The 10 Biggest Plot Twists in Castlevania!

 

Castlevania : The 10 Biggest Plot Twists

    Castlevania Games don’t exactly have a plot, right?  Well, in the long series of games there have been various degrees of revelation with the progress of the software and the hardware through which the games were developed and published under.  Here in this video, we will be talking about the most brutal plot twists throughout the Castlevania Game Series and it’s long run, even including the Lords of Shadow “reboot” or alternate universe.  This series is a long running series from its origins with the original Castlevania being released in 1986 with Simon Belmont setting out to destroy Count Dracula with his whip known as the “Vampire Killer”, all the way up through the NES and Gameboy Titles through obscure PCs made by game companies, into the 3rd dimension with Nintendo 64 and Playstation 2, and followed by the Nintendo DS titles and the Lords of Shadow alternate universe which followed.  This episode will be covering 10 plot twists along the long game franchise’s run, so get ready, get seated, and enjoy the show!  

    #10 Belmont’s Revenge

    The first big plot twist is on the second Castlevania Game released on the Gameboy.  At number 10, this is the revelation that another member of the Belmont Clan is with the enemy, or at least until you knock some sense into him…. In Castlevania : Belmont’s Revenge, Christopher Belmont, the protagonist of Castlevania the Adventure, discovers in the sequel to the original Gameboy Castlevania title, that not only is Dracula returned within his lifetime, but that is son is also an ally of Dracula.  This moment on the Gameboy was the first time a Belmont became an antagonist and a boss battle to the player character.  

 

This wouldn’t be the last time a Belmont was an antagonist, not by a long shot, but it sure played with the concept of an “evil twin” the way Zelda II : The Adventure of Link played around with the “Dark Link” or the original Prince of Persia played with the “Dark Prince” or “Part of the Prince’s Soul.  Either way, after Christopher finds out that his son, Soleil, has gone rogue, he fights a Belmont vs. Belmont boss battle after which his wayward son is set right again and Christopher continues his progression to stop Dracula a second time, that’s sure pretty frequent for a Dracula who supposedly comes back to life once per century!  Although to be fair, a cursed ritual helped bring Dracula back early in this case, and it would not be the last time.

#9 Simon’s Quest

    In Castlevania II : Simon’s Quest, you had a significantly different type of gameplay than in the original Castlevania.  Simon’s Quest involved traveling the countryside of Romania and fighting monsters throughout the vast world, unlike the original Castlevania which focused on Dracula’s Castle and progression within Dracula’s Castle alone.  You could also go and buy items from merchants, which combined with a more open world exploration in the game, would be a mechanic used frequently in later Castlevania games after these two mechanics were used here.  

 

    The main plot reveal, however, is that Dracula had cursed Simon Belmont, the protagonist of the first Castlevania game, with a curse that would cause Simon to grow ill and die over time.  Simon refused to accept that it was then his time to die, so he headed off on a quest to bring Dracula back and then kill him off again, to end Dracula’s Curse.  This was also the first time in a Castlevania game where you had Dracula’s Curse of Darkness, which would later be featured in at least one more Castlevania Game to follow, even having a Castlevania game titled after it.  Either way, similar to Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Dracula, this was also a demonstration of how it was very hard to be sure that you were rid of Dracula for good.

#8 Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse

    Well, while the poorest selling NES Game, Castlevania III : Dracula’s Curse did begin a new trend in Castlevania games by introducing Non-Belmonts as playable characters.  While you start the game playing as Trevor Belmont, the ancestor of Simon Belmont living in the 15th Century, you can unlock other companions whom you can fight as, each with their own story in both the manual for the game or from walls of text on the screen.  The playable companions which you can take with you on your journey to destroy Dracula include Hypha Belnades, the Witch or as I like to call her the “Assassin Nun” who casts fireballs or ice at the enemies, Grant Danasty, the noble who became a bandit, similar to Robin Hood, or Alucard, the Son of Dracula, who looks way different from Symphony of the Night.  This was due to a retcon in which Alucard was originally born a human and made vampiric by his father, Count Dracula, which was later retconned for Castlevania : Symphony of the Night. Each of these optional companions was unlocked by a boss battle either with the character, such as Alucard appearing to be Dracula with his bat transformation and fireballs being launched, or freeing the character from a monstrous transformation like Grant and Sypha. 

      Either way, expanding the gameplay from the whip-wielding Belmont into other characters was a big first for Castlevania at the time of release, which would be seen more in the later games to come, along with the individual stories which the optional companions gave to you in walls of text, which is understandable given the technical limitations back in 1989.  Alucard would also be featured in multiple games after Castlevania III as a supporting or as a playable character.
      Another big first in Castlevania III : Dracula’s Curse was the appearance of the Doppelgänger, the Demon which imitates the player in Boss Battles, in this case, the Doppelgänger impersonates whichever character the player is controlling at the time, whether Trevor or any one of his three companions.  The Doppelgänger would appear once more in a number of Castlevania titles.  

