Castlevania is a gothic action-adventure horror game series. It’s also a prolific vampire hunter media franchise by Konami.Castlevania has26 main series games, on top of spin-offs, collections, and crossoverswe did not include for our sanity. Also, across the mainline titles, there’re various reboots or “retellings” of previous entries.
Its classic gameplay means 2D action side-scrolling. You often play as a member of the Belmont clan and advance through 2D environments. Along the way, you pick up weapons, defeat monsters, and beat the final boss in the Castle.
Simon’s Quest added an open-ended exploration plus a world map to revisit areas. It also added traders, weapon upgrades, towns, and other RPG elements.
The next big change happened inSymphony of the Night. It expanded the open-ended gameplay to lean the series into the Metroidvania genre.
Lastly, Castlevania 64 wasthe first Castlevania game in 3D. So, since 2003, Castlevania has remained a3D action-adventure with an open-ended / Metroidvania exploration. It also greatly improved the combat mechanics.
That said, there’re various alternative timelines, retellings, remakes, and reboots on top of the official main canon.
Castlevania Games in Order
The first titledebuted in Japan in 1986and reached worldwide audiences in 1988. It became available from multiple consoles. These include MS-DOS PCs, Commodore 64, NES, Game Boy Advance, Wii Virtual Console, a3DS Virtual Console, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
The game follows Simon Belmont. He inherited a mythical whip, brimming with holy power, from his father. He goes to Count Dracula’s Castle and slays the lord on a side-scrolling action-adventure.
Vampire Killer – 1986
The second entrydebuted in Japan a few months after the original entry. It’s a parallel version of the original game, and it’scurrently available in the Wii U Virtual Console.
Simon Belmont is the character on an alternative venture into Dracula’s Castle. The mechanics are different from the previous NES entry. Instead of linear levels, the game has labyrinth-like chapters.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest – 1987
Simon’s Questdebuted in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System.In 1988, it debuted worldwide for the NES.
It follows the first installment and continues the Simon Belmont storyline. He’s on a journey to stop a cursor Dracula placed on him during their final fight. He must return to the Castle’s ruins to save himself.
