Whereas in 2025, Konami’s sales space at Tokyo Sport Present was a terrifying recreation of Silent Hill f, this 12 months it was a shiny, white and pink celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Ganbare Goemon, the Konami Code (↑↑↓↓←→←→B A), and a beloved little franchise known as Castlevania. Although there have been flashy photograph booth-style shows for Konami’s just lately introduced titles, Rev. NOiR and Rhapsody in Scarlet, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse drew massive crowds with its intimidating throne (with occasional Dracula cosplayers!) and the gothic entrance to its demo house.
Paris, 1499. As famed final inheritor of the vampire-hunting Belmont household, an aged Trevor Belmont is summoned as soon as extra to weed out the darkish forces of the night time—however because it occurs, he’s not the final Belmont, for with him is his daughter, Rose. We study from Trevor that although Rose is well-trained and succesful, he worries if she’s able to tackle the household commerce with out him, contemplating the unusual curse that eats away at her, turning her arm a throbbing pink.
Dialogue performs out with anime-style character sprites, but I used to be impressed by the cinematography and character motion within the background because it unfolds. The 2D settings are closely layered with a hand-painted, nearly storybook really feel at occasions, permitting for vibrant results heretofore unseen within the franchise.
I had twenty minutes of playtime, and immediately I might really feel Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is in good palms beneath developer Evil Empire, who confirmed very particular chops with Useless Cells‘ DLC, together with 2023’s Return to Castlevania DLC. Konami made a fantastic name in selecting them to hold on the cape. I’ll not have been a fan of Useless Cells’ roguelite parts, however I certain did love the graceful traversal and fight, and that’s married right here excellently with the metroidvania journey type refined by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time.
Rose strikes shortly, sliding beneath enemies’ ft and swinging round them as she assaults. Along with your whip, you may swing from hooks and latch factors or join and collide with enemies. I used to be all the time transferring. Within the sewer biome I began in, acquainted beasts from the collection appeared: bats and white and pink skeletons, who moved in acquainted patterns from previous video games however might simply as simply break them in response to Rose. Equippable magic assaults eat away mana, which you’ll restore by damaging enemies with commonplace assaults. Whipping or slashing candlesticks drops well being ampoules and the occasional snack—eventually, I’ve waited too lengthy to eat wall turkey once more!
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Sales space at TGS 2026
I quickly stumbled on a big boss, The Fallen—assumedly a person turned hulking creature. He wielded the spinning holy cross weapon that normally falls into gamers’ palms in previous video games, and he leapt across the boss area, swinging from the ceiling and raking his claws alongside the bottom. Because of some well being ampoules, I took him out, and Rose absorbed his vitality into an Arcana card, confiscating his holy cross for her personal use as a magic assault. It appears that evidently absorbing bosses results in new magical assaults that may be leveled and empowered with mild RPG mechanics much like Symphony of the Night time. [Editor’s Note: Wait, are we sure Rose is a Belmont and not a super fighting robot, with her boss-power-absorption?]
In a flip, The Fallen’s voice crammed Rose’s thoughts, and he grew to become one thing of an ongoing companion to her, although he remained mysterious and hostile within the demo. Reaching an enormous magical door, I realized I needed to take up the essence of two extra bosses, and so I made my approach to a guard tower the place a Warrior-arcana boss was stated to dominate. There have been many platforming puzzles and roundabout detours to decrease the tower gates, however finally I bought in.
Visually, the sport is gorgeous. I had my doubts concerning the 2.5D look Rose and enemy characters have, however it flows so easily with out ever changing into muddled or complicated within the extra painterly backgrounds. Issues are thematically darkish with out sacrificing vibrant colors; I’m glad they struck for a gothic, T-rated adventure-horror that returns to the collection roots.
I solely had a couple of minutes to check out my first new weapon, the Cestus gauntlets. Punching and uppercutting skeletons simply felt proper—admittedly much less Alucard and extra Guacamelee!. There are seven weapons out there within the sport, in addition to three out of dozens of equippable relics. With how completely different but satisfying the usual sword and Cestus felt, I’m trying ahead to attempting the opposite 5.
It didn’t take lengthy for Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse to make me really feel like a professional. Its fluid and high-flying movement, impactful and well-tuned fight, and macabre however in the end intrepid tone solidified this as a day-one purchase for me. The attendants at Konami’s sales space needed to pry the controller out of my palms after my twenty minutes had been up, however I’ll return when the sport releases on October fifteenth, 2026, for PC/Steam, Swap, Xbox Collection X|S, and PlayStation 5.
