liquidcross.com - The History of Castlevania

(08-16-2004, latest revision 06-04-2009)

You know, with the recent resurgence of classic horror films, zombie flicks, and the like, one thing has always made me laugh: no one's using a whip. If I've learned anything from video games, I've learned that the most effective way to make the undead burst into flames is with a magical whip. I have Konami's almighty Castlevania series to thank for that.

Castlevania as a whole has been around for almost twenty years now, and even though the piles of titles have plenty of variety, they revolve around a central theme: hero needs to destroy vampire (usually Dracula) to prevent the downfall of mankind. To prevent this concept from contradicting itself, Dracula himself resurrects every hundred years or so. Evil never truly dies, after all. A few games have featured antagonists other than Dracula, but he's generally the main bad guy in one form or another. But to get to him, you've got to get past his minions: classic monsters such as the Wolf Man, mummies, Frankenstein's monster, Medusa, skeletons, Death, your mom, and more.

The Castlevania timeline is indeed a confusing one. Chronologically, the games are all over the place, spanning over a thousand years of continuity. There's very few titles that are direct sequels, and even though Konami's rewritten the starting point of the vampire-hunting Belmont family at least twice, gamers can often jump right into a Castlevania title without too much trouble. Plus, some games are retellings of the same story. For example, Super Castlevania IV and the Haunted Castle arcade game are both the same tale as the first Castlevania, and both Dracula X titles are considered to be the same. Trust me, it all fits into continuity better this way. Confused? Don't worry, I'll clear things up as we go. At any rate, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter from a legendary family of hunters, set out to destroy the all-powerful Count Dracula in the series' first installment, obviously titled Castlevania. (The title comes from the name of Dracula's castle.) This was released on the NES and Famicom in 1987, and a version for the MSX computer platform was also released (called Vampire Killer; it was strictly a Japanese and European release, and had some differences from its console counterpart). Gamers were introduced to a new kind of pain, as the game was quite difficult, and the term “Castlevania Frustration Syndrome” was soon coined. No passwords, no save system, nothing. Get through it in one sitting, or don't get through it at all!

The game sold quite well, and a sequel soon followed, again on the NES…Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. This was a bit of a departure from its predecessor, as it featured a nonlinear quest, some RPG-esque elements, and a cool day/night system. Arcades got Haunted Castle, which was a strange remake of the original Castlevania game, albeit with plenty of changes, and some serious balance issues.

Simon's great-grandfather Christopher showed up on the Game Boy in Castlevania Adventure and Castlevania Adventure II: Belmont's Revenge, while further back along the Belmont line, we've got Christopher's great-grandfather Trevor. He took care of business in the amazing NES title Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, along with three other playable characters. The branching paths and different abilities utilized by each character made the third Castlevania installment a true work of genius.

Moving up to the Super Nintendo, we got Super Castlevania IV, a retelling of the classic Simon Belmont tale. Next up was the fantastic PC Engine Duo game Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood starring Richter Belmont, which we unfortunately didn't get in the US (note: the PC Engine Duo is the Japanese name for the Turbo Duo). What we did get was an SNES port known as Castlevania: Dracula X, featuring different levels and bosses. Sadly, it's far inferior to the Duo version, which is hailed as the greatest “traditional” Castlevania game, as later titles featured gameplay that was closer to that of the Metroid series. Until recently, his game could only be found in Japan. US gamers finally got a proper translation of Rondo of Blood as part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP in 2007. This game contains the original Rondo of Blood, a 3D remake of that title, and as an added bonus, a retranslated and touched-up port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! (Don't worry, we'll get to that game soon enough.)

Remember that MSX computer I talked about? Another popular computer system in Japan was the Sharp X68000. And as you may have guessed, that system got a Castlevania title too…Akumajo Dracula, yet another remake of the original game. This game was noted for being rather unbalanced, but still had its golden moments.

Sega fans weren't left wanting; Castlevania: Bloodlines was a Genesis exclusive. If you're a fan of the Dracula novel, the you'll love this, because it spins directly out of events therein. This game dealt with the evil Countess Bathory trying to resurrect Dracula in the early 20th century. John Morris (the son of Quincy Morris, the valiant American who perished in the novel) and a friend of his from Spain, Eric LeCarde, have to stop her. How does this tie in with the Belmonts? It seems the two families are close friends, and the Belmonts had given their whip to the Morrises for reasons as yet unrevealed (we'll get to that a bit later). Convenient, isn't it? Anyway, Bathory did succeed in resurrecting Dracula, but our heroes managed to destroy him once more and save the world. (Just in case you missed this game the first time around, you're in luck; it's being remade for the PSP in the fall of 2009!)

