Castlevania

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Background

Castlevania is a series of video games produced by Konami. This is one of the company’s most successful and long-running franchises, spanning several different consoles from Nintendo consoles to the Playstation. The first game, Castlevania, released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The Castlevania games tell the tale of a familial clan of vampire hunters and their quest to rid the world of Count Dracula, with heavy ties to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Each game chronicles a different member of the Belmont family and their quest to defeat the creatures of the night. The gameplay across the games is split into three different genres; Classic Castlevania, which functions as a side-scroller; Metroidvania, which provides a large singular map and focuses on exploration and back-tracking; and 3D Castlevania, which adapts the Metroidvania style into a 3D plane.

Each Castlevania game is set in the same universe, with only a few notable exceptions (Castlevania Legends, Kid Dracula, the Lords of Shadow series.) Nearly every game’s main character shares a familial connection.

The Belmont Clan takes center stage as the main characters, each being noted as legendary vampire hunters. Every member of the Belmont clan wields the powerful Vampire Killer whip, which was given to the Clan as the Whip of Alchemy, by an alchemist named Rinaldo Gandolfi.

The main recurring rival of the Belmont Clan is Lord Dracula, a powerful immortal vampire who has existed for several hundred years. Having a deep hatred for God and humanity, Dracula curses the land of which he stands, and returns every 100 years after he is killed. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence established that Count Dracula was once a regular human and masterful tactician named Mathias Cronqvist, who was also best friends with the ancestor of the Belmont Clan, Leon Belmont. After the death of Mathias’ wife, he swore vengeance against God and sought out a powerful relic known as the Crimson Stone to become the Dark Lord, Count Dracula.

As the Dark Lord, Dracula has domain over a great many things, including a large castle known fittingly as Castlevania. This castle is directly tied to Dracula’s power, will rise when Dracula himself is resurrected, and will crumble as Dracula is defeated. Both the powers of Castlevania and Count Dracula are sourced in primordial Chaos, and the parallel universe known as the Chaotic Realm, in opposition to God’s order and law. Because of his status as the Dark Lord, Dracula has control over a large number of different evil creatures; ranging from skeletons, zombies, mermen, werewolves, bats, gargoyles, ghosts, Medusa, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Death.

There are also several other Clans of vampire hunters in the series who assist in the destruction of Count Dracula. Such as the Morris Clan, which functions as the successor to the Belmonts and inherits their Vampire Killer whip, during the nearly two centuries that the Belmont Clan had disappeared. There are also the Belnades, Renard, Lecarde, and Kischine Clan, which have been seen assisting the Belmont Clan in some of their most important battles.

General Information

Official Date: September 26, 1986

Company: Konami

Creator: Hitoshi Akamatsu, Koji Igarashi

Genre: Action Horror, Platformer Games, Metroidvania

Cosmology: Multiverse (The Castlevania games contain parallel universes

Number of Series: 3 series (The main games, the Lord of Shadows games, the Netflix series)

Number of Games: Over 30

Number of Episodes:

Status: Ongoing

Sales: Around 21,629,100 units as of July 1st, 2018

Reception: Castlevania is a very popular video game series all around, being a commonly used example of the old day "Horror Games" before survival horror games were made, along with this it has a Netflix series that was very well received, gaining four seasons and its newer Netflix series Castlevania: Nocturne getting its second season.

List of Misconceptions

"Gaiden" means "Non-Canon" or "Alternate Timeline"

This stems from the belief that when Iga or a producer calls a Castlevania game a "Gaiden" it is therefore non-canon or an alternate timeline and can be dismissed. This, however, is not the case.

The term "Gaiden" merely just means a side story, spin-off, or a separate tale. The term "Gaiden" does not determine the canonicity of a work, it just lets you know if the game is a spin-off/side-story or if it's a main story. Take, for instance, the Kingdom Hearts series. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories would be considered a gaiden, as it's a side-story and spin-off title that isn't a mainline numbered title, however, it is in all manners canon and important to play to understand Kingdom Hearts II.

