I asked the same thing about Dragon Quest not too long ago and was surprised to see so many people being so receptive to the idea of more Dragon Quest games coming to Xbox! So let’s pivot and ask a similar question about another one of gaming’s longest running series: Castlevania.
This Konami franchise, which is a very loose and very anime reimagining of the classic story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, began all the way back in 1986. Coincidentally the same year as Dragon Quest and Zelda in fact lol. These early games were usually 2D action adventures where you play as an intrepid vampire hunter fighting your way through hordes of public domain horror figures in order to reach Count Dracula himself. They were brutal for their time, but had some of the best soundtracks on their respective platforms.
The franchise got a second wind in the late 90s when they adopted a more open and freeform style with 1997’s Castlevania Symphony of the Night. In this game you play as the son of Dracula himself, cleverly named Alucard, as you explore the massive labyrinths of Dracula’s castle and acquire new weapons and gear along the way. And thus an entirely new genre of video games was born: the Metroidvania. After Symphony’s release, the next 6 mainline 2D entries would continue this format all the way through 2008 on the GBA and Nintendo DS… however sales would drop off hard despite critical acclaim.
In an attempt to reboot the entire franchise, Konami got a western developer to reimagine the series as a God of War-style action title with 2010’s Castlevania Lords of Shadow. And it was a commercial success, enough to where Konami contracted that studio to make two more sequels. However said sequels did not reach the same levels of success as the first one, and Konami was already pivoting away from home consoles and towards mobile games and gambling machines by the mid-2010s.
And so Castlevania died a slow painful death, but it lives on in other ways. The Netflix animated show was a runaway success and is still getting new stuff to this day. Castlevania crossed over with Smash Bros and Dead Cells, which were both well received. Last but certainly not least, a crowdfunded spiritual successor called Bloodstained was released in 2019 to rave reviews and over 2 million copies sold, showing folks there is still very much an audience for Castlevania in the modern day. And as for Xbox Series consoles, you can buy a decent chunk of what I’ve mentioned above right now on the Xbox store!