Vampire Survivors is actually crossing over with Castlevania for real

Oh, wow. I didn’t think they would do it, but Vampire Survivors is coming in hot with the Ode to Castlevania expansion. It’s almost here, releasing on October 31, 2024.

It was a pretty great misdirection when Poncle announced that their big Konami crossover was with Contra for Operation Guns earlier this year. I thought they might really play up its “featuring no vampires” jest and release everything adjacent to Castlevania without actually crossing over with Castlevania. Doing the crossover just seems too obvious. But, I guess when Konami has their portfolio open, you should grab all you can.

I mean, Vampire Survivors already has a lot of legally distinct homages to Castlevania, and now it’s going to have actual characters from the games in it. Over 20 characters, apparently. That’s a real Belmont family reunion. One must assume that Dracula won’t be able to attend. There are also going to be 40 (plus) weapons to the game, 30 music tracks, and the biggest level yet featured in the game. I’ll give you the whole bullet-pointed list I was sent in a moment, because it’s a lot.

I’ve been digging the expansions getting piled into Vampire Survivors, but I’m a bit afraid that the central, non-adventure gameplay mode is going to get buried under a glut of weapons. But I don’t know, excess is sort of Vampire Survivor’s thing. Asking it to take the foot off the pedal isn’t going to do much. Anyway, here’s the bulleted list. I added an Oxford comma:

• 20+ New characters: What a horrible night to have a curse, especially if you are:
  • The Belmonts, your favorite whip-obsessed family of vampire hunters, including Simon, Richter, Trevor, and even Sonia.
  • The Belnades, Sypha, Yoko, and a myriad of legendary witches from throughout the history of the occult clan. Even the likes of Charlotte Aulin and Maria Renard have their spellbooks ready.
  • Other Heroes, not just Jonathan and Charlotte, but Jonathan Morris AND John Morris?! Amazing allies abound, from Shanoa to Eric Lecarde.
• 40+ New weapons, fighting the forces of evil is hard as hell:
  • Whips – Whole lot of whips. More whips than we can count (it’s eight).
  • Spells: elemental magic has finally made its way in Vampire Survivors, offering a wide array of spells inspired by games such as Portrait of Ruin and Harmony of Dissonance.
  • Magic weapons: not any sword, but Alucard’s Sword. And Alucard’s Spear. Also Alucard’s Shield, Alucard’s etc.
  • Projectiles: do you remember that time the Morris’ were throwing javelins and iron balls?
  • Glyphs: Confodere, Vol Confodere, Melio Confodere, but also plenty of non-Confodere, we swear.
• A monstrously large Stage
  • Enchanting mysteries and danger await those who enter:
  • The largest map Vampire Survivors has ever seen, stacked with sinister secrets and a bunch of baneful bosses.
• 30+ New Music Tracks
  • A ridiculous amount of remixes of Castlevania tracks from Vampire Survivors historic composers Daniele Zandara and Filippo Vicarelli, but also from fan-favourite Evelyn Lark and Keygen Church!
  • Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Simon’s Theme, Leon’s Theme, a lot of themes.
  • Moonlight Nocturne, Lost Paintings, Dance of Pearls, but like you’ve never heard them before.
  • Aquarius, The Beginning, Divine Bloodlines, everything that screams “this is Castlevania”.
  • An Empty Tome, Invitation of a Crazed Moon, Pitch Black Intrusion, so many hits from the more recent entries in the series.
  • Amber Scenery, Sarabande of Healing, Jaws of a Scorched Earth, and many others you didn’t know the title of!
  • On top of that we have borrowed several dozen original tracks from Castlevania games. There is so much music we revamped the music selection panel for the occasion.

Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania is out on October 31, 2024 and will run you $3.99.