Castlevania: Belmont's Curse review: Welcome back, Drac

Motion Twin and Evil Empire understood the assignment, crafting an amazing adventure any player can enjoy, and a brilliant love letter to series' fans.

It has been a very long time since a proper Castlevania game came out. The mainline games had been on hiatus since MercurySteam’s release of Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014. Since then, the series has appeared in collaborations and TV series with spiritual successors attempting to carry the torch elsewhere, but the void of new and true Castlevania in capable hands became even more palpable with the Dominus Collection bringing quality ports of the handheld games forward to new platforms recently. In 2026, the wait is over. Motion Twin and Evil Empire (Dead Cells, The Rogue Prince of Persia) stepped up to be the capable hands, and with Konami’s support, they created one of the best Castlevania games I have ever played. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse isn’t just a high-quality action-platformer in its own right. It’s also a deeply knowledgeable love letter to Castlevania fans and lore that respects the lengthy history of the franchise in countless satisfying ways.

A new generation of vampire hunter

Castlevania: Belmont’s Cure sets its scene in the year 1499 in Paris, France. The city has fallen into chaos as monsters have poured into the streets, killing, burning, and pillaging, and gathering bodies and souls for an evil purpose. With the city on its last legs, a letter goes out to the Belmont clan, begging them to come and deliver Paris from its cruel fate. Trevor Belmont, having slain Dracula 23 years prior with the help of the magician Sypha Belnades, the rogue Grant Danasty, and Dracula’s own son Alucard, answers the call. He is joined, not by those allies, but by his daughter Rose, who has grown to be a capable vampire hunter all her own, but is also cursed by the power of Dracula in her right arm – a curse which took her mother Sypha’s life and will eventually claim her if she loses control of it. Despite this threat, Rose splits from Trevor to scour Paris for clues as to its plight and fight off the evils that lurk throughout it.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a grand gallery of beautiful level design, vast backdrops, lush characters and enemies, and gorgeous art throughout. Whether you’re in the  blood moon-lit streets of Paris fighting monsters in the shadows or deep underneath the city in its bony catacombs full of ornate burial decor, there’s so much breathtaking scenery to take in, and it’s incredibly smooth-running as you traverse it. One of my favorite things in the game is a deck of magic-imbued Tarot cards Trevor hands Rose near the beginning that react to notable figures throughout the game. At the outset, they give Rose an idea of the challenge in store for her ahead, but as these cards fill out, they also become clues to overcome those challenges, and new sources of power when the challenge associated with any given card is overcome. They’re wonderful artistic markers of progress in a way that makes me wish they were in a physical collector’s edition.

I was also just plain impressed by the depths of lore Evil Empire and Konami harnessed in this game. As a vampire hunter who has worked with her father, but has never faced many of Trevor’s enemies, Rose is a compelling vehicle for this game, especially with the curse of Dracula and Sypha’s magic within her. There are so many nods to dark corners of the franchise, from the obvious in the likes of Castlevania 3 and the stories spawned from it to unexpected places like Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, and the DS games. I have been playing this series since the beginning, and I lost count how many times I found myself screaming “no way, they brought that back?” And then they proceeded, almost without fail, to make those returning aspects the coolest versions I have ever seen. I can almost guarantee you have never seen the Grim Reaper with as much aura as he has in this game.

The incredible soundtrack also helps to solidify that vibe. This game is filled to the brim with music that always matches the mood, whether you’re exploring through the vast world and its connected biomes or facing down a hellacious boss. Some of it remixes classic Castlevania music. If you’ve been following this game, you’ve probably heard some of the Bloody Tears remix. I will say, I wasn’t sure how to feel about the infusion of electronic/techno/dubstep elements into it at first. Some folks might not be into the drastic change in styles at certain points. But the more this soundtrack opens up, the more I felt I couldn’t ask for much more. It matches every part of the game and accentuates every moment in a way that I not only relished throughout the adventure, but downloaded a few hours after playing since the soundtrack comes in deluxe editions. Some of those boss themes are staying on my permanent playlists.