Immediately following the events in Dracula X came the series' foray onto the PlayStation and Saturn: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The star of the game wasn't even a Belmont; in fact, he's none other than Dracula's own son, Alucard! He first appeared in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, but Symphony made him just as popular as the Belmonts. Like I mentioned earlier, the gameplay here was much more like Metroid, with backtracking and multiple weapons. Alucard preferred a blade, rather than a whip, but he also had access to magic scepters, shields, and plenty more. (It should be mentioned that the Saturn version was Japanese-only, and also featured Richter Belmont and Maria, his sister-in-law, as playable characters from the start. The PSP port of SotN [as part of Dracula X Chronicles] has Maria as a playable character, complete with all-new attacks and abilities!) Symphony of the Night was later ported to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, bringing in legions of new fans.

After busting his ass fighting his old man, Alucard decided to seal himself away to keep his vampire blood from tainting mankind. He also realized that spelling his father's name backwards was a pretty cheesy nickname. Anyway, his given name – Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes – was too damn long, so he dyed his hair black and went with “Genya Arikado” for his most recent appearance in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Turning Japanese!

But I digress. Shortly after Symphony of the Night's release came Castlevania Legends on the Game Boy, the first game with a female vampire hunter. The lovely Sonia Belmont was said to be the first Belmont to go after Dracula, and kick some ass she did. She was even Alucard's lover for some time! (All was not well for Sonia, however. Wait'll we get to the Lament of Innocence section a little later, and you'll understand why.) The Nintendo 64 got two entries into the series, Castlevania (not a remake) and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness…and both are absolutely horrible. Avoid them at all costs, unless you actually like crappy graphics, subpar gameplay, and a lame story. I won't soil this article any further with details. Shortly after their release, PlayStation gamers in the US got Castlevania Chronicles, a port of that X68000 Akumajo Dracula game with some extra goodies.

Next up are some of the best entries in the series: the trio of Game Boy Advance Castlevania games. Circle of the Moon was a launch title, and starred a vampire hunter in training named Nathan Graves. His primary abilities were enhanced by the new DSS spell system; you'd collect cards and merge them for varying attacks and defenses. Harmony of Dissonance followed a year later, and featured Juste Belmont. He was more of a mage, and had all manner of spells he could use alongside the classic Castlevania weapons. A year after that, we got Aria of Sorrow, which took place in the year 2035. This one's primary character was Soma Cruz, a high school student. Don't worry, the game didn't have robots or zombies with laser cannons; all the classic Castlevania baddies were running around the castle. See, in 1999, Dracula was thought to have been destroyed for good by Julius Belmont and other vampire hunters, so the reappearance of his castle was a dark omen indeed. Aria was a true heir to Symphony of the Night-style gameplay, complete with insane amounts of weapons and items that you could find and/or purchase. The twist at the end was quite shocking; Soma himself was meant to be Dracula reborn! He didn't want this, though, and fought the interdimensional evil Chaos to forge his own destiny. Soma and friends returned with Dawn of Sorrow on the Nintendo DS, picking up the story a year after Aria. Here, a group of religious fanatics want to resurrect Dracula somehow, and if Soma won't cooperate...well, they'll just kill him and find someone else to use as a vessel! Dawn took the high standards of Aria and raised them even further; the music and gameplay were up there with Symphony, and some plot twists and other cameos made it a truly gripping story. Soma eventually had to face the vicious Dmitrii Blinov, who sought to become the new Lord of Darkness. Dmitrii became the monster known as Menace, but Soma was able to destroy him as well as face his own demons.

Back on the home console front, we have Lament of Innocence on the PlayStation 2, which told the story of the first Belmont to ever rise up against evil. But what about Sonia Belmont? Well, you can blame Koji Igarashi for that one; he was brought on board as the Castlevania series head a few years back, and he and Konami have officially stricken four Castlevania games from continuity: Castlevania Legends, Castlevania (N64), Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Sorry, folks...according to the official timeline, Sonia never even existed, nor did anything else that happened in those games! Many fans are upset about this, and it's understandable; the N64 titles are one thing, but why strike two other great games from the record? In Lament, we've got a former Crusader by the name of Leon Belmont, whose woman gets stolen away by a nasty vampire named Walter. Damn vampires, always stealing our women. C'mon, guys, you've got at least one succubus per castle! What the hell do you need real women for?! Are succubi lousy cooks or something? Sheesh. At any rate, Leon is understandably pissed, and thanks to a local alchemist, he nabs a magical whip and sets off to get his woman back. Along the way, Leon would be betrayed by his best friend Mathias, as well as create the Vampire Killer whip, (using the soul of his lover Sara). Finally, we discover that Mathias eventually became the being known as Dracula!

