Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse has been praised as one of the year’s best games, combining a distinctive visual style, impactful combat and fluid traversal. According to GameSpot editor Steve Watts, there is another quality setting it apart from its peers—and it isn’t what most reviews focus on.
“Everybody is really hot,” he writes, noting that the game’s consistently attractive cast draws an apt comparison to Hades and its sequel, which “figured out that if we’re going to frequently see character portraits for dialogue, they may as well be easy on the eyes.”
The adventure opens with Trevor Belmont and his daughter Rose disembarking in Paris. Trevor is a silver fox; Rose is described as a beautiful maiden who carries “a slightly terrifying” edge. As players venture deeper into the castle, they encounter characters including the Zealot, Isaac—a goth prince—and the Warrior, whose appeal leans toward fans of “tall, strong women.”
The roster extends to more unusual designs: The Fallen is a corrupted beast of a man evoking Beauty and the Beast, while Medusa offers a peculiar beauty worth looking past her snakes. Carmilla, a blood witch vampiress in a slinky red dress, draws particular attention once players realize the garment is really “thick rivulets of blood dripping off her body at all times.”
Then there is Dracula himself. When the lord of darkness appears, Watts notes he makes Trevor Belmont look like a “schlubby dad” by comparison—a fitting image for a character long used as a metaphor for temptation and lust.
The overall ratio of attractive faces is tempered by monstrous boss designs. The Brittle King is described as roughly human-shaped shards of stained glass, and several members of Rose’s tarot deck are neither attractive nor even human. But the game’s humanoid characters remain “remarkably, ridiculously good-looking,” a choice that feels deliberate rather than incidental.
“It’s just one more way the game feels smooth and inviting in every aspect,” Watts concludes, adding that the designs are bound to inspire “countless pieces of fan art.”
The best example of all this may be Carmilla, the blood witch vampiress who wears a slinky little red dress. It looks fashionable until you realize it’s just thick rivulets of blood dripping off her body at all times.
Steve Watts, GameSpot
Steve Watts is an editor at GameSpot with nearly 20 years of professional video game reporting and reviewing experience. He can be followed on Bluesky @sporkyreeve.bsky.social.
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