Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Hands-On Preview

It's been 12 years since the last mainline Castlevania game hit store shelves. While the franchise has been kept alive via a great Netflix adaptation and some truly excellent collaborations in games like Dead Cells and Vampire Survivors, that hasn't stopped fans' desire for a full-fledged new mainline entry in the Castlevania series. But as that desire has grown each year, as have fan expectations. If Castlevania was ever going to return properly, it would need to be worth the wait. It would need to be a game that understands and embraces the core foundations of the Castlevania franchise while simultaneously evolving that formula to fit with the modern age of gaming.

Enter Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. Announced in February, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is being developed by Evil Empire (Dead Cells DLC and The Rogue Prince of Persia) and published by Konami, and I recently had the opportunity to play this long-awaited franchise return for myself. With around three hours now under my belt, I can wholeheartedly say that at every turn, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse feels like a true and worthwhile modernization of the classic Castlevania formula.

A New Belmont Picks Up the Whip

Set in 1499, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is a direct sequel to Castlevania 3 and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, with the game taking place around 20 years after the last battle with Dracula. Belmont's Curse opens with a wonderfully narrated letter from a Parisian clergyman begging Trevor Belmont to come to the city and rid it of a mysterious otherworldly threat. As the letter concludes, the screen fades in to show an older Trevor Belmont arriving in the City of Love, its once busy but beautiful streets now thick with flame and blood.

Alongside Trevor is his young adult daughter Rose, whom the experienced vampire hunter sends off to investigate the ongoing chaos while he meets with his contact. Right out of the gate, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse plants some intriguing narrative hooks that enticed me. Along with the usual overarching plot of a land enveloped in demonic evil, players are immediately presented with some interesting tidbits about Rose Belmont's past. Rose's arm suffers from a curse that's said to feed on aggression, its origin unknown. Rose also quickly addresses the whereabouts of her mother, Sypha Belnades, who's simply referred to as a "skilled magician" that "might be alive" if it wasn't for Rose.

Through the introduction of Rose Belmont, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse makes its general objective very clear: appeal to long-time fans of the franchise with direct ties to the series' past, while keeping the experience accessible and engaging for Castlevania newcomers.

Teaching This Old Vampire Killer New Tricks

In true Castlevania fashion, once those small but effective narrative hooks have been put in place, players are thrust headfirst into the action. Initially, players only have access to Rose's sword and a deck of tarot cards passed down from her mother. These tarot cards act as quickfire magical abilities that are recharged by landing basic attacks. Through these tarot cards, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse quickly introduces just one of its many rewarding forms of progression. Each tarot card ability comes with a unique set of challenges that, upon completion, upgrade the ability in a significant way. The starting 'Cursed Flame' ability, for instance, gains a much larger projectile once players hit 20 enemies with it.

Players will encounter plenty of skeletal enemies to test out their Cursed Flame ability on in the starting catacombs area. It's here where Castlevania: Belmont's Curse also introduces platforming. From the outset, Belmont's Curse presents players with most of the movement mechanics they'd expect and want from a modern 2D action-platformer, with wall jumps, ledge grabs, and a satisfying slide all available right away. Even in its simplest form, Belmont's Curse's platforming flows together joyously.

Combat-wise, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse will feel familiar to anyone who's played Dead Cells or any of the 2D action-platformers that have followed in its footsteps. Enemies strike fast and hard, and players are heavily encouraged to dodge through attacks and pick their moment to riposte carefully. Though the mechanics themselves may be new to the Castlevania franchise, they feel like a natural evolution of the series' core formula, capturing the speed and ferocity of those classic entries while putting forward features that have now become staples of the genre.

Brutal Combat, Brutal Difficulty

After getting the hang of the basics of combat and platforming, players will stumble upon a large chamber with a sealed door in its center. Stepping into the room triggers Castlevania: Belmont's Curse's first boss fight, presenting players with a hulking Mr. Hyde-like figure called 'The Fallen.' Seconds into my first fight with The Fallen, one thing suddenly became abundantly clear: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is a hard game.

With an intriguingly familiar Holy Cross ranged attack, a screen-wide whip attack, and a brutally fast beast-like leap, The Fallen acts as Belmont's Curse's first true skill-check, and it's a high one. The boss' relentless offense and its large health pool make it both difficult to dodge and difficult to meaningfully damage, and there's little time in between attacks to use Rose's Soulslike healing flask. The Fallen is likely going to catch even genre veterans off guard when they boot up the game on October 15 due to the intense difficulty compared to the more relaxed prior hour or so of gameplay.

That said, that sharp difficulty spike is not insurmountable. Just like any good Soulslike from the last decade, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is challenging but fair. The Fallen's attacks are extremely punishing, but they're also well-telegraphed, encouraging a patient, methodical approach that results in deep satisfaction upon the boss' defeat that's become typical of the genre.

