Castlevania Returns Through Paris

Story setup

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse launches October 15. Konami has handed the first new entry in more than a decade to Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells and Return to Castlevania. It follows Rose Belmont through a gothic Paris, combining two-dimensional exploration, faster movement and tarot-based Arcana abilities. That developer choice is the story: Evil Empire already knows this series, but now it has to move beyond homage. Here is the announcement trailer.

After the trailer

Paris gives the world an identity beyond another castle corridor, and Rose has room to develop a combat language of her own. The Arcana system could be the defining idea, although publisher footage cannot tell us how well it holds up across a full game.