Screenshot from “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” The Xavierite
Konami has blessed us with a brand new “Castlevania” game! It’s been 12 years since we had a mainline “Castlevania” game, the last one being “Castlevania:Lord of shadows 2” back in 2014.
The brand new “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” brings back older Castlevania lovers and will most likely be a stepping stone for a new generation of “Castlevania” fans.
You play as Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont who was the main character of “Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse” and “Castlevania: Curse of Darkness”.
Rose and her father return to help out the people of Paris in 1499 after a great evil descends upon the population.
Rose sets forth to discover the source of this great evil and to prove herself as a capable monster/vampire hunter. As she puts, “It’s a mystery to solve. And I will solve it.”
Oh man, let me tell you guys—-I’ve only put in 7 hours of gameplay, and so far, I am loving it! As you might have guessed, this game is a Metroidvania type game which are 2D non-liner exploration games with interconnected maps.
Think of games like “Hollow Knight,” “Dead Cells” or “Blasphemous.” Just like each of those games the background and level design look beautiful and flow together very well.
“Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” does this very well. Each map is beautiful and has its own distinct personality to it.
Take the catacombs of Paris for instance it’s much more closed in then most of the other maps and it gives off this suffocating feeling as you struggle to fight in these enclosed spaces.
Take the Paris streets where you can see the sky be blood red as buildings are set on fire in the background you can really see and feel how a great evil has taken over this place.
Another thing I really love about “Castlevania: Belmontis Curse” is the voice acting. Abby Trott, the voice of Rose, does a wonderful job voicing her. You really get the sense of her character just by listening to her talk.
You can tell that’s been training for years and this is the first time she’s had the opportunity to prove herself to her father. And she gives off a bit of a headstrong and stoic attitude.
Something really cool is that they got Alejandra Reynoso, the voice of Sypha Belnades in the Netflix “Castlevania” series, to reprise her role in this game which is just such a love letter to the fans of the Netflix series.
But my favorite of these voice actors is Ray Chase who plays the fallen in the game. He does a great job showing how tired and sad the fallen are You get the impression from the fallen that he’s a long lived warrior who has seen a lot and Ray does it so well.
You also get a lot of weapon variety in this game. There are seven weapon types in this game all appealing to a different type of playstyle and having their own unique abilities.
I myself have become a big fan of the cestus which is a type of fighting glove. I just really like the up close and personal fast-paced fighting style they give you and the fact that you can launch your enemies in the air with an uppercut.
Speaking of launching enemies in the air, this brings me to my next point and how you can utilize synergies to do the most damage you can.
There are these items called relics, which give Rose small buffs when she does specific things. You get three slots, so use them wisely.
I use a relic called “raven feather” that makes it so I do 25% more damage in air. Combine this with my upper cut ability, and I’m getting 25% damage each fight.
You can get even more damage off if you use “twilight gem,” a relic that gives you 30% more damage for 3 seconds after casting a spell.
This is only the beginning—-I’m sure as you continue playing you’ll find even more relic combinations that will have you melting bosses faster than you expected.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and have some fun. This game is well worth the $30 price tag it has on it. If you’re a fan of Metroidvanias or action adventure games in general you’ll have a lot of fun with “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.”
You can get “Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse” on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
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