Konami is reviving its long-dormant Castlevania series with Belmont's Curse, a new side-scrolling instalment launching in October developed in partnership with Dead Cells studio Evil Empire. The move comes as Castlevania's influence has spawned an entire "metroidvania" genre in the years since the last mainline entry, 2014's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, meaning many younger players have only experienced games inspired by Konami's originals rather than the series itself.

Set 23 years after 1989's Castlevania 3, in the same era as the Netflix adaptation, the game casts players as Rose, daughter of Trevor Belmont, as she battles demons through 1499 Paris, including its sewers, after a bishop begs the Belmonts for help. Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi and Evil Empire's Bérenger Dupré describe a deliberate balancing act between honouring the original's legacy and meeting modern genre expectations, with particular care given to reworking Rose's whip into a versatile traversal and combat tool. The game also softens the difficulty curve typical of Soulslikes by having regular enemy kills grant XP that boosts stats, easing repeated boss attempts, with Joan of Arc confirmed as one of the bosses players will face.