Castlevania (Nintendo 64)

Castlevania
North American box art
Developer(s)	Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe
Publisher(s)	Konami
Director(s)	Yuji Shibata
Producer(s)	Etsunobu Ebisu
Composer(s)	Masahiko Kimura Motoaki Furukawa Mariko Egawa
Series	Castlevania
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release date(s)	NA January 26, 1999 JP March 11, 1999 EU May 14, 1999
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, platforming
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T

Castlevania, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula Mokushiroku (悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録, Akumajō Dorakyura Mokushiroku^?, lit. "Devil's Castle Dracula Apocalypse"), is an action-adventure video game developed by Konami's Kobe branch for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released on a 64-megabit cartridge in North America on January 26, 1999, in Japan on March 11, 1999, and in Europe on May 14, 1999. Unofficially, it is commonly dubbed as: "Castlevania 64" since it shares the same title with the first original Castlevania video game.

Castlevania is the first 3D game in the Castlevania series. The player selects one of the games protagonists to control: Carrie Fernandez, a young orphan gifted with magic powers, or Reinhardt Schneider, the whip-wielding heir to the Belmont clan (the series' trademark protagonists). Carrie and Reinhardt set out on a quest to stop Count Dracula's impending return to power after a century of dormancy. The characters travel to and explore Dracula's grand estate in their mission to defeat the count and his horde of undead minions.

Plot

Dracula reawakens in 1852, after nearly sixty years of enforced slumber, as a result of humankind's descent into vice and wickedness. Two young heroes sense his return: Carrie Fernandez, a girl gifted with magic powers, and Reinhardt Schneider, heir to the ancient Belmont clan of vampire hunters. The two set out to storm the Count's castle in the Transylvanian province of Wallachia and vanquish him.

As they penetrate the castle walls, an aristocratic vampire appears to warn Carrie and Reinhardt that "all who oppose the Dark Lord will die."^[1] The two then come upon a decrepit villa, where they meet the elderly vampire hunter Charles Vincent, beautiful yet unwilling vampire Rosa, demonic salesman Renon, and young boy Malus. Beneath the estate's maze garden lies a subterranean path to the castle's center, where Dracula's servants (Actrise and Death) attempt to waylay the heroes by pitting them in battle against their loved ones (the Fernandez warrior and Rosa).

Carrie kills her vampirized kin while Reinhardt beats Rosa in combat. The heroes then climb several of the castle's towers before confronting Actrise and Death atop the Room of Clocks. With their defeat, the heroes climb the Clock Tower to the Castle Keep.

The heroes may also need to battle Renon, the Demon Salesman, in his true form. This depends upon whether or not thirty thousand gold or more is spent with Renon over the course of the game.

Endings

If the hero took sixteen^{[citation needed]} or more "in game" days to reach the second chamber on the stairs to the Castle Keep, Vincent will have arrived before them, been defeated by the aristocratic vampire assumed to be Dracula (in reality Gilles de Rais^{[citation needed]}), and turned into a vampire (thus triggering the bad, non-canon ending). The hero will then have to battle Vincent. Without Vincent's intercession, the hero will not discover that Malus was indeed Dracula reincarnate - not simply possessed by him - and receive one of the non-canon endings in which the hero rescues the boy. In Reinhart's ending he and Malus ride of into the sunset. In Carrie's ending, while the two are brought back to the village on a horse-drawn carriage, Malus tricks Carrie into a binding contract to marry him when they grow up.

If the player took fifteen or fewer days^{[citation needed]} to reach the second chamber on the stairs to the Castle Keep, they will arrive before Charles Vincent (thus triggering the good, canon ending). After fighting de Rais disguised as Dracula, they will encounter Malus - who transforms into an adult - and defeat him atop the Clock Tower. After his defeat, Malus will regain the form of a child. Attempting to dupe the hero, he will pretend to have no recollection of the battle, but Vincent will arrive and douse the boy with holy water. Vincent explains that Malus was not possessed, but was in fact Dracula reincarnate. Malus then transports the hero to an alternate realm to battle his true form, a centipedal dragon named Drago. After Dracula's defeat the player will receive one of the canon endings: In Carrie's ending she places a nosegay upon her stepmother's grave. In Reinhardt's ending, Rosa, who sacrificed herself for him atop the Room of Clocks, is revived and her humanity restored.

