Castlevania

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Perfect Selection: Dracula Battle
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Castlevania
Logo of the Castlevania series, introduced with 2003's Lament of Innocence
Genre(s)
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Konami
Creator(s)Hitoshi Akamatsu[1]
Platform(s)
First releaseCastlevania
September 26, 1986 (1986-09-26)
Latest releaseCastlevania Advance Collection
September 23, 2021 (2021-09-23)

Castlevania (

Castlevania is largely set in the eponymous castle of

action platformers, and were succeeded by the 1997 game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Originally released for the PlayStation, it returned to the nonlinear gameplay seen in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, which introduced role-playing elements and exploration.[9] Several installments later adopted Symphony of the Night's gameplay, and along with Super Metroid, it has popularized the Metroidvania genre.[10] 2010 saw the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a 3D action-adventure reboot of the series developed by MercurySteam[11] and Kojima Productions.[12]

Castlevania is one of Konami's

Games

Release timeline
Original series in green
Lords of Shadow series in yellow
1986Castlevania
Vampire Killer
1987Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
1988Haunted Castle
1989Castlevania: The Adventure
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
1990
1991Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Super Castlevania IV
1992
1993Akumajō Dracula
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
1994Castlevania: Bloodlines
1995Castlevania: Dracula X
1996
1997Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania Legends
1998
1999Castlevania (Nintendo 64)
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
2000
2001Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania Chronicles
2002Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
2003Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
2004
2005Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
2006Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
2007Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
2008Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
2009Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
2010Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
2011
2012
2013Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
2014Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Most Castlevania titles have been released in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia on various

mobile phones, with additional remakes and re-releases.[15]

The first console title, Castlevania, was released on the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and in North America in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).[8] A 2D sidescrolling action game where the player progresses through six stages, many principal features of the Castlevania series originated with it.[16] It has been ported to many platforms, such as the NES Classic Edition.[17] Also released in 1986 was Vampire Killer for the MSX home computer, which played significantly differently from the original Castlevania, where players had to search for the exit before they could proceed to the next stage.[18] Following that year, in 1987, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest further departed from the standard platforming genre of the first Castlevania for a game more similar to the nonlinear gameplay of Metroid, with several role-playing elements such as a world map which the player is free to explore and revisit.[19][20]

The franchise's first arcade game, Haunted Castle (1988), returned to the linear platforming gameplay of the original.[21] This continued with the first handheld Game Boy entry, Castlevania: The Adventure[22] and the NES sequel, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, both released in 1989. Dracula's Curse added features to the original gameplay, including alternate stages and multiple playable characters.[23] The Adventure saw a Game Boy sequel, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, in 1992 and a remake, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, developed by M2 for the WiiWare service in 2009.[15]

The franchise's first 16-bit home console game,

Castlevania Anniversary Collection.[26][27]

In 1997,

Under the development of

Lament of Innocence debuted for the PlayStation 2 with combat-oriented hack and slash gameplay that drew comparisons to Devil May Cry and retroactively, God of War.[29][30] It was followed two years later by Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.[15]

A

mobile games and gambling in the 2010s.[31]

In 2021, rumours began circulating that, following internal restructuring at Konami to refocus on PC and console games, a new main entry in the series was in development.[32][33]

Spin-offs

Castlevania has spawned numerous spin-offs, the first being the 1990 platformer,

Castlevania Anniversary Collection (2019).[27] The game received a sequel for the Game Boy, also titled Kid Dracula.[6]

Castlevania's first

Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls was released on September 16, 2019 for iOS.[36]

Arcade and

pachislot titles released between 2009 and 2017.[38] The first three are based on the video game Dracula's Curse, while a fourth game based on the Lords of Shadow reboot, Pachislot Akumajō Dracula: Lords of Shadow, was made available in 2017.[39]

Castlevania characters and elements have appeared in crossovers and other titles such as the

Common elements

Gameplay

Screenshot of Castlevania on the NES

Castlevania, released for the NES in 1986 is a platform game in which the player takes the role of Simon Belmont, a descendant of the Belmont clan, a family of vampire hunters. He travels to Dracula's castle, Castlevania, and fights his way through the castle annihilating Dracula himself and the castle. Belmont's main weapon is a whip called the Vampire Killer, while the secondary weapons include throwing daggers, bottles of holy water that act as small fire bombs, throwing axes that arc overhead, a watch that stops time, and a cross that acts like a boomerang. These are powered by hearts which are collected by destroying candles and killing monsters. Hidden items such as power-ups and food (health replenishment) items are found by attacking walls within the levels, a feature inspired by Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. with hidden items across the game's levels.

Screenshot of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, which features Metroidvania gameplay. In the top screen is the map, which records the player's progress as they explore the castle.

