Castlevania (Nintendo 64)
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Castlevania<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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|---|---|
| Developer(s) | KCE Kobe
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Konami</td></tr> |
| Release date(s) | NA January 26, 1999 JP March 11, 1999 EU 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: Teen |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64, Wii Virtual Console
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>64-megabit cartridge</td></tr> |
Castlevania (悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 Akumajō Dorakyura Mokushiroku?, lit. "Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse") is a video game developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo 64. It is the first 3D game in the Castlevania series, and was released in North America on January 26, 1999. Fans and media alike have nicknamed the game "Castlevania 64" to differentiate it from other games in the series that bear the same title.
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[edit] Storyline
"Transylvania, in the mid 19th century. The Province of Wallachia. In this time of peace and plenty, no-one foresees the return of ancient horrors... But the old legends live, and soon the land will again be plunged into darkness. The people have returned to the path of wickedness, and the bonds that seal their evil ruler's spirit are weakening. Deep in his castle, he stirs from a century of enforced sleep... Count Dracula awakes.
Reinhardt Schneider... Heir of the ancient Belmont clan of vampire hunters, his blood dooms him to oppose the might of Count Dracula. Wielding the holy whip of his ancestors, the young vampire killer begins his quest!!
Carrie Fernandez... A young girl gifted with great magical powers. Sensing Dracula's return, she sets off alone to the dark castle. Now she must wield her inherited power in the fight against evil..."
- Castlevania's prologue
[edit] Characters
- Reinhardt Schneider: Reinhardt, like Maria Renard, is a Belmont descendant who boasts a deviating surname. Though, the deviation in the surname was more than just a cosmetic difference: As he grew up within the system, he was often teased by his schoolmates, as if they couldn't believe that Reinhardt was actually directly in the line of such a famed group of warriors. These experiences polluted Reinhardt's mind with feelings of self-doubt, but they eventually manifested into a will to prove wrong all of the naysayers. Under any name, it was this young man who was chosen to receive the title of Vampire Hunter and with it the weapons that accompanied the honor. Specifically, he was fiercely trained by his father, Michael Gelhart Schneider, who taught him the true values of a vampire hunter and a man of God.
- Carrie Fernandez: A descendant of the powerful sorceress Sypha Belnades, was born in 1840. Orphaned as a child, Carrie was adopted by a loving family. As Dracula's baleful influence once again permeated Europe, the people of Wallachia feared that the peculiar girl was linked to dark magic. As a riotous mob attempted to seize the girl by force, Carrie's adoptive mother selflessly protected her and was lynched in the process. Carrie's anguish upon witnessing her mother's death awakened her latent magic powers, allowing her to evade capture. Embittered and disillusioned by the wanton murder of her stepmother, Carrie turned her back on God and adults. Years later, hearing rumors of the reappearance of Castlevania, Carrie intrepidly traveled to Dracula's stronghold. Resolved to use her magic powers to vanquish Dracula and his minions, Carrie began her quest vowing that "Whatever awaits, I have no regrets!"
- Charles Vincent: Carrie Fernandez and Reinhardt Schneider were not the only vampire hunters to explore Dracula's castle in 1852. Charles Vincent, an elderly man skeptical of others' abilities, first appears in the Villa. After ascertaining that the hero is truly human and not a vampire he advises them to flee and leave Dracula to him. Although garbed in respectable clothing reminiscent of Dr. van Helsing, Vincent is full of bluster and bravado. The self-proclaimed "mightiest of all vampire killers" insults the hero by implying he or she is a lost villager. Vincent's arrogance is often undercut by his absurd behavior: He intuits that the Archives key is worthless and gives it away (when it is in fact a vital item for progressing) and sleeps undefended in the Villa (a place that swarms with demons).
- Rosa: A young woman recently infected by a vampire. She was previously a servant working in the castle's rose-garden.
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[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Controls
[edit] Camera
Players can use the R button to center the camera behind the character and lock onto enemies. C up toggles between three camera settings: Normal view is the default camera, Battle view is best for fighting, and Action view is best for platforming. Holding C up allows the player to look at the environment from a first-person point of view. Sometimes the camera will switch to "Boss view" or a fixed perspective. At these times, it may not be possible to change the camera angle using C up or R.
