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Castlevania fans are eating good, aren't they?
Not only is an official new entry on the way in the form of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, but Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement — from Castlevania royalty Koji Igarashi — is on the way too.
The latter game was recently delayed into 2027, but a new trailer from Tokyo Game Show 2026 shows it's shaping up nicely.
Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement is a 2.5D Metroidvania action game, and a prequel of sorts to the very well-received Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
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Set in 16th century England, you play as a pair of characters — Leonard and Alexander — who must work together to defeat Demon Lord Elias.
Featuring the series' largest map yet, the game also includes time-of-day effects that change how you interact with the world.
It looks pretty good; I'm not personally sold on the art direction, but the action looks snappy and there are some fun interactions and details in the trailer.
Hopefully it's worth the wait when it launches sometime next year.
Are you excited for Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 16
It looks good. I liked Bloodstained RotN but I was not impressed.
The only thing that worries me here is that in the promo art above I can't tell if those are girls or boys
As was said, between Castlevania and Bloodstained, and even Metroid Ravenous, I’m very excited to be an everlasting metroidvania fan.
It’s a real shame Shutaro Iida passed away and I thought this game would have possibly been shelved but I’m glad it was not! It has potential and I’m excited to see where it goes, gameplay-wise and canon-wise.
I wonder if we’ll get a Switch 2 upgrade for the first one? I played and beat it on Switch with only 1 crash and I really loved it. I had some nitpicks mostly with it being a bit complicated with the power up systems and this and that but overall it was highly enjoyable.
@Zuljaras pretty sure those are now called type 1 and type 2
/s
@ChromaticDracula Fantastic time to be a Metroidvania fan! All three look fantastic
@Dalamar still I do not know if they are Type 1 or Type 2 ... at least in the game I can tell that they are ... Type 1?
The original is a proper successor to Symphony that I had a blast with. Very excited for this one, and I'm glad they're giving it the time it needs in an otherwise crazy busy release time for games.
Almost forgot about this game but i think they made the right choice to delayed it. Not just they can polished it more but they can avoid the busy month as well direct competition with Castlevania Belmont's Curse.
@Zuljaras From their voices they sounds like boys and i don't know any girls who's name Leonard or Alexander. So, it's safe to say they're boys. The character artist, Mana Ikeda, has similar artstyle with Ayami Kojima where male characters looks androgynous.
@PuppetMaster Ayami characters look like really beautified males but you can't be confused. This one surprised me! The difference between the art and the gameplay is striking! Maybe because it is rendered in(like) 3D or something.
But the names at least are a nice giveaway
While I loved the first game, the 2.5D art style never looked all that appealing to me. This looks like an improvement, but it still doesn't beat really good pixel or hand drawn art.
That's just a minor issue though, I'm definitely going to get this.
It’s for the best. Competing directly against Castlevania doesn’t help this one.
Not sure if I'm 100% sold on the visuals as of now (the outdoor backgrounds in particular look very grainy XD) but goddamn the sheer mechanical creativity on display here is utterly breathtaking. Day-night cycles, enemies which utilise the environment around them for attacks, Final Fantasy-style Job systems paired with the Idea system from SaGa; its such a monumental flex of genre-experience from Igarashi and his crew that they're still able to figure out crazy new concepts for the RPG subsection of Metroidvanias they pioneered initially.
Cannot wait to play this next year and the fact that we're getting brand new Castlevania, Metroid and Bloodstained games in a single year is madness XD
This looks incredible! I’m glad Castlevania is back but honestly, I’m way more excited for this game
It’s going to be fascinating to compare these two. Who will come out on top?
The actual Castlevania game, or the spiritual successor made by its most famous designer?
@ShadowRJ
I think both will be great but appeal to pretty different demographics IMO. Belmont's Curse is definitely aiming for a broader audience with its modernised gameplay structure reminiscent of indie Metroidvanias like Hollow Knight and Dead Cells alongside the Netflixvania-influenced visuals and status as a CV3 sequel. Bloodstained TSE then is laser-targeted at the existing sickos (like myself :3) who have been entrenched with Castlevania and JRPGs in general for years already who are basically looking for the ultimate SotN-style experience possible. Both look like they'll be great in their own unique ways and I'm ecstatic that I'll be able to play both within the same year-long time period XD
@Fizza You can add me to the list of sickos. And I adored Ritual of the Night, it did everything that I wanted. My one concern with Scarlet Engagement is that it looks like it’s heavily based on Portrait of Ruin. A good game, but I’d take most other Igavanias over it.
@ShadowRJ I'm the polar opposite funnily enough because Portrait of Ruin is my favourite game in the whole franchise XD
Ritual of the Night is an awesome time as well, even if I think its a bit derivative and overstuffed at times 😅
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