 #7 Castlevania : Rondo of Blood

    While originally released for an obscure Console known as the PC Engine or known in North America as the TurboGrafx-16, Rondo of Blood had more to it than just being another Belmont tale.  In the game, Dracula reveals that his power to return to life in our world is linked to the evil of humanity on Earth.  As humanity becomes more wicked, Dracula gets more power to return back into our world.  This is more concrete of a concept or explanation than just every century, and certainly explains how sometimes, as in the case of Simon’s Quest, Belmont’s Revenge, and others which would follow, Dracula doesn’t need a hundred years to return, he could return due to a great war, a massive economic crisis, or other horrible situations brought about by the wickedness of humanity.  This would repeat as a theme in later installments in the series, in which Major World Wars or other events would help facilitate Dracula’s Return. The game was released initially in just Japan for the PC Engine, an alternate and more linear version of the game, or Dracula X, was released on the SNES in 1995.

#6 Castlevania : Symphony of the Night

    Well, there’s a number of elements in Symphony of the Night, which while they were a first for most of those who started the franchise with that game, which was quite a few people, but those elements were not a first, but a return to using mechanics such as merchants and keys to unlock new areas from previous games from Simon’s Quest.  The game had a number of retcons in the nature of the canonical protagonist, Alucard, the Son of Dracula.  No longer a human turned Vampire, Symphony of the Night retconned Alucard into a Half-Vampire or Dhampir, similar to Blade from Marvel Comics, or Vampire Hunter D from the manga and novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, which I plan talking about Vampire Hunter D and Blade more later on.  Don’t worry, I like those other dhampirs too!  Also what also wasn’t a first was a Rogue Belmont, which in the Case of Symphony of the Night, was Richter Belmont, having become corrupted and now a boss battle.  No, the more original aspect of Symphony of the Night was an introduction to a Castle of Dracula himself, that was literally a living creature.  Yes, Dracula’s Castle has always been hinted at in Castlevania as being alive and a living entity in and of itself, ranging from the original Japanese title of Akumajo Dracula, or “Dracula’s Demon Castle” to the mention of “The Hellhouse” in the beginning of Simon’s Quest.

    But it is here, in Symphony of the Night, where Alucard mentions it to Maria Renard, and in other instances, where Dracula’s Castle being a living creature are far more blatant.  The Castle summons up a Doppelgänger, or dark opposite, of Alucard, as well as his long dead companions, Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and the forgotten Grant Danasty, in three different boss battles, two for the Doppelgänger and one for his former companions’ doppelgängers, almost as if the Castle itself could read into Alucard’s memories and form enemies in the image of his now deceased friends to battle him.  

    When it comes to a living Castle, parts of the Castle, especially the Inverted Castle, are alive in terms of game mechanics, where they can be drained of life as a renewable source of healing, such as the Stone Skulls which rise and fall like pistons, as dangerous traps to obstruct your progress.  If you were to play around with the Soul Steal Spell, or the life-draining Mourneblade weapon, many parts of The Castle are treated as “living” with the same mechanic.  With the focus of the game being inside Dracula’s Castle, it stands out as a demonstration of the Castle being a living and a malevolent entity, some of the other Metroidvania games in the series would focus on being within Dracula’s Castle, others such as 2 of the Nintendo DS Titles later re-released in the Dominus Collection, would take a different approach of exploring other dungeons or dimensions but the emphasis remained in Symphony of the Night that Dracula’s Castle was very much alive and an adversary of the player itself, which would be further elaborated in later titles.
 

 

#5 Castlevania Order of Ecclesia 

     The Last official Castlevania Game released in 2008 on the Nintendo DS.  Castlevania Order of Ecclesia covers a story of Ecclesia, the Order founded in the wake of The Belmonts being rendered temporarily out of the business following Richter becoming unworthy of the Vampire Killer following his becoming a temporary agent of Shaft and Dracula in Symphony of the Night.  The story occurs sometime in the first half of the 19th Century.
   Barlowe and his adopted children, Albus and Shanoa, are devoted to fighting the evil threats as fill-ins for the Belmonts, or so it seems.  The New Order of Ecclesia is researching how to combat the power of Dracula through mysterious mystical glyphs.  A triad of glyphs, supposedly meant to combat the essence of Dracula’s power, were known as Dominus.  Shanoa was chosen as the vessel for the power of Dominus, but the ritual to infuse the power of Dominus was sorely interrupted.  
        Albus interrupted the ritual and stole the Dominus glyphs, nearly killing Shanoa and leaving her unconscious.  After Shanoa awakened, she found herself not remembering much of her life, and also feeling emotionally dull.  Over the course of the story, Shanoa found out that the scheme of the power of Dominus was not what it originally appeared to be.  The scheme was shown to be a sacrifice of whomever had the power of Dominus to bring Dracula back to life.  This was not the first case of a cult of Dracula’s followers seeking to ritualistically revive The Dark Lord.  However, it was different when unlike Shaft, a Dark priest who secretly worshipped demonic forces and sacrificed innocent lives to resurrect Dracula, Barlowe was someone whom the player, Shanoa, knew.  In fact, Barlowe adopted Shanoa and Albus and raised them as his children, he taught them in the ways of what appeared to be the light.  The facade, the deception, and the close relationship of the player to Barlowe as a father and a mentor, makes the revelation all the more brutal in Order of Ecclesia.  Whether intentionally or not, Castlevania Nocturne attempted to pull a similar relationship between Maria Renard and her Father, the Priest known as Abbott, but talking about the differences between the Requiem Collection and the Netflix streaming adaptations is a topic for another episode.  Either way, having a nemesis and Agent of Dracula as close to you as your father was a big upgrade from the character known as Shaft in the Requiem collection, as this wasn’t just some clergyman deciding that opposing evil was overrated, but your own father who raised you to betray you and try to sacrifice you for Dracula’s return.

