Castlevania Belmont’s Curse review: A comeback rooted in suffering and nostalgia
, by Thibaut
After more than 12 years without a new installment, the Castlevania franchise returns to the spotlight with Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. At the helm of the project are Motion Twin and Evil Empire studios, best known for their work on Dead Cells. In fact, their signature touch is clearly all over this highly ambitious new project.
The franchise created by Konami had to win over the hearts of fans who’d been left in the lurch for a dozen years, while also appealing to a new, discerning audience eager to immerse themselves in an experience worthy of the series’ reputation. What’s more, the Netflix adaptation has attracted an audience that may never have played a single Castlevania game before. Thus, Belmont’s Curse had quite a lot riding on its shoulders up to its launch. Did it live up to the expectations? Let’s find out in this review.
Blood on her hands
This installment transports us to 1499, as Paris is ablaze. Monsters are destroying the city, and it’s up to Rose Belmont to put an end to the carnage. As the daughter of Trevor Belmont, the famous hero who defeated Dracula in the past, she must do everything in her power to prevent the return of the king of vampires. Furthermore, a strange family curse threatens our heroine as she embarks on a race against time.
Here, the storyline serves more as a backdrop for the whole experience. While the adventure is punctuated by dialogues between various characters, these ultimately don’t add much to the overall work. This is due to the fairly short conversations, which are only dubbed in English or Japanese (though subtitled in several languages), and the relatively rare cutscenes, which are mostly inconsequential. While the hand-drawn art style hits the mark, we regret the lack of animations, which leaves the storytelling to simple static images.
Of course, Castlevania has never been known for its unforgettable storyline, but you can clearly sense the game’s desire to tell a poignant story filled with moments of emotion and gravity. Unfortunately, it’s hard to feel any of that when faced with such rudimentary storytelling.
A slightly wronged beauty
If there’s one element that really stood out from the moment Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse was announced, it’s undoubtedly its graphics. Its extremely colorful 2D look is captivating at first glance. Some scenes are magnificent, with flamboyant art direction and eye-catching, vibrant colors that create a stunning effect. At first glance, there’s not much to criticize on this front… But the devil is often in the details, and the flaws grow more apparent as you play.
For example, the game suffers from slowdowns when zooming in or out to highlight a conversation between two characters. This is hard to explain for a game that’s clearly not very resource-intensive, especially on a machine like the PS5 Pro. However, it’s worth noting that the game isn’t officially optimized for Sony’s console. Additionally, the backgrounds are constantly blurry due to subpar textures. Thus, we can say that Belmont’s Curse is visually pleasing, but only as long as you don’t dwell too much on the details.
The reality is much harsher when it comes to the game’s audio. The music is one of the project’s major weaknesses. Those tracks already uninspired, and we have to add these are actually loops lasting just a few seconds that repeat ad nauseam. The protagonists’ voices weren’t even applied to all the dialogue, likely depending on the importance of each exchange. Overall, we consider the audio aspect of this Castlevania a total failure!
A Metroidvania perfectly blended with an RPG
Unsurprisingly, this game from Motion Twin and Evil Empire follows the traditional Metroidvania formula. Players must traverse areas to complete specific objectives, then retrace their steps later to unlock new locations using newly acquired abilities. In this regard, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is incredibly generous, offering a multitude of secret passages to discover. These hide weapons, stat boosts (health, mana, attack, defense), and other relics that will make progress easier. Exploration is therefore strongly encouraged, and curiosity is often rewarded. It’s not uncommon to have to scrutinize the nooks and crannies of the map in an attempt to spot an unexplored area.
All of this blends seamlessly with an RPG element that’s actually quite well implemented. Rose levels up by defeating enemies, can equip up to three relics to gain various advantages, or choose a weapon from among the seven available types. Each weapon has four attack strengths and unique characteristics. Add to that the Arcana, which you get after defeating bosses. These powers consume mana and have three upgrades that unlock by completing challenges (killing 10 enemies of a certain type, parrying attacks, finding different weapons, etc.). The whole package is both well-balanced and comprehensive, adding real value to the game.
To round out the picture, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse introduces a Tarot system. These cards are revealed as you explore and collect clues. By following them, you can uncover secrets that point the way to a boss or reveal the solution to a puzzle. So there’s a slightly unexpected detective element to the game. Sometimes it’s easy to figure things out, but it’s also perfectly possible to finish the adventure without completing all the Tarot cards. They’re obviously necessary to 100% complete the game and unlock the true ending (we won’t say any more about that!).
Keep a cool head
Before we get into the finer details, it’s worth noting that this Castlevania can be very challenging. The first few minutes are quite tricky, with a steep learning curve that only eases up after a few hours of play once you’ve acquired various abilities. The bosses are also merciless with their devastating attacks. You’ll need patience and keen observation to find their weak spots or learn how to dodge certain death. And that’s without mentioning the many traps in each room that put our reflexes, coordination, and patience to the test. Let’s face it, sometimes we feel like giving up… but the developers have done everything they can to minimize that feeling of frustration.
That’s why numerous balancing options have been introduced. Adjustable on the fly at any time, they let you modify the amount of damage dealt or taken by enemies, the experience gained, or even the maximum number of potions. There’s even a checkbox to avoid death, which makes Rose invulnerable. The game never penalizes the use of these simplification options. As a result, even the least skilled or patient players can tailor this Castlevania to their preferences. While this may significantly alter the experience, it could also prevent players from simply giving up when faced with a challenge that’s too difficult. Conversely, fans of a challenge can crank up all the difficulty settings to make the task even tougher.
These adjustments are welcome, but they don’t eliminate certain design choices that could be described as a bit old-school, which can be frustrating for players. For example, it’s frustrating to have to systematically restart at the beginning of a room after falling into a trap (and taking damage on top of that). Also, after each death, Rose will resume her progress from the last save point used.
This sometimes means you have to retrace your steps through a whole bunch of areas before coming back to try your luck against a boss or a wave of enemies. It’s old-school gaming… for better or for worse!
Tested on PS5 Pro. See our rating policy here.
6.5/10
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse clearly won’t be to everyone’s taste. While it has some good intentions in terms of its aesthetics, RPG elements, and exploration always feels rewardings, it also lacks polish in several areas. The soundtrack is a miss, the technical execution needs some work, and the story falls flat too often to inspire any real attachment to the stakes or the characters.
Fortunately, Konami’s title also boasts an affordable price tag (€29.99) and a respectable length estimated at 15 hours for the standard ending and over 20 hours to get the famed 100% completion. While it won’t be a GOTY contender in our book, Belmont’s Curse at least has the merit of reviving a series that’s been forgotten for far too long.
- + Zones are very colorful and pleasing to the eye
- + The RPG mechanics are well though out and fairly comprehensive
- + There are plenty of difficulty options
- + Plenty of content for a reasonable price
- - The audio is rather shoddy
- - Textures could be cripsier
- - There are some inexplicable slowdowns for this kind of game
- - Some old-school elements can be frustrating in the long run
- - All in all, presentation feels basic