The Musou (AKA Warriors) series from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force is one that 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, to even Dragon Quest, it seems 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 mould and that would be Konami’s Castlevania series.
On the surface, this may sound strange. After all, the Castlevania games either are linear side-scrolling action platformers or half the namesake of the Metroidvania genre. But when you look at it closer, it actually makes a great deal of sense. Musou crossover games tend to be celebrations of a series over the years, and Castlevania has a wide range of protagonists, locales and enemies that would all fit the formula perfectly.
A Castlevania Musou game could see players take control of iconic characters like Simon, Richer, Alucard, Soma Cruz and more, and take on staple enemies in battlefields inspired by iconic series locations. The various castles seen in the series all had iconic areas within them, 2D and 3D games alike, 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) and bosses such as Death and Legion could all make appearances.
There is another reason this idea is not as strange as you may think. Castlevania has already done some spinoffs that are extremely different from the rest of the series, such as 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 meet up with the various protagonists of the series while battling the forces of darkness across time and space actually fits rather well for the series. The game could even bring in characters from the Lords of Shadow timeline and characters from Getsufumaden, the Konami series that has crossed over with Castlevania a few times.
With the varied weapons and magic abilities characters use in the series, there would be multiple ways to go about taking out enemies, and 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. Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage was a magnificent retelling of the anime for instance, 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.