Vampire Killer, released in 1986 for the

MSX 2
computer and developed alongside the original Castlevania (the two share the same title in Japanese), departs from the more straightforward platforming gameplay of Castlevania, instead introducing an open-ended, exploration-heavy form of gameplay. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest featured nonlinear gameplay even more open-ended than that of Vampire Killer, with several exclusive elements such as a world map the player was free to explore and revisit. The player could also purchase supplies, equipment and weapon upgrades in several different towns, making it more like an action role-playing game. It introduced a persistent world with a day-night cycle which altered gameplay, and offered three possible endings depending on the time it took to complete the game. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the NES has more in common with the original NES Castlevania and added features, including nonlinear elements such as alternate branching paths with different stages and alternate endings depending on the player's choices, as well as multiple player characters.

A turning point in the gameplay mechanics of the series was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Expanding on the open-ended style of gameplay previously used in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Symphony of the Night's style of gameplay has been termed "Metroidvania" due to its similarities with the nonlinear and exploration-focused side-scrolling games of the Metroid series. It used role-playing elements, such as collectible weapons, armor and hidden orbs. Many subsequent Castlevania games have since followed this template.

Plot and setting

Castlevania series fictional chronology
Original series

1094: Lament of Innocence
1476: Dracula's Curse
1479: Curse of Darkness
1576: The Adventure
1591: Belmont's Revenge
1691: Castlevania
1698: Simon's Quest
1748: Harmony of Dissonance
1792: Rondo of Blood
1797: Symphony of the Night
1800s: Order of Ecclesia
1917: Bloodlines
1944: Portrait of Ruin
2035: Aria of Sorrow
2036: Dawn of Sorrow

Lords of Shadow series

1047: Lords of Shadow
1073–1101: Mirror of Fate
1102–2057: Lords of Shadow 2

Sources:[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]

The Castlevania franchise heavily references the horror films produced by

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.[54]

Castlevania mainly takes place in the castle of

Yoko Belnades, would make appearances as playable characters in later titles.[59]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, Gabriel stars as Dracula, the main antagonist of Simon and Trevor Belmont.[62] The sequel, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is set during modern times, where Dracula is looking for a way to put an end to his immortality.[63]

In 2002, the games Legends, Circle of the Moon, Castlevania (1999), and Legacy of Darkness were retconned from the official chronology by Koji Igarashi, a move which had been met with some criticism by fans.[64] Igarashi noted that Legends conflicted with the plotline of the series, and that the reason for Circle of the Moon's removal was not due to his non-involvement with the game, but instead the intention of the game's development team for Circle of the Moon to be a stand-alone title.[65] The American 20th Anniversary Pre-order Bundle for Portrait of Ruin in 2006 featured a poster with a timeline that re-included the games other than Legends.[42] In 2007, Konami still excluded them from the canon on the official Japanese website.[41] Igarashi has said that he considered the titles a "subseries".[66]

Development

Being aware of the horror movies from long ago (long before the slasher flicks), I wanted the players to feel like they were in a classic horror movie.

—Hitoshi Akamatsu, 1993[49]

Family Computer Disk System in 1986.[67][1] The game's staff roll features names taken from horror film icons, with Akamatsu being credited as 'Trans Fishers', a reference to film director Terence Fisher.[68] This is possibly because Konami did not allow the use of real names at the time in order to prevent other companies from hiring people who worked for them.[68][69] An admirer of cinema, Akamatsu approached projects with a "film director's eye", and said the visuals and music for Castlevania were "made by people who consciously wanted to do something cinematic."[1] The protagonist Simon Belmont uses a whip because Akamatsu liked the mechanics of a weapon able to repel enemies, and also because Akamatsu was a fan of Raiders of the Lost Ark.[1] After the success of Castlevania, it was released in cartridge format for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as one of its first major platform games.[6] The international title Castlevania was the result of Konami of America senior vice president Emil Heidkamp's discomfort with Akumajō Dracula, which he believed translated as "Dracula Satanic Castle".[70] Because of Nintendo of America's censorship policies at the time, most instances of blood, nudity and religious imagery were removed or edited in early Castlevania games.[71][72]

Akamatsu directed Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in 1987, which adopted gameplay similar to Nintendo's Metroid. When asked if Metroid had any inspiration, Akamatsu instead cited

Maze of Galious, another Konami title which featured exploration and puzzle solving.[1] His last game in the series, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989), returned to the standard platforming genre of Castlevania.[6] Since Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games sold many copies, their development was prioritized above other titles, leading the developers for Dracula's Curse to make a game that would outdo them.[1] Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse were not a commercial success, and Akamatsu was demoted to working in one of Konami's game centers before he chose to resign.[1]

