Rose Belmont enters Paris, underground catacombs, and Dracula’s castle in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, a fast-paced two-dimensional action-adventure developed by the French studio Evil Empire. The title marks the first two-dimensional entry in the series since 2008, combining traditional Gothic horror elements with customizable difficulty settings and non-linear exploration.
French Development and Return to Two-Dimensional Roots
Evil Empire brings fast action-adventure expertise to the project following work on The Rogue Prince of Persia, shaping a title that steps away from Japan-based development. The studio builds a non-linear world where players return to previously visited areas using newly unlocked abilities and upgrades. Rose Belmont’s path leads through Parisian streets, catacombs, and Dracula’s fortress, connecting locations like the observatory and Notre-Dame. The series maintains campy Gothic tropes such as fragile medieval structures, long coats, and the signature whip, while trading pixelated graphics from Nintendo consoles of the 1980s and 1990s for modern two-dimensional rendering.
Rose Belmont Uses Rapid Movement and Whip Traversal
Players control Rose Belmont through rapid running, jumping, whipping, and magic casting, prioritizing quick evasion over traditional blocking. Combat requires sliding under enemy legs to strike from behind while maintaining constant movement to survive encounters. The traversal system allows players to swing across environments in all directions using the whip like a liana and pull themselves up toward enemies. Weapon choices and magical effects unlock gradually before players equip them freely. Anyone who enjoyed the two recent Prince of Persia games or the young classic Dead Cells will feel right at home with the new Castlevania game.
Granular Difficulty Adjustments and Boss Fights
Evil Empire includes customizable settings to mitigate early difficulty hurdles, letting players increase health potion drops and weapon efficiency. A specific checkpoint option revives players immediately after a failed boss battle, removing the lengthy corpse runs common in genre peers such as Hollow Knight. Specific boss encounters require precise timing against characters like Carmilla, Medusa, Johanna von Orleans, and Talos the builder. Players face distinct challenges such as dodging petrifying gazes, managing flame rains, and avoiding blood spikes. In the boss fights, safe attack windows and correct arena usage decide success.
Precise Platforming Leads to Secret Endings
Healing items and weapon boosts cannot clear platforming sections featuring moving saw blades, sharp spikes, and crumbling platforms. Players must execute precise jumps and whip hooks to get past these environmental hazards. Early encounters with Dracula can trigger an early conclusion called “Belmont’s Fall,” granting an achievement and the “Outfit of the Verfluchten” before letting players resume the journey.
Puzzles and Exploration
A locked gate, an inaccessible tower roof, or a painting without a recognizable function often lacks a specific item, ability, or the right path. For example, freeing Brauner requires the “Zerschmettern” ability from the fight against Talos, while Brauner’s paintbrush is found in the observatory near Carmilla.
