Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Review – The Series Finally Comes Back Swinging

The combat is where this game earns its keep. If you played Dead Cells, you already know these developers understand how a 2D action game should feel in your hands. Every whip crack, every dodge, every sub-weapon toss has weight and precision to it. The enemy variety keeps you switching up your approach, and the boss fights are genuinely memorable. Several of them forced me to learn their patterns the hard way, which is exactly how a Castlevania game should work. There's a satisfying level of difficulty here that respects your time without holding your hand, and the progression system gives you enough build variety to keep each run through a tough section feeling a little different.

Visually, Belmont's Curse is gorgeous. The art direction borrows that Dead Cells aesthetic, all fluid animation and rich color work layered over gothic architecture, and it works. The castle itself sprawls out in classic Metroidvania fashion with interconnected zones that reward exploration and backtracking. You'll find hidden rooms, optional bosses, and plenty of lore scattered through environmental storytelling. The soundtrack leans into classic Castlevania motifs while adding its own flair, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't stop moving a few times just to let a track breathe.

Now, here's where I have to be straight with you. There's a critical split on this game, and I understand both sides of it. Some outlets are calling it one of the best Metroidvanias ever made, and from a pure gameplay mechanics standpoint, that argument has legs. But other reviewers feel the action-forward design strips out some of the slower, more atmospheric identity that made the Igavania entries special. I land somewhere in the middle. Belmont's Curse plays like a dream, but there are stretches where it feels more like Dead Cells wearing a Castlevania skin than a true evolution of the series. The RPG elements are lighter than I expected, and the pacing leans hard into combat encounters over the kind of quiet exploration that made Symphony of the Night feel like a place you lived in.

The map is well designed, but some zones feel a bit samey in their structure. You'll notice the Dead Cells DNA in how rooms are assembled, with a rhythm of combat arenas connected by traversal corridors that can start to feel formulaic in the back half. It's a minor gripe in the grand scheme, because the moment-to-moment gameplay is so damn good that you don't dwell on it for long. Still, for a franchise with this much history, I wanted the level design to surprise me more than it did.

At an 86 on Metacritic, this is the highest-rated Castlevania in over two decades, and it earns that score. Evil Empire and Motion Twin clearly love this franchise, and they brought the craftsmanship you'd expect from a team with their track record. It falls just short of being the definitive Castlevania experience because it prioritizes what these developers do best over what makes the series unique. That's a trade-off, not a failure. For fans who've been waiting over twenty years for a proper mainline entry, Belmont's Curse delivers where it counts.