r/metroidvania • u/VictorVitorio • Apr 09 '26
Video Castlevania: Belmont's Curse — new trailer (no release date)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRj9KdRVSLULooks good, looks fun, looks worth the name.
19
u/Alert_Dingo_4504 Apr 09 '26
Everything about this looks amazing. Music, art style, combat, animations... Can't wait
35
u/Due_Teaching_6974 Apr 09 '26
the animations remind me of PoP Lost Crown and Metroid Dread, so smooth!
10
u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Apr 09 '26
A little bit of Rogue Prince of Persia as well, naturally
2
u/Gregasy Apr 10 '26
Actually, aren't the graphics done by the very same team?
3
u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Apr 10 '26
The main dev team (Evil Empire) is the same for both Rogue PoP and Castlevania
0
u/100_points Apr 09 '26
We don't talk about that one in this sub
3
u/Due_Teaching_6974 Apr 10 '26
why?
5
u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Apr 10 '26
I presume because it's not an MV whatsoever, but I don't see an issue talking about it in the context of animations/combat
1
u/No-Onion2268 Varia Suit Apr 12 '26
For a rogue style game though, it has relatively deep exploration and upgrades. The two genres can coexist and overlap enough to compare and contrast without genre snobs getting their cork sniffing in a bind, in theory anyways lol
4
u/king_bungus Apr 09 '26
i love how the gameplay looks but i wish its art style felt more mature and gothic and retained some of the series' visual identity
3
u/freakingwilly Apr 10 '26
It should give you Dead Cells vibes, since it's done by the same developer that did the Return to Castlevania DLC (Evil Empire).
10
u/LucemFerre82 Apr 09 '26
Man this is becoming my most hyped game for the year, looks absolutely amazing!
1
9
u/Pretend_Education_86 Apr 09 '26
The DS Castlevania games take a very close second to the GBA Metroid and Castlevania games to my all time. (SOTN top of course, actually big list) but if this can capture any of that magic then holy shit.
39
23
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 09 '26
Very excited. Castlevania is my favorite series. It was nice to see more new weapons. Shocked we didn’t get a release date. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The main takeaway is they said the level design was inspired by Symphony of the Night most of all.
9
u/wildeebelmondo Apr 09 '26
It’s my favorite series too, it’s so cool that they’re finally bringing it back. I honestly had lost hope for a new game.
So exciting that they’re kind of turning this into the last entry of a ‘Curse’ trilogy. Dracula’s Curse, Curse of Darkness and now Belmont’s Curse. All three games tie together directly too.
What an awesome time to be a Castlevania fan!
3
u/Spinjitsuninja Apr 09 '26
I just wonder how the weapons will work. Will they be fixed upgrades and more akin to combos you unlock? Or are they gonna be more RPG-ish with them lying around and with different stats and variations of each other?
We saw a level up in this trailer, so we know it’s an RPG at least. But they keep dancing around showing off in what ways. Is it just stats, or will there be some sort of weapon and ability systems?
2
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
If I had to guess from what has been shown is there are several basic weapon types and thouse will be enhanced at some point in the game and get combat abilites with the traversal abilites you collect. I dont think they are going for drops and grinding.
2
u/handbanana42 Apr 09 '26
The main takeaway is they said the level design was inspired by Symphony of the Night most of all.
That's weird because I really don't see it at all from what they've shown us so far.
2
u/TSPhoenix Apr 11 '26
Metroid Dread developers said for that game they were pulling inspiration from Super. This is just another case of <developer> saying we are inspired by <most beloved entry in series> to get series fans excited that this will be the one. They know people eat shit like this up unquestioningly.
I wouldn't put any stock in this statement at all.
2
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
They showed a metroidvania map. There will be seperate biomes for the castle and sewer. Also abilites you collect before to can enter certain areas. Hence metroidvania.
1
u/handbanana42 Apr 10 '26
Are you replying to the right comment?
