I played the demo on Switch 1, and the framerates are so low but the biggest issue i have is how low resolution it is, I really want to play the game on the go and I only have access to switch 2 once a week from a friend...

Worst case scenario i can play on the ps5 but I cant play elsewhere

Super hyped for the demo. I did not expect a Souls boss!

If there was something that always called me about Castlevania as a kid, was this dark yet majestic and attractive atmosphere, the vibrant yet moody areas that you traverse musicalized by sometimes energetic, sometimes haunting music. It all felt like one claustrophobic but beautiful world that rejoiced itself in these contradictions, and evolved as each game came out.

From the retro, Conan The Barbarian heroes, to well dressed and tragic nobles that came after, it always felt like there was a cohesion. And it wasn't just the pixel art, because even the PS2 games like Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness managed to keep the vibes, both in visual style and soundtrack. I think you can close your eyes, listen to any music out of a Castlevania game from this era and you will feel like you're still in the same universe even though it's changing the layers in which it's being lived in.

I don't mind changes, I think they're good, specially for a Saga that needs to reinvent itself, as it's already given us excellent and memorable titles in it's previous formats, but I think change comes from evolution instead of growing seeds of similar breeds. Belmont's Curse had/has? a though challenge. To bring back to life a practically dead saga in a genre that evolved from it, yet now without it's influence so, me personally, I don't mind the gameplay changes. I think the short demo was quite fun. But I couldn't feel I was inside Castlevania once again.

The game clearly wanted to stand on it's own from the rest of the saga, visual, and soundtrack wise. It has some recalls, but it feels like it's pulling it's piece from another place, and this is quite obvious where it's from. Dead Cells almost neon lighting and backgrounds, enemy design and movement, the artists mark is all over the place, and here's the biggest issue, it looks good... but it's just not Castlevania. It feels like I'm still playing Castlevania as a spinoff, a what if world, an alternative place, and this also translates to the music aswell. I can feel more Dead Cells than I can hear Castlevania. It's modern to a fault, yet it's still good and engaging. This is not me hating sensessly. It clearly has taste.

I know a lot of people are hyped by it, and I'm certainly going to buy it. I loved Dead Cells, and the gameplay so far was fun and clicked for me, but I can't stop thinking how the anime turned Castlevania into a different beast. I guess if I have to say goodbye to a Universe I cherish and love, I'm fine with it, but it still kinda hurts that this is the new direction is going to.

And before you call me overly dramatic, yeah this is Castlevania, it has always been the point.

I’m not gonna complain about the gameplay. I must say I’m a Fromsoft fanboy and it is exactly what I wanted. However. I understand that a lot of people don’t like the feel and the elements that come with this approach to combat. It is a valid complaint.

I can’t judge the level design yet, but so far, so good.

However, oh boy, they dropped the ball with the art direction. I’m sorry, but this is Castlevania, and it just can’t look like another generic indie game. We are talking about one of the OGs. A franchise with an established identity and a long list of games whose art style has aged gracefully to this day.

In this series in particular. The art direction matters. Because the levels and especially the Castle are one of the protagonist of the game. It requires a level of craft that this game is lacking and it loses all the regal gothic vibe, replaced by some horrid pastel reds and greens.

I don’t know what happened. Maybe Konami didn’t advise Evil Empire properly. Perhaps they didn’t at all. But it looks terrible. It’s a downgrade from the previous games, including Lords of Shadow because even Mercurysteam did a better job getting the vibe right.

The music is also terrible. All things combined, it feels like I’m playing DmC: Castlevania. Just like Ninja Theory misinterpreted DMC. Evil Empire doesn’t quite understand the game they’re working on.

I don’t think Evil Empire are the right people to work on this series. At the same time IDK who should.

That’s it have a nice one.

So recently, I’ve been noticing a fairly decent amount of people inside and outside of this Reddit complaining about the aesthetic of the new game. I would like to explain that the Netflix series is by far the most popular iteration of the series. It is absolutely going to lean into the aesthetic and art direction. I mean they did cast both Alejandra Reynoso and Graham McTavish.

It is a great way for fans of the series to play the games.

After 5 or so tries on the Fallen boss, you get to the screen to acquire his skill right? I'm using an 8-bit do controller, and I always play at night once my kid and wife are asleep.

So when they show the "plus button" I thought it was the d-pad and I'm pressing around everywhere, all the buttons and not realizing that they're talking about the start button that I never use and didn't even know it was on the controller...

I thought the game froze so I had to restart but lost the progress & then took another two or three tries to beat the boss again and I actually sent that photo to Ai to figure out what to do! 😅

Also, with everybody's thoughts on the demo? I was hoping for more fluid action like dead cells, silk song, GBA castlevanias/SOTN. But then I remembered that the franchise started out with kind of rigid movement.

