I have to emphasize the games part, as I only played one game from the Konami booth, and I only had a glimpse of the rest of the games through trailers that were presented.
Here’s another (late) Tokyo Game Show 2026 coverage, and we are going for Konami on this feature. The best thing about the Konami booth at this year’s Tokyo Game Show is the Castlevania booth at the corner, which will be the first thing you will notice when you are in the area. From the previous Tokyo Game Shows that I’ve attended, it’s always been themed after Metal Gear Solid, so seeing Castlevania as its main attraction sure is refreshing to see. Of course, it’s not just Castlevania that is their main focus; this also marks the 40th anniversary of the Konami code. If you can’t remember what the Konami code is, it’s up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. I’ll probably do a separate thing about the Konami code, maybe as a video or write-up. Now let’s head to the only game that I played at the Konami booth.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
Right after the first day of the Tokyo Game Show opened, this was the first game that I stormed into just to get my hands on the playable demo, and despite having a generous amount of time given to me for the demo (at roughly 20 minutes for the run), I managed to hit the second checkpoint just before the time expired, which I finally confirmed was indeed the end of the demo after I tried it again when it became available to the public just now.
Playing the demo puts you at the start of the game in Paris as Trevor Belmont and his daughter, Rose Belmont, investigate the city. You have two different attacks that you can perform and later on swap with other abilities and gear, but at the start you have your trusty sword that has some decent range, as you can perform attacks upward or even downward diagonal slashes when jumping. You also have access to Arcana magic, with the fireball attack at the start of the demo that can deal damage from afar, but at the cost of consuming magic, which can be replenished by defeating monsters or consuming potions dropped from monsters or at destructible candle lamps around the area- yes, a very classic Castlevania. You have a dodge command that you can use to backdash when standing and do a backflip after pressing the dodge button a second time; alternatively, you can slide forward to sneak behind enemies or avoid their frontal attacks by pressing the button while crouching or moving. Restoring health can be done by consuming turkey or pot roast that you may find hiding behind a fake wall, by heading to an altar that also acts as your savepoint, or by using a health potion that you always carry, but you can hold up to three potions and get two additional potions from monsters or destructible objects; however, the additional potions are only temporary and will disappear if you die.
When it comes to difficulty, especially for the bosses, it feels more like the classic Castlevania games where you need to familiarize yourself with how enemies attack and learn the patterns. It took me some several attempts before I managed to defeat the Fallen, which is the only boss available in the demo. The Fallen has this three-hit attack that you can slide behind him, but his third attack will always turn towards you, so you need to slide back again to avoid it. His swinging attack can be countered with a fireball attack while jumping that will leave him staggered for a short time to give you free strikes on him. So it takes some time to familiarize yourself, and the bosses will become a breeze to defeat, as my final attempt against the Fallen was a lot easier now, and I never had to use my potion. Defeating the boss unlocks the arcane whip, which you may assume that it’s your real main weapon, but rather another side weapon that also acts as a way to traverse to other areas that were inaccessible before. But the cool feature is you can use it as a gap-closer towards an enemy and do a follow-up attack that can deal massive damage.
Here are some interesting features in Belmont’s Curse that might feel like a big change if you are used to modern side-scrolling Castlevania games: monsters don’t respawn after you leave the area, and they only respawn when you save at an altar. You can still level Rose by killing monsters and breaking orb-like altars that give you exp orbs; though it increases your attack and defense by one point per level, it’s unsure if how heavily it affects a playthrough. Arcana abilities have side objectives that can unlock new perks to enhance your spells; for example, hitting 20 enemies with the fireball increases its size and damage. There are different sets of weapons that you can use and you could find a second weapon hidden somewhere in the demo that you can access when you acquire the whip, and each weapon has unique styles that may be useful for certain enemies or a different combat experience. And the last thing I’ve noticed, which I discovered from the public demo, is that you can tweak the game difficulty to your preference
The rest of the Konami games
There are several playable demos at Konami, but unfortunately most of them require more reading that would eat up a lot of time and are in Japanese. KONAMI Wai Wai World Craft is a user-generated level maker game similar to Mario Maker that lets you create your own levels either in a side-scroller or 3D roaming style of game, and it features characters from different Konami titles, so I would probably try this when it becomes available. Yu-Gi-Oh! TAG FORCE GX, on the other hand, is more of a remake of an old GX Tag game, so I might skip this since I’m not into Yu-Gi-Oh!. Silent Hill: Townfall only has a trailer presentation available that showcases its gameplay, and those who watch the whole trailer were given a novelty item. The same goes with Rev. NOiR and Rhapsody in Scarlet, since both were recently revealed, so they only have the same game trailers that you saw before.
They have partnered game developers that you can find at the back of the Konami booth, and there were like dozens that you can try out, ranging from remakes of classic games to anticipated JRPGs and more. Sadly, I never got the chance to try at least one title from the partnered studios; I remember some promising ones from previous TGS events like The Eternal Life of Goldman, Titan Quest 2 and UFO Robot Grendizer. I guess I should put it on my must-play list for next year.
The game that I will be looking forward to is, of course, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. After trying the demo at Tokyo Game Show and playing it again with the public demo on the PlayStation 5, there is no doubt that Evil Empire, the dev team behind Dead Cells’ fame, knows the formula of Metroidvania that makes it work well, and with the blend of roguelite elements for a challenging yet rewarding gameplay loop, it made games like The Rogue Prince of Persia stand out and also what made Dead Cells great. So I have high hopes that they’ll make Belmont’s Curse a great Castlevania game for the new generation and, hopefully, a new direction for the franchise.
Maybe I should put more priority at Konami next year, but we shall see…