Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Demo Impressions from Gamescom 2026!

We came for the game — we stayed for the whip

Castlevania holds a huge place in my heart. It's one of the first series I played and one of the first I watched on Netflix and genuinely loved. The problem is there was never alignment between the series and the games, and in fact, ever since the show really started to succeed, we haven't gotten a proper modern game in the series. Nine years late, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is here to fulfill the hope for a new, good game in the series for both old and new fans — and it does so amazingly.

And befitting a Belmont — the most amazing thing it does is the whip. The best way to describe how they've done the whip here is Insomniac's Spider-Man games, but in 2D. Somehow they've captured the way Spider-Man works and turned navigating the map with the whip into a pleasure, and throwing the whip at an enemy and launching yourself at them into satisfying fun. I even think those who've played both will notice the animations are really similar, and will fall in love with the whip from the first moment.

But a Belmont doesn't just have a whip — usually there are also spells, and here it's expressed through tarot cards. Rose, the main character, has cards that her mother dealt to her, so each one is beautifully designed and gives Rose the ability to execute a special attack or upgrade the character toward a certain combat style. Using the cards, you'll build your own version for battles, with the accessories and spells that suit you best. I see myself going back and redesigning the card deck many times during the game, and that's partly because of their wonderful design. This design naturally flows into all parts of the game, from the excellent city, to the satisfying sound, to the interesting enemies.

During the demo we only explored the first two areas, which are the catacombs of Paris and a slum neighborhood in the suburbs. We entered one house, which was a sort of small platforming and combat challenge that rewarded us with a chest at the end. We speculate there will be many more houses like this in the open world, which is expected to be huge. There was also one boss in the demo, which had a trick to take down more of his health when he flew around the map. If you hit him during flight with a fireball, he'll fall and lose more health. These little details may be small — but they're what turn a game into insane fun, and they exist here in abundance.

After the boss you get his tarot card, which opened up the ability to throw a cross like in other games in the series. After this demo we reached one clear conclusion — thank god Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is already coming out on October 15th.