Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is relentless. Sometimes it feels like you’ve been shunted into this never-ending funnel of platforming challenges, emphasis on “challenge,” and once you’ve surmounted one, just when you think you’ve been given a moment to breathe, you’re immediately shuffled into another, harder one. It’s oppressive, it’s frustrating, it is actively damaging my hands as I white-knuckle-grip the controller. And I loved (mostly) every second of it.

In Belmont’s Curse , you are Rose Belmont, only child of Trevor and Sypha Belmont who originated in 1989’s Castlevania III and were more recently seen in the animated Castlevania series on Netflix. The game pulls a lot of characters from that show and adds some new ones too, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed getting to know them through a magical deck of tarot cards Rose carries, a gift from her late mother. As Rose racks up boss bodies, she absorbs their powers, turning them into spells she can use throughout the streets of Paris or within the walls of Dracula’s castle. Throughout the game, her vanquished foes talk to her, with Leon Belmont and Joan of Arc acting as mentors, while Medusa antagonizes her like a rival in a shonen anime. Conspicuously absent from the gaggle of gorgons and ghosts is the third member of the Netflix Castlevania series throuple, Alucard. He’s mentioned, his portrait shows up often, and you can break into his room to swipe his sword and shield, but man, it would have been nice to see my dhampir husband in the pale flesh.

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