Position in chronology

Castlevania was present within the series' chronology from its original release in 1999 until 2002, when a timeline published on the official Japanese Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance website omitted it - as well as several other Castlevania games - from the series' continuity.^[2] In 2006, series producer Koji Igarashi stated that "These games were taken out of the timeline [...] not because I didn't work on them, but because they were considered by their directors to be side projects in the series".^[3] Since the 2002 removal, the events of Castlevania have occupied an ambiguous place in timelines published by Konami of Japan, Konami of America, and various gaming publications. The most recent English language timeline, distributed with preordered versions of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in North America by Konami of America, includes the 1999 Castlevania but does not describe the game's plot.^[4] Some of the events and characters from the prequel/remix Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness which contain a version of Castlevania 64 are referenced in Castlevania Judgment, in the form of the man-wolf Cornell. According to IGA characters from different eras of Castlevania's timeline were brought together by magic to save the timeline from being destroyed.

Gameplay

Being the first installment to be in 3D, the game offers a few changes the formula established by previous entries in the Castlevania series. Although battling enemies is still a large part of the game, there is also an emphasis on exploration and platforming, along with some light puzzle-solving. Non-player characters are interacted with at certain points in the game, a first for the series. Also, currency, while still in the form of moneybags, can be used to purchase items. Other innovations include the use of an inventory to hold items, such as health-restoring meat and sun-or-moon cards.

Combat is slightly more complex than in older entries. Players have the use of both a ranged attack (the whip for Reinhardt and magic blasts for Carries) and a close-quarters attack (short sword and rings). A basic targeting and lock-on system has also been implemented. Sub-weapons, of which only one can be used at a time, are still limited in use, but instead of hearts they are powered by red gems. These sub-weapons consists of series mainstays such as the knife, cross, and holy water. While levels have a definite beginning and end, backtracking is frequent, and occasionally a boss will be battled in the middle of a level, rather than at the end.

The game also features a day/night time cycle. In a few choice areas the time of day will effect events in the story; characters may not appear or be unwilling to talk at a certain time of day, while hidden areas may only be accessible for a short period of time. Sun cards can be used to advance the time to 6 a.m. sunup, while moon cards advance it to 6 p.m. sunset.

The North American and PAL versions of the cartridge do not have a built in save feature; all saved games are stored on a memory pack. The game is saved at set intervals in the form of Save Gems, which must be touched to activate and can be used indefinitely.

Difficulty settings

Castlevania has different settings to adjust the challenge posed by the game. In "Easy mode", the player will only be able to play until the end of the Castle Center level, at which time the game will ask them to try "Normal mode" to advance to the subsequent stages. Upon fulfilling certain conditions a 'hard mode' will be unlocked. In this mode enemies take more hits to defeat and subweapons require more jewel points to use (e.g. 2 jewel points for the knife instead of 1).

Development

A model of Camilla, a recurring Castlevania villain, in an early development screenshot.

While in development at Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe (KCEK), Castlevania was originally known as Dracula 3D early in development. United States news media referred to the game by this title as well as Dracula 64.^[5] When the English name was revealed to be simply Castlevania, fans and media alike nicknamed it Castlevania 64 to differentiate it from previous games bearing the same title.

In September 1997, the game was approximately 10% finished^[5] and was 20% complete in February 1998.^[6] In October 1998 the game was featured at the Tokyo Game Show; several levels were playable and the game was a hit with the crowd.^[7] Later that month, it was revealed that KCEK decided to drop two of the planned four characters from the game "in favor of focusing the programming team's development efforts and moving completion of the game forward."^[8] In January 1999 a Japanese release date was set for March 4, 1999^[9] and Castlevania won the "Game of the Month" award at IGN.com.^[10] On the 18th, it was announced that the U.S. release date for the game would be January 26, 1999.^[11] On that date, the game shipped as planned and was available the day after at a MSRP of $49.95.^[12]

The character artwork was designed by Yasuomi Umetsu.

The Villa's exterior is based on one of the façades of the French château d'Azay-le-Rideau. Dracula's castle was based on Mont Saint-Michel.

