Konami found the fan reaction to Dead Cells’ Return to Castlevania DLC “really motivating” says supervisor Tsutomi Taniguchi.
Dead Cells’ recent Return To Castlevania DLC successfully channelled the spirit of a series that Konami has left (mostly) dormant for almost a decade. A fusion of French developer Evil Empire’s hit roguelike platformer and Castlevania’s own Gothic iconography, Return to Castlevania launched on the 6 March to glowing reviews.
Although the DLC’s events aren’t canon, Return To Castlevania was made with Konami’s full backing, with company veteran Tsutomu Taniguchi – who produced the iffy Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls on Apple devices – serving as supervisor on the project. In a post-launch interview with IGN, Taniguchi spoke warmly about the DLC’s development – and dropped what could be a subtle hint about the wider Castlevania franchise’s future.
Stating that the “excitement and enthusiasm” of fans for the Return to Castlevania DLC was “really motivating” for Konami, Taniguchi added, “We know that our fans always want more, and we do too, so this opportunity to have this amazing crossover with Dead Cells was impossible to pass up on.”
It isn’t much to go on, admittedly, but it could be read as a further sign that Konami is taking greater interest in its back catalogue of much-loved properties. Following 2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the franchise has rarely been seen other than as the basis for an occasional toe-curlingly horrible, Japan-only pachinko machine.
That changed a little with the success of the Castlevania animated series on Netflix, which began in 2017, while the release of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Castlevania Advance Collection compiled several early games in the series in 2019 and 2021 respectively.
If Dead Cells’ Return to Castlevania DLC is a success, it could prompt Konami to create – or at least commission – a canonical sequel in the series. Konami does, after all, appear to be making more of a concerted effort to revive its franchises of late – Silent Hill, another dormant horror series, is getting a number of sequels and spin-offs in the near future.
Konami is evidently happy with its collaboration with Dead Cells’ developers. “We just thought we had to let them go full circle,” Taniguchi said, “because we knew they would use every ounce of their talent to honour the franchise.”
With praise like that, why not just let Evil Empire make the next Castlevania?
Read more: Tracking down the obscure mind behind Castlevania
