Castlevania may not be cracking its whip in video video games as typically because it used to, however there’s nonetheless a variety of love on the market for the IP. One studio that has carried the torch for the cult-classic Konami collection is Poncle, the developer behind the hit recreation Vampire Survivors and the upcoming Vampire Crawlers. Castlevania was an enormous affect on Vampire Survivors creator Luca Galante, and as he defined to us, it is one collection that he’d like to revive if Konami ever handed him the keys to it.
Talking to GameSpot, Galante defined how Poncle settled on Vampire Crawlers as its subsequent recreation. Whereas speaking about Vampire Survivors, Galante additionally remarked how the sport may have been a pure match for not solely the metroidvania style, however for the Castlevania franchise.
“It simply makes a lot sense. It makes an excessive amount of sense. It might virtually need to be known as Castlevania, proper? If we had been to do one thing like that–which I’d like to do one thing like that, by the way–but if I had been to do it, I’d simply go to Konami and ask for permission to make use of Castlevania at that stage. It simply makes an excessive amount of sense,” Galante stated. “That or, actually, if I had been to do a metroidvania, I’d most likely do one with the Legacy of the Moonspell characters and setting. Or Tides of the Foscari. I’d attempt to transfer a bit bit away from Vampire Survivors.”
Vampire Survivors has a variety of Castlevania in its DNA. The sport initially used a Castlevania-themed asset pack, and in 2024, an official Castlevania growth was launched for the sport. Ode to Castlevania was designed to be “an all-out celebration” of the monster-slaying online game collection, and it added a ton of recent content material to Vampire Survivors, together with a map filled with Easter eggs, secrets and techniques, and executives impressed by the franchise.
Vampire Crawlers would not have a launch date yet–and Poncle actually desires to keep away from GTA 6 with its launch timing–but it has been confirmed that the first-person, deckbuilding, roguelike dungeon-crawler might be coming to PC and Xbox Sequence X|S, and it will even be obtainable via Xbox Recreation Cross Final. For extra particulars on it, try our massive Vampire Crawlers interview and Vampire Crawlers hands-on.