[edit] Movement
Carrie and Reinhardt can perform a wide variety of simple actions. Using the game controller's analog stick they can walk, run, about-face turn, and stop. The A button allows the character to jump. Simply pressing the button will result in a vertical jump, while combining the jump button with analog commands allows the character to sidestep or do long horizontal jumps. Holding the A button also allows the character to hang onto ledges. Pushing up on the analog stick will make the character pull themself onto the ledge. Pressing C Right allows the character to open doors, examine objects, pick up items, and talk to people. Using the Z button can make the hero crouch, move while crouching, and slide. Sliding can do minor damage to enemies.
[edit] Attacking
Carrie and Reinhardt also have offensive abilities unique to their character. Each has a primary (distance) and secondary (short-range) attack. Using the B button, Carrie is capable of shooting bolts of homing magic energy. This attack can be charged by holding down the button. Reinhardt attacks with the Vampire Killer whip. Both Carrie's magic and Reinhardt's whip can be powered up by crest items dropped by enemies. Carrie's secondary attack is to hit enemies with her metal rings, while Reinhardt's is to slash with a dagger. C left is used for secondary attacks. Players can also throw a subweapon at their enemies using C down. Subweapons take a certain number of red jewels to use. The four subweapons and required jewel points include: the knife (1), axe (2), holy water (3), and cross (5).
[edit] Levels
| Level | Reinhardt | Carrie |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forest of Silence | Forest of Silence |
| 2 | Castle Wall | Castle Wall |
| 3 | Villa | Villa |
| 4 | Tunnel | Underground Waterway |
| 5 | Castle Center | Castle Center |
| 6 | Duel Tower | Tower of Science |
| 7 | Tower of Execution | Tower of Sorcery |
| 8 | Room of Clocks | Room of Clocks |
| 9 | Clock Tower | Clock Tower |
| 10 | Castle Keep | Castle Keep |
Choosing between Carrie and Reinhardt not only changes the story, but also affects which of the thirteen levels the player explores. Seven of the levels are shared by both characters, while the remaining six (bolded in the table) are exclusive to one of the two. After clearing a level, the player cannot go back and explore it again.
- Level 1
- Forest of Silence
The game begins in the aptly named Forest of Silence, through which the hero must navigate a relatively linear path (although some backtracking is required). The player must locate and operate several mechanisms that open gates blocking progression. The forest is not without hazards: A poisoned river has cut deep canyons into the earth that the player must explore, requiring careful platform jumps. Enemies such as skeletons, bats, and werewolves also inhabit the environ. The level's boss is a gigantic, ape-like skeleton the hero must fight once at the beginning and again at the end of the level.
- Level 2
- Castle Wall
Two portcullises block the path into the castle grounds. To raise them, the hero must pull two levers located at the top of the watchtowers that flank the gate. In the right tower, the hero must defeat enemies and evade guillotines before entering the top room with a dragon skeleton boss. After its defeat, the hero can pull a lever that will raise the first portcullis (allowing access to the key to the locked left tower). The second tower is more challenging as it requires spot-on jumps. The door that leads to the room at the top of the tower is sealed with magic, and can only be opened at night. After pulling the lever, the second portcullis is raised. The player can then descend and enter the next stage.
- Level 3
- Villa
The Castle Wall opens onto the front lawn of the derelict Villa, a once-stately château with expansive grounds. Before the hero can progress into the residence, six cerberuses must be defeated. The Villa is a change in pace from the two preceding levels; it is relatively non-linear and requires considerable exploration. In order to progress the player must find keys that unlock doors in and around the home while tackling enemies such as vampires, ghosts, and stained-glass knights. Acquiring keys can be as simple as picking one up off the ground or as complex as the fruit of a lengthy interaction between several characters. Players must also navigate the Maze Garden, where they help Malus escape from two stone hellhounds and a Frankenstein gardener. In a crypt under the Maze Garden the hero confronts the boss, two vampires fought in succession. After discovering a hidden path concealed in a coffin, the player advances to a character-specific level.
