Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Preview & Review: Worth Buying?

What We Know So Far

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a 2D action platformer developed by Evil Empire — the studio behind Dead Cells — and published by Konami, the product of roughly four years of development. It launches on October 15, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC via Steam. The standard edition costs $29.99, while the Midnight Edition costs $39.99 and bundles the 71-track original soundtrack, more than 100 pieces of original artwork, Trevor and Sypha costumes, and an in-game relic called Family’s Grace. Pre-ordering either edition also unlocks an Alucard-style costume for Rose.

The premise is a direct gift to longtime fans. The year is 1499 — exactly 23 years after Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse — and Paris is under siege by Dracula’s forces. You play as Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont, wielding the family’s Vampire Killer whip, a deck of Arcana tarot cards that converts defeated bosses into equippable abilities, and a curse that is slowly spreading up her arm. Announced bosses include Medusa, Death, Carmilla, Joan of Arc, and the mysterious The Fallen.

Detail	Information
Developer	Evil Empire (the Dead Cells studio)
Publisher	Konami
Release date	October 15, 2026
Platforms	PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC (Steam)
Price	$29.99 standard / $39.99 Midnight Edition
Setting	Paris, 1499 — 23 years after Castlevania III
Protagonist	Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont

If you want to see it in motion, the official trailer on YouTube is the best single source, and the Steam page carries the most current feature list.

What the Hands-On Impressions Say

Preview coverage went up earlier this year, and the through-line is remarkably consistent: strong bosses, strong art, and exploration that holds together. Here is the roundup as of late August 2026.

Outlet	Overall read	What stood out
Kotaku	Positive	Called the game “beautiful and ambitious”
TheGamer	Positive	Highlighted the “killer bosses” above all else
Yahoo Hong Kong	Positive	Chinese-language preview praised exploration as solid

Three outlets agreeing on anything is rare, and all three zero in on the same pillars. Kotaku’s “beautiful and ambitious” line has traveled furthest, because the art really is the first thing you notice. TheGamer’s “killer bosses” claim matches what Konami has chosen to show: every demonstration leads with a fight. Yahoo Hong Kong’s exploration praise is the quiet important one — it suggests the spaces between those fights are worth inhabiting, not just corridors to sprint through.

The standard preview caveats apply. These were limited sessions on preview builds, published months before release. None of this tells us about final performance across all four platforms, total campaign length, or how the difficulty curve holds up over a full playthrough.

The Strengths

The art direction is genuinely new. Belmont’s Curse adopts a colorful gothic style — painterly, saturated, closer to an animated film than the grim stone palettes of the classic titles. In motion it makes 1499 Paris look alive rather than merely haunted, and it gives the Arcana cards a striking visual identity.

Boss design is the headline feature. The Arcana system makes every major kill permanent and mechanical: defeat a boss, claim its tarot card, equip its ability. Two conversions have been shown so far — The Fallen yields the Holy Cross ability, and Joan of Arc yields Holy Light. That loop of “beat it, then wear it” is a proven hook, and it is the clearest evidence of the Dead Cells team’s design instincts surviving the genre change.

The pedigree is real. Evil Empire spent years tuning one of the most respected action games of its generation, and four years of development on a single project is a long runway by any standard. Konami publishing, rather than developing, also means the people who made Dead Cells feel like Dead Cells are the ones building the combat here.

The Concerns

The art style is controversial, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. A vocal slice of veteran fans has pushed back on the colorful look, calling it too “cartoonish” for a series whose identity was built on stark gothic horror. If you grew up on the NES and PlayStation entries, the first trailer may not look like “your” Castlevania. Previews suggest the game underneath is strong, but the stylistic debate is real and worth knowing about before you spend money.

The franchise’s modern track record invites caution. Castlevania’s 3D era struggled, and the series has spent long stretches dormant. Nostalgia has carried the brand through collections and a hit animated series, but a new story entry carries weight the brand hasn’t shouldered in a long time.

This is Evil Empire’s first original Castlevania. Dead Cells was an original game wearing its influences openly. Belmont’s Curse is the studio inheriting someone else’s house, working with Konami’s most storied action property. Preview builds suggest they are handling it, but campaign length, endgame structure, and day-one polish remain unconfirmed as of this writing.

Should You Buy It Before Launch?

Our pre-launch recommendation, tiered by player type:

Player type	Our call	Why
Dead Cells fans	Pre-order or buy day one	Same studio’s combat tuning, plus the Alucard-style costume for pre-ordering
Longtime Castlevania fans	Buy at launch	First new story entry in years, set 23 years after Castlevania III
Unsure about the art style	Wait for the full review	See it in motion yourself; our verdict lands within 72 hours of launch
Wait-for-patches players	Wait	Day-one performance and difficulty options are still unconfirmed

At $29.99, the standard edition is priced like a mid-size release rather than a full-price flagship, which lowers the risk considerably. The tagline “Despair or Salvation” hints that the story may branch — that is fan speculation at this point, but it is the kind of detail that suggests a game built to be discussed, not just played.

Our Launch-Day Update Promise

This article is a pre-launch preview, written in August 2026 with hands-on impressions and officially confirmed facts only. Within 72 hours of the October 15, 2026 launch, we will update this page into a full review: our scored verdict, an aggregation of launch reviews from major outlets, verified performance notes for all four platforms, campaign length, and a final buy/wait recommendation. If anything we have written here turns out to be wrong at release, we will correct it in print. Check back on launch week — the gameVersion badge at the top of this article will tell you which version of the page you are reading.