No need for “Metroid,” this is Castlevania

I have been constantly impressed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire’s work in action-platforming over the years. Dead Cells is a longstanding testament to how the developers have grown, and The Rogue Prince of Persia is a not-nearly-celebrated-enough benchmark of what happens when this crew puts that acumen to other tasks. From the moment I heard they were working on Belmont’s Curse, I had good feelings about how they would stick the landing here. I was unprepared for just how many twists, flips, and spins they would do before sealing the deal with near flawless execution.

Belmont’s Curse presents a broad and secret-rich map in an open-ended style similar to Simon's Quest and Symphony of the Night, with rewards for the inquisitive as you explore freely. There are eight categories of weapons to find in this game, magic spells that are earned from defeating bosses and gaining their powers (and can be further powered up by completing challenges associated with each spell), traversal abilities that allow you to open those nooks and crannies you had to leave behind, relics that help augment your playstyle with things like bonus damage while airborne, and a robust interactive map and marker system that makes it easy to track where you’ve been and anything you couldn’t pick up when you were there. If there’s a thing you’d expect to be in a good action-RPG Castlevania game, it’s here in this game’s systems in one way or another.

I also like the breadcrumbs this game features in the form of the ghosts and boss clues. As you travel through biomes, you’ll find spectral or supernatural entities that tell you tidbits about what you’ll face ahead. Sometimes, by being thorough in your search, you’ll find the secrets these spirits refer to before you find the spirit themselves. In that way, they act as a smart safety net to drop hints as to things you might have missed.

Of course, none of that would matter if it wasn’t fun to jump and fight through, but Belmont’s Curse has that packed up, too. The two main traversal abilities in this game are the Arcane Whip, letting you swing between anchor points or whip yourself to enemies (which in turn lets you lightly cheat some area exploration), and the Holy Light, which parries enemy attacks and allows you to move between “chaos debris” as long as the barrier is active. If you let go of Holy Light inside of rocks you’re traveling through, they squish Rose. Even so, just having these two things - Arcane Whip and Holy Light - leads to so many satisfying platforming challenges. They can be frustrating at times, but the game makes you feel incredible for clearing them and there’s often a meaningful reward for doing so.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse on normal settings is Castlevania hard. Mashing your way through everything is not advised because most enemies will tank you and kill you in a few hits, even with the most basic zombie, and you only have three potions to carry you between save points. You’ll have to consider your spacing and options at all times, consider what’s the best way to use your magic and weapons, consider if you even need this fight or if you should run, and so much more. The platforming gets just as tough. However, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse also has gameplay mods that let you reduce the strain. Things like respawning in front of boss doors, increasing number of potions and damage dealt/received, reducing or increasing experience gain, or even outright preventing death can be toggled as you need to. The stalwart among us will win without these modifications, but I’m happy that these will allow more people to enjoy all of the other wonderful features Belmont’s Curse has to offer. And heck, you can also use those same options to make it harder.

Nobody throws a party like Count Dracula

The Castlevania series is one that’s near and dear to my heart. I’ve spent decades playing these games since the very first one, and the balance that Belmont’s Curse strikes between being an incredible platforming adventure all on its own and respecting the series’ myriad directions and gimmicks, good and bad, was impressive start to finish. Stellar gameplay, music, scenery, characters (new and old), and a great set of options for altering the intensity make this the easily one of the highest-quality action-platformers I have ever played. When the dust settles, I think there’s a case to be made that Belmont’s Curse might be the best Castlevania game of all time.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by the publisher. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse comes out on October 15, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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Review for
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse
10
Pros

• Gorgeous levels, characters, & art throughout
• Robust combat system full of weapons, magic, & accessories
• Stylish platforming that presents a satisfying challenge
• Impressive reverence & adaptation of deep lore
• Powerful soundtrack
• "Custom Mode" lets you heavily alter the difficulty

Cons

• The classic music remixes are a bit weird at times