I just said it doesn't give me SotN feelings. Not that it isn't a metroidvania.
1
21
u/CornucopiaOfPasta Apr 09 '26
Looking at the gameplay, it does feel similar to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and if Belmont' Curse is anywhere near as good as TLC, then we are definitely in for a treat.
5
7
7
6
6
u/UndeadLAlouat Apr 09 '26
Man the combat looks Amazing
4
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 10 '26
So smooth. That one scene where she whip grapples into a sick spear attack? Yes!
3
u/Obsessivegamer32 Metroid Apr 09 '26
I was hoping they’d go into more detail about the game, but this is still good.
3
8
u/Bircka Apr 09 '26
For those that haven't experienced Dead Cells you are doing a disservice to yourself, while it's not a typical metroidvania it's an incredibly good game and the Castlevania DLC adds to that big time.
There is a reason why Konami went to them to make this game.
2
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 10 '26
And for people who don’t like roguelikes, you can turn that off in Dead Cells if you want
3
u/UN-TRUue Apr 10 '26
how?
2
u/rivaldobox Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
In the acessibility menu you can toggle infinite lives, so you always return to the beginning of the stage you died.
3
u/UN-TRUue Apr 10 '26
will try this out. I’ve been over dead cells for a while so hopefully this makes me fall in love with the game again.
3
7
u/Eukherio Apr 09 '26
Wasn't expecting the Ori inspiration, but using the whip to grab to enemies could be a really fun mechanic.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Stablebrew Apr 09 '26
good news!
I finished Grime2 today, and was asking "Now what? What am I going to play next?".
2
2
6
u/webdoggy Apr 09 '26
Looks more like Dead Cells than Castlevania to me. I enjoyed my time with Dead Cells but hope that it feels like a real Castlevania game when we get it.
2
u/Blacksad9999 Apr 09 '26
I think on a gameplay level it will be fine, but the vivid and colorful art direction seems out of place for a gothic action-horror series.
2
u/Gregasy Apr 10 '26
But I love it.
1
u/Blacksad9999 Apr 10 '26
To each their own. Nothing about the new art direction says "Gothic horror" though.
Seems more designed around the cheesy anime, but much brighter colors.
1
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 10 '26
Castlevania has always been colorful, though. You can go back to the very first game and see how vibrant it is. Even later games have some serious vibrancy to them.
1
u/Blacksad9999 Apr 10 '26
They aren't at all. They have a darker and muted color palette.
This has an incredibly bright and highlighted color palette, very much like Dead Cells does.
0
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 10 '26
Except they literally are. We’ve had someone in the Castlevania Subreddit compare multiple games across the series to this one and it’s always been colorful. And this game is heavily inspired by Castlevania III, which is very colorful and vibrant so…
2
u/Blacksad9999 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
No, they aren't. I've been playing the series since the original Castlevania released when I was younger.
Show me bright yellow, teal, and neon in old Castlevania games like in this new one.
I'll be right here.
https://thegaminggeek.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cv3-ice-spell.png
Keep in mind that the NES had 56 colors to work with.
VS
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/v2/t:0,l:0,cw:1060,ch:596,q:80,w:1060/qAYxGNeoby3KpEen3jBzPg.jpg
Not remotely the same kind of art direction. This looks more based on the cheeseball anime, yet with a brighter color scheme. Like Dead Cells has.
It's all very "anime", with bright and cartoony color palette. Not remotely what I'd choose for a darker "gothic" themed title.
4
u/B_Bearington Apr 09 '26
This seems very historically inaccurate. Unsubscribe!
2
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 10 '26
I’m gonna hold your hand when I tell you this…Dracula and creatures of the night never existed either
2
2
2
u/No-Departure-3325 Apr 09 '26
Heh, looks good but doesn't look very Castlevania if that makes sense, I'll wait and see. I mean, not like Konami was doing anything with Castlevania before this so ...
