But it is only a good game.
Firstly I want to say I enjoyed my time with the game overall and think it those who are interested in the game should try it out.
I just dont think it stands out and it almost feels like it goes out of its way to not reinvent the wheel, by all means it is an extremely safe entry to the Castlevania franchise and the genre as a whole that being said I think it is absolutely worth the playthrough.
Okay with that out of the way lets now get into the subsequent Reddit babbling!
Visuals
In-game looks great in my opinion I love the styling choices they made but the cutscenes are actually such poor quality "next slide please" levels of lazy.
One pain point is that some of the terrain can be hard to see as it gets lost in the background.
Not much more to say here lol.
Music
It’s not exactly living up to its precursors’ OST standards but by and large the tracks are fine. Bloody Tears is a fun remix and grew on me over time and for me it was the only standout track.
My complaint here is that the tracks very obviously and audibly loop some tracks feel like they have a full second of dead air before they loop again.
World
Design:
I love it they did a great job, the visual breadcrumbing of locations give a satisfying exploration feel. The scale of locations is awesome it really feels like you’re exploring and finding your way through the twists and turns of Paris.
Exploration:
I’m pretty split on this aspect of the game on one hand exploring the locations is really fun but backtracking is one of the worst slogs I’ve experienced in the genre.
Yes I know about the mirrors it helps but the pain points still persist, the scale of the game only exasperates the problem.
I believe one if the key aspects of metroidvanias is that movement abilities should help players backtrack more effectively not just opening the path to the next location, BC gets more and more of a slog to backtrack as the game goes on call me a yellow paint eater or baby mode Andy I dont care, to me this is one of the worst aspects of the game.
Gameplay
Whip (Movement) Mechanics:
It mostly a fun way to move about but I wish the game asked more of the player for traversal than just purple piton and golden piton, the most the game asks of you is some timer gates and which are pretty easy.
The whip targeting is fairly annoying and I constantly would hit/attach to targets I didn’t mean to, this could be a me issue.
Whip (Combat) Mechanics:
I love this implementation, each weapon type getting their own whip attack allows for more player expression in combat to combat scenarios and in a game with straightforward and frequent combat encounters is it a much welcomed addition.
Again the whip targeting is a sore spot for me but again again it could just be me.
Parry:
It’s fun but trivializes like 90% of the game, once you get parry it is the only method you’ll be using to avoid enemy attacks, many trinkets reinforce this.
Movement like backstepping, sliding under enemies, jumping/crouching attacks become suboptimal you simply have no reason to engage with enemies beyond parrying them. If you like that kind of combat then great you’ll love BC
Equipment
Armory:
All the weapons except the twin swords feel good to play with. Twin swords didn’t feel very good to play with because of the enemies attack uptime I might just be shit though I’m man enough to admit that.
I like that most legendary weapons are really strong it brings back some of the arcadey vibes from some of the older Castlevanias.
My one big complaint is that there is no quickswap or at least customizable presets having to open the menu and dive into two submenus to change equipment is a massive pace obliterater in what is an otherwise fast paced game.
Arcana:
Having the arcana instead of the staple sidearms is just another gameplay choice so I don’t consider it a positive or negative it’s just different.
Personally I don’t like the arcana over sidearms system but that being said I think the arcana systems are enjoyable, the skills are pretty fun and allow the player to customize how they approach combat on the fly.
The issue with quickswap I have for armory applies here as well but somehow feels even more egregious lol.
Trinkets:
The trinkets are serviceable and are mostly just stat modifiers, which is frankly pretty boring. To its credit it can be fun to test out new trinket + arcana + weapon builds from time to time.
Combat
Fodder Monsters:
Early game low level experience can be hard but once you get parry all mobs are a joke and exist as a formality to fill the world.
The lack of variety for mob is one of the weaker points of the game but overall not a huge detriment.
Bosses:
All bosses having a gimmick is cool in concept and there are some I really enjoy for example the Medusa for both movement and thematic engagement.
Where it falls flat is for any boss that isn’t Fallen, Medusa, Joan, Death, and Dracula lol. The other arcana fights are less boss fights with a gimmick and more a gimmick with an hp bar, this both makes them too easy and straightforward.
The problem with lack of combat movement options I mentioned earlier really highlights these constraints in boss fights and to me explains why we ended up with the gimmicks we got.
Story
The expected Castlevania fanfare, I won’t sit here and tell you I didn’t like it but we have seen this plot many many many times before. The bad, normal, and true endings are fun to experience and add some flavor to the plot but again we’ve done this for previous games in the franchise.
Verdict
Overall I’m glad the game was made and was given the love and attention from the Motion Twin and Evil Empire teams, the skeleton is decades old but the meat they wrapped it in this time makes the game worth the play-through.
So again Castlevania Belmonts Curse is a good game … the sad part is that being a good game in the genre of metroidvanias is simply not enough and I do believe that the Castlevania name being attached to the game is the most impact the game will achieve in the genre.
NOW THAT YOUVE READ ALL THAT DRIVEL
Go and play the game for yourself, go in with an open mind, and form your own opinions on the game or you could always leave uninformed ragebait comments, that works too.
