It’s been a while since the last good Castlevania game that was actually a Castlevania game. Koji Igarashi’s 2019 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night scratched the vania itch well enough, but you’d have to go back to 2010’s Lords of Shadow to argue for a good and proper entry in the iconic series.
And as for 2013’s Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, well, there hasn’t been much news at all about the MGS spinoff since its console port was released for PC in 2014.
While Konami may not have new games or remasters or remakes in the works for either Castlevania or Metal Gear Rising, the developer did register trademarks for the series and game on April 6 in Japan, according to Gematsu.
The report points out that the trademark for Castlevania is actually for Akumajo Dracula, which is not only “the Japanese for the Castlevania series” but also the title of a port of the original Castlevania, which is known as Castlevania Chronicles in the West.
Of course, trademark filings don’t necessarily mean anything at all when it comes to the resurrection or redeployment of any franchise or title. Konami could simply be securing future rights to both of these in case they decide to revisit them.
And even so, there’s currently no idea what those would look like at all (though I’ll take any chance to evangelize the desperate need of a decent re-release of Super Castlevania IV that’s not part of an Anniversary Collection). It’s likely some Metal Gear fans wouldn’t mind seeing a Revengeance resurgence, considering the game currently sits around 8 user score on Metacritic and a “very positive” on Steam.
Regardless of what Konami decides to do with Castlevania as a whole and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, if anything, fans will just have to wait and see.
