Vampire Killer: A Look At Castlevania 35 Years Later

Vampire Killer: A Look At Castlevania 35 Years Later
September 25, 2021
By Ryan Porzl

If you haven't guessed already by my video game articles from this year, 1986 was a big year for the video game industry with one legendary franchise after another debuting. We've already talked about some of Nintendo's franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid but they weren't the only company churning out a game that kickstarted a legendary franchise as 1986 saw the video game company Konami debut Castlevania. Taking place in the late 17th century, Castlevania tells the story of Simon Belmont, the latest in a long line of vampire hunters as he ventures into Castlevania to be the latest in his family to slay Count Dracula. Castlevania would launch a franchise and become one of the greatest platforming/side-scrolling games ever created. With the 35th anniversary on September 26th, let's look back at the game that started it all. 

Characters-

Simon Belmont (Shimon Berumondo in Japan)- The protagonist. A legendary vampire hunter and member of the equally legendary Belmont vampire hunting family. Belmont follows his families footsteps and ventures into Castlevania to slay Dracula upon his latest resurrection. His weapon of choice is his family's vampire killer whip, a powerful whip capable of slaying monsters and divine characters like Death that are associated with the vampires. Along with the vampire killer, Belmont is capable of using subweapons like daggers, cross boomerangs, and holy water, etc.

Count Dracula (Dorakyura in Japan)- The antagonist. Also known as Vlad Tepes (Vurado Tsepeshu in Japan), Dracula is the King of the Night and the archenemy of the Belmont family who have stood against his battles against humanity for over 600 years (at the time the game takes place). Originally a human knight and strategist named Mathias Cronqvist (Matiasu Kuronkubisuto in Japan), Dracula became a vampire after using the crimson stone to absorb the soul of a powerful vampire named Walter Bernhard as his way to be able to curse God forever by defying death after going mad due to the death of his wife. During the events of the first Castlevania, Dracula has battled several of Simon's ancestors and been killed only to be resurrected either via ritual or automatically every 100 years.

Death (Shinigami or Desu in Japan)- Also known as The Grim Reaper, Death is Dracula's second-in-command and who usually battles the Castlevania protagonist towards the end of the game. His weapon of choice are sickles that appear out of nowhere and attack Belmont along with his trademark scythe. Despite having divine powers, he's capable of being defeated by the Belmonts and the vampire killer whip.

Plot-

The year is 1691 and the threat of Count Dracula returns when the King of the Night is resurrected after his last defeat 100 years ago and with him, his castle known as Castlevania also returns which is crawling with monsters of all kinds. For centuries, Dracula has waged war with mankind only to be stopped by members of a vampire hunting family named the Belmonts with each generation wielding a powerful whip named vampire killer. With Dracula's recent resurrection, it is up to the latest Belmont Simon to wield vampire killer and venture into Castlevania to defeat Dracula. Simon journeys through Castlevania fighting all sorts of monsters as well as classic movie monsters such as a giant bat, a giant Madusa head, two mummies, a Frankenstein monster with Igor, etc. and even defeats Death, himself. After defeating Dracula's minions, Simon climbs the steps to Dracula's tomb where he faces him. Initially, Dracula fights by teleporting around the room while shooting fireballs from his cape but Simon defeats him. Dracula then transforms into a monster but the outcome is the same and Simon defeats him and kills him. Upon killing Dracula, Castlevania collapses after Simon escapes.

Gameplay-

Castlevania plays like a platforming, side scroller with the player controlling Simon Belmont as they navigate him through six levels and eighteen stages (three stages per level). The player moves Simon from the beginning of the level to the end as they fight monsters and fight their way through the level avoiding pits and enemy attacks. At the end of every level, Simon fights a boss and upon defeating it, an orb will drop which, upon collecting, the player wins the level with Simon restored to full health while remaining time and hearts are added to his points. Simon's main weapon is the vampire killer whip which he can get upgrades for as he starts with a regular whip then can get an upgrade to a longer whip and finally, an upgrade to a ball and chain flail. However, anytime Simon dies, he needs to get the upgrades all over again. Along with the vampire killer, Simon can also get subweapons to assist him with including throwing knives, holy water, throwing axes, cross boomerangs, and a clock that briefly freezes enemies on screen. However, he can only hold one subweapon at a time and can't switch between subweapons unless he finds another by whipping a candle. If the player dies, they lose the subweapon they had. Through out each level are candles and torches all over the place which the player can whip to either get whip upgrades, bags of money for points, roseries which clean out all enemies on screen, subweapons, and hearts which allow Simon to use subweapons. One small heart gives the player one heart while big ones give the player five. The game also features secrets where if the player stands in the right position, money or jewelry will pop up given the player more points. Other secrets are walls or steps that Simon can break with his whip that either feature a pork chop which replenishes health or a block with a roman numeral two or three which allows the player to throw two or three subweapons on screen. The player can also occasionally get vases from enemies which grants them invincibility for a brief time.

The player has four lives though they can get extra lives if they score enough points and unlimited continues. The player can lose lives if they fall into pits or run out of health or time runs out. If they lose all their lives, it's game over where the player has the option to continuing at the beginning of the level they were on or going to the title screen. The player also has 300 to 700 seconds (depending on which level it is) to complete it. As mentioned, if the player runs out of time, they lose a life. As is the case with games like these, Simon is capable of moving left or right, whip left or right, duck, climb stairs, and jump while being able to attack standing, jumping or ducking. However, like most early Castlevania games, Simon is only able to whip in two directions which is left or right and is not capable of whipping diagonally, up, or down like Super Castlevania IV.

