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You Forgot How Dark Castlevania Really Was

TheMentok

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This year's Mentoktober, we're covering all things Castlevania starting with the titles that are considered Classicvania. From the original Akumajo Dracula on Famicom Disk System to Super Castlevania IV, these early titles hid surprisingly dark lore in their Japanese manuals that you may not have been aware of growing up.

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➤Chapters:
00:00 - The REAL Story of the Original Castlevania (Akumajo Dracula)
02:24 - The Origins of Castlevania (Famicom Disk System/NES)
10:11 - Vampire Killer (MSX2's Underrated Castlevania)
12:03 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - The RPG Experiment
17:59 - Haunted Castle: Konami's Arcade Game that Wasn't Originally Castlevania
19:31 - Castlevania: The Adventure - Game Boy's Grim Best Seller
22:36 - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Expanding the Belmonts
32:42 - Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - A Game Boy Sequel Done Right
35:03 - Super Castlevania IV - The Definitive Classic Castlevania Experience

#castlevania #halloween #thementok #mentoktober

20 Comments

@TheMentok Creator 11 months ago Pinned

Classicvania or Metroidvania?

@mv0gel 11 months ago

Why you assume I forgot how dark castlevania was? You dont even know me.

@whitneyloreu 11 months ago

I swear every installment in the Castlevania series has a full soundtrack of absolute bangers lol.

@Thedrewster9194 11 months ago

You could say death answers to Dracula because Dracula never truly dies. He always comes back and raises from the dead. Maybe that makes him more powerful than death?

@poweroffriendship2.0 11 months ago (edited)

The Belmonts 🤝 The Joestars

Two badass bloodlines started off as fighting against vampires. One that lashes out and crosses over, the other that stills Stands.

@Bitomustard 4 months ago

0:10 Simon isn’t from medieval Europe; he just likes making everyone uncomfortable by wearing barbarian clothes that show off a lot of muscle and leg, cracking a whip while everyone else is well into the middle of the Renaissance.

@deathkahn4455 8 months ago

The Theory is that the Woman that talks to Simon in Castlevania 2 on 12:55 is supposedly Leon Belmonts lover from Castlevania Lament of Innocence. Leon had to kill his lover to destroy the Vampire Walter Bernard, his lovers spirit went into the Whip, The same Whip that gets passed to Belmont to Belmont. When Simon was dying from the curse, the spirit of the Whip was sensing it, Leon's lover appeared from the Whip to tell Simon about the curse. Now this might not be entirely true, but its a good Theory.

@Loobo-M 11 months ago

Being pushed by a bat to a precipice was undoubtedly the dark age of games.

@Shadders2010 11 months ago (edited)

What's wild is the name of the series creator is Akamatsu Hitoshi, which does actually sound like Akamajo. It was his own name. It's like finding out his name was Steve Castlevania.

Also, he's vanished since creating this. He just disappeared into the shadows. My headcanon is he's actually Alucard.

@ZeeecksLegends 11 months ago

I anticipate the day this series finally makes a proper comeback.

No collections, no mobile games, just an actual new entry for the franchise

@HolyknightVader999 11 months ago

I recorded myself killing Dracula's final form in 30 seconds on the final battle of Castlevania 4. One of my proudest moments.

@kennylauderdale_en 11 months ago

Thanks for the shout out, I didn't expect that.

@OtakuUnitedStudio 11 months ago

Fun fact: the Japanese version of the family name, Belmondo, is the Italian variation of the French name Belmont. The translation team made the deliberate choice since the lore even early on was that they originated from France.

Also fun fact: Zatch Bell character Sherry Belmont is named after the Castlevania family, and the reference is kept between different versions of the show. Her name is Belmondo in the Japanese version, which the dub team picked up on. In the sequel, she even fights using whips.

@calimantis 11 months ago

It was Castlevania that got me into European mythology and monster mythos to begin with. Playing it as a child was such an incredible experience; the music was enthralling, the gameplay felt clean, and having a protagonist use a whip instead of a sword or some other traditional medieval weapon stood out so much that I couldn't forget if I wanted to. It'll easily be my favorite series of all time til the day I die

@RandomWeirdo9000 11 months ago

My theory on the cult of Dracula's activities and the woman informing Simon of his curse is in the second game:

The first game has the cult that resurrected Dracula, and at the end, where Dracula's body explodes - the cult collects the parts and hides them in their homes (the mansions of Simon's quest 2)

Then the cult is having a meeting, laughing about the curse of man slowly killing Simon while the keys to breaking the curse are in their possession.

One of the members present is either a spy sent by the church or a disillusioned defector - she proceeds to go tell Simon what he needs to do.
Makes sense why she has no apparent origin, with the evil cult censored outside of Japan.

@blaked7532 11 months ago

My favorite Christopher Lee role is when he played the voice of Death in the Discworld films.

@not_a_knight 11 months ago

This video reminded me of how much disrespect Simon gets, even though he was undoubtedly the face of Konami at one point.

@Dagsschiller 10 months ago (edited)

Simon was not in Medieval Europe, he lived in the 17th century, he is closer to the Three Musketeers than Knights in shining armor.

@almirbhr 11 months ago

28:42 fun fact: its not that the NES can't support it, its that nintendo had strict policies about it so they basically slapped konami

@Music_Baker_Ro 11 months ago

Castlevania 3 will probably remain my favorite platformer until I die, it’s an amazing game and a fascinating example of game design. Everything was made perfectly for replayability and fair challenge.

The music from the entire Castlevania series is also amazing and it’s well tailored to the 8 bit audio systems of the past, as it’s very clearly inspired by the music of the Baroque era which has multiple melodies flowing together. It largely inspired me to get into music and if you like Castlevania I’d highly recommend looking up the works of J.S. Bach, who was indisputably the GOAT of music frfr