What does Castlevania have to offer in 2026 that its countless spiritual successors haven’t already delivered? After Symphony of the Night and its handheld follow-ups helped pioneer a subgenre of 2D action-adventure games, Konami put the series on ice right as a slew of spiritual successors began to flourish. Given the range of takes on the formula, from out-there “MetroidBrainias” like Animal Well to the Castlevania-inspired Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, perhaps it’s a blessing that the Belmonts quietly faded into the night. After all, it’s better for a series to be fondly remembered than to overstay its welcome, right?
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, the first mainline installment in over a decade, stabs this hypothetical through the heart, proving that Castlevania still has a lot more to give. By combining throwback appeal with razor-sharp gameplay built on the brilliant Dead Cells, Evil Empire’s latest lives up to Castlevania’s legendary status. From its bold use of color that makes the gothic visuals pop, to a new card-based Arcana system, Belmont’s Curse breathes new life into these games while honing in on what makes this series special. As good as many of Castlevania’s spiritual follow-ups have been, there’s something singular about facing the Lord of Darkness under a full moon to the tune of “Bloody Tears,” a reunion that feels like fate.
The latest chapter in this sprawling saga picks up after Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (which Netflix’s animated series loosely adapted). Almost two decades ago, Trevor Belmont and his allies killed Dracula. Unfortunately, this vampire has a bad habit of not staying dead. You play as Rose Belmont, the daughter of Sypha Belnades and Trevor, a relatively fresh-faced vampire hunter eager to earn her place in the family tree. After her father receives a letter warning of dark happenings, Rose and her dad arrive in Paris to investigate. Before long, Rose finds herself separated, facing the forces of hell as she tries to stop Dracula from sinking his teeth into humanity’s neck. She must overcome not only this vampire lord, but herself, as a curse tied to her emotions eats away at her future.
Paris in flames
Like the rest of the series, Belmont’s Curse doesn’t stand apart through sterling writing, but through a command of over-the-top ambiance plucked straight from a Universal Pictures monster movie. Here, the once lively city of Paris becomes a literal ghost town, its skyline a flaming wreck of bright reds and oranges. Hyperstylized 2.5D visuals render a striking setting that feels like a comic artist took a crack at The Triumph of Death, as mountains of corpses rot against colorful backdrops. It’s a fantastic look.
These vistas make each region memorable, something reinforced by a well-crafted open world that taps into the subgenre’s fundamental appeal. While the first few hours of Belmont’s Curse are a bit too linear, it doesn’t take long for things to open up, offering branching paths as you search for a way to defeat Dracula — let’s just say if you try to face him without proper preparations, things won’t end well. This open-ended setting provides plenty of room for discovery, with substantive secrets and hidden puzzles that are a delight to crack. At the same time, the main path is easy enough to follow without getting hopelessly lost; you’re unlikely to hit that dreaded point where you’ve explored every path at your disposal and are reduced to punching random walls to try and find a hidden corridor.
While not as sprawling or ambitious in its map design as something like Hollow Knight: Silksong, Belmont’s Curse hews closer to Metroid Dread, another tightly designed sequel that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Where this game has a clear leg up on Samus’ last 2D mission is that its world is full of substantive rewards, like Arcana Cards, a deck of magic tarot cards Rose inherited from her mother.
Heart of the cards
After defeating a powerful boss or aiding a hidden weirdo, you’ll liberate (and/or imprison) souls warped by Dracula, turning former foes into friends (and/or frenemies). These cards give access to satisfying magic powers that expend mana, letting Rose do anything from shoot fireballs to manipulate time like she’s a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure character. Some of these skills are more useful than others, but many are substantial enough to meaningfully change the game’s flow, letting you freeze small fry to gain a speed boost, or recover life through vampiric bloodletting.
Perhaps the most surprising twist is how these Mega Man-style powers tie into solid storytelling turns. As Rose rounds up wretched beings twisted by Dracula’s power, she confronts the limits of redemption and forgiveness. It’s a thread loosely touched on until an optional path drives this material home with more impact than you’d expect, with Dracula’s true weakness proving more compelling than garlic or wooden stakes. The fact that the game acts as a pseudo-sequel to Netflix’s TV series certainly helps, and those who watched the show likely have more emotional buy-in for characters like Sypha.
As for finding these Arcana Cards and the stories they hold, tracking them down is one of Belmont’s Curse’s greatest boons. You’ll find hints tucked throughout the setting, teasing at hidden puzzles and mysteries that are quite rewarding to untangle. Along with the Arcana cards, you’ll find chests with meaningful loot, like unique weapons and equipable trinkets with useful passives.
Action-platforming brilliance
Beyond these rewards, exploring Dracula’s Castle is a blast for a simpler, more tactile reason: Evil Empire has crafted a 2D action platformer that’s an absolute joy to play. Belmont’s Curse carries over Dead Cell’s ultra-responsive controls, but presented through a Castlevania-tinted lens. Instead of i-frame rolling through incoming strikes, you need to read a foe’s movements and decide when to slide, backstep, or jump, jockeying for position and using open space to your advantage.
While this general lack of invincible evasion means you’ll need to be careful when on the back foot, there are also plenty of lethal monster-slaying tools to compensate, such as a magic whip that lets you zip to foes before starting an air juggle. (It’s as if Rose took lessons from Devil May Cry’s Dante.) There’s also a rewarding parry that keeps you on offense, letting you summon a holy orb to deflect projectiles from the skeletal archer behind you as you beat down a haunted suit of armor. Both monster duels and platforming become more engaging as you unlock upgrades that let you zoom across the map while performing cancels and movement tricks.
From its moment-to-moment fisticuffs to its broader level design, Belmont’s Curse is slickly designed, but there are a few pitfalls. The main one is the lack of quick swapping between weapons and magic skills. The Arcana Cards have distinct abilities that are useful in different situations, meaning you’ll want to switch them out regularly. Unfortunately, the only way to do so is to pause and leaf through a menu. Similarly, you only have three equipment slots, so if you really want to min-max a tricky boss fight, you’ll spend even more time with the action paused. At least the menus are snappy.
Belmont’s Curse lacks some of the fussier RPG elements of its older counterparts (though it still has leveling), especially when it comes to weapons. There are four versions for each of the seven unique armaments, but the only difference between the first three tiers are gradual damage bumps, which feels like a bit of a step back compared to finding unique drops in the RPG-tinged “Igavania” titles (game designer Koji Igarashi oversaw Symphony of the Night and most of the series exploration-focused games). Most of Belmont Curse’s streamlining is well considered, but sometimes you just want to find a weird purple sword that does +20% damage against skeletons. Taken as a whole, though, these blemishes are barely noticeable, especially considering how rewarding each of the weapon types are to wield.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse overcomes any reservations about this long-awaited sequel. It stands out with striking 2.5D visuals, Dead Cells-inspired movement, and Arcana Cards, while staying true to its core identity: moonlit ambiance and a pulsing score. Just like its protagonist, who must confront her lineage, Belmont’s Curse lives up to what came before. It charts a new future while wielding series iconography as skillfully as a Belmont with their family whip.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse will be released Oct. 15 on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a prerelease download code provided by Konami. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.