But then storytelling never was much of a Castlevania virtue. There’s not much of a story though, with the expansion’s tone being that of a pub tribute band getting all excited at the prospect of meeting its idols. You still play as the nameless prisoner of the Dead Cells games but there are skins that let you dress up as characters like Simon Belmont, while the likes of Richter and Alucard turn up occasionally for a quick cameo. Their origins are in Castlevania but they’re handled like Dead Cells weapons, with various upgrades and buffs available – as they are for any of the game’s equipment. There’re also versions of many of the series’ most famous sub-weapons, such as bottles of holy water that are thrown like napalm and the boomerang-esque cross. Naturally, many of the enemies are also the same, from Dracula and Death, all the way down to the skeletons and fishmen. During the 2022 Game Awards, the team behind Dead Cells put out an animated teaser trailer announcing that the game’s next DLC expansion would be Castlevania-themed. With the expansion eager to stimulate your nostalgia glands with as much vigour as possible, not only does this look like Castlevania but it sounds like it too, with multiple remixes of famous tracks as well as original versions.
That’s a double-edge sword though as while it’s a lot of fun in the moment it can all be over disappointingly quickly, with none of the backtracking you’d expect of a true Metroidvania.
This works extremely well and while the levels that are generated are always rather small, they do still make sense in terms of the interconnected lock and key puzzles within them.
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