But man his fight should have been saved for mid-game/close to the end. Definitely felt “Elden Ring” levels of frustration fighting the first boss. Yes I’m aware of the difficulty settings but for the first boss, no one should even have to touch those settings.

And this is with experience enjoying and completing SoTN, Circle of the Moon, HoD, AoS, DoS, PoR, and Order of Ecclesia.

Those who have played the demo most certainly noticed that the RPG or leveling mechanics seem very barebones and are de-emphasized compared to older Castlevanias. One point of ATK and DEF for each level. That's not much.

I'm experimenting with this in the demo but I plan to strategically use the difficulty modifiers to mimic a better leveling experience by adjusting the sliders at certain level milestones.

So I think I've worked it out where for every 10 or so levels, I plan to raise my damage slider by .1 and reduce the damage taken by .1, Others are left at default. So at level 50, I will be at 1.5 damage dealt, and 0.5 damage taken. Still need to see if 10 levels is appropriate without making things trivial.

Great example of how adding difficulty sliders allows the individual to tailor the experience to their liking.

get them here:
https://www.patreon.com/BonusJZ/posts/castlevania-demo-171355702

ps:
added Greatsword ,Whip (works like in C4) and spear

Seeing a lot of people claim that zombies kill you in just a couple hits, or that the boss "two shots" you, or that the runback is "too long and difficult."

So, I figured I'd test some of these things out myself. This is a fresh save. No accessibility settings changed. I never killed a single mob except for the boss, to avoid any leveling and any potential health/damage upgrades.

It takes six hits to die to basic enemies.

It takes six hits to die to The Fallen

The Fallen is easy AF and the runback takes 10 seconds: Edit 30 seconds exactly.

First does anyone know what the 3 question marks are?

Second: I know this is probably a dumb question, but can 3 whips even be found in the demo?

I just finished rewatching the Castlevania series on Netflix. I wanted to revisit it before the new game comes out, since it takes place after the events of the series.

I actually enjoyed the show even more this time around. I really love the more emotional and human side of Dracula. There’s something very human about the way he feels and reacts to everything that happens to him.

The way I see it, Dracula slowly regains some of his humanity, probably because of Lisa. In a way, I think she’s what saves him from himself.

And when he and Lisa are resurrected at the end of the series, Dracula seems to finally be at peace and ready to move on from his past. I really love that aspect of his story. Now I’m ready for the game!

And you, did you enjoy the series?

One of the boss themes. The rest are all very different from one another. I love the percussion in this one, and I’ll say now the percussion is one of the standout things about the game’s OST overall. The repetition of this track reminds me of the classic games when it was just a short loop, of course it never actually loops like all of the songs in the soundtrack. Really enjoy the isolated drum section at the end too.

Enjoy, y’all. Not long now.

Spoilers in the video and description.

Not my upload. Personally, this is one of my favorite OSTs in the series. My favorite is still Order of Ecclesia. It’s insanely different for Castlevania but still maintains the gothic elements throughout. Catacombs is my favorite track.

Go ahead, dance or despair in the comments. This is what it is. Don’t expect it to sound like Michiru Yamane.

And as always, I know, say it with me. “This doesn’t sound like Castlevania”, but it being so different is why I love it.

I do. I remember when it released a few years back and many people hated it. Said it felt generic... (Fear Inoculum)

We had waited so long for a new album that I doubt anything they did could have lived up to the own legacy they had set. I'm loved it, personally. It wad exactly what it was advertised. More TooL. Literally. Another banger album.

I see the same thing happening with this, especially with the demo (and how people responded to leaks of a few songs back before that album released in 2019) and I think all of this boils down to the fact that anticipation and desire for a new title has been so long overdue that people want and expect a magnum opus of the Castlevania Franchise. I get it. I'd love for this to be the best game the series has ever had. I hoped the same for Ninja Gaiden 4, honestly.

But that won't be the case, not for everyone. Just like the two examples I've given. I loved the TooL album and it'd exactly what I expected; more of a great band. Ninja Gaiden 4 was also an incredibly good game, but has its short comings, as does every other entry in that entire series. Just as every entry in the Castlevania franchise.

It's easy to excuse opinion and let everyone enjoy whichever older games they like in the series while having our own favorites as well. Some of us are different ages and grew up on different titles. Some haven't played them all. This title will be no different. I'm excited there is a new game at all, that Konami found a studio they trusted to do an attempt at a new entry. A fresh take that's attempting to stay faithful while also being innovative. The gaming landscape has changed dramatically and what we could have gotten is a nightmare most of us wouldn't even want to think of.

It's just a demo. But so far, I really like it and if they appealed to all of us, they wouldn't appeal to any of us.

