Title: Super Castlevania IV (NA) Akumajou Dracula (JP)
Release: 10/31/91
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Another blog post that, originally, I was terrified of writing about: a) it was a widely discussed classic, and b) it was one that I didn't have much experience with. . Now, I will say, while I grew up with the original Castlevania for the NES, it was mainly a series that I kind of avoided up until I reached my mid-20s due to the intense barrier of entry presented by its games' notorious difficulty. My friends, though, tend to gush about this game in the series in particular, claiming that it is one of the best. Back in my younger days, when I tried my hand at "Let's Playing," I watched my buddy play through this game most expertly; this will be my first experience playing through the entire game myself.
Background
This game is the fourth entry in Konami's action-horror series Castlevania, and it can best be signified as a action-platformer set to a Universal movie monsters backdrop. Every Castlevania game, for the most part, follows the same formula. A member of the vampire hunting clan, the Belmonts, heads into Dracula's castle to find and kill the newly resurrected vampire lord, Count Dracula, fighting whole hosts of classic and not-so-classic movie monsters and folklore based creatures along the way. This includes the heavy hitters like Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Grim Reaper, or the Wolfman, on down to some B, C, and D listers like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Flea Men, or the Man Bat. They even throw good ol' Cthulhu in there sometimes for good measure (he even appeared in the most recent season of Netflix's Castlevania shooting his classic energy orb from Symphony of the Night).
The staple Belmont weapon is the "Vampire-Killer," a long magic whip that inflicts mortal damage to creatures of the night. I always thought that the idea of a whip as a weapon was kind of silly, but it wasn't until I played original Rondo of Blood that I realized the whip had a nasty mace kind of ball on the end of it. Also, that was before I realized what a whip could do to flesh, and that the whip "crack" was caused by it breaking the sound barrier.
Generally, the games take place between the years 1400-1800 CE in Transylvania, but other games in the series have moved location,such as Aria of Sorrow which takes place in an eclipse in Japan, or time period, such as Bloodlines which sets the game across Europe during World War I.
Super Castlevania IV is actually a remake of the very first Castlevania for the NES. It follows Simon Belmont (the original Belmont) as he treks from the very outer edge of Dracula's castle grounds, all the way into the very highest tower of his keep to his "coffin chamber/throne room." There are some notable changes, though, from the NES title, as far as gameplay. Simon can now whip in any direction, a change that helps balance the difficulty much more than in the original title. Simon is also able to change directions mid-way through a jump, allowing for more player strategy and improvisation during the main action of the game. The trade-off, though, is that Simon's sprite, and subsequently his hit-box, is much much bigger in this game. Couple this with the classic knockback that all Belmonts suffer from when taking damage, and this game still retains a good bit of the classic difficulty and Castlevania feel.
Gameplay wise, the Castlevania games get divided into two camps. There are the classic 2D action-platforming Castlevanias, suc as the original, Castlevania III and Dracula X) which focus on careful platforming and monster elimination, as the player tries to carefully maneuver their Belmont from the beginning of a level to the end without sloughing off too much of their minuscule life bar. The second camp is the Metriodvania style games, such as Simon's Quest or Symphony of the Night, which focus on exploration, item gathering, and navigating a maze like world. There are also the 3D Castlevanias such as 64, Lords of Shadows, and the like, but honestly those are either widely panned or considered distant departures from the series. Super Castlevania IV falls into the first camp of action-platformer.
Gameplay
As a Castlevania title, IV does a good job of both speeding up the action, and also making the title much for accessible after the crushingly difficult NES outings. This is the first Castlevania platformer that I was able to complete without any sort of save scumming, and in one sitting. I still felt challenged and like it was a "difficult" experience, but not in a way that was overly punitive. I think the game accomplishes this in a couple of ways: 1) it is much more generous with checkpoints, 2) it does a better job of letting the player practice with gameplay obstacles and concepts before cranking up the difficulty, and 3) the bosses are much more fair in their attack patterns (no more of that ridiculous Death fight or madness that is Frankenstein's monster and Igor RNG fight).