Getting Whipped Into Shape

That initial satisfaction of defeating The Fallen is increased tenfold when players are handed the Arcana Whip, an element that I truly believe to be the standout feature of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. Assigned to the right trigger, the Arcana Whip is in constant use after Belmont's Curse's first boss fight. In platforming, the whip allows for fluid, physics-based swinging, while in combat, it can be used to zip towards enemies in an instant, an attack that's particularly useful for the game's assortment of classic Castlevania aerial foes. Tarot card abilities and dodge mechanics are welcome additions in Belmont's Curse, but it's the Arcana Whip that feels like a true innovation and elevation of the traditional Castlevania gameplay formula.

With The Fallen defeated and the Arcana Whip in hand, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse opens up dramatically and fully embraces the roots that made the Metroidvania genre so beloved in the first place. Pathways that were inaccessible before are now explorable, and there are plenty of incentives to encourage players to investigate every nook and cranny of the map. There are statues and arcana books that level up Rose's attack and defense stats. There are heart containers that raise Rose's mana and max health. And some relics offer special bonuses, such as health restoration upon opening a chest.

There are also a variety of optional weapons that players can find strewn across Paris. There are a total of seven distinct weapon families in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, each with its own handful of unlockable weapons. During the course of my three-hour preview, I uncovered a sword, a greatsword, a spear, and a cestus, each boasting incredibly unique movesets and special traits that significantly altered moment-to-moment gameplay.

Exploration is such a key aspect of the Castlevania formula, and at least in its first few hours, I can confidently say that Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is nailing it. Going off the beaten path is always rewarding in Belmont's Curse, and there's a constant sense of progression, both in terms of Rose Belmont's in-game stats and abilities and the player's real-world skill level. The surprisingly forgiving placement of checkpoints and shortcuts throughout an area also goes a long way in taking the sting out of repeated deaths.

When Castlevania: Belmont's Curse gets into the swing of things and all of its gameplay systems start to weave in and out of one another, it delivers a genuinely enrapturing experience, one that I've thought about almost every day since I played it last month. But I am a little unsure if this experience will grab everyone. Over the last few years, I've spent a lot of time with contemporary 2D action-platformers. I love the challenge of Dead Cells, the fluid movement of The Rogue Prince of Persia, the exploration of Hollow Knight, and I loved Shinobi: Art of Vengeance so much that I decided to take on the grueling challenge of getting its Platinum Trophy.

To me, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse felt like a wonderful distillation — and in some instances an evolution — of all my favorite modern 2D action-platformer mechanics. But to those who aren't as familiar with modern 2D action-platformers, especially those inspired by classic 2D action games and Soulslikes, the onslaught of intricate mechanics presented in Casltevania: Belmont's Curse's opening hours might be a tad overwhelming.

Art Worthy of a Stained Glass Window

While combat, exploration, and platforming are the real meat and potatoes of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, one of the game's biggest highlights is its art style. From the moment Rose and Trevor Belmont arrive in Paris, the game's breathtaking aesthetic is immediately on full display. Every background in Belmont's Curse has a vibrant hand-drawn design that features stunning attention to detail and multiple layers of visual depth that bring the game's distinct Paris setting to life and cement the series' typically foreboding atmosphere at every turn. Though the 3D character models might look a little jarring at first against these hand-drawn backdrops, they fit the game's wider aesthetic perfectly when in motion and are always readable during combat.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse's art style also adds plenty of variety to the game. Despite playing the game a month ago, I can still close my eyes and picture every location I visited in that three-hour demo. This is mostly due to the game's bold use of color, with each locale expressing a distinctive atmosphere through bright oranges, such as the burning streets of Paris, lush greens, like the ones used in the pure church gardens, and stark blues, like those used in the dingy catacombs.

Though I didn't get to hear much of it during my time with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, the game's voice acting sounded decent, with plenty of personality coming through each of Rose Belmont's scarce voice lines. The game's soundtrack, on the other hand, I got to hear plenty of, and it sounded fantastic. Bombastic organs, eerie strings, and even some electric guitar reinforce every second of action and exploration in Belmont's Curse, and it always felt like a welcome accompaniment.

The intrinsic spirit of Castlevania is alive in every corner of Belmont's Curse, from its use of legacy characters to its action, exploration, and high level of challenge. But that spirit feels more alive than ever thanks to a striking new art style and innovations like the Arcana Whip. It would be selling Castlevania: Belmont's Curse short to call it just a love letter to the franchise. This is a true, authentic, and modern Castlevania game, and based on my three hours with it, I think it might have been worth waiting 12 years for.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse releases October 15, 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. GameRant was provided travel and lodging support for this preview.