#4 Castlevania Lords of Shadow

    What if Castlevania had a different origin story? Different characters? With Konami as the publisher and the Spanish Developer Mercurystream, Lords of Shadow explored a different imagining of Castlevania in the Non-Canon Lords of Shadow games.  Covered in three games, the saga of Lords of Shadow had a new Belmont family, with its progenitor, Gabriel Belmont, being the subject of the first Lords of Shadow, released on the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in October of 2010.  Gabriel, following the mysterious death of his wife, Marie, goes on a Quest to destroy the Lords of Shadow, corrupted former Nobles whose wicked remnant was left on Earth after their good souls ascended into Heaven.  Gabriel was accompanied by his mysterious Paladin Brother, Zobek, in his quest to destroy the Lords of Shadow and the Curse which the Lords of Shadow had brought upon the Earth.
    In the conclusion of the original Lords of Shadow, Gabriel finds out the plot behind the Lords of Shadow, and the author of that plot.  Lucifer, or Satan, the Angel banished from Heaven into the dark pits of Hell itself, had conspired with Zobek, who was also revealed to have secretly been the alternate form of  Grim Reaper or Death in The Lords of Shadow Universe. This would not be the only time in a game titled, “Castlevania” where The Grim Reaper of Death would use the letter Z in his alias.  Keep that in mind.  
    Not only had Zobek been secretly the Grim Reaper, but he accompanied Gabriel because this was also the origin story of the alternate Dracula in Lords of Shadow.  The first Belmont had also become the Dracula of the Lords of Shadow Universe.  This would be the equivalent of you playing a Star Wars video game as Anakin Skywalker, without a foreknowledge of Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader.  Which given how Star Wars movies had revealed that fact since The Empire Strikes Back, it was nigh impossible for most people to not know that outcome in Star Wars.  But in Lords of Shadow, it was well done, revealed bit by bit as Gabriel killed the Lords of Shadow one by one, and they tried to let Gabriel know that he was a monster as well, to no avail.

    The other revelation was that Gabriel had been the author of the very same tragedies that had inspired him to embark on his quest, he had put on a demonic mask, with the cursed mask, he came under the influence of demonic possession and Zobek, secretly a Lord of Shadow himself, had gotten a demonically possessed Gabriel to kill his own wife Marie by his own hand, and forever onward, Marie Belmont would remain a ghost which both guided and Haunted Gabriel in his life as Dracula, the Lord of all Vampires, following her death in the Lords of Shadow Universe.  
    Now, in Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2, there were additional revelations, such as the first of Gabriel’s equivalent Belmont foes as Count Dracula was his own unknown and long lost son, Trevor, digging deeper into the Anakin Skywalker analogy, Gabriel would also discover a plot to dethrone and destroy the Devil himself as well, but the original Lords of Shadow stands out as the new origin story in the reboot and alternate universe of Castlevania, in which the hero came face to face with a self-fulfilling prophecy to become the villain, only to become the monster and be apparently forever haunted by the Ghosts of those he once knew.

