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Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Konami
Initial release: December 22, 1989 (Japan)
Platform: Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System
Alternate title: Legend of the Demon Castle (Japan)
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| images c/o Mobygames |
If the old-school Castlevania games have a title that’s a standard-bearer for the rest, it’s probably the Famicom/NES classic, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. While, in your humble authoress' opinion, there’s no substitute for the original (all those remakes notwithstanding) it’s Castlevania III that most defines the series pre-Symphony of the Night. And for good reason: it's an amazing game! There's a reason the Netflix Castlevania series is functionally an adaptation of this game (and its immediate in-universe sequel, Curse of Darkness... but we'll talk about that one another time.)
Set two centuries (originally just one before retcons) before the first Castlevania, Castlevania III stars Trevor Belmont, who takes up arms against Dracula, who is waging war on Wallachia (today part of Romania) with aims on taking europe. Ghouls n’ ghosts have taken over, and Trevor must beat them back. Along the way he meets three other heroes: Grant Danasty, an acrobatic pirate (his name alluding to the real-life Dănești family, rivals to the real Vlad Dracul’s family line); Sypha Belnades, a sorceress working for the Catholic Church (very different from how the Netflix series treats her, in which she's basically a Cathar with the serial numbers filed off) and “Alucard,” i.e. Adrian Tepes Dracula — son of the big man himself.
In the game this translates to you being able to swap between Trevor and another character using the select button. Each has their own abilities and flaws, and thus there are situations where they’re more useful than Trevor in passing certain areas. While the canonical idea is that all four of them fought Dracula as a group, in practice you can only have one partner character with you at a time, and there’s no way you can meet all three in a single playthrough as Alucard and Sypha are on mutually exclusive paths. Where the first Castlevania was a linear affair, and Castlevania II was more open-world, Castlevania III is linear but offers you multiple choices of path, starting from the end of the first stage. The shorter path allows you to meet Sypha; the longer has Alucard. Grant can be optionally met before either.
The gameplay is the same old Castlevania we're familiar with from the first two games: side-scrolling action, difficult platforming,
aggressive enemies that are sometimes tricky to deal with safely. But Castlevania III is orders of magnitude harder than the original. (Don't worry, we'll talk about II soon enough.) Key
to victory is knowing how to use your partners and subweapons. Sypha is
relatively weak, but her spells are powerful, and can wreck bosses in
seconds. Grant can climb walls and ceilings, allowing you to reach
places otherwise inaccessible. Alucard can turn into a bat.
While there's some debate as to whether the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom were the same system, the fact remains that there are significant differences between the NES version of Castlevania III and the Famicom version. The big one is the music; the Famicom version uses the famous VRC6 chip, which adds more channels for a more robust sound. The NES version’s music had to be stripped down to work on the hardware. The NES version was made more difficult, for example Grant’s main attack of throwing knives (identical to the dagger subweapon) was reduced to a pitiful stab. Damage was also made more uniform from start to finish, similar to the first game. In Japan, damage varies depending on what hit you, which as far as I'm concerned is probably a better way of doing it. Oddly enough, in the Japanese version, Trevor is known as “Ralph C. Belmondo” —God knows what they were thinking, especially since the middle initial apparently stood for “Christopher” — nevermind that there was already a Christopher in Castlevania: the Adventure for Game Boy, released a few months prior.
Like most NES games, Castlevania III has a few romhacks floating around. The one that interests me the most is this translation patch for the Famicom version, allowing you to play the game in English with the soundtrack as it should be. It also features a bonus sprite replacement to bring Alucard more in line with his Symphony of the Night incarnation.
In any case, regardless of version, Castlevania III
stands tall as one of the greatest NES/FC games ever made, and a
fitting close to the original NES trilogy. It builds on ideas from Castlevania I and to a lesser extent II to create something that has stood the test of time…mostly. Sometimes
the difficulty can get out of whack. While the first game is notable
for its realistic sense of place in level design, there are moments in III where video game logic takes over — for example forced scrolling sequences, always infuriating. The
biggest sin the game commits would have to be level 7 on Alucard’s
path. In some places, you have to wait for dripping acid to melt
obstacles in your path. Later, you must wait for a steady rain of blocks
to stack up, allowing you to climb to the top. This. Takes. FOREVER. The
blocks damage you, there’s no place you can wait safely, and if you
climb too high too fast, most of the blocks disappear below the screen,
leaving you stuck. At least you can bypass this nonsense by having
Alucard fly up — but watch you don’t get hit. The
worst part is that it doesn’t matter which branch on Alucard’s path you
take — this level is mandatory either way. Fortunately Sypha’s path has
a completely different level 7, and all roads eventually lead to Castle
Dracula, the opening of which is a glorious callback to Castlevania I.
In spite of these issues, on top of the classic 8-bit era difficulty we’re all familiar with, Castlevania III is still a great game, and well worth your time.