The same can be applied to Castlevania itself, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a gaiden game. Yet it is very obviously canon and pretty important to play to understand more of Alucard's backstory. The idea of a Gaiden game for the Castlevania series itself would be any game not dealing with one of Dracula's main 100-year-resurrections, which in this case, even Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest is in a way a gaiden, despite being completely canon.

This is all to say that Gaiden does not at all mean "non-canon" or "alternate timeline" and should never be treated as such, the term itself has nothing to do with the canonicity of a product.

IGA Statements Quoted by a Fan

Any statements Iga has made about Judgment that don't come from this IGN interview or a sourced and reputable article are not usable. This is, of course, referring to the popular statements used when discussing Judgment's Canoncity about a fan asking IGA about the game's Canoncity on Facebook, here are some of them below:

Fan: You mentioned Legend of Cornell was an alternate continuity. However, Cornell appears in Castlevania Judgment, which I believe is not an alternate continuity. How does that work? is he from a different universe than the other characters? It is not really explained in the game itself so I was hoping you could give some clarification on the issue.

IGA: Judgment is a work that surpasses space and time and brings them together.

Fan: I get it. So, is the explanation I suggested in the previous reply possibly correct?

IGA: I don't think it's exactly correct. Judgment is a work born of thinking it would be fun to remove all the hedges and bring characters that appeared throughout the series together. I think that you need to view it as an event from another world which does not consider things like timelines or parallel dimensions at all.

Now these seem like pretty clear-cut statements until you start to try to find where these come from.

They come from both a timeline archive discussion on the Castlevania Wiki back on January 15th, 2012 and from a forum post from the same user as the wiki article.

There is no way to find anything sourced or verifiably proven that this person spoke to Iga. Trying to look up the person didn't get any real results either.

Some other issues fall under the inconsistencies within these Iga talks, the person claims that Iga confirmed that Order of Shadows and the Arcade are non-canon because they were intended from the very beginning to be such, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, this would be a weird thing to do if he intended it to be non-canon from the very beginning.

He also claims that Iga said Super Castlevania IV was an alternate continuity, when the wiki also notes Iga saying that the games are all legitimate and the same scenario of defeating Dracula, however this quote is also unsourced, they just claim Iga says this with no link or anything.

There is another one not related to the user who spoke to Iga, but a user on reddit who claimed that a magazine claimed that Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was stated to be in a "different time axis". Attempting to get it translated got no wording that said anything like that, with it not even mentioning anything about canon, timeline, time axis, or any other wording of the sort in a machine-translated attempt. Do note however that this is a machine translation so it could potentially be that it is there, but until a reputable and verifiable translator can confirm or deny this translation, the jury is out with it and it will not be used for the canoncity of Circle of the Moon.

Thus all of these quotes are merely hearsay until shown or proven otherwise.

Remakes/Remasters Being Non-Canon

This comes from an Iga quote that says:

"IGA: FC版とX６８０００版ですが、X６８０００版はFC版をベースにアレンジを加えたものになっています。ゲームのアレンジは、その時に応じて、色々と施されるものですので、正直どちらも正統であると思ってよいのではないかと思っています。結論として、ドラキュラと戦い勝つというシナリオで、中間部分の切り抜きが違うと考えてもよいのではないかと考えています。スーパーファミコン版も違いますし…。どうしてもと考えるのであれば、FC版を尊重すべきかと考えます。

Translation: Regarding the Famicom version and the X68000 version, the X68000 version is an arrangement based on the Famicom version. The arrangement of a game is the kind of thing where you add a lot of different things as needed, so honestly speaking, it think they both should be considered legitimate. In conclusion, I think they should be considered as the same scenario of fighting to defeat Dracula, just with a different middle part. The Super Famicom version is different as well... If you simply must have a clear answer, the Famicom version must be given deference."

Now the quote itself doesn't state remakes or remasters are non-canon despite what people believe. It's moreso a quote of Iga stating that all of them are the same scenario, just with differences. However, an interesting point is that Iga says the NES version should be given "deference", as in to defer to the NES version.

