Belmont’s Curse is not for the easily overwhelmed. At any given time, the game requires me to track rooms full of arrows, laser beams, axes, icicles, boulders, and birds, any one of which could be hurtling toward my person and often all of them are at once. Thankfully, protagonist Rose Belmont has been gifted with an arsenal of tools to assist her deadly travels in Casa de Dracula, but again: overwhelmed. After a certain point, there are too many tools to keep track of and I just fall back on the ones that have worked the best for me. But one thing I’ve appreciated about my time with Belmont’s Curse is how it’s forced me out of that comfort zone.

I typically favor a ranged playstyle, preferring the spear and whip weapons because with them I can keep a healthy distance and still dish out pain. Movement tools like the air dash, thorn whip, and slide help on the defense side and I’ve come to rely on them almost exclusively.…