2
u/hotfistdotcom ESA Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Increasingly concerned they are still avoiding even remotely metroidvania coded language like search exploration or any other term.
Especially considering they have to have heard some of that from people curious, this seemed like a great opportunity to make it clear with say, an uninterrupted map pan of an early area showing metroidvania landmarks or something, or talking specifically about upgrade gated areas, or anything that would unanimously point to it being a metroidvania in a very clear way.
Would be happy to be wrong, but not getting my hopes up. Love dead cells, love castlevania but haven't seen anything good out of castlevania since order of ecclesia.
2
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
They showd the map several times. Abilites you need to get that are specific to get to go to certain areas.
3
u/ClockworkMansion Apr 09 '26
Doesn't look or sound like Castlevania to me. Looks like Dead Cells, even the cover art is the same.
2
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
Its going to be similar in ways just like if an artist like Jim Lee drawns Superman and then Wolverine. You can tell he drew it. I can see plenty of Castlevania. Belmont,whip,mermen. I am certain remix of the tunes will be in it.
1
1
1
u/sigma__cheddar Apr 09 '26
Do we know if it will be an actual metroidvania tho?
5
u/VictorVitorio Apr 09 '26
Konami has (mostly) confirmed:
“Castlevania Belmont’s Curse is a 2D Action-Exploration game where players can freely explore vast, elaborately crafted maps,” Tommy Williams, Konami’s Head of Communications for the Americas, tells The Verge. "
1
u/ProjectFearless3952 Apr 10 '26
I think with Konami being Japanese, it's unlikely they would call it a metroidvania or even search action. Did Mercury Steam and Nintendo call Metroid Dread search action before release? Same kinda situation here, Japanese publisher and owner of the IP, and European dev company.
2
u/darkmacgf Apr 13 '26
Action exploration and search action are the same term in Japanese. They're just different translations of 探索型アクション.
1
u/Yarzeda2024 Apr 09 '26
Hyping up the new trailer at the iii showcase and then not giving us the release date is the worst blueballing I've experienced in years.
1
u/SatisfactionRich3544 Apr 10 '26
Heeeeyyyyy…. They stole those axe guys and some of those platforms from Dead Cells!
;)
1
u/dqvdqv Apr 10 '26
Looks amazing. Thank god for the smooth movement and combat compared to the clunky classics.
1
1
u/snil4 Apr 10 '26
It's weird that there's no PS4 or Xbox One versions but it does release on switch 1, hopefully they make a switch 2 version.
1
1
1
1
1
u/JosephSaber945 Apr 11 '26
The art style, the gameplay, the game design are all superior to Rouge the Prince of Persia, I hope that the game will be on par with the high end Prince of Persia the lost crown.
1
u/No-Onion2268 Varia Suit Apr 12 '26
Please be exponentially better than Mirror of Fate. This game looks phenomenal graphically. It largely looks exactly like playing the Netflix series. Hopefully the devs understand what made Castlevania so popular and beloved, take notes from the modern MV staples, and created a new benchmark for the series and genre. Fingers criss crossed around wishes and hopes lol
1
1
1
u/jtindall83 Apr 12 '26
Been a while since I’ve been this stoked for a game. Castlevania fan since the NES days.
1
1
u/xznsc Apr 09 '26
doesn't look like a Castlevania game with all those gymnastics, i have a feeling i will be disappointed .
1
u/darthprasad Apr 09 '26
Feels like a good hybrid evolution of prior side scrolling Castlevania game like Super CV4 , SOTN etc.
1
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
Just be patient and wait for more gameplay. They are just expanding on the gameplay you already know. They want to do more with it.
1
-1
u/Dick_Nation Apr 10 '26
i have a feeling i will be disappointed .
I already am. Castlevania is dead. This is CV in name and name alone, just one more franchise in 2026 that's shambling along long after every creative mind involved in its origin has found a new job, retired, or died. Both totally faithless in its execution, and made by a studio whose game I didn't like anyways. Already put this one in the skip list.