#3 Castlevania Lament of Innocence

    Now originally, the “origin” of Castlevania and the Belmont/Dracula Feud was that of Castlevania Legends, with the implication that the Belmont bloodline was continued by the offspring of Sonia Belmont and Dracula’s Son, Alucard or Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes.  This concept was discontinued and the game removed from canon in 2000, along with the Nintendo 64 Castlevania games.  There are a number of issues with this plot twist, addressed by IGA as being that in his vision, the Belmont lineage should not have been started as a union of the Dracula and the Belmont Bloodlines, along with IGA feeling that Alucard did not officially rebel against his father until Castlevania III, in which he would test and join Trevor’s party in the epic boss fight that at first appeared to be Dracula, until it was revealed that it was Dracula’s son, not twenty years earlier when Legends would occur.  Also what would change is Dracula’s Origin, originally he was Vlad the Impaler, or rather, Vlad the Impaler was retconned into a new identity which the Castlevania version of Dracula assumed when he came to Wallachia and became their monarch. And so Koji Igarashi’s vision of how the Castlevania Story began, through Lament of Innocence.
    Lament of Innocence begins with two French Knights, Leon Belmont and Matthias Cronqvist, who had fought for a time in The Crusades.  Leon came home early when he learned that his fiancee, Sara, had been mysteriously kidnapped.  He would then perform the first Castle Raid of the Belmont clan against a Vampire Lord, not against Dracula, but against another Vampire named Walter Bernhard.  Leon receives an alchemical whip from a slave of Walter known as Rinaldo Gandolfi, and Leon upgrades the whip into what would become the Vampire Killer of the Belmont Clan over the course of the game.  Leon is ultimately unable to save Sara, as she has already been bitten by Walter Bernhard when he finally is given her by the Vampire Lord himself.  You hardly ever get to see the friend named Matthias in person, which I will get to explaining to you soon.
    Out of a few things Lament of Innocence did do, it did give a voice to Vampire characters other than Dracula back in late 2003 such as Joachim Armster, a vampire slave of Walter held captive behind the Waterfall in the game.  Joachim proved an interesting boss to battle with his set of telekinetically controlled swords which he used to attack you.  He does appear similar to Hector, the main protagonist in the later 3D Castlevania Game known as Curse of Darkness, leading to fan theories that somehow Joachim reincarnated as Hector.  But before we get too distracted, let’s get back to that fellow knight named Matthias mentioned in the opening narration!
    Yes, Matthias shows up at the end to congratulate you for killing Walter, but then he reveals the gut wrenching truth : Matthias had been behind Walter Bernhard kidnapping Sara.  He had orchestrated it just to get Walter Bernhard killed so that Matthias himself could usurp Walter’s powers as a nigh immortal and more powerful Vampire Lord himself!  Such an underhanded betrayal, along with this being how Dracula became the powerful Lord of Vampires himself and inspired the Belmonts as his archenemies, makes Lament of Innocence among the greatest plot twists in a Castlevania game.  And so the game ends with Leon vowing that he will commit himself to destroying Matthias and the monster he has become.  The game ends with the Grim Reaper as the final boss battle and a cover for Matthias, now Dracula, as he retreats into the night.

#2 Castlevania 64

    Count Dracula has certainly been one to utilize manipulation in the Castlevania franchise.  He led his best friend into a confrontation which got his fiancee killed and gave him the seemingly endless immortality of the Lord of Vampires.  But perhaps an even worse trick he performed was that of using the form associated with innocence against his enemies.  When did he do that?  You may ask.  Well, then, let me show you.  Now the game of Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 is no longer canon to the franchise, but the game was the first step into exploring Castlevania games in 3D.  Fighting through the game as the Belmont heir known as Reinhardt Schneider, the great grandson of Richter Belmont carrying the vampire killer,  or Carrie Fernandez, who was originally intended to be Carrie Belnades, but like Sypha Belnades before her, Carrie was a spell caster with ice and fire.  
    Progressing through a labyrinth of mechanical traps, monsters, and a potential fatal fall from a fall damage mechanic in the game.  Climbing through Dracula’s living Castle in the year of 1852, with some interesting anachronisms such as skeletons on motorcycles.  What are skeletons on motorcycles doing here?  Don’t ask me, but the game was intended to occur at a later time in history in the early stages of development before they left those critters in there!  

    Either way, amongst all the monsters and death traps on the way to battling Dracula in his throne room, you meet an 8 year old boy named Malus.  The boy seems innocent but it’s odd how in a Castle full of monsters and death machines, he isn’t killed while still a young boy!  Oh, don’t worry, it’s worse than anything mentioned by that animated grim reaper on Netflix!  In fact, in Castlevania 64, the boy named Malus is actually Dracula, he is actually the evil Count Dracula himself, the fully adult mind of Dracula in the body of a child.  Dracula’s soul had been forced into the developing fetus of a boy, who grew up with all the intellect and mental capacity of The Count himself, because the boy was The Count Himself!
    Now, if you were familiar with your Latin, you would realize the meaning of the boy’s name was “Evil”.  So the boy is Evil.  But how do you make sure and not get tricked by this disguise of a child’s body?  Well, the game runs on a timer.  Take too many days and you will merely fight the servant of Count Dracula, who is actually his servant and the former French Knight known as Gilles de Rais, the first recorded serial killer in history, executed by France through hanging for the murders of over 100 children.  But the worst part of taking too long is that Dracula’s disguise as a child will deceive Reinhardt or Carrie, and they will take Dracula home with them in child form, leading to their likely demise.  With Dracula as their house guest or even their new Ward, their powers and ability to use holy weapons against him is nullified against him, leading to their demise or corruption and servitude to the Dark Lord himself.  

 

    In the case of Reinhardt Schneider, it’s presumed that Dracula gets taken home as a child by Reinhardt, where Dracula himself presumably kills the Belmont heir at home, ending the bloodline as a threat.  In the case of Carrie, Dracula gets Carrie to make a cursed vow that she will marry him when she’s older, becoming one of Dracula’s close harem of  female Vampire killers and lovers known as his “Brides” which included the Castlevania version of Carmilla at one point, which is a topic for another time.   Dracula’s fully developed adult mind in the body of an eight year old boy ranks up there as among the most depraved actions of Dracula in Castlevania, as he used the apparent innocence of a child against the moral standards of his enemies.  It’s deceptive, and in the case of Carrie, it’s extremely creepy, as that is the grown Dracula seducing Carrie to join his group of lovers and killers converting a foe into a servant and a nightmare of future vampire hunters!  On top of this troubling plot twist, Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness are the first ventures into 3D for the franchise, and contain most of the same monster mechanics as the previous 2D Castlevania games before them.  I hope that the 64 games get a collection re-release some day.
 Honorable Mentions
     Before moving on to the final number one mention, I feel it’s time to talk about the other honorable mentions in the Castlevania franchise.  While they didn’t make number one, they are nonetheless noteworthy, and deserving of being up there in the rankings of the most insane plot twists in the Castlevania Game Series!

