Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Review by The Successor

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astlevania III: Dracula's Curse returns to the template set by the original Castlevania after Castlevania II: Simon's Quest broke the mold. Castlevania: The Adventure for the Gameboy was much closer to Castlevania, but still rather different in presentation and other various ways. To draw a comparison, Castlevania II is the Super Mario Bros. 2, and Castlevania: The Adventure is the Super Mario Land.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is the Super Mario Bros. 3.

Much like Super Mario Bros. 3, it has gained a reputation as being one of the very best its series has to offer, often contending with Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood for favored classic title.

The question - is this game the creme of the crop of classic Castlevania games?

One of its strong suits is its majestic feeling - an air of immensity that its NES brethren (and most games in the series) don't capture as well. It is like the original Castlevania, but with more ambition, a grander scale, less restraint, and more pomp and rattling of sabers. It's perceptible from the moment you turn the game on. We're treated to a colorful exposition of the game's story while a luxurious musical theme whisks us off into different sections and emotions of the prologue . . . from pride, to majesty, to spookiness, worry, and uncertainty.

Even now, Castlevania III has a weight of importance concerning events in the series' narrative, and the game does a good job of portraying that. This story illustrates the first Belmont to ever face Count Dracula in a death duel, and Dracula's first full scale attack against humanity. Because of reasons that were explained about seven years after this game's release in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula has a deep hatred for the human race. Before said reasons, he was content with hating God, and his realm served as a sanctuary for heretics, heathens, blasphemers, and all who were shunned by the light and shared Dracula's stance.

At the start of Castlevania III, the year 1476, Dracula has been ravaging Europe with his legions of unholy monsters, conquering lands and sadistically torturing and murdering their populous. The Church wages war with Dracula, but the Vampire's forces prove too mighty. The only hope for Europe is a family of outcasts that were known for being Vampire Hunters. The people cast the family out of society long ago because of fear of their incredible powers. The Church made contact with a member of the family, Trevor Belmont, and beseeched him for help. Despite being rejected by civilization, Trevor decides to help and makes way to Valacia with his holy whip to liberate it from Dracula's tyranny.

As Trevor, players penetrate deep behind enemy lines and try to work their way to Castlevania, the enemy capitol, which is a massive castle where Dracula calls home. The goal is to enter the castle, work toward the peak, and settle this war by killing the dark Vampire behind the conflict.

For a 1989 NES game, the story is pretty striking. It tells of the first encounter between the Belmont Clan and Count Dracula as the series came to know them, and doesn't come off as a rinky-dink unveiling of a critically important event, such as Castlevania: Legends on the Gameboy. It's this feeling of grandness that supports this and makes it legit.

Looking back in hindsight with a realistic view of the times, something well within the realm of possibilities that could have escalated it further are cut scenes that develop story exposition, similar to the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. It's not as though including those would be asking Konami to put a man on the moon. Ninja Gaiden had already done it by that time, and there is so much possible story with intriguing characters that could have been capitalized on.

This game is arguably the best the Nintendo Entertainment System has in terms of visuals. It has a wonderful style that adheres to its forerunners, but makes noticeable leaps forward in environmental detail. The landscapes are lush and beautiful, in a ruined, dank, overgrown, and grimy way. As old as the graphics are, they are incredibly immersive. You can almost smell wet pine needles while plodding though the Mad Forest and heading toward the Mire. Some of the best stuff is strutted immediately at the first stage, as players are thrown into a ruined courtyard filled with collapsing masonry and overgrown plant life set to a deep night sky. The stage continues vertically through a dim church decorated with stained glass. Afterward, the battle makes its way to rooftops and down into a village leading to a dark graveyard. The following stage is a clock tower with myriad of rotating gears, vivid colors, and believably decayed architecture, and Castlevania III doesn't often slack in looks and mood for environments beyond. It's a mixture of imaginative surroundings and impressive pixel work that make this game a sight to see, and something that easily engrosses.

Really, put this game beside, say, Mega Man 3, a high profile game that was made roughly around the same time, and Dracula's Curse will absolutely trounce it in a beauty pageant, and will most other games of the day.

The music is high octane, explosive, and instantly catchy. It has a big and impressive sound featured in tracks such as "Aquarius" "Beginning" and "Big Battle". It's often fiercer than what is heard in the first Castlevania, yet sometimes contemplative, with tracks like "Rising" and the psychologically disturbed and serpentine "Nightmare". "Clockwork," an incredibly precise classical theme representing the clock tower, is a robust example that some of the composers for video games, even 8-bit ones, actually care about what they're doing.
There are some duds, including the dull and boring "Anxiety," the aggravating "Pressure," and an oddly cacophonous boss theme, but the highlights really make up for these as a whole, though it would be nice if they were better.

The music isn't as moody as Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, but it has different qualities. Perhaps something less ruminative, but more adventurous, more bold and defiant.

Speaking of adventure, there is a real sense of going somewhere in this game . . . a sense of progression and resolute purpose. As mentioned, our hero, Trevor Belmont starts in a ruined town. His goal is to get to Dracula's Castle, and players traverse the gnarled and treacherous landscape around the Castle before making it inside. This gives a healthy dose of outer areas, such as swamps, forests, caves, and even a ghost ship, before getting to the familiar arches and tiers of the Castle.

