This section hosts all sorts of interesting trivia about Castlevania - mostly references
from other video games.
Please note that many of these useless facts have been moved to their respective Games
page for the sake of organization. All of the general facts remain here.
Alucard/Setzer?
 
I've noticed this similarity myself and received a few e-mails about it,
but doesn't the gambling warrior Setzer from Final Fantasy 3 look a bit like
Alucard from Symphony of the Night? Decide for yourself...
Alucard even looks a bit like FF7 baddie Sephiroth.
Lots of people like to think that the 2004 movie Van Helsing was at least
partially inspired by Castlevania. Apparently, the developers of the PS2/Xbox game
felt the same way. In one of the earlier levels, if you examine a bookcase, it will
make reference to the Belmont family.
The PSOne/Saturn version of the popular Japanese dating sim Tokimeki Memorial
has references to other Konami games like Suikoden and Gokujou Parodius. There's
also a small Dracula X on in there - one of the selectable cursors is none other than
a keychain of little Maria.
Konami's 2002 PS2/Gamecube title Evolution Skateboarding was barely worth the $5
I paid for it, but it does have some amusing Konami references. In addition to playing
as various Metal Gear Solid 2 characters (as well as Frogger), one of the hidden
characters is Simon Belmont, known simply as "Vampire Killer". There is a Castle
level that looks distinctly Castlevania-ish as well. Click on either of the pics
for a bigger view. Thanks to John Baxter for the heads-up on this.
In 1998, Konami made an arcade game running on the 3DO M2 hardware called
Battle Tryst. It was a fairly typical 3D fighter, but it had lots of Konami characters
in it, including Pastel and Princess Melody from Twinbee Yahho! On the character
designer's site (Shuzilow), there are a few drawings of Castlevania characters - perhaps
meaning that they're in the game as well. Given that the game is extraordinarily
obscure, we'll probably never know. Thanks to Carlo Savorelli for finding the pics.
 
In 2004, Hudson, Takara and Konami put their most famous characters together into
a Smash Bros clone called Dream Mix TV: Fighters Megamix. Naturally, one of the
playable characters is Simon Belmont, dressed in his Chronicles outfit. Other
characters including Twinbee, Solid Snake, Bomberman, and Optimus Prime. Check out
the theme song here. Thanks to CapComMDB for the recording.
New York-based metal band Sever actually named one of their songs
"What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" on their album "Songs of the
Crashing". (On another note, that was also my quote in my high school
yearbook...he he he.) Band member John DeBonis was nice enough to send a copy of
this cool CD to me to check out. Quite excellent! If you're interested, run
over to Sever's
webpage for more info.
This is a picture Konami posted a few years back. Apparently these are some sprites made for a Castlevania game
that died during pre-production. Rumors speculate that these are from the announced 32X Dracula game that
evaporated just like the add-on, but who knows.
 A little while ago, I was
alerted to a Japanese visual rock band called Malice Mizer which had
a song named Gekka no Yasoukyoku, which as we all know, is the Japanese
name of Symphony of the Night. I chalked it up to coicidence at the time, but
now I know a bit more. One of the members named Gackt left the group and started
his own singing career. In a picture book of his, he's actually dressed as Alucard!
(click the snapshot at right for a full picture.) If you want to see more,
check out Kameko's Gackt
Fan Site which has several more pictures, information on Gackt, and a full section
detailing his wardrobe and its similarity to Alucard. Additionally, Markus Pfeffer has uploaded
the music video in Real Video format. Thanks to everyone
who pointed this out, Kameko Tsukitaka for the picture, and Markus for the video!
This is a long shot, but in Konami's Silent Hill the police officer Cybil is
from the town of Brahms. Given that many of the streets are named
after famous authors (Crichton, Koontz, Bachman, etc), it's not a long
shot to say that this was possibly named after Dracula author Bram
Stoker - but it's spelled the same way that it is in Castlevania 2
on the NES.
If you go through the sound test in Konami's Contra: Hard Corps
for the Genesis, you'll find a tune named Simon 1994 AD. This is a
hyped-up, revamped version of Vampire Killer! Even more, there's a secret
area in level 3 (the Junkyard) where you must fight three robots, one of
which is a super-deformed Simon-like robot! OK, he doesn't look very
much like a Belmont, but he has a whip! Right before he comes out, he
whips a candle that gives him a fish. He uses this fish like a boomerang.
I'd like to know what the programmers were shooting up when they
thought of this. You can head over to the Contra HQ Multimedia section to
downloaded an MP3 of this tune, or just click here.
Additionally, a Japanese fan named Kei sent me the following information
on the robot in Contra: Hard Corps:
"In Japan there is an afro-haired singer called
"Simon Masato." He is famous for his song named "Oyoge Taiyaki-kun"
(taiyaki is a fish-shaped Japanese cake which is used as weapon in this
game). As you see, this character consists of Simon (vampire hunter) and
Simon (Japanese singer). Since the Castlevania series are games which
were originated in Japan, it sometimes contains jokes like this." Cool!
Thanks Kei!
At one point in the awesome Konami Playstation game Metal Gear Solid, you fight a boss character named Psycho Mantis. He will read the save games
on your memory card and then comment on them! If you have a save from
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on your first memory card, Mantis will
say "I see you like Castlevania!" or something like that. The only other
American Konami game I have saved is Suikoden, and he mentions that too!
Definitely cool. Click here for the sound clip, thanks to
Jedi Master Cain.
Although Lucasarts created the Genesis/Super Nintendo game Zombies Ate my Neighbors,
it was published by Konami. And, in the instruction manual, one of the enemy
vampires is named Vlad Belmont. Thanks
to Quinn Johnson for pointing this out (and Mike for the scan!)
The Sega CD game Snatcher also has a rather funny Castlevania reference.
While at a masquerade ball at a bar called Outer Heaven (Metal Gear
reference) there are two characters, one dressed as Dracula and the other
as a Belmont. When you talk about them, Gillian and Metal Gear discusses how
suicide rates increased when Castlevania came out because you couldn't
jump on and off stairs. HA HA!!! Thanks to Mark Tuer for
this juicy bit.
Similar to his appeances in the Wai Wai World games, Simon appears
in the MSX mahjong game Majutsushi. You can choose from a variety of Konami characters (including
the Moai from Gradius, a snatcher from Snatcher, Goemon from the Mystical Ninja games, Bacterion from Gradius, and others.)
Thanks to the Invisible Anaconda for the information, and this site
for the ROM.
The Super Famicom game Ganbare Goemon 2 has an amusement park with a variety
of Konami characters, one of them being (yep) Simon Belmont. From what people have told me, he's
saying "I am Simon Belmont, Vampire Killer" or something to that effect. What's even more is that
when you finish the game, you can engage Dracula to a battle. After jumping on a series of
platforms, you come across a coffin...the classic music starts up, and you begin to fight
Dracula, whose attacks are much like any Castlevania game. Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventures
and Gillian Seed from Snatcher also appear at various points in this game.
Remember those old Konami instruction booklets from the early 90's? Remember
how it seemed as if the authors were on crack? Just check out this goofy spoof Castlevania manual sent by a
faithful reader! It's a riot!
Konami's SNES version of Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters also has a small Castlevania reference.
In the character bio for the fighter Wingnut, one of his favorite games
is listed as futuristic Castlevania.
This is a strange allusion. In the SNES RPG
Robotrek, you meet
a vampire who's name is Count John Paul Belmont Prinky.) Though it was made by
Enix, parts of it were meant to poke fun at various other games. From what I've
been told, this fact was apparently lost on the translators.
Quite a long time ago, Electronic Gaming Monthly reported
that you could play as Trevor Belmont in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The
Arcade Game. This was, of course, false and meant to be joke, but it'd make sense because TMNT2
was designed by Ultra (a subsidiary of Konami.)
 Here's an appearance of Kid Dracula
in the SNES classic Legend of the Mystical Ninja. If you go next to the
entrance of the Horo Temple (first level) and start swinging your pipe-thing
around that area, you'll uncover this hidden power up that'll get you another
$100!
 
