Castlevania has been one of the most celebrated gaming franchises since its 8-bit origins. Throughout the decades the series has been revamped several times but there are great Castlevania games across several console generations. Despite its longevity and popularity, however, there hasn’t been a proper Castlevania release since 2014 with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, not counting mobile games or the various retro collections that have been released.
The Castlevania drought is unfortunate, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been games that fans can sink their teeth into. Castlevania is an extremely-influential series, so much that it’s half of the portmanteau subgenre “metroidvania.” Hardcore fans could argue that there isn’t a substitute for the real deal, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are a lot of great games that are heavily inspired by the Dracula-hunting series.
Bloodstained is the most well known spiritual successor to Castlevania and with good reason. The 2019 release is sometimes jokingly referred to as Bloodstained: Symphony of the Night because the only thing keeping it from being a Castlevania game is the name. Iga is in a lot of ways responsible for the magic of Symphony of the Night and the subsequent handheld Castlevania titles that followed its template. Being at the helm of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night led to a game that was the Symphony follow up fans have been waiting for since the late ’90s. While Iga probably wants Bloodstained to be appreciated for its own merits and not simply measured by its relation to his work with Castlevania, it’s no secret that’s what attracted so many to this game. In fact there was an update in 2020 that included a new game mode that’s a remake of the original Castlevania using Bloodstained assets. This new mode came out of left field, but it was one that fans appreciated.
The two Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Games are a throwback to the 8-bit era. These 8-bit adventures are much smaller in scale than its high tech counterpart, but it also possesses a greater old school challenge. Players have the option to turning on a more casual-friendly setting that eliminates knockback, but even on these easier mode they’ll still need to work for their victory. Veteran mode is the default, offering the truer challenge reminiscent of the classicvanias. These two games are general tributes to the NES trilogy, though they’re most similar to Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. The levels do progress in a linear fashion, but there are alternate paths that become available when more playable characters are unlocked.
Gal Guardians: Demon’s Purge is another relatively new game that scratches the Castlevania itch, though it was called Grim Guardians when wereviewed it. Like Bloodstained the focus is on demon hunting as opposed to vampires, but even with that detail the influence Castlevania had on this title in undeniable. True, there’s a weird fixation on panty collecting in the later portion of the game that seems like a distraction that would be beneath a Belmont during a proper Dracula hunt, but aside from that the title feels like a solid fan made tribute. Also like the 8-bit Bloodstained there’s a choice to toggle knockbacks or not, one of which is easier but does eliminate one of the challenging Castlevania staples. The progression in Gal Guardians is more straightforward than in a true metroidvania, but there’s elements of that when new items and abilities open up new areas to explore. It might not reach the highs of the best Castlevania titles, but is good enough where fans should give it a try.
One of the more unexpected Castlevania tributes was to come in the form of Dead Cells DLC. Dead Cells is a 2018 roguelike platformer which was heavily influenced by Castlevania. Getting guest spots from other games isn’t anything new to Dead Cells, but having a licensed Castlevania expansion was a nice surprise even if it did come out of nowhere. Return to Castlevania is basically Dead Cells cosplaying as Castlevania but does an incredible job of doing so. Dead Cells is known for its challenging 2D gameplay which that alone is going to feel familiar, but Return to Castlevania is almost able to make the player think they’re playing a Castlevania game. Almost. The new content features costumes from characters such as Maria Renard and Richter Belmont along with familiar enemies. Many familiar tunes from Castlevania have been remixed and incorporated into the new areas. Return to Castlevania can be completed in roughly an hour or so, but multiple run-throughs are required before the final confrontation with Dracula happens. Dead Cells is considered a fantastic game by many so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we had a tremendous amount of fun playing through this new content. But despite being a huge Castlevania fan, most of the enjoyment of this content came from the top notch design of Dead Cells and the Castlevania trappings were simply icing on the cake.
These are just a handful of the countless games that have been influenced by the classic series. There are several other great games out there that have been influenced by Castlevania in one way or another such as Hollow Knight, Blasphemous and Ender Lilies to name a few. Games like Dark Souls also bear some semblance to Castlevania with their high level of difficulty and gothic atmosphere, though clearly those games have their own thing going on. But as good as any of these games may be, it would be nice to get a proper Castlevania revival.
Konami recognizes the franchise’s value by releasing various retro collections, but something new would be nice, and something new that pays its respects to the series. They did revive Contra a few years back, but despite it being entertaining, didn’t give off the vibe Contra fans were hoping for. I don’t know the full details as to why Iga isn’t working on this franchise with Konami nor do I wish to speculate, but there’s a hopeful fantasy that they just deliver a dump truck full of money to his home and he gets back to creating Castlevania games. But great Castlevania games have existed in all formats, whether it be the Symphony of the Night style Igavanias or the classic 2D adventures. Even some of the 3D ones were memorable. Regardless of which style of game is chosen, a Castlevania resurrection is long overdue.