Background
This game is the fourth entry in Konami's action-horror series Castlevania, and it can best be signified as a action-platformer set to a Universal movie monsters backdrop. Every Castlevania game, for the most part, follows the same formula. A member of the vampire hunting clan, the Belmonts, heads into Dracula's castle to find and kill the newly resurrected vampire lord, Count Dracula, fighting whole hosts of classic and not-so-classic movie monsters and folklore based creatures along the way. This includes the heavy hitters like Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Grim Reaper, or the Wolfman, on down to some B, C, and D listers like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Flea Men, or the Man Bat. They even throw good ol' Cthulhu in there sometimes for good measure (he even appeared in the most recent season of Netflix's Castlevania shooting his classic energy orb from Symphony of the Night).
The staple Belmont weapon is the "Vampire-Killer," a long magic whip that inflicts mortal damage to creatures of the night. I always thought that the idea of a whip as a weapon was kind of silly, but it wasn't until I played original Rondo of Blood that I realized the whip had a nasty mace kind of ball on the end of it. Also, that was before I realized what a whip could do to flesh, and that the whip "crack" was caused by it breaking the sound barrier.
Super Castlevania IV is actually a remake of the very first Castlevania for the NES. It follows Simon Belmont (the original Belmont) as he treks from the very outer edge of Dracula's castle grounds, all the way into the very highest tower of his keep to his "coffin chamber/throne room." There are some notable changes, though, from the NES title, as far as gameplay. Simon can now whip in any direction, a change that helps balance the difficulty much more than in the original title. Simon is also able to change directions mid-way through a jump, allowing for more player strategy and improvisation during the main action of the game. The trade-off, though, is that Simon's sprite, and subsequently his hit-box, is much much bigger in this game. Couple this with the classic knockback that all Belmonts suffer from when taking damage, and this game still retains a good bit of the classic difficulty and Castlevania feel.
Gameplay wise, the Castlevania games get divided into two camps. There are the classic 2D action-platforming Castlevanias, suc as the original, Castlevania III and Dracula X) which focus on careful platforming and monster elimination, as the player tries to carefully maneuver their Belmont from the beginning of a level to the end without sloughing off too much of their minuscule life bar. The second camp is the Metriodvania style games, such as Simon's Quest or Symphony of the Night, which focus on exploration, item gathering, and navigating a maze like world. There are also the 3D Castlevanias such as 64, Lords of Shadows, and the like, but honestly those are either widely panned or considered distant departures from the series. Super Castlevania IV falls into the first camp of action-platformer.
Gameplay
As a Castlevania title, IV does a good job of both speeding up the action, and also making the title much for accessible after the crushingly difficult NES outings. This is the first Castlevania platformer that I was able to complete without any sort of save scumming, and in one sitting. I still felt challenged and like it was a "difficult" experience, but not in a way that was overly punitive. I think the game accomplishes this in a couple of ways: 1) it is much more generous with checkpoints, 2) it does a better job of letting the player practice with gameplay obstacles and concepts before cranking up the difficulty, and 3) the bosses are much more fair in their attack patterns (no more of that ridiculous Death fight or madness that is Frankenstein's monster and Igor RNG fight).
While Simon's sub-weapons are roughly the same (axe, holy water, pocket watch, dagger), his whip gets a very big upgrade. Simon can now whip in eight directions rather than just than side to side. He can also dangle his whip limply and then shake it in various directions, which actually has some utility as it can easily block projectiles. Simon can even use his whip to swing from certain hanging rings, adding to his platforming vocabulary. This ends up serving as a good counterbalance to the size of Simon's sprite. He is a bigger target, but Simon doesn't have to actively dodge as much since his whip serves as a better shield.