One of the launch Game Boy Advance titles is Konami Krazy Racing, a kart racer featuring various
Konami characters - among them are Pastel (from Twinbee), Goemon (from Mystical
Ninja), Tako (from Parodius), the Ninja (from Metal Gear Solid), the Moai head
(from Gradius) and, most importantly, Dracula! (in the second column, third
down.) It even features some Castlevania music. Surprisingly enough, this is actually being released in America as Konami Krazy Racing.
 
Capcom's shooter Gunbird 2 for the Dreamcast, oddly enough, has a vampire
character named Alucard (circled in the above picture.) He looks suitably different from the Alucard we know
as the Castlevania star, and in theory, is supposedly based off the old
movie monster Alucard (where a resurrected Dracula snuck around, just reversing
his name), but it seems a bit suspicious to me.
A guitarist named Yngwie Malmsteen was brought to my attention a short time ago. Not only is his style
very reminscent of the type of power rock found on Konami's Battle music CDs (like Dracula Battle), but
one of his songs Far Beyond the Sun, has a segment that sounds almost EXACTLY like the song "Dwelling of Doom" (the mansion tune) from Castlevania 2.
Konami's fab Playstation/Saturn shooter Sexy Parodius has a musical
reference to Castlevania (I've even ripped the first several seconds of the
music so you can listen to them!) In one of the stages (Stage 3B, if you must know)
takes place inside of an infested castle. Guess what...the first few notes
of the song is the famous Vampire Killer tune! That's not all! The end
level boss is a big Medusa head, and the music...starts off with Poison
Mind, the boss theme from Castlevania 1 (and then develops into what
I think is the Hungarian Rhapsody, but that's a whole other story
altogether.)
 Eric Roman as pointed out that you can play as Kid Dracula in the
Super Famicom game Gokujyou Parodius. Kinda cool. Alas, they are
not in the Playstation/Saturn Deluxe pack version (along with
Goemon and Upa the little baby.)
|
A little while ago, I was
alerted to a Japanese visual rock band called Malice Mizer which had
a song named Gekka no Yasoukyoku, which as we all know, is the Japanese
name of Symphony of the Night. I chalked it up to coicidence at the time, but
now I know a bit more. One of the members named Gackt left the group and started
his own singing career. In a picture book of his, he's actually dressed as Alucard!
(click the snapshot at right for a full picture.) If you want to see more,
check out Kameko's Gackt
Fan Site which has several more pictures, information on Gackt, and a full section
detailing his wardrobe and its similarity to Alucard. Additionally, Markus Pfeffer has uploaded
the music video in Real Video format. Thanks to everyone
who pointed this out, Kameko Tsukitaka for the picture, and Markus for the video! 
