Castlevania: Belmont's Curse

Demo Deep-Dive #1

Video game demos were a mainstay during my childhood. They sometimes came with magazines, or even shipped with consoles. But for many years, they seemed to disappear. Perhaps due to falling prices, increased competition, and data-driven sales, the demo is king again. Best of all, you can usually carry over your save data!

The stakes to try and play a game before commiting to purchase has never been lower. While the industry has suffered many unfortunate casualities, I for one am grateful for even the smallest win for gaming fans. In this series, I'll document my experiences with demos, and share my reviews. I originally started this blog with this prompt in mind.

Castle-freakin-vania

Earlier this month, nakamuramartin.bsky.social encouraged me to play the Castlevania: Belmont's Curse demo and share my thoughts:

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Despite the blasé response to the game, I was genuinely excited. I've been a fan of the series since the 16-bit era, especially once I got my hands on Symphony of the Night on the PS1. (Those old school games were hard!)

But somehow, Belmont's Curse completely escaped my notice. In fact, Lords of Shadow and its sequels on the Xbox 360 was the last time I'd heard about a new release in the franchise. Metroidvanias kept us well-fed in the meantime, but I was eager to see what the genre's progenitors could do after such a long lapse in new entries.

Stunning key art by Katsuya Terada for Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. In the center is the game's main protagonist, Rose Belmont, surrounded by several of the game's key antagonists.

The Demo

📚 Story

The game jumps right into the story, re-introducing us to the infamous whip-wielding Belmonts.

Against the backdrop of the Notre Dame, Paris is burning (again). Trevor Belmont a grayed and bearded man with electric blue eyes and flowing locks, speaks to his daughter, Rose, a red-haired womain in blue, who stands on the docks. His speech box reads: "Yes... there's something rotten with his letter. The situation is far worse than he says."

I was delighted to see Konami backtrack into an earlier timeline in the series, though the characters so far, feel a little... wooden at times.

👁️ Visuals

The game's art style, while very distinct from the key art, is absolutely stunning. I love the vibrant colors, costume designs, and visual effects.

A screenshot of the game. Rose, a woman with red hair wearing a white top with a blue cowl is observing a purple spirit. Her textbox reads: "What's this... some sort of spirit?"

The backgrounds have this monochromatic effect that really helps the characters pop in the foreground.

Rose stands in a blue room in front a blue mirror. The room is framed by two angelic figures reaching toward the center. The mirror is surrounded by 5 blue cloaked figures with an assortment of golden weaposn and adornments.

No stone is left unturned, with equally, semi-skeumorphic gorgeous menus.

The Journey tab of the pause menu features a sketchy line-art illustration of Rose. It is inked in yellow with red-details for the scarred tissue on her arm. A textured belt loop and pieces of paper serve as the UI for some kind of collectibles.

🎶 Music

I liked the soundtrack so far. It feels like an update Castlevania theme, but it does recede into the background before long.

Personally I don't mind that. It feels nostalgic, and helps me stay immersed in my gameplay. I don't know that it's memorable, but I like it.

🎙️ Voices

I liked the voices so far! Everyone seems to emote well, although I did kind of wish there was a little more camp as a throwback to the PS1 era.

⏱️ Length

Steam says I played the game for about 112 minutes total, but my save file says I played it for just under an hour.

Rose stands in a green room before a green door broken into 3 parts. The boss is breaking down into yellow lights. I have about a quarter of my health and magic remaining, and my potions are empty.

I think the demo's length is pretty generous, taking you through a corridor that introduces core mechanics, and a boss that frankly was a cakewalk once I remembered my Hollow Knight training.

🔥 Difficulty

So far the platforming and enemies feel a little on the easy side, though it's only the beginning. But a lot of the difficulty of the old games was due to hardware constraints or game design norms at the time. We've come a long way, baby!

The "Gameplay" menu in Settings allows you to Deactive Tutorials and Enable "Custom Mode" to adjust the game's balance by adjusting mechanics like respawn, damage, death, and experience.

This game is more accessible than most, allowing you to choose to tweak key drivers of difficulty, like how quickly you accrue experience, and the death mechanic.

⭐ Review

With the franchise turning 40 this year, I can see why this game might disappoint long-term fans. Metroidvanias exploded in popularity, and have introduced new ideas, borrowing mechanics from other industry darlings.

Belmont's Curse, however, plays it pretty safe, and doesn't seem to have much to say about where the series and genre might go next. But maybe it doesn't have to.

It's a solid entry in a return to the 2D series that helped start the tradition, and a great introduction to anyone who may have been intimidated by the likes of Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, or Nine Sols.

Demo Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4/5, Great! I will absolutely pick this up. I'm curious to see how the story and level design evolve as the game continues.

My ranking system:
- ⭐ 1/5, Nope. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
- ⭐⭐ 2/5, OK: Maybe catch it on sale.
- ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5, Pretty good! Definitely wishlist it.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5, Great! I will absolutely pick this up.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5, Legendary. I need this right now!