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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by Solomon on October 20, 2026, 09:46:52 AM »

About 18 hours into the game. The music is probably its weakest point (disappointing for a Castlevania,frankly) and the story its strongest.

Speaking of story, I have just two gripes:

1. Why don't

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Leon and Medusa recognize each other? You'd think they'd have remembered clashing back in 1094.

2. Instead of

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Brauner, could they not have used Olrox instead? I hear this Brauner's an identical ancestor who just so happened to be a vampire too but that's so roundabout and forced and it takes away from the OG Brauner's one-and-done uniqueness.

Otherwise I'm having quite the blast. Belmont's Curse isn't perfect by any means but it's absolutely above average and a worthy welcome back to our favorite franchise.

Now uh.... can we please make sure a Japanese studio does the next game?

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by mkk hanzo on October 19, 2026, 09:25:20 PM »

 I have turned on the visibility outline (on cyan color, like Juste, mind you) and I still cant see shit when chaos ensues. Im the same, forcing myself to contonie. Every room is like a big puzzle, and the game has constantly asking you to be on your toes, and of course failing a lot at first.

 BTW its just me or controls are SUPER laggy? Like half a second input delay. Parries are SUPER hard. And Im playing on Xbox Series X and a 120fps monitor.

 Music is horrid. I like the graphics but feels like an indie title. And that makes sense due to the price tag.

 Give me my 3D Castlevania COllection already Konami

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by Gunlord on October 19, 2026, 06:28:59 PM »

And those damned flashing effects that don't allow you to see shit are just the worst.

THIS!!! I'm not going to refund the game or give it a bad review, but I'm lowering my previous 9/10 score to a 7/10 because of it. Many of the later bosses were just "CAN'T SEE SHIT CAPN" because of that, and because they blended in with the backgrounds so f'in much.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by Scarlet starlet on October 19, 2026, 10:51:52 AM »

Thoughts so far (90% completion). Beware Spoilers.

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Reached late-game and the bad ending, now I'm going for 100%. I liked the early game (Streets-Cemetery-Catacombs) then the game started feeling like torture to me in the midgame (Main Hall-Library-Notre-Dame), now that I approach the end and I have all the movement abilities, it's decent again.
I have no idea why the midgame was so fucking bad, I had to force myself to keep playing it. Enemy placements and platforming puzzles were just obnoxious while the bosses were a joke except Death. Then in the upper half of Clock Tower and the Hall of Mirrors the level design became normal again.

I honestly can't say if I want more games in this style. I think it's a better package than Mirror of Fate overall but just like Mirror of Fate the movement and combat don't feel good, against mobs it feels like button mashing is more rewarding than repositioning. And those damned flashing effects that don't allow you to see shit are just the worst.

I don't even miss the Igavania systems like enemy drops all that much. The problem for me lies entirely in the physics of jumps, combat, movement. The jump not being high enough and feeling "mushy". The attacks feeling floaty and janky and the enemies (including bosses) lightweight and "plastic". Every weapon does combos, even the Vampire Killer, Rose moves forward when attacking, and there are some serious case of "over-animation". There's a beast of a game when it comes to graphics and areas, the game is BIG and looks BEAUTIFUL but I just couldn't enjoy the combat.

Overall the game is fine, but I don't want another product like it. Give a chance to different developers. And next time Konami, please ensure better oversight of the lore because this game touches so many aspects of the lore between LoI and CVIII and is so bold about it that I've noticed many potential pitfalls and I'm not even a lore expert. And Brauner...that's just a mistake, what even was the point of including him in the game if you were going to cut the boss battle.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by K.G. Morder on October 19, 2026, 05:51:29 AM »

My thoughts on this games style, I've repeated a few times elsewhere, but it is that this feels likeits inspired by the Netflix show.
Which is awful since while I don't mind the show's designs, the show is definitely taking cues from ayami kojima's legendary work.

Which means it's based on a show which is based on an artist which themselves reinvented the series art style. A series which is originally based on old universal/hammer horror films.

That's like castlevania 3 times removed.

Some of the designs definitely reek of "modern western dev" Rose herself in some shots has some serious western dev man face going on, and it's kind of telling that when the devs try and say "we made some women hot! We've seen porn!!" It seems disingenuous. I mean, hot to who? Because it's telling that most of that conversation almost always is exclusively Carmilla's art.

Do we miss the Lord's of shadow series yet? :^)
It at least had an unashamed unique visual identity. Which imo, still played some homage to its roots.

You know what I've been thinking lately, I kind of miss barbarian belmonts. I kind of miss campyvania.

