Developers Motion Twin and Evil Empire have announced a new collaborative DLC with Konami for their indie-hit Dead Cells, titled Return to Castelvania. A new animated trailer showcasing the characters of both IPs was shown at the Game Awards 2022 event, which also revealed the release window to be in the first quarter of 2023.
The DLC won’t just give you the weapons of iconic Castelvania characters such as Richter Belmont and Alucard, but it will go even further beyond that and have them accompany you on the journey inside the new Dracula-themed dungeon. The holy water, throwing axe, and Vampire Killer were among the many teased weapons that will be incorporated into Dead Cells’ fast-paced gameplay style, and you might need to take these weapons by force first, as hinted at in both the press report and the animated trailer sequence.
The atmosphere of Dracula’s castle – the setting of many Castelvania titles – is recreated entirely in two biomes with gorgeous 2D pixel art. Apart from the two confirmed characters, and of course Dracula himself, there seem to be more cameos in store for the fans, but the developer has refrained from spoiling anything about them. As for the music department, 51 Castelvania tunes will be included in the game as alternative audio tracks, and 12 of the most iconic tracks, such as Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, and Divine Bloodlines, will receive their own Dead Cells-style remixes as well.
Evil Empire is a development subsidary of Motion Twin created in January 2019 to take over the development and support of Dead Cells, leaving some room for the parent developer to focus on its future projects. Benjamin Laulan, COO of Evil Empire, says the idea of the DLC was conceived following his visit to Kyoto for the Bitsummit indie game festival. Considering Dead Cells was largely inspired by Castlevania, he wanted to include some homage or cosmetic DLC with Konami’s approval, but the latter’s enthusiasm for the idea gave it a new scope beyond anything the studio could have imagined.
Dead Cells is now available on the PlayStation Plus Extra subscription service, but it doesn’t include any of the previously released DLC. Castlevania is also expected to have a new animated series with a new cast of characters further down the road, according to an exclusive report from Deadline.