Castlevania
Castlevania | |
---|---|
Genre(s) | |
Developer(s) |
|
Publisher(s) | Konami |
Creator(s) | Hitoshi Akamatsu[1] |
Platform(s) | List
|
First release | Castlevania September 26, 1986 |
Latest release | Castlevania Advance Collection September 23, 2021 |
Castlevania (
Castlevania is largely set in the eponymous castle of
Castlevania is one of Konami's
Games
Most Castlevania titles have been released in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia on various
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,
In 1997,
Under the development of
A
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's first
Arcade and
Castlevania characters and elements have appeared in crossovers and other titles such as the
Common elements
Gameplay
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.
Vampire Killer, released in 1986 for the
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
Original series |
---|
1094: Lament of Innocence |
Lords of Shadow series |
1047: Lords of Shadow |
Sources:[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] |
The Castlevania franchise heavily references the horror films produced by
Castlevania mainly takes place in the castle of
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]
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
In 1993, three Castlevania games were in parallel development, which included
The first Castlevania game to feature 3D computer graphics began development in 1997 on the
Due to concern over the poor sales of the recent Castlevania games,
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,
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
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 | 71%[122]
|
—
|
Symphony of the Night | 93.03%[123]
|
93 [124]
|
Legends | 52.88%[125]
|
—
|
Castlevania (1999) | 72.71%[126]
|
78 [127]
|
Legacy of Darkness | 63.80%[128]
|
—
|
Circle of the Moon | 88.32%[129]
|
91 [78]
|
Chronicles | 73.53%[130]
|
69 [131]
|
Harmony of Dissonance | 85.12%[132]
|
87 [133]
|
Aria of Sorrow | 87.86%[134]
|
91 [135]
|
Lament of Innocence | 78.72%[136]
|
79 [137]
|
Dawn of Sorrow | 90.35%[138]
|
89 [139]
|
Curse of Darkness | 70.37% (PS2)[140]
|
70 (PS2)[141]
|
Portrait of Ruin | 84.98%[142]
|
85 [143]
|
Order of Ecclesia | 85.67%[144]
|
85 [145]
|
The Adventure ReBirth | 81.10%[146]
|
82 [147]
|
Lords of Shadow | ||
Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate | ||
Lords of Shadow 2 |
The Castlevania franchise had sold over 20 million copies worldwide as of 2006[update];[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
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
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
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
References
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External links
- Official website
- Akumajō Dracula series at Konami Tokyo (in Japanese)
- Akumajou Dracula at the Killer List of Videogames
- The Castlevania series at MobyGames