In 1993, three Castlevania games were in parallel development, which included

Rondo of Blood, and Bloodlines.[73] Directed and produced by Toru Hagihara,[73] Rondo of the Blood was the first installment made for a CD-ROM and the first to be fully voiced.[24] Hagihara would go on to direct a sequel, Symphony of the Night (1997) for the PlayStation, with Koji Igarashi joining him as the assistant director and story writer.[74] Joining the staff was artist Ayami Kojima, who was hired to introduce a new look for Castlevania. She would be the character designer for several future Castlevania titles.[75] Igarashi said it began development as "something of a side story series". From the outset, the game was supposed to take the franchise in a new direction.[66] The gameplay took a departure from the original platforming entries, instead adopting nonlinear exploration and role-playing game elements, which were last seen in Simon's Quest. The critical reaction to Simon's Quest and its gameplay allowed them to pitch Symphony of the Night to Konami.[9] Igarashi was eventually asked to finish the game as the assistant director after Hagihara was promoted to head of the division.[76] On release, Symphony of the Night was well-received and became a sleeper hit, but its commercial performance was mediocre, particularly in the United States where it was meagerly publicized.[25]

The first Castlevania game to feature 3D computer graphics began development in 1997 on the

Portrait of Ruin (2006) introduced a new art style in hopes of broadening the player demographic and preventing younger Nintendo DS owners from being put off by Ayami Kojima's art. This discontinued with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia in 2008.[85]

Due to concern over the poor sales of the recent Castlevania games,

Mirror of Fate (2013) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014). Lords of Shadow 2 was not as well received as its predecessor.[96] Following its release, an anonymous source claiming to be employees from MercurySteam alleged that development on the game had been troubled.[97]

After having been moved to Konami's social division in 2011, Igarashi felt he was unable to release any new games when Konami shifted its focus towards mobile game development.[98] He left in March 2014 to independently create Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to Castlevania.[99] Dave Cox followed Igarashi's resignation a few months later.[100] Recent Castlevania titles released under Konami's recent business model include pachinko and slot machines based on the IP.[101][38]

Audio

Castlevania's music features a wide range of compositions, with themes reused throughout the series. It has been critically acclaimed[102][103] and released on many albums, initially under the King Records label.[104] In addition to original soundtracks, it has also inspired remix albums, which include orchestra, rap and heavy metal arrangements.[104] In 2010, Castlevania – The Concert was performed in Stockholm, Sweden by longtime Castlevania composer, Michiru Yamane, and the Stockholm Youth Symphonic Orchestra.[105]

The music for the first installment, Castlevania, was composed by Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima.[106][107] The game's staff roll featured pseudonyms, with Yamashita credited as James Banana.[108] Yamashita said she did not know anything about video games at the time and composed for Castlevania shortly after graduating from college. Under strict hardware constraints,[109] she would first write the scores before entering it as data into a computer.[110] The hardware for the first 16-bit title, Super Castlevania IV, allowed for a more atomspheric environment in the game, and was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo.[69]

Known primarily for her work on the Castlevania series,

Castlevania Bloodlines. Yamane was under pressure at the time because the series was already popular and known for its music.[102] She felt there was a link with the game's vampiric themes and the classical music she had grown up with, having studied Johann Sebastian Bach in university, and worked to integrate her style with the rock themes of the previous games.[111] Since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Yamane became involved with the development of the series with its former producer, Koji Igarashi.[112] Symphony of the Night's art director, Osamu Kasai, requested Yamane to join the team,[111] and she would draw inspiration from Ayami Kojima's concept artwork.[112] Unlike the FM synthesis that Bloodlines used, Yamane felt she had more freedom with Symphony of the Night as it was produced for a CD-ROM, which made it capable of much higher quality music and sound.[111] She continued to compose for the series, including the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS games, which had note limitations like older home consoles, and also collaborated with other composers such as Yuzo Koshiro.[111] Before becoming a freelance composer, the last Castlevania game she scored was Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia in 2008, which she worked on with Yasuhiro Ichihashi.[111]

For the 2010 reboot, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the game was scored by Óscar Araujo using a 120-piece orchestra.[113] His work on Lords of Shadow earned him a nomination for breakout composer of the year by the International Film Music Critics Association,[114] and he won "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media."[115] Araujo went on to compose the sequels, Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2.[116]

