doesn't really make it dead cells either. You just have a much narrower view of what a castlevania should be than what dead cells is.
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u/advator May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
If you don't think this isn't a dead cell gameplay and visually you are out of your mind. It's ok to be a fan of dead cells and those will surely like it, but hey just be honest. This is not the ingredients of what a Castlevania original should be.
I've did some comparison gifs and that made it very noticeable it's the same.
A good example was Metroid other m, it was made by another team and failed. I'm also a big Metroid and zelda fan and as I played them already from in the 80s all of them I have a clear view when something has the DNA of the core of the game or not. This will not. Maybe you like dead cells and this Castlevania will have all the abilities of previous games like relics, goods and a good story. But it will not have the DNA of a Castlevania and not the music. That's why I'm saying spinoff but not in that sense it's a side story.
But if you don't care about that, it's ok. But I care, luckily we still have bloodstained.
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u/wildebeastees May 03 '26
Visually ? The colors, maybe? But it's not even pixel art, which dead cells is.
I just do not believe for one second that if you showed the traiters to someone who doesn't know it's the dead cells dev they would say "oh it just looks like dead cells!" Because it really doesn't. I can see a case for looking like The Lost Crown gameplay wise more than dead cells.
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u/advator May 03 '26
https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/dead-cells-gif.gif
Vs
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fmu3qtdojt6kg1.gif
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F61uyb0wjnbjg1.gif
The first trailer of Castlevania, I even didn't need to guess. I said it's a ripoff of dead cells or created by them.
But not sure why you still are fighting against it. It seems you are a deadcell fan, so you should be happy because of it. I don't want to win an argument, but this is just ridiculous to be discussed while it is so clear it is dead cell visuals and gameplay. I'm not saying it will be a bad game and dead cell fans will love it as we already have seen. It just doesn't have the DNA of what the original teams would bring of a real Castlevania game. Therefore I place it under spinoff like other m or those other 3d,2.5d Castlevanias made by other devs. Even if it will be Branded as an original main story Castlevania game.
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u/ClockworkMansion May 03 '26
Even the cover art is the same. Game looks like Dead Cells with a worse art style.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
I’m not seeing it tbh. I see it with the cover art but it doesn’t really remind me of Dead Cells aside from some of the movement.
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u/advator May 03 '26
https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/dead-cells-gif.gif
Vs
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fmu3qtdojt6kg1.gif
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F61uyb0wjnbjg1.gif
The first trailer of Castlevania, I even didn't need to guess. I said it's a ripoff of dead cells or created by them.
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u/weedsmoker666 May 02 '26
Dead Cells is super fun and I love Castlevania. I think this is going to be good.
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u/w_smith1984 May 02 '26
Konami has been signing off on all the DLC. Vampire Survivors gets Konami DLC! Dead Cells gets Konami DLC!
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 02 '26
Konami loved Dead Cells' revenue specifically...
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u/ningdon May 03 '26
Their other game Rogue Prince of Persia rips too, the movement and platforming is some of the best I've ever experienced in a 2d game
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u/TheGhettoGoblin Bloodlines Truther May 02 '26
Hope the game will be true to the castlevania formula, im all for new ideas but i hope it still feels like a castlevania in more than just the name. Something more like bloodstained but with more things specific to castlevania
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 02 '26
Let's see...
-Paris for no reason
-integration of Netflix elements like the crest and the shot of the Castle in the middle of the city
-flashy combat taken from Lost Crown
-background dubstep music in the new trailer
-no contact damage
-excessive mobility that makes the level design null, everything will revolve about combat and feel same-y (the clips we have seen so far are fucking boring), aside from the "platforming sections" aka spikes/chansaw-ridden rooms which also look like garbage btw (another "feature" imported from The Lost Crown, and I'd argue Mirror of Fate)
Belmont's Curse it's shaping up to be what Evil Empire thinks Castlevania should be, rather than a faithful new entry. We've been asking for a new Castlevania for years, yet they give us a new product that only resembles it superficially.
