(Tl;dr video companion for this article):

Welp…October has been one big pile of spooky bullshit.

I was sitting here for a solid ten minutes before I landed on that positively opulent linguistic gem as my opener, which screams adequate volumes about how much loving prose may be ironically poured into this god damn piece of work I seek to elaborate on. In spite of having done many, many things between now and the last time I sat down to write something, most of which involved being financially irresponsible by buying Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse in an attempt to cheer myself up, even though I’m broke and really shouldn’t be spending any money,. Though, upon further appraisal, I thought to myself that since the game is only $30, it is positively ridiculous to think my life is going to dramatically implode if I spent such a sad little handful of dollars. If my existence is to come to a tragic end due to the sum total difference of such a paltry sum, then I embrace nothingness with a warm smile, for if that razor thin margin of financial ruin is keeping me truly safe from complete oblivion, I seek not to terry for another moment longer, and bid adieu to this sickly, cruel mortal coil once and for all.



With Gears firmly in the rear view mirror, at least from a writing perspective, I did muse about moving onto something conceptually antithetical to all of the ultra violence inherent within the Gears universe, so I was looking for something uber Kawaii to completely flip the script with. However, before I got to that point, I was reminded of the fact that I completely dropped the ball on supporting the newest Castlevania game, Belmont’s Curse, outside of a marvelously in-depth preview I did before the official release on the 15th, and felt absolutely loathsome about myself for missing the launch day of the first new Castlevania game in over a decade. I say this not only as an ardent supporter of the series overall, but largely in part due to the notion that though the 2D** games have always been of top tier quality in my humble eyes, they always struggled with sales issues, hence their eventual downfall. So, leave it to me to be all oh-rah-rah about the series eventual return, only to completely shit the bed when the time finally comes.

Twas hubris that became the folly of man.



Due to all of these reasons, and in a fitting full circle moment for Spooptober itself, since I started out the month writing about Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, I figured I would end it in the same way, by giving you some more thoughts than what I provided in the demo…even though everyone and their mother has no doubt already finished this whole fucking game by this point. Let it never be said, Active Time Event, much like the Avengers, do their best work after the fact, and in kind of a literal sense…can only do their best work after the fact…

Through becoming, we create our own flawed reality.



Our own worst enemies, in the very least, and that remains surprisingly true beyond just this strained metaphor, as I’ve run into the same issue this very day, as I have in the past with following up some of my other “preview” articles, as it were, in that I was so fucking elaborately thorough from just a half hour of gameplay, that even after about 5 hours of playing the full game…I really don’t know how much more I have to say about Belmont’s Curse, which I know is exactly the kind of thing one who is curious about a video game wants to hear from someone who has spent most of their life writing about the fucking things.



Developer Evil Empire (of Dead Cells fame) has done such a damn good job of understanding the assignment, what they ended up passing in with their work on Belmont’s Curse is pretty much a gold standard template on just how fucking awesome Castlevania can god damn be, so the notes on the matter, at least where any serious, or maybe even minor flaws are concerned, are nearly non-existent. Furthering this point, I ended up playing the demo for a lot longer than the intended time frame of what was likely suppose to only be about a half hour affair, but that’s because moving around as Rose Belmont, using the whip to traverse, and utilizing it to latch onto enemies, dragging yourself to them at rapid speeds to land some satisfying aerial blows, was just too good to walk away from in any quick order.



Since any file you logged can be carried over to the main game from the demo, I was already knee deep into Belmont’s Curse by the time I loaded up the actual game, and I’d say it was at this point I was “off to the races”, but because of the ample amount of leveling progress I made, the races were already laps deep in their occurrence, so I was off like a god damn rocket just clowning on undead fools without a hesitating second thought.



Most Metroidvania’s at their finest, have controls and level design that are smooth like butter. However, in this case, the game we speak of is not just a referentially warm portmanteau of loving regard; this is the real deal here; one half of the progenitor’s duo that generated the Frankenstein’s Monster of a genre the gaming community has become so quaintly endeared to, is just undiluted purity in the essence of pacing and flow: as soon as you jump in, hours will have passed before you realize how the afternoon has just vanished around you. The editorial on ghoul slamming, monster stomps, and the occasional ghost flambe where devilish destruction is concerned never ceases to be divine, and ones ability to glide from room to room while a cascade of progress follows in their wake, awash in the experience point rich melody of success and victory is only out done by the wu-wei machinations that keeps you blinded to the ongoings of reality that emanate throughout.



With all that in mind, it’s easy to forget that far more than a decade has elapsed since we’ve had the pleasure of such gothic divinity to grace our earthly presence with, though you’d never know it while losing yourself within the darkened corridors of Castlevania.

~Pashford