Castlevania: Belmont's Curse splits critics on spirit

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse has its review wave before Thursday's launch. Konami's new 2D action-exploration Castlevania, made with Evil Empire and Motion Twin, is scheduled for October 15 on Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and the early critic aggregate sits at 86 on Metacritic from dozens of reviews. I am filing a preview of the split, not a Dorkify grade. There are no Ryan hands-on notes for this slug, so this is about what the reviews agree on, where they argue, and what that means if you are deciding whether to pre-load.

The official Castlevania: Belmont's Curse site still sells the premise cleanly: Paris in 1499, twenty-three years after Castlevania III, Rose Belmont hunting through burning streets and Dracula's castle with the Vampire Killer whip. A free demo is already out with progress carryover. The review conversation is no longer about whether the game exists. It is about whether it feels like Castlevania or like a very good metroidvania wearing a Belmont coat.

An 86 aggregate with a 10 and a shrug in the same morning is the healthiest kind of franchise argument.

Where the reviews line up

Polygon's review roundup puts the Metacritic average at 86 and OpenCritic around 85, and it quotes the poles clearly. GameSpot's Steve Watts went 10/10 and called it one of the best Castlevania games and one of the best metroidvanias, praising the map, traversal, tone, characters, and combat. Game Informer's Charles Harte landed a 9.25 and leaned into the Netflix anime continuity and the tarot Arcana system. Polygon's own Elijah Gonzalez called it a near-perfect metroidvania built on Dead Cells DNA with gothic color and the card system as the modern hook.

Scott White's IGN review is the useful dissenting texture. White likes Rose and the responsive combat, then argues the series identity got smoothed: fewer RPG systems, no classic subweapons, not even a starting whip, and a feel closer to a general action metroidvania than to Symphony-era Castlevania. The Guardian's Harper Jay MacIntyre, per the roundup, gave three stars and flagged Super Meat Boy-style gauntlets and uneven pacing. Metacritic's score page currently shows a generally favorable 86 across the mid-40s in review count, with the positive pile huge and the mixed pile small.

That table is a reader tool built from the cited roundup and pages, not a pretend Tomatometer of my own. Notice the argument is not "is it broken." The argument is "what kind of Castlevania is allowed in 2026."

How I would use this split before Thursday

If you loved Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania and want Evil Empire to keep the whip moving fast, the glowing pile is speaking your language. If you reopen Symphony of the Night save files for the RPG menu and the dagger toss, read White's review before you pre-order the Midnight Edition. The $29.99 standard price Konami set is doing real work here: it lowers the cost of being curious, and the demo lets you test whether Rose's kit feels like a Belmont in your hands.

On Dorkify the nearest neighbors are tone cousins, not sequels. Our Hellraiser: Revival critic-split brief was about another horror revival arguing with its own fans. Our Ghost of Yotei Complete Edition note was a different kind of big-game week story. Belmont's Curse is the 2D franchise test inside that week.

• Play the demo first if the identity debate matters to you. Progress carryover means the time is not wasted.
• Budget $30, not $70, which changes how precious a mixed review should feel.
• Expect modern QoL (map markers, difficulty toggles, boss-door respawn options per IGN) even if the soul of the series is contested.
• Do not treat a 10 and a 3 as a coin flip. The aggregate says most critics are in, and the dissent is specific enough to be useful.

My read, tied to IGN's "no dagger to throw" line and GameSpot's all-timer claim living in the same roundup: this is the healthiest review week Castlevania could have asked for. A soft landing would have meant indifference. A unanimous 95 would have meant nobody was protecting the old feel. An 86 with a loud argument about series spirit means people still care what a Belmont is allowed to be.

How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.