PS2 owners got another game in the form of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (also released on the Xbox); this game is a sequel to Castlevania III, taking place three years after Trevor Belmont and friends brought Dracula down. Curse stars Hector, a former servant of Dracula who specializes in monster summoning. He left Dracula's service before the events of Castlevania III so he could live a normal life, but after the vampire's defeat, he finds that his past may be coming back to haunt him. Characters from Castlevania III do show up in Curse, including Trevor Belmont himself. The problem here was Hector's former associate Isaac; he murdered Hector's lover Rosaly, all in order to trick Hector into regaining his power so that Dracula could be resurrected. Isaac served as Dracula's vessel, but Hector's power proved too great for the vampire lord, and he was sealed away once more.

A second Castlevania title for the DS (Portrait of Ruin) was released, and this game was a sequel to Castlevania Bloodlines. It starred Jonathan Morris (son of John Morris, from Bloodlines) and Charlotte Aulin, a witch who is a descendant of the Belnades clan. Together, the pair fights vampires during the height of World War II! There's lots of character switching involved in the game, and it's a direct homage to the mutliple character gameplay in Castlevania III. A vampire named Brauner raised Dracula's castle to gain more power for himself; he didn't count on Death coming along to resurrect his former master! Jonathan was armed with the Vampire Killer, but couldn't unlock its full potential just yet; it can drain the user's lifeforce if not used properly. To become worthy to use the whip's power, Jonathan had to fight the memory of the last Belmont to wield the whip: Richter! We find out here that for some reason, the Belmonts can't touch the Vampire Killer until Dracula's next "proper" resurrection, which will take place in 1999. Looks like they're planning to wipe him out once and for all, and the events of Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow prove they succeeded! Jonathan and Charlotte were able to stop Dracula's early resurrection, but there's much work to be done before the final battle in fifty-five years.

In the fall of 2008, we got a third DS title: Order of Ecclesia. That game featured a female protagonist named Shanoa, who works for the eponymous Order. In the 19th century, when the Belmonts are strangely missing, a group of humans formed Ecclesia to fight the monster threat. Shanoa and her comrade Albus had been training their entire lives to use Glyphs, magical symbols which allow the user to create mystical weapons out of thin air. Ecclesia's leader, Barlowe, entrusted Shanoa to use the most powerful Glyph, Dominus, in order to end the threat of Dracula's resurrection forever, but Albus got jealous, brutally attacked Shanoa, and stole it. The trauma caused Shanoa to lose many of her memories, and she set off on her quest to track Albus down and reclaim Dominus. She was eventually able to defeat him and reclaim it, but at a terrible price: she discovered that Albus was actually her brother, and he only stole Dominus in order to protect her! You see, Dominus was actually created from the magical power of Dracula's remains, and if a human tries to use it to destroy them, the backlash is fatal. Worse yet, the creation of Ecclesia and Dominus was all a sham by Barlowe; he actually wanted Dracula to come back, and he revealed that the reason the lord of vampires constantly returned was because of the darkness in humans' hearts. Human beings are inherently evil, and Dracula fed on that power in order to come back time and time again. Well, Shanoa couldn't let that happen, and killed Barlowe. Unfortunately, with his dying breath, Barlowe was able to break open the cask containing Dracula's remains, and with a burst of magical energy, the vampire lord's dreaded castle appeared. Shanoa took off to destroy the vampire threat, fighting some extremely tough foes along the way. She eventually faced off against the vampire lord himself, and using the full power of Dominus, managed to defeat him at the cost of her own life...or so she thought. While it's true that Dominus requires the sacrifice of a life in order to work properly, it's really a soul that's needed. The soul of Albus was still with Shanoa, as it was attached to Dominus, and he let himself be sacrificed in her place. As Shanoa brushed away her tears and escaped the crumbling remains of Dracula's castle, all of her memories came flooding back, and revealed how Albus had really been watching out for her over her entire life. With Dracula vaquished once again, Shanoa and Ecclesia faded into history.

The last few Castlevania games are non-canon. There was even an all-new game for mobile phones: Castlevania: Order of Shadows, and the Wii finally got its own Castlevania title...but it was a fighting game. Castlevania Judgment features characters from across the series, duking it out in arenas filled with traps and monsters. Personally, I think this is a questionable addition to the franchise, but it's not up to me which titles get created!

