Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Turns Tough Bosses Into Powerful Friends

Fans of side-scrolling metroidvania games have been eating pretty well for the last few years. Games such as Hollow Knight: Silksong and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have provided solid entries in the genre, each offering fascinating worlds, expansive maps, and deep combat. What's more, the rising tide of good metroidvania games is raising all boats, as developers draw on one another's good ideas to enhance their work and find new ways to push the envelope. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is another in that recent lineage of search action titles, taking the solid foundation of Konami's storied vampire-hunting, monster-killing franchise, and enhancing it with some of the smart elements like parries, dodges, and Estus flask-like healing abilities, that have become common in recent genre entries, as well as new ideas of its own. I recently played about three hours of Belmont's Curse, which included taking on its first three bosses, and came away with a strong sense of how Konami and developer Evil Empire are giving Castlevania a new lease on life. In Belmont's Curse, which is a canonical story in the Castlevania series, you play as Rose Belmont, daughter of the legendary vampire hunter Trevor. It's been 23 years since 1989's Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, when Trevor killed the Prince of Darkness. But the Belmonts return to action when monstrous forces descend on Paris, with Rose taking the lead in trying to find out what's going on and who is behind it. I played from the start of the game, when Rose and her aging father arrive in a burning city overwhelmed by horrors. They split up, with Rose heading into the city while Trevor searches for the bishop who summoned them. What follows is classic Castlevania, as zombies, living gargoyles, medusa heads, and other creatures surge forward to attack her. At first blush, Belmont's Curse feels pretty similar to other side-scrolling action games. Rose starts by wielding a sword, and in combat, you'll mostly use a sliding dodge and back step to avoid incoming attacks, so you can reposition to get behind enemies and start wailing on them. You carry three potions that you can use if you're hurt in battle, and while it's possible to find additional potions or health-restoring cooked chickens, your main three potions are restored when you save at a magic mirror, which also respawns enemies. In addition to melee attacks with your weapons, Rose also carries a deck of arcane tarot cards that allow her to cast magic spells, starting with a fireball you can whip at enemies mid-fight. The cards are what sets Rose apart from other Belmonts, and gives Belmont's Curse its own flavor. Each card you unlock lists three Acts of Mercy, which are particular goals to fulfill with the spell--for the fireball, an early goal is to use the spell to kill 20 different enemies. Once you've done that, you earn a point you can spend to unlock one of a few Blessings that upgrades the spell in particular ways, like extending its range, enhancing its damage, or providing other unique effects.  The tarot system incentivizes you to use the spells you like to make them more interesting, while also rewarding you for learning to use the ones you aren't a fan of in order to transform them in a way to better fit your loadout. It's a cool addition to the traditional variety of weapons and charms you can add to Rose's repertoire, allowing you to slowly alter how she plays. But what makes the tarot system even cooler is the way you unlock new spells as you play: by defeating bosses. Not long from the start of Belmont's Curse, I ran into a ghost that told me the area was being terrorized by some hulking monster that was claiming the souls of Parisians for some unknown purpose. You can find a few of these ghosts in every new area of Paris as you explore it, but they're often tucked away in tough-to-reach places that will force you to explore and test your platforming skills to reach. The ghosts are a cool addition to your normal metroidvania exploration, though, because they provide clues about where you can find local bosses, what you can expect from them, and what alternate paths you can take to reach them. Those clues get stored in your menu, giving you a chance to prepare for the fight. I ran across the monster the ghost warned about, called the Fallen, soon after, guarding a huge gate leading into the Parisian catacombs. It was a tough fight, with the boss leaping around, throwing Castlevania's boomerang-like cross, and swinging across the arena using a whip. Bosses in Belmont's Curse hit hard, and while they're not quite as difficult as more soulslike-inspired opponents in games like The Lost Crown or Silksong, they'll still put up quite a fight. Defeating a boss allows Rose to absorb the creature into her tarot cards to unlock new spells and abilities. With the Fallen absorbed, you gain a spell that lets you throw his powerful cross, giving you an alternative to the fireball, with its own set o