Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
I have a confession for you: I never played Castlevania III as a kid. I absolutely loved the first game in the series, but its sequel Simon’s Quest left a bad taste in my mouth. If I’d known that Dracula’s Curse had ditched the Simon’s Quest formula and returned to the roots of the original Castlevania, I definitely would have checked it out. But I didn’t.
Fast forward to the year 2021 – a whopping THIRTY ONE years since Castlevania III’s release date. I’ve been playing through the Castlevania Anniversary Collection for the PS4, and after playing through Castlevania I and II for the NES and Castlevania: The Adventure for the Game Boy, it was finally this game’s turn.
Holy cow. I had absolutely NO idea what I was missing. Why did no one ever tell me this game was so good? I immediately fell in love with this game and as it stands, this might be my favorite Castlevania title of all time.
Read on for my full thoughts.
Story:
Despite being the third numbered entry in the series, this is actually a prequel that takes place before any of the other NES games. Simon Belmont’s ancestor Trevor heads out on a quest to defeat Count Dracula, whose evil forces have been wreaking havoc on the land. On his way to Dracula’s castle, Trevor may encounter three additional characters on his journey - Sypha the Sorceress, Grant Danasty the pirate, or Alucard the son of Dracula.
Trevor can recruit one of these characters at a time to join him on his quest. Depending on who you bring with you (or if you bring no one at all), the game’s ending will change accordingly.
That’s really it. There’s nothing too horribly deep about this game’s storyline. All you’re doing is heading out on a quest to destroy Dracula, and you can accept the help of these three strangers if you so choose to do so.
Gameplay:
It will only take you a few seconds of playing Dracula’s Curse to realize that its gameplay has returned to the roots of the original Castlevania. The controls are the same, the music and the graphics look the same, the candle-whipping setup is the same. The items are the same. It’s linear. No towns to explore or NPCs to talk to. Right away this excited me. This was the game I had wanted Castlevania II to be as a kid. I’ve warmed up to Simon’s Quest over the years, but when I was younger I absolutely hated that game. I’m guessing your average gamer back then probably did too. All I could think as I played through the first level was how on earth I could have missed out on this as a kid. It was perfect - everything I had ever wanted in a Castlevania title, and more.
I could explain this game’s layout and controls in great detail, but I have already done that in my review of the original Castlevania. This title’s gameplay is just so similar to the original’s that I feel I would only be repeating myself. Instead I will explain what this game does differently.
The first thing I’ll mention is how this game has branching paths. As soon as you finish the first level you will be presented with your first choice – head to the clock tower or head to the woods. My choice the first time I played this game was to go to the clock tower. Making it through this level and defeating its boss allows you to add Grant Danasty as your companion if you choose to do so. After you make your decision, you have to climb down to the bottom of the clock tower and return to the path heading into the woods. I didn’t know it at the time, but the clock tower itself is a completely optional level. If I wanted to, I could have just taken the woods route and saved myself the trouble of even bothering with the clock tower. But if I had done that, I wouldn’t have been able to add Grant to my party. On subsequent playthroughs I did in fact skip the clock tower, since I’d already beaten the game with Grant as my companion and unlocked that specific ending.
There are other branching path decisions you have to make as you advance deeper into the game. One path takes you to Sypha, the other takes you to Alucard. Even after obtaining these characters the game gives you more paths you can take as you advance towards Dracula’s castle. Each time you play through this game you could potentially take a different path to the end. That gives this title tremendous replay value.
What do these extra characters that you can recruit add to the game? The ability to switch over from Trevor and play as them at any point you’d like. Each of these characters have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Grant is fast, agile, and can grab and climb on things. Sypha has powerful magic attacks. Alucard has a projectile attack and can also turn himself into a bat to fly through some of the more difficult parts of the game’s stages. I personally prefer playing as Trevor, but the fact that you have four different characters with unique fighting styles to master also gives this game tremendous replay value.
