Castlevania
Castlevania (1986)
Game Information
Alternate English Titles: Vampire Killer, Dracula’s Satanic Castle
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami, Nintendo
Release Date: 1986 (Japan,) 1987 (America,) 1998 (Europe)
Released On: Family Computer Disk System/Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo VS. System, MSX2 (has been rereleased on various platforms)
Genre: Single-Player Action-Platformer
Gameplay Video: [1]
Gameplay Overview
In Castlevania, the player takes control of Simon Belmont, a whip-wielding warrior from a long line of monster hunters, as he sets out to slay Dracula in his castle in Transylvania. Simon does not run through Dracula’s Castle, instead he walks slowly, with short, clunky jumps. His whip, though powerful, is not an instant attack and only strikes after a short delay. This means the monsters he fights are often faster and more maneuverable than him, and Simon must play smart and careful to survive to the end of the level. In addition to the whip, Simon can gain a variety of tools to level the playing field, including throwing knives, boomeranging crosses, holy water that sets his opponent on fire, and even the ability to stop time. Upon reaching the end of a given stage, Simon fights an iconic horror monster, such as a hoard of mummies, Frankenstein’s monster, or Count Dracula himself, the last of which has several different forms. After defeating the Count, Castle Dracula is destroyed, the credits roll, and the player can play through the game again, but at a higher difficulty.
Development
Hitoshi Akamatsu, the lead designer and developer for Castlevania, was notably particular about his vision for the gameplay2. His goal was immersion, believing that after a few minutes of interacting with the game the player should feel as though Simon’s actions were their own. The design had to be simple and intuitive, easy for the player to learn, and fair (if not easy.) Akamatsu’s standard was that, if he were not able to beat a level, it was too hard and had to be scaled back, although there was room for optional challenges for those players who wanted a more difficult experience.3
Thematically, the game was supposed to resemble classic American horror films. The design was “consciously cinematic,”4 and this contributes to and compliments the intended gameplay. Simon uses trappings of western religion (specifically the crosses and holy water of Catholicism) to defeat Dracula because those items were ubiquitous, even cliche, among vampire hunters5. Similarly, enemies like the Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Igor are taken directly from Boris Karloff’s performances in the 1930s. Simon’s whip, although inspired by Indiana Jones rather than the Universal Monsters, was meant to keep the darkness at bay because “whips are great at repelling enemies.”6 Finally, the final boss fight makes a nod to the endless sequelization of horror franchises, as Dracula’s head escapes into the night and prepares his revenge in the next game. 7
Franchise
Beginning with the 1986 title, the Castlevania series has twenty-four mainline games, as well as a spin-off series called Lords of Shadow, which has three installments.8 Many of these games have also been remade, re-released on different platforms, or compiled into legacy collections. Numerous arcade games, mobile games, and slot machines have also been released in recent years, following Konami’s switch to focusing on more profitable mediums. Other spinoffs include a fighting game and a self-parody series, the Kid Dracula franchise. Characters have also crossed over into franchises such as Bomberman, Dead Cells, and Super Smash Bros. Outside of video games, Castlevania characters have appeared in both television and print media. There are two Netflix original series based on the Castlevania games, and characters from the franchise make appearances in the Nintendo series Captain N: The Game Master. There are also graphic novels, conventional novels, and manga based upon Castlevania. A live-action film was planned, but never completed.
As the series progressed, numerous additions were made to the gameplay structure. As early as the sequel, released a year later, RPG progression elements had been added to the franchise. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest also pioneered the Metroidvania genre, alongside the 1988 game Metroid, with a more open world focused on exploration and complicated progression.9 The franchise would foray into 3D gameplay in 1999’s Castlevania64, but this wouldn’t become a staple of the main series like the former additions.
Crossover: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [2]
Simon Belmont, the protagonist of 1986’s Castlevania, also appears in 2018’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable character. While his playstyle is not directly taken from the original game (many elaborations from subsequent Belmont protagonists, especially Richter, are incorporated into the character) there are numerous parallels to the way you play Simon in his first appearance. His axe, holy water, and cross function exactly the same, being a strong, arcing projectile, a gout of flame on the floor, and a long-ranged boomerang respectively. His whip, of course, is his main weapon, and his most important tool. It strikes directly in front of him, dealing reasonable damage, and works the same in the air as it does on the ground. Using these iconic arms Simon hopes to keep his assailants a respectible distance away from him so they can’t do him any harm.
One of the largest differentiations in Simon’s playstyle in Smash versus how he plays in Castlevania is his maneuverability. He saunters through Dracula’s castle in the 1916 title, occasionally augmenting this slow and stodgy walk with a short hop or a relatively ineffective crawl. In Ultimate, however, Simon is far more mobile, capable of running, jumping, and flipping as he fights. This change was made to put him on equal footing with his opponent (platform fighters such as the Smash franchise favour fast characters with diverse movement options,) but his design manages to retain much of the classic Castlevania feel. He is still relatively slow compared to many of the other characters, and has a lower jump as well. In order to move around the battlefield, Simon must rely on his ranged weapons to create space between him and his enemies, much like in the original game. He also retains the awkward crouch-walk ability he has in his home series, and it similarly has little use.