A more important aspect, however, is that players choose their own paths. This is one of the main innovations of Dracula's Curse.
When certain stages are completed, you will come to a fork in the road. The different paths have a set of completely different stages and possibilities. This adds some variables, which is really nice, since it can be tackled several different ways garnering several different experiences. What's more is they're all good. No one path is vastly superior or inferior to another.

The paths go hand in hand with another key originality of Dracula's Curse. Besides Trevor Belmont, there are three other playable characters, like Grant DaNasty, a swarthy freedom fighter and working class hero. There is also Sypha Belnades, a young woman who lived a hard life, and disguises herself as a man because certain opportunities wouldn't be open to her as a woman. She is a vampire hunting cleric that was dispatched by the Church to infiltrate Dracula's Castle, and slay Dracula, but she failed and was magically imprisoned. Alucard is the half vampire son of Count Dracula who turned against his father's wicked ways and chooses to defend humanity. This character struggles with his accursed bloodline, and got to star in the oft praised and largely influential Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

If Trevor happens across these characters on his journey, they will offer to help him in his endeavor. Only one can be taken at a time, and which path of stages you choose determines which characters you will encounter. Each one of them has useful abilities. Grant is a quick acrobat who can climb walls. Alucard's main utility is his ability to change into a bat and fly. This comes in handy if you get knocked into a pit from an enemy attack. His bat form can save you from certain doom, or traverse areas of stages very quickly. Sypha is a powerhouse. Her spells pack a punch, but she's more frail than the others, and takes more damage than them. By pressing the select button, one of these characters, depending on who you choose, will take the place of Trevor Belmont. Trevor can be called back by pressing select again. One health meter is shared between the two characters.

This feature is well balanced, because none of the three characters are mandatory, but they each have very useful attributes that compliment Trevor's well (who plays exactly like Simon Belmont from the original game), and there are so many diverse abilities and paths that can be chosen.

Clever level structure abounds throughout. There are vertically scrolling areas, which the first game did not have. Sometimes these are utilized by putting players in a race against the environment. If you do not ascend a trap ridden tower quick enough, the screen will pass by your character, killing them. There is an area where water is rising and you must rush to complete the stage before the heroes drown. There are treacherous segments where swiftly swinging pendulums must be ridden to pass massive pitfalls. Quicksand-like mud, unsteady floors, teeter-tottering platforms, and more keep stages from being too static and boring, as well as the considered enemy placement.

Though, stages aren't completely without their stupid parts. At times, they stretch on for no good reason other than to fill space, old bosses return (as bosses) just because, and the game can seem unfairly difficult and frustrating until you learn just the right thing to do, which will take heavy repetition from most players. Situations like these often appear on incredibly long flights of stairs where our characters have very limited mobility, and players must deal with swift projectiles from left and right and flying enemies that swoop in from above and below.

There is an especially infamous section of a certain stage where players must wait for falling bricks to stack and make a tower in order to continue the stage. The problem is that this lasts for much too long, and players don't get to do anything other than dodge bricks or die.

It's for reasons like this that I'm hesitant to say that this game is more competently designed than the original Castlevania. Castlevania is constantly attentive to each moment and is consistently better designed, if more humble. Dracula's Curse has a lot more stuff, but with that comes more problems.

It should be noted that there are two versions of this game, because they are different enough to mention. One is the United States version, and the other is the Japanese version, titled Legend of Demon Castle. The Japanese version has slightly different graphics that are usually better but occasionally worse. Divergences are primarily seen in the enemies and bosses. The music is vastly better in sound quality in the Japanese version due to its usage of a sound chip Konami developed themselves, instead relying on the default NES chip, which the American version does. The U.S. version also has censoring in different spots.

This game was butchered in localization. The three different playable characters are, for some reason, referred to as Spirit Companions . . . whatever that means. I guess they're . . . not real? Perhaps the localizers actually took the change from Trevor Belmont to different characters as a literal morph, as if it's some kind of strange ability. If you're really into cheese, some of these additions may be a good thing for you. For example, the swamp is called the Murky Marsh of Morbid Morons, and the Americans . . . made up some guy called the Poltergeist King, who is supposed to give the Belmonts their whip. Wallachia became Warakiya (which was later turned into Valacia). The prologue also makes the story sound pretty stupid. All in all, these things are relatively small and not worth worrying too much about. Many people who have compared the two believe the Japanese version to be better. This is mostly true, but it should be mentioned that the Japanese version lacks a good deal of challenge that the American one has. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view. Though, I have found it a bit strange going from the American version, after being used to it, to the ease of the Japanese version.

So . . . Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the best of its kind?
That is very tough to say. It has attributes and qualities that others don't, as well as faults that others don't. For instance, while larger in scale and more grand than the original, it isn't as alert and constantly well put together. Though it has multiple paths and characters that Castlevania IV lacks, as well as better challenge, Castlevania IV's presentation is near matchless, and reflective. It really depends on what you value.

Regardless, Castlevania III is something that no Castlevania fan should miss. Not only for being a critical point in the series' timeline, as it depicts the first true confrontation between the Belmonts and Dracula, introducing such important characters as the Belnades family and Alucard, the son of Dracula, and for having Dracula's first death (should you beat the game), but it's just a really good game that has a sizable impact on the series, technically, aesthetically, and in its storytelling.

I am confident in saying this much - Castlevania III is a hallmark of the Castlevania series and one of the very best games to appear on the Nintendo Entertainment System, bar none.