Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

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Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami (Japan / US) Palcom (Europe)
Designer(s)	H. Akamatsu
Composer(s)	Yoshinori Sasaki Jun Funahashi Yukie Morimoto
Series	Castlevania
Platform(s)	NES/Famicom
Release date(s)	NES JP December 22, 1989 NA September 1, 1990 EU December 10, 1992 Virtual Console JP April 21, 2009 NA January 12, 2009 PAL October 31, 2008
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (PC & VC versions) PEGI: 7+
Media	3-megabit cartridge

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, known in Japan as Akumajō Densetsu (悪魔城伝説^?, lit. "Devil's Castle Legend"), is the third installment in the Castlevania series of video games. It was published by Konami in Japan in 1989 and in North America in 1990. In Europe, it was published by Palcom Software, in 1992. It is the final Castlevania title to be produced for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was later released on the Wii Virtual Console in the PAL regions on October 31, 2008, in North America on January 12, 2009 and in Japan on April 21, 2009.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is the third game in the series' canon, featuring Simon Belmont's ancestor, Trevor Belmont. According to the game's instruction manual, it takes place 215 years before the events in Castlevania I and 100 years before the events of The Castlevania Adventure. Many characters and elements introduced for the first time in Castlevania III became mainstays in the series.

Gameplay

Castlevania III abandons the adventure game elements of its immediate predecessor and returns to the platform game roots of the first Castlevania title. Unlike Castlevania, however, Castlevania III is not strictly linear: You get an assortment of four characters, and after completing the first level, and at several other points throughout the game, the player is given a choice of paths to follow. The choices made by the player in these circumstances can have a profound impact on how the game unfolds. There are 15 stages in total.

There are two main routes through the game's 15 stages. The second stage is an optional excursion for picking up one of the three playable partner characters, and the main branch occurs part way through the third stage. Each route contains 9 stages total (10 if you choose to play the optional second stage). The upper route takes the player across the lake to the main bridge, entering Dracula's castle through the front gate, and is generally regarded as the easier of the two routes. The lower route takes the player through a series of underground tunnels and cavernous areas, eventually scaling the cliff side below the castle, and is generally considered more difficult than the upper route. The lower route also features one short branching section of its own at stage 6. The two paths converge in the main hall of the castle.

Plot

The year is 1476, and Count Dracula has started to ravage Europe with an army of monsters. The Belmont family of vampire hunters, once exiled from Wallachia, are called into action by the Church. They feared the Belmonts' "super-human" power, but with Dracula menacing to swallow Europe in darkness, they are left with no choice but to call Trevor Belmont, current wielder of the Vampire Killer Whip.

Joining Trevor Belmont in his mission to defeat Dracula are three new playable characters: Sypha Belnades, a young priestess with poor physical attack power but powerful elemental magic spells at her disposal;^[1] Grant DaNasty, a pirate with the ability to climb on walls and change direction in mid-jump (a rare ability in earlier games of the series); and Alucard, Dracula's son, a dhampir with the ability to shoot fireballs and transform into a bat. Trevor can be accompanied by only one companion at a time, and the player can "spiritually transform" between Trevor and his ally with the "select" button. Both Trevor and whoever is accompanying him share the same health meter. The ending of the game differs depending on which companion Trevor has with him at the time, or if he does not take another character with him at all.

Trevor and his companions cross the Transylvanian countryside, defeat Dracula's minions, and eventually defeat the Count himself. Once his father is defeated, Alucard goes into a self-induced slumber, unable to cope with having fought his father. Moreover, he realized that his own power could pose a potential threat to the world. However, he would awaken in the late-eighteenth century when feeling the absence of a Belmont when Dracula was revived by the dark priest Shaft. Grant DaNasty oversees the reconstruction of Wallachia after the battle is finished. Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades end up getting married once peace is restored in the region (according to the Castlevania Time Line included with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin).

Development

This section requires expansion.

Version differences

Besides just the different name in Japan, Akumajō Densetsu, the Japanese version has several other differences:

• Instead of using a stabbing dagger, Grant throws daggers as his main attack.
• In the North American and European versions, each enemy takes away the same amount of energy when the player is hit. But as the game progresses, damage taken from enemies increases (capping off at 4/5 bars, depending on your character, in the North American version, and 3/4 bars in the European version), Instead, in the Japanese game, each enemy takes a different amount of energy away from the player. Many fans believe this factor makes the Japanese version easier.
• On the final stage, after losing to Dracula, instead of starting back at the level's second section, the player begins right outside of Dracula's keep (as in the original Castlevania). This is another factor said to make the Japanese version much easier.
• The game's font is different between versions, with the Japanese version using the same font as the original Castlevania--a standard video-game font used in many other old games--and the western versions using a Gothic-style font (with some similarities).
• Medusa has female breasts in the Japanese game which were altered in the North American and European releases to resemble a more masculine chest. The female statues in stage 8 are partially nude in the Japanese version. The statues were clothed for the North American and European releases.
• The Flea men in the Japanese game are hopping gremlin creatures.
• Several enemies are colored differently, have altered sprites, or have slightly different attack patterns, including the zombies in the first stage.
• Several stages have different color palettes than the Japanese version.
• The original Japanese version contained a specialized "VRC6" music microprocessor chip which was removed in the North American and European releases. This chip added two extra pulse-wave channels and a saw-wave channel to the system's initial set of five channels. The majority of the music combines the channels to imitate the sound of a synthesized string section. See: Multi-Memory Controller. The reason for this removal was that the western versions of the NES didn't have the ability to support external sound chips, so the game was re-programmed for the western releases. Some of the percussion instruments were also slightly changed, even though the low-quality PCM channel was no less capable without the VRC6 mapper.
• The Japanese version had slightly better graphics than the North American version. The backgrounds in many stages had special effects not seen in the North American and European releases, also due to the lack of the special mapper chip found in the Japanese cartridge (which was manufactured not by Nintendo, but by Konami itself).
• Like Simon's Quest before it, religious imagery once again appears uncensored in the North American and PAL versions. The only difference is that the cross in the opening scene has bursts of rays around it in the Japanese version.
• In the Japanese version, Trevor Belmont is named Ralph Belmondo.
• in Stage 9, the background music "Riddle" repeats its first section once in the Japanese version.
• The North American and PAL versions have several hidden features that can be accessed by entering a certain name for the player, which include starting the game with 10 lives as well as when restarting after a game over, the option to start the game with any of the three spirit partners, and to access the second, more difficult quest. These features are not present in the Japanese version.

Audio

This section requires expansion.

Track listing

Reception and legacy

A Castlevania anime movie is in development based on Dracula's Curse, and may be split into three parts. It is being written by Warren Ellis and art directed by James Jean and is continued in 2005's Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, taking place in 1479, also featuring Trevor Belmont as a playable character. ^[2]

Many of the Sprites in Super Castlevania IV are based on those used in Castlevania III. Some gameplay characteristics (such as the ability to stand on top of the spike traps) were carried over as well.

See also

• List of Famicom games

References

External links

• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse at MobyGames
• Official website for Castlevania anime series