Press release

Motion Twin & Evil Empire Pay Tribute to KONAMI’s Historic Franchise in New Dead Cells x Castlevania Crossover DLC, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, Coming Early 2023

Castlevania is back, baby! The inspiration that started it all comes to Dead Cells in the game's most ambitious expansion to date

Bordeaux, France (Dec. 8, 2022) – Just revealed on The Game Awards, fans are invited to embark on an incredible and unprecedented collaborative crossover adventure between Dead Cells and Castlevania in an epic brand-new mashup DLC for the genre-defining roguelike. Honoring the franchise that inspired the very beginnings of Dead Cells, players will be able to explore Dracula’s castle (and more) along with all of its delightful evil within. Joined by Castlevania’s Richter Belmont and Alucard and chock full of incredible and surprising new crossover content, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is the biggest DLC for Dead Cells to date, launching early next year on PC and Consoles.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Eu3zfCDbRoU

This unparalleled collaboration sees Motion Twin and Evil Empire going back to their roots, paying tribute to the franchise that inspired the very beginnings of Dead Cells.

Ben Laulan, co-founder of Evil Empire and COO said, “Like so many millions of players around the world, we are huge fans of Castlevania and remember vividly what playing it for the first time felt like. It opened up a world of possibilities and potential for so many games to come, including Dead Cells. The original inspiration - the roots of Dead Cells - was born from a shared passion for the Castlevania franchise. We are so excited to bring this DLC to fans of Dead Cells and Castlevania early next year. It means so much to us to be bringing this to fans of both franchises.” 

The coming DLC unfolds a new storyline in which The Beheaded is approached by Richter Belmont following the appearance of a strange, malevolent castle. Drawn by the promise of new loot more so than an ethical sense of duty, players will need to harness their utmost undead fighting skills to defeat the evil within. Packed with new loot, creative-but-deadly new weapons, loads of enemies begging for a stake through the heart and more, this is the largest and most ambitious DLC for Dead Cells yet. 

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania introduces a jaw-dropping 14 iconic weapons and items from one of gaming’s most venerable franchises to assist you in your undead-slaying needs in Dead Cells, including Castlevania favorites the Vampire Killer, the Cross and, of course, the Holy Water. Tweaked from original renditions in the Castlevania franchise, the Dead Cells versions of these weapons will reflect the fast-paced, frantic style of combat that players have come to love, hate and love to hate.

The real piece de resistance in the upcoming Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania are two entirely new biomes, one of them being the iconic Dracula’s Castle. Packed with deadly werewolves, haunted armors and food stuffed into the walls, players will attempt to defeat terrifying and dangerous creatures that comprise Dracula’s army and bop along to an alternative soundtrack of 51 original Castlevania tunes, as well as 12 truly iconic tracks that have been reimagined in the style of Dead Cells. 

But uncovering the secrets of Dracula’s castle and yet-to-be-revealed biomes won’t be a walk in the park. Three epic boss fights await in the haunted corridors of the estate, including battles with Death and Dracula himself. If these battles can be survived, you’ll need to prepare yourself for Dead Cells’ most epic and ambitious boss battle yet. 

With skill, luck, hard work and a determination for extinguishing the undead, you may just be able to survive the night. Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania launches early next year and stay tuned for more reveals in early 2023 for this incredible crossover. 

For the latest on Dead Cells, be sure to follow @motiontwin on Twitter. 

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About Motion Twin

Motion Twin is an independent game development studio based in France since 2001 and are the creators of the hit roguelike action game Dead Cells, available for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch platforms. Motion Twin is a worker cooperative passionate about creating new game experiences. Learn more at https://motion-twin.com/en/

About Evil Empire

Evil Empire is the evil spawn of a bunch of ex-Motion Twiners. Formed in 2018 in close proximity and partnership with Motion Twin, Evil Empire is focused on producing new original content, both for Dead Cells and new IP.