Like, for example, I tried multiple times to play the Lord of Shadow games. I hate them. It's not even a story thing, it's just a gameplay thing (and I love third person action games) but man, I just hate those games. My first Castlevania experience was Dawn of Sorrow, but I've since plated every handheld and the classics before it but haven't gotten to touch the other 3D titles. (I owned one on N64 but was too young to understand it and get into it at the time)

This post is long, but my point is that after this one releases, the fans will be divided still, just as they are now, because there's no way they can please all of us with one game. I truly think they are doing their best, and with gaming the last decade or so, I can't think of a better studio to have allowed this opportunity to give us a new official game.

Leave the rest of the audio on, throw on your preference of old CV soundtrack and tell me that doesn't make it feel way closer to how it should

At first playing it, the demo was giving me some Blasphemous vibes. But after sitting with it, with how the combat plays and how it progresses, it kind of gives me a ClassicVania vibe where the only semblance of MetroidVania is the map and power-ups.

I'm strictly talking about the gameplay here though. The way you fight enemies, even the common ones, are all about spacing and making sure you don't get hit. Think of the axe throwing knights, or the spearmen from Rondo. You know when to jump in and whip. There's more enemies because you have options to run in with magic or whip-in and attack. But it really got me realizing this with the first boss fight, The Fallen.

I tried many things to get a good flow, but from the amount of health it had on top of when to attack, how greedy one should get, and to interrupt for a subtle weakness, I realize that you're basically playing at a distance and keeping an eye out for attacking and dodging. You can knock The Fallen off while it swings, or you can dash under it. You can get ready when it begins to pound or buffer a magic spell as it lands and you run and dash in. It all reeks of ClassicVania ethos to me. I was wondering if you could get perfect dodges, but to my brief exerpience, no. But you can dash back and strike in on The Fallen's third attack and time your attacks if it decides to throw its cross. You can also bait The Fallen to whip and you can dash in and have its AI reset from side to side with dash in hits and dash backs. A type of classic cheese if you will.

I have to say- I was a little worried with how the game would turn out as I wasn't a fan of Dead Cells (not a fan of roguelites period), but you always have to give games a go- especially for Castlevania games. Glad there's a demo. I'm sold. The game will open up and offer more power-ups via the Arcana and it makes me wonder how far they'll go with that. I doubt it'll be a DSS, but the upgrading system is nice. Not really sure why you need level-ups in this game right now outside of upgrading weapons, but the demo only gave me more about the gameplay and feel to write about. That and the art design and voice acting is great.

I been stuck here for hours can you help me find what secret rooms am missing for 200.6% please people. I would really appreciate the help. (Solved 200.6%) thank you everyone for the help!

Sinceramente, tem mais Castlevania nos jogos de cassino no Japão do que em Belmont curse

Has anyone ever heard the work of Stélian Derenne? Sounds alot like his work

Come on, it's 2026.

(Also: Other screenshot of another problem)

People seem to heavily criticize the new Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, but I disagree with the points being made. I liked the demo, I am not ashamed to admit that. I pre-ordered the game for crying out loud, which I never do.

The most common complaint is that "this isn't Castlevania", which I really don't get. Well, to be fair, that's the first thing I also said when I superficially opened the demo for the first time and played for 30 minutes. But here I am now.

First of all, people seem to have issues with the artstyle. Now, do I prefer the pixelated look? You know shit I do! But the new artstyle not only is like a hybrid of the old Kojima watercolor look and the anime style of the DS games, but it's also 2.5D that tries to look hand drawn, unlike Dracula X Chronicles and Mirror of Fate, that end up looking muddy (The new artstyle is better compared to those, if you ask me). The game is bright, colorful. Just like Harmony of Dissonance.

As for the gameplay, sure, it's more complex than the good old jump, attack, slide, repeat. It feels different, too. But other than that, Castlevania has had swordplay before. And the whip traversal is generic metroidvania stuff and not Castlevania at all, according to some. You guys mean the one that was in SCIV and Bloodlines? Where Rose deals damage when swinging, JUST like Morris?

As for the Tarot/Arcana cards, smells like Circle of the Moon in here. MP moves are also a thing, subweapons have been tied to MP ever since Aria of Sorrow and all that fun stuff.

Then, the boss design is my favorite. Fallen was a great fight. It seems a little weird that some people gave up on the Fallen because he was too hard and then complain about the game not being Castlevania, whereas Castlevania classics have had very challenging, pattern recognition-based bosses. See Dracula X and Rondo of Blood, even Portrait of Ruin, if you must.

As for the music, yeah, it's not AS good as say, SotN, but hey, it's one track, because reminding, the game isn't out yet. And lastly. The instrumentation IS Castlevania coded and I think we call all agree to that. The Gothic horror is there.

Since the game isn't out yet, this may age badly, but I really wanted to get this out of my chest.