In June, I was invited to play Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse a few months ahead of release, and I loved every bit of it. The venue we were at was a former Catholic church of Saint Joan of Arc, now deconsecrated but with no less charm than it had when it was first constructed following the neo-Gothic style, painted glass and all.
But in between the gameplay sessions, I also got the chance to sit down with Konami’s Tsutomu Taniguchi, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse‘s lead producer, who opened up about how the company finally got around to making a Castlevania title as well as how it made sure more people could play it and not be daunted by the series’ notorious difficulty.
The first thing I wanted to know was why Konami decided to return to a 2D side-scroller perspective once more, considering the last two Castlevania games were both 3D with an over-the-shoulder camera. I’ve got nothing against 2D side-scrollers, but in the time between the last mainline Castlevania entry and today, the genre did experience a bit of a drop in popularity, even if it’s seeing a sort of renaissance at the moment.