Of course, though, this has the same issue as the Judgment quotes, everyone claims Iga said this, but there is no source of him saying this. In fact, in Castlevania Chronicles, there's a reward interview you receive from Iga himself where he talks about the game, Iga pretty much explains how the game came to be and never says anything about the game not being canon or to defer to the original, if anything he treats this as just an updated version of the original. Interestingly to note too, the original he's talking about is not Castlevania on NES but instead, he's talking about the computer version of Castlevania, though it borrows a lot of elements from Castlevania NES.

Overall due to the quote itself having no source, it is unusable. The way we will treat remakes, remasters, or ports here however is that they are all equally canon unless stated otherwise. Most of these tell the same story with the only real differences being extra background information added, such as Haunted Castle having it be Dracula stole Simon's wife, though the same overall story still applies even here. Iga himself has already expressed that the original Castlevania's story is pretty simple and Simon having a wife does not affect anything in the overall narrative. Super Castlevania IV notes that Simon is a vampire, though this was due to a novel writer making him a vampire in their novel. The novel was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Super Castlevania IV but was then dropped and made its own thing. Super Castlevania IV itself is still canon, but the subplot of Simon being a vampire is not. The most recent timeline even acknowledges it as canon.

Iga Only Allows Stuff He Works on To Be Canon

There is a weirdly believed idea in the fandom that Iga only considers works he worked on canon, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, along with this Iga did not work on a lot of Castlevania games considered canon, such as the NES trilogy and the Gameboy games. In fact, he has only made 12 Castlevania games, out of the 30 Castlevania games in total, and most of them from the older console eras are still a part of the canon. Thus Iga does not only allow stuff he works on to be canon.

Iga is a Producer of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

A Nintendo Power magazine calls Iga the producer of Circle of the Moon, with Iga talking like he worked on the game in that interview. However Iga can be found nowhere in the credits of the game. Making this Nintendo Power issue questionable as to if they were talking to Iga or if the game was mixed up. Though we have direct in-game proof that Iga was not a producer of Circle of the Moon.

Dracula's Third Form is not actually him but a powerful demon he revived to gain more power

The "third form of Dracula" in Dracula's Curse was suggested in the Japanese version to actually be Dracula reviving a powerful demon in order to gain more power instead of an actual transformation. However this has been proven false by official design documents that show all three forms are all Dracula, along with 悪魔城伝説　完全攻略テクニックブック/Akumajou Densetsu Kanzen Kouryaku Technique Book allegedly saying "At last, the showdown with Count Dracula, but he doesn't die when defeated, rather he shows his true nature. The third phase is his true form.", with the Japanese Wikipedia being the source of the idea that Dracula's third phase is not Dracua at all.

Terms

• Chaos: Chaos is the primordial entity, once formless matter that existed before the creation of the universe, which was formed as the opposition to God’s order and law. Chaos exists in a realm known as the Chaotic Realm, which is visibly a parallel universe to the main one in which the games take place. When Mathias Cronqvist rejected God and became the Dark Lord, his powers became rooted in the Chaotic Realm, so that he would continue to live on so long as Chaos existed, along with the hatred within the hearts of mankind. Chaos was also the entity that chose Soma Cruz to be the reincarnation of Count Dracula and made him the Dark Lord, after Dracula was killed once and for all in 1999. When Soma Cruz enters the Chaotic Realm, Chaos takes on a physical form for their battle. Chaos is responsible for many things that Dracula and Soma are capable of doing.
  • Power of Dominance: An ability that is given to the Dark Lords chosen by Chaos; notably Count Dracula, and his reincarnation Soma Cruz. This is a special power that allows for the user to extract and absorb the souls of those they defeat; absorbing their souls then allows them to perfectly mimic the abilities of the monster whose soul was absorbed. This is an ability that Chaos can give and take away from those it considers the Dark Lord.

