《恶魔城：贝尔蒙特之咒》评测——名副其实是斩杀女王

It’s been far too long since we got a proper new Castlevania game, and expectations for Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse were always going to be high. Thankfully, Evil Empire and Motion Twin have delivered more than a nostalgic trip through familiar hallways. This fantastic action-adventure respects what came before while introducing enough new ideas to establish its own identity.

A Little Belmont, A Little Mega Man

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s influence is impossible to miss. The sprawling map, constant upgrades, hidden rooms, and steady drip of new abilities all capture the excitement of exploring Dracula’s castle for the first time. However, Belmont’s Curse never feels like a simple copy dressed up with modern visuals. The developers understand why those older games worked, then use everything they learned from Dead Cells to make the action faster and more responsive. One inspiration I DIDN’T expect was from another classic 2D action platformer, and I’m not talking about Metroid.

This unexpected influence comes from Mega Man. Rose carries a set of tarot cards her mother gave her, and each major boss victory adds a new card to the collection. These cards let her wield powers previously used against her while unlocking new traversal abilities.

It creates a rewarding loop where every boss feels like more than another obstacle standing between you and the next area. Defeating them adds flavor to her ability set, while the accompanying traversal upgrade opens paths that were previously out of reach. That familiar Mega Man thrill of claiming an enemy’s signature ability fits surprisingly well within Castlevania’s interconnected world.

This unlock flow also makes discovering new weapons and movement abilities much more exciting. Instead of just studying boss patterns, I was thinking, oh wait, that move they’re doing is how I’m going to get to that hidden ledge from three screens ago. The tarot cards tie everything neatly into Rose’s story, turning a clever mechanical homage into something that feels completely natural for her character, especially as they become voiced and join her on her journey, making the story feel less lonely.

Paris Is Home To the Night

Paris also proves to be a surprisingly great setting. Its streets, underground passages, landmarks, and darker corners give the adventure more visual variety than a journey confined entirely to one castle might. The city feels like part of the story rather than a backdrop placed behind the action. It also gives the developers room to play with history without losing the supernatural horror that defines the series.

However, Paris is also the cause of one of my few nitpicks on the experience. The selection of abilities is exciting, but it creates one of the game’s most noticeable problems. New powers constantly reveal alternate routes, hidden rooms, and previously unreachable areas, which highlights where Paris works against itself a bit.

Remembering which locations require a specific ability becomes difficult, especially as the map grows larger. Now you can create custom map markers, and obviously, the more time you spend in the world, the more you will rely on your memory. But recalling a random, one-off, hidden location on a random street among several is much harder than in a more constrained setting where you can say, “Oh, the library,” and know exactly where it is.

Backtracking is part of the genre, but there were several moments when I knew a new power opened something up somewhere and had to rack my brain for a bit to recall older places compared to areas I’d recently run through. Better map markers or clearer visual reminders would make revisiting older areas less tedious, but ultimately this doesn’t take much away from the experience.

The boss fights are also slightly inconsistent. The gap between the great ones and the frustrating ones can be wide at times. It’s much more hit-or-miss, and different custom difficulty settings could help, but it’s worth mentioning.

Welcome Back Castlevania

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is still the return this series deserved. It pays loving homage to Symphony of the Night without living entirely in its shadow, while Dead Cells’ influence gives combat a fresh, fighting-game level of depth. Paris is a wonderful setting, the characters are fun, and unlocking new abilities rarely stops being rewarding, even when remembering where to use them becomes a challenge for an UNC like myself.

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