It’s crazy to think that Konami’s Castlevania series turns 40 this month. We did a deep dive on the one that started it all five years ago, but obviously, the series has grown beyond its beginnings on the Famicom back in 1986 and endured.
Speaking of enduring, several elements of the series have stuck around and endeared themselves to fans, practically necessitating that Konami (or whomever is developing) to hit on said points when it comes to new titles. The upcoming Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse certainly continues that trend. The result has made the series one of Konami’s most successful and well-known franchises.
But just what are these elements, you ask? Well, let’s talk about ‘em. Now obviously, there are a lot of entries in the series, and this article would be the length of a deli truck if it went into exhaustive detail. So we’ll try to be a little selective this time around.
Gameplay That Rewards Patience and Precision
From the very start, Castlevania grabbed players’ attention with its sidescrolling action. For one, we were gifted the unusual weapon of the Vampire Killer whip, which set the game apart from other early Nintendo titles, which sported guns, fireballs, and hand-to-hand combat. That made Castlevania stand out from the crowd back in 1986. Making things even more interesting was that the whip could be upgraded, increasing its length and damage. Speaking of damage, your attack wasn’t immediate. You had a wind-up animation to take into consideration when attacking, meaning you had to time your whip hits with enemy movement and projectiles in order to land a hit, but also counterattack (since you could snuff out enemy projectiles).
You can’t forget the subweapons mechanic, either. They have their own quirks that would have you learning how to use them properly. Mastering the arc of the axe, throwing out the boomerang to be able to hit foes in front of you and behind you, and so on. Of course, there’s also the business of saving your hearts in order to be able to use the subweapons at the appropriate time, not to mention taking care not to accidentally pick up another subweapon to replace the one you already have. Again, timing and patience when attacking are paramount. As is finding the shot multipliers, since being restricted to one subweapon being thrown at a time can hamper your abilities as well.
Then there’s Simon’s movement, which at first glance is rather stiff in the early games. Jumping was also something you needed to consider, since you couldn’t adjust your arc in the air once you committed. Couple that with timing your whip to hit candles and airborne enemies, and it took practice and skill. Mistakes resulted in the infamous knockback when hit, which could lead you to being hit right into pits. The result was a risk-and-reward system that can frustrate, but taking the time to master it would result in something so satisfying to play.
Later on, subsequent entries attempted to make your movement a little less restrictive, while adding in new strategies. Super Castlevania IV allowed you to whip in eight directions, while Bloodlines had you swinging as Morris or vaulting with Lecarde’s spear, for example.
Once the series switched to 3D and Metroidvania styles of gameplay, you still had aspects of the early titles and their gameplay carrying forward, albeit with some tweaks. While you didn’t always have a whip, you still had to time your shots with the weapon you were holding to make sure you again weren’t knocked about by foes. And again, later installments did do away with the subweapon limitations, but you still had to conserve subweapon energy for when you really needed it.
Subsequent entries in the series added new mechanics such as magic attacks and the like that made subweapons take a back seat, or freed up your movement, but aspects of those early titles still stuck around, providing a bit of method to the early madness.
Gothic Graphics That Stand the Test of Time
Castlevania has almost always pushed the graphical capabilities on any platform its games have appeared on. Once again, outside of Nintendo, third-party developers struggled with mastering the NES hardware early on. Konami was able to cram quite a bit of detail into the very first game, and only added to that with the sequels.
Once the Super Nintendo rolled around, Konami pulled out all the stops with Super Castlevania IV. The rotating room and rotating cylindrical passage in Stage IV immediately come to mind for many fans, but even in the first stage, there are little details as you make your way through the castle gate. The courtyard fence rising up from the ground with the vines that intertwine them, the horses in the background as you venture through the stable, and so on.
As impressive as the graphics in Super Castlevania IV were, Konami tried to outdo them with Rondo of Blood. True, there were certain things that were missing (the increased color palette and the Mode 7 graphics, obviously), but once again, it’s all in the details. Enemies such as the Golem and Maneating Plant were larger than any enemy players had seen before up to this point, and there were little things such as the moths in The Chapel that would follow you if you snuffed out the light, for example.
And as fans know, many of the enemies in Rondo of Blood looked so good that they were reused and refined in Symphony of the Night, where we saw even larger foes and even more eye candy that to this day still holds up when compared to many 3D games of the era. That also includes, ahem, Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness.
The 3D graphics did improve when things came to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which saw Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness giving fans a much better-looking experience.
Iconic Music That Defined the Series
Anyone who grew up as a gamer in the ’80s and ’90s knew that Konami gave us some of the greatest video game music ever. Really, it’s kind of the law that you need to mention the music when talking about Castlevania. From the very beginning, the series had some amazing soundtracks that, much like many other aspects of the games, continued to improve as the series went on. There’s a very good reason why video game musicians continue to cover the songs from the series, but also why Konami released several albums featuring reinterpretations of the series’ songs.
Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima kicked things off with the first Castlevania, which, again, in comparison to other titles at the time, was an outlier due to many of the scores at the time sounding downright primitive. The duo’s compositions did what all great soundtracks do in enhancing the mood and complementing the action, but this time around, they felt far more cinematic, as if you were watching an epic adventure. Apart from the opening “Prologue” (which in itself gets you energized while teasing the horrors you’ll face), the very first music you hear in the game is the iconic “Vampire Killer“, which has long remained a staple of the series, going through multiple interpretations.
