Castlevania has been doing well for itself recently, between the anime and GBA collection. Now, a new rumor suggests that a Castlevania reimagining may be in development at Konami.
Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Castlevania arguably make the "big three" at Konami, being series with massive influence on the gaming industry and many devoted fans. For the first two franchises, the past few years have been pretty tough on them, with Metal Gear Survive being a poorly-received survival game, and the cancellation of Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills. As for Castlevania, things haven't been as bad, as the series has remained relevant t through its excellent Netflix anime series, and the recent release of the Castlevania Advance Collection. The collection gathers Castlevania's GBA games—which are some of the series' best entries—into one neat package.
A new report by VGC suggests that a reimagining of Castlevania is currently in development. This information comes from an anonymous publishing source that spoke directly with VGC. VGC details that the title is being worked on "internally at Konami in Japan" with additional help from "local external studios." Before the Castlevanaia Advanced Collection, the last major release was Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the second entry in the character action genre of games, which released back in 2014.
Konami may not be working on just a new Castlevania game though. Robinson describes that after a large restructuring at Konami, particularly in its game development divisions, that the company "is now focused on bringing back its biggest brands to the premium games space." According to the report, a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, remasters of the original MGS games, and new Silent Hill titles are all in development, in a variety of capacities. Considering that Konami is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, it would certainly be fitting to see it go all in on providing content for its greatest franchises.
This upcoming potential Castlevania "reimagining" is not the first time it has happened in the series. Despite its monumental legacy, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a large shake-up from the Castlevania games that came before, as it changed the player character from a Belmont to Alucard, Dracula's son, and reimagined the gameplay, into one that was more dependent on gameplay than ever before. While the handheld titles would continue to iterate on the Symphony of the Night formula, there was also Castlevania: Lament of Innoncence, a game that largely did away with RPG mechanics and prioritized action-gameplay, like the Lords of Shadow games would do a decade later. There's no telling, then, what new direction Castlevania may go in this next "reimagining."
Source: VGC