Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse reimagines the Belmont legacy by keeping the 2D exploration, gothic pacing, and Vampire Killer whip intact while pushing Rose Belmont through faster combat, more active traversal, and a modernized Paris 1499 story.
The announcement is straightforward: Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a new 2D Castlevania game developed by Evil Empire with KONAMI, arriving October 15 for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC. The standard edition is priced at $29.99, while the Midnight Edition costs $39.99.
The announcement: Evil Empire gets the keys after a Castlevania test drive
There has not been a brand-new Castlevania game for more than a decade, which makes this return feel bigger than a routine franchise refresh. KONAMI did not hand the project to a studio with no Castlevania history; it chose Evil Empire after the team’s Return to Castlevania DLC for Dead Cells proved it could make a modern action game feel like Castlevania already knew what it was doing.
The hands-on preview took place in Paris’s 14th arrondissement, inside the Chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc. That was not just a venue choice. Belmont’s Curse opens in a dark gothic interpretation of the French capital, so the setting gave the preview a useful frame: this is a Castlevania entry built around place, history, and atmosphere, not just another castle crawl.
The partnership started with trust. KONAMI producer Tsutomu Taniguchi described the key reasons for returning to Evil Empire as passion for Castlevania and expertise in action games. Castlevania has always demanded sharp controls, readable combat, and a strong sense of momentum, so the studio needed to understand both the franchise and the mechanics that make action exploration work.
“The first is Evil Empire’s passion for Castlevania. The second is their expertise in action games.”
Evil Empire creative director Emmanuel Nouaille kept the praise grounded. His answer was simpler: the team’s strongest résumé was the DLC itself. Taniguchi played through Return to Castlevania, spotted details and Easter eggs he had missed, and gave the team a thumbs up. For Nouaille, that small moment helped turn a possible one-off collaboration into a larger project.
The design question: what still counts as Castlevania?
The hard part was defining what could not be touched. Taniguchi and Nouaille both framed the project around a basic question: what truly makes Castlevania? The answer was not one specific character, boss, or visual style. It was a set of pillars: 2D action-exploration, official Castlevania canon, and the Vampire Killer whip at the center of the experience.
KONAMI’s role was to protect those foundations while giving Evil Empire room to make decisions. That matters because a modern Castlevania can easily become a museum piece if it only copies old beats. The better approach here is to preserve the shape of the franchise while changing what the player can do inside it.
The whip is the clearest example. Instead of treating the Vampire Killer as a familiar attack, Evil Empire is expanding it into both combat and traversal. The goal is for players to feel like agile vampire hunters who can crack, pull, swing, and reposition with the same confidence they use to strike enemies.
“The whip remains true to Castlevania’s identity, but we wanted to give it a new dimension.”
The preview points toward a faster, more energetic Castlevania, but not a simplified one. The team is adding traps, environmental hazards, and more demanding exploration while using the whip to open new routes. That is the key distinction: Belmont’s Curse is not trying to make Castlevania easier. It is trying to make the world more interactive.
The Belmont story moves from Trevor to Rose
The story places the Belmont name in a new generation. Set in 1499 Paris, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse follows Trevor Belmont and his daughter, Rose Belmont, as monstrous creatures emerge from the shadows
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