Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse review - a fantastic action game, a less than stellar Metroidvania

Rose Belmont is not her father. Rose is something new: the next generation of the legendary vampire hunters spending her life trying to step out of Trevor's shadow, to be seen as the self-reliant woman she is. Any monster that faces her is surprised to see a young girl, not the grizzled old man they've grown used to. But, despite these expectations, despite the long shadow her family tree casts, Rose tries to prove herself. She will not rely on, or be saved by, what came before. She will blossom into something all her own. This is her story, not his.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is, similarly, something new, learning from its predecessors. The first entry in the series in over a decade, and developed not internally by Konami but by the indie studios responsible for roguelike Dead Cells (including its Castlevania-themed DLC), Evil Empire and Motion Twin, it manages to stand on its own as a modern interpretation of a classic series. That said, it's far from a perfect evolution. And, just to get this out of the way: yes, it feels a little like Dead Cells in its movement, and no, since there has been some confusion online, it's not a roguelike.

I am consistently left stunned by Belmont's Curse. Still images really can't do justice to the ambient, ever-moving beauty of this world and those that inhabit it. Each area gifts you with sights beautiful and varied, from the crushing atmosphere of Dracula's castle (spoilers, Dracula's back, obviously) to the vibrant serenity of the cemetery. I wouldn't blame anyone you for taking a stray hit from a monster because it caught you staring at the background. The animations of Rose and her opponents are a wonder to look at, with Rose bearing an incredibly pretty animation set and specifically a backdash that rivals Alucard's own from Symphony of the Night.

The same praise can be given to Rose's movement and combat capabilities. Everything she does is quick and snappy, the highlight being the series-staple whip now doubles as a grappling hook for both traversal and enemy grappling alike. The whip-hook is the single best aspect of the game for me, completely opening up combat and exploration at once, allowing Rose to essentially fly across and between enemies at will, dodging and weaving projectiles while remaining on the offensive. Many of the game's platforming sequences are primarily built around careful use of the whip-hook, and they rarely felt any more than a tiny bit frustrating (this game does love its NES Mega Man -esque spikes, though they mercifully only reset Rose's progress through the platform sequence, rather than kill her outright).

Her weapons extend beyond just her base sword and the whip-hook though, as she goes on to discover both new weapons scattered around the map and new Arcana as rewards for beating certain bosses. Her arsenal goes on to include a lance and metal gauntlets among other options, granting a player real choice in how they wish to approach combat. Arcana, conversely, are cards that effectively function as spells, letting Rose equip one at a time and offering attacks such as the classic holy cross, a grounded shockwave and a petrifying glare. That last one might clue you in to the bosses here: Belmont's Curse draws from a variety of cultures for its spectacular boss fights, from the beautiful, fictional Medusa to the beautiful, very real Joan of Arc. The bosses are exceptional, each requiring several tries to work out the patterns of and rarely hitting you with something that feels truly unfair (while still hitting very hard). I adored the choice to have a few of these bosses stick around in Rose's head after their defeat as a sort of Greek chorus, offering commentary rarely asked for on whatever dire trouble she got herself into; their bickering and occasional agreement is where the writing shines.

Defeating said bosses and acquiring new abilities, as you might expect, is the aged skeleton of Belmont's Curse, as a new Metroidvania entry to the series. Best Joan in glorious combat and gain her holy light, used to dissipate barriers that would otherwise block Rose's path. Smelt the living armour Talos and acquire an empowered stomp that can shatter certain blocks. You know how these work. That said, while the combat is stellar in a vacuum for its call-and-response rhythm between Rose and her opponents, I feel it creates an unintended, sour dissonance with the search-action aspect.

However, while the boss fights aren't unfair – they're a challenge of skill and patience – that's not true of all combat encounters. It's not uncommon to die in rooms that lock behind you and flood the screen with a ton of enemies at once, in the sort of 'fuck you' design I suppose Castlevania used to be known for. Rose's sole form of healing is a very limited number of potions that can only be regained upon death or finding a save room, so if you run out mid-room, you're kind of doomed to drown under the flurry of projectiles and enemies flying at you at once. In many cases, save rooms are sparse across the map; I really hate to say it as I did with Silksong , but racing through the same rooms over and over after a defeat, ignoring enemies to save time and energy, does not instill joy or satisfaction, it's boring. Belmont's Curse doesn't offer traditional difficulty settings, but instead lets you modify stats individually, such as damage taken or dealt, how many potions Rose can carry at once, and if she respawns outside boss doors or not. These are a nice touch, and I'm sure will help people who struggle with the base difficulty design, but I feel that just handing control over difficulty to players is something of an admittance that the combat balance wasn't quite nailed.

There are other choices made within its Metroidvania-ness that baffle me and actively bring the rest of it down, too.

Rose finds new weapons across the map with varying levels of power, making stumbling upon a chest containing an exceptionally powerful sword or gauntlets feel a meaningful reward for exploration, but she also bears a standardised, empty-feeling RPG level-up system that incrementally increases her health and attack stats — a system that can be forgotten about until she levels up mid-fight and you remember it's there. Despite their wide variety in style, some of the weapons are simply worse than others; in all my playtime, I couldn't find a situation where using the immensely slow greatsword was ever a better idea than using the sword or lance, which are much faster and cover similar ranges.

Attempts to sequence break in any way or go off the implied golden path are met with inexplicable barriers that essentially tell the player "No, silly, you're not gonna do any of that Metroidvania shit here, you're going to play it how we intended."

And, in a choice that I cannot fully detail due to it containing story spoilers, there is a moment towards the end of the game in which you are presented with a boss room that seems of dire importance. Rose's voices in her head warn her that perhaps she is not yet strong enough to face this opponent, but she refutes it, insisting she can prove herself regardless of their doubts — the core of her arc. Yet, she is proven right, as the game allows you to enter the boss room and start a fakeout phase in which the boss 'dies', only to then suddenly switch over to a cutscene in which Rose dies, without a single button pressed by the player. They call her a foolish girl, and god did I feel foolish for thinking I could fight a boss that the game allowed me to face, only for a voice to politely tell me that perhaps I should gain more arcana and abilities before trying again (not being at all specific as to what is actually needed to unlock the true fight, of course). A progression-locked boss that doesn't tell you it's locked until after you automatically fail. Fascinating, ridiculous stuff. What, did you think a Metroidvania would let you fight a boss when you feel ready, not when the game decides you are behind the scenes? Foolish girl, indeed. I closed the game out of utter bewilderment following this experience, if that tells you anything.

Ultimately, this strikes me as an action game that really doesn't want to be a Metroidvania, and is fighting itself each time it leans too far in that non-linear direction. This is a decent action platformer with fun combat, I can't deny that, but I feel this could have been so much more if it had just been linear as they seem to have wanted it to be. I am getting a little tired of seemingly every Metroidvania needing to make its combat the focus over the exploration, and making the 'search' part of search-action suffer as a result. Where Rose is weighed down by the expectations of proving herself as a Belmont, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is weighed down by seemingly needing to prove itself as a Castlevania game in more than name.