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- This article is for the entire Castlevania series. For the first game in the series, see Castlevania (video game).
Castlevania (キャッスルヴァニア) is a video game series, created and developed by Konami. The series debuted in Japan with the release of Demon Castle Dracula (悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Dracula) for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) and MSX 2 platforms in 1986. Even though the MSX 2 port (which was localized in Europe and Brazil under the title of Vampire Killer) was released first outside of Japan, the series did not receive wide attention outside of Japan until the FDS version was ported to cartridge format for the Nintendo Entertainment System and localized for North American and European release under the title of Castlevania in 1987. The series was landmark as it was among the earliest video games to feature a gothic horror storyline while at the same time abandoning the campy elements of similar games of the time, such as Ghosts 'n Goblins.
The Castlevania series is one of Konami's most famous franchises, and has seen titles released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, the PC Engine, the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox video game consoles. Several franchise titles have been released for handheld game consoles, including the Game Boy, the Game Boy Advance, and the Nintendo DS, and for various personal computer platforms, including the MSX 2, the Commodore 64, the Sharp X68000, the Commodore Amiga, MS-DOS, and Microsoft Windows. At the moment, the next Castlevania game to be released will be Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS.
Overview
The Castlevania series is about a war between the enchanted family bloodline of the Belmonts and Dracula. Almost every hundred years, Dracula is resurrected and it is up to the Belmonts to defeat him before he invokes his wrath on the entire world.
The most notable Belmont is perhaps Simon Belmont, star of the first several Castlevania games. However, the games feature many other characters, including Belmonts, relatives and other people that the player can control. Included among the usable characters is Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, also known as Alucard, the son of Dracula himself. Also, several female characters star in some of the later games. See Castlevania characters for more information about the characters of Castlevania.
The series is loosely based on the mythology of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. In fact, the novel is included in the official timeline of the series, with Bloodlines taking place shortly afterwards. The connection even goes as far as to claim that Quincy Morris, a character from the novel who lands the final blow against Dracula at the cost of his own life, is in fact a Belmont descendant. The series also incorporates a variety of other monsters from classic horror fiction, films, fantasy, and mythology. These monsters serve to obstruct the path to Dracula but are rarely tied to the game's plot.
For a complete timeline of the events of the Castlevania series, see Castlevania Timeline.
Regional variations and localization
In Japan, the series is most commonly known as Demon Castle Dracula (Akumajō Dorakyura). However, not every installment of the franchise has borne that title. For example, the first two installments for the Nintendo Game Boy were released under the title The Legend of Dracula (ドラキュラ伝説 Dorakyura Densetsu) and the game known in North America as Dracula's Curse was originally released in Japan as The Legend of the Demon Castle (悪魔城伝説 Akumajō Densetsu). Starting with the release of Harmony of Dissonance for the Game Boy Advance, the Japanese games adopted the "Castlevania" name for a brief period. According to series producer Koji Igarashi (or IGA, as he is commonly known), the developers chose to adopt the Castlevania moniker as a way to involve scenarios that do not solely revolve around Dracula himself. Later bowing to overwhelming fan demand, Konami returned to the "Demon Castle Dracula" branding for the Japanese release of Dawn of Sorrow (悪魔城ドラキュラ 蒼月の十字架 Akumajō Dorakyura Sōgetsu no Jūjika, lit. Demon Castle Dracula: Latin Cross of the Blue Moon).
The series is also known for the differences between the Japanese and English language versions. Particularly in earlier installments, the localization process usually removes a heavy share of violent and religious imagery and references.
In addition, the English localizations have frequently been plagued by a number of omissions, errors and deliberate alterations from their original Japanese counterparts. Notable examples include the mistranslated character names (Solieyu Belmont from Belmont's Revenge is a mistranslation of "Soleil," French for "sun," and the name of the protagonist of Dracula's Curse was changed from "Ralph C. Belmont" to "Trevor Belmont" for the English version).
Note: The name "Belmont" itself is Romanized as "Berumonto" in Romaji which means romanized Japanese form translated by Hebon, but Japanese language doesn't have a specific sound of "r" or "l" and a vowel must follow with "b,(c),d,f,g,h,j,k,(l),m,n,(q),r,s,t,(v),w,(x),y,and z." *Letters in () are not used in Romaji and aren't contained in Japanese.
