Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse released smack-dab in the middle of the spookiest month of the year, appropriate timing for gaming’s most iconic vampire-killing adventure. More momentous for the release date was the fact that it was the first new game in the series in more than ten years. Lords of Shadow 2 was the last standalone title back in 2014, and served as a continuation to the largely controversial reboot of the series. By comparison, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is much more a return to form.
According to review aggregators like Metacritic, reception to Belmont’s Curse has been “generally favorable”. That’s not bad at all after such a long hiatus, but still leaves a little bit of room for improvement. If the series really is here to stay this time, it does beg the question: Where should Castlevania go next?
Castlevania Needs to Pick Up Where It Left Off
Before Castlevania rebooted entirely, the series was largely trying to iterate on the open exploration pioneered by Symphony of the Night. One of the last and perhaps most successful attempts at this was during the Sorrow duology. In Aria of Sorrow, players are introduced to Soma Cruz, one of the series’ only protagonists not descended from the legendary Belmont Clan. Spoiler alert, that’s because Soma Cruz is in fact a reincarnation of Dracula himself. Longtime fans of Castlevania know that Dracula never really dies, but this time he did.
Guess the games from the emojis.
The natural question is “How?”, and Aria gave us an answer in the form of Julius Belmont. Julius is a ruggedly charismatic cowboy, and is revealed to be the first (and to date, only) Belmont to permanently destroy Dracula, a feat he accomplished during a war with the vampire lord in 1999. Koji Igarashi, the lead on most games in the Castlevania series, expressed a desire to expand on the battle between Julius and Dracula. Unfortunately, this never materialized.
Belmont’s Curse Represents the Revival of Castlevania
Julius did return in the sequel Dawn of Sorrow, but never again. The aforementioned reboot came along, and was met with poor sales and worse reviews. Konami shifted focus towards mobile games and pachinko machines, which reportedly caused Igarashi to leave the series behind after Lords of Shadow 2. The series collapsed altogether, and the infamous Castlevania drought had begun.
The series collapsed altogether, and the infamous Castlevania drought had begun.
No one ever thought this would last forever. Between a few remasters and the massively popular Netflix Castlevania show, it seemed that Konami was at the very least interested in keeping the brand alive. Igarashi even developed his own spiritual successor independently with the Bloodstained series. Years went by, and this momentum still never materialized into a fully realized new release. Castlevania instead rotated between cameos of all kinds, from Dead by Daylight to Dead Cells to Vampire Survivors‘ own Ode to Castlevania.
Then, in some final twist of fate, the Dead Cells Castlevania crossover turned out to be the beginning of a new era. Developers behind the DLC went on to develop Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse with Konami back as the publisher. Belmont’s Curse stars Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor, meaning the game does somewhat ride the coattails of its Netflix adaptation. More than anything, Belmont’s Curse represents a return to form for Castlevania, embracing both the timeline and gameplay from before the now infamous reboot.
Julius Belmont Could Be the Future of Castlevania
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Imgae via Konami -
Image via Konami -
Image via Konami
As long as the new era of Castlevania wants to embrace its old legacy, there’s still one Belmont who never quite got his chance to shine. Julius was playable in alternate modes of both Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, but deserves to finally step into the role of a true protagonist. Thankfully, all the pieces are in place to make this happen. Julius Mode offers a blueprint for what the prodigal Belmont could play like, and he could even receive some additional depth now that he’d be up to the interpretation of different developers.
There may even be a draft of the story lingering behind from when Igarashi intended to tackle the story. Even if that isn’t the case, the concept alone stands on its own two legs: a 90s period piece where Dracula makes his last stand against the most powerful Belmont in history. Unless Castlevania is suddenly going to reboot again, Julius Belmont would make the perfect protagonist for a series currently looking to dig up its roots.
- Released
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October 15, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Evil Empire, Motion Twin