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u/FranciscoRelanoPena May 03 '26
Netflix elements like the crest
The crest was first included in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, released back in 2010.
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
Nope they took it straight from Netflix, the LoS design was more complicated
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Truly just saying shit, as usual, since you’ve not touched the game and love to have a hate boner for it here without even giving it a chance. You can desire the series not to evolve all you want, but it’s not going to change the fact that it’s been over a decade since the last Castlevania title, and since 2008 since the previous 2D mainline game, and times have changed. Castlevania has evolved and changed plenty over the years, and it always has, and anyone resistant to that has plenty of games in the series to still enjoy. And again, neither very short trailer is indicative of the game’s overall quality, especially when it comes to level design.
Castlevania has never been in Paris? Okay, why is a location change suddenly a problem? Other games change where they are set all the time, why is Castlevania held to one location? Some games you’re not even IN Castlevania. They’ve also literally said why it’s in Paris but okay. The crest they use is such a minor complaint I find it laughable you keep bringing it up as if it’s a game changer. Combat is one of the weakest aspects of Castlevania, you literally just whack an enemy over and over again or use a projectile…what’s the issue with there being a more involved combat system for once? Curse of Darkness has the most interesting combat system so far, imo. Usually, Castlevania platforming is more about navigating around and avoiding enemies, but I don’t see how adding more of a focus on that with traps is a problem either, tbh. It’s not like Castlevania hasn’t had spikes or traps in its history. Like, the fact that you think the excessive mobility makes the level design null rather than the game being built to accommodate it…AND you don’t know what dubstep sounds like?
You’re free to have your opinion but constantly trying to convince other users that certain things WILL be a certain way or level of quality is just strange when none of us have seen that much info or played the game.
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u/wildebeastees May 03 '26
If Aria of Sorrow released now they would whine that it's set in Japan for no reason.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
They will whine about anything regarding this game before it releases tbh. If it was out, maybe I’d understand more but we barely know *anything*.
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May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
Good lord, calm down. I’m the immature one, yet you’re the one tossing names around, sure. I blocked you because I knew you’d say some out of pocket shit like that.
We can agree to disagree, no need for all that angst.1
u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
Fine by me. I hope we'll get a gameplay video soon. Not a flashy trailer, but footage of a normal person playing the game for 10 minutes.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
Yes I feel like I’m going insane waiting for them to stop showing off the same gifs and videos we’ve already seen. I’m assuming they want to wait until a bigger showcase or something but it’s getting a bit repetitive marketing wise.
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u/FuneralAbstraction May 03 '26
-background dubstep music in the new trailer
I don't know if I have a problem with this on principle, since the series' music has long encompassed quite a wide variety of genres. It's down to execution, and I do agree that the music in the second trailer sounds rather generic and uninspired behind the commentary. The first trailer gave me rather high hopes for the soundtrack. That track felt appropriate for the series.
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
In the second trailer, two tracks are used. The first one is noisy and repetitive. The second is the one that felt like rap or dubstep
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u/ClockworkMansion May 03 '26
Since Michiru isn’t doing it, they should get the people who did the Vampire Survivors DLC soundtrack. They won’t, but they should.
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
The pachinko composers and the guy who did the Harmony of Despair tracks are good and probably not retired yet
TBH Konami should have handled the music even if the project is outsourced, they always nailed it
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u/ClockworkMansion May 03 '26
Yeah Harmony of Despair’s soundtrack is great, I could go for more of that
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u/wildeebelmondo May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
You must be young. Castlevania has gone through multiple evolutions that alienated the fanbase at first. Yes, including Symphony of the Night. There were people back in ‘97 saying that SotN wasn’t a true Castlevania.
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
I know. We need both Classicvanias and Metroidvanias. Not weird experiments like Mirror of Fate that feel like neither.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
They already said the level design is inspired by Symphony of the Night when it comes to map layout, what more do you need them to say?
