Review of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse

The Castlevania franchise has finally returned after more than a decade with Belmont's Curse, and today we take a closer look at it. Twelve years have passed since the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, and nearly two decades since the last version of

After more than a decade, the Castlevania franchise is finally back with Belmont's Curse, and we'll be taking a look at it today.

Twelve years have passed since the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, and even more than that, almost two decades have passed since the last Metroidonian version of the series in the main timeline, and during these years the fan community has wanted the series to return to its Metroidonian style. Now, finally, one of the most influential franchises in the history of gaming has returned to the main story line of the series thanks to the title Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, bringing with it a rich experience in the Metroidonia genre that fans of the series and new audiences can enjoy.

The forgotten flower of the Belmont family

If we take into account the 3D titles of the series, including Lords of Shadow, this is almost the first time that we are faced with a conventional and extensive narrative in a Castlevania version. Of course, almost all the post-Symphony of the Night versions had a narrative in some way and constantly enriched the Lore of the collection. However, Belmont's Curse brings the 2D versions of the series up to today's genre standards, as we see a focused and cohesive narrative with multiple characters, centered around the forgotten Belmont of the original timeline, Rose.

The story of the game takes place about 23 years after the third part of the franchise, Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse, in 1499. Trevor Belmont receives a letter from the Bishop of Notre Dame that tells of the terrible events in Paris and the return of the Dark Army. He asks the last surviving Belmont, Trevor, to reach out to the residents of Paris. At the same time, the camera focuses on a young girl who is traveling with Trevor on a boat to Paris, and it becomes clear that Trevor is no longer the last survivor of his family as he was 23 years ago.

Rose is the daughter of Trevor and Sypha, both of whom were main characters in the third episode. At the very beginning, it is revealed that Sypha was bewitched by Dracula before Rose was born, and because of her weakened body, she dies while giving birth to Rose. Now the same spell has plagued Rose and apparently has no cure, that's why Trevor has trained Rose over the years so that she can control this spell that feeds on her anger.

When the two arrive at the docks in Paris, Trevor decides to find the bishop and inquire about the situation. Rose also asks her father to entrust her with the task of searching the city and assessing the situation. Despite his misgivings, Trevor agrees to Rose's request and gives young Belmont the reins of the story. It is here that Rose's adventure begins on the streets of Paris, an adventure that soon turns a huge and familiar shadow into absolute darkness for which no training has prepared her.

Belmont's Curse's straightforward, multi-layered narrative has brought a tremendous sense of freshness to the franchise. All the characters in the game have excellent voice acting, and besides, numerous dialogues during the gameplay help to explain them as much as possible. Unfortunately, in the past, the works that hosted the Belmonts did not necessarily have very rich narratives, or they explained their characters more indirectly.

Characters like Simon didn't necessarily become popular because of the rich narrative of his versions, but his overall adventures and memorable design made him one of the icons of the series. Until today, the main narrative of the two-dimensional Castlevania titles relied less on dialogue and more on the gameplay process and environmental narrative, so that the environments, bosses, and the way you experience it became the story of the character of that game, and this story matured by being completed with Lore elements.

Now, Rose is the ambassador for the franchise's first 2D/Metroidonian version in the modern era, telling a cohesive, multi-layered and focused story that has quickly made her a memorable character in my eyes. Unlike some of the more one-dimensional examples in the collection, this Belmont has had a troubled past and the spell of Dracula still haunts him. Trevor is the first Belmont to beat the Prince of Darkness, so it will be a very difficult and stressful task for Rose to follow in his footsteps. However, Rose is portrayed as a believable member of the family.

She is a brave and powerful girl who is trying to be a worthy person to continue her family, therefore, her personality wavering in the face of her spell creates a captivating contrast in the narrative. The big mystery of this game, which is considered a spell, is one of the obscure and very interesting aspects of the story that keeps you engaged throughout the story. The supporting and secondary characters are all well-written and serve a distinct purpose in the narrative, some of which may even shock long-time fans of the series!

Various historical characters are also present in the narrative of this game; For example, Joan of Arc is one of the characters you meet in the early hours of the game. It is not bad to point out that characters like Joan have an active presence in the game process and are not just a cameo. The production team attractively combines history and legend in this version and makes it look believable in the form of Castlevania.

At this point I might as well answer a question you might be asking: "Is Belmont's Curse connected to previous versions of Timeline?". In response, I must say definitely. Another achievement of this edition is the tribute and recognition of the collection's past. If you are a long-time fan who played different versions, you will constantly come across various references that give a good sense of unity between this version and its previous versions. In the past, the various titles of the series may have limited references to some events of the previous versions, but due to the lack of a broad narrative, these references were generally manifested in environmental dimensions or Istrags.

