When Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse was revealed during last month’s PlayStation State of Play showcase, there was some confusion regarding whether the game would be a traditional metroidvania, or if it would incorporate rogue-like elements given that it is coming from Dead Cells co-developers Evil Empire and Motion Twin. A Konami representative has clarified the situation, confirming that the game won’t focus on rogue-like elements.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is the first new entry in Konami’s vampire slaying action-adventure series since 2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2. The game is a 2D action platformer following a descendant of Castlevania III’s Trevor Belmont. It is being developed by two of the teams behind Dead Cells, a rogue-like metroidvania game that received Castlevania themed DLC in 2023.

Given the teams’ history with combining the metroidvania and rogue-like genres, there were concerns that Belmont’s Curse would drift from the long missed non-linear, exploration focused design of games like Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow. Speaking to The Verge, a Konami representative finally confirmed that Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse will be “a 2D action-exploration game where players can freely explore vast, elaborately crafted maps.”

This clears up any concerns that the game will forgo the thoughtfully crafted, sprawling 2D environments for run-based, procedurally generated environments like those found in Dead Cells. In this case, it appears that Evil Empire and Motion Twin will be applying their excellent action combat and game design principals to a more traditional open-ended side-scroller, bringing the Castlevania series back to the genre it helped define.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse will release on PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S in 2026. Are you looking forward this upcoming entry into the Castlevania series? Let us know in the comments down below.