- Level 4
- Tunnel
Reinhardt explores a deep, convoluted mine that houses spider-women, bats, and ghosts as well as equipment for crushing rocks. Unlike prior levels, the challenge is not to remove path impediments, but to keep one's bearings in the search for elevators that lead up and out of the level. It's rather easy to get lost if careful attention is not paid to the environment. After navigating half of the level, Reinhardt comes across an industrial gondola hanging from a track on the ceiling. Mid-trip he must transfer to a second, blue gondola running on the same track. If he isn't careful, enemies or obstacles will sweep him off the moving platform and into the poisonous subterranean river or spikes below. After ascending the final elevator, Reinhardt can exit the level via a sun-embossed door guarded by fire-breathing bats.
- Level 4
- Underground Waterway
Upon entering the waterway, Carrie's sense of smell alerts her that the water gushing from wall openings into the channel is poisonous. To progress to the end of the level, she must press several switches that turn off waterfalls or raise gates that block her path. The first of the switches is protected by a boss, three lizard men that can breathe fire or spit poisonous venom. These lizard men appear throughout the level. The platforms that traverse the deadly waters are long, narrow, and often incomplete. Even on firm ground Carrie must proceed with caution to avoid falling to her death: some floors crumble underfoot and certain crevasses can only be passed by dangling from a ledge and moving hand-over-hand to safety. The door that leads to the next level, like Reinhardt's, is sealed at night.
- Level 5
- Castle Center
The Castle Center boasts some of the dark lord's most sinister work, such as combining magic with machinery. The results, as seen in the level, include machines to mutate humans into lizard men, a magical elevator, and 'Magical Nitro', a powerful explosive. The elevator leads further up the castle, but it not functional. The power for the elevator is a large crystal, hidden in a large room with a bull corpse. The wall can be destroyed using Magical Nitro with Mandragola to create an explosion, but is sealed using a spell to prevent this. Using clues from 3 statues found in the level, an observatory room can be used to cast a spell to destroy the seal. Upon activating the crystal however, the magic also revives the bull, who attacks the player and slowly loses its skin, until it is a skeletal bull towards the end of the battle. Furthermore, in the room under the elevator, another boss fight occurs. Rosa is coerced into battle with Reinhardt by Death, while Actrise looses the Fernandez warrior on Carrie. After defeating the boss, the player can operate the elevator. Depending on what character is being used, a bridge in the tower atrium will have collapsed.
- Level 6
- Duel Tower
Reinhardt proceeds to the Duel Tower, a cavernous room with a series of elevated platforms scattered throughout a vast, acidic lake. Four bosses inhabit the level, including a werecheetah, werewolf, minotaur, and weretiger. After entering a pavilion where one of these enemies lay in wait, wrought-iron grates drop from the ceiling to trap Reinhardt with his foe. If he does not defeat them in time, the ceiling of the pavilion will fall, crushing the hero. After defeating a boss, access to the next set of platforms will appear. Many of the platforms have rotating pikes anchored in the middle, complicating progression. A hidden path in this course allows Reinhardt to skip the third boss battle. It is leads down to a series of sinking platforms that traverse the lake.
- Level 6
- Tower of Science
Carrie enters the Tower of Science, which contains Dracula's most technologically advanced weapons and research. In the first room Carrie will climb a structure surrounded by conveyor belts. However, there are many impediments that complicate reaching the top: large blocks suddenly shoot out of holes in the wall and taser machines can electrocute Carrie mid-jump. Both can cause her to plummet to her death. After reaching the top Carrie enters another large room, where she must locate several keys to unlock doors. While searching for them, Carrie must make difficult jumps in close proximity to machine guns and other deadly machinery. After opening the final locked door, Carrie can climb a short series of platforms and walk through the final chamber to the level's exit.
- Level 7
- Tower of Execution
Reinhardt will then explore a large, lava-filled room. Using the central structure as a hub he can access the remote perimeters of the tower in a search for keys to gates that block his path. This stage has a wide variety of enemies and environmental hazards: bats, medusa heads, bone dragon heads, blood skeletons, retracting platforms, guillotines, and blade pendulums. Some backtracking is required if the player wants to access a locked area with several items. The steps to the exit are blocked by an electrified gate. Once Reinhardt finds a way around it he can progress to the next level.