• Vampire Killer: The Vampire Killer whip was originally created as the Whip of Alchemy by an alchemist named Rinaldo Gandolfi. When his daughter was turned into a vampire by a demon lord known as Walter Bernhard, Rinaldo created the Whip of Alchemy as a way to confront Walter and get revenge. Unfortunately, the Whip of Alchemy was far too weak to defeat Walter in Rinaldo’s hands, and so he decided to give the whip to a young knight named Leon Belmont in hopes that he could bring the whip’s latent power out. Eventually, the Whip of Alchemy was infused with the vampiric soul of Leon’s betrothed, Sara Trantoul, and transformed into the powerful Vampire Killer whip; a whip that is specifically made for destroying the creatures of the night. It has gone through drastic design changes, from a simple leather whip, to chain whip with a flail and a cross-shaped handle; the former being considered the “canon” design, and being the one that was adapted into the Super Smash Bros. series. The Vampire Killer whip not only acts as a powerful weapon against demons, but can also act as a seal against them to keep their magic suppressed. Furthermore, it contains a realm within it that is accessed through the Lecarde Clan, that hosts the whip's memories and can summon apparitions of its previous wielders. If the Vampire Killer is wielded by someone it does not view as worthy of it, it will slowly drain the life force from them until they perish.

• Dominus: This is a powerful glyph created by Barlowe of the Order of Ecclesia, which is viewed as the ultimate weapon against Dracula’s evil during a time when the Vampire Killer and the Belmont Clan were absent. This glyph is so powerful that it had to be segmented into three parts; and Dominus itself can only be fully utilized when all three parts are used simultaneously. However, it was soon revealed that the glyph was actually created through using Dracula’s own remains, and thus Dracula can take control of anyone who tries to use Dominus against him. However, a woman named Shanoa is able to use the power of Dominus against Dracula without the handicap of him taking control of her, and she was able to use it to destroy him.

Canon

Although an official timeline has been officially revealed, it is quite outdated with new releases and contradictions. There is a mass of confusion surrounding what can be considered "canon," and what should not be.

The entirety of the timeline and it's canon has been explained here.

Calculations

• Golem's ultimate attack in Judgment is a massive blast that vaporizes the ground (11.22500364512269222 Kilotons of TNT, 7-C)

Knowledgeable Members

• GiverOfThePeace
• SuperSaiyan2Link

Characters

CanonNon-Canon

Belmont Clan

• 

  Belmont Bloodline

Main Timeline

• 

  Leon Belmont

• 

  Trevor Belmont

• 

  Christopher Belmont

• 

  Soleil Belmont

• 

  Desmond Belmont

• 

  Simon Belmont

• 

  Juste Belmont

• 

  Richter Belmont

• 

  Maria Renard

• 

  Reinhardt Schneider

• 

  John Morris

• 

  Quincy Morris

• 

  Julius Belmont

Alternate Timeline

• 

  Sonia Belmont

• 

  Sid Belmont

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Other Protagonists

Main Timeline

• 

  Pumpkin

• 

  Grant Danasty

• 

  Sypha Belnades

• 

  Alucard

• 

  Hector

• 

  Maxim Kischine

• 

  Cornell

• 

  Carrie Fernandez

• 

  Henry Oldrey

• 

  Eric Lecarde

• 

  Kid Dracula

Alternate Timeline

• 

  Nathan Graves

• 

  Leila

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Other Characters

• 

  Rinaldo Gandolfi

• 

  Aeon

• 

  Saint Germain

• 

  Rosa

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Followers of Darkness

• 

  Chaos

• 

  Creatures of the Night

Dark Lords

• 

  Count Dracula

• 

  Soma Cruz

• 

  Dracula Wraith

• 

  Death

• 

  Shaft

• 

  Walter Bernhard

• 

  Galamoth

Higher Ups

• 

  Death

• 

  Elizabeth Bartley

• 

  Drolta Tzuentes

• 

  Shaft

• 

  Isaac

• 

  Actrise

• 

  Camilla Fernandez

• 

  Galamoth

• 

  Time Reaper

• 

  Joachim Armster

Four Pillars

• 

  Giant Bat

• 

  Medusa

• 

  Mummy Man

• 

  Frankenstein's Monster

Standard Creatures of Darkness

• 

  Golem

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Locations

• 

  Dracula's Castle

Weapons

• 

  Vampire Killer

Netflix

• 

  Count Dracula

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Lords of Shadows