Rarity
Several games in the series have been produced in very limited quantities, in North America and Europe at least, and have thus greatly fallen short of demand. Most recently, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow have been sold on eBay for two to three times their original selling price, prompting the release of an officially-released "double pack" of both games in early 2006. Rondo of Blood, considered by many Castlevania fans to be the "Holy Grail" of the series due to having been released solely on the Japanese PC Engine CD console, still easily sells for over a hundred dollars, as does the original Japanese version of the MSX installment, Vampire Killer. Other rare editions include the original Sharp X68000 (a Japanese home computer) remake of the first title in the series, which was later re-released on the original Playstation under the moniker Castlevania Chronicles. Castlevania Chronicles itself has also has been sold for well over it's retail price. Recently, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has been found to be in short supply.
Evolution of the games
The gameplay mechanics are fairly consistent among most of the earlier titles. These are typical platform games in which the player takes the role of a whip-wielding warrior from the Belmont family as he ventures inside Castlevania (Count Dracula's castle) and fights a variety of supernatural beasts on his way to defeat Dracula. The whip used by the Belmont clan is a relic named the Vampire Killer, which was blessed with the power to destroy vampires and other creatures of the night. The games also feature secondary weapons that are powered by hearts, all of which can be found by destroying candles. Common secondary weapons are the straight-flying dagger, the overhead-thrown axe, the ground-burning vial of holy water, a holy book that flies in a circular motion around the screen, and the cross, which is wielded like a boomerang.
The general appearance of the characters in the games has also changed since the first installments. In the earlier games, the main characters were usually warriors sporting leather armour or similar garb. As new Castlevania games were released, the heroes' outfits evolved into more elegant, fancy vests. The "modern look" adopted by Castlevania games borrows heavily from bishounen-style art, and was originally introduced to the series by artist Ayami Kojima during the production of Symphony of the Night.
A major turning point in the series was the ground-breaking Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Symphony adopted what is sometimes called a Metroidvania style of gameplay due to its many similarities to the Metroid series (primarily Super Metroid), and combines this with the console RPG concepts of experience levels, hit points, and equipment. Subsequent Castlevania games have followed this new style, with the replacement of the secondary weapons by complex magic systems in which spell components are collected from enemies or found in the castle. These systems use hearts to replenish MP and often include most of the classic secondary weapons among the much larger variety of spells and attacks.
The first games in the series to employ 3D graphics were released to mixed reactions in critical and public venues. These include Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness for the Nintendo 64.
Game list
| North American/European title | Japanese title | System | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castlevania | Demon Castle Dracula (悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Dorakyura) | Famicom Disk System, Commodore 64, NES, Game Boy Advance | 1986 |
| Vampire Killer (Europe and Brazil only) | Demon Castle Dracula | MSX | 1986 |
| Simon's Quest | Dracula II: The Accursed Seal (ドラキュラII 呪いの封印 Dorakyura II Noroi no Fūin) | Famicom Disk System, NES | 1987 |
| Haunted Castle | Demon Castle Dracula | Video arcades | 1988 |
| The Adventure | The Legend of Dracula (ドラキュラ伝説 Dorakyura Densetsu) | Game Boy | 1989 |
| Dracula's Curse | The Legend of the Demon Castle (悪魔城伝説 Akumajō Densetsu) | NES | 1990 |
| Super Castlevania IV | Demon Castle Dracula (悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Dorakyura) | Super NES | 1991 |
| Belmont's Revenge | The Legend of Dracula II (ドラキュラ伝説II Dorakyura Densetsu II) | Game Boy | 1991 |
| Chi no Rondo (Not released in North America/Europe) | Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (悪魔城ドラキュラＸ血の輪ロンドAkumajō Dorakyura X Chi no Rondo) | PC Engine | 1993 |
