Konami admits ‘excitement and enthusiasm’ for more Castlevania amid Dead Cells DLC launch

Like its blood-sucking villain, Castlevania has been dormant for years, but Konami’s classic vampire-slaying franchise is finally starting to awaken thanks to projects like Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania.

Released earlier this week, the heralded DLC stars Richter Belmont and Alucard in what Konami Return to Castlevania supervisor Tsutomu Taniguchi calls isekai — anime slang for mutant characters being transported into a new and unfamiliar world.

“‘isekai’ is a buzzword? Because this is how I define this plot,” Taniguchi told IGN in a new interview. “Let’s say Dracula Castle teleports to Beheaded Island and what happens on the island stays on the island.”

No, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania isn’t typical, but it’s a fun reimagining of the old-school background, which started on the Famicom in 1986. The DLC has been enjoyed by fans as well as critics alike. forewarned, with IGN Review calling it a “a brilliant blueprint for how to do the right intersection.”

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According to Evil Empire CEO Benjamin Laulan, it started at the 2019 BitSummit festival in Kyoto, which the studio attended in hopes of reaching a deal to sell Dead Cells in the Japanese market. An encounter with Konami convinced Laulan to hit his shot and make a serve, and was surprised to find the audience receptive.

“Back in France, we started working on it and it’s great, because Dead Cells respectfully ‘steals’ a lot of elements from the series, such as: the whip, the main visual about castles, food hidden in the walls… ‘rogue-vania’ punchline… (sorry!) It made sense to continue this way, so we were engulfed in excitement and poured all our strength into the offering. quickly became a full DLC proposition,” Laulan said.

Laulan called Empire’s collaboration “really, really smooth,” saying that Konami was willing to agree to everything from Richter Mode to Konami Code.

For his part, Taniguchi said that Konami was “proud” that Castlevania had such an impact on Dead Cells.

“Seriously, knowing that Dead Cells, one of the best indie games of the last ten years, was inspired by Castlevania is a huge source of pride for us,” he said. “When Evil Empire and Motion Twin returned with their full DLC proposal instead of just this short feature, we weren’t really surprised and we hope that’s honest. And we just thought they were. I had to let them go all the way, because we knew they were going to use every bit of their talent to honor the franchise.Also, I personally admit that I really wanted to see the fight against Dracula in Dead Cells will be like!”

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