Indie studio The Deep End releases a teaser trailer for Romancelvania, a reimagination of the classic Castlevania with dating sim themes.
Indie studio The Deep End released a teaser trailer for Romancelvania, a Castlevania-inspired game that’s also a dating sim. It’s said to be a tongue-in-cheek game featuring a vampire protagonist and side-scrolling platform mechanics.
Romancelvania follows Drac, who can be male or female, as they get thrown into a monster reality dating show by the Grim Reaper. Players will get to explore Transylvania, where they will fight monsters and meet potential partners. Based on the trailer and screenshots, the dateable characters might include a genie, a demon, a werewolf, a pumpkin-head scarecrow, and another vampire. There also seems to be boss battles against a cthulhu and a massive angel statue.
The game has been in development since 2020. The Deep End launched a Kickstarter in October 2020, which has since reached several targets in order for them to add fun features to the game. One of the latest updates was giving players the option to choose a female Drac character.
Since Romancelvania is also a dating sim, gamers have wondered whether it would have sexual themes. In the Kickstarter FAQs, The Deep End stated that the game would not include graphic nudity, and that sexual content would be in the context of romance. The devs wanted to portray the characters as having normal human needs, despite being supernatural beings. The studio also emphasized that players can be gay in the game, meaning they could date whoever they wanted as male or female Drac.
As of writing, Romancelvania doesn’t have a release date yet. There are going to be physical copies of the game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The game will also be available digitally via Steam for PC players. Players were able to test the game out via a short demo, and they have been providing constructive feedback about the gameplay and atmosphere. Overall, players seemed to enjoy Romancelvania‘s humor, colorful design, and upbeat music, which are a far cry from Castlevania‘s more gothic horror theme.
Meanwhile, there were rumors that Castlevania was getting a new game, but Konami never confirmed it. The last major release from the series was 2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Last year, Konami released the Castlevania Advanced Collection, which is a bundle with four games from the franchise. This may be a bummer for fans of the game, but they could enjoy a reimagined twist on it once Romancelvania officially drops.
Romancelvania is in development.