 

Honorable Mentions 

Castlevania Bloodlines   

    The lowest-selling Castlevania game so far, Castlevania Bloodlines was released on the Sega Genesis in 1994.  Due to what is likely a combination of poor timing as newer consoles were nearing release in 1994, combined with the game being released on Sega Genesis when most of the 1990s games were released on Nintendo Consoles, and possibly poor advertising, Castlevania Bloodlines sold a mere 40,000 copies on release.  Thankfully, the story started in Bloodlines spawned a sequel and a conclusion in the Nintendo DS title, Castlevania : Portrait of Ruin, released in 2006, but what Castlevania Bloodlines did elaborate on was that the wickedness of humanity draws Dracula back into our world, mentioned by Dracula in Rondo of Blood, offering payoff to that theme.  In Castlevania Bloodlines, the niece of Count Dracula and the cousin of Alucard, Elizabeth Bartley or Ersebet Bauthory, secretly manipulates the rulers of European Nations into starting World War I.  Manipulating the political landscape from behind the scenes, she managed to get public opinion and politicians convinced into settling their disputes with the bloody conflict that was the First World War.  This calls back to Dracula’s taunt in Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, that so long as humanity embraces violence and greed, it invites him back to their world to rule over them as an avatar of humanity’s worst excesses and sinful nature.  All the violence and greed involved in World War I served as a Catalyst for Dracula’s loyal niece and worthy heir summoning him back once more in 1917, in spite of 1917 being only 20 years from Dracula’s return in 1897 with the events of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, which was considered Canonical to the Castlevania Timeline

    Bloodlines also confirmed that in spite of the real life Hungarian Countess being the inspiration behind the literary character of Carmilla in the novel, that Carmilla and the infamous Hungarian Countess in the Castlevania franchise are separate characters.  Bloodlines was also a reference to the family lineages of Dracula and the Belmonts respectfully.  Dracula’s lineage was represented both by his niece, Elizabeth, as well as one of the playable characters named Eric Lecarde, whose family had inherited a Spear from Alucard and carried on the tradition of Dracula in battling Dracula and other dark forces.  Alucard was presumed dead and succeeded by the Lecardes at this time of Bloodlines, which was retconned by both Symphony of the Night showing him as being alive in 1797, along with the Sorrow games revealing him to also be alive in the 21st century, so with the continuity and what we know so far…. We may not know why it wasn’t Alucard himself present in the Castlevania Bloodlines or it’s sequel.  
    There are some interesting aspects to the Lecarde Clan.  Lecarde is the reverse of the Romanian phrase of “E Drac El” or “He is the Devil” symbolically naming Lecarde as being in opposition to Dracula the way Alucard is signified as being the name of Dracula in reverse.  Like the Belmonts, Eric Lecarde also lost his first love to a mercy killing after she was becoming vampiric due to a bite from Elizabeth Bartley, leading to Eric avowing that he would never allow the awful night creatures to curse his family again.  This would play into the story later.
    The Belmonts were temporarily out of the game, and so John Morris, not to be confused with his son, Jonathan Morris, filled in for the Belmont role, John being the son of Quincy Morris from the novel of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Richter had given the Vampire Killer to the Morris family some time after the events of Symphony of the Night in 1797, making the Morris family the new prime hunters of Dracula in the Belmonts’ stead.  And so, with the Morrises, the Lecardes, and Dracula, the Bloodlines of the Belmonts and Dracula are represented in Bloodlines, hence the title.  But this would not be the end as John and Eric travelled all over Europe and vanquished Elizabeth and Dracula in 1917, there would still be another generation to this story, in the Next World War.

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin

    In spite of Bloodlines being a poor seller in the Castlevania franchise, the game did receive a sequel and a closure to the story it set out to tell with Castlevania : Portrait of Ruin, released 12 years later, in 2006.  Castlevania Portrait of Ruin closes off the story of the other families standing in for the lineages of Dracula and the Belmonts with another adventure from John Morris and Eric Lecarde’s children, years later, in 1944.  Dracula’s Castle mysteriously returns in 1944, in the midst of World War II and in keeping with the great wars bringing forth the wickedness that summons Dracula back from the underworld.
    John Morris had died by that time and Eric Lecarde was missing, leaving his son Jonathan and his friend Charlotte Aulin, a spell caster with a similar style to Sypha Belnades or Carrie Fernandez.  Jonathan and Charlotte explore the returned Castle of Count Dracula only to discover that it’s not Count Dracula but another Vampire named Brauner and his apparent twin vampire Daughters in the Haunted Castle, with the Grim Reaper all the more upset that he can’t seem to find his boss in the Castle.  Jonathan and Charlotte weren’t all alone against this new enemy, however, they found a friend in a mysterious ghost calling himself, “Wind”, and had a priest named Vincent Dorin who helped supply them in their expedition.  
    While Symphony of the Night had two different versions of the same Castle, Portrait of Ruin also had worlds within the enchanted paintings made by Brauner, which added a number of mini worlds in Ancient Egypt or a European City to explore, taking the concept of different maps to explore even further than Symphony of the Night did with the worlds within the enchanted paintings.  Brauner himself was based on the real life Romanian Artist Victor Brauner, including some of the real life painter’s artwork being shown in the background of the game, especially in Brauner’s boss battle.  
     The Castle of Count Dracula is also shown to an extent to be a living entity as it was in Symphony of the Night, with the Castle shown to be normally linked to Dracula as a symbiotic relationship.  The symbiosis was demonstrated ultimately with the defeat of Brauner as a boss, when it turns out you had been subjected to a bait and switch with the plot and Count Dracula was still going to become the end boss, but with Brauner’s defeat, the Castle rejoined to Dracula himself, leading to the last act of the game where Dracula shows that he was still the ultimate master of his demon Castle.  Even more the story of the Bloodlines would come to a conclusion.

