Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is Looking like a Delectable Treat

It’s safe to say it’s been a long time since we got an original Castlevania; not since Mirror of Fate’s release back in 2013 on the 3DS has a new mainline title seen the light of day. It’s for this very reason that the existence of Belmont’s Curse is an exciting event, but add the very excellent Evil Empire, the developer of the DLC for Dead Cells, into the mix, and you’ve got a seemingly match made in heaven. Or have you?

Fortunately, I recently went hands-on with the start of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse at Gamescom, and it lived up to my already high expectations.

View Full-size

The visuals in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse are stunning.

The Newest Vampire Hunter

Paris is burning, and there’s evil afoot, as you’ve come to expect by now with Castlevania. In a desperate cry for help, the bishop has called for the last Vampire Hunter, Trevor Belmont. Only, he’s no longer the last of the clan, as we’re introduced to his daughter and protagonist, Rose Belmont.

After deciding to go separate ways, Rose looks around the streets of Paris to see if she can determine the cause of the chaos. Before that, however, Trevor hands over her late mother’s tarot deck, which appears to have some magic left in it. This plays a major role in both the gameplay and story of Belmont’s Curse (more on that later), and with these in hand, I was in control on the streets of Paris.

While I wasn’t able to see too much of the story during my hands-on, I did learn about some of the terror that plagues Paris, discover a bit more about Rose’s curse which is visible on her arm, and after defeating the first boss, The Fallen, learn more about what my first major task was, finding three stones to open a large door in the Catacombs. Nothing major there as far as Castlevania goes, but enough hooks to keep the mystery interesting, and the voice performance was stellar throughout, adding to the impact of the scenes.

A Stroll Through Paris

One thing I was most curious to check out ahead of my hands-on was, despite what the developers said, how true to Castlevania this new title was, or if it was closer to the developer’s previous works, Dead Cells. It didn’t take long to see that Belmont’s Curse is as faithful as it gets to the more recent games, in terms of being a Metroidvania.

I already found the classic zombies in the first few screens, hidden breakable walls, areas I couldn’t get to until I got the appropriate abilities and lots of equipment. What enhances Belmont’s Curse, however, are the gorgeous visuals. The cinematics that preceded my control of the game gave memories of the recent anime releases, while the backgrounds are stunning and full of life, really giving a ton of personality to the streets and sewers of Paris. Everywhere you look in the streets, there are flames in the background, and you see it play into the level design at times too.

As you explore the areas, you’ll come across Spirits who can give Rose hints of new Arcana; these are essentially quests that you can track. As you find more Spirits, you’ll unlock more clues that point to where that Arcana may be. For the sake of the demo I played, the only new Arcana I found led me to the game’s first boss. Once I defeated it, I was able to absorb the Arcana that added to my spells, so I can only assume the other Arcana will behave similarly.

View Full-size

Paris in flames is a fantastic backdrop for Belmont’s Curse.

Crunchy Combat

Fans of Dead Cells will be pleased to see the crunchy feel of combat is present in Belmont’s Curse. All of your weapon strikes feel like they have real weight behind them, and the Arcana spells are satisfying to use.

Rose has seven weapon families she can equip, with the game initially starting you with one of the swords. In my time with the game, I managed to find a chest with a Cestus; this allowed me to perform uppercuts and other satisfying close-quarters combat, which completely changed how I approached combat.

The real star of the show, however, is the Arcana spells, which tie into the systems mentioned above. Once you acquire a new Arcana, you’ll get a new spell that costs Mana to use and is restored by striking enemies. By default, Rose starts with a Fireball spell, and by the end of my session, I had acquired the Cross.

What makes these spells even more interesting is the fact that you can power them up. Each Arcana will have a list of upgrades, and you unlock them by performing tasks. While the Fireball spell was simple - simply strike enemies with the spell 20 times- the Cross had three different tasks, such as acquiring weapons and killing enemies with whip strikes. You notice the effects too; I needed the upgraded, larger fireball to take down the fairly challenging first boss.

View Full-size

Combat has that same satisfying feel you get from Dead Cells.

View Full-size

Although it can be challenging to deal with some of the enemies.

Tools of the Trade

Beyond everything mentioned above, Rose can equip up to three Relics at a time - these can have effects such as simply restoring HP when opening chests. From looking at the inventory screen, it looks like there are plenty to find, offering you lots of customization for Rose. Healing, outside of finding chicken dropping from enemies and objects, is handled via potions, of which Rose always has three on her. You have to hold the button down to drink one, so you’ll need to be careful in boss encounters, and you can replenish them by using the Mirrors found around Paris. These act as save points that restore your HP, Potions, and respawn enemies.

You will also acquire new tools to let you get around the world and reach previously inaccessible places. As you head to the first boss, you’ll notice anchor points that you can’t do anything with, but after defeating that boss, you’ll get the Pendulum, which is essentially Rose’s version of the whip.

Not only does that let you now use those anchors to swing across gaps, but you can also use it to grapple to an enemy and strike them or go up through specific platforms, creating more ways the game can hide secrets from you. The inventory screen shows five spots for these tools, so it looks like we can expect a fair degree of blockers as you traverse Paris.

View Full-size

Tools such as the Pendulum will let you reach previously inaccessible areas.

All said and done, considering all of the titles that I played at Gamescom, I left my session of Castlevania Belmont’s Curse satisfied and, frankly, thirsting for the full game like Dracula seeks out his next victim.