It's been over a decade since the release of the last real Castlevania game, and for a good long while, it seemed like Dracula may have finally met his end. Sure, the Netflix anime revitalized interest in the franchise, but there wasn't much in the way of new adventures of the whip-swinging Belmonts and their fellow vampire hunters. That's why the announcement of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse was such a delightful surprise. Following up on the excellent Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC, Evil Empire has gotten the chance to make the franchise its own, and our hands-on time with the demo left us excited for more.

Belmont's Curse is set about 23 years after Castlevania 3 and its sequel, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. The heroic Trevor Belmont has gotten old, and his wife and partner Sypha Belnades has already passed on. However, evil (and Dracula) waits for no man, and Paris is under attack by an evil force. Trevor sets out with his daughter, Rose, to discover the source of the evil attacking Paris and put an end to it. Unfortunately, Rose's arm is infected by a curse, but that doesn't seem to be dampening her abilities. It's worth noting that despite some visual similarities, this looks firmly placed in the game timeline and not the Netflix anime timeline, so don't expect Trevor to have the same foul mouth.

Belmont's Curse seems to exist in a midpoint between the old-school platforming Castlevania titles, the new-school Metroidvanias, and Evil Empire's previous game, Dead Cells. Rose controls a lot like a Dead Cells character: fast, agile and capable of deft movement. She starts off equipped with a sword, the ability to dodge, and a few limited healing potions that recover at the game's various save points. The levels are laid out in a non-linear fashion, with secrets and items you can return to get once you've unlocked new abilities. The opening area is linear enough to not get a clear idea of exactly how many secrets may exist.

Rose's big gimmick is the Arcana cards left behind by her mother. These cards grant her access to new and more powerful abilities. The demo features two: The Cursed and The Fallen. The Cursed allows her to shoot a deadly fireball from her hand. This costs MP, which is replenished by attacking enemies with her regular sword, encouraging you to swap between the two. Furthermore, using the spell in combat regularly completes combat challenges, which you can use to get special tokens that can upgrade the spell to a more powerful form, such as a larger fireball that knocks back enemies. A second Arcana lets you throw a cross that functions in the same boomerang fashion as it always has, but upgrades allow you to do things like toss two at once.

Far more interesting is the power you get for beating the first boss: The Fallen. Rose might not have the Belmont's traditional whip, but defeating the Fallen gives her access to an ethereal version that is basically as good. The whip can't be used for attacking directly, but it can be used to grapple enemies and objects in the environment so you can launch yourself forward with blistering speed. The second part of the demo is full of gimmicks that use the whip to its fullest, and the game starts to shine once you unlock this ability, but we only get to use it for a short period before the demo ends.

Speaking of The Fallen, he's a heck of a first boss. A big brute who seems to have a bit of vampire hunter DNA, he attacks by throwing the aforementioned cross, clawing at you with wolf-like hands and swinging around with his whip. While he isn't a super punishing first boss, he's surprisingly meaty for a tutorial enemy and can easily defeat Rose in a handful of hits. If he's a foreshadowing of what is to come later on, Belmont's Curse has a lot of potential as a genuinely challenging take on the franchise.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse's demo is short and sweet. It shows a combination of the classic Castlevania gameplay with Dead Cells to create something that feels very familiar yet new and engaging. It may have been relatively short, but I was engrossed with the gameplay, and I instantly went back and replayed the demo to give the boss a second try. Assuming the full game lives up to the promise of the demo, much like Dracula himself, Castlevania has risen from the dead at full power. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Belmont's Curse on all consoles and PC on Oct. 15, 2026.