Belmont's Curse, however, seriously tries to integrate its world-building, and for that reason, it naturally incorporates the history of the series into its heart. So if you are an old fan, know that various surprises are waiting for you in this version, and if you are a new audience, don't worry, the main story will still be understandable and enjoyable for you, but among some big revelations or different information, they probably won't have that much weight for you.

The story and narration of Belmont's Curse is considered to be an integrated, engaging and multi-dimensional narrative, which has not been seen in this scale in two-dimensional works of the collection.

The important thing is that the creators have well synchronized this dimension with other dimensions; While still the Metroidonian gameplay of the game is the helm of the experience of this work, which is now complete with its narration and creates a unified experience.

During the absence of Castlevania in the Metroidonia genre, many works, including other Evil Empire studio titles such as Dead Cells or Hollow Knight, set new standards for platforming, stage design, movement systems and combat. Now the new version of Castlevania tries to extend these qualities to its core identity, and the result is an addictive and highly enjoyable gameplay cycle that shines in exploration, environmental puzzles, combat and platforming.

The combat system of the game is extremely deep, varied and detailed. Rose begins her adventure with a sword at the beginning of the game, but it doesn't take long for the Armory section of the game to expand in line with exploration. Rose has access to seven different weapon classes, from the Longsword and Lance to the series' iconic Knuckles and Whip.

Each of these classes offers its own structure, capacity, and interactive layers, and has its own special moves. For example, Bax's Claw will reduce the range of fights, but Rose's strikes will be stronger with each hit. Meanwhile, Lance enables fighting at greater distances and even allows the player to throw it.

It should be noted that each of these seven classes of weapons has four different examples of weapons under its collection, which you can access to these more powerful examples while exploring the environment and solving environmental puzzles! Of course, unfortunately, it is not possible to change the weapon during the gameplay and you have to do it through the menu, which disrupts the fighting process.

But like many other versions of the series, melee weapons are not the only way to deal with the army of darkness. As you may have seen in the trailers, Rose also has the ability to use magic, and this ability comes from the Tarot cards that her mother Sypha left her.

These cards play a prominent role both in narrative dimensions and introduce the Arcana system to the game. Each of the bosses that you defeat during the game will be attracted by one of these cards and will provide Rose with their own special ability. Also, thanks to these magic cards, all these bosses can talk to Rose in her head, which plays a very prominent role in the narrative dimension and is a very attractive idea. The game offers you about 15 different Arcana items, each of which assigns a distinct ability to Rose and even has the ability to upgrade by doing special challenges!

This system, along with the high variety of weapons, injects an extraordinary depth to the structured gameplay of the game, which is extremely impressive and has never been seen in this scale in the franchise! The game's unique ideas blend the mechanical depth with the franchise's strategic and skill-based approaches to create a highly efficient mechanism that still feels like a true Castlevania.

Mechanical depth, skill-oriented systems and a high variety of weapons, at least in terms of gameplay, after the SOTN version, make this work the first version whose protagonist really conveys a sense of power to you through mechanical interaction.

Of course, in addition to these things, during the experience, Rose will also gain access to some permanent abilities that will play a large role in the process of combat, exploration and platforming.

Until now, I personally considered Order of Ecclesia to be the second in this field, and indeed Belmont's Curse has slight but obvious imitations of the Gylph system of its effect and the high flexibility of Shanoa. In addition to these two categories, this title also introduces a dedicated menu called Relics, which is actually an environment for choosing passive abilities for Rose. By finding Relics during the exploration of the game world (which again have a very high variety), you will be able to choose three of them at the same time in this menu.

Some of these Relics have defensive or offensive approaches while others enhance Rose's specific abilities. For example, Witch's Knot causes any health item to fully restore Rose's health bar. In this regard, it is not bad to mention that the health items that Rose carries with her by default are limited to three numbers, but it is possible to increase them by finding these items in the environment or through enemies.

The process of fighting in this game is just like the majority of franchise works and it requires increasing skills, using environmental capacities and knowing the behavior pattern of enemies. Fortunately, despite all these modern approaches, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse hasn't forgotten what it's named after and thus still offers a challenging experience. Fighting normal enemies sometimes requires a lot of environmental/situational awareness. Thanks to the more flexible and modern movement system of this game, you will be able to move and maneuver as much as your enemies have the ability to maneuver.

Your unique approach, your weapon of choice and the level of skill you've acquired can sometimes turn combat into a fascinating dance. Also, in addition to the special combos of each weapon, as I said, Rose also has some special abilities, the two most important of which are Holy Light and Arcane Whip. The former allows you to Parry while the latter allows you to quickly move between enemies or in the environment and perform a special combo chain! The design of motion animations and weapons are also admirably refined. Rose's movements are smooth and detailed, the weight of the blows is palpable, and the beauty of using each weapon speaks to the skills Rose learned from the legendary Trevor.

