Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Reviews Land at 84 on Metacritic

Konami's new Castlevania, Belmont's Curse, launched October 15 for $29.99. It's out on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch, and it's getting some of the warmest reviews the series has seen in years. Metacritic shows 84 for the PS5 version and 87 on Xbox Series X at the time of writing. OpenCritic gives it an 84 Top Critic Average, with 95% of critics recommending it (OpenCritic).

Evil Empire developed it, with Dead Cells creator Motion Twin advising (Metacritic). You play Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont, as Dracula's castle rises over Paris. It's a full metroidvania with tarot-based Arcana spells, so don't expect Dead Cells-style runs.

Here's how the big reviews landed.

• GameSpot, 10/10
• Shacknews, 10/10
• Game Informer, 9.25/10
• IGN, 8/10
• Nintendo Life, 8/10 on Switch
• Push Square, 7/10
• VGC, 3/5
• Eurogamer, 3/5

GameSpot's Steve Watts was the loudest fan. He wrote that "Castlevania is back, and it is fantastic" and ranked the combat as the best in the series (GameSpot). The lower scores mostly land on one note, with VGC calling it "a solid but safe entry in the series." There's no separate Switch 2 version, though the Switch version runs at 60 FPS on Switch 2, per Nintendo Everything.

Is the PC version of Belmont's Curse broken?

It was at launch, and it's getting better. The Steam version opened to a Mixed user rating. Players reported a black screen at launch, crashes and no ultrawide support (GameDaily via Yahoo). Konami pushed patch 1.1.3 on October 16 to fix the black screen on high-refresh monitors, though it warned the bug may still pop up on some setups (SteamDB). As of October 21, the Steam rating has climbed to Mostly Positive overall. Among English-language reviews, it's Very Positive. If you're on PC with an ultrawide monitor or another unusual setup, my advice is to check the latest patch notes first.

The "best Castlevania in years" debate is already running in every Castlevania community, and I'd argue it's a fair one to have. Critics are lining up behind it and the price is low. It's also a brand-new 2D entry from people who clearly understand the genre. The PC hiccups are a real knock, though patches tend to fix that kind of problem (Dracula, on the other hand, keeps coming back no matter what anyone patches).

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Header image and screenshot are official Castlevania: Belmont's Curse screenshots from Konami, via Steam.