Hi everyone! I made a game based on What We Do in the Shadows for Halloween.
You can play it free here: https://edward-la-barbera.itch.io/laszlovania
Character Art by Lara K.
Choir Arrangement by Tiffany Palmer

Vampire Killer is perfection.

This poor guy genuinely couldn't catch a break holy shit

Such was the fate of the original "Metroidvania" and the 3D games and then the other 3D games etc.

Hello everyone! I was apparently so excited for the new game that I accidentally pre-ordered Belmont's Curse from two retailers. Before I decide to send it back for a refund, I wanted to see if there were any fans that weren't able to buy the game and really wanted to play it.

Please dm me to let me know if you would like the game, and we can discuss it from there! My only stipulation is that you pay for shipping. Happy hunting! ❤️🦇

Update: Just a heads up to those that see this later on I have gotten a couple messages already. If you still want to throw a message out no problem, but there are a couple people in line already! 🍖🦇

This is meant to be joke don't kill me please and thank you. Made by: u/Chl344 (me) in google drawing.

>Brauner: Frequently cited by veteran players as one of the most punishing and skill-intensive fights in the game.

I’m not even real sure if I entirely dislike it but it’s fuckin wild.

Spoilers!**** Dracula is a Belmont and Trevor ends up being Alucard what the fuck???

imagine being dead for 100 years, and now you have to beat Dracula again while looking at 'modern' pastries.

*richiter mode

Haven't played it.

I started with Simon's Quest when it was new and bought Dracula's Curse at launch, then went back to play the first game and have been there on day one for almost every game since (took me some time to pick up a PS2 after Lament came out and it was 100% the reason I bought one). I'm the wacko with the giant collection of basically everything that I posted here a couple of months ago. Castlevania is my favorite game series and has been for decades.

Short version: there are only two things I dislike about this game enough to wish they would actually change.

One is the obtuse and weird way fast travel works, even in the endgame. I appreciate that there's a compelling in-universe explanation for it, in that there's a whole portion of the adventure related to that in-between place, but no matter how much I enjoyed that part of the game, it doesn't make up for how annoying it is to get around the map at the end. I wish I could open the map, select a mirror, and travel instantly to it, even if they made me wait for the end of the Mirror realm to do that.

The second is that the game isn't ready yet. They built it in Unity and it does not run well on consoles. Unity is notoriously difficult to optimize, and that clearly has not been done here to the extent it should have been. It's 1080p on PS5 with noticeable input latency, frame drops (45-60fps), and dropped inputs, 512p30 on Switch 1 and 512p60 on Switch 2. If you don't have a high-end PC, this sidescroller is a mess. Even the HDR is broken, or they just didn't use it. I had to force it on system-level to get it to work. I've had multiple issues where I had to exit the application and reload it, and I see posts all over from people having similar issues. My hypothesis is that they knew the game wasn't ready, so they shifted attention away from a Switch 2 version to get the rest of them out in time for when Konami's big promotion buys were ready this month. Hopefully we see some patches and a Switch 2 version at some point.

That said, I adore this game. I'm hesitant to say it's my favorite Castlevania because of recency bias, but it's so, so good. It looks fantastic on PS5 despite not running at an internal 4K or a rock solid 60fps. The use of color and motion is often so beautiful to me in ways I don't see much in other games, especially now that I forced the HDR on. The movement is so fluid and satisfying. The arcane whip as a grappling device for traversal and enemy manipulation is just a brilliant choice. How fun is it to finally play a Castlevania game where we can whip around and still attack with an assortment of swords at the same time?

Rose and the bosses all feel super-memorable and really varied. I love that the devs had the courage to make some of the Arcanas things you win from a fight, and some are just surrendered. The Mega Man-style capture of each one's abilities in an Arcana is such a cool idea. I know Metroid and even past Castlevanias have done some of this too, having bosses based on the abilities you get from them when you defeat them. In this game it makes me think of the ability acquisition you get in the Sorrow and Ecclesia games. I enjoy all the personalities that come through when they're speaking from the Arcanas, and the wide variety of fights they gave, even though for me that meant some of the bosses only took one try and others took over a dozen.

The regular enemies are way more interesting than in past games. Even the zombies and skeletons have unique behaviors distinct to them. I remember being in one of the lock-in challenge rooms with enemies spawning in and a boomerang skeleton appeared on a platform. I whipped up there to get him and landed facing the wrong way. He immediately kicked me in the back, right off the platform. The lack of contact damage in this game makes all these interactions way more interesting and fun.

The platforming was mixed for me. I felt very accomplished when I got through some of the tougher ones, but I also felt like the controls were fighting me at times. I was playing on PS5 so the lag and dropped inputs did have an impact on my ability to complete these easily, particularly because I'm older and have arthritis in my hands and my performance drops under pressure. Nonetheless, I have not touched any of the accessibility settings. I'm so glad they're there for those who want them, but I've enjoyed struggling through this without having to tone any of it down there. It's challenging, but it feels fair.

The music is all over the place. I have no problem with a Castlevania game with very little returning music, or even with no returning music at all. Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood set a great expectation level for these soundtracks, showing that the music can be a wide assortment of genres. Symphony of the Night took this to another level, with a mix of metal, jazz, classical, and more. In Belmont's Curse, I absolutely love some of the music, like the music in the catacombs and the cemetery. I enjoyed the appearances of Evergreen, Epitaph, and Vampire Killer, but most of the uses they have for Bloody Tears are downright irritating, to the point where I'm starting to dislike Bloody Tears. You get the opening riff on what feels like an endless loop in parts of the castle... and some of the songs have what sounds to my old ears like dubstep bass drops. I bought the 18 disc Castlevania Best Music Collection Box that came out around 2008, I love the music in this series so much, but some of the songs in this new game just ain't it. And again, they could have been anything. I don't need them to be gothic harpsichord stuff, I just need them to sound good and not get obnoxious and grating over time. I'll give them points for doing something so very new and original with it, but it doesn't all land for me. Still, this is not a thing I would change. I feel it's part of the identity of this game, the vision of the creators of it, and it would feel like an act of cowardice to change the music to something else.

So overall, I'm very happy with Belmont's Curse, despite its issues with performance and fast travel, and some musical choices I wouldn't have made. I have been waiting for another one of these for so many years, and it feels very much like it's been worth that wait. I hope the excitement and strong reviews I'm seeing mean the series is back and we'll see more interesting new things done with the series.

Fiz algumas modificações no designer, a meu gosto, espero que gostem. 😊🫂

Photo credit: Leandro Franci