- Level 7
- Tower of Sorcery
The shimmering Tower of Sorcery is one of Carrie's most perilous levels, despite the beauty of its stained glass windows. The danger lies in negotiating the gem-like platforms Actrise has conjured to float within the tower. The witch's cunning knows no bounds: some enchanted platforms will intermittently disappear while others must be shifted into place by destroying floating bubbles. If Carrie does not climb the shifted platforms in time they will move back into place. The only enemies she encounters in the tower are crystal beings that can slash and spit harmful fluids.
- Level 8
- Room of Clocks
Reinhardt and Carrie's paths converge in the antechamber to the Clock Tower, the Room of Clocks. The room contains a variety of items, a white save jewel, and a scroll to summon the demon salesman Renon. This is the game's shortest level; after stocking up and saving the player must take an elevator to the roof where the will battle a character-specific boss. After defeating Death (in Reinhardt's quest) or Actrise (in Carrie's) the door once blocking the entrance to the Clock Tower will be open.
- Level 9
- Clock Tower
The Clock Tower is alive with bats, skeletal heads and shifting cogs and gears. The danger in the clock tower is that a single false step can end with the player being caught between two gears, resulting in an unpleasant death. When the Clock Tower is scaled, the players finds a long staircase leading to the Castle Keep.
- Level 10
- Castle Keep
As players ascend the stairs, depending on the game mode, as well as how many items the player has bought, Renon will appear for a battle in the first antechamber. If players took 16 days or longer to scale the castle, Charles Vincent will have been caught and made into a vampire, waiting to battle in the second antechamber. At the top of the stairs is the Castle Keep, where de Rais appears. After destroying de Rais, the Keep collapses, and the player must seek refuge on the roof, where Malus awaits. After a battle with Malus in the form of Dracula, Charlie Vincent appears and douses Malus with holy water. Malus reveals his true form as a giant, dragon-like creature, before he is finally vanquished.
[edit] Development
While in development, Castlevania was known simply as Dracula 3D.
The music for Castlevania was composed by Masahiro Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa, and Mariko Egawa. Tomokuni Katayama performed the violin solo, a rendition of "Bloodlines" from Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, that greets the player on the title screen. The soundtrack was released in Japan on March 26, 1999. It was also released in Europe under the name Castlevania: The Original Game Soundtrack.
[edit] Critical reception
Castlevania garnered very respectable scores at the time of its release, including 9/9/8/9 from EGM, 8.2/10 from both IGN and GameSpot and a 4.5/5 from GamePro.<ref>Castlevania review scores. GameStats.com. Retrieved 12 December 2005.</ref> However, it has since acquired a negative stigma in the media. The game has been criticized for having first generation graphics, a problematic camera, and a steep learning curve for controls.
Defenders of the game also respond with the fact that Castlevania was the first game that Konami KCEK had programmed in 3D.<ref>Austin, Dean. "Behind the Castle Walls". IGN. 18 November 1999. Retrieved 12 December 2005.</ref> They also speculate that the game was rushed out for a holiday release. Many elements of this claim are evident, such as how the werewolf Cornell and chainsaw-wielding Coller were cut from the game. Technical problems and sacrificed material would later be addressed in its sequel, Legacy of Darkness.
[edit] Trivia
- The PAL version of the game features voice acting for Gilles de Rais in the Castle Keep level, while the American version does not.
- The Villa's exterior is based on one of the façades of the French château Azay-le-Rideau.
- Carrie's alternate costume is an homage to Maria Renard's dress in Rondo of Blood.
- Reinhardt's alternate costume is an homage to Simon Belmont's outfit in the first Castlevania.
- The chainsaw-wielding Frankenstein monster found in the Villa's hedge maze is basically the remnants of a character that was to be playable in the game named Coller, but was later scrapped before release. Besides the chainsaw, his main weapon in combat was to be a pistol, which was apparently re-used for Henry Oldrey's gameplay in Legacy of Darkness.
- When fighting the Behemoth (giant bull) boss on level 5, it is possible to take out its legs leaving it to crawl around crying in pain which leaves it practically defenseless. This is intended as an homage to the legless, crawling Behemoth featured in Rondo of Blood and its remake Castlevania: Dracula X.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
