Castlevania set for adventure and RPG focused return

By Rob Fahey Published 26 January, 2005

Leaked information from a US magazine reveals Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is on its way to PS2, and draws lots of interesting Symphony of the Night comparisons...

Hot on the heels of the announcement of a new Castlevania title for the Nintendo DS, scans from US magazine Play have revealed that Konami's Tokyo development studio is hard at work on a new vampire slaying epic for the PlayStation 2.

Reported to be the series' last outing on PS2, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is a 3D title which promises a stronger focus on the adventure and RPG elements which were left by the wayside somewhat in previous PS2 incarnation Lament of Innocence.

Once again the central character is not a Belmont, however; this time you play a chap called Hector, who is a Devil Forgemaster (that's someone who makes demons, apparently) who studied under Dracula himself but then did the usual thing of heading off to live a peaceful life.

Fat chance. After his beloved missus is implicated in a "deadly conspiracy" by another Devil Forgemaster, Isaac, he makes his way back to the castle with revenge on his mind - accompanied, usefully, by Innocent Devils, familiar-type creatures who grow and evolve over the course of the game.

According to series creator Koji Igarashi, the game will allow players to venture into areas around the iconic castle as well as exploring the building itself, and the Belmont family will play a key role, even though the central character isn't related to the clan of vampire slayers and prolific breeders.

Lament of Innocence wasn't a bad action game by any means, but was closer to Devil May Cry than Symphony of the Night; with Curse of Darkness, Igarashi and his team seem to be harking back to the much-loved PlayStation title (can we get that on PSP? Please?), which is likely to arouse quite a bit of interest among fans of the series.

As for the 2D Castlevania titles, Igarashi assured Play that he's not done with 2D games yet by any means - but he wants to make a better 3D Castlevania first. If anything should sting Konami into action on this front, it's Metroid Prime and its stunning sequel - proof positive that 2D Castlevania type games can be translated into 3D without losing an ounce of playability or style. Fingers crossed that Curse of Darkness does the same thing for camp bloodsuckers that Prime did for armour-clad space ladies...

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Comments (10) Latest comment 7 years ago

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  • drumbaby #1 7 years ago

    Oh yeah baby! Looking forward to this one after getting 100% in LOI. Love a bit of old school dressed in 3D, so I do :)

  • Tweakmonkey #2 7 years ago

    Good news indeed. I have to confess though I sold SOTN for a princely sum on Ebay a while back.

  • Blerk #3 7 years ago

    Oh, hello! Didn't see that one coming.

    /perks up

  • valli #4 7 years ago

    LOI has fantastic music, can't get enough of it. Hopefully, insert-her-name-here will do the music score again.

  • drumbaby #5 7 years ago

    Yeah, LOI's music was some of the best game music I've heard.

  • Tweakmonkey #6 7 years ago

    hehe - was it the American version? :-)

  • Kami #7 7 years ago

    Interesting. The whole familiars thing isn't original, but the concept is a little fresher I suppose.

    I'm just not 100% convinced CV works in 3D. I hope I'm proved wrong this time...

  • Blerk #8 7 years ago

    They managed it with Metroid, I see no reason why they couldn't do something similar with Castlevania. Providing they don't mess it up again. :-)

  • drumbaby #9 7 years ago

    Never having played a Castlevania game before LOI all I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed the PS2 3D outing for 'Vania. Nothing screwed up there, imho. I thoroughly enjoyed getting 100% completion of the castle, then playing through Boss Rush mode, unlocking all the tunes, and playing as Joachim.

    What a beautifully crafted old school style game...living slightly in Devil May Cry's shadow, ironically, but with hods of replay value.

    I only hope the new one is as good. Obviously better would be better . :)

  • Elias #10 7 years ago

    Ah, just registered :) Speaking of SotN, I got all versions, even two mint copys of the saturn version. Beat that if you can ;)