    The ghost you had met earlier as Wind was revealed to be none other than the companion of Jonathan’s Father, John Morris, in Castlevania Bloodlines, The Real Eric Lecarde.  Eric had been killed by Brauner and became a ghost within Dracula’s Castle, although thankfully, he became a good ghost who helped the heroes instead of the many malevolent spirits within the Castle.  In addition to Brauner trying to usurp Count Dracula’s Castle, Brauner had also taken Eric Lecarde’s twin daughters, Stella and Loretta, in an attempt to replace his own lost daughters who had died years ago.  In the good and presumably official ending of Portrait of Ruin, Eric’s daughters Stella and Loretta are cured of vampirism, leaving them once again as human, and Eric’s ghost leaves for the afterlife, having finished his business with aiding Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin in stopping Dracula at the time. 
    Portrait of Ruin wraps up the story of the Morris and Lecarde families fighting Dracula.  With Eric dead and his daughters human once more, the Lecardes are presumably no longer in a place of being the heirs of Dracula’s son in fighting Dracula.  In a tribute to Eric Lecarde, the official artwork of Eric Lecarde for Portrait shows a sad and mourning Alucard in the background.  Of all people, you do not ever see Alucard in person in Portrait of Ruin, but he of all people is featured in the portrait of Eric Lecarde as his predecessor, and the one from whom the Lecardes inherited their calling to battle against the forces of Darkness .  It’s never really confirmed if the Lecardes are Alucard and by extension, Dracula’s Bloodline by direct descent, but regardless, they were his heir by designation.  Numerous fan theories have come about trying to explain how the Lecardes came to be, but there has been, to this day, no official confirmation of their origin.  They did represent Alucard, or Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, when he was not available for unexplained reasons.  The Morris family was done standing in for the Belmonts after 1944.  At some point after Portrait of Ruin, the Belmont descendants received the Vampire Killer back, with Julius resuming the tradition of the Vampire Hunter Clan in 1999, and Alucard was there with him at that event which was mentioned, but you will never get to play in the 1999 battle between Julius and Dracula, unless it’s in the game of Vampire Survivors, or one of a number of game mods made by fans over the years.  But Portrait of Ruin was the end of the stand-ins by the Morris and Lecarde families before the Belmont heir known as Julius and Alucard along with Yoko Belnades all came back to reclaim their rightful roles from centuries past.

The Sorrow Games

    While yes, we were robbed of getting to see the Demon Castle War of 1999, we do get to see what happened in the aftermath 30 years later.  Dracula is dead, but his Castle mysteriously shows up in Japan more than 30 years later in 2034, for the events of Aria of Sorrow.  A young man named Soma Cruz visits the Castle and it is shown over the course of the Sorrow games that Soma has the ability to gain and use the powers of his slain enemies, an aspect of the power of Dominus, and that the entity known as Chaos has chosen him to become what Dracula once was as the Avatar of Chaos or the Devil on Earth.  Soma canonically chooses not to and fights off other powerful potential successors to the title of Dark Lord over the course of the two Sorrow games, but Dawn of Sorrow, the second Sorrow game, offers a rather hopeful conclusion, that while there will always be a Dark Lord, it didn’t have to be Soma specifically, and he could be free of becoming a Dark Lord.  Now, this was not the first concept of an idea of Dracula becoming reincarnated, as that had happened in the case of Malus in Castlevania 64, and I am mentioning Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness in this one regardless of official canon, but the difference between Malus and Soma, was that Soma did have a chance of not fully becoming what Dracula was, and Malus did not.  Malus was always Dracula, even when he was born, and even as a child, Malus inevitably became the monster, making it all the more horrifying in the case of Malus.  Now, my dear audience, you don’t have to agree with me leaving out the plot twist of the Sorrow Games and it’s more hopeful twist, but it receives an honorable mention from myself as it is, while more hopeful, an interesting plot twist in the Castlevania franchise.  My greatest disappointment is that we never got to see the epic 1999 ensemble facing off against Dracula in the Demon Castle War, but rather just sequels occurring after the event and foretelling of it by a character in Curse of Darkness, named St. Germain.  But sadly, we have what we do and hopefully fan mods make some kind of interpretation of those events.