Behind the Scenes-
Castlevania was directed by Hitoshi Akamatsu who has been credited as the creator of Castlevania. Akamatsu would later go on to serve as director for the sequels Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. He also served as a designer for Castlevania II and a programmer for Castlevania III before disappearing from the video game industry in the 90s. Akihiko Nagata served as both producer and designer. He later went on to work on one of many Castlevania remakes: Vampire Killer before becoming an executive producer to several classic Konami games like Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid. The programmer was Nobuhiro Matsuoka who later went on to work for Konami on games like The Adventures of Bayou Billy and Fantastic Journey serving as a director for the latter. The music was co-composed by Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima. Yamashita would later go on to work on sound effects and editing for Snatcher and composition/arrangements for Mega Man: The Wily Wars and Mega Man X3 while Terashima would return to Castlevania by doing the sound effects for Castlevania II.

Akamatsu originally looked at Castlevania from the eye of a film director since he was a big fan of cinema. His desire for Castlevania was to make it feel like the player was in a horror movie. The game notably went through several changes as Simon Belmont as originally going to be named "Peter Dante" who was the grandson of a character named Christopher Dante. While this wouldn't be used, the name Christopher would later appear in the Castlevania franchise as an ancestor of Simon's that is the main protagonist in two Game Boy games called Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. Other subweapons such as wooden stakes, garlic, and an item that changes Simon into a werewolf were planned but were dropped. Again, the concept of a werewolf would be explored in the future as Alucard can transform into one in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night while the main character from Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness was a werewolf type character named Cornell. Originally, in Japan, the Castlevania franchise was called "Akumajo Dracula" or "Akumajo Dorakyura" which translates to "Demon Castle Dracula". However, when the game was ported to North America, Nintendo of America Vice President Emil Heidkamp thought it translated to "Dracula Satanic Castle" and didn't want any religious connotations with the title and went with "Castlevania". Interestingly enough, Japan continued with the Akumajo Dracula title until 2002 when they eventually went by the Castlevania name as well. Another thing planned was the ability to whip in multiple direction, likely all eight which includes up, down, left, right, and diagonal but this was also dropped and not explored again until Super Castlevania IV. The game also came out months before the 90th Anniversary of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel which was ironic as not only did the book and the game feature Count Dracula but Konami would make the book canon with the series years later via the Castlevania: Bloodlines and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin games where the characters John Morris (Bloodlines) and Jonathan Morris (Portrait of Ruin) would be son and grandson, respectively, to Quincey Morris from the Dracula novel while also saying the Morris family are distant relatives of the Belmonts.

Release-

Castlevania would be released on September 26, 1986 in Japan on the Famicom Disk System as "Akumajo Dorakyura" or "Demon Castle Dracula", on May 1, 1987 in North America on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and December 19, 1988, in PAL regions on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game received positive reviews at the time as Computer and Video Games scored it an 80% while Famitsu scored it 34/40. Later versions on the Virtual Console and Game Boy Advance also received solid reviews with GameRankings scoring the VC version 69% and the GBA version 71%. Metacritic scored the GBA version 74/100. GameSpot scored the VC version 7.1/10. In 2001, Game Informer ranked it the 48th best game ever made. In 2006, Castlevania was ranked #22 on Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games List while later being ranked #14 on Nintendo Power's List of the greatest Nintendo Entertainment System games in August 2008. IGN later ranked it #19 on their list of the best NES Games. The game was mostly praised for it's graphics, music, gameplay, and difficulty. In their 1989 review, CVG would consider the graphics "gaudy" but said the gameplay is what counts and that it's great.

Aftermath-

Due to it's success, Castlevania would be ported and re-released many times over the decades on various consoles, phones, and computers. Several remakes were made over the decades including 1986's Vampire Killer, 1988's Haunted Castle, and 1993's The Castlevania Chronicles. Along with this, a re-telling of the game was released via 1991's Super Castlevania IV which has a similar story but totally different game be it graphics, levels, boss battles, and controls. Along with the remakes, the game has been ported several times. In 1993, the game was ported in Japan for Famicom system in cartridge form. It was then ported to home computers in 1990, mobile phones from 2002-2004, the Game Boy Advance in 2004, the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console and Wii U Virtual Console in 2013, and NES Classic Edition in 2016. The success of Castlevania spawned a franchise that continues to this day with more than a dozen games having been released in the last 35 years with the most recent being 2019's Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls. The characters of Count Dracula and Death have been staples of the franchise serving as antagonist in almost every game with Dracula being the primary final boss in almost every game with few exceptions (Lament of Innocence, Aria of Sorrow, and Dawn of Sorrow to name some) while Simon Belmont became a major character in his own right appearing in not only the Castlevania remakes but also serving as the main protagonist for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Super Castlevania IV while also being a playable character in Castlevania: Judgment and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.

The characters have also been popular outside the Castlevania video games as Simon and Dracula make a cameo in the Konami cult classic Snatcher. The two also appeared in the video game cartoon Captain N: The Game Master which ran from 1989-1991 though Simon was completely redesigned and portrayed as a vain character while Dracula was renamed "The Count". Simon also became a playable character in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game. Meanwhile, the franchise has also spawned an animated TV show called Castlevania which ran from 2018-2021 but it took place during the time of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse with another show taking place around the time of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood being developed in the future.