Castlevania fans have been waiting for a new main entry to the series since Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 released in 2014, and that title isn't even considered official canon. Castlevania is one of the oldest and most iconic video game franchises but has been left oddly dormant in recent years.
Castlevania has a storied history full of highs and lows, and it has a dedicated fanbase surrounding it. When the series began in 1986 it helped pioneer the Metroidvania genre and spawned many sequels and spin-offs, including an announced sequel titled Castlevania: Resurrection that never saw the light of day, until now.
The closest Castlevania: Resurrection came to release was a closed-doors demonstration at E3 1999. Now, a playable version of the Dreamcast game pre-dating that demo has surfaced. A YouTube video uploaded by cvr exists shows the developer disc as well as a few small snippets of gameplay, all running on a Dreamcast. Little is shown of how the game would have played, but it does showcase some 3D environments, a few enemies, fireball traps, and a menu used to jump between the different levels. The level list includes Courtyard, Stairs, Hall, Corridor, and Chapel.
Little else is known about Castlevania: Resurrection other than that it would have introduced the protagonist Victor Belmont, who didn't show up into the series until Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Castlevania: Resurrection would have been the first in the series developed by Konami of America, but the game's art director, Greg Orduyan, stated in an interview in 2007 that the title was sabotaged by "some people within Konami who had their own agenda." He also says that the E3 demo had garnered some positive buzz around the game, but that the launch of the PlayStation 2 killed Konami's interest in Dreamcast games, which unfortunately included Castlevania: Resurrection.
Hopefully, more footage and comes out about Castlevania: Resurrection in the near future, especially with how starved for new additions to the series Castlevania fans are. The clips in the video are short, but they do look to be playable, even if the levels are pretty small and underdeveloped. Ideally, Konami will either start to show more interest in the license or will give Castlevania to other developers to bring some new breath to the popular series. Either way, it is always cool to get a look at early builds of released or unreleased games, and this brief look at Castlevania: Resurrection is no different.