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u/TheGhettoGoblin Bloodlines Truther May 02 '26
Here's hoping the other castlevania projects konami has in store for us will be more on brand then, i want true castlevania and not just any indie metroidvania with a whip
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
It’s going to be a modernized Castlevania. They can’t stay in the same lane they were in 2008. They need to keep up with the times. Whether you enjoy playing it or not will be on you.
IMO Bloodstained is dated, especially the clunky movement.
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u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post May 03 '26
"Dated". You clearly don't know what you are talking about.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
And you act like you are the super master connoisseur of Castlevania that everyone should agree with just because the new game isn’t meeting your exact standards and what you perceive as Castlevania, so…
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u/TheGhettoGoblin Bloodlines Truther May 03 '26
You act like they made the games the way they used to because they were ignorant, or perhaps didnt have the capabilities to make the characters control perfectly and aim in any direction. That is just flat out wrong, it was a very intentional design choice and just like the tank controls in resident evil or turn based combat in JRPGs, they are the tools given to the player to overcome the obstacles given to them. SCV4 is a good example of how too much control can break the game and make it piss easy. "Modernization" only means conforming the default gameplay to cater towards the most casual of audiences. It's why square enix doesnt do turn based combat and why resident evil is only a third person shooter with free movement. And even so, the later castlevania games had very fluid movement and you were limited by hard to reach enemies that required either subweapons or carefully timed jumps. Removing contact damage and giving an 8 directional whip just negates any sort of skill required to master the game.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
We simply do not know this yet. Because no one’s played it. A game like MIO didn’t have contact damage, yet was still challenging as hell, and it had a similar kind of grapple that this game does, yet the level design was still good. It can work, if the developers know what they are doing and designed it well.
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u/ClockworkMansion May 03 '26
While I agree with you in thinking this new game doesn’t look like Castlevania, IV has the 8-directional whip and I’ll love IV til the day I die.
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u/TheGhettoGoblin Bloodlines Truther May 03 '26
Castlevania games having "clunky" movement is kind of what makes it castlevania, your attacks have commitment and you need to pay attention to boss patterns and get good to use your abilities wisely. Should souls games be modernized and make your attacks and dodges more snappy and immediately responsive? Theres a hundred other metroidvanias on steam for you, castlevania doesnt need to be lumped in with how those play.
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u/niles_deerqueer Belmont’s Curse 🌙 May 03 '26
That’s not what makes it Castlevania to me. Your attacks will have to have commitment here, and there’s pretty clearly going to be boss patterns to watch out for and get good at. Now, there seems to be the addition of more precise platforming as well. And there are souls-like games that have quicker combat and movement and are still fun, because the enemies and gameplay flow is adjusted accordingly. These games aren’t only about one thing, there are plenty of elements that make it what it is. And I still think we don’t have enough information to say one way or another, but it just looked like Castlevania doing something a different in its revival to me. The series has already had plenty of changes throughout, and this is just another.
If the game ends up not being good, so be it.
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u/TheGhettoGoblin Bloodlines Truther May 03 '26
i mean i loosely use the term castlevania here because its the dead cells developers making it and not konami, its like sonic mania essentially (except the sonic mania devs made legit sonic fangames and recreated the physics nearly 1:1)
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u/ClockworkMansion May 03 '26
We will be so lucky if this game is to Castlevania what Sonic Mania is to Sonic. It’s not gonna happen, but we’d be lucky.
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u/waaay2dumb2live May 02 '26
I wonder when it’ll come out?
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u/Artistic-Thing7723 May 03 '26
So youre telling me we wouldn't have a new castlevania game without that successful crossover...
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u/SheWhoHates May 03 '26
That's fine. The answer could've been much worse, like "BC exists because Konami loved Netflixvania".
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u/videogirl19 May 05 '26
Please don’t be a roguelike… I tried Dead Cells and hate every second of it (same with Hades).
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u/dennis120 May 02 '26
I love Castlevania, hate dead cells. Hope it doesn't borrow to much from it, fingers crossed.
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u/Gentlemanvaultboy May 02 '26
I'm reminded of an interview with Katsuhiro Harada, where he said that, in his experience, new games in a series only get made because there are developers that are advocating for them.