Everyone loves to say how the original Castlevania is SUCH a challenging game, but I’ve never subscribed to that notion. I have never had a particularly difficult time with that game (unless we’re talking about that final battle with Dracula). This game, however, DEFINITELY deserves the reputation of being challenging. You have unlimited continues, but you only get three lives per continue. Use up those three lives and back to the beginning of the stage you go! The stages in this game can be long and extremely brutal, and you’ll find yourself dying left and right. Three lives doesn’t seem like much if you want to beat each stage. It’s not impossible to do, but it does take quite a bit of trial and error. Luckily Dracula’s Curse features a password system so you don’t have to start from the beginning of the game each time you fire it up.
Despite the stiff challenge, this game is still a lot of fun. It’s just so well made. It’s like the original Castlevania on steroids. But it’s not too over the top. It doesn’t take things too far. It captures the classic essence of the original game while still being this giant, sweeping epic all at the same time. I can’t say enough how much this game impressed me.
Graphics:
If you’ve played through the original Castlevania, you’ll know what to expect here. It looks very similar in many regards. At the same time, it also looks much better. It seems like this game has a lot more color to it. More well-designed backgrounds. Some cool weather effects. A greater variety of enemies to fight. A lot more small, detailed touches were put into bringing the world of this game to life, and it was a complete success. I didn’t give the world or the setting of the first Castlevania game much thought, but things are just so interesting looking here it is almost like the setting of the game is a major character in and of itself.
Sound:
This game gets a lot of accolades for its soundtrack, but to be honest with you I wasn’t too horribly impressed. I much preferred the music in both Castlevania I and II. Not to say this game’s music is bad. It’s not. It’s just not as good as those other two games. I do like how the music from the first stage of the original Castlevania is used when you first make it to the bottom of Dracula’s castle. That’s a nice little throwback.
The sound effects, pulled straight from the previous two titles in the series, are fantastic. The sound quality of this game is just really good all around.
Overall:
In case you can’t tell, I really freaking loved playing this game. The gameplay, the graphics, the music, the sound effects, the branching paths, the difficulty, the multiple characters, the multiple endings - there is just so much content crammed into this game, and it’s all A+ material.
If Simon’s Quest had never been released and this game had come out as the original Castlevania II, no doubt I would have gotten this and played the heck out of it when I was a kid. It’s SO GOOD. I would have played it for months and months too with all the replay value this game has to offer. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t grow up with this game, but at the same time it’s kind of nice “discovering” a 31 year old classic as good as this. I thought I had already played all the best games the NES had to offer but clearly I was wrong.
There are a few flaws to be found here. Some of the bosses can be quite challenging, and the whole “use a continue and go back to the beginning of the stage” thing is quite annoying. Especially when you consider how long these stages are. You are going to be playing through the same segments of the game over and over again.
I also don’t like how your character handles when you’re on a staircase. I know this is a common Castlevania complaint. It didn’t bother me much in the other games, but there are so many staircases in this title that it becomes an unavoidable irritant. You move too slowly, it’s hard to change directions, and your special items only selectively decide when they want to work. There are a few moments in this game where you have to go up multiple staircases while projectiles are being fired at you and enemies keep respawning and flying across the stage in your direction every ten seconds or so. Ugh.
There are a few dud levels as well. One that stands out in my mind is the one where you have to wait for the dripping acid to dissolve blocks that are in your way. This part of the game takes so freaking long. It may even be the same level, but I hate the part where you have to wait for the falling blocks to stack high enough for you to reach a door. Ugh. So much ugh.
Another minor complaint is that often I found myself mistaking something in the background for actual scenery. I’d try to jump onto what I thought was a ledge or something only to fall to my death. Or I’d have the opposite problem where I’d be walking along and not see a gap in the walkway and innocently fall to my death. I don’t recall having this problem in any of the other Castlevania games.
But that is really all I have for gripes, and none of them are that major. I feel as if when I discuss an A+ game, I have to lay out all its flaws so I don’t seem too biased. Wait, did I just say an A+ game? You bet I did. Dracula’s Curse is just so damn cool. I didn’t think any Castlevania game would ever be able to top the original for me, and this one did it with flying colors. That’s no small feat when you take into account that nostalgia often clouds my judgment when reviewing some of these older games. I didn’t grow up with this game, but I can acknowledge that it is easily, EASILY the best Castlevania title I have played to date. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the series has in store for me.
Final Score:
A+
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