Things pick up with the sequel, which longtime fans know was originally released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan, and made use of that add-on’s extra chip for its music. Obviously, the NES lacked this chip, so when Simon’s Quest hit North America, Konami had reworked the soundtrack, which for many fans, was for the better. The game kicks off with “Message of Darkness” again teasing your treacherous journey, before we get “The Silence of the Daylight” as you start in town. Once night falls, players are treated to another long-standing series staple in “Bloody Tears“, which, like “Vampire Killer“, has gone through several versions over the series’ length, and has appeared in almost every subsequent entry.
Even on hardware that was inferior to the NES, Konami was able to churn out fantastic results. The Castlevania Adventure and its sequel, Belmont’s Revenge, brought us even more iconic tracks such as “Ripe Seeds” and “Theme from ‘The Legend of Dracula‘“.
Once the SNES rolled around, composers Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo took full advantage with Super Castlevania IV’s soundtrack, employing the various samples available to them to create sounds of organs, various woodwind instruments, and drums. This resulted in more classic tracks, notably “Theme of Simon“, the track for the very first stage of the game, and again, one that would be revisited several times over the course of the series.
How Castlevania Reinvented Itself Without Losing Its Soul
While the series’ gameplay changes can be argued to have split the fanbase at certain points, the switch in genres definitely divides certain Castlevania fans. The series has dabbled in several genres over the years (and continues to do so), but the ones the majority of fans know the series by are the OG sidescrolling and Metroidvania. Regardless of which camp you choose, there’s no denying that these games set a benchmark that influenced subsequent entries in the series, but also influenced other franchises.
Going once again way back to the early NES days, you really didn’t have much in the way of variation. Remember, this is before titles like Mega Man and Konami’s own Contra hit the scene, so you had titles just going from left to right, with no real deviation. Metroid shook things up the same year Castlevania was released, but that was Nintendo’s baby, and no other third-party developer could pull off something like that.
Konami changed all that. Not only were you able to scroll from left to right and back, but also up and down. All with the original hardware. Later sequels on the NES would have additional chips, but as mentioned previously, those were for the already-awesome music.
Of course, by dabbling in the RPG genre with Castlevania II, Konami unknowingly set up the series‘ later move into the Metroidvania subgenre. However, the following 8-bit and 16-bit entries still stuck with the same sidescrolling formula, adding the expected graphical and sound upgrades along the way. And while Castlevania III did away with the RPG elements, we did get branching paths to add even more variety. This was revisited and expanded upon in Rondo of Blood, where you could find detours mid-level to take you on the alternate routes.
Once the PlayStation rolled around, people started looking at 2D-based games as yesterday’s news, and games themselves were starting to expand beyond the typical “one sitting” effort when it came to their length. Konami sought to reinvent the series for the times, taking a cue from Nintendo’s Super Metroid and unleashing Symphony of the Night, an action/roleplaying hybrid that emphasized exploration and non-linear progression.
Players would come across locked doors and initially inaccessible areas throughout Dracula’s castle, requiring them to backtrack to find the correct item in order to open the doors, or reach the new area with a new ability. The success wasn’t immediate (that old 2D being “outdated” view), but eventually SOTN gave the series a second life for a new generation.
Eventually, Castlevania did dabble in 3D, but the initial offerings were mediocre on the Nintendo 64, and the later PS2 and Xbox entries never could quite get the hang of things. Meanwhile, the Metroidvania entries on the Game Boy Advance continued to be excellent, and continued onward through Nintendo’s subsequent handhelds.
Apart from these two, the Castlevania series has dabbled in other genres, to varying degrees of success. Aside from the mobile and Pachinko titles, Castlevania also entered the fighting game arena on the Wii in 2008’s Castlevania: Judgement. While ambitious, the game obviously wasn’t what fans were hoping for. The same can be said of Harmony of Despair, which adopted a team-focused platform-adventure style that, while unique, again strayed from what made the original games fun.
Crossovers That Kept Dracula Alive
A surprising one, for sure, but it’s also a bit painful. Relegating the Castlevania property to glorified crossovers? Isn’t that what they do for TV and film when creativity is in the toilet? True, but when you think about it, all of this effort was the right thing. Not only did it keep the series in the minds of longtime fans, but it also exposed the series to a whole new generation of gamers. Plus, when you think about it, that decision led to the return of the series proper.
You’ve got to start somewhere, and for Castlevania, that was Blue Mammoth Games’ platform fighter Brawlhalla, which had Simon Belmont and Alucard on its roster of fighters. Simon stuck with platform fighting alongside Richter Belmont in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, before Simon jumped over to Stunlock Studio’s action role-playing survival game V Rising with its Castlevania DLC. The series scored a big win with Dead by Daylight and its Castlevania chapter, again exposing new fans to the series.
Hitching a ride on Poncle’s popular roguelike Vampire Survivors, it was almost a no-brainer to have Castlevania join in on the addictive fun, even if the horror aspect was lost. Still, it continued the goal of exposure for Konami. But the most notable collaboration came with Motion Twin and their roguelike-Metroidvania Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania. That, of course, obviously led to the current title, Belmont’s Curse, which is being developed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire.
Despite not maintaining its peak since the late ’90s, the Castlevania franchise has still stuck around in the minds of fans. And that’s also in spite of the gap between releases that has only now been addressed. Compared to other video game franchises that have been around this long, it’s impressive how those early titles still resonate with fans, thanks in part to what we’ve covered. Regardless of whether or not Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse kicks off an earnest focus on the series from a game standpoint, the fact that the series’ legacy is still whipping up attention after 40 years is something to celebrate in earnest.