The year is 2026, and a new game in Konami’s flagship gothic-castle-exploring-action-adventure franchise, Castlevania, is coming out on Oct.15. Smack dab in the middle of the spooky season, “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” will be the first original 2D Castlevania game in 18 years. Not a reboot. Not a remake. Not a collection. A new game, through and through. But how did a series that was once considered dead rise from the grave? And how did it die in the first place?
The year was 1986, and Konami just released “Castlevania” (or Akumajō Dracula in Japan) for the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. You play as vampire hunter Simon Belmont. Using his trusty “Vampire Slayer” whip, he tackles each floor of Dracula’s Castle, fighting off zombies, bats, and other creatures, so as to vanquish the Lord of the Night for another one hundred years. Its notorious difficulty, satisfying combat, tricky platforming, and killer soundtrack made it a smash hit for Nintendo and Konami.
From then on, “Castlevania” continued to grow with each new installation. A Belmont (or Belmont adjacent) would take on Dracula (or Dracula adjacent villains) in some sort of spooky location (usually a castle), and fight the hordes of monsters that have risen from the depths of hell. Some had more characters to play as, while others had puzzles with a day and night cycle. But it wouldn’t be until 1997 that the franchise would truly evolve into something special with “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” for the Playstation 1.
The formula has changed. Stage to stage progression up to the boss is gone. Now it is something more like Nintendo’s Super Metroid: a whole map to explore, with powerups, and items to collect to access more of said map, with enemies and bosses scattered about. Make that map Dracula’s Castle, place weapons and gear around the castle, level up stats with experience points from defeated enemies, and BAM, you got a game that not only defines a franchise, but a genre as well.
After “Symphony of the Night,” Konami would try to make some 3D Castlevania games, and those didn’t do too well. It was just harder to control an action game in 3D like “Castlevania,” which moved from snappy 2D exploration and combat to meandering 3D exploration and combat. After a small break, 2001 to 2011 would see Konami come out swinging with 11 new Castlevania games over the next 10 years.
There were 2D games from 2001 to 2008, split across Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and DS handheld systems. They ranged from games on the same level as “Symphony of the Night,” to ones with middling recognition. But on home consoles, they made 3D action games that were more like “Devil May Cry” than “Castlevania,” flashy combo based combat over exploration, with a rebooted continuity that’s more so based on Norse mythos than Medieval. Though they are some of the best selling games in the franchise, it wasn’t enough to save “Castlevania” from its biggest enemy: Konami itself.
Konami started to care less about making games, and more about making money. They created pachinko machines and gambling products based on properties like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Castlevania. At the same time, they were sabotaging games that were actively in development like Metal Gear Solid V, and in turn, forcing people out of the company by withholding resources from their long-time staff.
The most famous example is Hideo Kojima, director of the prolific Metal Gear Solid games. He was forced to leave Konami, take his people with him, and remove his studio name from working on MGS V. At this time, Koji Igarashi, one of the main developers of the “Castlevania” franchise, left because of these creative restrictions made to kick people out, and started a for his own game separate from the “Castlevania” franchise. He decided to go where the “Castlevania” formula, or, where the “MetroidVania” genre was thriving the most: in indie games.
“Castlevania” was dead, but its essence was alive in the indie scene. Many MetroidVanias were inspired by said games of the genre’s founding, “Metroid” and “Castlevania.” Games like: Cave Story, Touhou Luna Nights, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Axiom Verge, Guacamelee!, Dead Cells; they all take on this structure of exploring a map for upgrades to unlock new areas you couldn’t access before. There is no shortage of games that can scratch that “Castlevania”-shaped itch, but none of them could truly fill the hole it left.
After seeing the success of other fan funded projects run by (infamous) legacy developer run projects (the less said about Mighty Number 9, the better), Koji Igarashi took to Kickstarter to fund his own not-Castlevania-but-definitely-Castlevania game, “Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.” The Kickstarter opened in 2015, and after raising 5.5 million dollars in crowdfunding, the game was released in 2019. It was pretty good. About sevens and eights across the board. As such, people thought that was where the essence of “Castlevania” was going to stay; hand in hand with the indie games.
But while “Bloodstained” was in development, Netflix and Konami had other plans. In 2017, an animated adult oriented action horror show based on a few closely related games in the Castlevania series premiered on Netflix. And it was a smash hit! People loved it! They loved the premise, loved the characters, and a second season was already on the way. By 2021, it would get a total of four seasons and 32 episodes, each season more acclaimed than the last.
With the show’s success, and multiple crossovers in other games, it seemed like Konami was beginning to utilize their brands for more than just making gambling machines. And after collections of the NES and SNES, Gameboy Advance, and DS “Castlevania” games were published, making every single “Castlevania” game (except “Symphony of the Night” 😞) available on all modern consoles, it was time for a new game.
Konami has been handing the Silent Hill IP to teams that make games inspired by the series, so why not look for a developer who has experience in making MetroidVanias? They chose the indie studio pair MotionTwin and Evil Empire to make their new game. Developers of Dead Cells; a MetroidVania roguelike that features a detailed and faithful “Castlevania” expansion, it seemed to be the most obvious choice after working closely with Konami.
Konami offered the indie devs an opportunity to develop not only a new 2D “Castlevania,” but one that takes place right after “Castlevania III,” the game the BEST seasons of the animation was based on (season one and two, don’t @ me). They agreed, and with their trademark high quality animations, returning voice actors from the animated series, and the franchise’s 40th anniversary, “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” rises from the ashes of a long dormant franchise. Dark, gothic, and difficult, the franchise has truly been revived. All we can hope for now is that it stays arisen, and does not return to another hundred year slumber.
