castlevania

Castlevania (キャッスルヴァニア, Castlevania^?) 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 Castlevania: 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 Castlevania: 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. Morris is also said to have a son, John and grandson, Jonathan, who star in Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin, respectively. 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 Castlevania III: 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 Castlevania: 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 Castlevania: 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 Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge is a mistranslation of "Soleil," French for "sun," and the name of the protagonist of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was changed from "Ralph C. Belmont" to "Trevor Belmont" for the English version).

Note: The name "Belmont" itself is Romanized as "Berumondo" 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 Castlevania: 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. Demon Castle Dracula X: 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 its retail price. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has been found to be in short supply, and therefore, has been put back into production as of Fall 2006. Furthermore Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, one of the most popular games in the series, has become a rare find. In particular, there is a version that was released on Sega Saturn (with areas and playable characters not in the Playstation original), which is considered yet another lost treasure in the series: however even the once-plentiful North American release of the game currently sells at inflated prices.

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. Although the second game in the series featured several RPG-influenced elements (including towns where the player could purchase supplies and upgrades), and the third allowed a certain degree of level and character selection, the controls, physics, and graphics remained faithful to the original game.

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 Castlevania: 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 Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness for the Nintendo 64.

Game list

Related titles

There are also six parody games created by Konami that have Castlevania-related elements or characters. These, according to Castlevania Dungeon, are:

Chronology

See main article: Castlevania timeline

Prior to the release of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, every game in the series was accepted as canon, with the original versions of certain games (such as the original Castlevania and Dracula X) usually accepted as the canonical interpretation of certain events. This was assumed even though there was no official unified direction to the series's storyline (other than conflicts against Dracula). However, when Koji Igarashi took over as producer for the series (starting with Castlevania Chronicles), he revised the timeline and removed the following games from it: Castlevania Legends, Castlevania 64, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

Other media

• Simon Belmont was one of the stars in the animated series Captain N: 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 (referred to only as "the Count in the series) was also one of the villains in Captain N. Alucard also appeared in one episode as a skateboarding teenager. Several other Castlevania monsters appeared in cameo roles, including the Frankenstein's monster, the mummy, and the Skull Knight.

• 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. [1]

See also

• Castlevania characters
• Castlevania recurrences

External links

Wikia has a wiki about: Castlevania

Official

• Akumajō Dracula series at Konami Tokyo (Japanese)
• Castlevania series at Konami USA

Fan websites

• CastlevaniaRL A fan-made cRPG/RL based on Castlevania
• Castlevania: The Blood Way Fan-made flash game
• The Castlevania Dungeon
• Castlevania: Disharmony A text-based Castlevania RPG
• The Castlevania Saga
• Mr. P's Castlevania Realm