| Castlevania X68000 (Not released in North America/Europe) | Demon Castle Dracula (悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Dorakyura) | Sharp X68000 | 1993 |
| Bloodlines Castlevania: The New Generation (Europe) | Vampire Killer (バンパイアキラー ''Banpaia Kira) | Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis | 1994 |
| Dracula X Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss (Europe) | Demon Castle Dracula XX (悪魔城ドラキュラＸＸ Akumajō Dorakyura XX) | Super NES | 1995 |
| Symphony of the Night | Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (悪魔城ドラキュラＸ月下の夜想曲 Akumajō Dorakyura X Gekka no Yasōkyoku) | PlayStation, Sega Saturn | 1997 |
| Castlevania Legends | Demon Castle Dracula: Dark Night Prelude (悪魔城ドラキュラ漆黒たる前奏曲 Akumajō Dorakyura Shikkoku Taru Zensōkyoku) | Game Boy | 1998 |
| Castlevania (also known as Castlevania 64) | Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse (悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 Akumajō Dorakyura Mokushiroku) | Nintendo 64 | 1999 |
| Legacy of Darkness | Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse Side-Story: Legend of Cornell (悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録外伝 Akumajō Dorakyura Mokushiroku Gaiden) | Nintendo 64 | 1999 |
| Castlevania Chronicles (port of Castlevania X68000) | Castlevania Chronicle: Demon Castle Dracula (悪魔城年代記 悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Nendaiki: Akumajō Dorakyura) | PlayStation | 2001 |
| Circle of the Moon | Demon Castle Dracula: Circle of the Moon | Game Boy Advance | 2001 |
| Harmony of Dissonance | Castlevania: Concerto of the Midnight Sun (キャッスルヴァニア白夜の協奏曲 Kyassuruvania Byakuya no Concerto(Kōsōkyoku)) | Game Boy Advance | 2002 |
| Aria of Sorrow | Castlevania: Minuet of Dawn (キャッスルヴァニア暁月の円舞曲 Kyassuruvania Akatsuki no Minuet(Enbukyoku)) | Game Boy Advance | 2003 |
| Lament of Innocence Castlevania (Europe) | Castlevania (キャッスルヴァニア Kyassuruvania) | PlayStation 2 | 2003 |
| Dawn of Sorrow | Demon Castle Dracula: Cross of the Blue Moon (悪魔城ドラキュラ 蒼月の十字架 Akumajō Dorakyura Sōgetsu no Jūjika) | Nintendo DS | 2005 |
| Curse of Darkness | Demon Castle Dracula: Curse of Darkness (悪魔城ドラキュラ 闇の呪印 Akumajō Dorakyura Yami no Juin) | PlayStation 2, Xbox | 2005 |
| Portrait of Ruin | Demon Castle Dracula: Gallery of Labirinth (悪魔城ドラキュラ ギャラリー・オブ・ラビリンス Akumajō Dorakyura Gyarari obu Rabirinsu) | Nintendo DS | 2006 |
Related titles
There are also six parody games created by Konami that have Castlevania-related elements or characters. These, according to Castlevania Dungeon, are:| Game title | Console/Platform | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Konami Wai Wai World | Family Computer | 1988 | Released only in Japan, unofficial English translation by Demiforce |
| Wai Wai World 2: SOS From Parsley Castle!! | Family Computer | 1991 | Released only in Japan, unofficial English translation by Kitsune Sniper |
| Boku Dracula-kun | Family Computer | 1991 | Released only in Japan, unofficial English translation by Kitsune Sniper |
| Kid Dracula | Game Boy | 1993 | Released as Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun in Japan |
| Sexy Parodius | Arcade, PlayStation, Sega Saturn | 1996 | Released only in Japan |
| Konami Krazy Racers | Game Boy Advance | 2001 | Released as Wai Wai Racing in Japan. In this game, Dracula is a playable character. |
Chronology
- ''See main article: Castlevania timeline
Other media
- Simon Belmont was one of the stars in the animated series The Game Master. He was a member of the N-Team, a group of mostly video game characters who defended Video Land against the evils of Mother Brain and others. He does not appear in the comic book form of Captain N. Dracula was also one of the villains in Captain N. Alucard also appeared in one episode as a skateboarding teenager.
- In November 2005, news of a Castlevania movie surfaced. Crystal Sky Pictures acquired the movie rights for Castlevania from Konami. British filmmaker Paul W. S. Anderson has been announced as director of the Castlevania film. No cast has been announced and production is expected to start in mid-2006. *
See also
External links
- Akumajō Dracula series at Konami Tokyo (Japanese language)
- Castlevania series at Konami USA
- History of Castlevania at GameSpot
Fan websites
- Castlevania: The Blood Way Fan-made flash game
- The Castlevania Dungeon
- Castlevania: Disharmony A text-based Castlevania RPG
- The Castlevania Saga
- CastlevaniaRL A roguelike game based on the Castlevania mythos
- Mr. P's Castlevania Realm
Castlevania | Fictional castles and fortresses | Computer and video game franchises
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