Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Review Summary

Beautiful art and fluid combat deliver an authentic Castlevania feel, but black screens on launch, poor Steam Deck performance, and its unofficial status hurt.

Beautiful art style and visuals: The art style is beautiful, appealing, and gorgeous, with stunning visuals and exceptional visual direction. Players love the pastel feel and colorful graphics.

Smooth fluid combat controls: The combat and movement feel incredibly smooth, responsive, and fluid, with great controls. Players frequently highlight the satisfying and crisp feel of gameplay.

Authentic Castlevania experience: The game feels like a genuine Castlevania, with classic atmosphere and elements from classic tracks. It is considered a worthy addition to the franchise.

Satisfying weapon feel variety: Combat weapons feel satisfying, unique, and fun to use, with distinct properties and variety. The weapon feel and responsiveness are highly praised.

Fun and enjoyable gameplay: Players consistently describe the game as fun, enjoyable, and a blast to play. Many are having a good time and find the overall experience very positive.

Black Screen on Launch: A prevalent bug causes the game to display a black screen at startup, preventing players from reaching the main menu. This issue often requires workarounds like toggling V-Sync or changing refresh rates.

Not a Castlevania Game: Many players feel the game fails to capture the essence of classic Castlevania, citing a lack of the series' signature feel, mechanics, and style. This sentiment is widespread across multiple clusters.

Poor Steam Deck Performance: The game runs poorly on Steam Deck, with reports of low frame rates, crashes, and general instability. Performance remains unsatisfactory even after adjusting settings.

Technical Issues at Release: The game launched in a buggy and unfinished state, with various technical problems persisting. Players express frustration over these unaddressed issues.

Platforming Difficulty: The platforming sections are considered challenging and sometimes annoying, especially for those less skilled in platformers. There are also complaints about excessive jumping sections.

Metroidvania Castlevania Genre: The game is a 2D metroidvania with Castlevania-style exploration, backtracking, and secret walls. It combines soulslike elements with a modern take on the Castlevania formula, offering build variety through relics, weapons, and powers.

Weapon Variety Playstyles: There are seven weapon types with multiple variants, each providing distinct gameplay and playstyles. Weapons can be unlocked through progression and exploration.

Fast Fluid Combat: Combat is dynamic, quick, and aggressive, with snappy movement and satisfying impact. It is more challenging than expected and has a soulslike feel.

Whip Traversal Combat: The whip is a central mechanic used for both traversal and combat, including swinging, grappling, and dynamic action. It supports platforming challenges and enemy targeting.

Intense Boss Fights: The game features multiple bosses with movesets that require repeated attempts and figuring out patterns. Some boss fights include platforming elements.

Mixed Optimization Reports: While some players report poor optimization and terrible performance, others experience smooth gameplay on modest hardware. The inconsistency suggests varying system configurations affect performance.

Steam Deck Performance Varies: Steam Deck performance is inconsistent; some report smooth gameplay at locked 60 FPS, while others experience poor performance, crashes, and stuttering, especially in larger areas.

Cutscene Stuttering and Frame Drops: Many players notice frame rate drops and stuttering during cutscenes and transitions between gameplay and cutscenes, though the issue often stabilizes afterward.

General Stuttering and FPS Drops: Stuttering and sudden FPS drops occur during gameplay, even on decent hardware. Some report drops to as low as 10 FPS in certain areas or during interactions.

Black Screen Linked to Vsync: A significant cause of the black screen and launch failures is related to Vsync settings. Disabling Vsync can fix the issue for some, while for others it causes crashes or prevents relaunch, making it a double-edged sword.

Recommended for Metroidvania Fans: Many reviewers consider this a must-buy for Metroidvania enthusiasts, especially those who enjoy modern takes on the genre. It is frequently recommended alongside similar titles like Dead Cells.

Strong Castlevania Fan Appeal: A large portion of feedback recommends the game specifically to Castlevania fans, citing its lore and vibes. However, many also caution that it departs from classic series conventions.

Alternatives Suggested Over This: A number of reviewers recommend playing Bloodstained, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, or older Castlevania titles instead. They feel those games better satisfy the desire for classic or high-quality Metroidvania experiences.

Worth the Price: Reviewers widely agree that the game offers good value for money, with many calling it a great buy, especially on sale. The price-to-content ratio is considered fair.