Reception and legacy

Aggregate review scores
Game GameRankings Metacritic
Castlevania
70.92% (GBA)[117]
The Adventure
55.07%[118]
Belmont's Revenge
83.50%[119]
Super Castlevania IV
82.06%[120]
Bloodlines
83.50%[121]
Dracula X
Symphony of the Night
93.03%[123]
Legends
52.88%[125]
Castlevania (1999)
72.71%[126]
Legacy of Darkness
63.80%[128]
Circle of the Moon
88.32%[129]
91 [78]
Chronicles
73.53%[130]
Harmony of Dissonance
85.12%[132]
Aria of Sorrow
87.86%[134]
Lament of Innocence
78.72%[136]
Dawn of Sorrow
90.35%[138]
Curse of Darkness
70.37% (PS2)[140]
70 (PS2)[141]
Portrait of Ruin
84.98%[142]
Order of Ecclesia
85.67%[144]
The Adventure ReBirth
81.10%[146]
Lords of Shadow
82.70% (Xbox 360)[148]
83.33% (PS3)[149]
77.40% (PC)[150]
85 (PS3)[151]
83 (Xbox 360)[152]
81 (PC)[153]
Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
71.81% (3DS)[154]
74.00% (Xbox 360)[155]
63.75% (PS3)[156]
72 (3DS) [157]
73 (Xbox 360)[158]
70 (PS3)[159]
Lords of Shadow 2
71.00% (Xbox 360)[160]
63.12% (PS3) [161]
58.10% (PC)[162]
70 (Xbox 360)[163]
63 (PS3)[164]
60 (PC)[165]

The Castlevania franchise had sold over 20 million copies worldwide as of 2006;[166] it had previously sold over 3.7 million units by 1993.[167] The franchise has received mostly positive reviews, with the most acclaimed game being Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation and the most panned being Judgment, with aggregate scores of 93 and 49, respectively, on Metacritic and 93.38% and 52.71%, respectively, on GameRankings.

Many of the games have appeared on lists of video games considered to be the best. Symphony of the Night appeared at #16 on

Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008.[176][177]

In other media

Simon Belmont was one of the stars in the animated series Captain N: The Game Master.[178] He was a member of the N-Team, a group of mostly video game characters who defended Videoland against the antagonist Mother Brain from Metroid. Dracula, referred to only as "the Count", appeared as a villain in Captain N. Alucard appeared in one episode, though he was portrayed as a rebellious skateboarding teenager. Several other Castlevania monsters had minor roles, including Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, and the Skull Knight. Simon is portrayed as egotistical on the show and his physical appearance differs from his design in the video game series.

In 2005, IDW Publishing released a comic book adaptation, Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy, written by Marc Andreyko with art by E. J. Su. It was based on Castlevania: The Adventure.[5] In 2008, a graphic novel adaption of Curse of Darkness was released by Tokyopop in English.[179]

The streaming service Netflix released an American animated series titled Castlevania as part of its original programming.[180] The show is being showrun by Adi Shankar,[181] who had previously teased plans for an animated mini-series based on Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse in 2015,[182][183] and is written by Warren Ellis.[184] Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde co-produce.[181] The series is animated by Seibert's Frederator Studios and Powerhouse Animation Studios,[181] under Michael Hirsh's Wow Unlimited Media company. The show's first season released on July 7, 2017, and ran for four episodes, while the second season premiered on October 26, 2018, and ran for eight episodes.[185][186][187] By the time the second season became available in 2018, Castlevania had reportedly garnered nearly 30 million viewers worldwide according to Netflix analytics, becoming one of the most successful original animated shows on Netflix.[188] A third season released on March 5, 2020, and ran for 10 episodes.[189] The fourth and final season was released on May 13, 2021,[190] and a new series set in the Castlevania universe is in the works.[191] It will focus on a descendant of Trevor, Richter Belmont, and Maria Renard in France during the French Revolution.[192]

The franchise has its own toy line manufactured by

Comic-Con 2007 where the figures were first shown in full form.[193][194]

The franchise consists of a calendar of Lament of Innocence available with the limited edition of the game and containing seven illustrations[195] and another released as a promotion for Castlevania Judgment from April 2009 to March 2010 containing images of various Castlevania characters from the game.[196] Artbooks of many games[195] have been released. The franchise includes comics, prize collection artworks of Symphony of the Night and Judgment as part of its print media.

Adapted and illustrated by Kou Sasakura, a two-volume manga adaptation titled Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (悪魔城ドラキュラ 闇の呪印, Akumajō Dorakyura: Yami no Juin) was published in Japan from 2005 to 2006.[197]

Cancelled projects

A Castlevania television series was considered in the late 1980s as part of the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, a one-hour animation block of Nintendo-focused video game adaptations. Concept art was produced for the project by

The Legend of Zelda segments for the block were ultimately produced, airing in 1989 as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.[198]

A Castlevania film was planned in the late 2000s. However, in December 2007, Rogue Pictures halted active development of Castlevania due to the writers' strike and, later, the sale of the studio to Relativity Media and possibility of a screen actors' guild strike.[199] On May 27, 2009, the Castlevania film was reported as officially canceled.[200]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: 悪魔城ドラキュラ, Hepburn: Akumajō Dorakyura, "Demon Castle Dracula"

References

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External links