Several elements of the game were designed to allude to past Castlevania titles: Carrie's alternate costume is an homage to Maria Renard's dress in Devil's Castle Dracula X Rondo of Blood, Reinhardt's alternate costume is an homage to Simon Belmont's outfit in the first Castlevania, and the Behemoth boss in the Castle Center can be crippled, a reference to the crawling Behemoth first featured in Rondo of Blood.

Audio

See also: Castlevania: The Original Game Soundtrack

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 Castlevania: 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.

Castlevania also features sporadic voice acting, mainly for the prologue's narrator and several of the game's main characters. Bianca Allen provided the voice for Carrie and Andrew Hanikson for Reinhardt.^[1] The PAL version of the game features voice acting for Gilles de Rais in the Castle Wall and Castle Keep levels; the North American version did not include the voice work for the latter level.

Critical reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	78 out of 100[13]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Allgame	[14]
GamePro	[15]
Game Revolution	C-[16]
GameSpot	8.2 out of 10[17]
IGN	8.2 out of 10[18]

Castlevania received generally positive reviews. It has an average of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[13]

At the release, most critics considered the game to be a good transition to the series, despite lots of gameplay changes. GameSpot praised the graphics, audio and gameplay, saying "The developers have done a fantastic job of capturing the atmosphere and spirit of the series, while providing a well-balanced, challenging gameplay experience that's filled with pretty visuals, awesome (though limited) music, plenty of secrets, and some incredible bosses (just wait until you see Death... whew!).", while IGN highlighted the sound better than the graphics, saying "Outstanding sound effects with lots of bass. Good music, even if it's a bit simple at times." and Game Pro said "Is Castlevania fun? It depends on what kind of game you're looking for and how much energy you want to spend playing it. Fans of the old Castlevania will marvel at this version's familiar sites and environments and will appreciate the dedicated tack of the gameplay. Novices will be chilled to the bone at the thought of replaying a huge level after an untimely fall (fortunately, there are numerous save points). Castlevania's a 3D platform spectacle that definitely warrants a good look from N64 owners everywhere—you won't find better hauntings than this one."

The camera and the controls however were heavily criticized. Game Revolution stated that the camera almost ruined the game, saying "(..)the camera is barely tolerable. Acting like a 7 year-old on Pixie Stix, the camera will occasionally just go nuts, running around the character. Getting a good view of the action is almost impossible, so players find themselves just making due [sic] with a bad camera angle. This, of course, often leads to death." and regarding the controls, "(...)the control itself is a little frisky(...)Most of the control problems are found in the speed of the character. Moving close to an edge in order to jump to a lower platform is tedious - you end up mastering the lemming dive before you are able to do it with some degree of success." IGN stated "Control feels too float at first and the camera can be painful".

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe (KCEK). Castlevania. (Konami). Nintendo 64. (1999-01-26)
2. ^ "CASTLEVANIA" (in Japanese). Konami. 2002. http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/CV01/chronology.html. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 
3. ^ Kalata, Kurt (2006-07-26). "Tales from The Crypt: Castlevania's 20th Anniversary Blow-Out". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=4&cId=3152109. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 
4. ^ Image of the most recent English language timeline.
5. ^ ^{a b} IGN Staff (1997-09-24). "Dracula 64 Out for Blood". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/061/061303p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
6. ^ IGN staff (1998-02-18). "Bring Out the Garlic...". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/061/061821p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
7. ^ IGN staff (1998-10-08). "TGS: Konami Whips Castlevania into Shape". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/065/065211p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
8. ^ IGN staff (1998-10-21). "Castlevania Revisited". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/065/065374p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
9. ^ IGN staff (1999-01-11). "Coming Soon in Japan". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066367p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
10. ^ IGN staff (1999-01-11). "N64 Games in January". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066371p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
11. ^ IGN staff (1999-01-18). "Konami's '99 Lineup". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066469p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
12. ^ IGN staff (1999-01-26). "Beware Dracula". IGN. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066591p1.html. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
13. ^ ^{a b} [1]
14. ^ [2]
15. ^ [3]
16. ^ [4]
17. ^ [5]
18. ^ [6]

External links

• Konami of Europe's Official Castlevania website