Thousands of years later, the lid of the coffin suddenly shifts. Dust flies, slingshot balls scatter, the vampire king Dracula appears, and startled Konami employees look around at their filing cabinets C.

The coffin is now in the hands of the company's employees, who have been working on a new DLC for Dead Cells.

Last week, Dead Cells' "Return to Castlevania" DLC was released (opens in new tab). This DLC, which whips through decades of Castlevania history, shows developer Motion Twin's commitment to the series and, frankly, Konami's lack of notable work on the series in nearly a decade (aside from some excellent Netflix animation). It makes me a little sad that they haven't.

Konami's Tsutomu Taniguchi is the supervisor of the "Return to Castlevania" project, which he calls "Isekai."

"Is 'isekai' a buzzword? Because that's how I define the story," Taniguchi said in a new interview with IGN. "Let's just say that Dracula's castle teleports to the island of the beheading, and what happens on the island stays on the island."

"The story of Dracula's castle is a collaboration with the island of Isekai.

The collaboration began at the BitSummit conference in Kyoto in 2019. Motion Twin and publisher Evil Empire attended in hopes of finding a partner to market the game in Japan, and later took the opportunity to pitch a more serious collaboration to Konami. Since Dead Cells had already "respectfully" stolen many elements from the series, e.g., whips, key art for the castle, food hidden in the walls ...... (......) The pitch quickly turned into a full DLC proposal," said Benjamin Laurent of Evil Empire. [When Evil Empire and Motion Twin came to us with a proposal for full DLC instead of this short featurette (the plan was not that ambitious at first), we were not really surprised and honestly wanted it," said Taniguchi of Konami. We knew they would put all of their talent into honoring this franchise." Plus, I have to admit that I personally wanted to see what it would be like to fight Dracula in Dead Cells."

On the obvious question, Taniguchi flubbed it a bit, referring to the re-releases of the older Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Castlevania Advance Collection, as well as various mobile and console versions. However, "We know that our fans are always looking for more, and so are we. Therefore, it was impossible to pass up this great crossover opportunity with 'Dead Cells'." Taniguchi said, noting that "the excitement and enthusiasm of the fans online" is "motivating (Konami)."

OK at ...... And ......? I'm not saying that Director Taniguchi turned into a bat and jumped out of a window, but it could have happened. But everything must be taken in context, and it seems that Konami is slowly returning to various series it has long neglected. The publisher recently surprised us with new commitments to "Silent Hill" (a remake of "Silent Hill 2" (open in new tab), a new game set in 1960s Japan (open in new tab), NoCode's "Silent Hill Townfall" (open in new tab)

"The Devil.

"Castlevania" remains a favorite, and the success of games like "Dead Cells" and "Vampire Survivors" shows a willingness to put a modern twist on its mechanics and style. Fans are always looking for more, and so are we," Taniguchi said. Yes, Konami. But it's you guys who can do something about it."