When Konami revealed back in February that it’s finally making a new Castlevania, the teaser trailer’s art and color palette was so reminiscent of the Netflix anime series that it seemed possible the game was actually using the show’s designs, or at least had gotten a little love from the folks at Powerhouse Animation. In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Konami confirmed there’s no explicit continuity between the show and the new game, but the similarity was certainly intentional.
“We know that there are so many fans of the anime series who’ve never played the games before. So even though obviously we wanted to put the game at the forefront of our ideas when we were directing, we really did want to make sure that everyone felt welcome, especially the anime fans who’ve never played the games,” said series producer Tsutomu Taniguchi.
Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille from development studio Evil Empire said that there’s no “specific reference” to the anime in Belmont’s Curse, but the art style of the Netflix show did serve as inspiration.
“Through the art direction and through the music and the story, I think we are very close to the cinematographic aspect of the series,” Nouaille said. “This is what we want to capture and want to replicate. I think cinematography is more important than a specific reference to the game.”
Unfortunately neither developer mentioned if the Castlevania series is kaput at Netflix—it’s been a year-and-a-half since the most recent season’s release with nary a peep. My bet is we get a surprise new season based on Symphony of the Night at some point, but for now, we’ll just have to make do with the first game to follow in Symphony’s footsteps since 2008.
“There’s not a wall between the game and the anime,” Taniguchi added. “We’re really hoping that people who’ve only watched the anime also enjoy the game.”
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