For years, it seemed like Castlevania was dead and buried. But with last night’s reveal of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse during Sony’s State of Play stream, Konami’s long-neglected saga of ghoul-whipping and vampire daddy drama is bursting back out of the coffin—in a Dracula-like fashion, I suppose you could say.
While an all-new 2D Castlevania from the Dead Cells developers at Evil Empire and Motion Twin is just about the best case scenario you could hope for, Konami says it has even bigger plans in store for the series’ revival.
Coinciding with the announcement of Belmont’s Curse, Konami also launched a site to celebrate this year’s 40th anniversary of Castlevania’s first release as Akumajō Dracula in Japan. “The doors of Castlevania open once more,” the anniversary page declares. While the site’s a little thin—there’s not much there aside from a spooky commemorative video showing that good haunted castle we all love to hate—the message Konami left for Dracula’s house’s birthday indicates there are other Castlevania projects in the works.
“This is the beginning of numerous new products around Castlevania,” Konami said. “Look forward to the return of the magnificent ‘nightmare’ lurking in the darkness.”
Now, we should temper our expectations somewhat: “Products” can admittedly mean a lot of things that aren’t more Castlevania games. Konami might just be rolling out some anniversary t-shirts or signing off on putting Alucard in Fortnite. A Uniqlo collab seems pre-ordained. Perhaps there will be a Castlevania-themed drink at participating bubble tea establishments. The possibilities are endless and many of them are at least faintly depressing.
But hey, when the last 2D Castlevania game launched almost 13 years ago, Belmont’s Curse seems like strong evidence that Konami once again has bigger ambitions for Castlevania than pachislot machines. As long as it’s not a decade before we see another Belmont pick up a whip, I’ll be content.
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