Castlevania: Resurrection

The Castlevania game that was never finished.

After continued rumours of a Castlevania game for Dreamcast as early as autumn 1998, Castlevania: Resurrection was announced spring 1999. The game was originally planned to be released together with the console in september 1999, but was delayed several times. After having displayed a playable demo for the games press, having released screen shots and having confirmed the game to be 25% complete, the game was canned. In spring 2000 Konami explained that the game was put on hold indefinetly and since no news have been heard of the game.

Castlevania: Resurrection was to take place in 1666, where Dracula once again was resurrected. The lead characters were Sophia Belmont (from the Game Boy game Castlevania Legends) and Victor Belmont. By time travelling the heroes arrived from different ages to fight the prince of darkness.

The game was in 3d but the lesson had been learned from the Nintendo 64 games. It was not about exploring or platform jumping. Focus was on battles against classic enemies like skeletons, werevolves and seamen. The game offered five large stages, complete with bosses and subbosses.

The screenshots from Konami reveals that Castlevania: Resurrection was far in development and that it would have been among the more impressive Dreamcast titles. It is more doubtful whether the series' traditional gameplay was intact, but that is precisely what many games writers, who were allowed to play the demo, reported. With many praises they raised the expectations for the game, that once again should bring glory to the series.

Why Castlevania: Ressurection was canned is still a mystery, but a continued rumor claims disagreements between the Japaneese and American division of Konami were crucial. The project was lead by Norio Takamoto, who had limited experience from Castlevania: Bloodlines, but otherwise the entire staff was American. All other Castlevania games are strict Japaneese production and alledgely the mother company did not approve of the new games' trend.

What is left of Castlevania: Resurrection today is limited to pictures and a few videos. Recently the complete and noteworhty soundtrack for the game has been leaked and can be found on several Castlevania fansites. If the game would have delivered what the Nintendo 64 games did not will probably never be answered.