Lauren spends most of her time dead in League of Legends, or equally as dead in Valorant. Don’t ask her about Vampire: The Masquerade.
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As I sit down to play Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse at Gamescom, I’m immediately struck by just how colorful it is. Bright blood reds and eerie, noxious greens contrast sharply against dark, midnight blacks. We’re in Paris, but not the one we know. This is a Paris fraught with monsters that lurk in the sewers and haunt the shadows. It doesn’t feel like a place that should be colorful; I expected oppressive darkness and constant violence. Instead, I’m met with one of the most beautiful videogames I’ve ever seen – perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of 2026. While Castlevania has always had style, Belmont’s Curse takes that to a new level.
Carefully crafted by Dead Cells alumni Evil Empire, you’re thrust into the shoes of Rose Belmont, the daughter of prolific vampire hunter, Trevor Belmont, and the seemingly now-deceased Sypha Belmont (or Belnades, if you’re familiar with the Netflix show). Rose bears a striking resemblance to her mother – she’s got red-tinted hair and sharp blue eyes – but it’s clear that she fancies herself as more of Belmont-style brawler than a crafty mage. Dropped off in Paris by her father, she embarks on an adventure to hunt down all things evil, and it’s immediately apparent that it won’t be easy.
Now I’ll admit that I struggle somewhat with Metroidvanias. Hollow Knight pushed me to my limits, and even the side-scrolling action of Animal Well tested me more than I’d like to admit. Belmont’s Curse’s first boss – The Fallen – handed me several defeats before I eventually felled it, but I’d argue that it never once felt frustrating. It took me a hot minute to learn its combinations – dodge whip, avoid or destroy boomerang with my spells, attack when he’s tired himself out – but I found that, once you got used to him, it was easy enough to take him down. Sure, the extra health potions helped, but we’re not keeping count here.
There’s also a solid level of variation in the game’s combat. While I didn’t get to toy with a lot of the more advanced progression systems, being able to switch between standard melee combat and casting spells at range allowed me to consistently change up my approach to battle. As someone who naturally prefers to play at a distance versus up close and personal, the fluidity of being able to toss out a spell, then dive into the fray to soak up some mana perfectly fits with how I like to play Metroidvanias. It’s fast-paced yet also familiar, and meant that my numerous attempts against the big angry Fallen didn’t get repetitive and boring.
Even in more general, non-boss fight areas, combat continued to feel dynamic, with different enemies offering unique challenges. If I take the low level skeleton archers for example, running at them to close the distance then hacking them up does work, but they’re all too happy to give you a swift boot to the gut to knock you back and volley you with arrows. It adds an extra dimension to the standard Metroidvania ‘drive by and slash’ combat, making foes feel both more reactive and actively harder to beat, even at lower levels. It establishes that Castlevania isn’t for the faint of heart; it’s going to test you, and you’d better get used to it.
If you’re more interested in avoiding enemies, though, that’s made a lot easier when you acquire the Belmont family’s aptly named whip, Vampire Killer. While Castlevania and, to quote Belmont’s Curse’s Steam page, “satisfying whip action” go hand-in-hand, the whip has primarily been a weapon rather than a mobility device. We’ve seen it used as a grapple in the likes of Lords of Shadow (think Gabriel’s Combat Cross), and there are similarities with Super Castlevania 4’s Brandish Whip technique, but Evil Empire takes this to a whole new level.
Your whip is your primary traversal device and, by proxy, your new best friend. You can use it to sweep over the heads of foes to streamline your path to the next boss battle (Metroidvanias are terrible for making you constantly run back and forth), or you can fire yourself into the air to meet your foes in the sky. Flying enemies no longer stand a chance, and Evil Empire does a great job of integrating the whip’s movement into Paris’ various traps and puzzles.
The whip adds both a new element to combat, making things feel faster and more dynamic, while also addressing some of the primary traversal woes that Metroidvanias face. Spawning miles away from a boss doesn’t feel as bad when you can bypass all of the enemies to get there. But, you can also take the time to send them back to hell if you really want to, with a little bit of added style.
I have to mention the game’s soundtrack. Some music just sends shivers down your spine; it makes you feel something, even if you don’t quite know what that something is. That’s exactly what I felt with Belmont’s Curse; as soon as I put on the headphones (which were, admittedly, top of the range), the eerie, Dracula-esque harpsichord consumed me. I genuinely felt like I was a vampire hunter, swinging through the streets of Paris, destroying anything that dared to get in my way. There was a sense of real power – it’s not anthemic, but it has the same confidence-boosting effect.
Coupled with the environments, the soundtrack helps portray a genuine sense of scale – everything feels big and momentous. It’s a masterclass in art and sound design, and if Konami doesn’t release a vinyl version when the game launches, I’ll probably riot – and we all know how French revolutions end.
Belmont’s Curse does a lot right, but the thing that’s most exciting is that it feels like it brings Castlevania into the modern day. The game has Evil Empire’s DNA; you can see Dead Cells’ influence in its visuals and difficulty. Yet, it’s quintessentially Castlevania. Straddling that balance and making everything feel cohesive and familiar isn’t easy, but Evil Empire has done it in style.
At Gamescom, Evil Empire’s Marketing Director, Bérenger Dupré, and Lead Level Designer, Sandro Bordier, told me that they were “honored by how much trust” Konami has put in their vision. Konami’s Tsutomu Taniguchi echoed that the publisher has “huge trust” in the Evil Empire team. I can see where that’s come from. What EE has done is modernize a classic, yet keep its spirit.
For the first time in years, I’m hyped for a Castlevania game. I’m excited to see how the team has imagined the likes of Carmilla in its own unique style, and to play more further down the line.
The Castlevania Belmont’s Curse release date is set for Thursday, October 15 on Steam, Xbox X|S, and PS5.