During Sony's latest State of Play, publisher Konami made a number of announcements, one of which was Castlevania: Belmont's Curse.
This is a brand new entry in the company's much-celebrated action series, and it comes from developers that are well versed in much the same space.
Evil Empire is leading the charge; this is the team that picked up support for Dead Cells and produced a vast amount of post-launch DLC, including the Return to Castlevania expansion.
Also onboard in an advisory position is Motion Twin, the studio that originally created Dead Cells, which owes a lot of its design to Konami's revered series.
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While the reveal trailer for Belmont's Curse looks fantastic, there has been some worry among fans that the game would feature roguelike elements, given the previous work of the teams involved.
However, Konami has put that concern to bed. In a statement to The Verge, Tommy Williams, head of communications for the Americas, categorically says it is "not a roguelike or roguelite game".
Here's the statement in full:
"Castlevania Belmont's Curse is a 2D Action-Exploration game where players can freely explore vast, elaborately crafted maps. It is not a roguelike or roguelite game."
In other words, it's a "proper" Castlevania — a large, singular map to explore and progress through. You won't be going on runs through a randomly generated castle.
This will come as some relief to a number of fans, as there has been a growing sentiment that the roguelike framework is becoming overused.
It's nice to see Konami and the developers are making a new Castlevania in the traditional mould. We expect there will be some modernisations to the formula, but it won't be roguelike.
In other news, Belmont's Curse isn't the only Castlevania coming; Konami has teased there's more in store as it looks to celebrate the series' 40th anniversary this year.