Mirror of Fate

    While only the original Lords of Shadow makes the top 10, the second game in the Lords of Shadow reboot, Mirror of Fate, does receive an honorable mention for it being a rather dark and tragic twist as part of the turning point in the Lords of Shadow story.  Mirror of Fate was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS as a side scrolling Metroidvania in which the player gets to play as a reimagining of the original Castlevania protagonist, Simon Belmont.  Ultimately, Gabriel Belmont in the original Lords of Shadow had conceived a son with Marie before he had killed her under Demonic Possession.  The Son would be known as Trevor Belmont and would see, through visions of a family heirloom known as The Mirror of Fate, that the powerful Vampire Lord Dracula, was actually Gabriel, his father, along with the fact that he would be doomed to die in battle with the Dark Lord himself.

    With this knowledge, Trevor ultimately heads out to battle his father Dracula, but not before telling his wife, Sypha, and his son, Simon, to flee home and take refuge elsewhere, wishing for them to be safe.  Trevor never returns, but Simon returns a decade later with a whip, to destroy Dracula where his father Trevor apparently failed.  Over the course of the game, in addition to retrieving your father’s Vampire Killer whip,  you find out playing as Simon, that your Father Trevor, had died fighting Dracula, as the player, you find out through Flashbacks that the mysterious Vampire known as Alucard who tries to help Simon against Dracula, is actually Simon’s Father, Trevor, having been turned vampiric by his father after his father realized that the man he had killed was also his own son.  You also do not find out about Trevor being Alucard until a flashback section of the game which ends with a final boss battle between father and son, in which you, the player, play as Trevor battling Gabriel or Dracula himself.  Even more saddening is the fact that Alucard never tells Simon he is Simon’s father, possibly to protect Simon or lessen the grief such a revelation would deliver to him.  Nonetheless, Simon goes back home to marry his fiancee Selena, who was a reference to the fiancee of Simon Belmont in the Castlevania Arcade game known as The Haunted Castle.

Castlevania

    Now, while Castlevania with it’s 1986 release for the Famicom and NES is here, why does it get an honorable mention you might ask?  FOR THE MANUAL!  If you got the Manual not for the Japanese version of the game, you got the worse deal, as the game manual in Japanese also included the story for the original Castlevania, such as the game occurring on the night before Easter, which you do not get from the other game manuals released elsewhere, so if you are wondering where other people get the little known trivia about Simon Belmont fighting Dracula on the night before Easter, look no further than the original Japanese manual for Castlevania.  The original Japanese game manual is 43 pages along with artwork and the story of the game, which you did not find in the original 23 page manual with the North American release of the game. 

Original Japanese Manual at Castlevania Crypt

#1 Castlevania Curse of Darkness

    Yes, that’s the number one plot twist on the list!  Castlevania : Curse of Darkness.  Castlevania : Curse of Darkness was released on November 1, 2005 as the second Castlevania Game for the Sony Playstation 2.  The game also had a release on the Microsoft XBox shortly thereafter.  What makes this game have such a crazy plot twist that it makes number one on this list?  Let’s break it down.
    In and of itself, Castlevania Curse of Darkness strays heavily from a lot of the conventions that made Castlevania what it was.  The lack of mechanical death traps, and no bats as villains you can fight, and the only Castlevania game where this is the case, is disappointing.  Sorry, but Dracula turning into a swarm of bats for his boss fight doesn’t count as having bats to fight!  It is nice that some voices such as Crispin Freeman, the voice of Alucard Hellsing, returned from a voice cameo in Lament of Innocence, the previous 3D game in the series.   The game gets a 7/10 from me on reviewing it.  But what about the plot?  Let’s take a look!
    The story of Curse of Darkness begins 4 years after Castlevania 3 : Dracula’s Curse.  Dracula had adopted two young men, Hector and Isaac Laforeze (to distinguish from his different animated counterpart) to serve as his highest ranking officers in his army of monsters.  Isaac and his sister Julia had run away after their parents had been hanged for witchcraft, with only Isaac choosing to enter Dracula’s Haunted Castle.  Hector had suffered abuse from his parents for his bizarre behavior and talents, but had run away in fear and remorse when out of his rage, his animal companions had set the local church on fire with his parents and many others inside.  Hector was adopted by Dracula two years after Dracula had taken in Isaac LaForeze.  Dracula had also taught his adopted sons his own dark arts of “Devil Forging”, the art of summoning demonic entities to fight alongside them, or aid them in other tasks such as casting spells or handling various other tasks in the world such as breaking barriers or unlocking chests.  In essence, the summoned demons or “Innocent Devils” within the game serve as Hector and Isaac’s equivalent of sub weapons as used by the Belmont characters.  But there was something far more dark and sinister about the Devil Forgemasters.

