Another lost gaming gem has been uncovered, as a prototype of Castlevania Resurrection for the Sega Dreamcast has been discovered. Castlevania Resurrection was originally intended to be the seventeenth entry in the series.
Castlevania Resurrection would have followed Sonia Belmont, who was the first female protagonist in the series, having previously starred in Castlevania Legends for the Nintendo Game Boy. Castlevania Resurrection would also have introduced a new member of the Belmont clan, named Victor Belmont. Sonia was once the founding member of the Belmont clan and Castlevania Resurrection would have been set before the original Castlevania. Sonia’s games have since been purged from the original Castlevania timeline, so it’s unclear what the developers had in store for her in Castlevania Resurrection.
Castlevania Resurrection was canceled in the year 2000, but footage of the game was shown at E3 1999 and it appeared to be in a playable state. Footage of the E3 trailer exists online, but fans may soon have a chance to experience the game. According to the French Sega Dreamcast Info Preservation Games website, a copy of Castlevania Resurrection has been found. Footage of the game in action has been uploaded to the ‘cvr exists’ YouTube channel and can be seen below.
The copy of the Castlevania Resurrection seems to have been intended for use at trade shows. It contains five different stages and a boss fight, which need to manually loaded from a menu, as they don’t connect to each other. Sonia appears to be the only playable character in the demo, but that’s just running it as intended. If the game leaks online, then dataminers might be able to uncover a way to play as Victor. As of the time of writing, the Castlevania Resurrection file has yet to be uploaded to the Internet and it’s unclear if the owner intends for it to be preserved online.
Castlevania Resurrection was one of many casualties of the Sega Dreamcast’s cancelation, but issues with Konami also resulted in the death of the game, as it could easily have been ported to the PS2/GameCube/Xbox. The past year has seen a lot of old games making their way online, from the Nintendo Gigaleak to the recent deluge of PS2 prototypes. Castlevania Resurrection was a lost gem for a long time, but fans might soon have a glimpse into the lost adventures of the original Belmont.
Sources: cvr exists – YouTube, Sega Dreamcast Info Preservation Games
