According to Dreamcast preservationists, the building comes from before E3 1999 and features five 3D environments and a boss fight. You can read more about the game on Unseen64, which explains how it was canceled due to “disagreements between Japanese and American Konami teams”. It would have been set in 1666 and would present Sonia Belmont (from Castlevania Legends) meeting the new character Victor Belmont (who would later appear in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2).
The anonymous owner initializes the game from a disc marked “Sega confidential”, dated 1999, and reads ‘Castlevania Resurrection’ in handwritten text. The owner then displays a number of levels from a “section selection” developer menu, including Logo, Title, Patio, Stairs, Hall, Corridor and Chapel.
The movement seems intact as ghostly figures follow Sonia around a lava pit and a frightening chapel. If legitimate, it is a fascinating glimpse of a promising-looking game that has never been made, a story very common in the gaming industry. IGN even wrote about the game before it was canceled, playing an initial version and evaluating the first images.
“Unlike the somewhat bland interface of the N64 version,” wrote IGN, “this game seems to have what it takes to bring back the visual talent that once reigned supreme in the series, with a variety of scary and temperamental villains, atmosphere with a light source that is scary and breathtaking. “
While Victor Belmont finally made his debut in 2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, it also marked the last time we saw a new installment in the series. Since then, Konami has been reluctant to develop new console games for its classic franchises – but it hasn’t closed its gaming division, despite some rumors.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.