A mere footnote in Castlevania history is the game that never was: Castlevania Resurrection. This was planned as a launch title for the Sega Dreamcast, and early screenshots of the game had fans drooling. Unfortunately, it was delayed, and ultimately canned in the beginning of 2000. The game was set to take place in 1666, with Sonia Belmont and Victor Belmont (a new character from the 1800s) as the protagonists. Some handy-dandy time travel explains why they're not in their proper eras, and they were summoned to do battle with yet another female vampire. It's shame we never got the game, but one can always dream of what could have been.

The adventures of the Belmont clan and friends are not limited to just Castlevania titles; many of the characters have made cameos in other games. For example, Simon Belmont's a playable character in Konami Wai Wai World, Wai Wai World 2: SOS! Parsley Castle, and DreamMix TV World Fighters (all Japan-exclusive games, of course), plus he makes a cameo in a bar in the Sega CD classic Snatcher. You can relive Alucard's childhood by playing the Kid Dracula games (though we only got the Game Boy version stateside; the Japanese also got one for the Famicom), and Dracula himself zips around on a go-kart in Konami Krazy Racers! That Castlevania crew is busy, indeed.

So what's next for our vampire hunters and the beasts they face? Well, take of all that rich history, spanning hundreds of years...and throw it out the window. Like many other popular franchises these days, Castlevania is undergoing a reboot. The new era begins with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, due out in 2010 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. While it's starting the series over from scratch, this game thus far looks to be a clone of the popular God of War series. Given the game's importance, however, I don't think we'll end up with a lemon; it's being developed by MercurySteam, but overseen by the legendary Kojima Productions! Regardless, the Castlevania series shows no signs of slowing down, so horror fans' appetites will be satisfied for the foreseeable future.

Games (release order)

Castlevania (NES) – 1987
Vampire Killer (MSX) – 1987
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) – 1988
Haunted Castle (ARC) – 1988
Castlevania Adventure (GB) – 1989
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES) – 1990
Super Castlevania IV (SNES) – 1991
Castlevania Adventure II: Belmont's Revenge (GB) – 1991
Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood (DUO) – 1993
Akumajo Dracula (X68000) – 1993
Castlevania: Bloodlines (GEN) – 1994
Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES) – 1995
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) – 1997
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SAT) – 1998
Castlevania Legends (GB) – 1998
Castlevania (N64) – 1999
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64) – 1999
Castlevania (GBA) - 2000
Castlevania Chronicles (PS1) – 2001
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA) – 2001
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) – 2002
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) – 2003
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) – 2003
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) – 2005
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox) – 2005
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) - 2006
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (XBL, PSN) – 2007
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) - 2007
Castlevania: Order of Shadows (MBL) - 2007
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (MBL) – 2008?
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) - 2008
Castlevania Judgment (Wii) - 2009
Castlevania: Bloodlines (PSP) - 2009
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3/360) - 2010

Games (chronological order, original series)

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) – 1094
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES) – 1476
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox) – 1479
Castlevania Adventure (GB) – 1576
Castlevania Adventure II: Belmont's Revenge (GB) – 1591
Castlevania (NES, GBA), Haunted Castle (ARC), Super Castlevania IV (SNES), Akumajo Dracula (X68000), Castlevania Chronicles (PS1) – 1691
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) – 1698
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) – 1748
Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood (DUO, PSP), Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES) – 1788
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1, PSP, XBL, PSN) – 1797
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) - mid-1800s
Castlevania Bloodlines (GEN, PSP) – 1917
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) - 1944
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) – 2035
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) – 2036

Games (chronological order, reboot)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3/360) - ??

Games (chronological order, non-canon)

Castlevania Legends (GB) – 1450
Castlevania: Order of Shadows (MBL) - late 1600s
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA) – 1830
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64) – 1844, 1852
Castlevania (N64) – 1852
Castlevania Judgment (Wii) - n/a

Cameos

Konami Wai Wai World (FAM) – Simon Belmont
Wai Wai World 2: SOS! Parsley Castle (FAM) – Simon Belmont
Kid Dracula (FAM, GB) – Alucard
Snatcher (SCD) – Simon Belmont
Konami Krazy Racers (GBA) – Dracula
Dream Mix TV World Fighters (PS2, GC) – Simon Belmont

Unfinished Business

Castlevania Resurrection (DC) – Cancelled

(Thanks to The Castlevania Dungeon for additional information used in the writing of this article!)