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Last week, the curtain fell on Konami's mobile actioner Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls. The developer dropped the scythe on Dracula and Co.'s pocket-sized adventure on September 3, following six years of operation. Fortunately, at least for the history books, the abandoned title will live on in offline form, courtesy of an archival project from modder "WonderThunder".
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls was released in September 2019 on iOS and Android platforms, exclusively in Canadian territories. Initially, the title was designed as a Gacha game, including microtransactions, random pulls, and a persistent push to convert real-world coin into invisible magic money. After shutting down after only a year of service, Grimoire of Souls returned in the summer of 2021, making its global debut on mobile platforms and the then-burgeoning Apple Arcade. This latter edition stripped back the Gacha elements, along with any real-world currency conversion.
Grimoire of Souls brings the history of Castlevania (quite literally) to life, as the library recording all of the universe's events is overcome by dark powers. Lucy Westenra calls on Genya Arikado to enter the books and exorcise the demons within. Thus Arikado (in his "Alucard" form) visits the events of Castlevania's past and future, tackling legendary monsters and villains from the series while seeking allegiance from heroes such as Simon & Trevor Belmont, Soma Cruz, Maria Renard, and the Glyph Master herself, Shanoa. These and other monster hunters look to prevent their mysterious enemy from attaining the final goal: The resurrection of Dracula himself.
WonderThunder has archived the entirety of Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls in an offline capacity, uploading their work to The Internet Archive. Currently, the game can only be played on macOS, but WonderThunder suggests that Windows, iOS, and perhaps Android versions will be available in the future, preserving one of the smaller pieces of the Castlevania continuity for future generations. Stellar work.
In an age of live-service titles and online-only software, game preservation is perhaps more important than ever. It's not a matter of whether a title was popular, unique, or even good; it's a matter of custody - a preserved history of a medium and all of the work and passion poured into it, even if to little avail.
As the industry distances itself further and further from physical releases, efforts such as these become not only significant, but necessary.