Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Nearly Took a Dark Souls-Inspired Turn

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse may have arrived to a positive critical response, but its path to release reportedly involved some dramatically different ideas about what a new Belmont adventure should feel like. Evil Empire head of business Ben Laulan has discussed an earlier build that leaned toward a slower, weightier combat style inspired by the mood and rhythm of Dark Souls. The team eventually concluded that the approach was simply not the right fit for Castlevania.

That does not mean the concept lacked ambition. A deliberate action game built around oppressive gothic spaces, committed attacks, and dangerous enemies could certainly have suited the broad visual heritage of Konami's long-running series. Castlevania has always had darkness, menace, monsters, difficult platforming, and hostile castles at its core. But the details of how players move through those dangers matter enormously. Evil Empire's experiments appear to have reinforced that Castlevania's character cannot be reduced to its gothic imagery alone.

Instead, the final game was shaped around a faster blend of combat, traversal, exploration, and storytelling--one designed to honor the Belmont legacy without becoming either a Soulslike or a reskinned version of Evil Empire's past work on Dead Cells.

A slower prototype that felt too punishing

Laulan said the project passed through numerous versions before the team reached the direction represented by the released game. One of those versions was much slower, with heavier combat and a more methodical pace that he compared to a Dark Souls-style feel.

For useful background on this topic, read SPINE Shows Off Redline's Wild Parrot Suit and More Customization Options.

For Evil Empire, the problem was not merely that the prototype was difficult. Castlevania has a substantial history of demanding games, from precise early platformers to exploration-focused entries filled with challenging bosses and secrets. Rather, the concern was that this particular combination of slow rhythm, intense combat, and high difficulty had begun to pull the game away from the qualities players expect from the series.

"We had many different versions of the game," Laulan said, describing a slower build with "a Dark Souls kind of vibe" before the team decided it was "too slow, too intense, and just too hard."

That assessment points to an important distinction in game design. Difficulty is not a genre by itself, and a punishing challenge does not automatically make an experience feel appropriate for every action series. In a Castlevania game, the tension often comes from handling threats while maintaining momentum: whipping enemies at the right distance, reading dangerous rooms, navigating traps, locating routes through a labyrinthine setting, and deciding when to push forward or turn back.

A more heavily committed combat system can create a very different type of pressure. When every attack has greater weight and movement is more restrained, players tend to focus more narrowly on individual encounters. That can be compelling, but it may leave less room for the agile, forward-driving cadence Evil Empire ultimately wanted for Belmont's Curse.

Finding the line between speed and exploration

The studio did not simply move from one settled idea to another. After steering away from the slower, Soulslike-leaning concept, Evil Empire reportedly pushed the pace too far in the opposite direction. Laulan explained that the game became so fast that it began to resemble Dead Cells, the acclaimed roguelike action game that Evil Empire supported after launch.

That influence would have been understandable. The developer has direct experience with rapid movement, responsive attacks, repeatable combat loops, and the satisfying flow that comes from chaining mobility and offense together. Those strengths can make an action game immediately engaging. Yet they also carry a risk when applied too aggressively to Castlevania, especially if speed starts to overwhelm the exploration that is central to many of the series' most celebrated entries.

"So we cranked up the speed," Laulan said, but the result was "too much Dead Cells" because the exploration was no longer as present as it needed to be for Castlevania.

That comment suggests Belmont's Curse was built through a process of identifying two potential extremes. At one end was a slow, severe game whose combat intensity overpowered the series identity. At the other was an exceptionally quick action experience that risked subordinating discovery, navigation, and the satisfying unraveling of a gothic world.

The finished direction appears to sit between those poles. Rather than embracing a single fashionable template, Evil Empire aimed for a game where combat remains quick enough to feel energetic, while exploration has enough weight to make the setting more than a succession of enemy-filled arenas. That balance is especially important for a series associated with castles full of concealed pathways, environmental puzzles, locked routes, dangerous detours, and rewards for paying attention.

Why identity mattered more than genre trends

Dark Souls-inspired action and high-speed roguelike design are both influential approaches, but neither is a shortcut to making a compelling Castlevania. Evil Empire's iteration process demonstrates why established series benefit from a clear understanding of their own fundamentals. Borrowing ideas can be valuable; allowing those ideas to displace the franchise's essential rhythm is much more dangerous.

For Castlevania, that rhythm has shifted across decades and many different subseries, but certain recurring elements remain recognizable. There is a theatrical gothic tone. There are supernatural enemies and formidable bosses. There is often a strong contrast between deliberate combat decisions and surprisingly nimble movement. And, in its exploration-oriented forms, there is the pleasure of steadily learning the geography of a threatening world.

Belmont's Curse seems to have treated those features as design priorities rather than surface-level references. The goal was apparently not to make a game that looked like Castlevania while playing like a completely different kind of action title. The team instead worked toward a structure in which speed, challenge, and discovery could reinforce each other.

That philosophy is reflected in the critical response described around the game's release. One review awarded Belmont's Curse four out of five stars, praising its gothic world, puzzles, whip-based combat, traversal, and storytelling. The review characterized the game as both beautiful and challenging, while arguing that it respects the Belmont legacy in new ways.

Challenge remains part of the Belmont legacy

The decision to abandon the heaviest version of the game should not be read as a retreat from difficulty. The released title has still been described as challenging. The difference is in how that challenge is delivered and what it asks of the player.

A Castlevania challenge can thrive when it encourages players to master spacing, route planning, movement options, enemy behavior, and environmental hazards. It becomes more distinct when those systems feed into the fantasy of venturing deeper into a cursed stronghold. The player is not only trying to survive a difficult fight; they are also mapping a hostile place, uncovering its mechanisms, and building confidence in their ability to move through it.

By contrast, the earliest slower concept seems to have made combat intensity the dominant sensation. Evil Empire's conclusion that it was "too hard" therefore appears to concern the overall balance of the experience rather than a belief that Castlevania should become easy. A game can be demanding while still preserving responsiveness, curiosity, and a feeling of adventure.

A promising direction for a long-dormant series

Belmont's Curse has been framed as a return for a series that had been dormant for a long period, which gives Evil Empire's careful approach additional significance. Reviving a beloved name creates pressure to recognize what fans remember while also making something that can stand on its own for contemporary players.

Laulan's comments indicate that the studio did not arrive at its answer immediately. The team tested the darker, slower possibility. It tested a much faster version shaped by its own experience with Dead Cells. Then it continued refining the project until neither influence overwhelmed the broader Castlevania identity.

That willingness to discard promising but ill-fitting directions may be one reason the final game has been received warmly. A Dark Souls-like Castlevania could have attracted curiosity, and a full-speed Dead Cells-style spin could have delivered exhilarating combat. But Belmont's Curse appears to have benefited from refusing to become either one completely.

For players, the result is a game positioned around a more specific promise: gothic exploration, puzzles, whip-driven action, fast traversal, and meaningful challenge in the same package. Evil Empire's development story makes clear that this balance was not accidental. It was the product of repeatedly testing what Castlevania could be, then drawing a firm line around what it should not become.