The enemy and boss designs are really excellent as well. Each boss has a distinct personality to it, and offers a different challenge for the player. This game even introduces the now well-known Slogra and Gaibon, and they both serve as a good example. Slogra's fight focuses on quick reaction time, as he aggressively tries to close distance with you and can quickly counter attack. If you are able to catch him with your whip before he gets to you, he shoots through the ceiling and lands at a different part of the room, starting the process over again. It almost plays out like a slug-match trying to see which of you will drop first. Gaibon's fight, on the other hand, puts you on the offensive trying to catch him as he flies around the room, shoots fireballs, and dives at you from the air.
They even throw in some oddball bosses: you have the famous "walnut skull" that is an apparition style skull that drops weird wrinkly boulders are you and has a long snake tongue. You have a dancing couple of ghosts who act as if you are interrupting the reverie of their eternal dance. My favorite boss of all is a subversion of the typical "giant bat" you fight in Castlevania, where instead you fight one made completely of the gold from Dracula's treasure chamber.
The end of the game also manages to have a boss rush that doesn't feel like a traditional boss rush, but feels organic to the setting and story. It feels like you are fighting through Dracula's elite monster guard at the end of the journey: you have the Mummy guarding the hazardous parapets before the tower, Slogra guarding his tower antechamber, Gaibon guarding the ascent, and Death guarding the door to Dracula's chamber. Also, there are checkpoints between each boss fight, which makes it seem much less of a slog, especially considering how difficult some of these bosses can be.
Even the final Dracula fight, while not as crazy as other Castlevania games in terms of spectacle as Dracula has no real second form or transformation (except his head does turn into a skull/Bat Demon after his life is dropped halfway), is quite an exercise for the player and feels like a final boss fight should: a final exam of all the skills the player has learned throughout his journey.
The stages are all quite memorable too. The game does a great job of making the castle feel quite alive. It truly feels like you are traveling through a living, cohesive labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and danger. The very world you are walking through doesn't want you there and is doing everything in its power to destroy you. My favorite stage would probably be the Treasury. It is such a unique level and plays with the motif of "gold" quite well. Each stage has its own unique feel, matched by the style of beasties and dangers you encounter: the sewers are filled with slimes, mud golems, and instant death spikes, while the clock tower is filled with flying apparitions, skeleton gargoyles, gears, and death drops. This is all encompassed in an elegant world map that marks your progress through Dracula's realm. After a difficult chapter, it is very satisfying to see poor Simon inch ever closer to his goal.
This game also doubles down on the "set piece" levels from Castlevania III: Curse of Dracula, and uses Mode 7 to make Dracula's castle seem more of a metaphysical nightmare than just a spooky castle. Space and time are sometimes warped in very interesting ways: you will enter a hallway and the entire room will spin around you, like you are walking in the middle of a gigantic cylinder. Another fun section is when you see a hook to hang from with your whip, and the room then starts rotating around you. This creates some really memorable locations for Simon to adventure through.
What about those sweet Castlevania jams?
The music is really quite exceptional. The composers to this game, Taro Kudo (random fact, also DIRECTED Paper Mario: Color Splash for the Wii U), and Masanori Adachi, really outdid themselves with the composition for this game. There are some really nice original tracks to this game, such as...
Ads, Art, Commercials
The NA commercial is super boring (but interestingly does show beta footage of the game from early in development). Undoubtedly this was a promo video for trade shows and investors.
The Japanese commercial, on the other hand, is batshit insane.
Final Verdict
This is truly a great game. Modern contrarians have debated about whether or not it can be considered a great Castlevania game, but I would maintain that it holds up well. I am of the opinion that accessibility and not gating entry is actually a good thing. As much as I admire the NES Castlevania games, the loop of their gameplay is way too punitive. This game does get more difficult, but it eases the player into it; it really doesn't get challenging until you find your way into the Dungeon (level 8). But, take my opinion with a grain of salt; I grew up with this series, but I am not a die hard fan of it. Regardless, for the SNES collectors out there, this is a must have.
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