A playable version of the canceled Castlevania: Resurrection because the Dreamcast came out. Preservationists saw a video of the prototype in action and shared it on YouTube over the weekend.
The prototype is a construction prior to the 1999 E3, where Castlevania: Resurrection had a demonstration behind closed doors. It is a 3D platform game, with a very linear approach to its levels. The video shows the unidentified construction locator leading Sonia Belmont through two of the five stages, which are started from a developer’s menu.
Castlevania: Resurrection would have introduced a then new protagonist, Victor Belmont, in the world of Sonia Belmont, who debuted in 1998 Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy. (Victor Belmont, although in a different way, would be presented in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.)
In a 2007 interview, Castlevania: Resurrection art director Greg Orduyan said the game was sabotaged internally by “some Konami people who had their own plans”. Castlevania: Resurrection it would have been the first Castlevania game developed by Konami of America (whose name appears on the developer’s disc in the video). Orduyan said the 1999 E3 demo ended the derogatory rumors about the game, but the launch of the PlayStation 2 in 2000 destroyed Konami’s plans for Dreamcast games, Castlevania: Resurrection included.
The last original game on the Castlevania line was Lords of the Shadow 2, which was launched in 2014 for PlayStation 3, Windows PC and Xbox 360. One year later, Konami began an almost wholesale retreat from current console game development, starting with the cancellation of Silent hills and the departure of longtime designer Hideo Kojima in late 2015.