The Musou (AKA Warriors) series from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force has seen a number of crossovers over the years. From Nintendo series like Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda to anime and manga like Fist of the North Star, and even Dragon Quest, the Musou genre has touched many different aspects of pop culture. But there is one series yet untouched that would be a surprisingly good fit for the Musou mold: Konami’s Castlevania series.
On the surface, this may sound strange since the Castlevania games are either linear side-scrolling action platformers or half the namesake of the Metroidvania genre. But when you look at it closer, it makes a great deal of sense because Musou crossover games tend to be celebrations of a series over the years. Castlevania has a wide range of protagonists, locales and enemies throughout its history that would all fit the formula perfectly.
A Castlevania Musou game could see players take control of iconic characters like Simon, Richter, Alucard, Soma Cruz and more, taking on staple enemies in battlefields inspired by iconic series locations. The various incarnations of the castle seen in the series all had iconic areas within them in both the 2D and 3D entries and many of the games had events outside of the castle as well. Fan favourite enemies such as the zombies, skeletons and of course Medusa heads (hey someone likes them, right) as well as bosses such as Death and Legion could all make appearances.
There is another reason this idea is not as strange as you may think and that is the fact that Castlevania has already done some spinoffs that are extremely different from the rest of the series. These include an arena fighter with strong anime aesthetics in Castlevania Judgement, a puzzle game for mobile devices and a rail shooter for arcades. A Musou spinoff with a new original protagonist or two, who would meet up with the various protagonists of the series while battling the forces of darkness across time and space fits rather well for the series and such a game could even bring in characters from the Lords of Shadow timeline and characters from Getsufumaden, the sister series that has crossed over with Castlevania a few times.
There would be multiple ways to go about taking out enemies utilizing the varied weapons and magic abilities that characters use in the series to create some memorable experiences, but there is something else as well. Given that many recent Musou crossover games have been incorporating more and more of the parent series such as Persona, Hyrule Warriors and so on, it would not be hard to bring in more elements of Castlevania than just being a hack-n-slash game. For instance, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage was a magnificent retelling of the anime, and some of the games could be recreated partially as scenarios to play through. And given that a staple of the Musou games is playing as the villains, a chance to play as Dracula and Death among others would be perfect.
Given that we have not had a new Castlevania in some time, fans may want a more traditional entry in the series, either of the Classicvania or Metroidvania style, but a Musou crossover could be the perfect celebration of the series fans want. At the very least, it is something Konami should definitely give some thought to pursuing.
Disclaimer: This article is being reshared from earlier this year as part of an ongoing Halloween celebration.
Addendum: Since this article’s original publication a new classic Castlevania has in fact been released, Haunted Castle Revisited, as part of the Castlevania Dominus Collection
