Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse lands October 15 as Evil Empire’s first proper mainline swing at the franchise in over a decade, and the critics have already handed it an 86 Metacritic and 85 OpenCritic. GameSpot’s 10/10 calls the combat among the best in any 2D action game while Polygon praises the bold color palette and tarot-card Arcana system as fresh blood in the old veins. IGN’s 8/10 and VGC’s 3/5 note the shift toward twitchy platforming and away from classic whips, RPG depth, and daggers, leaving some purists wondering if the soul survived the modernization.

Paris burns in 1499, Rose Belmont hunts Dracula’s servants in her father’s shadow, and bosses seal into tarot cards for spellcasting — a neat evolution of the formula that builds on the 2023 Dead Cells DLC. The game runs on Switch, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X, with Konami farming the IP out to younger studios the way they did with Silent Hill. Early X chatter mixes Japanese speedrunners eyeing hidden walls with global hype for the return and a few side-eyes at the score distribution.

Thorne notes the predictable split: the Dead Cells DNA delivers razor-sharp action, yet the franchise’s signature melancholy and exploration weight feel sanded down for accessibility. Whether that trade-off elevates or erodes the series remains the only question worth asking on launch day.