General Recommendations: Many reviewers simply give a strong recommendation without specific caveats, often rating it 10/10. The overall sentiment is very positive from those who enjoy the genre.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $30.00.

Session length: 6.0h.

Early friction often resolves after the opening, with players reporting that fun clicks after early bosses, new abilities, or roughly 40 minutes to a few hours; a minority either enjoy it immediately or bounce off before it clicks.

Friction: Unclear tutorial for weapon actions and combos; Extremely demanding early combat with no I-frames; Keyboard controls requiring too many simultaneous buttons; Performance and frame-pacing issues, especially on Steam Deck; Tedious platforming and awkward grapple/movement; Slow, uneven early pacing.

Unlock drivers: Unlocking more abilities and weapons; Defeating the first boss and progressing past the opening; Switching from keyboard to gamepad; Reaching the Castle and hearing Bloody Tears; Learning boss attack patterns; Progression rewards like relics, weapon types, and tarot cards.

Classic Castlevania Purist: Compares every system to classic 2D Castlevania games, expects RPG-like exploration and atmosphere, and rejects heavy platforming or grapple-focused modern design. Motivation: To relive or preserve the classic Castlevania/Igavania experience and gothic identity. Stance: no buy.

Modern Metroidvania Action Fan: Uses dodge, whip grappling, weapon and spell loadouts, seeks difficult bosses, and appreciates smooth traversal and customization. Motivation: Mastering satisfying action combat, challenging bosses, and fluid modern metroidvania exploration. Stance: buy.

First-Time Castlevania Newcomer: Learns core combat and exploration gradually, relies on tutorials, assist or custom difficulty, and judges the game by first impressions. Motivation: Enjoying an accessible first Castlevania or metroidvania experience with strong visuals and combat. Stance: buy.

The largest Windows cohorts show mixed performance overall, with recurring black-screen startup, frame spikes, stutter, and launch workarounds on several 8GB+ VRAM systems, though many players still report smooth play. The lowest-VRAM and lower-RAM Windows cohorts are mostly positive, with only isolated severe stutter or optimization complaints.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: mixed. Reports are split: many users run the game smoothly, but others report black-screen startup, especially on high-refresh monitors, plus stuttering and frame spikes.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. Some players report stable 60-165 fps and no issues, while others report frequent freezes, launch failures, stuttering, and black screens.

Windows 16GB+ VRAM: mixed. High-VRAM systems show both smooth 4K/240 fps play and a notable set of black-screen, boot, stutter, and frame-pacing problems, often requiring FPS caps or mods.

Steam Deck: The audit reveals that the game suffers from significant technical issues on Steam Deck, most notably a frequent black screen error that prevents launch without manual workarounds such as changing refresh rate or using gamescope. Performance is often poor with stuttering and frame drops, and the UI is frequently cropped or unreadable. Some users report crashes, though a minority experience a smooth, problem-free launch. Overall, the Steam Deck version is not recommended without tinkering.

Linux and Proton: Linux/Proton feedback is mixed but leans positive. Numerous users report the game running flawlessly out of the box, some without even enabling Proton, across distros like Linux Mint and CachyOS. However, a recurring minority hits a black-screen-on-launch issue that requires launch options or gamescope commands, and a few report Proton stutter, crashes, or boot failures tied to refresh rate, with one refunding for lack of Linux support. Controller input occasionally needs Proton launch options. Overall the game is playable for most Linux users with only minor tweaks.

Compared to classic Castlevania games: Frequent comparisons are made to classic Castlevania titles such as Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, and Dawn of Sorrow. These comparisons focus on both similarities and differences in design and expectations.

First Castlevania in years: Reviewers highlight that this is the first new 2D Castlevania game in over a decade, marking a significant return for the series. It is seen as a fresh and properly priced entry that delivers on long-awaited expectations.

Strong Dead Cells comparisons: Many reviewers compare the game to Dead Cells, citing similar movement, combat feel, visual style, and overall gameplay DNA. This comparison is often positive and reinforces the game's quality for fans of Dead Cells.

Hollow Knight and metroidvania peers: The game is often compared to Hollow Knight, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and other metroidvanias, particularly regarding platforming difficulty and overall quality. Some recommend it as an alternative to these games.

Developed by Dead Cells team: The game is developed by Evil Empire and Motion Twin, known for their work on Dead Cells. Reviewers note the involvement of the Dead Cells developers, which contributes to the game's refined feel and expectations.