Castlevania 1 - How many times can we keep retelling/remaking the original game?

[BrawlMan]

I've been on a somewhat Castlevania binge playing various Classicvania games a few months ago. A thought a occurred to me: earlier this year, and near the end of last year, I was playing all of the Castlevania games, that are retellings of the first game. Though Vampire Killer (MSX) wasn't doing much for me. Controversial opinion, but Castlevania IV isn't my favorite of the Simon Belmont/CV1 iterations. It's actually Chronicles via the Arranged Mode where he's given the best design. The long, crimson red, barbarian hair. Though my #1 out of all of these is Haunted Castle Revisited. You heard that right! A game I got in 2024, from the DS compilation pack, I only bought to play HCR, is the best of the Simon Belmont games.

HCR is the perfect length. It's not too long, nor is too short. It's just the right length for an arcade game. The difficulty while much easier than a majority of Classic Castlevania titles, still has its own challenge on Normal. If you want to bump things up to Hard mode, do a run with no continues, and even have the old style jump and knock back, you can change in the options menu any time before starting a new game. It's the most accessible Castlevania game ever made. I played through the game several times and managed two 1CC runs. I have not done a Hard Mode run yet. The game also has a boss rush mode and level select too. So you can pick levels to do practice runs for that perfect run.

My #1 Castlevania game will always be Bloodlines.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

There’s a metroidvania fangame version of the first game iirc

Yep Castlevania: ReVamped

 

[moonbits]

How many times can we keep retelling/remaking the original game?

Nintendo: "Forever, and ever"

My favorite is Super Castlevania IV

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Nintendo: "Forever, and ever"

Well, Nintendo has nothing to do with Castlevania I'm afraid

 

[moonbits]

Well, Nintendo has nothing to do with Castlevania I'm afraid

but they're very good at making the same game.

 

[Luxfin]

Until Komani explodes with the many versions that they get away with. Wouldn't surprise me if the next one would combine Simon's Quest as a first half and then Castlevania I for the other half in a double decker remake/reimagining of those games.

 

[NeonKnights]

Super Castlevania IV would be great if it weren't for the missing Dracula monster transformation and being censored on the SNES. In my mind Akumajou Dracula・悪魔城ドラキュラ will always be the definitive official release. The title screen even drips blood. You're telling me they were incapable of replicating that on the SNES version with green blood. Super Castlevania IV will always be a butchered port to me and it brings me no pleasure to say so.

 

[BrawlMan]

Castlevania I for the other half in a double decker remake/reimagining of those games.

Akumajou Dracula・悪魔城ドラキュラ will always be the definitive official release.

It's why I love either version of Bloodlines. Japanese and USA got away with all the blood and gore. Genesis does! (except in Europe and the UK. I play the japanese version of Super when the mood strikes me.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

The Japanese naming scheme for all these games makes it all the more confusing. At least in English all the games have a unique name but in JP there're all just called "Akumajou Dracula".
- NES (Castlevania)
- MSX (Vampire Killer)
- Arcade (Haunted Castle)
- SNES (SCV4)
- X68000 (Chronicles)
Also while the MSX game is mega jank I still like it, no continues is pretty brutal though. Did a playthrough of it on the Wii U virtual console ver. a while ago. Doing it deathless actually makes it easier because it let's you stockpile hearts.

 

[SliperyHippo]

 

[bjork]

So HCR was the first one in 20ish years if you're counting the PS1 Chronicles release date here... I'll say, "not enough times." People know Batman's story and they sure retell it as often as they can.

 

[NOTthatHARD]

How many times can we keep retelling/remaking the original game?​

For as long as it continues to sell, I guess.

 

[UnDubious]

Those are also mostly games with no real in-game stories so it doesn't matter much.

 

[Pearly]

I loved the arranged version that was done for castlevania chronicles.

That's the first time I played the game and it used Ayami Kojimas designs so I was pretty happy with that at the time as my introduction to Castlevania was symphony of the night on the ps1.

I've played others since and it's still my favourite rendition. Though my favourite of the classic style games will always be rondo of blood by a large margin, pc engine or psp remake.

 

[Isegrim]

It's a classic scenario. Holy warrior enters Dracula's castle of horrors to do battle within the evil inside. Anyone who watches or reads Dracula media is steered towards that basic formula...a perfect situation for a videogame.

No one's mentioned Seta's Nosferatu.

It's not technically a Castlevania but it practically is. Instead of bringing holy weapons into Dracula's castle(s), the hero awesomely beats up everything including Dracula with his bare fists. It's like a hybrid of Castlevania/Karateka/Prince of Persia. Jonathan Harker could have done this to Dracula first time around if he knew martial arts. Oh wait, he did...there's also Dracula for the Sega CD.

My personal actual Castlevania favorite is Super Castlevania 4. The loneliness, horror and tension that would be experienced by a vampire hunter and articulated perfectly by the OST is just amazing. Music is pretty much half the reason why Castlevania is one of my favorite franchises. I usually prefer the Japanese version but take note there's a hack in the repo that not only restores all the censorship in the U.S. version but also reduces significantly the slowdown. I'd say that's the definitive version to play the game now.

 

[throughdarkness]

Castlevania is one of the few series where they can keep remaking the first game for eternity and I would happy. Super CV IV might tell the same "story", but that's where the similarities end. It really isn't OG Castlevania - Snes version and neither is Chronicles. Same with Dracula X on Snes. People say its a shitty port of Rondo all the time but it's not a port. It's legit its own game. Might be inferior, but still not a port in my mind. Way too different.

Anyways, long live Castlevania. May Dracula resurrect every 100 years for eternity.

 

[Zerpina]

Until Komani explodes with the many versions that they get away with. Wouldn't surprise me if the next one would combine Simon's Quest as a first half and then Castlevania I for the other half in a double decker remake/reimagining of those games.

Honestly Konami will remake Castlevania, albeit with slightly different plotlines and characters, until the sales drop.

It's more or less their cash cow, and people do love a good monster slaying game.
It's like Mario, be it 2D or 3D how many times have they made the same game? How many times have they made the same football, basketball, soccer, etc., games? People like what they like. Personally, I love the series and have bought Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on nearly every platform it's been released on (I'm getting it for my fridge with a screen next week!) XD

But it's a cool series and concept. Basically, Konami took the universal monsters, changed them enough to avoid being sued up the wazoo, and gave the finger to Universal Studios and made a game about killing there monsters with a leather clad dude with a whip....

Huh... It sounds like some kinky S&M game the more I think about it... a muscular dude in leather with a whip, whipping guys in monster costumes for kinks.

So, how long can they keep making the same game? Until the end of time, people stop buying them, or the company sells off the IP, and it's no longer used