The hit indie gameVampire Survivorshas collaborated with a couple of popular franchises in recent months. Late last year, it received a paid,Among Us-themed expansion calledEmergency Meeting. This DLC featured 15 new weapons, a Polus-inspired stage, and 8 differently-colored Crewmates that players could play as.Emergency Meetingalso added a horse to the game, forsome reason. Just a few months ago,Vampire Survivorsdeveloperponcle released theOperation Gunsexpansion, which brought a bunch of characters from Konami’sContrafranchise to the game, alongside a swath of weapons and maps.
It seemsOperation Gunshas been a commercial success for both Konami and poncle, because the Japanese publisher is collaborating withVampire Survivorsonce again on another expansion. Just recently, the two companies announced thatVSwould receivea crossover DLC with theCastlevaniaseries, titledOde to Castlevania, on October 31. This piece of downloadable content is the biggest one yet. It not only adds more than 20 iconic characters to the game, from Simon Belmont to Maria Renard, but it also contains over 40 new weapons, 30+ music tracks, and an incredibly large stage that the developer claims is filled with secrets to uncover and bosses to defeat.Ode to Castlevaniadoes sound great, butwhat’s especially exciting aboutthisVampire SurvivorsDLC is what it could indicate for the future ofCastlevania.
Vampire Survivors' Next DLC Could Be a Good Sign for the Future of Castlevania
Vampire Survivors' Upcoming Expansion is Only the Latest in a String of Castlevania Collaborations
While theCastlevaniaseries has mostly remained dormant as of late, it has collaborated with multiple games, both big and small, over the last several months;Vampire Survivorsis just one of them. Back in 2023, Konami and French developer Motion Twin released a roughly 4-hourDLC forDead CellscalledReturn to Castlevania, which featured a new storyline for the 2018 roguelike centered around characters fromCastlevania. Earlier this year, two other games received collaborations with the classic Konami series, namely the isometric action RPGV Risingand the asymmetrical multiplayer titleDead by Daylight.
Konami Has Released Several Castlevania Collections in the Last Few Years
In addition to all these crossovers, Konami has also kept theCastlevaniafranchise relevant in the modern era with video game compilations. The first of these bundles was2018’sCastlevania Requiem, which came out exclusively on the PS4 and contained remastered versions ofRondo of BloodandSymphony of the Night. In 2019, a handful of NES and SNES-eraCastlevaniagames were brought to modern platforms via theCastlevania Anniversary Collection. Konami then released theCastlevania Advance Collectionin 2021 andtheCastlevania Dominus Collectionin 2024. These subsequent compilations were available on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC as well as PlayStation.
Konami’s Willingness to Keep Castlevania Active Suggests That a New Game in the Series May Be in the Works
Looking at the amount ofCastlevania-themed content Konami has released these past few years, it seems like the company is gearing up to fully revive the series in the near futurewith a new mainline installment. Believe it or not, the most recentCastlevaniagame for home consoles,Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2, is over 10 years old, so a proper return to the franchise is long overdue. Taking into account the aforementioned collections and crossover DLCs, it would be strange if Konami didn’t release anew AAACastlevaniagameat some point, especially considering that it recently brought back most of its other major franchises, includingMetal Gear,Silent Hill, andContra.
In late 2021,rumors were floating around about a revival ofCastlevaniabeing in development at Konami’s internal studios, but nothing has happened so far. That being said, it wouldn’t be surprising if they end up being true in the long run. Konami is clearly doubling down on AAA video game development,andit has releasedCastlevaniacrossover DLCs for three titles in just this year alone,Vampire Survivorsincluded. If the publisher really is working on a newCastlevaniagame, hopefully it’ll reveal it at The Game Awards later this year.
Vampire Survivors
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Vampire Survivors is a time survival game with minimalistic gameplay and roguelite elements.Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you.Hell is empty, the devils are here, and there’s no place to run or hide. All you may do is survive as long as you can until death inevitably puts an end to your struggles. Gather gold in each run to buy upgrades and help the next survivor.The supernatural indie phenomenon that lets you be the bullet hell!