    Hector had deserted from Dracula’s army before Trevor Belmont’s Party had raided Dracula’s Castle, Isaac LaForeze was left suffering defeat without his Brother in Arms.  Hector after his desertion from Dracula’s army found life in a village, there he would be rescued     by a nun named Rosaly who would leave her service as a nun to become Hector’s wife.  This apparent  happiness, however, would not last.  When Dracula had died, he let out the Curse of Darkness, similar to how the Curse of Darkness had occurred to cause Simon Belmont to grow ill and die in Simon’s Quest, a version of the Curse on a greater scale had occurred when Dracula died in Castlevania III.  Humanity grew increasingly enraged and resentful toward one another, and like in Simon’s Quest, there was a similar solution.  Isaac Laforeze had grown increasingly insane and masochistic, and decided, after he had found Hector, that he would punish Hector with his own revenge, by making sure that Rosaly died just as he had felt the pain of losing his actual parents on the gallows and also losing his father figure of Dracula himself.  

    

Castlevania Curse of Darkness manga

    Isaac conducted a sinister plot wherein he poisoned apples on an apple tree, wherein Rosaly would pick the apples, and put the poisoned apples in her apple pie.  The plot worked, and multiple villagers died from eating the poisoned apples in a pie Rosaly cooked, Rosaly was blamed for murder and witchcraft for her pie being the source of poisoning the villagers.  Isaac then returned to the Unknown Abandoned Castle where you begin the game, knowing Hector would seek him out in retribution.  Now we are at the beginning of Curse of Darkness.  
    The story I showed you here is from hard to find manga from Konami released in Konami’s magazines.  But that is the source.  It’s hard to find and rather rare.  I hope that if there is another re-released Collection of Castlevania games like there was for The Anniversary, Advance, and Dominus Collections, that happens to include Curse of Darkness, that the manga would be a great addition to include with the set.  Now let’s get back to Curse of Darkness.
 Throughout Curse of Darkness, you play the role of Hector, and throughout the game, you get followed by a mysterious priest calling himself Zead.  You also get a vague warning that you risk destroying everything by going after Isaac by a mysterious time traveler named Saint Germain, and certain abilities seem unique to those who are Devil Forgemasters.  Now Trevor Belmont does come into the game as a supporting character, but even he takes a cautious, and initially hostile approach to Hector, and functions overall as your ally along with Isaac’s long estranged Sister Julia in the game.  The “unique” element of Devil Forgemasters will be explained more, as it plays into the big plot twist.
    Devil Forgemasters were gifted individuals in arts such as telepathically communicating with animals, as Hector did, or in the case of Isaac LaForeze, alchemy, and metallurgy.  The power of Devil Forging was imbued in the game specifically by Dracula himself as part of his power of Dominus or dominion over the Forces of Chaos, or evil entities.  By giving them some of his dark powers, Dracula essentially made Hector and Isaac linked to him.  The dark haunting reveal in Curse of Darkness was that because Hector and Isaac had been imbued with a portion of Dracula’s own Unholy Powers, they became backups for him in the event that he should die, as an analogy, think of how the arch villain of Harry Potter, named Voldemort, made Horcruxes, which served as a way for Voldemort to return to life once again if he died.  That is similar to what Dracula did in Curse of Darkness.  We can even listen to Zead reveal this himself in his own words, in which Zead also reveals his true identity he was concealing the entire time.

    So what did this mean?  This means that if a Devil Forgemaster dies, Dracula’s Soul will possess the body and the Devil Forgemaster’s corpse, in all practical means becomes Dracula himself.  With that revelation, along with the revelation that Zead was the Grim Reaper, you also realize that the Grim Reaper was following the Forgemasters around so he could collect the dead one and allow Dracula to return.  Saint Germain’s warning to Hector then also made a lot of sense, as now it turns out that if Hector died, he would become Dracula himself, and Dracula would be free to once more roam the Earth.  
    Dracula’s Return would also be at the worst at the point where this is revealed, as Trevor Belmont and his party members were not in any condition or state to fight Dracula as they had been four years prior.  In essence, Hector dying, especially if Isaac was still around, would leave Dracula better able to complete his conquest he set out to do than he was four years ago.  The way your character is manipulated, but not inherently destined to become Count Dracula like Gabriel was in Lords of Shadow, puts it at roughly among the highest stakes shown in the plot of a Castlevania game, combined with the horror that Dracula won’t just kill you or enslave you, but use your corpse to achieve his goals.  This is perhaps one of the biggest “you can’t die” motivators ever to be found in a video game and the plot reveal is in line with other large plot twists in video games of the 2000s including Knights of the Old Republic or Bioshock.
    All in all, this is my video presentation of the 10 Greatest Plot Twists in the Castlevania game series.  If you agree or disagree with this order, or have other plot twists from the series available to mention, feel free to mention them in the comments section.  I want to wish you and other Horror or Castlevania fans out there the best in this incredible year of 2026, the 40th anniversary of the game series beginning from the release of the original Castlevania on September 26, 1986.  I look forward to having a wonderful year celebrating the 40th anniversary of the game’s first release, and hope that the fandom and Konami will also enjoy celebrating this epic anniversary year as well.  If you enjoy the video, click a like and Feel free to support the channel and future video productions by subscribing to the channel and clicking the bell for notifications of upcoming productions.  And I will conclude this episode of Castlevania Lore, by saying, in Conclusion, “Until We Meet Again, Farewell”.