The boss fights of the game also have very good designs and continue the process of twisting the mechanics of the game. Each boss is a big puzzle that sometimes can use offensive, defensive and even environmental capacities at the same time, and accordingly you should be ready to react and find holes in these patterns. Sometimes, as much as the bosses can use the environment as a weapon, you will also have the ability to use it, and this issue makes the process of these encounters extremely shaky. But one of the problems in this section is the lack of balance in the save rooms and sometimes sinusoidal backtracking for some basses, which have no special justification.

The more modern titles of the series, such as Order of Ecclesia and Portrait of Ruin, balanced this issue well and avoided time-consuming and pointless backtracking when defeating bosses. Belmont's Curse, however, is sinusoidal in this context; Sometimes we see a save room right outside the boss room, while in other cases these rooms are sometimes far away from the boss and even in this there is a platforming section that may reduce your health while doing it. In my opinion, this approach has no special justification and is simply a design error on the part of the creators, which can sometimes waste the player's time.

Actually, no matter how much I say about the mechanical depth of the game and the beauty of their connection with each other, I have not said enough. Belmont's Curse really pushes the franchise's standards to a new level in this regard, and it's great to see this level of flexibility in a modern version of Castlevania. The production team has well understood the mechanical nature of the franchise and simultaneously tried to move it into a new era. The result of this approach is a rich work in mechanical dimensions that conveys the weight of the Belmont family name in its protagonist.

The design of the stages, platforming and exploration around them also works exactly on the same qualitative scale. In this game, in addition to Dracula's castle, you will also have access to several environments in the heart of Paris. From the red streets to its sad cemetery, they all offer a lot of environmental depth, as usual. Sometimes the complete exploration of each of them may take hours. This process of discovery becomes an addictive process thanks to the attractive design, environmental puzzles and breathtaking platforming scenarios.

Each of the environments presented during the experience of this game has a very high depth, hidden rooms and an interconnected and so-called "interconnected" design, which is expected from an original Metroidonia work. Platforming is now more demanding than ever, and due to the increased capacity of the genre over the years, Castlevania has also attracted different approaches in this field. During the game, you will constantly face challenging platforming approaches that not only require high skill and environmental awareness, but also extract the essence of the movement system and related elements.

Dracula's Castle really shines in the environment design and platforming sections, and it plays off the changing, if brutal, nature of its architecture well. Each of the parts of the castle, like the previous versions, have specific characteristics that, in addition to the appearance, also have a large impact on the way the platforming dimensions are designed. Therefore, upon entering each new part of the castle, you officially have to coordinate and optimize your approach and skill according to the environmental capacities and specific twists of that part.

Most of these scenarios and designs tickled a certain point in Mughrem that only some Metroidonia works manage to achieve. Your mental and practical coordination is constantly tested during the exploration of the environment, so that in some parts of the platforming you need to use three or even four different mechanisms in a short period of time in addition to the basic movement elements of the game. The optimal output of movement systems and excellent environmental efficiency make each platforming part an extremely attractive and challenging interactive puzzle, which is actually considered the signature of this collection, and Evil Empire's performance in this part deserves praise.

By passing these things, we will reach the visual and audio aspects of the game, a part that may be a bit controversial. If you have been an audience of the classic versions, you know that Castlevania had a very specific and distinct artistic approach, and this also applies to its sound, music and aesthetics. The root of this apparent identity was the intersection of a world with western roots and Japanese artists, so if you go back to the past, you will see that this franchise has always followed a certain aesthetic and, in line with it, a unique artistic approach.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, however, is a work that departs from this visual and audio identity to a great extent and is relatively westernized. Is this a bad thing? The answer can be yes or no depending on which fanbase you ask. Personally, I have a middle opinion about it, which is negative in some cases and positive in others. The design of the environment, the characters and the redesign of many iconic enemies of the franchise with the 2.5D style of this game are well done and I personally enjoy the overall atmosphere of the game.

At the same time, however, due to this new artistic approach, the aesthetics relying on the extensive "Gothic" elements unique to the franchise have been somewhat diluted in these dimensions, so that in some cases you may not necessarily notice that you are watching a Castlevania at first glance.

However, I personally believe that such a change of approach is necessary for the franchise at this point in time and it does not necessarily completely damage the visual identity of the collection. But it wouldn't have been bad if the same design approaches were used at least for the in-game images of the characters, because even the original cover of the game has signs of following that aesthetic, something that is not necessarily seen in the original game. Regardless of this issue, the artistic approach can still show the darkness of this world very well and sometimes it depicts very beautiful but dark environments using vibrant colors.