Super Smash Bros. is not well suited to one-to-one translations of gameplay from a character’s home series, and every member of the roster takes some liberties when added to the franchise. Simon represents his franchise very faithfully, even with the changes made to his movement. The direct adaptations of his Castlevania moveset, such as his whip strikes and sub-weapons, provide a direct tie to the way he plays in the 1986 game, and the less-faithful adaptations do not compromise the core feeling of said game: you are a man fighting monsters, and you need to play smart to beat them back. It is not uncommon that Simon Belmont, regardless of what game he is in, becomes quickly overwhelmed by an opponent he failed to keep at bay. In this sense, playing a Castlevania in Smash is just as horrifying as the original game, even if your opponent is more Mewtwo than Medusa.
Analysis: Maleness and Immersion in Castlevania
The design of Simon Belmont, a muscle-bound man clad in hide, is evocative of Conan the Barbarian or He-Man, two figures that had risen to cultural prominence earlier in the decade. This design, along with the machismo implicit in barging into Dracula’s castle and slaughtering all its denizens, places Simon firmly in the “Militarised Masculinity” archetype. This is a common genre of character throughout video games, but is represented in action-horror games by characters such as Chris Redfield from Resident Evil or Doom’s eponymous Doom Slayer who, although existing in very different contexts, share the Belmonts’ build, affinity for a variety of weapons, and willingness to use said weapons to enact great violence against their monstrous enemies. The sole purpose of these characters is to wage violent and brutal war against the other, patriotic soldiers for the human race. This simulated violence is a substitution for the ferity and glory of war, an outlet men are socialized to seek even in times of peace.10 Societal maleness is centred around the idea of militarism; men are protectors, but this means using force against the “other.” Whatever the opponent, Simon and his counterparts fulfil the role of the “unattainable ideal,” the “ultimate protector,” even if not literal soldiers in an army.11
Moreover, although Simon’s in-game sprite is somewhat tan and dark-haired, he is represented in most subsequent appearances as a blonde man, and typically (although not always) with fair skin. This, paired with the Transylvanian setting of the series, positions the protagonist as a White, Christian, European male; a stereotypical western Everyman. Although he is scantily clad he is not sexualized, seeking to appeal to a male view of manliness rather than enticing female players. Simon is a man, made for men by men. Because of this, the question of agency and motivation are moot. Simon is violent because, in the medium of video games, violence is manliness, and Simon is a man. There is also little question regarding how relatable such a protagonist may be to a wider audience, if a player could not relate to such violence then they would be hard-pressed to play a video game at all. If mainstream action games play on the idea of a dominant fiction or ideal reality then casting a White, Christian Male in your starring role is a forgone conclusion unless there is a reason to do otherwise.13 If Simon were a woman, or an Arab Muslim vampire hunter, questions would be raised about why these choices were made and what the developer intended by them rather than simply allowing the player to immerse themselves in the action, especially when there’s little else to relate to in Simon’s character.1415
Finally, with the inspiration for Castlevania coming from Universal Monster films, it raises the question of how effectively classic horror movie tropes can translate to a video game. Immersion is made easier by the existence of a cinematic horror canon; the monsters needn’t represent thematic evils, characters like Dracula have been so well established that they don’t need to be othered to be understood as the enemy. Of course he has a castle, and of course Frankenstein (a lumbering brute rather than an eloquent monster) is there. The Universal Monsters have become the definitive versions and don’t need justifying.16 Although a purist may not consider Castlevania to be a horror game, intentionally drawn parallels to genre staples reinforce their immersion while playing. Conversely, an active viewer differentiates the game from passively-oriented horror films. The simplicity of the gameplay and storytelling may not allow a player to become as deeply mired in the world as a film would, and although tension is common in a difficult platforming section it may not translate to fear in the same way. Failure here (falling victim to the monster) is the fault of the player, and suspense is undercut by frustration, making genuine fear more difficult to achieve. This is not helped by the lack of overtly terrifying visual stimuli; although the concept invoked by a bat’s sprite may unsettle it fails to evoke terror in the same way seeing a bat would.
Author’s Note
I grew up playing videogames with my father on Saturday mornings, ranging wildly from the most modern titles to classic games that he loved when he was my age. I always enjoyed these gameplay sessions, but I often came away with a clear lesson: the older the game, the harder it often was. Because I was young and impatient I hated this, but as I got older and better at videogames, I found myself seeking a challenge. I received my answer through horror games, often being too frightened to play them well, but in time this too became easy once I was desensitized to it and the patterns were familiar. I again searched for something new, and I found it by returning to Castlevania, one of those games I had played with my father and failed miserably every time. Although the gameplay is predictable, that didn’t make it any less difficult, the unforgiving nature of the gameplay and the clunky controls ensures that execution must be near-perfect to succeed, and a run will often fail because of a single shortcoming against a minor obstacle.
I think this kind of difficulty is what many modern horror games are missing. As the genre has become more mainstream it has also become more accessible and, although this is a net positive for the industry, it means they’ve also become less difficult to cater to a more casual audience. Despite the monsters not being terribly scary in their designs, the punishing gameplay makes you feel incredibly weak against them, even when playing as legendary vampire hunter Simon Belmont. A bat entering the screen during a tough platforming section, or one too many ghouls can become a serious issue if they player isn’t careful, and evoke a feeling of dread because they can, and likely will, kill you. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Castlevania for this assignment, even if I persist in my inability to actually complete it. Dracula is hard.
AI Disclosure: No generative AI has ever, or will ever, be a part of my academic work.