Also hey folks. Glad to see all the usual suspects rising from their slumber for some discussion

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General Castlevania Discussion / I was today years old when I figured out

« Last post by Lumi Kløvstad on October 18, 2026, 09:14:56 PM »

The Marble Race in Harmony of Dissonance is not a Marble Race.

It's a STEEL BALL RUN.

Jesus fuck, Koji Igarashi. You are incorrigible. XD
Also evidently a prophet for making a Jojo joke 2 years before the manga did. I wonder if Hirohiko Araki might be a Castlevania fan...

I WANT TO BELIEVE

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by Lumi Kløvstad on October 18, 2026, 04:45:22 PM »

It is WILD to see the number of reviews going "THIS IS A TOP TEN CASTLEVANIA SOUNDTRACK FOR SURE!!" and I'm just sitting there going "You can't have played ten Castlevania games then because they would all be higher on the list than this."

[EDIT] NO WAIT FUCK I'M NOT DONE DRAGGING THIS

Like, pick any other Castlevania game. AT RANDOM. The soundtrack will be better. Even the fucking "Castlevania: the Arcade" had a better OST. This soundtrack gives no tracks that are going to join the lexicon of greats. And I've listened to the whole soundtrack now. There's nothing on the catchy level of Vampire Killer, Beginning, Bloody Tears, Bloodlines, Dance of Illusions, Lost Paintings, Battle of the Holy, etc. None of these are tracks people are likely to remember past the end credits, much less formulate distinct opinions about and discuss 20 years later which is their favorite remix, because aside from Rose's Theme, "Bloodbound", there aren't likely to BE any remixes.

Meanwhile, the Belmont's Curse's OST is excellent music to do math homework to if you're in high school.

Yes that's very damning with faint praise but it's also true.

Belmont's Curse is the musical equivalent of beige office carpeting.

It does its job. It fills the space. It doesn't distract you. You can leave it playing for an hour while you work through algebra problems, and it won't interrupt your concentration by demanding that you listen to it.
But this is Castlevania. The music is supposed to interrupt your concentration to some extent. Long enough to go "shit this tune's a banger", at least.
You're supposed to reach a particular room and have the music lodge itself in your brain so firmly that twenty years later, hearing the first few notes instantly transports you back there. You're supposed to hum Bloody Tears when you're doing the dishes. You're supposed to hear Beginning and immediately feel like you're about to charge into battle against the forces of darkness, despite the fact that you're actually sitting in your underwear eating crackers.

It's not necessarily a failure for an ordinary action game. But for Castlevania? It's a little like making a new Metal Gear Solid with excellent stealth mechanics and a soundtrack that sounds like stock music from a corporate espionage documentary.
Nothing is technically wrong, but something important is missing.

And the really frustrating thing is that a soundtrack doesn't need to be wall-to-wall bangers to have a strong identity. It can be atmospheric, restrained, unsettling, even deliberately sparse. But the music needs to make an artistic impression. Castlevania 64's quieter approach, for instance, is a deliberate aesthetic choice; the atmosphere itself is the point. That's different from music that you could swap out for another competent dark-fantasy score without fundamentally changing the game's identity.

But that's not what we have.

It's great music for doing math homework to.

You can solve for x while listening to it.

You probably won't remember what you were listening to when you found x though.

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General Castlevania Discussion / Castlevania AI Music

« Last post by Hiryu on October 14, 2026, 07:04:28 PM »

I wanted to share some excellent "Castlevania-like" music I've been listening to with equally excellent artwork. I'm assuming this is done with AI, but apologies if not. The channel is "Draclaus."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNmjVx2e6xc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=320rwm5bIUI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOhBWke_bDg

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Alucard the 500+ year old virgin

« Last post by Hiryu on October 14, 2026, 06:50:31 PM »

I like to think that Maria saved his heart at the end of SotN and they lived happily ever after. <3

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse!!!

« Last post by EstebanT on October 14, 2026, 12:40:32 PM »

I really hate to be the bearer of bad news all the time.

But the game has a very limited amount of enemy variety.
I have counted and only been able to find about 30 unique enemies. Which is smaller than Rondo of Blood.

Classicvanias were able to get away with small amounts of enemies because they were short and stage based. Plus the level design helped bring about their unique qualities.

Metroidvanias don't have the luxury of being able to get away with an anemic bestiary because the entirety of the game is based around exploration and killing enemies, finding weapons to kill enemies, etc. You should not be  killing archer skeletons in the last stage of the game. Environments have no sauce when they all share from the same pool of 30 enemies. Garden areas should have plant based enemies, etc.

The community will love the game at first, but when the honeymoon period ends they will begin to see it an mid because of the boring music and limited amount of enemy variety.