Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse nonetheless looks like a dream, and but it’s extremely actual – a brand-new Castlevania recreation constructed by Lifeless Cells studio Evil Empire, in partnership with Konami. It is exhausting to choose a extra excellent developer to carry the legendary collection again, and the result’s wanting completely gorgeous. At Gamescom 2026, we sat down with Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi of Konami, alongside Evil Empire’s Advertising and marketing Director Bérenger Dupré and Lead Stage Desginer Sandro Bordier to learn the way Belmont’s Curse marries basic Castlevania with new concepts.
“Like all profitable factor in life, I believe all of it got here all the way down to communication and collaboration.” Dupré remarks that Evil Empire is filled with Castlevania followers from throughout the years, whereas Bordier provides that Konami was “actually supportive” in ensuring each aspect of the artwork, design, and narrative in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse match completely into the broader collection. “Truly, we have been honored – and nonetheless are – by how a lot belief they put into us.” At first, the group was “fairly shy” about its strategies, however then it started to attempt “some type of loopy concepts,” and Konami’s response was, “Yeah, let’s go for it.”
Taniguchi tells us (through a translator) that Konami has “large belief” within the Evil Empire group. “We all know how necessary it’s to maintain the legacy of the franchise and preserve the core components that make Castlevania Castlevania.” However alongside making certain that Belmont’s Curse may hit these key nostalgia beats, it “wanted to make the gameplay enjoyable and extra thrilling,” and so the 2 studios “deliberated quite a bit” collectively to achieve the best stability.
As Castlevania’s most landmark entry, Symphony of the Evening was naturally a giant reference level, however Bordier says the group “referenced from many video games” throughout the collection. One other key touchstone is Tremendous Castlevania 4’s omnidirectional ‘brandish whip’ method, albeit modernized to allow you to fly across the map as easily as attainable. Aria of Sorrow and Circle of the Moon helped give rise to the spell and tarot programs, “which for us actually characterizes Rose as the primary protagonist of this journey.”
Bordier notes that “Castlevania is such a wealthy IP,” so there was quite a bit to select from. “We determined to choose and select what match finest with the time-frame we aligned on. Belmont’s Curse follows on from Dracula’s Curse and Curse of Darkness, so “it made sense to first deal with these video games.” Taniguchi provides, “There’s nothing that we wished to depart out – it is extra about what we do for the followers. It is a new story that we’re telling, so it is one thing that we need to watch out of, to choose issues that we all know the crowds would need to see.”
Evil Empire was first established to behave because the guardian studio of Lifeless Cells by developer Movement Twin, and Dupré says it has continued to behave as a “godfather determine” to the Evil Empire group in a lot the identical approach by way of the event of Belmont’s Curse. “We’re engaged on the sport – sooner or later, we present them our progress on the sport, and we’re ready for his or her approval. Is it cool sufficient? Is your high quality commonplace there? And that is just about it.”
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is ready to launch on Thursday October 15. Might this be the beginning of a brand new period for Castlevania? Taniguchi feedback that he is a large fan at first, and “wished new issues to come back out – that is why we ended up creating this. So our hope is that, clearly if it succeeds, it might be beautiful to see extra to come back.”
Further reporting by Lauren Bergin for PCGamesN at Gamescom.