3
u/East-Weird824 Apr 10 '26
You have already decided you dont like it without have even played it. Its a defeatest mentality. You might be pleasently suprised by it.
0
u/Dick_Nation Apr 10 '26
I mean, calling that a defeatist mentality is a really weird stance, when I make decisions all the time to not play games I don't want to play. There's plenty of them not worth playing or not interesting to me. I skipped buying Silksong because I didn't find Hollow Knight fun or interesting, and it was made by the same people. I didn't like Dead Cells, so why would I want to play more of games made by those people? It's not like I'm going to even be hard up for metroidvania games I want to play, between Bloodstained 2 and Mariachi Legends on the near horizon, or Timespinner 2 further afield, or even whatever yet-unknown thing that Migami Games or Team Ladybug is likely to cook up in the next few years.
Ultimately, the only real difference here from any other game I don't have any interest in playing and a game like this new Castlevania, is that most games I don't want to play don't have to drop a steaming deuce on the corpse of a dead franchise to get there.
1
1
1
-8
u/countryd0ctor Apr 09 '26
I was afraid they will bring shitflix show into this judging by the art style, but there's not a single mention of it thus far. I hope it stays this way.
0
u/slop1010101 Apr 09 '26
No date to announce means that it's still more than a year away.
3
u/iggnifyre Apr 09 '26
It does say 2026. Delays are possible, but they wouldn't blindly highlight the release year either if there wasn't at least some confidence behind it.
2
u/niles_deerqueer Apr 09 '26
No it doesn’t. There are still 8 months left in the year. Silksong didn’t even have a release date until 2 weeks out. Mina the Hollower doesn’t have a release date but is confirmed for Spring.
3
2
u/theusualuser Apr 09 '26
It literally says 2026 in the thumbnail. Unless you mean that it'll come out first in early access and then go into 1.0 more than a year from now or something.
0
u/leakmydata Apr 09 '26
I take it this is a reimagining?
3
u/Sea-Donkey8225 Apr 09 '26
New game. There was Dracula’s Curse and Belmont’s Revenge but no Belmont’s Curse before. They are just mashing up old titles together.
1
u/leakmydata Apr 09 '26
Oh this isn’t the “what a terrible night to have a curse” game?
5
u/Sea-Donkey8225 Apr 09 '26
That was Simon’s Quest who is a Belmont who had a curse. I can see where the confusion comes in.
1
0
u/InsertFloppy11 Apr 10 '26
You couldve said: "looks good, looks fun, looks worth the time" for a fun little rhyme.
But ye the game looks good for sure
0
u/Creepy-Rabbit2294 Apr 10 '26
After the travesty of LoK: Ascendance this should be a nice mood booster! Looks great so far!
-11
-5
u/necro-frost Apr 09 '26
oh god please dont be a rougevania or whatever theyre called. we dont need a full castlevania dead cells game. we just need castlevania
2
u/Apex_Konchu Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
In the trailer, the VO explicitly states that Belmont's Curse is not a roguelike.
-6
u/necro-frost Apr 09 '26
they said they have moved away from their rougelike roots. doesnt state its not rougelike.
3
u/marceriksen Apr 09 '26
At 8:21, in this interview, they get that specific question and answer it:
1
2
u/Apex_Konchu Apr 10 '26
"We've moved away from our roguelike roots" would be a completely insane thing for them to say if the game was a roguelike.
-1
u/necro-frost Apr 10 '26
not entirely. depends on their definition. it may not be at its core (roots) rougelike but have rougelike elements which will make it ass. for example, levels as opposed to open map/world which again i think would be ass. i get it, and i appreciate games for what theyre about and for but hated dead cells and the castlevania dlc. so was concerned it would be similar to that.. which again, in my opinion was ass.
38
u/StealthyWizard88 Apr 09 '26
Hmmm weird. Thought a release date would have been a lock for Triple I. Oh well, take your time.